"I should have prepared a winter coat..." hummed Gojo, looking unfazed but covered in a thin layer of frost, the result of the arena being covered in ice.
"Are you mocking me?" asked Gojo's tenth opponent, Rukia, furrowing her brows while poised with her unleashed Sode no Shirayuki in a knees-bent, thrusting posture. With her superior speed, she had no trouble landing her attacks. Unfortunately, like those who came before her, she was unable to penetrate the imperceptible barrier around Gojo's body.
"Mocking you? I wouldn't dare," responded Gojo, raising his left hand with his middle finger forming a loop with his thumb. Then, as crimson Cursed Energy gathered above them, he flicked forward, sending a marble-sized sphere of repulsive energy flying at Rukia's position.
"Tsk—"
Clicking her tongue, Rukia dodged Gojo's attack using Shunpo, placing her behind him. The increased gravity of the arena placed a great strain on her body when moving at such speeds, but she endured it, stabbing the tip of her Zanpakuto into the ground four times before slashing at the ground to produce an avalanche's worth of ice and snow that first erupted upward before washing over Gojo's position like a tidal wave.
'Sheesh...this girl's a walking blizzard...' thought Gojo, exhaling a plume of steamy condensation from his nose as he shielded his face with his right hand and forearm. Rukia's attack didn't strike him directly, courtesy of his expanded Infinity's three-meter sphere of protection, but the temperature atop the arena had plummeted to -36°C, cold enough to inflict frostbite or outright kill a normal human within minutes.
Though he was virtually impervious to the flames and ice-based attacks of Cursed Spirits, Gojo was struggling to tune his Infinity to filter out the Reiatsu forming Rukia's attacks. Its nature was similar to Reverse Cursed Energy, but its quality was much higher, one or two steps short of Divine. As such, it was practically on another plane of existence compared to the energy he was accustomed to dealing with.
'But this is precisely why I'm participating...!' Gojo exclaimed internally, his near-perpetual smile broadening as he spun on his left heel, his right hand following his turn as he used his Cursed Technique Lapse Blue to produce a powerful vacuum that sucked up the ice and snow in his surroundings in a ten-meter radius.
"Bakudō #61: Rikujōkōrō...!"
"Hmm...?"
Glancing down at his body, which had suddenly been impaled by six flat sheets of pale golden light, Gojo's expression remained calm, but his mind raced. Attacks could circumvent the automatic targeting and exclusionary capabilities of his Infinity if they transcended his perception, but that was only when he used it passively. Manually sustaining it was more taxing on his reserves of Cursed Energy, but since Rukia was much faster than him, he had been activating it nigh-continuously.
"Very good. You aimed for the brief moment when my focus was on Blue over maintaining my Infinity..." remarked Gojo, shifting his gaze to where Rukia was standing with her hands extended, folded over one another like she had just fired off an energy blast. The sheets of light embedded in his body caused him to feel paralyzed, but by manipulating his head using his Limitless, he was still able to turn it and smile.
"Surrender, and I won't—" started Rukia, her words cutting off and her eyes widening in disbelief as Gojo's body suddenly became veiled in the same ominous crimson energy he used to attack, dispersing the sheets of light holding him in place. At the same time, he fell forward with his right hand extended, his palm briefly grazing the arena's surface before he was accelerated forward with air-tearing speed.
fwish
Dodging out of the way using Shunpo, Rukia, frowning deeply, noted, 'So he can do more than condense his energy into spheres...he can also wear it like armor...' while unsheathing her Zanpakuto.
Flipping over and landing against the air as if it were flat ground, his body parallel to the arena's surface, Gojo, his eyes serious but maintaining his smile, determined that Rukia warranted the use of one of his trump cards. Thus, as she brandished her sword and prepared to send another wave of ice and snow surging toward him, he increased the output of his Six Eyes and Infinity to 120% to compress the space between them. As a result, he appeared to teleport, covering the distance between himself and Rukia in an instant, ramming into her stomach with the top of his head.
"Bffuu—"
Before she could finish spitting the saliva in her mouth, Rukia was sent flying backward with extreme speed, bouncing once before sailing in an uncontrolled arc and nearly slamming heavily into the walls encircling the field. Instead, just before she made contact, her body burst into motes of pale golden light, a similar phenomenon that occurred when a competitor was eliminated.
"And with a particularly ferocious headbutt, Gojo Satoru-san succeeds in becoming the first person to secure ten successive victories~!" exclaimed Tiamat, striking a pose and causing the mostly female crowd to erupt into riotous cheering and applause. The majority were already in relationships, with quite a few sporting expectant bellies, but that didn't stop them from cheering for the inordinately handsome and suave Sorcerer.
"Such fanfare. You're going to make me blush~" hummed Gojo, raising his left hand and waving at the crowd while modeling a relaxed, slightly smug smile.
"Now, then, who shall Satoru-san's next opponent—oh?" asked Tiamat, glancing in the direction of the waiting area before pausing and raising her brows as a telepathic message entered her mind. After hearing it, her dark blue eyes flashed mischievously before she teleported a young man with notably spiky black hair and sharp black eyes onto the arena.
"Haaaaaaaaaa...I guess I'm up..." sighed the youth, looking annoyed as he scratched his head with his right hand and eyed Gojo with sanpaku-esque eyes.
Seeing his opponent wearing an unbuttoned gakuran uniform with a red t-shirt, red leather gloves, a red scarf, and red sneakers, Gojo searched the anime database within his mind for who the boy might be. At a glance, he seemed like your average Japanese High Schooler, but things clicked into place when Tiamat happily chimed, "Now, as both competitors are in the arena, let us enjoy the eleventh match between Gojo Satoru and Kamijou Touma~!"
