14. Casting

The day starts out bright and beautiful. This day marks the day Maguro started to truly try to use her family's cursed techniques with the guidance of Gojo-sensei.

And Gojo-sensei's only instruction of her was to pick a song and sing.

Everyone looked at the strongest jujutsu sorcerer oddly.

"Ano na, Gojo-sensei," Maki started, miffed that the teacher still plays around during class hours. "This isn't a concert. It's class time."

"Yes!" Gojo-sensei remarked happily. "'And this technique only applies to our very own Tsukigami-kun's Tsukigami clan's technique, the Casting. You have read the book I passed to you the other day, ne?"

Maguro nodded. Gojo-sensei indeed had passed her an old book listing of the techniques and abilities each jujutsu family ever had. Even Inumaki's family clan technique is listed there. "I've read them all. There's a few listed under the Tsukigami's technique, but I'm not sure if I do have those now."

"You do, you do," Gojo-sensei replied her ecstatically. "You have them now. You just don't know how to use them yet. Plus, you're not in the exact situation to require some of them to work, so they won't manifest until the time is right."

"Situation?" Panda piped in, his beady eyes switching between watching Maguro's reaction and Gojo-sensei's excited looks. "Was she too safe here, so it doesn't manifest? Like Yuuta's curse?"

"Exactly! Exactly!" Gojo-sensei snapped his finger towards Panda. "Yuuta's version would require a trigger in order for Rika to appear. But Maguro's version would just require her to know how it works in theory and manifest them out by thoughts alone. If she can practice here, she'll be able to join the rest of you on your missions anytime."

Out of courtesy, she did not investigate Gojo-sensei's family technique. Not sure if they will count her as stupid or dumb for not digging more into Gojo-sensei, but she felt terribly guilty when she felt the temptation to read up on his family.

So when the page comes to the Gojo family's techniques, she quickly flipped them to the other pages.

Though, her fingers does linger on the Snake and Fang seal mark drawn on the page of that book. It was a mesmerizing image to stare at for hours.

Her eyes glanced up at Inumaki, imagining herself watching the Snake and Fang seal mark on his face.

His eyes were focused on her the entire time.

Balking, Maguro quickly looked down, feeling a heat creeping up her neck in response.

"Great! We'll start with the basic of all basics – Casting curses. Yours is plenty useful. Over time, you will be able to use it for battle and support your teammates. For now, we'll stick to barrier. The rest of you, you can either continue your sparring's, or watch quietly."

Maguro nodded her head. "I'll do my best, Gojo-sensei," she said determinedly, taking deep breaths to prepare her body for what was to come next.

Gojo-sensei smiled. "You always do, ne?" he said quietly, patting her head fondly. He has seen her improvements and her determination to learn jujutsu. They are still in springtime, but she could already heal her teammates with Reverse Curse Technique.

And notably most often of them all will be Inumaki.

Don't know what has gotten into the boy lately, but he took it upon himself to use his Cursed Speech more often than usual. For small things be it opening doors, stopping insects from crawling, towards Panda, during training itself when he usually doesn't even use it and towards a wide sort of other variety of things he could command with his speech.

And that caused a strain on his throat often enough that he always needed Maguro near him.

Satoru was suddenly struck with a revelation. Was this Inumaki's way of keeping her by his side? He snapped his neck and looked at Inumaki sitting underneath a shaded tree. The boy was looking at him unamused, but when his gaze switched towards Maguro, it sorts of…lights up.

Oh, young love blossoming in Springtime! Gojo thought to himself happily. Inumaki you mischievous little thing!

That brings his attention back to Maguro.

"In order for you to Cast out your curses, Tsukigami-kun," Gojo-sensei started, back to his teaching mode in the span of a second. "You will need to find an outlet. Be it bloodletting, scream, shout or energy transfer, any kind would do so long as it comes from you and out to the world. I would not recommend bloodletting. It tires you out faster. So, let's start with something you can do. I heard you used to sing before that."

