Okay, so I got to some Shohei action earlier than I thought and I'm very excited. I hope you enjoy my attempt at trying to make Shohei strong, but not overpowered like Gojo. I also hope you enjoy some of the curses I tried making up on the spot.
The two days prior to Shohei's ranking mission were filled with him hanging out with the first-years on the school grounds and showing them around for fun.
He showed them the spots that were the most relaxing to him and where specific buildings they wanted to see were. He showed them the classrooms, offices, and vending machine locations.
Megumi hadn't come along with the others, since he had no need of the tour
During the tour Itadori had been making an attempt to start several conversations with Shohei, but the older boy was seemingly going through the motions of the tour and when he wasn't speaking, had his mind elsewhere, indicated by him never showing a sign that he heard Itadori talking.
Kugisaki accepted the tour, but was asking more questions about when they were permitted to go into town and what were popular locations for food and clothes that Shohei went to often.
When he was caught paying attention by the brazen girl, he said "I don't pay attention to where we shop or eat when me and the second-years go into town. We actually don't go often because one of our classmates always gets animal control called on him, but we sometimes do it ourselves to piss him off."
"Animal control?" Kugisaki and Itadori mused, but Shohei had fallen back into his own world.
The final night before Shohei was to leave for his mission, he said goodbye to Itadori and Kugisaki after they'd been eating in the cafeteria for dinner and retired to his dorms to pack.
Shohei's dorm room was a little bit tighter packed than the other student's rooms.
Hoe had one shoulder high shelf stacked full of National geographic magazines. On a second smaller shelf in the corner of the room with National Geographic documentaries filling the shelves on top stood a small tv, just diagonal enough of Shohei's bed by the wall to watch when lying down.
National Geographic documentaries and stories were a subject that always kept Shohei's attention and never let him space out. He spent all his down time that wasn't napping reading and rereading the magazines and playing documentaries on loop, but he never took the magazines from his dorm in fear of losing or damaging them.
Posters of JAXA and NASA satellite and spaceship launches lined almost all the open space on all the walls of the room.
Shohei thought outer space was the most mysterious and captivating location humans ever visited and would have liked to travel there one day like every other little kid that wanted to be an astronaut.
On the ceiling of the room was the little glow in the dark star stickers, aragned in different constellations. Orion stood pointing his bow at the door, Ursus major and minor were in the corner of the room over a shelf, and Pisces was directly over Shohei's bed since that was his star sign. Other constellations filled in the gaps of the ceiling and were often the last thing he stared at before falling asleep every night
The second-year cared very little about most of his wardrobe and only dedicated his closet and a small dresser by it to all his clothes. The only items Shohei took pristine care for were his NASA and JAXA sweatshirts, long sleeves, hoodies, t-shirts, and underpants, and socks. All other clothes that were not labeled by either of those two, he could care less about, so he often wore those clothes on missions where he would or could temporarily wear street clothes.
Shohei hunted down clothing, toiletries, and his uniform to place in his favorite grey leather NASA backpack for the next morning.
He stuffed, zipped up and put down his backpack by his dresser when he heard a knock at the door. He walked over and opened the door to see Megumi dressed in his house clothes, waiting patiently for him to open the door.
"Hey man," Shohei greeted, inviting the boy in by stepping aside to make room to pass.
"Hey," Megumi muttered back.
He took a seat on the boys bed and leaned against the wall it was pressed against and asked, "So tomorrow is the mission that promotes you to grade-one or not?"
"Yup," he answered, jumping onto the bed and laying on his back. "I'm excited to get it over and done with."
"You never sound or look excited," Megumi stated. "You've always looked like an airhead and like you never knew a single thing going on at the moment."
Shohei chuckled and said, "Yea, but I hope everyone doesn't think I have resting bitch face."
"You don't. You just always look and sound clueless," Megumi said, letting out a sigh like his friend was hopeless. "Anyway, I came in here just to wish you luck tomorrow since I might not see you before you leave. They gave all us first-years a last minute mission tomorrow too."
"Thanks dude. Good luck on your mission too. What kind is it?" Shohei thanked and asked, nuddinging the boy's leg with his own.
"It's over in West Tokyo. It's for investigating a cursed womb that spawned above a juvenile detention center. It might release a curse, but our main job is to rescue anyone left there," Megumi said excitedly.
