Chapter 31: Ancient Books and Ancient-style Restraints (Patreon)

Chapter 31: The Ancient Book and the Old-Style Binding

...

Not long after leaving the Student Council, Satoru Anjouin and Asuka Shiraishi returned to class.

The little tail who'd stayed behind in class immediately switched into follow mode. Afterward, Anjouin spent a while teaching techniques for condensing cursed energy and sharing experience on stabilizing its state.

Then that evening, Class A students again took turns coming to his dorm, waiting for him to fire up his private kitchen.

"Sanada, you've got real talent for manipulating cursed energy."

Anjouin fried up some fries on the dorm's stovetop, remembering to compliment the bespectacled boy as he worked.

The mild-mannered, courteous boy returned a calm smile.

"You flatter me, Anjouin."

"Being too by-the-book isn't a good thing. What a jujutsu sorcerer needs most is extremity — imagination that breaks free of common sense."

"Is that so? Then I guess I'm not cut out to be a sorcerer."

The boy wore a faint smile, radiating an air of not wanting to compete for anything — he'd really have fit better in the close-knit atmosphere of Class B.

"Hey, don't say that, Sanada. You can do it."

The cheerful boy sitting beside him clapped Sanada hard on the shoulder.

"Thanks, Yoshida."

"Boss, boss, when will I be able to run fast like you — zoom, just like that?"

Kenta Yoshida's eyes lit up as he gestured extravagantly with both hands.

He thought that when Arisu Sakayanagi had collapsed yesterday, the speed at which Anjouin had scooped her up and dashed out of the classroom was just like Superman.

Even his retreating figure had looked cool, somehow reassuring.

A boy like him admired that kind of coolness completely.

"Talk to me once you've learned to control your emotions."

"Huh? But didn't you just say sorcerers need extremity and imagination that breaks free of common sense?"

"Before extremity and breaking free of common sense, you need a stable foundation first."

Anjouin set out the fries he'd fried, sounding a bit put out.

"Tastes great~"

"So good."

"Free food, plus getting a head start on condensing cursed energy — this is great."

The boys gathered around the low table drank cola and munched on fries.

"Didn't expect your cooking to be this decent, Anjouin."

"No, you're overthinking it. Those are frozen fries I bought at the convenience store. I just fried them up, that's all."

In other words, it was basically pre-made food.

Whether it tasted good had to do with the manufacturer, not his cooking skill.

If Class A students hadn't taken to gathering in his dorm recently, Anjouin wouldn't have bothered stocking up on snacks.

Mainly because Ai Morishita was a huge glutton.

Of course, it all came out of the class fund.

Alongside refining the reward-and-punishment system, Kohei Katsuragi had also proposed collecting class dues.

But considering everyone had already shelled out 70,000 points for courses in the first month, in the end he only asked each person to contribute another 5,000 points.

The class fund only amounted to 200,000 points, but at a school where food, clothing, and lodging were all dirt cheap, it would stretch surprisingly far.

Not to mention Class A also enjoyed the privilege of a 30% discount.

Miki Yamamura was in charge of managing the class fund.

Even the 1,000,000 points Anjouin had handed over earlier had gone into Yamamura's keeping as part of the class fund, and she'd also taken on the job of wandering the school during breaks, lunch, and after class.

Munching on fries and sipping cola, the boys — with Kenta Yoshida leading the charge — fell to discussing school matters again.

Most of them were fifteen or sixteen, and it showed in a certain youthful bravado.

The annoying society outside the school, that filthy adult world — none of it touched them for now.

They talked about recent movie releases, wondered what techniques they'd eventually awaken, and pictured how impressive they'd look as sorcerers.

Boys their age naturally dreamed of becoming allies of justice.

Jujutsu sorcery was really just a form of violence, but that fact wasn't spelled out so bluntly in their education — especially not at Advanced Nurturing High School, which ultimately hoped to have its sorcerers nationalized.

That was why, within the island nation's system, sorcerers currently occupied a role much like firefighters.

Except a firefighter's job was to put out fires and save people, while a sorcerer's job was to exorcise curses and save people.

By deep night, the Class A students had all cleared out and the dorm settled back into quiet. Only then did Anjouin get the chance to flip through the ancient book Manabu Horikita had given him.

"Ancient sorcerers who controlled cursed spirits — no wait, this word should be read 'practitioner,' not 'sorcerer' — formed contracts through 'Binding' with cursed spirits born of vengeful spirits."

The content of the ancient book intrigued Anjouin.

It described an alternate method of controlling cursed spirits — and the spirits being controlled weren't ones formed purely from cursed energy either, but more like the lingering remnants of vengeful ghosts tainted by cursed energy.

Practitioners of that era would guide themselves into a special state, allowing them to communicate directly with gods, spirits, and the souls of the dead.

For that reason, they were also called mediums.

After forming a Binding with a cursed spirit, they could let it possess their body and gain whatever abilities the spirit had held in life.

If the cursed spirit had formed from the remnant soul of some legendary swordsman, then once possessed, the practitioner could wield that swordsman's techniques from life.

Or they could attach the cursed spirit to an object instead, drawing out power far beyond that of an ordinary cursed tool.

A cursed spirit, after all, was the fusion of curse and spirit both.

That was why practitioners needed a Binding to keep it in check — otherwise, letting a cursed spirit possess them might well end with the spirit stealing the body outright.

"Hm?"

Some of the descriptions above struck Anjouin as oddly familiar.

