The Third Pokémon

On a bright spring morning, the sun shone warmly.

The shouts of "Osu!" rang out in perfect unison.

They stood on yesterday's battlefield, atop the ruins that had just been filled in.

Jujutsu High had plenty of land, few people, and many buildings, so no one particularly cared about losing one.

Satoru Gojo filled in the ground with a wave of his hand, and Masamichi Yaga changed their classroom with another.

And so, the matter was brushed aside just like that, while the students gained another training ground.

After getting through the first day of unrest, Yuta Okkotsu officially joined Jujutsu High, becoming the youngest student in the class.

That evening, Akemi organized a dinner party, both to welcome him and to help everyone unwind after the intense combat training.

After growing used to life at Jujutsu High's Tokyo School, Akemi completely gave up on the idea of returning to the front lines.

A Grade 3 Jujutsu Sorcerer might have been passable twenty years ago, but now—there was not a single person at the school weaker than her.

Toge Inumaki was a Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer, advancing toward Grade 1.

The newly arrived Yuta Okkotsu had started out as a Special Grade because of Rika.

Akesato, Panda, and Maki were Grade 4, but that was only because they had never been evaluated before and had all started from the lowest rank. Their actual combat ability was at least Grade 2, and Satoru Gojo even believed Akesato would become the fifth Special Grade in the future. Passing the evaluation was only a matter of time.

The times had really changed.

Akemi had lamented this more than once. Back then, a Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer could serve as a teacher at Jujutsu High.

A Special Grade like Satoru Gojo becoming a teacher was the real oddity.

More accurately, aside from Toge Inumaki, who fit the traditional mold of a jujutsu sorcerer, everyone at Tokyo High School was an unconventional anomaly.

There was Maki, who relied purely on physical prowess; Panda, the one-of-a-kind cursed corpse that had suddenly mutated; and her own son, who had an elf with him.

She was old. Truly old.

On the second day after Yuta Okkotsu enrolled, Akesato fulfilled his promise. Before dawn had even broken, he dragged Yuta Okkotsu out of bed and began training.

First, they went for a slow lap to warm up their bodies, then everyone practiced punching together.

Limited by his constitution, Yuta Okkotsu began to feel tired before long. At the same time, he could not quite understand what was going on.

Wasn't this supposed to be a place to learn curses?

Hadn't they agreed to teach him how to control his "stand-in"?

What was with the punching?

Akesato saw his confusion and explained, "That comes later. At this stage, what you need to do is work hard to improve yourself. Right now, not only can you not bring out Rika's proper strength, you'd only become a burden to her."

Satoru Gojo's inability to exorcise Rika Orimoto rested on the major premise that he would not attack Yuta Okkotsu.

If Yuta Okkotsu died, the chain of curses born from love would be severed, and Rika Orimoto would lose her anchor. Although she would most likely go berserk and cause widespread destruction as a result, her nearly limitless health and recovery would be affected as well.

In fact, the Jujutsu Alliance's higher-ups had originally wanted to sentence Yuta Okkotsu to death outright. Rika was simply too dangerous, and the sooner she was eliminated, the better. Satoru Gojo was the one who forcibly protected him.

Akesato had enjoyed himself in yesterday's fight, but Satoru Gojo had to pay for that enjoyment. The higher-ups convened a special meeting just to condemn him—such a dangerous existence, and he had allowed her to fully manifest in a place as crucial as Jujutsu High.

Satoru Gojo was strong enough and shameless enough to get away with it. If it had been anyone else, even if they were not openly suppressed, someone would have found a way to quietly get rid of Yuta Okkotsu behind the scenes.

There were far too many ways to kill a boy without the strength to truss a chicken. Even with Rika protecting him, it was easy to dodge an open attack but hard to guard against a hidden arrow.

Akesato hoped Yuta Okkotsu could grow stronger as quickly as possible, just as he once had.

