"Indeed, but I doubt a non-sorcerer could satisfy me," Naobito declared in a disinterested tone.
He couldn't accurately gauge the strength of the man in front of him, but Naobito was absolutely certain.
He's weaker than Toji.
"Too bad for him, not all innate restrictions are equal," he thought while taking another sip.
The principle of an innate restriction is simple, yet terrifying from a sorcerer's point of view.
You lose the ability to produce and emit cursed energy, in exchange you gain staggering physical power.
The power gained is proportional to what you could have achieved with cursed energy.
Thus, Toji had a great destiny on the sorcerer path. However, fate decided otherwise.
Naobito speculated that Charl had an innate restriction like Toji, but lacked a high enough base talent to grant him an overly monstrous physical strength.
"Oh really?" Charl flashed a smile worthy of a comic-book villain—one Jin had never had the misfortune of seeing.
(Image)
The expression was so unsettling that Naobito stopped halfway through drinking his sake.
The atmosphere grew heavy.
Both men knew it at that moment.
A fight was inevitable.
Bam.
"You're too slow, kid—" Naobito thought he had dodged the attack Charl had launched using the table as cover.
However, the sorcerer didn't understand the concept of invisible attacks or mastery.
The kick landed on him to his great surprise.
"W-what—" he let out as he crashed through the Japanese establishment.
Charl kept his leg raised in the air for a brief moment, then lowered it while keeping both hands in his pockets.
'The master worries that mastery might not be enough against a sorcerer, but it seems he was wrong,' he thought while walking toward the broken wall.
Mastery.
It refers to a state in which a specific physical attribute is pushed to an extreme superhuman level, resulting in a qualitative transformation in that domain.
It is one of the fundamental power concepts of the Lookism universe and an essential criterion for distinguishing elite fighters from true monsters.
There are currently four known domains of Mastery: Strength, Speed, Endurance, and Technique.
However, there exists a rarer mastery called: Conviction.
This one follows different rules from the others, as it stems from a strong desire.
It is not acquired through training or physical refinement.
It arises instead from raw emotional conviction, more precisely from an irresistible desire to protect someone or something.
It is the only mastery domain entirely guided by emotion, as it often erupts only in a desperate moment.
"Heh… well, you caught me off guard," Naobito declared as he emerged from the debris.
The cursed energy he emitted was no joke. If Jin were observing, he would find this middle-aged man more dangerous than Gojo at thirteen.
"Should I have warned you?" Charl mocked in a falsely polite tone.
Surprisingly, Naobito didn't take offense. On the contrary, he started to enjoy himself.
"Hehe… no, otherwise it would be a training match. That kind of thing is too formal for my taste," he said while slowly walking toward Charl, gradually accelerating with each passing second.
The leading figure of Twilight didn't panic as the clan head rushed toward him at inhuman speed.
From his understanding of sorcerers, he needed to quickly gather information on Naobito Zenin's technique.
He could have ended the fight in one blow and avoided this situation, but Charl had underestimated the level of a Grade 1 sorcerer.
Now he had to understand his opponent's power and use that information to win.
However, Charl ran into an anomaly.
"He's continuously accelerating?!" he thought while trying to block, but he failed.
A loud cracking sound rang out as Charl's silhouette was sent flying through the wall in turn.
"T-cough… is this your technique?" he analyzed while getting back up.
Charl had understood a little.
He must not be touched by Naobito!
"If he touches me, I'm frozen. However, it doesn't seem to work if I attack on my own initiative," he thought while standing up.
He dusted off his expensive jacket before fixing his gaze on the half-drunk man.
"What? An official sorcerer replaces your everyday little cursed spirit master, roh," Naobito declared, ending with a small "roh."
Charl didn't answer, simply loosening his collar and undoing his tie.
Strangely, Naobito didn't stop him.
The man clearly wasn't taking Charl seriously. Unfortunately, the fight was interrupted.
"Scum, you're trying to—" a Zenin clan member leaped toward Charl, but ended up with his head embedded in the asphalt.
The other bodyguards of Naobito retreated behind their master after seeing their colleague's miserable end.
A shameful act for a major clan.
Yet Naobito didn't get angry.
His mind was occupied elsewhere.
Observing the scene, Naobito inwardly clicked his tongue in annoyance at his inability to detect his opponent's action.
He hadn't seen Charl's attack.
"How… does he do that? Should I use my innate technique on my next attack and hope to be fast enough to see it?" he thought, feigning disinterest.
Projection.
(Image)
That is the name of Naobito's innate technique.
This technique divides one second into twenty-four animation frames, using the user's field of vision as the projection angle.
The user can thus trace a series of predetermined movements within those twenty-four frames and execute them in a single second after activating the technique.
Once triggered, the user moves at an abnormally fast speed.
Even Special Grade cursed spirits find themselves powerless against the speed Naobito displays.
As long as the Projection spell is active, any object touched by the user's palm must obey the "24 frames per second" rule in its movements.
