Jujutsu Kaisen: Naoya Zenin Wants to Live! Chapter 10: Women Only Slow Down The Draw

"Welco back, Young Master Naoya."

By the ti Naoya Zenin returned to the ancestral ho, a group of attendants was already waiting in the courtyard.

At their head was a beautiful, composed noblewoman in a kimono. She knelt by the entryway and personally untied this young noble master's shoes.

"Would you like to bathe first, or shall I have dinner served first?"

The one personally attending to Naoya Zenin was Maki and Mai's biological mother.

She was also Ogi Zenin's wife, and Naoya Zenin's aunt by family rank.

Ever since Maki and Mai both left the Zenin Clan, the only person who could still satisfy Naoya Zenin in matters of daily living was this old-fashioned Yamato Nadeshiko.

But obviously, this kind of service born from traditional feudalism made the current transmigrator deeply uncomfortable.

"...Young Master Naoya?"

Naoya Zenin took off his shoes himself, then removed his coat and handed it to his aunt before speaking coldly. "No need to prepare dinner."

"Yes, then..."

"And no bath either. Also, cancel all my evening engagents. Don't let anyone disturb . I'm going into seclusion to train."

With that, Naoya Zenin ignored all attempts to dissuade him and headed straight for the dojo alone.

This unusual behavior instantly left the mansion servants dumbfounded, and they could not help whispering among themselves in private.

"Young Master actually isn't going out to have fun today???"

"A young master who loves social banquets this much is staying ho... could it be he offended so important person?"

"How is that possible! Young Master Naoya is popular at any social gathering. Not only does he have looks and bearing others can only envy, even the people who dislike him have to admit that!"

"And what does he an by training? Didn't Young Master just get ho? Does he really need extra practice at night too?"

"Enough!"

The mont the aunt heard the servants gossiping, her face turned cold as she sharply rebuked them.

"Go prepare a late-night al for Young Master Naoya right now! And get a few more people to warm Young Master's bed. Until Young Master has gone to sleep tonight, every last one of you will keep your eyes open for !"

The servants' guesses were not entirely baseless.

Naoya Zenin really was full of worry.

He simply did not have any extra ti to waste outside, squandering his youth maintaining upper-class connections.

For this transmigrator whose days were numbered, the only thing that could truly put him at ease now was finding every possible way to increase his strength.

Investing money and building good relationships with the protagonist group through sponsorship was only a backup plan.

There were simply too many enemies in this world who could kill him with ease. Death could co at any mont.

Having power great enough to stand above everything else was what mattered most.

The transmigrator raised his head and looked at the skills section of the system panel.

[Projection Sorcery].

[Divide one second into 24 equal parts, use your own field of view as the fra, then imitate the predesigned movents within that fra. The preset movents cannot be corrected midway. If you perform an action that excessively ignores the laws of physics and movent trajectories, you yourself will be frozen for one second.]

The original owner had not practiced any other Cursed Techniques.

It was not because he was too arrogant.

Rather, in the Jujutsu World, simply being able to understand and specialize in one's own Innate Technique already made a Jujutsu Sorcerer exceptionally outstanding.

After all, normal people did not have a system panel. They had no way of knowing what effects their Innate Technique actually possessed. They could only beco proficient in using their technique through countless life-and-death battles.

The reason the Three Great Families were the Three Great Families was because they possessed a complete historical tradition, with clear records of the effects of their inherited techniques. That let later generations take far fewer wrong turns in training their techniques compared to other Jujutsu Sorcerers.

However, [Projection Sorcery] was an extrely unique category even among the Zenin Clan's inherited techniques.

That was because it was a newly erged technique within the Zenin Clan from the past hundred years. Unlike the simple and powerful [Ten Shadows Technique], and unlike the long-inherited [Blazing Courage], [Projection Sorcery] belonged to the category of modern Cursed Techniques. Its chanics were complex and profound, and its ceiling for developnt was extrely high.

Even Naoya Zenin's father, Naobito Zenin, only understood [Projection Sorcery] at the level of knowing what it did without understanding why.

The original owner was even worse. His understanding of [Projection Sorcery] was even shallower, otherwise he would not have been reduced to crazily throwing punches.

[Projection Sorcery] had a truly terrifying upper limit.

Naoya Zenin was not just hyping himself up.

In the original work, after Naoya Zenin died and beca a Cursed Spirit, he actually reached the realm of Domain Expansion for a ti.

In Jujutsu Kaisen, Jujutsu Sorcerers with a Domain were vanishingly rare. Even Suguru Geto, one of the Four Special Grade Sorcerers, never awakened an exclusive Domain of his own, even after death.

Domain Expansion was the pinnacle of a Jujutsu Sorcerer.

Satoru Gojo had once said sothing famous.

The best way to counter a Domain was to open one of your own.

Without a Domain Expansion, you were playing a tier below everyone else. It was like reaching level six without unlocking your ultimate. If you did not have that ace in the hole, how were you supposed to stand against the real heavy hitters?

In the original work, Naoya Zenin's Domain was called [Ti Cell Moon Palace]. Its effect was grotesquely overpowered, a heavy control-type Domain on the sa level as [Unlimited Void].

Inside [Ti Cell Moon Palace], it was basically the sa as applying [Projection Sorcery] to every cell in the body. Every cell in the enemy's body was forced to move in sync with the corresponding cell in Naoya Zenin's body. Any cell that moved differently from Naoya's would be instantly frozen for one second.

