It was an unfamiliar ceiling.
'Ah, I wanted to try saying that once.'
"What on earth did you do to the kid to leave him in this state, Satoru?"
Beside Junpei, who was barely holding on to consciousness, an irritated voice rang out.
It was Ieiri Shoko, the school nurse and fellow smoker.
"Haha, we were just sparring for a bit, but I got carried away halfway through....."
"No one can match your level. Especially not a student. When are you going to break that nasty habit....."
"Sorry, Shoko."
"You should be apologizing to Yoshino, not me. Getting hit by [Red] from that close and only ending up like this is a miracle."
"Right? I’m pretty confident in my power control."
"I wasn’t praising you, you idiot!"
- Crash!
Apparently the angry Ieiri had thrown something, because a metal object hit the floor with a loud clatter.
Light stabbed through Junpei’s eyelids, along with the noisy chatter of people around him.
His head hurt.
"It’s too loud....."
"Oh, Junpei. You’re awake already?"
As Junpei sat up, still half-dazed, he found Gojo smiling awkwardly at him.
There was no sign of guilt on that obnoxiously cheerful face for having put him in this state.
Junpei’s temper flared, and before he knew it, he had thrown a punch at Gojo.
- Clang!
"Whoa, what are you doing!"
"Ah, I did it without thinking."
Of course, it didn’t even come close.
Shaking her head, Shoko smacked Junpei on the head with a bookmark.
"You recover fast. Maybe it’s because your body’s weak but your instincts are good."
"Ieiri-sensei....."
"Nothing’s broken or pierced. I treated you properly, so you’ll be fine starting tomorrow."
At that, Junpei’s expression wavered.
Being healed meant Gojo could beat him up again without restraint.
Should he be grateful for the treatment, or resent being shoved into violence under the guise of sparring?
'No way he’d use that [Red] or whatever again, right?'
Junpei decided it was best to just be grateful and move on.
"Thanks as always, sensei. I’m always in your debt."
"Don’t mention it. It’s my job. If you really want to thank me, lend me a hand when I’m out of cigarettes someday."
"I’ll think about it, as long as it’s not a mast."
"You’ve got a sharp mouth. Now get out."
Following the eviction order, Junpei got off the bed and opened the door to leave the infirmary.
His muscles were sore, but there was no pain where he’d been hit, so the treatment really had been thorough.
- Hiss, hiss.
Gojo sauntered over beside Junpei, who had a lit cigarette in his mouth.
Junpei blew smoke at him with all his irritation, but even that was blocked by [Limitless] and scattered into the air.
"Feeling any better?"
"Do I look like I’m feeling better?"
"Still, I did keep the power control in check, right?"
"Just how strong is your base power if your idea of holding back turns my [Fortress] into a rag? It didn’t even get through a special-grade vengeful spirit.."
"So that double armor was called [Fortress]. Nice technique."
Even if he praised it like that, hadn’t he still been reduced to a miserable wreck in a single blow?
Maybe it was the casual atmosphere, or maybe the gap in their abilities was simply as wide as heaven and earth.
Even when he was being acknowledged, it only sounded like mockery.
"I’m not exactly thrilled by that."
"You should be. You’re strong. Among the students I’ve taught so far, you’re one of the best. Probably third?"
"Who’s above me?"
"Second-year Okkotsu Yuta and third-year Hakari Kinji. You’ll meet them eventually."
"That Okkotsu senior is special-grade, right? Of course I can’t compare to him."
"Who knows. Things may be different later. From what I can see, if you meet a few conditions from here on out, you could easily make special-grade. You’re stronger than Nanami."
The iron man who had first introduced Junpei to the path of a jujutsushi.
His de facto spiritual mentor.
At the news that he had already surpassed someone he admired, Junpei’s eyes trembled.
"Me? Already?"
"Why are you so surprised? You already got your first-grade jujutsu certification."
"Come to think of it, what happened with that first-grade certification? I never heard anything from Nanami."
Junpei decided to ask the question he had been carrying around for a while now.
There was a clear difference between himself before and after summoning [Black Scale].
He had gained confidence through his missions, but he didn’t think he was on the level of someone like Nanami, a representative first-grade jujutsushi.
Besides, in terms of career length alone, he was still a rookie who hadn’t even been a jujutsushi for two full weeks.
He wanted to know how he had suddenly become a first-grade jujutsushi.
"You know the recommendation system for becoming first-grade, right?"
"Yes. You need recommendations from at least two first-grade jujutsushi, excluding your teacher, and you have to carry out several first-grade missions under supervision."
