"Nitta Akari, pass."
"...Kamo, you pass too."
The number of students in the classroom was gradually dwindling.
As ti dragged on and they kept working at it, most of the students had eventually found the trick after countless rounds of trial, ditation, and reflection.
Quite a few of them had such bizarrely imaginative ways of visualizing [Innate Technique] that it was honestly hard to put into words. If Naoya Zenin had not been patrolling the room the whole ti, they probably would have spiraled so far into their own inner worlds that it would have turned into Inception.
Kyoto's students were not like Tokyo's students. Most of them ca from jujutsu families, with conservative and rigid ways of thinking. Not everyone was like Momo Nishimiya, who had grown up in Arica, received a more open Western education, and possessed a far more self-driven style of thought.
Working collectively and following established patterns was where Eastern thinking had the advantage.
Not to ntion sothing like rebuilding one's entire worldview. Being able to pull it off at all was already pretty good.
Naoya Zenin did not make things too hard for this group of students.
After all, they really had given it everything they had and barely managed to finish their classroom assignnt.
Still, when he saw that Noritoshi Kamo had failed to grasp [Cursed Technique Reversal] and [Reverse Cursed Technique], this transmigrator could not help feeling disappointed.
In his view, as a fellow heir of one of the Big Three Families, Noritoshi Kamo ought to have had potential far beyond what ordinary people could see.
Granted, compared to Satoru Gojo and himself, Noritoshi Kamo was not on the sa level. But heroes had always erged young, and under his guidance as a master teacher, Kamo should have been able to do more.
Yet in the end, Noritoshi Kamo was still only a sorcerer of fairly average talent.
No wonder people always said the Kamo Clan's heir was nothing more than a weak imitation.
Whether in terms of Cursed Energy or his understanding of [Blood Manipulation], Noritoshi Kamo would have a hard ti ever matching that pair of brothers.
But today's real main event was not Noritoshi Kamo.
The originally lively and extraordinary classroom had, before anyone knew it, nearly emptied out.
Aside from Mai Zenin, who was still stuck in the deepest layer of her ntal world, there were only two students left.
Aoi Todo and chamaru.
They were not poor students.
On the contrary, the ones who still had not opened their eyes by this point were the most outstanding students of the day.
They had touched sothing deeper.
Aoi Todo was, in the original story, one of the most gifted sorcerers of the new generation. He had no bloodline advantage whatsoever, ca from an ordinary family, and was a heaven-sent genius.
And because his teacher was the Special Grade Sorcerer Yuki Tsukumo, plenty of people gossiped that the reason he was so strong had to be because Yuki Tsukumo had personally taught him everything.
But Naoya Zenin could see the truth perfectly clearly.
Yuki Tsukumo absolutely had not taught Aoi Todo anything all that serious.
That woman was definitely the least responsible kind of master imaginable. If Todo had beco this strong, it was entirely because of his own talent and hard work.
In the original story, Todo was involved in almost every major battle, and every ti he was a key figure. Even without mastering Reverse Cursed Technique, he still shone brilliantly in the Shinjuku showdown, toying with the battlefield in the palm of his hand.
If Aoi Todo could grasp [Reverse Cursed Technique], then whether for Naoya Zenin himself or for the future of the Jujutsu World, it would be an enormously good thing.
chamaru, anwhile, was a genius of an entirely different type.
He was born with [Heavenly Restriction], but unlike Toji Fushiguro or Maki Zenin, chamaru's [Heavenly Restriction] was a congenital disability. He traded his fleshly body for an imnse amount of Cursed Energy.
People often talked about how Toji lost all Cursed Energy in exchange for a supre body.
Then by that logic, chamaru's [Heavenly Restriction] ought to have had an evolved form too.
That is, giving up the body entirely in exchange for supre Cursed Energy.
A kind of [Heavenly Restriction] might have been chamaru's hidden evolutionary path.
But even setting that aside, chamaru's Cursed Energy talent alone ranked among the very best of the new generation.
His understanding of [Puppet Manipulation], along with the imagination required to build sothing on the level of a giant robot, was exceptional.
It was just a sha he died young. Otherwise, by the later stages, he probably would have beco an absurdly overpowered monster of a sorcerer.
That was exactly why Naoya Zenin had such high expectations for his students.
If Aoi Todo and chamaru could, under his witness, grasp [Cursed Technique Reversal] and [Reverse Cursed Technique], then by observing that process up close, he too could gain insight into these advanced techniques.
Co on.
Let see where your limits really are.
And yet, far from the traditional kind of solemn inner vision one might expect, Aoi Todo had fallen into an incomparably agonizing battle of the mind.
Inside this musclebound boy's head, war had broken out.
Takada-chan.
And the precious mories he shared with his best friend.
It felt as though the mont he chose one side, the other would beco like an old faded photograph, only to be burned away to nothing.
Aoi Todo had never once thought seriously about what his own [Innate Technique] was supposed to look like.
Because the mont he closed his eyes, all he could think about was won with big asses.
But today, this joyous warrior of a teacher had demanded that he abandon his old understanding and reconstruct his image of [Innate Technique] from scratch.
That was simply too hard.
