28 Thoughts

Shuichi waited quietly in the small room that he had been detained in. It had been about an hour after Yaga left, though there wasn't actually a clock in the room so it was quite difficult to tell.

The time that he had been here, he had been taking complete advantage of the talisman prison he had been contained in. Though it would be a lie to say that he wasn't disappointed with the prison.

And at the same time, he was pleasantly surprised at the power of his cursed technique, Hard to kill. Forget about spending 3 hours in the place, the cursed technique rendered the effect of the seals almost nil in nothing more than 20 minutes.

It was something that he couldn't complain too much about. The increase in adaptation speed might also be attributed by his training. In the time, he had been actively trying to move his cursed energy against the impedence provided by the seals to improve cursed energy control. Such a method would have done wonders for cursed energy control for him.

Obviously, it was not something conventional sorcerers could do, nor was it something he would have been able to do if not for his abnormal ease in controlling cursed energy due to cursed heart and hard to kill.

However, hard to kill adapted to the make the seals almost ineffective, so much so that he could already utilize both cursed heart and hundred armament refining to how he would without the seals.

So, while he was waiting in the chamber, a thought came to mind.

'Why stop here?'

And so, using his third technique, Hundred Armament Refining, he directly upgraded some of the seals into higher grade cursed objects. Normally, curse talismans are not refined into cursed tools. Such a behavior is not only wasteful, but also downright stupid.

Cursed tools as they are, are supposed to be long lasting, with very few exceptions. Not only do they take a large amount of work to be made, the type of curse imbued into them highlights their value exponentially. Talismans on the other hand, while equally as hard to create, do not require complex procedures like cursed tool creation.

In fact, if the cursed energy control of a person was above a certain level, they were already qualified to be able to create cursed talismans; it was just that the prerequisite was too high even for an experienced sorcerer.

Regardless, talismans could be created using certain guidelines in accordance with the jujutsu laws and functions. About 32 different ways were registered into the jujutsu domain for the making of talismans, each equally as easy.

Long story short, talismans were made to be disposable. Once they were used, they could be replaced. But to make a talisman into a cursed tool?

It was something that the jujutsu society as a whole would consider to be a massive waste. But for Shuichi, who had a cursed technique solely based on the making of cursed tools, it was nothing too bad.

While making the third cursed technique, Shuichi had some specific points in mind. And well, the description he typed into the floating screen was just that.

Having been given 5 points, he divided them 2 to 3. Already having experimented with his technique hard to kill about inputting similar prompts, he wanted to capitalize on that.

The first two points consisted of a single thing. It was the ability to accurately gauge a cursed tool, its properties, usage, cursed technique and everything in between. In the second prompt, he did try to push the boundaries a bit, mentioning the ability to accurately judge a cursed phenomenon upon seeing it. Though it got nerfed, with the new prompt being he could understand all properties of cursed tools, along with being able to gauge cursed phenomenon only if he had relevant information pertaining to it.

And that did not mean assumptions, it was downright to the point observation made on the spot. But if he could attain the information, he could understand the phenomenon completely.

The last three prompts were all expended to a single ability. Being able to imbue any object with a powerful curse to turn it into cursed tools. The cursed tools can directly be converted, and even be imbued with a cursed technique depending on the amount of time he spends refining the object, and the amount of cursed energy spent.

And turns out, stacking up 3 prompts did the trick indeed.

The cursed technique was severely buffed, with a few unintended and useful abilities that developed from it. The most obvious being the sheer potency of the ability.

It had been exaggerated to the point that he could turn the very air, the atmospheric moisture and even the ground itself into cursed tools. Something that he was quite thankful about.

Another buff that the ability had gained was something that he had used a lot in the fight against Gojo, it was the ability to explode cursed tools.

In the fight against Gojo, he had simply refined the air around him into cursed tools, and at the moment of impact, detonated the cursed tools to cause an exponentially powerful explosion.

Something that mimicks the sparks of black, such that it increases the power of the resultant strike many folds. Obviously, the power generated is directly proportional to the cursed tool sacrificed. Not to mention even at its strongest, the sparks of black would still massively outclass the cursed tool explosion.

The final ability that had manifested was more of a bonus. It was that the cursed tools he made would continue to aggregate more and more cursed energy into themselves, growing stronger as they are fed with negativity.

Seeing such a thing, anyone else that was in Shuichi's place would have the exact same thoughts as he did.

