One against three (4k)

Nine in the morning, Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu High School.

As Mashiro walked through the school gates, the Japanese cedars on either side swayed gently.

Itadori had training that morning. He had volunteered that information on LINE the night before, adding, "Mashiro, want to come watch?"

Though she hadn't replied, she decided to stop by anyway.

The training ground was at the end of the main road, a right turn and two corridors away.

It was a flat expanse covered in fine sand, surrounded by low stone walls, with several wooden posts and straw targets standing in one corner.

The sun hadn't reached its zenith yet, casting its light and heat at an angle.

Three people were already in the middle of the sandy ground.

Itadori and Kugisaki were sparring.

Itadori lowered his center of gravity, feinted with his left fist, and threw a straight right. Kugisaki sidestepped it.

She used the movement to retreat and open up some distance. Two nails appeared between her fingers, and with a flick of her wrist, they traced twin arcs toward Itadori.

Itadori crossed his arms to block. The nails left two white marks on his arms before bouncing away.

"Is blocking all you can do?" Kugisaki's tongue was merciless. She had already circled around to Itadori's side, firing a third nail at his knee from a tricky angle.

Itadori jumped to dodge. As he landed, Fushiguro's Divine Dog lunged at him from behind. Without looking back, he drove an elbow into its attack, then used the force to roll forward and gain some distance.

They exchanged several more rounds before Kugisaki's nails finally cut off Itadori's escape routes, leaving him facing a snarling Divine Dog.

He promptly raised both hands. "Okay, time out, time out!"

Kugisaki retrieved her nails, Fushiguro recalled his Divine Dogs, and all three went to the sidelines for water, panting.

Mashiro stood in the shade of a tree at the training ground's entrance, her silver hair stirring gently in the breeze.

"Mashiro!" Itadori put down his water bottle and waved to her. "When did you get here?"

"Just now." Mashiro walked a little closer and sat on the stone steps beneath the tree, resting Murasame beside her. "Keep going. I'm just watching. Don't mind me."

Itadori grinned and ran back to the middle of the ground. The three spread out again and resumed sparring.

Mashiro watched quietly.

Their teamwork was beginning to take shape: Itadori held the front, Kugisaki provided ranged support, and Fushiguro directed his shikigami from the rear. But they still had plenty of weaknesses.

"What round is this?"

Satoru Gojo had appeared beside her at some point, holding a half-finished mango slushie. His Jujutsu High uniform was draped over his shoulders, its empty sleeves swinging.

He sat on the stone steps beside Mashiro, showing absolutely no awareness of personal space.

"No idea. I just got here."

"Here to watch Itadori train?"

"Not entirely. I'm picking up some of Jujutsu High's teaching methods."

"Planning to become a teacher?" Satoru Gojo took a sip of his slushie, amusement in his voice.

Mashiro couldn't be bothered with him. She simply sighed. "I'm self-taught. I'm picking up some structured knowledge."

Satoru Gojo tilted his head at her.

Self-taught? Hearing that word from her surprised him more than hearing she was a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer.

He had always assumed she had at least inherited something from the Kujo family. Apparently, even the basics might not have been passed down.

He fell silent for a moment but decided not to press her, putting his usual carefree smile back on instead.

"Well, Coach Kujou?" Satoru Gojo rested his slushie cup on his knee and tilted his head at her. "You've been watching for a while. Any comments?"

"Itadori's attacks are too predictable, close combat is Kugisaki's weak point, and Fushiguro doesn't have enough varieties of shikigami. They have some teamwork, but they're still too disjointed."

"Pretty accurate." Satoru Gojo stood and dusted off his hands. "But talk alone won't cut it. Get out there and fight them. Give them a practical lesson. You've watched long enough to spot their problems. They won't take it in if you just tell them, but give them a beating and they'll remember."

Mashiro sighed. She had already figured out the personality of the strongest sorcerer of the modern era.

"...You just want to watch the show, don't you?"

"That too." Satoru Gojo made no attempt to deny it. He turned and called toward the training ground. "Break's over! Combat practice, three against one. No restrictions on cursed techniques. Fight until one side surrenders or I call stop."

Itadori, Fushiguro, and Kugisaki stopped at the same time.

Kugisaki froze for a moment, then her eyes lit up. "Seriously?"

Mashiro rose from the steps and set Murasame down, sheath and all.

Itadori watched her remove her sword, momentarily taken aback. "Mashiro, you're not using your sword?"

"No need. The blade would hurt you."

Itadori was about to say something else, but Kugisaki smacked him. "Enough. If she says she doesn't need it, she doesn't need it. Instead of worrying about her, worry about how you're going to avoid getting beaten too badly."

