Chapter 96: What Are You Doing?
When there are no major, memorable events, human senses subconsciously perceive that time passes quickly.
A mundane seven days and an eventful, twist-filled seven days are the same length of time, but the latter occupies a larger share of memory and feels much longer.
Since returning from the volcano commission, Emiya has been mostly staying within the Jujutsu High grounds, and a dozen days have passed in a flash.
Because Shoko Ieiri had warned him not to use his Magical Power for a while, Emiya turned his focus to specializing in the development of Cursed Energy and Cursed Techniques, and incidentally, providing special training for the students at the high school.
Of course, Yuji Itadori was not among the students present for the special training.
In the external reports, he remains in a 'deceased' status. Satoru Gojo said he was personally training him, but the final results were unknown.
Contrary to Emiya's initial assumptions, the students who actually came for training included only the two first-years, Nobara Kugisaki and Megumi Fushiguro, and three second-years.
The students who were absent included one second-year and two third-years.
The former, Yuta Okkotsu, is reportedly one of the only three Special Grade Sorcerers in Japan and is currently on a special overseas mission.
The latter, Kinji Hakari and Kirara Hoshi, are currently suspended due to a fierce conflict with the conservative faction during the 'Night Parade of a Hundred Demons' incident a year ago.
Honestly, this sparse number of students and their strange circumstances made Emiya deeply concerned about the future of the Jujutsu world.
Emiya even saw in the high school's records that the student count for these two years was originally a few more, but those students had already died while carrying out Cursed Spirit Exorcism missions before his arrival.
Being a teacher who hasn't even met his nominal students is undoubtedly a great pity.
And even more regrettable than that is the sacrifice of those students.
Students recruited into Jujutsu High are clearly young sorcerers with great potential. Their reason and purpose for joining the high school should be to become the new backbone after graduation, providing protection and support for the younger generation of sorcerers.
Only such an educational philosophy can be considered complete and healthy.
However, students at Jujutsu High are forced to step into the brutal Jujutsu world immediately after enrollment, and the missions they undertake are no different from those of regular sorcerers.
Even someone who hasn't studied statistics much would know that this situation will only make the Jujutsu world increasingly suffer from a lack of talent continuity.
It's a shame that Emiya currently lacks the means and ability to change any of this quickly. All he can do is try his best to teach these students so they can survive in this perilous Jujutsu world.
Emiya originally thought that the Jujutsu world's situation stemmed from a fundamental flaw in its system, and everything would improve once Gojo's reform ideas were realized. But when he went to Shoko Ieiri's place every night to learn the Reverse Cursed Technique, he saw the severely injured sorcerers being brought to the operating table daily, and this incomplete idea changed once more.
The world is not a game, and the erroneous outcome cannot be caused by a single factor alone.
As long as the war with the Cursed Spirits continues, sorcerers will inevitably face injury and death. This is not caused by a single person or rule, but by the environment of the world itself.
Emiya witnessed firsthand how powerful Shoko Ieiri's Reverse Cursed Technique was. Visibly severe injuries could be healed almost instantly, stabilizing the injured person's physical condition.
But even with the treatment of the Reverse Cursed Technique, deaths still occurred.
Some severely injured people arrived at the operating room with significant portions of their bodies missing. The speed at which the Reverse Cursed Technique regenerated blood couldn't even keep up with the loss, rendering the so-called treatment completely meaningless.
"When using the Reverse Cursed Technique for healing, the most important thing is imagination.
An average level of Reverse Cursed Technique cannot regenerate a severed limb because the imagination cannot construct the details of the entire arm. It can only repair the damaged areas after the severed limb is crudely attached back to the body.
Many people can only use the Reverse Cursed Technique on themselves but cannot heal others. One reason is that every person's condition is different, and another is the rejection reaction from the person being treated.
Rejection of the healer's Cursed Energy or the treated person's Cursed Energy not accepting the transformation... Even my treatment effect varies depending on the subject.
The Reverse Cursed Technique is not omnipotent."
Ieiri lamented this after an intense rescue attempt, only to find that the injured person had already lost vital signs.
Emiya had wanted to offer some words of comfort when he saw her like that, but she quickly put on specialized gloves and picked up a scalpel, cutting open the deceased's wound.
"Watch closely. The Reverse Cursed Technique can convert Cursed Energy into blood to replenish it... While this body hasn't cooled completely, it's a good time to let you see the process of Cursed Energy conversion."
Was it cruel?
But for Shoko Ieiri, this was just routine.
There were always injured people sent here who failed to recover due to overly severe injuries or rejection reactions. Ieiri often chose to dissect the bodies they left behind, which was also tacitly allowed by the Jujutsu world.
Figuring out where her treatment went wrong, or why the Reverse Cursed Technique was rejected—these things were all very important.
Her Reverse Cursed Technique constantly improved under such circumstances, although... cases where the injured couldn't be saved still happened frequently.
Thanks to Ieiri's hands-on teaching, Emiya's understanding of the Reverse Cursed Technique had significantly improved in just over ten days.
According to Ieiri, what he lacked now was no longer the theory, but an improvement in his Cursed Energy manipulation precision and a certain catalyst for enlightenment.
For example, after mastering the other Cursed Energy manipulation technique, Black Flash, Emiya would likely be able to learn the use of the Reverse Cursed Technique at the same time.
As for how long that process would take? Shoko Ieiri didn't know.
She did know that Emiya's talent and imagination were quite good. Many sorcerers couldn't grasp what the Reverse Cursed Technique was even up to the moment they died; their minds simply couldn't make the leap.
As long as one's imagination is strong enough and their mind is bold enough, it's not impossible to grow one or two new organs.
