Melone71009: "You bless us"

Do I? I think killing characters is more of a curse in my opinion…

That guest lol: "I'm sorry... WHAT!? Did Adam just get the death screen!? O HELL NAH!"

Even if I know Adam probably will somehow come back im still shocked that he frickin died! God damn! I DEFINITELY wasn't expecting this for today!"

I mean, death screens are what video game characters see when they die. I'm very glad you weren't expecting the sudden death; if you were, I'd be a bit worried lol. If he does come back; but you'll see whatever happens in the chapter below!

Runelt99: "Rest in pepperoni. Following."

RIP Adam! Thank you for the follow!

Thats all for the reviews this time; I have another question at the bottom of the chapter; if you want to answer it with a pm or a review, do that!

"I'm going to make this hurt." Gojo announced, cracking his knuckles loudly as he began to stride forward. The spirit smiled maniacally as it began to walk towards its opponent.

As soon as the appropriate range was met, 4 fists were sent flying towards Gojo's figure, each one breaking the sound barrier due to the sheer amount of cursed energy flowing within him. The spirit let out a dark chuckle as it felt its fists sink into something, only to become frozen in fear as Satoru held out a finger gun and charged a ball of crimson energy.

"Red."

The spirit's left leg was blown off at the shin, the new injury forcing the spirit to back off while it recovered. Before it could even make a single step in the opposite direction however, it found itself being pulled back towards the strongest sorcerer. It came into fist range and held its arms up to guard, only for its body to continue to be pulled even further towards its opponent. A loud shriek of pain erupted from its throat as it found its torso collapsing in upon itself as the forces of gravity coalesced into a blue orb hovering in front of Gojo's hand.

It tried to scream again, but Gojo grabbed the creature by the throat and threw it into the air. "You're pitiful." He said coldly, appearing behind the creature and slamming his leg into its back. The force of the attack sent the spirit rocketing into the main temple hall and through the outerwall of the building, sending rubble and dust flying into the air randomly. Gojo clenched a tight fist as he summoned an orb of blue attractive force into existence.

The debris in the area immediately zoomed towards it, swirling and twisting into the middle of the orb as it floated in front of its summoner. Gojo's six eyes alerted him to the presence of the spirit behind him, and with a flick of his fingers, half of its body was evaporated as his 'blue' attack tore through its right side, dissolving after it retreated a further distance away. "Slow, as well." He said calmly, catching the spirit by one of its feet and slamming it into the ground.

Dust and dirt erupted from the ground as the special grade spirit was used as a punching bag by the strongest sorcerer. Gojo watched the spirit cough up blood before flipping its leg around and slamming it onto its stomach on his other side. "I honestly have no idea how you killed him." He said, slamming the curse for a final time before throwing it back into the air.

It took several moments for the curse to regain its senses as it flipped through the air. The wounds on its body slowly began to recede and heal, but that process was paused as soon as Gojo teleported behind it and wrapped one of his hands around the back of its head, his long pale fingers digging deep into the curse's scalp as he tightened his grip. "He was one of my students, after all." As soon as a soft crack escaped the spirit's body, Gojo let go and allowed the creature to fall. Though, those good graces were immediately rectified by a swift kick in the stomach, an action that caused the spirit to tuck into itself midair and throw up blood as it began to fall. "Blue." Gojo muttered, summoning an orb of attractive energy that sucked the spirit back into his range. "They must really be giving any old spirit special grade status nowadays if you received it."

Gojo wrapped one of his hands around the spirit's remaining arm, swinging the bottom half of its body straight into the stable orb of energy he'd created moments prior. A shower of purple blood and gore erupted from the spirit's rapidly decaying body, causing the creature to howl in agony. Gojo stopped the technique before it could deal a truly lethal blow; special grade curses were no joke when it came to their healing prowess, so Gojo was confident he could inflict as much pain as he wanted before allowing it to heal once again.

He slowly floated to the ground, ignoring the constant screeching and howling echoing from the figure clutched within his grasp; a final flick of his arm caused its debilitated body to land on the ground with a quiet thump. "Heal." Gojo ordered. Sure enough, the creature's instincts kicked in as directed, forcing its body to twist and morph in an attempt to return to its normal state.