Put simply, moving ant death.

Of course, not moving ant death too.

Although the original owner only awakened this Domain after becoming a Cursed Spirit, and Naoya Zenin could not do that yet, it still ant he had the talent to rank among top-tier Jujutsu Sorcerers.

As long as he started training hard from now on, he should still have a chance to step into the realm of Domain Expansion.

But this transmigrator had clearly underestimated just how difficult Domain Expansion was.

He might possess knowledge, information, and understanding far beyond what the current Jujutsu World had...

But at the end of the day, he was not the original Naoya Zenin. He did not have the original owner's mories, so when it ca to the flow of Cursed Energy, or even how to use a technique, he was completely in the dark.

As a result, his foundations as a Jujutsu Sorcerer were practically nonexistent.

"...Failed again."

Naoya Zenin panted heavily.

Almost at once, he felt that strange stiffness spreading through his body.

There was no doubt about it. His [Projection Sorcery] had failed again.

He could not keep up with the twenty-four preset movents.

This body had enough potential to handle all kinds of complex motions, but the one predesigning the movent path was the soul of this transmigrator.

Within a single second, he had to fully calculate all twenty-four actions, keep them from violating the laws of physics too badly, and reproduce those twenty-four actions in a reasonable, flawless way.

Of course, simple success was easy.

Taking twenty-four steps in one second was nothing.

But if he wanted to reach the upper limit of [Projection Sorcery], then at the very least he had to be able to run twenty-four steps in that second.

And succeeding for one second was nowhere near enough.

Naoya Zenin had to succeed ten tis in a row, a hundred tis, even a thousand tis!

Every successful use of [Projection Sorcery] ant the acceleration was preserved, so his next set of twenty-four actions would only beco faster.

That ant every success nearly doubled the amount of computation his brain had to perform.

Just trying to approach the upper limit of [Projection Sorcery] was already enough to make Naoya Zenin feel a stabbing pain in his brain.

His temples throbbed so badly they were almost unbearable, and his eyes felt swollen, as if they were about to burst.

His vision turned blue-green, and the lights in the dojo flickered like stars.

In a world filled with countless afterimages of himself, Naoya Zenin's brain frantically tried to keep up with the speed of his body.

Faster!

It had to be faster!

Faster still!

He absolutely could not let the speed of his thoughts lose to the speed of his body.

If he lost to his own body here, would that not make him even more worthless than the original owner, that scumbag villain?!

Naoya Zenin kept running [Projection Sorcery] at high intensity, letting Cursed Energy flow through his entire body.

"...!!"

Then ca pain so intense it was almost impossible to endure.

It felt as if every bone and muscle in his body were being smashed apart with a hamr, or as if all his muscles were twisting together and tearing each other apart. The agony was beyond words.

Crack!

Crack!

Those sounds seed to be coming from his own body.

His joints twisted. His heart shattered.

His ribs broke. Bone fragnts stabbed into his lungs.

At least, that was how it felt in his subconscious.

And yet.

Even under that brutal baptism of pain, the transmigrator did not let out a single scream, nor did he bite down on his lip.

If it had been the original Naoya Zenin, he probably would have given out under this kind of extre speed too.

Because to that frivolous noble young master, accelerating to the point of hurting himself had no aning at all.

In a real fight, there would never be such a long warm-up period.

When [Projection Sorcery] was used to finish a battle, it would not take more than ten activations at most before the enemy lost simply because they could no longer keep up.

If the fight still was not over after ten seconds, then that ant his attacks could not break through the enemy's defense. What needed improvent was his thod of Cursed Energy output.

Blindly accelerating was aningless.

But Naoya Zenin still let Cursed Energy roar through his blood vessels, using its flow to imprint every part of this body with his own will as the transmigrator.

Not just the heart.

The neck, shoulders, arms, abdon, thighs, calves...

He had to carve into every inch of skin on his body the mory of being ruled by himself.

"Snap—!"

With the sound of sothing in his mind breaking, a wave of weakness washed over him.

He had failed again.

Naoya Zenin slamd hard onto the floor.

His Cursed Energy was completely drained, and he could not even move a finger anymore.

His entire body was exhausted from training beyond its limits.

He already wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and fall asleep right there.

But the original owner was not the kind of slob who would lie around snoring in the dojo, soaked in sweat from head to toe.

Naoya Zenin forced his eyes open, pushed himself up from the floor, and left the dojo to take a bath.

"Young Master... milady specifically told us to scrub your back..."

"Get out."

Even though he felt like he was about to pass out, he still ignored the maid's request.

He carefully washed himself with body wash, soaked in the hot spring for quite a while, and only then did Naoya Zenin put on his robe and step out of the bathhouse.

"Y-Young Master... milady specifically told us to attend your bed..."

When Naoya Zenin returned to his room after bathing and saw the maids trembling under the covers, his vision went black.

Seriously, I nearly died in the dojo just now, and you people still ca running over in the middle of the night to help jerk off?!

"Get out!!!"

Using the last bit of strength he had left, Naoya Zenin kicked the frightened maids out of the room.

"What the hell..."

The transmigrator collapsed straight onto the bed and let out a long breath.

Only now did he understand a little why the original owner hated won so much.

Won really did affect the speed at which he drew his sword.

Starting tomorrow, maybe I should just have Oda co over and handle the household affairs...

With that thought in mind, Naoya Zenin finally drifted off into a groggy sleep.