Ten Shadows in the Heian Era

[z Suicide Eznutt z]

Hello there! This is technically not my first time posting on this site, but the other attempt was a mess and upset the mods lol cuz a friend was doing the copy pasting for me, but anyway. I'm posting the first eight chaps in one here to catch you guys up with the public chaps on the other sites I'm posting on, so you get a chonky 40k first chapter lol.

Updates will basically just be whenever I feel like it rather than a schedule, it's a new thing I'm trying out since I've written 3 fics and burnt myself out with 3 schedules lmao.

I wasn't originally going to post here because fixing the formatting is annoying (Idk if I've done it right) but I was convinced by multiple people saying you guys like JJK here, so here I am, I hope you enjoy

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Chapter 1: Reincarnated in the Past​

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Reincarnation is a strange thing. In Western nations, contemplating your own reincarnation is considered a foolish, childish thing to do. Yet, in many Eastern nations, reincarnation is not considered a silly fiction, but a simple fact of life.

Grass is green, the sky is blue, and the Wheel of Samsara spins eternal, granting our souls eternal life so long as we remain ignorant.

So, ultimately, I didn't find myself overly shocked when I was reborn after death. Truthfully, I can accept reincarnation as a fact of life easily enough.

The part that has me confused however, is why I remember. Reincarnation being a fact isn't incredibly shocking. But if Reincarnation is what is true, then why do I alone remember my past life?

It's something that I used to worry about in the quiet nights. Mostly, I'd fret that my reincarnation was a mistake, and that I would get corrected.

I don't want that. I don't want to die.

But over time, nothing happened and my fear faded. In it's place, I found wonder.

I can't claim to understand how reincarnation works. I am not a God. But somehow, I found myself in the past.

I don't know when exactly, but I am at least centuries in the past, perhaps up to millennia.

And it is beautiful.

Not everything is an improvement of course. All the creature comforts I was used to are gone. The beds are less comfortable, the toiletries leave much to be desired and the endless entertainment of the internet is gone. Yet, after the first couple of years passed, I found myself not at all missing the internet.

My first memory in this world is looking up at an enormous Torii gate as a babe, abandoned in a basket before a small shrine.

Since then, I was taken in by the caretaker of this shrine, an elderly man I only know as Kinoshita-kamunushi, Kinoshita being his name and Kamunushi being his title.

When I was four I asked him why he wanted to go by -kamunushi rather than -san, -sama or -dono or something like that, and he told me that his late wife was the Miko of this shrine, and that it is all he has left of her.

So he insists on the honorific that explicitly decrees him as the man who tends to the shrine.

It felt bittersweet to me, hearing Kinoshita talk about his late wife. On one hand, she must have been a wonderful woman for their love to have been so deep, but on the other, she is gone. I never put much stock in pretending to be the child I am not, so I didn't worry about seeing too mature when I remarked that is is better to build fond memories you will later mourn than to live a life without any joy to lose.

He let me start helping around the shrine after that, saying that he can trust me to treat it with the proper respect.

Which I do. I make sure to follow his lessons, to go through the motions he taught me and to treat the kami with the respect they deserve, even if I can't find it in myself to truly worship them as he does. Part of it is simply because I don't know how real they are. Since I have reincarnated, I obviously believe there is some truth to spiritualism. But it's not like I've ever seen a kami or a youkai or anything like that.

Then there's the other reason. Pride. Pointless, undeserved pride. I don't even know why I am prideful when I have nothing to be proud of, but I am. I can bow out of respect, but the thought of bowing in supplication makes something in my gut twist. I just can't do it. I can't except that anything could exist above me.

It's stupid. But it is who I am. The best I can do, is ensure that my pride never degrades into arrogance.

Either way, this has been my life for the past six years.

Once I could walk by myself and take care of my own needs, I have been living by a simple routine.

I wake up, bathe, eat and then I wander.

The shrine is built in the middle of a small forest filled mostly with deer, with a small village at it's westernmost edge. And I have spent most of my days simply wandering the forest, enjoying the company of nature.

It took some time, but by now, the forest feels like home. The deer and the rabbits and all the other creatures of the forest no longer shy away from my presence. Often times, the deer will join me as I will spend my day lying in a small clearing next to a small, incredibly clear pond, simply enjoying the shaded sun and the feel of nature around me. Then I return to the shrine when I get hungry, and for the past two years I have then spent some time helping the old man prepare our food and clean the shrine.

Occasionally, someone will visit the shrine. Usually one of the villagers, but there was a traveller once, when I was three, who came to beg for food and shelter that was freely given. He told me stories of the greater world. Of great samurai slaying evil Oni. He told me of gardens of sakura trees that would bloom all at once and provide the most beautiful sight in the world.

I always knew I would want to explore eventually, but his stories only made that desire burn even brighter, to see more of this beautiful world. But I am young and have my whole life ahead of me. I will have plenty of time to explore as an adult. No need to rush.

Then in the evening, I join the old man for prayers, and then either go to bed, or return to my clearing in the woods and sleep with the deer in a small huddle.

It's beautiful in ways I couldn't have possible imagined in my previous life. I feel no need for constant entertainment, no need to constantly be doing something, and I don't live under pressure from any expectations.

Truly, this life of mine is beautiful, and I will never let it go.

But, shortly after my sixth birthday, my routine was disturbed.

I was just returning to the shrine for the evening, a basket of medicinal and ritualistic herbs held in one hand when I felt a sudden chill send shivers down my spine and goosebumps across my skin.

The forest around me fell into an unnatural silence and my breath came out foggy, as if the temperature had dropped a dozen degrees in an instant.

Something was wrong. That much was obvious. The drumming beat of my heart was the only sound filling my ears as I glanced around not finding any sign of the usually abundant life around me.

A branch snapped behind me and I spun around and immediately froze, my mind not comprehending, not believing what I was seeing.

A few dozen paces away from me, a grotesque monster loosely shaped like a deer but with the face of a human woman stared at me from around a tree.

Whatever it is, a Monster, a Cursed Spirit, a Mononoke, I didn't know. But when it's disgusting lips stretched into a too wide grin, I knew I was in danger.

I didn't really believe in kami, or youkai, or monsters or gods. But I also didn't believe in reincarnation before I reincarnated. For that reason alone, I didn't freeze for long.

I simply accepted that monsters existed, and I turned and I ran.

My bag of herbs was discarded without a thought, thrown behind me in some vague, instinctual hope that it will do something to preserve my life.

A basket of herbs obviously wouldn't do anything to deter a monster, but I wasn't thinking. I didn't think of anything at all. I just ran as fast as my small but thankfully well maintained body could handle.

I didn't think about where I was running too, I just kept moving. One foot in front of the other.

The sounds of movement behind me kept getting louder, a clear sign the monster was catching up with me, and could I have expected anything different? How could a child possibly escape a monster?

It was a pointless effort. I could feel my will being sapped away even as I ran. Every step I took felt heavier, more pointless. Every inch of distance gained and safety seemed even further away.

I wanted to give up. My chest was burning with excretion, my throat stung with every burning breath, and it's not like I could escape anyway. I might as well just give up. It's inevitable. I'm just a human. An animal. Prey to be hunted.

I should just give up.

My next step was slower than the last, and I felt an imaginary breath on the back of my neck when I realised what I was doing.

Why was I giving up? For what reason? Because it's pointless to run? Because a child cannot escape a monster?

So fucking what!?

Just because I'm going to die anyway, I should just give up and accept that fate!? Fuck that! I love my life! I love my forest! I love this world!

I don't care if it's inevitable! I'm not going to just give my life away! I haven't even seen the world! I haven't seen the mountains that pierce the sky! I haven't seen the fields of flowers! The rows of cherry blossoms! The grand festivals in the big cities!

I refuse to accept my death so easily!

My resolve burned in my gut and I abandoned any thoughts of giving up. My feet only moved faster, even as my muscles burned in protest, I ignored them, I ignored everything else and I ran with everything I had.

It must have only been minutes, I wasn't far in the first place, but it felt like hours before I saw the great Torii gate at the entrance of the shrine and the shimenawa wrapped shinboku behind it.

Without hesitation, I ran through the gate and dove for the sacred tree, grabbing hold of the sacred ropes that surround it and using them to haul myself up into the branches above.

Only then, did I dare turn around to face what has been chasing me.

Just as I do so, I watch as it charges the same path I took. Yet, instead of passing through the Torii gate as I did, there is a dull thud and a faint flash of some kind of translucent barrier that briefly ripples from the impact before fading away.

A part of me expected that to happen. That the shrine would protect me from what is probably some kind of evil spirit, but I am still surprised when it happens.

It's completely nonsensical that this monster would be stopped by some spiritualistic sacred site, but that is the sight that I was beholden to.

I couldn't help the half hysterical laugh that left me when the monster started clawing at the invisible barrier, it's too large maw of too sharp bared in a hateful snarl directed right at me.

But I couldn't feel any fear anymore. All I felt was joy. A euphoric bliss that I was alive, and, more than that, that the world was even more interesting than I ever could have imagined.

After all, if evil spirits and invisible barriers are real, then what else exists in this world? What interesting sights could I find? What interesting people could I meet? What beauty could I behold?

I didn't know, but I wanted to find out. I wanted to find out so badly that it burned.

In that moment, I felt a resolve settle in my heart more intense than anything I ever thought myself capable of.

And I knew, right then and there, that I would not stop, I would not die, until I had seen every beauty imaginable. From the tallest peaks to the lowest valleys. From fields of flowers to endlessly deep oceans. From the most evil spirits to the greatest Kami.

I would bear witness to it all, and the entire world would live in my memory.

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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
That's the end of the first chapter. I generally have an A/N at the end of every chap, but since I'm bulk posting here, I'm just gonna skip that for now :3

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Chapter 2: Teach Me​

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It was to the scene of me catching my breath in the branches of the shinboku, unable to tear my eyes away from the monster pacing in front of me, that Kinoshita made his appearance.

I only noted his arrival by the distinctive click-clack of his geta sandals, but I couldn't bring myself to turn to greet him. I just couldn't take my eyes off of the monster in front of me.

It is an ugly thing. Grotesque flesh stretched and torn in shapes only vaguely resembling a deer with a face that tries to be human and make some instinctual part of my brain want nothing more than to flee.

It's beautiful.

Like nothing I have ever seen before. Nothing even compares to it. But I have a feeling that it's not even special. That if I were to explore the outside world, sights like this thing would become commonplace.

I want that so badly it hurts.

I want to see new things. Things I had never even considered before. Whether they're beautiful or ugly like this thing, I don't care. So long as it's new. Unique.

"Narauko," the old man's voice snaps me out of my thoughts as he calls my name and, reluctantly, I tear my gaze away to face him. I'm not sure exactly what expression I'm making except that my cheeks are starting to hurt, but when we lock eyes, he sighs, a small, sardonic twitch of his lip being the extend of his displayed emotion.

Kinoshita is not a particularly stand out man. I don't know how old he is, but I'd guess somewhere around his late sixties. He is a thin man of average height with short grey hair and sharp, but worn features. Naturally, he is dressed in his pure white jōe, the ceremonial robes of a kamunushi, as usual, his tate-eboshi, a tall cap, sits primly on his head.

"What is the commotion?" He asks, and so much joy fills me that I almost fail to answer entirely.

For a moment, all I'm able to do is gesture wildly in the direction of the monster before I can find my voice, and even then, all I can say is, "Monster! Monster's are real!" As if that's a proper explanation.

I don't know if he understood or not. I don't know if he could. The weight behind those words, what they meant to me. Or maybe he did, considering his response.

"Indeed," he said, before he simply turned to the Torii and took three steps closer to the monster.

I didn't know what he was planning to do, but I knew I didn't want to miss it. I'm not sure I even blinked once as I watched him reach into his wide sleeve and pull out a paper talisman with some kind of script inked onto it between two fingers. If my grin could have grown further, it would have as he held the talisman between his fore and middle fingers and folded the rest of his hand into a fist, making a single handed gesture of prayer pointed at the sky.

He muttered some words I couldn't hear properly, and then in a move that is surely too fast for a man of his age, he whipped his hand out and through the talisman forward. The piece of paper flew like a knife right at the monster, but once it was halfway there, the talisman morphed and transformed into some kind of bird that tucked itself in tight and flew straight into, and then through the monster, it's beak acting like the tip of a spear.

A hole the size of my head was left in the bird's wake through the monster's torso and it let out a vile screech, like scratching glass that hurt my ears to listen to before the wound rapidly expanded and within seconds the entire monster simply disappeared into nothing.

I'm vibrating in excitement when the old man turns back to me, as if what he just did is something completely normal and not worth remarking.

"What was that?!" I squeal, completely unashamed of my own excitement. "What did you just do?!"

Kinoshita sighs again. "Get down from there first, and I will explain."

I almost eat dirt as I throw myself off the shinboku in a rush and it's only the respect he has taught me that keeps me silent as he walks into our home at an annoyingly casual speed.

Before I move to join him, I quickly turn back to the shinboku and bow twice, clap twice, and bow once more, as is proper for a prayer. "Thank you, Kami-sama, for granting me your protection."

With proper thanks given, I turn back to the house and quickly jog to catch up with the old man. In my haste, I never noticed the unnatural movement of the shinboku's branches.

Eventually, we find ourselves in the sitting room, with the old man preparing some tea for us both while I sit on my knees in front of our low table, unable to keep still.

"I had hoped," Kinoshita begins as he joins me, setting both cups of tea down and softly blowing on his own, "That I could have kept that side of the world hidden from you for longer."

"What?" I ask, my mind screeching to a halt. "You were hiding magic from me? On purpose?"

I wouldn't go so far as to say the revelation hurt me. Despite being in a child's body, I do actually have the maturity of an adult after all, but it's still disappointing to hear.

"Do you know why I named you Narauko?" He asks instead, the non sequitur earning a raised brow from me.

"It's the first word that came to mind?"

The old man's lip twitches upwards briefly before he shakes his head.

"Have you been slacking in your written language lessons?" He asks again and I pout.

"Kanji is so confusing! It's too many lines for each character! I might as well just draw pictures!" I complain, repeating a long standing argument between us.

I can barely read Kanji sometimes, that's my level of proficiency. In my last life, I remember that Japan had three written languages, Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana, and I'm pretty sure the latter two, or at least one of them, was less complicated.

But apparently neither of them exist yet. There's just Kanji. If I knew when the other two were invented, then I might be able to start guessing what year it is, but unfortunately I don't.

"If you had studied my lessons properly, you might know that the Kanji for Narau means to learn, or to practice. When combined with Ko your name can carry the meaning of 'Child who Learns'."

"Huh. That's nice to know, I suppose," I say, mild confusion tempering my excitement, "But what does any of that have to do with magic? And why you apparently wanted to hide it from me?"

"Because when I found you that day, and every day since, I have known that you are cursed."

"Cursed?" That doesn't sound good, am I going to die young? I don't think I could accept that. I apologise Izanami-Ōkami-sama, but if I die without seeing the beauty of the world, then I'm going to throw a fit down in Yomi.

"Calm yourself child, I do not mean curse in the typical sense of the word. Your affliction is much less physical."

"Come on Old Man, don't leave me in suspense here. What is my curse?" I ask, getting a little bit annoyed by the evasiveness.

His answer is simple.

"Curiosity."

"Curiosity?" I echo.

"Indeed. I have noticed it your entire life. Ever since I could hold you in one hand, ever since you could see, your eyes have been alight with naught but an endless curiosity. I had hoped to hide the supernatural side of the world from you, because I knew that once you caught a glimpse of it, you would pursue it endlessly. Curiosity is a dangerous thing, and yours will undoubtably bring you great trouble in the future."

A sigh leaves my mouth at his answer. On one hand, I want to get mad, but on the other, I can understand. Curiosity killed the cat is, or will be at least, a popular saying for a reason. Then again, satisfaction did bring it back.

Doesn't mean I'm particularly happy that he was going to hide something so beautiful from me, but I'm not mad either.

"If being true to myself means that I will encounter dangers, then that isn't for you to control. I can accept the consequences of my actions by myself, and if I do die while pursuing my passions, then that would be a good death."

"You are too young to be speaking of death, boy." Kinoshita scolds, before sighing once more. "Alas, you are not incorrect. For the past six years, I have raised you. I have fed you, cared for you, taught you. I allowed my fear of losing you to blind me from your own heart. For that, I apologise. As the one who has raised you, I should have known that you are mature enough to make your own decisions, despite your age."

With that, Kinoshita bows deeply from where he sits opposite me, and for a moment I am unable to respond, feeling small tears attempting to well in the corner of my eyes that I supress.

It's strange, but even after all of this time, I don't think I ever truly considered our relationship from the old man's perspective. I only really thought about myself, about this new world I found myself in and how I could enjoy it's wonders.

I only really thought of the old man caring for me as something convenient, like having roommates when you can't afford rent. He took care of me while I was a baby and in return he will have me to help him take care of the shrine until I became an adult.

That is as far as I thought about our relationship. I never even considered that he might think more of me. Which was stupid of me. This man has raised me. He taught me to speak, to prepare food, to live off the land and pay nature it's proper respect.

He's... He's my father.

Rubbing my eyes with one hand, I reach forward to raise his shoulder with my other. "Please don't bow to me. You were under no obligation to teach me everything you have so far, I have no right to demand anything of you, even if it is something I really really really want."

"If half the men in the Capital were half as mature as you are at six, then the world would be a much better place."

The conversation lulls as we both sip on our tea, comfortable in the silence until eventually my thoughts turn back to earlier and my excitement returns and I can no longer hold myself back.

"So," I say, letting the word hang in the air for a moment as I lean over the table with a grin on my face. "Magic?"

His lip quirks up on one side, which is about as close as I have ever been to seeing him smile. "Firstly, it is not magic. What you saw is called Jujutsu, or Onmyōdō. It is the art of utilizing Cursed Energy to produce phenomena, and the purpose of Jujutsu Sorcerers and Onmyōji is to eradicate Curses."

I immediately have so many questions that I don't even know where to start, something the old man seems to notice, but to avoid too much side-tracking, I decide to stick to asking about stuff as he explains it instead of jumping the gun.

"What's the difference between Jujutsu and Onmyōdō?" I ask, and Kinoshita nods his head.

"Good question. The answer is very simple however. Onmyōji work for the state, directly serving The Emperor, while Jujutsu Sorcerers are loyal to their clans, the Fujiwara being the most prominent of them in the current era. There are also Curse Users, who do not serve anyone and tend to be amongst the most vile people you will ever meet."

Nodding my head at the answer, I utterly fail to keep my questions simple and blurt out what I want to know the most. "How does it work?" I ask, almost breathless as I whisper my desperate request. "Teach me."

Holding my intense stare for a moment, Kinoshita nods and clears his throat, adopting a lecturing pose. "Jujutsu is the art of manipulating Cursed Energy to various purposes, from creating barriers, to activating talismans, to fuelling unique Cursed Techniques. Cursed Energy, is a spiritual manifestation of negative emotions, it is what births Cursed Spirits, when too many negative emotions conglomerate on an idea or a location. As practitioners of Jujutsu, we harness the very thing that creates our great enemy and use it to destroy them, as we have for thousands of years."

"All humans possess Cursed Energy, but the vast majority only possesses so much. A small amount that is not even significant enough for them to be able to see Cursed Spirits. However, every human leaks Cursed Energy, and that can add up into some powerful Cursed Spirits, such as the Smallpox Deity. Anyone who can see Cursed Spirits, such as you demonstrated earlier, is considered a Jujutsu Sorcerer. As Jujutsu Sorcerers possess far greater amounts of Cursed Energy than a human does, it is important that we learn to control the flow of our energy so that it does not leak and create Cursed Spirits. It was likely your own leaking Cursed Energy that created that Curse earlier, as it took the form of those deer you so love to spend time with. Which is why first lesson is to control your Cursed Energy."

I feel like a sponge as I absorb information like a starving man that finally found water. My unblinking eyes starting to sting by the time I hear the words 'first lesson' and I very nearly jump up and dance.

"How?" I ask, too excited to get more than one word out.

"First, you must understand it's feel," he says before holding out a hand, palm up, and then his hand starts to glow, a faint, blueish colour forming around the limb. "Can you see it?" He asks and I nod, not trusting my voice. "Good. Now, feel it." He says before reaching the hand over and pressing it against my chest.

It feels... Cold.

Not cold like snow, it's not the temperature that's cold. It's... I don't know how to describe it. It feels like emotional pain. Like that feeling you get in your chest when someone says something that just, genuinely hurts. Like when someone you care about brushes off your passion, whatever it is, and tells you they don't care.

It feels like that. That tightness, the weight. Bitter.

I can't stop smiling. The feeling almost makes me want to cry and that makes me want to laugh.

"Use my Cursed Energy as a reference and search within yourself for your own."

Following the old man's instructions, I close my eyes and focus inwards. It takes a moment, but I feel it. And then, I can't stop feeling it. It's like now that I know it's there, it's stopped hiding, I couldn't ignore its presence if I tried.

It almost makes me wonder how I could have ever missed it, how I could have lived without noticing it at all. And once I feel it in me, I feel it everywhere.

My eyes open filled with such wonder that I miss the brief expression of surprise on Kinoshita's face as I was too busy looking around the world with new eyes.

Everything... Everything just got more beautiful. All the while, my desire to learn, to know and to see everything I can only grows.

"Good," Kinoshita states, bringing my attention back to him. "I see you have awakened to your Cursed Energy properly now. Now, try to bring it forth, as I did." He says, and I do.

I hold out my hand, just as he did, and I push the Cursed Energy in my hand past my skin and into the air. A gasp of childlike glee leaves me when my hand lights up in a similar blue hue, though my Cursed Energy looks darker than his, like a pot of ink has been spilled in it.

"Impressive." He notes, "Most Sorcerers make the mistake of believing that Cursed Energy is borne in the gut to flow around the body and end up limiting themselves."

Shrugging to myself, I just respond honestly. "I figure, when you curse someone, you don't curse any specific organs, you just curse the entire person, so I assumed Cursed Energy would just be a part of us, like our soul or something. Overlapping."

