"This guy knows me?!"
"I know this guy?!"
True, Panda's name and appearance were both those of a panda.
But Hajime Kashimo's expression, and those cyan eyes that seemed to have already seen through everything about him, filled Panda with intense unease and a sense of danger.
And Kashimo's next words confirmed beyond doubt that he wasn't bluffing-
"Are you going straight to gorilla, or straight to Triceratops?"
"Or..."
"Would you rather go through the motions?"
Kashimo spoke with a faint, ambiguous smile. In just three short sentences, he had exposed every one of Panda's trump cards, sending turmoil surging through his heart.
A sense of crisis swept over him. Almost instinctively, Panda's plump body began rapidly swelling:
Powerful, defined muscles replaced his jiggling flab, while a pair of fangs and a vicious gaze replaced his harmless face-
[Gorilla Core activated]
Nearly three meters tall and radiating immense pressure, Panda's gorilla mode, with its savage strength and finishing move, [Drumming Beat], stood in stark contrast to that tiny cyan figure.
Yet even with an absolute advantage in size, cursed energy presence, and the location of their fight...
Panda still felt [fear].
He couldn't even explain why he feared this boy so deeply.
It was as though the boy had brutally killed him long before he was born-or rather, before he was created...
That sensation of being killed wasn't the ordinary brush with death of a fight that ended with both sides badly wounded or dying together-
It was merciless domination, a slaughter of the utmost cruelty, with an insurmountable gulf between them!
The feeling left Panda breathing hard, unable to focus enough to consider his next move.
He had even forgotten to run...
Until that cyan figure came up beside him and lightly patted his muscular arm:
"Don't be nervous. We're not enemies."
"At least, not right now."
"Huh?! A new student?! Now?!!"
Inside the classroom, Maki Zenin's voice was almost loud enough to pierce Panda's and Inumaki's eardrums.
Clearly, Panda's account and the way the incident had been resolved struck her as deeply suspicious and bizarre.
Leaving aside how this person had frightened Panda, who had the strength of a Semi-Grade 2 sorcerer, the mere fact that he had broken into Jujutsu High, breached its first outer barrier, walked away unscathed, and then been accepted as a student was already absurd enough.
But after a brief spell of surprise and skepticism, Maki Zenin suddenly realized something and plopped back into her seat.
"Let me guess. Gojo-sensei again!"
"He keeps taking in these freaks! Sooner or later, something's going to happen, and he'll have to deal with it!"
"First Yuta Okkotsu, then Yuji Itadori! And now there's this..."
Maki suddenly faltered. Only when she looked at Panda, who was baring his teeth and mouthing the name, did she remember it:
"[Yunyi]? Which family's long-lost relative is he supposed to be? Where did this freak come from?"
Maki Zenin held her head and slumped onto her desk. Truthfully, she didn't dislike having new companions join them.
But another new student meant another name on the task list of a second-year like her, who was responsible for guiding their hand-to-hand training.
Training Itadori and Kugisaki was exhausting enough. If she had to add another...
When would she ever have any time to herself?
"Tuna mayo."
Faced with the irritated Maki, Inumaki, who had been sitting quietly to one side without saying a word, suddenly raised his hand.
"Well..."
"I don't think you need to worry too much about that..."
Panda and Inumaki exchanged a glance. On the same wavelength, they immediately understood Maki's worries and frustrations, and quietly told her a somewhat disheartening fact:
"That guy's hand-to-hand skills..."
"Are really strong."
As Panda spoke, a heavy punch wrapped in a little cursed energy swiftly and precisely punched through the head of a wolf-shaped cursed corpse at Jujutsu High's sorcerer training ground.
After a quick meal to replenish his energy in the student cafeteria, Kashimo had wasted practically no time requesting his entrance test, facing the encircling attacks of several cursed corpses summoned by Principal Yaga.
"Awooo~~"
After the lead wolf cursed corpse died, three dog-shaped cursed corpses threw back their heads and howled-
It signaled their highest level of vigilance toward the enemy before them, and was also the signal they commonly used when hunting cursed spirits:
Three connected points formed a closed triangular formation that covered every angle, trapping Kashimo in a cage of death woven from slashing claws-
Against the continuous attacks of three dog-shaped cursed corpses striking simultaneously from three directions, even a sorcerer as skilled in hand-to-hand combat as Maki would have struggled to escape without a cursed tool capable of wide-ranging attacks.
Let alone Kashimo, who didn't even have a weapon...
"Strength, reflexes, cursed energy control... he's outstanding in all three..."
"The electric charge concentrated around his fists can't inflict fatal injuries, but it can cause adverse effects such as paralysis."
"And his cursed energy reserves... seem fairly reasonable..."
In the stands, Principal Yaga nodded slightly as he assessed the boy, already holding his hands poised to clap and stop the cursed corpses from fighting.
Though wary of this young, informally trained sorcerer of unknown origins, he couldn't deny that the boy had potential worth nurturing.
Beside him, the [Strongest of the Modern Era], wearing a blindfold beneath a head of dazzling white hair, looked thoroughly pleased with himself, seemingly proud of his discerning eye.
"Heh heh, you're still underestimating him a little~"
Satoru Gojo teased with a grin. The instant his words fell, the battle took a sudden turn:
Until then, Kashimo had fought with hand-to-hand attacks, coating only the fronts of his fists in electric charge. Suddenly, the cursed energy radiating from his entire body surged.
As his movements accelerated, several blade-shaped electrical arcs, too fast to track with the naked eye, flashed past with the movement of his fists.
The sounds echoing across the training ground were instantly drowned out by the wet tearing of flesh and the faint crackle of electricity-
In the blink of an eye, lightning had torn apart the limbs and heads of all three dog-shaped cursed corpses-and Kashimo had effortlessly seized the cores housed inside them...
The time had come.
On one hand, that referred to Principal Yaga's requirement for Kashimo's test:
Last five minutes under the attacks of one wolf-shaped cursed corpse and three dog-shaped cursed corpses.
On the other hand...
It referred to the changes in Kashimo's new body.
Like an incarnated vessel, this newly born body was adapting and reshaping itself through constant combat, gradually developing into the form Kashimo knew best, the one best suited to his cursed technique...
Before you continue