"Hmm," Shohei grunted.
Cursed wombs almost made him more cautious because a Sorcerer never knew how strong a curse a curse womb could release. The curse could have originally been a fly head, a curse more fickle than a grade-four, that had gotten ahold of a cursed object and sucked the strength out of it only to become a grade-four or three. Or cursed wombs could produce a first or special-grade curses.
Special-grades were becoming almost all too abundant in the past several years and Satoru often said that the grading system would soon be overthrown and considered inadequate with how strong curses were growing.
"Those get dangerous. A special-grade could emerge," Shohei warned.
"I know. I'll be careful," Megumi reassured.
"You do that, and don't be too hard on Itadori. It might be your first official mission together, and you say he's the heroic type, but I don't think he's the same type of heroic you are. He seems like the type to save indiscriminately, but you and I both know you are a little too selective. Don't go trying to deam who isn't a good enough person to save or not and just rescue people in hopes that they'll prove your bad thoughts wrong," Shohei lectured the boy.
Megumi looked away from Shohei, not denying his claim on his mindset, but just not agreeing with the boy's lecture.
Megumi got up abruptly and glided to the door. After throwing it open but before swinging it closed, Megumi said, "Kugisaki and Itadori said you gave a good tour. Goodnight." Then the door closed.
Shohei wasn't scared that he hurt the boy's feelings or ego, especially after the small reassurance he gave before leaving anyway.
He got up to turn off the lights and prepared for bed. All the star sticker constellations lit up the dark room in a dim, alien green, and Shohei slid under his covers and fell to sleep.
The next morning in front of the school gates, just after the sun had risen to shine in the full blue sky, Shohei stood beside Mei Mei with their luggage and bullet train tickets in hand.
The tickets were to a station in East Tokyo to where they would proceed to take a private cab to their reserved hotel to drop off their luggage and then to their curse haunted mission location.
The two odd hairstyles having Sorcerers were waiting for their car ride to the train station in street clothes.
Mei Mei was wearing a navy blue tie waist sweater dress, ankle high brown boots, and a small pocket watch. On the same arm of her pocket watch was also her large battle axe in a case as tall as her that seemed out of place when put side by side to her business casual outfit. Much more natural looking was Mei Mei's handbag with her uniform, wallet, and tablet for managing her money and other items.
Shohei looked much more normal as a boy with polka dotted hair could look. He only had his one backpack on his back and stood much more relaxed when compared to the business ready Mei Mei, who was standing almost at attention. He was wearing khaki pants and a large black hoodie with the classic NASA logo on the front and the same black boots we wore with his uniform.
Their car soon pulled up and they placed their luggage in the trunk of the car and took their seats in the back. The driver stepped on the gas and whisked them off to the station.
Mei Mei had been on her tablet the entire drive, monitoring her bank accounts and playing around with how much money she was putting into her preferred stocks.
Shohei had split the time by scrolling aimlessly through his phone and staring at the thickly clouded sky.
The car pulled up to the station and the student and teacher took their luggage from the trunk, boarded their scheduled train, and repeated their steps in killing time that they did on the car ride.
From how often Shohei stared at the sky, he figured it would rain later in the day, maybe even at night and that excited him. Shohei liked watching the rain reflect city and car lights at night. The noise of the rain landing onto leaves or the street made slipping into a haze so much easier for Shohei but more enjoyable.
It was just a little shy of an hour before midday by the time Shohei and Mei Mei's train had stopped at their location and they caught the reserved car that would take them to their hotel.
The hotel was five stars by Mei Mei's request and the two sorcerers each got a room with a king sized bed, full bathrooms, a separate room for a living room and half kitchen despite them only staying there for the night following the completion of the mission. Mei Mei spared no expense when she intended to travel and Shohei liked her style.
The two dropped off the luggage they wouldn't need for the mission and changed into their uniforms for action. They met in the lobby and reentered their car to continue their trip to the mission.
They briefly stopped by a convenience store to buy their lunch and Mei Mei impressed Shohei by simply buying a package of konbini sandwiches instead of protesting that they go to a high end restaurant to dine in before continuing the mission. Shohei bought himself an egg onigiri and paid for the drivers onigiri as well.
The drive to the actual sight of the curses actually felt like the longest and worst part of the entire trip.
