[1st POV]
(2 years later)
[Status :-
Title: [Clan Heir], [The Prodigy], [Warborn], [Reincarnation of the Black Dragon], [The Last Son of Dragon], [Practitioner of Cursed Body Hardening], [Battle Maniac], [Iron Discipline]
Age: 9 years
Affiliation: The Kurogane Clan
Hero Template: Yu Zhong (Fighter)
Integration Rate: 18%
Power Source: Dragon Qi, Dragon Soul
Affinity: Darkness, Destruction
Items: [Empty]
Emblems: [Empty]
Battle Spells: [Empty]
Summons: [Empty]
Battle Points: 2201
..
Close]
...
Two years passed in but a flash. When life was filled with training every day and constantly aiming and reaching new goals, time flew by pretty quickly.
At nine years old, I was 5'4 feet tall. I was already as tall as most of the women in the clan. My frame was also filled with lean muscles you would not expect from a 9-year-old. I was not big yet but considering my green age, I was a giant among my peers.
The template integration rate had also increased by 8% during the last two years. It was rather slow, but it made sense considering I was still a child and development was slow. I believe the integration rate would increase sharply when I reach puberty and my body finally develops.
But even at 18% integration, I was confident that I was the strongest in the clan. To put that into perspective, the strongest member of our clan was a low Grade 1 Sorcerer. That meant I sat comfortably at Grade 1 level with my current powers and skills.
And that was being humble, to be honest. It would be more correct to say I was at least Grade 1 level. But the difference between Grade 1 and Special Grade was so vast that I was still not confident I was at that level of power yet.
I battled a lot during my training as well, which is how I was able to earn the amount of BP that I had. But the more I fought the same person, the less impactful it became. I only earned 2 or 3 Battle Points after beating someone in the clan.
That might seem like a good number for grinding but humans were not monsters. Most of my peers and even some adult warriors did not want to fight me anymore. I was left with no opponent to face these days, which was why my earnings of BP were at a bottleneck.
If I wanted more, I would have to challenge the stronger warriors of the clan, or begin hunting Cursed Spirits. But the problem was that the strong warriors of the clan did not want to fight me because I'm a child, and Cursed Spirits were rare in the small village.
For now, I focused more on sharpening my skills and mastering our clan's technique. Those only required hard work, so I could do those.
I visited the forest often to experiment with my Dragon Qi. The rough terrain was also better to sharpen my instincts and master my enhanced senses. My father was completely against me setting out alone in the forest, but there was not much he could do to stop me as I continued to sneak out.
At this point, he did not bother stopping me. My father was one of the few people who knew just how strong I was. The others knew that I was hailed as a genius, but most of them had not truly realized how strong I had become.
Today, I followed the same routine as usual. I woke up early in the morning and worked on body conditioning with my father. After which, my father began teaching me about combat. He was not proficient in every style, so he would often get members of the clan to teach me as well.
I learned hand-to-hand combat, wrestling, and also dabbled with weapons like swords, spears, war axe, and warhammer. Whatever the clan members had to offer, I absorbed like a dry sponge.
I trained in Jiujutsu recently even though that was rather useless when fighting against cursed spirits or other Sorcerers. I had mastered most other skills so I thought why not? Funny enough, Jiujutsu was a Japanese art and the more popularly known Brazilian Jiujutsu was an evolution of the Japanese version.
After the morning training, I head into the forest to hunt. I drained the life force of the animals to heal my fatigue from training and ran through obstacles in the forest before I returned for lunch.
I walked through the streets with a dead pheasant and two rabbits. The meat of the animals whose life force I drained did not spoil, and I did not want them to go to waste so I usually brought everything home.
They were great sources of protein as well. Diet was just as important as training after all.
The people did not bat an eye as I passed through the streets; it had become normal for them to see me out and about. I appreciated this much more than being greeted every day.
But right when I was thinking that, someone approached me.
"Ahh, grandma Fumiko," I greeted her first with a bow. She had a pleased smile in response to my manners.
"Good afternoon, young master Kuro. Here, I want to give this to you," she said and handed me a bunch of leafy vegetables wrapped in old newspaper.
I received the gift with both hands, "Thank you."
"I grew them in my garden and they are freshly harvested," she said fondly. "Should go well with the pheasant meat, you can make curry."
She was shorter than me so she raised her hand to pat me on my head. "Take care of yourself okay, don't let your father train you to the bone. You're still just a growing boy."
"I'll keep that in mind," I said.
She gave me a chuckle before leaving. It was not rare for me to receive small gifts like this so it was nothing new.
I continued heading toward home with the vegetables in my hand. I must say, the old lady was very generous as I could barely hold the thing with one arm.
But as I continued strolling through the compound, climbing some steps, I couldn't help but notice the picture on the newspaper. It had the image of someone that was vaguely familiar to me. If I unrolled the paper and got a good look, I was sure I would know who it was.
After I reached home, I set down the vegetables on the kitchen counter and pulled out the newspaper used to wrap them. I finally had a good look at the image without any creases.
And then I felt my ears go numb, the world became silent as my thoughts screamed aloud.
It was the image of Robert Downey Jr. It was already weird that the Hollywood celebrity was in an old Japanese newspaper, but what was more striking was the title.
...
'Stark Industries Enter the Japanese Market with Full Force: Outrage Among the Citizens Due to Japan's History with the Infamous Brand'
...
What the hell.
I continued reading the article. I was not really interested in the content, but I was reading to confirm whether the news was legit or not.
But every line I read was a line that convinced me. I turned to the top of the newspaper and looked at the date. The newspaper was more than one year old.
I couldn't deny it anymore, it was real. Tony Stark was in this universe. Meaning that this world was more complicated than I thought. It was not just Jujutsu Kaisen but also Marvel. MCU to be exact, from the appearance of Tony Stark.
I clutched my head, not exactly in panic but something else. It was a weird kind of excitement mixed with dread.
"I can't believe this," I said with worried eyes but a joyous grin.
It finally made sense why I was so overpowered. This was not just the Jujutsu universe but also something more. I know this world is related to Marvel but there could also be other things out there.
It seemed Sukuna himself was no longer a priority or a threshold I must surpass. The amount of strength and power needed to live freely had just increased.
The bar has been raised.
I took a deep breath and set down the old newspaper before running to the kitchen table and eating the bento neatly packed there.
After gorging down everything, I ran back out to train. On other days, I would've taken a rest, maybe studied or practiced control over my Qi.
But I did not have time for that.
It would seem that I need to increase the intensity of my training.
Because I was not sure what was out there anymore.
I need to get stronger, faster.
...
...
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