[“No, wait, Rui is already this old…
he’s going through puberty, so it’s totally normal for him to have certain thoughts.”] [“I always say myself that robbing young people of their youth is unforgivable…
but isn’t this a bit *too* fast?!
He’s known this girl possessed by a vengeful spirit for ten minutes max.
This counts as a messy hookup, right?”] [The strongest modern sorcerer, Ms.
Gojo, is currently overthinking.] [“Teacher…”] [Your voice rings out, hollow and gloomy.] [“Why is it that every single message I sent you is unread…?”] [Pressure!] [Applying pressure to Satomi Gojo is an inescapable rite of passage for modern Jujutsu Sorcerers.
From the higher-ups down to Utahime, there isn’t a single person who hasn’t chewed her out at some point.] [“Ah, I got busy and forgot!
Don’t sweat it, don’t sweat it.
How about I share a Kikufuku with you, okay?”] [Ms.
Gojo smiles playfully, entirely lacking any sense of professional decorum, as she offers you a cream daifuku.] [She was busy buying pastries…
then again, you know exactly how packed your teacher’s schedule is.
It’s normal for things to slip through the cracks.
She probably saw your distress message and immediately used ‘Blue’ to teleport over without taking the time to actually read the contents.] [“Let me see what you sent, Rui…
Huh?”] [Your heart suddenly skips a beat.] [You remember you were crying out for help just now…
but what exactly did you say again?
Your memory is a bit fuzzy.] [Satomi Gojo looks down, swipes her phone a couple of times, and hits play on the voice note.] [“Teacher, are you there?
Actually, I’ve liked you for a very long time.
I only wanted to become strong so I could stand by your side.
I wanted to grow to the point where I could stand at the same height as you and take the burden off your shoulders.
When that time came, you wouldn’t have to be the ‘strongest’ anymore, just a normal person, a normal girl…
Unfortunately, it looks like this wish won’t come true.
Teacher, please don’t hate the cursed Okotsu girl, she’s innocent.
If you’re going to blame anyone, blame me for not being strong enough…”] [“…Eh?”] [The strongest modern sorcerer, Ms.
Gojo, has stopped working.
System crash.] [You frantically try to explain yourself…
though honestly, there isn’t much to explain.
A confession this dramatic and grand is impossible to pass off as a joke unless your name is Takaba.] [Satomi Gojo lets out a couple of awkward, dry coughs.] [“Ahem, well, I highly recommend you hang out with people your own age more often…
By the way, how do you feel about Megumi?
She’s around your age, and you two basically grew up together.
No sparks there?”] [Yeah, no thanks.
You’re terrified that if you two ever broke up, you’d suddenly hear a loud “Yo, long time no see” on your walk home, only to turn around and see a massive, eight-handled sword-wielding Uncle Mahoraga standing there, ready to drag you into a mutual suicide pact.] [While you’re mentally grumbling, you suddenly feel the weight in your arms vanish.] [It’s Yuna Okotsu.
She had passed out the moment Rika was blasted by ‘Red.’ With tear stains still drying on the corners of her eyes, she had only stayed upright by leaning limply against you.
Now, Satomi Gojo gently takes her from your embrace.] [“Let me see, let me see…
Hmm, so this girl is the vessel?
She’s actually pretty cute.
Looks like there’s some kind of Binding Vow between her and that Special Grade Cursed Spirit over there.
She might actually possess incredible talent.”] [Seeing her inner collector personality flare up, you get the distinct feeling you’re about to gain a new junior classmate very soon.] […Wait, or would she be your senior?] [“That aside, Rui, I don’t know if you’ve noticed it yourself.”] [Ms.
Gojo extends her index finger and pokes you squarely in the forehead.] [“Did you know?
The scent you’re giving off right now is super weird.
I have no idea how a person’s cursed energy properties can change this drastically in such a short amount of time…
but the vibe you’re giving off right now is basically identical to this.”] [She shakes the dessert bag in her hand.] [“Yikes, that was a close one.
I almost couldn’t tell you apart from this daifuku just now and nearly ate you in one bite–hey, don’t laugh!
That little girl earlier suddenly lost her mind and hugged you to take a bite too, didn’t she?
I’m afraid your abnormal cursed energy is highly addictive to sorcerers right now.
It makes people want to fry, roast, steam, or boil you alive to eat you up.”] [“Once we get back to Jujutsu High, let’s have Shoko check you out.
It just so happens this girl needs medical attention too.”] [And so, you follow Ms.
Gojo back to Jujutsu High.] [“Hmm…
I’ve never seen these symptoms before.
Is it a Binding Vow?
Or a type of curse?
Either way, it’s not something that can be easily fixed with Reverse Cursed Technique.
Why don’t you stay in the clinic for a while?
Don’t worry, my pool of cursed energy isn’t monstrous enough to make me want to eat you.”] [Shoko decides to place you under protective observation for the time being.
For now, you’re benched from missions and just need to stay safely within Jujutsu High.] [You quickly realize that besides the bizarre shift in the nature of your cursed energy, your total volume of cursed energy has expanded exponentially.
In a world where “eighty percent of a sorcerer’s talent is decided at birth,” this is a complete violation of common sense.] [According to your own estimates, your current cursed energy reserves have already surpassed the few Grade 1 Sorcerers you’ve met, like Mei Mei and Aoi Todo.
While it still falls short of the absurd levels you saw in Yuna Okotsu earlier, it’s an incredibly impressive stat line.] [Conveniently, your Innate Technique heavily relies on your total volume of cursed energy.] [Construction Technique.] [To put it simply, it consumes cursed energy to materialize things whose physical structures you fully understand.] [It sounds easy on paper, but high-output weapons like firearms or cursed tools tend to have highly complex structures and demand massive amounts of cursed energy.
It’s not something you can just pull off by shouting “Trace On!”] [Before setting out on this last mission, your goal had been to replicate the biological structure of insects to construct a suit of armor, which would vastly improve your agility and defense.
As a “brawler” type sorcerer, hand-to-hand combat is your absolute bread and butter.
If you were as ridiculously strong as Ms.
Gojo, you could probably blow a Special Grade Cursed Spirit to pieces with a single punch without even activating a technique.] [Now that you have this much cursed energy to burn, you can finally test out that concept.] [As the manga Baki once stated: if a 100-kilogram praying mantis existed, it would be the strongest combat organism on the face of the Earth.
Legend has it that Ryomen Sukuna, the strongest sorcerer of the Heian era, possessed four arms and two legs for a total of six limbs; a mantis also has six legs.
Coincidentally, the strongest modern sorcerer, Satomi Gojo, possesses the Six Eyes; a mantis happens to have six eyes as well.] [Mantis, you are truly magnificent!] [Therefore, your first chosen blueprint for replication is the praying mantis.
You want to construct usable, multi-jointed spring legs and scythe-like arms.
Crafting the external appearance is easy enough, but you have no idea if its structural integrity can withstand actual combat.] [If you use the Special Grade Vengeful Cursed Spirit Rika whom you just fought as a benchmark, this is likely still nowhere near enough.] [Speaking of Rika, you haven’t caught a single glimpse of Yuna Okotsu over the past few days.
The girl wasn’t physically injured back then, just heavily shaken.
After Shoko treated her briefly with Reverse Cursed Technique, she was escorted away…
and you have no clue where she’s being kept.] [The one who unveils the answer is Ms.
Gojo.] [“You mean Yuna?
Oh right, I forgot to mention–that girl has been sentenced to a secret execution by the higher-ups, you know?”] —