The ornate purple curved blade was stopped in midair.
It was as if an invisible wall had appeared out of nowhere.
Just like before, when the woman had tried to strike Felt.
Felt and Subaru had already seen this scene once, yet seeing it again still left them shaken.
As for Old Man Rom, who was witnessing it for the first time, his eyes were wide open, staring like he had seen a monster.
Gojo continued stretching on his own, while the woman stayed silent and launched attack after attack from every angle.
No matter the direction, no matter which vital point she aimed for, it made no difference.
Her strikes, the blade in her hand, could not pierce that invisible barrier in the slightest, let alone injure Gojo.
After slashing more than a dozen times in quick succession, the woman finally stopped.
"Hm. There's no fluctuation of mana, and it doesn't feel like magic either. Looks like some kind of unusual Divine Protection."
She did not resume her attack, instead standing still and studying Gojo with clear interest.
"Divine Protection?"
"Nope."
Gojo smiled and looked up, answering frankly.
"Oh?"
"Well, that makes things even better."
The woman's pupils tightened. The alluring expression on her face took on a faintly twisted edge, like she had just found something that excited her.
The next moment, she rushed forward again.
A flash of brilliant white light flickered in her hand.
"Oh?"
"Changed weapons? Looks pretty brutal."
Gojo adjusted his sunglasses and commented casually.
The grotesque yet ornate purple curved blade was gone.
In its place was a thick cleaver-like short blade, almost as wide as the woman's waist, the kind a butcher might use to chop bone.
Just hearing the blade tear through the air made it obvious that its power was on a completely different level compared to the earlier weapon.
"Anyway, I'm about done warming up. Let me really get a feel for your strength."
"Try not to disappoint me."
As his last word fell…
The woman suddenly felt that invisible wall from before vanish.
Her blade swung down without any resistance at all.
But—
Without that barrier, what met her was Gojo's own attack.
"Clang!"
The blade swept past Gojo's body, missing by a hair. The woman stomped hard with her left foot, sliding sideways like an arrow loosed from a bow. At the same time, her other hand slipped to her waist, drawing another purple curved blade and stabbing toward his side.
Her movements were fluid and precise, every strike aimed cleanly at a vital point, enough to make anyone watching break out in cold sweat.
Yet Gojo still looked completely relaxed, as if none of this lethal pressure even registered.
He even had the leisure to chuckle and offer commentary.
"Nice technique. Too bad though. No matter how fast your blade is, it's useless if it can't hit."
With a perfectly timed sidestep, Gojo avoided the attack and, in the brief opening, snapped his fist forward.
"Boom!"
The woman reacted instantly, crossing both arms and using the blades to block his punch.
But the sheer force transmitted through the metal was far beyond her expectations.
Her body was sent flying backward.
"Crash!"
She slammed into the wall, knocking over piles of clutter and kicking up a thick cloud of dust.
Speed is around special grade level, but her raw strength is noticeably weaker.
Gojo watched the direction she flew, making a quiet assessment.
Talking about erasing debt had just been a joke.
What truly interested him was the power wielded by the strong in this world.
Up until now, that woman had only been fighting with her physical body, without using any special abilities at all.
That alone made him curious, eager to see more.
"Whoosh, whoosh."
Soft whistling sounds cut through the air.
Gojo yawned and casually reached out, catching something midair.
Two slender needles, each about the length of a chopstick and razor-sharp, lay in his palm.
"Needles? That's a pretty rare choice of weapon."
The instant he caught them, the dust dispersed.
The woman, completely unharmed, had already rushed back in front of him and swung her blade again.
Gojo shook his head and, moving even faster, slapped her wrist aside, knocking her strike off course.
At the same time, his other hand shot straight toward her neck.
The woman reacted quickly, swinging the cleaver toward his arm, but that invisible force appeared once again, blocking everything.
"Hah."
Gojo easily wrapped his hand around her slender neck. With a light exertion of force, he spun her around and pulled her back against his chest.
"Strange aura. There's something really interesting inside your body."
Gojo lowered his sunglasses slightly, observing her at extremely close range.
It was as if his eyes could see straight through her pale skin and into her depths.
Feeling his breath at her back and the warmth of his hand at her throat, the woman's breathing grew a little uneven.
An unnatural flush crept across her face, and then…
"Squish!"
The long blade of the purple curved knife was driven straight into her own abdomen, the hilt sinking in along with her hand.
At such point-blank range…
The blade pierced clean through her body, bursting out from her lower back and stabbing toward Gojo.
Still studying the strange power inside her, Gojo merely glanced down, as if he had just discovered something fascinating.
"I see."
A peculiar glint flashed through those ice-blue eyes that looked like they held an entire sky.
"You really are quite similar to a curse spirit."
As he spoke, the pressure on her neck eased. She seized the chance and wrenched herself free, completely ignoring the wound in her abdomen and the blade still lodged inside her.
With a flash, she pulled away, opening distance between herself and Gojo.
Without hesitation, she grabbed the hilt and yanked the blade out of her stomach.
Thick blood sprayed out, mixed with fragments of organs, splattering onto the floor and filling the air with a choking stench of iron.
With injuries like that, anyone else would already be waiting for death.
Yet this woman acted as if nothing had happened at all, smoothly settling back into a fighting stance.