"Nanami recommended you. I asked another first-grade jujutsushi for the other one."
At that, Junpei felt like he might cry.
He still hadn’t repaid what he owed, and now he’d been given another kindness.
He thought this was just how Nanami showed recognition, but even so, he couldn’t help feeling deeply moved and grateful.
"Nanami-san recommended me....."
"Touching, isn’t it?"
"Could you please only think things like that and not say them out loud? You ruined the moment."
"Haha. Anyway, the 'disciplinary action' you and Nanami handled was counted as an official mission, so you met the requirements. That’s how you became first-grade."
"........"
"I think he was being considerate in his own way by not telling you."
The first-grade title was a huge help to a boy who had nearly become a condemned criminal.
In fact, once the higher-ups received reports of the terrorist act he had committed, they had argued for a much harsher punishment.
In that situation, the things that could protect Junpei before he had even entered Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu Technical High School were the concrete results he had already produced and the title proving his strength.
The reason Junpei hadn’t known the details was that Nanami had pushed things through alone, hoping he wouldn’t have to know about such filthy behind-the-scenes matters.
"Why is my homeroom teacher Gojo-sensei instead of a proper adult like Nanami-san?"
"Because I’m the strongest!"
"Ugh, seriously.........."
-------------------------------
After finishing his cigarette, Junpei followed Gojo to the lounge.
He was there to hear an exact evaluation and decide the direction of his training going forward.
"Anyway, from our sparring this time I got a good sense of your abilities. Want to hear my impressions?"
Junpei swallowed hard on instinct.
One way or another, this man was the strongest.
It was only natural to want to know what kind of judgment he would make.
"Yes."
"First, the good points. Your [poison] trait is rare, and there are only a limited number of ways to deal with it. Unless your opponent has regeneration on the level of a special-grade vengeful spirit or is a high-level user of reversed cursed technique, if your attack lands, they’ll go down in one shot. Being able to summon three shikigami is another strength. Each of them has offensive power and solid defense. [Black Scale]’s cursed tool-like property is also highly unusual, which makes it great for exploiting openings in the enemy. Of course, that’s only possible because your cursed energy control supports it."
"Hearing it directly makes me a little embarrassed."
"To sum it up: a rare poison trait, excellent defensive shikigami, and high-level cursed energy control and combat sense. On top of that, you’ve got strong potential."
You still haven’t fully revealed the information on your technique, have you?
Gojo’s blue eyes fixed on Junpei as if they could see straight through him.
"Or rather, in your case, maybe I should say even you don’t fully understand your own technique."
"...That’s right."
That was exactly it.
First [Sediment Moon], then [Moonlit Wave], and finally [Black Scale].
Junpei’s shikigami technique was clearly different from ordinary shikigami techniques.
That was why, even now, he still hadn’t been able to give it a name.
In general, once a shikigami user awakens their technique, the types and number of shikigami they can summon are fixed.
That makes the floor high, but the ceiling is very low, and the upper limit is clear.
They choose stability and give up on breaking past their limits.
That was also why Megumi’s inherited Zenin clan technique, the Ten Shadows Cursed Law, was so highly regarded.
A technique that can grow stronger alongside its user by passing the power of destroyed shikigami on to other shikigami.
The vicious combat power of the final, tenth shikigami, "that thing," probably accounted for the biggest share of its reputation, but even without that, the Ten Shadows Cursed Law was highly capable.
But Junpei’s shikigami technique was strange.
What had clearly once been only [Sediment Moon] had changed at a terrifying pace as Junpei grew and his awareness awakened.
And every time he needed it, a shikigami with exactly the right ability would appear.
-Almost like choosing the ingredients to put into a pot yourself.
"In your case, it’s less like summoning an existing image-based shikigami and more like compressing cursed energy into the shape you want and designing the shikigami yourself."
"Exactly."
There was no existing record of a similar technique.
He was like a seeker carving out a new road no one had walked before.
Junpei’s growth depended entirely on Junpei himself.
"Do you think you can summon a new shikigami?"
"Yes. From here on out.....one more is probably my limit."
He had no clear basis for it, but Junpei knew it.
By summoning [Black Scale], the capacity of Junpei’s technique was almost full.
Probably the next shikigami he could summon, or rather create, would be the last.
"That one will probably also be built according to the image you imagine, just like [Moonlit Wave] or [Black Scale]. So think carefully. Now I’ll tell you your weaknesses."
Junpei’s posture straightened on its own.
This was the core he really needed to listen to carefully.
In front of the tense Junpei, Gojo began relentlessly stabbing at his sore spots.
