Chapter 5: What Are You Dawdling For? Die, Gojo Satoru
Inside a quiet café, Zenin Jinsuke ran into someone who knew Toji's whereabouts and sat down across from him.
Seeing that familiar face, Kong Shiyu froze for a moment.
"Toji? Did the job already… No. You're not Toji."
Kong Shiyu reacted quickly. That face looked seventy or eighty percent like Toji's, so he'd let his guard down for a second.
But since he dealt with Toji often, he soon realized the man in front of him wasn't Toji.
"Hello. I'm Toji's older brother, Zenin Jinsuke. Do you know where Toji is right now?"
Zenin Jinsuke wore a faint smile and asked politely.
"Older brother? So Toji has an older brother? Never heard him mention it."
Kong Shiyu didn't doubt him. With that face sitting right there, it was hard not to believe.
"But if you want to find Toji, you can wait a bit. If I'm counting right, today is the final day of the job. If everything goes smoothly, he should come to me for the remaining payment.
Of course, even if the job fails, he'll still give me an explanation."
Kong Shiyu spoke leisurely. "If you're not in a hurry, you can have a cup with me… Hm? Where'd you go?"
Before he could finish, he realized the man had vanished at some point.
"Toji's older brother… interesting."
After finishing the last bit of coffee, Kong Shiyu also left. He had a feeling the sorcerer killer he'd worked with for years was going to slip up this time.
But it had nothing to do with him. He was just a small-time broker.
At the same time.
Inside the barrier of Jujutsu High, two geniuses, Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru, finally delivered the Star Plasma Vessel, Amanai Riko, safely.
Everyone relaxed. After all, inside the barrier, no assassin would be crazy enough to break in, and no sorcerer's presence could escape the barrier's surveillance.
"Sigh, we finally made it. I'm exhausted. Next time I'm never taking a babysitting job again."
Gojo Satoru stretched lazily, looking irritated, with a hint of fatigue and reluctance in his eyes.
The fatigue was because he hadn't slept for three days. The reluctance was because Amanai Riko, who had spent a wonderful stretch of time with them, was about to be assimilated by an old man.
They called it merging into one, but it was no different from death.
"These past few days were the happiest days of my life. Thank you!"
Amanai Riko didn't argue with Gojo Satoru. Instead, she was genuinely grateful.
They had let her briefly feel what it was like to truly have friends. She'd thought she liked being alone, only to realize she'd simply never been part of something lively.
"I don't want thanks from a kid."
Gojo Satoru looked disgusted, but the corner of his mouth quietly lifted, secretly pleased.
Geto Suguru just smiled, eyes half-closed, saying nothing.
Kuroi stood between them, looking reluctant. After taking care of the girl for so long, was she really leaving forever today?
Slash.
Just as they were savoring this final moment of ease, a cold flash appeared. A long blade tore through the air and pierced Gojo Satoru's body.
The tip stabbed through from back to front, skewering him straight through.
Blood flowed along the blade, soaking his clothes.
Everyone's expression changed instantly. Their pupils shrank, and their bodies tensed.
"Gojo!" Geto Suguru shouted, cursed energy surging.
Cursed Spirit Manipulation activated. A rip opened in the air, and a grotesque cursed spirit clawed its way out.
Yet Gojo Satoru acted like nothing happened. He didn't care that he'd been impaled. Instead, he turned his head and looked at Toji's face.
"Have we met before?"
"Don't worry about it. I'm not good at remembering men's names either."
Toji curved his lips slightly and yanked the long blade out.
"Dodged the vital points, huh. As expected of the Gojo clan's once-in-a-century genius."
Roar.
In the instant Toji taunted, the huge cursed spirit opened a bottomless maw and bit down on him, swallowing him whole.
Gojo Satoru looked at Geto Suguru.
"You take Riko and go. I'll handle him."
Geto Suguru stayed silent for a moment, then moved, taking Amanai Riko toward where Tengen was.
Gojo Satoru stayed behind to face the sorcerer killer, Fushiguro Toji.
Slash slash slash.