The ride to the bullet train station from Tokyo High was as familiar to Mei Mei and Shohei as the hair hanging over their eyes. The bullet train ride was speedy and smooth with no bumps on the track. The ride from the hotel to the site was full of twists and turns that made the driver second guess themselves and make incorrect turns and stops.
Unpaved or simply badly paved roads sent Shohei and Mei Mei tumbling and bouncing in their seats, and unsettling neighborhoods with strange citizens simply staring the car down as if it was crammed with clowns and had oversized shoes hanging out the windows.
The final stretch of the drive to the site was a very small road that was out of the way of all public buildings and locations and had thick woods on both sides the remaining way.
The thick woods only spaced out and cleared up when the car had pulled up to a fenced in factory that was the end goal for Mei Mei and Shohei.
"Here is something extra for that trip. Thank you," Shohei said, tapping the driver on the shoulder with a 10,000 yen note clenched in his hand.
The driver thanked Shohei with a nod and drove off, intending to receive a call when the two were finished with their mission.
The trip to the factory took longer than expected and the time was about three in the afternoon and Mei Mei and her student originally planned to arrive at one.
"Well that was a rough trip," Mei Mei said, rolling her neck and shoulders, stretching.
"You're telling me," Shohei said, throwing his hands over his head then touching his toes.
"Well I do hope that ride didn't rattle your nerves so much that you aren't prepared for this mission. I am really looking forward to a sizable chunk of your first few checks from missions if you do get prompted as a part of our deal for me recommending you," Mei Mei sighed, cupping her cheek and frowning at the possibility of losing out on a chance at some earnings.
"I can promise you that I'm not gonna fail this mission," Shohei proclaimed boldly and calmly, taking a step towards the factory like he wasn't scared of it. "I'm confident I could complete any plain old exorcism mission. Even if there were special-grade curses."
"Bold claims," Mei Mei said. "But all missions aren't just for exorcising curses. Missions can be simple recon missions for what curses are in a location, search and rescue missions for other Sorcerers, or even cursed object retrieval missions. You undoubtedly know this by now, but as I understand it, you struggle or simply fail to complete other missions that aren't simple exorcism missions. That is why, despite your extremely powerful combat abilities, cursed techniques, and family ties, you were barely placed in second-grade when first enrolled in Tokyo High. Correct?"
Shohei hated to admit she was right, but that's precisely why he wasn't a first-grade sorcerer.
"Correct."
"You're teacher, Atsuya Kusakabe, and cousin and mentor, Satoru Gojo, both have stated that you 'lack a delicate touch' when it comes to field missions. Do you think this is an accurate statement?" Mei Mei asked.
Shohei got where Kusakabe-sensei and Satoru were coming from with his collateral damage reports from missions, but he wouldn't say he lacked a delicate touch with other matters as much.
"I do not agree with their statement, Mei-sensei," Shohei said.
"Oh? Then show me," Mei Mei uttered, pointing a finger at the open sky above them and the factory.
"Place a curtain around the facility to prevent any passer by citizens or hikers of the trail you read about from spotting our dealings in the factory. Barrier techniques like the curtain aren't simple attacks you can pour your cursed energy into to exorcise a curse. They require skillful weaving of cursed energy and a well understood basis of it. Most sorcerer's lack the ability to place a curtain despite the little skill required to cast a minimal effort one."
Shohei knew that since Mei Mei had started questioning him and testing his nerve, her examination of him and his potential of moving up in grade had begun.
He had to impress her with all he could to move up in rank. He got Mei Mei to examine him with money, but knew she would judge him fairly and sternly to examine his worth to her as a person and Sorcerer.
Shohei stepped up to the gate and jogged his memories of training in simple barrier techniques with Satoru back in his first year at Tokyo High. He felt his familiar cursed energy surge slightly and kneed itself into his desired function as he raised his index, middle, and thumb finger to complete the hand sign.
"Emerge from darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure," Shohei chanted the phrase.
As soon as he started chanting a liquid appearing mass spawned above the factory and trickled downward. It formed a semi-transparent black dome around the factory that heavily shaded the insides, but would obscure all citizen's view of what was going inside from the outside.
"Very good," Mei Mei praised. "I saw that you focused on the blocking effect over the visual imagery. That earned you some serious brownie points."
