Beep, beep, beep.
The spare phone in his pocket suddenly rang.
Toji answered the phone.
"Kong Shiu, what's up? Any progress on the intel gathering?" Toji asked casually.
On the other end, Kong Shiu, Toji's broker, spoke with a gravity and panic in his voice.
"Fushiguro, something big happened. The Star Religious Group's bounty was just unilaterally withdrawn."
"What?" Toji was stunned for a moment.
"They don't want to kill the Star Plasma Vessel anymore?"
"It's not that they don't want to. It's that the Star Religious Group higher-ups who posted the bounty... have been wiped out." Kong Shiu's voice trembled slightly.
"Just half an hour ago, the Star Religious Group headquarters in Gunma Prefecture was hit by a sudden fire and burned to the ground. Moreover, according to news from the black market, a black-haired youth with no cursed energy sent out a message at the underground exchange tonight: anyone who dares to take the Star Plasma Vessel's contract will die."
"A black-haired youth with no cursed energy..."
The arrogant figure who gave him the middle finger on the playground of Renchoku Girls' Junior High instantly surfaced in Toji's mind.
His lips suddenly stretched into an exaggerated arc.
"Haha! Interesting!"
Toji hung up the phone and stood up abruptly. The pressure from his massive frame made several nearby gamblers instinctively back away.
"Soloed the Star Religious Group headquarters? And sent out a warning in the black market? This guy is even crazier than I imagined."
Toji touched the invisible Cursed Spirit Weapon Rack on his shoulder, the emptiness in his eyes replaced by a long-lost desire to hunt.
Just as he was about to turn and leave the Pachinko parlor—
A lazy, somewhat playful voice suddenly rang out behind him.
"Looking for me?"
Toji's muscles tightened instantly and he whipped his head around.
Behind a row of flashing Pachinko machines.
Yamada, wearing that black trench coat, had appeared there silently at some point. He was even holding a cup of iced cola he had just bought from a nearby vending machine.
"I heard you were hanging out here, so I stopped by to take a look."
Yamada took a sip of the cola, his deep black eyes quietly observing Toji.
"Since you're so interested in the Star Plasma Vessel, why don't the two of us have a go first?"
Toji stared intently at Yamada, who stood five paces away. His vision far surpassed that of ordinary people, he could even clearly see the bubble trajectories of the melting ice in Yamada's cup.
But just now, he had completely failed to capture when or how this man had crossed space to appear behind him. There was no flow of Cursed Energy, no sound of footsteps, and even the displacement of air hadn't caused a ripple in the airflow.
"How interesting. Those employers from the Star Religious Group were just wiped out in one go, and now the main culprit who smashed my rice bowl has delivered himself to my door."
Toji touched the scar at the corner of his mouth. The surprise on his face gradually faded, replaced by the excitement and cruelty of a hunter spotting top-tier prey.
The muscles all over his body bulged slightly like a dormant ferocious beast.
As the only existence in the Jujutsu World whose Cursed Energy was truly reduced to an absolute zero, his Heavenly Restriction traded all Cursed Energy for the most unreasonable physical strength in human history.
Speed, strength, and the five senses—all had reached a transcendent state.
"Since you've come to me, don't blame me for using you to earn some extra cash. I bet someone on the black market is offering a huge bounty for your head right now, right?"
Toji grinned and suddenly kicked off the cheap carpeted floor with his right foot.
Boom!
The concrete floor exploded, with spiderweb-like cracks spreading in all directions.
Toji's massive frame instantly tore through the five-pace distance. This speed even pulled a sharp sonic boom from the air.
He didn't pull a Cursed Tool from his weapon cache Cursed Spirit. Facing an opponent who also lacked Cursed Energy, he chose the most primitive and pure form of violence—fists.
His right fist, carrying devastating kinetic energy, smashed toward Yamada's temple.
If this punch landed solidly, forget a human head—even a bulletproof armored vehicle would have a hole punched straight through it.
Yamada stood in place, not even putting down the cup of iced Cola in his hand.
At the 0.01 second before Toji's fist was about to touch his hair...
He moved.
With his left hand tucked in his trench coat pocket, his body leaned back a tiny half-inch.
Swish!
Toji's heavy punch brushed past the tip of Yamada's nose. The resulting wind from the punch blasted a shallow crater into the wall behind Yamada, shaking the entire row of Pachinko machines into a frenzy of flashing lights and alarms.
"He dodged it?!"
