The morning hours passed in a flash. Right after lunch, Gojo Satoru suddenly sidled up to Mu Sanlu, grabbed his arm, and dragged him toward the athletic field.
Mu Sanlu hadn't cleared his lunch tray yet. He tried to struggle a bit, but Gojo gripped him even tighter upon noticing.
Could he really be this impatient? With no other choice, Mu Sanlu turned his head and asked Suguru Geto for help.
"Suguru! Please!"
They reached the athletic field at twelve-thirty in the afternoon, Mu Sanlu and Gojo Satoru taking their places on opposite sides of the grounds.
"Please go easy on me, classmate Gojo," Mu Sanlu said with a bow.
"Let's get started already!" Gojo's lips curled up. He lowered his sunglasses just a fraction, exposing those striking Six Eyes to the air. A flash of blue danced in his pupils, so fast one might have mistaken it for an illusion.
"Cursed Technique: Deduction of Truth."
Mu Sanlu brought his hands together in front of his chest, and the next second, dozens of "Mu Sanlus" materialized across the athletic field.
"New trick?" Gojo shook his head. "If that's all you've got, you aren't even worth me taking off my sunglasses."
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Blue."
Boom—
With a single "Blue" from Gojo, half the athletic field was reduced to a rugged expanse of shattered stone.
"So cool!" Mu Sanlu's eyes sparkled. This was simply too cool!
Just one move! A single move with such devastating firepower!
"What a shame, I wish I could do that." Mu Sanlu hovered in mid-air, looking down with envy at the dashing Gojo standing below as genuine tears of jealousy welled up in his eyes.
Actual tears.
"Another new trick?" The dashing Gojo, still standing in place, removed his sunglasses and looked up at Mu Sanlu in the air.
The Six Eyes told him that this was the real Mu Sanlu, not some illusion created by a cursed technique.
"Yep," Mu Sanlu said, crouching down with his elbows resting on his knees and his chin propped in his hands.
His long hair was tied up high behind his head, and whenever the wind drifted past, it caught two or three loose strands.
Mu Sanlu half-closed his eyes, a trace of a smile in his dark pupils.
"Though the last one wasn't a new trick," Mu Sanlu added, finding a spare moment to hold up a single finger and give it a wag.
"That was the very first cursed technique I used when I came here."
"Oh."
"You're not paying attention at all, classmate Gojo," Mu Sanlu complained as he hastily retreated backward.
"Not only are you half-hearted in your replies, but you also resort to sneak attacks," Mu Sanlu critiqued.
"How unfair of you, Lu." Gojo threw a punch.
It was dodged. Naturally.
"You're one to talk, considering you used that exact move against Mr. Slanted-Eyes Bangs-Over-There first."
"Hey! Why do you two always have to drag me into your fights?!" At the edge of the athletic field, Masamichi Yaga had brought Suguru Geto and Shoko Ieiri into the barrier Mu Sanlu had set up. Geto had barely stepped inside when he heard that particular white-haired cat badmouthing him.
"He *is* Mr. Slanted-Eyes Bangs-Over-There, what did I say that was wrong?" Gojo stepped back to his original spot, preparing to fire off another "Blue."
"Are you still not going to use your second cursed technique, Lu?" Gojo tilted his head up to gaze at Mu Sanlu, who was still lingering in mid-air.
"Huh? Are you in that much of a rush?" Controlling his cursed energy to support his body, Mu Sanlu drifted down right in front of Gojo.
This technique was drawn from—Cursed Technique: Hypothecation of Truth.
It was a concept System 001 had provided him in a dream.
As long as he hypothesized his own cursed energy to be a flight of stairs, he could use that energy to suspend himself in mid-air.
"However, your current strength isn't even worth me busting out my second cursed technique..." Mu Sanlu slowly curved the corners of his mouth.
"Classmate Gojo."
......
