บท 20: Awakening
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One week after the Oiwa Shrine Cursed Womb incident.
Ginko jolted out of his bed with labored breath, his eyes darting from side to side as his mind was filled with an overwhelming amount of information.
Despite not having any technique whatsoever active, his brain continued to flood itself with even the most subtle of movements that occurred around him.
The gentle swaying of the curtains, the breath coming out of his nose and mouth, even footsteps that weren't anywhere near him.
He could feel it. Or more accurately, he could feel what they were interacting with.
"Take a deep breath, and listen to what I'm about to tell you." A familiar voice reached him, followed by the sensation of a hand being placed upon his back. "You've just awakened the special property of our cursed energy, and right now what you're feeling is pretty much anything and everything that's making contact with the air around you. Including the movement of my arm just now."
Ginko tried to follow the man's words, but the latter wasn't aware of just how far his senses were reaching at the moment. Put simply, the child he was comforting was currently feeling the movements of everything within a 50-meter radius.
A truly mind-numbing amount of information for the brain to process at once. As shown by the small trickle of blood that had started to seep out of his nose.
But with that said, it wasn't as if the elderly man would be of no help, in truth it was quite the contrary.
"You're subconsciously channeling your cursed energy right now, so what you need to do is to take a conscious grip on your cursed energy, and gradually start bringing it down. Don't waste any effort on trying to make words come out of your mouth for time-being, it'll be futile."
Ginko did exactly what he was told, a wave of relief looming over him as the overload of information started to tone down. Becoming more and more bearable by the second.
And once his radius of awareness had come down to about 3-5 meters, he found himself able to relax again. Turning towards the man beside him with a newfound sense of tranquility.
"Gramps?" He blinked repeatedly.
"Yo. 'Bout time you woke up." Yamada greeted his awoken grandson. "Quite the fight you had back there."
"Fight?" Ginko's memories surged into his mind, recollecting the battle he had shared with Kusakabe against the samurai spirit. "Is Kusakabe-sensei alright?"
"Better than alright." He reassured him. "But before you start assaulting me with questions, drink this." Yamada handed him a much-needed bottle of water.
"Ah, 'ppreciate it." He downed the bottle in one-go. "So, how long have I been out?"
"About a week. But if you'd rather take some more time off then that's fine, I doubt they'll be sending you on missions anytime soon." Ginko raised his brow. "Haha, thought not." Yamada stood up, picking up the empty bottle Ginko had just finished and walking to the other side of the room. "Ready?"
"Mhm." He threw the plastic object at Ginko with a considerable amount of force, only for it to be shot right back at him almost instantly after it had collided with [Galeforce].
"Looks like you've already got a good grasp on it." The patriarch smiled, catching the bottle in his hand. "As you've probably figured out, awakening our cursed energy trait is necessary in order for [Redirection] to become a somewhat involuntary reflex of sorts. But just as a heads up, you're probably not going to be able to control whether you redirect something or not for a few days, so just be careful for now."
"I see, but as long as I don't have [Galeforce] active I should be fine right?"
"Uh, not quite." Yamada admitted. "[Galeforce] will probably also activate on its own whenever your property detects something getting close to you at a certain speed. But don't worry about it too much, I'm sure you'll be fine."
Ginko hummed, not fully convinced by his grandfather's optimism.
"Anyhow. How does it feel? Being able to use [Reverse Cursed Technique] at last." He folded his arms together, leaning against the wall as he observed him.
Ginko looked at his hands, creating a small cut on his finger with his cursed technique, and then proceeding to heal the wound with minimal effort. "Multiplying negative energy by itself, when you hear about it the concept sounds utterly alien, but once you unlock it the technique is as simple as breathing." He concluded.
"As are most things with most Jujutsu." Yamada mused as he scratched his stubble. "You down for some chow?" He motioned towards the door.
…
The two Kyofu's found themselves a seat, each of them stacking their plates to the point where they looked like model Eiffel Tower's.
"You getting along well with your classmates?" Yamada queried.
"They're weird." He proclaimed with a total lack of self-awareness.
"Weird?"
"They think too much, and they ask me to think a lot as well. It hurts my head." Ginko complained.
"Haha, is that so? Well, you've always been rather simple minded with what you do, so I can see why you might parallel them in that regard." He simpered. "But besides that, I imagine you're getting along with them well enough?"
"Most of them."
"Then there's someone you don't like." He concluded.
"There is one, I think her name was Tei Tei, no wait, was it Fley Fley? Ah forget it, I'm no good with names. Anyhow, she's a weirdo who refuses to use her cursed technique whatsoever for some reason. Can you believe that? Having a technique, and not using it just because. It's maddening." He stabbed his fork into his food out of frustration.
"Oh? So you're not actually mad at them, but rather mad on their behalf?" Yamada interpreted. "I didn't know you could be such a sentimental person."
"Call it what you want. It's just plain annoying to me." He requited.
"If it bothers you so much, why not try helping them out?" He proposed. Earning a perplexed look from Ginko.
"Why would I? That's their responsibility, not mine." Ginko countered, wolfing down his food. "If she wants to be weak then let her be weak." He apathetically said, no longer interested in the conversation.
