Barrier Technique

Four hundred years ago, Hajime Kashimo never had to worry about making a living.

But now, it was four hundred years later.

The laws and regulations of modern society were far more robust than those of his era, and having experienced the Culling Game along with the visions of the future and past shown by Guixu Ying, Hajime Kashimo's state of mind at this moment was also vastly different from when he first incarnated.

He had already experienced a battle with Sukuna, the strongest sorcerer.

Though he still could not answer or truly comprehend the true meanings of strength, loneliness, and love, compared to that belligerent, combative, and completely reckless thunder god who cared for no consequences, Hajime Kashimo had grown much calmer.

He was still going to challenge the strongest of this era, and he would still fight Sukuna.

Before that, however, he would make every effort to improve himself and master those powers or techniques he had not previously grasped.

After all, compared to four hundred years ago, there were simply far, far too many extra things on this land...

Prior to that, though, Hajime Kashimo's most urgent task was to solve his problem of food and shelter.

During the Culling Game, when he was hungry, he simply seized food or hunted, and a large number of abandoned shops in the city offered all sorts of food and energy-replenishing drinks.

Coupled with the special traits of an Incarnated Vessel, Hajime Kashimo practically never felt hunger or fatigue.

After his rebirth now, however, he clearly felt the hunger brought on by physical exertion.

Yet when he felt in his pockets, Guixu Ying had not left Hajime Kashimo any modern currency in this new body.

Consequently, even for the most minimal items to fill his stomach, Hajime Kashimo had no funds to purchase them...

Then obviously, the place that could let him eat his fill for free at this very moment...

There was only that single choice----

Jujutsu High.

Located in the suburbs of Tokyo, the Jujutsu High school was a place he had visited alongside Kinji in his past life.

Although the two sides ostensibly utilized one another and did not belong to an alliance.

In truth, however, Jujutsu High's training grounds and cafeteria were both open to him free of charge.

Even though he had never carefully understood the specific nature of the organization that Jujutsu High was, judging from Hajime Kashimo's memories and experience from four hundred years ago, this school was undoubtedly similar to the family academies or private schools founded by those jujutsu sorcerer clans...

If one insisted on a difference, it was merely that in terms of inclusivity, Jujutsu High was far friendlier to ordinary sorcerers and those who had just awakened their cursed energy.

"If I remember correctly..."

"Shouldn't it be here?"

At the foot of the deep mountains, Hajime Kashimo followed the footsteps of his memory and arrived before that dense patch of woods.

Yet he soon realized something was wrong:

The humidity in the air grew oppressive almost the exact moment he stepped into the deep mountains; the surrounding environment began to distort and tremble like panes of glass squeezed by gravity; the entire mountain was shrouded by an intangible and heavy sense of suffocation at this moment.

It was a barrier.

It was the barrier used by Jujutsu High to reject ordinary people from barging in and to block unfamiliar sorcerers.

Hajime Kashimo had completely forgotten about this matter.

Previously, with Kinji and Itadori's group acting as guides, Hajime Kashimo had managed to use the opportunity to pass through Jujutsu High's barrier and enter the interior.

Now, however, not only did Kinji have absolute zero knowledge of Hajime Kashimo's existence, but due to being reborn in a new body, the transit mark previously stored on Hajime Kashimo's Incarnated Vessel had also vanished along with it...

Therefore, Hajime Kashimo had now become an object rejected by the high school's barrier.

"Tch, how did I forget about this."

As the strongest from four hundred years ago, Hajime Kashimo's understanding and mastery of barrier techniques were naturally no weaker than those of other sorcerers in the same tier.

Yet the sorcerers who fought him were simply never strong enough-or cowardly enough-to require him to deploy a barrier to restrict their movements.

On top of that, he drifted about with no fixed abode throughout his life, so he had no need for a permanent location...

Consequently, to forcefully rupture this Jujutsu High barrier set up by Tengen, given his current cursed energy reserves and the time it would take...