"So I'm back here again, huh?" Adam floated slowly through the void with a soft frown. His cursed technique floated just out of his reach, words spilling across it like a flood of information. "I'll never get used to dying, no matter how many times it happens." He let out a quiet sigh as he continued to float, waiting for his cursed technique to figure itself out.

This was the…he'd stopped counting after the third, the first was a clear memory, having occurred when he was still in Britain. 'They cut my weapon training short to see if my flames had formed.' Adam recounted mentally, grimacing at the phantom pains dancing across his skin like ants. 'I heard uncle Diante was cast out of the family after that.' The man's flames were strong, but they were nowhere near as hot as his father's. 'I wonder if my first death was why I was locked away instead of killed…' The 'dead zone' as he called it, was oddly calming; probably because emotions might not exist after death. 'Do they think I have infinite revives?'

It felt like hours before his technique sorted itself out, the random jargon eventually settling on two short lines of legible text. Adam twisted his body forward in order to get closer.

"You have died."

It was only times like this, when things were beyond dire, that his technique would address him directly. His name would be present in some skill descriptions or flavor text, but he himself was never addressed with a word like 'you' except for times like this.

Adam's eyes drifted down to the next line slowly, which didn't say much because it felt like everything he did was like wading through water in there. Slowly, his brain caught up to his eyes as they scanned over the second line.

"Would you like to live?"

The big question. He didn't really have to think about it, the answer was obvious, but times like this didn't come often. 'Do I want to live?' Before thoughts of ravaged corpses and creatures so terrifying they'd send a normal person into a coma with a glance could fill his mind, memories of his time at Tokyo Jujutsu High appeared.

He'd originally come to the school by force, being forced to choose between certain death or a difficult life, but slowly came to like the place he'd been thrown to. Fushigoro and Gojo, despite his rocky first impression, had become valuable allies and friends to him; for the first time, he had people he could rely on. Not only that, he'd learned more than he ever could have in his family's library in just 2 months! And that…was all he needed.

'As long as I have a few friends or a family, there'll never be a world where I can say no to living.' Adam affirmed his choice with a silent nod. 'Oh, I can't wait to see Blindfold's face! I bet he's all crying and sobbing now that I'm dead, oh man, this is going to be so good!'

"4 Lives remaining, 228 days remaining until reset."

'5 revives a year, all of them coming back at 12:00 am on January 1st of the next year.' Adam thought. His teacher's soon to be shown expression appeared in his mind once more. Surprise didn't come to the strongest sorcerer easily, but this would truly be something nobody could see coming.

"Revive commencing, please stay calm."

'Almost like a phone assistant.' Adam thought in amusement. He felt a small smile slip onto his face as the world of darkness surrounding him deepened in intensity. 'I wonder how it will handle the hole in my chest. The burns from my uncle recovered quickly, but I'm not sure if they were supposed to scar or not. If it doesn't heal scars…at least I'm not getting shirtless in front of anyone. Oh, but the nurse might ask some questions, and maybe Blindfold, and if they know, then I should probably tell Fushi–' As his mind continued to work in overdrive to handle the barrage of thoughts being formed, the void around him began to crack and splinter.

-New skill formed-

"Damn, Blindfold, you really did a number on em." Gojo's head snapped towards the direction of the voice. Honestly, he thought he was hallucinating; the six eyes would never allow that though, so he could tell that the boy in front of him was the real deal. His expression must have been one of wonder, because the smirk on Adam's face was only one of mischief. "What? You look like you've seen a ghost or something."

"B-W-But how?" Gojo asked. Adam laughed in response before walking up to the healing spirit and resting a hand over its head. "Adam, how?" He said slightly more seriously.

"Psh, come on, Gojo sensei, I thought you were supposed to be the game nerd out of the two of us?" His hand glowed blue for a moment before hundreds of threads exploded from below its skin. Adam returned to his full height with a huff, placing both of his hands on his hips definitely as he turned to his teacher. Inadvertently, this showed off the new arm shaped hole sticking through his shirt. "What kind of video game character can't revive?" The boy huffed quietly while watching the curse dissipate into ash before suddenly finding himself enveloped in a hug. "What? Did you think I'd actually die?"

"Of course not." Gojo whispered, "you're one of my students, after all." Despite his words, his grip tightened further, like he'd never want to let go.

