Going to Break

The infirmary fell silent for two seconds.

The white light flickered twice, then dimmed.

"Hehe, it's my first time using it. I'm still not very good at it." Akutagawa Shang scratched his head and smiled sheepishly.

Satoru Gojo, who had appeared in the doorway at some point, saw this and crunched through the lollipop in his mouth.

????????

Satoru Gojo rushed over from the doorway at the speed of light and grabbed Akutagawa Shang's raised hand.

"Wait, do that again. Let me see," he said to Akutagawa Shang.

"Oh, okay."

Akutagawa Shang obediently activated Reverse Cursed Technique again, and white light lit up his palm once more.

"Are you serious?" Satoru Gojo pulled down his blindfold, his Six Eyes fixed on Akutagawa Shang as though he had seen a ghost.

And it wasn't just Satoru Gojo. Aside from Shoko Ieiri, who merely raised an eyebrow, everyone present looked utterly shocked.

"You've already learned Reverse Cursed Technique?"

"Uh... is it hard?"

"Come on, could the bad student stop questioning the good student? Only an idiot like Gojo would fail to learn Reverse Cursed Technique no matter how hard he tried." Shoko Ieiri leaned to one side and teased him.

"Well, sooo sorry for being an idiot, Shoko~~" Satoru Gojo drawled, pursing his lips.

"But when it comes to Reverse Cursed Technique, Akutagawa-kun really is more talented than me. Back when Shoko taught me, I couldn't learn it no matter what. I only had that breakthrough later, after nearly dying."

"Learning Reverse Cursed Technique in such a short time, and achieving this kind of efficiency on his very first attempt-he qualifies as a super genius."

"Wait, wait, wait-you're saying that's Reverse Cursed Technique? This guy learned Reverse Cursed Technique?" Maki finally recovered from her shock.

"Aren't you supposed to be a newbie? Were you putting on an act before?" Maki looked as though she thought he was messing with her.

Although Maki wasn't a conventional Jujutsu Sorcerer, she still knew the basics of Jujutsu Society. The number of people in all of Jujutsu Society who could use Reverse Cursed Technique definitely didn't exceed the single digits. Yet now, this newbie in front of her, who had entered Jujutsu Society less than a week ago and had only recently awakened his cursed energy, had already learned Reverse Cursed Technique.

It was like a first grader you knew suddenly running up and telling you he had solved the final, hardest math problem on the college entrance exam, then saying it was too easy and asking if you had anything harder. Was that even something a human would say?

The massive impact of reality left Maki's mind somewhat dazed. Her reason slowly went offline, and the "will of the bully" flowing through her Zenin Clan blood nearly seized control, ready to start giving Akutagawa Shang a hard time.

"Could you tell me how you did it, Akutagawa-kun?"

Fortunately, Satoru Gojo's voice interrupted the "will of the bully" as it tried to hijack her account, bringing Maki's reason back.

"Uh... here's what happened."

Akutagawa Shang told them what had happened inside his body.

"You're saying your body absorbed the positive energy from Shoko's Reverse Cursed Technique, and then you could use Reverse Cursed Technique?"

"Mm... judging by what happened, that should be it."

"Wow." Satoru Gojo's eyes widened and his mouth fell slightly open, his expression both shocked and excited, as though he had spotted a rare, alternate-colored pet.

"Looks like you're even more interesting than I thought." Satoru Gojo rubbed his chin and chuckled, pacing in circles around the infirmary.

"Come on, let's go to the basement." Satoru Gojo suddenly grabbed Akutagawa Shang and dragged him toward the basement.

Before leaving, he even remembered to notify Maki. "Maki, I'm borrowing Akutagawa-kun for a bit. Don't worry, I'll give him right back."

"Maki, I'll be right back." Before Akutagawa Shang could finish speaking, Satoru Gojo had dragged him away.

"If you're leaving, just leave! Why ask me? Get lost!!!" Maki's face flushed red, and she immediately turned to curse them out, but Satoru Gojo and Akutagawa Shang had already left the battlefield. She could only rage helplessly on the spot.

