My name

"Not bad..."

Ze Zenin watched the two-dimensional people bustling around him with an eye for beauty. "My first time out. I wonder what good things I'll run into."

As he spoke, Ze Zenin reached a bookstore. He felt the coins in his pocket, then confidently walked inside.

"Looks like this world doesn't have the manga from my old world..."

Ze Zenin's scarlet eyes swiftly scanned the manga displayed around him. "I was hoping to find some inspiration for developing skills from those high-powered worlds. What a shame."

"What are you doing?"

A voice suddenly rang out beside Ze Zenin's ear, making him jump.

Ze Zenin whipped around and exclaimed in surprise, "Satoru Gojo? What are you doing here?"

"Huh?"

Satoru Gojo gave him a puzzled look. "That's a weird question. This is a bookstore. Why can't I be here? And do you know me?"

"Fair enough, but knowing you shouldn't be that strange, right?"

Ze Zenin felt awkward. When he had left the Zenin Clan earlier, he had still been thinking about killing this guy...

"Then did you happen to take out two curse users on your way here?"

"No. I just glanced back at them, and they were too scared to move."

Satoru Gojo spoke without the slightest hint of pleasure. "What a pair of cowards."

"..."

Ze Zenin fell silent for a moment, then looked at the smug Satoru Gojo and said flatly:

"Then have you noticed that a Curtain has already been cast over this bookstore?"

"You noticed too?" Satoru Gojo suddenly took a little more interest in the boy before him. "Have you been studying barrier techniques?"

"I've done a fair bit of research into that sort of thing."

Ze Zenin looked at Satoru Gojo helplessly. "It seems to only restrict ordinary people from entering or leaving."

"It's fine. They can't hurt me," Satoru Gojo said confidently. "I haven't met anyone who can match me yet..."

"Heh. Six Eyes. A hundred-million bounty."

A gaunt man holding a dagger grinned at Satoru Gojo. "You chose to go out alone, so you must be prepared to get killed, right?"

"Idiot!"

Satoru Gojo walked toward the man. "Get past my Limitless before you start talking about killing me."

"You think I'd come here unprepared?"

The man laughed wildly, then thrust his blade at Satoru Gojo. "My cursed technique is speed... Don't think your Limitless makes you invincible!"

He moved so fast that Satoru Gojo failed to react to his charge.

"Damn it!" Satoru Gojo still had the body of a six- or seven-year-old child, after all. His reactions and physical coordination had yet to reach their peak.

Satoru Gojo hurriedly tilted his head to dodge the man's dagger, but with the distance between them already closed, the blade still left a shallow cut on his cheek.

"Scum."

Feeling the faint sting on his cheek, Satoru Gojo said contemptuously, "Every day, it's the same boring assassination attempts..."

"When will you learn how far apart we are and just give up?"

Ze Zenin watched Satoru Gojo with interest. His personality was still pretty normal at this point.

"I don't care!"

Having wounded Satoru Gojo, the man was beside himself with excitement. "As long as I get paid, I've got no problem killing anyone!"

"Hahahahahahaha!"

"..."

"Then let's see what you're capable of."

Satoru Gojo sneered and finally stopped concealing his cursed energy. His reserves were already considerable.

With Six Eyes added to the mix, his cursed energy efficiency was extraordinarily high.

Satoru Gojo slowly advanced, each footstep ringing out, each one piling more pressure on the curse user before him.

The man broke into a cold sweat but stubbornly held his ground, gripping his cursed tool dagger as he shouted, "You're just a little brat! Don't get full of yourself!"

"Really? I'm just a child..." Satoru Gojo stroked his chin, his azure eyes narrowing slightly as though he were smiling.

"Then take a guess. How long will this child need to kill you?"

With that, Satoru Gojo extended one hand, azure cursed energy gathering in his palm.

"Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue!"

The area around Ze Zenin, Satoru Gojo, and the curse user was destroyed in an instant, sending manga flying through the air.

