Chapter 4

He was simply a little surprised that the Jujutsu World had managed to discover his and Seele's existence so quickly.

Although An Xiu hadn't told Seele to hide either, they'd only made their first move yesterday, and someone had already tracked them down by noon the next day. The efficiency seemed a bit too high. He'd thought it would take a few more days before the Jujutsu World reacted.

Chapter 7: Seele Misunderstood, Clash with the Strongest

"With only your place for miles around, little bro, it'd be hard not to find you even if we wanted to."

"Gotta say, fair point."

Hearing Gojo's reply, An Xiu nodded.

With the observational power of Gojo's Six Eyes, plus the fact that An Xiu and Seele hadn't hidden their cursed energy at all, even just glancing from this construction site tower toward their apartment building a few kilometers away would probably reveal some clues.

"So, Teacher Gojo from Tokyo Jujutsu High, is there something specific you came all this way to ask us?"

"There are indeed a few questions I need to ask you two. But before that, how about you introduce yourselves first? Since I've already given my name, if you two won't even tell me yours, that'd be pretty heartbreaking."

"An Xiu. This is my sister, Seele."

An Xiu spoke.

"So it's little bro An Xiu and little sis Seele."

Hearing this, Gojo nodded.

"Then let me explain why I'm here. We got some intel suggesting a possible Special Grade appearance. To verify its authenticity, the school sent me to investigate. If I could find the sorcerer suspected to be Special Grade, and confirm they weren't a Curse User, I was to try inviting them to join the Jujutsu World."

"Looks like the intel was accurate. Little sis Seele's cursed energy level has indeed reached Special Grade. Even little bro An Xiu's level is at Grade 1 sorcerer."

An Xiu: "So, you're planning to invite us to join your Jujutsu High?"

"No, no, no, no, no..."

But Gojo shook his head at that.

"That was the original plan. Now, things have changed a bit."

"If I'm not mistaken, little sis Seele's cursed energy manifestation looks a bit like Incarnation..."

As he spoke, Gojo pulled his blindfold down slightly, revealing the eyes beneath. The bright blue pupils of the Six Eyes stared straight at Seele beside An Xiu.

From the Six Eyes' perspective, Seele's body was wrapped in blue-white cursed energy, but at her chest, a stronger, deathly still black-red cursed energy gathered.

This situation was extremely similar to the Incarnation cases described in the Jujutsu World. The only difference was that the girl before him, named Seele, wasn't the ordinary person or weak sorcerer often described in Incarnation cases. Even without counting the other cursed energy inside her, Seele's cursed energy level was still enormous in Gojo's judgment—calling it Special Grade was an understatement. Such a level was terrifying even among Special Grades.

Add to that the black-red cursed energy inside the girl, which made the Six Eyes feel slightly uncomfortable just from a brief observation—even someone as experienced as Gojo had never encountered such a thing before.

"A Special Grade that's been Incarnated. Live long enough, and you really do see everything."

Worried that the two, who were encountering the Jujutsu World for the first time, might not understand the severity, Gojo specifically explained the concept of Incarnation.

"In short, it means being parasitized by a powerful curse, constantly at risk of having your body taken over and controlled by the Cursed Spirit inside you?"

An Xiu rubbed his chin as he looked at Seele beside him.

Honestly, Seele's situation really did look like Incarnation. After all, Black Seele, this Stigma Consciousness, seemed exactly like a curse in this world, especially combined with the death-representing Power of Withering and her adaptation to the cursed energy system.

Any sorcerer who saw Black Seele's condition would definitely think she was a Cursed Spirit, no question.

"The other me would never do that. Even if she needs to use my body, she'll always give control back to me. Even if I don't listen to her, the other me will listen to big brother An Xiu."

"And Seele believes the other me would never hurt Seele or big brother An Xiu."

Placing a hand gently over her chest, Seele shook her head at Gojo as she spoke.

"Oh? Sounds like the curse inside you has already come out before?"

Gojo asked curiously.

"The other me appeared when Seele was very young. Whenever Seele is in danger, the other me appears to protect Seele."

"A curse that not only doesn't take over the Incarnated host's body but actively protects them?"

Honestly, if Seele's answer hadn't seemed completely sincere to Gojo—if anyone else had told him such a fantastical story—he would have laughed out loud.

"Girl, the curse inside you is incredibly powerful. That kind of terrifying cursed energy is unprecedented even for me. And cursed energy is born from human negative emotions."

