There are countless terms to describe foolishness, but in this moment, perhaps the most fitting was arrogance.
Natsuki Subaru epitomized it.
He should have been more perceptive. He should have realized that Gojo had no recollection of him and should have planned accordingly, understanding that the man he once knew had transformed into someone entirely different.
What his young mentor had said was not incorrect. Almost everything about him had changed.
Every shared struggle, every moment over the past year in this world—it was all erased from the only mind that mattered.
Subaru gazed vacantly at the crater in the wall—the harsh indentation where he had been thrown.
Then he looked down at the ground, which had failed to break him when he wished, if only for a moment, that it had.
I'm superhuman—but what can I do with it?
This strength of mine… it's merely a façade.
A mask to conceal what I truly am: an idiot. A fool. A worthless brat.
I possess all this power… and I couldn't even save the one who granted it to me.
I was rescued—and I can't return the favor.
What good is strength if I remain powerless?
What does it matter if I can demolish buildings, when I couldn't alter fate—even though I'm the only one who truly can?!
Gradually, he pushed himself up—not from injury, but from despair. A profound, hollow ache that had nothing to do with broken bones.
This power hasn't transformed me at all.
Why? Why is that?!
It means nothing if I can't wield it alongside you.
I'm still just… inadequate.
Petty... Small...
So please, Gojo-sensei… Don't abandon me.
Even if it's my fault you don't remember.
Even if I don't deserve it…
Just grant me one more chance.
That's all I ask.
He paused, the distant explosions fading into white noise as his hand gripped the half-destroyed wall beside him, stone cracking under his hold.
"Then… I should just do it again… right?" he murmured to himself. "Well, y-yeah… I have the power to… It's just… using my power for good."
But was that the truth?
Or was it merely selfishness disguised in its purest form?
Gojo-sensei was truly gone. Clinging to a version of him that no longer existed—wasn't that fundamentally wrong?
To attempt to alter the fate of someone who had no interest in him…
"Uff… huff…"
His heart pounded against his ribs. A trembling hand rose, index and middle fingers pressing firmly against his temple.
Wasn't that wrong?
Wasn't that hypocrisy at its finest?
He had already made a vow in Priestella with Aldebaran, who had pulled him from the brink of despair when Emilia had been kidnapped—a promise not to misuse Return by Death. Not to manipulate time for his own selfish desires or futile reasons.
"———"
But… who would even know?
That future would cease to exist, so of course, nobody would—
He could do things differently this time.
It would be better for everyone—
Less damage to Guaral overall—
A better chance against Arakiya—
A clean slate entirely—
It would be… better.
"———"
And yet he still felt nausea, mania clinging to his fractured soul—his rapidly beating heart seeming to slow as if resigning to what was about to unfold.
And yet—— and yet and yet and yet and yet!!
A voice that was not his own, laced with mania, cackled through his mind, reminding him of what he was, what he is, and what he would always be.
Natsuki Subaru collapsed to his knees, his hand falling limply to the rubble.
Sloth... sloth... sloth, sloth sloth sloth! YOU, ARE SLOTH!
For he was not diligent enough to change what could be changed.
"This isn't… right… I—— I can't…"
His hands rose to cover his face, hiding the ugliness twisting his features from the world.
"…What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do?!"
He couldn't even muster the strength to keep a promise.
Was that just sad? Or was it something entirely different?
Most people would deem it just and fair—after all, even if he were to break a promise, it was for the greater good of his mentor and his closest friend.
But that wasn't entirely true either.
It was purely out of Subaru's own selfishness that he wanted to bring Gojo back.
His best friend and savior wanted nothing to do with him, yet he couldn't accept that reality.
He refused to accept that the "Gojo-sensei" he once knew was likely gone forever.
——He simply couldn't come to terms with that.
The thought of retreating back into isolation...
Returning to the person he was before this entire journey made him feel nauseous, for he despised that version of himself more than anything else in the world.
Gojo had pulled him from that darkness and delusion without even realizing it—so how could he possibly live without someone like that?
Tears streamed between his fingers, a raw acknowledgment that no matter how hard he tried to conceal it, he could never escape from himself.
"…What should I do?"
The last whisper was so faint it was nearly inaudible.
——Almost. But sometimes, the quietest despair resonates the loudest with those who are watching and care.
"Well… brother, that's not a question I can easily answer."
