Chapter 47: Time Flies.
Tatsuro dragged the reluctant black Divine Dog all the way home. Seeing Shura currently lapping up goat's milk, he said with a grin, "Finish up, and then we'll start today's training plan."
Hearing the word "training," Shura nearly stumbled and fell to its knees. Last night's training was still vivid in its mind; although its claws were somehow fine, its front paws ached terribly.
"Woo~ (Can I just sleep?)"
Shura vainly hoped to get away with acting pitiful, but Tatsuro sternly rejected it: "Nope. The friendship match with the neighboring school is coming up soon. We need to train hard."
The black Divine Dog (Heiyu) grumbled internally, "This demon is even training a pup that's barely two months old! Does he have any humanity left?!"
"Woo~ (I can't run anymore.)"
"Tsk."
Looking at Shura sprawled on the floor with a wronged expression, Tatsuro was genuinely stumped. Although the training plan was set, the pup wasn't cooperating. This dog was already spoiled, completely ignorant of the concept of 'no pain, no gain.'
"Ah, forget it, forget it. Since you don't want to train, take a day off. Tomorrow, I'll treat you to some dog meat."
"Woo~! (Meat!)"
Shura's eyes lit up, its tail wagging furiously.
"Awoo~! (It's dog meat, you dunce!)" Heiyu reminded it.
"..."
Hearing it was the meat of its own kind, Shura was instantly terrified and collapsed on the ground, whimpering.
"Good boy, go train." Tatsuro crouched down, stroking its head, and said in a gentle tone, "You don't want to be a useless dog, do you? If not, then hurry up and train. Don't make your daddy unhappy."
"This demon, who on earth commands a dog like this," Heiyu complained internally.
"Alright, let me lay out today's training plan." Tatsuro stood up and said to Heiyu, "Shura is still young and might not understand what I'm saying, so I'll just tell you. There's still over a month until the exchange event. Heiyu, in the morning, you'll be responsible for teaching it how to identify enemy positions by scent. In the afternoon, you can go back. Simple enough, right?"
"Woo~"
Heiyu nodded, indicating it understood.
"As for the afternoon..." Tatsuro pondered for a moment, as if an amusing idea had struck him, and continued, "It's better if I handle the afternoon session. Go for it, son! Don't try to save cursed energy for your old dad; I don't use it for training anyway."
And just like that, the two dogs were ushered out of the house. Tatsuro, whistling, began to clean up.
Shura looked pitifully at Heiyu and said, "I want to rest."
"..."
If that demon finds out you're resting, I'll definitely be in deep trouble, Heiyu thought.
Heiyu quickly interjected, "No, you don't."
For Tatsuro, the morning passed quickly. After cleaning the house, it was around 6:30 AM. He went out to check if his son was slacking off, watching intently for a good half hour before leaving, satisfied.
At that moment, Heiyu had smelled Tatsuro's scent. Its heart was in its throat during the training, terrified that this pup would suddenly slack off and get it into trouble too. After all, it didn't want that right hand gripping its fated neck again.
At 7:00 AM, Tatsuro arrived at the training grounds to warm up, jogging with Maki and the others. Then, he trained the physically weaker Okkotsu Yuta. During this time, Zenin Maki also strung him up and beat him with a staff.
After all, without using cursed energy, he was a fighting amateur, only slightly better than Okkotsu Yuta, who was even weaker. Not much stronger, but enough.
He trained until 8:00 AM, then went to the cafeteria for breakfast. After a short rest, he continued training. Although it felt quite dull, Tatsuro enjoyed it.
Afternoon.
Tatsuro, dressed in clean clothes, strolled down the street, with Shura trotting happily behind him, tail wagging.
It had just realized how good its master was. The morning training hadn't been tiring at all, just like playing.
Looking back at his cheerful dog, Tatsuro delivered a blow: "Tonight, you continue scratching the tree. Don't even think about resting until I say stop."
"Woof?! (What?!)"
Shura's recently perky tail immediately drooped to the ground, its face full of despair.
To train his dog, Tatsuro had specially bought a small cart. He filled it with ingredients for everyone's dinner and then had Shura pull it all the way home, without providing any cursed energy himself.
It saves on delivery fees and gives the dog a workout. I'm truly a genius, so clever.
After walking for just an hour and a half, Shura successfully dragged the ingredients back to Jujutsu High, then collapsed on the ground, tongue lolling out.
Tatsuro compensated it with two large bowls of goat's milk. After all, it was currently growing and needed a lot of nutrition. If he were to follow the vet's advice, it wouldn't be allowed to eat meat until the day after tomorrow.
That night, after everyone had dinner, Tatsuro took Shura out for training. It was still tree-scratching, but today, it completely exhausted all the cursed energy in its body.
The second day was the same.
The third day.
Perhaps due to Shura's prolonged use of cursed energy leading to genetic changes, or maybe because of a summoning technique, its body began to autonomously produce cursed energy. Moreover, its internal cursed energy capacity increased from the previous 150 to around 200.
Tatsuro was ecstatic when he discovered this. After all, his initial interest was in having a backup cursed energy battery. Finding out about Shura's cursed energy reserves was purely accidental. During a spar with Zenin Maki, he had run out of cursed energy and then borrowed (read: directly drained) some from Shura.
Shura, who had been napping, suddenly felt its body emptied, and was so scared, thinking its master knew it was slacking off and sleeping, that it immediately scrambled to its feet.
Seven days passed.
Shura's fur had grown out, and its body was gaining weight daily under Tatsuro's careful nourishment. Its physique had also become much larger.
The eighth day.
Perhaps it was psychological, but Tatsuro always felt that Shura was already a bit off. It was as if it had been injected with hormones; its size was already double what it was before. Heiyu had to look up at it.
Although he knew it was a fact, he still found it a bit hard to believe. After all, it was growing too fast. The cursed energy in its body couldn't be ruled out as a reason.
Anyway, he felt that if Shura wanted to take down Heiyu now, it would only take one swat. If they really fought, it would still be a 20-80 split, Shura having the 20. Heiyu was too agile, and being a special shikigami, it could return to the shadows, leaving Shura with no way to deal with it.
But if Shura managed to land a solid bite, Heiyu would go down on the spot.
The tenth day.
Tatsuro knew Shura no longer needed Heiyu's guidance, so he asked Panda, who was bored all day, to train it.
Panda happily agreed, stating that after his training, Shura would definitely be resilient!
Tatsuro gave a thumbs up. Shura, watching from the side, indicated that it was already used to this. Anyway, as long as its master wasn't training it personally, it wouldn't be half-dead from exhaustion. It was also lucky that its master didn't have time to train it in the mornings.
In the blink of an eye, a month passed.
Shura's shoulder height was now 70 centimeters, its body length about 1.3 meters, and its weight had reached 75 kilograms. In just one short month, it had already grown to the standard size of an adult Tibetan Mastiff, and it was still growing.
Tatsuro was no longer surprised by this. Whatever the reason, Shura would be a great help to him in the upcoming exchange event.