The cratered remnants of the southern forest valley smoldered.
Black sparks still drifted through the ionized air like dying embers.
At the center of the devastation, three monsters stood locked in a tense, triangular deadlock.
None of them were backing down.
None of them were catching their breath.
Ryu Ishigori rolled his massive shoulders, his raw cursed energy output flaring outward in violent, visible waves that distorted the very horizon.
Across from him, Aoi Todo stood entirely shirtless, his battle stance flawless, his palms hovered just inches apart.
Beside Todo, Oden casually rolled his wrists, his crisp white blindfold completely masking his Serpent Eyes, yet his posture remained entirely unbothered.
Ryu's dangerous, wide grin returned, his eyes locked onto the two modern sorcerers.
"Come on!" Ryu roared, his voice shaking the valley. "Don't let the main course go cold now!"
BOOM!
The vitrified earth shattered into dust as all three figures detonated forward simultaneously.
A golden blur, a dark ghost, and a roaring titan collided in the center of the valley.
The speed of the exchange was blinding.
Ordinary sorcerers wouldn't have even perceived the movements.
Oden utilized his Lethal Rabbit, his physical acceleration hitting a physics-defying peak as he vanished into a slipstream of pure speed.
He reappeared instantly in Ryu's lower blind spot.
A hyper-compressed, curse-infused palm strike aimed directly for the titan's throat.
Ryu didn't even flinch.
He threw a devastating left hook to counter, the raw wind pressure of his movement screaming through the clearing.
Clap!
The sharp, echoing sound of Todo's palm strike rang through the woods.
Instantly, Oden's physical coordinates were swapped with Todo.
Todo appeared exactly where Oden had been hovering, his massive frame already coiled into a brutal counter-stance.
Todo caught Ryu's incoming left hook with a hardened open palm, utilizing the redirected spatial momentum to drive a savage knee straight into Ryu's exposed ribs.
WHAM!
The sheer kinetic force sounded like an artillery shell detonating against solid steel.
Ryu staggered sideways half a step, his teeth baring in pure, unadulterated excitement.
"Beautiful!" Ryu cheered, his right arm already swinging around like a massive iron club. "A flawless taste!"
Before the heavy swing could connect with Todo's torso—
*lClap!
Todo swapped positions with Oden.
Oden materialized flawlessly in mid-air, his chest fully expanded as he pulled the absolute authority of the Dragon deep into his lungs.
He snapped his jaw open at point-blank range.
"Cursed Energy Breath!" Oden commanded.
A colossal, hyper-compressed column of razor-sharp cursed energy blasted straight from his mouth.
The laser-thin beam slammed directly into Ryu's chest, drilling into his dense physical reinforcement with a deafening screech of clashing energies.
The impact drove Ryu backward across the trench, his heavy boots carving two deep, smoking grooves into the solid bedrock.
Yet, even as the cursed energy tore at his skin, Ryu's eyes remained hyper-focused.
He wasn't just taking the damage.
He wasn't just blindly absorbing the hits anymore.
'The claps,' Ryu analyzed inwardly, his ancient mind calculating the spatial displacements with terrifying precision. 'The fat one isn't just swapping randomly. He's choosing the exact coordinate based on the trajectory of our gaze and the local debris. The moment the palms touch... the world shifts.'
Ryu's massive internal engine reached an entirely new level of boiling heat.
"Granite Blast!" Ryu roared mid-stagger.
A massive, omnidirectional wave of incandescent white light erupted from his hair, completely blowing Oden's Cursed Energy Breath to absolute ribbons.
The concussive shockwave of pure output forced Oden to jump backward through the air to maintain his balance.
Todo instantly rushed forward through the blinding glare, his hands rising to initiate another rapid sequence of erratic spatial swaps.
'Right there,' Ryu thought, his eyes widening as he predicted the incoming rhythm. 'He's going to swap the kid right behind me.'
Todo's palms moved toward each other.
Clap!
The world shifted.
Oden appeared directly behind Ryu's left shoulder, his fist already compressed with a massive tide of reserves, aiming for a third devastating strike.
But Ryu didn't try to turn around.
He didn't try to look.
He had already braced his core footprint the exact microsecond before the clap occurred, calculating the exact spatial blind spot they would exploit.
Ryu violently drove his massive right elbow backward in a blind, hyper-accelerated arc, completely anticipating Oden's sudden manifestation.