Subaru flinched, his hands falling from his face. Through tear-blurred vision, he saw a figure looming over him—wearing mismatched clothing, a helmet obscuring his face, with one hand resting on the hilt of a sword.
"…A-Al?" Subaru whispered, his voice trembling.
He had no idea how the man was there, or more importantly, why—
He simply didn't want anyone to witness him in such a vulnerable state.
Especially not someone who had come from Japan like him.
Aldebaran—Al—sighed at the sight of Subaru, the sound muffled by his helm.
Quickly, he crouched down, not too close, but near enough.
"Yeah, it's me. Though you look like you've seen a ghost, bro. Or maybe something worse."
Al tilted his head, his single eyeslit focusing on Subaru and his despair.
"I saw what happened back there. With the white-haired guy. That was, uh... rough."
Subaru looked away, shame burning in his throat.
"You saw… everything?"
"Yeah, we flew into this place, but aside from that, I saw enough to know you're punishing yourself for something beyond your control." Al said, his tone surprisingly gentle.
"But I c——"
"Look, I don't know the whole story... and I find that guy pretty unsettling, but I recognize that look."
Al pointed at Subaru's chest.
"That's the look of someone who thinks they have to bear the weight of the world alone. And let me tell you, bro… the world is heavy. It'll crush you if you let it."
"What... do you... what do YOU KNOW?!" He suddenly shouted, his fist crashing down and cracking the ground.
HUH? Tell me, tell me now!! What do you know?! Do you think you understand what I'm going through right now? Is that seriously what you're going to say?! Come on, do better than that! Actually, no.... no, no, NO, don't—— just forget about me, just leave me here...!"
"———"
Al leaned back as Subaru erupted in anger.
"He was there from the very beginning, you know? Since this entire… this entire mess started! He gave me strength, he gave me purpose, he saved me from being the useless, pathetic little kid I once was! And now… he's gone! Now he wants nothing to do with me—— the very same me who can't live without all of that, because he's the one who made it all matter! But then… what meaning is there without him?!"
"———"
"I don't want everything I did to be forgotten like the rest of the world, by HIM too!! If he doesn't know either, if he doesn't care about that curse then——I've got… I've got NOTHING!! All I am is Subaru, a worthless piece of trash with strength that doesn't even——"
Despite the impossibly slow strike that came toward him, he didn't move to evade it.
The blow struck his cheek, causing real pain due to the lack of reinforcement.
Silenced by his despair, the sting on his cheek served as a firm and resolute reminder of the entire situation.
"....I often ask myself, does everything fall apart? Or does it just change?" Al shrugged.
"Fate's a funny thing, bro. You think you can steer it like a car... trust me, I did too.... but sometimes the wheels come off, sometimes the road simply ends. And sometimes… people forget."
Al lowered his head, shaking it quietly.
"You aren't alone, brother—— Natsuki Subaru. I might not remember either, but I know—— plus, you're not exactly alone in this either... unless, you got your memories eaten by Gluttony too?"
Subaru's movements froze, his pupils contracting and trembling at those words.
Yes, indeed—he had never truly been alone, had he?
Perhaps, in the context of Returning by Death, he was—yet that was a fate he would not wish upon even his worst enemy.
From the very first day he arrived here, he had people to support him—despite the challenges he had to overcome.
Satoru Gojo was not the only one standing by his side.
—Emilia, Beako, Rem, Ram, Otto, Garfiel, Julius, Wilhelm... even Reinhard, among others.
Al reached out, placing a hand on Subaru's shoulder.
"That frustrating guy… he doesn't remember you, yeah? I recall our conversation in Priestella—that's tough. It really is. But trying to force it like that… that's not helping him, man. That's just tormenting him."
Subaru stared, his breath caught in his throat.
"What am I supposed to do then?" he whispered. "If I can't save him… what's the point?"
"The point," Al replied, standing and extending his hand, "is that you're still choosing to be here, still choosing to breathe. And there are still people in this city who need you. Not as a 'Savior.' Not as a 'Hero.' Just as Natsuki Subaru."
He gestured toward the distant chaos—where Arakiya and Gojo were clashing, and where new disturbances were brewing.
"My Princess is out there. She's probably going to need backup against that guy if she doesn't watch her words, which, knowing her, she definitely won't. So, what do you say, man? Are you going to sit here and dwell on the past? Or are you going to rise up and fight for the future?"
