Chapter 5: The Zenin Princess
Haruto couldn't sleep.
He lay on the futon staring at the ceiling of his room while the system quest timer ticked down in the corner of his vision like a bomb he couldn't defuse.
[DEADLINE: 41:33:07]
Nobara had agreed to train tomorrow morning. That should have been a relief. Mission accomplished. Train one female sorcerer. Done.
Except he didn't actually know what to teach her.
He knew theory. He'd read every chapter of JJK multiple times. He understood cursed energy manipulation on a conceptual level. He knew what Nobara's Straw Doll Technique could become. But there was a massive difference between knowing something and being able to teach it.
Especially to a girl who'd threatened to nail his kneecap.
He rolled over and stared at the wall. It was past midnight. The campus was dead quiet except for the occasional rustle of wind through the trees.
Then he heard it.
A rhythmic impact. Metal on wood. Steady like a heartbeat.
He sat up.
It was coming from outside. From the direction of the training grounds.
He should have stayed in bed. He should have spent the next six hours planning Nobara's session. He should have done literally anything other than what he was about to do.
He got up and went to the window.
The training grounds were lit by a single floodlight mounted on a pole at the edge of the dirt field. Moths circled the light in lazy spirals casting tiny dancing shadows across the ground.
Under that light Maki Zenin was training.
Alone.
She moved through weapon forms with the kind of precision that made the air whistle. The polearm she'd used to save him earlier was replaced by a shorter weapon. A naginata. The blade caught the floodlight with every swing and the afterimage left streaks in Haruto's vision like burning silver lines.
He watched from the doorway of the main building. Hidden in shadow. Not because he was trying to spy but because walking out there uninvited seemed like a great way to get a blade through his chest.
But he couldn't look away.
Maki moved like water given form. No wasted motion. Every strike flowed into the next. Her bare feet shifted on the dirt with absolute control. The campus uniform was gone. She wore training clothes. Black compression leggings and a gray tank top that was dark with sweat across the shoulders and down her spine.
Her hair was still up in the ponytail. A few strands had escaped and stuck to her neck.
She completed a sequence. Stopped. Breathed.
Then she drove the butt of the naginata into the ground so hard it sank three inches into packed dirt.
"You've been standing there for two minutes." She didn't turn around. "Either come out or go back to bed."
Haruto's stomach dropped.
Of course she knew. Heavenly Restriction. Her physical senses were beyond human. She probably heard his heartbeat from across the field.
He stepped out of the shadow.
"Sorry. I couldn't sleep and I heard the noise."
She pulled the naginata from the dirt and turned to face him. The floodlight was behind her now casting her in silhouette. Just the outline of her body and the glint of light on her glasses.
"Most people can't hear me train. The building is soundproofed."
"Must be these walls. They're thin."
"They're not." She tilted her head. Studying him. "Your hearing is good for someone with zero cursed energy."
He didn't have an answer for that so he just stood there. Awkwardly. In borrowed sleep clothes that were too big for his skinny frame with his hair sticking up on one side.
Maki looked at him the way you'd look at a stray cat that wandered into your yard. Not hostile. Not friendly. Just deciding whether to feed it or ignore it.
"You told Gojo you know about the Culling Game."
"Word travels fast."
"Gojo talks too much." She sat on a wooden bench at the edge of the training area and laid the naginata across her knees. "What else do you know?"
Haruto hesitated. Then walked closer. Stopped about three meters away. Close enough to talk. Far enough that she wouldn't feel crowded.
"I know about the Zenin clan." He said it carefully. Watching her face.
Nothing moved. But something shifted behind her eyes.
"Everyone knows about the Zenin clan."
"I know about Heavenly Restriction. Your version of it."
Now she looked at him. Really looked at him. The amber eyes went sharp behind the glasses.
"What do you think you know?"
"I know your Heavenly Restriction is incomplete. I know why you haven't reached Toji Fushiguro's level. And I know what, or rather who, is holding you back.
Like me. But unlike me your body compensated. Enhanced physical ability. Strength, speed, durability, and reflexes all pushed beyond human limits. The trade is supposed to be absolute. Zero cursed energy for a body that could match a special grade in raw physicality. But you still have a trace amount of cursed energy tying you down."