Otherwise, the subject is immobilized and frozen in an animation frame for a full second.
Although it is only one second, any object trapped in that frame becomes completely vulnerable to attacks.
Unfortunately, using the Projection technique carries several risks for the user.
The predetermined trajectory cannot be changed once launched.
Moreover, if the laws of physics are ignored too often while using the 24 frames, the technique's user risks being immobilized in a frame.
Naobito cannot set up overly abnormal movements in advance to dodge an attack.
Thus, he is a little worried about the nature of the invisible attack Charl uses through his mastery of technique and speed.
"No matter if I can't see it, if I use Projection continuously, the speed will only stack up until it reaches a threshold unpredictable for him," the old Zenin analyzed.
"Master Charl, should we intervene?" asked a cursed corpse with a half-human, half-animal appearance.
She resembled a mix of a honey badger and a tanned-skinned teenager.
(Image)
It was Uzaki, Charl's personal bodyguard. Unlike Nayuta, she doesn't have very high potential.
However, Jin was confident in her ability to withstand devastating attacks.
After all, she had been created by imitating Panda. However, Jin had used a honey badger and a human as the base.
He had even added tardigrade genes to ensure a perfect bodyguard.
"What is that thing?"
"You noticed she has actual fur?"
"At that level, you mean full-on fur?"
The Zenin clan members, gathered because of the noise, were stunned by Uzaki's transformed appearance.
On the other hand, Naobito frowned.
The situation could no longer be handled by him alone so easily.
But Charl's next words made him reconsider his judgment about the man and his values.
"No, my dear Uzaki. This fight is a duel between men," he said, raising his hand to stop her.
Uzaki frowned at that moment. Charl's order conflicted with the one from her other master: one risked his life, while the other forbade her from letting him die.
'I don't like thinking about what to do…' she thought, deciding to do nothing.
She was too lazy for that.
"You really think you can take me without help?" Naobito asked while stroking his goatee.
Charl didn't answer. He took a candy from his pocket, put it between his lips, then put both hands back in his pockets.
Seeing this act, the Zenin started insulting him. But the clan elites frowned.
Charl wasn't afraid.
Worse, the man's presence seemed to grow from their point of view.
"Hahaha, you're a funny one. I think I want you in my clan!" Naobito roared as he charged toward Charl.
"No, I have a contract," Charl replied calmly while applying his soul wavelength to his kick.
Bam.
There was a shockwave when Charl's "soul menace" collided with Naobito's fist.
The two men instantly began exchanging kicks and punches.
Few people could follow the exchange, let alone Charl's invisible attacks that he imbued with his soul menace.
However, Naobito's Projection technique showed everyone why it was held by the head of the Zenin clan.
Charl was becoming increasingly powerless.
"I-I'm losing?" he thought inwardly as he was pushed back by Naobito's insane speed, getting beaten from all sides due to the frame-freezing effect.
It was clear now.
The electric effect of the soul menace wavelength wasn't enough to slow down Naobito's Projection power.
Charl had miscalculated.
Worse, he was being overwhelmed.
At this rate, he was really going to lose the fight.
"No!" he roared, far from his usual behavior.
The idea of returning to the darkness from which the Goblin had pulled him pushed him to search deep inside himself for resources whose origin he himself didn't know.
Charl tightened his muscles to adopt a defensive posture, pushing his Durability Mastery to the maximum.
He had to wait.
And find an opening.
"You're not so cocky now, are you?" Naobito mocked as he delivered a kick.
However, Charl saw something Tsubaki had long described to him during their fights:
Naobito's soul.
Now he no longer needed his eyes to follow the old Zenin's speed.
The long-sought opening finally appeared.
"Soul Menace: World Destruction Cannon."
(Image)
Charl brought down the heel of his foot toward Naobito, but the latter retreated without the slightest hesitation.
He trusted his speed.
Naobito had already accumulated enough frames to be able to perceive the invisible attacks Charl might potentially deliver.
The fight was over, from his point of view.
However, he had never been the target of this feint attack.
"Huh?" Naobito let out as he found himself frozen after losing his balance.
The moment he regained his senses, Naobito instinctively understood it was too late.
He had violated the rule of his innate technique after setting his 24 frames.
The ground had been so destroyed by the variant of the former Tsubaki master's soul menace that Naobito naturally lost his balance.
For one second, Naobito was unable to move.
This was the moment Charl had been waiting for.
Charl's foot sank into Naobito Zenin's face, right in front of his entire clan.
"Are we strong enough to raise Zenin blood?" Charl asked while looking at the fallen clan head.
Not only the flesh, but also the man's soul was struck by the unscrupulous businessman's wavelength.
Normally, Naobito wouldn't wake up easily.
Stab.
"No—" Naoya declared as he appeared behind Charl, a bloodied knife in his hand.
(Image)
Everyone froze upon seeing the scene, but the teenager looked around as if he had done nothing strange.
"What? The old man lost, but the Zenin clan didn't," he said as if it were obvious.