The air at the end of the corridor shifted.
Even though it was just a man with zero Cursed Energy standing there, the silence of the Tombs of the Star Corridor was instantly transformed into a battlefield.
The barriers remained. The stone walls, the path leading to the inner sanctuary, the flickering of the lamps—nothing had physically changed. And yet, everyone knew. This was no longer the same place it had been a moment ago.
Fushiguro Toji stood there, posture loose.
One shoulder was dipped slightly, and his gaze was unfocused, looking almost half-asleep. At a glance, he looked like a man who found the whole situation tedious and simply wanted to get it over with.
However, Itadori Yuji knew better. That looseness was the most dangerous thing about him. A strong opponent whose body is tense is easy to read. You can predict where they will strike and when they will explode into action.
But this man was different. By keeping his muscles slack, he achieved perfection only at the absolute moment of impact. Because of that, he actually appeared slower than he was until it was too late.
Yuji took a single step forward.
Toji's gaze followed that step.
There was no anticipation or excitement in those eyes, but his killing intent was devastatingly precise. It was the look of someone who had already decided exactly who needed to die first.
And Yuji had reached the same conclusion.
Riko and Kuroi could not stay here.
"Geto."
The moment Yuji spoke, Geto's eyes moved instantly.
"Take Kuroi-san and Riko. Get outside the inner sanctuary."
The command was short and clipped.
Riko reacted immediately.
"What are you saying? Leaving me behind—"
"Now."
Yuji cut her off without even looking at her.
It was the first time.
The first time he had spoken to her with such rigid, uncompromising coldness.
Riko's mouth clamped shut.
Kuroi also looked at Yuji with a startled expression. But what was more surprising was that Geto did not argue. His face showed that he had already made the same judgment.
Fushiguro Toji was not the kind of opponent you could face while protecting Riko.
Geto asked in a low voice.
"And Satoru?"
"Leave him."
The corners of Gojo's mouth quirked up immediately.
"Good call."
"You're in the way, too," Yuji added flatly.
Gojo let out a bewildered laugh.
"Wow. That's actually really harsh."
Even as he joked, his feet were already moving. Gojo shifted half a step to the side, distorting the angle between Toji and Yuji. It was a position designed to throw off the opponent's initial trajectory rather than meeting it head-on.
Riko grit her teeth.
"I have my own—!"
For the first time, Geto grabbed Riko by the shoulder. His hand wasn't heavy or rough, but his intention was unmistakable.
"Listen to him this time."
Riko looked at Geto with wide eyes.
His face was as calm as usual, but his gaze was unshakeable. Geto Suguru was not a man who easily used such a stern tone. When a man like him spoke this way, it meant the time for explanations had long since passed.
Kuroi moved first.
"Amanai-sama."
"Kuroi..."
"You must retreat for now."
Riko tried to protest but stopped. She could feel it too.
They were beyond the stage where words or bravado could help. From the moment Toji appeared, the very air had transformed. This was not a threat she could handle just by standing her ground.
Riko bit her lip and finally backed away.
"Don't die."
It was unclear who the words were directed toward. It could have been Gojo, Geto, or Yuji. Perhaps it was all of them.
Gojo waved a hand dismissively.
"Don't worry, Princess."
"Who are you calling a princess?!"
Before the rebuttal could even land, Geto led Kuroi and Riko toward the exit of the sanctuary.
Their footsteps receded—once, twice—fading down the corridor.
Toji didn't stop them. He didn't even spare them a glance, keeping his eyes fixed solely on Yuji.
"You just sent them away."
"I'm your target, aren't I?"
"Yeah."
Toji spoke plainly.
"I was planning on that anyway."
The moment the words left his mouth, the man vanished.
The sound came a heartbeat later.
Tack.
The sound of feet pushing off the stone floor.
But by the time it registered, it was already too late. Toji hadn't lunged from the front; he had glided in from the upper right, where the wall met the ceiling. Because he possessed no Cursed Energy, there was no atmospheric ripple to sense. The fact that a human body could achieve such a trajectory mocked the very common sense of a sorcerer.
Gojo moved first.
"Right!"
Simultaneous with his warning, his body twisted. His Limitless vibrated the density of space, stalling Toji's entry angle by half a heartbeat.
But Toji had already calculated that.
The Cursed Tool in his hand wasn't aimed at Gojo's chest, but at the throat of Yuji standing behind him.
The first move was a feint. The real attack was the second trajectory designed to tear through the opening created when Gojo blocked the first.
Good.
Yuji thought to himself.
Even better than I thought.
The man's movements weren't just fast. While pretending to keep Gojo in check, his true objective remained the person behind him. Furthermore, the entry angle and the snap of his wrist were so exquisite that the tip of the weapon was nearly impossible to track until the final micro-moment.
It was a body far too accustomed to murder.
Yuji tilted his head by less than an inch, letting the blade slip past.
The edge grazed his skin. No blood was drawn. Instead, the air where the blade had passed was thinly sliced.
At the same time, Yuji's left hand shot up.
He didn't grab.
Just before making contact with the wrist, he channeled a thin layer of Cleave, dismantling the opponent's trajectory. It was an application of the Cursed Technique that read the strength and structure of a target and caused maximum collapse with the smallest possible cut.
If Sukuna's Cleave was a technique meant to mince the opponent, Yuji's Cleave was far more precise. He already knew exactly where to sever to break a posture and which joint to dismantle to ensure the next lethal move couldn't follow.