"You're going to crush me, you ass!" Adam tapped on his mentor's back helplessly, something that only caused the man's grip to tighten. "Alright, now you've got to be messing with me!" His teacher's chuckle only cemented his theory as fact. His hug transitioned into a grab as the man spun him around loosely, like a child playing with their favorite toy.

"Your cursed technique is so cool!" He exclaimed, swinging the boy for several more revolutions before placing him back on the ground. "So how many times?"

Adam laughed and held out his hand, all 5 fingers sticking out to their maximum length. "5 times a year!" The boy chirped, before suddenly becoming embarrassed as he turned away. "Sorry for not telling you earlier though."

"Is it a skill?" Adam shook his head. "Then how did you know about it? Is there an owner's manual for your cursed technique I don't know about?" The realization hit him like a ton of bricks only a few seconds later. "When?" He ordered.

"When what?" Adam said dumbly, beginning to walk over to his spear. "Oh! That counted towards my level! I guess I need to apologize to Fushigoro for lying to him, haha." He reached down and snatched his weapon off of the ground before turning towards his bag and beginning to walk towards that.

Gojo however, stood on the edge of the stone garden with a frown. "Adam, don't dodge the question." He said sternly.

"What's in the past is in the past, I have a new family now; new priorities too." Adam replied evasively. "I can't wait until I have an inventory for these things." With his golf bag slung over his back, Adam began to walk towards the entrance of the temple; only to find his body being pulled backwards.

"Yeah, no." Gojo scoffed. "So how many times have you died?"

"Died? Me? Never." Adam attempted to turn away, only to be pulled back in by his teacher. "Hey man, I don't have any change."

"Adam."

"Look, I don't know. It's been a few." His evasive answer only caused Gojo's frown to deepen. "It's behind me now, so what does it matter?" His teacher finally allowed him to move, going so far as to walk in stride with him as they began to walk to the main entrance.

"I'm going to have Shoko do a checkup on you." Gojo announced.

"That makes sense, I did get hit pretty hard. If it happens again though, I'm prepared!" Adam looked up at his mentor expectantly, waiting for the obvious question of 'how?' to come; only to receive nothing. "You and nurse Ieri are super bad teachers in some ways."

"Oh?" Gojo inquired. "I'm assuming this is your attempt at a change in topic."

"My, how inquisitive." Adam replied in mock surprise. "Reversed cursed technique, it's described in textbooks as multiplying cursed energy together in order to create a positive effect." The boy explained; they were quickly reaching the gate, and by extension the edge of the veil. "That part is correct, at least, but the way people describe it isn't. Multiplying cursed energy isn't enough, the way you do it also matters." His eyes drifted towards Gojo's covered ones. "You probably do all of this stuff instinctively, so you can't teach it, the nurse is in the same boat. Both of you are naturally attuned towards learning reversed cursed technique, unlike me."

"So you're saying you can perform it?" Gojo interrupted. Adam nodded, and used Caliburn to slash open his hand without hesitation.

"If I was to just multiply cursed energy like how people say you should." A blue hue covered his hand before it immediately doubled in intensity. "It just gets stronger. It's like firing a second bullet from your gun to push the first one further into a wall." Blood dripped openly down his palm before he closed his eyes and focused. "To use reversed cursed technique though, you need to do something different." The aura surrounding his hand disappeared, and the skin of his palm fizzled together and fused. "Instead of firing a second bullet, you have to double the strength of the first one before you fire." Adam showed off his hand with a wide grin, waving it towards his mentor to show off its healed skin. "Pretty nifty, right?"

Gojo's face morphed into one with an equally wide grin. "Yeah!" His arm raised with an open palm, and the mentor and student duo slapped their hands against each other. "But can you use it on someone else?"

"I should be able to, most skills work outside of how you usually think they would." He was clearly referring to his cursed tendril, which was an impossible thing for anyone to replicate.

Cursed energy isn't tangible, always existing in a gaseous state that vaguely flows like water; with the exception of barriers, of course, but they only act when restrictions are placed upon them. Adam's skills go directly against that by forcing cursed energy to become solid and stringy enough for him to swing from and cling onto, in cursed tendrils case. If Gojo had a theory, it would be one thing; 'Status increase' was something far beyond normal cursed techniques, relying only on the user's own beliefs and delusions. He'd said cursed energy could become a weapon like a spear in order to not shoot down his newest student's ideas, but that lie ended up becoming reality when his first skill was created.

