A Brief Clash with Satoru Gojo

The Three-Clan Goodwill Event soon began, and nearly everyone from the Gojo Clan wore a smile as broad as a blooming chrysanthemum.

They knew they were guaranteed to win today. The reason needed no explanation: the Six Eyes prodigy, Satoru Gojo, and his Limitless.

Even if all he could use right now was the forward application, Blue, he was far beyond any ordinary child!

Satoru Gojo meant victory. That belief was practically engraved in the heart of every member of the Gojo Clan.

Compared with the radiant Gojo Clan, however, the Zenin Clan looked rather miserable.

They still hadn't produced a successor to the Ten Shadows Technique. Even the candidates they had were hopeless duds. Were they supposed to send them up to form a hand sign and summon Mahoraga for a suicide attack?

The only one worth showing off was Toji Zenin, but everyone knew perfectly well that he wasn't in Satoru Gojo's age group.

They had no options. The Zenin Clan really had no options left.

All they could do was send up a few random children and hope they wouldn't lose too badly. Unfortunately, fate had other plans.

Satoru Gojo merely kept his hands in his pockets and fixed his beautiful sky-blue eyes on them. An invisible shock wave sent the children flying.

They hadn't even forced him to use Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue. What a shame.

Soon, it was the Kamo Clan's turn to tackle this problem.

Several people from the Zenin Clan were already sneering. "Hah, all the Kamo Clan can do is play with blood. Even our shikigami couldn't beat that monster. How could a bunch of mediocrities possibly beat the Six Eyes?"

"Exactly. The Six Eyes can see more than the flow of cursed energy. They can also accurately work out the gist of someone's abilities. Winning against someone like that is completely impossible!"

"Hurry up and send someone out! Stop wasting time and finish this embarrassing farce!"

Quite a few people below the platform joined in the jeering. The racket was so loud that even Satoru Gojo frowned.

"So annoying. These freaks aren't much good themselves, but they're sure eager to see everyone else beaten into the dirt like dogs, just like them."

His voice wasn't loud, but it reached the hecklers with perfect clarity. Their faces flushed red with anger, yet they were the ones who had just lost. They couldn't argue back.

Satoru Gojo ignored the clowns and quietly closed his eyes, waiting for his next challenger.

Just then, footsteps sounded, accompanied by a voice clicking its tongue in wonder.

"Whoa, that white hair really catches the eye. Seeing it in person hits a lot harder than hearing about it."

Hearing someone step onto the platform, Satoru Gojo opened his eyes again. Before him stood a black-haired boy. His spiky hair alone might have marked him as a Zenin, but Gojo's eyes told him that this boy used blood.

Blood Manipulation?

No... what's this? That enormous, pure cursed energy, and something else I can't quite identify, flowing through his veins along with his blood.

Satoru Gojo's eyes lit up, an astonishing fighting spirit blazing in their sky-blue depths.

"What's your name?"

"Huh? Do we need introductions before a fight? Aren't you supposed to knock me out with a shock wave?" Kamo Xu teased, then settled into a stance-the Kamo Clan's traditional opening stance. After all, for a million US dollars, he had to observe the proper formalities. "Kamo Xu. You should be able to see my ability. Plain old, utterly ordinary Blood Manipulation."

"Kamo Xu. I'll remember you." Satoru Gojo chuckled at the answer and assumed a stance himself. This was the first time he'd gotten serious since arriving at the Goodwill Event. Or rather...

He had met the first person worth taking seriously!

"Hey, hey, is this for real? That Gojo? The Six Eyes is actually taking another kid seriously?"

"My god, does that Kamo kid have some kind of secret? He actually made the Six Eyes get serious?"

Whispers spread through the spectators as they discussed the boy who had made Satoru Gojo take him seriously.

But they had very little information. All they knew was that he was the Kamo Clan head's son. There was nothing else.

On the platform, however, things were entirely different. The sight of the real Satoru Gojo, looking exactly as he had in the anime, hammered Kamo Xu's senses. His brain kept warning him that the boy before him was terrifyingly strong.

His fists trembled, and his legs felt weightless...

This feeling, this feeling...

Why did it feel just as good as facing death back then?

It turned out that his first feeling upon facing Satoru Gojo wasn't the excitement of meeting an idol he'd dreamed about day and night. What he was anticipating was battle! A fight to the death! The ultimate collision of flesh against flesh, cursed energy against cursed energy!

So that's it...

He actually craved a life-or-death struggle!

"Ha... hahaha."

