The surrounding area was nothing but ruins and debris. The ground was covered in pitch-black scorched earth, giving it a total post-apocalyptic wasteland vibe.
It started as a friendly spar, but somehow Suguru Geto and Satoru Gojo ended up fighting for real.
Okay, honestly, it was Kenmei's fault. His earlier unconscious suggestion—"I want to see rivers of blood"—worked like a charm. Just like before, Geto could only obediently offer up his wallet (Cursed Spirits), and even Gojo couldn't resist the urge to get serious.
Geto was panting heavily, surrounded by the corpses of countless Cursed Spirits.
Gojo wasn't doing much better. He was clutching his nose, but blood still seeped through his fingers. His steps were unsteady.
This just showed how insane Geto was. How many Cursed Spirits did he burn through to push Gojo to the point where he couldn't even maintain his Limitless Technique?
But as the spectator watching from the sidelines, Kenmei was the biggest winner. He absorbed the points from seventeen of Geto's Grade 1 Cursed Spirits and over fifty miscellaneous Grade 2 spirits, netting a total of around 340,000 Points.
Gojo's exhaustion revealed that his mastery of the Limitless wasn't quite there yet.
A perfect Limitless Technique would be a fully automated system capable of identifying all incoming threats and activating on its own when conditions were met.
But Gojo hadn't developed it to that level. He still relied on the Six Eyes to gather information and his brain to process it and make judgments.
The hyper-perception granted by the Six Eyes allowed Gojo to observe everything in a 360-degree radius without blind spots, tracking and predicting Cursed Energy flow. But this massive influx of constantly changing data required his brain to process it every single second.
Basically, for every round he fought against Geto, Gojo had to perform like a supercomputer without a single glitch.
Right now, the limiting factor for Gojo in prolonged combat wasn't the Cursed Energy consumption of the Limitless, but his own brain.
Running the Limitless carried the risk of frying Gojo's brain. That wasn't an exaggeration.
That was why he usually wore those custom sunglasses—they were Cursed Tools designed to filter out useless information to prevent sensory overload.
"Let's settle this with the next move, Geto."
Gojo felt mentally exhausted. He wiped away the two trails of blood above his lip and forced a smile.
"Yeah, I think so too."
Geto wiped the dust from his face and raised his hand toward the sky. A massive black vortex began to form.
Meanwhile, Gojo took a deep breath. A strange, ominous crimson glow gathered in the center of his palm, shining brilliantly against the wasteland backdrop.
If "Blue" was "Absolute Attraction"—creating a powerful suction force by turning the distance between objects into "negative infinity"...
Then the "Red" Gojo was about to use was "Absolute Repulsion"—the reversal of the Limitless, converting "negative infinity" attraction into "positive infinity" repulsion.
However, this was a technique Gojo hadn't mastered yet. He didn't know if he could actually pull it off.
Similarly, Geto was preparing an unfinished technique on his end. This clash of uncertainties would determine the winner.
"Alright, alright, that's enough, you two."
Kenmei's voice suddenly snapped Geto and Gojo's attention toward him—specifically, toward the phone Geto had entrusted to him earlier.
The screen showed an active call. The contact name: "Yaga-sensei."
Damn.
That instantly doused the burning battle spirit of both Geto and Gojo, chilling them to the bone. They both cursed silently. "Bad luck."
Kenmei didn't forget to put it on speaker so the two problem children could hear the sermon clearly.
"GOJO! GETO! You two have really outdone yourselves!"
The roar from the phone was loud enough to scare even Kenmei.
"I've already received complaints from the Student Affairs Office and the Academic Affairs Office! What are you trying to do?! Are your bones itching for a beating?!"
"If you wanted a beatdown, you should have just told me! I'll loosen your bones for you!"
"Get back here! RIGHT! NOW!"
"Yes, sir!"
Watching the battered and bruised duo snap to attention, Kenmei felt a bit helpless.
His two new friends were, at their core, mega-problem children.
The call ended with a beep-beep-beep, giving neither Geto nor Gojo a chance to argue.
"Sigh. We got yelled at."
Geto spread his hands, looking resigned.
"Yeah. We went too far."
Gojo rubbed his nose vigorously with his arm, wiping away the blood and making a loud sniffling sound.
Then, the two who were at each other's throats moments ago looked at each other's wretched states and burst out laughing.
"Pfft! Hahahahaha! Look at you!"
"Damn it, it's all because you released so many Cursed Spirits, you bastard!"
Thinking back on it, Gojo was pissed. He wanted to kick Geto in the ass.
"Were you trying to work me to death?!"
"If you don't hurry back, your teacher is going to get even angrier," Kenmei reminded them.
After all, counting them both, these were Kenmei's golden geese.
Kenmei lusted after Geto's Cursed Spirit collection but couldn't kill them as cleanly and effortlessly as Gojo did.
Only when these two fought could Kenmei make a fortune. For that reason, they both needed to stay healthy.
But Geto and Gojo acted like dead pigs who didn't fear boiling water. They were clearly used to this.
"Yaga-sensei is already mad anyway. That fact won't change whether we arrive early or late," Geto said slowly, blowing a strand of hair from his forehead.
"Geto, help me up a bit."
"Yeah, honestly, I don't want to go back to High just to listen to that bastard teacher lecture us."
Gojo slung his arm around Geto's shoulder, ignoring Geto's complaint of "Gojo, I'm tired too."
"Geto, how about we skip and go eat Yakiniku (BBQ)? What do you think, Kenmei?"
Gojo's train of thought jumped the tracks completely, landing squarely on food.
"Yakiniku sounds pretty good!"
Thankfully, Geto was still sane and pulled the chaotic brat's thoughts back to reality.
"Gojo, if you do that and get hunted down by a furious Sensei, I'm not helping you."
"Besides, Kenmei still has questions for Yaga-sensei. He doesn't have time to eat BBQ with us."
"Ehh? No way..."
Gojo instantly went limp, acting like he couldn't move.
Dragging out his voice, he whined:
"Guess there's no choice then. Let's go back... let's go back."
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