There was no need to worry about physical training. Jujutsu High had no shortage of close-combat experts. As for jujutsu, Satoru Gojo would teach him personally.

Satoru Gojo was not suited to teaching the others, but he was well suited to teaching Yuta Okkotsu, another Special Grade. Both had begun at a point higher than the endpoint of most jujutsu sorcerers, and they also shared a connection unknown to others.

Akesato was now standing on the threshold of Special Grade as well, so Satoru Gojo, this "Special Grade teacher," finally had a chance to put his skills to use.

When Satoru Gojo took over Yuta Okkotsu's specialized training, he said this to Akesato.

"You can more or less start learning Black Flash now."

"Can I? Didn't you say I was still a little short?"

As the pinnacle of physical combat and an extremely important transformation for jujutsu sorcerers, Akesato had wanted to learn Black Flash for a long time. Yet he had never found the way in. Whenever he asked Satoru Gojo, he was always told it was not time yet—until now.

"Before was before. Now is now. After your battle with Rika, your cursed energy completed its final transformation. It has harmonized with your body. All the conditions are in place."

It turned out that because Super Newbie's constitution was too strong, Akesato's unremarkable cursed energy had seemed somewhat thin by comparison, insufficient to perfectly drive his powerful body.

However, through day-after-day training, Akesato's control over cursed energy had steadily improved. Its quantity had also increased with age and practice, finally reaching an ideal state during his battle with Rika—something captured by Satoru Gojo's unparalleled Six Eyes.

"That really is good news."

Akesato rubbed his fists together, eager to try. As expected of the ceiling of Cursed Spirits, the Queen of Curses as Satoru Gojo called her—the rewards were extraordinarily generous, far beyond what the ceiling of jujutsu sorcerers could offer.

"You'll teach me?"

"No problem. It's just two sentences. Very simple—go by feel. Anyone with hands can do it."

He had nearly forgotten that Satoru Gojo was a master of humblebragging.

"Believe it or not, Yuta and I will beat you up together."

Akesato's gaze turned unfriendly. He seriously suspected the system hadn't collected enough memes from Satoru Gojo because he hadn't beaten him up.

"Come on, come on. You asked Rika to spar with you instead of asking me, your teacher. Teacher Gojo is very sad. C-could it be that I'm not good enough?"

Satoru Gojo deliberately sniffled. If not for his blindfold, he might even have squeezed out a few tears.

"No. Rika is much cuter than you." Akesato showed Satoru Gojo no courtesy whatsoever.

"Is that so?" Satoru Gojo turned his gaze toward Yuta Okkotsu.

On one side was hand-to-hand combat and "Stand" instruction; on the other was his Jujutsu teacher. Yuta Okkotsu found himself in a difficult spot. After thinking it over, he could only say, "How about we talk about Black Flash instead?"

"There's nothing much to talk about. I taught you, but you couldn't learn it, so we can only find someone better than me at Black Flash. I've already contacted him. Go see him today, and team up with him for a mission while you're at it."

At Satoru Gojo's words, the image of a reliable adult man immediately surfaced in Akesato's mind.

"No problem. But a Jujutsu Sorcerer better than you at Black Flash, and I'm supposed to team up with him... This time, the enemy must be no ordinary opponent."

"It's the Curse User Organization. You haven't fought Curse Users before, have you?"

"I understand." Akesato nodded.

Battles between people were vastly different from battles between humans and Cursed Spirits. Cursed Spirits were basically brainless, while Curse Users had minds of their own. Even if one's raw strength was greater, it was still possible to capsize.

"Since the opponent is a Curse User, can you give me two more days?" The more cards he had up his sleeve, the better.

"That's fine, but no more than three days."

"That'll be enough."

Ralts had taken three days to hatch, while Playful Panda had taken one. The third one should be about the same.

With only a Black Flash prerequisite, it could hardly be called a big gift pack.

PS: Thanks to reader Xinshang Huayuan for the tip. Please keep the triple support coming, thank you.