Chapter 26

Fire-extinguishing water sprayed down from overhead in torrents.

In that instant—

Takizawa Sei severed the tendons in the man’s hand, forcing the grip that was crushing his throat to slacken. He then wrenched his body with brute force, allowing the blade that threatened to slice him in two to slide free from his flesh.

The splashing blood, diluted by the water, made the floor slick. Takizawa caught the sound of hurried footsteps. With an unspoken, instinctive understanding, he curled into a ball on the ground just as a blinding sphere of light streaked inches above his head.

It was the Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue, controlled with such exquisite precision that it forced the man back without harming Takizawa.

Before he could even process what happened, a pair of hands hauled him up and pulled him into an embrace. Takizawa gasped, "I'm fine. It's not a fatal wound. Shoko can patch me up in a flash."

His cheek pressed against the skin of Gojo Satoru’s neck—it was warm and soft, and he could feel the trembling rhythm of his breathing.

Gojo stared, his eyes burning with a look of pure rage, and spat out, "What the hell is this?"

Standing before him was Toji Fushiguro, a man who should have been dead.

Even with the terrifying physical prowess of a Heavenly Restriction, there was no way to return from the dead. Gojo’s face was chillingly grim. "Necromancy?"

"Yo," the man opposite them, whose state was clearly unnatural, greeted them flippantly. "Looking at it like this, this scene feels incredibly familiar, doesn't it?"

Familiar?

Ha, of course it was familiar.

Takizawa’s brain swam from the massive blood loss, though he was far from losing consciousness. The appearance of Toji Fushiguro reminded him of the time Gojo had been at his most vulnerable, and the moment Takizawa had come closest to failing his mission.

That day, he had been desperate enough to die.

Takizawa whispered into Gojo’s ear, "Can you win?"

"Ha, are you kidding me?" Gojo’s eyes widened slightly as he locked his gaze onto Toji. His aura surged, and the cold night wind howled through the hole blasted in the wall, whipping past the forehead of the strongest sorcerer alive. "I’m going to pay him back ten times over for the wounds he gave you—!"

***

It was a battle of the highest caliber.

High-speed movements beyond the reach of any ordinary human blurred between the two. After being caught off guard by the Heavenly Restriction once before, Gojo had intensified his physical training. He had killed Toji Fushiguro once; he would never lose to him a second time.

Takizawa was handed off to Yuta Okkotsu, who had arrived at the sound of the commotion. The sight of Takizawa drenched in blood terrified him, his voice thick with tears. "Takizawa-sensei, please, don't die!"

"Bullshit," Takizawa wheezed, clinging to his back, indignant. "I’m not dead. Can’t you say something more positive?"

He winced, trying to comfort him. "Don't worry. I can survive three days and three nights with wounds like this."

Scolded, Yuta bit his lip, his voice trembling on the verge of sobbing. "It must hurt so much. This kind of wound... it has to be agonizing. I’m sorry, I don't know medical techniques, I can't heal you right away..."

Takizawa tightened his grip on Yuta’s neck, finding a strange urge to laugh at such genuine concern. "Shoko is here, why are you trying to take on her job?"

He glanced toward where a light was flickering—Gojo’s cursed energy.

His mood was incredibly complicated. Takizawa thought back to that unpleasant memory.

He buried his head, and Yuta immediately sensed something was wrong. "What is it, Takizawa?"

"Nothing... I just remembered the only time I was desperate enough to want to die."

Yuta: "?!"

Thinking Takizawa’s fading voice meant he was on the verge of fainting, Yuta tried to find a topic to keep him alert. "What happened? Gojo-sensei is fighting that man—who is he? Does he have a grudge against us?"

Takizawa raised a hand and patted Yuta’s head, not caring about the lack of gentleness. "Don't be nervous... Satoru can beat him."

Shoko, also awakened by the noise, had realized something was wrong and arrived. They met halfway, and Takizawa was set down so her Reverse Cursed Technique could take effect.

Leaning against Yuta, Takizawa relaxed and let his full weight rest on the boy, offering a pale smile. "Sorry to trouble you again, Shoko... I feel like I'm your most frequent visitor."

"Yeah, glad you're self-aware," the brown-haired woman remarked bluntly. "You aren't actually that weak, yet you're always the unluckiest one." She asked, "Who did this?"

"That Heavenly Restriction guy," Takizawa hissed. Yuta was carefully wiping the blood from his face. "He must be summoned. His consciousness doesn't seem fully there, so it might not be the real deal. But his obsession before he died shouldn't have been killing me, right? I already ended up in such a miserable state at his hands back then."

Ieiri Shoko understood. "No wonder no one noticed him entering."

The school's barrier was useless against a Heavenly Restriction with zero cursed energy, which explained how Takizawa had ended up in such a state in just a few seconds.

"That time... you were indeed in a sorry state."

"What? Was it really a grudge?" Yuta asked, his voice hoarse. "Did that man hurt Takizawa before?"

Takizawa looked up and paused upon seeing Yuta’s expression.

He pinched the black-haired boy’s cheek. "What’s with that look? Are you angry?"

"Because he hurt you!" Yuta’s voice rose, his chest heaving. "He hurt you, he almost killed you!"

