Jujutsu Kaisen.
If one were to summarize the lore of this world, it was essentially a dark fantasy where people with supernatural abilities—Jujutsu Sorcerers—fought horrific curses born from negative human emotions. But beneath the surface-level monster hunting, the true core of the world was toxic, traditionalist politics.
In a certain sense, this world operated exactly like the ninja villages: the lower ranks were nothing more than disposable tools meant to be thrown into the meat grinder and discarded when they inevitably broke.
Then again, Suzuki thought cynically, working as a normal corporate employee in modern society is exactly the same. Bosses discard broken employees all the time. Life is just universally shitty.
Still, his current life could be considered incredibly lucky. Unlike the "Suzuki" struggling in the ninja world, he had been born directly into a powerful, wealthy aristocratic family.
Unfortunately, that family was the Zenin Clan.
For those who knew the original plot, the Zenin Clan was notoriously fated to be brutally massacred by an awakened Maki Zenin.
Regardless of that looming doom, Suzuki honestly felt that his personal standing in the clan was excellent. Why? Because unlike Maki and Mai—who were born as twins, possessed cripplingly low cursed energy, and were immediately labeled as "failures" to be sold off as political broodmares—Suzuki had been born a prodigy. He had inherited the clan's highly coveted innate technique: Projection Sorcery.
It was an ability that divided one second into 24 frames, forcing the user and anyone they touched to abide by that predetermined rule. To an outsider, it was confusing. To a sorcerer, it was powerful.
But to Suzuki, who possessed an adult's logical mind and modern scientific knowledge, it was a cheat code. He didn't rely on raw instinct or hot-blooded feelings. He simply read the technique's fundamental manual, applied basic logic, and quickly mastered everything his father had developed.
In the eyes of the clan, he was an undeniable elite. It was practically inevitable. As long as you followed the instructions of the technique flawlessly, you would logically grow stronger. If the other clan members couldn't figure it out, well... that just proved they were idiots.
Yet, despite his father Naobito and his older brother Naoya being considered "strong" by normal Jujutsu standards, Suzuki knew they were fundamentally weak compared to the true anomalies of this world.
Yes, they were incredibly fast. But being fast wasn't enough. In the original timeline, both of them died pathetically, and the rest of the clan was decimated by a grieving, enraged Maki after she lost her sister.
Fortunately, Suzuki had never mistreated the twins. In a clan filled with arrogant, traditionalist bigots, Suzuki had simply treated Maki and Mai like normal human beings. Because of that bare minimum of basic decency, Mai—who was currently stuck attending the Kyoto Jujutsu High—frequently sought him out. She had no other safe harbor left, especially since Maki had abandoned the clan to start her rebellion in Tokyo.
In the eyes of the Zenin elders, Maki's departure was nothing more than the rebellious tantrum of a teenager. They fully believed that no matter how hard she struggled, she would eventually be dragged back and used as a political tool.
They had no idea that she would eventually return as an absolute god of death.
Suzuki was fairly confident he could survive the massacre. Maki likely wouldn't target him. But the catalyst for her awakening was Mai's death—and Suzuki absolutely refused to let Mai die. Which meant he had to prevent the massacre entirely.
To do that, he had to grow stronger. But he knew it was impossible to reach the absolute pinnacle of power if he just blindly followed his father and brother's path.
Naobito and Naoya were entirely obsessed with becoming fast. They wanted to be so fast they were untouchable. But fundamentally, they were just running really quickly in linear, predictable trajectories. In the realm of physics, it was an inefficient nightmare. The faster they moved, the stronger the aerodynamic drag and friction became. Since their physical bodies were only slightly more durable than a highly trained athlete's, they eventually hit a hard biological limit.
In front of true, reality-breaking monsters like Gojo Satoru, Ryomen Sukuna, or an awakened Maki with a Heavenly Restriction, raw speed meant absolutely nothing. To those monsters, Naobito and Naoya weren't threats. They were just slightly-harder-to-squish cockroaches.
Suzuki absolutely refused to meet such a pathetic, tragic end.
If he just followed the original timeline, he would end up like Naoya—mutating into a Cursed Spirit, reaching Mach 3, and still getting effortlessly exorcised because he was just a fast idiot.
Speed isn't enough, Suzuki realized. He needed to fundamentally understand the mechanics of his technique. He needed to understand kinematics, the manipulation of vectors, and the precise physical effects of displacing mass over 24 frames.
So, after graduating from the Kyoto Metropolitan Curse Technical College, Suzuki didn't become a full-time sorcerer. Instead, he took the national exams and enrolled in the Department of Physics at Kyoto University.
When the other sorcerers learned what he was doing, they openly mocked him. While they were out hunting curses and making millions of yen, an elite Zenin heir was sitting in a classroom doing math homework. They threw insults and disdained his choice—right up until Suzuki systematically beat them into a bloody pulp.
The Jujutsu world followed the laws of the jungle: the strong preyed upon the weak. So why should Suzuki endure the insults of weaklings when he could just effortlessly hospitalize them?
Surprisingly, while Naoya endlessly mocked him, his father actually supported the decision. Naobito Zenin laughed and happily paid the tuition. No matter how bizarre it was for a sorcerer to study classical mechanics, getting accepted into Kyoto University was an incredibly prestigious achievement. Naobito was actually quite proud that his son had passed the grueling academic entrance exams while simultaneously handling his lethal duties as a student sorcerer.
Like the child soldiers of the ninja world, Jujutsu students were forced to hunt lethal monsters while they were still minors. Suzuki accepted the harsh reality, but he wasn't too proud to use his father's money and the Zenin clan's vast influence to fund his academic research.
And now, combining his deep understanding of advanced physics with the Manager's processing power, he had successfully downloaded and integrated the data. He had finally evolved the innate technique he had possessed since childhood.
Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!
Like a digital glitch in the matrix of reality, Suzuki's body suddenly displaced. He didn't just move fast from point A to point B. He completely bypassed the linear trajectory, deleting the frames in between.
It wasn't just speed anymore. It was functional teleportation. He was skipping time.
Just as he finished recalibrating his new kinetic output, the door to the library opened. Mai walked in, her uniform pristine, looking tired but relaxed in his presence.
Suzuki dropped his notebook and smiled. "Let's go."
"Are you actually going to treat me to something decent today?" Mai asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
"Yup," Suzuki nodded, grabbing his coat. "I'll treat you to a massive feast tonight."
Mai stopped in her tracks. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously and walked over, pressing the back of her hand against his forehead. "Are you running a fever? Did staring at too many math equations finally crack your brain?"
"...I don't have a fever, Mai."
Suzuki took a deep, steadying breath, his dark eyes locking onto hers with absolute, terrifying clarity.
"It's just time for me to take the throne of the Zenin Family."
"....."
Mai stared at him for three long seconds.
"...Yup. You are definitely sick," she deadpanned, completely unfazed.