Hi guys, author here! Please share your thoughts in the comments and reviews. And if you like it, don't forget to drop some stones — they're a great motivator!
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After finding his best friend, Todo immediately ignored the rest of the people around him.
Yuji, though surprised by Todo's weirdness, got swept up by the momentum, and before he knew it, the two of them had already gone off to attend Takada-chan's fan meet-and-greet.
Mai, who had been abandoned by Todo, stood there blankly for a moment before realising something important.
She was free.
Free from the hell that awaited anyone forced to attend a Takada-chan event with Aoi Todo.
After introducing herself as Maki's sister and Megumi's aunt, Nobara immediately cosied up to her and took Mai along with her to meet Maki and spend some girl time with the two older sisters.
Megumi, left behind all alone, was questioning what the hell had happened just now, and after thinking for a while, he concluded-
'...I don't even want to understand anymore.'
Since he had the day free, Megumi decided to head back home.
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Time passed after the meeting regarding the unregistered Special Grade cursed spirit and its possible collaboration with humans.
During this time, the Jujutsu sorcerers were more alert than ever, not only because of the warnings given by the principals of both the schools, but also because another incident happened that involved a completely different, unregistered Special Grade cursed spirit.
Yuji Itadori, who asked for special training from Satoru Gojo to get up to speed with his peers, was given basic training that he mastered in a matter of days. Seeing his learning speed, Gojo proposed that he ought to get some experience and learn how genuine sorcerers work.
As amazing as he himself was, he was not the type that conventional sorcerers should take as an example. It would only demotivate them if they compared themselves with Satoru Gojo.
Because of this, Satoru decided to hand the boy over to someone else and have them take him on missions.
His options were:
Kento Nanami, Mei Mei, and Atsuya Kusakabe.
Kusakabe, being the brave man that he was, immediately refused to go anywhere near Sukuna's vessel.
That only left Satoru with Nanami and Mei Mei, and after a close match, Nanami was chosen to be Yuji's mentor.
While partnering with Nanami, the two of them encountered a Special Grade cursed spirit that was capable of turning humans into cursed entities.
According to Nanami, the curse was still immature, yet it already possessed abilities and intelligence surpassing many seasoned Special Grade curses.
Though the most surprising part about this whole incident was that this curse possessed a high level of intelligence similar to the curse that Gojo encountered.
After causing severe destruction and numerous casualties, the curse escaped after a brutal confrontation.
Though not all was bad.
During the incident, another Sukuna finger was discovered.
If they were to follow protocol, then this finger was to be consumed by Yuji Itadori, but after the encounter with the Special Grade, his mental condition was not what it used to be, and it was decided to postpone that matter for now.
The finger was currently stored with the rest of the fingers that were found by various sorcerers within the storage facility of the Jujutsu division.
Leaving the finger aside, this whole incident made the whole mess about unregistered Special Grade curses even more complex. Multiple of these curses were running around, and even seasoned sorcerers like Kento Nanami couldn't deal with them.
The whole ordeal was getting quite scary for the Jujutsu world.
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Currently at an unknown location in Japan:
Suguru Geto was resting on a rock beside a hot spring along with Jogo.
Mahito, the curse that was encountered by Yuji and Nanami, was swimming inside the hot spring.
"Mahito, how was it?"
"Hm? What?"
"Sukuna's vessel?" asked Jogo.
Mahito closed his eyes calmly as he thought about the pink-haired boy.
"Haha, he was quite a funny character. You should have seen him when he lost all hope after Sukuna told him no. It was so funny, I couldn't hold back my laugh at all."
Mahito started laughing, seeing which Jogo sighed. What does he make out of it about the vessel? Was it easy to have him hand over his body to Sukuna or not?
"Still, by my sheer bad luck, that vessel just had to be my natural enemy.... If not for that, maybe Sukuna.... nah, even then that arrogant Heian geezer wouldn't have followed my wishes."
Mahito remembered the overwhelming feeling he faced when he faced Sukuna's soul. The sheer intimidation that the king of curses gave out made him unable to function for a good minute.
"Ryomen Sukuna is not someone who tolerates others," Geto said calmly.
"You should read the historical records about him. Honestly, I believe reality was probably far worse than what's written."
Geto smirked slightly.