"In other words, Cursed Spirits born from humanity's various negative emotions are inherently evil. Right now, she hasn't taken your body, maybe due to some irresistible factor. But once she finds an opportunity, that kind of evil existence won't hesitate to act."

"Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Standing across from him, Seele still showed no sign of wavering.

"This is really troublesome, you know. In the Jujutsu World, when dealing with an Incarnated target, sorcerers are supposed to exorcise them just like a curse."

"And you, little bro An Xiu. Harboring a curse could get you labeled a Curse User by the Jujutsu World. Trust me, those higher-ups can definitely pull something like that."

As he spoke, powerful cursed energy began to gather around Gojo.

To this, An Xiu replied noncommittally: "Talking more is pointless. I believe Seele and the other Seele won't hurt me. Besides, even if we agreed with your view, based on what you just described, handing Seele over to you wouldn't lead to a good outcome, would it?"

From Itadori Yuji's situation in the original story, it was clear that even if he accepted the Jujutsu World's arrangements, those higher-ups would still slap a death sentence on him. If not for Gojo's pressure, Yuji, the protagonist, would have been killed by those higher-ups from the start.

Under these circumstances, An Xiu would have to be brain-dead to agree with Gojo's view.

An Xiu was certain that if he agreed with Gojo, the next step would be for him to take both of them back. While it was likely he'd still protect Seele from the higher-ups like he did with Yuji in the original story, did An Xiu have nothing better to do than go suffer that humiliation?

Didn't he already know Black Seele's situation? She was an avatar manifested through the system. Both Seele and Black Seele had absolute loyalty to him.

Besides, there was no need to go back with Gojo Satoru to solve the problem—beating him up right here would work just as well.

After all, in the original story, the higher-ups of the Jujutsu World were blatantly bullies who cowered before the strong. An Xiu was also curious: if the strongest, Gojo Satoru, were to lose—lose to Seele—would those higher-ups still have the nerve to strut and swagger in front of him and Seele?

Chapter 8: Seele Unaffected

A massive scythe appeared in Seele's hand. Seeing this, Gojo Satoru, standing opposite her, extended one hand toward the two of them.

"Cursed Technique: Lapse: Blue."

A tremendous gravitational pull erupted on the rooftop. Even the railing around the edge shook violently under the force, then suddenly tore free, converging into a mass under the influence of cursed energy and hurtling toward Seele.

Swish!

Seeing this, Seele swung her scythe, slicing the converging debris into fragments. Then, with a light tap of her toe, she vanished instantly, only to reappear without warning behind Gojo Satoru.

The scythe lashed out. In the span of a single breath, Seele struck no fewer than dozens of times. Yet every attack seemed to hit a thin membrane, never truly reaching his body.

"Cursed Technique: Reversal: Red."

His index and middle fingers pressed together. A red cursed energy, the polar opposite of Blue, exploded in front of Seele. The immense repulsive force within it shoved everything on the rooftop, aiming to fling Seele away.

But as the cursed energy swept through, Seele was nowhere to be found.

Using her Quantization ability, she had already returned to An Xiu's side the moment Gojo Satoru counterattacked.

"A technique that can teleport? Even Blue's attraction and Red's repulsion can't catch it—that's a powerful technique."

Watching the girl who had returned to her original spot, Gojo Satoru spoke with admiration, based on what he had just witnessed.

To this, Seele, usually polite, uncharacteristically did not reply.

She wasn't surprised that her attacks had been ineffective. After all, knowing the plot as well, Seele was well aware of Gojo Satoru's ability.

The Infinity technique—a technique that brought Zeno's paradox of the arrow into reality, the so-called relative stillness.

The closer an object got to Gojo Satoru, the more its speed approached zero. In other words, no attack could ever touch him.

In physics, this was a nearly invincible ability. And with the Six Eyes drastically reducing technique consumption, allowing Gojo Satoru to wield cursed energy almost inexhaustibly, he could keep the Infinity technique active as a permanent passive skill, covering his body twenty-four hours a day.

But there were ways to break through it. Just as in the original story, Ryomen Sukuna's Space Slash could bypass the Infinity technique's protective mechanism, ignoring its defense to strike Gojo Satoru directly.

And Seele could do something similar.

Vanishing again, this time she didn't choose a sneak attack from behind. Instead, she appeared directly in front of Gojo Satoru, the scythe in her hand already pressed against him.

Thud!

In that moment, sensing danger, Gojo Satoru's eyes widened in shock. Driven by instinct, he used Blue's attraction to retreat instantly.

