HRU: Chapter 307/308

Chapter 307: Lock On

This is…!

Kidō!

Satoru recognized the chant coming from Satoshi. Others around him regarded it as one of Satoshi's unique techniques.

What did it mean? Was Satoshi about to unleash his ultimate move? He was even reciting a full Kidō incantation?

"Be careful! Get your defenses up!"

At Satoru's sharp warning, Suguru and Ieiri Shoko immediately sprang into action.

A massive Rainbow Dragon and Meat Shizuku appeared simultaneously, forming a formidable barrier between the trio and Satoshi.

The defenses of these two Special Grade Cursed Spirits were not ordinary. They should be enough to endure whatever ghost technique Satoshi was about to cast.

Moreover, the incantation he chanted sounded grand and imposing, referencing east, south, west, and north. It was clearly a large-scale technique.

Their actions drew attention from all observers. No one thought Satoru was overreacting. Against a monster like Satoshi, there was no such thing as too much caution.

Atop a nearby tall tree, a black crow perched silently, watching the battlefield and transmitting all of Satoshi's movements back to Mei Mei's trio.

...

"Satoshi's casting Kidō. He's already begun the chant. Looks like Gojo Satoru managed to force out one of his trump cards," Kamo Kenshin said, eyes flashing as he lightly touched the hidden weapon strapped to his back, a fire of anticipation burning inside him.

He wasn't like Zenin Shinsuke. He would never let the Gojo clan trample over the dignity of the Kamo family again.

...

"Bakudō #58: Kakushitsuijaku!"

Satoshi drew a circle in the air. Within it, the characters for east, south, west, and north lit up. Then he spoke the final line.

As he finished chanting, he looked directly at the top of the tree, where the black crow sat. A smirk tugged at his lips.

Through the spiritual connection between the black crow and Mei Mei, Satoshi had successfully locked onto the location of the Kyoto trio.

The next second, Satoshi vanished from before Satoru's group and shot toward the Kyoto team.

His speed was so overwhelming that even the Curse Corpse's live broadcast almost failed to track his movement.

Satoru, Suguru, and Shoko were momentarily stunned.

Wait… Was that it? That Kidō didn't do any damage?

That same thought echoed in all three of their minds. The chant had been so dramatic. Could it really be that underwhelming?

"What if Satoshi just chanted was a Binding-type spell, not a Destructive-type one," Shoko quickly realized the difference.

Binding or Destruction?

Satoru and Suguru also caught on instantly.

Destruction-type Kidō was used for offensive power. Binding-type, as the name suggested, was for tracking, restraining, or immobilizing…

In this venue, aside from the three of them, the only ones left were the Kyoto High School team.

"Let's go after him and check it out!"

Satoru suddenly felt slighted. Satoshi had completely ignored the three of them.

Did he think the Kyoto team was more of a threat than them?

What Satoru didn't realize was that Satoshi simply wanted to avoid wasting time. He knew that as soon as he disappeared, Satoru would chase after him.

That way, he could drag both schools' teams together and finish them all at once.

...

Meanwhile, at the Kyoto team's hiding spot, Mei Mei gasped as she realized they'd been exposed. Kamo Kenshin and Utahime's expressions immediately darkened.

As someone well-versed in chant-based techniques, Utahime instantly understood what that ghost art truly did.

No one had expected such a long incantation to result in a simple tracking spell.

Yet from the shock on Kamo Kenshin's face, Utahime could tell—this technique had utterly shattered his expectations.

"Run!"

Mei Mei didn't hesitate. Her first reaction was to flee.

But Kamo Kenshin had already recovered.

After witnessing the sheer utility of Satoshi's Kakushitsuijaku, he knew hiding was pointless now.

The earlier fight between Satoru and Satoshi had already drawn enough attention. Now it was their turn.

Satoshi was the central figure of the entire Curse Corpse broadcast. The camera feed would follow him wherever he went.

Kenshin had full confidence in his concealment techniques and his methods of disrupting the Curse Corpse broadcast.

But if Satoshi dragged the broadcast directly to them, there was nothing he could do.

Which was why Kamo Kenshin was unwilling to run away in front of a live audience.

That would be too cowardly, and far too embarrassing.

(To be continued.)

Chapter 308: The Fastest

"Run? Mei Mei, it seems you're not getting away."

A teasing voice echoed.

Gojo Satoshi suddenly appeared at the Kyoto trio's hiding spot, and the Curse Corpse live broadcast had already locked onto their location.

