"Start!" Suguru Geto called out.
"Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue!" Satoru Gojo instantly released a small-scale Blue to begin the cleanup. Everywhere he passed, stones and rubble were swept up into the air, orbiting his body. He looked over at Ming with a triumphant, provocative smirk.
"Tch," Ming muttered. He instantly shifted his eyes to the Kamui Mangekyo Sharingan.
"Kamui!" A swirling spatial vortex appeared before the group.
Suddenly, a Cursed Spirit resembling a nine-tailed fox emerged from the void.
"What!?" Suguru Geto jumped back, startled. He could sense from the fox's aura that it was at least a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit.
"Don't worry, it's just a spirit I've brought under my control," Ming explained. Geto stared in shock, his eyes landing on the fox's own eyes—which now bore the same crimson pattern as Ming's.
Controlling Cursed Spirits? Spatial abilities? And that intangibility? Geto thought deeply as he watched Ming. He decided he definitely needed to ask Ming about the specifics of his technique once the contest was over.
"Kurama, clear the perimeter," Ming commanded. He then used Kamui to begin warping the larger boulders away.
"Hey! No calling for backup!" Gojo shouted. Though he was surprised by the fox, he didn't care much; based on cursed energy alone, it didn't seem as strong as Geto's Rainbow Dragon.
Ming ignored him. He knew that despite his flashy moves, Gojo's Limitless was far more efficient at mass cleanup than his own spatial warping.
After half an hour, the result was clear: Ming had lost.
"Aha! Looks like I'm the winner," Gojo gloated.
"It's a bit early to say that, Satoru," Ming said flatly.
As he turned his back to Gojo, the shuriken-like pattern in his eyes spun rapidly. The Kamui design shifted into a different Mangekyo Sharingan—the eyes of Itachi Uchiha. Because the raw ocular power felt the same to an outsider, even Gojo's Six Eyes didn't immediately register the subtle change in the pattern.
"What, are you a sore loser, Ming?" Gojo had piled the last of his stones into a massive heap. To ensure Ming couldn't deny the victory, he hadn't warped them away yet.
"Hardly. I am Ming Uchiha. I always stand by my word," Ming said firmly. However, a slight, handsome curve formed at the corner of his mouth—a detail the others missed.
With Satoru's Six Eyes, even Itachi's standard Mangekyo Genjutsu might not hold him for long. I'll have to use "that" technique, Ming calculated. Compared to Kamui, this eye was specialized for the ultimate illusion.
"Good!" Gojo said, already imagining the chores he'd make Ming do.
"Satoru," Ming called out loudly.
"What now?" Gojo instinctively looked Ming in the eye.
"Tsukuyomi," Ming whispered.
"Crap—!" Gojo tried to snap his eyes shut, but it was too late. The moment he glimpsed that gaze, the trap was sprung.
Gojo's consciousness was suddenly pulled into a bizarre space. The moon above was a literal blood-red, and he found himself bound to a cross.
"A spatial ability? Or is this a Domain Expansion? You sneaky bastard, Ming!" Gojo barked.
"Wait, no... my Six Eyes are telling me this is an illusion. It's not a Domain. It's Genjutsu after all," Gojo corrected himself.
"As expected of Satoru," Ming said, stepping out from the darkness with a smirk.
"Welcome to my world, Satoru. Here, I am God. I control all time, space, and matter," Ming introduced.
"Che, you're cheating! This is just a fancy version of the illusion you used earlier," Gojo said dismissively. He began trying to circulate his energy to break the spell.
"It's useless, Satoru. This technique is one even you cannot break," Ming said.
Gojo's smug face faltered. He really couldn't break free.
"You didn't think I'd be so stupid to try the same trick twice, did you? A standard illusion—even one from the Mangekyo Sharingan—can be seen through or resisted by the Six Eyes. But this is different," Ming said confidently. At least for the current, young Gojo, this was an absolute prison.
"To break Tsukuyomi, your spiritual strength must exceed mine. Clearly, it doesn't. Furthermore, this technique is fundamentally 'unbreakable' from the outside because, despite how long it feels in here, not even a single second has passed in the real world. You can't manipulate your Cursed Energy to break it if the 'time' to do so doesn't exist out there," Ming explained.
"You're so underhanded, Ming!" Gojo roared. Ming just scratched his ear, looking unbothered.
Then Gojo grinned. "You only used such a dirty move because you were afraid of losing to me, didn't you? Hahaha! As expected, I'm just too good!"
"Che. You're a literal prisoner; what are you acting so high and mighty for? But... you aren't wrong. However, the winner will be me," Ming said nonchalantly.
"Prisoner? You bastard, let me go! You're a total snake!" Gojo yelled.
"Stop barking, Satoru," Ming said, manifesting a blade and giving Gojo a quick stab.
"Holy—! You actually stabbed me!" Gojo yelled in indignation.
"Quiet. If you keep screaming, I'll make you experience three days and nights of 'A Thousand Cuts'," Ming said coldly. Even though such torture wouldn't cause physical wounds in the real world, the mental strain on even someone as strong as Gojo would be immense.
Gojo finally shut up. Ming released the binding. It felt like an eternity to Gojo, but in reality, less than a millisecond had passed.
"Tsukuyomi." Ming finished the cast, then instantly swapped back to the Kamui eyes. His ocular power surged.
"Kamui!"
In the blink of an eye, the massive piles of rubble that Gojo had spent half an hour painstakingly collecting were warped away by Ming into another dimension.
At that moment, Gojo's mind snapped back to reality.
"You... you bastard! You're the cheapest guy I've ever met!" Gojo screamed.
"All's fair in love and war. You're just too young, Satoru. You've been protected as the young master of the Gojo Clan for too long. Haven't you learned that the world is a cruel place?" Ming's words hit Gojo like a machine gun.
"You..." Gojo was speechless, his brain struggling to keep up with Ming's logic.
Watching the usually untouchable Satoru Gojo getting verbally dismantled, Shoko couldn't help but smile. Every bully eventually meets their match, she thought. The sharp-tongued Gojo had finally met someone even more "toxic" than him.
Suguru Geto walked over to mediate, having guessed more or less what happened. Shoko, having been a victim of Ming's illusions before, knew Gojo had been caught in one—but she was baffled. What kind of illusion could leave someone like Satoru Gojo dazed for even a single second?