November passed, and December came.
However, the common sense of reducing outdoor activities for students in winter did not apply in the jujutsu world, where it was normal to exploit human labor and life to the fullest.
Cold wind? Low temperature? Then wear clothes. But, don't wear too much that it hinders you from eliminating curses. You might die otherwise.
In the end, the students at the jujutsu school just rolled around in a slightly colder state.
The only silver lining was that winter had fewer curses than summer.
...Of course, it's not like the time spent at school without missions was entirely peaceful.
Thwack!
A wooden stick stabbed the ground where Gojo Satoru's foot had just been. Looking at the small hole created by the stick's end, Gojo swallowed nervously.
Toji mockingly swung the stick swiftly at speeds that were invisible to the eye, and Gojo panicked, trying to defend himself.
"Argh, ah! Ah, this crazy gorilla!"
Toji was furious for a simple reason. Yesterday, Megumi stuck his tongue out at Toji and went "Ebebuk" at him. It was obvious who he had learned it from.
Seeing this, Zoro seriously scolded Megumi.
"Megumi, you shouldn't do that anytime you want. Provoking someone like that is something you do to an enemy or someone annoying."
"...Shouldn't you teach him not to do it at all?"
My moss ball is strange. That's what Toji thought at the time.
Of course, Gojo, feeling wronged, pointed at Megumi, who was sitting next to Shoko drawing in a sketchbook.
"It was your sea urchin who did it! Why are you mad at me?!"
"So, I should scold my precious child instead?"
"Wow, character..."
That sea urchin, I won't let you off later. I'll thoroughly mess up your face! Gojo gritted his teeth.
Geto, already warm from being beaten up earlier, dusted off the dirt. It was sad to think that getting hit this much had become bearable.
Meanwhile, Zoro was teaching kendo to Tsumiki in a corner of the playground.
"You need to hold the grip properly."
"Like this?"
"A bit lower than that."
"Here?"
"Yeah."
The bamboo sword was too heavy for Tsumiki to swing, so they bought a plastic toy sword from the mart. Although it was ridiculously short, light, and crude compared to a real bamboo sword or a Japanese sword, it was suitable for starting.
Holding the toy sword, Tsumiki's brown eyes sparkled with seriousness and passion. Seeing this, Zoro knew he had something important to say to Tsumiki as a swordsman.
"Tsumiki."
"Yes?"
"Do you really want to learn swordsmanship?"
Having reincarnated into this world, Zoro had also learned a bit about this world's kendo. Here, kendo had long become a sport with established rules rather than for practical combat.
'It makes sense.'
In this world, there was no swordsmanship, martial arts, Haki, or Devil Fruits that could change the course of battle to an astonishing degree. Whether it truly didn't exist, had existed but now disappeared, or still existed but remained hidden, was unclear.
With a fundamental limit to how strong a human could become, the only option was to advance technology and increase the level of weapons and the number of troops.
'Curses are different, but only jujutsu sorcerers born with cursed energy can use them.'
And even those sorcerers were very few in number. Just looking at the student count of Tokyo Jujutsu High made it evident. There were only three first-year students, Gojo, Geto, and Ieiri, no second-year students, one third-year, Utahime Iori, one fourth-year, Mei Mei, and two fifth-years.
'At first, I thought this country was like the East Blue, a peaceful area.'
But it wasn't. Japan was equivalent to the New World in the latter half of the Grand Line, a place with the most curses and jujutsu sorcerers in the entire world of my previous life.
'And yet, this is it.'
Honestly, it was somewhat disappointing. When Zoro asked why there were so few students, Gojo scoffed.
"Hey, originally jujutsu sorcerers are super super rare. Normally, it's common for about two to enroll per grade in Jujutsu High, three if it's a lot. Sometimes there's only one, or even none at all."
As Gojo wiped the blood from his lip from getting beaten by Toji, he said irritably,
"Not every jujutsu sorcerer enrolls here. There was supposed to be one second-year candidate, but they were from a jujutsu sorcerer family and chose not to enroll. There are two in the fifth year, but they're hardly ever at school because they're always out on missions. Right now, there's only one teacher at Tokyo Jujutsu High, Yaga-sensei."
"...That's few."
"Laughable. You think this is the Heian period? Where jujutsu sorcerers are everywhere?"
"Heian period?"
"It's the golden age of curses. The time when Ryomen Sukuna, the king of curses, ran rampant. About 1200 to 800 years ago from now?"
The king of curses. Zoro stored that name in his memory as Gojo casually put his sunglasses back on.
"...Well, it's true there aren't many jujutsu sorcerers. In the past dozen years, the curses that were dormant have started to become active again. The damage caused by curses is also increasing."
Satoru stomped his feet in frustration.
"That's why we need to make that gorilla from your house a jujutsu sorcerer as soon as possible, so our workload decreases! What the hell are those old farts doing?! We've sent how many reports?!"
Cursing the illiterate damned old folks, Gojo's rant was pushed aside as Zoro continued his thoughts.
'This world doesn't really need swordsmanship.'
This country is peaceful, and the level of weapons has far surpassed the limits of human strength. The only thing that could potentially bridge that gap, curses, is available to too few people, and jujutsu sorcerers don't really interfere with non-sorcerers.
As a result, this world's battles and wars were led more by the level of weapons, the number of troops, and logistical capabilities rather than individual prowess. Naturally, swordsmanship remained only as a sport, such as fencing or kendo.
There were still swordsmanship styles that involved tripping and grappling, which had practical elements, but they weren't truly about killing.
However, what Zoro will teach Tsumiki from now on is different.
"A sword is fundamentally a deadly weapon. The swordsmanship I will teach involves wielding that weapon to harm lives."