Despite her words, two nails had already appeared between her fingers. Her gaze was sharp, without a trace of dismissiveness.

Fushiguro said nothing. He formed a hand sign, and two Divine Dogs darted out of the shadows behind him, crouching low and growling deep in their throats.

He had seen Mashiro fight in Sendai. He knew just how dangerous this seemingly frail girl was.

The three spread out into a pincer formation.

Itadori took the front, Kugisaki the right, and Fushiguro the left. The Divine Dogs blocked any route Mashiro might take toward Fushiguro.

Satoru Gojo leaned against the stone wall, smiling like a spectator at a show. "Begin."

Itadori moved first. He lowered his center of gravity and pushed off, kicking up a small burst of sand as he surged in front of Mashiro and slammed his right fist down, wrapped in cursed energy.

He went all out from the start. He knew holding back against Mashiro would only waste time.

Mashiro raised her left wrist to block.

Thud!

A heavy, muffled impact erupted across the training ground, shaking the leaves on the surrounding trees.

Itadori's fist stopped dead. Mashiro's slender arm didn't budge. Instead, the recoil sent numbness through his right arm, as though he had punched a wall with all his strength.

"Are you serious?" Itadori cried, but he didn't pull back.

He sank lower and followed with his left fist, driving it diagonally upward toward Mashiro's stomach. He knew retreating would give her an opening to counterattack.

At the same instant, Kugisaki's nails arrived, one targeting her right leg and the other flying toward her left collarbone.

Mashiro lifted her right leg slightly to avoid the first. The second struck her shoulder, leaving a faint white dot before bouncing away.

Kugisaki's lips parted slightly. Her nails could drive three inches into concrete, yet they had left nothing but a white dot on this petite girl's body.

Fushiguro's Divine Dogs lunged while Mashiro was caught between attacks. The two shikigami came from either side with impeccable timing, striking at the exact instant Mashiro blocked Itadori with her left hand and Kugisaki's nail hit her shoulder.

Divine Dog: White snapped at her left side, while the black Divine Dog silently circled into her blind spot behind her. Their attacks came from completely different directions, cutting off both forward and backward escape routes.

Mashiro didn't dodge. She took Itadori's follow-up with her left arm and chopped her right palm precisely into Divine Dog: White's neck, sending him tumbling sideways through two rolls in the sand.

Behind her, the black Divine Dog bit into her right leg. Without so much as a frown, she shook her leg and swept it sideways, kicking the black Divine Dog away.

"She's so tough..." Itadori gritted his teeth and immediately changed tactics.

With the lesson of his numb right arm still fresh, he stopped aiming for power and instead increased his punching speed, trying to pin down her movements with an unbroken barrage.

Each punch came from a slightly different angle, pouring down like a storm, but Mashiro's defense remained airtight.

Four nails flew at once: two from the front, one curving around Itadori's body to attack from the flank, and the last shooting skyward before dropping vertically toward her head.

All four followed different trajectories, their timing staggered to within half a second.

Mashiro pushed Itadori's follow-up away with her right palm and reached up with her left hand to catch the falling nail barehanded.

The instant her fingertips touched it, she sensed the distinctive vibration frequency of Kugisaki's cursed energy. It was her cursed technique.

She tightened her grip and crushed the nail. The Dharma Wheel above her head casually turned twice before stopping again.

The incoming cursed energy was too weak. Her adaptation was already complete.

The penetrating power of Kugisaki's nails, the impact of Itadori's blows, and Fushiguro's shikigami control patterns-three sets of data had been broken down. Their attack patterns no longer posed a threat to her.

She raised her right hand and gave it a light wave.

Space Cutting.

Invisible slashes tore through the air, interrupting both shikigami's attacks at once.

Divine Dog: White and the black Divine Dog let out short yelps together, numerous cuts opening across their bodies.

Fushiguro had no choice but to recall his shikigami first, his own movements already half a beat too slow.

At the same time, Mashiro flashed in front of Itadori. He instinctively threw a punch to counter. Mashiro neither dodged nor flinched, wrapping her fist in cursed energy and driving it straight at him.

The cursed energy on her fist carried a special vibration frequency. She was imitating Kugisaki's Straw Doll Technique.

Fist met fist.

Boom!

The force of Itadori's punch was shattered head-on. He flew backward like a cannonball, tracing an arc through the air before slamming into the sand and sliding several meters before stopping.

"What happened..." He clutched his arm, feeling it tremble.

Numbness spread from the point where their fists had collided. Cursed energy traveled upward through his meridians, then, a second later, a second wave of impact burst simultaneously in his shoulder and elbow.

Additional damage. Though it imitated Kugisaki's cursed technique, it wasn't quite the same.

Kugisaki saw it happen and froze.