Subaru looked at Al's outstretched hand.
At the ruins surrounding him.
At the echo of Gojo's cold words.
He is gone. All that remains is me.
Subaru wiped his eyes. A steely determination settled in his gaze.
"You're... right, I'm sorry..." he murmured, taking Al's hand. "I can't—I won't change the past... but I will fight."
Al didn't respond to the apology but pulled him up nonetheless, giving him a reassuring clap on the back.
"That's the spirit, man. Now come on. Let's go save the day. Again."
A fierce intensity ignited in Subaru's eyes as he steadied himself. He took a step forward, then another, a silent vow etched into his resolve.
I refuse to let it end this way.
Gojo-sensei, I'll show you I'm not someone you can overlook—even if it means facing rejection a thousand times.
Even if I have to be the one to confront it.
——I refuse!!
———————————————————
The dust gradually settled, unveiling the scene of dominance amidst the devastated street.
At the center stood Priscilla Barielle, her presence emanating like an unyielding sun. Facing her, emerging from the crater she had created, was Arakiya.
The Spirit Eater appeared… transformed. The primal, unrestrained fury that had once fueled her confrontation with Gojo had dissipated, replaced by a quivering calmness. Her single red eye was wide, locked onto Priscilla with an intensity that bordered on worship.
"Prisca…!" Arakiya whispered, the name escaping her lips as a fragile, aching sound.
Priscilla's expression remained unyielding. If anything, it grew even more severe. She regarded the Divine General not as a sister or friend, but as a profoundly disappointing subject.
"Do not utter that name with such familiarity, mongrel," Priscilla said, her voice sharp as a blade. "You, who have debased yourself in service of a false throne. You, who rampage through my city like a feral beast. You are an eyesore."
Arakiya flinched as if struck. She took a hesitant step forward, her hands outstretched and trembling.
"I… I did it for you. Everything… for you."
"For me?" Priscilla's scoff was a dismissive flick of her wrist. "Do not deceive yourself. You acted out of weakness. You need a master to give your hollow existence purpose. And when I left, you simply found another leash to cling to."
In the next moment, she swung the renowned Yang Sword, the flames igniting a perfect line mere inches from Arakiya's feet—then, she leveled that unwavering edge directly at Arakiya's heart.
"You are a weapon, Arakiya. Nothing more. And a weapon that cannot choose its wielder is of no use to me."
Arakiya's face crumpled. Tears welled, carving paths through the grime and blood on her cheeks. It was a pitiful sight—one of the Empire's most formidable forces reduced to a weeping supplicant by a few harsh words.
Satoru Gojo observed from his perch on a nearby rooftop, his legs dangling over the edge.
The Six Eyes looked down at the scene with interest, but his posture was that of an intrigued spectator at a brutal performance.
So they know each other. That orange-haired girl's arrogance is something else… I kinda like it~
He made no move to intervene. His confrontation with Arakiya had been about containment, about preventing disaster. This was something entirely different—a personal reckoning he had no stake in.
"However," Priscilla continued, her tone shifting almost imperceptibly. Her crimson gaze lifted, finding Gojo on the rooftop.
"It seems you have found an… interesting plaything, mongrel."
Arakiya blinked, looking up at Gojo as if noticing him for the first time since her rampage had ceased.
"He… is strong," she murmured, her voice hollow. "He does not break."
"I wonder if that is truly the case…" Priscilla mused. "He reminds me of another fool. A commoner who confuses clinging to shadows with possessing strength."
Gojo raised an eyebrow, a smirk playing on his lips.
"Hey, hey!" he called down, hopping off the ledge and landing gracefully between them. "Don't talk about people behind their backs. It's rude, Princess~."
Priscilla turned her full attention to him. The air thickened—not with mana, but with the sheer, colliding weight of two colossal egos.
"I am no mere Princess, jester. Everything you see with those strange eyes of yours belongs to me and me alone—"
"I don't reaaaaally care about that...." Gojo interrupted, sliding his hands into his pockets. "What I do care about is what you stand for. Because if you're here to claim this place, I'll be stopping you."
He glanced at Arakiya, who now seemed more wounded than wrathful—though she still appeared mere moments away from attempting to pounce on him despite her exhaustion.
"Technically, you and I are on the same side here. Or at least, we're not enemies. You were sent here for a reason, right? I just want to ensure innocent people don't die."
