At the Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu High School's dedicated training ground, the other onlookers watched with curiosity as the two-meter-tall Panda stood opposite Seiya.
Maki Zenin, an intelligent beauty with black hair tied in a high ponytail and wearing black-rimmed glasses, looked at the distant Gojo Satoru and Principal Masamichi Yaga and asked Fushiguro Megumi with confusion, "Who is that new student? This is the first I've heard of a Jujutsu High entrance exam being conducted by a second-year student."
"Boiled salmon!" Toge Inumaki, with short white hair and a high collar covering his mouth, also offered his strong opinion.
Compared to Fushiguro, who was the sole first-year student until recently, the second-year students at Tokyo Jujutsu High were a notably unique batch. Yuta Okkotsu, of course, was one of the four current Special Grade Sorcerers, despite being a second-year. The remaining students were Maki Zenin, Toge Inumaki, and Panda.
Maki Zenin, the black-ponytail beauty who just spoke, was clearly from the Zenin Clan, one of the Big Three Sorcerer Families. Unfortunately, she was born without Cursed Energy or a Cursed Technique. Still, driven by her ideals, she resolutely chose to become a Sorcerer. Her glasses weren't for vision correction; as a person without Cursed Energy, she needed special glasses to see Curses. Can a human without Cursed Energy fight Curses? Yes, by using Cursed Tools. Compared to Cursed Objects, Cursed Tools carried a lower risk since most lacked consciousness and were inanimate, yet they still possessed the power to exorcise Curses. Therefore, Maki continuously honed her martial arts and physical abilities to fight Curses with her Cursed Tools.
Toge Inumaki was a Cursed Speech user. His Cursed Technique, simply put, was "Words are Law." Because of the risk of his technique, Inumaki usually restricted his speech to rice-ball ingredients. Cursed Speech was powerful but a double-edged sword: the stronger the effect he commanded, the greater the recoil and side effects on him.
Finally, Panda was an Autonomous Cursed Corpse who looked exactly like a panda. Yes, Panda was a Cursed Corpse created by Masamichi Yaga, but he was Yaga's ultimate masterpiece. As a highly advanced Cursed Corpse, although he looked like a panda, he possessed the behavior and cognition of a normal person, his own personality, and the potential for self-growth. For this reason, Panda was more akin to a human Sorcerer than a mere Cursed Corpse. As a second-year student, Panda and his classmates' combat ability was already comparable to some Semi-Grade 1 Sorcerers.
Fushiguro, a recognized genius who was rated as a Grade 2 Sorcerer immediately upon enrollment, wasn't subjected to such a harsh exam. The fact that Seiya's entrance exam required him to fight one of the second-year students made Maki and the others extremely curious about what kind of person he was.
"To put it simply, Seiya is indeed a brand-new student, and before now, he hasn't received any systematic training or instruction," Fushiguro explained vaguely. "You can think of him as a self-awakened, wild Sorcerer, but how should I put it... you can't judge him by ordinary standards. I even suspect he might have Zenin or another Sorcerer family's bloodline in him."
Fushiguro's ambiguous words left Maki and Inumaki confused. However, their attention was quickly drawn back to the fight.
Since Masamichi Yaga had signaled to him not to hold back, Panda started the fight by putting on blue wrist wraps and entering his "Kongo Gorilla" mode. Ordinary Cursed Corpses only have one core, but Panda, as Yaga's highest-grade Abnormal Cursed Corpse, possessed three cores. This meant that besides having three "lives," he could switch between three forms: his usual Panda form, his "Gorilla" brother, and his "Triceratops" sister.
"BOOM—!"
Panda in his Gorilla state possessed astonishing strength. With a single leap, his body was right in front of Seiya. The bipedal Panda was already nearly two meters tall, but in his Kongo Gorilla state, tusks sprouted from his mouth, and his physique grew to over three meters. His powerful, Cursed Energy-reinforced arm slammed down in a single punch, causing the ground around them to shake slightly and kicking up a huge amount of dust.
As long-time partners, Maki and Inumaki knew that Panda possessed multiple cores and other forms. What surprised them, however, was that Panda was so serious about fighting a new student that he immediately used his "Gorilla" state, which he usually reserved for desperate situations.
But that wasn't the most shocking part. As the dust raised by the attack settled, Seiya's figure reappeared before them. To their disbelief, Seiya was also in a punching posture, using a fist many times smaller than Panda's to block the heavy punch head-on!
"That's a very manly punch! Well, then, I won't hold back either!"
After meeting Panda's punch with his own, Seiya extended his other hand and threw a counter-punch toward Panda's large stomach. Panda, witnessing this, chose not to block or dodge but instead threw his own fist toward Seiya's head. Although Panda was a fully autonomous Cursed Corpse, his essence hadn't changed; despite Cursed Energy reinforcement, his body was still stuffed with cotton. Seiya matching his heavy punch head-on proved that Seiya had tremendous physical strength. But since Panda was not flesh and blood, he wasn't afraid to trade blows with Seiya. In fact, an exchange of injuries was exactly what Panda wanted.
"Wenren Style Combat Technique: Breaking Injury!"
Just as Panda's fist squarely struck Seiya's face, Seiya's Cursed Energy-infused strike—an uppercut—slammed directly into Panda's large stomach. Seiya's blue Cursed Energy-wrapped fist visibly sunk into Panda's belly, like plunging into a mass of cotton.
Panda, who was just about to remark that he was a Cursed Corpse and ordinary physical attacks wouldn't work on him, suddenly felt a sharp, intense pain in his abdomen!