My fist landed cleanly on his armor.
No reaction.
The impact didn't carry through. It just… stopped.
'Useless.'
I stepped back slightly, resetting my stance as Kinzoku moved forward again.
Another punch.
Same result.
No damage. No visible effect.
'So it's exactly what I thought.'
'Blunt force isn't working.'
The armor absorbed everything. Every strike that should have done damage just got spread out and nullified.
'Designed to counter direct hits.'
Kinzoku closed the distance again, faster than before.
I shifted back, barely avoiding a swing as his arm moved toward me. His speed had clearly increased.
'He's faster.'
Not just faster—more focused.
'He's not wasting cursed energy on projectiles anymore.'
I glanced around briefly.
No metal spikes.
No ranged pressure.
'So that's the tradeoff.'
Armor up → no external manipulation.
It made sense.
Since he couldn't use metal manipulation on anything but maintaining the armor, it meant he could focus the rest of his cursed energy into reinforcement.
'Then dragging this into a brawl is exactly what he wants.'
I stepped back again.
Kinzoku kept advancing.
Relentlessly, he would chase me down, for the first time in this tournament I am the one avoiding hand to hand combat.
'This really is annoying, I didn't want to use my cursed technique this early.'
I pushed off the ground harder this time, creating some distance. He followed immediately.
'...Alright.'
I shifted direction suddenly and with a burst of raw cursed energy sent my self flying to the left, widening the gap just enough.
Then stopped.
One of the metal fragments from earlier was still embedded in the ground.
I grabbed it and threw it forward in one motion.
Kinzoku didn't react immediately.
Then…
The projectile began to spin.
I had activated one of the abilities I copied, Forced Rotation, and applied it on that metallic fragment.
Faster.
Sharper.
The metallic object was essentially a drill by the time it approached him.
The fragment cut forward, drilling into his armor
And stopped halfway.
"..."
It didn't fully pierce.
But it went in.
I lowered my hand slightly.
'So it works.'
Not perfectly—but enough.
'Blunt force gets absorbed…'
'But it doesn't seem to be resistant to shear force, meaning drilling attacks like this can work. I wonder if slashing type attacks would get through as well.'
[Author Note: They wouldn't]
___
"...He's adapting fast."
Suguru watched closely, arms crossed.
"I thought you said your clan was full of weaklings. He is stronger than I expected," he added. "He's above most grade 1s. Probably around Mei Mei's level, if not higher."
"Yeah," Gojo replied casually. "Within the clan, he's the strongest."
A small pause.
"With the sole exception of me, of course."
Suguru didn't react to that.
Gojo continued.
"His technique isn't inherited," he said. "It's innate. Metal manipulation."
Shoko tilted her head slightly. "That's rare for the Gojo clan."
"Yeah," Gojo said. "From what I hear it's a pain to use."
He looked toward the arena.
"It's kind of like Blood Manipulation."
Suguru glanced at him. "Kind of?"
"Unlike blood manipulation, the body doesn't have metal within it. Meaning he has to carry his own external sources, which is why he is always wearing jewelry," Gojo said while pointing to the bracelets and earrings that were discarded throughout the battle.
"Moreover, outside of manipulating the shape of metal, I hear it's extremely difficult to manipulate the properties of metal using this technique.."
He pointed toward Kinzoku.
"After around 10 years of hard work, he barely managed to use metal manipulation to grant metals a unique property like non-newtonian stress resistance."
Shoko cut in.
"About what you said earlier, humans do have metal in their bodies. We have trace amounts of Iron in the hemoglobin, which is in our blood."
Gojo responded almost immediately.
"Yeah, like you said, 'Trace' amounts. Not nearly enough to be used in a fight, although there is probably some application for that in metal manipulation."
"..." Shoko didn't argue further.
Gojo continued.
"Not just that, but haven't you noticed." he asked. "This armor is extremely inefficient, he has already burned through more cursed energy then Mei Mei has."
His gaze sharpened slightly.
Suguru stayed quiet.
___
"..."
I didn't move right away.
Then I picked up another fragment.
And threw it while activating Forced Rotation.
It spun instantly.
This time, I didn't hold back as much.
The projectile drilled forward again forcing its way into the armor.
Kinzoku's body shifted as he tried to adjust the density of the armor at the point of impact.
Too slow.
It pierced deeper this time.
"...Tch."
I didn't stop.
I began spamming the drilling projectiles.
Each one spun faster..
Kinzoku tried to move, tried to close the gap again
But every step forward cost him.
The armor reacted each time, shifting, and reinforcing itself at each point of contact.
But it wasn't perfect.
Not against this.
'It doesn't handle shear stress nearly as well as blunt force.'
The armor began to show it.
Small breaks.
Shallow penetrations.
Through those penetrations, the glorious armor which was a spitting image of the Berserker armor was leaking blood.
Kinzoku's breathing changed.
Slightly heavier.
He stopped.
Dropped to one knee.
The armor didn't disappear immediately, but it loosened slightly. The structure wasn't as stable anymore.
His fists clenched against the ground.
"Damn it."
I stood a few meters away, watching.
'No reason to be a smug asshole, I should make him feel better about himself.'
"You're strong, probably near the top of grade 1." I said while trying to be as consoling as I could. "If you didn't run out of cursed energy, this would have been much closer"
Kinzoku is still there, clenching the ground with a vein showing from his forehead.
'He really is bitter, it's just a tournament bro.'
'Now that I beat one of the Gojo's, it's time to low diff the next'
[An Image of the main tournament's bracket at this point.]
"You have it here folks, the victor of this crazy Finale. Th eone who dominated the Loser's bracket."
"Futago!!" The announcer yelled dramatically, he is making it seem like I won the actual tournament.
The match was over.