"Boom—!"
The dull thud of an impact echoed through Jujutsu High's underground training hall, as deafening as a clap of thunder.
Kento Nanami gripped his cloth-wrapped blunt sword with both hands, gasping for air.
Sweat slid down his short blonde hair, dripping onto the specialized flooring that had already been pockmarked with countless deep craters.
Opposite him, Yoru stood casually. He didn't even have his wooden sword in hand; he simply kept one hand in his pocket, watching Nanami calmly.
On the steps at the edge of the training hall, a five-year-old girl in an ill-fitting, small-sized Jujutsu High uniform sat with her knees hugged to her chest, her eyes fixed on the two men.
This was Maki Zenin, whom Yoru had forcibly taken from the Zenin family just a few days ago.
Although she couldn't see cursed energy or understand the profound theories behind cursed techniques, the tension in the air made her instinctively shiver—while also feeling an unprecedented sense of excitement.
This was her first observation class since arriving at Jujutsu High.
Yoru wasn't in a hurry to have her start training. Instead, he let her watch from the side to personally experience the peak of physical strength and will.
"Nanami, your form is slipping again."
Yoru looked at the nearly exhausted Kento Nanami, his tone stern.
"In the basic training of the past few days, your physical fitness and reactions have improved significantly."
"But your Ratio Technique is still stuck on the surface."
"Forcefully imposing a 7:3 ratio of weakness on a target is indeed an excellent technique."
"But you can't just rely on the technique to cut; you have to learn how to make it explode!"
Kento Nanami gritted his teeth, his knuckles turning white from the force of his grip on the hilt.
He knew exactly where his bottleneck lay.
After the Land Deity mission that nearly cost him everything, the bone-deep feeling of helplessness he felt against a Special Grade cursed spirit haunted him like a nightmare.
If he couldn't get stronger, if he couldn't break through this damn bottleneck...
How could he face the future? How could he wake up Suguru-senpai with a punch?!
"Instructor Yoru... teach me!"
Kento Nanami suddenly looked up, a reckless madness burning in his eyes behind his goggles.
"Teach me... how to unleash that extreme destructive power like you!"
Seeing the determination nearly overflowing from Nanami's eyes, Yoru nodded slightly.
"Very well."
"I will now teach you a technique—one that allows your cursed energy to undergo a qualitative change in an instant."
"Close your eyes."
"Feel your heartbeat. Feel the rhythm of every expansion and contraction of your lungs."
Nanami followed the instructions and took a deep breath.
"Now, imagine your cursed energy as a mass of highly compressed gunpowder."
"This gunpowder usually lurks within your body, following your breath and flowing through your meridians."
"The moment your blunt blade touches the prey's weak point..."
Yoru's voice suddenly rose, ringing in Nanami's mind like a great bell!
"Don't hesitate!"
'Don't think about the timing of the technique!'
"Let that gunpowder explode instantly within 0.000001 seconds, along with your breath!!!"
Vwoom—!
Yoru's words acted like a key, instantly unlocking the heavy door in Kento Nanami's mind.
An explosion in 0.000001 seconds!
The synchronized resonance of breath and cursed energy!
That scene from the Land Deity mission uncontrollably surfaced in Nanami's mind.
Instructor Yoru standing in front of them.
The pitch-black blade erupting with a blinding red light that cut through everything!
That extreme purity, that perfect strike that concentrated all power into a single point without any wasted motion!
"Whew..."
Kento Nanami exhaled a long breath. When he opened his eyes again, his gaze had become more ethereal and focused than ever before.
He gripped his blunt sword tightly, his eyes locking onto the test target ahead, which was made of Special Grade cursed corpse material.
'Ratio Technique...'
Nanami whispered in his heart.
A grid line that only he could see instantly appeared on the target.
The 7:3 death line was clearly visible!
"Now!"
Kento Nanami moved!
He didn't use wide, sweeping slashes like before; instead, he compressed all his movements to the extreme.
Muscles tensed, breath held!
The cursed energy in his body seemed to be pulled by a powerful force, surging toward his arms in a violent torrent!
"Strike!"
The blunt sword cut through the air with a shrill whistle.
The blade precisely struck the 7:3 death line on the target!
The moment the blade touched the target, Nanami recalled Yoru's words.
Without the slightest hesitation!
He poured out all the surging cursed energy in his body within 0.000001 seconds, without holding anything back!
"Boom—!!!"
Time seemed to freeze for a brief moment.
Then, a wave of energy filled with the aura of destruction exploded at the point of contact between the blade and the target!
The surrounding space actually warped visibly under the impact of this terrifying energy!
The next second.
A flash of black lightning with an eerie red glow at its edges appeared out of thin air!
Crack!
The Special Grade test target, which even a Grade 1 sorcerer's full-strength attack couldn't leave a mark on, shattered into pieces like fragile tofu under the strike of that black lightning!
Amidst the flying debris, Kento Nanami stood frozen in his sword-swinging posture, utterly stunned.
He looked at his slightly trembling blunt sword, feeling the strange afterglow in his body, as if his very soul had been refined.
"This... this is..."
"Black Flash."
Yoru had walked to his side at some point. Looking at the scattered debris, a hint of admiration flashed in his eyes.
"Well done, Nanami."
"You've touched that door."
Hearing Yoru's confirmation, Kento Nanami's usually tense face finally broke into a smile of relieved joy.
He had done it!
He had actually reached the pinnacle of jujutsu that every sorcerer dreamed of—Black Flash!
Yoru nodded in satisfaction.
He knew that this strike had planted the strongest seed for Kento Nanami to set the record of four consecutive Black Flashes during the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.
With the ability to actively seek out and land a Black Flash, Kento Nanami now possessed the capability to kill Special Grade cursed spirits above his rank!
Yoru then turned his head to look at Maki, who was sitting on the steps.
The young girl sat there with her mouth agape, staring blankly at the shattered target.
Although she couldn't see the black lightning or feel the fluctuations of cursed energy, she could clearly feel that at the moment Nanami swung his blade, the air in the entire training hall had been sucked dry!
That pure violence, the sense of ultimate destruction produced by concentrating power into a single point, was deeply engraved into her young heart.
"Maki, did you see that?"
Yoru walked over to her and looked down.
"That is ultimate control. Though he used cursed energy, the core principle is the same."
"If you can master every inch of your muscle, every bone, and even every breath to such an absolute degree..."
"Even if you don't have a single drop of cursed energy, you can still use this body to..."
Yoru paused, his eyes turning incredibly sharp.
"...slay gods!"
Hearing the words "slay gods," five-year-old Maki Zenin's pupils shrank violently.
She clenched her small, scarred hands.
At this moment, a seed named "Sorcerer Killer" took root in her heart!
The combat strength within Jujutsu High was growing at an incredible speed.
Seeing the brightening light in Maki's eyes, Yoru knew that even if he left, this seed would eventually grow into a towering tree.
He slowly closed his eyes, feeling the increasingly violent tremors in the surrounding space and the terrifying fluctuation of cursed energy faintly coming from across the ocean.
The era of Satoru Gojo was about to truly arrive.
And he, too, would face his final trial at that last moment.