Shohei grinned and cheered a little on the inside to his good start.
"Shall we enter the grounds?" Shohei asked.
"I think we should," Mei Mei agreed.
The two entered the shaded dome and proceeded to approach the barbed fencing. Shohei curled the bottom of the fence upward into a roll for him and Mei Mei to duck under with his cursed technique, Gravity Conductor. When they had passed through it, Shohei flattened the fence back down as if they never passed through it.
"You possess the Gojo family inherited technique, Limitless, don't you?" Mei Mei asked the student.
"I do, but I made a self imposed vow with it," Shohei said, walking along the concrete ground, littered with weeds growing out of the cracks in it. "Would you like for me to explain it further or may I wait until we encounter curses with it so I might have the chance to gain the upper hand?"
"Smart wording to let me know you understand what revealing your hand and techniques does for you," Mei Mei noted. "I can wait until we encounter some cursed spirits."
Shohei nodded, pleased he worded his question like he wanted, to show off his knowledge of revealing cursed techniques and how it can strengthen them and give the revealer the edge in battle.
The two continued to cross the empty, heavily weed covered pavement on their way to the building. As they approached the cursed presence that was noticeable, but barely jolting outside the fence, made itself extremely known and attempted to overpower the Sorcerers, but they looked past this empty threat with ease and used the opportunity to scale how many possible curses and what grades lied inside.
"I'd guess about half a dozen grade-three and four curses, three or two grade-two curses, and a grade-one curse without scanning for cursed energy signatures," Shohei estimated, pausing by a side entrance and looking at the grown sorcerer.
"That's as close as I could guess," Mei Mei said, nodding in agreement and confirmation to breach the entrance.
Shohei made a clenching motion with his fist and the entire handle of the metal door crumpled into a metallic ball, and rolled out from the empty hole in the door.
Shohei entered first, scanning the room for cursed energy signatures or curses in plain sight, but there were none to be spotted, even without his eyes adjusted to the dark room.
When his eyes did adjust and Mei Mei followed in behind him with her axe removed from the case and held to her side passively, they saw that the room appeared to be a windowless office with nothing of interest.
They proceeded to pass through the small office and through its door that led to a long hallway, lined with lights with no power to light them anymore.
Shohei raised his hand in the air and reinforced it sloppily with cursed energy, emitting the blue aura to light his surroundings to some degree.
"Risky move Shohei," Mei Mei warned. "That surge of cursed energy could scare off cursed spirits into hiding."
"Or prod them into investigating, which is what we want," Shohei countered.
Mei Mei gave the boy a simple hum that both told the boy that she knew what he was planning, but confused him on if she agreed with the choice or not.
They continued down the hallway for a small amount of time before they came across a turn that led them to the main assembly line of the factory.
The space was tall and had windows lining the walls at the very top where they touched the ceiling. The veil could be seen still rippling smoothly outside, but the rundown and rusting machinery caught one's eye more.
The area wasn't particularly spacious with the lines of machinery almost extending the entire length of the room, but the space in between the lines of machinery was about eight feet wide. Stairs ran the height of the walls and connected to the platforms and walkways above the entire room for observers and other workers to look down upon the factory line.
"Do you know the feeling of being stalked and hunted, Mei-sensei?" Shohei asked her quietly like any octave higher would get a reaction out of something.
The boy circled on the spot instinctually, slowly, to examine the room for the gaze of the curse that he felt locked onto him.
"After my years of serving in the Jujutsu field I've come to know it," Mei Mei said. "You feel the cursed energy of a curse nearby?"
"I've felt them since we entered this room, but I'm looking for the one that is staring me down right now," Shohei muttered.
He hadn't been looking for a cursed signature specifically, but when he thought he locked gazes with a pair of round bloodshot eyes in a shadowy corner of the platforms above, he started searching and found a signature belonging to the eyes.
From activating the need to search for cursed energy, Shohei felt four other cursed spirits in the room with them, but they were all unaware of his and Mei Mei's presence in the room.
"You're talking about the one in the platform, about sixty yards from us," Mei Mei noted quietly, spotting the curse Shohei was talking about.
"I see it and feel the other four around us. I'd like for you to show me you have some grace to your work and handle the one cursed spirit that noticed us before the others are alerted of our presence please."
