Chapter 123: Suguru Geto's Special Training
"Are you really not going to consider it?"
Inside the infirmary at Tokyo Jujutsu High, Shoko Ieiri twirled a cold, gleaming scalpel between her fingers.
Her eyes were fixed on Yami, who sat on the examination bed with the posture of a man facing a life-or-death ambush.
"Just a tiny sample," Shoko said, stepping closer. "I promise I'll only cut a little epidermal tissue."
"No."
"Your physical data makes no sense. You have no Cursed Energy, yet during the mansion mission, your body produced enough heat to evaporate a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit almost instantly." Shoko's eyes shone with dangerous curiosity. "This is a miracle of both biology and jujutsu. Let me study you. I can stitch you up with Reverse Cursed Technique. You won't even feel pain."
Yami leaned back slightly.
A few black lines seemed to appear over his forehead.
He was already preparing to use the Transparent World to find the best route of escape when the infirmary door flew open.
"Shoko! What are you doing?!"
Utahime Iori rushed in like a storm, immediately stepping in front of Yami with both arms spread wide. She looked exactly like a mother hen shielding her chick.
"You are not cutting Mr. Yami!"
She glared at the scalpel in Shoko's hand as if it were a cursed object.
"He saved my life! Stay away from him, you dissection maniac!"
Shoko sighed and tossed the scalpel back onto the tray with a crisp clink.
"How boring."
She pulled a cigarette from her pocket and placed it between her lips, though she did not light it.
"Utahime, since when did you get so protective over your food?"
"F-Food?!"
"I only wanted to contribute to the progress of science." Shoko's gaze drifted meaningfully toward Utahime's slightly flushed cheeks. "Speaking of which, weren't you delivering a thank-you gift? Why did you come back empty-handed? And why are you out of breath?"
At the mention of the thank-you gift, Utahime's blood pressure visibly spiked.
"Don't even bring it up!"
She clenched her fists, teeth grinding.
"The red bean daifuku I stayed up all night making were stolen by that white-haired bastard, Satoru Gojo! He didn't leave a single piece! I chased him halfway across the training grounds and still couldn't catch him!"
Yami could not help laughing softly.
"It's alright, Senior Utahime. I already received the thought behind it."
His tone was gentle enough that most of Utahime's anger melted away on the spot.
"Next time, I'll treat you to Chinese food."
Utahime's cheeks reddened again.
"Th-then it's a deal!"
Outside the infirmary, on the training grounds.
Suguru Geto sat cross-legged on the grass in loose training clothes, his brows drawn together in thought.
The recent setbacks had affected him more than he wanted to admit.
The mansion mission.
The doubles match in the fighting game.
And more than anything, Yami himself.
For someone like Suguru, who had always believed Cursed Spirit Manipulation could answer almost any situation as long as he possessed enough quality and quantity, Yami's existence was difficult to ignore.
No Cursed Energy.
No Cursed Technique.
No shikigami.
And yet, he could crush the logic of ordinary jujutsu combat through speed, perception, and physical technique alone.
"What's wrong? Questioning your life?"
Yami had arrived behind him at some point, holding an unsharpened spare iron sword that Jujutsu High had issued to him after the last one shattered.
Suguru looked up. There was a rare trace of confusion in his eyes.
"Instructor Yami."
His voice was calm, but not as composed as usual.
"I always thought that as long as I collected enough Cursed Spirits, I could handle any situation. Different curses for different enemies, different techniques for different conditions."
He lowered his gaze.
"But after facing your speed, and after that game where coordination mattered more than individual power, I keep feeling like something is missing from my fighting style."
Yami looked at the young sorcerer before him.
This was Suguru Geto before everything broke.
Still proud, still gentle, still carrying the idea that the strong had a duty to protect the weak.
Yet hidden beneath that calm surface was the beginning of a dangerous question.
What was the value of strength?
What was the point of endlessly swallowing curses?
What happened when the person beside him kept climbing higher, while he remained buried under the weight of duty?
Yami had no intention of letting that wound fester again.
"Suguru, you rely too much on your subordinates."
He walked over and casually drove the unsharpened iron sword into the grass.
"Your Taijutsu isn't bad, but in a real life-and-death fight, it's not enough."
Suguru's eyes narrowed slightly.
Yami continued, "You lack a decisive killing method of your own. More importantly, you haven't learned how to make your own body, your Cursed Energy, and your Cursed Spirits work as one."
Suguru's pride as a Special Grade prospect made him instinctively want to push back.
"Instructor Yami, although you beat us in Taijutsu and games…"
He rose to his feet and formed a hand seal.
"A jujutsu battle is not just a contest of physical strength."
Cursed Energy surged.
A huge dragon-shaped Cursed Spirit appeared above the training grounds with a deep roar, its body covered in hard, gleaming scales.
Grade 1 Cursed Spirit: Rainbow Dragon.
It was the toughest Cursed Spirit currently in Suguru's possession. Its physical defense was exceptional, strong enough to withstand even a few ordinary attacks from Satoru Gojo.
Suguru looked at Yami.
