The Inumaki Clan Prodigy [Jujutsu Kaisen]

"Hey, Hey, everyone. How's it going?" Gojo said, walking down the stairs leading to the track and field. 

"Oh, um-" Yuta tried to respond but was cut off by a harsh blow from Maki's staff. 

"Pay attention." Maki scolded. 

"Yes ma'am." Yuta replied meekly. 

"Get ready, baldie." 

"Yes ma'am."

"You're gonna score a hit on me, right?" Maki asked. 

"Yes ma'am!" Yuta shouted with conviction. 

Both young sorcerers settled into their respective positions, staring at each other. Maki, the more aggressive of the two by a large margin, was the first to move. 

She rushed forward at speeds Yuta had a hard time following, even after months of training with her and the even faster Isamu. Still, his training had prepared him enough, he could at least block the first hit. Which he did. 

Maki's blow, even after being properly defended against, still carried an absurd amount of force behind it. Yuta's wooden practice sword vibrated in response to the blow, it was a miracle he could still keep a firm grip on the thing. 

Harnessing some of the skill Isamu had engrained in him over the last few months, Yuta was able to push Maki back and give himself enough room to properly launch an assault. 

Yuta swung downward towards Maki's shoulder region, it was a faint however. Maki raised the haft of her staff and blocked the blow with moderate ease as Yuta wasn't the power type, much like Isamu. They both depended on the edge of their blades to do damage and their speed to land hits. 

Yuta took advantage of Maki's weapon being preoccupied and raised a foot, determined to drive his knee into Maki's side. Maki was no fool however and saw the faint and strike coming. Maki backed away, not fearing Yuta's sword as he'd stopped applying pressure to Maki's staff, he was too focused on his surprise attack. 

Maki spun and brought her staff around, delivering a hard whack to the back of Yuta's knee. The knee belonging to Yuta's only grounded leg. Yuta promptly collapsed under his own weight, no longer having anything to keep him upright. 

Yuta landed in his butt, dropping his sword in the process. Maki, before Yuta could make an attempt to get up and continue the battle, struck Yuta in the forehead with the end of her staff with more force than was necessary. 

"Dead." Maki proclaimed as she rested her staff in her shoulder. "Now, what did you do wrong when preforming that faint into a sneak attack? Besides ever thinking I would fall for it that is." She continued. 

Yuta stood as he began to answer. "I stopped applying pressure with my sword and focused too much on my secondary attack. Not only did it make it easier to figure out what I was going to do if you didn't know already. But it also made it easier for you to move out of the way of the knee and counterattack." Yuta explained, listing off why it was such a blunder. 

"Well at least you have a good head on your shoulders, even if everything else is lacking."  Maki complemented before immediately going back to criticizing. They both heard the crunch of grass under foot as Isamu approached the pair. 

"Hey, Isamu, good to see you're in good shape. No missing pieces right?" Maki greeted her best friend before questioning his state of wellbeing. Isamu just nodded as he stretched out his arms to either side, clearly showing he didn't have a mark on him. 

Isamu, a newly minted grade 1 sorcerer, had just arrived after finishing a mission on the other side of Tokyo. He'd been a grade 1 for just under a month, having gone through his evaluation with Kusakabe who had taken Isamu under his wing as his apprentice just before. 

He wore the same simple uniform of jujutsu tech as he had 3 months previously. His blade, the same blade he'd used since first starting his training with Maki, was still strapped to the left side of his waist. He was a little more muscular and maybe a half inch taller but all in all, he hadn't changed much.

Isamu turned to Yuta with a kind and curious look. Interpreting the look as the question it was, Yuta spoke. "I'm good too, though probably in a worse condition." He said with a quick glance at Maki. 

Isamu just smiled with humor dancing in his eyes. Isamu jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. Yuta looked over Isamu's shoulder and found Gojo gesturing him to come and talk with way too much enthusiasm. Yuta quickly excused himself and began to make his way over to their teacher. 

As Yuta jogged over to Gojo, Isamu turned to Maki and gestured towards her staff in a clear request to spar. Maki accepted and got into position as Isamu grabbed the hilt of his sword but instead of unsheathing it, he pulled the scabbard out as well. He intended to battle with his sheathed sword instead of going through the time of wrapping it. 

Isamu never used a practice sword. It had always confused Maki, Toga, Panda, and Yuta, but Gojo seemed to understand, he never expounded on it though. Nonetheless, Isamu did it anyway and Gojo seemed to think it was a good idea so no one commented on it. 

