A few familiar terms left Tōru Azuma frozen in place.
The Cursed Spirit seized the opening and swung a fist at him.
An overwhelming sense of danger jolted him out of his thoughts, and he threw himself into a roll, narrowly avoiding the blow.
But that did nothing to diminish the realization that had just struck him.
‘Jujutsu Kaisen…
Is this the world of Jujutsu Kaisen?
Then everything makes sense.’
Right.
If this really was the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, then all those things he couldn’t explain suddenly had an answer.
Like why no one else could see that monster, or why he could feel some inexplicable power inside his body.
Ordinary people couldn’t see Cursed Spirits.
Even some sorcerers were unable to perceive them before receiving proper training and could only vaguely sense their presence.
He remembered learning that from the original series.
The fact that he could see one clearly might mean that, at the very least, he had the potential to become a Jujutsu Sorcerer.
Before he could think any further, however, the monster attacked again.
The woman in the distance shouted once more, this time with a trace of anger in her voice.
“Hey!
What are you spacing out for?
Keep dodging!”
Tōru Azuma forced himself to calm down and focused on the Cursed Spirit in front of him again.
Strangely enough, now that he knew exactly what the creature was, he actually felt relieved.
The world of Jujutsu Kaisen had an organization dedicated to handling things like this.
Whenever a Cursed Spirit appeared, they would immediately send someone to exorcise it.
In other words, all he needed to do was keep the thing occupied until help could deal with it.
And the woman who had been warning him was probably the Jujutsu Sorcerer sent to handle the Cursed Spirit.
His job was simply to buy her enough time to attack.
With that thought in mind, he dodged another strike, circled behind a pillar, and glanced toward the hallway to see whether the person who had arrived was someone he recognized.
Maybe Nobara Kugisaki, or Maki Zenin.
Of course, since he still had no idea where he was, it could just as easily be someone from the Kyoto campus.
At the far end of his vision, he spotted a young girl dancing gracefully.
She wore shrine maiden robes, white on top and red below, with a string of bells and a gohei in her hands.
Those distinctive features were enough for Tōru Azuma to recognize her.
‘Utahime?
This might be a little bad.’
He thought about it while continuing to dodge the Cursed Spirit’s attacks.
Utahime, or rather Utahime Iori, was a teacher at Kyoto Jujutsu High and a Semi-Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer.
Her Innate Technique was “Solo Forbidden Area,” a buff-type skill with a fairly long setup time.
She needed to sing and dance before she could apply its effect to someone.
Fortunately, as a support-type sorcerer, she probably wouldn’t be sent on a mission alone.
That meant there had to be someone else nearby, right?
Thinking that, he shifted to another pillar and swept his gaze down both sides of the hallway, searching for another familiar figure.
Then he suddenly noticed that Utahime looked different from how he remembered her.
She was still wearing the same white-and-red shrine maiden outfit, but the Utahime he remembered wore her hair in a ponytail with a white bow tied in it.
This Utahime…
It was hard to tell from this distance, but her hair seemed to be styled into two low ponytails hanging over her chest.
And…
there didn’t seem to be a scar on her face either.
Wait.
What time period had he transmigrated into?!
Not far away, Utahime Iori finally stopped moving.
Once she sensed that her Cursed Technique had taken effect, she let out a sigh of relief before shouting toward the unfamiliar boy.
“Can you feel the change?
You can attack it now!”
Tōru Azuma froze for a moment.
Attack?
With what?
No, wait.
Why was he supposed to be the one attacking?
Utahime dancing to apply the buff made sense, but shouldn’t her companion be the one actually fighting?
“Why am I the one attacking?!
Where’s your companion?!”
He yelled at the top of his lungs while circling the pillar.
Utahime Iori paused for a moment after hearing him, then shouted back even louder.
“There is no companion!
I’m the only one who came to support you!”
Tōru Azuma’s foot slipped.
He nearly took a fist from the Cursed Spirit, but managed to recover immediately and keep dodging as he complained inwardly.
They sent a single support-type sorcerer to exorcise a Cursed Spirit?
