Becoming Best Friends

The shattered Dormitory.

Todo's hulking body moved with astonishing speed as he charged like a cannonball toward Araki Itsuki, who was yawning in boredom.

His feet tapped rapidly against the floor. Using the momentum of his charge, he surged forward two steps and threw a stepping punch straight at Araki Itsuki's head.

Araki Itsuki turned his head to dodge, and Todo immediately followed, opening his fist into a palm.

His sharp knife-hand chased the direction of Araki Itsuki's evasive movement, refusing to stop until it struck home.

Thwack!

Araki Itsuki's right arm appeared seemingly out of nowhere, slipping between Todo's knife-hand and his own neck to block the attack.

In the same motion, he bent his arm and clamped toward Todo's wrist like an iron vise.

Todo stomped hard against the floor and twisted around amid the floorboards' groans. His knife-hand swerved past Araki Itsuki's right hand and chopped toward his chest.

Even when it was blocked, he stayed calm, swinging a hook at his head before turning into a spinning backfist.

Turning harnessed momentum, and many devastating moves relied on the body's inertia to unleash their power. This backfist came with tremendous force.

His iron-hard fist whistled through the air and slammed into Araki Itsuki's guarding arms, knocking him back two steps.

"Ha ha!"

Todo's left eye, marked by a savage scar, practically shone with delight.

His momentum surged. He threw a mid-level hook, drove forward, and spun into another punch.

When it was blocked, he followed with a right straight, then hooked over Araki Itsuki's arm and pressed it down, creating an opening.

Seizing the chance, he turned sideways and punched straight at his head. The added force of his turn combined with the explosive punch made the air crack.

Araki Itsuki leaned back to dodge. Todo immediately opened his fist into a palm again, chopping his heavy, sharp knife-hand toward Araki Itsuki's abdomen as though to gut him.

But Araki Itsuki suddenly planted his right hand on Todo's shoulder, controlling the limb at its root to stop its tip.

Alarm flashed in Todo's eyes. With his shoulder locked firmly in place, the strength in his arm gradually slackened.

He could only fire a straight punch with his other hand, trying to break free.

But even as Araki Itsuki sidestepped it, he kept Todo's shoulder pinned.

Then his right leg shot forward. Driving his lower leg with the power of his hips, he thrust his foot out in a swift intercepting kick toward Todo's legs.

With his shoulder firmly restrained, Todo could only tense his formidable thigh muscles to withstand the blow.

Bam!

His rhinoceros-thick thighs shook violently. He finally withstood Araki Itsuki's attack, but they were already red and swollen, with a clear shoe print left behind.

The intercepting kick was tremendously powerful. Even an ordinary person could deliver nearly seven hundred pounds of force, and properly applied, it could permanently damage an opponent's knee.

Araki Itsuki closed in, stepping into a front kick that shifted into a side kick, then following with a backfist, an arm pull into a straight punch, a left straight to the head, and a right straight to the abdomen.

The barrage left Todo dazed and unable to react. Araki Itsuki followed through with a front thrust kick that sent him flying.

But Araki Itsuki's counterattack wasn't over. While Todo was still flying backward, he forcibly stopped his momentum and hauled him back, turning and stepping away to kick toward his chest.

Todo hurriedly raised his arms to block, but Araki Itsuki was only feinting.

A mischievous smile tugged at his lips. He abruptly changed the kick's trajectory, bringing his powerful leg down on Todo's shoulder like a battle-axe.

The tiles beneath Todo's feet shattered one after another. His body went rigid as he resisted the enormous force on his shoulder, and his entire face began to flush blood-red.

But as Araki Itsuki suddenly increased the force, terrifying pressure swept down from Todo's shoulder, broke through his defenses, and drove his whole body into the floor.

Enduring the agonizing pain in his shoulder and thighs, Todo was about to climb out himself when Araki Itsuki suddenly seized both his shoulders and hauled him out.

"This is bad!"

The quick-witted Todo immediately sensed trouble. Araki Itsuki wasn't kind enough to help him up.

His chest began to ache in anticipation. As Araki Itsuki pulled him out and tossed him into the air, he hurriedly raised both arms to protect his head and curled up to shield his soft abdomen.

