Staring at the white-haired man in front of them, Yuki's gaze grew grave and focused.
She spoke in a low voice, calling out his name. "Gojo, what are you doing here?!"
Gojo Satoru—just like her, one of the special-grade sorcerers, but in terms of actual strength, he was without a doubt number one, and not just number one—absolutely unshakable at the top.
Rumor had it that aside from his personality, the guy was basically flawless in every other respect.
Most of what Yuki knew about Gojo came from hearsay. She'd only just recently returned from wandering the world, after all.
Watching Takumi and Gojo face off, she opened her mouth, then quietly reminded him. "Careful, that's Gojo—the strongest sorcerer of the modern era."
"Relax. He's still human. He hasn't crossed that boundary yet." Hands stuffed in his pockets, Takumi studied Gojo with interest.
The moment he saw the guy, the first thought that popped into his head was "2.5-jou Gojo." (T/N: Chinese's fandom joke)
The thought was so cursed he almost burst out laughing on the spot, but right after that, Takumi activated his Jade Eyes.
Gojo's status screen unfolded before him.
[Name: Satoru Gojo]
[Rank: Special-Grade Sorcerer (Top Tier)]
[Entries: Six Eyes (Purple), Limitless Technique (Purple), Reversed Technique (Blue), Jack-of-All-Trades (Blue), Favored by Fortune (Green)…]
[Six Eyes (Purple): The hereditary eyes of the Gojo family—granting 360-degree long-range vision, seeing through opponents' techniques, enhancing cursed energy control, and more.]
[Limitless Technique (Purple): The Gojo clan's hereditary technique. Can interfere with matter at the atomic level and control space.]
[Reversed Technique (Blue): Converts the inherent negative energy of cursed energy into positive energy, allowing self-healing.]
[Jack-of-All-Trades (Blue): You possess quite decent talent in basically every field.]
"What a gorgeous entry sheet."
Looking at Gojo's panel, Takumi's fingers itched; he really wanted to turn him into Two-Piece Gojo, but since he wasn't the protagonist, killing him wouldn't drop the whole set.
With random drops, who knew what would pop out.
To me, his Six Eyes are pointless… The only thing I really want is Limitless and that—I can just learn. While his thoughts sank inward, Takumi's expression curved into a smile.
Gojo, examining him in turn, also smiled. "Ahhh, yeah, I definitely don't know you. But I do know you, Yuki."
"As for why I'm here—well, I just happened to finish buying some daifuku and came by to check on my student."
"With this much noise going on, of course I got curious and came to take a look~"
His tone was light, as if he were on a casual sightseeing trip.
Yuki glanced around at the flattened tunnel and mountain, her expression turning a bit awkward.
Yeah… this was a bit much. Before she could say anything, Gojo was already staring directly at Takumi, curiosity burning in his voice. "You obviously couldn't have made this much of a mess… So that means you're the one who did all this."
"Now I'm really curious who you are. Even for sorcerers, this level of destruction is… pretty hard to pull off, right?"
Gojo's voice was relaxed and lazy, but under the blindfold his eyes were deadly serious.
With the Six Eyes, this was the first time he'd ever failed to see through someone.
There wasn't a trace of cursed energy on Takumi—he looked like a completely ordinary human, but every instinct Gojo had was screaming that the person in front of him was terrifyingly strong.
That vague pressure only fanned his fighting spirit.
Facing his question, Takumi answered calmly. "I'm Takumi. Full-time student, part-time exorcist. This time, Yuki hired me to come exorcise something. Very cost-effective."
"Hm?" Hearing that, Gojo glanced at Yuki in surprise.
A special-grade sorcerer calling in outside help—so it had been a tricky cursed spirit.
"No wonder the mess is this big. Shame I didn't make it in time." He spoke lightly, like it wasn't his problem at all. Then, changing the subject in an instant, he said, "But I'm far more curious about you. Think you'd mind trading a few blows with me?"
"Just for fun. I don't think you'd say no… right?" He sounded like a battle-happy kid, smiling as he issued the challenge.
Takumi raised a brow and chuckled. "Haha~ sure. I just happened to be thinking the same thing."
Watching the two of them somehow jump straight to fighting, Yuki squeezed the Divine Envoy piece in her hand, unable to sit still.
"Hey! If you two go too far with this, it's gonna be a nightmare to clean up!!"
"It's fine. This'll be over quickly." Takumi flicked his fingers and replied off-handedly…
That attitude only stoked Gojo's battle frenzy even more.
Ever since the day he was nearly killed by Toji, then awakened Reversed Technique, he hadn't had a real fight even once, and he sure as hell hadn't been looked down on like this.
"Looks like I've been underestimated. Can't say that feels great!!"
Setting down the bag of desserts, Gojo did a light warm-up, then stared straight at Takumi.
Takumi's expression didn't shift in the slightest. "Can we start?"
"Of course." Gojo answered on reflex.
In the next instant, Takumi disappeared from in front of him.
"So fast!!!" Even with the Six Eyes, he could barely catch the ghost of an afterimage.
His nervous system didn't even have time to send a full signal before Takumi's fist shattered the air and filled his vision. Shocked as he was, Gojo still didn't feel any real sense of crisis.
His Limitless was always active; it automatically kept all hostile phenomena from reaching him.
"If that's all he's got, then I—"
The thought hadn't even fully formed in his mind before that air-shattering punch slammed directly into his abdomen.
"Pffft!!"
The violent impact surged through his entire body like a tidal wave, crushing his limbs and bones. His chest and torso were punched straight through by Takumi's right fist. His whole body was like a block of tofu—pulverized in one hit.
Gojo's brain didn't even have time to process the data; he was a breath away from hard crash.
"What… happened? My technique didn't activate?!"
The now-rapidly-regenerating-Gojo coughed blood like crazy, his body instinctively invoking Reversed Technique to regenerate.
Takumi—already capable of reducing every last scrap of Gojo's flesh to paste and forcibly ending his regeneration—didn't follow up.
This was just a spar; there was no need to actually kill Gojo, but the outcome was already obvious.
All he'd done was channel the Boosted Gear [Penetrate] ability, stack it with [Star Rage], and toss out a light punch.
That alone was enough to one-shot the strongest.
Sure, some of it came down to Gojo's overconfidence, but the end result wasn't going to change much either way.
For a demon lord-class existence like Takumi, killing a top-tier special-grade sorcerer was no different than crushing an ant.
....
For every 100 Power Stones → +1 extra chapter.
Read 50+ chapters ahead on Patreon! [patreon.com/METARLN]