It's Naoya. It's now October, mid-autumn, and I'm finally becoming seriously bored.
The guys from my year and my junior, Kiyotaka Ijichi, are busy preparing their shikigami and training for the upcoming Goodwill Event this weekend. As for Toji Fushiguro, he's been impossible to catch. He's always at the racetrack or a ranch whenever he has a free moment, saying stuff like, 'Now that Deep Impact is gone, horse racing is truly getting hot! Is it Tachyon's Daiwa Scarlet or Gimlet's Vodka? I've gotta figure out which girl is the best before the Shuka Sho! So yeah, I'm busy. Leave a message.'
I spent most of September messing around with Magical Mai-chan, but since her Pilum construction and throwing are getting pretty decent, she'll be fine with basic drills and practical experience hunting cursed spirits for a while... Actually, it's a bit of a pain. Because I keep using Mai and Maki Zen'in as practice dummies, I can't even kill time by beating up weak cursed spirits anymore.
I thought about going out and bashing some curse users for fun, but sadly, thanks to Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto, those rats are all living in shadows underground, terrified. They're hard to find.
So, I can't play around by one-sidedly thumping weaklings, I've got nothing to do, and classes are a total breeze. I think I'm still a bit too young to be wishing for more excitement in my life, don't you?
If it weren't for my Binding Vow, I'd be out in the entertainment district picking up some big-chested, airheaded woman to play with...
Come to think of it, I'm probably the only virgin left among the Zen'in of my generation. When I went back home the other day, even Ranta Zen'in had a maid following him around, and my older brothers are constantly getting laid despite being total weaklings.
Just thinking about it is making me even more stressed, honestly.
Sigh... fine. In times like these...
---
At the Tokyo Jujutsu High campus. In a corner of the vast grounds, within an outdoor training field, Naoya Zen'in is locked in combat with Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga.
Mahoraga, who was easily sold out by Megumi Fushiguro in exchange for Monster Hunter Portable 2nd, looks somewhat listless. However, perhaps out of loyalty to its master, it performs its duty as Naoya's sparring partner without complaint.
While Mahoraga has a freestyle mandate—with the sole exception of Megumi's order: 'Killing Naoya is forbidden. Near-death is OK'—Naoya's speed as he attacks with Projection Sorcery at full throttle is truly like a bolt of lightning.
Through daily physical training and the constant consumption of cursed spirits to bolster his cursed energy, Naoya's physical specs have long surpassed human limits. Recently, even without his innate technique, his speed using pure cursed energy reinforcement has reached a level comparable to Naobito Zen'in.
When he uses his technique at full power, his speed easily exceeds the speed of sound, and the frequency of his Black Flashes—which have recently become his trademark—is remarkably high.
However, Mahoraga, while being pummeled by these terrifyingly powerful strikes, has begun to parry Naoya's attacks through several adaptations: 'Moving at supersonic speeds itself,' 'Enhancing its dynamic vision to keep Naoya in sight at all times,' and 'Deploying a Simple Domain to automatically intercept Naoya's strikes.'
Inevitably, the tide begins to turn against Naoya. As Mahoraga continues to produce countermeasures against him, Naoya is forced into a situation where he is the one who must adapt. Yet, he wears a wicked grin, as if to say this was exactly his goal.
The man known as Naoya Zen'in has a dual nature: an artificial gentleman on the outside due to his Binding Vow, and a natural-born piece of trash on the inside. Because of this, even Naoya believes his 'trash' side is his true essence, but in reality, his core is closer to that 'mask'—a seeker who is sincere and greedy for strength.
Thus, when faced with a wall that must be overcome, Naoya's adrenaline hits its peak.
Conversely, if he were to look down on an opponent as 'low-level garbage' rather than a wall to climb, he might easily be caught off guard. But this opponent is the ultimate weapon of the Zen'in clan, Mahoraga. Knowing its capabilities, Naoya feels no arrogance; instead, he can purely enjoy a life-or-death struggle that challenges his limits.
'Is fisticuffs no longer working? No matter how fast I strike, it parries them and has even started setting up counters.'
'In that case, next is...'
Naoya pulls back for a moment and chooses a bombardment of pure cursed energy. Taking the Kamehameha pose, he uses his arms as cannons to fire a torrent of compressed cursed energy. Because it is a simple mass of power, its destructive force is immense. The direct hit blows Mahoraga's massive frame away, and the ground in front of Naoya is gouged out in a straight line like a massive trench.
"Megumi... in the future... you'll probably... never be able to... stand up to me. Because of the favor... of me training... your trump card."
'Well, as expected, it's regenerating with a loud clicking sound. What did it adapt to? Cursed energy? Fine, I'll fire another shot to find out!'
Immediately following that thought, Naoya fires a second blast. Mahoraga, using a no-guard tactic, takes the hit defenselessly just like the first one. However, it opens its massive mouth to swallow Naoya's cursed energy, and as a counterattack, it fires a cursed energy cannon of its own from its mouth. In response, Naoya instinctively chooses an automatic, minimal interception using Falling Blossom Emotion.
Having completely brushed off the power of the bombardment with the film of cursed energy surrounding him, Naoya assumes Mahoraga's move was a general 'absorption of cursed energy and acquisition of bombardment capability' and shifts his tactics.
"A phantom image reflecting a night's shadow... Innate Technique Activation: Fourth Wall. I'm getting serious now, so cover your eyes."
Naoya's next move is a major technique that requires a barrier to be erected just to minimize collateral damage.
That is to say...