Kinoshita nods his head but moves on. "Now, for the rest of today, I want you to gain control over your Cursed Energy. Make it flow in constant motion, throughout your entire body. Feel it. Command it. But above all, do not lose control of it. Learning to control your emotions is an incredibly important aspect of Jujutsu. Were you any other child, I would not trust you to be capable of keeping your negative emotions under control. We can continue lessons in the morning, once your excitement has calmed down somewhat."

Grinning, I hold my hand out in front of my face and stare at my Cursed Energy, enraptured. "Yeah. I'm starting to understand what you meant about my curiosity being my Curse. I don't think I could ever be satisfied knowing that there are depths to Cursed Energy I have not explored."

Nodding at my words, Kinoshita makes to stand, but before he rises, he turns to my glowing hand and reaches over. Assuming he wants to check if I'm doing it right, I offer my hand for him to touch, as he did for me earlier.

Our hands touch and Kinoshita blinks. "Warm," he mutters, too quietly to hear.

"What?" I ask.

"Nothing, nothing," he answers, rising to his feet before gesturing to the forest out back. "Now go play, I know you want to."

Grinning, I don't hesitate to jump to my feet and sprint away. But I pause before reaching the door and quickly turn around, run up to the old man and jump into him, wrapping his torso in a hug.

"Thank you, Kinoshita-kamunushi," I say, meaning every word from the depths of my heart.

He ruffles my head and gestures me back to the door. "It is no concern, Narauko. Go play."

Nodding, I spin and sprint through the hall and back into the forest, a peel of laughter leaving me as I hop between thick roots and through the forest I call home.

It doesn't take me long to reach my usual spot, and I find near a dozen deer sitting around it. They all perk up at the sound of my approach but calm once they take sight of me.

Once I step into the clearing, the deer all get up as one and crowd me, pushing against me and it takes a moment where I think I have some berries stuck to my clothes before I realise why.

"Aww, were you worried?" I ask, doing my best to pet them all as I walk to my usual spot and plop onto my butt, the deer joining me in a huddle. "Well, don't you worry. I'm basically immortal after all. I won't die until my curiosity is satisfied, which means I can never die. Simple, right?"

A deer nips at my ear and I laugh.

But as much as I love my deer friends, my curiosity drags my mind right back to my Cursed Energy.

It takes only a moment to feel it out and bring it forth once more, and since I don't have any instruction yet, I do exactly what the old man knew I wanted to do, and I just play with it.

Moving it around, compressing and stretching it, anything I can think of I try. For hours and hours, I keep playing with my Cursed Energy without break, too entranced by it to even notice the way my eyelids grow heavy until eventually, without even realising it, I fall asleep in a pile of deer.

That night, I dreamt of two wolves, one a magnificent silver, the other an inky black and both with a strange triangle marked on their foreheads, one pointing up, the other down.

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Chapter 3: Peaceful Goodbyes​

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The morning found me walking through my forest, taking in the beautiful sights for what might be the last time, at least for a while anyway.

Three days ago, I became fifteen years old, which apparently in this era means that I am an adult now. But more importantly, it is the age that Jujutsu Sorcerers start attending one of the two schools that teach the subject.

I have learnt a lot in these past nine years. About the world and Cursed Energy both. The old man couldn't teach me much about barriers beyond the simple Curtain Technique, but he did teach me about Shikigami, even if it's completely useless to me.

He didn't even want to waste time teaching it to me when we discovered my Innate Technique, but I argued that even if a technique is useless for me to use, knowing how it works could save my life should I ever fight anyone who uses it.

Plus I was just curious. I don't care if I never use my Sorcery in a fight again, I don't really care too much about using it. I just want to know. To learn.

Still, that was fun. He also taught me how to reinforce my body with Cursed Energy, and how to fight. That was also fun, except for the part where I kept getting my ass kicked by an old man. That part was less fun.

You'd think he would be at least a little bit geriatric in his old age, but the man is as spry as ever. Probably that reinforcement to thank for that.

So, in the end, he didn't truly teach me much, just helped me master what I already have. Though, he did say that there isn't truly much that can be taught to a Jujutsu Sorcerer. Apparently the schools are less about imparting knowledge and more about just supporting new Sorcerers as they discover their own abilities by themselves.

Basically, throw the kids in the deep and and see who swims. Pretty cold hearted, but what do I know?

The old man said it would have been better if I just never went to a school in the first place, because the school in the capital is full of politics as the place that exclusively trains Onmyōji and the other one is ran by the clans who aren't much better.

Just a different type of poison really. So it would have been better to just avoid it all altogether. Unfortunately, if I simply go out into the world practicing Jujutsu without being registered in either school, then I'd be treated as a Curse User and hunted down.

The old man left the decision up to me in the end. He seemed to believe that there are so many Curse Users in this era that it wouldn't matter either way.

Apparently he views me quite highly if he thinks I can survive as a fugitive.

But in the end, the decision was an easy one for me. I want to meet interesting people and see interesting places, so what better could I have asked for than a school full of Sorcerers?

Besides, it's only three years. It's not like that's all that long.

We ended up choosing the Jujutsu school over the Onmyōji one simply because the capital is too much too fast. I don't think my heart could take seeing so many new and exciting things all at once, so I'm going to work my way up to it.

I mean, other than the occasional visitor, I haven't spoken to anyone who isn't the old man or an animal in my entire life in this world.

Chuckling to myself, I pet the head of a deer as it joins me in walking and smile as it accepts my touch. It took me a while to be able to use Cursed Energy Reinforcement without making any of my friends uncomfortable with my touch, but I did manage to get it to be.. Quiet? I guess is the best word to describe it?

I managed to get my Reinforcement to be quiet enough that it doesn't bother them. The old man said it was an impressive display of control, and that it would make it incredibly difficult for other Sorcerers to predict my movements or even sense me in general.

So I guess I'm a sneaky guy now. I'm fine with that. I might be able to sneak into beautiful private gardens thanks to this after all.

"What do you think, Deer-kun? Do you think anyone out there has a beautiful garden that they hide away, denying it the chance to be admired, as all things deserve to be? I hope not, that would just be tragic. Beautiful things should be admired."

Obviously the deer doesn't answer, but I feed it a berry anyway.

We reach my clearing soon enough, and a warm smile graces my lips as I take in the sight.

None of the deer that were here when I was a child are still alive, they're lifespan isn't all that long, but there are even more here now than ever before.

All of these deer, are those who were born during my lifetime. I took care of them when they were fawn, fed them. I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but this little clearing became the home to all the deer in this little forest in the middle of nowhere.

It makes me proud. Happy, too.

"Hello, my friends," I greet, and quickly become the centre of attention as I hand out berries and head pats. "Today might be the last time we see each other I'm afraid, so I brought extra."

They are deer. They obviously don't understand my words, but I like to think that they understood my meaning.

"Let's have a peaceful goodbye, shall we? I don't like the idea of goodbyes being sad moments full of tears. I feel like it poisons all the positive memories that come before it."

As I speak, I move to a certain tree and sit at the same spot I have sat for over a decade now.

I am quickly engulfed by a swarm of deer. Pressing against my sides, over my legs, under my arms. Their companionship makes me smile as I lean my back against the tree and look up at the beautiful blue sky.

Home. It's so peaceful.

---

Kinoshita

---

Sweeping the courtyard, Kinoshita could not help but feel bitterly melancholic, but at the same time, incredibly proud.

He always knew Narauko would leave eventually. He knew since the boy was a child that he would not stay. Could not stay.

This little shrine in the middle of a little forest in the middle of nowhere. A person like him could never call such a simple place his home. He knew this.

Which is why he tried not to get attached. He failed, that much is obvious to him. But he tried.

He let the boy explore the forest without care for the danger that would put a normal child in. He let the boy's Cursed Energy continue to leak, even when he knew it would put him in danger. He locked his feelings away behind a mask and didn't show the boy any warmth.

It's only in hindsight that he realises he was trying to make the boy hate him. Because if their bond was one of hatred, there would be no pain when it was severed.

But the boy didn't resent him. He didn't complain when he was told to do chores. He didn't complain when he was told to sit through lessons he didn't care for on a language few could even read.

That abnormal boy didn't find any resentment to throw at this old man.

And then, one day that boy came running back to the shrine, pursued by a Cursed Spirit of his own making.

He thought he would be unmoved. He was supposed to be unmoved. He let the boy roam in a forest alone since he could walk, no one who cared for a child's health would do such a thing.

So why wasn't he unmoved?

Why was it, that when he felt the boy's Cursed Energy rushing towards him, a Curse on his tale, that he felt his heart pounding in his chest?

Why was it, that his entire body tensed. Why did his heart beat like he was exhausted. Why did he find himself rushing to his Shikigami talismans.

Why did he feel so much relief when he found the boy unharmed in the branches of the shinboku?

Why?

Why did he feel such hatred at the filthy Curse that sought to bring the boy harm?

He knows the answer.

He failed to keep his heart frozen. He failed to be selfish.

Jujutsu Sorcery is an inherently selfish path. To be a truly exceptional Sorcerer, one must focus solely on themselves, to the exception of everything else.

For the second time in his life, Kinoshita failed to be a truly exceptional Sorcerer.

"He's so much like you, Murasaki. You would have loved him, with his curiosity even greater than your own. I'm sure he too, would have loved to hear your poetry."

Kinoshita stops sweeping as he becomes lost in memories of his late wife. He was never supposed to fall in love. It was not expected of him. His purpose was just to become a powerful Sorcerer to support his elder brother.

It was something he believed in. Accepted. Even if he lacked the true potential to surpass Grade One, he kept pushing himself.

And then he met her, and she just. Wouldn't. Shut. Up.

She knew he could not harm her thanks to her birthname, and she abused that fact for all that it was worth to follow him around and pester him with a thousand questions about every subject, both personal and not.

It was infuriating. He hated her. Despised her. Cursed her.

How could she not see? That he was not a man who was supposed to live? He was a tool for his family, not a person.

He should not have been wasting his time talking with some irritating woman. He should not have been answering question after question just to satiate some woman's curiosity, no matter her standing.

...He should not have been allowed to feel any joy. It was not his place to feel such things.

Yet...

Yet he did.

With every conversation they had, his answers came easier. Eventually, he started asking his own questions, and with every answer, his smiles only grew and grew.

He was a tool. He was not a man to be loved, nor was he a man who should feel love.

He was a tool. A powerful Jujutsu Sorcerer, no, not a Sorcerer. He was a powerful Onmyōji. All for the sake of the family. He needed to be a powerful Onmyōji.

How could he possibly be a good tool, if he can not even be selfish enough to pursue his only purpose?

Those were the thoughts in his mind as he felt himself faltering in his duty, his very power stagnating as his conflict grew.

And then she told him what he needed to hear. Or perhaps, what she selfishly wanted him to hear.

Why do you look so lost, Onmyōji-san?, she had asked him, Life isn't really that complicated you know? There are things want to do and there are things you do not want to do. Life is just figuring out which is which, and pursuing what you want until you die. Sure, it may bring you to an earlier grave, but dying while pursuing your own desires? I think that's a death I could accept.

When he heard Narauko unknowingly mirror those words that had such an impact on his life, he realised his mistake.

Narauko is his son. Even if the boy never sees him as his father, he is his son.

As if summoned by his thoughts, Kinoshita hears the distinctive clack of Narauko's geta, different from his own in that the boy wanted a pair that only had a single tooth to stand on, instead of the two that is typical.

Apparently it is a good way to practice his balance, so that he can keep training just by walking. Truly that boy is obsessive.

Turning around, Kinoshita beholds his boy.

Narauko stands rather tall for his age, and will likely tower over most people by adulthood.

His clothes are simple, since they do not have much. Just a simple dark green kimono, with a layer of white underneath and a tight undershirt he made himself that he called a 'T-shirt'. His hakama pants are a dark green that matches the kimono, and the socks are white.

Narauko himself has grown well, with a strong physique that he will undoubtably need. His hair is straight and black like ink, kept cut short and left to fall down with a fringe that nearly covers his eyes that themselves are like a pair of coals.

His features are sharp, angular. He could probably be pretty intimidating if not the constant, slight upwards tilt to his mouth, befitting of a man so enraptured with life. He doesn't think Narauko would even know how to glare if he tried.

"Yo, Old Man," Narauko greets with a raised hand. Somewhere along the line, the boy stopped speaking respectfully. Kinoshita doesn't mind as much as he pretends to though. "Food's ready."

Nodding, he sets aside his broom and follows to the sitting room.

They both eat their meals in silence. It is nothing new, as there is not much to talk about, and the silence is comfortable. But this time, Kinoshita regrets the silence. He feels that there is something he should say, but he doesn't even know where he stands with Narauko, and doesn't want to make a fool of himself, so he stays silent.

Eventually, the meal is over, and while Narauko cleans their bowls and utensils, Kinoshita collects the boy's travel back and finishes packing some last minute supplies.

They meet again at the front of the shrine, under the Torii gate where they met.

Kinoshita hands Narauko his travel bag, which is accepted and swung over a shoulder.

"Thanks," Narauko says, and before he can say anything else, he is cut off when Kinoshita offers another, much smaller bag that clinks as he passes it over.

"Coins?" Narauko asks after looking inside the bag.

"Indeed. They will not be much worth anywhere in the country, as The Emperor's currency experiment was mostly a failure, but in the capital or in Edo they could prove of some worth. Nobody uses them except for the nobles anyway, so they are useless to me."

"Ah, gotcha. Thank you then, maybe my future classmates won't think I'm such a country bumpkin if I come in flashing some shiny shiny currency eh?"

Kinoshita just nods, still not entirely sure how he's supposed to respond to sentences like that.

"Well," Narauko says after a short moment of silence. "Guess I better be off then."

"Indeed."

Saying so, Narauko turns away and clasps his hands into the shape of a wolf.

"Divine Dogs," he intones before his shadow rapidly spreads and a pair of wolves emerge from the inky darkness, one a pure white the other an opposing black.

There it is, Narauko's Innate Technique: The Ten Shadows. It is one of the reasons that Kinoshita is even willing to let Narauko go away. Because he knows his son will be safe.

Narauko doesn't even seem to realise how talented he is. He grasped his Cursed Energy and learnt to control it faster than anyone Kinoshita has ever heard of. His mastery of it's manipulation is already reaching even with his own.

Combined with his Innate Technique, which Kinoshita cannot even see where its potential ends, and he knows that his son has all the potential that he lacks. Then there's also the texture of his Cursed Energy. It felt warm. He doesn't truly know what that means for Narauko, but he knows the boy will go far regardless.

He just hopes his own curiosity does not kill him.

"Hey, Old Man." Kinoshita raises a brow as Narauko stands in front of him, his bag sitting on the floor.

"What is it?" He asks, his expression not faltering under Narauko's sunny smile.

Then, something he didn't expect to happen did. For the first time since he first told Narauko of Cursed Energy, the boy steps forward and wraps him in a tight hug.

"Thank you," Narauko whispers, "Thank you for everything, Otou-sama. I'm proud to call you my father. Thank you for bringing me into your home. Thank you for giving me my home. I love you."

Almost hesitantly, Kinoshita brings his arms up until they are wrapped around his son's back, grabbing fistfuls of his kimono, and for the second time in his life, he gives up being an Onmyōji, and allows himself to feel love.

"I love you, my son," he whispers, feeling tears in his eyes even as he truly smiles for the first time in decades. "You will always be welcome home, no matter what happens."

"Thank you."

With those final parting words, they eventually split from their embrace, and Narauko turns to the shinboku behind him and bows twice, claps twice and bows once more.

"Goodbye to you as well, Kami-sama," he says before turning back to Kinoshita and bowing one last time. "I will see you again, Otou-sama."

Kinoshita returns the bow with a smile he can't be bothered to hide. "I will be waiting for you, my son."

Narauko's smile is blinding, and he watches with building melancholy as his only son mounts one of his Shikigami, and with one final look back, sets off at a steady trot.

Kinoshita watches until his son is out of sight, and he keeps watching for some time longer, rooted to the spot.

Eventually however, the sun begins to set, and with one final look at the darkening sky, he turns around and heads back into the shine, feeling already that it is empty.

"I wish you could have seen our son, Murasaki," he mutters to himself as he heads inside. "Even if he is not our blood, I know you would have been even more proud than I."

---

Chapter 4: Goodbye 2 Electric Boogaloo​

---

I'm such a different person now, than in my previous life. Enough that I've started to struggle to even empathise with who I used to be.

It shouldn't really be unexpected. It has been fifteen years after all, that's enough time to change anyone.

But even then, the difference is just too large. I used to be rather brash. I'd be very emotive with my body, gesturing my hands this way and that while I talked. I used be far more casual, or, well. Now that I am older, even if I'm technically actually younger, and hopefully wiser, I can admit that it wasn't that I was casual, I was just disrespectful.

I think I remember saying that respect has to be earned, not given, as an excuse for being rude to people. It was a convenient lie because it was true. Perhaps I even convinced myself with it.

Respect does have to be earned. But respect isn't a yes or no option, it's a scale, and everyone and everything deserves at least a modicum of respect.

What you earn is simply even greater respect.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised I learnt respect and temperance living in a shrine, but the difference between who I was and who I am is still just so jarring that it's hard to ignore.

But it's not like that's the only thing. It's not even the most important change.

The one thing that truly makes me unable to empathise with my past self, the one thing that makes me look down on who I was?

In this life, I'm strong.

I used to be so weak. My body was weak. My mind was weak. My personality was weak.

I'd give up easily. I'd never commit. I'd wallow under the slightest pressure.

I was so human in only the worst ways. All the bad and very little of the beauty.

So pathetic.

Sighing to myself, I notice that I've reached the end of my forest.

For a moment, I just stop at the precipice. This final step, it feels so much more significant than all the others. Like there is no coming back once I make my decision.

Smiling, I will the black dog I'm riding forward, and take that final step.

"Ah, the movies lied to me. Where's the slow motion and nostalgic music?"

Chuckling to myself, I keep moving forward.

The school I'm headed to is in Edo, to the north, and it's not likely to be a very short trip. It's not like I can just book a plane.

That's fine though, since my destination is the journey itself. Also, while I wasn't exactly a history nerd in my last life, there are bits and pieces that I remember, such as the fact that Edo is the city of Tokyo. I'm pretty sure it only got named Tokyo in the Tokugawa period. Or was it the Meiji?

I remember hearing that it was 'a few centuries ago' back around the year two thousand, so I guess somewhere around the eighteenth or seventeenth century?

The point is, I'm going to visit Tokyo! Even if it's not Tokyo yet, it's still pretty exciting. If only cameras existed so I could take a bunch of pictures like a proper tourist.

I'd invent them myself, but I'm kind of an idiot, so I don't know much about anything. For all my curiosity, I was too weak in my last life to ever pursue anything.

But not this time!

It helps that I don't have anything tying me down. In my last life, I felt like I couldn't do anything because I was tied to my family. But whoever sired me in this life spared me from such concerns by abandoning me at birth.

That thought spurs another; I wonder who my parents are?

I haven't really thought about it much, because I doubt I'll ever find out. Most likely, they were just some minor nobility who for whatever reason couldn't care for me.

Hell, I'm probably the birth of some extra marital affair. It's basic logical deduction.

No commoner would discard an extra set of working hands, and no higher nobility would discard their children. Not out of love though, just because their children could be useful political tools.

Thus, it's most likely that my parents, or at least one of them, were minor nobility, and that they were for whatever reason not allowed to have a child, but did so anyway and had to abandon me, either to save their own skin or mine.

That's what seems most likely, but it's not like I have all the information. For all I know, my parents might just not like black hair and abandoned me because of that, who knows?

A glare of sunlight makes me squint and drags me out of my thoughts and back into the world around me. And what a beautiful world it is. Lush green fields glistening with morning dew and reflecting the light of the sun that shines in a clear blue sky.

A world without any light pollution, or really pollution of any kind really is beautiful. It's a subtle difference, but I can tell.

Compared to the bright day sky of my last life, it's like the contrast is just ever so slightly higher. Such a small change, but it has such a profound impact.

If I live long enough, I'm going to have to intervene with the industrial revolution and such to keep the world from deteriorating once more. I think I would cry if the entire world's beauty would be marred by smog.

Further ahead, just appearing on the horizon, I spot a few hamlets roughly clustered together. It's only then that I remember that normal people can't see Shikigami, so moving through the quaint village while riding on thin air would probably give the people a scare.

So, with only some reluctance, I hop off of my Shikigami's back and start walking, folding my hands in front of me, hidden by my sleeves.

"Make a perimeter," I command my Divine Dogs. "Let me know if you find any Curses or Sorcerers."

The wolf lets out a huff and pushes it's fluffy head against my chest before bounding off into the distance to my right, knowing that its twin is already on my left.

In the nine years since I encountered my first ever Cursed Spirit, I've only actually seen two more, not counting the tiny ones that are all over the place.

Neither were particularly strong. The first looked kind of like an owl and was torn apart by my Divine Dogs immediately, while the second was more like a fat goblin or something.

That one was actually strong enough that my Shikigami couldn't really do much to it, but one good punch was enough to take it out.

The old man told me about the grading system used by Jujutsu Sorcerers. It goes from four to one, with four being people who can barely use Cursed Energy and one being the highest anyone can expect to achieve.

Apparently Grade Three is about average and Grade two is for those with skill.

For some reason, he never told me where I would stand in that system, but if I had to guess, then I'm probably Grade Three. I'm not really all that special after all. Even reincarnating doesn't make me special, the only thing truly special about me is that I remember my last life.

I mean, there's my Innate Technique as well, but lots of Sorcerers have their own Innate Techniques, so it's not that special, and it's not like I'm some kind of super genius.

So, my Divine Dogs are probably Grade Four, the weakest kind, since they couldn't even kill that goblin Curse, who was pretty weak.

I'm looking forward to meeting other Sorcerers, because if my Divine Dogs are only Grade Four, then imagine what a Grade One Sorcerer would be capable of?

Kami I can't wait to find out~!

"Narauko-Hakase!" A boisterous voice calls out and I turn my gaze to an approaching man wearing simply farmer's clothes not unlike my own, just more sturdy and worn and much less clean.

"Taro-san," I return the greeting with a smile. "I have told you before, you do not need refer to me with -Hakase."

"Nonsense!" The stocky man rebuffs as he reaches me and pats me on the shoulder with way too much force. Lucky I'm strong or he'd send me to the ground with these sandals on. "If not for you, my precious Mira-chan would not have survived winter!"

