Chapter 98: Sukuna: And It's All Because You Refuse to Study!
Under Emiya's attentive supervision, the two days of intensive special training quickly flew by, bringing them to the day of the official opening of the academic exchange event.
It was on this morning that Emiya finally saw Yuji Itadori and Satoru Gojo after a long time.
Perhaps because the higher-ups made a rare concession for the exchange event, Gojo had a full day off. Being the clever man he is, he had already informed Emiya before setting off, asking him to prepare breakfast for four people.
Of course, this wasn't for Yuji Itadori; it was just that Gojo, having been deprived of good food for a while, wanted to enjoy three servings all by himself.
"That's so mean, Gojo-sensei!!!"
Itadori, arriving with anticipation for a delicious meal only to find Gojo hogging all three servings, immediately rushed forward to defend his rights.
He was instantly stopped by the Limitless, separated by a meter, and could only flail his limbs in Gojo's direction, performing a display of impotent rage.
After venting his pent-up energy for a bit, feeling his stomach growling with hunger, he was about to give up when a steaming hot meal was suddenly placed in front of him.
"Oh!!"
Itadori, whose appetite was instantly triggered by the smell, swallowed hard. He looked up and saw Emiya, seemingly standing in a halo of light.
Having just rushed to finish the meal, Emiya hadn't even had time to take off his apron and was still wearing his kitchen mitts.
If the word "Mom" had a physical manifestation, then Emiya-sensei standing before him must be it!
—This was Yuji Itadori's most immediate thought and feeling.
Itadori had never seen what his mother looked like since childhood, and his father left shortly after he was born. Finally, after his grandfather, his last remaining relative, passed away, Yuji Itadori experienced what he felt was "caring maternal love."
Someone like Gojo-sensei truly paled in comparison to Emiya-sensei.
"You're too kind, Emiya-sensei!"
Itadori solemnly accepted the meal Emiya handed to him.
After the three of them solved the breakfast problem while sitting at the table, Itadori suddenly stood straight.
"Back at the juvenile detention center, it was Emiya-sensei who saved me, right? I've been doing special training underground these past few days, so I haven't had a chance to thank you yet... I think this is very necessary.
Thank you very much, Emiya-sensei!"
Thud—
Itadori's bow was even beyond ninety degrees, otherwise his head wouldn't have made such a crisp sound on the table.
"Ah? That matter..."
Emiya wanted to say that it was actually Muramasa Sengo who helped him fix the problem in the end, but the whole sequence of events seemed even harder to explain.
"Whether as a sensei or a sorcerer, helping out in that situation was the right thing to do.
Speaking of which... how is Ryomen Sukuna inside you?"
After all, Emiya wasn't the one who negotiated with Sukuna, so he didn't know how Muramasa Sengo had convinced Sukuna to save Itadori's body.
In his dreams in the previous days, he would occasionally encounter memories from Muramasa Sengo, but there were only two scenarios—one where his consciousness and senses descended upon Muramasa Sengo's body to forge; and another where he himself was practicing forging as an apprentice while Muramasa Sengo stood by with a dark expression.
The former offered no possibility of communication, and as for the latter... Emiya would be heavily scolded if the hammer in his hand deviated even slightly. Could he dare to ask the old man about something unrelated to forging swords?
"Sukuna? It's been a while since I last saw him, actually?"
Itadori scratched his cheek, trying to recall: "I don't have many memories about that, I only remember him saying something like—'Turns out I'm still nowhere near my limit, maybe I'm going in the wrong direction,' or something like that.
In any case, since I woke up that day, that guy hasn't come out again... but I can feel that he's still there."
He didn't have the memory of what happened in the spiritual domain that day, only knowing that Emiya saved him in the end.
Emiya: "..."
'Could it be that Ryomen Sukuna was genuinely persuaded by the old man using physical means that time?'
In terms of pure destructive power, even Muramasa Sengo as a Heroic Spirit might not surpass Sukuna at his peak, but a one-on-one fight doesn't only depend on destructive power.
The blade Tsumugari Muramasa was a Divine Construct forged by the old man over his lifetime, capable of slicing through time, space, or even causality. Sukuna, who blindly pursues only destructive power, could never reach that level.
"Haha, does that mean Sukuna was also humiliated by Emiya-kun's unreasonable conceptual armament?" Gojo burst out laughing when he heard this. "That's too funny, too funny! How did I manage to miss such an interesting event, Yuji?"
The emotion humans feel when they see only themselves being tormented is completely different from seeing another person being tormented just like them.
Building one's happiness on the suffering of others is human nature.
"But unlike that guy, I feel like I'm about to grasp the knack for dealing with that kind of Noble Phantasm.
I've been reading all sorts of specialized books every day to try and understand that conceptual ability—"
Gojo crossed his legs and used his feet to lift the front two legs of the chair off the ground. While swaying his body leisurely, he used his Cursed Technique to manipulate two chopsticks to dance in the air.
Since he became the undisputed 'Strongest' in the Jujutsu world many years ago, it had been a long time since he last studied anything new.
Long before that, he was quite diligent and studious. After all, his Limitless Cursed Technique is closely related to physics. Without a good grasp of physics, he wouldn't even be able to control the angles of his attraction and repulsion.
After awakening the Reverse Cursed Technique, he even self-studied genetics and biology for a while to apply the Limitless in a microscopic domain to defend against poisons, and also to better use the Reverse Cursed Technique to heal various parts of his body.
However, once he truly became the 'Strongest' and couldn't be harmed by anything, his motivation to continue learning completely vanished.
Ultimately, external pressure is the driving force behind human progress and learning.
