JJK: Chapter 37/38

Chapter 37: Everything Is Ready

In the small courtyard of the Fushiguro family, Toji and Eichi stood facing each other. With nothing else to do, Eichi decided to spar with Toji, and the equally bored Toji agreed.

"Come on, kid, let me see if you've improved recently."

Toji waved a hand at Eichi.

It was not their first time sparring, so they both understood each other's level.

Although he had his close friend Suguru to practice close combat with, their relationship was good, and both were considerate of each other, so they did not hit too hard.

Later, Eichi remembered Toji, an early peak in close combat, and came to him for guidance.

Facts proved that Toji's strength was truly formidable, and he showed no mercy.

However, that was in the past. After a long period of sparring, it was no longer so easy for Toji to take Eichi down.

Seeing Toji let him go first, Eichi did not hold back. He accelerated with a run-up, then launched a flying kick at Toji's head.

Since he had the opportunity to attack first, he naturally needed a fierce offense to gain the upper hand. As the saying goes, prolonged defense is bound to lead to a mistake. If he could suppress the opponent with a first strike and force an opening, victory would be half complete.

Toji raised both arms, his right protecting his head and his left slightly lower to guard his chest, blocking all of Eichi's attack routes.

After blocking the kick, Toji moved with the force toward Eichi's side and rear.

Eichi turned his head, locking onto Toji to prevent a surprise attack from behind.

With both feet on the ground, Eichi originally intended to follow up with a spinning heavy punch, but seeing the curl of Toji's lips and his right hand already set to defend, he gave up the punch. He dropped his stance and kicked backward with force instead.

Slap.

Because his defensive stance was too high, Toji could not fully block the kick.

He glanced down at his struck abdomen, then shed his casual attitude and became serious.

The two separated again.

Eichi attacked, throwing a straight right at Toji's head. Toji slapped Eichi's forearm with his left hand, deflecting the punch.

Eichi's punches came one after another, and Toji swayed left and right, occasionally using his arm to block and his palm to parry, neutralizing the offense.

Seeing that he could not break through Toji's defense, Eichi shifted tactics and used his legs, which had greater power.

He threw a right punch, and Toji dodged sideways as Eichi had anticipated. Eichi followed the momentum and spun into a back kick.

Toji had been maintaining a distance that allowed him to both attack and defend, so the strike did not connect.

Eichi's continuous high kicks made Toji less composed, and he began to evade somewhat frantically.

The barrage also annoyed Toji.

"Kid, was that kick fun just now? It's my turn."

Seizing the opening, Toji grabbed Eichi's ankle, a cruel smile on his face.

His right hand flipped Eichi's ankle upward, and his right leg whipped toward Eichi's head.

Eichi's pupils contracted, and he threw his head back with all his strength to dodge.

The kick grazed his face, leaving a scratch.

After evading, Eichi jumped up, his free left foot snapping toward Toji.

Toji released Eichi's right foot and stepped back. Eichi braced a hand on the ground and reset his stance.

"That kick was vicious. If it had landed, I probably would have blacked out."

"But I didn't pull my kicks earlier either."

Wiping the scratch on his face, Eichi let a slight smile appear.

"Oh, you brat, are you starting to enjoy fighting too?"

This time, Toji initiated.

He lashed out with a whip kick, and Eichi slipped to the side.

Toji's whip kick was extremely powerful. The air itself cracked from the impact.

Unlike Eichi's continuous kicks, a powerful whip kick required a longer wind-up.

Eichi quickly found a chance to counter.

While dodging Toji's kick, he turned and snapped his left arm like a lash at Toji. The instant it was avoided, he flowed into a spinning heavy punch.

Toji blocked with crossed arms.

Seeing the attack fail, Eichi immediately pulled back his right hand and adjusted his posture.

In the next moment, Toji's offense came like a storm.

Their battle went on for a long time, stopping only when the growing commotion drew Minako's attention.

"Kid, you're improving quite fast," Toji said, still eager for more.

Although it was not a life-or-death struggle where he used all his strength, Toji had, for once, gotten serious.

"What, afraid I'll surpass you?"

"You? Go back and train for another 100 years."

After dusting themselves off, the two went inside.

After tidying up, Eichi said goodbye to Minako and left the house.

As he walked out, he could faintly hear Minako complaining to Toji.

"Eichi is still a child, Toji-kun, you should have gone easy on him. Why did you hit him so hard...?"

Toji scratched his head helplessly. That kid did not go easy either.

After returning home, Eichi went into the bathroom, changed, and took a refreshing shower.

