"Yuta, it's your turn."
Satoru Gojo gestured for Yuta Okkotsu to step onto the field. Panda, who had just dragged Kamado back, shouted encouragement loudly, "Yuta, you got this! Take down Teacher Gojo!"
Yuta Okkotsu gripped his wooden sword nervously. Hearing Panda's cheers, he gave a small, uneasy smile. He had witnessed the previous battles closely and was still trying to master the curse on Rika. Thinking back to the dazzling, overwhelming scenes earlier, with his current strength alone... well, he just needed to give it his all. Clenching his wooden sword tightly, Yuta calmed his nerves, recalling all the training he had gone through.
A surge of roaring cursed energy rose from Yuta, then gradually drew back under his control. Gojo raised an eyebrow — that was some unusually massive cursed energy. Perhaps... Yuta's theory was right: it wasn't Rika cursing him, but rather he had inadvertently cursed Rika.
Ready and focused, Yuta exhaled deeply. With cursed energy enveloping his body, he swiftly left a faint afterimage in the air as he swung his wooden sword's blade toward Gojo's face.
But in an instant, Gojo's figure vanished.
"Here it comes! Teacher Gojo's teleportation!"
Yuta reacted quickly, spinning his body and swinging the wooden sword in a circle. Sure enough, Gojo had already appeared behind him, smoothly dodging the attack.
"You're improving fast. You look a lot more spirited than before. As expected of my dear student."
Gojo easily dodged Yuta's strikes, then took advantage of an opening to sweep his leg and trip him. Yuta rolled twice on the ground and crouched low.
The wooden sword, withdrawn back to Yuta's waist, surged out again after a brief pause. The fierce strike was suddenly stopped by Gojo's two hands pressing together.
"I told you to treat me like an enemy, but you're still hesitant, Yuta. Not strong enough. You'll suffer for that later."
Yuta was stunned, then was kicked into the air by Gojo's flying kick, feeling his body almost shatter mid-air.
Quickly recovering, Yuta saw Gojo beckoning him over. "Again!"
…
All afternoon, Gojo fought like a tireless machine, showing no signs of fatigue. One-on-one matches, team battles — it eventually turned into a trial pushing several people to their limits.
Physical limits were pushed, cursed energy and techniques strained. Even Ms. Suguru Geto, who came to watch and treat the students, couldn't help but complain about Gojo's relentless training. She had already treated these students multiple times.
"The situation is worsening. Cursed spirits are proliferating again in many areas. There are significantly more Grade 2 and Grade 1 cursed spirits, and traces of some Special Grade spirits have even been detected..."
Gojo calmly reported the unstable situation. Thinking about the confirmed signs of a Special Grade cursed spirit made him uneasy.
He wasn't worried about how to deal with the Special Grade spirit. What concerned him was that it might just be the calm before the storm.
Suguru Geto also wore a worried expression. Gojo stood up, clapped his hands, and called over those resting briefly, saying as he walked: "So... the burden on the young grows heavier. While we're here to protect them, I hope they grow faster and stand beside us soon."
A new round of "lessons of love" from Teacher Gojo soon resumed. Kamado took the chance to practice many techniques, and Gojo's Six Eyes provided immediate, precise feedback.
Kamado also discovered that when he used his technique "Reversal" on himself, his cursed energy and status would revert to the chosen moment, effectively "resetting."
"Reload, huh?"
However, some things couldn't be "reset." Like his consciousness, which stayed aware of the pre-reset time before returning to that moment, rather than recreating a past self.
Kamado temporarily called this his mental stamina, because after repeatedly and continuously using the Reversal technique, he experienced dizziness, fatigue, headaches, and disorientation — sensations that intensified the more he used it consecutively.
But with Suguru Geto's treatment, those symptoms improved significantly, which meant Kamado's earlier ideas about exploiting bugs in the technique were shattered.
He had hoped to use Reversal to execute bug-level strategies, like continuously "refreshing" himself in battle, becoming invincible and having infinite cursed energy! Unfortunately, it didn't work like that — it could only be a technique with cooldown, a recovery method. It seemed mastering Reversal properly was necessary. Maybe if he combined his own Reversal with the technique, he could use it with minimal side effects? Thinking this made Kamado excited, but now wasn't the time to dwell on it, so he tucked the thought away.
Gojo's special training didn't last long. The next day, after just half a day, Gojo had to stop due to other matters. As he left, he pretended to wipe a tear: "I know my dear students must be reluctant to see me go. Don't worry! When I come back, I'll bring you even better training!"
"Nooo!"
Ignoring the groans, Gojo walked away cheerfully. When it came to strength, Gojo was unmatched. He knew everything about jujutsu, but teaching others? That was a bit more difficult.
In his own words: "I explain things clearly, don't I? But people still don't get it." Kamado's own learning of Reversal, despite Gojo's guidance, was a long, difficult process.
Thus, Gojo preferred practical teaching. If the brain won't learn, start by training the body, he said with a thumbs-up.
Although complaining about Gojo's training, Kamado acknowledged it was beneficial. Facing an overwhelmingly powerful enemy without risking life gave valuable experience.
