Crimson Foundations - Chapter 61

Crimson Foundations - Chapter 61

The concrete path clicked lightly under Ren's steps as he made his way back to the dorms, hands buried in his pockets, shirt half-untucked, face unbothered.

But his thoughts? They were racing.

"Ah, that fight… It was just a spar. A friendly brawl… but I almost ran out of cursed energy."

His eye twitched, annoyed at himself. That detail stung more than he expected. Even with all his planning, even with the edge of pre-knowledge and the crutch of 'Copy,' his cursed energy pool had dipped dangerously low. And once it did, everything else in the fight would've fallen apart.

"Ugh! God damn it…"

He kicked a loose pebble on the side of the path, watching it roll downhill.

"That fight could've gone way better… Again, I had no real ranged attacks. Nothing consistent. And my close combat is—let's be honest—trash. If any of them had caught me in a proper melee, I'd be dead."

He let out a breath. Steady. Cold. Calculated.

"I need to fix that. But not now. Right now, I just need to perfect the 'Red Cursed Circuit.' That was the only reason I even won that spar."

He remembered how good it felt in those final moments. When everything clicked. The way his cursed energy hummed with structure. Even incomplete, the Red Cursed Circuit flowed through him like a second nervous system.

"And let's not forget—I knew everything about them. Panda's strong, but he's slow. Maki? Monster up close. I made sure she never got a clean shot. Inumaki was the main threat."

His lip curled slightly.

"One 'Go to sleep' and I would've been knocked out flat… Why didn't he use it? Did he feel bad? Or maybe he still holds back on his words because of the backlash... Ugh. He's not using cursed speech effectively, that's for sure."

He stopped in front of the dorm building and looked up. Windows glowing faint yellow. A few silhouettes moving in the distance. Peaceful.

"I've got one week now. One whole week to master chanting and handsigns. Maybe—if the universe decides to be kind—I'll even perfect the Red Cursed Circuit…"

A smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"…even though I know that's impossible."

He pushed the door open and slipped inside, heading straight for his room. Books were waiting. Notes. Diagrams. Binding vows. Theory.

Ren was far from done.

Meanwhile, inside the main Jujutsu High classroom…

The atmosphere was still tense. Panda sat on the windowsill, arms crossed and head tilted back. Inumaki remained at his desk, fiddling with an empty bottle of juice. Maki? She paced.

And in the middle of it all, Gojo Satoru sat lazily in a swivel chair he had stolen from the faculty room, twirling around slowly while grinning.

"Do you guys know why you lost?" he asked, tone light, almost mocking. "It was a 3 vs. 1, and that too against someone who didn't even know cursed energy was called cursed energy until, like, three days ago!"

He chuckled as Maki stopped pacing and turned her sharp gaze on him.

She growled. "He's faster and stronger than us. The tripwire worked now, but it won't work again."

Panda glanced at her with a subtle shake of his head. "No. I don't think that's right."

Maki blinked.

He continued, voice calm. "I think you're faster than him, Maki. You've been training for years. He's… new. Still raw. But that's not why we lost."

He looked at Inumaki and then at Gojo.

"Sensei. You didn't give Ren any reports on us, right?"

Gojo raised an eyebrow, grinning. "Nope! Didn't even tell him your full names. I let him walk in blind."

Panda looked down. "Then how did he fight like he already knew everything about us…?"

Maki frowned but didn't speak.

Gojo stood up and stretched his arms, the grin on his face never leaving. "That's the thing. He learns fast. Painfully fast. Like scary fast. That punch-knee combo he used on you, Panda?"

Panda rubbed his jaw. "Yeah?"

Gojo smirked. "That's mine. The same one I used on him during our little rooftop 'chat.'"

Inumaki's head snapped up.

Even Maki stopped breathing for a second.

"You… fought him?" she asked, stunned.

Gojo just kept smiling, hands in his pockets. "Little warm-up, you could say."

Maki stared, her hands clenched tight at her sides. "So… the rumors were true?"

Gojo's eyes twinkled under the blindfold. "Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows~"

Panda was silent now. But inside his mind, things were shifting.

He was no fool. Even if Ren was smug. Even if his attitude rubbed them all the wrong way. Ren was… something else. Calculating. Sharp. Cursed energy control is nearly flawless.

Inumaki finally spoke, "Kelp."

Gojo tilted his head. "Hmm? Yeah, it's fishy, alright."

But even Gojo, behind the goofy mask, was thinking hard.

"That move Ren pulled at the end… That was a cursed energy overdrive. Deliberate. Controlled. Timed to the second. And it's not even a real technique—it's an idea. A concept. He made it real. Who the hell teaches themselves stuff like that in under a month?"

He sat back down, looking at his three students.

"This kid… He didn't win just by being stronger. He won because he had already written your moves before you made them. Like he read the whole game plan."

He could've said more, but didn't.

Because suddenly… he felt something.

Elsewhere, far above the field they'd sparred in…

There was a shimmer in the air. A cloaked figure leaned forward on a thin roof railing, one hand lazily resting on a camera. They zoomed in just enough to see where the dust had settled, where Ren had stood only minutes ago.

And they hummed.

A second figure stepped beside them, handing over a slip of paper with crude data scribbled onto it.

"Well?" the second asked.

The first one replied, voice muffled by a cloth mask: "At best? Grade 3. If he plays it smart… maybe Grade 2."

"Doesn't look like much."

"No. But Gojo's backing him."

"…That'll be a problem."

The wind shifted.

And then—like they were never there—the roof was empty again.

Back in his room, Ren opened his notebook.

The red pen scratched across the page.

"Overdrive Notes:

Duration: 10 sec max.

Cost: High.

Benefit: Complete override of external interference (tested against Inumaki).

Weakness: Post-activation burnout. Low mobility after usage.

Optimization Ideas:

– Bind activation to handsign or chant?

– Layer it with a circuit feedback loop?

– Can Rika act as a stabilizer to extend duration?"

He leaned back in the chair, exhaling slowly.

Then he muttered aloud, "One week. Let's see what I can do with one week."

Kai2's eye poked out of his shadow, watching curiously as Ren grinned to himself.