Jujutsu Kaisen: Nozomi no Sora

In the broadcasting booth of the spectator stands, Gojo Satoru held the microphone with one hand, his tone light and cheerful as if he were hosting some kind of school festival event.

"Team competition - one minute until it starts."

He paused deliberately, a slight smile playing on his lips.

"Well then, let's have the songstress give everyone a couple of words of encouragement first."

Anka-hime, standing to the side, was clearly stunned.

"what?"

She frowned and glanced at Wutiao, as if she hadn't expected him to shove the microphone into her hands at this moment. But the broadcast was already on, and after a few seconds of silence, she still cleared her throat somewhat awkwardly.

"Um...this..."

First of all, you'll get hurt a little...

Yes... it was inevitable...

As she spoke, she seemed to find herself unable to continue, and her gaze drifted slightly.

"Sometimes... well, we need to help each other..."

Gojo Satoru glanced down at the time, as if he had finally waited long enough, and immediately took the microphone back.

"Okay, it's time!"

The singer was taken aback at first, but then she became an instant sensation.

"Hey! Gojo, you bastard!"

Unfortunately, her voice didn't even have a chance to travel completely before it was drowned out by Gojo Satoru's cheerful announcement.

"Then——

The school exchange event is now beginning!

The moment the words left his mouth, the air in the room became agitated.

Students from the Tokyo and Kyoto campuses started moving almost simultaneously, their footsteps rustling through the forest floor, stirring up a fine clump of dirt and grass.

The rules for this team competition are not complicated.

Different levels of spirits, each corresponding to a different score, were placed in the arena beforehand; the higher the level, the more points. In addition, there was a high-scoring spirit as the "BOSS." The side that ultimately gets more points wins.

The distribution of cursed spirits is relatively random, so luck plays a significant role in this competition.

The Tokyo campus quickly discovered a level three cursed spirit.

But before Zenjima Maki could even make a move, Fushiguro Megumi's expression changed.

"Senior! Stop!"

As he spoke, an extremely oppressive magical force suddenly descended from above.

With a loud bang, the ground shook as it was hit.

A shirtless man with an exaggeratedly large physique that was almost inhuman stood firmly in front of the crowd.

His expression was so excited it was almost exaggerated.

"Great, everyone's here!"

Then give it to me—

"Let's all attack together!"

The nerves of everyone at the Tokyo school tensed up almost instantly.

"Toudou Aoi..."

As Tiger Rod looked at the figure looming over him like a mountain, the name involuntarily flashed through his mind.

As Maki-senpai once said—

Dongtang is a monster.

The worst-case scenario is that everyone surrounds him and he takes them down single-handedly.

So the original plan was to leave either Panda or Fuhei behind to keep him in check.

But now, Maki has entrusted this task to herself.

And Xuan Yi had said the same thing to him before, as if it were perfectly natural:

"Itadori-kun, you don't need to worry about anything. Once the team competition starts, just go ahead and fight with Toudou to your heart's content."

Thinking of this, Itachi's lips twitched involuntarily.

Xuan Yi probably has never even met Dong Tang in person...

But now that things have come to this, there's no point in hesitating anymore.

Since that's the case—

Let's go for it!

The next second, Itachi had already leaped forward, and with a sound that shook the forest, a knee strike slammed into Todo's nose...

"spread!"

Maki's voice also rang out at that moment.

The rest of the Tokyo school students immediately dispersed in different directions as originally planned, without any hesitation.

Just as this chaotic battle was truly unfolding, Xuan Yi vaguely sensed something different from before.

In the original storyline, Yoshinobu Rakuganji would receive a hint from a higher level of sorcery, preparing to have the Kyoto School students use this team competition as a pretext for their scheme. But now, this storyline seems to have been silently erased by something.

At the Kyoto school, the focus wasn't on Itadori as in the original storyline.

There was no encirclement or killing.

They did not take advantage of the team competition to execute Su Nuo's container.

It seems that Gojo Satoru and that old man reached some kind of consensus.

Xuan Yi thought to himself silently.

That's fine too.

This at least shows that Gojo Satoru truly believed in him and had already begun to move forward in the direction he had previously indicated.

Thinking this, Xuan Yi, like his teammates from the Tokyo campus, ran off in their respective directions.

Like Itadori, he was also considered an extra asset for the Tokyo school in this exchange event.

However, unlike Su Nuo's vessel, he will not naturally become the target of public criticism.

So the arrangement everyone discussed before the match was simple—he would take advantage of the fighting on the front lines to prioritize clearing out the scattered cursed spirits on the field.

But he had only been away from the main battlefield for a short while when he heard a light breeze overhead.

Xuan Yi raised his head.

Nishimiya Momo, who was hovering in the air on a broomstick, was looking down at him.

They've been targeted.

Xuan Yi sighed inwardly.

To be honest, he was quite confident in his current abilities if it were just close combat. But the girl in front of him was a sorcerer who used the Tsukumogami technique, just like him, and in fact, she could be considered his senior.

In terms of proficiency with techniques, I estimate I'm far behind.

What's even more troublesome is that she's still flying in the sky.

