Chapter 17: Fall 5 times but rise 6

Once Shin regained his stamina he looked around and noticed a pair of wooden practice poles, an idea crossed his mind upon picking up one. With his free hand, he grabbed the other pole and yelled out to Maki to catch it as he tossed the pole in her direction. Maki caught it and grinned looking back at Shin before pointing it at Shin and taunting him with her hand to attack her.

Feeling an immense sensation of competitiveness, Shin rushes towards Maki striking at her torso with the goal of immobilizing her by striking at her legs the moment Maki backs up but instead of backing up Maki effortlessly redirects the strikes. With each failed attempt, Shin's temper rises by an inch as he furiously increases his frequent attacks, yet it changes nothing.

After five minutes, Shin stopped his assault to gain air while Maki was still smiling, enjoying herself knowing there was a tremendous gap between Shin and her experience and mastery. Once Shin calmed down, he approached her striking Maki's right, left, and lower body area but all of which failed as Maki, again, parried and blocked each attempt. 

Again Shin backs up this time by observing Maki Shin is hoping he could find a vulnerable opening, however, this is cut short by Maki's pursuit catching Shin off guard by her sudden offense. Maki's quick attacks and aggressiveness managed to push Shin back with every swing, Shin tried to replicate Maki's previous defense but unfortunately he for some reason could not successfully pull it off. Shin's failed attempts resulted in him receiving blow after blow until finally, Maki sent him back further with a strong kick to the chest, knocking the wind out of Shin.

Staggnately getting up, Shin could not help but ask himself, 'Why? Why can't I land a hit? Why can't I keep up? Why can't I do what she does?'. These questions fill Shin's consciousness as he grits his teeth and pushes back, as he watches Maki's handling and movement Shin is still perplexed as to why he could not replicate it. Shin was about to strike out of desperation but before he could do so Maki's sudden hand motioned for him to stop and managed to stop him in his track.

Maki, smiling, said, "Shin. You're trying to imitate me, aren't you? And you're wondering why you can't, aren't you? It's simple, you don't have enough experience, that's it. I can show you a technique that's easy to learn but a bit difficult to master."

Shin, tired, replied, "Yes please!"

Maki motioned for Shin to stand in front of her before ordering him to attack her, without questioning for reason, Shin did as he was told and attacked. As Shin strikes, stabs, and jabs, Maki would block and parry while at the same time counter effortlessly, this technique piques Shin's interest immensely. 'She's blocking and attacking at the same time? It looks so simple though, what's so hard about mastering this?'.

Once Shin stopped his assault, Maki then ordered Shin to try and replicate her actions one-to-one while she attacked. 'Easy.' As Maki attacked Shin would replicate Maki's technique as he spectated but to his dismay, he could not counter with each block and parried nor could he block when he tried to attack. 'What the hell is going on?'

As Maki stops Shin suggests Maki continue her assault until he can successfully copy the technique, without question, Maki obliges and continues her offense. After one hour Shin's hand and body were aching, and by three hours Shin's arms were starting to be covered in bruises, until finally by seven hours Shin was obviously showing signs of exhaustion as he struggled to maintain standing before finally his body gave out and he collapsed.

By the time Shin woke up he was in his room, no longer feeling the pain nor could he see the bruises, he remained lying on the bed while remembering Maki's demonstration frame-by-frame. Despite copying the movement exactly one-to-one the result was as clear as heaven and earth.

The next morning, Shin quickly returned back to the gym after finishing his daily 10km run and once again practiced Maki's technique. Shin image trained but after three hours of doing so, he was unsuccessful, causing him to feel frustrated and impatient. While sitting against the wall resting, Shin senses Maki's presence entering the gym.

Once inside Maki was about to greet Shin but instead had to quickly catch a pole that was passed to her, looking at Shin she could tell Shin was hungry for more practice. Without wasting more time, the pair quickly spar, but of course Shin, again, lost because of the skill gap. Seeing Shin on the floor with a face of displeasure Maki once again ordered Shin to watch her perform the technique and again Shin studied her from her way of breathing, moving, handling, and stepping, but he still could not figure out why he could not perform it.

After an hour of moving and performing Maki tried a different approach, a style that is more mental than physical as she sits down not too far from Shin while suggesting he take a seat on the ground.

Maki, a bit tired, asked, "Shin, do you think the reason is because of physical or mental?"

Shin, confused, replied, "Physical? I don't see how I'm failing because of my mentality."

Maki, smiling, said, "It's reasonable to think that way and I could be wrong, so this time I want you to stop thinking of using this technique as attacking or defending but instead think of it as a whole as a simple action. Kinda like holding a door where you turn the knob and push but instead you should just see it as just opening."

