Inside the forest, Satoru Gojo and Jin stood more than ten meters apart, facing one another.
Gojo deactivated the Limitless and crooked a finger toward Jin in the distance.
“Come on.”
Jin exhaled a cloud of smoke and suddenly spoke.
“My cursed technique is pretty obvious.
I simply create and control fire.”
A hint of surprise appeared on Gojo’s face.
“You already know about Revealing One’s Hand?”
Revealing One’s Hand—disclosing information about one’s own cursed technique in exchange for sacrificing the information advantage and increasing the technique’s power.
Jin didn’t answer.
He pinched the remaining third of his cigarette between his thumb and middle finger.
The cigarette slowly burned, dark-red sparks glowing faintly amid the ash.
Gojo paused.
That was the classic starting gesture he himself used when activating a technique.
Jin smiled faintly and flicked the cigarette butt with his fingers.
It shot through the air, scattering sparks and ash.
The next second, violently surging flames erupted behind it.
The air distorted beneath the intense heat.
A fan-shaped wave of fire several meters wide incinerated everything in its path as it rushed toward Gojo with terrifying heat.
“So hot~”
Gojo raised a hand and fanned the air in front of himself, casually complaining.
He reinforced his body with cursed energy, pushed off the ground, and dodged sideways, leaving an afterimage behind.
By the time Gojo’s figure reappeared, he was already outside the range of the flames.
WHOOSH!
Fire roared past him.
Large sections of the forest ignited, orange-red flames illuminating half the sky.
Gojo turned his head and looked around for Jin, but found nothing.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
The broad stream of flames suddenly churned as countless fire bullets shot from within it.
Gojo stood exactly where he was without the slightest intention of dodging.
He raised one hand and casually slapped the incoming fire bullets aside as though swatting annoying mosquitoes.
Turning his gaze toward the direction they had come from, Gojo still couldn’t sense Jin’s presence.
Then Jin suddenly burst out from inside the stream of fire.
Both hands were thrown behind him, massive pillars of flame erupting from his palms.
The tremendous propulsion launched him forward.
Jin tore through the air and arrived at Gojo’s rear flank in the blink of an eye.
Gojo seemed to sense something and slightly turned to look behind him.
Jin’s short silver hair whipped through the air, his left arm wrapped in blazing fire.
Twisting his body, he drove a heavy punch toward the back of Gojo’s head.
Gojo lightly tapped the ground with one foot.
His body moved like an agile cat, narrowly avoiding the blow.
BOOM!
The powerful punch smashed into the ground.
Spiderweb-like cracks rapidly spread outward from the point of impact.
Flames erupted, and the battlefield instantly transformed into a sea of fire.
A few beads of sweat appeared on Gojo’s forehead.
Even with cursed energy protecting his body, there was no way to completely avoid the effects of the heat.
Gojo stood less than half a body-length away from Jin, who was still bent over after punching the ground, and calmly offered his assessment.
“Good tactic, but you’re too slow.”
“No matter how powerful your cursed technique is, it’s useless if you can’t hit your opponent.”
“Now it’s my turn.”
He raised his long leg and whipped it toward Jin’s back, leaving an afterimage behind.
His shin passed straight through Jin’s torso, sending reversed flames surging upward.
The strange sensation of kicking empty air reached him, and Gojo’s mind immediately accelerated.
‘I missed?’
His brilliant blue eyes narrowed as he instantly understood the key.
‘No…
his body turned into fire!’
After using elementalization to avoid the attack, Jin’s lips curved into a smile.
He rapidly spun around, coating his lower leg in pitch-black Armament Haki.
A spinning kick swept toward Gojo’s right leg, which was still planted on the ground.
Crack!
Their leg bones collided with a sharp sound.
Gojo instantly lost his balance and began falling sideways.
Jin slapped the ground to propel himself upward.
His fist turned black as he punched toward Gojo’s face.
Gojo reacted incredibly quickly and threw a punch of his own.
BAM!
