Testing the Waters

"I never thought Mr. Lu Yun had that side to him."

Okkotsu and the others, who had been watching the training ground closely, naturally noticed Lu Yun's demeanor and marveled at it.

Beside them, Maki Zenin and Megumi Fushiguro wore skeptical expressions:

"Can we really count on a guy like this?"

Noticing something strange about his younger brother, Choso turned to Itadori. He had his head raised, looking as though Todo had possessed him.

"Yuji, are you okay?"

Having grown up with his grandfather, Itadori had not yet encountered Jujutsu Society as a child. Naturally, he had watched the two anime Lu Yun mentioned in his spare time. Those anime and manga had influenced his tastes to some extent.

He had never expected Lu Yun's tastes to be so similar to his own. Yuji Itadori gazed up at the sky, overcome with genuine emotion as tears and snot streamed down his face.

Memories that had never existed suddenly surfaced in his mind. Short blue hair fluttered, and Itadori seemed to see the older boy who had introduced him to the world of anime. That blue hair belonged unmistakably to Lu Yun. At that moment, Itadori finally understood how Todo felt when he found a kindred spirit.

"Looks like Lu Yun is our best friend too!"

Before the fight began, Lu Yun had even made a point of asking Hajime Kashimo whether he wanted to take part.

Hajime Kashimo was quite interested in the handful of Special Grade Sorcerers in modern Jujutsu Society. But upon learning that this was only a sparring match, he was deeply disappointed.

"A fight is only interesting when both sides put their lives on the line and give it everything they've got. What's the point of sparring?"

He had no interest in this kind of playing house, so he left Lu Yun to do as he pleased.

Lu Yun clenched his fists. He would never allow anyone to deny the existence of Paper People.

"Yuki Tsukumo, you've got some nerve (in a French accent), daring to cross the sacred line we anime fans hold inviolable."

His upperclassman and Asuna merely existed in different times and spaces, just like this world of jujutsu. One day, Lu Yun would meet someone who fulfilled his fantasies.

"My fists thirst for blood. Now, I'll give you a proper taste of an otaku's wrath."

Cursed energy surged from his entire body like a raging inferno. Lu Yun raised his fists and focused intently on Tsukumo.

"Now that's something to look forward to."

Yuki Tsukumo laughed and grabbed the shikigami [Garuda] circling overhead. The skeletal shikigami stretched out its body, turning into a long whip of bone that Tsukumo gripped tightly.

Crack! The air whistled as Yuki Tsukumo swung her arm, and the whip left a deep gouge in the ground.

"Let me say this first: my cursed technique, [Star Rage], lets me grant virtual mass to myself and my shikigami. Be careful I don't whip you to pieces."

Opening with a disclosure of her cursed technique as usual, Yuki Tsukumo pushed off the ground and shot toward Lu Yun like a cannonball.

The ground caved in. Even Jujutsu High's specially constructed training ground could not withstand a Special Grade's immense strength.

The whip swung with a humming roar, the air groaning under the pressure of its tremendous mass.

With just a slight swing of her arm, the supple whip crossed the remaining distance and appeared before Lu Yun in the blink of an eye. Howling through the air, it lashed toward his body with unimaginable mass.

The oncoming gale buffeted Lu Yun's cheeks. Had this blow so much as grazed an ordinary person, it would have scattered their remains everywhere.

Unfortunately, this attack was aimed at Lu Yun.

Thin blue arcs flickered across his body as Lu Yun activated Elementalization without hesitation.

The bone-white [Garuda] whip touched Lu Yun's body. Lightning flashed, and the whip passed straight through him without resistance, carrying its unstoppable momentum into the ground beside him.

Boom!

The training ground erupted with a deafening blast. Countless fragments of stone and clods of earth flew in every direction. Rising dust swallowed Lu Yun's figure, leaving the spectators from Jujutsu High unable to see what was happening.

"Did it hit?"

Maki Zenin sprang excitedly from her spectator seat, grabbed the railing, and leaned forward, trying to get a clear look as soon as possible.

Well versed in all kinds of weapons, Maki knew that a whip's tip moved far faster than most people imagined. Lu Yun had made no attempt to dodge as the whip approached. She did not believe he could evade its fastest-moving tip without acting beforehand.

However powerful he was, surely Lu Yun could not take a direct hit from Miss Tsukumo and emerge unscathed?

Beside her, Yuta Okkotsu remained seated. Even after seeing Lu Yun take that blow, his expression did not change in the slightest.

As the only person present who had fought Lu Yun, Okkotsu knew the outcome of this sparring match had been decided from the start.

Miss Tsukumo's cursed technique relied on close-range attacks, which Lu Yun completely countered. Unless she had some special method, Okkotsu could not imagine how Tsukumo could defeat him.

Besides, this was only a sparring match. No one would take it seriously enough to bring out their last-resort trump cards.

"How... how is that possible?"

The lingering dust finally cleared, revealing an enormous crater in the training ground. Lu Yun stood at its edge, completely unharmed.

"That's school property!"

Principal Yaga felt a pang of anguish at the sight of the ruined training ground.

"It's fine, it's fine. Just have Satoru pay to rebuild it later."

Panda patted his old man's back, comforting him.

"That was close, so close. I almost thought I was going to die."

Lu Yun made a show of patting his chest and smiled at Yuki Tsukumo.

"That ability really is cheating."

Tsukumo raised her hand and lifted Garuda. The bone-white whip passed through Lu Yun's body without the slightest resistance, scattering him into a shapeless mass of lightning.

The instant Garuda struck Lu Yun, the whip felt as though it had lashed through empty air, offering no feedback whatsoever. Tsukumo immediately understood that attacks like this could not hurt him at all.

"Oh, I know this ability! It's that, that..."

An excited cry came from the stands. Itadori pointed at Lu Yun, who had turned into a mass of lightning, wanting to say something but unable to remember it.

Fushiguro immediately understood what he meant and spoke for him:

"You're saying this ability is like Elementalization in Pirate King, right?"

"Yes, yes, exactly!"

With Fushiguro supplying the answer, Itadori let out a long breath, utterly satisfied.

"Elementalization?"

The older generation, who had never read manga or watched anime, was puzzled.

Those who knew a little about them looked incredulous. They had never expected an ability from manga to become real one day.

"Then wouldn't you need Haki to counter it? Lu Yun is invincible!"

Yuta Okkotsu, the only Special Grade combatant in the spectator stands, shook his head and said:

"No, there are other ways to counter it."

As his words fell, Yuki Tsukumo suddenly abandoned Garuda and charged at Lu Yun alone. A peculiar fluctuation faintly coated her fists.

Was that Domain Amplification?