'This should be interesting,' thought Gojo, recognizing Touma's name and the powers associated with it. If he were from Touma's world, there was a good chance he would be powerless against him, but just as he needed to adapt his Limitless to the diverse powers of foreign Ascendees, he chose to believe his techniques would be effective. To presume otherwise would weaken them considerably.
Wasting no time, Gojo raised his right hand and formed a seal with his right middle finger hooked behind his index, immediately unleashing his sensory-overloading Domain Expansion, Unlimited Void. It allowed him to create a metaphysical space that assailed his targets with limitless stimuli and sensory information, effectively short-circuiting their brain. Unless his opponent had a Domain Expansion or a counter-Domain technique, it was meant to be a sure-hit technique, but against Touma, the imaginary space created by the Domain immediately shattered.
'Well, that's not good...' thought Gojo, a thin trail of blood leaking from his right nostril and his smile broadening as he activated the Reverse Cursed Technique to mitigate the swelling of his brain. Most Cursed Techniques were congenitally engraved into the user's body, specifically in the right prefrontal cortex of the brain, and having them broken or negated placed a significant strain on the neuropathways that allowed Sorcerers to both perceive and utilize Cursed Energy.
"Sorry, man. I didn't want to participate in this event, but my girlfriend insisted..." said Touma, his expression flat as he raised his hands like a boxer, patiently awaiting Gojo's next move.
"Hey, don't count me out just yet," said Gojo, sporting a confident, battle-hungry smile and rolling his right arm as he asserted, "I've been hoping to face an opponent like you."
Punctuating his words, Gojo motioned as if he were launching a haymaker at the air before contracting the space between him and Touma, making it appear as though he had teleported. To his surprise, Touma wasn't caught off guard by this—a slight frown marring the raven-haired youth's face as he unhesitantly met the air-tearing fist with his forehead.
crack
As he had empowered his fist and body with Cursed Energy, Gojo couldn't help but beam when a sharp pain radiated through his fist, courtesy of his middle and ring knuckles shattering. Touma's forehead was harder than a steel plate, and the moment he made contact with the youth, the Cursed Energy enveloping, empowering, and protecting his fist dissipated past his wrist.
Though his forehead bled where Gojo's knuckle had punctured his skin, Touma didn't blink or flinch as he attempted to throw a counter with his right fist. Gojo effortlessly backed away just enough to dodge, leading to a swift flurry of punches that connected squarely with his face and body but failed to deal any substantial damage.
'This guy's fast...' noted Touma, bleeding from his nose and developing a bump under his right eye as he did his best to exchange blows with Gojo, missing each one. Unfortunately, as his Party's de facto tank, the majority of his Stat-Enhancing Crystals had gone toward boosting his Constitution. As such, Gojo's punches dealt little damage, but his attempts to return the favor were met with empty air or swift parries.
"Looks like you could benefit from some martial arts training," remarked Gojo, flipping Touma onto his back hard enough to crack ordinary stone. Instead, the impact was absorbed almost entirely by Touma's body due to the arena's nearly indestructible properties.
Without waiting for Touma to respond, Gojo, with his hand still holding the former's wrist, kicked sharply at the connection point of his shoulder joint. After striking the youth more than thirty times and doing more damage to his hands than to his opponent, he promptly decided to put his knowledge of the human body to work, aiming to dislocate Touma's right arm.
Catching Gojo by surprise, Touma made use of his E-Rank Strength to forcibly pull the white-haired Sorcerer off balance. E-Rank might be the second lowest, but it was still considered superhuman, permitting Touma to lift nearly three hundred kilograms. At a mere eighty-two and with his powers negated due to holding Touma's wrist, Gojo couldn't resist being pulled forward against his will.
Releasing his hold on Touma's wrist mid-trip, restoring his access to Cursed Energy, Gojo smiled and rather abruptly rose into the air while still parallel to the arena. In the same motion, he extended his left hand like a gun, discharging a crimson sphere of energy the size of a small marble at Touma's forehead.
With his ability to negate supernatural phenomena, Imagine Breaker, tied primarily to his right hand and arm, Touma was still susceptible to attacks that affected other areas of his body. Unfortunately for Gojo, Touma was the most aware of this, his B-Rank Constitution representing the tip of his durability's iceberg.
Seeing his attack strike the center of Touma's forehead before dispersing with explosive force, Gojo's expression turned serious. With his Six Eyes, he was able to see a glint of silver as his Cursed Technique Reversal Red tore the youth's flesh. If he was correct, then the notion that he had been striking a steel plate might turn out to be literal...
Proving Gojo's suspicions correct, Touma rose to his feet as the crimson explosion produced by the former's attack dispersed, revealing a skinless patch on his forehead and a skull that appeared to be made entirely from metal. If that wasn't fantastical enough, Gojo could see his skin bubbling at the edges, producing pink froth as his tissues rapidly repaired and the swelling of his face settled.
"Sorry, but I tank literal railguns on a near-daily basis..." stated Touma, his expression and tone flat as he looked up at Gojo and resolutely tore away what remained of his t-shirt and jacket to reveal an athletic physique that included a well-defined six pack. Less notable but conspicuous were the faint indented lines following the contours of his body and the barcode on his left shoulder, denoted KT-001.
"Round two..." said Touma, tiny ports opening beneath his ribs, under the muscles of his back, and from the soles of his shoes as he took off like a rocket in pursuit of a grinning Gojo. The latter had thought nothing could surprise him after learning of the Tower and the Pavilion's existence, but discovering that Touma was either a cyborg or an android was more than a little outside his expectations...
...
..
.