“Hino City has recently experienced a series of frequent gas explosions.
The resulting fires have damaged numerous buildings.
Fortunately, there have been no casualties.
The exact cause of these incidents is still under investigation…”
A formally dressed female news anchor spoke steadily from the television screen.
The customers inside the café began talking among themselves in low voices.
“Huh?
Isn’t this already the third one this week?
That’s weird!”
“Are there even gas lines installed over there?”
“Gas explosions every day.
What the hell are those people doing?”
Sitting by the window, a spiky-haired boy in a black uniform turned his head and glanced at the television.
“That guy must be the one causing all this.”
Megumi Fushiguro withdrew his gaze and lowered his eyes to the black coffee in front of him, a thoughtful look flashing through them.
“There were two different residuals at the scenes.
That guy has been exorcising cursed spirits, so he doesn’t seem to be a curse user.”
(Ex: Residuals are traces of cursed energy left behind by cursed spirits or sorcerers.)
(Curse user: Simply put, a supernatural individual who isn’t under official control and does whatever they want.)
“But if he’s a jujutsu sorcerer, why cause such a huge disturbance?”
“A trap?”
Megumi looked up at the white-haired man wearing a blindfold, who was sitting across from him and enjoying dessert.
“No.
Against Gojo-sensei, that would be completely pointless.”
He lifted his cup, took a sip of black coffee, and continued.
“I can’t figure out what he’s trying to accomplish by being so conspicuous.”
Satoru Gojo stuffed the final piece of dessert into his mouth with his fork and replied indistinctly.
“Who knows?”
He twirled the fork between his fingers, the corner of his mouth rising slightly.
“A cursed technique involving fire.
Interesting.”
“Judging from the traces left at the scenes, both its output and effective range are pretty impressive.”
Gojo raised his head and looked at Megumi, teasing him.
“He might even be stronger than you, Megumi.”
Megumi’s expression remained calm, apparently unmoved by the remark.
“A wild Grade 2 or Grade 1 sorcerer…
That’s hard to believe.”
Ring, ring, ring.
The phone lying beside the table suddenly lit up.
The caller was—Ijichi.
Gojo smiled and picked up the phone that kept ringing.
His fingertip slid across the screen as he answered.
“Oh, you found him?
Okay, got it.”
“See you in a bit.”
After hanging up, Gojo stood and stretched.
“Let’s go, Megumi.
Come with me to catch this Fire-type Pokémon.”
“Pokémon?”
Megumi froze for a moment, and the image of a round little Charmander inexplicably appeared in his mind.
Gojo raised one finger in front of himself and looked down at Megumi.
Even with the black blindfold covering his eyes, the undisguised teasing expression on his face was obvious.
“Yep.
And by the way, Megumi is Dark-type~”
Megumi gave Gojo a sidelong glance before standing up.
“You’re annoying.
I’m not your pet.”
Gojo chuckled.
“Haha, I’m kidding, I’m kidding.
It’s just an analogy.”
He slipped one hand into his pocket and walked toward the exit, his tone casual.
“If my guess is right, he’ll be the second first-year student after you.”
Megumi followed behind Gojo in silence.
……….
Hino City, inside a detached house.
Drip.
Drip.
Sweat pooled beneath Jin and fell onto the floor.
With an enormous three-hundred-kilogram iron block strapped to his back, Jin lay prone and continuously performed push-ups.
“Two ninety-nine…
three hundred…”
After arriving in this world, the system had arranged an identity for him and even installed the Japanese language directly into his brain.
Otherwise, Jin genuinely had no idea how he was supposed to survive in Japan using the broken Japanese he’d learned from certain…
adult films in his previous life.
In the worst-case scenario, he probably would’ve ended up doing illegal labor somewhere in Ikebukuro.
Go back to China?
As an undocumented person with no identity, where exactly was he supposed to go?
The system was like a patch inserted directly into this world.
Nobody found his existence strange.
As for his general background, it was simple: both parents deceased, owned a house and car, almost no social relationships, and an eighteen-year-old shut-in.
“Huff…
huff…”
Jin’s short silver hair was soaked in sweat as he breathed heavily.
His arms trembled involuntarily.
He had already reached his limit.
“One more!”
Jin gritted his teeth.
After adjusting his breathing, he lowered himself again.
His chest touched the floor, but just as he prepared to push himself back up, his arms suddenly gave out.
BOOM!
A deafening crash rang out as the enormous iron block slammed onto the floor, throwing up a cloud of dust.
Sizzle, sizzle.
The sound of water instantly evaporating rang out at the same time.
Orange-red flames flashed within the dust.
Fire surged out from beneath the iron block and reformed beside it.
Completely exhausted, Jin lay sprawled on the floor, his chest rising and falling violently.
All the sweat on his body had vanished, evaporated by the intense heat.
“Still can’t do it.”
With elementalization, Jin didn’t have to worry about being crushed to death by weights the way he might have in his previous life.
He could recklessly challenge his body’s limits.
Truthfully, the best way to increase his strength was to develop his cursed technique.
Unfortunately, freely using a fire-based technique in a city wasn’t exactly convenient.
One mistake could cause large numbers of casualties.
So, in order to burn off his excess energy, Jin had no choice but to train his body instead.
It wasn’t a bad thing anyway.
After all, Jujutsu Kaisen had another name—Punch-and-Kick Kaisen.
Good hand-to-hand combat skills would always be useful.
After resting for a while, Jin got up, grabbed the water bottle beside him, and gulped down a mouthful.
He wiped the water from the corner of his mouth and looked toward the left.
“The neighbors are probably going to complain again.
What a pain.”
Having more or less exhausted his energy, Jin opened the system panel with a thought.
[Name: Jin]
[Race: Human]
[Current Identity: Freelancer]
[Ability/Cursed Technique: Flame-Flame Fruit / Molten Flame Cursed Technique]
[Ability/Cursed Technique Strength: 4% (represents cursed technique power, impact force, maximum output…), Ability/Cursed Technique Precision: 15% (represents cursed technique output efficiency…)]
[Skills: Beginner Armament Haki, Beginner Observation Haki]
[Total Cursed Energy: 420/420]
Main Quest: Join Jujutsu High
Reward: Beginner Conqueror’s Haki
Long-Term Quest: Kill Grade 4 (Completed) / Grade 3 (Completed) / Grade 2 (Completed) / Grade 1 (Incomplete) / Special Grade Cursed Spirits (Incomplete)
[Quest Reward: Cursed Technique Strength +16%.
Claim?
Yes/No]
“Yes.”
The moment Jin answered, a powerful force surged through his body.
His physical form rippled like flames swaying in a breeze.
Scorching, abundant power continuously strengthened the temperature and density of his fire.
After roughly two or three minutes, the enhancement ended.
Jin clenched his fist.
His stamina had completely recovered, and all traces of fatigue had vanished.
The fact that an ability enhancement restored his physical condition was exactly why he hadn’t claimed the reward yesterday.
An increase in cursed technique strength, simply put, meant increasing the numbers.
From a jujutsu perspective, it should mean his cursed technique output had increased by sixteen percent.
The Observation Haki and Armament Haki displayed on the panel had both come from the beginner package.
Awakening Armament Haki required extremely high physical attributes from its user.
After obtaining Armament Haki, Jin’s physical ability had also been strengthened to an absurd degree.
Knock!
Knock!
Knock!
Someone knocked on the door.
“Even faster than last time.
In broad daylight, seriously…?”
Jin complained twice before reluctantly getting up to open it.
“Coming.”