Isamu took up a lacks stance as he stared down Maki while she did the same. Maki, like always, was the first to move. She rushed forward but with move caution than she had when approaching Yuta. She knew Isamu was smarter and more capable than Yuta in pretty much every way when it came to combat and she would not underestimate her first and favorite student. 

Maki thrust the tip of her staff forward in a testing but still powerful blow. Isamu moved his sword to the side of her staff and pushed it off course. This act alone showed the large gap in skill between Yuta and Isamu. 

Yuta always tried to block Maki's strikes head on but Isamu knew of Maki's superior strength and opted to deflect her blow instead of engaging in a test of strength he knew he would lose. 

Due to the simple thrust being a mere test strike, Maki was able to recover easily while granting Isamu no opening to take advantage of.

Isamu and Maki went back and forth for a long while, neither of them being able to gain any significant ground on the other. Every strike aimed at Isamu was parried or deflected while every attack towards Maki was dodged or blocked.

Maki spun away from a slash Isamu launched her way. She used the momentum from her spin to launch an attack of her own. Isamu ducked below the wooden staff, grabbed the haft of it once it had passed over his head with his left hand in order to trap the weapon, he then brought his sword up and swung at Maki's knee. 

Maki leaped away from Isamu, deciding it was better to give up her weapon and continue to fight than to be hit and not be able to recover quickly enough to defend against further attacks. Maki readied herself to defend against a follow up blow which never came. 

Instead, Isamu stood there casually, twirling her staff in his left hand while he carefully strapped his sword to his waist yet again. He made no movements to advance or take advantage of Maki's disadvantage. 

"What? Why aren't you attacking?" Maki questioned with confusion. 

Isamu pointed towards the stairs where the rest had been standing with Maki's stolen staff. Maki turned to find Gojo waving at them. It was only Gojo, Panda, Maki, and Isamu on the grounds now. Maki and Isamu both made their way over, Isamu passing Maki's staff back to her as he passed her. 

"Yuta and Toga left. There was a mission requesting a cursed speech user and since Isamu just got back from a mission of his own, I figured it best to send Toga instead. I sent Yuta along too, for the experience." Gojo explained, adding on that last part to appease Inumaki who had gotten a bit protective over Yuta and was giving him a look. 

"So, what are we doing in the meantime?" Maki questioned. 

"Well, you and Panda can spar for a bit and I'll spar with Isamu since we didn't yesterday." Gojo explained, clapping his hands like a couch might. Maki and Panda headed over to the other side of the field with little complaint. Maki did worn Gojo she would keep an eye on him so he didn't go to rough on Isamu. 

Gojo just waved her off with a "yeah, yeah" before turning to face Isamu. "So, you're making steady progress on your sword work and simple domain with the help of Kusakabe. Your cursed energy refinement and enhancement are coming along nicely. And your cursed speech is as good as ever. So, what do you think you need to work on?" Gojo listed off before questioning Inumaki. 

'Extension technique?' Isamu wrote on his note pad. 

"Oh yeah, you did start on that, didn't you? So, what are you stuck on, it shouldn't take you all that long to figure it out considering how quickly you pick up your other subjects." Gojo asked. 

'I don't think I've been put into a situation where it is needed so I haven't been able to awake myself to it.' Isamu wrote. 'I think some combat experience would work to push me. But missions involving curses are too easy.' He added. 

"Suffering from success huh? I can relate and I get what you mean. I wasn't able to awake reverse cursed technique or cursed technique reversal until someone almost killed me. So…" Gojo through for a while before continuing. "I know, I'll send you on some of my missions. The next special grade that pops up will be all yours. If it was 10 years ago I'd send you after some curse users but since they don't make them like they used too, I guess cursed spirits will do."

Isamu was glad by the development if he was being honest. The bad thing about being a grade 1 sorcerer is the you were only pushed by special grade cursed spirits or curse users on the same level as one. Both were rare to say the least. 

'What about Rika? Couldn't I try and lure her  out of Yuta and fight her?' Isamu asked, quickly scribbling down his message on his notepad. 

"Nah, Rika's too powerful for you right now. To be honest, I'd have some trouble putting her down at the moment so if you were to fight her, you'd die before you could get anything useful out of the encounter." Gojo answered. Hearing Gojo say he'd have trouble beating anyone was a surprise and cemented how powerful and dangerous Rika truly was. 

"Well, since special grades are pretty rare it will be a bit. So until then, you're stuck with me." Gojo said, cracking his knuckles. 

