Unfair Victory

"You want my assessment?"

"My assessment is that it was an unfair victory."

Before returning to the real world, Guixu Ying briefly kept Hajime Kashimo in that fabricated space to switch out his body.

During the process, Guixu Ying asked Kashimo to assess his battle with the Heavenly Tyrant himself.

Kashimo's answer, however, took Guixu Ying somewhat by surprise...

Why had it been an unfair victory?

There were two aspects to consider.

The first was the disparity in their strength and abilities.

Was Toji Fushiguro strong?

Yes.

In fact, he was very strong.

Although Kashimo had deliberately shown weakness during the fight, the powerful roundhouse kick and heavy punch that sent him flying at the start were genuine feats on Toji Fushiguro's part.

Toji Fushiguro's attacks were like an enormous coil of steel rebar filled with lead crashing down from the sky, combining immense weight with speed and destructive force. Frankly, in terms of hand-to-hand combat and physical prowess, Kashimo acknowledged that he stood among the greatest fighters of Kashimo's era.

But that powerful body came at a price.

And that price lay in his cursed energy...

The physical enhancements granted by heavenly restriction came at the cost of having no cursed energy.

As a result, Toji Fushiguro inevitably found himself at a disadvantage when facing attacks with natural elemental properties.

Fire, lightning, ice, water, wood...

Elemental attacks produced or channeled through cursed techniques largely followed the physical laws of the real world.

Even if Toji Fushiguro possessed considerable resistance to curses, his body was still flesh and blood. Without special means, he simply could not withstand the adverse effects of those natural elements...

But that was not all.

Even with a special cursed tool like the Inverted Spear of Heaven giving Toji Fushiguro a means to interrupt cursed techniques, that still was not enough.

For him, Kashimo's very existence was that of a "predator" specifically suited to hunting him, armed with a cursed technique that operated under unusual rules.

Strictly speaking, compared with the way conventional sorcerers activated their cursed techniques, Kashimo's lightning technique was more like an automatic mechanism that resolved independently once set in motion.

The Inverted Spear of Heaven could not cancel the accumulation of electrical charge, nor could it cancel the discharge that called down lightning...

Lightning was lightning. Even lightning triggered by Kashimo's cursed technique would still be treated as something other than a cursed technique...

Thus, to forcibly interrupt Kashimo's cursed technique, Toji Fushiguro would have to stab the Inverted Spear of Heaven into his body at the exact instant Kashimo channeled the positive and negative charges, positioning it precisely so that it separated the two.

If he could fulfill that condition with ease, Toji Fushiguro could kill Kashimo without needing the Inverted Spear of Heaven at all.

Aside from forcibly interrupting his [Cursed Technique Release: Mythical Beast Amber], Kashimo could not imagine how much use the Inverted Spear of Heaven would actually be in a fight against him.

But against Toji Fushiguro, he had no need to burn away his own life...

After all, the second point was the real reason he considered his victory unfair-

[The information gap]

What was the deciding factor in a battle between sorcerers?

Information.

Especially in a clash between powerful fighters, how much intelligence each side had gathered about the other was what determined victory or defeat.

The most famous victory won through information was the [Battle of the Strongest] that erupted in Shinjuku.

From an outside perspective, whether it was the domain clashes, the final Hollow Purple, the hand-to-hand exchanges throughout the fight, or his battle strategy, Satoru Gojo, the [Strongest of the Modern Era], had delivered.

Satoru Gojo had lived up to his title of [the strongest] in every respect.

So why had he lost?

Precisely because of [intelligence].

The complete disparity in the information they possessed, combined with his own arrogance, ultimately gave Sukuna the chance to unleash a slash that could sever the world without chanting, tearing apart the victory that should have been within Satoru Gojo's grasp...

The same held true for Toji Fushiguro.

Kashimo knew his abilities, as well as the traits and weaknesses of his heavenly restriction.

From the very beginning of their fight, Kashimo had been laying the groundwork for the finishing blow, preparing a "trap" tailored specifically to Toji Fushiguro.

And what about Toji Fushiguro?

From the start until the moment lightning erupted from the staff cursed tool, he had believed Kashimo was merely another third-rate sorcerer who had come to assassinate him for money...

Lightning as an element countered the physique granted by heavenly restriction, while the mechanics of the lightning cursed technique countered those of the Inverted Spear of Heaven.

Even when it came to information and intelligence, Kashimo held a complete advantage over Toji Fushiguro...

One could say that this battle had been utterly unfair from the very beginning...

"Sigh."

Letting out a long sigh, Kashimo realized he had crossed several streets without noticing and entered a park.

It was growing late. Reaching an open area in a secluded corner, Kashimo took out the Inverted Spear of Heaven that had once belonged to Toji Fushiguro.

"It's not heavy..."

"On the contrary..."

"It's quite light."

Kashimo lowered his wrist slightly, and the Inverted Spear of Heaven began spinning rapidly around the end of its hilt between his fingers, where faint electrical arcs flickered.

The dense silver arcs of metal moved so fast that only an afterimage remained: a forward-grip thrust, a reverse-grip downward chop, a toss followed by a turn and a sweeping slash back...

As the strongest sorcerer from four hundred years ago, Kashimo had mastered all manner of weapons. Handling the Inverted Spear of Heaven was naturally no challenge.

"Humm-"

Stopping its momentum and gripping the Inverted Spear of Heaven, Kashimo flicked its blade with a finger. The blade, capable of interrupting the activation of any cursed technique, immediately gave off a clear, resonant note.

The sound was crisp and ethereal, and Kashimo found it quite pleasing.

Had this body's cursed energy reserves not been nearly depleted, he would have liked to pour cursed energy into the Inverted Spear of Heaven and see whether he could coat its blade with his lightning cursed energy.

If that proved possible, then paired with the equally conductive special grade cursed tool [Chain of a Thousand Miles], the Inverted Spear of Heaven would undoubtedly find its next perfectly suited owner...

After getting accustomed to the Inverted Spear of Heaven's weight, Kashimo stored it alongside the Chain of a Thousand Miles inside the grade 3 cursed spirit [Inventory Curse Worm].

As one of the spoils of his victory over Toji Fushiguro, the Inventory Curse Worm's ability to store cursed tools at will was extraordinarily convenient...

Although he still felt some distaste for cursed spirits...

"I wonder how those people from Jujutsu High are doing."

Kashimo looked back toward the Juvenile Detention Center. Dark clouds still blanketed the sky.

Roughly two hours had passed since he left.

If the information he remembered was correct, [Cursed Womb Must Die] had probably finished being reborn by now and begun fighting Yuji Itadori's group...