After a long-hour explanation about the grueling nature of the Jujutsu Society by Panda, Isagi finally understood what Principal Yaga meant when he said, "Dancing with death every day." Forget about Curses; these fuckers didn't even see each other as humans! Jujutsu Sorcerers were like pawns, dancing to the whims of the higher-ups as they march towards their death.

To sum it up, the higher-ups are a bunch of boomers who're afraid of Cursed Techniques developing to such a degree that they'd lose control over them; that's why traditional techniques are valued more in their eyes because of their predictability. However, even a weak pawn could become the strongest if it manages to survive long enough.

One thing the Egoist learned from Blue Lock still holds true, even in the supernatural...

"To become the best, you must think you're the best."

Isagi unintentionally muttered as he gained the attention of the two in front of him - especially Panda who questioned Isagi with interest, "Ho? That's a pretty interesting line of thinking. What makes you say that?"

The former football player scratched his head in a sheepish manner as he replied, "Our coach used to say it back when I first entered Blue Lock. Basically..." He clenched his fist and continued with confidence, "We can't get stronger if we don't believe in our strength in the first place."

"Hmmm..." Both Inumaki & Panda thought about it. It genuinely seemed like a solid piece of advice, or at least, way better than anything their useless teacher had to say.

Back with Satoru...

"Achoo!" Gojo Satoru suddenly sneezed which surprised him a lot considering there should be no possibility of him getting sick.

"*sniff*...But why do I feel violated?"

Back with Isagi & Co...

"Anyway... now we should head onto the next phase. Tomorrow will be your first mission with the upcoming first-year to give you a feel of sorcery, so you'd better give it your all today and prepare yourself." This raised Isagi's curiosity.

"Wait, why do I have to go with a first-year?"

"Because 1)Most of us are busy dealing with higher-grade missions and 2)You have zero experience when it comes to exorcising compared to that girl who's way ahead of you..." Panda continued to explain why he should go on with the mission but Isagi was concerned with something else.

'A g-girl?!' And he was nervous rightfully so. Up to this point, Isagi was never popular with the girls throughout his school years. He never had a girlfriend - hell, not even a normal girl friend because he was both too shy and his physique wasn't that good around that time to be attractive. Even when he became a celebrity due to Blue Lock, he never bothered with the fangirls because he was too occupied with his career.

"Any last questions?" Panda asked, bringing out Isagi from his hyperventilation.

"Ah..! N-no."

"Good, now let's talk about Cursed Energy..." So began Panda & Inumaki tutoring Isagi about Jujutsu. They taught him the basics of sorcery which consists of Cursed Energy, CE Manipulation, Cursed Technique, and last but not least; Domain Expansion. It took almost three whole hours for them to cram all that info on Isagi, which surprised the two senior sorcerers considering the Egoist was absorbing knowledge like a sponge and never once lost his focus on the subjects. Nonetheless, all three of them were pretty tired so they decided to take a break.

A few minutes later...

All three boys were in Inumaki's room and were playing Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Although Isagi played only a handful of video games, he always enjoyed it when it was with other people. Currently, he was playing Joker, Inumaki as Kirby, and Panda as Donkey Kong.

The latter two were more experienced than Isagi, but he still managed to hold his ground and gradually get a better understanding of the mechanics. All things considered though, he's far from reaching their level.

While they were still playing, Isagi thought of something that was bothering him since he arrived, so he questioned Panda, "Panda-san, I've been meaning to ask. How many students are in Jujutsu High?"

"Hmmm... There's only one first-year now with a 'nother arriving tomorrow. With you, there's a total of five of us second-years. And two third-years that are suspended."

'That low?' It surprised Isagi to some extent, but it wasn't enough to get a reaction out of considering what he went through today. Then he caught on that two of the students were suspended apparently, "Wait, did you just say the third-years are suspended?"

"Salmon."

"Yeah. They assaulted a member of the conservative faction, and got suspended for it."

"That's a very stupid reason."

Panda could only shrug, "Eh, the guy's a bit of a hot-head, so I'd doubt rationality is his forte."

Isagi didn't bother asking any further because he was very close to losing, so he solely focused on winning the game.

A few minutes later...

"Sujiko." Inumaki calmly celebrated his victory by making a peace sign. Meanwhile, a certain former football player was currently going through the symptoms of Gamer Rage...

"Dammit! How in the hell was that pink midget using my moves way better than myself?!" Isagi was shaking due to the sheer rage he was experiencing. He was so close to getting the dub, but alas; Inumaki was a true gamer and decimated both him & Panda.