"History has a habit of downplaying disasters. After all, if nobody survives to witness something, how can anyone properly record it?"
Geto smirked as he looked at Jogo.
"What?"
"Just wondering. Still contemplating whether to go with my plan or not?"
Jogo didn't answer. He turned towards Mahito. Though older than him, Mahito was considered to be the leader of the disaster curses. They will follow what their leader decides.
"I think we should go with Geto's plan."
Mahito came out of the hot spring and sat down.
"The momentary meeting with Sukuna was enough to convince me.....He's the one capable of leading curses toward the world we desire."
"... The era where curses replace humans as the true beings of this world."
"...Alright, if you, the craziest one of all, believe that, then I will cooperate with the plan."
"Even if you die in the process?" asked Geto.
"I don't mind not having the last laugh. As long as the outcome is what we desire.... I will work towards it."
Geto smirked once again.
Though inwardly—
Kenjaku was pleased.
Everything was slowly falling into place.
Despite the increased danger...
The pieces were finally moving as intended.
He stood back on his feet.
"Leaving already?" Mahito asked.
"Not playing today?"
"Unfortunately, no."
Geto dusted off his clothes.
"We won't achieve anything if we spend every day fooling around."
Then his tone became serious.
"Also, prepare yourselves for the operation we discussed earlier."
Mahito raised an eyebrow.
"The finger retrieval mission?"
"Yes."
Geto smiled calmly.
"It may become our most dangerous operation yet."
Jogo sighed.
Breaking into Jujutsu High's storage facility to steal Sukuna's fingers was essentially walking into a tiger's den.
Still—
"We're prepared."
Geto nodded and walked away.
As he got farther from the hot spring, he pulled out his phone and made a call.
"Kureha. Send a car to Spot C."
He paused briefly.
"And how are the negotiations progressing with our talent?"
The situation surrounding the jujutsu world was only becoming more dangerous with every passing day.
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Back in Tokyo Jujutsu High:
Currently, the second-year and the first-year students, minus Nobara, were chatting with each other.
Today was the day before the Goodwill event, meaning they will be meeting the students from their sister school.
A minute later, Nobara Kugisaki arrived with her bags packed and a Kyoto tourist magazine in hand.
After getting her reality crushed about not going to Kyoto since Tokyo won last year, she slumped to the ground.
After a while, they heard footsteps approaching.
The Kyoto students, along with their teachers, were approaching.
"Hmm? The whole gang is he- where the hell is Satoru?" Naoya asked and immediately started looking around for Satoru.
For better or worse, he really was excited and looked forward to meeting Satoru, but that idiot just had to be late.
Though Naoya didn't spot his friend, someone else did find theirs.
"Brother!"
Aoi Todo waved enthusiastically at the sight of Yuji Itadori.
"Ah... Todo."
Yuji smiled awkwardly.
The buffed senior from Kyoto was weird and started acting close to him out of nowhere.
"Big Brother! Meet Yuji Itadori, my best friend!" Todo introduced and proudly slung his arm around Yuji.
Yuji sent a 'help me' look to Naoya.
Naoya replied with a 'there is no helping here' look.
"It's nice to see that you guys are getting along... but don't forget that we are here?"
At Naoya's words, Todo snapped out of his happy-go-lucky mood and turned serious.
He looked towards the Tokyo students.
1. Yuta Okkotsu (Special Grade)
2. Maki Zenin (Semi-Grade 1)
3. Toge Inumaki(Semi-Grade 1)
4. Panda(Semi-Grade 2)
5. Yuji Itadori(Grade 4)
6. Megumi Fushiguro(Grade 2)
7. Nobara Kugisaki(Grade 3)
Seeing the tensions rise, the Tokyo students sized their opponents as well:
1. Aoi Todo(Grade 1)
2. Noritoshi Kamo(Semi-Grade 1)
3. Momo Nishimiya(Grade 2)
4. Mai Zenin(Semi-Grade 1)
5. Kokichi Muta(Semi-Grade 1)
6. Kasumi Miwa(Grade 3)
7. Arata Nitta(Grade 3)
The two teams sized each other up.
Though they were just students and it was just a friendly event, the whole situation was no less serious for them.
Sparks were already forming between them.
