73 Chapter 71

"Are you alive, Satoru?"

"No, I'm dead."

"Me too."

Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru, tattered like sun-dried rags, lay sprawled on the playground, staring blankly up at the sky.

The sky was high and clear, a gentle breeze blew, and the temperature was unseasonably warm for November. It was an utterly beautiful day. Instead of enjoying such a day, they were getting beaten up, which only added to their frustration.

Gojo Satoru murmured dreamily up at the sky.

"I want to skip."

He yearned to do absolutely nothing. There was a new game out, and he wanted to play it with Suguru and Shoko, hoping to get caught by Principal Yaga for playing hooky all day.

Under normal circumstances, Geto would have commented on Gojo's grumbling, but he was in no state to scold anyone when in pain himself. When you're sore everywhere, the last thing on your mind is to nag someone else. Right now, Suguru was aching in every limb.

Toji approached them with a lazy gait and looked down at the two. He then kicked Geto's sprawled body lightly.

"When are you going to get up? Rise."

"I'm a corpse. Corpses can't stand up."

"Want me to make you a real corpse?"

Gojo jeered.

"Man, you're really persistent with us. What are you, a stalker? A fanboy?"

"I don't have the hobby of focusing on guys."

Gojo, turning his back to Toji, extended his hands as if to use his Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue. A blue force began to swirl between Gojo's hands, but Geto quietly admonished him, "Satoru."

Toji, not even turning to look at Gojo, casually remarked.

"I can see you making hand seals, young master."

"…Tch."

Gojo clicked his tongue and lowered his hands, the force dissipating instantly, and Geto slumped even more.

"Hey. Not getting up?"

"If we do, you'll just beat us up again. We're not gorillas like you. It's hard, so hard."

For the past two weeks, the two had been regularly receiving physical training from Toji every three days. Though it was called physical training, to them, it felt more like a beating.

They were hit for being slow, for awkward attacks, for predictable dodging routes, for scheming during a fight… basically, they were beaten for any reason conceivable during the combat.

Naturally, Gojo and Geto initially fought back. Of course, Toji never let himself get hit. Instead, when Gojo's hand aimed for Toji's face, Toji grabbed it tightly, making a cracking sound, and chuckled.

"You call that a counterattack? Such attempts are futile. It only gives the enemy an opening."

After that, by personally demonstrating this, Toji proved his point by collapsing Geto's stance and slamming him into the ground.

Initially excited and retaliating at every hit, the so-called strongest duo also realized after being beaten for days on end. Agreeing it's futile, they learned that pretending to be dead was the safest bet.

Toji clicked his tongue in disappointment. The young ones were becoming too cunning for their own good.

"There's still time left."

"You should spend time with your children, not us."

Geto pointed in the direction where Zoro was playing. Toji glanced over to where his kids were playing. Zoro was napping, and Tsumiki and Megumi were gently covering his body, excluding his head, with sand using toy shovels. What was that all about?

Toji shouted from a distance.

"Don't hurt Big Brother."

"Yes! Don't worry. We asked if it was okay, and Big Brother said he likes it because it's warm."

After all, Zoro wouldn't be bothered by mere sand. If an enemy appeared or something happened, he would break out of the sand tomb, grab the kids, and sprint straight here.

Ugh, Gojo Satoru grimaced, watching Toji turn away from Zoro.

"Isn't that a bit overprotective? He's the one who defeated a Special Grade curse."

"You haven't had him as your kid, that's why."

Regardless of strength, Zoro was not exactly a child who inspired confidence when left alone. Whether it's his recklessness or his hopeless sense of direction.

He seriously considered getting a GPS for his birthday present. But…

"He wouldn't like it."

If Zoro didn't like something, he wouldn't carry it around. And Toji didn't want to give something disliked as a birthday gift.

Geto laughed.

"Sounds like a troublemaker."

"If only he were a typical troublemaker."

Toji's worry deepened every time he briefly left Zoro alone only to find him encountering curses or curse users.

If GPS wasn't an option, perhaps an anti-lost necklace? Remembering Zoro eyeing various accessories, especially earrings with interest when passing by a jewelry shop, Toji scratched the back of his head.

"Enough chit-chat. Stop dragging this out and get up."

Gojo and Geto's faces crumpled in dismay. They had tried to prolong the conversation with talk of his child, but this gorilla was too perceptive.

"I'm counting to five, get up. 5, 4, 3—"

"Ah, really! Aren't you going to do your duties?"

Gojo sprang up, shouting. Toji pressed down on his dusty white hair firmly.

"You need to become a sorcerer to have duties. You think the sorcery world would acknowledge someone without cursed energy like me?"

It was a moot point now.

After realizing that all four curse user organizations he had crushed were somehow linked to the higher-ups, Toji lost all desire for recognition from the sorcery world.

He retained a competitive desire to fight and defeat strong sorcerers, but any attachment to the position of a sorcerer itself had completely vanished. Being a sorcerer would just mean taking on tasks from those kinds of people. Toji scoffed at the thought.

Geto muttered in a voice that sounded incredulous.

"...Even though you're this strong, you're not recognized as a sorcerer?"

"They'll never acknowledge it."

That someone who is not a sorcerer can be that strong.

Especially the Zenin. Once they found out Zoro was Toji's child and not a sorcerer, the Zenin family completely stopped all investigation and attempts to approach Zoro, not even mentioning him anymore.