"Inumaki's that good of a gamer, Isagi-kun. Don't beat yourself over a game." In contrast to Isagi, Panda was pretty chill about it. It looks like he was used to getting wrecked by Inumaki's pro-gamer moves.

"One more round. We're doing one more round!" If there was one thing that Isagi hated the most, it'd be losing - be it football or video games, and he was determined to make a comeback. But before they could continue, a question popped up in Isagi's head, so he glanced at Inumaki and innocently asked, "Inumaki-san if you're a gamer, do you use the gamer word a lot?"

The person in question simply just made a face that said 'Bitch, can I even talk normally in the first place?'

So the trio continued smashing each other ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) -*ahem* in the game, of course.

All three were intensely mashing the buttons with a visible focus in their eyes. They didn't pull any punches and were going all-out from the start. Currently, Panda has the lead, with Isagi being the second, and surprisingly, Inumaki is the last among the trio. By the looks of it, Isagi & Panda decided to team up with each other to take down Inumaki first, then 1v1 each other to decide who'd be the winner. But Inumaki proved to be quite a resilient opponent as he managed to hold his own even during a 2v1 situation.

"..." No matter how good he was though, Inumaki couldn't handle being ganged up by two players at the same time. He still managed to damage them a lot, but it wasn't enough as Panda finished him off quickly before he could use his ultimate to take one of them out. The Cursed Speech user was blankly staring at the screen before he turned toward the other two and gave them the middle finger.

"It looks like it's just me and you, Isagi-kun. Prepare yourself!"

"Don't worry about me Panda-san. I'll send you and your character straight to the zoo after I finish you!"

Unfortunately, those two were too focused on the game to pay any attention to him.

'Sometimes, I hate my Cursed Technique.' Inumaki said inwardly as he got up and went to read some manga. He didn't want to play with these mean people anymore.

Meanwhile, the two remaining players were neck to neck as either of them could get the win at any moment. Both were very wary of each other's movement and were slowly chipping away at each other's damage till one of them gets their ultimate.

"Yes..!" Isagi excitedly muttered as he got his ultimate first. The Egoist was about to activate and finish the match until...

.

.

.

"Panda! Inumaki! You there?!"

The extra loud shout of a girl caused Isagi to lose focus, so Panda used this chance and finished Isagi with a combo attack. It only took a few moments till realization hit him as he threw the controller (thankfully it didn't break) and yelled with pure rage, "Ah fuck! Who's this gorilla yelling like they own the place?!"

A minute passed, and a tall girl with an athletic build that carried a naginata which had its blade covered in bandages appeared. Her hazel eyes, long black hair that was tied into a short ponytail, and her rectangular glasses made her quite attractive, to say the least.

"What did you just call me?" Contrary to her sweet tone & smile, her aura promised Isagi to show that Hell is closer than he thinks.

'Oh shit.'

All the adrenaline Isagi had from the sweaty gaming session vanished as he reverted to his normal self. If there was anything that Isagi trusted the most, it was his gut feeling; and it was telling him to immediately book it out of there if he doesn't want to meet his creator. The Egoist turned toward Panda & Inumaki with a desperate face as he gave them a silent plea.

'Help me, please!'

However, instead of helping him, the two turned their head around and began whistling as if he was nonexistent. But he didn't have time to curse those two as he felt that girl's stare intensify. He quickly faced her and began apologizing, "S-sorry ma'am..! I d-didn't mean to b-be rude.."

The girl wasn't having any of this bullshit before he ordered Isagi like a drill sergeant as she headed outside the dormitory,

"You and me. Outside. Now."

'Eeep!' Isagi yelped as if he was a defenseless puppy at her mercy. But can you blame him though? Don't ask him why, but his gut feeling told him that this girl can bench-press Kunigami & Barou like they were toddlers; he sure as hell didn't want to mess with her any further.

As he went out, Panda blurted out something that he should've said so earlier, "Wait, wasn't Maki supposed to spar with Isagi to test his physical capabilities?"

"Salmon," Inumaki responded while still reading his manga.

"Let's hope he learned everything we taught him, or else the hospital bills are gonna be the least of his worries."

Outside the dormitory...

