For the Innocent Hundred Demons, Bring About Their End. Part 2

Suguru Geto displayed unprecedented caution.

He even subconsciously took half a step back, and the [Rainbow Dragon] behind him let out an uneasy growl. He was waiting—for Mizuki Makoto to weaken after unleashing a move of that caliber, or... guarding against an utterly unreasonable second outburst.

"Phew..."

Mizuki Makoto let out a long breath and forcibly suppressed the sweet, metallic taste rising in his throat. He lifted his head and flashed the cult leader an extremely arrogant, bloodshot grin.

"Lord Geto, the field has been cleared. Now, we can discuss what comes next—how high are you planning to stick your ass up when you kneel and apologize? Don't worry, I'll take plenty of pictures of how ugly you look after ten years and send them to Shoko."

[Current time: 14:35. Objective: Hold out for another 5 minutes 25 seconds.]

Miguel!! I'm fucking begging you!! Hurry up and let that white-haired lunatic come back!! My [Azure Fury] is a one-time move! If I do that again, I'll really explode like fireworks without even scraps left behind!!!

Mizuki Makoto nearly broke down in his mind, but his expression remained as steady as if victory were already his.

"Looks like I've become too dependent on those 'family members.'"

Suguru Geto's voice suddenly became extremely calm, a silence stripped of all emotion, with only the instinct to kill remaining. He casually dispersed the lingering cursed-spirit smoke around him and slowly drew a dark-red three-section staff from the wide sleeve of his robe.

Special Grade cursed tool—[Playful Cloud].

It was an anomaly among cursed tools. It possessed no technique whatsoever and was purely an amplifier of strength. When it was held in Suguru Geto's hand, the very air let out a groan of unbearable strain.

This was bad.

He'd overplayed his hand.

Mizuki Makoto's heart pounded violently. That [Azure Fury] had indeed intimidated his opponent, but it had also made Suguru Geto realize that since ranged cursed spirits could be instantly wiped out, the battle could only be ended in the most primitive, least exploitable way possible—Special Grade-level brutal hand-to-hand combat.

Before he had defected, this man had been a monster capable of sparring with Gojo Satoru and slaughtering Special Grade cursed spirits with his bare body. That powerful cursed-energy reinforcement, the martial arts honed at the edge of life and death, combined with [Playful Cloud]—against someone who hadn't even attended three PE classes in an entire semester, it was simply a one-sided slaughter.

Daddy Gojo! Help! That bun-haired lunatic is going to whip me into a spinning top with that three-section staff! Mizuki Makoto screamed in despair inside his head. Miguel! Have you already been twisted into a pretzel by Sensei in Shinjuku?! Get him back here already!

Whoosh—!

Without any warning, Suguru Geto vanished.

It was not a technique, but the instantaneous burst of a body tempered a thousand times over and strengthened by cursed energy. By the time Mizuki Makoto's dynamic vision caught the afterimage, the vicious wind kicked up by [Playful Cloud] had already sliced off a loose strand of hair from his forehead.

—[Ushura Bullet: Full Power: Spatial Trajectory Deflection]!

He did not dare use [Star's Fury] again. The defense of Limitless alone was too rigid. Against this kind of pure, brutal beating, once the three-second defense ended, having his internal organs shattered by the aftershock was the only future he could foresee.

Mizuki Makoto frantically adjusted the frequencies of the surrounding space, as though laying countless invisible "soap bubbles" across the surface of his body.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Every crisp collision came with a stabbing pain in his brain.

Too fast. Every strike carried the weight of a mountain, yet was as precise as a scalpel. [Playful Cloud] struck the warped spatial trajectories, and its lethal direct hits were forcibly diverted by a few centimeters. They grazed past his shoulders and instantly blasted the wall behind him into dust.

"This interference from spatial fluctuations..." Suguru Geto spoke with chilling admiration as he moved at high speed. "What an interesting struggle. Your technique may be exquisite, but your physical abilities simply cannot keep up with your imagination."

He had hit the nail on the head.

