Winner Takes All || Various!JJK X Reader

21: Training Montage

It's that time of the year again,,,,

There's an important announcement at the end, so I advise you to check it out after reading this new chapter. 

Now, let's go for a quite tamed training montage before all the chaos happens, yeah?

[¥¥¥]

The biting cold nipped at your face as you stood on the training grounds. The long-fallen snow had been cleared off, creating a salted edge around the track, and the white of the snow sparkled in the midday sun.

Shoes crunched against the flakes of snow beneath you, and with another foot taking a step forward your way—

"Your problem is this." Gojo shoved his finger on your cheek.

"My face," you deadpanned.

"Your composure," he corrected, pulling his hand back just before you could swat him. He spun around, half-crossing his arms with one finger raised, fake-marching like a commander lecturing an incompetent soldier. "Your cursed energy is already weak—trying to control it too much will just make it vanish or slip into a place you can't ever reach again."

"Excessive control?" you echoed, scrunching your face when Gojo dropped his hand, slightly frowning at you.

"What he's trying to say is that- you're too focused on keeping "calm", to the point where you end up stifling your cursed energy."

You turned towards the smooth voice where a sweaty, black-haired boy sat on the stone benches of the training grounds, his arms flung back behind him supporting his weight. his arms flung back behind him to support his weight. His breath misted in the air, while beside him crouched a silent, brown-haired girl drinking a cold soda—completely unperturbed.

Unlike the three of you at the start of this training, Shoko just stretched at the side, then waved goodbye to all the physical exercises you were supposed to do in order to watch you three instead. If Yaga checked up sooner than anyone would've thought, she would simply do an average P.E. stretch routine lazily, before going right back to lazing around.

It would be nice if you could lay down on the bench alongside her... but you aren't as valuable as Shoko with her RCT, so you can't do that. And your manga volumes weren't also here to guarantee your survival just yet, so you needed to train. You needed to get stronger.

But how can you do that? You can't even imbue your cursed energy into a simple kitchen knife that you asked the cafeteria lady to "lend" to you.

Yes, you don't have a cursed tool just yet. You needed to pick one but with almost all the staff being absent due to their missions, including Yaga, you had to wait a couple more weeks before you could officially get assigned to one. A wooden rod would be what beginners use on their training, but Gojo said it was easier to start with something small. Hence the kitchen knife.

In the meantime, you decided to train your cursed energy output with your classmates. Geto was helpful when it comes to letting you use his lower cursed spirits as training dummies. You're grateful that Shoko was ready to give you some of the greatest snacks and drinks just in case you decide you're too tired to continue pushing yourself more. And Gojo—

"You have a cursed spirit that's arguably stronger than any shikigamis out there." Gojo leaned back, casting a lazy glance at your cursed spirit. "If you could just learn how to imbue some cursed energy on a paper and create a talisman to seal it, you can store this hideous thing until you need it again."