"Yes ma'am," Shohei whispered.
Shohei didn't want to make any sudden movements, or any small movements for that matter. He felt that the curse that saw him was nothing stronger than a grade-four, and might be liable to shout for help if it sees him targeting it. Considering that, he was not comfortable raising his arms to direct an attack with his hands at the curse while he and it still were making eye contact, but he also didn't want to use a cursed technique attack that used any noticeable amounts of cursed energy to the curses that weren't particularly steering away from him and Mei Mei.
Shohei felt that he was wasting time and only allowing the curse the chance to alert the others, so he decided to only raise his arm at the elbow a little and start to rub his fingertips together like he was trying to ball up string stuck to them.
He was attempting to quietly unscrew several screws in the railing surrounding the curse to then imbue them with cursed energy and quickly fire at it, exorcising it, but he froze solid still when the curse quickly tore away from his and it's eye contact to stare at the railing by it that just had a screw squeak too loud.
The curse jerked back to staring at him and let out a clattering scream, like symbols crashing into each other. The curse lept from the railing and spread pearl white dove wings, but it's small, hairless looking chimpanzee body broke the beautiful image and replaced it with a primitive looking cherub. The curse had teeth like hollow metal pipes that it slammed into each other as it screamed.
"Dammit," Shohei cursed, taking up a fighting stance and scanning his immediate area for attacking curses.
The first curse he saw make an appearance was a short, squashed, green curse with nubby legs, emaciated arms, and a body so fat that its body rolls almost touched the ground on either side of it. The hair attached to its wide face where fat lines were mistaken for mouth, nostril, and eye slits was the concerning part. Each heavy strand of matted hair was as thick as Shohei's wrist and four times his body length, but leathery, stronger looking tentacles were also amongst the curse's hair and were whipping around like a hurricane.
"I'll be staying out of your way and only defending myself if attacked. Goodluck Shohei," Mei Mei informed him, leaping back several feet from the action and backing into a wall, leaning onto her axe to watch.
"Great," Shohei huffed.
Shohei sensed the remaining three cursed spirits running through flanking assembly lines, but out of sight. A plan immediately came to mind, but Mei Mei would get caught in the crossfire.
Shohei yelled, "Jump when I say Mei-sensei."
"You got it," Mei Mei yelled in return.
Shohei crossed his arms over his chest and shut his eyes to further hone in on the approaching curses. He heard the fat curse's hair whipping around and probably preparing to make an attack, but he held still.
The three curses were approaching Shohei quickly and he came upon the right moment and yelled, "Now."
He threw out his arms widely and Mei Mei jumped when queued.
Shohei had sent the floor of assembly lines crashing into the two walls on his left and right, kicking up a cloud of dust and dirt.
"I need to use the coupons," the fat, green curse mumbled through a roll of fat covering its mouth as it was knocked to its butt by the wave of force.
Shohei had put no lethal power behind his attack and focused on purposefully causing the collateral damage of the assembly line, which was one of his main problems as a Sorcerer, but his plan succeeded.
He looked over to his right and saw the dissipating ashes amongst the rubble of an exorcised curse. To his left he spotted a blue, hairy leg sticking out of the machines and a scaly hand prying at more metal to free itself.
"Rather counter productive to your reputation Shohei," Mei Mei called, standing gracefully on top of a pile of machinery. "I see your plan worked to some degree, but I'm not impressed."
"The fight only started, Mei-sensei. Just watch," Shohei called back, admiring the open space that he now had to fight in with no obstructions in the way.
Shohei dashed towards the floundering fat curse to attack and when he appeared above it, raising both hands to launch an attack point blank, the grade-four chimpanzee came rocketing into his face.
The attack by the weak curse had no effect on him and it was sent spiraling back into the air, leaving Shohei unscratched and free to blast the fat curse into the ground with a sudden wave of force.
A sudden crashing noise was heard from the pile of parted machinery and when Shohei looked back he saw two beastial looking curses, free from their ruble trap.
One was a blue tinted great ape looking curse with large muscles, but had the face of a deer with sharp antlers. The other was a muddy water brown, large, quadrupedal fish with canine teeth in its mouth and gills. Despite both curses intimidating appearances, Shohei saw through the facade and assigned both of them a grade of three.