Oden's Predator Reflex flashed a violent warning, forcing him to cross both forearms to absorb the incoming blow.
THUD!
The sheer, unmatched output of Ryu's physical strength sent Oden rocketing sideways across the clearing, his boots skidding across the vitrified glass for thirty yards.
With Oden temporarily separated from the immediate pocket, Ryu spun his towering frame around to face Todo.
Todo's eyes widened slightly as he realized Ryu had completely adapted to the erratic timing of Boogie Woogie.
"Your appetite is incredible, fat boy!" Ryu screamed, his face contorted in absolute combat euphoria. "But you left the kitchen door completely wide open!"
Ryu drew his massive right fist back.
The surrounding atmosphere suddenly lost every single shred of its color.
The air turned a stark, absolute, suffocating pitch-black.
Todo's internal survival instincts screamed a violent, deafening alarm.
'A Black Flash!' Todo realized, his mind moving in hyper-slow motion as he desperately flooded every single ounce of his cursed energy reserves into his forearms to form a defensive wall.
One millionth of a second.
Ryu's massive knuckles met Todo's crossed defensive guard in perfect, cosmic alignment.
BOOM!
A colossal, violent crown of jagged black and crimson lightning erupted from the point of contact with an echoing, apocalyptic crack that tore the surrounding sky apart.
The sheer, peerless efficiency of the historical titan's Black Flash completely shattered Todo's defensive aura.
CRACK!
The bone-shattering impact sent Todo rocketing horizontally across the valley like a human cannonball.
He smashed through three massive stone pillars, his towering frame completely burying itself deep within a mountain of collapsed rubble at the edge of the southern sector.
Dust and black sparks billowed into the grey sky.
Ryu stood at the center of the ruined clearing, his right fist still smoking with a faint, beautiful trail of dark energy as he let out a long, satisfied laugh.
"AHAHAHA! Now that... that is how you level the playing field!"
Far away from the chaotic, thunderous echoes of the southern forest sector, the northern mountain trails of Tokyo Jujutsu High were deceptively quiet.
The thick canopy of ancient trees filtered the midday sun, casting long, peaceful shadows over the dirt paths.
Maki Zenin stopped her steady stride, the heavy shaft of her cursed tool resting loosely against her shoulder.
She tilted her head, her sharp eyes narrowing as she listened to the absolute stillness of the woods around them.
Beside her, Panda crossed his massive arms, his heavy black ears twitching as he scanned the surrounding foliage.
"Hey, Maki," Panda muttered, his voice dropping into a serious, analytical register. "Don't you think it's getting a little too quiet out here?"
A few paces behind them, Toge Inumaki pulled the high collar of his uniform up over his mouth, his brow furrowed in deep concern.
"Tuna mayo," Inumaki agreed softly, his hand resting near his throat.
Maki swiveled her head around, her expression tightening into a grim, irritated scowl.
"It's completely abnormal," Maki said, her voice dripping with growing skepticism. "The tournament started over an hour ago. We should have run into at least two or three of the Kyoto students by now. But Kamo, Miwa, Mai, Mechamaru... they're completely nowhere to be found. The entire roster has vanished off our grid."
Suddenly, a sharp, annoying gust of wind swept down from the canopy above.
Momo Nishimiya hovered twenty feet in the air, casually sitting atop her traditional straw broom. She was purposely flying in wide, lazy circles above their heads, throwing down minor, irritating drafts of wind just to keep their attention focused upward.
"Hey, Tokyo bums!" Momo called down with a thoroughly forced, mocking smirk. "What's the matter? Are you already tired of wandering around the sandbox? You look completely lost!"
Maki didn't even bother looking up at her. She kept her eyes locked on the southern horizon, where the faint, rhythmic rumbles of distant explosions had been echoing for the last ten minutes.
'She's stalling us,' Maki realized instantly, her thoughts cutting through the distraction with surgical precision. 'She's purposely buzzing around like a pathetic gnat to keep us trapped in this sector. She doesn't want us moving south.'
Maki's eyes widened slightly as the pieces of the puzzle violently snapped together within her mind.
"Those absolute bastards," Maki snarled, her grip tightening around her cursed tool until her knuckles turned white.
"What is it, Maki?" Panda asked, stepping closer.