"Impossible! You were clearly a full kilometer away!"

Kamo Kenshin's expression changed drastically. He hadn't expected Satoshi to appear in front of them in the blink of an eye.

That one-kilometer distance had been deliberately chosen. It allowed them to support Satoru's battle quickly while staying far enough away to reap the benefits when the opportunity arose.

But in front of Gojo Satoshi, that carefully calculated distance had become meaningless.

Countless viewers watching the Curse Corpse feed were just as stunned by Satoshi's sudden appearance.

None of them had seen how he moved. Even the broadcast from the cursed puppet in the sky had failed to track him.

If Satoshi hadn't intentionally revealed himself to let the broadcaster capture his arrival, the audience might have lost track of him entirely.

...

After this period of recovery, Satoshi's body had returned to peak form.

With the perfect synergy between his Heavenly Restriction physique and mastery of Shunpo, Satoshi was easily the fastest across short distances.

That said, Satoshi himself didn't consider himself the fastest.

In fact, it was Satoru, who had mastered the advanced application of Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue, who was unrivaled in long-distance mobility.

In the original timeline, Satoru had crossed cities in the blink of an eye, teleporting from battlefields to Jujutsu High and bringing Yuji back instantly.

Satoshi knew he couldn't replicate that level of speed.

After all, this was the world of Jujutsu Kaisen. The Limitless Technique remained the pinnacle of technique, its status unshakable.

...

Yoshinobu Gakuganji and Sekiguchi Seiji exchanged glances, silently suppressing the shock in their eyes.

Then, Sekiguchi Seiji muttered sarcastically.

"Kyoto High students sure know how to pick a spot. Yaga's Curse Corpse broadcast couldn't find them for so long. Who'd have thought they were hiding right there?"

"If I'm not mistaken, this is supposed to be a goodwill competition between Kyoto and Tokyo Jujutsu High, right? A test of combat prowess, not hide-and-seek."

Seiji instantly saw through Kamo Kenshin's intent to capitalize on the chaos.

Satoshi, Satoru, Suguru, and Shoko were all from Tokyo Jujutsu High. If they exhausted themselves and Kamo Kenshin swooped in afterward, only Tokyo's reputation would suffer.

Still, Seiji had absolute faith in Satoshi.

As Tokyo's principal, he had personally witnessed Satoshi obliterate six of Sukuna's fingers. That scene was still burned into his memory.

To him, the only person who could threaten Satoshi was Gojo Satoru himself.

Even if the trio drained Satoshi's stamina, that would never give Kamo Kenshin's team the edge.

Satoshi's strength had already far surpassed anything Kamo Kenshin could comprehend.

Yoshinobu Gakuganji heard the shade in Seiji's tone and let out a few coughs before speaking gravely, leaning on his cane.

"Fighting isn't always about head-on clashes. Strategy is just as important. A sorcerer's duty is to exorcise cursed spirits. You don't face a spirit stronger than yourself and blindly charge into death, do you?"

He raised his heavy eyelids and looked toward Yaga Masamichi and Yuki.

"If that were the case, all sorcerers in Neon would've gone extinct long ago."

Though Gakuganji was clearly frustrated by his students' cowardice, he still needed to defend them.

They were his students, after all.

Yuki, on the other hand, didn't care at all about what Kamo Kenshin and the others had done.

In the eyes of this Special Grade, nothing the Kyoto trio did could affect the outcome.

Yaga Masamichi shared a similar sentiment.

People like Gojo Satoshi stood on a completely different level than the rest of their generation.

The only reason this proposal for the Sister School Goodwill Event had passed was because the General Directorate wanted to observe Satoshi's actual combat strength.

They wanted to know just how wide the gap was.

How many people would it take to match the current Gojo Satoshi?

Had it not been for the fact that it was inappropriate to let Yuki participate as a teacher, the General Directorate had even suggested letting her join the event herself.

Ultimately, this exchange only had one real point of suspense.

Satoshi was facing the best talents from both schools. Could he still display overwhelming dominance?

Yes. Even though the higher-ups disapproved of Satoshi's existence, none of them doubted the power of Ryomen Sukuna or his resilience.

For Satoshi to have defeated him at all already meant there was a massive power gap.

So what everyone wanted to see now... was just how massive that gap really was.

As for the Kyoto trio?

Frankly, the General Directorate didn't care.

Even if their strength was impressive among their peers, they had no Zanpakutō.

And that meant they were ultimately irrelevant.

(To be continued.)