Shin, thinks for a second, and replies, "So see it as just a simple action. Alright, let's do it again."

Happy with Shin's new attitude, Maki got into position before going into offense, in one hour Shin was able to change his way of thinking, by three hours Shin was able to successfully perform the technique by 10%, by six hours Shin had increased the success to 40%, before finally after ten hours Shin has finally grasped the idea and motion to performed the action ay 100%.

Feeling ecstatic, Shin could not help but let out a loud victory scream before falling onto his knees due to the fatigue accumulating within the ten hours of sparring without rest. Maki tumbled a bit before holding herself up and congratulating Shin on his success as she exited the gym. Once his fatigue lessened, Shin returned back to his room and rested before being needed a month later by Goto to meet at the front of the school.

Once they met, Gojo quickly informed Shin that he was tasked with eliminating the influx of curses, most were low grades but there was a good chance of encountering high-grade curses, in an area most usually don't approach but still have strong emotions for. Once the meeting was over Shin was about to head back but was promptly stopped by Gojo when he was suddenly given his staff and a radiation detector. Confused, Shin was going to question Gojo why he needed to go immediately but Gojo swiftly encircled Shin in a circular ritual before sending him away.

One second Shin was in front of the school but upon blinking he was transported to an unknown area, as if he was teleported. 'Did he just warp me?! And he gave me a radiation detector, wait a minute, am I near Fukushima?! Gojo! What the fuck!?'

Panicking, Shin examined the detector and noticed it was showing 300 - 310 mSv. 'At least I'm safe from the radiation.' Looking at it again Shin noticed that he was fine as long the radiation did not pass 1000 mSv. Looking around, Shin did not notice at first but the surrounding nature was quiet, not in a way when nature is calm and at peace but rather when something threatening is in the area. 

Readying himself, Shin closed his eyes to focus on sensing the world around him and was able to sense a conflict occurring quite far in the East direction prompting Shin to traverse the land while glancing at his meter every now and then. Upon reaching the source, Shin was met with a sight he'd experienced but on a much larger scale, a massacre. What Shin sees is waves of curses on top of curses fighting, killing, devouring, and ripping one another to bits.

'I could wait this out and just wait for them all to kill one another but that would be boring and I am hungry for some action with this technique.' With a wide smile, Shin jumped into the hellhole, and carnage was commenced. Shin within this time felt lively, as he cracked and crumpled with each counter and moved efficiently with each parried and block. It did not matter if Shin was fighting two, six, nine, or twenty curses at the same time, he would effectively vanquish the threat and move on to another. Luckily, the increased deaths and residual curses have caught the attention of distant curses, resulting in the increased number and curse grade, yet that did very little to deter Shin from enacting absolute carnage.

[Level Up] [Level Up] [Level Up] [Level Up]

As six hours passed, Shin's fatigue was creeping up on him before finally, Shin rested on top of a large curse that was missing the upper half of its jaw on top of a mountain of corpses. While looking down and around Shin was amused by the sight of some curses being wary of Shin's presence as the mass surrounded the mountain and stared, some even felt fear and pressure from Shin's stare. The moment Shin walked down the mountain calmly, he sensed a unique presence among the masses whose scent was a bit peculiar to the rest.

This prompted Shin to grab ahold of one curse by the head before launching that curse toward the mysterious individual but was then surprised to see the figure wielding a staff. This unique curse swiftly clears the area around it by swinging its staff with such precision and force that it was as if it had a gun. 'Show me how you use the staff, I want your technique, I want your style, I want that weird staff, I want to devour you.' Shin runs toward the figure while grabbing and throwing curses at it but that results in nothing as the figure effortlessly swipes them away.

Once Shin was in range, he quickly swiped at the figure but his attack was blocked before the figure could counter Shin had already enacted his next offensive move, just like he was taught, resulting in him sending the figure a few feet back. The attack was solid and the figure clearly damaged decided to get serious as it stabbed one of the surrounding curses and let its staff consume it as if the staff itself was a living weapon. 'I want it even more now.'

Feeling a kindle of excitement Shin runs toward the figure offensively striking and lunging, the curse does the same as they both start enjoying the conflict showing no care for the other curses who were too fearful of interrupting a fight between two monsters. Shin's technique greatly helped him land many solid blows to the curse's legs and torso but the curse's staff would help rejuvenate its wielder back to shape when it decided to kill its own brethren. 'What an annoying staff.'

The fight went on to last seven hours as Shin's fatigue was slowly accumulating to the point he was now breathing heavily while the curse was still tireless. The mass around them shrunk massively as they were caught up in the crossfire, thankfully, the number was no longer attracting curses within the massive area radius. Seeing Shin in a disadvantaged state, the curse saw a golden opportunity to release its domain expansion; Endearing Dojo.