Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
"Wait, you just said he gave all of you welcome gifts. What did he give you? Don't tell me it was a luxury villa!!"
Shoko looked at the message from her senior, Utahime, and smiled helplessly.
"Unfortunately, it was a carton of cigarettes."
Ding!
The reply came quickly. Utahime's message arrived in barely five seconds; she was clearly shocked.
"?? What did you say, a carton of cigarettes??"
"Yeah, a carton of cigarettes. I didn't understand what he meant by it either." (P.S. Shoko didn't smoke at this point. What she had in her mouth was candy.)
Ding!
"He really is something."
"Who knows."
Clap! Clap! Clap!
Masamichi Yaga arrived with two unfamiliar faces. He clapped at the three tangled up in a scuffle and shouted:
"All right, you three, behave yourselves and stand properly!"
Startled, all three stood at attention. As Satoru Gojo got up, he secretly kicked Suguru Geto and Igarashi Amaha once each, infuriating them both.
"Good." Masamichi Yaga nodded and took a step back. Looking at the two beside him, he said, "Amaha, these two are first-years, Yu Haibara and Kento Nanami. They're both Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerers and very dependable juniors. You'll be going on missions together in the future."
As he spoke, he pointed at Igarashi Amaha. "This guy is Igarashi Amaha. He just transferred into the second year yesterday. He's a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer, but his exact strength is still unknown. We'll need to test it shortly."
"All right, that concludes the introductions. The main reason I called you here today is to assess Amaha's strength, so we can make the best choices when assigning missions in the future. The first-years will observe to learn about Amaha's Cursed Technique and fighting habits."
"Now, Satoru Gojo, Suguru Geto, which of you will be Amaha's opponent?"
Satoru Gojo instantly raised his hand, looking incredibly excited. "Me, me, me! I'm going to beat him up and show him how awesome I am."
Suguru Geto curled his lips into a smile, narrowing his foxlike eyes. "Since Satoru wants to do it, let him. I have no objections."
"Huh? You actually agreed that quickly? That's weird," Satoru Gojo said.
"There's nothing weird about it. I've always been going easy on you. Didn't you know?" Suguru Geto said softly.
"Huh?" Hotheaded as ever, Satoru Gojo rolled up his sleeves and moved to hit him. "Like hell I need you to go easy on me. Get lost."
Masamichi Yaga looked at Satoru Gojo, the biggest troublemaker in the group, and growled, "Satoru Gojo! Get your ass to the training field!"
Satoru Gojo jolted at the shout, immediately stood ramrod straight, and saluted. "Yes, sir!"
The group headed toward the training field in a loose cluster. Suguru Geto glanced at Satoru Gojo's exaggerated swagger up ahead, quietly moved beside Igarashi Amaha, and whispered:
"Amaha, don't hold back later. Just use that thing of yours, Piece Summons: 'Commander,' and blast him hard. No, twice. No, no, five times. Yeah, give him five blasts."
Igarashi Amaha understood. "So that's it. You looked into my records. I was wondering why you were so quick to let that brat Satoru fight me."
"Heh, you have to get to know your friends properly, don't you?"
Igarashi Amaha felt rather embarrassed as he looked at Suguru Geto's wicked grin. He slung an arm around Suguru Geto's shoulders, suppressed his excitement, and demurred in a whisper, "Well... wouldn't that be a bit much...?"
"Tsk." Suguru Geto tapped Igarashi Amaha's hand and said solemnly, "It's fine. Just go for it. That bastard's Cursed Technique is a turtle shell. You can't break it. At most, you'll make him suffer a little. Besides, even if you really do hurt him, you've still got your buddy here, right? I'll take the blame. Just do it."
Igarashi Amaha nodded firmly after hearing that. "All right, that's what we'll do."
"Heheheheheheh." Hearing Igarashi Amaha agree, Suguru Geto couldn't help laughing aloud.
Up ahead, Satoru Gojo's ears twitched. He turned around suspiciously and saw Igarashi Amaha and Suguru Geto with their arms around each other's shoulders, grinning wickedly. He stopped and called out to them, "Hey, you two bastards! Are you bad-mouthing yours truly?"
At that, Suguru Geto put on a fawning expression. "Of course not. We were praising you. The strongest, hehehe."
"Tch. You'd better be, or I'll beat you up after I'm done with Igarashi Amaha."
Suguru Geto didn't mind and offered no retort.
Soon, they reached an open area surrounded by dense woods. Weeds covered the ground, and it looked as though no one had tended to it in a long time.
Masamichi Yaga led the others to a bench and sat down, then told Igarashi Amaha and Satoru Gojo, "You can begin. Remember, don't let your fight reach us."
"Yes, sir!"
The two walked to the center, staring straight at each other.
A gust whipped up sand and dust, as though cheering on their duel.
With both hands in his pockets, Satoru Gojo looked down his nose at Igarashi Amaha and said, "Be careful. After all, I'm the strong-"
Bzzzt!!
A ripple spread outward from Igarashi Amaha.
The dead leaves caught in the wind suddenly froze in midair, but returned to normal two seconds later.
"That ability really is something." Satoru Gojo, whose sentence had been cut short, suddenly went rigid. With his vision abruptly brighter, he stared at the empty training field ahead.
A voice suddenly rang out behind Satoru Gojo!
"Yeah, I think so too," Igarashi Amaha replied from behind him, toying with Satoru Gojo's black, round-framed sunglasses.
The pupils of everyone watching from a distance abruptly contracted.
Kento Nanami uncrossed his arms and murmured in disbelief, "Wh... what just happened? Teleportation!?"
Masamichi Yaga kept his eyes fixed on Igarashi Amaha and shook his head. "No, it wasn't. Simple teleportation couldn't evade the Six Eyes' tracking, let alone remove the Six Eyes' sunglasses without him noticing."
Suguru Geto was the first to recover from his shock and said gravely, "It was time freeze, combined with a position swap."
"Time freeze!!??"
"That's right. The instant he activates his Cursed Technique, a pulse spreads for several li around Amaha, freezing all space and time within its range. It lasts up to three seconds. The specifics are still unclear."
Now Yu Haibara was even more shocked. "Huh? Geto, how do you know so much about Amaha's ability?"
Shoko and the others were curious too.
Suguru Geto spread his hands. "Do you really think Amaha is some nobody? He's famous internationally. Even his Cursed Technique is something you can find out about just by asking around."
"You can do that!?" Shoko looked a little surprised, then quickly began searching on her phone.
On the distant battlefield.
"Interesting." Growing excited, Satoru Gojo grinned, swung his fist, and lashed out behind him.
Whoosh!!
Smack!!
Igarashi Amaha caught Satoru Gojo's punch and smiled with a hint of apology. "My dear Satoru, don't blame me."
He hurled the sunglasses upward, and space froze again for an instant!
By the time Satoru Gojo regained awareness, he was already floating in midair.
He looked up. High above him, Igarashi Amaha had one hand in his pocket and was looking down at him with a wicked grin.
-Piece Summons: "Commander"!