"Instructor Yami, if you don't use that high-temperature slash of yours…"
His eyes sharpened with fighting intent.
"Can you break Rainbow Dragon's defense with only Taijutsu and an unsharpened piece of scrap iron?"
He wanted proof.
Not out of hostility.
He wanted to know whether Cursed Spirit Manipulation was really as incomplete as Yami claimed.
Yami looked up at the Rainbow Dragon circling in the air.
Without saying a word, he pulled the spare iron sword from the grass.
He did not activate Total Concentration Breathing.
He did not use Sun Breathing.
He did not even turn the blade toward the dragon.
Instead, he aimed the back of the sword at Rainbow Dragon.
"Suguru, watch closely."
Yami's voice was even.
"The essence of strength is not only destruction. It is resonance."
Before the final word fully settled, his figure vanished.
Fast.
Too fast.
Suguru's pupils contracted.
In the next instant, Yami had already appeared above Rainbow Dragon's head.
"Roar!"
Rainbow Dragon reacted at once. Its massive tail tore through the air like a steel whip, bringing a violent gale with it.
Yami did not dodge.
The iron sword in his hand moved lightly, almost casually.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Three strikes.
The back of the blade touched three different scales on Rainbow Dragon's body.
The sounds were crisp, like metal tapping glass.
There was no overwhelming strength behind them.
No fire.
No shockwave.
No visible damage.
For a brief second, Suguru thought Yami's attack had failed.
Then Rainbow Dragon froze in midair.
Starting from the three scales Yami had touched, an extremely fine vibration spread through its body. The tremor was small at first, barely visible, but it multiplied rapidly, rippling across its muscles, bones, and Cursed Energy pathways.
Crack.
Crack, crack, crack.
The sound that followed made Suguru's teeth ache.
Rainbow Dragon's indestructible scales began to split and peel away in large sections like brittle glass. Its massive body convulsed once, then lost all stability.
In less than three seconds, the Grade 1 Cursed Spirit that prided itself on defense collapsed into a ruined mass, unable to maintain its form.
Suguru immediately recalled it into a Cursed Spirit Ball.
The training grounds went silent.
Suguru stared at the unsharpened iron sword in Yami's hand.
There was not a single nick on it.
"What… was that?"
His voice was low, carrying disbelief he could not fully hide.
"You didn't use Cursed Energy. You didn't use that high-temperature slash. So why did Rainbow Dragon's defense collapse?"
Yami landed lightly on the ground and tossed the iron sword back onto the weapon rack.
"Transparent World."
He pointed to his eyes.
"All things have a breath. Cursed Spirits are no exception."
Suguru listened in silence.
"In my eyes, Rainbow Dragon's defense only looks perfect from the outside. Its muscles, scales, and Cursed Energy flow all have weak points."
Yami tapped the side of the sword rack.
"I didn't destroy its scales with brute force. I struck the most vulnerable nodes at a frequency opposite to its Cursed Energy flow. That resonance broke its defensive structure from the inside."
Suguru's eyes lowered in thought.
Yami looked at him seriously.
"Suguru, don't treat Cursed Spirits only as shields or disposable tools."
Those words struck deeper than Suguru expected.
"Try to feel their breath. Feel how their Cursed Energy moves. If one day you can make your Taijutsu, your Cursed Energy, and your Cursed Spirits resonate perfectly…"
Yami paused.
"That will become your true finishing move."
Suguru stood motionless.
The image of those three light taps replayed in his mind again and again.
Strength was not only destruction.
It was resonance.
Cursed Spirits were not only tools.
They had breath.
Flow.
Structure.
For the first time, Suguru felt as though a new path had appeared before him. It did not deny his Cursed Technique. It expanded it.
At that moment, the infirmary window slid open.
Shoko leaned against the windowsill with a cigarette in her mouth, exhaling a thin ring of smoke.
"Watching you grow might be more interesting than boring dissections."
"Hey, Suguru!"
Satoru Gojo popped out from somewhere with half a red bean daifuku in his hand, laughing without mercy.
"You got instantly killed by a blunt sword! How embarrassing!"
He pointed at Suguru with the half-eaten daifuku.
"From now on, don't go around telling people you know me, the strongest."
Suguru slowly turned his head.
Several veins appeared on his forehead.
"Satoru."
His smile was perfectly calm.
"Do you want to die?"
Gojo grinned.
"Come on, then. I can beat you with one hand!"
A second later, the two problem children were wrestling again like complete idiots.
Yami folded his arms and looked up at the blue sky.
At that moment, the strange lag that had been haunting his body since crossing time quietly faded away.
Power flowed back into him, steady and familiar.
[Ding! The space-time weakness period has ended. Strength fully restored.]
[Tsugikuni Yoriichi synchronization increased to 37%.]
His perception expanded outward.
For a moment, he could clearly sense even the path of a falling leaf a hundred meters away.
Yami slowly clenched his fist.
So this was what it felt like to be back at full strength.
Not bad.
His gaze fell on Gojo and Suguru, who were still bickering on the training grounds.
The special training had only just begun.
.....
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