"That was seven years ago, Taro-san."

"Seven years my daughter would not have had without you!"

"She only had a broken arm. All I did was set it and let it heal."

"Bah! Enough with your excuses! I'm going to keep calling you Narauko-Hakase no matter what you say!"

Chuckling, I shake my head at his antics as we enter the small settlement.

"So, what brings the Forest Child out into the world?" Taro asks as we walk, occasionally stopping to return greetings with various villagers. "Isn't this the first time you've actually left that forest?"

"Indeed it is, Taro-san. I'm going on a journey to see the world."

Taro gasps and stops walking to grab me by the shoulders. "You're leaving!?" He yells right into my face, a bit of spittle landing on my incredibly flat expression.

Putting a hand against his chest, I gently separate us and wipe my cheek before returning my hands to my sleeves. "Yes, Taro-san, I'm leaving," I say, much to Taro's apparent grief.

"And you didn't tell us! You don't even have any travel supplies!?"

Ah.

I do, actually. I figured out how to store stuff in my shadow. It's really convenient, for more than just storage reasons. See, it's not an infinite pocket space, well, it might be, but I can't use it infinitely.

Everything that I store in my shadow, I still have to carry its 'weight'. It doesn't really slow me down, so it's more of a metaphysical weight, but still.

I'm proud to say that as soon as I discovered that, I abused the hell out of it for the sake of training. Who needs gravity chambers when your own shadow can do it instead?

"I am capable of living off the land, Taro-san," I explain instead of giving the actual reason.

I don't know how he would react to Jujutsu, but probably not very well, but I also don't like to lie, so making a true, if misleading statement is best in this kind of situation.

"Unacceptable!" He yells to the sky, getting some exasperated looks from the few people around us. "Come! I will provide you with proper travelling supplies!"

"Wait, Taro-san, it's-"

Without listening to my complaints, he grabs one of my hands and starts marching us both down to his home.

I could obviously break his grip easily enough, but I might hurt him doing so, and I don't want to insult him by spitting on his kindness. He wouldn't offer me anything he isn't ready to give, and I do believe that helping others is a balm on one's soul, so I'm actually okay with accepting his help, even if it is unnecessary.

Soon enough, we reach his home, basically just a large wooden hall with a thatch roof. Out in the front of the house, a middle aged woman sits taking a needle to some fabric.

She looks up at our approach and her eyes light up once they take sight of us.

"Narauko-kun! It's so good to see you again!" She greets me warmly, ignoring Taro completely.

"Hey! Why are you greeting him but not your husband!" He yells indignantly, earning a scornful look of distain from his wife.

"Stop being so noisy," she responds, her tone completely different from how she greeted me. "My daughter's saviour is here and you're making a fool of my family."

"What's with this difference in greeting! It's my family too! Our family! If anything you should be thanking me! After all, if not for me, Narauko-Hakase was just going to leave without a word!"

His wife Miwa gasps and turns her attention back to me, her expression softening up once again into one of kind grace. "You were going to leave without saying goodbye?" She asks, and unlike with Taro, I actually feel kind of bad with the expression she's making. "And without any supplies too?"

Feeling kind of awkward, I bring one of my hands up to scratch a finger against my cheek as I avoid meeting her eyes. "Ah. I can live off the land just fine, Miwa-san. However I must have gotten too excited about my coming journey that I forgot to say goodbye properly, I apologise."

Saying so, I bow slightly.

"There's no need for you to apologise, Narauko-kun!" Miwa immediately frets, getting up and rushing over to pull me into a hug. "I just think little Mira would have been heartbroken if you left without a word!"

"Hey," Taro's deadpan voice comes from the side where his wife pushed him away to get to me. "I'm still here y'know."

"And why is that?" Miwa quickly responds, turning to glare at him without letting me go. "You should be gathering some supplies for Narauko-kun so that he does not starve on the road. Do you have no shame? Standing around like a monkey with no thoughts in your head."

Taro huffs and turns to stomp away into the house.

They have a strange relationship.

"Now, come come, Narauko-kun! It's almost meal time anyway, so come and have an early meal before you go. The rest of my children won't be back soon, but Mira-chan is still inside practicing her needlework."

Going with the flow, I let Miwa pull me into the house, only briefly pausing to take our shoes off at the entrance before continuing in our socks.

We only make it about half a dozen steps into the building before a miniature missile streaks through one of the side doors and rushes straight at us and into me.

"Oof," I softly grunt as I catch the brown-haired girl who just ran head first into my stomach, forcing me to step back slightly so she doesn't crack her skull open against my body.

"Narau!" She exclaims, looking up at me with wide brown eyes and a matching smile as she hugs me tightly.

"Mira-chan," I greet in turn, patting her head. "You've gotten bigger, how old are you now?"

She giggles for a moment before answering. "Twelve!"

"Oooh," I respond, acting impressed which makes her giggle again. "I'm only fifteen, do you know what that means?"

"Nuh uh!" She shakes her head.

"It means that you're going to be even older than me soon enough!" I say with a grin, and she bursts out into a fit of giggles.

"That's not how it works silly!"

"Eeeeh? Says who?" I joke, a whine in my voice that keeps Mira giggling.

"I'm glad to see you two getting along," Miwa says, getting her daughter's attention, "But unfortunately, Narauko-kun isn't staying for long, so go and set the table Mira-chan."

Mira pouts slightly, but complies and releases me. "Okay, Kaa-san," she says before running off deeper into the house.

Sighing fondly, I give Miwa a smile. "She sure has a lot of energy, doesn't she?"

"Indeed she does. It reminds me of yourself when you were younger, you always had many questions to ask."

"What can I say? Learning is my passion," I answer with a shrug as we both keep walking until we enter their eating room, spotting Mira rushing about preparing things.

"You know," Miwa says after a brief silence, getting me to turn a raised brow to her at her tone that has a certain ring to it I can't quite identify. "Mira is getting to that age where she should start thinking about marriage..."

Immediately, I freeze as she lets her sentence hang in the air, looking at me expectantly.

Crap.

Did I unintentionally put myself in a dangerous position? I just enjoy seeing the innocent joy that only a child can produce. I totally forgot that the age of consent back in these times was basically just from when one is capable of producing children onwards.

Shit. I'm not a pervert, I was just being friendly!

"Uhhhh," I intelligently respond. "Cool...."

What am I supposed to say in this situation!?!

Miwa chuckles at my uncomfortable expression. "Just something to think about," she says before moving to help her daughter set the table.

At around that time, Taro returns, carrying a bag over his shoulders.

"I have returned!" He exclaims, and Miwa clicks her tongue without even looking up to greet him.

"Here!" He says, shoving the bag at me.

Accepting it, I look inside and see plenty of rice and some smoked meat all wrapped in salt and seaweed for preservation. There's also a few rolls of fabric for the sake of trading, since there isn't really a currency outside of the big cities.

"Thank you, Taro-san," I say as I close the bag, accepting the kindness gratefully.

Taro grins like a child at my thanks and pats me on the back again before pulling me to the table in time to be served.

The four of us sit down and begin eating in silence until Mira speaks up. It's generally considered impolite to talk during mealtime, but she is a child, so she's allowed a free pass on this kind of thing.

And besides, commoners don't care as much about etiquette as nobles do, and I certainly don't care, even if I have been raised to abide by these customs by the old man.

"What's with the bag, Narau? Did you finally let Tou-san pay you properly?" She asks, making me chuckle.

"I've said before, there was no need for payment. I helped because I could, not because I needed to."

For some reason, Mira sputters at my answer and starts paying a lot of attention to her rice while her parents both chuckle, though, Miwa then glares at Taro for laughing at the same time as her.

They really have a weird relationship.

"The bag is because Narauko is going on a journey," Miwa answers, getting her daughter's attention.

"A journey? Where are you going?" She asks me, and I smile.

"Everywhere," my answer leaves as a whisper full of longing.

"When will you be back?" Mira asks, brining my attention back to the room and her stricken expression.

Ah shit. Now I feel bad again.

If I was who I used to be, I'd probably have folded here. Too scared to upset a little girl I barely even know to actually pursue my dream. Unfortunately, I am not so lacking in resolve anymore.

Doesn't mean I want to see her cry.

"I'm not sure. I'm going to be visiting a special school for three years, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to return after that exactly," I answer.

Expectedly, she doesn't like that answer, but I can't really do anything about that. I'm not going to lie, that would just be even meaner.

The atmosphere the room plummets as Mira starts sniffling and poking at her food, and the rest of the meal is incredibly awkward. Eventually however, it is over and I rise to my feet.

"Thank you for the meal, Miwa-san, Taro-san," I say as I bow to them both before turning to Mira. "I'm sorry for departing so suddenly, Mira-chan, but this isn't goodbye, it's just see you later, okay?"

Mira sniffles and nods her head. Then, without saying a word, she runs at me and hugs my waist again, crying softly into my kimono as I stroke the back of her head soothingly.

Man, I feel bad. But at the same time, I can't stop smiling.

It hasn't even been a day yet, but this is exactly what I am looking for. New experiences, good or bad, thing's I've never seen or felt before.

This display of emotion? It's beautiful. If I was any good at poetry, this is the kind of scene I could write a poem about.

Alas, soon enough her tears dry out and her mother pulls her away. "Come on, Mira-chan. Let's not delay Narauko-kun any longer."

The two women watch me as I put my sandals back on, but right before I leave the door, Mira abruptly jolts.

"Ah!" She exclaims before turning around and running deeper into the house under the rest of our confused eyes.

I look between her parents for a moment, but only Miwa doesn't seem as confused as I am.

A moment later, the question is answered when Mira comes running back into the hall with a pure white bundle in her arms. She comes to a stop before me and holds the cloth out to me with both hands.

"I m-made this for you!" She says as I accept the gift and find that it is a white scarf with one end full of flaying edges.

"I-I.. I didn't finish it yet," she whispers, looking down.

Chuckling, I accept the gift and wrap it around my neck before patting her on the head. "Thank you, Mira-chan."

She beams a smile up at me before quickly deflating once more. "Y-you'll come back, r-right?" She asks, sounding so incredibly vulnerable.

"Of course," I answer with a smile.

"T-t-then I'll wait for you!" She abruptly exclaims, scrunching her eyes shut as she does so before turning around and running back into the house.

Blinking at the unexpected response, I send the two parents a questioning look but they both just smile at me like they're in on some joke that I'm not getting.

Probably just a kids thing that only parents will understand.

Shrugging, I follow Taro out of the building, waving goodbye to Miwa, and together we walk to the edge of the small settlement before Taro stops.

"Thank you for the help, Taro-san. Goodbye," I say, but instead of answering properly, he gets this shifty look in his eyes and glances around us suspiciously before stepping closer and wrapping an arm around the back of my neck, pulling my face close to his own.

"Hey. Narauko-Hakase. Before you leave, I have something I must ask."

Feeling the seriousness behind his words, I nod. "Of course, what is it?"

"What do you think of my daughter?" He asks with a completely serious face, and my expression blanks. "She's reaching a marriageable age now, and she's already infatuated with you."

Again. Really?

"Taro-san..." I begin, before remembering that he's an idiot and getting an idea. I match my expression with his own, becoming deeply serious as I pull one of my own arms over his neck too.

"It's not that Mira isn't wonderful, but... Well, when I look at a woman, I'm more interested in, you know..." As I trail off, I bring my other hand forward and hold it out in front of my chest, miming something being there.

Taro nods solemnly. "I see, I see. You are indeed a man. In that case, I will make sure Mira does not marry until she blossoms into a beautiful woman. Give it a few years and then you can come back to a good wife."

"That's not what I was trying to imply at all, Taro-san."

"I look forward to welcoming you into my family," he continues, ignoring me completely.

"Taro-san. I'm really not looking to marry anyone."

"Good. Mira will be happy to know she is your only wife. Not that she would be disappointed if she wasn't."

"Taro-san. Stop ignoring the issue."

"I wish you good fortune on your journey, Narauko-Hakase. I will let my wife know of your intentions."

"Please don't Taro-san. Taro-san!" I repeat, but he's already walking away and ignoring me entirely.

Sighing to myself, I chuckle slightly and start walking.

Let's just hope they forget about all of this by the time I get back.

Shaking my head, I turn to face the sky, noting it to be around early evening.

"On the road again," I hum to myself, randomly remembering the song as I walk.

I wonder what my next interesting encounter will be? Hopefully something less troublesome.

Whatever the case, my excitement hasn't dimmed in the slightest.

---

Chapter 5: Meeting a Side-Quest​

---

Day three of walking to school. I have come to the realisation that no one can ever pull the 'back in my day, we had to walk blah blah blah' crap on me ever again.

Oh, you has a two hour walk over a mountain to get to school grandma? Well I've walked over several for multiple days, and I don't even know how close I am.

It's not like I have Google Maps or anything like that. Hell, I don't even have an actual map.

I just have a vague, go that way, kind of direction.

I don't mind though. I can always ask for directions, as I have been doing, and I'm having fun.

One thing I have noticed though is that there are a lot more Cursed Spirits out here in the wild than back home. It's only been three days and I've killed dozens already.

Well, my Shikigami have killed dozens. I only had to kill one myself because it was actually strong.

I probably could have just let my Shikigami gang up on it, but I wanted to get some practice in before reaching school, so I beat it up myself.

It didn't die in one hit like the others I've faced, but it was also pretty slow so it didn't hurt me either.

I've only encountered two settlements so far, mostly because I haven't been sticking to the roads but traveling in a straight line instead, but still.

The first one was pretty welcoming, but the last seemed pretty suspicious of me. Apparently they didn't trust me because I looked like a Sorcerer, according to some old guy who would actually hold a conversation with me.

Purely out of curiosity, I then did confirm to them that I am a Jujutsu Sorcerer. I pretty much knew what to expect, so I wasn't surprised when they sort of subtly tried to get me to leave as quickly as possible.

So, it turns out Sorcerers aren't very popular everywhere. That's good to know.

Still, I was pretty satisfied with the whole experience. I've never been treated so poorly before purely out of prejudice, it was an interesting experience.

It probably didn't help their opinion of me that I was still smiling even when they kicked me out, but I was too happy to care.

New experiences are what I'm looking for after all.

And there have been so many!

I've seen rice fields that go on for ages, I saw a field full of blood red flowers, a tree so big that it would take twenty of me hand in hand to hug it. There was even this giant mountain that I was going to explore, but by the time I got halfway up, I got this really bad feeling that if I took another step to the peak then I would die.

I'm not really afraid of that, but it didn't feel like the kind of thing I could talk my way out of, so I just resolved myself to go back when I'm stronger.

I can be patient after all. If something is too dangerous to explore, then I just need to get more powerful first. If anything, I just felt challenged.

The point is, I've been having fun.

Which brings me to today.

The sun is at its zenith, shining down on me through the leaves of the lush forest I tread. By my side is one of my Shikigami, Gentle Deer. It basically looks like one of the deer I grew up with, just that it's as tall as I am and the brown fur has darkened to black while the spots are more white and it has a weird symbol like an upside-down teardrop under its jaw.

This is probably my favourite Shikigami. Both because of personal bias, and because its special ability is that its Cursed Energy is backwards.

I don't know if there's a name for it, but I'm guessing it's something like Blessed Energy, since it seems to be an opposite to Cursed Energy. Either way, this version of energy actually heals, which is awesome, and though it took about a year, I did eventually manage to replicate the effect by myself.

I basically just smash my Cursed Energy against itself and it makes Blessed Energy. I don't know how it works, probably some double negative stuff, but it does work, so I'm happy with that. The old man was pretty surprised by my Blessed Energy too, so it doesn't seem to be something all that commonly practiced.

Honestly, I don't think I'll ever get tired of Cursed Energy. It's just so cool and interesting, not to mention just generally useful.

It would be much more of a pain to walk through this untamed forest for example, if not for the fact that I can literally just walk through it. Bushes and roots and the like aren't a problem when they're incapable of tripping me before they tear.

Though, I did have to learn how to protect my clothes with Cursed Energy to avoid ending up naked all the time. It's kind of energy intensive though, so I try to only use it when the foliage has thorns and stuff that will rip my clothes.

Pausing in my stride, I close one of my eyes and the next moment I am seeing the world through two perspectives. One is from my open eye and the other is through one of my Divine Dogs' eyes.

Near a decade of practice and experimentation with my Innate Technique has opened a lot of doors for me. My ability really does have a lot of potential, and I couldn't be happier about it.

I'd take versatility over overwhelming power any day of the week.

From my Dog's eye, I can vaguely see what I have been walking towards.

The Dog is hidden behind the foliage, so the view isn't great, but I can still make out pretty clearly two forms in a recently made clearing, and by clearing, I mean an area of the forest that used to have trees and now has broken trees and cratered earth.

You see, I started walking this way, despite it being in a different direction to my destination, because I felt a gathering of Cursed Spirits, each of which seemed to be about as strong as that one I struggled with.

Naturally, I got curious.

However, as I was on the way, all of the Cursed Spirits seemed to disappear from my senses, and then I felt even more Cursed Energy getting thrown around, likely by the battle that ruined this part of the forest, and I got even more curious.

Now, Cursed Spirits fade away when killed. Which is why it's interesting that my Dog is looking at a woman who seems to be resting, and what seems to be a Cursed Spirit's corpse a short distance from her.

Curious and curiouser.

Abruptly, a pale blue fire engulfs my vision and I flinch my eye open just as I feel my connection to my Divine Dog sputter out into the ether.

...Did this she just kill my dog?

What the fuck?

If I wasn't who I am, I'd probably be a lot more mad about that. But eh, it's just a Shikigami, not a real dog, so I don't really care that much. Still, I desummon all my active Shikigami just in case.

Okay I care a little bit, they're very fluffy. But I also have another dog, a bunch of rabbits and this cute deer among others.

Hmm. I keep walking as I try to decide if I'm mad or not.

"Come out! I know you're hiding!" I hear the woman yell and realise that I'm actually pretty close now, closer than my dog was.

"I'm not hiding actually," I return as I step around a tree and quickly step back behind it to avoid another burst of fire. "That was rude."

"Who are you!" The woman demands as I step around the tree again, my arms raised in surrender and a smile on my face even as she glares at me. "What are your intentions here!?"

For a moment I don't answer, because this woman is just so beautiful that I forgot to.

Her hair is long and blonde, which stands out in this nation, though not as much as I feel like it should. She has hazel eyes, small eyebrows and a face so beautiful that no amount of description could do it justice with a body to match.

Damn, she's beautiful.

"Damn you're beautiful." Crap. I said that out loud. Coughing into a fist, I pretend that never happened and continue, "What I mean to say is that I was merely coming to deal with a gathering of Cursed Spirits that I felt. Though, it seems as though you have done so for me."

The woman blushes slightly at my misspeak, but quickly gets back to glaring at me with one hand alight in blue flame that feels weird to my senses held out threateningly.

"Do you expect me to believe that?" She accuses, sounding awfully scornful.

"I would hope so, but ultimately the choice is yours. On another subject, how come that Cursed Spirit hasn't disappeared yet? Is it still alive somehow? Also who even are you? My name's Narauko, nice to meet you."

"Don't change the subject, Sorcerer. If you have no ill intentions, then why were you watching me and why have you been suppressing your Cursed Energy?"

"Eh?" My head tilts as I look at her in confusion before a lightbulb goes off in my head and I realise the misunderstanding taking place. "Ah! That. No, don't worry, I am not suppressing my Cursed Energy, it's just like that."

She seems dubious. I feel like I failed a charisma check.

"I don't believe you."

Damn.

Wait, this is an easy fix! "Alright, if I start actually trying to suppress my Cursed Energy now, will you believe me then?"

She raises a brow and makes a go on gesture, so I shrug and focus on sucking all my my Cursed Energy away and into my gut.

Really, I should have seen it coming, but the moment that I opened my eyes, I barely got to see a blur of gold before I felt a heavy impact in my gut and then another on my back as I was slammed into the ground with a clawed hand squeezing my throat.

Right. Concealing my energy that much also takes away my active reinforcement.

Oops.

"Who are you," the woman demands once my head stopped spinning, and I try to answer, but just end up wheezing.

The woman takes, in my opinion, too long to realise I can't be choked and answer questions at the same time, before loosening her hold on me.

"M-" I start, only to cough. "My name is Narauko, nice to meet you. Could you please try and void tearing my scarf? It was a gift from a little brat and I think she will cry if it breaks."

The woman above me glares even harder at me, and I match her stare with a light smile of my own, looking her straight in the eye.

She really is beautiful.

"You're not lying." She states, more than asks, though she does seem rather confused as she does. Probably because she seems to think I have something against her, but I haven't tried fighting back and don't intend to unless she's really going to kill me.

"I try to avoid lying if possible. It's not something I like to do."

"Why did you reveal yourself to me?" She asks, and I get the feeling she's got some kind of lie detector thing going on right now since she's repeating questions.

"I was curious and wanted to see if you were up for a conversation."

"That's all?" She asks, seemingly struggling to believe me at all.

"I've been told curiosity is my Curse."

She seems to take my answer with more weight than I intended, and after staring into my eyes a bit longer, her expression softens from a glare into that expression people make when they're kind of embarrassed about being wrong but don't want to admit it.

It's kind of cute on her.

"Oh." Her hand leaves my throat and she jumps to her feet, walking back to the rock she was resting on, though I notice she doesn't let me out of her peripheral vision.

Sitting up myself, I rub at my slightly sore throat for a moment as I return my Cursed Energy to its usual flow and feel the light pain fade away.

Standing up, I pat myself down and check my scarf for any scratches and happily find none, then I walk after her into the clearing.

The corpse on the floor is some weird kind of bird monster. Kind of like a harpy, but with a really long nose. I kind of recognise it, but I can't quite remember what they were called. Something beginning with a T.

"He's not a Cursed Spirit," the woman says, clearly having seen me eyeballing the thing. "He's a Yōkai. A Tengu, to be specific."

Turning back to her, I grin at the new source of information, even if she seems slightly bashful. Probably about the whole threatening me thing, but I was over that before it was even over.

Still. Yōkai? The old man mentioned them as basically being Cursed Spirits with physical bodies, but he also admitted that he didn't know much about the subject.

But here is a Yōkai corpse! I kind of want to cut it open and see what its biology is like, but I'm not sure if this lady would appreciate that.

