Chapter 21: New Intelligence Update (Patreon)

Chapter 21: New Intel Refresh

...

After returning to the dorm, Satoru Anjouin naturally washed up first.

After hours in the sea breeze, his body felt chilly and a little damp.

He tossed his uniform into the washing machine, changed into pajamas, and waited in his room — meanwhile, the class group chat was buzzing with activity.

During the earlier impromptu interview, they'd been told that after enrollment, they would awaken their cursed energy and technique within seven days.

The first night, midnight, was the moment of awakening — though whether cursed energy and technique awakened simultaneously was anyone's guess.

Anjouin's intel system happened to update at that exact time too.

While heating up a glass of milk, he opened the three-person group chat with Katsuragi and Sakayanagi and uploaded the information about the 'Secret Library.'

Sakayanagi: !!

Katsuragi: !!

Seeing that Anjouin had, in such a short span of time, gathered intel clearly beyond what any student should be able to obtain, both of them found it absurd.

The key point was that holding one million Private Points was one of the conditions for encountering the 'Secret Library.'

Katsuragi immediately began considering whether to collect a class fund from the students.

But considering it was only the first day, and every Class A student had already spent 70,000 points to exchange for four specialized classes—

even if this benefited the class as a whole, it might still trigger a backlash from Class A's students.

So Anjouin said he himself had one million Private Points and could put them up as class funds for now, letting one student carry that sum around the school building and try their luck.

Sakayanagi: Anjouin, isn't this a bit much?

Sakayanagi: It's only the first day.

He hadn't even awakened his cursed energy or technique yet, and he was already handing over this much intel, plus a million Private Points.

Arisu Sakayanagi didn't even dare imagine what jaw-dropping things he'd pull off once he did awaken.

This wasn't something explainable just by having a jujutsu sorcerer family background.

Though Anjouin claimed in the group chat it was just luck, it still put considerable pressure on Arisu Sakayanagi and Kohei Katsuragi.

But Arisu Sakayanagi was the type who got more fired up under pressure.

Sakayanagi: Heh, I'm starting to look forward to our showdown.

She'd thought a clash with Anjouin would just be an appetizer before her real showdown with Kiyotaka Ayanokouji.

She hadn't expected the appetizer before the main course to be this delightful.

Of course, an appetizer alone wouldn't fill her up.

Sakayanagi: Want to bet on whether you'll awaken your technique tonight?

Anjouin: No bet.

Katsuragi: No bet.

Sakayanagi: You two really are no fun.

Time slowly ticked by, and over in the first-year dorms, the new students found it hard to stay calm.

This was their closest brush yet with supernatural power.

Everyone had fantasized about having special powers at some point — boys might have dreamed of being Kamen Rider or Ultraman, girls might have dreamed of being Sailor Moon or a magical girl.

Now, that moment was drawing closer.

—

[Daily intel updated]

At the stroke of midnight, the first thing to react wasn't Anjouin's body, but the panel in his vision that suddenly burst into flame.

It looked as though fire swept across it, burning away the old information and revealing a fresh intel panel underneath.

[Intel 1: Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School Enrollment Regulations:]

[1. Each year, Advanced Nurturing selects 160 students from the entrance examinations based on the S-System; once the new student roster is finalized, it cannot be changed. If there's no entrance exam or an insufficient number of applicants, admission notices are randomly sent to 160 middle school graduates nationwide.]

[2. Based on the number of students graduating each year, Advanced Nurturing grants the school administration slots to alter the new student roster — specifically based on the tens digit of each class's headcount. A class of 40 gets 4 slots, a class of 39 gets 3 slots.]

[3. Once a new Advanced Nurturing student is expelled, they lose all memories related to the school.]

[4...]

The very first piece of intel to refresh already made Anjouin's composure crack a little.

Damn, was this some kind of rule-based horror story?

It was just Advanced Nurturing's enrollment rules, sure, but the sheer amount of information it revealed was staggering.

Worst of all, a lot of this intel was stuff he'd already dug up himself.

"No wonder there'd been that impromptu interview."

Once the new student roster was confirmed, it couldn't be changed — meaning there was no way to arrange substitutes.

Every new student who dropped out at this stage meant one fewer jujutsu sorcerer three years down the line, and fewer slots for the school administration.

Of course, what was worse for Anjouin was that a lot of what the intel system gave him was stuff he'd already dug up today, or things he'd already figured out.

Even without tonight's reveal, he could have easily guessed these rules on his own.

Anjouin guessed that both the Student Council and the administration must have received part of these rules from 'the school' itself.

Though Intel 1's rules were more detailed, their actual value was pretty low — nowhere near as good as the first piece of intel from last night.

His childhood little detective had turned into a Special Grade Cursed Spirit in this world.

Thinking it over, yeah, that actually made sense.

Decades had passed — communication devices had upgraded from phone booths to smartphones, and who knew how many Valentine's Days and Christmases had gone by.

And yet the little detective was still the little detective, and his childhood friend was still seventeen.

The most crucial point was that this revealed the world wasn't simply Classroom of the Elite and Jujutsu Kaisen.

Though for now, he hadn't encountered any other supernatural system.

After finishing Intel 1, Anjouin turned his attention to the second entry.

[Intel 2: The jujutsu world and the Three Great Families attempted to seize control of Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School; the attempt backfired, resulting in mass deaths of jujutsu sorcerers, mass severe injuries, with over 80% of the jujutsu world's upper echelons killed.]

...

