Chapter 161: Yami's Special Training, Sword Saint Without Cursed Energy
Early the next morning.
Inside Masamichi Yaga's office at Tokyo Jujutsu High, Yaga adjusted his sunglasses and looked at Yami, who stood in front of his desk.
"You want to take Suguru for physical combat training?"
There was a trace of surprise in his voice.
"Suguru's condition has been bad lately. His workload is heavy, and he looks like a string pulled too tight."
Yaga's gaze sharpened.
"But are you sure his body can handle your kind of training right now?"
Yaga understood Yami's fighting style.
It was violence refined to its limit.
Every movement was direct. Every slash carried terrifying destructive power. Even without Cursed Energy, Yami's close combat pressure was enough to make most sorcerers feel suffocated.
Even Satoru Gojo, protected by Limitless, was not willing to casually fight Yami up close.
Suguru Geto's physical ability was strong among sorcerers, but compared with Yami, the gap was obvious.
"Don't worry, Principal Yaga."
Yami casually picked up a plush doll from the desk and fiddled with it, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"It's precisely because he's wound too tight and keeps thinking about useless philosophical questions that we need the most primitive method to clear his head."
Yaga's eyelid twitched.
Yami continued calmly, "Once I beat him until he's too tired to lift a finger, he'll collapse and sleep. Then he won't have time to think about protecting monkeys and all that nonsense."
Yaga looked at him for a long moment.
Then he sighed.
"Fine. I'll cancel all of Suguru's missions for the next half month."
His tone became heavier.
"Yami, I'm entrusting him to you. Suguru is the kind of child who keeps everything buried inside. If you hadn't stopped him last night, I'm honestly afraid of what he might have done."
"Leave him to me."
Yami turned and walked out of the office, waving without looking back.
Behind Tokyo Jujutsu High, at the dedicated training ground.
The midday sun burned fiercely overhead. The ground baked under the heat, and even the air seemed to ripple.
Bang!
A dull, thunderous sound rang out.
Suguru Geto's body flew like a kite with a broken string and smashed heavily into the hard ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
"Cough, cough…"
He curled up in pain, clutching the abdomen that had just been struck by a wooden sword.
His once neat black uniform was already tattered, stained with dirt and sweat.
His face was bruised, and blood hung at the corner of his mouth. He looked utterly miserable.
"That's all it takes to keep you down?"
Yami held an ordinary wooden sword in one hand, his breathing completely steady as he looked down at Geto.
"Is your Cursed Spirit Manipulation just throwing out curses you've absorbed like trash and hiding in the back to watch?"
His voice was flat.
"Too slow. Your reactions, your footwork, your punches, all of them are full of openings."
Yami had not used Shiranui.
He had not even activated a Breathing Technique.
He had only used basic physical combat and swordsmanship, yet he still pinned Geto to the ground while Geto had three Grade 2 Cursed Spirits assisting him.
"Shut up."
Geto gritted his teeth, endured the pain that made his bones feel like they were coming apart, and suddenly flipped up from the ground.
"Kuchisake Onna!"
With his low shout, a terrifying Cursed Spirit holding giant scissors appeared behind Yami.
"Do you think I'm pretty?"
Kuchisake Onna let out a shrill scream. The scissors in her hands snapped toward Yami's neck.
Geto did not remain idle either.
He squeezed out his remaining stamina, lunged forward, and threw a heavy whip kick toward Yami's lower body.
A front and back pincer attack.
This was the coordinated tactic Geto had finally pieced together after being beaten for three whole days.
But facing that seemingly perfect attack, Yami only shook his head.
"The coordination is too stiff."
Swish!
Yami did not even turn around.
The wooden sword in his hand flicked backward at a strange angle.
With a crisp crack, the wooden sword struck Kuchisake Onna's wrist joint and knocked the giant scissors aside.
Then Yami's body left an afterimage in place.
Geto's whip kick swept through empty air.
Before he could react, Yami had already appeared at his side.
"Don't treat Cursed Spirits as simple tools. They are an extension of your power."
Yami's voice reached Geto's ear.
"Your physical combat and your Cursed Spirits cannot be disconnected. You need to use your body to fill the gaps in your Cursed Spirits' attacks."
Bang!
Yami's wooden sword struck the back of Geto's knee like a viper.
Geto's legs weakened, and he dropped to the ground again.
"Again."
Yami lowered the wooden sword, his eyes calm and cold.
"If you can't even block my wooden sword, how will you protect the people you want to protect in the future?"
His voice sharpened slightly.
"How will you face Special Grade Cursed Spirits that are stronger and crueler than you?"
Geto said nothing.
He only clenched his teeth, braced his hands against the dirt, and climbed up again.
Again and again.
On the first day, he was beaten black and blue by Yami. He skipped dinner and collapsed onto his dorm bed, falling into a deep sleep the moment his head touched the pillow.