——

Maki dashed away from Panda's fist, leading up the miniver with a thrust from her staff. Panda took it like a champ and quickly threw a back hand Maki's way. She ducked under the blow, whacking Panda in the knee before backing off to regain her range advantage. 

Panda was once more nearly unaffected. That was a strength of Pandas, as long as it didn't do significant damage to any of his cores, he was nearly immune to blunt force damage. 

If Maki was wielding her spear like she normally would in battle, it would be a different story but as it was, Maki was at a disadvantage. Of course, this was not the first time they had run into this problem. 

If every spar they had with each other turned into Maki not being able to do anything until Panda eventually got the win, there would be no use to the spar at all. So instead, they'd set up a point system. The first to score 5 points on the other wins. 

Currently Maki had three points while Panda had one. Panda engaged once more, this time kicking up some dirt and grass to blind Maki a bit, making it easier to close the distance. Panda rushed forward and attempted to grapple Maki into the ground. 

Maki, not being as blinded as Panda had hoped, was able to score a hit on Panda as he approached. Thrown off by the hit, Panda failed to grapple her properly, opening him up to yet another blow from Maki. This put Maki at five points to Panda's one. 

"I win and you're died." Maki declared as Panda stood up. 

"Yes, it was a good fight though. How about we go check on your darling Inumaki." Panda teased. 

Maki, to Panda's surprise, didn't immediately respond with an angry growl or a sudden strike from her staff. Instead, Maki simple rolled her eyes and turned away from Panda. Panda missed the small smile on her face. 

——

Isamu swung at Gojo for the millionth time that day. And for the millionth time he missed. Gojo was unbelievably fast, if he wasn't holding back and was fighting Inumaki for real, Isamu would've been dead ten times over before he could blink. 

This time, Gojo ducked the blade and stood back up with an uppercut aimed at Isamu's chin. Isamu was able to lean back and dodge the blow by a hair. He used his momentum to lift a leg and kick out at Gojo. 

Gojo moved out of the way as Isamu continued his backwards fall, turning it into a backwards summer salt. Once he'd regained his feet, Isamu scored the ground with his blade and threw the kicked up dust and dirt Gojo's way. 

Now under the cover of the dust, Isamu through a razor sharp throwing knife towards Gojo with practiced easy. For the legendary six eyes, some dirt was as easy to see through as air and would've been even easier if Gojo wasn't blindfolded. So, naturally, Gojo saw the attack coming and swatted the knife away with a cursed energy reinforced hand. 

What Gojo didn't see was the second knife. Still, Gojo was able to deflect it as well, needing only a moment to see the blade. For the third time in as many seconds, Gojo was "caught off guard". Instead of throwing another knife, Isamu had thrown his sword like a javelin at Gojo. 

"Don't Move!"

His reaction was slowed by a fraction of a second but that was all the time Isamu needed. In the next instant, Isamu sword pierced through the man's chest and out his back. Well, that's what would've happened if Isamu's opponent wasn't Saturo Gojo. 

Gojo flared his cursed energy to its former special grade level instead of the first grade amount he had limited himself to. This freed him from the effects of cursed speech and amplified his speed, allowing him to easily catch the blade between two fingers. 

"Gee, that was close Inumaki. If I really was a first grade sorcerer I would've been dead or out of the fight." Gojo commended his student. He then tossed the sword high into the sky. It spun for a second or two before sticking itself into the ground right before Isamu. 

Isamu bent down and pulled the sword from the ground, cleaned the blade of dirt with a flick, and sheathed it. Maki and Panda walked over just then, having seen the whole thing. 

"That was pretty good Isamu. I would've been a goner if you did that against me." Panda said, happy for his friend's improved fighting ability. 

"Yeah, through your throwing skill could use some work. But overall, you did great." Maki complimented. Isamu appreciated her praise the most, even if it was tainted by her criticism of his throwing skills. 

'Thank you.' Isamu signed simply. 

——

"To bad." He said. The man wore the robes of a monk with his black hair tied up into a bun with some locks still escaping the queue. He sat on a high up walk way in a large indoor mall over looking Yuta Okkotsu and Toga Inumaki. A worm like cursed spirits with small tufts of hair on its skull, large bug eyes, and a human like mouth and nose curled around his body as he petted it like a cat or dog. 

"I was hoping I'd get to see the famous Rika." The cursed spirits cheeks bulged as it spit up an ID card. "Special grade as well." The man said, looking at the 'special' indication of grade on Yuta's student ID. 

"I can't wait to meet you." He said, grinning.