"Can't fault you there. At the end of the day Jujutsu Sorcery is an individual sport, but even so it'd be nice for you to form some meaningful bonds here and there." Ginko could sympathize with the former part.
"Maybe."
"On another note, there's something I was supposed to give you earlier." Yamada reached into his kimono, pulling out what looked to be an I.D and handing it to Ginko. "Here."
"I already have one of these though?" He received the card with confusion.
"Read it." He looked down, his eyes lighting up as he noticed a striking discrepancy between his current card and the one in his hands.
[Tokyo Jujutsu High School]
[Name: Ginko Kyofu]
[Age: 15]
[Grade 1 Sorcerer]
"Seriously?" He barely managed to contain his excitement. "I thought I had to do a solo-mission against a Grade 1 curse or something?"
"Under normal circumstances, yes, that would be necessary." Yamada admitted. "However, you managed to beat a Special-grade curse. And one of the highest level one's recorded to boot. There isn't really any reason to test you further."
"But I did that with Kusakabe-sensei's help."
"According to him, you were the main victory condition during the fight. Not to mention the fact that you've also unlocked [Reverse Cursed Technique], an ability only a handful of sorcerers are capable of." He praised.
"Hold on, what do you mean also?" He noticed.
"Oh right, I forgot to tell you. He also managed to unlock it which is pretty surprising considering his age, though I'm not one to talk on the subject." Yamada chuckled, wiping his mouth with a napkin.
"Good for him." The corners of Ginko's mouth curled upwards ever so slightly. "If only he had a cursed technique."
"Nope, don't do that." Yamada warned.
"Do what?"
"Don't think about what ifs, you'll go bald. Just focus on what is, and maybe you'll be as handsome as me when you're my age." He beamed as he admired his own face. "Be a man of the present! That's the key to living a long life." He pointed his chopsticks at Ginko.
The teenager meekly nodded in response.
"Hey, there's something I've been meaning to ask you." Ginko looked at his grandfather. "You find any girls to your liking?"
"Hah? Where did that come from?" He found the question abrupt.
"Well, now that you're a Grade 1 I can hand over the clan to you and retire peacefully. But as patriarch you'll eventually need to have some children of your own so it's pretty important that you find a wife." Ginko breathed an audible groan, showing little intrigue in the prospect.
"Do I really have to?" He moaned.
"Of course, our numbers are pretty small so they're going to expect you to have an heir eventually." The future-patriarch grumbled, finding the topic to be of little value to him. "I'm serious."
"Can't you just find one for me instead? I'd rather not waste time going around looking for one on my own." His expression slowly started to resemble a certain king. "It's not as if I'm opposed to love and all that, but it's honestly not something I can bring myself to care for very much." Even his empty plate seemed more interesting to him.
Yamada's expression grew stern, signifying the importance he placed on the question. "Do you honestly mean that?"
Ginko made direct eye-contact. "Yeah." He replied plainly.
"I see." The patriarch took a moment to contemplate. "Here's the thing, if it really does come down to it I could indeed arrange one. However, if you hypothetically do come across someone you like, would you at least be open to giving it a try?" Arranged marriages were hardly a foreign concept to Yamada, but a part of him didn't want his grandson to have an estranged relationship like his parents.
The man in question sighed. "No promises." Was all he could say.
"Then I suppose that'll have to suffice." Some things could be forced, some things could not, this was of the latter. "Anyhow, I'll be heading back to the compound, just let me know if anything comes up."
"Sure." They waved each other off. "If they aren't planning on handing me any missions, I might as well just do what I can for the time-being."
Having decided to spend his indefinite break on getting used to his newfound senses, Ginko went to the training grounds and found himself a comfortable spot next to a wall.
"This should do." With a tennis ball in his hand, he arched his arm back before throwing it at the wall with a fair amount of strength. Hurling it at the wall as it bounced back towards him. 'Looks like he was right, [Galeforce] and [Redirection] are activating without my say-so.'
He allowed the volley to continue for a few seconds before bringing it to a halt. 'At least I'm still able to turn it off on command, but the fact that it can turn on without it is still a little problematic.' He scratched his chin, wondering if there was a possible work-around.
'For now it's probably best that I just keep familiarizing myself with the sensation. Once I've developed a good feel for it, it should become easier to regain my grasp on the technique.' Naturally the speed of the ball got faster and faster each time it was redirected, but thanks to the new sense bestowed upon him by his awakened cursed energy, predicting when it would collide with [Galeforce] had become significantly easier.
"I should be fine as long as no-one throws something sharp at me, but I'll need to get a good grasp on my redirection in order to avoid an ill-honed reflection from hitting them." Now that he thought of it, there were quite a few possible incidents that could result from his auto-activating ability. "Eh, I'm sure it'll be fine."
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And with this chapter, volume one has officially come to an end. Which means the next chapter will be the beginning of Hidden Inventory/the canon timeline.
There's probably going to be a lot more polls/discussions from this point onwards, so do join the discord server if you haven't already. If you have any questions you can drop them here, but I might not respond as often as I do over there.
Disc: ZrWk2jqjbV
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