Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction based on multiple existing anime/manga series. The characters and settings used in this story belong to their respective owners and creators, and no copyright infringement is intended. This story is purely for entertainment purposes and is not intended to infringe upon any existing intellectual property. I do not own any of the original works that inspired this fanfiction, and I fully support the original creators and their works.
-Story Start-
-Third Person POV-
As dawn broke, the sun cast its warm glow upon the frozen forest, dispelling the lingering darkness. Two individuals remained engrossed in a learning session.
One of them, despite the bags under his eyes, exuded unwavering passion and determination as he taught his newfound friend the Human Tongue.
The other, an inquisitive and eager learner, appeared surprisingly unfazed by the lack of sleep. In fact, he seemed content with his supposed progress.
The teacher, noticing the approaching sunrise, let out a sigh. "I think it's time to wake them up, Gojo. We can continue your lessons on the way," he said with a smile as he prepared to rise.
However, a hand halted his movement. Alistair turned to meet Satoru's gaze through his shades, and to his surprise, he detected a mischievous smirk on Satoru's face.
Intrigued, Alistair inquired, "You want to wake them up?" He tilted his head in curiosity as he saw Satoru nod and flash an even wider smile in response.
Satoru attempted to express himself in the Human Tongue once more, though his efforts were still far from perfect. "What... say them to wake?" he asked with a pronounced accent.
Alistair gestured while explaining, "Good," and gave a thumbs-up to signify his approval.
"Morning," he pointed at the sun, now a bit higher in the sky than the break of dawn.
Gojo absorbed the information and nodded gratefully.
Alistair couldn't help but be impressed with Satoru's diligence. 'Starting with simple sentences like "good morning" is a good way to ease into conversation,' he thought to himself.
Little did he know that waking up Relna and Eris was not Satoru's primary motivation. Alistair's high opinion of Gojo Satoru, despite his peculiar appearance and behavior, remained unshaken, but not for long.
Satoru moved gracefully, positioning himself between Eris and Relna's makeshift beds, his footsteps silenced by the activation of his Infinity technique.
He inhaled deeply and then...
"Good morning, everyone~!" Satoru bellowed with all his might, his voice echoing through the eerily silent frozen forest.
Eris and Relna reacted with astonishing speed, their instincts honed to that of a Sword Saint. In mere seconds, they had drawn their swords, ready for action.
Both of them scanned their surroundings quickly but found nothing amiss.
'Woah, they're like soldiers!' Satoru thought both amused and disappointed at their reaction.
"Gojo... What's the matter?" Eris asked with narrowed eyes, looking as if she wasn't asleep just a few seconds ago, uncaring whether he understood her or not, her face expressing the question on its own.
Unpertrubed, Satoru responded, "Morning, we go." He said in the Human Tongue, eliciting a surprised look from both Relna and Eris.
As if to answer their question, Alistair, equipped with bags below his eyes put a hand in amusement at Satoru's shoulder, "I spent all night teaching him the Human Tongue. Though, I didn't expect him to try and wake you up like that."
He shook his head at Satoru, "It was a nice try, but they are not Sword Saints for nothing." He added with a confident smirk.
Satoru shook his head in mock disappointment.
"How much can he speak, Nya?" Relna directed a question at Alistair.
However, Satoru answered her query himself with a straightforward, "Barely," causing her eyes to widen as if he had sprouted two heads.
"T-That's impressive Nya! Are you a genius?" she questioned
"That right~!" Satoru struck a pose and smirked at Relna, his confidence shining through despite the fumbled sentence, Alistair couldn't help but chuckle at Satoru's overly self-assured demeanor in tandem with his language difficulties.
'Though he should be proud, that was disturbingly quick to reach his current level. His memorization could be on par with King-Class Mages.' Alistair thought to himself, his impression of this eccentric social outcast rising with each feat.
Eris, on the other hand, narrowed her eyes at Relna's praise of Gojo, grunting a sentence, "Hmph, Rudeus knew three languages when he was 8!"
Satoru tilted his head inquisitively at her statement.
Alistair shook his head helplessly. "Don't mind her; she loves boasting about her lover from time to time."
Satoru shrugged nonchalantly in response, moving on to the next matter, "Get, ready. We should soon go." he suggested nonchalantly, language still butchered.
Eris as always, was the first to eagerly pack her things in order to kill the damned dragon and get back to training.
A mere dragon has no worth in her eyes when her target is the Dragon God.
The others began to prepare themselves as Satoru stood alongside Alistair and Relna, who were also packing. Satoru couldn't resist commenting on Eris's fervor.
"She's certainly enthusiastic," he observed with curiosity.