"...A powerful practitioner formed a Binding with one of the world's five great spirits, gaining the mighty power to control 'the phenomenon of fire.'"

"Mm."

He pretty much got it.

Mediums, possession-fusion, super-spirit bodies...

Anjouin covered his face with his hand. He had zero interest in entering some Shaman King tournament.

Still, Anjouin's takeaway wasn't small — he'd gained a new understanding of ancient-style Binding.

Compared to the 'Cursed Spirit Manipulation' technique though, this old-style Binding was noticeably weaker.

Not only could it not hold many cursed spirits at once, but forming a Binding with each 'held spirit' cost a huge amount of cursed energy, on top of the energy needed to maintain the Binding itself.

It was effectively like taking a cut to his mana cap, so this old-style Binding could never hold onto that many cursed spirits.

Whereas Cursed Spirit Manipulation had no such limit on numbers.

The more he learned, the more absurd he found sorcerers who were simply born with their techniques built in.

"Seems like this world really is a mashup of a ton of different worldviews."

After studying a while longer, Anjouin discovered the ancient book also covered techniques for condensing cursed energy. He simply photographed that section and sent it to Katsuragi, asking him to make forty copies the next day.

Honestly, this whole situation left Anjouin at a loss for words.

They'd paid for so many courses, yet the school didn't even hand out textbooks.

Or rather, Advanced Nurturing High School simply didn't have a general-education textbook for sorcerers yet. The instructors just covered basic knowledge of the jujutsu world, its history, and matters related to the Three Great Families.

It probably wouldn't be until this week ended that they'd formally start teaching how to condense cursed energy.

Though Anjouin had already gotten Class A a head start.

Still, he could understand the school's reasoning — after all, in a week's time, every student's cursed energy would have finished awakening, and whoever had a technique would have it, while whoever didn't simply wouldn't.

Among the second- and third-years, only about twenty to thirty percent had awakened techniques.

Factoring in that some students might be hiding the fact they'd awakened a technique, that number was surely off, but overall the true figure probably didn't exceed forty percent.

Those students who'd awakened techniques were the ones the instructors would focus on going forward.

It sounded calculating to put it that way, but students with awakened techniques genuinely had higher ceilings and brighter futures, which made them more worth courting.

The more talented a student was, the more attention they'd receive.

Anjouin scowled a little, unhappy about it. After sending the material to Katsuragi, he went to wash up.

As for the old-style Binding described in the ancient book, he planned to find time to condense the content and use it as a textbook for Class A.

But he'd grown even more curious about the 'Secret Archive.'

He planned to go looking for it himself tomorrow — after all, he couldn't spend every after-school hour cooped up in the classroom.

Some Class A students needed to attend club activities, and some were supposed to team up with Class B on their investigation.

After washing up, he checked tonight's fresh intel and felt a flicker of contempt for the intel system.

After all, tonight's intel — you could say it was useful, kind of...

But if you said it was useless, well, it really was pretty useless.

[Intel 1: Arisu Sakayanagi. Birthday March 12th. Height 150 cm. Measurements 70/54/77.]

[Intel 2: Nagumo Miyabi, seething with resentment over Anjouin's actions, swore he'd find a chance to get revenge — and tonight went through three condoms.]

[Intel 3: Anjouin's surefire method works on Satoru Gojo too.]

—

The next day, Class A had normal classes, and during lunch break the meal squad went out as usual. One after another, several students awakened their cursed energy, and one even awakened a technique.

After school, Anjouin didn't stay in the classroom this time, and the Class A students scattered as well.

A lot had happened these past few days; if Class A showed zero activity, it would probably look suspicious.

Besides, they could always have their private cooking sessions at his dorm come evening — no need to camp out in the classroom all the time.

Arisu Sakayanagi, meanwhile, had arranged to meet with Class B representative Honami Ichinose and her deputy Ryuji Kanzaki, and left the classroom together with Masumi Kamuro.

"Anjouin, where to?"

his little tail asked, curious.

"Just wandering the school to see if I can find some hidden treasure room."

Anjouin answered while keeping an eye on the class group chat.

Ai Morishita suddenly tugged at Anjouin's sleeve and pointed toward a clique of popular kids not far off.

Several pretty girls were clustered around an upbeat, sunny girl bursting with energy.

The energetic girl had an impressive chest, short straight brown hair, and was cradling a bouncy, pale-blue jellyfish while laughing it up with the girls around her.

"That's a Gluttony Jellyfish."

"Huh?"

When had they decided to add a new species to the Gluttony Series?

Puzzled, Anjouin let his gaze linger for a second on the girl with the hairband and a pair of bright, round eyes.

As she hugged the pale-blue jellyfish to her chest, the softness there was pressed into even more striking prominence, drawing the eyes of plenty of boys passing by.

Her wine-red blazer traced the slender curve of her waist beneath the fabric, and the pleated skirt covering her thighs fit snugly over their rounded shape — yet as the hem swayed, glimpses of that lovely silhouette flickered in and out of view, setting off the fullness and softness of her legs.

So many of the girl's features practically gave away her identity.

Within Classroom of the Elite, she was undoubtedly someone quite famous.

Personally, Anjouin actually rather liked this deadpan young lady — marrying her, after all, was practically like getting two wives for the price of one.

"That should be a Class D student."

The moment Anjouin said it, he noticed Ai Morishita suddenly duck her head and look down.

"Then I guess I must be a Class B student," she said, dead serious.

"???"

Wait, what are you even talking about?

You don't even have a B.

Then the two of them just stood there on the roadside, staring blankly at each other.