Days passed quickly. During this time, Kamado saw two second-year seniors returning briefly — yes, seniors! But he found one was a tall man and the other a woman, and they seemed to be a couple.
The male senior, Keiji Hakari, was tall with thick hair slicked back — at first glance resembling a broccoli? His square face had some stubble, and both eyebrows had two cuts each, making him look less like a student and more like a delinquent uncle from society.
The female senior, Hoshigaki Roro, was clearly female by appearance. She dressed very fashionably with bangs and medium-length hair. She had several decorative piercings below her lips and chin and wore a midriff-baring outfit showing her slender waist. Most striking were her eyes — her pupils were shaped like pentagrams, and her eyes had stitch-like decorative patterns.
There wasn't much interaction between them. Keiji seemed displeased with the exchange meeting or something else, spoke a few words, then waved off and left.
The day before the exchange meeting, Kyoto Jujutsu High's principal and students arrived. The venue for the annual "Kyoto Sister School Exchange Meeting" was always the previous year's winner — last year, Tokyo Jujutsu High won.
In a large meeting room usually used for conferences, principals, teachers, and students gathered. Kyoto's principal was an elderly man leaning on a cane, wearing traditional white robes and hakama. He was bald except for thick white eyebrows and a beard.
Both beard and eyebrows were striking — the beard hung to his chest, and the bushy white eyebrows extended down to the length of his face. Kamado had never seen such real eyebrows before.
Tokyo's team was led by Gojo. Kyoto's side was represented by a woman in a shrine maiden outfit. Her once-beautiful face was marred by a large scar running from her right cheek up to above her nose.
Named An Utahime, she was Gojo's senior during their high school days and seemed quite familiar with him. As soon as Gojo arrived, he smiled and said something, causing An's expression to shift from annoyance to anger.
Ignoring their quarrel, Kamado's attention was drawn to a black-haired girl from Kyoto. Though her hairstyle was different, she resembled Maki.
That girl was also observing Maki strangely. Kamado whispered to Panda, "Hey, Panda, did you see that? That person looks a lot like Maki."
Panda nodded. Maki noticed their whispering and glared at them with veins bulging on her forehead.
"She's my twin sister, Mai Zen'in. Can you two stop sneaking around?"
"Ohhh!"
Kamado and Panda both made low impressed sounds, making Maki want to punch them on the spot.
Then Yuta quietly said, "Gen, Panda, the one we should really watch out for is that robot, right? Also, the person over there looks fierce and has been watching us all along."
Kamado looked toward Kyoto's six students: two males, three females, and a robot. The robot was not a sci-fi metal android but more of a cursed technique-enhanced puppet, wearing Kyoto's uniform.
One male, sitting farther away, was a traditional handsome young man who seemed almost always to have his eyes closed. Kamado thought he looked very different from Gojo or himself — wearing traditional attire, his demeanor more like a noble heir.
The other male was a bulky man with an explosive build, impossible to hide even in uniform. He had a scar running from his left forehead to under his left eye, and his hair was tied up in a spiky topknot, looking very intimidating.
The three female students looked more harmonious. Aside from Maki's twin sister who seemed at odds with her, the other two appeared friendly. The blue-haired girl with slightly slanted bangs smiled warmly when Kamado looked over.
The last female was very petite with two thick blonde pigtails, a cute and attractive mixed-race appearance. She wore ear piercings and carried a broom — was she cosplaying a witch?
Kyoto's principal and Masamichi Yaga from Tokyo finished their discussion. Yaga stood and said, "I and Principal Rakuganji have agreed on the content of this exchange meeting. It will be roughly the same as before. Now, you can get to know each other — from now on, you're all comrades united on the same front."
The blue-haired girl who had greeted Kamado first stood and bowed, "Hello, everyone. I'm Kasumi Miwa, first-year at Kyoto Jujutsu High. Please take care of me!"
"Momoko Nishimiya, second-year."
"Mechanimaru, first-year." Of course, that was the robot puppet.
"Mai Zen'in, first-year. Huh? What? Hasn't my sister ever told you about me? That's a bit disappointing!" Though she said this, Mai's expression was more teasing than sad.
"Kento Kamo, second-year. Please take care of me." Kamado raised an eyebrow at the name — the Kamo family, along with Gojo and Zen'in, was known as one of the "Big Three" clans. Interesting.
Tokyo's team took turns introducing themselves. Yuta and Maki went first, followed by Panda, who also introduced Toge Inumaki, who usually spoke only in rice ball phrases.
Panda naturally drew the most attention, especially from Kasumi and Momoko, whose eyes nearly sparkled.
Finally, it was Kamado's turn. His hair, unkempt from days without care, was casually tied back, giving him a rebellious yet charming look. Kasumi's calm face was buzzing with thoughts: another handsome guy! But Gojo was still the handsomest. I should find a way to take a picture with him.
"I'm Kamado Gen, first-year. Please look after me."
Lastly came the bulky man. His cold expression revealed little. After a brief awkward silence, he said, "Aoi Todo, second-year."
"I say... are you all first-years? Are you looking down on us or what?"
(End of Chapter)
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