Growing stronger

The boy's lazy, corner-cutting way of life made time fly. In the blink of an eye, he was old enough to attend Jujutsu High.

To keep his promise, he naturally walked through the school gates at the first opportunity, forming a brand-new team with Satoru Gojo, Suguru Geto, and Shoko Ieiri.

As he grew over the years, his soul gradually became fuller, and surprisingly, his total cursed energy naturally increased along with it.

Normally, a person's total cursed energy should remain fixed for life after awakening their cursed technique, but Kamo Xu simply attributed this anomaly to his heavenly restriction.

The blood pressure generated by his Convergence: Piercing Blood had once only been enough to shatter bricks and split stone. Now, it could easily punch through steel!

He was confident that even if someone reinforced their body with cursed energy, this attack would still deal considerable damage.

What was more, his Piercing Blood required no clasping of his hands. Whatever his posture, whenever he wanted, a single thought was all it took to catch someone off guard!

Flowing Red Scale went without saying. His blood armor had become even tougher.

Although Modified Flowing Red Scale still lasted only four minutes, its powerful enhancement had also grown exponentially as his cursed energy increased!

Now, Kamo Xu was pondering how to become even stronger. He sat on the lawn with his head lowered, tapping his chin with a finger as he thought.

There were only three ways for him to grow stronger now: Reverse Cursed Technique, his total cursed energy, and Domain Expansion...

Without some special opportunity, all three were virtually impossible to unlock in the short term.

Increasing his total cursed energy required daily training and prolonged use of his cursed technique to build it up. In ordinary terms, he needed to "let it accumulate."

But Kamo Xu's soul was linked to his blood. For him, cursed energy was merely a by-product used to control that blood. Even if his cursed energy ran dry, as long as his soul survived, he would never find himself unable to use his cursed technique.

Domain Expansion required an understanding of Barrier Technique. Although he already had a rough idea, he always felt that something was missing.

It was like having a door right in front of him, with countless treasures waiting beyond it. Yet it was locked, and he could not find the key.

Reverse Cursed Technique was even worse. He had tried something as outrageously backward as reversing the flow of all the blood in his body. Aside from making himself vomit blood and fall unconscious for an entire day, it had shown no sign of awakening!

The usual methods...

This was a pain!

He irritably ruffled his hair. His black spikes were already messy, and now they looked even more like a bird's nest.

"Yo, you look pretty cranky, buddy. Is it that time of the month?"

Just then, a voice that sounded obnoxious the moment it reached his ears came from behind Kamo Xu.

He turned his head. Sure enough, it was that white-haired guy.

Satoru Gojo wore a black school uniform, with round sunglasses perched on his nose and a crooked grin on his face.

Beside him stood a boy with narrow eyes and side-swept bangs, wearing baggy trousers and an equally broad smile.

It was Suguru Geto!

Satoru Gojo stepped forward and slung an arm around Kamo Xu's shoulders, completely ignoring his friend's obvious disgust.

"Asahi, don't tell me some pretty girl dumped you and you're sitting here nursing a broken heart~"

"No. Get your arm off me first. I'm not into guys. Save that stuff for you and Geto."

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

Two voices rang out at once: Satoru Gojo's from beside his shoulder, and Suguru Geto's from behind him, where he had originally only intended to enjoy the show.

"What are you saying? What kind of accusation is that?! Is that really how you see me?!" Satoru Gojo tightened his arm around Kamo Xu's shoulders instead. "The three of us are the strongest!"

Watching the white-haired boy draped over Kamo Xu's shoulders, Suguru Geto turned green. Thoroughly disgusted, he immediately declared, "Even if heaven and earth turned upside down, I would never do anything like that."

"Even you, Geto?!" Satoru Gojo finally released poor Kamo Xu and toppled sideways. Squeezing a tear into his eyes, he covered his mouth and sobbed. "You two are so cruel! I only wanted to comfort you, and you... you!"

As he spoke, he removed his sunglasses, covered his face, and wailed. If he had not kept spreading his fingers to peek at them with those blue eyes, they might have believed him a little.

Unfortunately, this was Satoru Gojo they were dealing with.

After delivering his jab, Suguru Geto sat down beside Kamo Xu on the stone steps and nudged his arm with a shoulder.

"Aren't you going to comfort that poor soul?"

Kamo Xu rolled his eyes. "Why don't you?"

