A Heavy Punch for a Cunning Swindler

Todo Aoi's dorm was surprisingly tidy.

Aside from the enormous posters of idol Takada-chan plastered all over the walls—enough to give anyone "aesthetic fatigue"—the place was practically an ascetic's meditation chamber. Mizuki Makoto sat in an absurdly oversized chair, his heart racing at an astonishing rate—faster even than when Zenin Mai had pointed a gun at his head.

[No helping it. That white-haired teacher at home has already seen the first draft of Gojo Mai's ■■■■, after all.]

Whenever he thought of the "gentle" smile that had appeared at the corner of Gojo Satoru's mouth when he removed his blindfold at the training grounds—a smile cold enough to freeze the air—Mizuki Makoto felt a chill crawl down his back. His overnight escape to Kyoto was not just physical refuge. Before Gojo Satoru caught him and "executed" him, he needed to scrape together a temporary trump card to save his life.

"Hey, brother. You've been staring at my shoulder since earlier. Don't tell me..." Todo Aoi asked without looking back as he carefully wiped down his limited-edition CD. "Have you finally discovered the holy light hidden within my muscles?"

"No. I was merely observing your intensely wild movements."

Mizuki Makoto took a deep breath, adjusted his glasses, and decided to place a huge bet on an artist's professional instincts.

Though I was a transmigrator and knew the truth perfectly well, I absolutely couldn't let my character setting collapse at a time like this!

"Todo, that way of exerting force, so full of violent beauty, definitely wasn't taught by those conservative fossils at Kyoto Jujutsu High. That style... carries the untamed scent of the wilderness."

Mizuki Makoto paused. A sharp glint flashed across his lenses under the light.

"I once heard Gojo-sensei mention it in passing: before that white-haired guy became 'the strongest,' there was only one woman who bore the title of Special Grade—Tsukumo Yuki. He complained that she was just an unmanageable crazy woman, but the moment I saw that punch of yours, her name came to mind. That sense of 'weight,' like it could smash through the entire world... you're her child or disciple, aren't you?"

Click.

Todo's hand, which had been wiping the CD, abruptly froze.

"You said... 'weight'?"

He slowly turned around, his scarred eyes locking tightly onto Mizuki Makoto's gaze. In that instant, Mizuki Makoto felt as though he were facing an ancient mammoth about to go berserk.

"That's right. An overwhelmingly domineering 'presence.'" Mizuki Makoto frantically piled on the mystical profiling along that line. "My intuition tells me that someone capable of teaching you such a style must be a wanderer unbound by rules. Riding a heavy motorcycle, facing the headwind, burning with the madness to crash the whole world—and all its rotten rules—into dust... after all, only a soul like that could make a man like you bow his head, right?"

Mizuki Makoto had never actually met Tsukumo Yuki. He was merely describing a certain "texture." He was betting that a man like Todo—extremely emotional and reverent toward "true souls"—would fill in every remaining piece of the puzzle himself.

The air went dead silent for a full three seconds.

"...Just by observing with the naked eye, you can profile the aura that 'that person' left behind?" Todo murmured. The suspicion in his eyes gradually turned into something terrifyingly fervent. "You can even strip the truth out of that man Gojo Satoru's ramblings..."

He loosely clenched a fist, his tone filled with unprecedented approval. "You're right. She was my mentor. Though she has long since left rotten Japan behind, the treasure she gave me is indeed right here."

Before Mizuki Makoto could breathe a sigh of relief, a massive shadow suddenly enveloped him. Todo took a huge step forward, and the hand capable of crushing a cursed spirit's skull landed heavily on Mizuki Makoto's shoulder.

"That insight that sees through the flesh and directly into the essence of the soul... Mizuki Makoto! You truly possess the finest soul in this world!"

But then Todo's brow furrowed, and his eyes took on an unhappy, scrutinizing look.

"However, brother... your body is too light. Light as a scrap of waste paper drifting in the wind. My best friend must not only possess refined taste, but also the 'capacity' to bear that taste!"

Five minutes later, at the training ground on the back mountain of Kyoto Jujutsu High.

"Come, brother! If you cannot resonate with me in a physical sense, then everything you said just now was nothing more than cheap empty talk!"

Todo Aoi let out a low roar like muffled thunder. His upper body was bare, and cursed energy surged off him like boiling steam.

Mizuki Makoto stood across from him, his calves cramping.

[I'm dead! I'm seriously going to die! I miscalculated one thing—Todo Aoi's 'brotherhood' isn't just poisonous, it comes with actual physical damage!]

"Todo... I'm really just an artist. The kind of fragile artist who'll topple over if the wind blows..."

"But you're also a jujutsu sorcerer!"

The ground beneath Todo's feet instantly shattered. He charged forward like a collapsing mountain, carrying an overwhelming pressure that could flatten everything in its path.

At this life-or-death moment, when that punch could turn him into a QR code, [Echo Mimicry] in Mizuki Makoto's mind activated its overclocked simulation.

—At this distance and speed, unless I use Limitless, ordinary evasive maneuvers are already useless. Todo's attack range covers every blind spot!

Since he could not dodge, he could only use the professional methods of a doujin artist—forcefully "redraw" this space!

He suddenly raised both hands, imagining the space before him as a huge, crumpled bedsheet. Then he precisely seized those fragmented [folds] and tore them down with all his strength!

[Echo Mimicry: Ushura Bullet]!

"Just... slip away!!!"

Bang—!

Todo's heavy fist slammed viciously into Mizuki Makoto's forearm. In that instant, Mizuki Makoto felt as if he had been hit head-on by a Shinkansen traveling at full speed.

Though the technique forcibly shifted the point of impact and made the punch graze past his arm, the lingering shock still hammered into his organs. Mizuki Makoto flew more than ten meters like a ragged doll, crashing heavily into a tree trunk.

"...Pwah!"

A mouthful of blood sprayed directly over the fallen leaves. Mizuki Makoto felt as though his internal organs were churning violently, and his right arm had gone completely numb.

Todo Aoi did not pursue him. Instead, he stood where he was, staring gravely at a point in the empty air before looking at the fist that had missed its mark. As the master of [Boogie Woogie], he understood better than anyone what had just happened.

"In that instant... space was pulled apart?"

Todo murmured under his breath, a gleam of extreme surprise flashing through his eyes. He abruptly looked up at Mizuki Makoto, his tone carrying the shock of discovering a new continent. "Mizuki Makoto, what you did just now wasn't defense. In that instant, you forcibly interfered with the 'surface' of this space, didn't you?"

Todo's gaze changed. It was no longer the look he gave a weakling. It was the wild delight of seeing a soul called "obsession" struggle before him.

"Though your body is pathetically weak, that resolve to 'stay on the battlefield even if it kills you'... that posture of using an artist's obsession to defy the laws of physics!"

Todo strode over with heavy steps. Under Mizuki Makoto's terrified gaze, he did not throw another punch. Instead, he burst into laughter loud enough to shake leaves from the trees, hauled Mizuki Makoto up from the ground, and fiercely draped an arm around his shoulders.

"Good! Though you are still nothing but a piece of scrap metal, brother, I will personally forge that scrap into something greater!"

Mizuki Makoto was being squeezed so hard he could barely breathe. His vision darkened, and only one thought remained in his mind:

[Gojo Satoru, you bastard... look what you've driven me to! Just to avoid your slap, I'm about to have my ribs crushed by a muscle freak from Kyoto Jujutsu High!]

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