Due to Sōjun Minamoto's overwhelming purification speed, the evaluation match against Yuki Tsukumo was moved to the morning.
The location remained the same—Training Field No. 5.
This time, Yuki Tsukumo and Sōjun Minamoto stood face-to-face at the center.
He glanced around. A crowd had already formed—students and teachers from all grades at Jujutsu High surrounded them. On a raised platform further out stood Masamichi Yaga and a few other elders.
He nodded to Masamichi Yaga with a faint smile, provoking frowns from the surrounding elders. Sōjun Minamoto didn't even spare them a glance as he looked away.
Yuki Tsukumo rolled up her sleeves and cracked her knuckles one by one with a crisp snap.
"I heard that if you crack your joints often, they get thicker," Sōjun Minamoto commented.
Yuki Tsukumo paused mid-motion and looked up at him with a narrowed gaze. "Thicker, huh?"
She drew out a serpent-like shikigami. "This is my Cursed Tool, manifested as a shikigami. It's the only one besides me that can use my technique. You can call it Garuda."
Gripping Garuda's head, she flicked it like a long bone whip.
Snap—
A sharp crack echoed through the air.
She started the fight by revealing her technique.
"My technique is called Star Rage. It allows me or Garuda to gain imaginary mass. The more mass, the harder I hit. I don't feel any extra weight while using it, and increasing density doesn't enhance my body's durability. But within a certain range of mass, I'm unaffected by it. As for the upper limit of the imaginary mass Star Rage can grant—not even I've reached it yet. So don't get...killed."
The bone whip lashed out with a sharp whistle. The mass didn't affect her, but the impact it dealt to others was all too real.
Even with Sōjun Minamoto's immense strength, it was like a meteor crashing down. The sheer force couldn't be taken lightly.
But he wanted to try.
His approach to physical development had always been clear—offense, offense, and more offense. Absolute aggression. Defense through overwhelming attack. Every enhancement of his body was aimed toward a single purpose: pure combat.
He wanted to see if he could take a meteor head-on—just with his body.
Sōjun Minamoto didn't dodge. The whip slammed into his right shoulder. He immediately dropped, creating a massive crater centered on him as his body sank deep into the ground. Slowly, he pushed himself up on one knee. The strike had shattered his shoulder and left his right arm limp, but he could still move.
He used Cursed Energy to reconstruct his flesh and heal the damage within moments.
Climbing out of the pit, he stepped back onto solid ground. His Cursed Energy threshold had been pushed beyond its limit, and the weight of the Star Eye was finally lifted. With sharp control, he used only the bare minimum of energy to heal.
He ripped off his torn shirt, revealing his upper body etched with twisting black markings. As he casually stretched, his muscles writhed beneath the lines, forming a grotesque yet powerful pattern alongside the sigils. His body looked spotless—not a speck of dust on him.
That's it?
Yuki Tsukumo recalled Garuda, a wicked smile tugging at her lips. "You really don't take me seriously, huh?!"
She balled up Garuda and launched it with a powerful kick. Sōjun Minamoto dodged to the side. He wasn't going to take another direct hit—but couldn't avoid it entirely. The whip struck his lower right abdomen, briefly halting him before shooting past and returning to Yuki Tsukumo's side as a snake.
Half of his abdomen had been blasted away. He frowned slightly, then relaxed. The injury barely fazed him—he blinked, and his body restored itself as if nothing had happened. In the next instant, he was right behind Garuda, closing in on Yuki Tsukumo. His fist, cloaked in black light, came crashing down.
She raised Garuda to block, taking the hit. A deep fist-shaped dent formed, and fragments of bone scattered.
Yuki Tsukumo slid back several steps, leaving a long mark on the ground. She stomped hard to halt her retreat and hurled Garuda with full force.
Sōjun Minamoto blocked with his arms—this time only stirring up a cloud of dust.
As it cleared, a tall figure emerged—his body clad in a layer of blue armor.