The moment Geto Suguru left, the cursed spirit was pierced through by a long blade. Toji appeared in front of Gojo Satoru, carrying a broad-bladed sword, covered in blood, with an ugly cursed spirit wrapped around his body.
Toji looked at Gojo Satoru's confused face and generously told him the whole plan.
He was the one who posted the bounty. He was also the one who set the job's time limit. Besides weakening them, the more important goal was to make Gojo Satoru relax after the deadline and deactivate the Limitless.
And he, as a natural person with no cursed energy, could come and go through Jujutsu High without the barrier noticing.
All he had to do was wait inside the barrier, lie in ambush, and strike the instant Gojo Satoru fully relaxed.
As for Geto Suguru, Toji didn't care that much.
"So that's how it is."
After hearing the truth, Gojo Satoru bared his teeth in a grin. He spread his hands, and a powerful suction gathered in his palms.
"Now it's my turn, right!"
Out of respect for his opponent, Gojo Satoru unleashed a heavy cursed technique attack at Toji. A terrifying sphere of energy exploded with violent suction, tearing the ground apart.
The sudden blow blasted Toji into the ruins. Just as Gojo Satoru was about to continue, he realized there wasn't a trace of cursed energy in Toji's body.
Not only that, Toji's movements were like teleportation as he weaved through buildings. Gojo Satoru's perception and technique couldn't keep up with his speed at all.
"Hey, hey. Are you serious with that speed?"
Gojo Satoru was shocked. That speed was beyond human.
"To maximize output… Blue."
Facing an opponent he couldn't lock onto, Gojo Satoru chose wide-area destruction. A blue-black sphere packed with powerful cursed energy formed in his palm. With a swing of his arms, the horrific force mercilessly erased everything around him.
He would leave the enemy nowhere to hide.
When Blue destroyed everything, the area around Gojo Satoru became open.
He focused his cursed energy, sensing shifts in the surroundings.
Even though the enemy had no cursed energy, there was a weak cursed spirit on him. No matter how weak, Gojo Satoru could still track its movement.
Buzz buzz buzz.
Before Gojo Satoru could fully sense it, many flyhead cursed spirits appeared around him.
With those small cursed spirits interfering, Gojo Satoru completely lost track of Toji's position.
Just as he was about to use Blue again to wipe out that trash, he suddenly froze.
In the next second, Gojo Satoru's expression changed drastically.
"Bad. His target isn't me!"
Realizing it, Gojo Satoru turned instinctively.
"Heh… so you finally started using your technique to defend."
Out of nowhere, Toji appeared behind Gojo Satoru, gripping a short-handled blade. The muscles in his arm bulged hard.
Rip.
The short blade erupted with an unusual cursed energy, violently tearing through the Limitless defense and stabbing deep into Gojo Satoru's neck.
A savage glint burst in Toji's eyes. He put all his strength into it, and the blade sliced open half of Gojo Satoru's body.
Slash slash slash.
His arm became an afterimage as he rapidly stabbed through Gojo Satoru's body again and again, then drove the final strike down into Gojo Satoru's head.
Crack.
Gojo Satoru's eyes went blank. His body slammed into the pool of blood, life fading away.
Toji's face stayed expressionless. He slowly put his blade away and walked deeper into Jujutsu High.
Gojo Satoru was sharp—sharp enough that even with empty hands, Toji wasn't sure he could kill him. That was why he built a layered plan to weaken him first.
And now, the winner was Toji.
A few minutes after Toji left, Zenin Jinsuke arrived late. Seeing Gojo Satoru lying in a pool of blood, his head started to hurt.
"No way. Did you really have to rush it that hard? I just hope it's not too late."
He kicked off with both legs, turning into a blur as he flashed toward the inside of the school.
He could already feel something changing in Gojo Satoru's body. Simply put, he was already on the road to cheating.
A guy like that was hard to kill before the very end, so Zenin Jinsuke decided to approach it from another angle. If it came down to it, he'd take his little brother and run.
With his current strength, he probably couldn't withstand the bombardment of the man who was about to become the current strongest sorcerer in the jujutsu world.