"I would like to apologise," the woman says, each word coming out slowly and with great difficulty. "However I was just in battle, so I feel it is perfectly reasonably that I mistrusted you, especially as you were spying on me with a Shikigami."

Not the best apology but not the worst.

"Oh yeah, you just reminded me. I want compensation."

"What." She levels a flat look at me, and I just move my hands back to rest in their sleeves.

"That was a special Shikigami. Now that you've killed it, it's gone forever."

"Oh." She says again, looking a mix between regretful and annoyed.

She really doesn't like being in the wrong, does she?

I suppose I can understand. I'm quite prideful myself after all, even if my pride is a lot more difficult to wound.

"As compensation, please teach me everything you know about Yōkai!"

I am not above using guilt to gain knowledge!

"Why?" She demands, looking suspicious once again.

"Remember that thing I said about me being curious?"

"Shouldn't you be more focused on Cursed Spirits, Sorcerer?"

"Eh. I'm not technically even a Sorcerer yet, since I'm actually on my way to the school up in Edo right now, and I'm only attending out of curiosity in the first place. I don't intend on spending my whole life focused on nothing but Cursed Spirits."

We hold each other's eyes for a moment before eventually she concedes and lets out a sigh.

"Fine. As compensation for destroying your Shikigami, I will come with you and teach you about Yōkai until we near the city of Edo. Deal?"

"Deal!" I accept before moving a piece of broken tree over and sitting down in front of her.

"Well, where do you want to start?"

Bad question lady, I have so many places I want to start.

"What's with that Tengu? Why were there so many Cursed Spirits here? Why did you kill them? What separates Yōkai from humans and Cursed Spirits? Your Cursed Energy felt weird, is it different? How do Yōkai interact with Sorcerers? How come you're fine with sticking with me all the way to Edo? What was that Tengu even doing here? What's your name anyway? What's a Yōkai's life span? Are Yōkai inherently negative like Curses? Do-"

"Okay! Okay!" She abruptly yells, interrupting me. "Let me answer before asking your next question!"

Grinning unrepentantly at her, I wait for her to calm down.

Clearing her throat and shooting me another glare, she straightens in a way that reminds me of when Kinoshita would lecture me.

"First of all, Edo is only about one day's walk from here, so it is not far." She gives me a deadpan look when I blink in surprise at that information. "You're going to Edo and you don't even know where it is?"

"I've been asking for directions. I know it's that way," I say as I point the direction I was walking.

"It's not that way," she responds, still deadpan.

"Well, I'm sure there is someone in that direction who would have known the way."

"You're kind of an idiot aren't you?"

"I prefer the term carefree."

She sighs again and decides to just move on. "Yōkai are not Cursed Spirits, but they are not human either. You could think of them as somewhere in the middle. They have a physical body, instead of Cursed Spirits who are beings of negative energy. Like Cursed Spirits, Yōkai can be born from negative energy, but that is incredibly rare, and those born that way tend to be incredibly powerful and then become ancestors to great lines of Yōkai, such as Tengu. Yōkai are not inherently negative like Curses, but they can become incredibly powerful through negative energy, though most Yōkai just live peacefully in isolation."

Hoooh? That's interesting. Does that mean I could find a Yōkai village?

"Are there Yōkai villages?" I ask.

"Don't interrupt me," she immediately returns. "Yes, there are Yōkai villages. They have a civilisation, just like every other sapient species. As for your other questions, this Tengu has been terrorising a nearby village. He gathered up some Cursed Spirits and would send them to attack the village, then disguise himself as a human Sorcerer to fight them off."

Doesn't sound so bad, just a bit of an attention seeker.

"He would then use the fact that he saved them to demand that the people of the village do as he said, from bedding the woman to eating them if he felt like it. Sometimes he would just skip the process altogether and fly in and steal away whatever or whoever he wanted."

Well, never mind. then.

"I'm sure the villagers will be happy to know he's dead then," I comment.

"You don't seem that upset. No compassion for your fellow man?" The woman asks, her tone mocking.

I'm not sure if she's trying to get a rise out of me of if this is just how she is as a person, but I just shrug and smile. "I'm not happy they have suffered, but it happens. People live, people die. People suffer, people thrive. Nature moves on, time goes on. I do feel compassion, and I don't want to see people suffer, but focusing all your attention on the suffering of the world will make you blind to all of its joys. It's best to just think about what you can do to make things better and move on, than to just wallow in grief."

I don't look back to see her expression as I approach the Tengu and crouch down next to it.

"Are you some kind of monk?" She asks, making me chuckle.

"No, but I was raised in a shrine. Did you have any plans for doing anything with this corpse, or can I take it to that village you mentioned? I'm sure it would bring them some closure."

"Why bother? I was just going to burn it."

"Because they will be grateful."

"So? Why care what they think? They aren't Sorcerers like you. Just a bunch of monkeys, they can figure it out themselves."

"Hmm. Why did you kill this Tengu?" I ask, and she goes silent.

Shrugging, I make the sign to summon my remaining Divine Dog, only to pause as I feel something strange in my connection to my technique that causes me to freeze.

My Divine Dog... It's bigger?

Focusing closer, I realise what's happened. The dog that died, it's power seems to have flowed down into the other dog, making it even bigger and stronger.

So cooool~!

Making a different sign, I decide to leave the upgraded dog alone for now. "Gentle Deer," I intone and my shadow stretches out, allowing my Shikigami to burst free.

Grabbing the Tengu by its burnt, leathery skin, I haul it up and over my deer before turning back to the woman who's name I still don't have.

"I just realised that I never did get your name," I say as she looks at my deer like she's never seen one before, "Also, which way is it to the village?"

Shaking her head, she points an arm to the side. "That way," she says, and I start moving in that direction. "They won't show you any gratitude you know?" She asks, making me pause and turn back to her with a raised brow.

"It doesn't matter if you tell them you killed him yourself. Just the fact that you're not a monkey like them will make them hate you. If you don't scare them into submission, they will come after you with torches."

"Maybe," I acquiesce, thinking back on that village that threw me out. "I still think they will be grateful though."

"You're wrong. Humans aren't like that. They will hate you just because you are different. They won't thank you."

"Good thing I'm not looking for thanks then, isn't it?"

"You're a fool, but maybe this will be good for you. A wake up call to the true nature of those monkeys." Her scornful tone tells one hell of a story, but I'm not socially obtuse enough to call her out on it.

Instead I just chuckle and give her a wink before continuing my walk. "Humans are more complex than that, you know? You should give them more credit."

I make it a few steps before noticing that she isn't moving to follow me at all, which isn't unexpected considering her earlier words. However, even if she doesn't follow me, she does still call out.

"Tamamo. My name is Tamamo-no-Mae."

Smiling, I wave over my shoulder. "Nice to meet you, Tamamo-Sensei."

It doesn't take long before the village is in sight. It's bigger than the one near my home by quite a bit. About six times as big, with over two dozen houses that I can see, and they're actually arranged near each other on a proper road. From what I know, most villages in this time period are more just a few hamlets roughly near each other.

Before I actually leave the forest proper, I make another shadowgraphic hand sign, this one in the shape of a fox.

"Trickster Fox," I intone, and from my shadow emerges a small white fox, about the size of my forearm, maybe a little bit bigger, with sleek, smooth white fur and glowing blue eyes that somehow just seem mischievous.

It also has a symbol between its ears of a triangle similar to the ones on my dogs, or dog now, except it's on top of another symbol that kind of looks like one of those stands I remember using to hold stuff over bunsen burners in high school.

When I first started training my technique, I struggled to even summon more than one Shikigami at the same time, and even now, I struggle to get four out at the same time.

Still, Trickster Fox's ability is the ability to project illusions. They're not physical illusions, and I have to make an illusion of a shadow when I use it because it doesn't block out light either, which kind of doesn't make any sense from a physics standpoint.

How can you see something if light passes straight though it? Is it weird of me that this is the thing I find the most unexplainable in this new life? Probably.

Whatever the case, my fox climbs up my clothes and crawls into my scarf, hiding itself wrapped around my neck. It's very warm.

Then I have the fox project an illusion over my deer of itself. This way, the people of the village, monkeys, as Tamamo called them, will actually be able to see the deer, instead of just seeing a floating Tengu.

A short walk later, and I am approaching the village proper. I noticed some people spot me earlier, so there's already something of a crowd gathered to greet me, with even more people hiding around in the buildings and alleys watching.

Walking up to the group of not so subtly armed men, I give the one front and centre my best smile.

"Hello there! I have heard that you have been suffering attacks by this here Tengu. Rest assured, as you can clearly see," I gesture to my side before returning my hand back to rest before me, "It has been slain. You needn't live in fear any longer."

Nobody responds for a moment, and then a whole lot of muttering breaks out. So much that I can't catch any words, but the tone doesn't seem particularly happy.

The guy I assume is the local leader steps forward and glares at me, holding some sharp farming equipment in a white knuckled grip.

"W-what have you done!" He yells at me. "Now who will protect us from the Spirits!"

I make sure to keep my peaceful smile, even as the crowd starts to get agitated. I can actually feel the Cursed Energy in their bodies spiking as negative emotions flood the crowd.

"The Cursed Spirits are also dead. So much so that I cannot even bring you corpses."

"LIES!" Someone in the crowd yells out.

"It's just another trick!"

"Look at that deer! That's no normal animal!"

"We have nothing left to give!"

Having my deer step closer to me, I grab the Tengu's corpse and throw it to the ground before the crowd before cancelling my technique and letting the deer dissolve into shadows. "This is not a trick, and I do not want anything that you have. You are safe now."

"That bird said the same thing! Then it took my wife!"

"This is just another demon!"

"We're done being cattle!"

Looking through the crowd, feeling their negativity, I don't hate them. They're just people in the end. And they've suffered the worst poison of them all.

Hope.

First the monsters came, and they felt despair. Then came a man who said he would save them, and they felt hope. Then this man demanded food and drink and women, and they felt that hope shatter.

In the time since then, they have just been getting hammered down, again and again by this Tengu. So much so that they gave up on fighting back. So much so, that hope now tastes to them like a bitter poison.

They want to accept it. To believe me. To be free from despair.

They just can't bring themselves too. They're too close to the edge, too hopped up on emotions to be able to think rationally.

Too human to accept reality.

That's fine. I didn't expect them to.

Putting my hands back in my sleeves, I start walking. Edo is on the other side of the village after all, so I do need to go that way.

"Your demons are dead," I say, even as they all back away from my approach, keeping a distance with their bodies but not with their words as they curse at me. "You may rest easy, knowing that your suffering has been avenged."

A rock bounces across the ground in front of me, and then another bounces off my hip.

I ignore it and keep walking.

"Monster!" They yell as another stone hits me as I continue to walk, not changing pace or expression.

"Liar!" They scream, as some rotten fruit splatters against my shoulder, getting some gross juice on my cheek.

"Sorcerer!" They accuse, as a sharp rock smashes into my forehead, leaving a faint mark but nothing more.

I don't react to any of it, I feel no need to.

Physically, they cannot hurt me, and words definitely can't hurt me. I'm going to have to clean my clothes, but that's something I do anyway, so it's no bother.

Nothing they could possibly do to me, would have any kind of lasting effect. More than that, I understand.

They are angry. They don't hate me. They are just angry at the idea I represent.

All in all, this whole interaction, this whole day? To me, it is just another day.

I learnt some new things, which I always enjoy. Had some new experiences, which I love. But ultimately, none of this could have happened, and my life would not be any different for it.

To me, today has hardly been significant.

To them? To them, their entire lives have just turned on their axis. Everything has changed. It is so much more significant for them, so I just ignore the rocks and the fruit. Because it means so much more for them to throw it than it does for me to clean it off later.

Eventually however, I do leave the village behind and walk back into the forests, headed for Edo.

Humans are so interesting to me.

"I told you they wouldn't thank you," a voice calls out ahead of me, and I turn my smile up to Tamamo, sitting on a tree branch.

"Tamamo-san. I wasn't sure if I would see you again."

"I am not one to flake on a deal made, and drop the -san." Tamamo hops down from the tree and starts walking alongside me, giving me a strange look that has me raising a brow.

Reaching a hand up, she uses her thumb to wipe the bit of juice off my cheek. "There's a lake this way," she says instead of whatever is actually on her mind, and I nod gratefully.

The walk to water is done in peaceful silence. Well, peaceful for me. She seems rather frustrated for whatever reason.

When we arrive, the first thing I do is take off my scarf and look it over. It's not that bad, luckily. The fact that it's poor quality actually did it some favours, since it's actually sturdy, instead of better looking silks are.

It doesn't take long to scrub it clean, and I hang it on a branch to dry before taking off the outer layer of my kimono and doing the same. I don't bother with the hakama pants, because they're just going to get dirty again walking through weeds.

"Why did you let them do that?" Tamamo eventually asks once I've hung up my clothes to dry and pulled a spare set out of my shadow, sounding like she's really trying and failing to understand.

"You sure make me repeat myself a lot," I tease with a smile, continuing before she can be offended. "They needed closure. They needed to see that the Tengu was dead."

"They threw rocks at you Narauko. Rocks and rotten food. I was right. They weren't grateful at all. They Cursed you and spat on your kindness." At this point, she is pinning me under a glare like she's accusing me of a crime or something. "You don't seem that strong, but you're better than those monkeys. You could have slaughtered them all. Why would you let them treat you like that?"

Sighing, I take a seat on the grass next to the lake as I think about how to word this.

"Most humans don't really stop being children. They struggle with maturity. Perspective. In the end, they are an emotional people, and those people down there? They are the downtrodden. They have been suffering for so long, with no possible outlet for their pain. It's not good to bottle up your emotions you know? It's bad for your health, and that goes for me and you too, for everyone and everything capable of feeling. If you bottle your emotions up too much, eventually you will start to crack. That's why you should smile when you're happy and cry when you're sad."

Pausing as I look at my reflection in the water, I consider what I'm saying before continuing.

"Those people have been bottling up their emotions for so long that they started to crack. That kind of wound isn't something that can be easily healed. Time will eventually dull the pain, but the scars will likely be with them for the rest of their life. However, even if there isn't really a treatment for that pain, the worst thing you can do is keep bottling it up. They needed a release. They needed to vent those feelings, or the cracks would just keep growing larger and larger."

Finding myself smiling, I turn back to Tamamo, feeling like I'm better understanding my own feelings by saying this all out loud.

"Emotions are not some simple thing. When I say they needed to vent their negative emotions, that doesn't mean they can just scream at the sky and feel better. For something like that, they need a target to throw all of their hatred, all their grief and their frustrations upon. They don't hate me, they were just so full of hate that they took it out on the first available target."

Tamamo is starting to look at me like I'm an alien with two heads.

"But why would you let them? You only showed them kindness, what right do they have to choose you as the target of their hate? How could you accept such an injustice?"

"Because it is a good thing for them," I answer honestly. "It is progress. If they truly thought that they were still in the same bad spot they were in yesterday, then they never would have had the courage to Curse me. That they could even do that much, shows that they feel safer already. And I don't mind if they return my kindness with malice. I don't show kindness with the expectation of receiving gifts in return in the first place. I just do what I want to do. Besides, better they target me than someone who will punish them for their feelings."

"...You are a strange man, Narauko, and an even stranger Sorcerer. Aren't your kind supposed to be selfish?"

"I would say I am pretty selfish. I selfishly love the world, no matter how it treats those that walk upon it." I glance at the scarf drying nearby. "I selfishly pursue my desires, no matter who I leave behind."

"You are the strangest Sorcerer I have ever met," Tamamo says, eyeing me like I'm something completely foreign to her before she continues in a softer tone, "But that is not necessarily a bad thing."

"Thank you." I grin at her.

"I still don't see the point."

"Give it a year," I tell her. "Give it a year and then come back here. By then, their frustrations will have faded. By then, they will have accepted that they are no longer in danger of Curses. They will have had time to feel safe again, to feel free again. The wound will never fully heal, but if you come back in one year, you will see the difference for yourself, and by the time the next generation rolls around, the wound will fade into time."

Tamamo shakes her head, but I can tell that she's not as confident as she was before.

"I still think it was pointless," she says, and I just shrug.

"You are entitled to your own thoughts. You don't have to agree with me to understand my motivations."

"And you are okay with me finding your motivations to be foolish?"

"We've only just met. It would be strange if you started accepting my own opinions over ones you have held for however long before we met."

"You really are strange," Tamamo mutters, making me chuckle.

Seeing as we're going to wait for my clothes to dry, I make a shadowgraphic of a rabbit and summon my most populous Shikigami.

"Rabbit Escape," I intone and the clearing is flooded with tonnes of fully balls of white fur.

Letting myself fall backwards, I close my eyes and let out a contented sigh as I am caught by and enveloped in a pile of fluff.

Using magic superpowers for mundane lifestyle stuff is the best, and having an on demand super fluffy army of bunnies ready to act as a beanbag is amazing.

Cracking an eye open, I meet the deadpan stare of Tamamo's with a grin. "Do you want a cushion, Tamamo?"

She doesn't answer so I make her one anyway and ignore the way she glares at me when I snicker at her obvious comfort.

"So," I say after a moment of comfortably enjoying the peace. "Do you know much about current events? My information is a few decades out of date."

"A few decades?" She asks. "How old are you?"

That makes me laugh. "I'm only fifteen," I say with a chuckle. "My teacher is old though. I only left home for the first time a few days ago, so everything's pretty new to me."

"Human politics aren't something I'm interested in," Tamamo answers, and I choose to ignore how she keeps separating herself from humanity. "I only know the broad strokes."

Smiling, I give her my undivided attention.

"Teach me."

---

Chapter 6: First Taste of Combat!​

---

Another beautiful day has me and my new travelling companion, Tamamo walking through yet another forest of lush greenery under the bright sun.

The peace is somewhat disturbed by the sound of the ground shaking and trees being crushed as one of my Shikigami, Lion's Pride, tears through a few weak Cursed Spirits.

Lion's Pride is probably my strongest Shikigami, at least, before my first two combined into Divine Dog: Totality. That one's probably my strongest, but I felt like hiding it from Tamamo, so I haven't brought it out.

Lion's Pride is a massive lion, its shoulders reaching above my head and its width tripling my own and then some. Its fur is a lush golden hue that shines like the sun and correspondingly, its ability is that it gets stronger under daylight, with its peak strength being when the sun is at its own peak.

Since it's only early in the morning, the Shikigami is not too strong right now.

"Various unique Shikigami and the ability to store things in your own shadow. What even is your Innate Technique?"

Tilting my head to Tamamo I notice her giving my Shikigami a strange look as it finishes off the last few Cursed Spirits.

"It's called The Ten Shadows Technique. What about you? What's your technique?"

"I don't have one," she breezily answers as we continue walking.

"What about that blue fire you used?" I ask as I begin petting my Shikigami's side once it joins us.

Tamamo has been hogging the attention of my fox Shikigami since she saw it. It's been sitting on her shoulder since we got up this morning after a brief camp.

"That wasn't an Innate Technique, and on the subject of Innate Techniques, firstly, you shouldn't answer that question. Innate Techniques are kept private for a reason and people consider it rude to ask about it. Yōkai however, don't have Innate Techniques like Sorcerers do as a rule."

"If it's rude then why did you ask?" I dryly answer, getting only a mischievous smirk in response. Sighing, I don't press the nonissue since I don't really care. "Can I learn how to use that fire then? And why don't Yōkai have Innate Techniques?"

"No. You can't," she answers my first question, much to my visible disappointment. "Yōkai don't have Innate Techniques because Innate Techniques are purely a product of Cursed Energy, and thus only appear in humans and powerful Cursed Spirits. Yōkai have Osore instead."

Speaking of Cursed Spirits, I sense another one nearby and send Lion's Pride to go kill it.

There really are a lot of them all over the place, and there's only been more and more the closer I've gotten to civilisation from my little slice of nowhere, which does kind of make sense.

They are born from human emotions after all, it's only natural there would be more when there are more humans around.

"I thought Yōkai were full of Cursed Energy?"

"There is a distinction," she pauses to think of how to phrase it. "Cursed Energy is purely spiritual. It is the energy behind negative emotions. Yōkai don't have Cursed Energy, because they are not purely spiritual beings like Cursed Spirits, and they are not neutral beings like humans. To Yōkai, Cursed Energy isn't just the result of negative emotions, it is tied to their very being. So instead of Cursed Energy, they have Youki."

"Youki?"

Tamamo sighs, understandably. I asked a lot of questions before we even made camp, and have been doing nothing but asking anything that comes to mind since we woke up. "Think of it like natural Ki corrupted by Cursed Energy."

"Ki?" I ask with a smile while she groans when she realises she's just further ignited my curiosity.

"Life force."

"Can you manipulate Ki?"

"Not by itself," she answers, and I'm glad she's still humouring me. "You need to use either Negative or Positive Energy to do so. Negative is easier, you do that already. There's also Touki, but that is both more complicated and a lot simpler."

I've really got to give her some credit. Not only is Tamamo incredibly knowledgeable, but even more than that, she is being so generous. At the start, she seemed pretty entertained answering my questions, probably finding amusement in my curiosity.

But after so many hours, she's clearly starting to get annoyed by it. But even then, she isn't withholding information or shortening her explanations even knowing it will only lead to more questions being asked.

It's respectable.

"So, when I'm reinforcing my body with Cursed Energy, I'm using my Ki?"

"Yes, though it is more accurate to say you're using your Ki as a base and then multiplying it with your Cursed Energy. You know what multiplying is, right?"

"Yes, I know my numbers," I answer with a chuckle, not at all offended. This is the past after all, most people don't know how to read let alone count. "So what's different with Touki?"

The trees around us clear away somewhat as we reach the peak of a hill, and far off on the horizon, over more forests and hills, I can finally see Edo starting to come into view. We're almost there.

"Touki isn't pulled by positive or negative emotions. Kind of. It's complicated because it is difficult to explain, but it is simple because it is easy to use."

"How so?"

"Give me a moment to think how to explain it," Tamamo snaps, making me laugh. "Touki is Ki that gets enhanced by 'fighting spirit'. The reason it is so difficult to explain, is because 'fighting spirit' isn't clearly defined. No one really knows exactly what it is, so it has been simplified into 'fighting spirit'. Basically, if you train your body really really hard for a long time and stubbornly want to fight with your whole soul, then you can manifest Touki. I wouldn't recommend bothering with it though."