Gojo's grin was sharp and confident.
"So, how about we stop wrecking the city and start talking? Unless you want to go another round, Ara-chan?"
Arakiya's mana flared for an instant, a reflexive spark of anger, but a single sharp look from Priscilla extinguished it completely.
"You speak with a great deal of confidence for a failure." Priscilla stated, her voice laced with mocking amusement.
Gojo's grin faltered.
"Failure?"
"Yes, jester—a failure. Word has spread of your dismal performance in Priestella. I take it you are here merely to mitigate another such loss? Do you truly believe that simply forgetting and moving on is the wisest course?"
"———"
Gojo's brow furrowed, but Priscilla continued, utterly indifferent to the shift in his demeanor.
"Your performance was so poor, so utterly lacking, that you would rather forget it entirely and start anew here, as a child, at that? How… convenient. Such an act is truly befitting that new appearance of yours."
The temperature in the ruined plaza seemed to plummet.
Gojo withdrew his hands from his pockets, and the atmosphere shifted dramatically.
The playful demeanor he once had vanished, replaced by an oppressive tension that caused the debris around him to quiver.
He couldn't recall the specifics of Priestella—only snippets of what others had shared.
Yet, the memories of his own experiences remained vivid: the grief, the helplessness, the painful acknowledgment that Suguru was lost to him, and that he had been bested by the one who had taken his friend's body.
This was a wound he had been attempting to heal, and she had just reopened it with ruthless accuracy.
"Mind your words, lady," Gojo murmured, his voice low and dangerously composed. "You don't know anything about me."
"Evidently so," Priscilla shot back, her brows knitting together under the weight of the tension in the air as she aimed the Yang Sword directly at Gojo. "Considering I was generous enough to overestimate your character."
"I'll repeat myself, lady—you have no understanding of my character."
His attempt to appear menacing fell flat, undermined by the palpable tension in the air and, more notably, by his current appearance—that of a child no older than ten.
"Hah? I know more than enough about you, Satoru Gojo——you're arrogant, immature, and utterly foolish… especially to think you could challenge mineself for the throne of Lugunica. While your jests were somewhat entertaining to hear before, but now…? Your very presence is nothing more than an eyesore."
In that moment, Priscilla assumed a battle-ready stance.
"How foolish of you to stand against mineself and the Empire. I shall claim your head here and now!"
This was different from before. That weapon was formidable, but it couldn't penetrate the Infinity like that Cursed Tool used by the fake-Geto.
And, that's not even mentioning the fact that…
——I completely outmatch her.
Gojo merely clicked his tongue before taking a step forward, leaping down from the edge of the building to land directly in front of Priscilla and Arakiya.
"I suppose I'll have to knock you down a peg or two for a while."
Neither fighter moved immediately. The tension in the air escalated, the impending battle drawing closer with each passing second of silence.
However, the moment was abruptly interrupted by the arrival of a third party, slicing through the standoff effortlessly.
"———?"
Gojo glanced to his left as a pebble shot forth like a bullet, only to slow to a halt against the Infinity.
With a sigh, he subtly manipulated the space around him, pushing back with enough force to send the stone hurtling toward its origin at an even greater speed than it had been thrown.
"———Oh?"
Raising a brow, Gojo turned his full attention in that direction.
He spotted the individual who had caught the stone, now steaming in his palm.
Those unsettling eyes met his with unwavering determination.
"Well, I suppose I should say I'm glad to see you're all right~?" Gojo teased with a smirk.
Aldebaran exhaled, glancing at Subaru's raised hand—the very one that had intercepted the stone he had thrown, the one that would have caused significant harm if it hadn't been stopped.
"…Thanks for that, brother. You really saved my skin."
Natsuki Subaru smiled before letting the pebble fall and straightening to his full height.
"Starting right here, right now——"
Subaru's thumb that was raised toward the sky had twisted to face the ground.
"Gojo-sensei, you're going down!"
Priscilla did not find the scene amusing. Instead, she swiftly approached the tanned woman nearby, who appeared furious at Gojo's taunts.
"You dare mock——!?"
In her moment of distraction, the hilt of the Yang Sword struck the back of Arakiya's head with enough force to render her unconscious.
Gojo felt a wave of relief at watching such a scene.
