"Black Flash!!!"
The second Black Flash erupted from Sherlock's other fist and slammed squarely into Eiichi Kurokawa's face, sending him flying.
After two consecutive Black Flashes, Sherlock had never felt better. It was as though an electric current had shot from his head to the soles of his feet in an instant. His immense Cursed Energy, once like a runaway horse, had become as obedient as a little electric scooter under the boosts from those two consecutive Black Flashes.
Casually firing off a few Ice Breakers, Sherlock once again used the beacon on Eiichi Kurokawa to appear instantly behind him as he flew through the air. Immense Cursed Energy coated his brass knuckles as he struck Eiichi Kurokawa again.
This time, however, he failed to trigger Black Flash. Sherlock himself did not care, and the smile on his face began to grow increasingly unhinged.
Poor Eiichi Kurokawa was being treated like a ball by Sherlock, "flying back and forth" through the air.
Although Sherlock seemed unconcerned about whether he could land a Black Flash, with almost every punch he landed on Eiichi Kurokawa, he kept trying to recreate and approach the feeling of unleashing one.
Black Flash was not luck, but skill.
Through his actions, Sherlock was overturning a long-standing consensus in Jujutsu Society.
Satoru Gojo had long since taken off his sunglasses. Those eyes, like an expanse of sky, were fixed on his extraordinarily unreliable first student.
Sherlock's madness delighted Satoru Gojo more and more. Though Sherlock was still only a tiger cub roaring in the mountains, that ambition and ability to overturn conventional wisdom alone were enough to justify the extraordinarily high praise Satoru Gojo had given him in front of Yaga.
He might even far exceed Satoru Gojo's assessment.
The reason was simple: the effects of Sherlock's Cursed Technique were simply too underhanded.
If his own Limitless had not been a perfect natural counter to Sherlock's Cursed Technique, anyone else would face increasingly underhanded attacks from that technique, multiplying in nastiness, so long as Sherlock was allowed to develop.
Todo's Boogie Woogie was already underhanded enough, wasn't it? The Rogue Game it later evolved into, switching positions fifty times a second, was so underhanded that even an old man would start cursing at the sight of it.
But Sherlock's Cursed Technique was even more underhanded than Todo's. After all, you could never know where Sherlock would appear the next second or where he would strike. In fact, if Sherlock wanted to, even fifty times a second counted as basic stuff!
Trying to restrict Sherlock's movement by memorizing where he had struck?
Sorry, he might never have intended to leave a beacon with that punch at all! Even if he did leave one, he might not use it. What was truly terrifying about Sherlock's Cursed Technique was those invisible, traceless beacons, not the technique itself!
Meanwhile, on the battlefield, after Sherlock landed another few dozen punches on Eiichi Kurokawa, that black lightning bloomed around his fist once more.
"Black Flash!"
With Sherlock's furious roar, the third Black Flash punch slammed squarely into Eiichi Kurokawa's stomach, sending him flying straight into the warehouse he had just emerged from.
This time, however, Sherlock did not continue pursuing him with his Cursed Technique. Instead, he stood on the ground, panting heavily.
The boosts from Black Flash affected Cursed Techniques and Cursed Energy, not stamina. After that round of high-intensity elbow strikes, Sherlock's stamina bar was now beginning to bottom out.
Only then did Sherlock understand why Satoru Gojo had been training his endurance from the very beginning.
The reason was simple. His Cursed Technique was powerful, with versatility that could be called unique in Jujutsu Society, and he even had a great deal of Cursed Energy-so much that, with his Cursed Energy fully unleashed, he might have even more than Okkotsu would in the future.
But clearly, having only recently entered Jujutsu Society, his endurance had failed to keep up at all. He was like a gun with plenty of power and top-tier range, firing speed, and even accuracy, but simply not enough bullets.
If he really ran into a battle of attrition, running away might be the only thing Sherlock could do.
Watching Sherlock stand there panting heavily, Satoru Gojo swallowed the last Kikufuku in his hand before jumping down from the wall. After brushing nonexistent dust from his hands, he slowly walked over to Sherlock.
"Nice work, Xia-chan. Three Black Flashes! For a newcomer who's only just entered Jujutsu Society, doing this well is already amazing! As expected, Satoru-chan is the strongest even as a teacher. Haha, that's the great teacher, Teacher Gojo, for you!"
Satoru Gojo happily patted the panting Sherlock on the back, his face brimming with pride at having trained a genius.
Looking at the smug Satoru Gojo, Sherlock rolled his eyes in irritation, then irritably reached straight into Satoru Gojo's pocket, fished out a candy, and stuffed it into his mouth to replenish his stamina.
Seriously, if his stamina stat had not been infinitely close to zero right now, Sherlock really would have jumped up and argued things out with this Dickhead Cat. What did his genius have to do with him? He would not even leave Sherlock a single bite of Kikufuku!
Seeing Sherlock so casually fish candy out of his pocket, Satoru Gojo did not stop him. In fact, the smile on his face grew even brighter. Of course, with Dickhead Cat's personality, he certainly was not going to let Sherlock off verbally.
Clingy, syrupy words, like those of a high school girl, kept pouring out of Satoru Gojo's mouth. Everything he said carried his little desire for Sherlock to replace his candy, leaving Sherlock's eyes looking as though they had been welded into an eye roll. He refused to respond at all.
The teacher and student seemed to have completely forgotten that there was still a Curse User named Eiichi Kurokawa over on the other side.
Inside the warehouse, Eiichi Kurokawa also struggled out of the rubble strewn across the floor. As he looked at the teacher and student outside the entrance, his face was filled with madness.
"No, no, no, no, no! I'm the protagonist! I've already mastered power! This isn't how it should be! This isn't how it should be! I won't accept it! I won't accept it! I won't accept it!"
As though possessed, Eiichi Kurokawa stared fixedly at Satoru Gojo and Sherlock outside the entrance and violently clapped his hands together.
"Domain Expansion! Life-Lending Workshop!!"
With Eiichi Kurokawa's furious roar, vast swaths of barrier surged from beneath his feet like a tide, instantly enveloping both Sherlock and Satoru Gojo.
In the blink of an eye, the clearing outside the little warehouse became a scene like the inside of a pitch-black dungeon. Bloodstained cages stood everywhere, each imprisoning "creatures" that no longer even looked human.
Eiichi Kurokawa stood at the very center of this dungeon, with a massive furnace behind him. The flames within gave off an orange-yellow glow that shone on Eiichi Kurokawa like hellfire.
"My Cursed Technique, [Nine Lent, Thirteen Repaid], follows the model of usury, lending Cursed Energy to fulfill the other party's wish, then harvesting their soul, life, and Cursed Energy. The more I lend, the stronger I become.
"But that's not all. What's truly terrifying about [Nine Lent, Thirteen Repaid] is that I can continually strengthen myself with the 'interest' I collect. And when I reclaim the 'principal,' everything belonging to the other party falls under my control. I can use them to make anything!"