After more than half a month of this 'realistic' learning, Emiya received communication from Principal Masamichi Yaga—the academic exchange event between the Tokyo and Kyoto schools, which Ieiri had mentioned, was officially set to begin in two days.
'Get stronger.'
The principal requested that Emiya conduct a few more rounds of strict special training for the students over these two days, hoping to boost their temporary combat ability as much as possible.
Changes in individual strength certainly can't happen overnight, but according to the information Yaga disclosed, the most important event of this exchange meeting is the group battle.
While it's difficult to increase hard strength in a short time, improving the combat power of an entire group is much simpler.
Team composition, synchronization training, and detailed battle plans—it's relatively easier to achieve these in a short period.
So, after receiving the request from Masamichi Yaga, Emiya immediately called together the students he was responsible for instructing.
After more than ten minutes of waiting, the five students who stood before him were Megumi Fushiguro, Nobara Kugisaki, Maki Zenin, Toge Inumaki, and... a Panda.
When Emiya first met this peculiar student, he was taken aback and seriously considered if there was some kind of animal transformation technique involved.
He was later informed by Satoru Gojo that this special student was actually an 'Abnormal Cursed Corpse' created by Principal Masamichi Yaga.
No matter how sophisticated a typical Cursed Corpse is, its essence is just a puppet without independent thought, only acting according to the sorcerer's command. But Panda is different.
This Cursed Corpse, reportedly created by Yaga through a fortunate coincidence, not only has independent thought but also continuously strengthens itself through post-birth learning and training.
This is virtually no different from creating a brand new life!
If this were in the Magecraft world, this technique would definitely warrant a Designation of Sealing, and it should also be a coveted target in the Jujutsu world.
The reason he can safely operate as the principal of Jujutsu High is likely because of Satoru Gojo.
"Um, Emiya-sensei?"
Panda, who had to stand at the edge of the line due to its size, suddenly raised a paw.
"The communication just said we're doing group battle training. Is this for the upcoming exchange event?"
As second-years, they had, of course, experienced the exchange event once last year.
"That's right. Your improvement during this period hasn't been small, but if you want to win this exchange event, this clearly isn't enough."
Emiya had already investigated the scope of the exchange event, which includes first- to third-year students. Unfortunately, they coincidentally had no available third-years who could participate.
Expecting the Kyoto School to send only students of the same grade for the sake of fairness is virtually impossible. The relationship between the conservative faction and this side, if not outright hostile, is quickly approaching irreconcilable.
The other sorcerer Emiya saved while fighting Jogo, Aoi Todo, is a third-year student from the Kyoto School.
Although Emiya had never fought him, he could roughly deduce the level of power of someone who managed to stall Jogo for so long.
Looking back at his own students, Emiya, having personally instructed them for over ten days, naturally understands their strength better, so the conclusion is—they are temporarily no match.
Forget one-on-one; even a two-on-one or three-on-one, their side's students perfectly stalling Todo alone would already be a huge victory. If the final result is too poor, Emiya himself would be very troubled.
"Alright, precisely because we have less than two days remaining, time is very tight, so let's put aside all other irrelevant matters for now.
Speaking of which, I seem to be the last person to know about the exchange event, aren't I? Especially Fushiguro and Kugisaki, your efforts during this time have clearly been greater than before.
You must really want to win, don't you?"
He had to boost their morale slightly before the battle, which would lead to better results later.
"We want to win!" (×4 voices)
"Salmon."
Aside from one voice that was not quite in sync, the group was quite united.
"Very good. Then try to attack me all together. Just treat me as a powerful Grade 1 Sorcerer, and I will only use close-quarters combat to counter."
"3, 2, 1... Begin!"
The moment the words fell, Emiya immediately took action.
In a real battle, the opponent won't attack only after you're fully prepared, so Emiya had to first enhance their awareness in that regard.
Based on his knowledge of everyone's information, the first person Emiya attacked was not the relatively weaker Nobara Kugisaki, but the second-year, Toge Inumaki.
"?!"
The opponent clearly hadn't anticipated the battle starting so suddenly, nor did he expect himself to be the first target, and subconsciously retreated half a step.
But if the resistance was only that simple, Emiya should have eliminated him in the very first exchange.
Fortunately, Maki Zenin's reaction speed was much faster. She immediately swung the naginata hanging on her back, fiercely cutting down toward Emiya's inevitable path.
Due to the existence of the Heavenly Restriction, Emiya's own physical abilities are actually slightly inferior to hers, but fortunately, Cursed Energy can compensate for this deficit to some extent.
"Trace On!"
There is a reason for the saying, "An inch longer, an inch stronger," but Emiya's current goal was not to clash head-on with her, but to make their five-person team suffer an early casualty.
'Clang!'
The swinging naginata was deflected by Emiya using Kanshou, giving him the opportunity to swing the Bakuya blade in his hand toward Toge Inumaki.
With Maki Zenin's brief delay, Inumaki finally reacted in time and activated his Cursed Technique just one second before the blade was about to touch his collar—
"Don't move!"
Emiya's body instantly stiffened for a moment, but that was all the time there was.
His comrades failed to seize that momentary window, and so Inumaki's collar was cut by Emiya.
"What are you doing?"
Emiya stood straight again and looked at the three people—everyone except Maki Zenin—who were frozen in surprise, his tone full of dissatisfaction.
"Didn't I just say the battle had begun? Are you also going to stand by and watch your comrades sacrifice themselves when facing a Cursed Spirit?"
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Shimizu Akira unexpectedly transmigrated into the world of "Classroom of the Elite," becoming an ordinary student in Class D.
Relying on the advantage of foresight thanks to his daily intelligence system, Shimizu Akira navigates between the various factions.
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