"Why not? It couldn't hurt to have more sources of strength?"

"Because mastering Touki requires a great deal of dedication. You would have to push your studies and training in Cursed Energy aside to focus on it, which is pointless anyway since you can achieve the same effect with Cursed Reinforcement. Touki is only really practiced by stubborn fools who have no other path to growing stronger."

Humming, I don't agree or disagree with her words. I already trained my body plenty, and I still want to experience it, so I'll probably try and unlock Touki at some point. That said, it doesn't seem a priority when apparently all it is good for is reinforcement.

We walk in peaceful silence as I ponder over the new information, but after a while I eventually speak up again.

"You mentioned Osore. What is that?"

As an answer, Tamamo turns her head enough that she can meet my eye, and when she does, I feel a shiver go down my spine that I haven't felt since that first Curse I met.

It's fear, I realise that I am feeling, and I can feel my grin widen at the strange sensation.

Then, with a blink, the feeling disappears as if a gust of wind.

"That, is Osore. It is the fear that makes a Yōkai, manifested," Tamamo says, and I think she's forgotten that she's been trying to hide the fact that she's a Yōkai.

Not that I'm going to point that out to her of course.

Instead, I just ask more questions. "You mentioned that Ki is neutral and can be brought out by Negative Energy or by fighting spirit, but you haven't said anything about Positive Energy. How does that work? Who uses Positive Energy if Yōkai and humans both use negative?"

"Kami," is her immediate answer. "Kami are the equal and opposite of Cursed Spirits and so their energy is positive, like that deer Shikigami of yours. Though, don't mistake the average Kami with a Kami in the Heavens. Those Kami are Divine and naturally work by different rules."

That makes sense actually. Kami are everywhere in everything, and they're pretty much always kind and helpful, this is why we show them respect and kindness in turn through rituals and prayer.

Also, good to know that that is called Positive Energy, not Blessed Energy as I've been calling it. And, now that I think about it, it makes a lot more sense how I can manifest it by smashing my Cursed Energy against itself.

Two negatives make a positive after all.

"How do the Divine work?" I ask, and for the first time since I've known her, Tamamo doesn't have an answer.

"I don't know." She must have seen the surprised look on my face because she sends me a glare. "The Divine live in the Heavens above us as Celestial beings, to know the Divine is to be Divine. So unless you happen to meet an Ōkami, no one is going to answer that for you."

Sighing, I accept her answer and keep walking.

The silence is longer this time as I actually struggle to think of questions to ask, my mind too occupied absorbing the wealth of information already given.

Not to mention some excitement at finally reaching the big city. Soon enough, I'll be in the ancient Japanese spirit equivalent of Hogwarts and I'll get to meet all sorts of interesting people. Hopefully.

I'm not in a hurry though, so we keep our pace light. By my estimate, we should reach Edo by evening.

However, once we clear the forest and with Edo still only on the horizon, Tamamo comes to a stop, not stepping out into the sun.

"Tamamo?" I ask, turning back to her to see that she's adopted a purposefully aloof expression.

"Our deal was merely that I travel with you until we reach near Edo. We have done so. This is where we part ways."

"Oh." Right. I forgot about that part. It's a shame, but I have a feeling we will meet again, so at least it's not goodbye.

"Wait," I call out before she can walk off. "Before you go, may I ask a favour? One last lesson?"

She stares at me for a long moment, her clothes blowing in a breeze that idly makes me realise that at some point I'd stopped considering jeans as normal clothes and kimono as traditional clothes.

Now, when I see Tamamo's dress I just think of it as clothes. That's pretty weird to think about. Just another aspect of living in the past really. What once was traditional and strange to see is now just everyone's everyday wear.

Though, Tamamo's clothes are definitely of a better quality than my own.

"Fine. One more lesson," she agrees, and I send her a mischievous grin full of eagerness.

"Fight me."

Her head tilts and her lip twitches into a brief frown.

"Why?" She asks, almost accusing but not quite.

I'm sure there's some subtext going on here that I'm completely blind to, but since I don't know what it is, I just ignore it.

"Because being a Jujutsu Sorcerer is all about fighting Cursed Spirits, but I've never really been in a fight before, and I don't want to embarrass myself too much when I get there with my inexperience."

Tamamo raises a brow with a deadpan expression on her face. "I've seen you kill a number of Cursed Spirits in the short time we've been together."

"I don't really count them as fights," I respond with a shrug.

"Why is that?" She asks, and I feel my smile become slightly more solemn without my control as I give her the honest answer.

"Because I've yet to exert myself."

Other than that time with the first Cursed Spirit I ever saw, I have never once in this life truly had to push myself.

Sure, I push my body in training, but that's not really the same. I've yet to have to truly try.

It's... unsatisfying.

---

Tamamo-no-Mae

---

As Narauko gives his answer, she notices the far off look that briefly crosses his eyes, and she understands.

He has never faced an equal in battle before. She understands that feeling well.

She is a genius. She has been praised as such her entire life by her village.

Like all Kitsune, she was born with a single tail. Normally, as a Kitsune grows older, they will gain a tail every one hundred years, except for the final tail which takes two hundred.

Every one hundred years, when a Kitsune's next tail grows in, their power grows to match. That is just how it works. Their strength is directly tied to the number of tails they have.

However, Tamamo-no-Mae is only seventy eight, by all accounts, she should only have one tail. She has three. Because unlike every other Kitsune known, it is Tamamo's age that needs to catch up to her power, not the other way around.

Instead of gaining tails and then power, she has done the opposite. Because she is a genius. Her village expect her to be the first Nine-Tailed Kitsune in one thousand years.

There has only been one before, and they died so long ago that no one is really sure they existed in the first place. Most Kitsune don't even make it to their seventh tail before their potential runs out. Then they can't gain any more tails no matter how long they live.

So she understood the look in his eye perfectly. The look of someone yet to meet an equal.

Still. She's pretty sure he's not nearly as strong as she is. He's just too sheltered to have met anyone powerful yet. He's also only human. Even if he isn't as lowly as those monkeys, there is still a distance that separates them from birth.

Though, that lion Shikigami of his is pretty dangerous, and the deer could be annoying with its Positive Energy.

"Are you sure?" She still asks, because it's a risky thing he is asking of her.

"Of course," he responds, as she knew he would.

"Very well then. Just don't Curse me when you lose."

Narauko laughs at her answer, which doesn't surprise her. She would be surprised if he was even capable of Cursing anyone out of something as petty as vengeance. He's the kind of man who would die complimenting the one who killed him.

Truly, he is the strangest Sorcerer she has ever met.

As if to prove her point, Narauko continues, "Would you like to change into one of my spare sets of clothes first? Your kimono is very pretty and looks well made, I'd feel bad if I damaged it."

Truly, truly strange.

"I thank you for the consideration, but you needn't worry." She doesn't explain that she can clean and repair her clothing, or even just create a new set altogether, and being the considerate man that he is, he doesn't ask why he needn't worry and merely accepts her words at face value.

He's very lucky she felt intrigued enough by him that she humoured his 'deal' in the first place. Had she not felt the strange warmth of his Cursed Energy and become intrigued, it would have been incredibly easy to trick him with lies when he seems to believe everything she says.

"Suit yourself," Narauko responds as he takes off his scarf that he seems to care a lot about considering it's poor quality and drops it into his shadow.

Following that, he stretches his arms out and cracks his neck, raising an eyebrow in her direction when he notices she isn't doing the same.

Then he holds two fingers out in a familiar, annoying gesture and calls out, "Curtain."

Immediately, ink paints the sky and falls around them in a large radius, forming a dome-shaped barrier and Tamamo has to put some effort in keeping her Kitsune featured hidden as the barrier's effect kicks in.

Cursed Spirits within a Curtain are unable to hide, for the most part, and while Yōkai aren't Cursed Spirits, as she has been telling him, the Curtain still makes it more difficult to hold their human disguises.

Still, she wouldn't be a genius if something as simple as that could trip her up.

"A Curtain with no incantation. Impressive," she comments, getting a confused blink in response.

She's noticed that when he gets confused he tends to blink and tilt his head slightly. She does her best to ignore how endearing she finds it.

"Is it?" He asks.

"It means you are above average, at least." She answers.

"Ah, it's probably just that Curtain is the only barrier technique that my father taught me, so I've practiced it a lot."

She almost rolls her eyes at his modesty. She imagines the faces that those Sorcerers in Edo will make when he gets there will be incredibly amusing. It's a shame she won't be able to see it.

Most Sorcerers are Grade Three. The above average ones are Grade Two, and most of those still use the incantation when making a Curtain. They're also all quite a few years older than he is.

Shaking he head, Tamamo enters a combat stance and throws away useless thoughts, focusing on her body and her Youki as she puts herself in the mindset of battle.

Narauko mimics, though his stance is obviously unrefined. Just looking at him she can tell that he has some proper education but has never actually applied what he's been taught.

"Oh, by the way," Narauko says, a friendly, if sheepish smile on his face. "I'm going to try to kill you. I would appreciate it if you do the same."

There's the Sorcerer in him. Saying that with a smile she can tell is genuinely friendly.

Still, she tilts her head at that, confused until realisation sets in.

"You really are sheltered, aren't you?" She asks, amused despite herself as he blinks in response, so she continues before he can ask, her voice hard. "There is no point in a fight if you are going to pull your punches. In fact, it's greatly insulting to fight with the intention of sparing your opponent. Hear this well Narauko. You must always fight to kill, there is no alternative."

Teaching students could technically be called an alternative, but that's not really fighting, it's teaching, so she doesn't count it.

"Oh, I didn't realise," he says, his grin only growing wider, and for the first time, she properly recognises him as a Sorcerer. "Let's fight with our lives on the line then."

"As it should be," she returns.

Standing opposite each other, the tension between them rises slowly, and being the more experienced of the two, Tamamo decides to engage first.

Truthfully, she wouldn't have accepted the fight if not for his deer Shikigami. With that, he should survive. Probably.

Dashing forward, a gust follows in her wake as Tamamo blurs in front of Narauko and thrusts a clawed hand at his chest, intending to tear a hole into his torso to end the fight in the first move.

But, unexpectedly, Narauko was fast enough to respond to her movement and leaned back until his hand touched the floor behind him, giving him enough leverage to kick up at her.

She blocks the blow with a reinforced arm, intending to counter only to be launched a few paces back from the blow, her arm stinging slightly.

That... Was a strong blow.

Before she can question it any further, Narauko appears in front of her with a fist raised in a telegraphed punch that she easily counters, even distracted, with a palm thrust to his chest that returns the favour of sending him back.

He is stronger and faster than she expected. More durable too.

He has such a weak presence that she underestimated him even after travelling together.

That is her mistake. She won't do it again.

Pushing her Youki harder, Tamamo dashes back into the fight as fast as she can, making Narauko's eyes widen at her speed, and yet, he still manages to block her claw.

Blood splatters as she tears a chunk out of his forearm instead of his throat and she feels a rib crack when his retaliatory kick strikes home.

"Owwwww," Narauko whines as he cradles his arm and generates his own Positive Energy, somehow, to heal himself.

The battlefield isn't a place for endless speculation, so she just assumes that he is somehow channelling that deer Shikigami's ability without summoning it and moves on.

Similar to Cursed Spirits however, Positive Energy is poison to Yōkai and the opposite heals, so she only needs to pour some Youki into her cracked rib to fix it.

There's a brief lull as they circle each other, reassessing.

Yet, despite the injuries, she finds that they are both smiling.

This time, both of them dash each other at the same time and meet in the middle.

Narauko goes for a punch to her face that she ducks under, grabbing his wrist with one of her own and pulling him off balance and into her waiting elbow.

He takes the hit straight to the jaw and his head snaps back, but before she can continue to pummel him he surprises her by swinging his head back forward and viciously headbutting her.

Luckily, they are about the same height so he doesn't break her nose, but it does disorient her enough that she loses her grip of his wrist and has to defend as his other fist swings at her.

But in the end, she is the more experienced fighter of the two of them and she has his measure now, so she manages to defend herself, and in the flurry of combat that follows, she finds herself scoring more and more hits while only occasionally receiving one of his.

Yet, as the fight continues, she starts hitting him less and less, and the fight gets more and more even.

It takes her a moment to truly understand why the fight is shifting in his favour, but when she does she can't help but feel incredulous.

He's... Learning?

He's getting better, that fact is undeniable, and when she nearly loses her throat in an incredibly familiar manoeuvre, she realises that he's not just getting better, he's copying her.

He's devouring her martial arts with every hit he takes.

I apologise, she thinks to him as her own grin actually grows to match his own. It seems I was still underestimating you.

Ducking under his next punch, Tamamo spins a roundhouse kick into his gut, sending Narauko flying back a dozen paces.

Not waiting for him to recover, she spins back onto her feet facing him and holds out her hands.

A moment later, blue fire engulfs her hands in a series of rings going all the way up to her elbow.

When he notices the fire, Narauko's first response is to bark out a laugh before charging at her with his full speed.

However, he misses.

To her side, two paces away, Narauko swings at another Tamamo-no-Mae identical to herself, and his fist goes straight through her body without resistance.

The illusory clone disperses around his fist like disturbed smoke and she doesn't give him the chance to express his confusion before a pair of blue rings of fire leave her wrists and slam into him in an explosion of fire.

The concussive force sends Narauko flying, but the fire doesn't leave him and continues to burn away at his Cursed Energy.

A moment later, his Cursed Energy swells and drowns out her fire, putting it out.

At this point, she kind of expected it, but he really does have a lot more Cursed Energy than she thought.

He barely feels like a Grade Three Sorcerer, but no one with such little output would be able to put out her fire so easily, all without showing the slightest bit of exhaustion.

"Hey Tamamo," Narauko calls out, making her pause.

"Asking for mercy?" She asks in return, a mockery that doesn't faze him in the slightest.

He grins wildly at her. "Your tail is showing~."

His words shock her back into focus and her head snaps to the side to look behind her, only to see that her tails are not, in fact showing.

She realises the trick for what it was only an instant before an incredible impact slams into her gut, knocking the air out of her lungs and launching her across the ground.

Narauko doesn't let up and she has to roll to avoid him stomping down on her, and as she rolls onto her back she points both arms up at him and releases a point blank explosion of fire that once more separates them.

Coughing to herself as she floods her system with Youki to repair her ruptured organs, Tamamo climbs back to her feet and pats herself down of dirt, glaring at Narauko as he does the same.

"You tricked me," she accuses, genuinely offended.

Tricking people is supposed to be her thing. Tricking people is the past time of her entire species, and yet this human tricked her and has the gall to grin about it.

But more importantly...

"How long have you known?" She asks, her voice a whisper.

"Pretty early on," he answers without a care, still smiling that damn smile at her. "You are going to want to do a better job avoiding making such a distinction between yourself and us humans if you want to blend in in the future."

"Why didn't you say anything?" She accuses him with a glare.

"It seemed like you wanted to keep it a secret for some reason, so I didn't ask. Everyone is entitled to their secrets, and you've been too kind for me to pry on yours."

"You don't seem to have a problem doing so to score a cheap hit," Tamamo grumbles.

"All is fair in love and war," he responds, sounding like he is quoting something but she doesn't know what. Either way, she can admit that it's a good quote.

That doesn't change the core issue here however.

"Why would you travel with me if you knew?" She asks, getting somewhat frustrated at him acting like he doesn't get it.

"Does it matter?" He asks instead, making her brow twitch.

"Of course it matters!" She yells at him. "You are a human and I am a Yōkai! Our nature opposes one another! Humans are nothing but food and entertainment to Yōkai and Yōkai are nothing but monsters to be killed to humans! I should have deceived and killed you the moment we met! That is my nature! And you should have killed me the moment you found out! You're a Sorcerer aren't you!?"

Breathing hard after her rant, Tamamo glares at Narauko as he tilts his head this way and that, visibly thinking over her words.

Eventually however, he just shrugs and grins that same. Damn. Smile at her. "I don't really care about anything like that. Labels are pretty limiting. Besides, you were literally teaching me about how Yōkai have their own society just like humans do earlier. If you tried to kill me because you were evil and that was your nature then I wouldn't blame you, but you didn't, so why does it matter? You're not just a Yōkai. You are Tamamo-no-Mae, and while Tamamo-no-Mae is indeed a Yōkai, no other Yōkai is Tamamo-no-Mae. In the end, I'm a pretty simple guy you know? I like you, so I'm not going to kill you if I can help it, even if you do wind up being evil and slaughtering my kind."

This insufferably single-minded man...

Yōkai and humans don't get along. They don't make friends and they certainly don't travel together, teaching each other. It's wrong. It's all wrong.

But his words...

Yōkai should despise humans. She should look down on them as the pathetic monkeys that they are. Humans too, should despise Yōkai. They should look at them with hatred and fear.

Not a single human has ever seen her without her disguise and not given that instinctual reaction. It is written into their very being. An order of nature.

A Yōkai exists off of the fear of humans. It is humanity's fear itself that composes their souls, so it is impossible for a human to see a Yōkai and not give the same reaction. Even trained Sorcerers who do not truly fear Yōkai still flinch. It is an instinctual truth that proves the separation between their species.

Glaring at him, she decides actions can prove her point better than words ever could, and she makes his bluff a reality by completely dropping her illusions, revealing her true form.

Aesthetically, the change isn't massive. Her hair grows longer, her ears reveal themselves on top of her head. Her eyes slit, fangs sharpen, claws grow and three thick tails fan out behind her.

She is a Kitsune. A Yōkai. A Monster.

For all his words, there is simply no way for a human to look upon her without flinching.

She closes her eyes, irrationally unwilling to see the judgment in his own.

Yet, deep down, she knew his answer. There's only one way he could ever respond.

"Beautiful." The whispered word carries its way to her ears and she feels warm.

That's just the kind of man he is.

Opening her eyes, she ignores the slight stinging in them as she takes in the sight of Narauko, slightly ruffed up from their fight but otherwise fresh as his eyes roam her body with his mouth slightly parted.

For some reason she refuses to identify, a flush of embarrassment fills her under his intense stare, so she reflectively strikes a subtle pose and winks seductively at him.

Kitsune are seductresses after all. Even if it's not something she practices a lot, it is still a comfort zone she can go to to hide her feelings in this moment.

"It's rude to stare~," she purrs at him, not hiding her heritage at all, and he really doesn't flinch.

His eyes meet her own, and it's actually her that has to hide a flinch as she can feel the pure acceptance in his gaze.

Humans are food. Playthings. Savages that will swarm you with fire and blood just for being different.

They should be killed. Eaten. Tricked or avoided.

That's what the village Elders always told her. It's what every Yōkai she's ever met has told her.

Humans and Yōkai are enemies by birth. Coexistence is not possible. Humans will never accept them. There's no point in even trying. Even compared to trickster Kitsune, humans cannot be trusted.

Kitsune trick and they lie, but when a deal has been made, they do not betray. Oni proudly claim that there is nothing false in the words of Oni. Humans however? They lie and they cheat and they betray. Using dirty, dishonourable tricks to make up for their own weakness.

Humans are the enemy.

So why.

Why are you so different?

"Ah, my bad. I didn't mean to stare, I just didn't expect your fur to be so beautiful, you must take great pride in it," Narauko comments, and she forces down a blush because yes, she does take great pride in it.

"You truly don't care, do you?" She asks, still somewhat baffled even if she's coming to accept it.

"Tamamo-no-Mae is Tamamo-no-Mae. Yōkai or human doesn't really matter. It's you I like, not your species."

When he says things like that she doesn't know if this dense idiot is flirting or not and it's incredibly annoying.

"You are a truly strange human."

"Better to be a freak than to be boring," he responds with a shrug before grinning wildly at her once again. "So, we were in the middle of something?"

Laughing lightly, Tamamo feels her own savage grin spread to match his.

She's done holding anything back. He is clearly so far beyond anything she would have expected from a human.

So for the first time in her life, she is going to give this everything she's got.

Her tails fan out and blue fire once more graces her body. A series of concentric rings cover her arms all the way up to her shoulders, where another two rings of blue fire hover, above and slightly behind her shoulders.

Behind her, three rings of matching fire light up at the tips of her tails, not quite touching and finally, another ring of fire appears above her head like a burning halo.

"Kami that looks so cool~," Narauko practically squeals, his excitement clear and matching with her own.

"Don't die on me now," Tamamo calls out to him as she blurs into his personal space, a blue ring of fire glowing in her eyes, "Narauko!"

Despite her speed having increased significantly, he still manages to lean out of the way, but it doesn't matter as the ring of fire around her wrist doesn't lose any momentum and flies right into his face, exploding into a burst of fire.

Narauko is launched to the ground but he just reaches an arm out behind him and transitions the fall into a backwards flip, curling his legs in to avoid having them removed by her follow up.

She keeps up her momentum, leaving him on the back foot as he is forced to block, parry and dodge as best as he is able.

Which is pretty good, as she only manages to land some grazing blows.

Her grin only grows wider as she waits for him to get comfortable with her assault, and then she coats herself in an illusion and has her illusory self drop low for a leg sweep.

Narauko jumps over the leg as she predicted and she is already in the air ready for him.

Spinning for momentum, Tamamo kicks him with everything she's got, but unexpectedly, he is able to bring his arms up in time to block, flaring his Cursed Energy enough that his arms only snap in half instead of getting removed entirely.

Her attack creates enough distance between them that Narauko can gather his bearings, and he meets her in the middle once again. Only this time, when she sends an illusion forward and comes at him from the side, he notices.

Her clawed hand meets air as he ducks under it and grabs her wrist, ignoring the way his hand burns under her fire, and uses the leverage to pull her off balance, right into his waiting elbow.

Her head snaps back from the blow, but her grin only grows as she recognises the movement he just made.

That's my move! She thinks, recognising the counter as a perfect mirror of her own movements at the start of the fight.

Instead of letting him press harder, her tails shoot over her shoulders intent on skewering him, but he uses her gut as a springboard to kick off of and launches backwards.

As soon as his feet touch the ground, they are charging right back at each other, and she feels his Cursed Energy lean to her right, so she leans left, right into Narauko's fist.

What!? She thinks to herself as one of her tails throws its ring of fire like a shuriken at him. I know I read his Cursed Energy right. He was going right!