A flash of astonishment crossed Toji's eyes, but his combat instincts as a top-tier assassin reacted immediately.
As the first strike missed, he exerted force from his waist, and his left leg swept across Yamada's lower body like a steel whip.
This time, Yamada didn't dodge. He lifted his right foot, clad in a leather boot, and met Toji's sweep with unerring precision.
Bang!
The collision of flesh produced a dull, thunderous roar. A terrifying shockwave radiated outward from the two of them, flipping over a dozen nearby machines along with the gamblers inside.
The entire basement felt as if it were undergoing a small earthquake, with dust falling from the ceiling in patters.
"What a tough leg!"
Toji felt as if his left leg had kicked a tempered solid steel pillar, the massive counterforce made his bones go numb.
Only now did he truly realize what kind of terrifying power was hidden beneath the frame of this seemingly slender and even somewhat lazy youth.
"Nice strength. But the movements are a bit too straightforward."
Yamada gave a light chuckle and tossed the iced Cola in his hand aside.
"Since you pride yourself on your physical body, I won't bully you with those flashy abilities."
Yamada pulled his left hand out of his trench coat pocket and flexed his wrist.
"Purely competing in Taijutsu, I'll play with you for a bit."
As soon as he finished speaking, Yamada's figure left an afterimage in place.
Uchiha Style Taijutsu!
This set of close-combat techniques, born from countless life-and-death battles and tempered by generations of Uchihas, was now being utilized to its fullest by Yamada.
Coupled with the fact that he himself possessed Chakra nourishment that transcended the common sense of this world, his physical strength had long since become no less than that of a physical Heavenly Restriction user.
"Arrogant!"
Toji roared, his fists meeting the attack like a violent storm.
Inside the basement, two black afterimages instantly intertwined.
Every time the two of them exchanged blows, a visible circle of white airwaves would explode in the air.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Toji's attacks were wide and powerful, filled with beast-like intuition and explosive force.
He turned everything in the surrounding environment into a weapon, using the rebound from walls and the wreckage of machines to launch lethal strangulations from various blind spots.
However, no matter how fierce his offensive was, Yamada seemed to have precognition, neutralizing each move one by one with the most concise and perfect actions.
Although the Sharingan wasn't activated, the combat intuition etched deep within his soul gave Yamada absolute dominance in close-quarters combat.
"Got you!"
After continuously clashing for over a hundred moves, Toji left a deliberate opening. He endured a heavy hand-blade strike from Yamada on his left shoulder in exchange for a chance to get extremely close.
Wild joy appeared on his face as his thick arms locked tightly toward Yamada's waist.
Once caught in his embrace, even a Special Grade Cursed Spirit would have its spine snapped instantly.
Just as he was about to succeed, Yamada's lazy whisper reached Toji's ears.
"Is this your full strength?"
What?
Toji's heart tightened.
Before he could exert force, Yamada's hands, which were originally prepared to block, suddenly changed their trajectory. His hands threaded through the inside of Toji's arms, precisely gripping the joint connections of Toji's shoulders.
That was the absolute blind spot of the human body's power hub.
"Break."
The muscles in Yamada's arms suddenly tightened under his trench coat, and a terrifying strength erupted from his palms.
Crack! Crack!
Two sounds of bone dislocation rang out.
Toji's arms were forcibly dislocated by Yamada's grip and twist.
"Ugh!"
Toji let out a muffled groan of pain. His arms instantly lost all strength, hanging limply at his sides.
He wanted to retreat, but Yamada's movements were faster.
Yamada released his shoulders, stomped hard on the ground, twisted his waist, and delivered a heavy high-sweep kick that slammed into the side of Toji's neck.
Boom!
Toji's body was instantly sent flying, then smashed through the thick load-bearing wall of the basement. Amidst a series of roars, he flew out onto the street outside, smashing a roadside car until it was severely deformed.
Inside the dilapidated Pachinko parlor, only the terrified gasps of the gamblers lying on the floor remained.
Yamada patted the dust off his trench coat and walked out leisurely through the hole in the wall.
Toji struggled to climb up from the top of the scrapped car.
His originally arrogant face was now covered in dust and blood.
He gasped for air in large gulps. Although his arms were dislocated, relying on the abnormal body control of his Heavenly Restriction, he gritted his teeth and used muscle contraction to forcibly pop the dislocated joints back into place.
The intense pain caused the veins on his forehead to bulge.