Chapter 140: Ambush Within the Barrier
Clang.
An ice-cold can of cola rolled out of the vending machine and dropped into the dispenser.
The sound was crisp.
In the quiet grounds of Tokyo Jujutsu High, it rang almost too clearly.
Summer sunlight filtered through the leaves, scattering over the bluestone path in warm patches. The campus was calm. Peaceful. Sealed away from the noise of the outside world.
Satoru Gojo bent down and picked up the cola.
His hand trembled slightly.
Three straight days of maintaining Limitless had pushed even him to the edge.
Hiss.
He pulled the tab open, and cold carbonation rushed out.
Gojo tilted his head back and drank in large gulps. The icy liquid slid down his throat, dulling the throbbing pain deep in his brain by the smallest amount.
He was exhausted.
For three days and nights, he had not slept.
He had barely rested his eyes.
His nerves had been stretched to their limit, his brain forced to process without pause. Even for the once-in-a-century bearer of the Six Eyes, there was still a line between confidence and overuse.
And he had crossed it.
"Satoru, are you okay?"
Not far away, Suguru Geto looked at Gojo's pale face, worry clear in his eyes.
"I'm fine, I'm fine."
Gojo waved him off.
A familiar arrogant grin returned to his face, though it looked a little strained.
"I'm alive again."
He shook the cola can lightly.
"But seriously, these past three days were rough. Once we hand little Riko over to Master Tengen, I'm sleeping until the world ends."
Behind them, Riko Amanai and Misato Kuroi finally allowed themselves to breathe.
A smile fitting for a girl her age appeared on Riko's face.
"Thank you."
She looked at Gojo and Geto, her eyes faintly red.
"You too, Big Brother Yami."
Her hands tightened around the strap of her bag.
"If it weren't for all of you, I probably would've died in Okinawa."
They were inside Tengen's barrier now.
Tokyo Jujutsu High.
The safest place in Japan.
At that moment, every trace of crisis and tension seemed to fall away.
They thought that after stepping through the gates of Jujutsu High, the nightmare was over.
They thought they had already reached the end.
Then Gojo turned, ready to call Geto and Riko onward toward the Tomb of the Star Corridor.
And the abnormality arrived without warning.
No killing intent.
No Cursed Energy.
No shift in the air.
It was as if a tear had opened in empty space, and a ghost that did not belong to the world appeared behind Satoru Gojo.
Squelch.
The sound was soft.
Almost insignificant.
But to Geto and Riko, it was colder than anything they had heard in the past three days.
Time seemed to stop.
Gojo's Six Eyes widened.
His pupils shrank to pinpoints.
He lowered his head.
A blade had pierced through his back.
The tip jutted out from his chest, wet with crimson blood.
Drip.
Drip.
Warm blood ran along the edge and fell onto the bluestone path, blooming into a shocking red flower.
"Wha…"
A hoarse sound escaped Gojo's throat.
For a brief instant, his exhausted brain went blank.
Who?
When did he get close?
Why did the Six Eyes fail to see him?
Why did Limitless not stop him?
"Satoru!"
Geto's roar tore through the peaceful campus.
His gentle eyes turned bloodshot with horror and rage.
Boom!
Cursed Energy erupted from him like a volcano.
A massive Special Grade Cursed Spirit manifested behind him and lunged toward the shadow standing at Gojo's back.
At the same time, Geto grabbed Riko and Kuroi by the arms and shoved them hard toward the hidden passage leading to the Tomb of the Star Corridor.
"Go inside!"
His voice cracked with urgency.
"No matter what happens, don't look back!"
Riko stumbled from the push.
Tears poured from her eyes in an instant, but she clenched her teeth and said nothing. She grabbed Kuroi's hand and ran toward the depths of the passage.
Behind them, the man who had stabbed Gojo pulled the blade free with casual ease.
Splurt.
Blood sprayed again.
Gojo's body swayed violently. He dropped to one knee, cold sweat breaking across his forehead as pain tore through his chest.
Using the force of the withdrawal, the attacker leapt back several meters like a ghost, narrowly avoiding the Cursed Spirit's pounce.
Sunlight finally reached his face.
The scar at the corner of his mouth.
The beastlike eyes filled with indifference and mockery.
Toji Fushiguro.
He shook the blood from the blade and rested the ordinary katana against his shoulder.
Looking down at Gojo, who knelt in a widening pool of blood, Toji smiled.
"Special Grade?"
His voice was low and rough.
"The strongest of the modern era?"
The mockery in his tone was thick enough to cut.
"Looks like you haven't been sleeping too well."
Gojo clutched the deep wound in his chest, panting hard.
He stared at the man in front of him, his Six Eyes spinning madly as they tried to understand what stood before them.
No Cursed Energy.
Not even a trace.
There was nothing in this man's body. Not even the faint residue that ordinary humans possessed.
It was like staring at a stone.
"Who…"
Gojo gritted his teeth through the pain.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Me?"
Toji tilted his head, as if he were actually thinking about it.
"Just a monkey abandoned by his family. A name not worth remembering."
He made no rush to finish the job.
Instead, he stood there relaxed, as if Gojo and Geto were already prey on a cutting board.
Then he smiled again.
"But I guess you can call me…"
His eyes shifted toward the passage where Riko had fled.
"The Star Plasma Vessel assassin."
The moment those words left his mouth, the air around Jujutsu High seemed to sink.
Geto stood between Toji and the passage, his nails digging into his palms.
He knew it.
They had made a fatal mistake.
They had underestimated Yami's warning.
They had underestimated this Sorcerer Killer, a man with no Cursed Energy who had slipped through Tengen's barrier and entered the safest place in Japan without a sound.
Their strongest fighter had been critically wounded in a single moment of carelessness.
And now, the assassin even the Six Eyes could not detect was looking at them like prey.
Inside this supposedly absolute sanctuary, within the barrier they had trusted to protect them, the butcher's blade had already fallen.
And the question remained.
Who could stop it now?
.....
https://discord.gg/KvMN2CFsMR
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]