What the hell are Jujutsu High’s higher-ups thinking?
Before he could say anything, Utahime Iori’s voice rang out again, now carrying clear anxiety and tension.
“I’ve already enhanced you with my Cursed Technique!
What are you waiting for?
Hurry up and hit it!”
Her words tore a despairing shout from him.
“How am I supposed to fight it?!
I don’t know how to do anything!”
It was true.
Being able to see the Cursed Spirit had made him realize that he possessed Cursed Energy, but he had absolutely no idea how to control it.
All he could do was sense it hidden somewhere inside his body.
Otherwise, even if he could only use Cursed Energy to reinforce his body a little, he wouldn’t be in such a miserable state right now.
Utahime Iori was equally dumbfounded by his answer.
Although she was still a Semi-Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer after several years at the academy, she had learned plenty and could at least make basic judgments about Cursed Spirits.
According to the information she had just received from the assistant manager, the Cursed Spirit had been causing primarily physical destruction, while one person was somehow managing to hold it off.
That alone hadn’t been enough for her to reach a conclusion, so she had gone to the entrance of the hallway and observed the Cursed Spirit’s attack patterns.
After realizing that its methods of attack were essentially limited to smashing things and throwing briefcases, she concluded that the Cursed Spirit definitely didn’t possess any special Cursed Technique.
Its attacks were certainly powerful.
Repeated blows were even enough to break supporting pillars.
But possessing a Cursed Technique and not possessing one were two completely different things.
At most, this was a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit.
In that case, anyone capable of holding their own against it should at least be a Semi-Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer, and one specialized in combat at that.
She had never seen the boy at school, but he could have come from another school or belonged to some Jujutsu Sorcerer family.
So in her mind, once she applied her buff to him, he should have been capable of fighting the Cursed Spirit.
But what had he just said?
He didn’t know how to do anything?
How was that possible?
He could see the Cursed Spirit, and he had survived its attacks for this long.
Could an ordinary person who knew absolutely nothing really do something like that?
Utahime Iori opened her mouth, at a complete loss for words.
She had imagined all sorts of situations on her way here, but this was one possibility she had never considered.
An ordinary person who merely possessed the aptitude to become a sorcerer had actually managed to hold out this long against a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit?
“Hey!
Stop spacing out and think of something!”
This time, it was Tōru Azuma urging her on.
His shout snapped Utahime back to her senses, and she immediately felt embarrassed for having lost focus at a time like this.
She composed herself, recalled what she had learned, and shouted toward the strange boy in the distance.
“Listen to me!
Can you sense something unusual inside your body?!”
Tōru Azuma shouted back while dodging.
“Yes!”
At that moment, another attack from the monster shattered one of the three remaining support pillars.
The weakened pillar swayed twice before crashing to the floor, sending up a thick cloud of dust and debris.
It barely obscured the Cursed Spirit’s vision, but it gave Tōru a precious moment to catch his breath.
Realizing how urgent the situation had become, Utahime Iori abandoned the complicated technical terminology and switched to a much simpler explanation.
“Then start imagining it!
Imagine that power following your will and moving through your body toward your arm!”
The explanation was somewhat abstract, but Tōru Azuma still took a deep breath.
As he moved around the pillar, he turned his attention inward.
Having read the original series, he knew that the abdomen was the source and central hub of Cursed Energy, so he deliberately focused his awareness there.
Yet no matter how he pictured it, the Cursed Energy remained firmly lodged inside his body without moving at all.
“It’s not working!
Nothing’s happening!”
“Don’t try to grab it!
Think of pushing it instead!
Like flowing water.
You can’t grab water, but you can push it in another direction!”
Hearing Utahime’s anxious shout, he gritted his teeth and dodged another attack from the Cursed Spirit.
Then, following her explanation, he focused once more on moving his Cursed Energy.
This time, he finally felt it begin to move.
It was slow, and only the faintest thread of power responded, but it was unmistakably flowing toward his arm exactly as he intended.
“I did it!
But there’s barely any power!”