章 3: Cursed Spirit
First fight scene of the series! Well technically first if you don't include the training. I honestly have a lot of cool attacks planned for his cursed technique so I'm pretty excited to get into it.
https://discord.gg/ZrWk2jqjbV (Discord Link)
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"Guess this will have to do," Ginko reached into his wardrobe and pulled out a small verdant kimono with a leafy-pattern scattered all over its surface, pretty much mimicking that of his grandfather's. "Not too shabby if I do say so myself," he walked over towards a mirror in the corner of his room, donning a confident smile as he slung the garment over his shoulders.
'Count your hours, cursed spirit! Soon you will have to come face to face with the mighty Ginko!' With his childish ego in full swing, he haughtily marched out the door and straight towards the Kyofu training dojo —prepared to reap the rewards of his grandfather's sadistic training sessions.
"Ginko," a feminine voice called out, causing Ginko to crane his head backwards.
"Tamura? What is it?" He asked in a somewhat irritated manner, clearly eager to begin the day.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Tamura queried, motioning towards his feet.
"Huh–?" He looked downwards, coming to the realization that he had forgotten to put on his shoes. "Oh, it appears that I've gotten a little ahead of myself." He cleared his throat in a failed attempt to hide his evident embarrassment.
"Indeed you have," she continued.
With haste, Ginko darted back into his room, reaching for a pair of rarely worn sneakers with dust crudely laden all over them.
'I probably should have taken better care of these, oh well.'
With his cursed technique, a gentle gale picked up, cleansing the lint off the fabric of his shoes.
'Now let's get this day started for real shall we?'
Ginko took off in a sprint towards the dojo, allowing the wind to subtly carry his feet in order to increase his speed, something he had picked up whilst Yamada was imprinting one of his movement techniques onto him.
"Old man let's get going already–!" The second he stepped foot into the room, his scalp was met with the rude awakening of a chop crashing against it. Forcing Ginko to arch his back as he massaged his bruised head, "The hell was that fo–!" Once again, his head was struck before he could even get the words out of his mouth.
"Using up your cursed energy before we've even set foot outside? I don't recall dropping you on the head during any of your lessons," Yamada lectured, folding his arms together whilst tapping his foot irritably.
"Ahahaha…sorry, guess I got a little excited," Ginko rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"Clearly," Yamada sighed, hoping that Ginko's inner air head would soon dissipate. "I don't actually mind you using your cursed technique so flippantly, as it actually might help you improve your control with enough time, but try to consider the time and place before you do so alright?" An integral part of being a sorcerer was to be as familiar as possible with one's own cursed technique as possible.
"Got it."
"Good, in that case," Yamada paused, allowing Ginko's overly eager smile to form properly this time. "I suppose it's time for you to meet your first cursed spirit."
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The masses shot odd glares towards the sight of two odd looking individuals walking down the street, an elderly man and a boy sporting emerald eyes, and snow colored hair. Dressed in a fashion that didn't seem to blend it with modern society all that much.
Though their figures were somewhat attention grabbing, it warranted little more than mere curiosity.
"Gramps."
"Hm?"
"Can't you just use your cursed technique to fly us towards where we need to go? Why bother with walking?" Yamada scratched his chin as he shot an odd look Ginko's way.
"I could, but like you've said you haven't really had the opportunity to stretch your legs all that much. Don't you want to savor the outside world while you can?" Ginko turned his head, taking in the landscape around him for a brief moment. "Something the matter?" Yamada continued, noticing something was off with his usually uppity grandson.
"How do I put this, the outside is uh, a lot more grim than I imagined," Ginko couldn't quite put it into words, but the air the people around him were giving off seemed rather, negative to say the least.
"I see, do you recall how cursed spirits are born to begin with?"
"Yeah, they're born from the cursed energy that leaks out of humans right? Unlike us they're incapable of containing it," it was only natural that Ginko would have the basics hammered into him from birth.
Yamada nodded, "Indeed, but you left out the fact that the cursed energy that they leak stems from their negative emotions. For example, stress, anxiety, grievance, and so forth. Tokyo is a place chalk full of such sentiments, hence why there's such an abundance of excess cursed energy radiating off its inhabitants."
Ginko hummed in understanding as he retracted his eyes from those around him.
"Therefore, Tokyo not only produces a larger quantity of cursed spirits, but the quality of them also increases as well. Making it basically a breeding ground for them."
"Is there nothing that can be done about it?"
"Unfortunately not," theoretically there were actually some "solutions", but nothing that didn't involve oneself inevitably being branded a criminal. All ideas that Yamada had absolutely zero internet in putting into Ginko's ahead, especially at his age. "All us sorcerers can do is increase our strength as much as possible, and tackle whatever threats may come —speaking of which." The patriarch looked towards an alley, a smile creeping up on his face as he inched closer.
'There's something in here,' Ginko narrowed his eyes as he attempted to scan the area with his senses.
"Something piqued your interest?" Yamada asked knowingly.