"I'm fine, aren't I..." Takizawa whispered. "Satoru is here."

Takizawa didn't feel much anger. The reason was simple: the one who had been hurt was him, not Gojo or anyone else.

But that hadn't been the case back then.

The day the Heavenly Restriction had nearly ended everything, Takizawa had just finished a mission and was returning to the main house to report, when his system’s alarms went haywire.

The sound was more piercing than ever. His companion system spoke urgently in his mind: [Takizawa, Gojo Satoru is going to die! This time is different—the danger index is off the charts!]

Over and over, it drove Takizawa into a panic. He raced back with the greatest speed he had ever mustered. The overwhelming dread left his hands numb, but he pushed himself to the absolute limit. As he neared the school, he saw a massive swarm of low-level curses darkening the sky.

How could this be? What happened?

The question in his heart amplified his unease. The wound on his abdomen began to throb as if it might split open. Takizawa cursed his own weakness and kept running.

Suddenly, he felt a chill in his chest. Takizawa stopped abruptly, reaching out to touch his chest. His clothes were intact, and he wasn't wounded, but the feeling of a cold blade piercing him had lasted only a second—yet it was no hallucination. Simultaneously, his internal radar went berserk. Takizawa heard the system declare: [First blood. He is injured.]

What Gojo never knew was... whenever he was hurt, Takizawa could feel it.

Takizawa was, after all, just a tool created to protect and accompany him.

As he got closer, everything came into view. What met his eyes was a scene that made his heart stop and his vision blur with rage—

A sharp blade was driven into Gojo’s neck, and without a moment’s pause, it was ruthlessly slashed diagonally downward.

"Rip—"

The sound of tearing flesh was like the background noise of a horror story, and the blood splattering through the air did not belong to just one person.

Toji Fushiguro, who had come to assassinate him, widened his eyes slightly, staring in disbelief at the Takizawa who had suddenly burst into his field of vision.

Those emerald, vibrant eyes were now filled with a heaven-shaking fury.

The cursed tool embedded in the Six Eyes’ body was held fast by Takizawa’s bare hand. A cold, long blade of unknown material sliced through the air near a vital point. Toji barely managed to dodge, forced to pull back the Inverted Spear of Heaven and abandon his follow-up attacks.

A pity. He had been one strike away from plunging the blade into the Six Eyes’ brain, though this was effectively a fatal wound anyway.

Toji wiped the blood seeping from his shoulder with his thumb. The look of surprise in his eyes had not faded; he looked with interest at the young man who was frantically clutching Gojo.

"Satoru..." Takizawa called out, trembling, holding Gojo’s waist to keep him from collapsing.

"Cough..." A massive amount of blood surged from Gojo’s throat. He instinctively pressed his hand against the arm Takizawa had wrapped around his waist. His grip was strong, yet after a brief contact, he tried to push Takizawa away. He seemed unable to form even a single coherent syllable.

Takizawa knew he was telling him to run.

Gojo thought he couldn't beat this guy.

But so what? How could Takizawa ever run?

"Yo," Toji, taking in the scene, rested the Inverted Spear of Heaven on his shoulder. "Is this a play about brotherly love?"

Takizawa didn't answer. His mind was clouded with rage. After settling Gojo down, he gripped his cursed tool, ready to fight. It was clear: if he didn't take this man out, they wouldn't be able to get to Shoko for treatment. The system in his head was also urging him—if this man escaped and walked freely into the school, it would lead to something that would affect Gojo.

Affect Satoru? What could it be?

[It is something detrimental to his personality.]

Takizawa had no time to consider this. The assassin, hired by someone unknown, clearly had a strong desire to communicate.

"You’re that... ah, I remember, the brat by the Six Eyes’ side," Toji said, a careless smile on his lips. "Isn’t this great? He dies, and you’re free."

As soon as he finished speaking, his figure vanished from the spot, moving with a speed the naked eye of an ordinary person could not track. Takizawa’s pupils constricted. He instinctively raised his hands to block, immediately feeling a numbing, dull pain in his palms. The pair of similar green eyes looking back at him held cold, murderous intent and indifferent mockery.

"Who sent you?" Takizawa’s voice was hoarse, his throat tight from the extreme tension. "How much did they pay you? I’ll give you triple!"

"Yo, aren't you a big spender," Toji said flippantly. "But in our line of work, we have to value our reputation. I can’t just sell out a client because of a word from the target."

Since communication failed, Takizawa stopped wasting his breath. Every strike of his long blade aimed for Toji’s vitals. He tried his best to track the movements of the Heavenly Restriction. In just a few seconds, they exchanged several blows. A kick that sent him flying actually gave him a moment to breathe and break away from the melee.

Takizawa coughed up blood. A large, dark stain spread across his abdomen.

The slash of the cursed tool followed close behind. Takizawa’s eyes widened, but the sharp tip veered away a second before touching him, as if it had been deflected by a force from the side.

Toji stared at his own weapon, then turned his gaze toward Gojo Satoru.

The Six Eyes were locked onto him, the blood splattered on his face tracing shocking paths down his cheeks, even his eyelashes stained crimson. He maintained the hand gesture for his technique, the rage and killing intent between his brows overwhelming, his azure irises nearly bursting with fury.