"You're right." Gojo agreed, bringing his focus out from the depths of his memory. If he played his cards right, and fed his student the right information, it was completely possible that he could surpass both Okkotsu Yuta and Ieri Shoko in reversed cursed technique proficiency. "Well, let's not keep Ijichi waiting." Gojo strode forward and knocked twice on the veil, the signal for their supervising manager to open it.

The milky looking barrier quickly dissolved into the air at Ijichi's command, allowing both student and teacher to see the anxious look on his face. It only took a few moments for the man's face to morph half a dozen times; first to relief, then to shock, then to horror, then to worry again before finally stopping on resignation.

"It's a style choice, don't worry." Adam joked, watching the manager's eyes linger on what was once a fist sized hole in his torso. The boy shivered slightly as a sudden gust of wind blew over his body, directly hitting the now uncovered spot on his chest. "A little chilly, though." Gojo snorted before beginning to walk towards Ijichi's car, giving the man some privacy to say what he wanted.

Adam watched the man slightly bow in apology before returning to his full height. "I'm sorry, Adam."

"Huh? Why?" The boy asked in response.

"I let my emotions get in the way of work and tried to stop you from completing your duties. Not only that, I acted unprofessionally when things didn't go my way, for that, I'm also sorry." Ijichi bowed once again, but Adam waved him off with a laugh.

"Nah, I don't care about any of that." Adam strode forward and patted the man on the shoulder as he walked by. "I should be thanking you, really; I don't think it's too common in this line of work to have someone care enough to stop you." He continued his trek to the manager's care while the man stood there silently. Adam barely heard a loud breath enter the man's lungs before he was joined on his walk across the stone.

Silence stretched on between them for several moments as they approached the vehicle before it was interrupted by Adam asking a question. "So how do you keep your car so clean?"

Ijichi blinked in surprise several times before beginning to laugh. "Lots and lots of hard work."

"What do you need for your next level?" As they closed in on the school's campus, Gojo shifted his questions away from the usual ones and more towards their shared profession.

Adam hummed in thought, looking over his status screen idly. "Meh, nothing difficult. Give me an hour or two and I'll probably be level 34."

"Really? How can you be so sure?" Ijichi asked.

"Every 5 or so levels there is a harder achievement to complete, the ones between them are pretty easy. It's usually stuff like studying more about cursed energy or something else to improve myself." Adam explained, activating his visual mode and flipping the screen around for his teacher to see.

Contrary to what Adam expected, Gojo clicked on his new skill twice to see the requirements. "50 health and 50 cursed energy…I guess you're lucky you invested those points."

"Yeah, yeah, thank you." Adam drawled. Gojo accepted the gratitude with a quiet laugh before refocusing his attention on what the boy had originally wanted to show him.

"Huh, that is simple." Gojo read over the character sheet a few more times before turning his attention back towards the road. "In case you want to know, Ijichi, he needs to raise one of his skills to level 10."

"I have 2 at level 7 right now, so it won't be hard." Adam supplied. "Though I'm not sure which one to improve; I don't really need cursed stitching anymore, but it's also way harder to level up black flash than any other skill."

"Just level up what's easiest so you can get the points." Gojo shrugged.

"Maybe I should test out how fast reversed cursed technique levels." Completely ignoring his mentor's words, Adam glanced over at the pair of weapons sitting in his golf bag next to him.

"Yeah, no, don't do that." Gojo replied immediately. "I think you should use whatever doesn't cause you harm and is easy to improve."

"Then I only have one thing I can choose." Adam held out one of his hands, his palm facing towards the roof of the vehicle. "I used this earlier, if you saw." A small bead of threads curled in on each other above his skin, wrapping around until they formed a tight ball the size of a prayer bead. "Since I knew I was going to come back, I implanted that spirit's head and detonated it when I was within range." Suddenly, dozens of tiny spikes exploded from the ball's form, the ones on the bottom barely grazing Adam's skin before receding back into the technique.

"Impressive." Gojo commented. "So it's a bit like a spike trap, right? A ball you can place somewhere and remotely detonate."

"Yeah, but its range is super small." Adam sighed, allowing the technique to fizzle out before remaking it again. "Now I just need to do this 1,000 more times or whatever and I can level up."

