Chapter 16: Daily Training and Breathing Technique Instruction
Boom!!!
A deafening blast split the morning air like thunder falling from a clear sky, shattering the calm of Tokyo Jujutsu High's training grounds.
Fragments of clay exploded in every direction.
Under the stunned gaze of Yuji Itadori, Megumi Fushiguro, and Nobara Kugisaki, the hardened clay gourd nearly half a person's height had been blown apart.
Yes.
Not punched.
Not smashed.
Not touched with cursed energy.
Blown apart.
By breath alone.
"Haa..."
Yami slowly exhaled a stream of white mist, high temperature vapor forced out after the air in his lungs had been compressed to the extreme.
He brushed the clay dust from his clothes, turned around, and offered the three of them his usual mild smile.
"As you can see, this is advanced Total Concentration Breathing training."
"Through extremely high intensity breathing, the heart and lungs are strengthened, allowing the blood to deliver a large amount of oxygen to every cell in the body in a short period of time."
"Cough... cough..."
Mid explanation, Yami suddenly covered his mouth and coughed twice. A trace of paleness flickered across his face.
The injuries left behind from the previous battle clearly had not fully healed yet.
"When you can casually blow apart a specially made, high density training gourd like this," he continued, "then your physical ability will probably have reached around thirty percent of what mine currently is."
Silence.
A dead, absolute silence.
The three of them stared at the pile of clay shards on the ground.
Then they looked back at Yami's harmless face.
Then, at the same time, they swallowed.
"You're a freak!!!"
Nobara was the first to explode, clutching her head with both hands as though her worldview had just been crushed along with the gourd.
"That thing is so hard you'd need a hammer to break it!"
"And you blew it up with your lungs?!"
She pointed at him like she was accusing him in court.
"What are your lungs made of, steel? Are you secretly some human shaped air compressor?!"
Megumi, on the other hand, crouched down and picked up one of the fragments. The moment he felt the thickness and density of the material, his expression subtly shifted.
"It's hard to believe," he muttered.
"But if someone could actually do this... then yes, their physical output would become terrifying."
He looked up again, his gaze sharpening slightly.
"To reach this kind of level without relying on cursed energy..."
A faint heat flickered deep in his eyes.
As a descendant of the Zenin clan, even though he had inherited the Ten Shadows Technique, Megumi had never given up on improving his physical combat ability as well.
Especially after seeing how terrifying pure physical prowess could become in the hands of someone blessed, or cursed, by heaven itself.
"I'll do it! Let me try first!"
Only Yuji showed no fear at all.
If anything, his eyes were glowing with excitement.
"This looks awesome!"
"Oh?" Yami raised a brow. "Then let's start with Itadori."
From behind him, he produced three more gourds, each noticeably smaller than the first, and handed one to each of them.
"These are beginner level. About one tenth the hardness of the one I just used."
"Keep your breathing in the correct rhythm. Compress the airflow into your abdomen, then release it in one burst."
Five minutes later
"Uggghhhhh!!!"
Yuji's face had turned a deep purplish red.
His cheeks bulged out like a pufferfish. Veins stood out on his forehead. His eyes looked as if they were about to pop from his skull.
It was obvious he was using every ounce of strength in his body.
And yet the gourd in his hands merely trembled a little.
Not even a crack.
"Your rhythm's off."
Yami's voice came right on time.
Holding a bamboo sword, he lightly tapped Yuji's abdomen.
"Don't brute force it. Feel the flow of your blood. Picture oxygen as fuel, and your heart as the engine."
"Feed the fuel into the engine. Let it burn."
Whether it was because of Yuji's abnormal constitution as Sukuna's vessel, or simply his own insane talent, the effect of Yami's guidance was immediate.
The very next second, Yuji's eyes changed.
His breathing, which had been rough and chaotic before, suddenly deepened and stabilized. The disorder condensed into a single flowing rhythm, like a tangled rope being drawn straight.
Crack.
A small, crisp sound echoed out.
A hairline fracture had appeared on the surface of the gourd in Yuji's hands.
"Oh?"
Yami's eyebrows lifted slightly, genuine admiration flashing through his eyes.
"As expected of Itadori. You picked it up fast."
"Haa... haa... haa..."
Yuji spat out the air, collapsed backward onto the ground, and panted like a dying dog. Sweat drenched his entire body.
"Nope... I'm done... I'm seriously done..."
"I feel like... I'm gonna cough up my organs..."
He looked like a complete mess.
But even through that misery, he could feel it.
That sudden surge of strength just now.
It had been rawer, more violent, and far more direct than simply reinforcing himself with cursed energy.
"H Hey, hold on, is this actually real?"
Seeing Yuji get results so quickly, Nobara immediately got competitive. She grabbed her own gourd and glared at it like it had personally insulted her.
"How is this idiot getting results before me?! No way I'm losing to him!"
A second later
"Gkh Cough cough cough!"
She doubled over after one breath, coughing so hard tears streamed from her eyes.
"This isn't something humans are supposed to practice! Yami, you devil!"
Compared to Nobara's explosive frustration, Megumi was much calmer.
He did not rush to blow into the gourd. Instead, he closed his eyes and carefully adjusted his breathing, trying to merge this foreign breathing method with the natural flow of cursed energy inside his body.
"Concentrate... regulate the breath..."
"Use it to accelerate... cursed energy circulation..."
The two systems, one physical and one supernatural, began to create a strange resonance inside him.
Then Megumi's eyes snapped open.
He still had not blown apart the gourd.
But in that instant, his burst speed doubled compared to his normal movement.
"I see..."
His voice dropped lower.
"So it doesn't just strengthen the body."
"It can also act like a pump for cursed energy, accelerating activation speed."
The look he gave Yami changed completely.
What had seemed like a simple breathing method before now looked almost like a divine skill created specifically for close range sorcerers.
If he could master this
His combat ability would leap forward by an entire tier.
"Alright. That's enough for today."
Seeing the three of them sprawled across the field like discarded corpses, Yami clapped his hands lightly and announced the end of training.
"This isn't something you can rush. If you force it too hard, you'll damage your alveoli."
"Build it step by step. Practice every day."
"One day, you'll all be able to blow up the biggest one too."
...
Night fell.
Inside the boys' dormitory, moonlight spilled quietly through the window.
Yami sat alone on the windowsill, polishing his newly acquired Special Grade cursed tool.
[Shiranui.]
Under the silver moonlight, the jet black blade reflected a cold, ominous gleam. But if one looked carefully, there seemed to be a dark red current moving through it, like magma flowing beneath obsidian.
This sword had a spirit.
From the moment he had acquired it earlier that day, Yami had sensed it.
The sword was hungry.
Clang.
He lightly flicked the blade with his finger, and the clear sound it released was sharp enough to resemble a dragon's cry.
Within that cry was unmistakable desire.
Not for ordinary blood.
For the blood of curses.
The stronger the curse, the better.
The more wicked, the better.
"So you feel it too?"
Yami's fingers slowly brushed along the blade, feeling the faint heat transmitted into his palm.
His gaze drifted to the dark sky outside the dormitory window.
Storm clouds seemed to be gathering somewhere beyond sight.
"Don't worry," he murmured.
"A feast is coming soon."
The dark red flow inside [Shiranui] flickered faintly, as though the sword understood his words, then settled back into silence.
But the chill radiating from it only grew sharper.
Yami slid the blade back into its scabbard.
A cold smile curved faintly on his lips.
"The scent of a Special Grade curse..."
His eyes narrowed toward the darkness beyond the window.
"I can already smell it."
.....
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