"Sigh... I hope she goes easy on me." Isagi took a deep breath as he finished changing into something more comfortable for the sparring session. He wore a blue windbreaker that had a black '11' written on the back, and a pair of gray shorts over jet-black leggings to move around quickly. The Egoist looked forward and was met with the sight of Maki swirling around her weapon in a manner befitting of a master. She soon stopped as she took notice of Isagi's presence,

"You're Isagi Yoichi, right? I'm Maki. That sad excuse of a teacher praised you a lot when he said we should take care of you when you'd get here..." Maki then proceeded to enter a battle stance as her entire aura changed. She continued, "Prove me wrong that you're not some pushover who's afraid of hitting girls like me."

'There's no use... I can't hold back even if I wanted to. She'll tear me a new one if she sees any sign of me holding back. I gotta go all-out from the start!' The Egoist took another deep breath as his pupils gained an imaginary puzzle motif while he entered a boxing stance, and began analyzing his opponent to the utmost degree.

"Don't worry. These hands are rated E for Everyone."

This comeback made Maki's lips curl up into a small smirk. After all, she did like a junior who had a spine and wasn't willing to back down, so as common courtesy, she began her attack by leaping toward him and swiping her naginata.

WHOOSH!

'Leap back!'

However, Isagi predicted that due to her muscle movements, and avoided the attack before it could hit him. But then Maki followed that attack by thrusting the butt-end of the weapon to hit him from a distance,

'Duck & Rush!'

So in response, Isagi dodged the thrust by ducking under it and tried to tackle her as a counterattack. Maki didn't want to give him a free strike though, so she brought up her knee to hit him in the gut, but Isagi also anticipated this and rolled to the side to avoid getting hurt.

'Roll to her left!

He figured that if he dodged to her non-dominant side he'd have a lesser chance of getting hit, so he did just that. Now after quickly getting back up, he sent a haymaker toward Maki's face to finish the spar. But...

"What?"

Isagi was in the air while his hand was still in a punching motion. Looks like Maki used an aikido technique to send him flying with Isagi's momentum. Anyway, before Isagi could think about what the hell just happened, he landed on the ground face-first. And let me tell ya, grass wasn't the tastiest thing God created.

"Blegh! Dammit, I overestimated myself. She's way faster than Chigiri and her strength is nothing to scoff at,"

"Don't tell me you're just finished like that? I honestly expected more from you." Although she was mocking him on the outside, she was applauding his strength on the inside, 'This guy... he's just like a hawk who's staring at its prey from above, analyzing it to a disturbing degree; thus, managing to be mostly one step ahead of me. That moron didn't lie when he said Isagi has a terrifying vision without even using Cursed Energy.'

Isagi grits his teeth as he gets back up before he swipes off the dirt from his mouth, "I never bite more than I can chew, Maki-san. This is just the beginning!" His fierce tone indicated that he wouldn't be giving up anytime soon because there was still a chance of him winning.

The win condition for Maki is that if she's able to make Isagi surrender, she'll win. But if Isagi manages to hit her once, then he'll win. That was the source of Isagi's confidence, but the real question is; can he even touch her?

Half an hour later...

"Pant...pant... Fuck... this is going nowhere..!" Isagi was lying on the ground while panting as sweat covered his whole body. He was basically a ragdoll being thrown around all over the place by Maki. Maybe he wasn't cut out for this after all...

"Jeez, talk about pathetic. Even that nervous wreck Yuta could've landed a hit on me." Of course, this was a lie. But it was meant to rile up Isagi again to truly test his limits.

Isagi managed to stand up, but it was clear that he was getting tired from this. Meanwhile, the other two second-years showed up; with Panda carrying a bag of popcorn,

"Crunch... Want some?"

"Bonito flakes."

Now back to the fight.

'Think, Isagi, think! How can you beat her? She's no normal human being, so...'

Then it clicked.

WOOSH!

The Egoist's body exploded into imaginary puzzle pieces and then rebuilt himself with those same pieces as Isagi began solving the puzzle, 'I'm an idiot. All this time I've been fighting her as a normal human without considering she's superhuman. There's no way I'm defeating her at my current state, so the key to my victory is...'

The last piece of the puzzle latched itself onto Isagi's forehead, and on the piece was written...

'Sorcery!'

Isagi took a deep breath as he began reminiscing about Panda's instructions on how to use Cursed Energy & Cursed Technique, 'Panda-san said that the only way to use CE is by controlling my negative emotions. Not so little that'd be almost nonexistent, and not so much that'd quickly tire me out; just the right amount to get the job done...'

He started thinking about yesterday's incident, but with a much cooler head so as to not let his anger overtake him. Blue, flame-like energy began emitting from his body while Isagi concentrated further to stabilize the said energy. However, the energy currently surrounding Isagi's body glitched for a second that even the three experienced sorcerers beside him failed to notice.