It was to create an infinite money glitch by abusing the heck out of it!

With the cursed heart enabling him to absorb cursed energy from cursed tools, and his refined armaments being able to aggregate more cursed energy as time progressed, it was basically a perpetually increasing machinations of cursed energy!

And it came with practically no cost! All he had to do was spend some cursed energy to refine the tools, something which could be recovered in a matter of seconds due to his heart, wait for a few months and he would get exponential amounts of cursed energy back.

It was glorious! Oh, the pure euphoria!

'Ahem*' Shuichi shook himself out of his idle thoughts, turning his head to look at his new and improved bindings. Something that repressed all curses in the bindings and the natural flow of their cursed energy by an astounding 130%.

Meaning not only does it make all trials of curse manipulation utterly useless, it makes for an active impedence in even the act of trying to manipulate the energy.

It made it seem like the energy itself became conscious, acting like a spoiled child and going against the orders of its possessor.

The previous bindings only made for a resistance of about 73%. Shuichi had almost doubled the efficiency with just a simple refinement on his part that barely took any effort at all.

Of course, when Yaga would come through the door, Shuichi would revert the cursed tools back into their normal forms.

With a smile, Shuichi again looked at his cursed energy skill tree.

[Cursed Energy Manipulation(2714)]

[Cursed Energy Reinforcement(2107)]

[Black Flash(24)]

'That feels about right...' Shuichi nodded to himself.

Circulating his cursed energy while actively suffering through resistance, all while Hard to Kill was actively helping him get better cursed energy manipulation while rendering the resistance made through binding chains redundant seemed to speed up his grinding speed by a large margin.

Obviously, none of this would be possible without any one of his techniques missing.

Cursed Heart and Hard to Kill made for a spectacular synergy in the first place, however Hundred Armament Refining capitalized on that fact. By itself, it elevated the effectiveness of the techniques to new heights that would otherwise prove to be a challenge; or at least take a long time to reach.

Practically speaking, Shuichi wouldn't be surprised if he already had monstrous amounts of cursed energy control.

To put into perspective, even with his cursed energy momentum and fluidity being limited by 130% he was still able to exercise control over it to the point that he had been when he fought the baby curse.

Considering his curse efficiency at that point in time, it would not be a stretch to say that his efficiency had reached something like 90%.

Obviously, he would have to get out of the bindings properly to accurately measure himself.

And so, with a clear mind and happy thoughts, Shuichi continued to train out his cursed energy control.

~~~

~~~

~~~

An hour later, the door to the chamber opened up with a creaking sound, along with the grinding hum buzz of metal.

Inside of the chamber, Shuichi, who had enveloped the entire bindings with his cursed energy to increase their effectiveness to 200% quickly took back his cursed energy.

The entire imbued curse in the seals and chains of the room was immediately reteieved; rendering them back to their original forms.

And almost immediately, Shuichi's pupils dilated in surprise.

Whoosh~

In the split second that the entire room's ambience changed, his perception of the world itself was flipped on its head. The curse energy seeping into the seals, the external reserves of energy, flowing through his body like a raging river, Yaga Masamichi's cursed energy signature that had now become visible upon the opening of the door; everything came apart.

'T-this is...' Shuichi stopped. Reeling in the feeling of boundless power that he seemed to hold at this very moment.

If before his cursed energy was like a spoiled brat throwing a fit, his cursed energy at this moment was like an obedient, loyal soldier. Ready to act at a moment's notice.

The difference was night and day.

'I never did get the chance to observe the changes after black flash.' He mused as Yaga finally entered the room and Shuichi got out of his supposed time dilation.

"Have you decided?" Yaga asked, not wanting to waste any time.

In response, Shuichi gave a gentle yet cunning smile.

"Indeed, that would seem."

~~~

A/N: I wanted this chapter to be longer. Somewherere aboout 5k words. However, I realized that could not be made possible with the time frame. I do apologize for the late uploads.

I hope you understand that I have a life outside of this fanfic. I only started this as a way to improve my writing and experiment with new stuff.

Anyway, heads up; I am about to get out of highschool and in preperation for a big exam. More specifically, NEET 2024. The ones from India might have more knowledge about it. Regardless, I want to say that uploads might be late up until May. After that, you might expect a chapter every 2 days.

But until then, my hands are tied. My schedule just doesn't support too much writing.