18: Sorcerer Daily Life & Training

Introduction

Sorcerers are not born ready to battle curses. Even those with powerful innate techniques must be trained to control their cursed energy, master combat discipline, and endure the psychological burdens of their role. For students at Jujutsu High, daily life blends rigorous training with fragments of normal adolescence. Between missions, they attend classes, live in dorms, and form bonds with allies who may not survive long. Sorcerer life is harsh, but it contains moments of humanity that contrast the constant shadow of death. This codex explores what it means to live as a jujutsu sorcerer, how training is structured, and how day-to-day routines shape the future defenders of humanity.

Structure of Jujutsu High

Jujutsu High operates as both a school and a military academy. Students live on campus in dormitories, study in classrooms, and train in specialized facilities under the guidance of veteran sorcerers. While the schools in Tokyo and Kyoto differ slightly in philosophy, both share the same mission: to prepare young sorcerers for a war they may not survive. Faculty members serve as instructors, mentors, and commanders, balancing their duties to teach with active fieldwork.

Life at Jujutsu High blurs the line between adolescence and battlefield readiness. Students experience ordinary elements of school life — meals in a common hall, rivalries, friendships, and downtime — but all of it is overshadowed by missions that demand maturity far beyond their years.

Classes and Curriculum

Sorcerer education focuses on both theory and practice. The curriculum includes:

  • Cursed Energy Theory: Students study the nature of cursed energy, learning how negative emotions fuel it and why control is vital. They practice suppressing leakage, maintaining constant reinforcement, and channeling CE efficiently.

  • Cursed History: Lessons cover the great clans, ancient sorcerers, the Heian era, and infamous curses. This instills respect for tradition and prepares students to face inherited enemies.

  • Combat Drills: Sparring is a daily activity. Students fight under supervision to test reinforcement, weapon usage, and technique application.

  • Field Studies: Teachers lead students into controlled environments haunted by low-grade curses, forcing them to apply skills in live combat.

  • Binding Vows and Law: Students learn the principles of vows and contracts, as well as the laws that govern sorcerer secrecy and punishment.

  • Support Skills: Barrier techniques, medical applications of CE, and exorcism rituals are taught to broaden utility beyond direct combat.

The balance between lecture and fieldwork shifts as students advance. First-years focus on basics, while upper-years spend most of their time on missions.

Training Regimens

Training is constant and brutal. Sorcerers cannot afford weakness, as mistakes cost lives.

  • Cursed Energy Control Drills: Students practice reinforcing their bodies, maintaining steady CE output, and suppressing leakage. This often involves meditation, balancing exercises, or sparring while focusing on precision.

  • Endurance Training: Missions require stamina. Students run obstacle courses while maintaining CE reinforcement, spar while injured, or practice under simulated stress.

  • Weapon Training: Many students use cursed tools to supplement techniques. Practice includes swordplay, polearms, ranged weapons, or improvised combat.

  • Technique Refinement: Students repeatedly practice their innate abilities, discovering their range, weaknesses, and potential for evolution.

  • Mock Battles: Faculty simulate missions, pitting students against conjured or restrained curses. Sometimes, upperclassmen fight first-years to teach humility.

Training also addresses resilience. Teachers like Gojo or Mei Mei push students beyond exhaustion, believing only by pushing past limits can they survive encounters with higher-grade curses.

Dorm Life and Bonds

When not in class or training, students live in dormitories. Dorm life allows them to bond as comrades, sharing meals, conversations, and frustrations. Friendships are essential for survival, creating trust in battle. Rivalries also flourish, often sharpening skills as students strive to surpass one another.

Dorms provide fleeting glimpses of normal teenage life: board games, cooking experiments, or late-night conversations. These moments matter because they humanize students otherwise surrounded by death. NPCs should reflect this duality — laughing together one moment, then marching into missions that might claim their lives the next.

Missions as Education

Unlike ordinary schools, Jujutsu High uses real missions as part of its curriculum. Students are deployed under supervision to exorcise low-grade curses, gaining field experience. These missions escalate in difficulty, testing judgment as much as combat ability. Early missions may involve cleansing haunted classrooms or shrines, while advanced missions place students against Grade 2 or Grade 1 curses, often with their mentors stepping in only if necessary.

These missions instill realism. Students learn quickly that theory is nothing without composure under fear. Some excel and grow, others falter, and many die before graduation. Missions reinforce that jujutsu society is not nurturing — it is a crucible.

Differences Between Tokyo and Kyoto

The Tokyo and Kyoto schools differ in culture. Tokyo, under Gojo’s influence, leans toward modern teaching, valuing individuality and creativity. Students are encouraged to embrace unique strengths, even at the cost of tradition. Kyoto, by contrast, is stricter, aligned with the higher-ups, and emphasizes obedience, discipline, and hierarchy. Rivalries between the two schools often culminate in exchanges, tournaments, or joint missions, offering chances for alliances and conflict.

This difference creates narrative depth. A Tokyo student might mock Kyoto’s rigidity, while a Kyoto student might sneer at Tokyo’s lack of discipline. Together, these contrasts reinforce the political divides within jujutsu society.

Daily Risks and Lifestyle

Even within Jujutsu High, sorcerer life is not safe. Weak curses sometimes infiltrate campus, or cursed objects go awry during training. Students live knowing that even their dorms are not fully free of danger. Injuries are frequent, both physical and psychological. Teachers stress the importance of rest, but missions often demand students return to the field prematurely.

Despite this, sorcerers still carve out normality where they can. They eat traditional meals, relax in communal baths, and attend festivals or civilian outings under cover of barriers. These moments contrast the violence of their work, grounding the story in humanity.

Narrative Applications

For your game, daily life provides more than downtime. It allows character development, foreshadowing, and emotional stakes. NPC students may:

  • Confide insecurities during quiet nights.

  • Display unusual quirks or habits that later influence combat.

  • Train obsessively, risking exhaustion.

  • Form rivalries or crushes that complicate missions.

  • Dream of civilian lives they can never have.

This creates a cycle: players experience bonds in peace, then feel loss when those bonds are threatened in battle.

Closing Thought

Daily life and training remind players that sorcerers are human first, soldiers second. They study, laugh, bicker, and form bonds, but every class and mission reinforces the harsh truth that many will not survive long. By weaving these details into the world, NPCs feel authentic and alive, and battles carry greater weight. A sorcerer is not just a fighter — they are a student, a friend, and a fragile human trying to live in a cursed world.