The previous Gojo not only lacked a clear direction or motivation for progress but was also constantly troubled by the decaying Jujutsu world and complex commissions, naturally losing the possibility of further advancement.
One needs a clear goal, like what score one needs to pass, to know which direction to strive for, right?
Fortunately, Emiya's one Reality marble attack had allowed him to see the direction he should strive for once again, as well as the possibility of progress.
Compared to this successful teaching, being pierced through the chest as a tuition fee was totally worth it!
"Eh?!"
Itadori's eyes immediately widened upon hearing this.
"Gojo-sensei, does strength actually have something to do with learning progress?!"
Although he was originally a high school student, it had been a long time since he last touched a pen after joining Jujutsu High.
If one had to say, Jujutsu High does have basic subjects like national language, history, and mathematics, usually taught by one of the assistant supervisors moonlighting as a teacher.
But despite being a high school student, Itadori only genuinely studied for less than a week. The rest of the time was spent undergoing special training with Gojo.
Furthermore, his original grades in school were not bad, but only barely average. After all this time fighting Cursed Spirits and training, he was almost at the point of forgetting how to write characters.
Telling him to go back and study various subjects—was that for real?!
And Gojo's answer to Itadori's confusion was—
"Isn't that obvious?
Someone who has undergone systematic learning and possesses a wide range of knowledge is naturally stronger than a pure brute. Otherwise, what is the point of the Jujutsu world establishing the high school?
With sufficiently sharp thinking and judgment, you can quickly determine the enemy's Cursed Technique and weakness during combat. And when facing Cursed Spirits, you also have to learn to judge the source of their curses."
At this moment, Gojo finally looked somewhat like a teacher, continuously instructing Itadori.
"Also, most Cursed Techniques must be backed by sufficient knowledge to develop new abilities.
Take Emiya-kun's forging, for example. Without the corresponding skill and training, how could he possibly imagine the scene of actually forging iron just by using a Cursed Technique?
And my Limitless Cursed Technique; to set up a safe trigger area for the Limitless, I had to first understand those things—sunlight, air, wind... How to differentiate these things from life-threatening tools is the key.
On a side note, my skin color and hair are not due to lack of UV exposure, but are naturally beautiful."
Clap—
Gojo suddenly put the chair down, crossed his arms, and looked at Itadori with a smile.
"But certain individuals, I suppose, are just primitives who blindly pursue the strength of their Cursed Technique but completely fail to understand learning and development."
"Huh? Is he... talking about me?"
Itadori subconsciously pointed to himself, feeling like he was being criticized as a poor student, when Sukuna's mouth suddenly opened on the side of his cheek.
"Shut up, you Six Eyes brat!"
"Well, well, well. Why get so worked up after just a couple of sentences?"
Itadori finally realized what was happening!
"I see! Sukuna's era probably didn't even have schools! Not to mention geography and foreign languages, he probably wasn't even taught basic math!"
That means Sukuna might not even have memorized the multiplication table! Even if that era had simple multiplication, what about sequences, geometry, and functions?
Itadori suddenly found a sense of superiority in a strange area.
"You shut up too, brat! Don't you know I share senses with you? If you had ever read a single book, why would I be completely ignorant of the knowledge of this era?
I really don't know what use you are, you little rascal!"
Sukuna's insult was strong, mainly because Itadori actually meekly lowered his head after being scolded.
"Gomen nasai (I'm sorry)..."
He really felt sorry for being a poor student who hadn't even opened a book.
"Seriously? The King of Curses, who claims he wants to slaughter all of humanity, actually wants to learn human knowledge?
But you don't even have the basics, so you'll probably have to start learning from first-grade knowledge again... Should I help you sign up for pre-school?"
Gojo's words were the type that inflicted little damage but high insult. He even leaned his ear closer to Sukuna's mouth as he spoke.
"...!!!"
The helplessness of not being able to slap someone's face through a screen—Ryomen Sukuna, from a thousand years ago, was finally experiencing it firsthand.
The myriad of complex modern theories and foundational subjects might very well offer some inspiration for Sukuna's Cursed Techniques—it's just a shame that he wouldn't have that opportunity while trapped in Itadori's body.
"Alright, alright. Let's hurry up and go, or we'll miss the opening ceremony of the exchange event.
I'm quite looking forward to seeing the old man's expression when he sees Yuji Itadori is still alive."
Ignoring the impotently raging Ryomen Sukuna, Gojo turned and waved to Emiya.
Emiya quickly walked over to Gojo and subtly pointed in Itadori's direction.
"So, you're really not going to worry about this?"
Emiya was referring to the fact that Sukuna seemed to no longer be solely obsessed with his own strength but was starting to have the idea of learning and improvement.
When someone who believes themselves to be the 'Strongest' realizes that they are not the 'Strongest,' and are, in fact, far from it, the truly powerful will start finding ways to improve themselves, rather than wallowing in self-pity.
"No worries, no worries. How could he have that opportunity while locked inside Yuji Itadori's body?"
Gojo waved his hand dismissively, strangely confident in his student in this particular area.
"Even if Ryomen Sukuna can get stronger, I'll only get stronger than him—whether it's combat power or learning speed, he can't possibly surpass me~"
If Gojo wanted to, he could even use the Six Eyes to directly extract knowledge from books, making his progress speed incredibly fast.
If it weren't for the fact that Emiya's Noble Phantasm format was so difficult for him to understand, he would have fully grasped the relevant information in a very short time.
In fact, in places Emiya couldn't see, Gojo had secretly caught up on all the world's myths and legends.
Once he makes a few more preparations, reaching the point where he can successfully decipher Emiya's Noble Phantasms the moment they are deployed, Gojo is confident in having another head-on battle.
And this time, he will definitely win!
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