"Beware, Okkotsu, I am hoping for the rematch."
"Me too, Todo-san, I promise it won't be anything like last time."
The two undisputably strongest of both sides declared.
That was enough for the others to get heated.
"Hmph! Such a youthful atmosphere! Truly overflowing with the POWER OF YOUTH!!!!"
Arata Nitta suddenly declared loudly.
The students looked at the blond boy wearing a suit instead of a uniform.... However, that suit looked like it could barely hold itself together.
Arata Niita, a young and cheerful boy, joined Kyoto Jujutsu High with the hopes of bettering himself and being useful to the world as a Jujutsu Sorcerer.
He was not well built and didn't look like he was meant to fight curses, though in the first place, all that was fine.
Arata was a support role jujutsu sorcerer. That's what his technique [Pain Killer] had decided for him. It worked just like how it sounded. This technique allowed Arata to seal off any current wounds on a body and prevent them from worsening, and also greatly reduces the pain that the body is under because of those injuries. The injuries themselves don't disappear, but their effects are negated for the duration of the technique.
There was no way to use that technique for offence, and Arata himself was not built to fight.
.
.
.
Or that's what he believed.
Since he joined Kyoto Jujutsu High, his life has been nothing short of hell. A hell where the in charge was Naoya Zenin and his assistant Aoi Todo.
After Naoya learned about how Arata's technique worked, his mind immediately devised a way to abuse it.
You see, the human body, in simple terms, gets stronger after experiencing something that it cannot win against and survives it.
It is true for most bodily functions, immunity, wisdom, and most importantly, strength and durability.
A body gains muscles and strengthens them by having them break under constant pressure and be rebuilt stronger than before. This also means that a person can only torment their body until their muscles give out before they need to stop and rest.
However, this is where Arata's CT comes into play. And Arata's hell began.
From the afternoon when their Jujutsu classes started till after school ended, Arata Nitta was subjected to insane levels of physical training. Whenever his body started screaming in pain, he would have to use his technique on himself and have the pain and injuries suspended before he needed to continue his training.
All this continued until most of the muscle fibres in his body broke, and Arata was left with an insurmountable amount of pain.
It was only then that Naoya healed Arata with [Senzu's] RCT.
The good thing about RCT is that it doesn't just recreate the body. It recreates the body to a level that is needed to overcome the stress that the body is experiencing, if possible. It won't just give you muscles and bones harder than diamonds, but it will give you muscles that were needed to overcome the physical trauma your body couldn't have survived before it got that damaged.
Suddenly, Arata, who looked like an average high school boy, got the physique of a high school boy who is well involved in strenuous sports.
Naoya was satisfied with his findings, though the most surprised by the result was Arata Nitta.
He didn't know his technique could ever be used in such a manner.
Still, that doesn't mean he liked this method. He used every method possible to have Naoya stopped, but that hell's caretaker showed mercy to the innocent soul.
It was only after a month of facing hell and seeing the results that it showed that Arata finally stopped complaining.
It was also important to point out that the encouraging talk from Naoya-sensei, who told him that his body had just started to undergo the joys of Youth and how it would make him a great sorcerer one day, made the whole training bearable. {A/N: I promise Naoya didn't follow a certain green beast of the leaf's example.}
Arata finally understanding the true meaning of Youth was more motivated than ever to better himself and train, and though muscles themselves didn't play a huge part in a sorcerer's strength, that doesn't mean the youth will betray him. He just needs to follow the path that the youth has decided for him, and it will eventually result in what is needed of him to be an amazing sorcerer.
With Naoya and Todo by his side, Arata knew that there was no way he would fail. He can bet that on his muscles.
Coming back to the present.
The Tokyo students looked at Arata weirdly before they lost interest. They had an even weirder white-haired eye-masked man as their teacher. This was milder in comparison.
As if on cue, Satoru Gojo arrived.
"Naoya!"
"Satoru!"
The two special grades disregarded everyone around them and ran up to each other.
Seeing him act like that, Naoya's students and relatives sighed.
Though he was mature most of the time, there was no forgetting that he, too, became an idiot from time to time.
"Such Youthful friendship!"
"See that brother. That's the kind of friendship we are aiming for."
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Come on, guys.
Be YOUTHFUL!!!! Where are your stones?!