Narauko leans back under the ring of fire, showing some impressive flexibility, and she feels his Cursed Energy surging in a pattern she knows to mean that he will plant his hands and use them as a spring to kick her in the chest.

But when she leans back to avoid it, she finds her knee getting kicked hard enough to buckle, but not snap.

As she falls, the rings of fire above her shoulders slam into each other and cause a concentrated explosion that launches Narauko back away.

In the brief respite, she tries to figure out what is going on, and like a lightning bolt, it comes to her.

He's trying to mimic my illusions with just Cursed Energy!

Standing off against him, she notices that his clothes are in tatters, showing off most of his well muscled upper body, and most importantly, that he is uninjured.

Obviously, he has taken damage, but his use of Positive Energy has healed him. Yet, he doesn't even seem tired despite that.

The next moment, her senses blare as she feels a lot of Cursed Energy gathering around one of his arms until it becomes visible to her and she realises what he's doing.

He's trying to copy her fire now. The idiot doesn't realise that it is literally impossible, but that doesn't mean he can't just launch pure Cursed Energy at her.

Which he does a moment later in a thin beam that tears up the ground behind her when she dodges.

Just how much Cursed Energy does he have! She screams to herself as she charges forward once more, feeling her blood pumping in her veins like it never has before. Is he even human!?

Illusions cloak her form but Narauko's eyes meet her own regardless, and she can only smile wider, a laugh leaving her lips as she realises what she's feeling.

Danger.

She's in danger of losing, for the first time in her life, and against a human at that!

Her laugh turns slightly hysterical as they come to clash once more, and she feels her Youki surging like it never has before, a clarity of mind hitting her like the greatest drug.

Sparks of black race off of her fist as it closes in on his chest.

"Black Flash!" The words leave her lungs without thought.

Space itself bends around her fist as it digs into Narauko's diaphragm an explodes with more force than anything she's ever hit before.

Blood explodes from his chest and flies out of his mouth as Narauko is launched back into the forest and through half a dozen trees before eventually sliding to a stop.

A feeling of euphoria floods Tamamo's mind as her Youki flows to her every whim. It feels to her like her Youki has been mud this entire time and only now became water, flowing with such ease she wonders how she ever managed to move it before today.

Turning delighted eyes upon the forest, she watches Narauko pick himself up, a hand over the steadily closing hole she left in his chest.

But despite very nearly dying, his smile almost matches her own.

No words are needed.

This final clash will decide the victor.

Narauko's Cursed Energy surges, and for the first time since meeting him, she can feel it. His Curse.

All restraint disappears and an ocean of Cursed Energy coats his body.

The inefficiency is obvious. The return in reinforcement he is getting for each unit of Cursed Energy is noticeably diminishing, but what does it matter if he can just keep pouring more, and more, and more energy into his body?

Matching him, her own Youki surges. The rings of fire covering her arms double, and she creates an equal amount covering her legs from thigh to ankle, then she makes even more. Half a dozen tiny rings of fire bursting into being over each of her fingers.

She doesn't bother with any illusions and just shoves everything she has into her body and her fire, enhancing herself so much that her back itches, a new tail wanting to spring to life but not quite able to.

There is no spoken signal.

Some instinct in them just understands. A connection between them forged from travel and combat lets her practically read his mind as they charge one another.

No holding back.

No defence.

No hesitance.

Do or die, attack with everything.

They meet in the middle.

The ground craters.

Trees are torn out of the earth and flung into the distance.

The very sky cracks and a thunderous boom deafens all the animals unlucky enough to be in the Curtain.

Wind rages as they are both launched back from the point of impact like a pair of missiles, trails of blood following in their wake.

Pain like she has never felt before fills Tamamo's mind like static as her body is flung through tree after tree until she eventually bounces across the earth and slowly rolls to a stop.

For a long moment, she just lies there, unmoving as she waits for the ringing in her ears to stop.

Without moving her body, she cracks her eyes open to see a cloud of dust settling around her.

She feels numb, but little by little, control of her body comes back to her.

Enough that she can tilt her neck and look at herself.

Her clothes are in tatters, leaving her rather immodest.

Her skin is red and raw, covered in tears and cuts profusely leaking blood.

Moving her eyes to the side slightly, a disbelieving huff leaves her throat and the pain hardly even registers as she takes in the sight.

Her arm is gone.

Only a roughly torn stump remains of her bicep, flaps of flesh and white bone open to the air as blood endlessly pools around her.

Relaxing herself, her head falls back and she stares up at the sky, feeling too many emotions to really pick any one out.

It takes some time for her muddled thoughts to gather around a single, unavoidable point.

I... Lost?

Even if Narauko is in as bad a spot as she is, not winning is itself an act of loss. He also seems to have better healing options than she does, at least in the short term.

What a monster.

A wheezing, stilted laugh leaves her and she ignores the pain it causes as warmth fills her with a smile.

I lost, she thinks to herself again and in spite of the pain it causes her, she continues to laugh.

She feels... Joy.

Finally, she has found an equal. Someone who can keep up with her.

Someone who can understand her. Who accepts her. Who is strong like her.

How could she feel anything but joy at that?

"You're not dead? I'm glad." Her head turns enough to see Narauko approach.

Leaves, twigs and debris crunches under his bare feet as he limps closer to her, one of his owns arm also missing while his other slowly works on repairing all the internal damage done to him.

Once he shuffles close enough to her, he plops down on the ground next to her head with a slight grunt and looks down into her eyes with a happy, childlike grin on his face.

"That was fun," he tells her, and she wants to believe him, to bask in the moment with him. But when she looks into his eyes, she can see the truth.

He's not truly satisfied.

Once that thought hits her, she can no longer keep ignoring one simple fact.

Throughout the entire fight, not once did Narauko use his Innate Technique.

Even still, his smile is pure and his joy is genuine.

He is happy. He's not lying when he said he had fun. In fact, he hasn't lied to her once. She didn't think he was even capable of lying.

So why,

"You're strong."

Would he lie?

---

Chapter 7: One More Goodbye and Entering Edo​

---

A comfortable warmth coats my skin as the evening sun shines down on us where we lay in opposite directions from each other on a patch of the grass that isn't torn up, our heads resting next to each others.

Across my lap, Generous Deer lies, curled up and at least pretending to sleep. I don't think my Shikigami can actually sleep. In fact, I don't think they're really sentient at all. They probably just act how I subconsciously believe they should act.

Thanks to Generous Deer, I'm already fully recovered, even if I am feeling rather drained. It's a novel feeling, I decide.

I'd never actually run low on Cursed Energy before today, so I had assumed that it wasn't an energy reserve kind of deal. I though that instead of running out of Cursed Energy, the stamina concern was more along the lines of running out of focus to continue to manipulate it.

Guess it's actually just difficult to use it all.

I'm satisfied though. I've learned a lot.

My Cursed Energy Reinforcement has improved somewhat, but it doesn't compare to the improvement in my ability to sense Cursed Energy.

Tamamo's illusions were really difficult to see through at first, but really it was just a matter of focusing harder to be able to at least vaguely sense where they are and aren't.

She also helped me learn how to project my Cursed Energy as an attack. It was horribly inefficient, but a big part of me is still marvelling over how cool it was to shoot a genuine magical laser beam from my hand.

Then there was that extra powerful punch she hit me with that ruptured my heart and very nearly killed me. That felt weird, beyond the pain at least. To my senses, it was like a flashbang, like her Youki froze and teleported or something.

"Hey Tamamo," I speak up after what felt like hours of just lying together in a comfortable post-fight bliss.

"Hm?"

"What was that attack?" I ask, further clarifying, "The one that put a hole in my chest? It felt weird."

She doesn't turn to look at me as she answers and neither do I, both of us just staring at the snow white clouds in the blue sky. "It's called Kokusen, or Black Flash."

Tamamo pauses her explanation to let out a sigh of contentment as her arm finally finishes regenerating. Generous Deer can't heal her because she's a Yōkai and Positive Energy is poison to her, so she had to do it herself, unfortunately.

"Black Flash isn't a technique. It's more like a natural phenomena. When Cursed Energy, or Youki, is applied almost in the exact same instant as a physical hit, the Cursed Energy will flash black and the power of the strike will be increased by about two and a half times."

"No wonder I couldn't defend it," I comment.

"That's not all though. When one achieves a Black Flash, they enter a temporary state of heightened ability. Everything becomes easier to do and clearer to understand. For me, it felt like I was seeing my Youki again for the first time. Even now, I am wondering how I could ever manipulate my Youki so inefficiently. Black Flash isn't a random phenomena, but it's also not something that can be done on command. No one is capable of choosing when they experience a Black Flash, all I really know about the activation conditions is that Youki must strike within one one thousandth of one one thousandth of a second."

"So one one millionth of a second then?" I muse, considering if I could activate that on command and immediately throwing away the idea.

Even if timing is the only thing taken into count, my fine control over my Cursed Energy is nowhere near that precise.

"Million?" Tamamo parrots, once more reminding me schools don't exist properly yet.

"One thousand thousands," I answer easily enough.

"Ah." Another short quiet passes before she speaks again. "How did you make Positive Energy without summoning your Shikigami? Can you take on their traits without bringing them out?"

Her second question makes me pause before I can answer.

I... Hadn't thought about trying that. Can I? I don't know. Something to test later. Maybe I'll see if I can merge my Shikigami with each other first, before experimenting on myself.

"It's a double negative," I answer and Tamamo briefly tilts her head enough to send me a flat stare before turning her attention back to the clouds. "When you multiply a number by a negative, it inverses. Positive becomes negative and negative becomes positive. It took me a while to learn it from Generous Deer, but since Cursed Energy is inherently negative, I just smash it against itself and it inverses into a positive. I haven't studied it academically yet, so I don't know how it functions in exacting detail."

A cloud drifts by that looks like a rabbit and when I point at it, Tamamo hums and points to the distance at a cloud that vaguely looks like a fist.

"That actually makes some other things make more sense," Tamamo comments and I hum inquisitively.

"When Negative Energy encounters a lesser concentration of Positive Energy, it corrupts it into more Negative Energy. However, when the opposite is true, Positive Energy simply overwhelms the negative and purifies it away. So, negative by negative makes positive, positive by positive makes more positive and negative by positive makes negative. So while Negative Energy can corrupt positive, the opposite is not true, so it just overwhelms and destroys instead."

Huh. I actually never thought about that, but now that she's mentioned it, I've heard plenty of stories about positive things being corrupted, but I can't remember any about negative things becoming positive, unless you count the eradication of the negative as a positive.

I suppose that would depend on whether you count zero as a positive.

"How does your fire work?" I ask after another brief silence. "I tried to copy it but it didn't work."

"You can't copy it," she scoffs, though I think I can hear some amusement. "Foxfire is an ability unique to Kitsune. It's more of a physical trait than a technique, so unless you somehow manage to turn yourself into a Kitsune, you can't use it. Before you ask, it's the same with the illusions. You can't do them like me. However, you can probably mimic them with some talismans and practice. I doubt it though. Cursed Energy isn't that flexible, most of your potential is decided at birth."

"Lame," I complain. "I don't really have a proper offensive move beyond just throwing Cursed Energy around."

"I'm sure you will figure something out," she consoles before taking her turn to ask the question. "What is your goal?"

I wasn't expecting a deep question like that, but the answer is already so clear to me that I don't hesitate in my answer. "To learn."

"Learn what?"

"Everything."

"Heh, you don't act like a Sorcerer most of the time, but you definitely are one."

My brow raises at her apparent amusement. "Is that a compliment?"

"Maybe it is," she says, sounding like she is actually unsure herself.

I don't have any more questions, and she doesn't seem to either, so we both just relax under the sun for a while, occasionally pointing out a cloud if it looks like something.

It's nice. Relaxing.

Once again, I find myself thinking how in my last life, I never would have been able to just lie down and enjoy the sun like this. It's embarrassing.

But here and now? I'm just happy.

I love this world, this second life of mine.

I'm just.. so happy to be alive.

Eventually however, the sun moves further across the sky, and I realise I'm going to need to start moving if I want to get to Edo before dark.

"You should get going, it's going to be dark soon," Tamamo eventually says, her words mirroring my thoughts exactly.

Still, despite that, neither of us move from where we lay right away.

"It seems this is where we part ways then, Tamamo-Sen~sei," I comment, lightly teasing her because I know she doesn't like suffixes.

Probably a Yōkai thing, though it's also probably racist to assume all Yōkai are the same just because of the one I met.

"Don't call me that," Tamamo snaps, though there's no heat in her tone.

An amused breath leaves me at her response, and there's another brief silence before Tamamo lets out a slight sigh and climbs to her feet, with me joining her, feeling unexpectedly reluctant.

She can use her Youki to magic her clothes all back to perfect condition, which is unfair, because I can't. So once I'm up, the first thing I have to do is get a fresh white kosode, a short sleeved thin kimono worn as an undershirt, from my shadow to slip on.

My hakama pants were thankfully mostly undamaged, so there's no burning need to change them.

Once I finish covering myself, I turn back to Tamamo to notice her quickly turning her head away to stare at a random tree for some reason.

Following her stare, I don't see or sense anything strange and just shrug it off when she turns her attention back to me.

Our eyes meet and I smile. "So, what will you be doing now?"

Instead of answering immediately, she turns to gaze upon the city of Edo with a strangely solemn, and somewhat hesitant gaze.

Tilting my head curiously, I wait a moment for her to respond.

"I think... I think I am going to give the mon-" She cuts herself off and glances at me. I'm not sure what she was looking for, but she seemed relieved as she turned back to Edo. "I am going to give humanity a chance."

"What do you mean?" I ask, and she turns to face me fully, taking a half step closer to me, putting herself close enough that I could touch her if I reached out.

"I have only ever heard of humans through the Yōkai of my village. Before you, I had never spoken with a human for more than a single exchange. I have realised that I don't truly understand humans. It is as you said, humans are complex animals-"

"I don't remember using the word animals," I interject, but she ignores me.

"Regardless," she continues, "I intend to experience humanity through my own eyes. To that end, I shall be heading to the capital city, Heian-kyō. I shall see for myself if humans are as deserving of credit as you say, or if I was right about them."

What she doesn't say is that she intends to make use of the vast amounts of Negative Energy said to be swarming the capital to enhance herself.

By spending a few years absorbing all of that ambient negativity, she will be able to make herself significantly stronger, and in three years time, she hopes she will be able to truly satisfy him as he did her.

"You're not just doing this because you really want to say 'I told you so' are you?" I ask, my tone purposefully sceptical.

A truly befitting vulpine grin is my answer, and I let out a dramatic sigh.

Both of us chuckle and a moment later, we are just standing there, smiling at nothing.

Tamamo's hand twitches forward for just a moment before retracting. "Well," she states, "I suppose I will see you around, Narauko."

I feel... Like I should say something, but I don't know what, so I just nod my head and smile. "Yeah. Goodbye, Tamamo."

A moment passes where neither of us move, when Tamamo raises a foot to step closer to me before changing directions at the last second and turning to the side.

Another step follows, and an unfamiliar sensation curls in my chest as I watch her walk away.

"Have fun in Edo Narauko," she calls out without looking back, "I'm sure you will have an interesting time."

"I'll be sure to tell you about it," I blurt out without thinking, and her steps falter for a moment before she continues into the forest, "When we meet again."

Her back disappears behind the trees and a breath I didn't know I was holding leaves me.

...What the hell was that?

I don't know. The fact that it was a new experience brings a smile to my face however. Besides, who doesn't love mysteries? I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually.

For now, new kimono, then Edo Jujutsu High, here I come!

Though... Didn't the old man say it was called Edo Metropolitan Curse Technical College? I'm pretty sure that's the proper name, but it's such a mouthful I cut it out of my brain.

Eh, who cares.

Strolling down the hill, I resume my four day long walk.

As the city gets closer I'm briefly struck by how much smaller it is than I was picturing, before remembering that I'm used to cities accommodating a much larger population.

Hell, I'm pretty sure the population of Tokyo when I died was greater than the entire population of Japan right now.

Still, 'smaller' doesn't necessarily mean 'small'. It might not be as big as the big cities in the future, but it is still very impressive.

Then again, I wasn't much of a city boy in my last life, though more so than in this life where I was raised alone in the forest with just one old man. It sounds sketchy put like that.

Either way, Edo is a beautiful sight to behold.

There are only a couple of buildings taller than three floors, and not by much, but honestly I think that looks better than towering monoliths blocking out the sky.

The biggest building by far is obviously the Edo Castle, standing proudly above the rest.

It truly is a sight to behold, enough that I lose myself in just observing it as I mindlessly walk closer.

The buildings are all with the matching architecture of the era, and I'm probably the only person in the nation as fascinated by them as I am, simply because to me this is all new and exciting, but to them it is just all they know.

There's also a lot of open space.

Edo is smaller than the Tokyo it will become, but calling it small would be a disservice. It is still incredibly large. After all, space isn't a premium in this age, so all the buildings are massive. Twice the size of the old man's home, which was already multiple times as large as what I was used to living in in my last life.

Even from a distance I can tell that the castle grounds have more open space than all the farms that the people living near my home had combined.

Damn. I just suddenly got struck with the urge to freeze this moment in time, but cameras don't exist yet and for some reason I never thought to practice drawing.

Well, on the bright side, I'm literally going to magic school in the morning, so maybe someone there will be able to help me out in making a magic camera.

...I should have watched one of those videos of how to kickstart modern technology from nothing. I have no idea how cameras are made.

I don't even know how to make the bits that make the bits.

Hopefully Cursed Energy will have a solution. Some kind of permanent barrier? That could maybe work. Make an incredibly detailed barrier that is a perfect match to whatever I want to take a picture of, then cover it with ink and press the barrier onto a an empty paper?

Aha! Tamamo!

Maybe her illusions can be manifested in some way and she can be my living camera?

Snickering at the thought of what face she'd make should I ask that of her, I shelve the idea.

Lost in thought as I am, I only realise that I've reached the entrance to Edo when someone calls out to me.

"You there!" The stern male voice states, pulling my attention to the approaching pair of men.

Very carefully, I control myself to avoid squealing as I take in the sight of two genuine, real life Samurai.

This is so fucking cool! I think on the inside, but on the outside I merely turn to them with a calm smile, my sleeves helpfully hiding my clenched hands. "Yes?"

The two of them come to a stop, each of their left hands resting casually just under the guard of their katanas, the tsuba.

"What brings you here alone so close to nightfall, and without any belongings?" The one who called out to me asks, not quite accusatorily, but it still feels like I'm getting softly interrogated by a police officer.

I'm not sure how open I'm allowed to be about Jujutsu school, but I also don't like to lie, so I decide to just give a partial truth. "I have a letter to deliver from my father. Is there any trouble going on that I should be aware of?"

"No. No trouble," Mr Samurai replies. "May I see your letter, to verify it's existence?"

"Of course," I smile and with my hands still in my sleeves, I reach into my shadow and retrieve the letter in question.

Briefly, I pull it out of my sleeve and wait for him to get enough of a good look to confirm it is real before putting it back in my sleeve and shadow.

"Very well, you may enter."

"Thank you, but before I go, could you recommend an inn I could spend the night in? I would rather spare the recipient of this letter the bother of reading it shortly before night. Better to pass it along in the morning."

The Samurai that hasn't yet spoken glances at the darkening sky before nodding his head in agreement. Then he turns a speculative eye upon me, his gaze lingering on my scarf for a moment, taking note of its unfinished state and poor quality material.

"For a good inn, you will need coin," he says.

"I have coin." The way both of their demeanour changes at my admittance is interesting.

It's not unexpected though. According to the old man, it is only really aristocrats, officials and other wealthy people that use coins, so having some of my own likely makes them think I'm some kind of noble.

Imagining their faces if they knew I got nicknamed Forest Child because I grew up with nature and wild deer as my only friends makes my smile widen a little.

"In that case, I would recommend Komachi Ryokan," he points directly at a specific building, one of the benefits of no skyscrapers, "They offer the best service in the city."

"Thank you," I say with a bow that is returned before turning and making my way past them.

I manage to control myself until I am well out of earshot of the Samurai before letting myself giggle a little, earning a strange look from a passer-by.

But I don't care, I talked to Samurai! That's so fucking cool!

I'm going to have to write some kind of memoir at the end of my life where I can admit to having gone through time just to brag to all the people of the future about all my cool experiences.

Ah, thinking that, I should probably just write some documents and stuff down anyway, for the sake of all the poor historians that have to try and figure everything out from random people's personal diaries.

Well, that's for future me to think about. I need to stop getting lost in my head so I don't get lost in real life too.

The street is wide, wider than a typical modern street, and it feels even larger since pedestrians aren't constrained to the paths on either side of the road. Anyone can walk anywhere, and it just makes that spacious feeling even greater.

Since it's late, I'd have thought there wouldn't be many people out, but once again, that's a thought for a future society. These people don't have at home entertainment after all, so the streets are rife with people.

Mostly men though, walking in groups, some with gourds of saké in hand as they stumble about. It's pretty lively, but also rather restrained. By which I mean that no one is incredibly loud despite fooling around drunk with their friends.

If it was America, I wouldn't be able to hear myself think, but as it is, no one is really much of a bother.

Other than the men, there are also a few woman, and they seem to fit into two categories.

There's the simple women, who are running errands, likely either for their husbands if they are adults or for their employers if they are children, because child labour is still cool in this time.

Then there are the less simple women, dressed in elaborate, fancy kimonos, caked in makeup and often wielding fans without actually fanning themselves.

These woman are the ladies of the night, otherwise known as prostitutes.

Thankfully, I'm not mentally my age, and I'm also used to a world where seeing a woman's entire body was nothing special, so I'm not so enraptured by them as many other men in the street are.

Huh. That's a funny thought.

I alone have probably seen more boobs than anyone else on the planet right now.

All these poor men will never know the joys of unrestricted access to the internet.

So, a few woman covered in way too many layers of clothes, with painted white faces and sometimes blackened teeth don't really stir my loins.

...I feel embarrassed that I just thought those words.

That said, I can't deny that it feels good getting so many sultry looks from so many women. It's the nice, bubbly feeling of my ego being stroked, and I don't mind it at all.

Still, I'm not the horny fifteen year old I should be, so I just return their flirtations with a smile and keep walking.