It's fine if she learns kendo as a sport. That generally won't result in harming people, and Zoro can teach just at that level.
But if she learns real swordsmanship, she must be prepared to harm others.
Honestly, Zoro didn't clearly understand that fact when he chose the path of a swordsman. However, by the time he did, he had already resolved to become the strongest swordsman and never thought of fleeing, which makes his situation different from Tsumiki's.
Tsumiki is young and kind. She's not a sorcerer, nor has she started walking the path of a swordsman early like Zoro. Her age and personality don't fit learning and training to harm people with a sword.
Yet, Zoro decided to teach her the sword because she desperately wanted it.
"..."
Her small hand firmly grips the toy sword.
Tsumiki's sword was only shaped like a sword, essentially a toy. It had no blade and was made of light plastic that would break and flop harmlessly if swung at someone. It couldn't kill a person.
Yet, it felt cold and frightening.
Despite that, Tsumiki didn't let go of the sword's handle.
"I don't want to hurt anyone. Not anyone. Just want to play with Megumi."
"Then—"
"I want to be with you."
Stopped by her earnest voice, Zoro paused.
At that moment, Tsumiki could see nothing in the darkness.
Even if there had been light, she wouldn't have seen anything.
Because she was different from the other three.
Not wanting to harm anyone wasn't a lie.
She wanted to spend time playing with Megumi, Zoro, and the uncle.
But without knowing anything, being together was no different from being infinitely apart.
Zoro and the uncle are already in places Tsumiki doesn't know about. Eventually, Megumi will be, too.
She wanted to see the same things.
Walk the same path.
Be together.
If not, being together wouldn't really mean being together.
"..."
Knowing the frustration of the weak, Zoro understood Tsumiki.
"There are ways to become strong without the sword."
"But you use a sword, right?"
"Yes."
"Then I want to do it with a sword too."
"Why?"
"Because you're cool!"
Tsumiki laughed brightly, and Zoro couldn't help but smile back. He gently ruffled Tsumiki's hair.
"Tell me if it gets tough."
"AAAAHHHH! I can't take it anymore!"
Far away, Gojo, who had been jumping around, stopped dead with his eyes half-turned.
"Uh?"
"Huh?!"
Sensing trouble, Zoro quickly scooped up Tsumiki and Megumi and flew out of the playground. As he brushed past Geto and Shoko, he warned them.
"Hey, you guys better get out of here too."
"Thanks for the tip~"
Shoko instantly followed Zoro out of the playground. Left behind with Toji and Gojo, Geto sensed a bad omen and tried to stop Gojo.
"Wait, Satoru? Maybe you should calm down a bit—"
"Phase, Twilight."
"Hey, hey!"
"—Eyes of Wisdom."
It was the curse word of Cursed Technique Reversal: Blue.
Having heard Gojo's curse word a few times before, Geto panicked and summoned his cursed spirit, Red Dragon. He mounted it and flew over the playground, shouting.
"Be careful, teacher!"
I can see perfectly well without you saying it, idiot. Toji thought, keeping his eyes fixed on Gojo.
Toji sent his Observation Haki towards a corner of the forest. Something caught his attention there. It was staring in this direction but did not move at all.
Toji's lips twisted.
"Are you just going to watch?"
Well, it was what it was. Given the situation, and 'that' couldn't make its own decision anyway.
'That guy probably didn't expect the young master to go this far.'
A full-powered Limitless Cursed Technique would just break it if it got involved.
It seems I'll have to handle this on my own. Toji made up his mind neatly.
Gojo turned his wildly spinning eyes towards Toji and grinned wickedly.
"Move aside, gorilla. Even you won't be safe from this."
Between Gojo's hands, a searing blue energy moved along his touch.
"Cursed Technique Reversal, Maximum Output."
Blue!
Whizz.
Toji quickly dodged the swirling blue force with his Observation Haki. The vortex pursued Toji, pulling in and demolishing everything in its path.
Crack, screech, rumble, bang!
Dirt, grass, trees, stairs, gym equipment, and the track - everything on the playground was shredded and sucked into the vortex. When the vortex subsided, only Gojo and Toji were left standing.
Toji glanced back at where the kids were and ground his teeth. Luckily, Zoro had stepped in on time, so no one was hurt, but the playground was completely obliterated. Given the power, if caught, even Toji would have taken significant damage.
It was the first time Gojo had launched such a large-scale technique at Toji with the intention to kill.
"This crazy guy, where did he learn that technique... Are you asking for a real fight, young master?"
"Just what I wanted, gorilla. No more of that half-hearted physical training nonsense. Come at me for real."
"...This is the real deal..."
"What's all this commotion?"
Returning from a 4-hour external mission to his other battleground, the Tokyo Jujutsu High, Yaga Masamichi couldn't help but rub his eyes at the scene before him. There had been a playground here when he left for work, right?
Yaga Masamichi looked at Toji. While the non-cursed user was undoubtedly powerful, he didn't possess a large-scale attack method that could wipe everything out in one go. More importantly, the residue of cursed energy was plastered all over.
Then, the culprit is?
"...Satoruuuuu—!!!"
"No, Mr. Yaga. It was— Aaaaaah!"
Whisk, Zoro whistled upon seeing the almost completely vanished playground. They really went all out. Knowing Toji's capabilities, he hadn't expected him to be defeated, but it was still astonishing.
'Thanks to this, I could've ended my life in a grand display.'
That homeroom teacher isn't too shabby, huh? Zoro watched with interest as Gojo Satoru was being dragged away by Yaga Masamichi. It looked exactly like catching a chicken.
As Megumi peeked out, Zoro quietly covered his eyes. It wasn't time for his to see such things. Not yet.
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