Once everything was done, he began his Cursed Energy training for the day.

Whether it was Cursed Energy or other systems like magic, a solid foundation was incredibly important.

So Eichi trained every evening to solidify his fundamentals.

After finishing his Cursed Energy training, it was time for the recent main event, research into Heroic Spirits summoning.

"The progress lately has been quite good. At this rate, I should be able to summon a Heroic Spirit entity before high school."

Heroic Spirit Film and Television was advancing rapidly. On the anime front, the second Sakura route of fate/stay night was about to finish airing, and on the novel front, the revised fate/zero had already been released.

Eichi's main focus in fate/zero was Artoria. Compared to Nasu's depiction, the original Artoria was not mature enough, so Eichi made some adjustments to strengthen her.

In games, many copies of the fate/stay night game had sold, and its influence was significant. Riding its popularity, Fate/Extra also sold well.

Overall, Heroic Spirit Film and Television was progressing well.

He entered the basement prepared specifically for Heroic Spirit summoning.

He raised his right hand, and the Command Spell on the back of it emitted a crimson light. Cursed Energy poured into the Holy Grail, and a translucent figure slowly solidified before Eichi.

The person before him was petite, with golden shoulder-length hair tied up. She wore a blue dress, and over it, white armor. Because of the clever design, the armor and the dress appeared as one, forming a blue and white dress-armor.

Eichi increased his Cursed Energy output, and the girl's dull eyes gradually regained their proper brilliance.

A golden longsword appeared before the girl, and she naturally placed her hands upon it.

"3 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, success."

The summoning of the Spirit Base shadow was finally stable. The fusion of the second Chimera was also completed a few days ago, and now all that remained was...

(To be continued.)

Chapter 38: Subduing Mahoraga

In the time that followed, Eichi continuously prepared to subjugate Mahoraga.

Soon, another weekend arrived, and on the first day of his holiday, he went to the mountains far from the city.

Night fell quickly, and Eichi rose to prepare for action.

Cursed Energy surged throughout his body, and two Shikigami appeared beside him.

One was Qiongqi, who had already appeared before, and the other was the newly fused Giant Elephant.

The Giant Elephant was a Shikigami Eichi obtained by fusing Max Elephant, Great Serpent, and Round Deer.

Max Elephant was inherently thick-skinned and durable, and after fusing with Round Deer, its powerful healing ability made it a qualified tank.

Great Serpent fused into a snake tail much longer than the Giant Elephant's body.

Cursed Energy began to radiate from both Shikigami.

Before initiating the subjugation ritual, Eichi not only accumulated a large amount of Cursed Energy, he also researched a method to enhance the Ten Shadows Technique's Shikigami based on strengthening Heroic Spirits with Command Spells.

This process was simpler than he imagined, because the System had modified the Holy Grail before he left, and the Heroic Spirits summoned by the Holy Grail also existed in the form of Shikigami.

They were all Eichi's power.

The two Shikigami, strengthened to their most powerful state, began their actions.

Qiongqi immediately took to the sky, and the Giant Elephant walked to the front with heavy steps.

"Next, it is time for tonight's protagonist to make his entrance."

Eichi clasped his hands forward, chanting the spell to summon Mahoraga.

"Furube, Yurayura, Yatsuka no Tsurugi, Ikaishinshō Makora!"

Mahoraga's figure slowly appeared, and the chains binding it broke one by one.

The strongest Shikigami once again appeared before Eichi.

"There is an old saying, there is a first and a second time, but no third or fourth. Summoning you the first time was for self-preservation, so that does not count. This is my second attempt to subjugate you."

Looking at Mahoraga, Eichi grew increasingly excited.

"Become my power, Mahoraga."

Perhaps sensing his fervent gaze, Mahoraga grinned, and the Sword of Exorcism in its hand stabbed toward Eichi's head.

"Moo."

The Giant Elephant in front of Eichi moved. Its body, only slightly shorter than Mahoraga, charged forward.

Its trunk deflected the Sword of Exorcism's angle, and the Giant Elephant rammed into Mahoraga.

Mahoraga grabbed the tusks with force, seemingly trying to break them off.

"Hiss."

A long snake tail extended from behind the Giant Elephant and bit Mahoraga's right arm.

Mahoraga failed to break the tusks and tried to retreat.

Qiongqi in the sky swooped from behind, its sharp tiger claws reaching for Mahoraga's back.

Mahoraga turned and punched Qiongqi with its left fist, forcing the attack back, but it still failed to escape the Giant Elephant's entanglement.