Mizuki Makoto's brain was overclocking while his muscles screamed in agony. Even though [Ushura Bullet] diverted the attacks, the residual shockwaves from Special Grade cursed energy still passed through space, splitting the web between his thumb and forefinger as blood dripped through his fingers.

[Current time: 15:45. Objective: Hold out for another 4 minutes 15 seconds.]

"Makoto-kun, you're trembling."

Suguru Geto closed in again. [Playful Cloud] spun into a dark-red barrier of death. "Gojo will probably be back in four minutes... How many more times do you think that flawed 'Infinity' of yours can block me?"

He had seen through him. He knew Miguel could not hold out much longer, so he abandoned every flashy technique and returned to the simplest, deadliest form of "time pressure." With his Special Grade cursed energy and cursed-spirit manipulation, he was using raw superiority to crush him at the most fundamental level of jujutsu sorcery.

"Three more minutes..." Mizuki Makoto clenched his teeth so hard that he crushed his molars, filling his mouth with the taste of blood.

If Gojo Satoru doesn't show up soon, I'll have no choice but to carve "Died from Domestic Abuse by Gojo's Ex-Husband" onto Jujutsu High's gravestone as my humiliating last words!!

"Makoto-kun, your reactions are slowing down."

Suguru Geto's voice was as cold as ice scraping down his spine. A dark-red arc descended, and the suffocating pressure was so immense that even warped space made a sharp sound like shattering glass.

Clang!

Another heavy strike. Although he barely managed to divert its trajectory, that overwhelming monstrous force still traveled through space and shattered the bones in his left hand. Mizuki Makoto's brain let out a piercing internal boom from the excessive calculations.

Daddy Gojo! If you don't come now, you're really going to be attending my funeral! The kind with unlimited Kikufuku!

He could not let him get close again! Trying to fight at close range against a Special Grade was nothing more than trading his brains for the other man's sweat.

He stared fixedly at Suguru Geto's left foot as it stepped forward again—

That left foot was beginning to exert force. It was the signal that the bun-haired gorilla was about to attack... No, he couldn't take it anymore. He had to force this clingy "ex-husband" back to a safe distance. He only had one chance!

[Limitless Technique Logic Switch: "Azure" → "Red"]

[Composite Technique Construction: Repulsive Force of "Red" + Spatial Fluctuations of "Ushura Bullet"]

This was not one plus one. This was stuffing nuclear fuel into a barrel of explosives.

"You really enjoy close-range conversation, don't you..."

Mizuki Makoto abruptly raised his head. His eyes were bloodshot, and he bared his teeth in a savage grin. "Unfortunately, I don't have your 'taste' for zero-distance contact with men, and grooming minors is illegal—so please, get the hell away from me!"

He did not aim at Suguru Geto. That would only waste his last remaining cursed energy. A Special Grade sorcerer's reaction speed could evade any direct attack he made.

What he was going to detonate was the "space" between them!

Mizuki Makoto crazily poured all his cursed energy into his fingertips. The [Ushura Bullet] that had originally been used for defense reversed its fluctuation direction in an instant. Combined with the absolute repulsion of "Red," it forcibly created an absolute spatial bubble that expanded at extreme speed between them.

—BOOM!!!!!

That was not an explosion. Space itself was rejecting the other man's existence.

The immense repulsive force tore up the entire surface of the training ground. Like an invisible giant hand, it viciously slapped Suguru Geto across the chest. Even someone as powerful as Suguru Geto could not keep his balance before such a close-range, omnidirectional repulsive force.

"This is... 'Red'? No, there's something else..."

Suguru Geto's pupils contracted sharply. His entire body became a dark-red meteor as he was blasted more than a hundred meters away, smashing through three stone towers in succession before slamming into the rock wall of the rear mountain.

"Phew... Hah... Phew..."

"Grade 2 sorcerer Mizuki Makoto" dropped to one knee, gasping for breath as his vision filled with black patches.

He had reached his limit. Was it still not enough...?