Although in theory the Tsukumogami technique can make old objects carry you into the air, Genichi really couldn't imagine how to control a weapon to fly freely in the air while also being able to move flexibly and fight.

He can't do it right now, at least not yet.

However, we can't just surrender like this.

Thinking of this, he reached out and took off the pendant that Nishimiya Sousuke had given him.

The next second, black magical power surged in his palm, and a jet-black scythe quickly took shape.

Nishimiya Momo in the air was clearly taken aback for a moment.

"Tsukumogami (mourning ritual)? How come you know about our Nishimiya family—"

Before she could finish speaking, Xuan Yi had already made his move.

"The Scythe of Divergence!"

Several black slashes followed the direction of Xuan Yi's swing and headed towards Xi Gong Tao.

Nishimiya Momo's expression changed immediately. She quickly dodged on her broom, her movements clean and efficient, and in the blink of an eye, she dodged all the slashes.

Immediately, she regained her footing in mid-air, and with a sudden flick of her broom, a strong gust of wind swept towards Xuan Yi.

That wasn't an ordinary wind; it was an impact that came crashing down, mixed with cursed power, fine sand, and withered leaves.

Xuan instinctively raised his hand to shield himself.

The wind carried fine sand and gravel, which felt like blades against my skin. If it weren't for the instinctive rise of a layer of cursed power on my skin, I would probably be covered in wounds by now.

Seeing the girl standing steadily on the broom with such ease, Xuan Yi's expression gradually became serious.

Indeed, just because she looks petite doesn't mean she's easy to deal with.

After all, Nishimiya Momo is one of the few magicians in this generation of the Nishimiya family who are truly regarded as geniuses.

Even though in the original work she always gave people the impression of being more of a logistics and support role, for me now, that mobility and suppressive power still seem particularly troublesome.

However, Xuan Yi also noticed something else.

Nishimiya Momo was also deliberately retaining some of her magical power.

He quickly realized that it wasn't meant to protect him.

It was to prevent dogs from curling up the thorns.

The Dog-Roll family's incantation technique is a special method that directly imbues sound with magical power. Facing this technique, even the slightest carelessness can lead to interference from the incantation during battle.

Therefore, during the tactical discussion phase, Kamo Kenki proposed that a portion of the magical power must be reserved in advance to protect the ears.

In other words, Nishimiya Momo is not actually daring to fight herself with all her might right now.

Thinking about this, Xuan felt somewhat aggrieved.

If we really fight, we might still win.

The problem is, it's such a waste of time.

She maintained that height and speed throughout, making it quite difficult to bring her down using ordinary methods.

If I had a wide-area sealing technique like Nishimiya Sousuke's "Rusty Bone Fence," things would be much easier now.

However, he didn't know how to use that technique; it seemed to require nurturing even more ancient artifacts...

But now, there are more important things waiting for him to do than dealing with Nishimiya Momo here.

So, Xuan Yi raised his head and gave Xi Gong Tao in the air a smile that he tried to make as friendly as possible.

"Nishimiya-san, could you please pretend you didn't see me this time?"

Nishimiya Momo was taken aback for a moment, then frowned.

"Huh? Are you an idiot? This is a team competition!"

Xuan Yi sighed.

"That's true."

Then we'll have to try this method.

As he spoke, he withdrew the incantation power from the Tsukumogami technique, and the black scythe quickly dissipated, transforming back into a pendant that fell back into his palm.

But the next second, a strange magical energy fluctuation, completely different from the Tsukumogami, quietly appeared in front of him.

The azure light gradually brightened.

The light wasn't dazzling; instead, it possessed an almost silent sense of danger. It was precisely this silence that made Nishimiya Momo's heart instinctively skip a beat.

"This is strange magical power... This isn't Tsukumogami, so what is it?"

But she quickly put on a confident smile.

Whatever it is, it's meaningless if you can't hit it.

However, the next second, she froze.

Because Xuan Yi did not aim the nearly completed spell at himself.

Instead, it aimed at the empty space on the other side of its body.

The moment the spell was activated, the boy who was just in front of them vanished from the spot!

Nishimiya Momo looked completely bewildered.

"Huh? What just happened...? Teleportation?"

In that instant of her daze, a bolt of lightning struck down from above!

boom--!

"Oh no! It's Fushiguro Megumi's shikigami—'Nue'!"

There was no time to dodge; the next second, Nishimiya Momo plummeted from mid-air, broom and all...

On the other side...

Xuan Yi, who was attempting to use the spatial compression property of "Azure" for displacement for the first time, clearly overestimated his ability to control this move.

Without the Six Eyes, even if he could activate the spell, he couldn't see the changes in the scene before him. His body suddenly rushed into another grove of trees, rolling around in the mud several times before finally stopping in a sorry state.

"cough……"

Xuan Yi braced himself on the ground and quickly got up, looking around first.

He breathed a heavy sigh of relief after confirming that no one was around for the time being.

"Great, no one noticed!"

He stood up, dusted himself off, and then, as planned, put a wireless communicator into his ear.

"It's me, Genichi Nishio..."

"Miss Mingming, I can proceed now."