The ordinary people nearby couldn't see that enormous surge of azure energy. They only saw the bookstore being destroyed.

"An earthquake?" a man asked uncertainly.

Satoru Gojo coldly regarded the curse user, whose limbs had been pulverized, then spat and said contemptuously:

"Scum. Do you understand the gap between us now?"

With that, he walked straight out of the manga bookstore.

He had wanted to have some fun with that spiky-haired boy, but this meddling curse user had completely ruined his mood.

Hands in his pockets, Ze Zenin walked over to the unfortunate man with an expressionless face, clicking his tongue in wonder as he looked down at him.

"That technique packs a decent punch..."

He turned and called after Satoru Gojo, "Aren't you going to finish him off?"

Satoru Gojo waved a hand, showing he didn't care.

"Then let me. Trying my hand at killing a curse user sounds good..." Ze Zenin smiled faintly, his scarlet eyes settling on the curse user.

At that moment, the intimidating Sharingan seemed even more terrifying to the man than Six Eyes.

"Chidori!"

What followed was Ze Zenin's Chidori, brimming with lightning-infused cursed energy...

"No! Please, no!"

The man wailed in agony, "I can give you money. Lots and lots..."

"Don't be a curse user in your next life. See ya..."

With that, Ze Zenin drove his Chidori through the man's head.

Though this was Ze Zenin's first time killing someone, he felt no guilt whatsoever.

Looking at the man's corpse, he couldn't help muttering to himself, "I won't show misplaced mercy."

At that moment, the system's voice rang out in Ze Zenin's mind again:

"Ding. Total completion of the Sasuke Uchiha template increased by twenty percent..."

As Sasuke's memories flooded his mind, Ze Zenin's personality also underwent a subtle change.

"You..."

Satoru Gojo turned back and saw Ze Zenin finishing the man off without a flicker of emotion. He didn't seem to have any aversion to killing.

And what's with his lightning technique? Why are my eyes telling me it's Ten Shadows...?

To test his suspicion, Satoru Gojo walked up to Ze Zenin. "Is your surname Zenin?"

Ze Zenin dispelled the lightning in his hand and deactivated his Sharingan before saying calmly, "Let me introduce myself first."

"My name is-Ze Zenin."

Zenin, huh?

Satoru Gojo suddenly understood why this guy was so strong.

Ten Shadows Technique!

A powerful technique passed down through the Zenin Clan, strong enough to rival the Gojo Clan's Limitless.

In fact, four hundred years ago, a head of the Gojo Clan and the head of the Zenin Clan had killed each other in a duel before the emperor...

The Gojo Clan head at the time had possessed both Limitless and Six Eyes, while the Zenin Clan head had wielded the Ten Shadows Technique...

Just as I thought.

Satoru Gojo looked at the black-haired, spiky-headed boy his own age standing before him. "My name is..."

"Satoru Gojo!"

The two boys of the same age looked at each other.

You know, Gojo...

Ze Zenin looked at Satoru Gojo, speaking silently to himself:

The you I've always admired was the one determined to change the rotten Jujutsu Society, not the... battle maniac who got cut in half in Shinjuku.

Satoru Gojo seemed delighted. At last, he had found someone his own age whose strength and mindset matched his.

Until now, his technique-Limitless-had seemed to represent a [divide], one that no one could break through.

Loneliness and cold arrogance had always filled his life.

But things would be different after today. This guy seemed pretty decent, didn't he?

"Zenin... Gojo..."

An ordinary-looking man with a line of stitches across his forehead watched the two boys coldly. A trace of wariness toward Ze Zenin arose in his heart, though it only made him think a little more highly of the boy.

"Ten Shadows Technique, huh?" The man carefully recalled the great battle four hundred years ago. "Will they be like those two from four hundred years ago again?"

"Zenin Shin..."

"But my target is you-Six Eyes!"