And over on the other side, chamaru was not doing much better.
If there was anyone in this world who most desperately wanted [Reverse Cursed Technique], a technique that could regenerate the body, then chamaru would absolutely be first on the list.
Because of the [Heavenly Restriction] he had been born with, his body was frail to an extre degree. He had been born without a right hand and without the organs below his knees, and everything below his waist was numb. His skin was so sensitive that he could not even bear moonlight, and he constantly suffered from pain like needles piercing every pore in his body.
But in exchange, he had been given a vast technique range and Cursed Energy output beyond what his body should have been capable of.
chamaru's real body had always been imrsed in nutrient fluid. He could not go outside at all, and could only attend school, study, and interact with his classmates by controlling puppets.
So when he heard Naoya Zenin explain the principles behind [Reverse Cursed Technique], chamaru imdiately closed his eyes and began following this teacher's instructions.
In that instant, the painful mories of the first half of his life turned into overwhelming power.
What was more, because of [Heavenly Restriction], chamaru's control over Cursed Energy was not inferior in the slightest even to Satoru Gojo's Six Eyes.
And with Naoya Zenin explaining everything plainly instead of speaking in riddles, chamaru had already, through the multiplication of negative energy by negative energy, vaguely touched the very edge of [Reverse Cursed Technique].
It was right at the very instant he was about to succeed that he heard Miwa's voice.
The boy heard the sound of Kasumi Miwa talking with Naoya Zenin.
Just from listening to her voice, he could clearly feel the girl's joy, along with the faint, unclear girlish feelings hidden between her words.
Even though Naoya Zenin had ignored Kasumi Miwa from beginning to end, for chamaru, who had always been secretly watching Kasumi Miwa, that lofty, utterly indifferent attitude only made his heart feel even worse.
Even though there was absolutely no possibility between the two of them, even though such thoughts were nothing but wishful thinking, even though even if sothing really did happen between them, he would have no right to interfere, it was precisely that clear self-awareness that threw chamaru's mind into uncontrollable chaos.
Just a little more. Just a little more! I was only one step away from breaking through! [Reverse Cursed Technique], the thing that could have given a new life.
No matter how much chamaru regretted it, no matter how desperately he longed for it, the treasure he had nearly already grasped in his hands could now only be watched helplessly as that chance to change his life drifted farther and farther away.
Such a precious opportunity would never co a second ti.
This was the only chance in his life.
One foot had already stepped into the highest hall of the Jujutsu World, but whether it was cruel fate or destiny itself at work,
chamaru's hands could no longer reach [Reverse Cursed Technique].
The boy could not accept such a cruel reality. He sat in his chair in a daze for a long ti before finally opening his eyes and leaving in silence.
As chamaru passed by Naoya Zenin, this teacher praised him like this.
"To be able to support such a high level of Cursed Energy, to this extent, is practically a miracle. This is not sothing that can be trained casually. It is a gift from heaven, and at the sa ti, a deadly curse."
"...Thank you for the praise, Naoya-sensei."
chamaru had not expected Naoya Zenin to know even the secret of his [Heavenly Restriction].
Since the day he was born, he had never exposed himself to the outside world.
Was this the power of the Zenin family?
"But every gift bestowed by fate already has its price secretly marked. Whether that Cursed Energy shines brilliantly or withers away depends entirely on the sorcerer's own foundation."
"If you believe there is still room for improvent, then build on what you already have and refine it. But the reverse is equally true. There are far too many geniuses in this world who ruined themselves by overdoing it and ended up becoming ordinary."
"chamaru, the road ahead of you is still long. Do not let a mont of obsession lead you down the wrong path. I already have a concrete idea in mind. Whether your thinking is equal to mine, or whether you will surpass and outshine your teacher, that truly makes look forward to what cos next."
Naoya Zenin's words, which sounded almost like a warning, were enough to make even chamaru's real body, far away in the nutrient fluid, feel a chill run down his back.
Naoya Zenin even knew he was a spy, and yet he could still speak as though he had seen straight through everything?
"If you run into any trouble, you may as well co to . As the heir of the Zenin family, I am nobler and wealthier than you."
As he spoke, Naoya Zenin wrote on the grade sheet with his pen.
"chamaru, you pass too."
"That seriously scared to death, chamaru! I thought your battery had died!!!"
Kasumi Miwa, standing off to the side, finally let out a long sigh of relief.
"Idiot. This thing runs on your Cursed Energy. How could it possibly be a battery?"
"Eh? So that's... that's how it works?"
"...How do I even have a student as hopelessly ignorant as you?"
"Don't say that, Naoya-sensei! Don't scare like that!"
chamaru stood not far away, listening to the exchange between Kasumi Miwa and Naoya Zenin.
He silently shook his wooden puppet head.
Naoya Zenin, from the bottom of my heart, I do not want to beco your enemy.
As your student, I truly admire you as a teacher.
But those filthy things you did in the past, those things you once did to Mai, are sins that cannot simply be erased.
If your existence is what causes Kasumi Miwa to keep struggling like this, and keeps her from ever finding happiness for the rest of her life, then for her sake, I would not mind destroying this Jujutsu World.
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