You pigs in human clothing!
The first thought that came to his mind was that this person, Noah Pendragon, was someone sent to kill him, but such a thought was discarded as he felt no hostility coming from him, just pure curiosity.
It made him think, what is Multiverse Quest Board really?
"Hmmm. You seem confused." Noah rubbed his chin while circling around Tengen, examining him. "You have not ascended yet, well, obviously, but still… so this is what you look like."
Tengen's eyes narrowed before he sighed. This person… whoever he was, seemed to know a lot about him. And seeing how nonchalant he was, created an illusion of him being strong enough to leave the tomb without any worries.
"Well, don't worry too much." Noah smiled, patting the shoulder of Tengen. "I'm not here to harm you or anything. Just think of it as a Heavenly Restriction that "forces" me to take missions posted on the Quest Board. Since you've posted a mission, I'm obliged to complete it."
Tengen remained silent before asking.
"Why me?"
Was there a specific reason behind it? — he wondered.
"Who knows?" But contrary to his thought, Noah shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not the world nor do I have any idea what the world is thinking. Who knows why it chose you?"
"So you have no control over it?"
Noah smirked, taking a step forward, staring straight into Tengen's eyes. And since his eyes, strangely enough, didn't reflect any light, it made Tengen think as if he was looking at a bottomless abyss. It was nerve-racking, to say the least.
"Collecting information? Nice nice." Noah again patted his shoulder. "But who knows, am I telling the truth? Or a lie?"
It was a weird feeling, but Tengen could tell that Noah was playing the psychological game with him.
True or False — it was the basis of any investigation. Whether the victim is telling the truth or not, though the investigator might not know, they are experienced enough to pick slight gestures, eye moments, body language, and psychological reactions.
Since the victim will have to change his very being to match his statement. You are talking about the murder of your parents but there is no emotional attachment in your words, or there is but it comes and goes with the investigation.
You can lie, but as they say, to hide one lie, a thousand more are needed.
'But I can't get a read…' Being a millennium old, of course, Tengen was an expert in reading people's emotions and body language. But he couldn't get any reading on Noah, why?
'It is random… His emotions have not changed from curiosity to anything till now, and his tone only shows such emotion but with a little bit of teasing in between. It feels like I am seeing what he wants me to see…'
Noah might not be the best actor in the world in his past life, but after being born in a world where strong will eat you away the moment you showed any signs of disrespect, he had to learn acting.
The acting was an essential skill for the weak to survive. And Noah, despite never considering himself weak, still had a working brain.
"I actually have no control over this ability." Suddenly Noah said with a smile, getting him out of his thought process. "The system automatically sets missions for me while I complete them and get rewards in return."
Tengen narrowed his eyes, looking at Noah's nonchalant smiling face. He could not tell if he was telling the truth or not, making him wary of Noah.
"Anyway, you will set an identity for me, ya?" Ignoring Tengen's tense state, Noah said as he started to walk around the white room, looking at different barriers placed around the place that completely went over his smooth brain.
But to Tengen, it looked like an expert examining a trainee's work, nodding from time to time.
Tengen looked at the screen still hovering in the air and read the mission content before sighing in relief.
"Gojo Satoru and Suguru Geto were originally the two who were going to be sent on this mission, I'll have you cooperate with them."
Noah didn't say anything and kept on examining the room.
'Since I don't have anything to do till he sets up an identity for me, I might as well do a mind fight with Toji.'
|—Tokyo Jujutsu High—|
Staring at the endless expanse in the sky, Gojo and Geto silently sat beside each other.
"It's boring…" His hand under his chin, the white-haired youth muttered before raising his finger. "Hey, Geto, tell me a funny story."
"..."
"Yosh! I've got it! Let's record ourselves playing cards with discarded rice balls while talking about the separation of church and state! I bet it'll go viral when we post it online!"
"... Can you like… shut up?"
"Harsh!" Gojo shouted, pointing his fingers towards Geto. "You will never be popular with that attitude."
"I don't want to be popular anyway, you get nothing but a headache in return."
"Boring~!"
Geto's brow twitched, but being used to Gojo's personality, he ignored him before looking at the clock in his hand.
"It is about time. He should be here."
"Noah Pendragon huh…" Gojo's smirked. "I'm really interested in meeting him—the strongest!"
"Pendragon… isn't it the family of nobles in England? The descendant of King Arthur? I wonder if he received the inheritance of King Arthur. It would be interesting to see the techniques of the legendary figure."
"Gasp!" Gojo turned towards Geto with a surprised expression before he raised his hand in the air and shouted. "Ex—calibureeeeee!!! Something like that? What if Noah is a woman?"
"The name says otherwise."
"Che! What an uncultured swine you are Geto. I expected more from you."
"..." Geto felt like punching a white-haired young man, looking at Gojo's expression.
"I'm a man though, a fully-fledged man."
Geto and Gojo's eyes widened to extremes, hearing a person behind them. In a blink, both of them vanished from their position and appeared some distance away, staring at the black-haired youth standing there, waving at them.
"It is nice to meet you. I'm Noah Pendragon, who also happens to be the descendant of King Arthur."
+++++=====+++++=====+++++
The wind slowly blew past the faces of three people, each staring at each other but holding different emotions on their faces.