Their fists collided, sending an invisible shockwave outward.
Gojo noticed the strange change in Jin’s fist and looked thoughtful.
‘That black coating…
some kind of special reinforcement method?’
Even without adding a cursed technique, Gojo’s punches were terrifyingly heavy when reinforced purely with cursed energy.
A tremendous force came through their fists, making Jin grit his teeth.
Their cursed energy reinforcement wasn’t on the same level.
Even stacking Armament Haki on top, Jin still wasn’t his match.
His fist was forced downward.
Once the pressure exceeded what he could withstand, it instantly dispersed into flames.
But Jin had expected something like this.
As the strongest modern sorcerer in Punch-and-Kick Kaisen, Gojo’s close-combat ability was naturally top-tier as well.
Sensing the violent fluctuation of cursed energy inside Jin’s body, Gojo quickly leaned backward in an attempt to dodge.
The distance between them was almost nonexistent.
Jin opened his mouth wide and aimed directly at Gojo’s head.
BOOM!
An extremely compressed orange-red pillar of flame instantly blasted from his mouth.
Gojo’s body was swallowed by the fire and sent flying backward.
At the same time, the tremendous force carried by Gojo’s punch completely blew apart Jin’s body.
Only a large mass of flames remained, rolling in place.
Gojo flew backward and slid several meters when he landed, the soles of his shoes carving two blackened marks through the ground.
He raised a hand, tore off his burning blindfold, and casually tossed it aside.
His brilliant blue eyes were exposed to the air, traces of surprise still visible in his pupils.
“Scary.
I almost got my hair burned.”
Hidden beneath his Jujutsu High uniform, the skin on Gojo’s left arm was slightly reddened.
But in an instant, the redness disappeared and the skin returned to its pale color.
The surrounding flames gathered together and reformed into Jin’s body.
His chest rose and fell as he panted slightly.
Using continuous large-scale fire attacks consumed enormous amounts of cursed energy.
Especially that final attack he’d fired from his mouth.
Jin rolled his shoulder and spoke with a calm expression.
“Your punches are pretty strong, but…
if you can’t hit me, they’re still useless.”
Having his own words returned to him almost word for word, Gojo raised his brilliant blue eyes and met Jin’s gaze.
He smiled helplessly.
Now he finally understood a little of what other people felt when facing the Limitless—helplessness and frustration.
“That was beyond my expectations.”
Gojo dusted off his clothes.
“Your cursed technique doesn’t just let you create and control fire.
You can even turn your own body into flames.”
“You’re practically some legendary fire god.
Isn’t that way too unfair?”
He tilted his head.
His tone remained frivolous, but his eyes suddenly sharpened.
“I can’t hit you at all.
But if I can’t hit you at all…
why did you forbid me from using my cursed technique before the fight?”
The corner of Gojo’s mouth slowly lifted.
Those Six Eyes seemed to have completely seen through Jin.
“What are you afraid of?”
“There’s a cost, isn’t there?”
He answered his own question, brilliant blue eyes fixed on Jin’s face.
“Since it’s a cursed technique, naturally it consumes cursed energy.”
“Being attacked can’t possibly be free for you.”
Jin neither denied nor confirmed it.
He simply stood there quietly while flames burned soundlessly around his feet.
“So what?
I’ve still got plenty of cursed energy.
If you want to turn this into a battle of attrition, go ahead and try.”
The corner of Jin’s mouth rose as he crooked a finger toward Gojo.
“I’ll make you despair over how stupid that idea was.”
[Battle Time: 1 min 13 sec]
He still had slightly less than half his cursed energy remaining.
Once he lasted two minutes and claimed the system reward, his cursed energy would instantly refill and increase by a large amount.
Gojo stared at him, then suddenly burst into delighted laughter.
“Interesting!
If I don’t have to worry about hurting you, then I can really cut loose!”
He grabbed the Jujutsu High uniform jacket he was wearing and pulled it off, revealing the white shirt underneath.