Seeing that his useless intel system had handed him yet another piece of information he already knew—

Anjouin felt a splitting headache coming on.

At the same time, he felt a surge of power welling up from deep within his body.

Clearly, his cursed energy had begun to awaken.

But even with cursed energy awakened, gathering it wasn't easy — that required specialized cursed technique classes, though the first few lessons would probably just cover basic knowledge.

Anjouin thought of Student Council President Manabu Horikita.

The man was a Semi-Grade 1 sorcerer — asking this senior for a bit of guidance might let him master the method of gathering cursed energy ahead of schedule.

[Intel 3: The technique Satoru Anjouin has awakened is 'Restriction and Vow,' also known as 'Binding.']

[The core of Binding is equivalent exchange: imposing an unfavorable condition on yourself or an opponent lets you trade for a stronger technique effect or special ability. But breaking the pact triggers backlash, unless the Binding itself is dissolved.]

[Available Bindings are as follows:]

[1. Growth-Type Binding Vow (Body): trade cursed technique talent growth for physical talent growth. Includes 1,000 detailed binding rules...]

[2. Growth-Type Binding Vow (Technique): trade physical talent growth for cursed technique talent growth. Includes 1,000 detailed binding rules...]

[3. Growth-Type Binding Vow (Late Bloomer): simultaneously weaken current physical and cursed technique talent in exchange for stronger talent in the future. Includes 7,000 detailed binding rules...]

[4. Growth-Type Binding Vow (Early Bloomer): halt future growth in exchange for short-term talent growth right now. Includes 8,000 detailed binding rules...]

[5. Growth...]

...

[67. Instant Binding · Cursed Technique Potency: quadruple cursed energy consumption in exchange for doubling technique power. Includes 10 detailed binding rules.]

[68. Instant...]

...

[107. Technique Mechanism Conversion Binding...]

...

...

[Note 1: Under the reinforcement of body-type Growth Bindings, the flesh can grow to perfection, even attaining the 'Power of the Tyrant Lizard King.']

[Note 2: Forward Technique activation establishes a Binding; Reverse Technique activation dissolves a Binding.]

[Note 3: ...]

Anjouin's jaw dropped so hard he lost his grip on the milk in his hand.

It hit the floor with a thud, soaking his feet and pant legs.

'Lord Intel System, I spoke too loudly just now!'

'If that's not enough, I'll get down on my knees for you!'

In that moment, Anjouin was the very picture of knowing when to bend and when to stand firm.

The third piece of intel packed in a massive amount of information and downloaded straight into his brain, letting Anjouin know exactly what technique he'd awaken and how to properly use it.

It also included a series of fundamentals — extracting and gathering cursed energy, reinforcement techniques, and the like.

He didn't even need to wait for a specialized class to teach him how to gather cursed energy — he already had a way to refine it out of his own negative emotions.

The intel also included Bindings that boosted the efficiency of refining cursed energy.

Binding was an extremely special mechanic in Jujutsu Kaisen.

The most famous example was naturally the Binding one was forcibly born with — 'Heavenly Restriction.'

A normal Heavenly Restriction traded a physical handicap for cursed technique talent, such as an expanded range of effect for one's technique.

A reversed Heavenly Restriction traded away cursed technique ability for powerful physical capability — and a Heavenly Restriction with zero cursed energy whatsoever was even given the name 'Heavenly Tyrant.'

As for ordinary Bindings, they're called equivalent exchange, but it's hard to say exactly what counts as equivalent — mostly it's about trading a 'loss' for a 'cheat code.'

As the intel had shown, imposing an unfavorable condition on oneself or an opponent could be traded for a stronger technique effect or special ability.

A common example was publicly revealing one's own technique information in exchange for a stronger effect.

There was also Kento Nanami's overtime Binding — limiting cursed energy to 80%–90% during regular work hours in exchange for bursting to 110%–120% during overtime.

But the most famous was Ryomen Sukuna, who paid the price of having to form hand seals and chant incantations for every future attack, in exchange for a single instant-cast spatial slash.

That single act made Binding synonymous with taking out a loan ever since.

And Sukuna, so skilled at making Bindings, was jokingly dubbed the 'Loan King.'

Though Anjouin figured he still couldn't top a certain melancholic witch.

Her way of taking loans was the real classic — it even made Anjouin wonder if he should take out a loan on a future where he marries both Satoru Gojo and Ryomen Sukuna... overdrafting his relationship with them out of thin air.

At the end of the day, Bindings weren't something you could just casually make.

Comparing it to a loan fit well too — borrowing from a bank required an asset review; ordinary people could only take out small loans, while a business owner with excellent assets could freely borrow huge sums.

This kind of qualification could be seen as an individual's fate — an equivalent exchange made with the 'world' itself.

Whether Satoru Gojo or Ryomen Sukuna, both were protagonists of their era.

It's just that one of them was the Demon Lord and the other the Hero — the fate they held naturally surpassed everyone else's by far.

Satoru Gojo, in particular, reportedly threw off the balance of the jujutsu world the moment he was born.

As for Anjouin, holder of the 'Restriction and Vow' technique, he wasn't like an ordinary person borrowing from a bank — he was more like the bank's loan officer.

He could take out loans for himself, or arrange them for others.

But none of that mattered right now...

Just the 'Power of the Tyrant Lizard King' alone — Anjouin figured that hesitating even 0.000000001 seconds would be an insult to Growth-Type Binding Vows.

Even though he was already among the best of his peers in that regard.

But who would refuse the chance to become even stronger?