I stared at Naoya, who was standing in front of me.
"You… you are not one of them," he muttered, then suddenly charged at me.
"You are not Toji-kun… you are not Satoru-kun… you are not Yuta-kun… YOU ARE NOT ONE OF THEM!" he yelled as he rushed forward again.
He was still fast. But not fast enough to face me.
I reinforced my entire body with cursed energy and braced myself.
Naoya appeared behind me and punched me. His hit only made me slide back a little.
He stopped for a second, then kept moving.
He was running around me rapidly, trying to keep me pressured, but his punches were landing like they were made of pillows.
I had gotten a lot stronger. My cursed energy output was far better than when I first fought Naoya, and my cursed energy control was smoother.
He was just too weak to really hurt me properly.
And even if he did manage to land something serious, I could heal it with Reverse Cursed Technique.
Naoya reappeared behind me again, trying to freeze me into a frame.
I immediately felt the cursed energy shift behind me and turned around, grabbing his right hand.
The moment he realized I had caught him, he reached out with his left hand to force the frame on me anyway.
But to his shock, I was not frozen.
Projection sorcery could force someone into frames, but only if the target failed to follow the predetermined twenty-four movements.
I already knew his technique.
So with a grin, I made the complicated movements projection sorcery chose.
I looked like a ballerina who was doing all sorts of different poses.
Naoya's face went pale.
"You are so weak," I said, looking at him with a devious grin. "I don't even need to use my cursed technique to beat you."
That made him even angrier.
Not only could he not do anything to me, but I was humiliating him in front of Gojo Satoru.
And Gojo, in the distance, was watching with that same stupid mocking grin on his face.
He had dragged all the old men and clan people away, but his attention was still clearly on us.
What he was doing here, though, was much bigger than this little fight.
Gojo Satoru wanted to create new higher-ups after killing the old ones.
He wanted the new system to be modern, and he wanted to choose who would be in it himself.
And more than that, he wanted the world to finally stop pretending curses didn't exist.
Non-sorcerers had to be told.
The existence of cursed energy had already been exposed to everyone.
There had never been a better time than now.
Jujutsu society was stronger than it had been in ages... Or more accurately, it was even stronger than the Heian era at its peak, which was named as the golden age of Jujutsu.
Yuki, Yuta, Ryu, Megumi, Ikuyo, Takaba, Itadori, Hakari and Gojo himself…
They all had special-grade fighting strength, or at least the potential to reach it. There could be even more people who might reach that level in the future...
There was no better time to let the world know.
They were just too strong to be crushed by the curses that would be born from sudden fear.
And maybe, just maybe…
That was how Gojo planned to ease one of his oldest regrets about his best friend.
That was why he got himself involved in the Zenin clan succession crisis.
Naoya Zenin had followed Gojo the moment he realized he could get close to him and still have a shot at becoming clan leader.
Gojo had beaten him badly, but Naoya had clearly taken that beating as a kind of opportunity and pleasure.
He was one of those people who could get punched into the ground by Gojo Satoru and still think, somehow, that it was a blessing and enjoy the pain after Gojo beat them.
That was why he was standing there with the old geezers.
But now…
Now he was being humiliated in front of the same man he wanted to impress. He was being humiliated in front of his idol.
He was losing his cool and to make things worse, he was losing to a woman.
Naoya charged again, moving in rapid bursts as he tried to force me into a frame.
He could barely find a chance to touch me.
And the second he did manage to touch me, I would just follow the movements he chose and break free from his projection sorcery.
I could have finished him earlier, but I just wanted him to suffer.
Naoya rushed toward me once more.
But right before he got close, his eyes widened.
A fist was already flying toward his chest.
"You're at your twenty-fourth movement, right?" I said, calm and almost amused. "If I punch you now… you'll freeze."
Naoya stared at me in shock.
"You fucking bit—"
I punched him in the chest before he could finish.
The blow sent him flying.
Because he failed his movement, his body froze for a second.
That was all I needed.
I appeared beside him while he was still in the air and threw a massive kick straight into his side, slamming him down into the garden.
Naoya crashed into the ground hard enough to carve out a huge crater.
He was barely breathing. Several of his ribs were broken, and every time he tried to inhale, blood came up with it.
I landed lightly beside him.
"Oh?" I said, looking down at him. "Naoya-kun, is that all you've got? You lost against a cute girl like me? How pathetic."
At that moment, Gojo finally walked back toward us.
"Alright, alright," he said lazily. "Ikuyo, don't kill him. We need him."
I folded my arms and looked at him.
"Oh? Why?"
Then I paused, remembering something else.
"…Ah, and Gojo-sensei. Explain what's going on here. I'm way too curious now."
Gojo smiled like he had been waiting to be asked.
"Well, as you can see, these people are the new higher-ups I'm choosing."
He pointed at the group of old men and clan figures still kneeling nearby.
"I was about to explain the details of my perfect plan to you, but then this idiot interrupted."
Naoya made a weak noise on the ground behind me.
Gojo ignored him.
"But I think," Gojo continued, "he would make a better Zenin clan leader than the other two candidates. He's younger, Maki said she hates her father, so I didn't choose him, and he is stronger than the others anyway."
I slapped my forehead the moment I heard that.
Oh boy. If only he knew.
"Gojo-sensei…" I said slowly, "You don't know?"
"Know what?" he asked, sounding genuinely curious.
I looked at him.
"You do know that Naoya Zenin raped Mai when she was little, right?"
The smile vanished from Gojo's face instantly.
He looked at me with a serious expression now.
"…Is this true?"
"Yeah," I said immediately.
Naoya, who was barely breathing on the ground, suddenly tried to speak.
"No… Gojo-sama… I would never—"
Gojo turned his head toward me.
Then he made a gun sign with his hand.
Before I could even react, he spoke.
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Red."
A red sphere appeared in his finger and shot toward Naoya.
"No," I thought instantly. I reacted on instinct.
My flames burst out in front of me as I created shields, and I threw up shield after shield, faster than I should have been able to.
More than ten flame shields were stacked in front of Red.
I even jumped in front of it, trying to stop it with my own body.
The impact slammed into me and pushed me back fifty meters.
Seven of my shields shattered, but I managed to block it.
When the smoke cleared, Gojo stared at me in surprise.
He looked impressed that I had blocked it at all.
"…Gojo-sensei," I said quickly, "please let me handle him. I want to drag him in front of Mai so he can apologize."
Gojo watched me for a while, then he chuckled.
"Ah, alright. He's all yours."
Then he tilted his head and looked at me again.
"But wait, Ikuyo…"
He was still smiling, but his tone had changed slightly.
"Is the Zenin clan generally that bad?"
I thought about it for a moment. Then I shrugged.
"Why don't you ask Maki? She'll give you the first-hand version."
Gojo went quiet for a second, considering it. Then he nodded.
He had clearly decided he would make his final judgment about the Zenin clan after talking to Maki.
Meanwhile, I walked back over to Naoya, crouched down, and grabbed him by the hair.
He let out a weak, angry noise.
I ignored it.
Then I started dragging him through the garden by the hair.
"Time to find Maki and Mai," I muttered as I dragged him along.
"They deserve their revenge."
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End of chapter.
(Also, it felt weird writing this chapter after I read that Naoya Zenin fanfic here, he is just too nice there lol.)