GURDIAN [ Gojo.S x f!Reader ]

CHAPTER - 12

TUESDAY 01:15 PM. THE FOREST OF JUJUTSU HIGH.

The forest was screaming. Not with voices, but with the tortured groaning of earth and wood as Hanami's roots tore through the soil. Megumi and Inumaki were pinned, the Special Grade curse looming over them like a judgment from the natural world.

"You are children of a dying world," Hanami's voice vibrated through the air, heavy and resonant. "I will return you to the soil."

THUD.

The sound wasn't a light click of wood on stone. It was a heavy, grounded impact that seemed to settle the very atmosphere.

From the shadows of the dense canopy, Y/N stepped into the clearing. She looked like a ghost from the Heian era outfitted by a modern armory.

Her white high-collared blouse and black tactical corset were paired with fitted black combat trousers, tucked into heavy-duty, matte-black tactical boots.

They were reinforced with steel toes and thick, lugged soles—modern engineering for a woman who fought with the weight of a mountain.

"A Special Grade," Y/N noted, her voice smooth and clinical behind the pristine Hannya mask. "You smell of rot and misplaced righteousness. A poor combination for a spirit."

Megumi looked up, blood trickling down his forehead. "Get out of here! Gojo-sensei is locked out! You can't—"

"Be silent, Fushiguro Megumi," Y/N commanded, her voice cutting through his panic like a blade. She shifted her stance, the lugs of her combat boots digging into the dirt, anchoring her with impossible stability. "Watch. You might learn how to breathe properly."

Hanami didn't hesitate. It sent a tidal wave of sharpened wooden spikes toward her—a frontal assault meant to impale anything in its path.

Y/N didn't weave a sign. She didn't call upon a technique. She simply exploded forward.

The traction from her new boots allowed her to push off with a force that shattered the stone beneath her. She was a blur of black silk and lethal intent.

She didn't dodge the spikes; she moved through the gaps with such precision that the wind of her passing snapped the wood.

She caught the primary wooden lance with her gloved hand, the leather creaking as she redirected the thousands of pounds of force as if it were a twig.

Using the spike as a pivot, she swung her body around, her heavy boot connecting with Hanami's chest.

The impact sounded like a sledgehammer hitting a reinforced concrete bunker.

The Special Grade curse didn't just stumble; it was sent flying backward, a massive crater forming in its chest as it smashed through several thick oaks before skidding to a halt.

It didn't land a single scratch on her; it hadn't even come close to touching her.

"No technique?" Hanami rumbled, pulling itself up, its wooden skin knitting back together in a frantic surge of cursed energy. "You fight with only your strength?"

"Techniques are for those who cannot control their own heartbeat," Y/N said, reaching into a ripple in space and pulling out her black-shafted naginata.

She spun the weapon once, the blade humming with a low, vibrating light. "Juniichiro is silent today. And Satoru thinks I should enjoy the 'growth' of this era." She glanced down at her boots, the modern leather unmarred and solid.

"I suppose the modern era has some benefits. Traction being one of them."

THE OBSERVATION ROOM (OUTSIDE THE BARRIER).

Gojo was leaning against the black dome of the curtain. He could feel the ripples of the fight inside, but they weren't the chaotic ebbs and flows of a struggle. They were the rhythmic, heavy pulses of a predator dismantling its prey.

"She's not using her eyes," Utahime muttered, her eyes glued to the static-filled monitors. "How is she moving like that? The speed... it shouldn't be possible without cursed energy reinforcement."

"It's not reinforcement," Gojo said, a reckless, proud smile crossing his face. "It's mastery. She's moving her body the way it was meant to be moved before we all started relying on 'magic' to do the work for us. And those boots? Best gift I ever gave her. She's finally got the grip to match her weight."

He hit the barrier with a casual backhand, the black film cracking under his touch.
"Hurry up, Y/N," he whispered. "If you finish this before I get in there, the Higher-Ups are going to have a heart attack trying to classify you."

BACK IN THE FOREST.

Hanami was desperate. It unleashed its "Solar Beam"—the concentrated energy of the forest—aimed directly at the woman in the mask.

Y/N didn't even raise her weapon to block. She stepped into the light, her tactical boots crunching the earth as she moved through the beam.

The sheer pressure of her "Yang" energy acted as a natural shroud, the cursed light refracting around her as if she were a diamond.

In a heartbeat, she was in Hanami's space.
She drove the blunt end of the naginata into the ground, using it to vault into the air.

Her heavy boot came down in a vertical axe-kick, slamming Hanami into the dirt with such force that the entire clearing became a crater.

Hanami tried to sprout roots to bind her, but Y/N simply walked through them.

Every root that touched the radius of her boots was crushed instantly into splinters. She was untouchable. Unyielding. A Pillar in every sense of the word.

She stood over the crater, the naginata resting across her shoulders, her Hannya mask reflecting the dim light of the forest. Not a single thread of her clothing was out of place.

"Is that all?" she asked, her voice cold and hollow. "I expected a challenge. This is merely gardening."

The barrier above began to shatter, not from Gojo's strength, but because the presence of the Pillar had simply made the "Curtain" irrelevant.

TO BE CONTINUED.

________________________
Remember to vote and comment!