Tokyo's summer heat had yet to fully fade in September. Merciless sunlight poured straight down onto the empty athletic field, baking a heavy, stifling smell out of the rubber track.
At the center of the field, Feng stood alone amid the shimmering heat.
His feet rested firmly on the ground as he maintained a stance ready to spring into action.
Centered on him, a translucent barrier of cursed energy rippled like water across a circle roughly 2.21 meters in radius, spreading silently along the edge of the grass. The air within it warped slightly under the high pressure-a sign that [Simple Domain] was operating.
A gash deep enough to expose bone marked his right forearm, the backlash from his earlier attempts to practice high-pressure cursed energy impacts on his own.
Now, however, wisps of exceptionally thin white mist rose from the wound, glittering in the sunlight.
The tissue along its edges squirmed and contracted bit by bit, at a pace so slow it was almost imperceptible to the naked eye.
Satoru Gojo lounged without a shred of dignity on a nearby high-jump mat, casually swinging his long legs.
He pushed up the black blindfold that normally covered his face, revealing eyes that seemed filled with azure stars as he watched the activity at the center of the field with interest.
"Oh my, there's only the tiniest trace, but that's definitely the feel of 'positive energy.'"
Satoru Gojo hopped lightly off the mat, his leather shoes landing on the grass without a sound.
Hands in his pockets, he leisurely circled the rippling [Simple Domain], tracing a fingertip just above the barrier's edge.
"Getting that leaky reactor running in just two months... Feng, don't tell me you're the type who secretly works himself to death under the covers when nobody's looking?
"Your Simple Domain is pretty stable, too. Not only does it cancel out some interference from external laws, it also indirectly creates a high-pressure environment for the 'multiplication' inside your body. That's a pretty good approach."
Feng was left somewhat speechless.
These past two months had certainly put him through the wringer. Satoru Gojo was usually gentle with his students, but once training began, he became a completely different person.
Whether it was physical combat training or stabilizing Simple Domain, Satoru Gojo genuinely operated on the principle of beating someone within an inch of their life, so long as it did not actually kill them.
Slacking off simply was not an option.
Satoru Gojo stopped and turned toward the school buildings. The distant mountains wavered in the heat, and the cicadas sounded especially loud.
"Speaking of which, Yuji seems to be keeping pretty busy. Nanami always complains, but he takes his work far too seriously.
"That stitched-face cursed spirit is even trickier than we expected. They're probably playing hide-and-seek near the theater in Kawasaki City right now."
Satoru Gojo withdrew his gaze and returned his attention to Feng.
Without warning, he raised a hand and slightly curled his index finger. A faint but concentrated gleam of blue cursed energy flickered at its tip.
"Well, since you've learned to repair yourself, you should be able to handle this much 'interference,' right?"
Before he finished speaking, the blue beam of cursed energy had already cut precisely through the air, aimed straight at the wound that had finally come close to healing.
The cursed energy struck the edge of Simple Domain, sending violent ripples through it like boiling water splashed into cold oil.
With a shriek that tore through the air, the blue beam slammed into the translucent edge of Simple Domain.
The two utterly different forces erupted upon contact. Dazzling blue light ground fiercely against the waterlike barrier, producing a piercing screech that set teeth on edge.
The air over the field abruptly heated up, and a mass of scalding white steam burst outward in all directions.
Thick mist obscured the glaring sunlight. The slanted domain barrier forcibly deflected the destructive beam, which finally blasted diagonally into a nearby patch of grass.
Dirt and grass clippings shot into the sky. A deep crater with charred edges remained in the ground.
Though the rippling barrier continued to tremble, the faint, pure-white glow of reversal within it kept running steadily.
"There aren't any major problems right now. With a little more training, it should be ready for actual combat...
"After that, I'll work on external output and Cursed Technique Reversal."
Amid the drifting vapor, those words about "external output" and "Cursed Technique Reversal" carried on the wind.
The smile on Satoru Gojo's face slowly widened. He casually waved away the scalding steam drifting toward him, his leather shoes stepping onto slightly yellowed blades of grass.
Through a gap in his sunglasses, his azure eyes tracked the gradually settling, waterlike circuit with precision.
"Outputting Reverse Cursed Technique? And developing Cursed Technique Reversal, too?"
He acted as though he had heard a marvelous joke, his shoulders even shaking slightly.
His long fingers rubbed lightly at his chin as he strode forward without hesitation.
"Should I call that the fearlessness of ignorance, or just overconfidence?"
Satoru Gojo stopped at the domain's very edge. Limitless kept the remaining waves of heat away from him without a scratch.
"Releasing the positive energy inside your body isn't as simple as throwing water out of a basin.
"Once positive energy leaves the confines of the body's high-pressure furnace, it rapidly dissipates in the air.
"Even Shoko, whom the higher-ups treat like a treasure, can only manage 'output' because of her naturally unusual physiology. As for Cursed Technique Reversal-"
He deliberately drew out the last word. The gaze of his Six Eyes pierced the thinning curtain of water, fixing on the body woven from flowing water and cursed energy.