They both charged the teenage Sorcerer down and took swings at him with their respective hands or claws. Both attacks were parried by the open air between them and Shohei, each sent slamming into the floor.
Shohei grinned smugly and clapped his hands together, interlocking his fingers and summoning two large hunks of machinery from his left and right to come slamming and smothering the two curses together.
Shohei was pressing his hands harder and harder together, signaling for the machinery to continue to press the curses into each other, but something swept Shohei's legs out from under him and knocked him to the ground.
It had been the fat curse that Shohei thought he had exorcised in one shot. It had lifted itself up from the ground with several lengths of matted hair and was reaching over Shohei's body to free the other curses with its leathery tentacles. Shohei rolled onto his stomach and leapt to his feet, retreating from his encirclement of curses.
"So that curse is more durable than I thought. It's definitely a grade-two on second glance," Shohei muttered, disappointed his plans went awry, but quickly attempting to adjust to the circumstances.
"Underestimating your opponent is an extreme miscalculation and an arrogant mistake," Mei Mei warned the boy.
"I do have a question though," she said, changing her tone of voice from scolding to curious. "If you have the Inherited Technique Limitless, don't you also have access to the technique Infinity? How did that curse manage to attack you if Infinity prevents attacks and others from touching you?"
"I do have my clan's Inherited Technique, Limitless, but I don't have access to infinity, or any of the techniques derived from Limitless," Shohei explained to Mei Mei, dusting himself off and watching the curses convene with each other. They seemed to be intelligent… no. One seemed to be intelligent. One was the director of the group. But which? "I suppose now is an appropriate time to explain my cursed technique, Gravity Conductor."
"Coupons," the second-grade curse muttered.
Shohei figured that one as the most liable to be the leader, since it was the only one to have spoken, but it felt wrong. Looking at the whole group, only one showed clear signs of intelligence. The little chimpanzee noticed Shohei's attack, alerted the others, and attempted to distract him from killing off a stronger curse.
"I mentioned that I made a self-imposed Binding vow," Shohei started, not looking back at Mei Mei, but studying the group of curses to give a final sign of confirmation of his hypothesis.
"The vow was that I could never use a premade technique of Limitless, but in exchange, all the basic and undefined powers of Limitless like controlling and distorting space are more abundantly easy for me to control and require much less cursed energy from me compared to if I had access to the techniques. Almost akin to a Six Eyes user, but no where never to that level of expertise or magnitude, but a superior degree of finesse and scale than without. Its ironically a homage to my Clan's desire of molding me into a second Satoru."
"Interesting," Mei Mei mused. "But why put shackles on something literally Limitless? The powers of Limitless are some of the strongest and renowned cursed techniques in Jujutsu history."
"Because they're so not so renowned and well known. Or at least not so renounced if I don't posses the Six Eyes to fully master the techniques. Not only is revealing your hand with the Limitless techniques extremely less game changing and powerful, but enemies and individuals have prior knowledge on how to defend from and counter those techniques."
Mei Mei was nodding along, now understanding the reasoning. She asked, "So what do you replace such powerful techniques with?"
"Well not only have you seen my simple skills with seemingly telepathy, but I have my own innate technique that is enhanced by my vow. But I don't think this mission will push me to use it. However, Gravity Conductor is simply me manipulating the direction, force of pull, and area of effect gravity is taking place. Infinity is undoubtedly one of the best cursed techniques ever invented, but without the Six Eyes, I was never going to master it and it would be a trivial and fruitless time in trying, so I decided to copy the concept with Gravity Conductor. I actively have a consistent barrier of gravitational force that has a greater pull than Jupiter surrounding me."
"Dear me," Mei Mei muttered. "How are you able to keep that up, let alone move?"
"Well it was never that strong until recently and I'm still getting used to this caliber of weight, but it provides me with everyday training of my body by resisting every motion I make and teaching me multitasking while training other jujutsu. Infinity takes up more cursed energy than Gravity Conductor for its invincible barrier of protection and takes a mental strain on you, but with how I've trained Gravity Conductor with the vow and my cursed energy, it takes almost purely physical strain which I've adapted to. I will say that Gravity Conductor's gravity field is not impenetrable though, but it does the job parrying against most physical attacks without strong enough follow through and some cursed techniques."
"Impressive," Mei Mei admitted. "Please, do continue your fighting."
