"How lively! The stadium is completely taken over!"
At the entrance of the Jujutsu High stadium, a panda with a humanoid appearance—as if it had walked straight out of a Kung Fu Panda movie—spoke in human language, pointing at the bustling scene inside while marveling to the two companions beside it.
"Those must be the first-year students who just enrolled this year, right? They're so diligent! What should I do? It's making me feel a little embarrassed!"
"Why would you feel embarrassed?"
Maki Zenin stepped forward steadily, her gaze sweeping across the stadium before quickly understanding the situation.
The panda chuckled, its expression adorably naive as it scratched the back of its head.
"Because I'm a panda! I feel like they might be my kind!"
"?"
Beside them stood a boy with short white hair resembling the tail feathers of a phoenix. Despite it being the height of summer, he wore a black scarf around his neck and was slightly shorter than Maki. His eyes narrowed in confusion.
"Inumaki, what Panda means is that their training intensity is too high—it doesn't seem like something humans should be doing."
Maki pointed at the three figures inside the stadium, explaining to the boy.
Toge Inumaki followed her finger and looked over. Upon seeing the scene inside, his eyes widened in shock.
Inside the stadium, Yuji stood on one foot atop a slender wooden pole, his face tense as if facing a formidable enemy.
Opposite him was a wooden puppet, roughly the same height as him but with four arms, each gripping a wooden sword. Its lower body had multiple jointed wooden legs, flexible like an insect's.
Despite being made of wood, the puppet moved unnaturally like a human, brandishing its four swords as it charged toward Yuji.
The puppet's speed was comparable to a speeding car—not too fast in Yuji's eyes, still within his reaction range. Yet, he remained on high alert, especially the muscles in his legs tensed tightly.
Facing the puppet's assault, Yuji pushed off the wooden pole with his single leg, leaping away like an agile monkey.
The puppet's attack missed, but without a moment's pause, its multiple legs twisted with eerie flexibility, redirecting its charge toward Itadori once more.
Against four wooden swords, Yuji didn't dare to engage recklessly and could only dodge frantically.
"Ah!"
At one point, he suddenly stumbled, losing his footing before plummeting to the ground like a sack of sand with a heavy thud.
The impact sounded painful just to hear.
Seeing Itadori fall, the puppet seemed to trigger some programmed response, freezing mid-chase before lowering its swords and standing motionless like a stump.
"I can't win at all!"
Yuji stood up, dusting himself off as if the heavy fall hadn't affected him, though his face twisted into a bitter expression.
He turned his gaze toward the grassy edge of the sports field, where several giant trees with canopies as large as houses stood, and put on an expression of protest.
"Sensei, I think this training is completely unreasonable!"
"Let's hear it!"
A leisurely voice drifted over from that grassy area, reaching Yuji's ears from afar.
Looking over, beneath the shade of those giant trees, someone had placed a reclining chair, and a figure lay upon it in utter relaxation.
This made Yuji, who was training under the scorching July sun, feel extremely unfair. He had the strong urge to rush over and kick that reclining chair over!
But the thought only lasted a moment in Yuji's mind.
Two days ago, he had tried kicking the chair when the teacher wasn't around.
Then the teacher tied him to a treetop and left him hanging for an hour.
When he came down, his limbs were so numb they might as well not have been his own.
It took him a long time to recover.
"Sensei, I don't mind fighting the wooden dummy—that part of the training is great!"
Yuji thought for a moment and decided to praise the teacher first.
"But this tall wooden stake formation is completely stupid!"
Then he harshly criticized the row of wooden stakes planted in the ground beside him.
Upon closer inspection, he had been moving back and forth between these stakes while fighting the wooden dummy. Each stake was over two meters tall and as thin as a woman's high heels.
Moving as freely on them as on flat ground was already difficult enough, but to also dodge and fight the dummy at the same time? That was just too much!
"If you don't like it, you can do the same training as Megumi."
The figure lying in the shade waved a hand, unfazed by his complaints, and pointed to the other side of the sports field.
On the other side, Megumi was shirtless, drenched in sweat, panting heavily like an ox, his chest heaving like bellows.
