Combat Training

Satoru Gojo took off his sunglasses and looked at Sakurada Niji a short distance away.

Retreating after a single failed strike? This kid really is cautious...

"That's a pretty dangerous Cursed Technique~ Can't let you touch me~ Bleh~" Satoru Gojo tugged at the corner of his mouth, giving Sakurada Niji a provocative grin.

A vein bulged on Sakurada Niji's forehead.

He's calling me dangerous while keeping that cheating Limitless active!?

On the sidelines, Geto still looked like a sly old fox, though his smile seemed to deepen as he watched Satoru Gojo take off his sunglasses.

"Come on, Satoru~ Don't let our new classmate knock you flat~" he said, "cheering" Gojo on.

Shoko looked ready to enjoy the show. She lazily called out to Sakurada Niji, "Sa~ku~ra~da~! You can do it~ Knock that scumbag flat~!"

"Shut uuup~" Satoru Gojo pulled a face at the two on the sidelines.

Then he took the initiative and attacked Sakurada Niji.

Sakurada Niji kept his distance from Satoru Gojo while creating "invisible" air walls in midair along his retreat route.

Satoru Gojo could see those air walls clearly, but he couldn't simply ignore them and teleport. His teleportation route had to be free of obstacles, especially air walls like these, created by fixing space in place.

As Satoru Gojo thought, he used his Cursed Technique to send chunks of the shattered ground flying at Sakurada Niji, but the results were disappointing. Every shot was either blocked or dodged.

What a troublesome Cursed Technique~ And he keeps dodging around... If I teleport, I might crash into one of his spatial walls. Without using Blue, I'm stuck wasting energy like this. Yaga did tell us not to wreck the training ground with our Cursed Techniques~ Well~ Who cares~

Bored with the bullet-hell game, Satoru Gojo began pouring in cursed energy. His hands swept toward his chest, and a spinning blue sphere appeared out of thin air beside him.

"Cursed Technique Lapse-Blue!"

While dodging the barrage and laying "traps," Sakurada Niji saw the azure gravity sphere coming toward him. He tried blocking it with an air wall, only to discover that a wall that normally lasted around ten seconds undisturbed held out for less than two seconds once it entered Blue's suction range.

Looks like the air walls have something like "HP." It drains over time along with the cursed energy I pour into them, and heavy damage quickly "empties their HP."

In other words, feeding in cursed energy gives the wall "HP." By that logic, I could stand still and keep feeding it "HP" until my cursed energy runs out.

At that thought, Sakurada Niji suddenly felt the urge to try a suicidal experiment. He wanted to see if he could block Satoru Gojo's Blue, so he went ahead and did it.

I'll call this move "Spatial Barrier"~

"Pride of heaven, iron-built walls, dragon's stride, lion's roar, tiger's howl, wolf's charge, sever heaven and earth before they crumble-Way of Binding Number Eighty-One-Spatial Barrier." Sakurada Niji indulged his inner edgelord, hoping to buff the move he had casually invented by giving it an incantation.

As he released his cursed energy, Sakurada Niji swept his hand downward in front of him. A neatly shaped air barrier appeared before him, roughly two meters long and half a meter wide.

Sakurada Niji could clearly feel that this Spatial Barrier was much sturdier than the air walls he had casually created before, and it had used less cursed energy.

...Never mind whether this makes any sense. The proof is right there. As long as it works.

Seeing Sakurada Niji stop dodging and face his Blue head-on, Satoru Gojo beamed. With an exaggerated grin, he called out, "Hey~ Sakurada~ You really are-so much fun~!"

On the sidelines, Suguru Geto grew a little nervous. He activated Cursed Spirit Manipulation, ready to summon a cursed spirit and intervene at any moment.

Then he suddenly spotted Shoko standing nearby, completely calm, and realized that he might be a little unnecessary.

"Almost forgot. Shoko's right here, and she can use Reverse Cursed Technique~"

Reassured, Suguru Geto settled in to enjoy the show.

At the center of the training ground-

Blue tore up the turf as it sucked everything in, leaving a horrific trail in its wake. It stopped in front of Sakurada Niji's Spatial Barrier, spinning continuously as it pulled in everything around it.

The Cursed Technique called Blue might have looked like a simple gravity sphere, but once it touched something, it continuously collapsed inward, relentlessly tearing at whatever it contacted. Sakurada Niji's response was about the stupidest possible choice. The correct approach would have been to get away quickly, since Blue didn't move very fast.

Through the Six Eyes, Sakurada Niji's Spatial Barrier only appeared to ripple slightly before quickly returning to normal.

But Sakurada Niji was struggling to hold on. Every time Blue tore at the barrier, he had to replenish the Spatial Barrier with more cursed energy, and Blue attacked at an extremely high frequency. In less than a minute, nearly half his cursed energy had drained away.

