8 Shadows vs Frames

Naoya turns his head towards his father with speed, which makes me wonder why his neck didn't break.

"What are you saying, old man? I am the true heir; I am supposed to fight in the brawl! I am way stronger and more talented than this little brat who only learned about Jujutsu three weeks ago."

Naobito looked at his arrogant son and shook his head.

"You might be stronger because of the age difference of 12 years, but you're not more talented than Megumi."

"Bullshit!" Naoya replied.

"I'll show you."

Naobito then stands in front of me and gets into a special stance while saying, "Falling Blossom Emotion."

His Cursed Energy suddenly covered his body. It seemed to spike out at random intervals. I just knew that if my shikigami touched his spiky Cursed Energy, they would get pierced.

"This is Falling Blossom Emotion. It is an anti-domain technique that counters the Sure Hit attack of a domain the moment it makes contact with my Cursed Energy. It can also slightly counterattack cursed techniques by piercing them, but it isn't effective for physical attacks. This move took Naoya a week to learn when he was 10. I wonder how fast you learn this Megumi."

"Megumi won't be able to learn this. He's only six after all." Naoya said confidently.

Naoya turned his head towards me to insult me further but had his jaw hit the floor when he saw me already doing Falling Blossom Emotion after one try.

'This feels very different from a Simple Domain. Putting it into words, Simple Domain is defensive, while Falling Blossom Emotion feels more proactive and offensive. Both have their uses; I could use Simple Domain for...'

Naobito broke me out of my train of thought by loudly proclaiming, "HAHA, you see that, Naoya. This TALENTLESS brat learned it after seeing it once while I had to coach you for a whole week."

"Shut up, old man!" Naoya replied, "It doesn't matter; I'm still going to win this fight!"

"That's the spirit!" Naobito said it with a big smile on his face.

'What a drag. I knew this was coming sooner or later because, with me being the Heir, would not sit well with Naoya. I'm just surprised he didn't try anything before. Or did he?'

"Hey, Clan Head did you order the guards in front of the Armory to not let me in?" I asked Naobito.

Naobito replied, "No, what are you even talking about?"

While Naobito was asking me that, I could see Naoya just smirking in the corner of my eye.

'Well, that settles it; he's undermining my authority within the clan by giving orders to not let me have my way. Right now, it is just the armoury, but after some time, I will not be allowed in other places or at important meetings between the high-ranking members of the clan. I can fix this problem by beating Naoya, because in this Clan, strength is everything, and the clan will follow my orders and not his. Still, if I get the chance, I should kill Naoya during the 'spar', but make it look like an accident.'

"Doesn't matter. Are you ready, Naoya?" I said while putting my hands up and reinforcing myself with Cursed Energy.

"I'm always ready," Naoya said while adopting a similar stance.

"It seems you two are fired up. 3,2,1 go." Naobito said quickly while backing away.

I jumped off the ground and kicked my right leg toward his head, which caught him by surprise, as he thought we were going to have a fistfight. He still managed to block it by lifting his left arm and catching my leg in the process. Not giving up, I spit in his eyes and sucker-punched him across the jaw, which made his head wobble back and forth.

I tried to continue my assault, but he threw me a distance away from him, towards the ground.

"You little fuck. How dare you punch and spit on me?!"

"Sucks to suck," I said while shrugging my arms like it was just a life fact.

"I'm going to kill you!"

'Seems like I managed to provoke him. This is good because when a sorcerer's emotions are a mess, they will not be at 100%.'

Naoya seemed to angrily approach me but stopped out of nowhere. He breathed in and out like he was trying to calm himself.

'So, he's not completely stupid.'

"You know Megumi; I know all about your Cursed Technique, but you don't know mine. I'll be nice and give you some information. It is called Projection..."

I quickly interrupt him by saying, "You can shove your explanation up your ass. I already know about your Cursed Technique and The Showing Your Hand Tactic."

'If I remember right, is that Projection Sorcery allows the user to move at twenty-four frames per second and traps anyone who disobeys that rule inside a frame for one second. If they heavily break the law of physics, then they will also get frozen for one second."

"Rude, but okay," Naoya says like he doesn't care.

He then suddenly disappeared from my sight. I felt a tap on my back.

"You should respect your seniors." I froze not out of fear but because of his Cursed Technique.

He got in front of me and then punched me in the face, which caused me to fly backwards.

Landing on my ass is not a great feeling. Something Naoya knew as I could see him make a smile that reached his eyes.

I stood up and tried to make hand signs for Nue so I could have the high ground where he couldn't reach me and just rain lightning on his ass. But he noticed and used his Cursed Technique to appear behind me and freeze me again.

This time he kicked me in the diaphragm, knocking all the air out of my lungs. It sends me barreling backwards back on to the ground.

Landing on the ground with my face toward the sky gave me some time to think about things I could do.

'If he sees me making my hand signs, he will stop it. I also can't do 24 moves in a second because I don't have Maki's enhanced body. He keeps using his Cursed Technique to play around with me and keeps going behind me to catch me off guard. What should I do?'

Most 6-year-olds would cry if they got beat up by their cousin. Megumi, who was flat on his back while looking towards the clear blue sky, had a big smile on his face and determination in his eyes.