Because of Rika Orimoto’s existence, most of Yuta Okkotsu’s youth had been spent withdrawn. Afraid that Rika Orimoto might hurt others, he either deliberately kept his distance or tried to appear harmless. The former left him without friends, while the latter, combined with his thin build, made him a favorite target for bullies.

  The serious incident where four people were stuffed into lockers happened because they tried to bully Yuta and enraged Rika Orimoto. It eventually alerted the Jujutsu World and led to Satoru Gojo discovering him. Unable to connect with reality, he turned to fiction as his best way to pass the time.

  JOJO was something he naturally did not miss. He especially admired the unwavering will that ran through the series, shared by heroes and villains alike. That was exactly what he lacked.

  Looks like it’s not just the Stand type that’s the same, Akira thought with a smile. He twisted his body and struck a JOJO pose. Yuta Okkotsu followed instinctively and did the same.

  They looked at each other and called out at the same time. “Gardevoir!” “Rika Orimoto!”

  The two appeared behind them in response, just like Stands. Satoru Gojo watched with open envy, striking his own JOJO pose as he shouted, “Unforgivable. I want a Stand too. Ari, do you have any other Pokemon? Lend me one.”

  “Even if I did, I wouldn’t lend it to you. Stop trying to take advantage of me.”

  Akira and Yuta Okkotsu were posing like Joseph, while Satoru Gojo was posing like Jonathan. Damn it.

  On a spring morning, the sunlight was bright and clear. Shouts of “Osu, osu” rang out in neat unison. The place was the battlefield from yesterday, now a freshly filled stretch of ground where the ruins had just been leveled.

  Because Tokyo Jujutsu High had plenty of land, few people, and many buildings, losing one more structure was nothing to worry about. Satoru Gojo filled in the ground with a wave of his hand, and Masamichi Yaga decided to change classrooms just as easily. The matter was treated as settled, and the students gained an extra training ground.

  After getting through the first day of chaos, Yuta Okkotsu officially joined Tokyo Jujutsu High and became the youngest student in the class. That night, Akemi Aki organized a dinner gathering as both a welcome and a way to relax after the tense combat training. After getting used to life at Tokyo Jujutsu High, she completely gave up the idea of returning to the front lines.

  A Grade Three Jujutsu Sorcerer might have been acceptable twenty years ago, but now things were different. Inside Tokyo Jujutsu High, it was hard to find anyone weaker than her. The gap left her feeling the change of the times more strongly than ever.

  Toge Inumaki was a Grade Two Jujutsu Sorcerer and still advancing toward Grade One. The newly arrived Yuta Okkotsu even started out at Special Grade because of Rika Orimoto’s existence. By comparison, the rest of the class was on an entirely different level.

  Akira, Panda, and Maki Zenin were officially Grade Four, but only because they had never been evaluated before. They all started from the lowest rank, while their actual combat strength was at least Grade Two, and Akira in particular was seen by Satoru Gojo as a future fifth Special Grade. Passing the assessment was only a matter of time.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  The era had really changed, Makoto had changed. Akemi Aki sighed about it more than once, remembering how a Grade Two Jujutsu Sorcerer could become a teacher at Tokyo Jujutsu High in the past. Now someone like Satoru Gojo, a full Special Grade, teaching here felt more like an odd exception.

  To be precise, aside from Toge Inumaki, who fit the traditional image of a Jujutsu Sorcerer, everyone at Tokyo Jujutsu High was some kind of outlier. There was the purely physical Maki Zenin, the uniquely mutated Cursed Corpse Panda, and even her own child who brought along a Pokemon. Thinking about it all made her feel truly old.

  On the second day after Yuta Okkotsu enrolled, Akira kept his promise. Before dawn, he dragged Yuta Okkotsu out of bed and started training. They began with a slow run to warm up, then everyone practiced punches together.

  Because of his physical limits, Yuta Okkotsu felt tired after not too long, and he was also confused. Was this not a place to learn curses, and was he not supposed to be taught how to control a “(Familiar)”? He could not understand why boxing practice was part of it.

  Akira saw his confusion and explained calmly. “That comes later. Right now, what you need is to improve yourself. At your current level, you cannot bring out Rika Orimoto’s real strength and will only become a burden to her.”

  Satoru Gojo being unable to exorcise Rika Orimoto was based on the major premise that he would not act against Yuta Okkotsu. If Yuta Okkotsu died, the chain of the curse born from love would be broken, and Rika Orimoto would lose her anchor. She would likely go on a rampage, but her near limitless endurance and recovery would also be affected.

  In fact, the higher-ups of Jujutsu Society had originally wanted to execute Yuta Okkotsu directly because Rika Orimoto was too dangerous. The sooner it was removed, the better. It was Satoru Gojo who forcefully kept him alive.

  Akira had enjoyed yesterday’s fight, but Satoru Gojo had to pay the price afterward. The higher-ups held a special meeting to criticize him for letting such a dangerous existence fully manifest at a place as important as Tokyo Jujutsu High. Only because he was strong and shameless enough did things stop there.

  If it were anyone else, even without open suppression, there would have been secret attempts to quietly kill Yuta Okkotsu. There were countless ways to kill an unarmed boy, and even with Rika Orimoto protecting him, hidden attacks were hard to guard against. That was why Akira hoped he would grow stronger as soon as possible, just like he once had.

  As for physical training, Tokyo Jujutsu High lacked no close-combat experts. For Jujutsu, Satoru Gojo would teach personally. Teaching others was not suitable, but teaching Yuta Okkotsu, who was also Special Grade, made perfect sense.

  Both of them started from a level higher than the endpoint of most Jujutsu Sorcerer. There was also a connection between them that outsiders could not see. Akira himself was now standing at the threshold of Special Grade, giving this “Special Grade teacher” a chance to show his value as well.

  When it came time for Yuta Okkotsu’s specialized training, Satoru Gojo said to Akira, “You are about ready to learn Black Flash.” Akira was startled, since he had been told before that he was still a bit short.

  Black Flash was the peak of physical combat and a critical transformation for a Jujutsu Sorcerer. Akira had wanted to learn it for a long time, but could never grasp it, and Satoru Gojo had always said the timing was wrong. Only now did that answer change.

  “Before was before, now is now,” Satoru Gojo said. “After fighting Rika Orimoto, your Cursed Energy has completed its final change. It is now fully coordinated with your body, and all the conditions are in place.”

  Because of his overly strong physique as a so-called super newcomer of this era, Akira’s Cursed Energy had once seemed thin by comparison. It could not fully drive his powerful body. Through daily training, his control improved, his reserves increased with age and practice, and during the battle with Rika Orimoto it finally reached the ideal state.

  That moment was caught by Satoru Gojo’s unique Six Eyes. “This is really good news,” he said. Akira rubbed his hands together, eager to try, thinking that fighting the so-called Curse Queen truly paid off more than anything else.

  “So you will teach me?” he asked. “No problem,” Satoru Gojo replied. “Just two sentences. It is simple. Go by feeling. As long as you have hands, you can do it.”