Eventually, I make it to my destination, closer to the street glowing with red lanterns than I expected, the Komachi Ryokan. I can tell as much because it says so above the door in big Kanji.

What is interesting however, is the seconds script below the Kanji that I can't read, and that looks a lot simpler.

My curiosity piqued, I start moving to the building, only to have to step back as a carriage passes through the street in front of me.

The carriage is just a single horse tied to a wooden box with a bench on the front to hold the driver.

The main part of the carriage is simple but elegant in a way that makes one easily recognise the wealth of the person riding it without shoving it in your face with gold lining and the like.

The only openings are a pair of windows on the doors either side, except the window is covered by a red curtain.

Other than admiring the craftsmanship, I don't really think much of it until I feel a sudden, if slight, spike of Cursed Energy inside of it.

Out of instinct, my own Cursed Energy moves slightly, but other than that I make no reaction. I'm not sure if that was enough however, or if there was another reason, but either way, as the carriage moves past me, a single, slender finger emerges between the curtains and pulls them slightly apart.

The window doesn't open entirely, but it does open enough for me to meet the eyes of the passenger.

She is a woman of pale skin, with smooth black hair flowing past her shoulders and out of sight and a fringe that ends about halfway past her eyes, swept slightly to the left.

She has a small, button nose and sharp, angular features that make her appear noble, and her eyes are so dark that I wouldn't be able to pick out her pupil if not for the thin ring of iridescent light that shines between the pupil and iris.

Our eyes meet, and I feel her Cursed Energy move again, though I don't know what for. The moment feels longer than it is, until she simply raises a brow and turns away, facing forward once more.

The last I see of her before the curtain falls back and the carriage drives off is a faint, almost derisive smirk on her lips.

The carriage moves away, and I watch it go for a moment, confused and intrigued by the mysterious girl. Alas, I'm not going to chase her down like some maniac, so I will just leave it to Fate if we will meet again.

Moving on, I continue my approach to Komachi Ryokan.

There are some well dressed woman out in front of the building, but not in the way of the entrance. They don't call out to me or stop me as I walk past them, though they do give me more looks that flatter my ego.

A servant girl slides the shoji door open for me, and I'm briefly struck by how strange it is to see a child worker out in the wild, but I shake that feeling off pretty easily.

I mean, what's stranger. Child labour or Cursed Energy?

The reception room is rather lavish, with fancy artwork painted onto the walls and even some of the doors.

Right front and centre is a counter with a pretty woman standing behind it. The room is otherwise empty, save for a man and woman having a quiet conversation off to the side.

Mentally shrugging away my own inexperience at life, I walk up to the counter with confidence and speak with a smile.

"Hello, I have heard that I may be afforded a room here for the night. May you assist me in this?"

The woman bows briefly, and when she straightens I notice her eyes roaming my body, but unlike those women in the street, I can tell she's not actually looking at my body, but my clothes.

In a manner that is starting to feel somewhat repetitive, her eyes pause briefly on my scarf.

"Honoured customer," she begins, the awkwardness of her voice barely noticeable. "This Komachi Ryokan does provide such a service, however our services are tailored for a.. specific clientele."

I should probably be offended or something, but honestly I just find her answer amusing, especially because of the hesitance with which she delivered it.

Clearly she doesn't want to be rude, but can't accept me for whatever reason.

That just makes me want to tease her.

"May you please explain exactly what you mean by this? I am afraid I do not understand," I say, and the way her face pinches slightly makes my smile widen a little.

Unfortunately, my fun is interrupted by a man's voice. Fortunately, I am easily entertained.

"What she means is that this is a high class ryokan, not some minshuku," he says the word like it's an insult, which really says a lot about him since a minshuku is basically the local equivalent of a boarding house compared to the ryokan's hotel. "Low class commoners like you don't belong in establishments like this, so run along and stop polluting the air. You're ruining my saké."

Hah. This guy's funny. 'You're ruining my saké', what a line. I'm totally going to steal that in the future if I ever get the chance.

Since he now actually has my interest, I look him over. He is obviously not a commoner, so there is some nobility to his face, though in a more stern way than that lady's graceful look, and his hair is brown and tied up into a topknot. His body is pretty good too, so he might even be a samurai. Though, the gourd of saké in hand ruins the serious vibe I'd always imagined Samurai to have.

"You wound me with your words, Stranger-bō, I was assured I could find room here for the night," I respond, using the suffix that I thought would annoy him the most, just for fun.

Bō, from what I understand, is basically the male exclusive version of chan, which is already a diminutive hypocorism only really used when talking to people you're really close to or babies.

The Japanese language is so much more fun than English. You don't need to swear, or even use any insults to insult people, it's brilliant.

Predictably, he didn't like that.

"You watch your words, Boy, or I will have your head. I am Taira no Yoshikane, and because I am in such a good mood, I will not pursue this if you apologise and leave immediately."

Honestly? A surprisingly level-headed response. I was half expecting a 'prostrate yourself one thousand times' kind of thing. Maybe that's a Chinese thing? Or maybe it's just a harmful stereotype and I shouldn't keep assigning traits I remember from popular media onto strangers.

I don't know, or really care. I just want to go to Jujutsu Hogwarts, but that's not until the morning so I have to amuse myself somehow until then.

"Ooh, one thousand apologies, Ōtaira-kakka-sama," I respond with a deep bow, going from calling him as if he is a cute child to effectively calling him 'Your Excellency Great Lord Taira'. "I was not aware my head was such a valued commodity. However, I must unfortunately decline your request, for I am still in need of a room for the night, and my feet already hurt from so much walking, I could not bear to travel any further."

Okay, maybe I'm laying it on a bit thick. I blame Tamamo. For some reason, she has made me feel confrontational today. Maybe I just want to get in a fight again thanks to our fight still being fresh on my mind. That's probably it.

Yoshikane's eyes narrow at me, and the woman he was talking to earlier takes a subtle step back, clearly not wanting to get involved with any upcoming violence.

However, before anything more fun can happen, another voice interrupts.

"What is going on here?" The aged, demanding feminine voice calls out, and both of us turn to see some old hag walking our way with a massively slouched back and a walking stick that honestly looks kind of of cool in her hands.

The old lady's glare snaps to me as if she could sense that I just called her a hag in my head, but she quickly moves on to glare at the receptionist girl instead. Probably because her womanly intuition got confused since I also complimented her at the same time.

"Well?" She demands, and I start to get the feeling that the receptionist is new to the job because she has that kind of nervous energy you see in new hires who think they've messed up but don't know what they did wrong.

"U-um. Well," she begins, only to be cut off by the Taira.

"I'll tell you what happened, Madam. This low born brat has come to make a mockery of not just myself but of this very establishment."

"What are you, twelve?" I can't help but blurt, rolling my eyes. "To think, you had such impressive lines earlier and now you are pointing blame like a child caught sneaking sweets. Are you so afraid of getting in trouble that you lost composure?"

"You-!"

"Enough!" The ha- her glaring eyes snap to me -old woman yells out, slamming her cane into the floor and effectively shutting the Taira up.

Then, after glaring the man down, she turns her full attention to me and points her cane at me. "You! Boy! Who are you and what is your purpose here?"

"My name is Narauko," I answer with a smile, not at all intimidated by her, since I am a man with nothing, so unlike the Taira, she can't exactly ruin my reputation or tattle to my family or anything like that. "I am simply here to rent a room for the night, by the recommendation of a Samurai at the city limits."

"Hmm," her glare lessens once she notices its ineffectiveness. "This ryokan is expensive, and we only accept coin. Do you have any coin, Boy?"

Pulling my hands out of my sleeves, I hold out the pouch of coins the old man gave me and lightly toss it underhand at her.

She catches it against her chest and pulls the strings open to peak inside.

I have absolutely no idea how much is in there, since even the old man wasn't sure how currency is functioning these days. But he said it should be enough to get by, so it's probably enough for a room.

Unfortunately she doesn't have a visible reaction to the contents of the pouch, so I don't know if it's an impressive amount, hardly anything, or just average.

The Madam pulls the string closed and tosses the pouch back, which I catch and return to my sleeves.

"Anyone who pays our prices is an honoured customer, and I will not have fighting in my establishment. If either of you cannot accept this, then leave."

"I have no problem with this," I quickly agree, sending the Taira a sunny smile and getting a glare in return that doesn't seem as murderous as I would have expected.

"Fine," he says before turning and wrapping an arm around the woman he was talking with's waist and stalking off. "Just have another bottle of saké delivered to my room, this one's ruined."

No one speaks as we watch the pair leave, and once he's out of sight I turn to the Madam with a friendly smile. "He seems fun," I comment, and she doesn't seem amused.

However, I feel like she secretly is, deep down.

"Don't go causing any more trouble in my house, Boy, or I will kick you out myself."

"Of course, Madam. But you would need to sell me a room first, before you can kick me out."

"Indeed," she says as she moves behind the counter, shooing the other woman away. "How long do you intend to stay?" She asks.

"Just the night. I will have other lodging options in the morning. Well, I hope so anyway."

The old lady hums and nods her head before writing something down behind the counter.

"Six," she says without looking up.

"Eh?"

"I am charging you extra for causing trouble with Taira," she says, not answering the part I was actually confused about.

Still, the time she spent talking was enough for me to figure it out, and I pull six coins out of my pouch and slide them across the counter. "Seems reasonable," I say.

It's not like I really care. This money is basically worthless outside of big cities, of which there are maybe three, and when dealing with politicians, which I don't really intend to do if I can help it.

Politics just seems so boring. Maybe it's more interesting in the past, and I do want to see a court in session, just for the experience. But some old dudes talking about laws and stuff could never compare to the beauty of the natural world.

The Madam moves to the side of the room and slides a door open. A moment later, another child comes out and the Madam leads her back to me.

"Jishi will take you to your room," the she says with a hand on the girl's shoulder, who bows low.

"Oh, one more thing," I speak up before Madam can walk away, and she raises a brow in question. "I noticed a script I'm unfamiliar with under the Kanji," I gesture behind me to their front door, "What is it?"

The old lady seems intrigued by my question and starts looking at me in a new light, as if I've just turned some preconceived notion of hers on its head.

"You can read Kanji but not Hiragana?" She says, and inwardly I curse the old man for teaching me the much more difficult Kanji when Hiragana is apparently already invented.

Well, I don't mean it though. I'm quite happy to know Kanji, even if it was a pain.

"My father assured me it was the only written language being used," I answer.

"Is your father a monk, perhaps?" She asks in turn.

"No, but he did raise me in a shrine." I don't think the old man had a very positive view of Buddhism mixing in with traditional Shinto traditions.

Then again, it's basically only in the capital that Buddhism is such a big thing. Most people are still Shinto. I can't imagine Amaterasu-Ōmikami is particularly happy that her descendants are worshipping another pantheon. But then again, maybe she doesn't care or is encouraging it, I don't know, I'm not a God.

Though, the old lady's question briefly brings back some vague memories that rich old people in ancient Japan treated Buddhism much the same as rich old people in Europe did Catholicism.

Which is to say, they could live their lives however they want, so long as they bribe the church or become a monk right before they die, then they get to avoid the bad afterlife.

So, she's probably thinking that the old man is some old noble who retired into monkhood, as is popular. It would explain my knowledge of Kanji but not Hiragana, my having coin, as well as why my clothes are, while not high quality, still higher quality than a commoner would have, with exception to my scarf of course.

"I see," she says after a moment. "Hiragana is fairly new, so if your father retired some decades ago it is possible he simply doesn't know. In that case, I will have Yoshino sent to your room instead. She is better learned than Kaeda."

I don't know who Kaeda is, but I just smile and bow before following little Jishi further into the building and up some stairs.

The walk is silent, both because I'm enjoying admiring the art decorating the halls and because I'd feel awkward talking to a little girl who I'm pretty sure is basically in indentured servitude, which is a polite way of saying slavery.

It's a pretty common thing these days. From what I understand, since people have a very strong sense of family in this era, selling your daughters off, mostly to brothels, is considered a perfectly normal thing.

People don't even look at it with shame, just sympathy. For the women, or girls really, it's considered as them doing their duty to help their family through tough times, and people understand that.

It's pretty strange to my sensibilities, but at the same time, as someone who wants to explore the world and all of its cultures, I'm hardly going to go around telling whole peoples how they should be living their lives.

I just want to learn and experience. I don't particularly care about fixing any perceived problems or creating some kind of utopia. That's way too much work.

The brat eventually slides a door open and steps to the side, bowing as I walk past her.

The door slides shut behind me, but I pay it no mind, too busy admiring the room.

I haven't been to many hotels before, so I can't really comment on any differences, but the room is pretty large, plenty of space.

There's a large futon laying in the centre of the room, and past that is a balcony. There are some draws that I obviously don't need thanks to my shadow, and to the side is another door that a quick check shows to have a tub for bathing inside.

The walls are all covered with artistic designs which, combined with the tatami mats and shoji doors really just make the whole room aesthetically pleasing.

It's so freaking weird.

As disconnected as I have become with the memories of my old life, I can't really just forget them entirely. So it fills me with such a strange feeling to just enjoy being in a room.

What happened to humanity that we went from having beautiful buildings like this that improve your mood just being inside of them to soulless boxes of concrete and bricks all painted tan, of all colours?

I doubt I'll live long enough to do anything about this, but if I somehow get into a position that I am owed a favour by someone with power I know will hold through time, then I'll ask them to ensure their descendants preserve the beauty of their culture.

The quiet sound of my room's door sliding open brings me out of my thoughts, and I turn around to see a pretty woman shuffling into my room, holding a tray with food and drink on it.

Unlike the brat that led me here, she is a woman grown. With voluptuous curves, pale skin and long, flowing black hair, she really is a beauty.

If asked a week ago, I would have said she's a ten out of ten, but now, that ten spot is taken by Tamamo, and this woman doesn't really compare. I'd give her a seven out of Tamamo.

Damn fox woman has made everyone else look less attractive to me by comparison. The thought almost make me laugh, but I don't want to seem crazy.

Besides, it's not like this woman is any less beautiful to my eyes than she would have otherwise been. I just keep thinking about Tamamo for some reason.

"Honoured Guest, it is not every day that I am asked for specifically," The woman I assume to be Yoshino greets, her tone and expression both sultry. "I hear you have travelled far, so I made sure to bring you an extra large serving~."

...Did the old lady forget to mention why she was called for specifically?

I'm aware people of this time are pretty sexually open, and I am totally fine with that. I want to experience everything, and sex is not excluded in that, especially with a beautiful woman. But on the other hand, venereal diseases exist.

Though, on the other other hand, I have magic healing in the form of Positive Energy. Though, again, on the other other other hand, I don't know if that will work on diseases.

I'll have to experiment before I'm willing to risk myself.

Then again, she would probably get fired if she was diseased, since this is a high class place.

Still not going to risk it though, patience isn't something I lack.

"Thank you," I smile as I move to a small low table and sit on my ankles in front of it.

With a smile of her own, Yoshino places the tray on the table and takes a seat by my side, pushing her breasts against my arm.

Smiling, amused, I shake my head at her antics and pick up the provided chopsticks while she pours me a cup of saké which I insist we share.

Turns out I was actually pretty hungry, because the food didn't last long. It doesn't help that it was probably the best meal I've had in this life.

Placing the chopsticks down on top of the bowl, I let out a satisfied sigh.

"Thank you for the food," I say, smiling at Yoshino. "It was much better than what I've been eating on my journey here."

"I could tell~," she teases before her eyes lock onto my lips," You ate with such gusto that you made a mess~."

That's embarrassing, I think to myself as I look to the tray for a napkin of some sort, only for my attention to be stolen away when Yoshino gently turns my head to her with a slight touch of slender fingers.

Before I can even think about why, I feel and see as she leans forward and licks the sauce off of my lips directly.

The sudden intimacy makes me freeze for a moment, which Yoshino uses to guide one of my hands under her kimono and onto her breast.

Ah. Hello hormones, nice to see you.

I squeeze without even really thinking about it, and Yoshino drapes herself over me in response and softly moans into my ear.

Okay then.

"You feel tense~," Yoshino whispers to me, "Are you just going to sit there, or will you allow me to alleviate your stress~?"

But my Hiragana lesson....

One of Yoshino's hands drops down to my rapidly hardening crotch, all while trailing kisses along my neck.

"You're so big,~" she whispers, "Please use me to your heart's content~."

....Ah fuck it.

If she even does have any diseases, my deer can probably fix it.

Actually... Couldn't I just cure her from the get go?

....I can always learn Hiragana later.

---

Chapter 8: Narauko Arrives!​

---

Waking up with a voluptuous body draped over me is certainly an enjoyable experience.

Last night was fun, even if it wasn't quite as educational as I was expecting. Fortunately, she didn't actually have any diseases, which kind of made me feel like I was pushing expectations onto the world from future media again honestly.

Though, that just means that I need to find someone with syphilis or something to actually see if I can cure diseases or not.

Alas, as enjoyable as it may be, I have much more interesting things to do today.

Namely, attending Hogwarts!

With that thought spurring me on, I carefully disentangle myself from Yoshino and climb out of the futon, makings sure to tuck her back into the sheets afterwards so she doesn't wake up cold.

Stretching my arms over my head, I don't bother getting dressed yet as I slide one of the balcony doors open to bask in the early morning sun.

"Good morning, Amaterasu-Ōmikami," I mutter as her rays shine down on me.

I've always been an early riser, in this life at least, so I'm generally up with the sun. Then again, that's not really anything special in the current times.

The soft sound of a door sliding open breaks me from my reverie, and I turn around to see one of those servant girls, Kamuro, Yoshino taught me the word is, standing at the open side-door and staring at me in all my naked glory.

Well, this is awkward.

"Honoured Guest," the Kamuro greets after a moment, briefly glancing at Yoshino happily snoozing away. "I have prepared your bath."

Shrugging to myself, I follow after her into the other room. I'm not entirely comfortable being naked around a kid, but at the same time, if I'm going to explore the world and all its cultures, then I can't go around projecting my own values everywhere I go.

So long as a line isn't crossed, I'll just do my best to respect whatever culture I'm the guest of. I mean, slavery is a practice that every civilisation ever took part in, so even if it's not something that sits right with me, I'm not going to stink up a fuss or try to cause any civil rights movements.

At the end of the day, I'm not a saint. I'm just a selfish guy who wants to see the world, not save it.

So I allowed her to wash my back, but I made sure she knew I'd prefer to actually bathe alone.

But as enjoyable as a nice warm bath is, every second I spent soaking I could just feel my excitement growing and growing until I couldn't ignore it anymore.

With anticipation driving me, I quickly finish up with my bath and get dressed in a fresh set of my usual clothes, drape my scarf around my neck and slip on my T shaped geta sandals before exciting with all due politeness.

Just because I'm in a hurry doesn't mean I have to be rude after all.

Heading out into Edo once more, I am full of smiles as I walk through the streets, witnessing the daily lives of modern day city slickers, as it were.

According to the old man, the Jujutsu high school is hidden behind a barrier that was put in place by the founder, and headmaster, of the school.

Apparently, Jujutsu school is a recent addition, well, recent as in from the last few centuries. He said that some Sorcerer called Tengen decided to start a school around two or three centuries ago, and even though the big clans didn't want to, everyone kind of just went along with it, because apparently Tengen's Cursed Technique is just straight up immortality, and there wasn't really anything anyone could do to stop them.

I'm sure there were other considerations, such as the fact that proper education is just a good thing in general, but it's not like I know all the details.

All I know from the old man is that this Tengen guy is some barrier wizard who's made the school and surrounding grounds basically impossible to find for anyone who doesn't already know where it is.

Y'know, like me.

The solution that the old man came up with?

Go to the general area the school should be, and blast out Cursed Energy.

Basically, make a ruckus until someone comes to get me, then I can show them my letter and hopefully they won't be mad.

It doesn't seem like the greatest of plans to me, but hey, whatever works right?

So it is that, after briefly getting distracted for a couple of hours walking through the city, I find myself sitting on top of a hill a short walk away from Edo and out of sight.

Reaching into my shadow, I pull out a the small travel bag the old man gave me, and pull it open.

Inside is a few bundles of cloth and emergency rations wrapped up, because the old man is a worrywart like that, but I'm more interested in the folded up rectangle of paper sealed by a thread of string.

Taking the letter out of the bag, I place it by my side and go to close the bag again, only to pause when I see something else deeper in the bag.

Curious, I reach deeper into the bag until I feel two pieces of wood, and when I pull them out, I can't help the wry smile that graces my lips, even as I feel warmth in my chest.

It's a pair of small wooden talismans, about the size of both of my pinkie fingers side by side. Kanji covers most of the front side, with small imagery of the shining sun on each corner in red. The back side is entirely covered with a similar drawing of the red sun.

They're called ofuda, but since these are wood, kifuda would be more accurate. In simple terms, they're basically a prayer venerating a specific kami to be kept in shrines or carried around as good luck charms.

Reading the Kanji on them, I realise they're both dedicated to Amaterasu, which shouldn't really surprise me.

I don't really worship. I'm too prideful for it. I don't know why, and I can acknowledge that my pride is completely pointless and stupid, but we can't help the way we are.

The idea of treating someone as if they are just above me in all ways.. I just can't do it.

My head does not bow that low.

But I still respect the kami, they are more than deserving of that much.

That said, the old man would tease me that Amaterasu had a special place in my heart or some such along those lines, because she is the one I respect the most.

Not just because she is the ruler of The Great Kami in Heaven, but because she is the sun, and she is beautiful.

I love this world, and I want to see all the beauty it holds.

But no matter how beautiful a field, forest, mountain or valley. No matter how beautiful, everything is even more beautiful when graced by the rays of the sun.

A field of lush grass is a calming, enjoyable sight. But a field of grass, fresh from a previous night's rain, reflecting the light of the sun? Very little can compare to that.

So, it shouldn't be a surprised that the kifuda the old man snuck into my stuff would carry her blessing.

Placing the two sticks to the side for now, I close the bag back up and return it to my shadow before picking them back up again and giving them a considering look.

He probably only made them so small so I wouldn't notice them. Probably wanted it to be a nice surprise for me, which it is, so fair play.

Still, the size gives me an idea.

So with a smile on my face, I move the kifuda to one hand and cup one of my ears with the other.