"Should I retreat?"

Hajime Kashimo turned back, and the dense forest path that had been clearly visible a moment ago was now blocked and obscured by the shifting woods under the effect of the barrier technique.

Within this barrier, direction and any form of physical marker had lost their utility:

A chaotic, dark-toned curtain of light was slowly covering the final wisp of sunlight in the sky, and the gray gloom would merge as one with the dense forest, completely sealing off Hajime Kashimo's vision and any possibility of moving forward.

He now had only a single choice----

Wait in place for people from the high school to come rescue him.

"But that's the thinking of a loser."

Hajime Kashimo closed his eyes; although neither his cursed energy nor his physical strength currently reached a tenth of their peak period, this did not mean his sensory abilities would decline.

Forged amidst slaughter and warfare, the powerful foundation belonging exclusively to a strong individual allowed him to catch that trace of extremely hard-to-detect cursed energy flow in the air----

That was a barrier technique node in a single area.

"Right here!"

Electrical charges adhered to his fingertips and shot forth alongside Hajime Kashimo's point into the void.

No matter how faint the cursed energy was, as long as he could successfully strike that extremely hard-to-detect, constantly moving barrier node, he could barely tear open a small fissure in a very short span of time.

The flashing electric arc landed into the seemingly untroubled gray-toned curtain of light, and Hajime Kashimo clearly perceived that his attack had hit.

Bang--shriek!!!

A crisp sound like shattering glass echoed in all directions around Kashimo, and near an inconspicuous patch of grass at the eleven-o'clock position from Hajime Kashimo, a fissure not even half a finger wide quietly tore open a corner...

Thud!!

His toes condensed electrical charges, and the soft soil indented the instant Hajime Kashimo burst into a sprint.

With a single palm strike, accompanied by the space before him suddenly opening up, Hajime Kashimo successfully broke through the first layer of the barrier surrounding the outer perimeter of Jujutsu High.

The first layer.

That's right, this was only the first layer.

If he wanted to thoroughly enter the high school, Hajime Kashimo would still need to shatter several more layers of barriers-vastly wider than this space and possessing even more nodes-in the exact same manner.

There was no longer any need for that, however.

Because Hajime Kashimo knew----

His objective had already been achieved...

"Hey----! You bastard over there----!!"

An extremely gruff shout pierced through the curtain not far away and entered Hajime Kashimo's ears.

Looking ahead, as the chaotic elements of the barrier gradually dissipated, a tall figure also appeared within Hajime Kashimo's pupils:

"You really made me wait..."

"Panda."

Bean-sized eyes rolled around as they sized up Hajime Kashimo standing among the woods:

Almost the exact moment Hajime Kashimo broke into the barrier, the cursed corpse Panda had received Principal Yaga's orders to rush over and stop this unidentified trespasser.

"A student? Lost?"

"No, he broke through the first layer of the barrier; he's definitely a sorcerer!"

Panda waved at Hajime Kashimo with a smile, but in reality, he was already pondering the opponent's identity and objective.

Judging from the attire, what the other party wore was clearly the school uniform of some high school in Tokyo.

Yet that flamboyant double-hair-bun styling and cyan hair color distinctly did not match a student identity...

Most importantly, the other party carried an aura and cursed energy fluctuation that made him extremely uncomfortable.

That feeling was as though the moment he drew close, something terrifyingly dreadful would happen...

"Could it be..."

"Like that kid Okkotsu's situation?"

"But Gojo-sensei or Principal Yaga definitely would have notified us, that shouldn't be right----"

Panda let his imagination run wild with various possibilities, as he was entirely unwilling to categorize the person before him into the category of an enemy.

Before he could figure anything out, however, Hajime Kashimo had already moved.

The other party strolled leisurely, and on that face he had never seen before, a profound look that showed he knew him inside and out was revealed:

"Long time no see----"

"Panda."