Things would have no doubt become quite troublesome if the Spirit Eater had involved herself again.
"Haaa… I mean, dude, I really respect your confidence—it's totally badass and probably makes you feel great, that's for sure~ but surely… you can't be serious. You can't actually think you have a chance in this fight."
He spoke casually to Subaru, and in a way, he wasn't wrong.
At a glance—even in his current childish state—he possessed more than enough power and capability to take down everyone present.
After all, the difference between what Natsuki Subaru considered a transcendent fighter and someone merely superhuman was like comparing night and day.
In that fleeting moment—an impossibly brief interval of time—Satoru Gojo had already made his move.
Rather than simply sprinting forward as a majority of people would, he warped, vanishing entirely from the view of everyone present.
The two ends of space converged, and he reappeared directly above the astonished Natsuki Subaru. With a swift motion, he raised his leg high, preparing to bring it crashing down onto the black-haired man's head.
"——Above!"
A voice rang out just in time, prompting Subaru to instinctively twist to the side. He narrowly avoided the kick and countered with a jab—one that was predictably halted by the barrier of Infinity.
Gojo furrowed his brows in confusion and immediately launched another attack, this time a horizontal kick that had yet to be imbued with Blue.
"——Right!"
Once again, Subaru dodged, ducking beneath the swing. The motion forced Satoru to slide back along the ground, retreating momentarily in thought.
As he steadied himself, he observed the pair with keen interest.
Subaru stood tall and exhaled deeply.
"Nice job, Al… just as I suspected… he's not as fast as I remember—either he's still injured, or his body is holding him back!"
"——Geez, the things I do for you, bro…"
Gojo's Six Eyes locked onto the helmeted member of the duo, astonishment evident on his face—a reaction he couldn't quite suppress.
The source of his shock was the large blade the helmeted man kept pressed against his own neck at all times.
"——Hah? Hey, are you, like, suicidal or something? What's up with that? Creepy as hell."
Gojo's voice was light, but his posture had shifted.
The casual arrogance was still there, but beneath it, the Six Eyes were analyzing, dissecting.
He had moved faster than sound.
He had warped space itself. Yet, twice now, the black-haired boy—Subaru—had dodged with preternatural timing.
And the source of that timing was the helmeted man, Al.
Al didn't lower the blade from his neck. He just shrugged, the metal of his helmet clinking with the motion.
"Suicidal? Nah. Just… thorough. You gotta be thorough when you're dealing with a monster, right?"
Gojo tilted his head, the grin on his face returning.
"Monster? That's rude. I'm adorable!"
He vanished once more.
This time, he didn't aim for a simple strike. He appeared behind Subaru, his small hand glowing with blue cursed energy. He aimed a palm thrust at Subaru's spine—a blow meant to incapacitate, not kill, but at this speed, the difference was academic.
"——Behind! Drop!"
Al's voice cracked like a whip.
Subaru dropped to the ground instantly, legs bending at the last moment to allow him to narrow evade at the last moment.
Gojo's palm thrust passed through the empty air where Subaru's back had been a millisecond before. The shockwave of the attack blew a hole in the cobblestones ahead, sending debris flying.
Gojo landed, spinning on his heel—— the only difference this time was the frown on his face.
"Okay. That's.... annoying."
He stared at Al. The helmeted man was trembling visibly now, sweat beading on the exposed skin of his neck.
He's reacting to my attacks before I make them. I'm objectively faster than both of them by quite a wide margin—— so how?
"How are you doing that?" Gojo's voice dropped. "I know you can barely even see my movements, let alone think of a way to avoid it quick enough. So how?"
Al gave a slight shrug.
"Trade secret, kid. Let's just say I've got a knack for… trial and error."
Gojo's eyes narrowed from those words.
Trial and error.
He didn't like the sound of that.
He's predicting me. Somehow. Does it have something to do with the sword? But how the hell does that even make sense?
"Fine. Be like that." Gojo cracked his knuckles. "Let's see how many errors it takes before you slip up."
Sorry, Fortress City. I won't go balls to the wall and destroy everything, but I'm gonna have to get a little rougher.
The moment Gojo's eyes sharpened, both Subaru and Al felt it—a primal spike of alarm.
"Let's see what good predicting something like this'll do, SHALL WE?!"
But the distance between them was strangely large, the helmeted man had stayed at that distance as best he could up to this point——Subaru had already grabbed Al and pivoted into a dead sprint before Gojo even finished the sentence.