Using the vague sense of location I get from my own shadow, I use one of my favourite tricks, and manipulate the shadow now covering my ear into a thin, sharp spike and drive it through my earlobe.

"Ow," I mutter without flinching before pulling the hand away.

Ignoring the small bit of blood dropping from my ear, I reach into my shadow and pull out a thin piece of shimenawa rope that I made years ago on a whim when I was thinking about fishing and got irrationally worried a Cursed Spirit would steal my catch.

Placing one of the kifuda down, I hold the other in front of me and place my hand over one end of it, once more using my shadow to make a small hole right at the end.

Moving the hand away, I grab the shimenawa and thread it through, then I bring it up to my ear, wipe the blood away and then guide the string through, cheating with shadow manipulation to make it easier.

After that, it's just a case of tying a knot and repeating the process with my other ear. A quick application of Positive Energy closes the wounds, and a quick wipe gets rid of any remaining blood, leaving me with two brand new accessories and a happy smile.

Unfortunately for me, I don't have a mirror in my shadow, nor a method I can think of to create a reflective surface, so I can't see how they look.

Wait a minute.

Never mind, I've just had an idea.

Picking up my introduction letter, I fold my hands back into my sleeves and put it back in my shadow for now.

My Innate Technique, The Ten Shadows Technique, allows me to summon up to ten unique Shikigami and enter a ritual, wherein, should I kill the Shikigami in question in single combat, I will henceforth be able to summon it through my own shadow until it dies.

The main limitation of this technique, is the limited number of Shikigami I am capable of owning at one time. This is somewhat offset by the fact that they all have unique techniques of their own, and that Escape Rabbit exists.

Because of this, I got really picky about summoning Shikigami. I likened it to the Master Ball problem in Pokémon. You have a really powerful item, and it will help you in a given scenario, but you think to yourself, 'what if I need it even more later?' And you don't use it ever.

I was always hesitant to summon Shikigami, because I didn't know if I would just be stuck with whatever ten I got and that would be it.

However, since Tamamo killed one of my dogs and they merged, I now know that clearly isn't an issue.

With that in mind.

"Come forth," I solemnly intone as I make a matching shadow puppet with my hands, "Reflective Tortoise."

My shadow races out across the hill in front of me, and from it emerges a very large tortoise, about the size of a small house, and with a shell entirely constructed out of diamond, shining and glittering under the sun like the greatest gem I have ever seen.

The thing doesn't hesitate to try and kill me, its head snapping out of its shell far, far faster than anything its size has any right to, yet still not fast enough.

A short leap backwards avoids the snapping jaw, and a rising gesture in return is all that is needed as my shadow shoots forward and up, cutting through the stretched out neck with ease and decapitating the beast and causing it to dissolve back into my shadow.

That's the thing with my technique. The Shikigami summoned don't tend to think much. Lion's Pride was an exception, but all the others just attack me with single minded devotion.

It makes them pretty easy to kill, especially since this one isn't even an offensive Shikigami.

The Shikigami with more offensive techniques are harder to kill, which doesn't seem right at first thought, but it makes sense once you understand that the defensive ones attack just as harshly as the rest instead of playing to their strengths.

Looking at the thing, if it just turtled up then it probably would have been a pain in the ass to kill it.

As it was however, it exposed its weak point immediately.

Whatever, it hardly matters.

Remaking the same shadowgraphic, I summon it back. "Reflective Tortoise."

From my shadow it emerges, and I quickly make it turn its side to me so that I can use its shell as a mirror.

Is it needlessly excessive to summon a permanent Shikigami just use it as a mirror? Probably. But it's not like it's a weak Shikigami anyway, so I'm not losing anything.

The reason I haven't already filled out my roster isn't because I couldn't find useful Shikigami. I just couldn't decide on which ones to summon.

Looking at myself, I think the kifuda look pretty good. It adds some colour to my look, since my black hair and eyes and white scarf are pretty monochromatic. Some light red shading goes well.

"What do you think, Amaterasu-Ōmikami?" I ask, mostly rhetorically, and I'm sure it's my imagination, or some placebo effect that made it seem like the sun shined just a bit brighter for a moment.

Dismissing the tortoise, I bring my introduction letter out once again, this time intent on actually using it instead of just putting it back away again.

Now, how do I cause a ruckus big enough to be noticed by magic school, but without alerting the people of Edo?

By myself, my first idea would probably be to throw my Trickster Fox into the air and make an illusion of a firework or something, but the old man says that normal people can't sense Cursed Energy properly and that I'd be able to get enough attention by just pushing mine out.

I would have doubted him, just because that doesn't seem nearly as noticeable as an explosion or something similarly visually stand out, but he seemed pretty confident that they'd be able to sense my presence once I started projecting it.

I guess they're just really sensitive or something.

Mentally shrugging, I close my eyes and focus on the well of energy within my gut and how it spreads throughout my body.

My deer would shy away from my touch when I first started practicing with my Cursed Energy, so I worked to modify the flow of the Reinforcement Technique to be 'quiet' enough that it wouldn't bother them.

At this point, that flow is just second nature to me, so it takes a moment of concentration for me to be able to break it.

It honestly feels a little bit uncomfortable to do, which I find interesting.

Still, it's no true trouble.

My will reaches into my gut and grabs hold of my Cursed Energy. I don't know how sensitive they are, and I don't want them to miss me, so I just grab it all and push it to the surface, projecting it out of my body.

There we go.

Now I just have to wait, I guess.

...I feel stupid just standing here.

Are they even going to notice?

---

Edo Metropolitan Curse Technical College

---

Inside of a well maintained and organised office, the soft sound of a brush on paper fills the room as yet another form is filled out.

Kamo no Yasunori, a teacher at Edo's Jujutsu school, lets out a sigh as he finishes his morning's work.

"If only this generation wasn't so interesting," he quietly complains to himself as he leans back into his chair and continues to mutter, "Such a waste of time."

Turning his gaze to the side, he takes in the view from the mountain they are situated on with a disinterested air, brushing some of his long black hair out of his face as he does.

In his mind, he thinks about the current generation of Jujutsu Sorcerers, and feels a smile grow as his good mood returns.

In terms of Jujutsu, Grade Four might as well not exist. They're barely better than the monkeys in his eyes. Weak Cursed Energy, weak Techniques, if they even have one.

It's pathetic. The only ones excused are students, but even then, any student that weak won't likely even reach Grade One, so what's the point?

Grade Three is the average, in other words, it's full of weaklings. Most students come in at either Grade Four or Three, and they at least might reach Grade One if they're a late bloomer or something.

Then there's Grade Two. Sorcerers at this level are okay, but still pretty weak. Honestly, to him there's not much of a difference, so it's hard to tell sometimes between those three grades.

However, if a student is assigned Grade Two upon entry, then they are generally considered geniuses that will almost certainly become Grade One in the future, so they are people to look out for.

There's also Semi-Grade Two, but the difference in power is so negligible he barely notices it. Similarly, there is a Semi-Grade One for those that are somewhere between the two ranks.

And finally, there is Grade One. The so called peak. This is the grade for the strongest Sorcerers, for the people who lead the world of Sorcery by setting an example of excellence.

These people are interesting, and per Jujutsu regulations, it's impossible for anyone to be assigned the grade upon entry. Though, there is Special Grade One, for people with the appropriate power but without the authority given.

Of course, then there is the Special Grade who don't fit into any category and are always, without exception, worth paying attention to.

He has been alive for a while now. Not as long as Tengen, but long enough to live through multiple generations of Sorcerers.

In the time since its founding nearly three hundred years ago, this school has had a total of twenty seven students assigned Grade Two upon entry, two for Semi-Grade One and only one Special Grade One.

That all changed recently.

Ever since the founding of Jujutsu, the balance of power has always been in the hands of the Curses. Jujutsu Sorcerers have always been outnumbered, that was just a simple fact of life.

And then, a child was born with eyes that could see six.

Sugawara no Michizane. A child blessed by the Heavens with mutated eyes that allowed him to reach a level of understanding of Cursed Energy that no one ever had, and one of the few people to have bested him in a long time.

With his birth, the balance shifted just enough for Curses to be behind.

For a while after that, things started to get better for the average monkey. Once Sugawara came into his power, he went on a campaign decimating Special Grade Cursed Spirits one after the other.

However, the good times did not last, and the balance shifted again.

The reason isn't certain, but to Yasunori, it always felt like an overcompensation.

Cursed Spirit after Cursed Spirit was born in the following years. Thousands upon thousands of them, many Grade One and multiple Special Grade.

The reason he calls it an overcompensation is because the balance shifted so dramatically in favour of the Curses that they are actually worse off now than before Sugawara was born, and he's still around today.

Not that he is in a very good position. People have started blaming him for the increase in Curses his birth caused. Yasunori gives it a year tops before his rank is stripped.

But there is always balance, and when the scales tipped too far in the Curses favour, another correction took place.

Two decades ago, the balance started shifting back to normalcy as genius after genius was born, chief among them being his own student, Abe no Seimei.

That's a big part of why the foolish higher ups now have the courage to act against Sugawara, because a new age of geniuses is here to replace him.

However. Almost exactly fifteen years ago from today, there was another overcorrection.

The balance that had been slowly recovering back to normal was suddenly shattered.

If before Sugawara's birth, the balance was forty to sixty in favour of the Curses, then one could say that after his birth it shifted to fifty-five to forty-five, barely in favour of the Sorcerers.

Then it rapidly shifted to thirty-five to sixty-five in favour of the Curses. Such a needlessly large change is why he calls it an overcorrection.

Over the years, the balance was building back up to solid ground, maybe forty-three to fifty-seven, if he had to put a number on it.

But that day, fifteen years ago? Any illusion of restraint disappeared as the balance shifted to ninety-five to five against the Curses.

Such a thing was unheard of, but everyone knew what it meant. Someone had been born with enough potential to rival the entire world of Jujutsu singlehandedly.

Considering this is already the greatest era of Jujutsu Sorcery he has seen already, it meant one thing to Yasunori.

Things were getting interesting.

Naturally, he set out to find this miracle child, as did everyone else.

The only difference between him and the rest, is that he found them.

Living in isolation in a run down forest shrine, he found them.

A nameless boy with unruly short pink hair and more Cursed Energy than he ever thought possible to store inside a single being.

The shrine was a filthy place, full of monkeys who looked down on Sorcery, so the first thing he did after introducing himself to the boy, was help him slaughter those pathetic monkeys that would spit on such an unpolished gem.

After that, he took the unruly kid in and taught the little monster.

Not that he needed to do a lot of teaching. Just showing the kid a technique was generally enough for him to master it by himself quickly enough. The lessons were mostly language and life lessons, along with Barrier Techniques.

He even gave the kid a name.

Sukuna.

It seemed fitting, since the kid is more a Curse than a human.

The brat has already nearly killed half his classmates, and he's only been here for two weeks.

So now, he is here, working as a school teacher of all things.

It's not something he ever thought he would waste his time with, educating others when he could be educating himself.

But he just couldn't resist such a bountiful crop.

Grade Two upon admission denotes a genius. The kind that shows up maybe once or twice in a generation. Semi-Grade One or Special Grade One however, that is a once in a century genius. That kind of potential is incredibly rare, and anyone born with it will almost certainly become the leader of the Jujutsu world until the day they die.

There are seventeen students through the three years at present, and not a single one of them entered the school weaker than Grade Two.

It's unheard of, but this era seems to be a true Golden Age of Jujutsu Sorcery, that much is clear to anyone with eyes.

Of those seventeen students, seven came in at Grade Two, with only the two first years having not yet promoted to Semi-Grade One.

Four students were admitted as Semi-Grade One, one of whom has promoted to Grade One, in part thanks to being the grandson of Sugawara, the Jujutsu Inspector General.

Already that would be enough to make this the most promising generation ever, but even still, of the remaining six students, five were admitted as Special Grade One Sorcerers, while Sukuna alone earned the classification of Special Grade thanks to his immense Cursed Energy.

The best part is that this is all just for the one school.

He was already teaching Abe no Seimei, so he brought that student with him when he came to teach here in Edo, but with the exception of Sukuna, the Onmyōji school in Heian-kyō has a similar pool of talents.

Then there's the major clans with their own geniuses that they are teaching in house instead of sending to a school, as well as the odd commoner figuring things out themselves.

This era has enough geniuses to exceed the entire history of Jujutsu, and will likely continue to do so for thousands of years.

All because of the chain reaction caused by Sugawara's birth.

It's exciting.

There is already plenty of chaos, but he can see what the others, except for maybe Tengen, can't.

The chaos that has been growing throughout Japan?

It has only just begun.

The next few years are only going to get even more chaotic as all these geniuses come into their power. It's going to be so chaotic that he won't even be able to control it anymore.

He can't wait to see what happens.

Abruptly, he is shattered from his thoughts when an incredible weight of Cursed Energy pushes down on his shoulders, causing him to shoot straight in his seat.

Sukuna? He thinks to himself before immediately dismissing the idea. This doesn't feel like Sukuna at all. In fact, except for in volume, it feels almost like an exact opposite.

Did Sukuna encounter a strange technique?

He considers the thought for a moment. Sukuna was sent out on an assignment yesterday and likely won't be back until tomorrow. It's not impossible that he was hit by some strange Innate Technique that inverted him or something similar.

No, that doesn't feel right.

This is someone else entirely.

A whole other person with Cursed Energy comparable to Sukuna.

It takes a second for him to realise how widely he's smiling.

"Haha, how exciting," he mutters as he gets up and walks to the window, looking out in the direction the Cursed Energy is coming from.

With his smile not fading, Yasunori reaches a hand up to his head and lightly trails a finger across a long horizontal scar.

Things are getting interesting.

---

---

Elsewhere, inside one of the grounds' many training fields, a pair of teenagers can be seen duking it out in fast paced hand to hand combat.

On one side is a handsome boy with hair like a white cloud and an androgynous face, while against him is a beautiful woman with long black hair and an eye-catching ring of iridescent light separating her pupil form her iris.

Unlike the boy, who is lightly perspiring, the girl seems perfectly fresh, not even breathing hard despite the fight having been going for a while already.

Stepping back from a punch, the boy throws one of his hands forward in a sweeping motion, and the earth in front of him is torn apart by an unseen force.

However, as if she could see into the future, the girl was already in motion to dodge before his attack even began, and before he can do anything about it, she sweeps his legs with a low kick and slams him into the ground with a hand on his throat.

"Looks like I win again, Gojo-kun~," the girl mocks, before jumping back right before another invisible wave of force passes through where she just was.

"Don't call me so closely, Kiyohara-san," Gojo says as he sits up, sounding like it is a line he has repeated many times before.

"Don't tell me what to do," Kiyohara haughtily responds. "Weaklings who can't even land a hit on me aren't allowed to complain."

"I am not a weakling," Gojo responds, glaring at her as he gets back to his feet and pats his clothes down. "But if I am so insufficient to you, then why did you invite me to train in the first place?" He asks, but she is already walking away.

"I just thought I might be able to gain something from sparring with you since you advanced further in your technique," she says over her shoulder before sighing theatrically. "Such a shame you couldn't live up to my expectations. If only you were more like your grandfather, then maybe you wouldn't be such a disappointment."

She doesn't look back, but she still smiles knowing exactly the kind of face Gojo would be making. He hates being compared to his grandfather.

Living in the shadow of Sugawara no Michizane can't be an easy thing, she mockingly thinks to herself. How pathetic.

He was even born with a powerful Innate Technique. Limitless, she's pretty sure he said it was called.

It's just a shame he lacks the talent to properly use the technique.

"I truly hate boring men like you," she mutters to herself as she walks away, not caring what he does anymore now that he's disappointed her again.

However, right as she is about to leave the field, she almost stumbles and misses a step as her senses are overwhelmed by Cursed Energy.

Spinning on her heel with her heart abruptly hammering in her chest, Kiyohara no Nagiko and Sugawara no Gojo both stare into the distance, looking in the same direction.

Special Grade? Kiyohara thinks to herself, and immediately sets out to find her father to ask him what is going on, a smile of interest on her face.

---

---

Inside of a simple and orderly office in the centre of the school's grounds, a woman with long, blue-tinted straight silver hair that looks like it hasn't been cut in years, with even the front bangs reaching past her chin, sits at a desk with her eyes closed in meditation.

Not a sound is made, but her eyes flicker open, exposing two crimson orbs. Her head tilts to the side slightly, and she stares at a random spot on the wall, almost as if she is looking through it.

After a moment, she allows a shallow smile to briefly cross her lips at what she 'sees'.

"I knew it," she whispers with satisfaction before closing her eyes and seemingly returning to her meditation once more.

---

---

Kiyohara no Motosuke gives a nod of acknowledgement to the rest of the gathered staff once he arrives.

"You took too long," the gravelly old voice Mibu no Tadamine complains at him.

Motosuke only gives the shrivelled old man a brief disdainful glance before casting his eyes over the others.

Kamo no Yasunori stands out the most solely due to how little attention he is paying the rest of them, something that makes Motosuke inwardly scoff.

Taira no Kanemori and Sarumaru Dayū at least both wear severe enough expressions considering the sheer Cursed Energy that is still blanketing the area.

Including himself, that makes five of them, all standing at the peak of Grade One.

More than enough to deal with a hostile Special Grade.

"I am here now," Motosuke states. "Let's go."

Without even any acknowledgement, all five of them disappear from their spots in a blur of speed, reaching the edge of Tengen's barriers in moments and pushing through to the other side.

It barely even takes a minute for them to reach the source of the Cursed Energy, and that's with them conserving themselves in case of a battle to come.

When they reach the source however, instead of seeing a veteran Sorcerer, or a Cursed Spirit, what they come across is a boy. A child.

Mid-length straight black hair that reaches to his ears, eyes like coals and a small upwards tilt to his mouth even as he stares blankly off into space.

His clothes are better quality than a commoners, but nothing that seems noble born, except for that scarf which is clearly of a lower quality.

Physically, the only things that really stand out are the scarf, the talismans hanging from his ears and that his geta only have one tooth for some reason.

Their approach is noticed before they can call out, and the boy beats them to it, his Cursed Energy vanishing like the wind as he reigns it back in with an impressive amount of control.

"Hello!" He exclaims, taking a hand out of his sleeve to wave it at them. "Would you esteemed elders be from the school?"

"Of what concern is that to you, Boy?" Tadamine responds first, glaring at the child even as he hunches over his cane.

The child isn't fazed by the hostility in Tadamine's tone even slightly and returns the old man's glare with a sunny smile.

"That is wonderful to hear," he says. "I was starting to feel silly standing here not knowing if anyone was coming."

"A mere display of Cursed Energy won't scare us away, Child," Dayū comments, his tone bored even as his eyes are alert.

"Huh?" The boy responds, his head tilted in confusion. "No, sorry, I just meant that I wasn't sure if you even knew I was here."

Those words take the wind out of their sails somewhat, and none of them would even considering believing what the boy is implying if not for the pure honesty practically exuding from him.

The idea that he somehow thinks that anyone wouldn't notice his presence is absurd, but he can't sense any lie in the boy's voice.

"Anyway," the boy speaks up again as he waves a folded letter with his other hand. "I have a letter for someone named Kiyohara no Motosuke. Would any of you be willing to assist me in getting into contact with this man?"

Four sets of eyes turn to him, and Motosuke coughs awkwardly, getting the attention of the boy.

"Kiyohara no Motosuke is me," he says, seeming to surprise the boy, "From whom are you delivering this message?"

"From my father," the boy happily answers as he walks up to Motosuke and holds his arm out.

"Who is your father?" Motosuke asks instead of accepting the message.

"Kinoshita," is the answer, and Motosuke does not recognise the name. "Though, he said you knew him by a different name. He refrained from telling me what that name was, however."

The grouching in his tone as he complains reminds Motosuke of his daughter, but he refrains from smiling until the situation is resolved.

Reaching to accept the letter, he sends some of his Cursed Energy forward under the boy's curious gaze, checking for traps or anything nefarious.

Finding nothing, he finally takes the letter in hand and turns away slightly for the sake of privacy before opening it.

I am writing to call in that favour.

We have had a son. Though she has not seen him, I know she would love him just as dearly as I.

Please take care of him. He is a kind and curious child, much like your own, except that he does not yet know how exceptional he is.

Yes. I am alive. Please do not tell my son who I am. I do not want his opinion of me to change because of the past.

Signed; an old friend.

Folding the letter back up and carefully avoiding any kind of facial expression, Motosuke flexes his Cursed Energy and the paper flares with fire for just a moment before burning to ash.

The message was very cautious, purposefully revealing little, but it is enough for him to understand.

Nearly two decades ago, a dear friend of his was sent into exile because he secretly married a woman above his station, and even worse, got her pregnant.

Unfortunately, the child was stillborn and the poor pregnancy resulted in Murasaki coming ill.

For his friend, he took her in and sheltered her for the next ten years. During that time, though her condition only worsened, his own daughter latched onto the woman as a teacher.

His daughter was beyond herself with grief when Murasaki eventually passed.

Now comes a boy supposedly adopted by his old friend.

Mentally sighing to himself, he knows he only really has one option here.

"The boy is here as a student," Motosuke stoically states. "Another Sorcerer noticed their potential and sent them our way to learn."

His peers all turn back to the boy who nods his head in agreement.

"What is your name?" Yasunori asks, eyes glittering with intrigue.

"This one bears the name Narauko," he answers with a bow that almost manages to be deferential. "It is an honour to make your acquaintance, esteemed elders."

"Well then, Narauko," Yasunori happily continues, stepping forward to pat the boy on the shoulder. "Welcome to Jujutsu High."

---

A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

And that is a wrap for now! It only took me legit 2 hours and 17 minutes to paste it all over and fix formatting .
I cba to write out all the A/Ns of the previous chapters, so feel free to head to one of the other sites I'm posting on (Webnovel, Fanfiction, ArchiveOfOurOwn and Scribblehub) If you care for some reason.

I have a Discord and a Patreon if you're interested. There are currently five advanced chapters available, and I've got about half of a sixth done. As I said at the top, public updates will be sporadic, but I probably won't drop the patreon chapters below five until the end.

Also, if there is anything I should be doing on this site or that I'm doing wrong, let me know and I'll try to fix it, just keep in mind that I'm kind of an idiot