"Since everything's fine now, I'll go get something to eat." Seeing that there was nothing left for her to do, Shoko decisively slipped away. What a joke. Working was out of the question. She would never work a day in her life.

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

Satoru Gojo led Akutagawa Shang slowly down the stairs into Jujutsu High's basement. It was a very private place; practically no one outside Tokyo Jujutsu High ever came here.

"Here we are. No one comes here except me and Principal Yaga."

Back when Yuji Itadori had returned from his apparent death, Satoru Gojo had hidden him here for secret training, keeping him out of sight of Jujutsu Society's higher-ups.

The basement was sparsely furnished but spacious, so using it as a training ground should pose no problem.

"So this is where Heavenly Emperor Itadori trained back then?" Akutagawa Shang couldn't help remarking.

"Who's Heavenly Emperor Itadori?" Satoru Gojo turned his head in confusion.

"Nothing. Nobody relevant."

"By the way, Gojo-sensei, what did you bring me here for?"

"Your ability is very interesting, and now it looks like it has plenty of potential for development. But before that, we need to thoroughly understand its rules and limits."

"Try absorbing my cursed energy." Satoru Gojo held out his hand, apparently having deactivated Limitless.

Akutagawa Shang obediently extended his hand as well, pressing his palm against Satoru Gojo's.

Cursed energy slowly flowed into Satoru Gojo's body. Satoru Gojo had an enormous amount of cursed energy, so making contact with it was easy.

Satoru Gojo felt Akutagawa Shang's cursed energy trying to erode his own, but its strength was limited. When Satoru Gojo tried mobilizing his cursed energy to resist, the rate of Akutagawa Shang's erosion dropped sharply, to the point that the cursed energy he spent far exceeded what he absorbed.

"Uh... never mind. You'd better stop for now." Satoru Gojo withdrew his hand, his tone somewhat disappointed.

"You really can absorb other people's cursed energy, but they can also mobilize their cursed energy to resist your absorption. That makes it far too inefficient. It's like absorbing twenty-five points of cursed energy while spending fifty. The gains don't come close to covering the losses. And enemies will definitely resist in combat. I was hoping you could fight like a pump, draining your enemies' cursed energy during battle, but it looks like that plan won't work."

"Ah, what a shame." Akutagawa Shang looked disappointed as well.

"It's fine. If this method doesn't work, we'll try another. I'll inject cursed energy into your body now. See if you can absorb it." With that, Satoru Gojo pressed his palm against Akutagawa Shang again and began injecting cursed energy into his body.

The results were much better this time. The cursed energy Satoru Gojo injected into Akutagawa Shang's body was absorbed smoothly, and everything seemed to be going well.

But as he absorbed more and more cursed energy, Akutagawa Shang's lips gradually turned purple, and his face grew pale.

"Stop, stop, stop! I'm full! I really can't hold any more! Any more and I'm going to break!" Akutagawa Shang raised a hand, signaling Satoru Gojo to stop.

Satoru Gojo stopped what he was doing and came over to check on Akutagawa Shang's abnormal condition.

"From the looks of it, absorbing cursed energy isn't a problem, but there seems to be a limit to how much you can store. Once you exceed that limit, you apparently can't absorb any more."

Akutagawa Shang was bracing his hands on his knees, doing everything he could to absorb Satoru Gojo's remaining cursed energy inside him.

"How are you feeling now, Akutagawa-kun?"

"Phew... I'm fine. It was just my first time, so I wasn't quite used to it." Letting out a long breath, Akutagawa Shang slowly straightened.

"As long as you're okay. It looks like injecting cursed energy should work. There's a limit, but it should be enough for now."

"Wait, Gojo-sensei."

"Is there something else?"

Akutagawa Shang said nothing. He simply opened his palm. The space around it began to distort, gravitational attraction continually gathering there. The surrounding objects trembled under its pull, and a Blue seemed about to take shape.

"That's Blue?!"

Satoru Gojo watched from the side with great interest, seemingly eager to see whether Akutagawa Shang could truly reproduce his cursed technique.

But Akutagawa Shang's eyes suddenly rolled back, and he toppled over stiffly.

The unfinished Blue in his hand dissipated as well, like a tiny flame snuffed out by a gale before it could catch.