What is this...? it's as if he knows what move I'm going to make before it even happens!
This wasn't prediction anymore. This was certainty.
Unfun. Very, very unfun.
"——Tch. In that case…"
He didn't unleash Blue at maximum output in this place, that would be absurd.
Instead, orbs of compressed attraction wreathed his fists, dragging chunks of debris into his orbit as he drove forward.
His speed closed the gap instantly. He saw the split-second shock on Subaru's face, the realization that evasion was no longer possible—
And brought his fist down, to make sure that the first blow unleashed, would also be the last.
Yet somehow, it didn't land—— despite the fact he was drastically faster than the opponents who couldn't move to evade.
Instead, something—invisible, imperceptible, impossible—had pushed his arm aside.
Not deflected. Redirected. A force that even the Six Eyes couldn't register, couldn't analyze, couldn't even confirm existed.
Yet it had happened, so therefore, it was.
Gojo's expression fractured into genuine shock.
——BOOM!!
The compressed Blue detonated against the ground from the near-miss, creating a perfect crater over a dozen meters in diameter. Everything within its radius was dragged toward the center like a black hole's echo.
Almost everything.
"Dona—!"
A massive chunk of earth magic that formed between Al, Subaru and Gojo was swallowed by the implosion instead of them.
Subaru rolled across the rubble, shielding Al's body with cursed energy—— which had surprisingly allowed them both to emerge relatively unscathed.
"...What a damn monster…!" Al grimaced.
"——I'd say we're faring pretty well, considering who we're fighting..." Subaru muttered with a frown.
Gojo opened his mouth to speak—
And a wave of fire engulfed him.
It didn't burn. It didn't consume. It simply halted, inches from his skin, defeated by the infinite. He glanced sideways at the Yang Sword suspended inches from his throat, and at Priscilla's irritated click of her tongue.
"Do none of you get it," he said flatly, "or are you all just stupid?"
"Silence, jester." Priscilla's voice was ice. "The moment mineself and Aldebaran over there deemed you an adversary, there was no future for you to be had."
Al offered no rebuttal despite the nickname he despised, he simply waited.
Gojo's grin returned, sharp and edged.
"That's some faith you've got. Not that I can blame you—the prediction, no, the bullshittery that is his future sight is quite the power. And that's coming from me of all people. Almost enough to make me jealous."
His foot slammed against the flat of the Yang Sword. The impact blasted Priscilla backward, sending her skidding across the rubble.
"Almost, that is~"
A stalemate. Destined to be stuck here forever fighting people I can take out in a heartbeat?
As if!
As Priscilla engaged once more, she swung the legendary weapon in a downward arc ontop of Gojo who had merely stood still and allowed Infinity to block it, before twisting and around the halted sword and driving a palm into her stomach.
"——Hrk!!"
He paid little attention to the woman after she was sent flying away from his attack.
Everything was on the helmeted man—— Aldebaran, that guy was dangerous, someone he underestimated drastically in their first meeting.
He needed something so absurd, so incomprehensible, that no amount of future sight could anticipate it.
What did the girl say, before?
A grin—genuine this time—split through his annoyance. An idea crystallized in fractions of a second.
His left arm snapped upward. Al's blade, still pressed against his own throat, drew closer as if he were about to slit his own throat—
"——Jiwald."
The incantation felt foreign on his tongue. But it still somehow worked despite that.
A thin beam of light—imperceptible to everyone except the Six Eyes that had witnessed it before—struck Al's sword at the hilt.
The sudden force seared his palm, blasted burns up his wrist, and forcefully ripped the weapon from his grasp.
"———!"
Al's eyes flared beneath his helmet, he gritted through the pain and in an instant—— he lunged for the blade.
Though, unfortunately for him, he was far too slow.
Blue snatched it from the air, embedding it point-first into the ground before Gojo's feet.
That spell exhausted my Gate somewhat, huh.
So what if I focus the Six Eyes onto the Gate itself? In essence, cursed energy and mana are inherently similar. Sure, they have their differences, but in the end... it might take a little bit of practice before it's just muscle memory—— but I should be able to become just as efficient with how I use mana, like how I use cursed energy.
"Now then.... a test to see if that's true or not——"
"——Now, bro!!"
Gojo's eyes snapped to Al.