"Yes... She takes her training extremely seriously, her target is the 2nd strongest in the world." Alistair replied exhaustingly, his eyes narrowed at Eris in pity at her seemingly impossible goal.
"Could you repeat?" Satoru didn't quite understand the sentence, as it involved words they hadn't covered yet.
"Ah, sorry." Alistair apologized quickly gesturing examples and translated for Satoru what his sentence meant midpacking.
At that, Satoru asked, "2nd Strongest? Who is?" His curiosity peaked.
"The Dragon God." Alistair said with finality and such confidence, that his words could be nothing but the truth.
Not understanding the word "God" in the Human Tongue, Alistair pointed at the sky and made a gesture of worship.
"Dragon... God?" Satoru muttered, incredibly fascinated.
'Gods are here as well? I have yet to see conclusive evidence of what kind of civilization and world this really is. But a world of sword and magic is what I'm currently convinced of. Gods though? Divine beings?' Satoru analyzed in quick succession.
An excited smirk played on his lips as a question formed in his mind: 'Am I the strongest in this world as well?'
...The answer's obvious, he thought.
Satoru would eagerly admit he gets excited in battle and enjoys it. No matter how easy and elementary the fight is.
Satoru loves to play with his food.
And nothing is more exhilarating for him, than the actual proof of his blessed strength.
'If I ever meet that "God", I'd love to fight him.' Satoru confirmed.
He wouldn't go out of his way to antagonize the Dragon God simply to fight him or go looking for him.
But he wouldn't be against a situation where combat is unavoidable.
Shaking his head to dispel his rapid thoughts, Satoru asked Alistair another question, "Who is the Strongest?"
Alistair cast him a sidelong glance as he continued packing. "According to the Seven Great Powers, the Technique God holds the top position, although the existence of such a being has never been confirmed."
As Satoru processed the response, he formed a confident and certain expression.
"Not right." Satoru declared, still not knowing the word for "Wrong" in the Human Tongue.
This declaration caused Alistair to pause in his packing and regard Satoru with confusion. The utter certainty and assurance in Satoru's tone left him perplexed.
Regardless of the time, place, or world, certain truths remained immutable, undeniable, and irrefutable.
Satoru believed one such truth with unwavering conviction:
"I Am The Strongest," he asserted boldly, as if it were an indisputable fact. The one sentence he managed to coherently say in the Human Tongue.
This audacious statement left Eris and Relna staring at him in bewilderment and surprise. Satoru's unwavering confidence and the casual manner in which he delivered such a claim confused them.
Even more so when he says it as if it were the undeniable truth.
If Satoru were to state this with any other tone, Relna and Alistair would probably burst into laughter, thinking his statement a joke, an attempt at humor.
They could only respond in shocked silence.
Is he a fool?
Is he an idiot?
He doesn't even know anything, let alone the bloody language.
And yet... He said it with such confidence, an inkling of their being told them to trust his words.
No matter how farfetched and lacking in evidence they were.
Eris, however, took it another way.
She recognized that undeniable confidence, and couldn't help but label him a fool.
A naive, clueless fool. Who knew nothing of strength.
She, who faced the Dragon God, that terrifying visage, her goal.
How could this man... This clueless Jester even dared to insinuate he was as strong, let alone stronger than that Monster.
He's intruded long enough and pressed enough buttons.
To hell with the Dragon.
Perhaps... this would be mercy.
'If he's as strong as he thinks he is, he should dodge, if not. I'm doing him a favor and ending him swiftly before his arrogance grants him a painful death.' Eris confirmed her course of action as she without warning pulled out her sword and slashed at Satoru with a Longsword of Light from the Sword God school.
Relna and Alistair, couldn't react to this attack, it was just that sudden.
The Longsword of Light is as its name suggests.
If fully mastered, it can even reach the speed of light.
That swift of a slash.
Eris felt impact and a coldness washed over her, 'Goodnight, Gojo you fool.'
She bid the fool goodbye as she ended his life.
Or so she thought.
As her blade... Stopped inches beside his throat.
All of the onlookers except Satoru were gobsmacked, for two reasons.
First, at the sudden attempt of Eris to murder Satoru.
Second, at him actually surviving unscathed.
"That rude~" Satoru stated with an easygoing smile, that was slowly growing in excitement and anticipation, sword still inches from his throat unable to reach it.
A cold air, a warning - DANGER, roared in Eris's mind.
At that, Eris instinctively took a careful step back and withdrew her sword from his neck, her eyes narrowing as she tried to comprehend what had just happened
'What was that... Barrier Magic? But I felt my sword run through him... What kind of magic is that? I was right, he is dangerous.' Eris analyzed swiftly, getting more and more confused the more she thought about it and more assured at the fact he really was dangerous.
