"Anyway. There is no real danger for them."
Gojo Satoru sounded completely confident.
He stood there with his hands crossed behind his head, looking more like someone out for a walk than the strongest sorcerer alive.
Sora could only nod at that.
Then he remembered what Gojo had said earlier.
"Gojo-sensei. What did you mean when you said I was too much for those curses?"
Sora voiced the confusion that had been bothering him.
He was not someone who enjoyed danger.
But fighting...
Fighting was thrilling.
Being denied the chance to exorcise curses was disappointing, even if it was not enough to discourage him.
Megumi also looked interested.
Gojo stopped lounging around.
"Well, Sora-kun, how about we spar for a while then? It'll be fun~"
He got up and stretched his arms and legs.
Sora tensed immediately.
Sparring against the strongest.
This will not be fun if I cannot even land a hit.
Still, he steadied himself.
At the very least, he could use this opportunity to analyze Gojo's innate technique.
The road was empty.
The abandoned buildings around them looked half-eaten by time, cracked walls and broken glass glinting under the dim sky.
There was not a single civilian in sight.
Sora stepped onto the road, opposite Gojo.
Gojo stood casually with his hands on his hips.
"Sora-kun, you can take the first hit."
Sora narrowed his eyes.
Liquid metal flowed out from his sleeves.
The silver substance twisted in the air like a living snake before rapidly hardening.
Within a second, a long steel spear formed in his hand.
He gripped it tightly.
Then he threw it.
The spear tore through the air.
It had a slightly shone with a metallic luster
It was aimed directly at Gojo's head.
Megumi's eyes widened slightly.
The spear crossed the distance between them in an instant.
Then...
It stopped.
Just a centimeter away from Gojo's face.
The tip hovered there, trembling slightly.
Gojo did not even blink.
Sora frowned.
The spear had not struck anything.
There was no visible barrier.
And yet it could not move forward.
Gojo grinned.
"Surprised?"
He lightly tapped the tip of the spear with one finger.
"This is Infinity. Anything that comes toward me slows down more and more the closer it gets."
He spoke casually, as if explaining the weather.
"You can think of it as infinite distance being inserted between me and the attack. No matter what is thrown at me, it never truly reaches me."
Sora stared at the floating spear.
That is ridiculous.
The spear suddenly melted.
Its solid form collapsed into flowing silver liquid.
The metal streamed backward through the air and returned to Sora's arm.
Gojo's eyes flickered with interest.
"You regain some of the cursed energy you spend when you retrieve your metal, don't you?"
Sora froze.
Then his expression tightened.
"...How can you tell that?"
Gojo pointed at his own eyes.
"These."
His grin widened.
"I can see most things other people can't. Cursed energy flow, reinforcement, techniques... Even that barrier around your body isn't enough to hide it from me."
Sora could only sigh.
This was unfair.
Completely unfair.
Still, if a direct attack would never work, then he would simply have to overwhelm him.
Liquid metal surged out again.
This time it split apart into multiple shapes.
Swords.
Short blades.
Long blades.
Curved blades.
A storm of steel floated around Sora like a silver constellation.
Then he thrust his hand forward.
Every weapon shot toward Gojo.
The air screamed.
Some swords flew straight.
Some curved through the air from the sides.
Others rose upward before diving down from above.
Gojo watched them with complete boredom.
If this is all Sora-kun can do, then he is not much of a threat.
The blades stopped around him one after another.
Not a single one could get through Infinity.
Gojo yawned.
"Sora-kun, if you want to win, you'll need better ideas than throwing weapons at me."
Sora did not look bothered.
"Gojo-sensei."
His voice was calm.
"That wasn't the real attack."
Gojo's eyes shifted behind the blindfold.
The stopped weapons suddenly melted.
The steel burst apart into liquid.
Instead of falling away, the metal spread across the invisible space around Gojo from every direction.
Then it rushed inward.
A sphere of silvery metal rapidly formed around him.
It sealed him inside.
Sora kept speaking.
"The real attack was this."
His eyes narrowed.
"A simple attack makes for a good distraction. If the enemy focuses on the obvious threat, they stop paying attention to everything else."
The metal sphere tightened.
Or at least, Sora tried to make it tighten.
His expression shifted.
It was hard.
Far harder than it should have been.
The sphere trembled slightly.
But it would not fully compress.
It felt as though something invisible was resisting him from the inside.
Then Gojo's amused voice echoed from within the sphere.
"Creative."
A crack appeared across the metal.
"But Infinity isn't something you can get around that easily."