Kamo Xu couldn't help laughing, his fists clenched tight and his eyes locked on Satoru Gojo.

"You're... excited?" That stare made Satoru Gojo's skin crawl, yet now the boy was laughing. "What a freak."

The laughter didn't last long. Satoru Gojo struck first!

He opened with Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue. Cursed energy as blue as his eyes gathered at his fingertip, and a terrifying pull swept across the entire venue, even whipping up Kamo Xu's hair.

Yet the boy a short distance away made no move in the face of that terrifying attack. Satoru Gojo frowned, but didn't stop.

As time passed, Blue reached its maximum power. Before anyone could marvel at that tremendous force, Satoru Gojo had already launched the blue sphere.

Its target was, of course, Kamo Xu!

Only when Satoru Gojo finally attacked did Kamo Xu move.

He neither dodged nor guarded.

He simply raised his hand and extended his index finger like a gun, aiming straight at Blue's core.

"Piercing Blood!"

Whoosh!

A sharp whistle cut through the air. A red afterimage flashed briefly, then vanished into Blue's terrifying pull without a trace.

"Tch, I thought he had something special. Just a lousy Piercing Blood."

"Right? He can't even manage a decent Blood Flow. Has the Kamo Clan completely given up and sent some useless kid up to keep up appearances?"

"That's hilarious! How could an attack like that possibly work?"

Seeing Kamo Xu's attack fail, the stray dogs Satoru Gojo had mocked earlier immediately found an outlet, howling as they kicked Kamo Xu while he was down.

Meanwhile, Blue continued along its trajectory toward Kamo Xu. Just as Satoru Gojo hesitated over whether to cut off his cursed energy and disperse Blue before someone died...

His Blue suddenly ruptured!

"How is that possible?"

A bright red spike thrust out from inside Blue, as though a wildly growing thorn had pierced it from within.

One strike alone wouldn't have been enough to destroy Blue, but the spike behaved as though it were on stimulants. It withdrew the instant it emerged, stabbing in and out at a horrifying speed. Before anyone could really react, Blue was riddled with holes. The outside interference disrupted its internal gravity, preventing it from gathering, and it soon vanished into the wind.

Satoru Gojo couldn't help being astonished. With ordinary Blood Manipulation, blood became uncontrollable once it traveled a certain distance from the body. Yet Kamo Xu's blood could move freely under Blue's terrifying pull, even counteracting it!

His current cursed energy reserves weren't sufficient for Blue to generate gravity like a black hole, but it still wasn't something an ordinary cursed technique could destroy!

"You're really something. How about this, then!" Satoru Gojo stopped focusing on Blue's output and moved, rapidly closing in on Kamo Xu.

He wants to win with hand-to-hand combat?

Kamo Xu immediately rejected that idea. He remembered perfectly what had happened when Jogo got close. Once Limitless caught his body and left him unable to move, he'd be nothing but a punching bag!

Besides, Satoru Gojo was no slouch in hand-to-hand combat. Until he had tested him, he was better off not letting him approach freely.

With his decision made, he retreated as his opponent advanced.

But retreating couldn't open up the distance. Satoru Gojo even used Limitless to close the gap rapidly.

Kamo Xu pointed again, firing three drops of blood straight at Gojo's face.

His opponent sidestepped out of their line of attack, but with absolute control over his blood, how could Kamo Xu let Satoru Gojo break through his defenses so easily?

Under his control, the three drops collided and merged in midair, forming a blood thorn that stabbed viciously toward the white-haired boy once more.

Even Gojo was startled by its speed, but the attack... failed.

The reason was simple: Satoru Gojo had indeed charged forward with Limitless active. Now that it had been exposed, he wasn't discouraged. Instead, he shattered the blood thorn with a punch and closed in on Kamo Xu again.

By now, he was fairly certain that close combat might be Kamo Xu's weakness. At the very least, Kamo Xu didn't dare clash head-on with him.

In that case, he could press forward without hesitation!

His speed increased again, but Kamo Xu... had nowhere left to retreat.

He had reached the edge of the arena. One more step would take him off the platform.

Tch. Retreat again, and there goes my million. I'll have to get a little reckless.

[Flowing Red Scale: Modified]!

The blood throughout his body went wild. In an instant, Kamo Xu's temperature rose sharply, and the Blood Flow inside him accelerated.

The symptoms resembled ordinary Flowing Red Scale, but there were some differences.

First was his skin color. Unlike in the original story, where activating it caused no such change, his entire body turned red, as though the blood inside might burst out at any moment!