"Yeah," Ginko slowly walked down the alleyway as his grandfather followed suite, his eyes darting from side to side as he cautiously examined the area.
He reached his hand outwards, emitting a vacuum-like pulling force from the tip of his fingers as a strange fleshy creature with wings was sucked into his clasp. Its eyes bulged as a distorted scream echoed from its grotesque mouth, squirming in Ginko's grasp to little avail.
"Gross," Ginko remarked, tempted to toss the creature at a wall and let its repulsive being splatter. "What the hell is this thing supposed to be?"
"That's what we call a Fly Head, the weakest type of cursed spirit one can possibly encounter, as a matter of fact it's ranked even below fourth grade. The only real purpose they serve is to test to see if someone is capable of perceiving cursed spirits to begin with, but other than that they serve absolutely no purpose."
"It smells awful."
"Well yeah, did you expect a fly to smell like honey and lemons or something?" A blade of wind shot forth from Ginko's hand, promptly putting an end to the pitiful creatures' endless buzzing.
Ginko continued to walk down the alley, "There's something else here, and it's a lot stronger."
Yamada nodded approvingly, "Indeed there is, care to guess what grade it is?"
Ginko scratched his chin momentarily, squinting his eyes as he tried to read the alleged spirit's cursed energy as best he could, "Third? I think?"
"Almost, it's a fourth grade cursed spirit, but since you've never actually come face to face with cursed spirits it makes sense that you wouldn't be able to gauge them accurately just yet. Now all that's left for you to do is lure it out."
"Lure it?"
"Mhm, the lower a cursed spirit's grade is, the lower its intelligence usually is. Fourth grade's are easily attracted by the presence of cursed energy alone, which means you can bring it to you just by allowing some of your cursed energy to leak out of your body. However, the energy from a first grade like me would simply scare it off, so once you're stronger this method won't have much use anymore —unless of course you're luring out something of equal power to yourself."
"Interesting," Ginko hummed, proceeding to do just as Yamada instructed with little to no delay. "Looks like it took the bait," and just as quickly, they had company.
The rustling of bins and debris gradually grew louder and louder, Ginko's fists clenched together as he steeled himself for what was to come.
Yamada on the other hand, showed utterly no interest in interfering, remaining behind Ginko as he prepared to allow his grandson to face his first cursed spirit head on.
Rustle!
And then it happened, out from the piles of trash popped out the figure of what looked to be a Chimpanzee with purple fur and eyes that threatened to pop right out of their sockets. It wielded a metal pipe in its hand alongside a "crown" composed entirely of trash and recyclables worn around its forehead.
"Welp, I'm not one for intrusion. You two have fun!" Yamada waved, vanishing in an instant as he left Ginko to face the abomination all on his lonesome.
'He really just left me here huh? Oh well, it's just a fourth grade spirit so I should be fine.'
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The primate smacked its pipe against the concrete flooring repeatedly, in an attempt to intimidate Ginko.
"Sorry, but I can't afford to look like a crybaby in front of gramps," Ginko smirked —causing the creature to leap into the air with inhuman velocity, swinging it's pipe downwards in order to crush Ginko's scalp into a fine paste.
'Looks like we're getting straight into it,' his smile widened, excited to finally have his first real taste of battle.
Cursed energy flowed through Ginko's arms as he assumed a defensive posture, accompanied by his cursed technique producing a pushing force in order to better clash with oncoming attack.
"Guh!" Though his bones remained intact, Ginko had somewhat underestimated the amount of power the cursed spirit could exude on someone as inexperienced as himself.
He promptly allowed his wind to carry his feet, putting a fair amount of distance between him and the ape curse.
"Kekeke!" It grinned, jumping from side to side in glee as if it were attempting to mock Ginko's miscalculation.
"Yeah yeah, you managed to land a hit on an 11 year old, real impressive." Ginko flattened out his palm as he pointed his fingertips towards the curse.
'You won't be laughing after this one.'
"[Wind Forge]".
Three invisible daggers of wind hovered near Ginko, and with the motion of his hand they each catapulted themselves towards the cursed spirit with immense fervor, producing a humming sound as they swept across the atmosphere.
The ape screeched in pain as two of them pierced its chest, and the last rendering its right eye utterly null.
'I missed, gramps was right, I need more practice.'
Like a panicked beast it threw its pipe at Ginko in a blind rage, naturally his Gale Kata training allowed him to dodge the lofty attack with minimal effort as he countered by sending a single slash of wind towards the ape curse.
'Not sure what I expected from a fourth grade, but it was fun while it lasted.'
Just like that, its head had been detached from its shoulders as it rolled onto the cement lifelessly, soon crumbling to ashes declaring that the curse had been successfully exorcized.
"See that old man? I just exercised my first curse!" He declared triumphantly, but oddly enough Yamada still didn't seem intent on making himself known. "Uh, gramps? Ya there?"
Rustle!
Rustle!
Rustle!
"The hell?"
週次パワーステータス
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