章 16: Not-so-Simple Domain
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https://discord.gg/ZrWk2jqjbV (Discord Link)
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"Nice place ya' got here." Ginko complimented whilst stood at the doorway of Kusakabe's house, which was almost a third of the Kyofu compound's size, a result of the hefty pay a Grade 1 sorcerer received.
"Thanks." They both kicked off their shoes and entered inside, quickly met with the sound of small footsteps rushing towards them.
"Uncle!" An energetic child with light spiky hair and a bandaid on his right cheek sprinted towards Kusakabe, to which the latter scooped him up in a tight hug with a warm smile on his face.
"I'm home, Takeru." He turned towards Ginko. "This is my nephew, my sister is out on a business trip at the moment so I'm taking care of him for time-being." The boy turned towards Ginko.
"Nii-chan, why is your hair like that?" He tilted his head. "Your eyes are weird as well."
"Oi." Kusakabe lightly chopped his scalp. "That's rude."
"It's fine, actually I don't know why I look like this either." When Ginko was born both his hair and eye color were normal, matching that of his parents, but once his technique awakened his pigmentation was augmented into what it is now.
Obviously his memories didn't reach all the way back then, and nor had he ever asked or showed any interest in it.
Kusakabe set his nephew down to which Takeru approached Ginko. "Hey nii-chan, do you also have superpowers like uncle?"
"Superpowers?" Ginko had never heard of the term before.
"He's talking about your cursed technique." Kusakabe clarified. "Takeru, you shouldn't bother the guest too much."
"Okay!" The energetic child sprinted off towards his room.
"Sorry about that, he's a good kid but he gets a little riled up every now and then." He chuckled. "Have you had lunch yet?" The sound of Ginko's stomach rumbling answered that for him. "Guess not, I'll go heat something up."
…
"Gah!" Takeru flinched as his lips met his spoon.
"I told you it was still hot, sheesh, try to be a little more patient." Kusakabe admonished his nephew's clumsiness.
"Hm." Ginko pointed his finger towards Takeru's spoon, allowing a faint stream of wind to cool down the child's food. "Is that better?"
"Woah! How did you do that nii-chan?" His uncle cleared his throat and stared at him. "Oh, I mean thank you." Kusakabe smiled contently.
"Do you have any siblings Ginko-kun?"
"No." He replied plainly. "Why do you ask?"
"Just curious." Kusakabe mused, believing that Ginko may not turn out to be as bad as he had initially thought.
If only he knew.
"I see. Do you plan to make this one a sorcerer?" Kusakabe nearly choked on his food as Takeru looked at him with sparkles in his eyes.
"Absolutely not! His mother would crucify me if I did." He was quick to shoot the idea down.
"Ehhh? Why not!? My genius would make me into the greatest sorcerer known to man!" He stood up, posing with hands on his hips. "Don't you think so, nii-chan?"
"Well, your cursed energy is abnormally high for your age." Ginko on the other hand seemed to be taking this situation seriously, unable to catch on to Kusakabe's intent.
"Did you really have to tell him that… ?" He slumped with a defeated look on his face.
"See uncle! Even nii-chan agrees!" Takeru beamed and pointed at Ginko.
"Forget it, we're not having this discussion." His voice grew stern. "Also Ginko-kun, I'd appreciate it if you didn't go putting ideas into his head like that."
His student frowned, not understanding what all the fuss was about. But ultimately he chose to leave it be. "Ok."
…
After their meal, Kusakabe led Ginko into the dojo he used to practice most of his swordplay. Changing into an outfit more suited for physical activity whilst Ginko decided to remain in his kimono/uniform.
Kusakabe approached one of the weapon racks, filled with low-grade cursed tools of varying kinds. "Catch." He picked up one of the katana's and threw it towards Ginko.
"What's this for?" He examined the weapon.
"People learn better when their blood is pumping. So we're going to warm up a little before I start teaching you Simple Domain." Kusakabe withdrew his katana and took his stance.
"I don't mind, but you do realize I have no clue how to use a sword right?" He waved the weapon around like it was a toy.
"You'll be fine."
"Oh ok." That was more than enough to convince Ginko.
'Uh let's see, I haven't used a cursed tool in years. How do I work this thing again?'
CRACK!
"It seems I overcharged it a little." If a cursed tool was imbued with too much cursed energy, or imbued too quickly, the vessel would shatter. Naturally this scaled with the grade of the tool.
"Yes, it seems you did." Kusakabe groaned, reluctantly handing him a new one. "Don't break it this time."
Now with more care and precision, Ginko slowly allowed a bit of his cursed energy to seep into the blade. 'That's better.' He grinned inwardly.
"There ya' go."
Ginko stretched his shoulders as he made a poor attempt to copy Kusakabe's stance.
"Alright I'm ready."
CLANG!
In an instant, Ginko had already closed the distance between them. Meeting Kusakabe with a thunderous vertical swing as the latter quick-drew his sword to parry it.
'It looks like he really doesn't have a clue about swordplay. But he's good at using his speed and power to compensate for it.'
Kusakabe took a step back, using his larger frame to capitalize on the difference in reach.
But Ginko's speed heightened, forcing him to go back on the defensive to prevent his student from countering him.
"Didn't peg you for the arrogant type." Kusakabe remarked in response to Ginko having held out on him.
"Cut me some slack, I'm figuring this out as I go." Their blades met once more, causing Ginko's eyes to widen in surprise as Kusakabe was managing to challenge him in a contest of raw power.
"Likewise." His teacher smirked, increasing the amount of cursed energy coursing through his arms as he pushed the white-haired sorcerer back.
"Eh?" In response, Ginko swiftly grabbed his arm with his free-hand, throwing Kusakabe across the room as the latter managed to safely land on his feet. "Are you a gorilla or something?" The older of the two asked with a nervous sweat dripping down his cheek.