The Giant Elephant stepped in, its trunk and snake tail attacking from the left and right.

Mahoraga was entangled again.

The Sword of Exorcism is extremely fatal to Cursed Spirits, but the Shikigami of the Ten Shadows Technique are not the same as Cursed Spirits, and Round Deer's Reverse Cursed Technique can also heal Shikigami summoned by the Ten Shadows Technique.

Therefore, the Sword of Exorcism was merely a sharp arm blade in front of the Giant Elephant.

Seeing the Giant Elephant successfully entangle Mahoraga, Eichi nodded with satisfaction.

When he first fused the Giant Elephant, he encountered a problem.

Its defense was very strong, and its inherent brute strength and water attacks were not to be underestimated.

However, the Giant Elephant could not hold opponents.

That is right, as a tank, the Giant Elephant actually could not hold opponents.

A tank that cannot taunt or draw aggro is as good as useless, isn't it?

Max Elephant was clumsy, and the even larger Giant Elephant was clumsier.

Previously, Eichi had sought out Suguru to test the Giant Elephant's resilience.

After summoning a few Grade 1 Cursed Spirits, Suguru quickly discovered its weakness.

A few Grade 1 Cursed Spirits used kiting tactics that made the Giant Elephant dizzy.

Spraying water was not very effective. At close range, the Giant Elephant did not have time to charge, and under Geto's command, the Cursed Spirits even used the impact of the water jets to escape its sphere of influence.

Although ranged attacks greatly increased the power of the water flow due to charging and compression, the opponent also had more time to prepare.

The hit rate plummeted.

After realizing the Giant Elephant's weakness, Eichi began to ponder solutions.

In his plan, a Shikigami capable of directly withstanding Mahoraga's pressure was essential, so the Giant Elephant could not be abandoned.

After extracting some Cursed Energy from several other Shikigami and fusing it with the Giant Elephant, Eichi chose Great Serpent.

Great Serpent's body was very long, much longer than Max Elephant.

After fusing with the Giant Elephant, its size increased by another circle.

Great Serpent's unexpected and deadly attack methods compensated for the Giant Elephant's shortcomings in offense and holding opponents.

Moreover, with Round Deer's Reverse Cursed Technique for healing, Great Serpent did not have to worry about being completely destroyed.

With this snake tail, the Giant Elephant finally met Eichi's expectations.

In the sky, Qiongqi began to fly into the distance.

On the ground, the Giant Elephant fought Mahoraga with all its might.

It was not long before Mahoraga gained the upper hand.

Eichi frowned. The gap between the Giant Elephant and Mahoraga was obvious. If not for the Giant Elephant's powerful recovery, it might have been killed several times already.

At this rate, it would not be long before Mahoraga broke free of the entanglement.

The clearest sign was that the injuries on the Giant Elephant, which had just been struck by Mahoraga, were healing very slowly.

Clearly, Mahoraga had found a way to break the current stalemate.

Eichi crouched down and reached into his shadow.

The Ten Shadows Technique's shadow was like an independent space, capable of not only storing items but also allowing travel through it.

After Eichi first mastered storing things in his shadow, he happily stuffed many items into it.

Then he collapsed to the ground.

He was pressed down.

Feeling that something was wrong, Eichi quickly released everything from his shadow, and the feeling of being crushed receded.

After several attempts, he finally confirmed one thing.

His shadow was like a backpack. The weight of the items he put in would be entirely borne by him.

Eichi's right hand sank into the ground, and soon he retrieved two Heroic Spirit chess pieces from the shadow.

Berserker and Lancer.

Injecting Cursed Energy into the two chess pieces without reservation, the Berserker, over two meters tall and wielding a stone axe, and the Lancer, carrying a long spear, were summoned.

[Shadow Servant: Berserker.]

[Shadow Servant: Lancer.]

Eichi moved forward to draw Mahoraga's attention, and upon seeing the initiator of the subjugation ritual, Mahoraga began to attack him.

With the help of Berserker and Lancer, Eichi began to contend with Mahoraga.

He did not let the Giant Elephant, Berserker, and Lancer engage in direct combat, because their strength was truly not enough to fight Mahoraga.

Moreover, attacking too early would only allow Mahoraga to adapt to all their attacks.

That would make it even harder to fight later.

Under Mahoraga's continuous attacks, the forest within a hundred-meter radius was quickly destroyed.

Eichi and Mahoraga were in clear view of each other, with nothing left to block or interfere.

(To be continued.)