Utahime Iori's Battlefield Guidance

Toho Tetsu froze at the familiar terms.

The cursed spirit seized the moment of his distraction and threw a punch. A terrifying sense of danger forced him out of his thoughts, and with a roll, he narrowly dodged the attack.

But that did nothing to change his sudden realization.

"Jujutsu Kaisen... Is this the world of Jujutsu Kaisen? Then it all makes sense."

Yes, if this was the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, then many things that had been impossible to explain suddenly made sense.

Like why people could not see that monster, and why he felt some inexplicable power inside his body.

Ordinary people truly could not see cursed spirits. Some sorcerers could not perceive them before receiving systematic training either, only vaguely sensing their presence. That was information he had learned while reading the original work.

The fact that he could see it directly perhaps meant that he at least possessed the potential to become a jujutsu sorcerer.

But before he could think further, the monster attacked again. The female voice in the distance spoke once more, this time carrying a trace of anger.

"Hey, what are you spacing out for? Keep dodging!"

Toho Tetsu forcibly calmed himself and turned his gaze back to the cursed spirit before him. Yet after learning what this thing actually was, he relaxed instead.

After all, the world of Jujutsu Kaisen had a specialized management organization. Whenever cursed spirits appeared, they immediately sent people to deal with them. In other words, all he had to do was hold it off.

Moreover, that female voice warning him should have belonged to the jujutsu sorcerer sent to exorcise the cursed spirit. What he needed to do now was buy her time so that she could attack.

With that in mind, he dodged the monster's attack again, circled behind a pillar, and glanced down the corridor, intending to see whether the person who had come was someone he knew.

For example, Nobara Kugisaki, or Maki Zenin. Of course, since he did not even know where this place was, perhaps someone from Kyoto School had come instead?

At the end of his sight stood a young girl dancing gracefully. She wore a white-and-red shrine maiden outfit and held a string of bells and a gohei wand in her hands.

Those distinctive features allowed Toho Tetsu to recognize her identity.

"Utahime? This seems a little bad."

He pondered as he dodged the cursed spirit's attacks.

Utahime, or rather Utahime Iori, was a teacher at Kyoto Jujutsu High. She was classified as a semi-grade 1 jujutsu sorcerer, but her innate technique was Solo Forbidden Area, a buffing ability with a rather long startup that required her to sing and dance before she could apply the buff.

Fortunately, as a support type, she should not have been on a mission alone. That meant there had to be someone else nearby, right?

Thinking that, he switched to another pillar and swept his gaze down both sides of the corridor again, looking for any other familiar figures.

But at that moment, he suddenly noticed that Utahime's appearance seemed somewhat different from how he remembered her.

Although she was also wearing a white-and-red shrine maiden outfit, the Utahime in his memory wore a ponytail with a white bow tied in her hair.

This Utahime... Though she was too far away to see clearly, her hair seemed to be styled in two low ponytails that hung over her chest. And... there did not seem to be a scar on her face either?

Wait, what era had he been transported to?!

Utahime Iori stopped moving at that moment. Once she sensed that her technique had taken effect, she let out a breath of relief before shouting at the unfamiliar boy in the distance.

"Can you feel the change? You can attack it now!"

Toho Tetsu blanked at her words.

Attack? Attack it with what?

No, why was he the one supposed to attack?

He could understand Utahime dancing to apply a buff just now, but should not her companion have been the one actually attacking?

"Why am I the one attacking? Where's your companion?!"

He shouted at the top of his lungs as he circled the pillar. Utahime Iori only froze for a moment before replying even more loudly.

"There's no companion! I'm the only one here to support you!"

Toho Tetsu's foot slipped at those words, and he nearly got smashed by the cursed spirit's fist. Still, he immediately adjusted his posture and resumed dodging, inwardly complaining.

They sent a support alone to exorcise a cursed spirit? What the hell are the higher-ups at Jujutsu High thinking?

But before he could say anything, Utahime Iori's voice rang out again, now carrying a hint of urgency and nervousness.

"I've already applied the technique's effect to you! What are you waiting for? Hit it already!"

Her words drew a desperate cry from him.

"How am I supposed to hit it? I don't know how to do anything!"

That was right. Though seeing the cursed spirit had allowed him to realize that he possessed cursed energy, he had no idea how to draw upon that power. He could only sense it lying dormant inside his body.

Otherwise, even if he could only use cursed energy to strengthen his body, he would not have been in such a sorry state.

Utahime Iori was also left bewildered upon hearing him.

Though she had been enrolled for several years and was still only a semi-grade 2 jujutsu sorcerer, she had learned quite a lot and possessed at least the most basic ability to judge cursed spirits.

The information she had received from the assistant manager earlier was that the cursed spirit seemed to have been continuously causing physical damage, while someone had barely managed to keep it occupied.

But she had not been able to draw a conclusion then, so she had come to the entrance of the corridor to observe the cursed spirit's attack patterns.

After noticing that its methods of attack were basically limited to smashing things and throwing briefcases, she concluded that this cursed spirit definitely had no special technique.

Its attacks were indeed powerful, and repeated blows could even break pillars, but having a technique and not having one were entirely different matters. At most, it could only be a grade 2 cursed spirit.

Then the person capable of fighting it had to be at least a semi-grade 2 jujutsu sorcerer, and one specialized in combat.

Though she had never seen him at school, he might have been from another school or the descendant of some jujutsu sorcerer family.

So in her estimation, once she applied a buff to him, he should have been able to fight that cursed spirit.

But what had he just said?

He did not know how to do anything? How was that possible?

He could see cursed spirits and had lasted so long under one's attacks. Could an ordinary person who truly knew nothing accomplish that?

Utahime Iori opened her mouth. She had considered many possible situations on the way here, but she had never expected to encounter one like this.

An ordinary person who merely possessed the potential to become a sorcerer had actually lasted this long against a grade 2 cursed spirit?

"Hey, stop spacing out and think of something!"

Unlike before, Toho Tetsu was now the one urging her. That snapped her back to her senses, and she felt ashamed of herself for losing focus just now.

She steadied herself, recalled the knowledge she had learned before, and shouted at the strange boy in the distance.

"Listen to me now. Can you sense something unusual inside your body?!"

Toho Tetsu shouted back as he dodged.

"Yes!"

The monster's next attack broke another of the three remaining load-bearing pillars.

The fragile pillar swayed twice before crashing to the ground, kicking up large clouds of dust and debris. It barely obscured the cursed spirit's vision, giving him a brief chance to catch his breath.

Realizing how urgent the situation was, Utahime Iori stopped explaining those complicated technical terms and chose a more straightforward way of putting it.

"Then imagine it now! Imagine that power moving through your body toward your arm in accordance with your will!"

Though the explanation was somewhat abstract, Toho Tetsu still took a deep breath. As he moved around the pillar, he focused his attention inward.

Because he had read the original work, he knew that the source and central core of cursed energy was the abdomen, so he deliberately concentrated his mind there.

Yet no matter how he imagined it, the cursed energy remained firmly lodged inside his body without moving in the slightest.

"It's no use! There's no reaction at all!"

"Don't think of it as grabbing it—think of pushing it! Like water. You can't grab water, but you can push it aside!"

Listening to Utahime's anxious shouts, he gritted his teeth, dodged another attack from the cursed spirit, and followed her instructions as he focused again on manipulating his cursed energy.

This time, he could sense the cursed energy finally beginning to move. Though it was extremely slow, and there was only a tiny trace of it, it was indeed flowing toward his arm according to his will.

"I did it, but there's barely any of that power!"