Hayashi understood Fushiguro Megumi's thoughts and his concern, but to be honest, Hayashi felt that training with his classmates and seniors didn't hold much value for him. It was mostly physical training, and when it came to jujutsu, it was more of a personal matter.
Therefore, there wasn't much point in overthinking it. In terms of physical training, Hayashi was confident enough, especially since it involved close-combat techniques. What he lacked was skill in jujutsu.
So, the most important thing right now was to learn jujutsu. If his jujutsu was solid, everything else would fall into place.
"Fushiguro, it's not that I don't want to train with you all. It's just that I think I'll grow faster by honing my skills in the real world," Hayashi casually remarked.
"Do you even know how many curses are out there in the world? How many of them are stronger than even the most skilled jujutsu sorcerers?" Fushiguro stood up and looked down at Hayashi. "I admit, you've got some skill, but that's no reason for arrogance. The seniors have plenty of experience and practical combat knowledge. Training with them will help you improve a lot. But it's your choice."
Jujutsu High was quite democratic; they wouldn't force students to do anything against their will. However, they wouldn't tolerate slackers either.
Hayashi could tell that Fushiguro was a little annoyed, but he understood that his classmate was only concerned for him.
Despite that, Hayashi still chose to go out and train on his own. Self-training was meaningless—real growth came through battle.
The next morning, Hayashi woke up early, washed up, and prepared breakfast for everyone.
After eating, he headed straight to the Jujutsu Pavilion.
Meanwhile, the others were just waking up and getting ready. After brushing her teeth, Nobara saw the message Hayashi had sent, saying breakfast was ready and they could help themselves after freshening up.
"This guy is really thoughtful," Nobara smirked. Even though they were in the countryside outside Tokyo, where they couldn't enjoy the city's gourmet food, eating Hayashi's cooking was still a treat. She certainly enjoyed it.
Hayashi walked through a forest and followed a stone path to the Jujutsu Pavilion, a somewhat old-looking building that showed signs of age.
It was quiet around the pavilion. Hayashi stepped inside and saw an old man sweeping the floor. Hearing footsteps, the old man looked up at Hayashi.
"Good morning, sir," Hayashi greeted with a smile.
Though the man's hair was white, he appeared full of energy, not at all like someone nearing the end of their life.
The old man glanced at Hayashi. "You're up early. Here to observe some jujutsu?"
"Sir, you must have been up even earlier than me," Hayashi complimented before continuing, "Yes, I'm here to study jujutsu."
The old man nodded without much expression and pointed to a table. "Register yourself over there."
Hayashi quickly walked over to the table, grabbed a pen, and filled in the registration. Once done, he walked deeper into the pavilion.
The old man shook his head with a smile. "Young people these days are too impractical. I bet he'll give up in a few days. Jujutsu isn't something everyone can master."
Hayashi ventured further into the pavilion, where rows of bookshelves stood, each filled with numerous books. But after searching for a while, he realized most of them were about jujutsu history, jujutsu lore, theories of the jujutsu world, and classifications of jujutsu.
There were very few actual jujutsu techniques, which left Hayashi feeling a bit disappointed. It turned out this place was more about studying knowledge rather than learning actual techniques.
However, Hayashi did browse through some books on jujutsu theory and insights, which cleared up many of his misunderstandings.
For instance, now he understood some of what Fushiguro had mentioned the previous day.
Aside from the fact that innate talent accounted for 80% of a sorcerer's abilities, whether someone could use a technique was largely determined by their "innate talent," which was influenced heavily by one's bloodline. This was because bloodlines could determine brain structure and allow the inheritance of techniques. However, there were rare cases where one could acquire techniques through other means.
There were also two main categories of technique use: Lapse and Reverse.
Lapse was when cursed energy was injected into a technique, producing its effects. Most jujutsu sorcerers used Lapse in battle, and its ultimate form was known as the "Maximum."
Beyond the "Maximum," there was a more advanced application of Lapse—the well-known "Domain Expansion."
Domain Expansion was the fusion of barrier techniques with Lapse, where a fully formed domain not only acted as a barrier but also enhanced the sorcerer's techniques and guaranteed a "sure-hit" effect. It was considered the strongest application of Lapse.
The principle behind Domain Expansion was that it consumed a large amount of cursed energy to bring an innate domain (constructed within one's mind) into reality and apply techniques to it. To complete a Domain Expansion, cursed energy, techniques, and the innate domain were all necessary.
The cursed energy and technique aspects had been explained before, and the "innate domain" was akin to one's inner world, something one was born with, much like an innate technique.
After the Juvenile Detention Center incident, Itadori had entered Sukuna's innate domain.
Without an innate domain and sufficient cursed energy, Domain Expansion was impossible. And without a technique to inject into the domain, it would just be a huge waste of energy—much like the special-grade curse at the detention center, which could only change the battlefield without having the sure-hit effect of a complete domain.
Then there was Reverse—reverse technique application. Though not overly complex, it was often misunderstood.
The precondition for using Reverse was mastering reverse cursed technique. The principle behind reverse cursed technique was to multiply negative energy (cursed energy) by itself to create positive energy suitable for healing. Injecting this positive energy into a technique would reverse its effects, leading to what was called a "reversed technique."
Reverse cursed technique wasn't a technique in itself but a way of manipulating cursed energy. Similarly, reversed technique wasn't a technique but a method of using a technique. Both reverse cursed technique and reversed techniques were high-level skills, mastered by only a few.
And this brought up Gojo Satoru.
Gojo Satoru was the only person who could fuse Lapse and Reverse together, creating what he called "Hollow Technique." It wasn't clear whether "Hollow Technique" was a term exclusive to the Gojo family's Limitless Cursed Technique, or if it was a general term for the combination of Lapse and Reverse. Either way, it didn't matter—right now, only Gojo could use such techniques, and no one else was likely to achieve that anytime soon.
These were all crucial pieces of knowledge. Though Hayashi couldn't digest it all at once, he had at least gained some understanding.
Most of the shelves in this section contained theoretical knowledge and structural details. It wasn't until Hayashi reached the deepest part of the pavilion that he found a shelf holding actual jujutsu techniques.
These techniques were indeed learnable, provided one had the talent. However, the chances of acquiring techniques through training were incredibly slim—almost impossible.
"They're all covered in dust…" Hayashi muttered, pulling a jujutsu book from the shelf. A thin layer of dust covered it, suggesting that no one had opened it in at least half a year. It made sense—these techniques were just for show. Actually learning them was nearly impossible.
Fushiguro's gaze from the previous day had made it clear—he didn't believe Hayashi could learn a technique just by studying it on his own.