Suddenly, a voice cut through the tension like a knife.
"Sorry I'm late—had to grab the mood and kill it," Naoya said, stepping out from behind a broken pillar with a lazy wave, looking far too smug for someone who was supposed to be very, very dead.
Toji blinked once. Then again.
The moment Toji saw Naoya alive, he froze.
For a second, he genuinely questioned if he had drunk too much yesterday. But then he remembered—alcohol had almost no effect on him. He didn't hallucinate. And yet…
There Naoya stood.
He sighed, rubbing a hand down his face in disbelief. "Let me guess, reverse curse technique, right?" Toji muttered.
Even as the words left his mouth, he could hardly believe he was saying them. It was one thing for Gojo to pull it off. But Naoya? It seems he had heavily underestimated him.
Naoya flashed a grin. "Bingo!."
Naoya gave a mock bow. "Why, thank you, Toji-san. You wouldn't believe how motivating dying was."
"Wait...you died too, Naoya? I thought you just ran away crying."
"Technically," Naoya replied, tapping his chest. "Got a sword stabbing through my heart, nearly bled out. But I saw the light and said, 'Nah, I'm too pretty for hell.'"
Toji's fingers twitched around his spear. His expression didn't shift—neutral, unreadable. Then a soft grunt. "…Huh."
A beat.
Then his lips curled into something dangerous. "Guess I'll have to kill you both properly this time."
Before either of them could reply, Toji vanished.
A shockwave cracked the ground as he launched himself forward—faster than a bullet, the Inverted Spear of Heaven gleaming in his hand, aimed straight for Gojo's throat.
Gojo easily weaved with his whole body, letting the spear graze harmlessly past his hair—his movements relaxed, almost playful.
But Toji didn't stop there.
He twisted on his heel, sharp as a whip, facing Gojo again in an instant—launching another ferocious strike without hesitation.
But—
"Don't forget that I'm here too," Naoya's voice rang out, cool and confident.
He was already behind Toji, moving at ridiculous speed—his body a blur as his Binding Vow surged to life once more, flooding him with cursed energy and speed.
!!!!!
Toji's instincts kicked in. He reacted instantly, spinning and lifting his leg in a flash—driving his foot forward in a brutal strike toward Naoya's stomach.
But something was off.
Weirdly, impossibly, his leg passed right through Naoya's body like it was… intangible.
Toji's eyes narrowed. "The hell—?"
The moment his foot touched the ground again, Naoya's palm pressed against his back.
Cursed energy flared.
Toji's body froze.
"Projection Sorcery," Naoya murmured, eyes gleaming. "Extended application."
Toji was trapped—locked into a frozen animate frame. Ten full seconds.
Gojo didn't waste the opportunity.
He vanished in a flash—reappearing upside down behind the frame of Toji, his face twisted in a wild grin.
"赤 (Aka)," he said, fingers snapping forward.
A brilliant pulse of crimson erupted from his fingertip—a reversal technique so dense it warped the air around it, trailing spirals of pure cursed energy in its wake.
The red orb roared forward, aimed straight at the unmoving frame of Toji Zenin.
BOOM—!
The moment Red made contact, the world shattered into noise. An explosion burst forth with godlike force. The surrounding rock cracked and disintegrated, shockwaves shredding the earth like paper.
Naoya, standing close—too close—did not move. His smirk remained untouched by the chaos as the explosion tore through the space he occupied. Debris, flame, cursed energy—all of it passed through his body as if he were nothing but mist.
Like air.
His form shimmered, intangible.
The dust began to settle, the blast crater wide and jagged, smoke curling up into the sky.
And then—movement.
Toji Zenin was still standing.
Blood trickled from his mouth, his upper body scorched, muscles twitching from the residual force of Gojo's attack.
"Bunch of monsters," Toji muttered, spitting blood to the side.
Naoya's eyes narrowed.
Something was off.
He'd seen this before—in the original timeline. That time, when Gojo hit Toji with Red, the damage had been significant... but dulled. The Inverted Spear of Heaven had disrupted Gojo's technique, severely weakening the blast. Even then, Red had been enough to launch Toji and tear him up internally.
But this?
Toji had taken a direct hit. Without the Spear. It's the same red from the show amplified by Gojo's current power level, with the added punch of Projection Sorcery's full-body impact extension.
He shouldn't be standing.
He shouldn't even be alive.
Naoya's smirk twitched, then faded completely.
But he shoved the thoughts down. Locked them away in the back of his mind
Instead, his eyes drifted—slowly—to the sky.
Gojo Satoru floated lazily above them, reclined like he was laying on an invisible bed. One leg crossed over the other, fingers loosely spinning in circles. His snowy white hair drifted with the breeze. He looked utterly detached, as if the battlefield beneath him was a passing daydream.
Unbothered.
Naoya glanced up at him, reading the silence.
And he smirked.
He had a good guess about Gojo's thoughts right now.
Naoya's smirk widened.
He locked eyes on Toji.
Something in Toji's instincts screamed at him—Wrong.
Something was... wrong.
Toji's muscles tensed. The air itself seemed to hold its breath. Then-
Movement.
Faster than sight, the Sorcerer Killer lunged - not at Gojo, but at Naoya. A feint within a feint, his true target revealed at the last instant.
Naoya's lips curled into a vicious grin. "Took you long enough to figure it out,".
Toji's blade was already halfway to Naoya's neck the moment he finished speaking.
Naoya ducked low, then twisted his body unnaturally—his head snapping back just enough to barely avoid the cut, though a clean line of blood opened across his cheek.
"Close," Naoya taunted, righting himself with unnatural fluidity. His counter came instantly - a glowing fist rocketing toward Toji's ribs.
Toji took the hit deliberately. The impact cracked bone, but he used the momentum to pivot into a devastating roundhouse kick.
Naoya's form shimmered -
the kick passed through empty air -
but Toji was already adjusting, the Inverted Spear whipping back in a reverse grip to exploit the momentary rematerialization.
Naoya barely twisted aside, the spear's tip grazing his uniform. "Tch." A flicker of annoyance crossed his face. "You learn fast."
The battlefield stilled.
Gojo Satoru floated between heaven and earth, his presence warping the very air around his, his Six Eyes gleaming with otherworldly light.
"Between heaven and earth..." His voice carried the weight of divine judgment. "...I alone am the Honored One."
Toji's instincts screamed.
But before he could move—
CRACK.
Naoya's palm slapped against his back.
Toji's body locked—frozen in a single instant of time.
Gojo didn't hesitate.
His fingers moved with ritual precision.
"Cursed Technique Amplification: Blue."
Space itself distorted, an invisible vortex of crushing gravity forming.
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Red."
The opposite force detonated, a shockwave of repelling energy that should have vaporized flesh.
And then—
"Hollow Purple."