A silence formed between them, no one saying a single word.
"He doesn't possess any curse energy…" Gojo's eyes narrowed, staring at Noah.
"Is that why he was able to sneak on our back?" Geto questioned. It sounded reasonable.
It was common knowledge that ever being possessed cursed energy, some high while some low, but not a single entity didn't possess cursed energy.
Sorcerers scanned their surroundings based on cursed energy, which made Noah an invisible person to them.
"A person without cursed energy is considered the strongest?" Gojo couldn't help but feel astonished.
It would have been one thing if the person possessed infinite cursed energy or something, but the fact that he didn't possess even an ounce of cursed energy made it difficult for Gojo and Geto to put Noah as the strongest.
"Em… I know it can be hard sometimes to look at my handsome face, but I would ask you to refrain from looking at it with such intensity. I don't hate gays, but I wouldn't blink killing one if they approached me with… ulterior motives."
"..."
"..." Geto suddenly saw Gojo's face appearing in Noah, making him pinch his nose bridge. It was going to be an annoyance, he could already tell.
"Heee~!" Gojo vanished and appeared beside Noah, his hand on his chin, while circling around him, examining him. "Say, how do you fight? Cursed Tools? But I don't see any weapon on you. Fists? But they would be useless on curses."
"I'm really interested." Gojo said, standing in front of Noah. "Why don't you show us?"
"Gojo—"
"It's alright, Geto. After all, we are going to do the mission together. If we don't know how he fights, we will not be able to coordinate with each other." Cutting Geto midway, Gojo's face held a feral grin, staring at Noah. "Don't you think so too, Noah?"
"Sounds reasonable enough to me." Rubbing his chin, Noah nodded. "Let's do it then. Though I must warn you, you can't defeat me. At least, not the current you."
"Is that so?" The grin on Satoru's face increased further. "Show me then, how will you achieve i—"
<<Hold>>
"Like this."
A chill ran through Gojo's back, his eyes taking everything in his surroundings and his mind trying to process what just happened.
Fast—that was the first word that appeared in his mind. Noah was too fast for someone without any curse energy to the point he could only see a blur passing his eyes.
'I… can't move my body.'
Gojo needed a hand seal to use his curse technique, like every other Sorcerer.
But let alone using a hand seal, his body refused to move even a bit. It was like someone shackled his body with chains, making it impossible for him to move.
'If I use curse energy to increase my physical strength, I can break away from whatever is holding me.'
Hold — it was a Tier 2 spell that worked on a single target, making it hard for them to move.
If it was used on an ordinary human, then it is impossible for them to move even an inch from their initial position.
But for people with superpowers and high physical states, with enough force, they could break through the restriction of the spell.
The same could be said for Gojo, but there was a problem, and that was the blade of the scythe on his neck that threatened to decapitate him the moment he showed any moment.
The blade touched his neck, so even if he somehow made a hand seal for Infinity, it was useless.
It was his defeat.
Geto's eyes widened in disbelief, staring at Noah who stood behind Gojo with the staff of scythe on his shoulders and the blade onto Gojo's neck.
"Hmm. If I had a cigarette lit on me right now, I would definitely have looked badass. Though I look badass all the time."
"How?"
"Hm?" Noah smirked, taking the scythe away from Gojo's neck, who jumped the moment he did so, before asking. "About how I reached you despite having no cursed energy or how you were not able to move your body?"
"Both, if you are generous enough." Gojo replied, rubbing his neck while staring at the scythe in Noah's hand.
'A curse tool? No. I don't feel any curse energy from it either. It is a normal scythe, but the pressure released from it says otherwise. Where did he get it from in the first place?'
The scythe was huge, it was bigger than Noah himself and he was 179 cm.
No way Gojo or Geto would miss such a thing if Noah had it on him.
So the question was, where did it appear from?
'It seems that his title as the strongest is no joke.' Gojo couldn't help but laugh internally, feeling quite excited.
"As for my speed, you should already come up with an answer no? Having no curse energy, that itself gives an answer to your question."
He said, with a slight jerk of his hand, the scythe spun before he threw it in the air and it vanished.
Both Gojo and Geto stared in the air where the scythe vanished with frowning faces; especially, Gojo. With his eyes, he should have at least gotten a clue about where the scythe vanished too, but even he couldn't tell where.
It just… vanished.
"Heavenly Restriction?" Geto, with his hand crossed over his chest, said. "In return for having no curse energy, you are gifted with an exceptionally inhuman physique which allows you to move faster."
"Exactly." Noah nodded. "See, it wasn't that hard."
"What about me not being able to move my body though?" Gojo was really curious, after all, such a thing had never happened before.
If Noah had used any cursed technique, then he wouldn't be surprised.
But that was the point, Noah never used a single cursed technique from the start! He didn't have curse energy to begin with!
"Oh! That…" Noah nodded before his face beamed with a smile. "... is a secret. Good luck trying to find how I did it."
'I knew it… He reminds me of Gojo…' Geto sighed, feeling that the mission was going to be anything but peaceful while Gojo wondered why Noah felt annoying to him—'Ah, yes. I want to punch him…'
And that is how they first met, Noah with the same smug grin as Gojo while Geto standing at the side with a tired face.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone