Chapter 168
Kiriya was not surprised by the Kamo clan’s attitude.
Their strength simply did not compare to the other two Great Families.
Gojo needed no explanation.
He was the strongest modern sorcerer, a walking weapon of mass destruction who could potentially wipe out an entire country by himself.
The Zenin clan was a step below him, but they still possessed a large number of Grade 1 sorcerers, including Naobito, Naoya, and Jinichi.
The family might have been thoroughly deranged—steeped in feudal traditions, obsessed with bloodlines and legitimacy, and practically built around bullying anyone considered inferior—but they had real strength to support their arrogance.
The Kamo clan, by comparison, barely seemed present.
The most prominent Kamo member of the current generation, Noritoshi Kamo, was only a Semi-Grade 1 sorcerer.
There was a reason for that.
The Kamo clan’s inherited technique was Blood Manipulation.
As the name suggested, it allowed its user to control blood and produce a wide variety of effects.
The problem was that the blood had to come from somewhere.
Either it belonged to no one, or it came directly from the user’s own body.
In other words, the amount of power they could put out depended on how much blood they were willing to spend.
Trying to unleash a major technique without preparation could leave the user dangerously anemic—or simply dead.
Because of that, modern Kamo sorcerers often carried bags of stored blood into battle, making them look like inferior vampires hauling their own emergency rations.
The ancestor who had first perfected Blood Manipulation had possessed Reverse Cursed Technique.
He could restore his body with ease, allowing him to use his blood almost without restriction and push the technique to extraordinary heights.
He probably never imagined that, by the twenty-first century, not a single descendant would be capable of doing the same.
Without Reverse Cursed Technique, they had been reduced to carrying blood packs around and dragging the dignity of their inherited technique down several levels.
It was Choso—a being who was neither fully human nor fully curse—who eventually restored Blood Manipulation’s reputation.
Since he could convert cursed energy directly into blood, he was able to use the technique without worrying about bleeding himself dry.
The weakness of the modern Kamo clan was not entirely the fault of its descendants, either.
Kenjaku’s interference had played a major part.
As the mastermind behind so many events in this world, Kenjaku had no intention of allowing another extraordinary Kamo sorcerer to rise and disrupt his plans.
Years of manipulation and suppression had left the clan weak in almost every meaningful sense.
None of that concerned Kiriya.
He was not a member of the Kamo clan, and fixing their problems was not his responsibility.
If anything, their flexible attitude saved him a great deal of trouble.
The clan leaders personally guided him to the underground facility where their curses were stored, allowing Kiriya to enjoy another generous meal.
Mangekyō progress: another ten percent.
Then came the Gojo estate.
Several hundred more cursed spirits disappeared into his Sharingan.
Another ten percent progress!
Along the way, Kiriya claimed he wanted to browse through a nearby shopping center.
During a trip to the restroom, he briefly returned to the Naruto world and brought back a large collection of ninja tools and specialized training equipment.
By the time he returned to Tokyo Jujutsu High, the sun was already setting.
...
Panda was lying flat on the training field like a puddle of melted fur.
Inumaki was in slightly better condition, though both his arms and legs were trembling.
Maki alone was still practicing with her spear.
Kiriya watched her for a moment and nodded approvingly.
As expected of someone who would eventually possess a Heavenly Restriction body comparable to Toji’s.
Even in her incomplete state, her stamina already surpassed everyone around her.
It was not only her physical endurance.
Her concentration was exceptional as well.
Kiriya stood nearby for quite some time, yet Maki never noticed him.
She remained completely focused on every thrust, sweep, and adjustment of her stance.
Only after she finished the set did Kiriya call her over.
He handed her several pieces of equipment—wrist weights, leg weights, and a complete set designed to cover most of her body.
"Are these... training weights?"
Maki reached out to take them.
The moment their full weight settled into her hands, she nearly toppled forward. She managed to catch herself at the last second.
"So heavy..."
Panda wandered over and tried lifting one.
Even he struggled.
"Starting today, you’ll wear these during all of your training," Kiriya said casually. "You won’t remove them until moving in them feels as natural as eating or breathing."
Panda and Inumaki’s expressions changed immediately.
They knew how hard Maki already trained.
Adding that much weight to her usual routine might genuinely kill her.
"Relax."
Kiriya smiled, though there was no warmth in it.
