Chapter 7 – Taking Playful Cloud to the Head?
"Yo? A few years apart and now your wings are stiff, huh?"
Zen'in Shinsuke looked at his younger brother with a mix of surprise and mockery.
This brat had played at being a sorcerer killer for a few years and already forgotten his own surname? Didn't he realize all of this was just hand-me-down scraps from Shinsuke's era?
"Come on then—let me see just how much you've grown."
Shinsuke stepped back, curling a finger in provocation.
If soft words wouldn't do, then he'd resort to hard fists. He really wanted to see what gave this foolish brother the guts to mouth off at him.
"Heh, don't blame me for not giving you face."
Toji's resentment surged the moment he saw the brother who had abandoned him for years. Some conflicts between men couldn't be settled except with a fight.
Today, he had to know: could the brother who once stood above him still do the same now?
Toji's gaze turned razor-sharp. He reached into the mouth of the cursed spirit coiled around his body and pulled out a crimson three-section staff.
The five-billion-yen special-grade cursed tool—Playful Cloud.
Gripping the weapon with both hands, Toji bent his knees and grinned viciously.
"Don't lose too badly, old man!"
"Boom!"
In the next instant, Toji blurred into motion, the staff whistling through the air as it swung toward Shinsuke in a blur of crimson.
Shinsuke's body tensed, heat surging through his frame as muscles bulged and veins stood out.
"Clack!"
He thrust out one hand and caught Playful Cloud mid-swing.
A monstrous force rippled through his arm, leaving his muscles numb.
Playful Cloud—the only special-grade cursed tool without any technique—possessed a raw, tyrannical power. The stronger the wielder, the more destructive its potential. It was a weapon made purely for the strong.
In Toji's hands, it was enough to slay most special-grade curses outright.
And yet—though his arm tingled from the impact, Shinsuke's expression remained unchanged.
With a sudden surge of power, he reversed the momentum. The overwhelming force traveled back through the staff into Toji's hands, and in the blink of an eye Shinsuke had wrenched Playful Cloud away.
"This thing's mine now," he said with a teasing smile.
Weapons steeped in violence like this? He loved them.
"Tch!"
Toji clicked his tongue in annoyance. Without missing a beat, he reached into the cursed spirit's maw again and drew out a wide-bladed longsword.
The special-grade cursed tool—Split Soul Katana.
It ignored both physical and cursed energy defenses, cutting directly into the soul. Any wound it inflicted was impossible to heal.
"..."
Shinsuke swallowed as he eyed the blade.
All these treasures, and they all ended up in Toji's hands.
Toji tightened his grip on the sword and blurred forward again.
Shinsuke swung Playful Cloud with one arm, wielding it flawlessly. Three-section staff against longsword? Too easy.
Clang! Clang!
Each exchange was deflected with casual grace, as though Shinsuke were strolling in a garden.
"Toji, your attack patterns are still this predictable, huh?"
He suddenly slammed the staff down toward Toji.
Toji's eyes narrowed, raising the blade to block—
"Bang!"
But in his anger, he forgot Playful Cloud's structure.
He blocked the second strike, but the third section followed through, snapping across his skull.
The brutal impact left his head ringing.
"Hsshh—!"
Blood streamed down Toji's forehead. Even Shinsuke winced at the sight.
Taking a blow from a special-grade cursed tool with his bare head—his brother really was a lunatic.
Toji staggered, vision blurring.
Thud!
A moment later, he collapsed, knocked unconscious.
"...Seriously?"
Shinsuke sighed, helpless, and moved to support his fallen brother.
He knew Toji all too well. Outwardly calm, meticulous, and cautious… but in certain moments, he lost his head and overlooked the obvious.
Like when his desperation to defeat Shinsuke made him reckless.
Or when facing Satoru Gojo, his pride drove him into yet another trap.
"Guess he really does take after me a little."
Shinsuke chuckled and shook his head. He'd been just as hot-blooded once. Who was he to lecture?
He lifted Toji up, but before they could take more than a few steps, an unwelcome figure blocked their path.
"Yo, sasuga ne~. What's this? Two of you now?"
Satoru Gojo, bloodied but unbroken, stood before them.
"..."
Shinsuke's lips twitched. Couldn't this guy have waited until they were gone?
Not that it would have mattered—Gojo could have found them anyway.
"You've got the wrong guy," Shinsuke said smoothly, pretending not to know him.
But beside him, Toji was already stirring, consciousness clawing its way back thanks to the monstrous vitality granted by Heavenly Restriction.
The Heavenly Restriction granted Toji a body of monstrous strength and rapid recovery. Even after taking a direct hit from Playful Cloud to the head, he was already shaking it off within moments.
"...You? Impossible."
Toji shoved Zen'in Shinsuke aside, eyes wide in disbelief.
How could someone who had died be standing before him again?
"Genuine article. And feeling better than ever."
Gojo Satoru brushed his hair back, revealing a faintly healed scar on his forehead.
"Reverse Cursed Technique?"
"Ding ding, correct."
A crazed smile spread across Gojo's face as he raised his arms and tilted his head skyward.
In the instant his throat had been pierced, he had abandoned all defenses, focusing everything on grasping the Reverse Cursed Technique. Cursed energy was inherently negative—no matter how vast, it could never regenerate flesh. But through the principle of negative times negative equals positive, one could invert that energy into something constructive. Life from death itself.
And in that razor-thin moment between existence and oblivion, Gojo had broken through—touching the true core of jujutsu.
Suspended in midair, bathed in the glow of the setting sun, Gojo narrated his revelation with almost religious fervor.
Toji, however, had no patience for his rambling. Shaking off the last of his dizziness, he pulled the Inverted Spear of Heaven from his shikigami's mouth and blurred into motion, thrusting straight for Gojo's heart.
But Gojo sidestepped effortlessly, still basking in his euphoric state.
A follow-up strike—a vicious arcing slash—was dodged just as easily.
Gojo reclined lazily in the air, eyes glazed, radiating the stillness of a saint. Nothing in this world could stir his emotions anymore. Everything felt boundless, weightless—perfectly clear.
At that moment, he felt it deep in his bones:
Above heaven, under heaven—there is only me.
"Reverse Cursed Technique: Red."
Dangling upside down, Gojo formed a blade-like hand sign. A dense orb of crimson energy condensed before erupting forward, smashing into the Inverted Spear with overwhelming force. The blast carried at least twice the might of Blue, and the impact hurled Toji deep into a heap of shattered stone.
Unfazed, Toji clawed his way back out of the rubble. From his shikigami's mouth, a chain snaked out and fastened to the spear's hilt. With a guttural laugh, he swung it high, the weapon spinning above him like a storm.
Excitement burned in his eyes. For the first time, his resentment toward his elder brother faded, consumed instead by raw battle-lust.
Because he knew—this man standing before him might very well be the strongest sorcerer alive.
And Toji had only one thought now: Defeat him.
To prove to every smug bastard who mocked the Zen'in brothers that the so-called "Strongest Sorcerer" could be slain by a man without a shred of cursed energy. He would make them choke on their scorn.
The Infinite Void's suppression meant nothing to him.
Blue's gravitational pull? He could block with cursed tools—or simply dodge.
Red's devastating repulsion? The Inverted Spear cut straight through it.
Everything was within his grasp.
But before the clash could ignite again, Zen'in Shinsuke stepped between them.
"That's far enough."
He, of all people, knew exactly what Gojo was capable of. There was no reason to let Toji throw himself into this kind of suicide match.
And this fight... had no reason to continue.