The boy with side-swept bangs laughed, his narrow eyes squeezing into slits. "I'm no good at comforting people. You're so eloquent, I'll leave this difficult mission to you, Mr. Spiky Hair."

"You sneaky bastard, Side Bangs. Is this revenge for accidentally killing that Grade 1 Cursed Spirit with Piercing Blood last time?"

"Of course not. I'm very broad-minded. I don't usually quibble with people suffering from red-eye disease."

Suguru Geto chuckled twice more, then rested his chin in his palm and looked seriously at Kamo Xu. "Trying to find another way to get stronger?"

The boy beside him, born into the Kamo Clan with a heavenly restriction, had been enrolled for almost a year now. Suguru Geto had witnessed his strength firsthand.

A streak of blood swept across cursed spirits, effortlessly claiming life after life.

Compared with Satoru Gojo's earthshaking Limitless, that "silence" of his was even harder to defend against.

After all, no one could guard against an attack that needed no preparatory movement and struck so quickly.

By the time they reacted, they would probably have enough holes in their bodies to rival the stars in the sky.

Yet despite being this strong, he kept searching for ways to grow stronger still. It was almost an obsession, driving him to race toward greater strength without a moment's pause.

Suguru Geto did not know what this guy was after, but he knew one thing.

Chasing power too desperately would lead to misery.

That was why Suguru Geto sometimes truly wanted to talk him out of it, or at least persuade him to stop and rest for a while.

Kamo Xu nodded at the question. There was nothing to hide.

He was so desperate to grow stronger because he knew that before long, Tengen, that being neither human nor monster, would send them to protect the star plasma vessel, Riko Amanai.

What they would face then would be nothing like the minor scuffles they could handle now.

It was someone who could defeat Satoru Gojo single-handedly, kill Riko Amanai right in front of Suguru Geto, the other strongest, and then utterly crush him too.

The Sorcerer Killer, the Heavenly Tyrant, Toji Fushiguro!

That name hung over him like a heavy hammer. Every passing second forced him to think of a way to deal with it.

And as the date approached, that pressure only grew.

It was almost impossible to keep the two before him from facing the monster that was Toji Fushiguro. When the time came, the higher-ups of Jujutsu Society would undoubtedly name them specifically and send them to handle it themselves.

Given their personalities, they would even get excited, declaring energetically, "What's there to fear? We're the strongest!"

After a long silence, it was Satoru Gojo who broke it. He sat up, brushed the dust from his clothes, and said casually, "If nothing else works, try using incantations to strengthen your techniques. I saw something about that in the Gojo Clan's secret techniques, but I can't put it into practice yet. Why don't you give it a shot first?"

Kamo Xu's eyes lit up. Right, incantations!

Using incantations to strengthen his cursed techniques might actually produce some unexpected results.

But there was a problem...

"Um... Satoru, can I use your clan's incantations?"

"Nope. That one's for the imaginary jujutsu, Hollow Purple. Just like my Red and Blue, every skill has its own incantation to strengthen it. They aren't interchangeable."

Great, so he still had to figure it out himself. Still, at least he now had a method he could try right away. It was worth a shot.

Then... which skill should he strengthen?

Piercing Blood didn't seem to need it. Firing that instantly was more convenient. Modified Flowing Red Scale didn't need it either. It was an enhancement buff, and recklessly strengthening it might actually make his body burst and kill him.

Blood Affinity could already deliver a one-hit kill as soon as he touched an enemy. Looking at it that way, it wasn't that there were very few skills he could strengthen. There were none!

He still had to learn Reverse Cursed Technique!

Only by learning Reverse Cursed Technique could he free himself from the limits of his blood supply. Only by learning Reverse Cursed Technique could he truly solve his problem with strength.

And if that unlimited supply of blood could also carry the extra cursed energy output provided by his soul, then he really could call himself invincible!

Moreover, the Maximum Technique he was currently envisioning also required the support of Reverse Cursed Technique to unleash.

Looking at it that way...

He might have to die before Satoru Gojo did. Perhaps only then could he solve the problem of Reverse Cursed Technique.

He truly did not want to lose these friends. He needed these bonds too much.

Whether family or friendship, he did not want to lose a single one.

Compared with Satoru Gojo's and Suguru Geto's philosophies of justice and strength, he leaned more toward a philosophy of bonds.

For the people he cherished, he had to become stronger, even if...

Even if it cost him everything, he did not care.

That was the kind of person Yang Xu was. Even after his rebirth, Kamo Xu remained that same kind of person.