"As long as I’m here, she won’t die."
"If you want to open the Eight Gates, you need to survive hellish training. Power like that never comes without a price."
Fortunately, Maki had already built an excellent foundation through years of intense training.
She could skip the easier stages and move directly into the truly brutal part.
Panda and Inumaki fell silent.
They understood better than most how difficult it was for someone without a useful cursed technique or meaningful cursed energy to survive in the jujutsu world.
But as her friends, they still could not help worrying about her.
"I’ll do it," Maki said firmly.
Then she turned toward her two teammates and gave them a confident smile.
"Don’t worry. I’m Maki!"
"I can handle it."
"That’s the spirit!"
Kiriya gave her a thumbs-up and personally fastened the equipment around her arms and legs.
"How does it feel?"
"Extremely heavy," Maki answered honestly. "Moving feels like I’m underwater."
She tested one step, then another.
"But I think I can adapt."
"Of course you can."
Kiriya spoke with absolute certainty.
"Because you’re Maki Zenin."
The confidence in his voice struck her more deeply than she expected.
"I won’t disappoint you."
Maki clenched her fists and quietly made the promise to herself.
...
And so Maki’s journey through hell began.
Every morning, before the sky had fully brightened, she dragged herself out of her comfortable bed and put on the weights.
Long-distance running, push-ups, and other basic conditioning came first.
Then came swordsmanship, spear training, footwork, and repeated combat drills.
Kiriya’s training program included nearly everything a person could suffer through.
As an instructor, he followed one simple principle:
If training would not kill her, then she was not training hard enough.
He pushed Maki so mercilessly that Panda and Inumaki repeatedly went pale just from watching.
If Kiriya had not regularly healed her with Yang Power: Everflowing Vitality, they might genuinely have suspected that he was trying to work her to death.
Of course, Kiriya did not spend all his time acting as a demonic instructor.
The one training Maki was only a Wood Clone.
He created several shadow clones as well and sent them throughout Tokyo.
Each clone used Energy Perception to search for cursed spirits, immediately hunting down anything it discovered.
Kiriya also took full advantage of Jujutsu High’s intelligence network.
He gave Flying Thunder God-marked kunai to Ijichi, several trusted assistant managers, and a few members of the Windows.
Whenever they discovered a curse, they contacted him immediately.
A Wood Clone would then teleport to the marked kunai and carry out the exorcism.
Thanks to the clones working brutal 996 shifts—and occasionally around the clock—Kiriya absorbed the essence of at least a hundred cursed spirits every day.
His ocular power grew at an extremely satisfying rate.
"Keep working hard," Kiriya told them cheerfully. "Let’s get me a shiny new pair of Mangekyō Sharingan before the end of the year."
His clones responded with a united storm of abuse.
"Bloodsucker!"
"Shameless bastard!"
"You’re exploiting yourself!"
"Rotten capitalist!"
Their complaints were mostly for show.
They all knew that the original body was not exactly relaxing either.
Kiriya was developing a new ninjutsu.
After his battle with Geto, he had been forced to accept an unpleasant truth.
He lacked a sufficiently fast and powerful finishing move.
Wind Release: Rasenshuriken possessed tremendous destructive power, but it was still somewhat slow.
Geto had Maximum: Uzumaki.
Gojo possessed Hollow Purple.
Yuta Okkotsu, the pure-love war god himself, could unleash enormous blasts of cursed energy.
All of those techniques combined overwhelming power with terrifying speed.
Even with Sage Mode supporting him, Kiriya could find himself vaporized before his Rasenshuriken ever left his hand.
Yes, he still had Flying Thunder God.
But he could not guarantee that he would always have time to place a mark. He needed a reliable option for situations where teleportation was unavailable.
That meant creating another ninjutsu.
Once again, his starting point was the Rasengan’s nature transformation.
This time, however, he intended to use lightning-nature chakra.
According to his theory, adding lightning transformation to the Rasengan would create an extremely compressed sphere of rotating electrical energy.
An electromagnetic field would then accelerate the projectile to an extraordinary speed, granting it both tremendous penetration and impact force.
Upon striking its target, the unstable electrical energy would produce a second explosion.
The destructive potential would be terrifying.
Kiriya had even chosen a name.
Lightning Release: Rasengan Railgun Jutsu!
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