Japan was no longer the only country who could use Jujutsu. Of course, it was the best as it had the longest time with it, and other countries still had the least amount of sorcerers, but they were quickly catching up while also making their own unique contributions to Jujutsu Society. However if you had to name a country that was the closest to reaching Japan at its peak,
It would be china.
A man with short orange hair was walking down a brightly lit corridor, wearing a traditional robe that was fit for battle. His right arm and chest were exposed showing off his shredded body, while a strange red stick hid away in his ear.
As he reached the end of the corridor, the room suddenly got bigger. It was fully decorated in jade dragons and ancient beasts known only in myths and legends. And at the end of the room was a set of stairs that led all the way up to a golden throne, decorated in only the most luxurious of stones and minerals. A man sat atop that throne wearing nothing but black. His hair was long but wild and his moustache was sharp. He seemed to be asleep.
The orange-haired boy got on his knees and said with a voice full of reverence,
"I greet my father, china's greatest emperor."
The man's eyes slowly opened, revealing two obsidian pupils of pure darkness.
"Rise."
The orange-haired boy picked himself up from the floor, while still bowing. The king sitting on the throne, then commanded from him,
"As the heir to this country I declare, you will participate in this year's curse battle tournament."
Then finally, he raised his head and looked up at him with the utmost confidence,
"Of course."
He turned around as he prepared to leave, however the emperor uttered a warning,
"Do not fail me like your elder sister before you, otherwise you shall face exile much like her. I will permit no losers to inherit this throne."
**
The two boys stood at each end of the arena like once before. It was only a mock battle so nothing serious was at stake, however there were new rules. The first sorcerer to get pushed out of the arena or have their wrist grabbed would instantly lose the fight.
Hikaru forced a random bystander to serve as a referee, who naturally felt very threatened by the two titans. He half heartedly rushed the countdown, before running away as fast as possible.
Hikaru unsheathed one of the mass produced demon dagger's before cutting his thumb on it. He sprayed out the drops of blood everywhere, before they suddenly burned with an azure blue fire as they transformed into a towering Shikigami.
It appeared to be a morbidly obese red oni with 2 demon like horns, and eyes that burned with seething hatred. It's large stomach was exposed, with it only being clothed in loincloth that was weakly armoured. It was also armed with a large iron club, prepared to crush anything that it hit.
He pointed at Akumu before shouting,
"GET HIM!"
The Oni screamed towards the sky before wildly running after Akumu with remarkable swiftness despite its weight, while Akumu stood at the other end of the arena amazed. This was the first time he had seen a shikigami, as well as encountering one in a battle.
Hikaru's innate technique wasn't useful in combat, so he instead relied upon Shikigami to aide him. That combined with his above average cursed energy, he was the strongest Shikigami user amongst the students.
As the Oni closed in on him, it wildly swung its iron club at Akumu which he easily dodged. The club itself plowed right into the arena, causing a shockwave to ripple as the ground quaked.
Unfortunately, its brutish strength caused its weapon to get stuck,
'Its powerful, but it's stupid. It can't even control its own strength.'
Akumu quickly leapt above it, while it was still struggling to pull its weapon out. As his shadow was then casted over it, the Oni looked above with fear in its eyes. In Akumus hands, was a large black mallet molded from dark whips.
Although the weapon was light for him to swing around, for the enemy it was as if it was being run over by a semi-truck. As the Mallet crushed the Oni's skull it instantly, dissipated into a pile of smoke. Still holding the Black Mallet Akumu asked,
"You got any more?"
Of course, Akumu could quickly end the fight right now if he wanted, but he wanted to see even more of Hikaru's shikigami.
With a hint of annoyance, Hikaru slashed at the air with his thumb, causing more drops of blood to spray everywhere. These too were incinerated by the azure flame, as they molded and transformed into a beautiful blue oni resembling a women. Unlike its nearly naked counterpart, this one wore a matching blue kimono, and weilding a shamisen instead of a brutish weapon.
Using its gentle hands, it then began to play an alluring melody.