"Setting everything else aside, your hand-to-hand combat is way too weak. Your physical ability is miserable too. Naturally, when you go into close combat, you end up covering your whole body with [Black Scale], which means your cursed energy consumption shoots up. You need to time your offense and defense so you can wrap [Black Scale] around the exact point you need without wasting it, but right now you can’t do that."
"Ugh."
"Same goes for your firepower. Up until now you’ve been able to compensate with extension techniques, but against opponents with a high base level, a lot of your attacks just won’t work. In the end, your poison only matters if it gets injected into the target, but you tend to rely on [Black Scale]’s cutting power for that."
"I don’t have anything to say....."
"Overall, your own combat ability is practically nonexistent, and you don’t have one big move that can turn the whole board over. The lack of firepower can probably be covered with a new shikigami, so what’s left is hand-to-hand combat."
Gojo’s eyes, fixed on Junpei, turned playful.
Junpei got a bad feeling.
"So what am I supposed to do?"
"Within the next month, I’m going to turn you into a total hunk, Junpei."
From that day on, Junpei’s hellish training began.
--------------------------
In the morning, he woke up and ran 5 kilometers.
Fifty push-ups.
Fifty sit-ups.
After lunch, while barely keeping his trembling body together, he did anaerobic weight training.
Deadlifts, bench press, barbell squats, side lateral raises, barbell curls, lat pulldowns.........
The hellish gym training didn’t stop until his arms and legs were so exhausted they could barely move anymore.
After a bit of rest and an enormous dinner, it was time for sparring.
"You look like you’d die if someone just tapped you. You sure you’re okay, Junpei?"
"I-I’m fine...!"
- Thud, thud, thud!
"Ah! Ah! You hit a bone! Stop, Yuji!"
The sparring partner was whoever happened to have time.
But in practice, it was mostly Yuji, Panda, and Maki taking turns.
Junpei didn’t know it, but Gojo had already secured them by promising a small reward.
It was a collection of close-combat specialists assembled for Junpei.
After getting beaten up like that, he would get treated by Ieiri Shoko in the middle.
That was the time when he could relax the most.
"Junpei, cigarettes?"
"They told me to quit because they interfere with cardio. They said I shouldn’t even dream about them until I’m at least halfway decent..."
"Oh my, how unfortunate."
After treatment, Megumi would teach him weapon techniques.
"You’ve got [Black Scale], so do you really need to learn this?"
"That would be wasteful too. It’s more efficient to wrap [Black Scale] around a cursed tool than to build a weapon out of [Black Scale] itself."
"I can at least store cursed tools in my shadows.....but what about you, Yoshino?"
"There’s empty space inside [Sediment Moon]. I can just carry them in there."
"I see. A sword again today. Perform [Ittomonji] two hundred times."
"Y-yes, sir!"
Once he finished the exercises he was given, Junpei’s busy, exhausting day finally came to an end.
At the end, he always took a hot shower and fell asleep as if collapsing.
Growth is always painful, but it’s also enjoyable. Day by day, Junpei was starting to get used to it.
His movements grew sharper. His muscles swelled before he knew it.
Every time he showered before bed and looked in the mirror, he was quite pleased to see his abs becoming more defined.
He didn’t forget to recite the magic spell before sleeping, either.
"Who am I? First-grade jujutsushi Yoshino Junpei. What’s my technique? Poison."
I, too, am the strongest who will succeed Gojo Satoru.....
- Thump
Junpei’s eyes closed as his consciousness drifted off to dreamland.
That night, he dreamed a nightmare where Gojo was on his back while he did fifty sets of push-ups.
[Oh? You’re enduring it, are you. [Red].]
[Aaaagh!! Aaaagh!! Yuji!!! Megumi!!! Nobara!!! Mahito!!!! Mom!!!!!!]
"I-I’m.....Yoshino Junpei.....the first-grade jujutsushi.....recognized by Nanami Kento....."
Junpei still seemed to have a long way to go.
---------------------------
And so a week passed, and a day off finally arrived.
"No training today. You can all go out and have fun."
"Ooooh, finally!"
"Shopping, shopping!"
As Junpei and Nobara ran out excitedly, Megumi and Yuji’s gazes locked onto them.
"You ready, Fushiguro?"
"Yeah, of course, Itadori... no, why do I have to be part of your plan!"
"Come on, why so serious? You’re interested too."
"...I guess I am?"
"The otaku and gyaru combo. I can’t resist that."
The dirty malice of obsessive shippers, thick and sticky, descended without warning on Junpei, who was beaming with anticipation for his day off.
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