"Eris! Why are you trying to kill him?!" Alistair shouted as he pulled out his sword, standing protectively in front of Satoru at her unsolicited attack.
Relna only stood shocked at the situation, pulling out her sword as well, uncertain as to who to side with.
As a tense atmosphere quickly enveloped the small camp, they were at a standstill.
Eris, sighed as she provided her answer whilst sheathing her sword, "I wanted to test him, if the idiot was that confident and couldn't dodge my strike, it'd be better to grant him a swift death than to die gruesomely at the hands of a Monster like the Dragon God." She grumbled without a hint of remorse, shame, or otherwise.
'Shame she sheathed the sword, I'd wanted to get a little rough with her~' Satoru thought saddened at the lost opportunity, a sad frown on his face. As if someone took his candy away from him.
Satoru had always enjoyed seeing the confident expressions of Curse Users being wiped clean from their face and transitioned to despair as they boldly challenged him, and discovered how hopeless the situation really was.
"And was that really the only way to test him? He already dodged one of your sword slashes!" Alistair asked with a nervous sweatdrop, sheathing his sword as well. A little enraged towards the end of the sentence.
"Hmph," Eris grunted, turning her head to the side, disregarding Alistair's inquiry.
Alistair took a deep sigh as he turned to Satoru with an apologetic expression. "Sorry, Gojo," he began, "She's just... like that."
Satoru waved him off, an uncaring smile on his face.
"But I have to say, that was some impressive magic! Is it Barrier Magic? I've never seen anything like it. Usually, there's some visual cue to indicate its use—like an artifact, an incantation, or something visible. Your barrier had none of that! It's amazing!" Alistair raved, his words pouring out rapidly as he admired Satoru's Infinity.
Though at the wide usage of words and rapid-fire statements, Satoru struggled to understand the meaning of the sentence besides the fact he was impressed with Satoru's blocking of Eris's strike.
Deciding not to answer something he didn't understand, Satoru only did what Satoru could do in such a situation—struck a confident pose and responded with, "Of cor-course," in the Human Tongue, correcting himself nonchalantly midpose.
"...Of course what?" Alistair stood confused.
Relna was still standing shocked at Satoru's feat, and she mindlessly moved on to continue packing.
Eris was no different, although Satoru had not proven his bold statement as factual.
He did prove he is worth something, coming out unscathed by a powerful Sword Saint's Longsword Of Light. With his strange magic.
First, dodging her strike when they met.
Now, coming out utterly unscathed from her surprise attack?
Not to mention - that cold chill she felt when he smiled at her carefreely, a sword inches from his throat.
He's eccentric, sure. But he's dangerous.
Perhaps his claim is farfetched, but there is no denying it.
He may not be the Strongest.
But he is Strong.
And that intrigued Eris and the rest of them.
After that, the party managed to finish packing up and were ready to set out on the journey.
All three of them stood behind Satoru as he gestured for them to follow him, but not before he announced cheerfully the beginning of their journey.
"It's two days to get to Dragon if we fast, three if we slow~!" He dropped the bombshell of the actual distance to reach the alleged location of the Dragon.
Causing them all to let out an exhale of utter suffering, especially Eris.
"Yay~!" Satoru cheerfully exclaimed, giving a thumbs-up to his companions as they prepared to set out.
To Be Continued!
-Author Note Start-
Hey guys! how ya doing?
In this chapter, the squad has just awoken at dawn, and Alistair is pretty tired from working with Gojo to learn the Human Tongue.
Gojo, as always, confidently stated that he's the strongest at the opportunity, the attention-loving guy that he is.
Gojo still seems to have language difficulties which is understandable, it'll take a lil while until he can get to insulting people and trolling them.
Eris didn't take too kindly to that insult and decided to test/kill him.
Unfortunately, Gojo Satoru is just that guy and that didn't work for him.
Anyways, the journey to the Dragon is about to start, it'll be 1 or 2 chapters in length and it'll be important as it's an opportunity to further get Gojo familiar with the world and learn of it's stuff.
Like Dragon God being the 2nd strongest and Technique God etc... Gojo is a diligent learner!
Did I portray Teen Gojo well in this chapter? I'd appreciate feedback on this on each chapter! As this is the most critical part of the fic!
Reviews, Comments, Feedback, and anything really is much appreciated! I respond to everything! (When I feel like it, which is most of the time)
Do send in the comments and opinions! I'm curious!
Have a nice day!
-Author Note End-