"Are you not able to make more than one at a time?" Ijichi asked.

"Maybe at a higher level, but for now I can only make 1." Adam explained while forming another ball in his hand. Once the needles erupted from its surface, the technique dissolved and Adam repeated the cycle.

"Aren't you able to do it without the skill?" Adam shook his head in response to the driver's second question.

"No, to perform most of the things I do, I need a skill for them. My basic cursed energy manipulation skill covers my reinforcement and tracking abilities, while my attacks and utility skills all come under their own names. It keeps things organized, but it also means my skill list will fill up really quickly if I do things that are really far out there. Like the thing in my hand." He raised the appendage slightly to show it off. "In actuality, this is just me combining hundreds of smaller threads together before making them rapidly expand outward at certain points, therefore you would think it would fall under the cursed tendril skill, correct? It doesn't; since it deviates too far from my original vision, it comes under its own skill name, the same goes with cursed stitching."

"So basically, all of your normal things that a sorcerer would use like reinforcements for their muscles and such fall under cursed energy manipulation, but things unique to you are made into their own skills?" Ijichi asked.

"Right, but some of my skills can be derived from other skills, like cursed stitching being a descendant of the cursed tendril skill." Adam confirmed.

"You said 'skill' quite a bit there, is that your word of the day?" Gojo's question was met with a quiet huff from Adam and a confused glance via Ijichi. "Tough crowd." He murmured after seeing their reaction.

"Onto another topic, are we going to be sharing everything that happened today, Blindfold?" Adam looked towards his mentor patiently. The man hummed in thought for a few moments before shaking his head.

"No, we'll keep this ruse up for a while longer while I teach you; don't go telling Megumi about this either." The last part was said more seriously than the rest, something that confused his student.

"Why? I wasn't planning to, but you make it seem like him finding out would be a calamity." Gojo narrowed his eyes from under his blindfold. "What's that look for?" His student asked.

"You kept it from me to see my reaction, so it's only fair that he gets to have the surprise sprung on him. Not that I'm hoping it'll happen or anything, but you get the point." Adam rolled his eyes with an amused huff.

"So…when am I going to get the meaning behind all of these secretive words?" Ijichi asked. They were just entering the underground route that would lead to the campus main, giving the group around 10 minutes until they arrived.

Adam looked to his teacher for permission, but the man merely shrugged in response. "If I tell you, you have to promise me you won't panic." Adam warned, earning an anxious chuckle from the driver in front of him.

"Sure, I'll keep an open mind." Ijichi promised, tightening his grip around the steering wheel in anticipation. "But if you're making me promise something like this, it's gotta be bad, right?" Adam laughed off his worries with a lazy wave.

"Nah, nothing too bad. If you look at it from a certain angle, it can even be considered a good thing!" The boy replied. Ijichi sighed quietly before nodding to show he was ready. "So basically; I died."

Adam almost flew through the seat in front of him as Ijichi hit the brakes on the vehicle. "You what!?" Ijichi exclaimed. Adam groaned in pain while massaging the new injury he'd received from the back of Ijichi's chair.

"I told you not to panic!" The boy yelled back.

"How the hell am I not supposed to panic when you just admitted to dying?!"

"You were just talking about being professional not 20 minutes ago! What the hell is this?!"

"Am I not allowed to be worried when a child is kil–"

"Now, now, ladies." Gojo said mockingly. "Let's take turns talking in a quiet, calm man–"

"Oh, fuck off with that." Adam scoffed. His nose was red and bleeding and his eyes were completely concentrated on the chair in front of him. "Anyway, I can revive myself. Video game character stuff." Adam explained annoyedly. "Keep it out of your report, or I'll sell your car to a depot."

Ijichi's head landed on the steering wheel with a loud sigh. "Just my life…" He bemoaned. "Fine, I'll leave it out of the report."

"Thank you. Now can you please continue driving? I want to eat dinner early so I can go to sleep." With his nose completely healed and the blood wiped away, Adam leaned back into his seat and closed his eyes. 'Maybe…I'll take a short nap now…'

"So when are you going to make those caramels again?"

'Or not.'

Reviews are greatly appreciated!

Question for this week, if there was a ship you'd like to see, what would it be? It doesn't have to include Adam btw, I just want your thoughts!

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