Chapter 30: Duel

“Ha… ha… ha…”

Gojo wiped away cold sweat but couldn’t help letting out a small grin.

For the first time, he felt a genuine sense of crisis.

The realization that even he could die sent a thrilling chill down his spine.

To think the Limitless—what he believed to be invincible—could be pierced…

It was a situation he had never imagined.

Of course, he had expected Suguru to ascend to a level where he could reach him.

Even so, as long as he had the Limitless, Gojo believed he would never lose.

He had no choice but to admit it now—it was arrogance.

Who would’ve thought there could be a cursed technique capable of slicing through space itself…

“No… maybe it’s a little different.”

Her innate technique seemed to be simply “cutting.”

Slicing through things.

And it was her domain—her skill—that amplified the ability to the point where even space could be cut.

Feeling his heart pound, Gojo licked his lips and looked at her.

With a smooth, fluid motion, she drew her sword.

She tossed the scabbard aside and gripped the blade with both hands.

Her breathing changed in an instant.

Fwoooooosh──

“What now…”

What the naked eye could see was her cursed energy, so he couldn’t identify it as a technique.

But he instinctively sensed danger.

He focused cursed energy into his eyes.

That allowed him to barely catch it.

Through his vision, he could sense the cursed energy inside her—how it moved!!

“Ugh?!”

Swoosh!!

He ducked instinctively as the blade swung past where his head had just been.

Flower Breathing
First Form.
Flame Petal Wind—

A petal-like slash fluttered past, slicing through strands of his snowy-white hair and scattering them in the wind.

“!!!”

“Don’t worry, Gojo Satoru.
Even if your head gets cut off, as long as it’s within a minute, you can still be revived with Reverse Cursed Technique.”

“…Hahaha! Well, isn’t this something!!!”

The overwhelming threat triggered Gojo’s instincts.

For the first time in ages, he truly felt alive.

The boredom that had been gnawing at him vanished instantly, and an exhilarated smile spread across his face.

***

“Cursed Technique Lapse—Blue!!!”

The moment he evaded her attack, he activated the intense gravitational pull of Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue.

First priority—immobilize her with gravity!

‘I don’t know what kind of body she has, but even with my eyes, I could barely keep up!
My body can’t react in time!
I have to kill her mobility somehow!’

He couldn’t even guarantee the Limitless would hold against her attacks, so he had to create an opening.

That meant either crushing her movement with Blue’s gravitational force—or ideally, landing a hit.

With those thoughts racing, Gojo kicked off the ground, pouring cursed energy into his legs.

At that same moment, Blue surged forward—

Flower Breathing
Second Form.
Wistful Plum Blossom—

Schrrrrrrk!!

Blue was shredded in an instant, the space around it carved away like it had never existed.

Behind the vanishing technique, she was already on the move.

“F*ck! She’s freakishly fast!!
Blue!!!”

Gojo cast Blue behind him, using its pull to sling himself forward at high speed—almost like teleporting.

‘Blue, Blue, Blue!!’

But she kept up.

Her footwork was supernatural—breaking and surpassing her limits over and over.

Her body had been trained to the point of artificial perfection.

No—more than that.

It was like a body modified beyond human limitations.

Like Itadori Yuji, made to hold Sukuna’s vessel.

Or Fushiguro Toji, gifted a physical god-body through the Heavenly Restriction.

She had reached that same realm.

And on top of it, she used Total Concentration Breathing to amplify her already monstrous form.

The result?

She kept pace with Gojo, who was flying via Blue, using nothing but her legs.

And she wasn’t even at full power.

She could still reinforce her body with cursed energy.

And in that moment, when cursed energy surged into her legs—

Even Gojo lost sight of her for a split second.

His instincts screamed.

He threw up the Limitless again, knowing it might not hold but trusting the technique he had always relied on.

Then came the slash.

“!!!!”

Shhhrackkk!!!

The strike ripped through his face and upper torso in one devastating arc.

The Limitless was sliced apart like paper, cleaved cleanly by the spatial edge of her blade.

As one of his eyes split and bled, I smiled coldly.

Since I’d cut his Six Eyes, I could now claim I was “healing” it.

That meant I could retrieve the shattered fragments and restore them.

I would regenerate the Six Eyes from Gojo Satoru’s own broken pieces.

Sure, I’d heard the Six Eyes could only exist once per generation…

‘Then I’ll just cut through that too.’

Everything was going exactly according to plan.

***

‘…Ah…’

As Gojo fell, sliced open, he felt time slow down.

‘I’m losing?
Me, Gojo Satoru—the so-called strongest?
Just like this?’

He still had so much left to show.

So many things he wanted to try.

To lose like this?

No way.

At the very least, he had to prove himself.

To maintain the weight of the title—“the strongest.”

He had to stand tall, even before Suguru.

He couldn’t collapse so easily in front of his friend.

It was that pride.

That defiance.

That childish refusal to let this exhilarating fight end too quickly.

All those emotions surged within him, pushing Gojo Satoru to his absolute limit.

He was facing the first true “strongest” he’d ever met.

His Limitless was broken.

His body, critically wounded.

But the talent of Gojo Satoru—the strength known as the strongest—refused to die.

It clawed toward a solution.

And at last, that raging, untamed talent broke through the gates of Reverse Cursed Technique, which had refused to open no matter how hard he tried.

“Reverse… cursed…”

“…What?”

As he collapsed, his lips barely moved.

But at the same time, red light gathered at his fingertips, and Gojo slowly raised his head again.

The wound on his face—the severed eye—was already healing.

I couldn’t help but be genuinely shocked at the sight.

“Reverse Cursed Technique?! Right now?!”

Just when I thought it was over, the unthinkable happened.

Phase two had begun.

“Red~♪”

With a mischievous grin, Gojo aimed and fired the first blast of Reverse Cursed Technique from his fingertip.

BOOOOOOM!!!!!