Gojo-sensei did not sink into the topic further, but rather reminded her of what her life was before that incident with her family. As he had expected, she merely smiled up at him and nodded.

"I'll do that then. I think I can still manage. It's been a while after all," she said quietly, her eyes looking at the faraway mountain sceneries in front of her, remembering the happy times before that blasted Curse dropped into her house.

And destroyed all that she loves.

"Oh and," Gojo-sensei added in a low voice, interrupting her thoughts before she could sink deeper into the traumatic memory. "Nullify me when we're in the barrier but keep the others out."

Maguro looked up at her teacher and nodded. Nullify Gojo-sensei, keep the others out of the Nullifying effects. Got it. She gave another firm nod and replied with a "Yes, Gojo-sensei."

"All good then," Gojo-sensei said with a clap of his hands. "Now, just imagine your cursed energy flowing from your stomach to your lungs, and out from your voice. Afterwards, you can then will them to create a barrier around all of us. Just picture a box slowly rising up from the ground and envelope us all here."

"Does it need to be positive cursed energy?" Maguro asked for confirmation.

Gojo-sensei nodded. A thought came into Maguro's mind and she curiously asked.

"What if I were to use negative cursed energy to make a barrier?"

Gojo-sensei expected she would ask that question and smiled. To do so, he demonstrated for her instead.

He created just a small, cute box of barrier on a growing flower. No sooner after the barrier completed around the flower, it wilted down and rot with dripping toxic liquid.

Maguro stared. "I got it, sensei."

"Excellent," Gojo-sensei smiled.

Maguro walked towards the topmost clearing, overlooking the rest of them in the shades and Gojo-sensei. Clearing her throat a little, she takes a few deep breaths and start to cast.

Upon the first note, everyone readies themselves.

She has begun Casting.

Left hand holds the Earth, right hand holding the sky,
From my palm erupts lightning bolt that flashes in all directions,
Making time quickly turns into years,
As if we've never met in these three thousand lifetimes.

The song that she chooses has a high octave note that starts from a low note and ends in a high note. Upon reaching the high note, everyone could feel her curse manifesting.

And it manifested rapidly as she sings.

A sort of transparent wall started to climb up from the ground and up to the sky. It was slow, but it's working, nonetheless.

Left hand reaping flowers, right hand holding sword,
Ten thousand years of snow falls between my brows,
A tear drop, that is me.

Inumaki listened to her song, amazed that she could sing this good. It was akin to listening opera, with her being capable of controlling and maintaining a high voice note and drop back down to another notch without batting an eye.

Mesmerized, Inumaki watches her as the Curtains slowly climbs up the sky, her hands moving as if to weave the Curtains they're now standing in.

Left hand strikes, right hand strumming chords,
A boat floats on the River of Oblivion,
When troubles can open a red lotus,
Please don't stop, give me a distraction.
Left hand upwards to the moon, right hand on a red thread,
To give you and I our predestined love,
In the moonlight, you and I.

As the barrier started to complete, Gojo-sensei casually flipped a stone towards the nearest barrier wall imbued with a little of his cursed energy. He finds that he couldn't come up with any cursed energy at all, and that the stone bounced off the barrier harmlessly without faltering. "Very good, Tsukigami-kun. Very good." He muttered to himself quietly, watching as the barrier completed around him.

Left hand become feathers, right hand into scales,
Some lifetimes in the clouds, some in the forest,
Willingly following you even as a grain of dust,
Emerging in all mortal realms.
My left hand picks you up, right hand lets you go,
When I clasp my hands, you are back in my heart,
Even if it's the timeframe of an incense,
You are my one and only.


P.S: The song that Maguro sing was actually a chinese song I've watched on a drama called Heavy Sweetness, Ash like Frost.
The name of this song is called Upwards to the Moon by Sa Ding Ding. It just got stuck in my head as a powerful song by how high the singer can go with her voice. Feel free to drop by Youtube to listen to it. :)