Watching Blue remain as "lively" as ever on the other side of the air barrier, Sakurada Niji's mouth twitched.

Why does this thing last so long...?

Realizing he couldn't keep forcing himself to hold out, Sakurada Niji decided to pour in a large burst of cursed energy, then quickly retreat out of Blue's range.

After a prolonged "Hummmmm," the blue sphere vanished.

Standing ten meters away, Sakurada Niji looked back at where he had just been-

A crater roughly two meters across remained. Everything half a meter down had been reduced to rubble, leaving a scene of utter devastation.

By then, Shoko and Suguru Geto had vanished from the sidelines. Only Satoru Gojo, grinning happily like an idiot, and Sakurada Niji, drenched in sweat, remained.

"That was amazing~ Niji~chan~~ Your Cursed Technique is so interesting~~"

Hearing Satoru Gojo call him "Niji-chan" in an almost wheedling voice, Sakurada Niji nearly lost control of his expression. But he knew that the more discomfort he showed, the more Gojo would pester him, and he would never escape that nickname. He chose to endure it for now, pinching his thigh to force his expression to stay composed.

"Gojo~ It feels like we've known each other for ages~ I think I'll call you Satoru-chan from now on~ You don't mind, do you, Satoru-chan~?"

Sakurada Niji imitated Satoru Gojo's wheedling tone, giving him a taste of his own medicine.

Satoru Gojo smiled, apparently not bothered at all, and casually replied, "Of course not~ Sakura-chan~"

The new nickname sent a shudder through Sakurada Niji, and goosebumps rose all over his body.

...Deep breaths... I have twenty years of experience from my previous life... Hold it in... I have to hold it in! This was the wrong approach. I shouldn't have engaged... I should've just acted like nothing happened and kept calling him Gojo... Am I going to have Satoru Gojo calling me "chan~ chan~" forever now?!

Just as Sakurada Niji was about to crack, someone arrived on the battlefield-the kindly teacher with the iron fist, Masamichi Yaga!

"Which of you two did this?" Masamichi Yaga's expression was dark, a vein already bulging on his forehead.

Armed with ample experience as an adult and eager for revenge, Sakurada Niji answered before Gojo could. "Mr. Yaga! It was Satoru-ch-ptooey! It was Gojo! Ieiri was just showing me around when we passed this place, and Gojo took one look at me and insisted on sparring! I figured we were classmates, so I couldn't turn him down... But then he suddenly fired this huge blue sphere! Waaah~~ I almost got blown up! Mr. Yaga! Boohoohoo~~~"

In Masamichi Yaga's mind, Sakurada Niji was still a quiet, levelheaded boy. Combined with Satoru Gojo's exaggerated expression beside him and the evidence at the scene, that was enough for Yaga to reach a swift verdict.

"Satoru! Come with me!" Masamichi Yaga delivered a loving thump! to Satoru Gojo's head, then dragged him away. Gojo was frozen in disbelief, his eyes fixed on Sakurada Niji.

No one would have imagined that the seemingly composed Sakurada Niji could change so drastically when pushed to the brink. At that moment, Satoru Gojo came to understand the evil lurking in the human heart.

Sorry~ Satoru-chan~ This is the dark side of adulthood~

Leaving the departing Satoru Gojo with a view of his back and a wave, Sakurada Niji strolled away.

In the mountain woods, low shrubs lined both sides of the path. Lost, Sakurada Niji looked up at the sun, which was already about to set.

He suddenly realized that there was one very important matter to address.

Where's the dorm?

"Ieiri~~! Geto~~! Where are you?! Take me to the dorm!!"

"Ah~~choo! It's cold."

Shoko and Geto, who were playing table tennis in the gym, sneezed together, then looked curiously at each other across the table.

"Someone cursing us?" Geto rubbed his nose.

"Well~ If anyone is, it's Satoru~" Shoko replied indifferently.

He had lost his way on the road of life. In plain terms: Sakurada Niji was lost and had spent nearly an hour wandering outside.

Fortunately, he encountered an assistant supervisor in the wild and completed the main quest of reaching his dorm before dark.

"A luxurious single room with old-fashioned charm." That was Sakurada Niji's verdict.

The room measured a little over twenty square meters and came fully equipped with air conditioning, a desk, and a wardrobe.

An ordinary single bed stood in front of the sun-facing floor-to-ceiling window. When he had nothing to do, he could lie in bed and watch the moon.

Not bad~ Feels like a place for quiet cultivation. Ah... I annoyed Satoru Gojo earlier. Even if I start acting serious now, he'll probably say things like, "Sakura-chan's pretending to be all proper~"... The future looks so bleak... Why did I get into an argument with a teenager...?