The cursed energy wrapped around Mashiro's fist was on the same frequency as the Straw Doll Technique, exactly like when Kugisaki used her own nails.

No, hers was a more brutal version. She didn't need nails or a straw doll. She simply attached cursed energy to her fist, matched the frequency on impact, then used a cursed energy shock to trigger Resonance.

One punch, and the damage automatically traveled and spread inside her opponent's body.

"When did you learn that?!" Kugisaki's voice rose a notch.

"Just now," Mashiro said, already appearing in front of Kugisaki.

Kugisaki instinctively flung out three nails. Mashiro reached out with her left hand and caught two, then swept her right hand across. Space Cutting sliced the third nail in half in midair, leaving mirror-smooth surfaces. Both halves fell to the ground with two clinks.

Then she flicked one of the nails back. It skimmed past Kugisaki's cheek and buried itself deep in the stone wall behind her.

Kugisaki went rigid.

Mashiro lowered her hand and stepped back. "It's over."

The training ground stayed silent for five full seconds.

Fushiguro slowly rose from the ground, brushed the sand off his knees, and stared at Mashiro with dead-fish eyes. "I thought I'd at least get one hit on you today."

"You did." Mashiro glanced at the two small holes the black Divine Dog had bitten through the right leg of her trousers. "There are two holes in my pants."

Fushiguro looked at the holes, then silently turned away.

Kugisaki walked over to the wall and pulled the nail out with a hard tug. With that kind of penetrating power, it could have punched straight through bone if it had hit a person.

She took a deep breath. "How did you learn my cursed technique?"

"After getting hit by your nails so many times, I learned your cursed energy's vibration frequency."

"The core of your cursed technique is injecting cursed energy into your opponent and making it resonate with the straw doll. When you strike the doll, the damage acts directly on your opponent, regardless of distance. I used the same vibration frequency, but replaced the nails and straw doll with my fist."

Kugisaki fell silent for several seconds, then turned to Itadori. "Hey, is your big sister actually human?"

"I've been wondering that too," Itadori said seriously.

Kugisaki buried her face in her hands. "I shouldn't have come to the training ground today."

Satoru Gojo, who had been leaning against the stone wall, set his slushie aside and straightened up.

"Nice fight." He clapped his hands. "Itadori, your close combat is still too straightforward. Kugisaki, you have no backup plan once your nails get knocked away. Fushiguro, have you figured out what to do when your shikigami get taken out instantly? Oh, Kujou..."

He tilted his head at her.

"When you imitated Kugisaki's technique and attached it to your fist, how much strength were you using?"

Mashiro did some calculations. Normally, given the power she had just used, saying fifty percent would be appropriate.

It would explain how she had overwhelmed all three without exposing her real limits. But Kugisaki's expression was so entertaining that she decided to provoke her a little more.

"Thirty or forty percent."

"Really? Less than I expected." Satoru Gojo smiled.

Kugisaki's legs gave out and she sank into a crouch, burying her head between her knees. Her voice came out muffled. "Thirty or forty percent... Fushiguro, insult me a little. Snap me out of it."

"Don't feel like it," Fushiguro said.

"Just play along!"

"You'll have more training like this, so try to take it in stride." Satoru Gojo raised a finger. "Go back and digest what happened. You all know what you need to improve now, right?"

He paused, then his tone turned flippant again. "Oh, about dinner tonight. Itadori, remember to buy enough beef for two extra people. I'm coming too."

"I didn't agree to that," Mashiro said.

"You didn't refuse either."

"I'm refusing now."

"Refusal denied." Satoru Gojo raised his index finger. "Article three of Jujutsu High's 'Special Cooperative Jujutsu Sorcerer Management Regulations' states that, provided both parties have agreed to cooperate, assistant supervisors or personnel designated by Jujutsu High have the right to make occasional liaison visits. I'm the liaison between you and Jujutsu High for missions. Coming to your house for dinner counts as a perfectly reasonable liaison visit."

"Did you just make that up?"

"Yes." Satoru Gojo didn't bat an eye.

Beside them, Kugisaki pressed a hand to her forehead and delivered the final verdict on this utterly pointless argument. "Forget it. Just let him come. He's shameless enough to climb through the window even if you say no."

"Kugisaki really gets me." Satoru Gojo nodded in satisfaction and headed out of the training ground. As he passed Itadori, he patted his shoulder. "Remember to buy plenty. I eat a lot."

Itadori said, "...Okay."

After a moment of silence, Mashiro gave up resisting. "Bring drinks."

Without looking back, Satoru Gojo made an OK sign.

Please leave lots of comments. If you have any suggestions, feel free to post them too. I'll check whether I can make changes within the outline and do my best to accommodate everyone, meow.

I hope you all enjoy reading.