Physical Combat Training

Morning sunlight slipped through the gap in the heavy blackout curtains, casting a sharp rectangle of light onto the wooden floor.

The air still held the dampness of last night's rain, mingling with the dryness maintained by the room's climate control.

Feng shifted slightly onto his side in bed, his silky black hair scattered across the snow-white pillowcase.

After three days of thorough rest, his figure had gradually regained its original lean proportions, though his fingertips still trembled faintly when they touched the cold air.

He half opened his dark red eyes, searching the hazy morning light for something to anchor his awareness, only to catch an unusual splash of color in the shadows at the foot of his bed.

A tall woman sat on the wooden chair by the window with her legs crossed.

She wore an exquisitely tailored, fitted dark purple dress with a high collar. Her long pale blue hair was woven into a thick braid that hung over her left shoulder.

She held a stack of cash that smelled of printing ink, her fingertips flicking through it. The crisp sound of counting bills was particularly clear in the quiet room.

"Who are you...?" Puzzled, Feng quickly searched his memories, but confusion wasn't all he felt. He was surprised, too.

Although he had been resting constantly these past few days to recover, he shouldn't have been unable to detect someone's presence.

In fact, Feng's Heavenly Restriction made it easier for him to detect others.

Yet the woman before him seemed to have appeared out of thin air.

Noticing the slight movement on the bed, she stopped counting and tilted her head. A shrewd, elegant smile, almost foxlike, shone in her narrow eyes.

"Sleeping through such golden hours is an awfully extravagant waste, Feng."

Mei Mei put away the bills, slipping them into the elegant leather handbag she had brought with her. She stood, her heels tapping a crisp rhythm against the wooden floor.

She walked slowly to his bedside and looked down at the newly awakened Feng, her gaze appraising him like a rare work of art about to go up for auction.

"Gojo paid a deposit I simply couldn't refuse to buy exclusive 'use' of you for today.

"He said he only wanted a newcomer to broaden his horizons, but in my experience, any job that requires me to show up personally is rarely that simple."

She reached out with a leather-gloved hand and gently brushed aside the damp strands scattered across Feng's forehead. Though tender, the gesture carried an irresistible force.

"Up you get. The car is already waiting at the school gates. I'll personally be teaching your first live-combat sparring lesson."

Soft footsteps came from the hallway, and Megumi Fushiguro appeared beyond the half-open doorway.

He carried breakfast wrapped in kraft paper, from which the rich aroma of curry rice balls wafted.

When Megumi Fushiguro saw the unexpected woman in the room, he stopped abruptly, his fingers tightening slightly around the paper bag's handles.

"So you really are here, Mei Mei. I thought Gojo was making another ridiculous joke."

Mei Mei... a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer... Feng considered this as he finished searching his memories.

Megumi Fushiguro entered the room and set breakfast on the small table by the window.

He turned toward the boy on the bed, an unusual gravity in his dark green eyes.

He knew that Gojo paying Mei Mei to personally serve as a sparring instructor meant this was far more than an "ordinary combat lesson."

"She wants you to practice close-quarters combat. Your cursed technique focuses on controlling a wide area, after all, and close-range defense is still a gap in your skills.

"It's too cramped here. We'll meet at the school gates."

Feng let out a breath at that. "Got it... thanks for breakfast, Fushiguro."

Feng picked up breakfast and ate while taking care of his basic morning routine, then changed and headed to the training ground.

This was a good thing. Improving his physical combat skills would make a significant difference in actual fights at his current level.

After all, Jujutsu Kaisen was also known as Beatdown Kaisen. Throwing punches accounted for a substantial part of it.

Cursed energy output, cursed energy efficiency, cursed energy reinforcement...

Even Domain Amplification, which Feng was now most comfortable using, required throwing punches to achieve its greatest effect.

A sorcerer could rely on a cursed technique, but having no means of fighting beyond that technique was absolutely unacceptable.

Feng understood that well.

Mei Mei stood in the center of the training ground, casually holding an enormous broad-bladed axe wrapped in old bandages with one hand. Its tip carved a deep furrow through the gravel.

Hearing footsteps, she turned her head slightly, her braid swaying against her chest.

"Eating is the cheapest and most effective way to replenish your strength. You seem to understand that well.

"Since I've accepted Gojo's hefty 'tuition fee,' I won't be showing you any cheap sympathy over the next three hours."

Mei Mei slowly turned, the hem of her dark purple dress tracing an elegant arc in the wind.

She didn't adopt a fighting stance. She merely stood there casually, yet a heavy pressure settled over the air around her.

Megumi Fushiguro stood in the shade of a tree at the edge of the grounds, both hands in his pockets. The hand that had carried breakfast was now clenched tightly.

His gaze moved between the two people on the field, his muscles tensing instinctively.

"Mei Mei's physical combat skills rank among the best of any jujutsu sorcerer.