Her grip tightened on the naginata shaft.
"But you're not there yet." He continued. "You're strong. Stronger than almost anyone at this school. But the Heavenly Restriction hasn't fully activated. There's another level. One that only one other person in history ever reached."
"Toji Fushiguro." Her voice was flat. Cold.
"Toji Fushiguro."
The silence that followed was dense enough to cut.
Maki stood up slowly. The naginata stayed in her hand. She took a step toward him and he fought every instinct in his body that screamed at him to step back.
"How do you know about Toji's level of Heavenly Restriction?" Another step. "That information isn't in any textbook. It's not in Jujutsu High records. Even Gojo barely discusses it."
"I told you. I know things."
"That's not good enough."
She was close now. Two feet away. He could see the sweat on her collarbone. The steady rise and fall of her chest from the training. The way her jaw was set tight.
She was taller than him in this body. By about three centimeters. Enough that she was looking down at him slightly. Enough that when she leaned forward her eyes filled his entire field of vision.
"Who sent you?" Her voice dropped to something between a whisper and a threat. "The Zenin clan? Are you a spy?"
"No..."
She moved. Fast. Faster than his eyes could track.
His back hit the wooden support beam of the equipment shed. The impact knocked the air from his lungs. Her forearm pressed against his chest pinning him there. The naginata blade rested against the wall an inch from his ear.
Her face was close. Very close. He could feel her breath against his skin. Could see the individual lashes behind her glasses. Could smell the mix of sweat and something clean underneath it like soap or shampoo barely surviving a three hour training session.
"Last chance." Her arm pressed harder. Not enough to hurt but enough to make breathing difficult. "How do you know about my Heavenly Restriction?"
His heart was hammering. Partly from fear. Partly from something else that he shoved into the deepest corner of his brain and locked the door.
"I'm not your enemy." He said quietly. "I'm the opposite. I want to help you reach Toji's level. I know how to unlock the full Heavenly Restriction. The real version. The version where no cursed spirit can touch you and no sorcerer can stop you."
Something flickered in her eyes. Not trust. Not belief. But want.
She wanted what he was describing more than she wanted to breathe.
He could see it. That hunger. The same hunger that drove her to train alone at midnight. To throw javelins at Zenin clan cars. To push a body that was already superhuman to its absolute limit because she needed to prove to every person who ever called her defective that they were wrong.
She held him there for five more seconds.
Then she stepped back. Pulled the naginata away from the wall. Rested it on her shoulder.
"Tomorrow night." She turned and walked back to the training area. "After your session with Kugisaki. Meet me here. Same time."
"You're agreeing?"
"I'm giving you one chance." She looked at him over her shoulder. The floodlight caught her eyes and they burned amber gold. "If you waste my time what happened today will look gentle."
She picked up a water bottle from the bench and took a long drink. A line of water escaped the corner of her mouth and traced down her jaw to her neck.
She wiped it with the back of her hand and went back to her forms without another word.
Haruto stood against the equipment shed for a full minute.
His heart rate wouldn't come down.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
[MAKI ZENIN: TRAINING SESSION SCHEDULED FOR TOMORROW 11:00 PM]
[PROXIMITY BONUS EARNED: 23 POINTS]
[BOND LEVEL: MAKI ZENIN: 0 TO 1]
[BOND LEVEL 1 UNLOCKED: SHE NOW ACKNOWLEDGES YOUR EXISTENCE.]
[...BARELY.]
He pushed off the beam and walked back to his room on legs that felt like they were made of static.
Two training sessions scheduled. Nobara in the morning. Maki at night.
He had six hours to figure out what to teach them. Six hours to prepare for a day where two of the most dangerous women in this world were going to decide if he was worth keeping alive.
He collapsed onto his futon.
"System."
[YES HOST?]
"Am I going to survive tomorrow?"
[SYSTEM CALCULATES A 34% CHANCE OF SURVIVAL.]
"What happened to the other 66%?"
[VARIOUS FORMS OF PHYSICAL TRAUMA INFLICTED BY YOUR TRAINING PARTNERS.]
He pulled the blanket over his head.
Thirty four percent. Better than zero.