"I don't think so." He failed to comprehend the joke, examining his own hands.
Kusakabe chuckled briefly and rushed forwards, aiming for Ginko's waist as he swung his sword with immense speed.
But to his surprise, Ginko was able to flicker behind him in the span of a breath. Causing Kusakabe to marvel at how unnatural his ability to move was.
"Not bad." The swordsmen complimented, successfully managing to duck below Ginko's horizontal spring before meeting him with a leg sweep.
'He really is a gorilla.' But Ginko's sheer strength was more than enough to render the attempt null, forcing Kusakabe to support his blade with both hands to block the weight of the incoming blow.
CLANG!
The amount of friction caused by the clashing of alloy made it seem like sparks were about to erupt from in between.
'Sorry Kusakabe, I know you said this is a spar. But you're just too strong for me to not get curious.' It was then, that Ginko made an exceedingly rash decision.
He used his cursed technique, coating his blade in wind in order to greatly increase its pushing force.
"Oh?." But apparently he wasn't alone in his endeavor. Kusakabe made the seemingly idiotic decision to pull back and sheath his blade, pretty much offering up a free hit to Ginko on a silver platter.
"Watch closely." He said. A radius made of blue light igniting around him.
['New Shadow Style Iai, Evening Moon: Quick Draw!']
WHOOSH!
His speed surpassed that of Ginko's swing, cleanly pivoting himself to his left and landing a clean upwards slash on his shoulder.
'Wait, something's felt off about that strike. Shouldn't there have been more feedback?'
But as he turned around, the sight he was witnessing left him awestriken.
Ginko, had taken no damage.
"Why so surprised? I already showed you this technique before we got here." There was nothing complex nor revolutionary about what Ginko had done.
"You did… but you didn't tell me you could activate it that fast. Nor did you tell me how strong it actually was." He groaned.
He had simply protected his shoulder with [Galeforce].
"Well, now you know." He smiled. "And to be fair, I didn't know you could use Simple Domain that quickly either. For a second I thought you had actually given up." He returned a compliment of his own. "So are we going to continue?" Ginko rested the blade on his shoulders.
"No, I don't see any need to keep going, your blood seems hot enough." After that display, Ginko was more eager to learn the technique than ever.
"I see, do you want this back by the way?" He held the katana out towards Kusakabe.
"Nah you can keep it, who knows maybe it'll be of some use to you one day."
"Thanks."
Kusakabe sheathed his blade as his explanation finally began. "There are quite a few variations of how you can use a Simple Domain, for example what I just did. But before that you'll have to be able to perform the basic construct." He brought his hips towards the ground and positioned his arms. "Follow my lead."
"Aye aye cap'n." He obliged.
"With your experience you should have a good sense for this." His cursed energy started to flare. "First you need to construct a radius around yourself with cursed energy, as if you're creating a mold to fill with batter."
"Like this?" Kusakabe seemed satisfied with Ginko's efforts.
"Mhm, that's the easy part. What comes next is where things get tricky." Slowly, the inside of Kusakabe's radius started to fill with cursed energy that seemed to flow like a calm current, abundant yet smooth. "After you've created your mold. You need to start pouring your cursed energy in, but like batter if you're not careful it could overflow or dirty the edges of your mold. Give it a try."
And as one would expect, Ginko struggled. But not necessarily because of his lack of finesse, but rather, the struggle to balance the raw might of the cursed energy in his body, and that of his cursed energy composing the radius around him.
If you put lava into a paper mold it would burn, and if you put dough into a mold made of lava the result would be the same.
"Indeed, this is rather tricky." Ginko admitted, sweat already beginning to form above his brow as a newfound sense of respect welled within him for Kusakabe's ability to cast such a thing so seamlessly. "You wouldn't happen to have any tips?"
"Unfortunately not. Even I struggled to no end with this technique, and the same will go for you." He said with a firmness in his voice. "All you can really do is keep at it, locate the flaws with each failure you experience, and then rectify them. If you rinse and repeat this process for long enough, you will eventually unlock the technique that is Simple Domain."
"Easier said than done." Ginko said with a grin.
"Mhm. Oh, and there's one more step you'll need to complete once you've got that down." He added nonchalantly, causing Ginko's expression to dip even further.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously. After all, once you've put the batter into the mold, you have to actually bake it right?" He motioned with his hands. "The final step is to concoct a sort of imaginary cocoon around yourself, and once you activate that alongside everything else you'll have finished cooking. That's the hardest step though so good luck."
"Hey, Kusakabe."
"Yeah?"
"There's nothing simple about this domain…" He moaned.
"Haha, true that." He laughed, leaving the room and allowing Ginko to practice on his own. "Well, just do your best."
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About three days had passed since Ginko had been placed under Kusakabe's care.
"This has to be some kind of sick joke. Right?" He thought aloud.
And the teacher in question was currently sitting in his room as of now, his hands trembling with a document in his hands, signed with the Tokyo Jujutsu Tech emblem on the top right.
He had read the document at least five times over, his eyes darting all over the sheet in hopes that it was a forgery of some kind. Looking for any possible hope that what he had in his hands had been falsified.
"Yaga. I know you have high hopes for him and all." His grip tightened as he crumbled the right side of the sheet. "Truly, I get it."
He gripped his nose-bridge, knocking over his cup of coffee with his elbow in the process. "But to assign this kind of mission… it's suicide!"
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Did my best to think up my own explanation of how to learn Simple Domain, but honestly JJK doesn't give me a whole lot to work with in that department.
Tried mah best, if you're unhappy about it then sorry bout that.
Anyhow, join the discord as usual. I require brains to think of ideas for me since I'm lazy.
Disc: ZrWk2jqjbV
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