Jujutsu Kaisen: Naoya Zenin Wants to Live! Chapter 52: My Little Cousin Wants To Kill Me

Naoya Zenin did not like working overti.

Even after transmigrating into this godforsaken jujutsu world, he had no intention of honoring Gojo by becoming so 996 corporate slave at Jujutsu High. Honestly clocking in, slacking off, and clocking back out was already the best kind of blessing he could ask for.

So why was he still not ho yet?

Had he finally co to his senses? Had Naoya Zenin sworn never to loaf around again, determined to give Jujutsu High a little shock and grind all those idle school teachers into dust through sheer overwork?

Whatever the case, Naoya Zenin, who should have been living the pampered life of a young master on a neat nine-to-five schedule, was currently leaning against the wall outside the classroom, lost in thought.

He had forcibly extended class for a single student, Mai Zenin. And it was unpaid overti, without even charging tutoring fees.

If those bloodthirsty Kyoto reporters ever found out about this, Naoya Zenin would definitely beco one of the Jujutsu World's Top Ten Most Inspirational Figures of the Year.

But this transmigrator was no living Buddha.

He was not the sort to leave relics behind after death.

Naoya Zenin was only staying behind and taking special care of a supporting extra like Mai for one reason, to save his own life.

He was only spending half the day here desperately grinding favorability so he could avoid his death ending.

There was no helping it. The original owner of this body had been an utterly vile villain. He could not exactly keep loafing around as so useless young master and just wait to die.

Redeeming himself was already the best option available.

The script he had originally imagined went sothing like this.

Mai Zenin's jujutsu grades were poor.

In response, Naoya Zenin, as a teacher at Jujutsu High, voluntarily gave up his personal break ti and designed a systematic tutoring plan for her.

Through tireless after-hours instruction, Mai Zenin would eventually pass smoothly, and with tears in her eyes, she would bury the hatchet with Naoya Zenin. Their warm teacher-student bond would beco a touching story at Kyoto Jujutsu High.

That was how it should have gone.

But reality and imagination were often very far apart.

Mai had completely given up.

She was lying on the cold classroom floor, sobbing her heart out, not caring about anything anymore, just crying first and worrying later.

Which left Naoya Zenin, still not off work, standing there beside her feeling awkward as hell, like so kind of clown.

Naoya Zenin understood Mai's personality.

She was not usually this kind of person.

In the original story, it was only after Mai reunited with her sister Maki that she completely broke down, cast off that ice-princess façade, and revealed the weak side she kept buried inside. Naly, collapsing onto the ground and crying her eyes out in total self-abandonnt.

Was the academic pressure on sorcerers really this intense now?

Not finishing one class assignnt was enough to make her completely snap?

It could not be because his insults had hit too hard, could it?

Could it be that, in Mai's heart, that bastard cousin of hers actually held a place comparable to her sister Maki?

That honestly shook this transmigrator's worldview a little.

Stockholm syndro?

This was not even giant-baby behavior anymore. This was just pure masochism.

But Naoya Zenin knew Mai had an important role to play.

She might not look useful on the battlefield, but she ca with a death trigger built in. Once she died, she would not only awaken Maki's [Heavenly Restriction], she would also directly drop Maki's graduation-tier god gear, the Special Grade Cursed Tool [Split Soul Katana], a weapon with absurd attack power that even ca with soul-level true damage.

All in all, she still had a very promising future.

Actually, Mai Zenin was a pretty decent person.

She was just stubborn, fragile, unmotivated, broke, weak, obsessed with her sister, and a yuri girl, that was all.

A rare specin like this only needed a big enough pile of firewood and several buckets of oil dumped on top before she could finally start burning bright all on her own.

Naoya Zenin thought Mai absolutely could not keep rotting like this.

If this kept up, she was really going to start competing with gumi Fushiguro for the title of number one slacker.

If one day her depression build reached full completion, and she just tanked Kyoto property values by jumping off the school roof, leaving behind a suicide note that said nothing except endless apologies like it was all my fault, I'm too useless, I let cousin down, please do not bla Naoya Zenin, Sister, please do not avenge , then what exactly would Naoya Zenin even be able to say?

