It had been nearly two months since I enrolled at Jujutsu High.
So far, Fushiguro and I were the only first-years. Since there were so few of us, we often trained together with the second-years.
Though maybe it would be more accurate to say we’d been dumped on the second-years...
All the original characters I had met in person had strong personalities, but none of them had felt particularly difficult to deal with.
I had already known about Inumaki’s peculiar way of speaking from the anime, so I adapted quickly enough, and Panda was just Panda.
With one exception: Maki Zenin...
"Good morning, Maki."
"......"
As you can see, she practically treated me like I was invisible.
As I remained bent over at the waist without moving, Fushiguro dusted off my shoulder and asked,
"What did you do to Maki for her to ignore you this badly?"
"Hah... Did you ask Maki?"
"We can’t keep living like this as classmates."
What had happened with Maki came back to me the moment I enrolled at Jujutsu High and saw her face.
What was there to say? This body had originally belonged to a member of the Zenin clan. I, Zenin Daisuke, had known Maki as a child.
And naturally, back then I had no memories of my past life. Following the clan’s deeply ingrained male supremacist customs, I had looked down on Maki and Mai.
"What a piece of trash."
"Let’s just say there were no adults around to correct me when I was young and foolish."
It wasn’t wrong. The Zenin clan itself was messed up from the start.
If you grew up there being coddled without ever realizing it, you became someone like Naoya.
"...Well, I can agree with that to some extent. I don’t know what I would’ve been like if I’d grown up in that environment either."
"Right? In that sense, isn’t the fact that I’m reflecting on it, even now, enough to put me in the top one percent of the Zenin clan?"
"Are you really reflecting on it? Ugh, hurry up and come on. Class is about to start."
If the story continued without me being able to repair my relationship with Maki, there was a chance I could get caught up in the Zenin clan massacre too.
That was why I had been putting every effort into restoring our relationship. But communication only worked when both sides were willing. Since she was single-mindedly ignoring me like that, nothing was getting anywhere.
"Still, she wouldn’t actually kill me, would she?"
"You really aren’t reflecting at all, are you?"
-
Today’s lesson was a one-on-one spar.
We had to use everything we had honed over the last two months—our jujutsu and hand-to-hand combat—to subdue our opponent without injuring them.
My opponent was, naturally, Fushiguro Megumi. There were only two first-years, so it was inevitable.
"Ready~ Begin."
At Kusakabe’s signal, I rushed at Fushiguro.
At the same time, Fushiguro retreated.
"Nue."
The biggest difference between him and me was that he was a proper Ten Shadows Technique user, whereas I effectively had no cursed technique at all. In short, Fushiguro Megumi was the superior version of me.
The way to deal with a shikigami user was to target the user themselves. That was why I had chosen to break through head-on from the very start, but Fushiguro knew that weakness better than anyone. He opened up the distance at almost the same speed as me and summoned Nue.
Keeeeeeek!!!
Nue flew at me, beating its wings.
I was already running at full speed, making it difficult to evade Nue as it came straight at me.
So I broke through head-on. I swung my staff and struck at Nue.
Crackle, crackle.
The staff only grazed it, but I succeeded in knocking Nue out of my direct path.
Nue’s cursed energy crackled like electricity, leaving my feet numb, but I immediately dealt with it using Reverse Cursed Technique.
"You brute!"
"Haaah!!!"
Having forced my way in, I thrust my staff forward.
A thrust was a dangerous attack in itself. But this was a friendly match, so I wasn’t about to use an attack that could suddenly injure him.
I was aiming for the hand forming the sign!
"Divine Dogs! Ngh!"
"Failed summon. Nice."
He broke the hand sign, and the summoning of Divine Dogs failed. I immediately pulled back my staff and swung it into Fushiguro’s side.
"Ghk!"
I felt the heavy impact through my hands. It must have dealt a decent amount of damage, but my staff would not come free.
Fushiguro had already pinned the staff tightly against his forearm.
Right after that, he swept my legs out from under me.
He had not missed the opening created when I shifted my center of gravity to pull the staff free, destabilizing my stance.
To secure his hold over me after I fell, he moved in with a joint lock.
That was when I added one of my own secret moves.
I summoned a shadow in midair and stepped onto it.
"!?"
At the same time, I thrust a shadow up beneath Megumi’s feet, breaking his balance. Using the force of him crashing into me against him, I flipped us over and took the mount.
Thud.
"Sparring match over. Zenin Daisuke wins."
"Whew, I barely won that."
I helped Fushiguro up and caught my breath.
"That was impressive. Using shadows like that... Can I do it too?"
"Of course you can. Unlike me, you’re not some half-baked knockoff."
He immediately began trying to imitate the way I had applied my shadows.
Hmm. It definitely won’t work on him next time.
I had tried every application of shadows I could remember from the original story to make up for the disadvantage of being unable to summon shikigami, but it looked like I would ultimately remain nothing more than a lesser copy of Fushiguro.
Even my sorcerer grade was one rank below his.
"Good work, you two~"
"Salmon~"
Panda and Inumaki stepped down from the bench for their next sparring match.
Fushiguro and I, having finished our match, were about to head for the bench as well. But Fushiguro excused himself, saying he wanted to practice the shadow application I had shown him for a while.
As a result, the bench now had only Maki and me on it.
It would have been a little better if Okkotsu had been here...
"Um, Maki."
"..."
There were not many chances for us to be alone like this.
If I was going to apologize—or do anything at all—I had to say it now.
"I know it’s shameless of me to say this now, even I think so myself, but—"
"You."
Her icy voice cut me off.
"I’ll accept your apology, so stop getting in my way."
"Ah..."
It did not feel like she had accepted my apology at all.
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