Jujutsu Kaisen: Nozomi no Sora

In the empty corridor, Fushiguro Megumi returned from the bathroom carrying a towel, her hair still damp with water droplets.

The hot water slightly relieved the soreness deep in the muscles, but it failed to truly dispel the physical and mental fatigue.

It was called a "sparring practice," but it was actually more like being unilaterally beaten up by Maki-senpai.

Fu Hei walked towards the room expressionlessly, with only one thought in his mind—to lie down quietly and hopefully avoid any troublesome people today.

However, when he passed the previously empty dormitory room at the end of the corridor, he stopped in his tracks.

The door wasn't closed properly.

But what's even more jarring than that are the door panels and the surrounding walls.

The entire wall was covered with a dense array of colorful posters—cats, dogs, rabbits, hamsters… all sorts of exaggerated plush animals crammed together, leaving almost no gaps.

Fu Hei's brows furrowed slowly, and the corners of his mouth twitched twice.

"When did another idiot show up at the vocational college...?"

Inside the training hall.

"Achoo!"

Genichi Nishio suddenly sneezed.

The magical power that had just been mobilized instantly dissipated.

Gojo Satoru slowly withdrew his fist.

Wisps of white steam rose slowly from the back of his hand.

The air was quiet for a second.

Night Moth Masakado stared at Xuan Yi, his voice low: "Wu, that just now..."

"It's Xuan Yi's 'Azure'!"

Gojo Satoru withdrew his fist, answering as if it were the most natural thing in the world, even with a hint of undisguised pleasure.

"what?"

Xuan Yi stood there, stunned. He raised his hand to look at his fist, then looked at Gojo Satoru. It was as if he could understand each word in the sentence, but he couldn't understand it at all when put together.

"Azure? Mine? No... teacher?"

But he did notice it.

In the very instant of their exchange, the cursed power within him suddenly underwent a change.

He couldn't quite describe the feeling; it was like groping for a blurry outline in the dark, and then suddenly a glimmer of light appeared before his eyes...

He doesn't understand.

Yet that feeling was so vivid that it couldn't be ignored.

"Hey, that can't be right."

Standing to the side, Shoko Ieiri frowned, her tone full of doubt.

"The Limitless Technique simply can't function properly without the Six-Eyed One, right? That kind of precision isn't something that can be solved just by having a bit more talent."

"But if I say—"

Gojo Satoru chuckled, slowly turning his head. "To control that level of spell power with such precision, the caster doesn't even need to think about it, does they?"

After saying that, he gestured with his chin toward Xuan Yi.

"Come on, Xuan Yi, show them some of your magical power."

"Oh well."

Xuan nodded and tried to draw his magical power out of his body.

The amount of magical power released was not much.

Almost at the same moment the thought arose, the power of the spell had already completed its response.

There is no sluggishness.

There was no collision.

There was no extra leakage.

Like a still pool of water, it was calm and undisturbed from the very beginning.

"Like this?" Xuan Yi asked hesitantly.

"Very good, keep it like that." Gojo Satoru greeted him with a smile, "Come on, Principal Yagami, Miss Shoko—have you noticed anything?"

Ieiri Shoko narrowed her eyes slightly.

"I can't see anything."

Night Moth Masamichi stared silently for two seconds, but his expression slowly changed.

"...like the surface of water."

"Right!"

Gojo Satoru immediately chimed in, his tone light as if someone had finally gotten the standard answer right.

"When a normal person releases their magical power, there is always a process of 'surging out'. The more intense the emotion, the more obvious the fluctuation. To achieve precise control, one must continue to suppress and adjust it on this basis."

As he spoke, he spread his arms and gestured in the air, creating undulating waves.

"But Xuan Yi is different. His curse power was already in its most stable state almost the instant it appeared."

Xuan Yi scratched his head and hesitated before speaking:

"But I feel... isn't this normal?"

All three people's eyes fell on him at the same time.

Xuan Yi felt a chill run down his spine from her gaze and could only bite the bullet to add, "Well... how should I put it, I've always felt that releasing magical power should feel like adjusting the volume of a radio. You can make it louder or quieter as you like..."