His flesh armor had evolved, becoming sleeker. Blade-like extensions now protruded from his forearms, and jagged spikes jutted from his elbows, knees, and shoulders. The entire design radiated violence.
There was a slight dent on his arm, but it smoothed out instantly. His bone claws clamped down on Garuda.
Seeing this, Yuki Tsukumo intensified her efforts to reel it back. Garuda trembled violently, but Sōjun Minamoto held it firm. The tendons on his hand bulged, thick and tense like coiling pythons. A spot of crimson bloomed—but the progress was painfully slow.
Huh??
Yuki Tsukumo darted forward, a Cursed Energy-charged punch slamming into his forearm without direct contact. Using Garuda's momentum, she grabbed hold of it. Realizing he couldn't keep it, Sōjun Minamoto let go—and drove a knee into her stomach.
"Ugh—!"
Yuki Tsukumo staggered back, dropping to one knee and coughing up blood. She wiped her mouth and glared at Sōjun Minamoto.
They squared off once again.
What a pain.
Like some damn unkillable cockroach!
Honestly, the assessment should've ended here. He already met—no, surpassed—Special Grade standards. But she was pissed. Really pissed.
Yuki Tsukumo pressed her palms together, Cursed Energy gathering between them. The air pressure dropped sharply—a clear sign she was charging a serious technique. The spectators retreated again, and even the higher-ups began yelling for her to stop.
Sōjun Minamoto wasn't about to just stand there. The sense of danger had crept in. He warped forward and slashed at her wrist with a hand blade. Yuki Tsukumo didn't pause, pushing off the ground to pull away. Garuda wrapped around Sōjun Minamoto like a real serpent, pinning him down with added weight. He strained, forcing it apart. But seeing she was nearly done charging, he didn't hold back—his arm blade flared with black light, nearly severing Garuda. Only a sliver of flesh held it together.
Still, it clung on.
Yuki Tsukumo had already formed half a black hole.
The higher-ups had vanished. Everyone else was running now, too.
"Hahahaha! Let's see you block this!" Yuki Tsukumo howled with laughter.
It was too late. Sōjun Minamoto unleashed all his remaining Cursed Energy. His eye sigils flared as he calculated everything—the air flow, temperature, humidity, gravitational pull from the forming black hole...
He punched the air, conjuring a swirling vortex of deep black. His right hand plunged into it.
Half an arm emerged from thin air in front of Yuki Tsukumo. The vortex vanished soon after. When Sōjun Minamoto pulled back, only the rear half of his arm remained.
The severed arm in front of Yuki Tsukumo continued to move, eerily caressing her chin. A golden eye on the back of the hand spun, locking onto her.
Then—
Crimson bloomed.
An overwhelming corrosive force surged into Yuki Tsukumo. Agonizing pain flared, like being scalded by steam—like rot seeping straight into her bones. She had no choice but to pour Cursed Energy into resisting it. Her body froze up. The black hole flickered like a dying light, then disintegrated entirely.
Sōjun Minamoto broke her stasis, but didn't follow up. He stared at the severed arm. The wound left by the spatial fold wasn't smooth—it was twisted and wrinkled.
He frowned. Space… isn't smooth?
Is it layered?
Cursed Energy surged. Blue light flared—and the severed arm regrew. The combined effect of Unlimited and Reverse Cursed Technique.
With a thought, the remaining half of the severed arm dissolved into Cursed Energy. He was meticulous about not leaving pieces of himself behind.
Yuki Tsukumo expelled the crimson taint. But her Cursed Energy was drained, and the backlash from the failed black hole left her collapsed on the ground.
The assessment was over.
Sōjun Minamoto didn't believe in flaunting techniques for extra power during battle. He believed in silent eruption—that was more impactful. Power earned through relentless training, day after day, year after year, could be used freely and crush opponents with pure force.
He walked up and extended a hand.
"Nice to meet you. Should I call you Tsukumo Yuki? Or maybe Omukust Kiuy?"
"..."
(30 Chapters Ahead)
p@treon com / PinkSnake