Looking closely, a neatly shaped half-person-high boulder was tied to his back with a rope. Megumi, like a draft ox, had the other end of the rope tied around himself, straining every muscle to pull the boulder forward.
Throughout this process, there wasn't the slightest trace of cursed energy emanating from Megumi—he was pulling the boulder purely with his physical strength.
It wasn't that he didn't want to use cursed energy.
But the moment he used it to enhance his body, the boulder would correspondingly increase in weight. It was better to just rely on raw strength!
He had no idea where the teacher came up with such torturous methods!
And why did the boulder react to his cursed energy by getting heavier?
Was this what they called "versatility"?
"Can I really?"
Yuji glanced at Megumi's training, and his face immediately broke into a radiant smile, his teeth on full display.
A boulder like that would be nothing to him!
Pulling it around the field once wouldn't be that hard, right?
"Sure."
Roy lay in the shade, not even opening his eyes, and simply waved a hand.
"But your boulder will be this one!"
A massive boulder, taller than Yuji himself, landed in front of Yuji with a thud, leaving a shallow dent in the sandy ground.
The smile instantly vanished from Yuji's face.
Roy's face broke into a pleased smile.
"This isn't fair!"
Yuji's expression stiffened as he steeled himself and openly protested.
"And why do Megumi and I have to do such difficult training while Kugisaki gets it so easy!"
He pointed toward another shaded area not far from Roy.
There sat Nobara Kugisaki, head bowed, eyes tightly shut, with cursed energy swirling around her body—it was unclear what kind of training she was doing.
At the entrance of the sports field.
"He's got a point there!"
"Salmon!"
Panda and the white-haired boy nodded vigorously in agreement upon hearing Yuji's indignant shouts.
By any measure, the training assigned to the girl named Nobara appeared far easier than what the two boys were enduring.
One was getting pummeled by wooden puppets, the other was drenched in sweat, while Nobara merely had to sit there without breaking a sweat—it looked like she wasn't suffering at all.
"Not necessarily..."
Maki rested her chin on her hand, her expression showing little agreement.
"What do you mean?"
Panda turned to Maki curiously upon hearing her words.
"Maki, didn't you mention before that you trained with first-year instructor Roy for a while?"
"That's right."
Maki nodded, a thoughtful look crossing her face as she scrutinized the orange-haired girl sitting under the tree.
"Generally, Roy-sensei doesn't actively train you. But if you seek him out for training, he's the type who teaches without discrimination—he tailors different training plans based on each student's circumstances."
"Look at Megumi. His technique is strong, and his cursed energy manipulation isn't bad either, but his weakness is his poor physical stamina and nearly nonexistent hand-to-hand combat skills. So this training method is probably meant to help him overcome those weaknesses."
She didn't know Yuji and Nobara well enough to judge their abilities, but she was all too familiar with Megumi's shortcomings.
Panda and Toge grew pensive after hearing her explanation.
That actually made sense!
"Yuji, if you're jealous of me, you're welcome to join my training!"
From beneath the shade, before Roy could speak, Nobara stood up with a sinister, almost predatory grin, as if luring prey into a trap.
Yuji's scalp prickled with alarm, and he immediately shook his head without hesitation, his guard up.
"You're smiling weirdly—no thanks!"
"Scaredy-cat!"
Nobara made no effort to hide her disappointed expression as she plopped back down.
She really should have let Yuji try it—her training was no less dangerous than his.
In fact, it was precisely because her training was so hazardous that she could only do it under Roy-sensei's supervision. Attempting it alone risked serious bodily harm!
But since Yuji hadn't reached her level yet, he couldn't undergo this kind of training—which was a small victory in itself!
Seeing her expression, Yuji couldn't help but feel relieved he'd backed down in time, though a flicker of curiosity remained.
What exactly was Nobara doing in her training?
"Yuji, no slacking off. Get back on the stakes, or no lunch for you!"
Roy's voice rang out again.
With a resigned sigh, Yuji Itadori returned to the array of wooden stakes, leaping lightly onto one of the tall, narrow posts.
The moment he settled back into position, the wooden puppets reactivated as if triggered by a program, charging toward him once more.