He would just have to sit around and wait for his feral cousin to cut him down.

So there was no help for it. This miserable transmigrator had no choice but to stay behind and clean up after Mai.

If he wanted to rebuild Mai's shattered ntal state, Naoya Zenin knew plain old trash talk would not work.

He could only fight poison with poison.

He had not intended to pressure her this hard.

After all, Mai was not like Maki. She had no real combat ability. She was just a little kitten who could be sent flying with one kick.

All he really had to do was keep an eye on her and make sure she did not suddenly die. There was no real need to provoke her and make the favorability grind even harder on himself.

But perhaps it was because he could not stomach the evil things the original owner of this body had done.

Or perhaps, sowhere deep down, he had truly developed a trace of affection and started treating Mai Zenin as his own little sister.

In the end, he still chose to personally throw another log onto the fire for that girl.

"I did it! I did it!!!"

The ecstatic shout from inside the classroom snapped Naoya Zenin out of his thoughts.

"...Getting this worked up so easily. She really is not cut out to be a Jujutsu Sorcerer."

The corner of his mouth could not help but curve slightly.

Though that was what he muttered to himself in complaint, this transmigrator was not actually in a bad mood.

Click.

The classroom door was suddenly shoved open, and Mai Zenin rushed out.

Her eyes searched wildly for sothing.

But clearly, this exhausted student had failed to notice Naoya Zenin hidden in the shadows.

So the excitent on Mai Zenin's face vanished in an instant.

When there was no one around to share that joy with, overwhelming happiness could turn just as quickly into an even sharper sense of emptiness.

The green-haired girl could only stagger down the stairs like a stray cat that had lost its soul.

Naoya Zenin watched Mai's retreating back. Only after making sure she had truly left did he finally step out and walk into the classroom.

"I never thought it would be you, Mai. Out of all those students, it was you who actually did it."

The young teacher closed his eyes and felt the lingering Cursed Energy in the air, confirming the result Mai had achieved at the very end.

Sothing even Aoi Todo and chamaru had failed to do.

That useless Mai had actually done it.

And it was not just [Cursed Technique Reversal].

It was also sothing enough to place her among the very strongest in the Jujutsu World.

[Reverse Cursed Technique].

There was no doubt. In that brief instant just now, the girl had unknowingly stepped into that domain.

Naoya Zenin had not expected Mai Zenin to achieve this kind of result.

A feeling of jealousy gradually rose in his heart.

Even Naoya Zenin, a Special Grade 1 Sorcerer, could not help but reveal that ugly emotion after witnessing such a spectacular miracle.

That was the power he had dread of.

"Mai, you really are giving a headache."

He knew that in the original story, Mai would never have awakened a power capable of changing the Jujutsu World like this.

Which ant that Mai Zenin was no longer so supporting side character who could be pushed around at will.

From now on, she would beco a key piece capable of turning the tide of battle.

Was it because of him?

Had his interference caused a butterfly effect, making the original plot begin to change?

Not only had he already provoked that feral cousin Maki Zenin, but now even the timid, submissive Mai Zenin possessed the power to kill him?

At that mont, Naoya Zenin suddenly felt that the bottleneck inside him, the one he had never been able to break through, had finally begun to stir.

At such close range, seeing one of his own blood relatives shatter her limits with his own eyes, and with the fresh Cursed Energy left behind at the scene surging over him like a tide, it felt as though he were there himself, finally touching those extre emotions he had never been able to understand before.

That was the curse coming from Mai, that little sister of his. Her most extre, most concentrated curse.

A curse born of blood, as if bone were the wheel and blood were the mud, crushing out a trail of scarlet.

In this world, there was no curse more twisted, more extre, than [Love].

"Co on, then. Let's make a wager. In the end, will you beco my accessory, or will I beco the corpse that lets you escape the Zenin Clan?"

Naoya Zenin then picked up the grade sheet beside him and read it carefully.

After that, he took up his pen and began writing on it again.

[Mai Zenin.]

[Ti: 4 hours 36 minutes]

[Although she ultimately completed the test, her score is reduced to zero for exceeding the ti limit.]

"But..."

Naoya Zenin's pen paused, and then a faint smile touched his lips.

[Pass.]