Akumu decided to humour it since it clearly wasn't a combat type Shikigami. The key to its power, definitely rested in its songs. And that he was correct. Although it was obvious that he should really destroy this Shikigami before it could affect him, his curiosity was just too powerful.
He started to feel.. drowsy.. as if he was falling asleep after staying up several hours to read his favourite manhwa.
'Right... what was going on again? I...'
The blue Oni was the most devious of Hikaru's shikigami. It would use it's song to put an opponent in a stage of daze, before controlling their weakened mind to make them forget what they were doing. It was like forgetting you had homework to complete, one day before it was due while being on the brink of exhaustion.
Akumu was about to fall on one knee, but then a pain jolted at the back of his neck. He could then hear a distant voice whisper,
'So.. your going to lose because of this? How pathetic.'
His eyes sprung with sudden vitality, as quickly noticed that Hikaru was only inches away from him. It appeared he tried to grab his wrist while he was struggling against that mind hex.
Of course, Akumu moved in first, and thanks to grandma zenin's combat training, he was able to physically overpower and subdue Hikaru without injuring him. He then grabbed onto his wrist, thus making him the winner.
After helping him back up, Hikaru just gruntled to himself.
"Remaking destroyed Shikigami is such a chore..."
Before Akumu could apologise, he angrily stormed off.
**
Later that day, Akumu decided to visit Grandma Zenin and Hagone. Especially the latter since he wanted to try learn reverse cursed technique from him. He understood the basics behind it, like negative time negative energy equals positive energy, however he didn't know how to go about multiplying the energy itself.
Unfortunately, he encountered Grandma Zenin forcing Hagone to do one of her death charges as per usual.
"AKUMU! HELP ME! PLEASEE!"
Of course, Akumu quickly started to run as well.
The two did not get any sleep that night.
**
The next day, that group of five was called into Omo's office. Surprisingly, Owari was watching from the corner.
"As you all know, you guys have been chosen to participate in the curse tournament this year. Its starting date has already been decided to be in 2 weeks but its location has yet to be revealed, however the structure will be especially unique this year, so we will have you guys undergo.. unique training."
They were all confused about what the teacher was saying. Usually, the tournament would consist of one one-on-one matches against each country that would take over a month. Sensing the confusion Omo quickly explained,
"This year, the tournament will be split in two halves. The first half will be the mini-games where players from each team will play a random game that is personally created by the game master. Then in the second half, we will have the usual 1 on 1 battles. There will also be a unique point system based on whether you win or lose a match. If we can rack up lots of points during the mini game round, then even if we do badly on the 1 on 1's, we will still have a chance at victory. Of course, the countries that are participating this year are, the United states, United korea, us and then china."
Akumu groaned. He thought he would just get to fight, but it seems this was going to be more complicated than he thought. Owari then cheerfully said,
"Don't worry! I'll be there to cheer you guys on from the sidelines!"
Omo looked at Owari with a hint of dejection,
"Are you dumb or did you just forget? Your not going, heck, your not even allowed to leave the country! Why the hell would we send a hydrogen bomb to a shooting gallery?? We don't need other countries bringing in theirs!"
He then sulked quietly before teleporting elsewhere.
Right as he left, Omo then pulled out 5 books from his cabinet and threw one each at all of them. Akumu was surprised to see that it was... a word search.
"What?"
"I have confidence in all of your combat skills, but if it's those minigame's then you will need a strong mind as a well as a strong body. Get to solving!"
Akumu sulked. He'd rather do anything but this, he wanted to do real training. Unfortunately for him, the devil answered his prayers.
Right when he said that, the door busted open as grandma Zenin jumped in. In her left hand, she was holding Hagone by the collar who was a skinny as a skeleton.
With her hawk eyes, she quickly examined everyone in the room, before locking onto Hikaru and Akumu.
"You two."
And then with hypersonic speeds, she disappeared in a blink of an eye, before swiping the two away from the room.
"NO! PLEASE, NO! I'D RATHER DO THE WORD SEARCH! PLEASE!"
But the granny was especially relentless today. She did not want her country to lose either!