Watch Me Trick Him

"I am Chiba Kichi, invited to fight on behalf of the Zenin Clan. It is an honor to meet you, my lord."

Kenjaku introduced "himself" at an unhurried pace, his tone humble and excessively formal.

So the body he's occupying now is called Chiba Kichi... Why does he talk so formally...?

After grumbling to himself, Shiratori Gotsu nodded. "My name is Shiratori Gotsu. A pleasure to meet you, Chiba."

Now then... What might his Cursed Technique be? And what is he after? I can hardly wait...

Kenjaku, of course, had thoughts of his own:

So that's his reaction... It seems he isn't a pure battle maniac after all...

This is getting more and more interesting...

Let's test his strength properly.

"Air Condensation Cursed Technique: Swift Gale!"

Shiratori Gotsu had been waiting to see what Kenjaku would say next, but to his surprise, the old schemer struck first.

He raised a hand and slashed out with an incredibly swift, tightly compressed blade of air.

"What the hell, you've got Malevolent Shrine: Dismantle too?!"

Though it was clearly a different Cursed Technique, the attack gave Shiratori Gotsu a powerful sense of déjà vu.

He immediately dodged aside, but just as he twisted off a finger to counterattack, a sharp pain suddenly shot through his back.

The slash he had dodged had struck him from behind.

That sneaky? It can change direction...?

He quickly activated Reverse Cursed Technique², and the cut on his back healed in the blink of an eye:

"You actually launched a sneak attack, you bastard? Have you no martial virtue?"

With that, Shiratori Gotsu hurled the severed-finger bomb at Kenjaku, who calmly raised a hand:

"Air Condensation Cursed Technique: Layered Peaks."

Boom!

An invisible barrier of air almost completely contained the explosion. Behind it, Kenjaku spoke with a smile:

"You jest, Lord Shiratori. Surely this martial exhibition before our lord is only exciting if we use every means at our disposal."

Shiratori Gotsu was dumbfounded.

What kind of hell is this?! How does the Cursed Technique of that body have both the defense of Limitless and the slashes of Malevolent Shrine?

Damn it, Kenjaku gets to eat this well?!

He might have been complaining inwardly, but his actions were as swift as ever:

"Then take this!"

He gathered Cursed Energy in his mouth and forced all his teeth out.

Then he activated Corpse Attraction Shock Blast. Shiratori Gotsu's cheeks bulged, and he turned into a machine-gun tooth shooter on the spot!

He restored the fallen teeth with Reverse Cursed Technique, then forced them out again with Cursed Energy, repeating the cycle over and over-sending a continuous stream of tooth bombs spraying from his mouth.

With both hands working alternately, he kept making the detonation gesture, unleashing a dense barrage that covered the area.

"Not bad!"

Kenjaku's face was alight with excitement as he darted around, stepping on walls of air made with Air Condensation Cursed Technique.

While continually dodging the explosions, he rapidly closed in on Shiratori Gotsu, who was standing in place and firing.

Good... A hit from this distance should be enough to seriously wound him...

Let's see how you deal with this!

"Air Condensation Cursed Technique: Swift Gale!"

Seeing Kenjaku raise his hand and unleash another slash at close range, Shiratori Gotsu decisively shifted his fire from Kenjaku to the incoming attack.

The compressed air blade was launched at close range, but it endured the concentrated bombardment for only a fraction of a second before the shock waves scattered it.

Shiratori Gotsu raised an eyebrow:

As I thought, it's still air in the end... Then I think I can handle this!

"Oh? You broke through it head-on? What tremendous firepower!"

Seeing Shiratori Gotsu concentrate his fire on him again, Kenjaku decisively stepped back on an air wall. After landing, he thrust out both hands and began repeating himself:

"Swift Gale, Swift Gale, Swift Gale, Swift Gale..."

For some reason, the two of them suddenly found themselves exchanging long-range barrages in a "prince's tactic" shootout.

A dense stream of air-blade slashes and tooth bombs continually met in the air between them, canceling each other out.

The unbroken sound of explosions echoed throughout the Tombs of the Star Corridor.

The Jujutsu Sorcerers in the stands clapped and cheered.