As he spoke, his voice unconsciously lowered.

"No...isn't that right?"

Gojo Satoru smiled slightly, his tone unusually gentle: "That's the optimal state for a sorcerer, a state of extremely high efficiency. Even I need the Six Eyes to maintain that level."

Upon hearing this, Shoko immediately frowned.

"That's not the same thing, is it?"

"Well, strictly speaking, there are still differences."

Gojo Satoru pointed to his blindfold and smiled frankly.

"However, I am the strongest because my name is Gojo Satoru, not because I have six eyes—don't get that wrong."

Shoko and Noctua were silent for a few seconds, and at the same time, an expression of "I can't stand this person" appeared on their faces.

Gojo Satoru didn't care at all; instead, he continued explaining in a good mood.

"To put it another way. The six eyes grant me superhuman perception with almost infinite angles and distances. It is precisely because I see so clearly that I can manipulate magical power at the atomic level."

But in essence, I am still in control.

He paused, then raised his hand and made a drawing motion as if he were drawing a bow.

"It's like archery. To hit the bullseye, the prerequisite, of course, is that you have to see the bullseye first."

Therefore, the other members of the Gojo family cannot use the limitless technique, not because they are absolutely incapable of doing so, but because they cannot see it.

As soon as he finished speaking, Gojo Satoru pointed at Genichi.

"But Xuan Yi is different."

His smile widened even further.

"This guy's spell power is fully automatic."

"what?"

"It's like AI, AI!" Gojo Satoru glanced at the group with disdain. "Seriously, can't you even understand something this simple?"

Shoko pressed her temples, forcefully steer the conversation back on track:

"I mean, even if his magical energy structure is unique and his talent for controlling it is extremely high, how did he learn 'Azure'?"

As if struck by a sudden thought, Moth Masamichi spoke in a deep voice, "Is it... a feedback of magical power?"

"Uh-huh!"

Gojo Satoru nodded in satisfaction, finally showing an expression that said, "Finally, someone is following my train of thought."

"When I was a child, aside from being born with the spells themselves, I could basically learn any spell that interested me. For me, as long as I understood the logic behind how spell power worked, it wasn't too difficult. The method was also very simple—just fight the opponent!"

Shoko stared at him coldly.

"This doesn't sound simple at all."

"But that's just how it is."

Wu Tiaowu spoke with confidence and without any sense of burden.

"Let other people's spells strike you, and then use 'infinity' to access and analyze the information of that incantation. You'll roughly understand—ah, so that's how it is! Oh, that's roughly the feeling!"

Genichi, Shoko, and Yaga watched him in silence.

No one showed an "I see" expression.

The moth sighed and could only try to explain it in a more easily understood way.

"If we compare the power of magic to a wall that can perceive the shape of the outside world—like the kind of movable pinboard in a shopping mall that can press people out of their shapes."

The meaning of "enlightenment" is roughly that Xuan Yi's incantation power had a sufficiently smooth surface, allowing it to completely record the changes caused by "Azure."

Gojo Satoru snapped his fingers.

"Yes, that's it."

Shoko then began to understand a little bit by following this line of thought.

"So Xuan Yi didn't just copy your unscrupulous technique, but rather recreated the corresponding method of constructing incantation power by perceiving the phenomenon of 'Azure'?"

"More or less."

Gojo Satoru smiled.

"Xuan Yi's technique is not an exception; there was another one before him!"

However, Yuta's technique, "Imitation," requires Rika to ingest the body tissue of the person being imitated and forcibly analyze the technique. To put it bluntly, it's about stealing the answer along with the process and copying it.

Xuan Yi's "inscription" is more like working backward from a pre-existing answer to solve the problem.

At this point, he looked at Xuan Yi, a rare hint of clear admiration appearing in his eyes.

"What I'm more concerned about now is whether he can consistently use 'Azure'. Or was that just a coincidence?" Night Moth said in a deep voice.

"Why not give it a try?"

"Alright then."