"You feed the positive energy produced through multiplication into your innate cursed technique, completely reversing its effects.
"Your technique is 'Rainfall.' If you reverse it, would that make it 'Drought'? Or 'Moisture Extraction'?"
Satoru Gojo suddenly laughed. He slipped both hands back into his pockets and leaned his tall frame forward slightly.
"If that's the case, wouldn't this body of yours, built from streams of cursed energy, 'dry itself out' the moment you activate Cursed Technique Reversal?
"That's a fatal paradox even I would find particularly tricky."
The lingering sparks of cursed energy in the air had yet to die out completely. Satoru Gojo reined in his casual demeanor a little, though that chilling curve remained at the corners of his mouth.
He raised his right hand, lightly closing and turning his well-defined fingers in the air. The air around him groaned under the strain.
"Still, since you're so full of energy, we can skip the warm-up for the next round of combat training.
"Canceling out one casually tossed lump of cursed energy hardly counts as an accomplishment.
"If you want to enter actual combat, first try surviving this."
Fuck, again?! Feng did not even have time to curse aloud before he focused on the combat training to come.
Satoru Gojo's figure flickered briefly in the air. Almost as though he had ignored the laws of physical distance, he abruptly appeared directly in front of his target.
It was a plain straight punch, yet it carried enough terrifying kinetic force to crush even the air.
Just as his fist was about to reach Feng, a transparent halo flowing like rippling water suddenly flared to life.
"Domain Amplification!"
A heavy collision boomed over the field like muffled thunder.
The flowing light of Domain Amplification shook violently the instant it met that inhuman force, water spraying wildly in every direction like exploding glass.
Even with Domain Amplification cushioning the blow, that overwhelming impact could not be fully dispersed.
Like a dead leaf swept away by a gale, Feng hurtled backward under the enormous force, plowing a deep furrow more than ten meters long through the firm turf as dirt and grass flew everywhere.
Yet the rhythm of the battle did not break.
The air pressure plunged as he flew backward.
Dense storm clouds gathered wildly at a speed that defied nature, swallowing the sun's last rays in an instant.
The entire field sank into a gloom like dusk.
A torrential downpour crashed down.
Cold raindrops struck the muddy ground, throwing up layer after layer of pale mist.
This was no ordinary rain. Every falling droplet carried vast, viscous cursed energy, displaying an inescapable sure-hit effect under the domain's laws.
Satoru Gojo remained where he was, but he tilted his head slightly upward, the gaze of his Six Eyes penetrating his sunglasses.
The rain that should have hung suspended a few inches from his body now slammed relentlessly into the Limitless barrier.
A dense sizzling filled the air, like acid eating through metal. The space held in absolute suspension was being forcibly stripped away and neutralized by the unending rain.
Deep within the curtain of rain, another change occurred.
As though drawn by a powerful magnetic field, the scattered rainwater violently converged on a single point in midair and compressed.
With a piercing, deafening sonic boom, a tiny jet of water compressed to the utmost limit tore through the layers of rain.
Like a tangible laser beam that could slice through space, the water jet shot straight toward the point between Satoru Gojo's eyebrows with enough penetrating power to pierce steel.
At the last possible instant, Satoru Gojo jerked his neck sideways at an angle that defied the limits of human anatomy.
The high-pressure jet skimmed his snow-white eyelashes, whipping up a cutting gust as sharp as a blade.
It then pierced the concrete defensive wall a hundred meters away without resistance, leaving a deep hole with edges as smooth as a mirror. A few severed white hairs drifted slowly down through the rain.
Satoru Gojo reached up with his thumb and lightly wiped the faint red mark the gust had cut across his cheek.
Under the rain's neutralizing effect, the Limitless barrier around him flickered like a candle in the wind. Yet his smile grew exceptionally broad, even revealing a trace of feverish eagerness for battle.
"What an impressive combination.
"Not only did you barely catch my punch with Domain Amplification, you even managed to construct a complete innate domain in one go while being knocked through the air."
He shook out his wrist, letting the technique-neutralizing rain fall onto his expensive shirt. His azure eyes shone startlingly bright in the gloomy downpour.
"Using the domain to give the rain a sure-hit 'technique neutralization' effect, forcibly stripping away Limitless's defense.
"Then borrowing the compression principles of the Kamo Clan's 'Blood Manipulation' to concentrate your own water flow under high pressure for a piercing attack...
"To get this far in just two months-your combat instincts really are quite sharp."
Satoru Gojo slowly raised his right hand, bringing his index and middle fingers together. An immense, heart-stopping mass of cursed energy began gathering and spinning wildly at his fingertips.
The instant the raging rain around him touched that power, it was utterly annihilated without resistance, reduced to nothing.
"But in the end, a clash of domains comes down to each side's reserves of cursed energy and the refinement of their barriers.
"Since you've set such a beautiful stage, wouldn't it be disrespectful to this 'surprise' if I didn't return the favor with something serious?"
Is he getting serious? Is it Blue? Feng thought rapidly.
His combat training with Satoru Gojo had now truly begun.
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