Flying overhead on her broom, Momo looked down at the situation between Yuji and Todo, speaking to her team on her phone.
"Yeah, keep going straight. But keep in mind Todo's there."
On the other end of the phone, one of the others responded.
"It shouldn't be a problem. After all, he said he didn't care about our plans."
That's when Yuji sensed them trying to surround him, now that he wasn't focused on Todo.
'I'm already surrounded...' he thought, although he wasn't really worried.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Mai opened fire, but Yuji vanished from his position long before the bullets even had time to leave the barrel.
"You're Maki-senpai's sister, so I'll take it easy on you..." Mai heard from behind her as a heavy punch launched her with a crack, sending her bouncing and rolling off the ground past Mechamaru.
VVEEENN!
Mechamaru didn't focus on his teammate for now, charging his hand cannon as a beam fired in Yuji's direction. Seeing this, Yuji merely tanked the attack, catching it with his palm as he dashed forward again through the explosion.
"New Shadow Style: Simple Domain!" Miwa said, gripping her sword.
"Batto Sword Drawing!"
She unleashed a rapid slash that cut through an afterimage of Yuji, who kicked her in the ribs, knocking her into a tree before looking at Mechamaru once again.
'How is he so fast!' Miwa thought, barely stopping herself from vomiting. That hit her right in her liver; she didn't even want to do this.
Grabbing the Mechamaru bot's face, Yuji slammed it into the ground. He snatched a rock from the dirt, turning on his heel to throw it; it just barely missed Noritoshi's forehead, blasting through a tree behind him.
"I could sense it the moment you all attacked... You came to actually kill me," Yuji said, clenching his fist.
In the air, Momo had managed to catch Miwa and decided it was best to get some distance since their ambush had completely failed.
"Well done, besto friendo!" Todo said, clapping his hands as he grinned.
"At first I thought I'd need to interfere, but you cleaned them up faster than I expected, so we may continue our brawl."
"You weren't with them?" Yuji asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I have nothing to do with their plans! I told them not to interfere with me, and they did so anyway. But now, it's a 1v1 again!" Todo dashed forward, throwing a right hook as Yuji raised an arm to knock it aside.
Todo took this chance to step back and kick behind him as he clapped his hands, his foot slamming into Yuji's face. Yet only one of Yuji's feet came off the ground before he stomped back down, resisting the powerful blow and punching Todo, sending him sliding back, having just blocked in time.
Todo used the momentum to jump up onto a tree branch before leaping up, stomping at full force.
BOOM!
His foot slammed into the earth, and Yuji did a small leap back to dodge. Todo expected this, however, already rushing forward again as he unleashed a barrage of punches in alternating patterns. Yuji could keep up thanks to his superior speed and strength, but it was obvious Todo was currently the superior fighter in hand-to-hand combat.
Thwack!
Todo's fist slammed into Yuji's chest, actually doing some light damage, letting Yuji know that he might have a bit of trouble winning here.
Clap!
"Huh?" Yuji kicked behind him, only to shatter a small rock.
"Seems I got you," Todo said with a smile, winding up his strongest punch now that Yuji was left wide open.
Yet when the punch whistled toward Yuji to knock him out, Yuji's eyes became sharp. He slammed his palm onto Todo's forearm, flipping over the punch and punting Todo through the trees.
Watching from afar was the Tokyo team.
"Wow, he's beating them all. What kind of freaks gave birth to him?" Maki wondered, while Megumi didn't respond, instead looking at Mai, who was standing up and shaking in pain.
"Hey, Mai. Why are you guys trying to kill Itadori?" he asked as he summoned one of his frogs to tie her up.
"Tch. Why should I tell you?" she asked defiantly.
"It was orders from the elders, huh? Or maybe the Big Three Families. Perhaps both?" Megumi said, as if he could already guess why. "They're afraid of Sukuna, aren't they?"
Hearing all this, Mai gritted her teeth in annoyance.
"If you already knew, why'd you even ask, you bastard!"
———————————————————
BAM!
THWACK!
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Todo and Yuji were ramping things up. Both were landing more and more blows on one another, a battle of raw strength versus experience.
"So impressive! As expected of the man I call friend!" Todo cheered as his punch was parried and countered with a head kick from Yuji.
However, Todo once again clapped his hands, switching their positions and elbowing Yuji's ribs.
"Tch." Yuji gritted his teeth and leaped back again.
"Well done, Brother. You're stronger than me and faster too. And despite your lack of experience, you have some serious skill," Todo said, crossing his arms over his chest. "So much potential, yet something doesn't sit right with me. You seem to be holding something back from me, as if you don't take me seriously."
Todo narrowed his eyes at Yuji, who stood up straight to think about what Todo could mean.
"Oh! You mean this?" Yuji asked, pointing at a tree as an invisible slash ripped through it. "I can't really use that. It's way too lethal, and I waste a lot of cursed energy using it too, so I need practice."
Yuji rubbed the back of his head as Todo nodded in understanding.
"I see. You have yet to step into the realm of true sorcery, Brother. Tell me, have you ever hit a... Black Flash?"
"No, but I saw Sukuna do one when controlling my body, and Megumi landed one on Sukuna too," Yuji answered honestly.
"I see. Well, to put it simply, a Black Flash happens when a sorcerer lands a blow and applies cursed energy within 0.000001 seconds of impact, distorting space and amplifying the blow by 2.5x the original power."
"Wow..." Yuji was a bit shocked. He thought it was just some cool effects honestly, like a cool anime move.
"It gets better, Brother! After landing the Black Flash, the sorcerer enters 'The Zone', a sort of flow state that lets them utilize 120% of their potential power. It also restores cursed energy output, giving the illusion of refreshed cursed energy reserves."
"That's all to say, the difference between a sorcerer who has hit a Black Flash and one who hasn't is the distance between Heaven and Earth!"
———————————————————
Sukuna was currently in his system dimension, battling his latest opponent for a skill he wanted.
"Kai!" he pointed, slashing apart the creature that stood before him.
As the slashes tore it apart, Sukuna narrowed his eyes as its cursed energy vanished and reappeared behind him, despite its body getting shredded to pieces.
Turning around with interest, Sukuna saw that one of the creature's severed fingers now contained all of its cursed energy as it rapidly formed a new body. Although, it did seem that every use of this technique burned away a massive amount of cursed energy.
"Finally, I've gotten the results I want. This technique will change everything!" Sukuna's face twisted into a grin. Without hesitation, he froze the creature in ice and completely destroyed it with a Fuga.
It wasn't strong, far from it even, but it had a particularly useful technique he'd be sure to put to great use.