There's little fear on those eyes of his, did he know this was going to happen too?
Had he made the wrong choice? Was the weapon not the source of his future sight?
No, no... it had to be. This is just bluff——trying to confuse me.
He looked at Subaru who even now didn't move even an inch.
No cursed energy or mana that moved to resemble a spell or attack. Just the wind, therefore, there was no possible way for an attack to come his way.
He's stalling. Trying to make me hesitate while he tries to get back that sword of his.
Gojo wouldn't fall for it—— Natsuki Subaru was not the threat here, after all.
Thus, upon raising his hand, for a second time, he spoke the words that the Spirit Eater had used before.
"El Jiwa——!!"
He never finished, no, it was better to say, he never even had the chance to finish.
Because, something bypassed Infinity like it wasn't even there.
Something ignored his Cursed Energy Reinforcement like it did not even exist.
All he could feel was an impact against his chin.
And then—— there was only darkness.
———————————————————
"——Invisible Providence."
Despite the insanity coursing through his psyche, threatening to tear his mind apart, Subaru envisioned it just as he had the first time he used this new ability.
He imagined a hand. An unstoppable, infallible hand.
And with a singular, yet surprisingly powerful unseen strike to the cheek, the white-haired boy was knocked unconscious—— blasted off his feet and hitting the cobblestones a moment later with a soft thud.
"———!"
Subaru watched as the spectral arm vanished into nothingness, leaving only the unconscious child before him.
His own hand was trembling. Not from fear, but from the sheer impossibility of what he had just done.
It had been a gamble from the very start. From the moment he engaged Gojo to the climax of the fight, he didn't know if this new technique would even work. But in the end, it was his only option.
So, he had poured all his hope into Invisible Providence.
The purple fist had not only worked, but it had gone beyond just bypassing Infinity as he originally hoped for—— it had completely ignored any level of reinforcement Gojo might have had active on his body. It struck true, bypassing the laws of physics that protected his teacher from almost any attack.
"I know you said you had a surprise waiting, but a purple hand coming out of your chest was definitely not what I had in mind."
Al sighed, clutching his burnt wrist. He walked over to where Gojo lay unconscious, nudging him gently with his boot.
"That got real uncomfortable at the end there, too..."
"You can see it, huh?" Subaru asked, his voice hoarse. "How does that work? 'Cause Gojo-sensei definitely couldn't see it. Otherwise, that would've never worked."
Al only gave a shrug in response, the metal of his armor clinking softly.
But the realization of it all had finally set in, and Subaru couldn't help but mutter.
"...Though... I actually hit him?"
"Yeah, you did. Knocked him out cold." Al chuckled, though it sounded strained. "Guess even a guy like that has a glass jaw when he's not expecting an invisible sucker punch, huh?"
Subaru knelt beside Gojo, a frown etched onto his face as he checked his best friend for injuries.
"He's fine, at least..."
"A real good thing that, too..." Al muttered, picking up his sword and sheathing it with a sigh.
"Though, the problem is gonna be getting him onto our side again. 'Cause as much as I hate to say it, bro, he doesn't want a damn thing to do with you. And after what happened right here? He might just hate you when he wakes up... all I can say is, we were real lucky here—— real lucky he didn't just destroy everything in sight, real lucky he focused on me instead of you... but he won't be fooled twice."
Subaru gave no response to such words. He couldn't.
All he could do was hope that they weren't true.
In an attempt to distract himself, he shook his head and glanced up at his friend.
"Speaking of abilities... you've still not explained just how you went about predicting all of his moves."
For a moment, Al remained quiet. He looked at the sky, where the smoke from the battle was finally clearing.
"I think... you, of all people, could guess that one."
That was all he said before he began to walk forward, lifting a hand to scratch the side of his helmet.
"Princess is gonna be in a horrible mood after being hit like that... just gotta hope she doesn't try burning him at the stake while he's unconscious."
Subaru sighed, hoisting Gojo's small body onto his back. He jogged until he was walking alongside Aldebaran.
"I want to say she wouldn't do something like that... but knowing her, I'm probably wrong."
As they walked away from the ruined street, leaving the chaos of Guaral behind them, Subaru lowered his head in thought.
I'll save you, I don't care how many times I have to die. I don't care how many times I have to punch you. I'll bring you back.
Because you're my hero.
And heroes don't get left behind.
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