On the second day, he tried to overwhelm Yami with more Cursed Spirits.
Yami smashed through them all with his wooden sword, then pinned Geto down and beat him again.
The third day.
The fourth day.
Under this harsh, almost inhuman physical exhaustion, Geto did nothing every day except get beaten, drag himself back, and collapse into sleep.
The nausea caused by swallowing Cursed Spirit Orbs.
The self-doubt stirred up by the Star Religious Group.
All of it was forcibly shoved to the back of his mind beneath extreme fatigue.
People only had time to think about distant philosophical questions when they were idle.
When muscles were so sore that lifting an arm felt impossible, and the brain went blank from lack of oxygen, only one thought remained.
How to survive the next attack.
And that was exactly what Yami wanted.
Days passed one after another.
As the special training deepened, Geto's natural combat intuition was pushed out at an astonishing speed under Yami's high pressure sparring.
He no longer only summoned Cursed Spirits and stood behind them.
He began trying to integrate Yami's force generation methods into his coordination with his curses.
Half a month later, one evening.
The setting sun dyed the training ground gold.
"Hoo… hoo…"
Geto panted heavily, sweat dripping from his chin onto the ground.
His stamina and Cursed Energy had both reached their limits. Even his legs were trembling slightly.
Across from him, Yami remained calm.
The wooden sword in his hand pointed casually at the ground.
"One last attack."
Yami spoke calmly.
Geto took a deep breath.
His eyes focused.
There was no longer the confusion and impatience from before.
"Rainbow Dragon!"
Roar!
The massive Cursed Spirit soared into the air. Its overwhelming presence crashed straight toward Yami.
Yami's eyes moved slightly.
He did not retreat.
Instead, he tightened his grip on the wooden sword and assumed a standard defensive stance.
"Water Breathing, Second Form."
The wooden sword carved a perfect circular motion through the air.
"Water Wheel."
Boom!
The wooden sword struck Rainbow Dragon's hardened scales, erupting with a deafening impact.
At the exact moment Yami's sword momentum was spent and new force had yet to gather, Geto moved.
"Now!"
His figure shot out from beneath Rainbow Dragon's massive body like a ghost.
This time, he did not hide at the rear.
He used Rainbow Dragon's body as cover and perfectly caught Yami's visual blind spot.
All the remaining Cursed Energy in Geto's body gathered into his right fist without reservation.
"Black Flash!"
Black sparks erupted around his fist.
The space around the punch distorted under the extreme impact.
This was the first time he had successfully landed Black Flash during the half month of brutal training.
A trace of appreciation flashed through Yami's eyes.
He did not activate Transparent World.
He did not use Shiranui.
Facing that dangerous punch, he relied purely on physical strength and suddenly held the wooden sword horizontally before his chest.
Bang!
The impact rang across the entire training ground.
The massive recoil sent Geto flying backward like a cannonball, and he crashed heavily onto the grass.
Yami stood where he was.
After taking the terrifying force of Black Flash, his feet carved two shallow furrows into the ground.
He had been forced back half a step.
Only half a step.
But for Yami, who had not used sword energy and had relied only on his body to withstand Rainbow Dragon and a Black Flash at the same time, that was already a great acknowledgment.
Snap.
The wooden sword in Yami's hand cracked, then shattered into wood chips.
"Well done."
Yami threw away the remaining hilt, brushed the wood chips from his hand, and walked to Geto's side.
"You used a Cursed Spirit as cover, then used your own close combat to deliver the decisive blow."
He looked down at Geto.
"You finally learned not to treat Cursed Spirits as tools, but as part of your own body."
Geto lay spread out on the grass, gulping down fresh air.
His entire body hurt so badly it felt like he was falling apart.
He had still been knocked away by Yami in the end.
But as he looked at the clouds dyed red by the setting sun and felt the cool breeze brushing against his face, he smiled.
For the first time in a long while, that smile was relaxed and clean.
"Yami…"
His voice was weak, but there was a helpless laugh in it.
"You really hit hard."
There was no complaint.
No confusion.
Only the pure, refreshing feeling of fists meeting flesh and effort finally paying off.
During this half month of extreme exhaustion, the frustration buried inside him had been broken apart piece by piece.
Yami had used the simplest and most brutal method to drag him out of that dead end of self-doubt.
Looking at the bit of youthful spirit finally returning to Geto's smile, Yami knew the past half month had not been wasted.
But just as this long absent peace seemed about to return to Jujutsu High, a thunderous roar came from the mountain road below.
Boom!
The arrogant sound of a heavy motorcycle engine shattered the quiet evening without mercy.
The smile on Geto's face stiffened slightly.
Yami turned his head toward the mountain path, his eyes narrowing.
"Looks like peaceful days are always short."
An uninvited guest had arrived.
....
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