Sure enough.

Araki Itsuki chuckled. His thigh muscles bulged as he stomped his left foot against the ground and extended his right leg.

For an instant, his upper body, thigh, lower leg, and heel formed a straight line.

His Step-In Side Kick thundered toward Todo with a sonic boom as Todo hung in midair, able only to curl into a defensive ball.

BOOM!!!

With his arms held tightly together and his body curled up, Todo was blasted away like an anti-aircraft shell!

His body left an afterimage too fast for the naked eye to follow as he hurtled straight into the Jujutsu High dorms.

The dozen or so rooms lined up in a row suffered a calamity. His unstoppable momentum punched huge holes through them, and they collapsed amid clouds of dust and surging air.

"My Jennifer Lawrence!"

Remembering the poster of the big-bottomed beauty beside his bed, Yuji Itadori rushed into the collapsed rubble to search for it.

Eventually, he emerged dragging an utterly weakened Todo with one hand and carefully holding the beauty's poster in the other.

Battered and dazed, Todo gazed hazily at Yuji Itadori.

That seemingly ordinary body concealed such terrifying strength, enough to push aside the collapsed rubble with ease.

And besides...

Todo stared at the beauty's poster, his eyes gleaming.

"What's your name?"

Itadori glanced curiously at the utterly weakened Todo. Why did this guy suddenly perk up again?

"Yuji Itadori."

"Yuji Itadori, let me ask you something. What... type of woman do you like?"

"What type do I like? Why are you suddenly asking that?"

Yuji Itadori looked helplessly at Araki Itsuki, wondering whether he had knocked something loose in this big guy's head.

"Tell me, Itadori. I'm just making an assessment."

Resigned, Yuji Itadori held the beauty's poster closer to Todo's face. "I don't really get what you're after, but if I had to say..."

"Tall girls with big butts, like the one on this poster!"

Todo's eyes widened as Itadori supported him.

In that instant, memories that had never existed began appearing in Todo's mind.

On a sunny rooftop, he and Yuji Itadori sat together like inseparable friends, eagerly flipping through a magazine full of big-bottomed beauties.

"I'm going to confess to Takada-chan."

Yuji Itadori hurriedly stopped him. "Give it a rest!! I don't want to have to comfort you afterward!"

Todo looked disgruntled. "Why are you assuming I'll get rejected?"

"Then why are you assuming she'll say yes?"

Todo wore a deeply earnest expression. "Anne Sullivan once said this to Helen Keller: what idiot thinks about losing before even trying?"

Then Takada-chan gently tore up Todo's love letter. "Sorry, there's someone I like."

The huge, muscular Todo crouched despondently on the ground like a bullied child. "Wasn't she supposed to follow that with, 'And that someone is you'?"

Yuji Itadori looked mortified and hurried to comfort Todo. "How could that possibly happen? There, there."

"Come on."

"Ramen's on me!"

Then Yuji Itadori heartily clapped Todo on the shoulder, and the two left together.

Back in reality.

Yuji Itadori suddenly noticed a few tears falling onto the beauty's poster in his hand, and he quickly looked up.

"Hey, hey!"

The burly Todo's eyes were actually brimming with tears, and he was so overwhelmed that his voice nearly choked.

"Itadori, we're best friends!!!"

"Huh?!"

Yuji Itadori looked utterly bewildered. Hadn't they only just learned each other's names? How were they already best friends?!

Fushiguro looked just as lost, wondering whether something was wrong with his ears.

Araki Itsuki watched Itadori's little head swing rapidly between him and Todo like a pendulum.

Amused, he reassured him, "Don't worry. Todo's head is fine. I knew how hard to hit."

Yuji Itadori looked at the entire row of collapsed rooms behind him. "Like hell I believe you!"

Watching the tearful Todo call Itadori his best friend over and over, Araki Itsuki couldn't help admiring Yuji Itadori.

"Naruto, while you still need talk-no-jutsu to turn enemies into friends, Yuji Itadori has already made it a passive skill."

Without doing a thing, he had become Todo's inseparable best friend, with Todo's arm slung around his shoulders.