Toji's wrist trembled microscopicly.
He wasn't cut.
At the last second, he killed the power in his muscles and twisted his wrist to avoid the blow. A normal human would have lost their entire hand to that trajectory, but this man escaped through sheer instinct.
Toji's eyes narrowed for the first time.
"...Dangerous."
With those words, his weapon changed. The short blade vanished, and a chain uncoiled.
The rattle of metal pierced the distance that had momentarily slackened. The Cursed Tool at the end of the chain wrapped around a corridor pillar, snapping its trajectory. It was a kill-strike that utilized the terrain—pretending to fly from the front while digging toward the back of the head.
Gojo grinned.
"Wow, you're dirty good at this."
He stepped forward, slicing between the pillars.
Limitless was not simple defense. it was a reordering of the world itself that refused to allow contact. Even for someone like Toji, it was an immense annoyance.
Gojo deliberately placed himself in the foreground. He calculated that by forcing Toji to deal with his Limitless first, he would buy Yuji the time to close the gap.
But Toji reacted instantly.
The chain flying toward Gojo suddenly lost its momentum and bent in mid-air. Using the recoil from the pillar, it changed direction and swept along the floor, aiming for Yuji's feet.
Rather than the upper body, he went for the legs. A wise decision. When facing someone with strong martial arts, taking out their feet was the fastest path to victory.
Yuji lifted the tip of his foot a fraction of an inch without leaving his spot.
Exactly where the end of the chain passed, a single drop of blood fell.
Blood Manipulation.
It was only a single drop.
However, the moment the chain grazed that blood, the liquid compressed like a needle and exploded into dozens of shards. A miniature, specialized application of Supernova inside the narrow corridor. He had lowered the power; in exchange, he had pushed the range and reaction speed to their absolute extremes.
With the screech of metal on metal, the angle of the chain was forcibly diverted.
Toji immediately retreated, planting his feet on the ceiling.
Parts of the iron chain that the blood had touched were finely ground. This was no simple blood bullet. The blood, compressed by Cursed Energy, had exploded from within, dismantling the metal itself.
Gojo's eyes lit up.
"I like that."
"Don't talk to me."
"Come on, let's do some teamwork here."
In the time it took to exchange those few words, Toji was already back in.
This time, it wasn't about speed as much as it was about proximity.
Ceiling, wall, pillar, floor. He used the entire corridor as his springboard. It felt as though dozens of paths to death were descending simultaneously rather than a single man.
And amidst it all, his target was still precisely Yuji. He had judged that Gojo was merely annoying, but Yuji was the one who needed to be killed immediately.
Yuji didn't retreat even a single step.
The moment Toji's blade aimed for his heart, Yuji's right hand rose from below.
"Dismantle."
A low, short incantation.
The space itself split first.
A single black line swept diagonally through the middle of the hallway. It wasn't the kind of Dismantle that would sever the entire world—there was no need for that. Instead, he narrowed the power and range to their absolute limits, leaving the corridor intact while precisely severing Toji's path of entry.
Toji twisted his body mid-air.
The edge of his clothing and a few strands of hair were shorn off and flew away.
If his reaction had been even a moment later, his entire upper torso would have been cleaved in two.
This time, Gojo didn't laugh.
That Dismantle just now wasn't a simple slashing attack.
Despite the reduced output, the pressure of the entire hallway had shifted. It wasn't just pushing through space; it was as if he had laid down a law upon the world stating that from this point on, space is severed.
Even with the Six Eyes, it was terrifyingly refined. And above all, it was far too quiet.
Toji seemed to feel it as well, pausing briefly upon landing.
"You even have a slashing technique?"
Instead of answering, Yuji flicked the blood off the back of his hand.
"This is the bare minimum."
"Cocky little brat."
Toji muttered and actually laughed this time.
A short, dry laugh.
It was less of a laugh of amusement and more one of conviction. The conviction that he absolutely had to kill this boy first.
At the same time, Yuji had reached the same conclusion.
Fushiguro Toji.
This man was strong.
It wasn't just because of Heavenly Restriction, or the lack of Cursed Energy, or his peak physical body. He was strong because his judgment was instantaneous; he knew exactly how much damage his body could sustain and chose the most dangerous gambit within those limits.
Killing him outright was easy. It was making him combat-ineffective that was proving extremely difficult.
From the other end of the corridor, Geto's footsteps had completely vanished. Riko and Kuroi were safely outside the sanctuary.
Now, only three remained.
Gojo spoke as he loosened his shoulders.
"This feels a bit better now."
"For who?"
"For us, of course."
Gojo's blue eyes glinted coldly.
"We can finally stop holding back, right?"
Toji turned his gaze toward Gojo for the briefest moment before fixing it back on Yuji.
"Yeah. I was thinking the same thing."
The moment he finished speaking, the man's body vanished again.
He was even faster this time. Yuji knew it before the movement even began.
Not from the front. Not from above or below.
The blind spot to the left, using Gojo's movement as a decoy to create a momentary opening.
Toji was using both Gojo and Yuji against each other to craft his lethal strike.
And then, the corner of Yuji's mouth lifted just a fraction.
It was the first time.
"Good."
It was a whisper so soft it was barely audible.
Gojo heard it and grinned, while Toji—who hadn't heard it—was already thrusting his blade home.
But neither of them knew.
That from this point forward, the reason why Itadori Yuji was called the Strongest Jujutsu Sorcerer in the future was finally going to be revealed.