Hajime Kashimo, watching the scene, was utterly distraught.

Right now, he felt as though he had lost several thousand ryo of gold!

If he had known the opponent in this match would be so strong, he would have fought himself! Instead, Shiratori Gotsu had gotten the first taste of the good stuff!

That Chiba Kichi... If I get the chance, I must fight him to my heart's content!

He roared inwardly.

If Shiratori Gotsu had known what Hajime Kashimo was thinking at that moment, he might well have said:

"If you think you can do better, get up here!"

Although Corpse Attraction Shock Blast itself was extraordinarily efficient, consuming hardly any Cursed Energy to activate,

Reverse Cursed Technique really did consume a great deal of Cursed Energy!

The Cursed Technique of Kenjaku's current body had both offense and defense and was sneaky beyond belief. Shiratori Gotsu still couldn't break through it.

Shiratori Gotsu had always been keen on feeding other people shit. This time, he got to experience what it felt like to eat it himself.

In terms of its capabilities as a Cursed Technique, Corpse Attraction Shock Blast was still too limited.

But Shiratori Gotsu could still make plays!

My Cursed Energy is almost exhausted. Kenjaku can definitely tell...

Which means the time has come! Time to pull out something big... and trick him!

Under the cover of the smoke and dust from the explosions, he freed his left hand and slowly slipped it inside his clothes...

A faint squelch sounded, and the tooth bombs he spat out were stained with a little blood.

A fresh heart, still twitching slightly, appeared in his hand.

He activated Corpse Attraction Shock Blast.

The next moment, Shiratori Gotsu severed his entire left arm, the hand still gripping the heart bomb, and hurled it at Kenjaku with all his strength.

"Air Condensation Cursed Technique: Layered Peaks."

Kenjaku had naturally noticed Shiratori Gotsu's movement. He immediately stopped attacking and repeated his earlier move.

Boom!

Boom!

Two earth-shaking explosions rang out in succession, from the heart and the left arm respectively.

Kenjaku, however, only suffered blast injuries to one arm.

"My, my, that was close..."

He activated Reverse Cursed Technique, and his injured arm quickly returned to normal. "You actually broke through my Layered Peaks. What astonishing power!"

"However, you've reached your limit as well, haven't you, Lord Shiratori...?"

"It seems I'll be taking the victory in this match... Hmm?"

He had just taken a step toward Shiratori Gotsu when he suddenly stepped on something soft.

He looked down and saw half a heart...

"Just as planned~!" Shiratori Gotsu immediately made the detonation gesture with a wicked grin.

Boom!

That was right. The reason he had thrown his left arm along with the heart it was holding was to conceal the fact that the heart wasn't whole!

When he dug out his heart, he had used Cursed Energy to split it in two!

Bombs created by Corpse Attraction Shock Blast didn't destroy other bombs when they exploded. This had already been established in the original work when Hazenoki Iori used an exploding tooth bomb to propel an eyeball bomb.

Shiratori Gotsu had taken advantage of that property of the technique, initially detonating only half the heart and the entire arm.

From Kenjaku's perspective, with his Cursed Energy almost exhausted, Shiratori Gotsu had thrown only two body parts, so there would be at most two explosions.

In other words, after defending against the two explosions, Kenjaku would most likely assume the fight was over, subconsciously let his guard down, and deactivate his technique.

That would be the best time to detonate the remaining half-heart bomb!

The thunderous blast echoed, and the sneakiest achievement was etched into the Tombs of the Star Corridor!

"Honestly..."

"You got me there, Lord Shiratori..."

Kenjaku stood on the stage with difficulty on one leg. The other had been almost completely blown to pieces below the knee.

Although he could still fight if he repaired his leg with Reverse Cursed Technique, he had already achieved his goal of testing Shiratori Gotsu's strength, so winning or losing no longer mattered to him.

Thus, he slowly raised his hand. "Referee, I concede."

Meanwhile, his thoughts were:

Shiratori Gotsu... He's far too interesting. I must find a chance to make contact!

He might just bring my plan an unexpected surprise...

"Seventh match, Gojo versus Zenin: the Gojo Clan wins!"