Under Mu Sanlu's gaze, the corners of Gojo's mouth also slowly turned upward, until—"Hahahahahahaha..." Gojo withdrew the hand he was about to use for "Blue," laughing so hard he couldn't straighten his back.
"I thought you'd get mad..." Gojo straightened up, reaching out to wipe away the tears at the corners of his eyes.
"Come on then, show me just how far you'll go before you finally use that second cursed technique, Lu." Gojo took off his sunglasses and casually shoved them into his trouser pocket.
He raised his hand.
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Blue, Maximum Output." Gojo's Six Eyes gleamed with excited light, the smile on his face completely unrestrained.
Danger!
Mu Sanlu leaped back, his hands moving in a flurry of seals up in the air.
"Cursed Technique: Mask of Truth."
He swept his hand in a half-circle before him, and a visible barrier materialized in front of Mu Sanlu.
Crack—
The shield shattered—
Mu Sanlu's eyes widened in shock.
He could actually push it this far?!
A shield capable of blocking a grade-one cursed spirit had shattered in a fraction of a second.
Mu Sanlu instinctively glanced to the side to look at Gojo.
He didn't look so hot either; "Blue" at maximum output drained a massive amount of cursed energy, and he wouldn't be able to keep up the Six Eyes for much longer at this rate...
Even so—
"Cursed Technique, Reversal: Technique Potency!"
Even under these conditions, Gojo still successfully forced Mu Sanlu to deploy his second cursed technique.
Technique Reversal.
It could reverse everything, including the strength of cursed spirits and jujutsu sorcerers.
And naturally, that included the potency of a cursed technique once it had been unleashed.
Note: The potency of the technique *after* it had already been used.
"I've found the weakness of your second cursed technique." Gojo's condition was even worse now. The maximum-output "Blue" had depleted too much of his cursed energy, and on top of that, he had kept the Six Eyes running continuously.
Gojo's head was probably pounding.
In the end, Masamichi Yaga had to step in and call a halt to the battle.
For one thing, Gojo's cursed energy had been drained to such an extent, and the moment Mu Sanlu had gotten distracted looking at Gojo, he had inevitably been scorched by the "Blue."
Even with the remaining fragments of the shattered Mask of Truth shielding him, he hadn't completely escaped "Blue's" reach.
And on top of that—
The athletic field had basically been wrecked by the two of them.
Though, admittedly, most—or rather, practically all—of it had been Gojo's doing.
Afterward, having recovered a bit of his cursed energy, Gojo bounded over to Mu Sanlu, wrapped his arms around Mu Sanlu's neck, and kept hopping up and down on his legs in an attempt to hang his entire body off Mu Sanlu.
Mu Sanlu had a good temper and ignored him, but Suguru Geto simply couldn't bear watching his friend being tortured by that ill-mannered white-haired cat anymore, so he reached out and dragged Gojo down.
"Lu, call me 'Satoru' from now on, won't you?" Gojo whined in a sickeningly sweet voice, acting spoiled.
Mu Sanlu tilted his head slightly. Gojo was leaning over so far that he could clearly see those beautiful blue eyes from just above Gojo's sunglasses.
"Got it, classmate Gojo," Mu Sanlu said, the corners of his lips curling into a smile.
"It's 'Satoru'! 'Satoru'!" Gojo frowned deeply at the address, annoyed enough to hook his arm around Mu Sanlu's shoulder.
"Come on, say it after me—'Sa-to-ru'—"
Masamichi Yaga walked behind the four of them as the summer sunlight washed over their backs. Finding the heat bothersome, the high school boys and girls had already shed their uniform jackets, leaving only their inner shirts.
"Alright, alright, Satoru—"
The sound of Mu Sanlu's "compromised" voice, Gojo's triumphant laughter, Suguru Geto's gesture of grabbing Gojo by the collar, and Shoko Ieiri with a lollipop in her mouth and her arms crossed over her chest.
...
Could time please last a little longer?