"Maximum Output: Innate Technique Activation—"
——
A super-high-speed tackle accompanied by an azure aurora and black lightning. This single strike, delivered while generating a Black Flash with his entire body, carries such overwhelming firepower that Mahoraga—who should have enhanced its physical resistance after being punched so much—is forced backward, its dharma wheel spinning frantically as it repeats adaptation and regeneration while gritting its teeth.
This absurd move, where he slams into the enemy at orbital velocity, hits Mahoraga with energy equivalent to 1.5 million Tsar Bombas—the strongest bomb in human history—charring its massive body with the heat of adiabatic compression.
However, Mahoraga is no slouch.
Mahoraga's adaptation is not a one-time thing; it continues to analyze any attack it has received, constantly seeking optimization. As a result, because it had been continuously strengthening the fire resistance it acquired as a counter to Naobito Zen'in's Blazing Courage, it managed to endure the heat of the blue-shining plasma. It even withstood the following tackle from Naoya through its adaptation to physical attacks.
Even a strike powerful enough to shatter Naoya's barrier in one go and turn the surrounding area into a wasteland is not enough to completely defeat Mahoraga.
This fact makes Naoya realize his own room for growth. His thirst to go 'even higher' makes his brain spin at high speed, demanding even more destructive power of himself.
"Using just the Fourth Wall leaves too much wasted movement in the technique. I need to focus the firepower that destroys the surroundings into a single point..."
As Naoya mumbles this while refining his cursed energy, Mahoraga retaliates. Using the super speed it gained during the process of parrying Naoya's attacks, it falls upon him, raining down a relentless barrage of heavy blows.
Naoya meets this onslaught with one of his own. While thinking of ways to enhance his power in his head, he inputs the frames of Projection Sorcery to return appropriate counters to Mahoraga's attacks. His processing ability is truly worthy of a Special Grade.
This is a transcendental feat made possible by constantly healing his brain with Reverse Cursed Technique, similar to Gojo, and it is no small task. The fact that Mahoraga requires such measures to handle is proof enough of why Megumi was designated a Special Grade at only four years old.
In the midst of this exchange between transcendent beings, Naoya completes a new form of the Fourth Wall.
With a small run-up, conscious of the internal force he has honed through daily training, he unleashes a shoulder check. By inputting separate frames for the coordination of his feet, legs, hips, back, and shoulders, he forcibly generates an 'ultra-acceleration via stacked frame inputs.' It is a dangerously violent move that puts extreme strain on the body.
However, that single strike, successfully executed in the heat of the moment, truly produces an azure aurora at Naoya's shoulder and strikes Mahoraga's abdomen with incredible force.
In exchange, Naoya's shoulder blade suffers a spectacular compound fracture, but that's something he can just heal with Reverse Cursed Technique. Thanks to his daily asceticism and ritual suicide practice, Naoya's pain tolerance is the highest among Special Grade sorcerers; a shattered shoulder blade doesn't cause even a ripple in his thoughts or the flow of his cursed energy.
At the same time, his brain identifies the problems with the frame inputs from a moment ago, concluding that the transmission path for the internal force was too short for a shoulder check, causing the forced acceleration to shatter his own body.
As a result, he devises an acceleration using a seven-stage frame input, extending the transmission from the shoulder further into the arm and fist.
Namely, a 'properly weighted straight punch.' The strike, executed immediately upon the flash of inspiration, cloaks Naoya's fist in an azure aurora as intended and pierces into Mahoraga—who was trying to recover its posture from the previous shoulder check—accompanied by a Black Flash.
Due to the accumulated damage, Mahoraga's hide has taken on the contradictory properties of being softer than silk yet tougher than steel. However, that powerful straight punch pierces even that hide, causing the rare phenomenon of Mahoraga actually vomiting.
Yet, even after such a powerful hit, once Mahoraga's dharma wheel clicks and turns, it is completely restored. Simultaneously, it adapts to the Fourth Wall that it has now taken three times.
What follows is, ironically, the same as Naoya: a properly weighted straight punch. The fist, carrying internal force through seven stages just like Naoya's, becomes a supersonic strike glowing red-hot from adiabatic compression. Being struck by such a thing, Naoya is sent flying like a Dragon Ball character, creating a massive crater in the ground.
However, as he stands up, steam rising from his entire body as he performs immediate regeneration with Reverse Cursed Technique—wrapping his kimono, now reduced to rags, around his waist like a loincloth—his regenerative power is also largely monstrous. In fact, combined with his current fashion, one might momentarily believe this was a mirror match between two Mahoragas.
Furthermore, because Naoya objectively observed the supersonic punch from Mahoraga's strike, he fine-tunes and optimizes his own 'frame inputs.' Ironically, Mahoraga and Naoya reach the same conclusion at the same time.
'If I use the technique of a Dempsey Roll, the previous strike can be delivered in a continuous barrage.'
Having gained that insight, they begin a furious exchange of infighting, their fists carrying the glow of azure and crimson. The resulting shockwaves peel back the earth, and the surrounding landscape no longer retains its original form.
However, even Naoya eventually falls. After the dharma wheel rotates three more times, Mahoraga gains complete resistance to physical strikes, and its speed and power evolve to the point where the glow of its fists turns from crimson to white-hot. Naoya is defeated, having exhausted all his cursed energy.
At the same time, Mahoraga—having been strictly ordered by its master to 'leave him near-death'—stops its combat. It even learns the output of Reverse Cursed Technique to adapt to the situation of 'an opponent who must be kept alive is about to die,' and thus, the spectacular sparring session comes to an end.
As a side note, the fact that Mahoraga, who was forced by Naoya to help with the cleanup afterward, adapted slightly to civil engineering work is entirely irrelevant information.
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]