Jujutsu Kaisen: Naoya Zenin Wants to Live! Chapter 84: Nice To Meet You, Naoya Zenin

A Grade 3 Cursed Spirit really was a bit too weak.

He had not expected [Projection Sorcery] to kill it with one punch. Had he known, he would have let the students use it for practice first.

After dealing with Yuki-onna, sure enough, the blizzard covering Nagano imdiately eased up.

Although snow was still falling, the unique Cursed Energy lingering in the air had vanished without a trace.

"Master Exorcist! Thank you so much! If you had arrived even a few days later, the entire village would have suffered terribly once spring ca!!"

The next day, after learning that the Cursed Spirit had been successfully exorcised, the village chief led a group of villagers over to express their thanks. So of them nearly threw themselves at Naoya Zenin's legs, sobbing their hearts out.

After all, these ordinary people did not understand Cursed Spirits or Cursed Techniques. They only felt that heaven had been far too cruel to send such a terrible blizzard.

If this had been ancient tis, they probably would have panicked and dragged so young boy or girl from the village onto an altar to be sacrificed.

Naturally, Naoya Zenin had no intention of indulging their gratitude.

For Jujutsu Sorcerers, missions ca with paynt. The villagers had spent real money to hire them, so there was no need to bow and scrape like this.

The kind of people who latched onto warmhearted, simple villagers and scamd them out of everything were Curse Users.

This was one of the only ways the Jujutsu World still resembled sothing human.

It was closed-minded and full of internal conflict, but at least it did not squeeze the common people dry.

Even though Naoya Zenin had already refused the villagers' kindness, his students were still young and inexperienced, with little exposure to society. After so coaxing, they still ended up half-reluctantly accepting quite a few local specialties and snacks.

Corruption was a serious matter.

Besides, Naoya Zenin was not short on money. If soone got hold of this and turned it into leverage against him, it would be a terrible loss.

So there was no helping it. Since they had already accepted the villagers' gifts, Naoya Zenin led the students to set up another barrier around the village, preventing low-level Cursed Spirits from entering and causing trouble in the future.

With one thing leading to another, they missed the morning train they had planned to take.

On top of that, since everyone had finally made a trip out and was still in high spirits, they simply waited for the afternoon train instead. And so, the group naturally began an expense-paid tour of Nagano.

Nagano was especially clear after the snow. Sunlight passed through the thin clouds and fell over the snow-covered streets, scattering into tiny glints of white. Even the air carried the crisp scent of snowflakes mixed with pine needles.

Kasumi Miwa could hardly hold back her excitent. She walked briskly at the front, stopping every so often to look at the local specialty stalls along the street, her eyes shining.

Momo Nishimiya walked beside her with an arrogant air, occasionally lowering her voice to chat about the snowy scenery and snacks along the way, all while wearing an expression that said she was completely unimpressed.

Then, as they talked, the two of them naturally slipped into their usual bickering routine, giving off the distinct impression that they were about to take each other down in real life.

Only Mai Zenin silently trailed at the back of the group, quietly stepping through the deep snow at a slow pace.

During yesterday's battle to exorcise Yuki-onna, these three girls had not contributed anything in the end. They had been too busy sneaking off to the hot springs, letting the boys steal all the spotlight instead.

The first to sense the Cursed Spirit's appearance was naturally chamaru.

His Cursed Energy coverage range was already astonishingly wide, so the mont Yuki-onna appeared, this genius sorcerer locked onto her location and imdiately reported it to Naoya Zenin.

To be honest, he could have handled the Cursed Spirit entirely on his own.

But that level of discipline satisfied Naoya Zenin greatly.

So he beckoned chamaru over.

"chamaru, I have sothing to tell you."

chamaru's heart sank.

Still, he forced himself to stay calm and ca closer.

"Would you be interested in becoming my teaching assistant?"

Naoya Zenin's simple sentence nearly made the boy's heart stop.

"?"

"Yes."

Naoya Zenin nodded.

"You have good abilities, and during yesterday's mission, you showed a very calm sense of the bigger picture. If you're willing, I happen to need a teaching assistant."

Naoya Zenin was serious.

After all, the prerequisite for hiring a teaching assistant was that they had to be a student he could order around freely, while also being serious and responsible.

Although chamaru was a mole sent by Kenjaku, Naoya had long since seen through his identity, so he was not too worried.

No matter how he looked at it, chamaru was the perfect candidate for the position.

...Originally, he had planned to choose from Mai, Momo Nishimiya, and Kasumi Miwa.

But the trouble they caused at the hot springs yesterday imdiately made Naoya Zenin abandon that idea.

No.

Absolutely not.

These won were far too unreliable!!!

As a result, the usually silent and reserved chamaru started looking more and more pleasing to Naoya Zenin.

In any case, he was just looking for a workhorse. This would also be a good chance to continue influencing chamaru. Ideally, he could turn him completely and make him a double agent.

Although Naoya Zenin did not know how to heal chamaru's physical body, he had already thought it through. As long as he learned the day chamaru completed the [Binding Vow] with Kenjaku and Mahito, he could call for backup in advance. Yuki Tsukumo, Satoru Gojo, he would call them all over and wipe the other side out in one go.

In the original story, chamaru had ultimately counted as one of their own. Although he had taken the wrong path and caused Satoru Gojo to be sealed, at least he had resisted in the end.