Moth's expression hardened, as if he had been prepared, and he pulled out a huge cloth doll, Cursed Skeleton, from his side.

The thing had a strange expression and an exaggerated size; at first glance, it even looked somewhat comical.

However, when it was placed in front of him, Xuan Yi could clearly feel that it contained a fairly solid strength of curse power.

"Come."

Moth placed the cursed remains forward, its voice low and steady.

"Attack with all your might!"

Xuan Yi stared at the doll, feeling inexplicably uneasy.

Isn't that the same one we used when testing the Japanese knotweed before?

No...it feels much bigger than it was back then!

"Well... I'll give it a try."

Facing the already eager Cursed Corpse, Xuan Yi slowly exhaled and steadied himself.

The power of the spell emerged from his limbs and bones.

He closed his eyes, trying to capture the fleeting feeling that had just passed by—

The next second, Xuan Yi suddenly opened his eyes and threw a punch.

The air suddenly froze.

It was as if something invisible to the naked eye had collapsed the space in front of the fist before it could strike.

The moment the fist landed on the chest of the cursed corpse, the doll's body strangely caved inward, as if it had been forcibly pulled in by an invisible force.

Immediately following was a dull tearing sound—

puff.

Xuan Yi's fist actually pierced straight through Zhou Hai's back.

The pierced doll swayed twice, twitched a few times, and then quickly lost its magical power supply, collapsing motionless.

The training hall fell silent instantly.

Moth's eyes darkened, but a storm was brewing within her.

The strength of this cursed corpse is sufficient to meet the practical combat standards of a level two mage.

But now, he was punched through by a newcomer who had only recently come into contact with sorcery.

The spatial compression and traction accompanying that punch—without a doubt—are characteristics of "Azure".

Xuan Yi himself was also a little confused.

There was no complicated construction, nor any deliberate deduction.

He simply followed his intuition, as easily as scooping up a brightly colored glass bead from crystal-clear water.

The result was—

Did it really succeed?

This is just too much...

Don't overthink it.

Gojo Satoru's voice came from the side, interrupting his thoughts.

Genichi looked up and saw Gojo Satoru looking at him, his tone unusually free of his usual frivolousness.

"You're just starting out, so it's normal that you can't understand some things yet. If you can't figure something out, don't force it. Thinking too much will only confuse you and make things more complicated."

Xuan Yi remained silent for a moment, then nodded.

"I understand, Mr. Gojo."

Right.

Since you can't figure it out now, there's no need to get stuck on it.

Let's take it one step at a time and see what happens!

Just then, footsteps suddenly came from outside the building.

"What are you all doing here?"

His voice was crisp and clear, with a natural sharpness.

Several people turned around at the same time.

Zenjima Maki was standing at the entrance, carrying training weapons on her shoulder.

The panda was beside her, and behind her stood a quiet boy whose lower face was covered by a high collar.

Maki's gaze swept past the crowd and quickly landed inside the building.

Then, it stopped precisely on Xuan Yi.

She clearly hadn't seen this face before; her eyebrows twitched slightly, and her eyes revealed an undisguised surprise.

"Who is that?"

Gojo Satoru raised his hand with a beaming smile, just like a child showing off a new toy.

"Genichi Nishio, a first-year student who just enrolled."

When Xuan Yi's name was called, he could only nod somewhat awkwardly to the people at the door.

Please give me your guidance.

"Over here—Zenin Maki, Panda, and Inu-maki Thorn," Gojo Satoru casually introduced.

"Hello." The panda raised its paw.

"Salmon." Dog-Turtle Thorn also raised his hand slightly.

Maki did not respond immediately, but glanced at Genichi again before turning her gaze to Gojo Satoru.

She stepped forward and extended her hand expressionlessly.

"Huh?"

"Where is Tuzuma?" Zenin Maki asked calmly. "Give him back."

There was a two-second silence.

The next moment—

"I suddenly remembered I have an urgent mission to handle! Xuan Yi, let's go! Run!"

"Hey! Why are you running?!"

The shouts of Zenin Maki behind us faded into the distance...