That all-or-nothing [Cosmic Guard: Red] had nearly drained his final drop of cursed energy.

[Current time: 18:30. Objective: Hold out for another 1 minute 30 seconds.]

"That hit... With spatial rejection at such close range, even a Special Grade should calm down for a while, right?"

However, what came from the dust was not a scream, but an extremely suppressed snort accompanied by the sound of bones grinding.

"...Not bad force."

Suguru Geto slowly emerged from the pile of rubble. His once-neat robe was now shredded, his left arm hung limply at his side, and the indentation in his chest indicated that at least two of his ribs were broken.

More fortunately—[Playful Cloud] was no longer in his hand.

That Special Grade cursed tool had been flung several hundred meters away into the dense forest by the spatial repulsion.

But Mizuki Makoto did not feel relieved. Because the killing intent in Suguru Geto's narrow eyes had become so dense that it was almost tangible. Suguru Geto stared at him like he was looking at a monster that had humiliated him.

"If you had truly grasped Gojo's essence, then in that instant, you should have followed up with 'Azure' to crush my internal organs, or used teleportation to enter my blind spot."

With every step Suguru Geto took, cracks spread across the ground beneath his feet. "But you didn't. You merely stood there and panted. It seems... that 'Red' was already your limit."

This was bad.

He'd put on too much of an act.

A battle-hardened Special Grade like him had seen through the truth at a glance—without Gojo Satoru's stamina, cursed energy, and precision for "infinite combos," that last attack had already been his desperate final gamble.

"Since you've already exhausted all your cards..."

Suguru Geto suddenly pressed his palms together. The cursed-energy fluctuations around him became even more violent than before. This was genuine Special Grade output without regard for the consequences.

"—Maximum Technique: 'Uzumaki.'"

This time, there was no probing.

He instantly compressed every remaining cursed spirit around him. The black-purple sphere of energy formed before his chest, and the gravitational distortion it generated even uprooted the surrounding trees.

[Deathline moment: 19:15 / 20:00.]

Mizuki Makoto watched the destructive black light that was about to pierce the air and weakly curled his trembling fingers.

"Sensei... If you don't come now, I'm really going to set the [Fastest Death Record] at Jujutsu High."

—[Second Limitless Defense (Duration: 3 seconds)] activated!

—[Third Limitless Defense (Duration: 3 seconds)] prepared!

BOOM!!!!!

The black torrent instantly swallowed him. It was pure, omnidirectional force crushing down upon him. Mizuki Makoto gave everything he had to maintain [Ushura Bullet], attempting to guide the energy to both sides.

Three seconds. The first line of defense collapsed.

"It's not over yet!!!"

He let out a beastlike roar and forcibly burned through his life to activate his final defense.

[Final three seconds.]

Black energy frantically ground against a point less than a centimeter from the tip of his nose. His eyes had temporarily gone blind from congestion, and the piercing noise nearly tore his soul apart.

At the instant his technique's defense shattered like a dying flame in the wind—

A blue radiance, brighter, prouder, and more unreasonable than "Uzumaki," descended from the sky.

"Geto, bullying my student will get you 'forcibly expelled.'"

All darkness was erased in an instant by a higher level of attraction.

A white-haired, blindfolded man appeared out of thin air before him. With a casual wave of his hand, the energy aftershock capable of destroying Jujutsu High vanished completely, like a faucet being turned off.

Mizuki Makoto finally could not hold on any longer and collapsed backward in exhaustion, only for a large hand to steadily support the back of his head.

"Makoto-kun, you've been even more 'mischievous' than I imagined."

Gojo Satoru looked down at him. A cruel, excited curve rose at the corner of his mouth, which bore a red mark as though it had been struck by a whip. "To actually fight Geto alone to this extent... You completed this assignment far too brilliantly."

[Current time: 20:00. Timed challenge complete.]

Gojo Satoru turned around to face Suguru Geto, whose expression had drastically changed in the distance, and slowly pulled down his blindfold.

"Sorry, Makoto. The rest—"

"—is time for old friends to catch up."

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