Then there was the surface of his body. Contact with the outside air actually produced a little steam. At a glance, even the space around him seemed distorted-a sign of intense heat!

The greatest difference, however, was... streaks of blood resembling cracks gradually climbing along his body, only stopping after they had spread to his neck!

At the same time, his physical abilities began undergoing a qualitative transformation!

With his accelerated circulation, the oxygen supply to his muscles reached a terrifying level. His stamina and recovery had undoubtedly improved by far more than a little.

Likewise, that accelerated circulation gave his brain extraordinary focus and reaction speed!

An ordinary human body couldn't possibly support such a terrifying process. Anyone who dared attempt it would have their heart stop on the spot under the rush of blood!

But who was Kamo Xu?

His soul was fused with his blood. To him, his flesh was merely a vessel. As long as his blood hadn't run dry, even a stopped heart made no difference. He didn't need that redundant organ to pump blood throughout his body. If Kamo Xu wished it, his blood would flow freely wherever he wanted it to go.

Afterward, he only needed to restart his heart, though he would indeed remain weakened for quite some time.

And so... beneath the gaze of Satoru Gojo's Six Eyes...

Kamo Xu accomplished a feat nearly impossible for human physiology!

With his heart completely stopped, he used Flowing Red Scale to force his awareness and physique to terrifying heights. His eyes were now crimson, and he looked like an asura that had crawled out of hell.

His pulse vanished, his temperature soared, and his red blood cells even kept multiplying on their own to sustain this state, all in exchange for the ultimate physique and awareness!

A body built purely for battle was complete...

Satoru Gojo was close now. Kamo Xu could already feel the resistance that came with approaching his body.

An absolute defense that gets harder to breach the closer you get...

In short, he couldn't pierce that turtle shell.

But Satoru Gojo couldn't pierce his shell either!

Satoru Gojo's fist slammed into Kamo Xu's body, but the instant it made contact, a layer of blood coated it.

It wasn't Kamo Xu's blood. It was Satoru Gojo's own!

A tremendous crash rang out as his fist struck, but it didn't sound like a fist hitting flesh. Instead, it sounded like crystal shattering under a blow.

"That's hard," Satoru Gojo remarked sincerely. Then he watched Kamo Xu lift his shirt, revealing a sheet of crimson blood armor.

The blood armor had indeed shattered like glass beneath Satoru Gojo's punch. But its surface wasn't completely smooth. Knowing that Satoru Gojo would come straight at him, Kamo Xu had added a few blood spikes at the first opportunity!

That was why Satoru Gojo's fist was bleeding. This hadn't been an active attack from Kamo Xu. Rather, Satoru Gojo had unknowingly driven his own fist into the spikes, puncturing the skin and flesh of his hand!

The blood armor had flowed out through his pores. It came quickly and disappeared just as fast, absorbed back into Kamo Xu's body in the blink of an eye by his enhanced circulation.

Now it was Satoru Gojo who faced a dilemma.

He shook his hand, ignoring the throbbing pain as he thought.

At long range, his Blue would be neutralized by Kamo Xu's blood. At close range, neither could do anything to the other.

Judging by his opponent's control over blood, he wouldn't be able to inflict much damage until he mastered Red through Cursed Technique Reversal, or even Hollow Purple.

"What a headache. I'd planned to keep winning all day." Satoru Gojo flexed his fist and casually wiped the glaring red stain onto his pristine white clothes.

But he soon let it go. This wasn't a battle that had to end in death, and neither of them was truly at his peak yet. Rather than agonize over how to win now...

He might as well stop and settle who was stronger later!

He withdrew his cursed energy first, then smiled and held out a hand to Kamo Xu. "I'll remember you, Kamo Xu. Let's call this one a draw. If we get the chance, let's fight again."

Kamo Xu didn't respond immediately. Instead, he turned toward his financial backer of a father, the Kamo Clan head.

Only after his father nodded in approval of the match did he shake Satoru Gojo's outstretched hand.

"The next time we meet might be at Jujutsu High."

"Oh! You're going to Jujutsu High too?"

Hearing that this boy would also attend Jujutsu High, Satoru Gojo immediately brightened. Someone this strong would become his companion. Wouldn't that be awesome?

He hooked an arm straight around Kamo Xu's shoulders, and the two chatted and laughed, practically ready to swear brotherhood on the spot.

Kamo Xu was happy because Satoru Gojo had just earned him a million US dollars. Satoru Gojo simply liked how uniquely strong Kamo Xu was.

And so, the two became friends in their youth.