Shohei was the happiest he'd been on the entire trip. He had impressed Mei Mei with his inventive cursed technique and had figured out the curses from watching them while explaining.
Shohei had comprehended the curses relationship in the time it took for him to reveal his technique. The fat, hair controlling curse was indeed a grade-two from its ability to break through his gravity field and durability to take a point blank gravity slam. The deer and fish grade-three curses were the muscle to apply pressure for an opening and deliver the finishing blow with their antlers, claws, teeth, or muscles for when the hair curse had grappled a target, but weren't supposed to be the ones taking the brunt of the attacks with their lack of cursed energy to reinforce themselves or possibly heal if injured. The hair curse was extremely sturdy and meant to be the one engaging the enemy directly. This all was orchestrated by the chimpanzee curse however, as it undoubtedly had the most brains but no skill to carry it out or protect itself as it was just a grade-four. It was a four way symbiotic relationship, excluding the curse Shohei had already exorcized.
"Come here you little bastard," Shohei grunted, holding out an open hand like he was choking the air. The chimpanzee curse had a phantasmal hand grab it by the neck and pull it towards his open hand.
Shohei planned to take out the head of the curses' operations and stop them from coordinating, but the chimpanzee let out a gnashing cry with its teeth and the other curses rushed towards him.
The hair curse attempted to wrap a tentacle around Shohei, but it was sent slamming into the ground but the gravity field. The deer tried to stab Shohei with its antlers but was parried to the side. The fish attempted to bite Shohei's shoulder, but had its jaw dislocated by the gravity field throwing the jaw in two different directions extremely quickly.
A second tentacle slammed directly down onto Shohei's shoulder and stunned him as Gravity Conductor pushed the attack right back up, but pressed his shoulder down, throwing off his summoning of the chimp to his hand.
"Enough of this," Shohei grunted, making a strong shoving motion with his hand towards the hair curse, sending it stumbling backwards, stunned.
During the stunned moment of the tanky curse, Shohei summoned a long piece of scrap metal from the pile of machinery on the side of the room. He contorted it into a denser, knife length spike and reinforced it with cursed energy before lunging at the still dazed fish curse and stabbing down onto its head, exorcising it for good.
The deer curse, seeing its partner disappear, charged Shohei once again, swinging its meaty ape fists wildly, missing him every time as he calmly back stepped every hit. Shohei eventually ducked under one of the curse's arms and slipped behind it. He made a sharp jabbing motion with all five of his fingers pointing at the curses back and a spear of force pierced the curse and left it scattering into ashes as a little of its purple blood was splattered on the floor.
The fat hair curse had regained its balance and looked up dully to the chimp curse, who was hovering in the air again, waiting for instructions now that two of the curses were gone. The chimp gnashed its hollow teeth at the curse and swug its hairless arms at Shohei wildly. The fat curse understood and made several wide and powerful swings with each of its tentacles in turn.
Shohei chose to take evasive action and dodge the tentacles as best he could, and succeeded ultimately. No tentacle got a direct hit on him as he sidestepped, ducked, lept over, and slipped under each attack.
Shohei made his attempt at closing the distance between him and the curse, but as soon as he got within reach of the shorter, heavier, and thicker hairs they all struck him at once and sent him sliding back across the open floor.
"You're just gonna have to get cut," Shohei groaned as he got to his feet and faced the fat curse.
He held out his flattened hand vertically and raised it above his head slowly, and when he brought it down swiftly, he had sent a slashing wave of gravity as thin as he could, as fast as he could towards the curse.
The curse had attempted to raise all its tentacles and hairs to block the incoming attack when the chimp curse started screaming when Shohei raised his hand, but the attack had already split it down the middle and exorcised it without even scratching the ground below it.
"Wow," Mei Mei gasped slightly. "I almost missed that last attack. Very impressive. One more curse to go and we can move on from here."
"Yes ma'am," Shohei nodded to Mei Mei after he had looked back to see her reaction. "I really didn't like you," he said matter of factly to the bald chimpanzee curse before he held out a hand to it and made a clenching gesture, squeezing the curse briefly before it popped like a grape and was exorcised.
Next chapter will wrap up Shohei's mission to be determined for grade-one or not and we'll see what the situation is like with the first-years and the cured womb arc. Thank you for reading.