'It must mean they have no interest or curiosity in those who are not sorcerers.'

The cessation of their advances was a welcome development for Toji, but he couldn't shake off the feeling of its persistence. Toji's lips twisted.

Gojo grumbled as if he couldn't understand.

"Why wouldn't the sorcery world want a gorilla like you? Even the weakling Utahime works as a sorcerer."

"Gojo, it's not good to talk behind someone's back."

"Is this talking behind her back? It's the truth."

Over the past two weeks of being beaten up by Toji, Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru came to understand. They had to accept the reality.

He's strong.

The strength of Zenin Toji is real.

When he wiped out the curse user organizations, they just accepted it. After all, it was something Gojo or Geto could also do.

However, Toji's physical combat skills were clearly beyond their reach. Satoru, who always thought he could catch up to any sorcerer eventually, found Toji to be different.

'It's on a different level.'

At least in terms of physical combat, Zenin Toji was in a place Gojo Satoru could not reach.

Gifted physically by being a Heavenly Restriction with zero cursed energy, Zenin Toji received physical abilities that could kill an ordinary sorcerer in an instant, in exchange for completely losing the biggest potential he could have had.

To Gojo, it seemed like a power as significant as the cursed energy that was erased. Though Toji himself probably wouldn't think so.

'Even if I try to finish him off with cursed techniques, it's not easy.'

Gojo's Cursed Technique Reversal: Blue could be easily avoided by Toji just running out of its range, and Geto's summoned spirits were exterminated as soon as they appeared.

Maybe for Gojo, a user of the limitless cursed technique, it wasn't a big deal, but from the perspective of Geto, a user of cursed spirits, it was difficult to use cursed techniques in every duel without risking his own spirits.

How Toji managed to strike curses with his bare hands was a mystery even to Gojo.

'It's certain there must be some trick to it.'

It wasn't through cursed techniques. If it were, Satoru would have noticed. It's just that Toji was too fast and had no cursed energy, so it was hard to see exactly what he did to exorcise them with the naked eye.

'I need to figure it out to either block it or prepare a countermeasure.'

Thanks to this, Gojo Satoru was experiencing frustration for the first time in his life for not being able to discern something.

'And he's getting more precise with his strikes.'

He avoids major muscles that could impact a sorcerer's activities, focusing on areas that hurt but recover quickly.

The most annoying part was that they couldn't deny their physical skills were improving the more they sparred with Toji.

Just yesterday, Satoru managed to exorcise a Grade 2 curse with a single punch, without using any cursed energy, just lightly enveloped in physical power.

Intending only to subdue it and hand it over to Geto, Satoru was left no choice but to look down at his hands in dismay and apologize. After exorcising more than three curses this way, a punch flew from Geto, but...

Like they're blind or something. Gojo Satoru internally cursed the higher-ups. The reports he and Geto wrote daily about Toji, who knows where they ended up. Despite clearly stating that he's at least a Grade 1 sorcerer level and must be introduced to the sorcery world right away.

'It would mean less time for this gorilla to beat us if he went on missions!'

Toji called out to Gojo, who showed no signs of getting up.

"Hey."

"Ah, forget it. I won't do it. I'm not doing it today for real! Unlike you, a jobless guy, we have missions to attend tonight! If you're so eager to fight, why don't you try Utahime or Mei Mei?"

"She's too weak."

Mei Mei might be an exception, but he would have to hold back a lot against Utahime. Both her cursed techniques and physical combat skills were weak, yet she was overflowing with enthusiasm, risking too much.

"And I can't come next time anyway. That day is Zoro's birthday—"

"Yay—!"

Gojo cheered, throwing a punch into the air. Dreams do come true! Geto also smiled broadly.

"Master's birthday, sincerely congratulations. Why not take this chance to go on a trip for a few days... no, a week? It would create good memories with your children. I'll even cover the travel expenses."

"Yeah, yeah, give us money so you and your kids can disappear quickly. Gorilla."

Those guys. Toji's brows twitched.

'Was about to finish them off nicely.'

Seems like it won't work. Need to correct their attitude.

"So, we have to do it properly today, right?"

Seeing Toji emitting a dark aura and approaching, Gojo and Geto sensed they had touched a nerve. Trying to escape, Geto's shoulder was caught by Toji.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Sweating profusely, Geto looked at Satoru for help. Being beaten together was better than being beaten alone. Probably.

Deciding, Satoru raised a thumb towards Geto and cheerfully said,

"Fight on, Geto!"

"This guy, Satoru!"

You provoked him first! Despite Geto's rare curse, Satoru effortlessly dashed into the woods.

Toji started warming up.

"Don't worry, Geto. I'll catch him soon too."

"Then, could you please spare me?"

"That's not possible."

Soon after, a scream from Geto echoed through the schoolyard. A bit later, in the woods, Gojo Satoru's yell and a massive dust cloud rose.

"..."

Watching this scene through blurry eyes from the principal's office, Yaga went back to focusing on the document he was working on. It was a bill for a wall that Gojo accidentally destroyed yesterday.

His stomach hurt. He felt he needed to buy a lot of cabbages on his way home. His wife would eat them too, so he thought about what kind of cabbage dishes she would like as Yaga finished up the bill.

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