"The Kyoto students aren't looking for a fair team fight or a standard academic competition," Maki said, her voice dripping with cold, defensive fury. "They completely abandoned the northern sectors. They all went to jump Oden."
Panda blinked in surprise. "To jump Oden? All of them at once? That's a massive violation of the tournament spirit."
"Think about it, you stupid bear!" Maki barked, already pivoting her entire core toward the south. "Oden is indisputably our strongest, most dangerous fighter. If Kyoto High wanted to secure a cheap, guaranteed victory for Kyoto, they would coordinate an absolute ambush to take out our apex predator first. Once Oden is out of the picture, they can easily pick the rest of us apart and run back to claim the marks."
Maki didn't waste another single second. She detonated forward, her peak physical stats allowing her to tear through the brush at an incredible velocity.
"Panda! Inumaki! Move!" Maki yelled over her shoulder. "We're running back south right now! If those cowards are trying to defeat our teammate, we're going to break their teeth in!"
"Mustard leaf!" Inumaki shouted, immediately sprinting right beside her.
Panda dropped onto all fours, his massive beast-form accelerating through the trees like a freight train. "Understood! Let's go give them a proper Tokyo welcome!"
High above them, Momo's face completely paled as she realized her distraction had entirely failed to hold them.
Meanwhile, back inside the sterile, air-conditioned confines of the primary faculty monitoring room, the silence was suffocating.
The plasma screens still displayed the empty northern trails, completely hiding the chaotic violence currently unfolding in the southern sector.
Satoru Gojo slowly stood up from his executive chair.
The movement was deliberate. Still. Indescribably heavy.
He didn't say a word as he adjusted the collar of his dark uniform, but the sheer, unadulterated volume of his presence instantly caused the temperature in the entire room to drop to a freezing baseline.
Principal Gakuganji sat rigid on his stool, his withered hands tightening around the polished wood of his electric guitar staff, his old eyes staring straight ahead. Beside him, Utahime Iori stood up from her console, her face tight with sudden panic as she saw Gojo moving toward the exit doors.
"I have a really, really bad feeling about this layout. And when I get a feeling like this... it usually means some old, wrinkly cowards are trying to ruin my day."
He turned his blindfolded face slightly toward the exit.
"I'm going down to the southern sector to check this out personally."
Utahime immediately stepped forward, her hand reaching out to intercept his path. "Wait, Gojo! You can't just leave the faculty observation room in the middle of an active event! There are strict institutional regulations! If a Special Grade sorcerer disrupts the competitive parameters of the exchange—"
"Regulations?" Gojo interrupted smoothly, his tone dropping into a chillingly cold, level whisper that made Utahime's entire body freeze in mid-step.
Gojo slowly reached up with his left hand, pulling the edge of his dark fabric blindfold down just a fraction of an inch. A single, brilliant, sky-blue eye gleamed in the dim light of the monitors, radiating the absolute, infinite pressure of the universe itself.
He turned that single, god-like gaze directly onto Utahime and Gakuganji.
"Let me make something completely, perfectly clear to the both of you," Gojo whispered, the raw authority in his voice vibrating through the very concrete of the floorboards. "If either of you try to take a single step to stop me from walking out of this room right now... I will kill you."
The statement wasn't delivered as a boast. It wasn't an angry outburst.
It was stated as an absolute, undeniable law of nature.
Utahime's breath caught entirely in her throat, her hand dropping back to her side as an instinctual wave of absolute survival terror washed over her. She couldn't move. She couldn't even speak.
Principal Gakuganji remained entirely silent, his jaw tightly clenched, his eyes tracking Gojo's long shadow as the strongest sorcerer in the world casually turned his back on them.
Gojo slid the heavy electronic security doors open with a smooth click, stepping out into the brightly lit hallway without another single word. The doors slid shut behind him, cutting off the suffocating pressure instantly.
Inside the quiet room, Gakuganji let out a slow, trembling exhale, his withered fingers white-knuckle gripping his staff.
'Hurry up, Ogami,' Gakuganji thought silently, his old heart pounding against his ribs in a desperate, toxic prayer. 'You must finish the execution... you must erase that anomaly named Oden Uzumaki from this world before Satoru gets to that valley. If he arrives before the boy is dead... God help us all.'
---
Find early chapters on my patreon
[Patreon.com/tenten100?]