The popcorn-eating Panda's eyes widened in surprise as he muttered, "Is he doing what I'm thinking?" Inumaki nodded in response, "Salmon." while he thought afterward, 'Of course, It's a far cry from a perfect Cursed Energy Manipulation, but it'd be enough for him to activate his technique.'

And Inumaki's hypothesis was correct.

'...Simply surrounding myself in CE won't be enough. I have to go beyond and make use of my Cursed Technique!' Thankfully, Maki was more interested in what was Isagi's next move gonna be instead of beating him up; after all, she was here to test his capabilities rather than putting him in a life-or-death situation.

One thing to note from Panda's lesson was that most Jujutsu Sorcerers activate their CTs around four to six years of age. So if Isagi wanted to use it after so many years, he had to find the right trigger based on those memories.

'From what I remember during my 4th birthday memories, it has something to do with my eyes. Then if I pour most of my CE into them, it should do the trick.'

And so he directed most of the CE to his eyes. Nothing major happened for a while until his vision drastically changed from what he was used to.

"Holy crap..."

First off, the area all around him turned blue while the people were outlined with various neon colors. He could also see multiple silhouettes of Maki doing different things. Isagi didn't know what all of these meant until he was fed with the information about his technique.

'Neat, but I need to finish this as quickly as possible.'

To sum up his CT, the neon colors indicate the threat level of the people in his vision; white means harmless, green means friendly, and yellow indicates that it might accidentally or intentionally hurt him. Currently, Panda and Maki were both covered in green while Inumaki was in yellow (Isagi guessed it was due to his Cursed Speech technique).

Now comes the bread & butter of his technique - Future Predictability.

By using those silhouettes that appear on a person, Isagi's able to see many possibilities up to a certain time. His current limit is five minutes. This ability may look cool and all, but it has its downsides too. For example, if he processes too much information at once, the Curses would have Isagi's fried brain for dinner. However, there's a way around this. By combining Meta Vision with his Cursed Technique, he could double the information process but in return, his time limit would be halved.

'Egocentric Meta Vision + Future Sight!'

His eyes regained the puzzle motifs again as his vision changed once more, although not by much; the only thing different was that now the silhouettes have gained Maki's appearance. But he also felt different... Call him crazy, but he felt - no, he knows that his brain can process information like a weak supercomputer. Despite his urge to mess around with his new ability, he had a spar to finish.

For thirty seconds, Isagi just stood there, staring at Maki and analyzing every future possibility within a five-minute timeframe. Over 500+ future scenarios were processed by Isagi in thirty seconds as his brain worked in overdrive, with him finding only one scenario where he could get the dub. Even then, that one future is a huge gamble in and of itself; where one single wrong move could get him hospitalized. However, despite the odds, the Egoist's eyes were lit with burning passion as his ego wouldn't let him lose without a fight.

'Here goes nothing!'

Isagi then shouted at the top of his lungs which caught everyone off guard - especially Maki, who's the current victim of the Egoist's 'other' weapon,

"Hey, gorilla!"

'What..?' It took a couple of seconds for everyone to realize what was Isagi doing, but it was too late as he continued to fire shots at Maki without even letting her fire back.

"I bet no one wants to date you because they're scared you'd break their pelvis and hate dating girls like you!" Although he was proudly roasting her on the outside, he felt so ashamed on the inside that he repeatedly apologized to her inwardly, 'Forgive me Maki-san, please forgive me..! T-this is just spar so I'm using all my cards to get the upper hand; no hard feelings, right? Right?!'

Of course, this is his first time using his Trash-Talk-no-Jutsu on a girl, so it's kinda expected that he'd be feeling some sort of guilt because it's a new experience for him.

Meanwhile...

"..." Both Inumaki & Panda just stared at the without any visible emotion on their faces. They couldn't process how ANYONE (other than her bitchy family) would even have the audacity to antagonize her like that where she could easily snap them like twigs. It was then that Panda broke the ice,

"He lived a pretty short life, didn't he?" He said as if Isagi was already dead in their eyes.

"Salmon."

Back to the fight...

"..."

An imaginary dark aura surrounded Maki as her face started twitching. Even though she was always ridiculed by her family for her minuscule amount of Cursed Energy on a daily basis, and pretty much got used to it, this is considered a low blow even to her! That's it, this bastard just made it personal...

"Isagi-kun..." She called out her opponent as she dropped her naginata and grabbed another weapon. It was a three-sectioned nunchaku - and a pretty long one at that.