Since that was the case, Naoya would help him out.

So if chamaru was willing, he could indeed take the teaching assistant position easily.

"...I'm sorry, Naoya-sensei."

chamaru fell silent for a mont, then shook his head.

"I'm not worthy."

"Is that so?"

Naoya Zenin did not say much.

That only made chamaru unable to bear it. He could not help asking, "Why? Naoya-sensei, why aren't you asking the reason?"

Are you brain-dead?

Naoya Zenin was genuinely speechless.

Because asking would be useless.

He also knew that chamaru had ford an extrely strict [Binding Vow] with Kenjaku.

As for the details, even if chamaru wanted to say them, he would not be able to.

Most likely, chamaru thought of himself as a traitor to Jujutsu High, so he felt unworthy of becoming a teaching assistant.

"Go buy a few bottles of alcohol."

Naoya Zenin ignored chamaru's question. Instead, he rembered Utahi Iori's request and simply had chamaru run an errand for him.

But just as the boy was about to slink away, this teacher finally spoke in a leisurely tone.

"chamaru, only those prepared to be shot have the right to pull the trigger. If you've already made up your mind, then don't look back."

chamaru's body trembled hard when he heard that.

"...Naoya-sensei, your words are always so sharp and insightful."

What else did you expect?

Naoya Zenin rolled his eyes.

I learned it from watching ani. Scaring a little brat like you is child's play.

Their leisurely stroll soon ca to an end.

Before long, the Nagano train erged from the tunnel.

Oda had specially prepared a first-class compartnt for his young master, while arranging for the students to sit together in the sa carriage.

It was not because they were short on money.

Only by doing this could they properly show Naoya Zenin's distinguished status.

If all the students were given first-class seats too, where was Naoya Zenin supposed to sit?

The driver's cabin?

The return trip would take about two or three hours.

They would arrive in Kyoto around evening.

The mission had been handled perfectly.

There had been no new news from the Forbidden Vault either, so Suguru Geto's body was still safe.

His close friend plan with Satoru Gojo was gradually succeeding too.

Yuki Tsukumo had also stopped slacking off.

Aside from failing to find Yuji Itadori ahead of ti, this ti-transmigrator's plans had not run into any major problems so far. Everything was progressing smoothly.

Aside from the fact that his strength still needed work, this was a pretty good start.

It was all thanks to the day-and-night effort he had put in recently.

Hard work really did pay off.

Thinking that, the taut string that had been wound tight inside Naoya Zenin all this ti finally loosened a little.

Here in this first-class compartnt, he could enjoy the most carefree stretch of ti he had had since transmigrating.

Should he take a nice, satisfying nap?

Or find a movie to watch?

"Ah, hello, sir. You don't mind if I smoke, do you?"

Just as he was thinking that, soone suddenly walked in through the door and spoke to Naoya Zenin, who had been resting with his eyes closed.

What was going on?

Why was there another passenger in this first-class compartnt?

What the hell was Oda doing?

Naoya Zenin had assud Oda would book out the entire first-class compartnt for him. Logically, no other passenger should have been able to enter his room.

Did this person get in with a scalped ticket?

"Isn't this supposed to be a non-smoking compartnt?"

Naoya Zenin impatiently opened his eyes and looked at the person in front of him.

"Oh, is it?"

It was a beautiful woman with shoulder-length hair, smoking a cigarette.

She looked genuinely surprised, then mumbled around the cigarette in her mouth, "Ah, the tis have changed too fast these past few years. I must have gotten mixed up. I rember when I rode the green-painted trains during the iji Restoration, there didn't seem to be rules like this, did there?"

The iji Restoration?

What the hell was this woman talking about?

"I still rember Japan's first railway line connecting the cities. I personally helped mark out the route and drive in the very first foundation pile."

The woman spoke calmly, as if she were describing sothing completely unimportant.

"In the final years of the Keio era, when the Bakumatsu period was in turmoil and war was breaking out everywhere, I accompanied officials from the Ministry of Public Works across the mountains and fields of Kanto. We opened mountains, cut roads, carved through rock, built bridges, and forced Japan's earliest railway network into being through mud and barren hills."

"The world only rembers the heroes of the iji Restoration, the last warriors of the shogunate, and the people who brought in Western technology. No one rembers the naless people who first drove rails into this land and connected north and south."

Naoya Zenin's brows suddenly drew tight, and an inexplicable sense of wrongness and caution rose in his chest.

A lunatic?

The iji Restoration had been more than a century ago. If this woman really was from that era, she should have been white-haired and withered by now. How could she possibly look this young and beautiful?

"I really miss those days."

The woman gently rubbed the cigarette between her fingers, a distant lancholy rising in her eyes.

"Thick smoke rolling, whistles roaring, no smoking bans, no neat divisions between compartnts. As long as you paid the fare, you could ride all the way to the last stop holding a wine jar and smoking tobacco, and no one would care."

Then the woman gave Naoya Zenin a graceful smile.

"And you? What ti in the past do you miss the most?"

Naoya Zenin finally saw it clearly, faintly revealed beneath her bangs.

A stitch line writhing like a crimson earthworm!!!

"Nice to et you, Naoya Zenin."

Kenjaku slowly exhaled a mouthful of smoke.

"What a sha. This shouldn't be your first ti seeing , should it?"

...

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