"Even without that huge axe, her cursed energy-reinforced strikes are lethal enough."

Megumi Fushiguro frowned slightly as he looked at the black-haired boy standing on the field.

"Feng, don't try to compete with her in strength. Her approach to combat is absolute efficiency. Every strike is aimed at ending the fight.

"If you're in danger, I'll step in immediately."

Mei Mei chuckled, raising her empty left hand and lightly pointing a fingertip into the air.

A crow fluttered down from a treetop and settled securely on her shoulder.

"Fushiguro, interfering with someone else's 'paid lesson' is a breach of contract.

"Now then, Feng, are you ready to prove that Gojo's investment was worth the money?"

The instant she finished speaking, her figure blurred. It was a burst of exceptionally advanced cursed energy reinforcement, her boots scraping against the gravel with an ear-piercing screech.

A second later, a cold gust of pressure swept toward the side of Feng's face.

Rather than swinging her axe, Mei Mei held her fingers together and drove the heel of her palm straight toward Feng's heart, dense cursed energy howling through the air.

"So fast!" Feng's pupils contracted sharply, and he immediately drove the vast cursed energy within him into reinforcing his body.

Gravel screeched beneath his boots. Feng leaped sideways, leaving a dark blue afterimage in the air as he narrowly escaped the force of the palm strike aimed straight at his heart.

But the instant her palm missed, a cold, calculating gleam flashed in Mei Mei's pale blue eyes.

Her leather-gloved wrist snapped around. The broad-bladed axe that had been hanging casually at her side tore through the air, driven by the terrifying force of her twisting waist.

With a low howl, the enormous blade descended from above, tracing a silver-white arc of death.

"Cursed tools are allowed too?!"

With no time to complain, Feng violently arched backward in midair, his loose Jujutsu High uniform billowing in the fierce wind.

The axe blade all but grazed his dark blue lapel before cleaving into the earth.

Boom!

Gravel and dirt exploded outward. A deep trench nearly two meters long appeared where Feng had been standing.

Flying stones struck the surrounding tree trunks with dull, teeth-grating thuds.

Still, I'm all right. I have a huge amount of cursed energy... I'll need to anticipate her moves too, but they're still within what my eyes can follow.

The instant Feng landed, he reached out with one hand and precisely seized a hardwood staff from the weapon rack at the edge of the grounds.

An immense blue glow of cursed energy, almost visible to the naked eye, erupted along the staff. Without pausing, he twisted at the waist and swept it toward Mei Mei's ribs with unstoppable momentum.

Faced with this blow carrying an enormous amount of cursed energy, Mei Mei did not retreat.

The wind pressure from the staff sent the hem of her dark purple dress snapping and her braid whipping through the air.

Holding the axe in just one hand, she brought its heavy metal shaft upright beside her waist at the last possible instant.

Thud!

The wooden staff slammed into the metal axe shaft. A visible ring of white air burst outward around them, stripping swaths of leaves from the surrounding treetops.

The recoil pushed Mei Mei's high heels half a step backward, plowing two shallow grooves through the gravel.

"Your total cursed energy is astonishing. Extravagant, even."

The muscles in Mei Mei's arm tightened beneath her fitted sleeve as she steadily held against the sweeping strike. She raised her chin slightly and looked at Feng across their crossed weapons, her lips curving into a merchant's practiced smile.

"But the efficiency of your cursed energy output is far too crude.

"Forcing your speed and strength higher with such an enormous reserve is like filling a teacup with a fire hose. Most of the energy dissipates into the air.

"In my ledger, that counts as 'wasted costs' resulting in a serious loss."

Before she finished speaking, Mei Mei used the lingering force transmitted through the axe shaft and deftly turned her wrist. The heavy flat of the axe pressed down onto the hardwood staff, trapping it firmly.

In the shade at the edge of the field, Megumi Fushiguro stared at the point of impact.

His fingers, folded across his chest, tightened unconsciously, his knuckles standing out beneath his pale skin.

His dark green eyes were grave as he rapidly analyzed the situation on the field.

This is bad... his extraordinary cursed energy reserves are barely letting him keep up with Mei Mei's movements, but this will drastically increase his stamina consumption.

And he's leaving far too many openings.

Megumi Fushiguro's jaw tightened, his gaze never daring to leave the field.

Mei Mei hasn't used her cursed technique at all. She's been redirecting his force solely through physical combat skills and precise cursed energy control.

The moment Feng's attack rhythm falters, his defenses will collapse.

As though confirming Megumi Fushiguro's assessment, Mei Mei's long right leg became a black blur the very instant she pinned the staff down in the center of the training ground.

Her stocking-clad leg whipped up a fierce gust powerful enough to snap steel rebar, sweeping at an exceptionally tricky angle straight toward Feng's staff-gripping wrist, aiming to disarm him and inflict serious injury in a single instant.