Seeing Yuji resume his training, Roy lay back down on his chair.
Nobara sat beside him, palms pressed together as she carefully concentrated cursed energy at her fingertips, wrapping her hands like a hedgehog's quills covering its skin.
But this training clearly wasn't easy to master.
In a moment of distraction, Nobara's cursed energy surged uncontrollably like mercury, slipping from her grasp and piercing her palms like countless nails, leaving behind bright red punctures.
"Tsk!"
Nobara sucked in a sharp breath, her face paling.
Roy noticed and swiftly flicked a healing rune her way.
"Don't rush. Though it might sound strange, you need to maintain a certain level of negative emotions to sustain your cursed energy while keeping your mindset natural. You're too tense."
"Right, I'll try..."
The wounds on Nobara's palms gradually healed, and color returned to her face. A fierce determination welled up inside her, and she immediately threw herself into another attempt.
"Just as I thought."
Maki adjusted her glasses, an unsurprised expression on her face.
"That first-year, Kugisaki's training... doesn't it resemble one of the legendary three secret techniques?"
Panda watched the scene, his eyes enhanced by surging cursed energy.
Once he saw it clearly, his jaw dropped in shock, nearly dislocating.
"A first-year practicing one of the three secret techniques?! Not even a single second-year has mastered any of them yet!"
Not even Yuta Okkotsu!
Though, to be precise, Yuta didn't even need the three secret techniques.
"Maki, what are you doing?"
At that moment, Panda suddenly noticed Maki walking into the training field, heading straight for the shade of the trees.
Maki strode forward without hesitation, waving casually.
"I'm joining their training!"
"What?! Are you abandoning Kasumi-sensei? He'll be lonely!"
"Don't be ridiculous!"
Maki rolled her eyes—as if everyone was like Panda.
"There are only two months left before the exchange event. I need to use this time to improve my strength. Kasumi-sensei won't complain—I can learn more here!"
Given Kasumi-sensei's lazy tendencies, he'd probably be thrilled to have someone else take over his students.
Panda and Inumaki exchanged glances, looking troubled.
Was this really okay?
It was pretty disrespectful to Kasumi-sensei!
"Roy-sensei, long time no see!"
Maki arrived at the shaded area by the training field's grassy edge and greeted Roy with genuine respect.
"Can I join your training too?"
"Maki..."
Roy sat up from his recliner, his boredom lifting at the sight of her.
"I've been waiting for you to come back for days."
"Waiting for me?"
Maki blinked in surprise.
"Kugisaki, pause your training for now. Maki, come with me."
Roy beckoned without waiting for their responses and walked toward a corner of the training field.
Nobara stopped her practice, watching Maki with curiosity.
This was Tokyo Jujutsu High's only senior—one of the two female students, just like her!
Moved by this realization, Nobara nodded politely at Maki.
"Hello, Zenin-senpai."
"Call me Maki."
Maki glanced at her, stubbornly correcting the way she was addressed.
Then she jogged after Roy's retreating figure, heading toward a corner of the sports field.
"Roy-sensei."
Maki approached Roy with a hint of confusion.
"Did you need something from me?"
"Maki, I have a question for you."
Roy faced Maki directly, staring into her eyes as if to confirm her resolve.
"What is your goal?"
"My... goal?"
"Yeah."
Seeing Maki's puzzled expression, Roy paused before continuing.
"To be more specific, what are your thoughts on the Zenin family? Is there something you want to do about them?"
"...About the Zenin family."
Maki's gaze sharpened instantly, her eyes narrowing as if flames had ignited within her.
"Yes. There's one thing I absolutely must do—I will become the head of the Zenin family!"
Like Toji, Maki was born with zero cursed energy, and from childhood, she had been scorned and mocked by the Zenin clan.
Fundamentally, the Zenin clan's ideology held that non-sorcerers weren't even human.
Even though she was of the same bloodline, they treated her no better than a slave. And as a woman, her treatment was even worse than Toji's. Despite being a member of the family, she was forced to serve others like a servant, obeying orders without complaint. If she displeased them, she endured insults and beatings without protest.