But even so, a massive wound was left on his chest. A torrent of blood gushed from the cut like a stream, staining his clothes red within seconds.

As blood flowed freely, Gojo Satoru, who had retreated midair using his technique, stared at Seele in shock.

Was he... injured?

Gojo Satoru couldn't remember the last time he had felt this kind of pain from a wound. Or rather, he couldn't recall how many years it had been since he last bled.

Not through interference from some special cursed tool, but someone breaking through his defense head-on with a technique.

For a moment, a familiar yet unfamiliar emotion surged within him—the long-dormant sense of crisis that came from feeling danger.

Healing the wound on his chest with Cursed Technique Reversal, Gojo Satoru suddenly felt a hint of exhilaration.

He thought he was getting a little excited.

His earlier plans? They no longer mattered. Though he still deeply hoped to recruit the two of them—or rather, the girl before him—into the Jujutsu World, right now Gojo Satoru just wanted to have a good, all-out fight.

On the rooftop, watching the shift in Gojo Satoru's mood midair, Seele sensed he was about to get serious and steadied her own mind.

"The next fight might cover a large area. Please, An Xiu-ge, retreat to a safe place first."

"Alright."

Taking An Xiu's hand, Seele instantly sent him to the outskirts of the construction site, then returned to the rooftop the same way.

"Mind telling me how you broke through my technique's defense and hurt me just now? Was it through your technique?"

He didn't stop Seele from sending An Xiu out of the battlefield—couldn't stop her, really, and wouldn't stoop to it.

Landing back on the rooftop from midair, Gojo Satoru simply asked Seele curiously about the method she used to breach the Infinity technique.

"It's my technique: Quantization."

Seele answered.

It was precisely through the power of Quantization that she could injure Gojo Satoru under the defense of the Infinity technique.

Just as Ryomen Sukuna's Space Slash could ignore the Infinity technique's defense, by leveraging Quantization, Seele herself could, on a certain level, disregard the laws of physics.

For instance, teleportation was essentially entering a quantum entanglement state through Quantization. Using the property of quantum entanglement to ignore time and space, she could shuttle between two points in the quantum realm using real-world coordinates. To an outsider, it looked like instant movement.

Similarly, with this power, Seele could directly imbue her attacks with the same property. In gaming terms, it was like dealing true damage that ignored physical defense.

Furthermore, by entering a Quantized state, Seele could, to some extent, ignore physical collisions. Even without teleporting, she could pass through obstacles or nullify attacks.

In short, Quantization was an exceptionally versatile ability, combining offense, defense, and mobility all in one.

Otherwise, this ability wouldn't have cost a full 8,000 points in the system shop, only 2,000 points less than the Herrscher of Life and Death's authority, which was priced at 10,000 points.

Naturally, by leveraging the properties of Quantization, when Seele applied the same ability to her attacks, the so-called Infinity technique became utterly useless.

"From here on, Seele won't hold back anymore."

"That line should be mine to say."

Midair, a wild, arrogant smile curled at the corner of Gojo Satoru's lips.

"In this fight, you're the challenger!"

Cursed Technique: Lapse: Blue!

Boom!!!

With his five fingers spread wide and his right hand sweeping down, a terrifying gravitational pull a hundred times stronger than before pressed downward. The entire building instantly caved in and collapsed. Vast cursed energy swept up steel and rubble, forming several meteorites of devastating destructive power that rained down on Seele from all directions.

Yet this grand and imposing attack didn't even touch Seele's body. The girl's petite form passed through the meteorites like a ghost, instantly appearing above Gojo Satoru.

"Cursed Technique: Reversal: Red!"

Red cursed energy erupted with repulsive force, like a certain Shinra Tensei from another scene, pushing out a clearing nearly a hundred meters in diameter in the center of the already ruined construction site.

But just like the meteorites before, Red's attack passed straight through the Seele before him, having no effect at all.

Chapter 9: Hollow Technique: Purple, The Eruption of the Power of Withering

With two consecutive attacks both proving ineffective, Gojo Satoru raised an eyebrow slightly, then took the initiative to charge straight at Seele.

Since his technique's attacks were useless, Gojo Satoru decided to engage in close-quarters combat, settling the fight through "elbow techniques."

Boom! Boom! Boom!

In an instant, the two clashed as blurs, moving at a speed nearly invisible to the naked eye. Within a single second, they exchanged countless blows, turning an area of several kilometers into their battlefield.