"Gulp... y-yes, ma'am?" You know she's at your age, right? It was understandable, though, because the moment he saw the new weapon's outline color, he knew that with one touch and he'd be expecting his hospital bills for the next month.

Special Grade Cursed Tool: Playful Cloud (Purple: Extremely Dangerous)

"Playtime's over," Maki said in a menacing tone as she got in a stance with the new weapon in her hand, which sent shivers down Isagi's spine when she gazed at his eyes with her hazel orbs.

Nonetheless, Isagi maintained his confident smirk even though he was sweating buckets,

"...Bring it on..!"

Without missing a beat, Maki leaped towards Isagi and left a crater from where she previously stood while readying her Nunchaku for a big swing.

WHOOSH!

Of course, he already knew where she'd attack because he saw this future so he rolled under her to avoid the attack. After getting back up, he got more nervous as he saw the aftermath of her attack.

'Holy shit..!'

All the grass was pulled out in its wake and the tree 0.2 miles away from them was sent out flying with pure wind pressure alone.

However, Maki wouldn't let Isagi take a 'nother breather as she continued her rampage by attacking him from many different angles.

WHOOSH!

WHOOSH!

WHOOSH!

Isagi visualized & memorized every attack pattern of hers, so he already knew how to dodge the next attacks by either bending his body, twisting, ducking, etc. With also counting his newly found CT, he can basically dodge more than 90% of her attacks at her current state (he could sense she's still going easy on him but he doesn't know why). However, he already knows that he can't win like this, so he's willing to turn off his Meta Vision to make full use of his time limit and agitate her as much as she can for the five minutes.

4 minutes and 25 seconds later...

'How the fuck this slippery bastard didn't get hit once?!' Maki matched his output to just a tad bit higher than Isagi's, so if he put more force into it, it wouldn't be a spar anymore. It's no surprise that she began to feel agitated when she couldn't hit him for almost five minutes!

'That's it! I'm finishing this right now,'

Gritting her teeth, she promised to herself that this is the attack that'd finish this whole thing - an attack that would leave no time for the Egoist to dodge. But she doesn't know that this is the exact strike Isagi had been waiting for this entire time...

'It's coming..!'

Isagi knew this last strike of hers would be way quicker than anything she threw at him today, so he already lowered his stance to drop to the ground quicker just the moment before she attacks.

SWOOSH!

Then she thunderously struck with such speed, that if Isagi wasn't ready for her, he would've been beaten to a pulp. So as mentioned before, Isagi dropped himself to the ground and prayed to every single deity that the flurry of swings wouldn't hit him.

WOOSH!

It became partially true as Maki managed to cut some strands of hair from and was millimeters away from hitting his face. He was about panic, but then quickly stopped himself from doing so as he remembered that he's low enough to finish his plan. The flame in the Egoist's eyes became brighter as he grabbed a fistful of dirt and used his other hand to cover his eyes before he threw the dirt in Maki's direction.

"You sneaky bastar-!" The Sorceress didn't get the chance to finish her sentence nor dodge the incoming projectile on time as her face got covered by dirt and momentarily stunned her.

"Ahhh!" The Egoist then quickly got back on his feet as he cocked back his arm to deck her in the face, but then a thought appeared in his mind...

'I shouldn't antagonize her any further. I gave her enough emotional damage as it is, don't want to hate me any further.'

Then immediately released his punch and ended the fight right then & there with one, single, flick.

TAP!

DROP!

The popcorn in Panda's hand dropped as he was about to say...

"What?"

Gojo asked the person behind the phone as he was just finished shopping for souvenirs. He then continued after processing the rest of the information that person gave him, "So you want my help with slaughtering a swarm of Curses in that school at this time of night? Oh, and you're not alone? Well, just gimme a sec and I'll be there." He then hung up and said to himself with a huge grin on his face while looking at the snacks in his hand, "After I'm done with these sweeties~"

Before he began eating though, Gojo looked at the moon with a calm smile as he said, "Hope I don't get the displeasure of meeting you in person, Sukuna."

A.N: Sorry for the very late update :/ As I mentioned before, I've been dealing with exams (and still am, but only two are left thankfully) for almost two freakin' months! However, I'll be way more active than ever before because I got finished from high school so expect the updates to be quicker :)

After this, I'll update TOCG and drop the prologue for my next fic - it's an Oshi no Ko x MHA crossover because that series is freakin' goated and it would suit pretty quite well with MHA's settings.

Anyway hope y'all enjoyed this chapter and peace out!