10 Chapter 10

"Hello, I'm Geto, and this is Shoko, we are Satoru's classmates," He said with a smile, sticking a hand out to me, "You look like you'll make a fine sorcerer in the future, unlike your cousin,"

"Hey, if anyone is the second-rate sorcerer, it's you, Suguru," Satoru clapped back at his friend good-naturedly

"Since I'm the only one that can use positive energy, doesn't that make me the first-rate, while you too, are the second-rates?" Shoko said nonchalantly with a shrug.

That comment seemed to take the wind out of both of their sails, but after a moment, Suguru and Satoru looked at each other and then responded together, "Nah,"

Shoko just rolled her eyes, and I saw a tick mark appear on Yaga's forehead. He turned and looked like he was about to chastise both boys, but before he did, he paused. He seemed to think better of chastising the next clan head of one of the most powerful clans in his own home. After he paused mid-action, her turned to my mother first and congratulated her before then turning and getting down on one knee to face me.

"Congratulation, my boy, I hope to see you at Tokyo Jujutsu High in a few years," He said with a laugh and a pat on the back.

Then he got up and departed alongside Geto and Shoko. Geto gave a friendly wave as he departed, leaving Satoru as the only one left. He stood silently for a moment, his boyish and whimsical attitude dropped for a moment as he regarded me. He looked more serious than I had ever seen him, but the seriousness was gone almost as fast as it had appeared. His face morphed into a lopsided grin as he spoke, but I could sense the undercurrent of seriousness behind his next words.

"I expect good things from you, Arima. When I take over, the Gojo clan will reach new heights," He said with a laugh, causing my Mom to laugh at his foolish expression.

I knew better than to dismiss his words due to his goofy delivery. I turned to hide my face from my mom subtly and put a serious expression on my face to show him that I understood, then I gave a thumbs up. He chuckled once more and left, following after his friends. However, I saw him pause and look through the crowd to regard someone for a brief moment before moving on. I followed his gaze and looked at the area in the crowd where Satoru had been looking. I froze as I found the figure he was looking at in the crowd.

Dozens of notifications about the leveling up of Heightened Senses passed by, but my eyes remained locked on the figure of Toji Zen'in. He stood in the middle of the crowd, seemingly going unnoticed by all the sorcerers around him. He took a large bite of the candy apple he was holding as his eyes tracked Satoru through the crowd for a moment before turning back to me. I saw a trace of surprise in him as our eyes met for a brief moment. He broke off our eye contact with a slight, almost mocking, bow before he disappeared back into the crowd.

I tried to tack him with my eyes and Heightened Senses to get a few more levels out of it, but it was like the man was a ghost. 'No wonder he's called the Sorcerer Killer. If Satoru hadn't spotted him, then I would never have ever known he was there,' I thought with a bit of concern. I didn't think he was here on a job to kill me or anything, but it wasn't a comfortable thought that people like Toji or Maki in the future would be able to sneak up on me so easily. I shook my head and snapped out of it as I went back to the celebration to enjoy my awakening of cursed energy.

- - -

The next day I woke up bright and early to head to the training ground, "Good to see that the celebration didn't make you lazy," The clan head said as I arrived.

"Lazy isn't in my vocabulary," I said with a chuckle as I walked over to the clan head.

"Good, we are practicing cursed energy manipulation and reinforcement today," he said as I approached.

As soon as he finished speaking, I sensed him approaching at high speed, just in time to cover my body with cursed energy. I looked up and saw his fist an inch away from my face. He backed up as soon as I had processed that he had been there at all, except this time, I was able to track him fairly easily with my reinforced body. I heard a few level-up notifications, but I didn't divert my attention away from the clan head.

"Good, but not great. If I had been actually aiming to kill you, then I doubt whether you would have been able to handle that attack." He said as he launched forward again and began to engage me in combat.

He moved extremely fast and hit extremely hard. Despite having a massive amount of cursed energy and high output, my cursed energy lagged behind my control by a solid second or two. However, just like with all my skills, the more I continued to fight against the clan head, the more my skill levels increased. As we fought, a stray thought slipped into my mind. 'I wonder if a Black Flash is basically a free boost to my Cursed Energy Manipulation skill,' I thought idly. I was broken from my thoughts went a boot blasted me in the face, breaking my nose and tossing me across the training ground.

Blood gushed from my shattered nose as I tried to stem the bleeding with a hand. I spit on the ground, noticing that my teeth had shredded my lips when I had taken the blow as well. Bloody saliva trickled from my mouth even when I held it closed due to numerous holes that went all the way through my lips and into my mouth. I groaned, but even as the pain flared sharply, I could feel my Pain Tolerance skill responding in turn. I looked up to find the clan head walking over casually. He reached down a grabbed my head, his palm covering my entire face.

I felt a mysterious rush of energy enter my head from the clan head's palm. When he pulled his hand away, I noticed that my wounds had closed, but I could also see sweat beading the clan head's face. As we sat there for a moment catching our respective breaths, he turned away and returned to his original position. When he turned, he spoke.

"What was that? Losing focus in a fight, even if it is a spar, is a good way to get yourself killed. Sure, I am going easy on you, but I won't be pulling my punches too much from now on," He said, raising a hand and clenching his fist.

I immediately jumped out of the way, but dodging Blue was nearly impossible. It was like trying to dodge the force of gravity. My body was forcibly dragged into the air alongside random debris in the training field. I covered my head with my arms and concentrated on reinforcing my body as much as possible. Then, the crushing force descended on me as the debris sucked into Blue with me began to compact and crush my body. I roared as I flooded my body with as much cursed energy as possible before uncurling my body, ripping apart the force holding me in the air.

I dropped to the ground right in time to see the clan head charging a Red. Before I even fully processed it, I was already leaping away from my previous location. The ground under me shattered as my body hurtled through the air. I watched as the Red sailed wide of me by only a hair's breadth. I didn't even notice the improved flow of my cursed energy as I landed and dug my arm into the ground, pulling out and crushing rocks into smaller pieces and then launching them at the clan head.

He effortlessly dodged them and prepared another Blue, but I was already closing the distance between up. I lept high and crashed down just out of his reach, creating a shockwave of cursed energy that rushed forward and caused the clan head to stumble back. He waved his hand, manifesting a Blue behind my back that ripped at me, trying to tug me backward. I grit my teeth and dug my arms and feet into the earth before gathering as much cursed energy in my limbs as possible. Then I blasted forward, trying to break out of the pull of Blue.

My forward momentum ended up pulling free of the Blue, and I sped toward the old man. My leg sailed through the space that his head had occupied a moment earlier, causing him to duck low. I landed and turned as fast as possible, filling my fist with cursed energy as I lunged at the clan head's back. He turned just in time to see the cursed energy sparking black. I could see his face morph into a manic grin as he his fist blurred forward to match mine, both of us lost in concentration.

There was a sound like screaming metal being horribly bent out of true as our fists collided. The black energies engulfed us both for a moment before everything came crashing back to normal. I barely even noticed my body rag-dolling as I was blown backward. I did manage to catch a glimpse of the clan head in the position we clashed in, not moving back at all, but his arm looked like it had been run through a meat grinder multiple times.

His feral grin and his eyes glowing with ecstasy as he fell to one knee burned itself into my mind as everything went black. I had never considered myself battle crazy before, but after that match I defiantly saw the appeal.

- - - (Chapter End) - - -

Skill levels go Brrrr