Curse of Ignorance Ch 12

Looking back, I waved to my dad, who had escorted me back to school, before passing through the front gate, dragging my luggage behind me. I wove between the gaps created by the other students just like me, who were coming back after summer break had ended. In just a couple minutes I had navigated my way to the student dorm building. I walked through the halls back to my room and opened the door.

Looking at the bare room in front of me, I couldn't help but sigh. Traveling back to school was a bit of a slog already, but now I had to organize my stuff and make this place livable. Well, there was no better time to do it than now, so I got started.

As I picked through my suitcase of belongings, I couldn't help but feel nostalgic for the summer break that has just ended, as was mandatory for all children my age. After all the initial excitement, I had settled into a comfortable rhythm, which balanced both the supernatural and mundane aspects of my life well. I got to do fun, normal activities like go to the beach and see some fireworks go off, but I also trained my capabilities as a sorcerer.

As far as sorcery goes, I'm in good shape, if I do say so myself. Physically, I'm the best that I've ever been. In terms of hand signs and chanting, I've gained the confidence and smooth execution that comes from lots of repetition. My cursed energy control has made leaps and bounds, due in good part to that unexpected improvement in my cursed energy sensing. And as for my only currently viable combat technique, cursed energy reinforcement, I've spent enough time under its effects now that there is no awkwardness or clumsiness in my movements. All in all, I can say that I've become a more potent combatant than I was when summer vacation started.

I've also made pretty good progress on my side project, figuring out shikigami summoning. I've followed through on my plans to visit the library for historical records of shikigami and the rituals surrounding them and used those as the basis for my experimentation. With lots of trial and error, I can pretty confidently say that I am more than halfway to the point of being able to use shikigami in battle. That's because I've figured out the hard part, the creation ritual. I only have to figure out the taming ritual, which should be simple, now that I have access to actual instructions for shikigami and don't have to rely solely on trial and error.

Of course, since I didn't figure out the taming ritual over the summer, that means that all the shikigami that I've created up until this point have rebelled, forcing me to kill them. This added to my combat experience a bit, though it wasn't much, since the shikigami were pretty weak. This was probably since their bodies were just made of paper. They were weaker than that cursed spirit I fought, even, which was already weaker than grade four. Basically, they were more so annoying to catch than dangerous to fight.

I put the last of my clothes into their designated spot, which cut my reflection short. Now that I was done, all I had left to do was get some dinner in me and get an early rest. The first school day of the semester was tomorrow, after all.

I made it to the classroom a good ten minutes before class was supposed to start, which made me among the first people there. Intellectually, I knew that I didn't need to be this early, seeing as I lived a short walk away from the classrooms, but being early to things was a habit ingrained in me from my past life.

As I walked through the doorway, I noticed that the classroom's layout was different from usual. Where usually the desks are oriented so that they are separated into little groups in order to better take advantage of Juba-sensei's clone-based teaching, the current classroom was configured in orderly rows and columns, all facing forwards at the large blackboard.

A Juba-sensei clone noticed me coming in and his expression perked up, as if he was expecting me. He stood up and starting walking towards me.

"Gosho, just the person I was looking for!", he exclaimed. "As you can see, today's going to be a bit of a special lesson. It's something that I'm going to need your help with."

I was a bit taken aback by the sudden proposition. "What do you need me to help with?"

"I just need you to stand up front and answer the questions that either myself or your fellow students will ask you", he replied.

That didn't sound too bad…. I just wasn't too sure as to why he was singling me out of all people for this. Due to my status as a reincarnator, I'm ahead of all of my classmates when it comes to normal academic subjects like math and science. Maybe it was because of that? Although something about the situation didn't quite fit, it was the best explanation I could come up with. If it was just helping to teach normal subjects to children, I thought it was manageable. "Okay," I agreed.

"Good," came the reply. With my cooperation secured, the Juba-sensei clone turned and moved back to sit at his original spot.

I picked a random table near the front to sit at, dumping my bag next to it. For the next couple of minutes, I just watched as students trickled into the classroom, chatting with each other and generally filling the room with noise.

Soon enough, the time had come. A Juba-sensei clone by the front clapped their hands, getting everyone's attention and cutting off the ongoing conversations between friends that were catching up with each other.

"Hello, everyone. Welcome back to all of you who left for the summer. As you can see, we're starting this semester off with a special lesson, one that is applicable to all of you. And your peer Gosho Kei is going to help with this lesson."

At this clear cue, I stood up and walked to a spot beside Juba-sensei. As I turned to face the other students, I could hear whispers questioning who I was and why I was capable of helping with a lesson.

Juba-sensei continued speaking. "Gosho here was one of the students that went back home for the summer. During his time there, he encountered a curse. Today, we're going to analyze his experiences and see if we can't distill some lessons for you all to make use of in the future."

At this news, the whispers intensified. They were clearly shocked at this news. I was a bit shocked too, since I didn't consider that this would be the topic of the lesson. I genuinely thought that I was going to be helping with a normal subject, not a lesson in fighting curses. This was mostly because I didn't really consider myself to be "advanced" enough to serve as a helper for this kind of lesson.

Still, while I was caught off guard, this wasn't necessarily a bad situation. Throughout the summer, I had analyzed my own fight many times, trying to pick apart what I did right and wrong and applying that to my training. However, this was the analysis of an amateur, so I'm sure that there are going to be aspects that I missed, which Juba-sensei will be able to point out. This was surely going to be a valuable learning experience. The only downside was that I was going to have to speaking in front of all these people.

"First, please recount your experiences in your own words."

At this prompting, I started speaking. I talked about opening the door and that moment of seeing the curse for the first time. I talked about the context, why I felt like I needed to fight. I talked about my thought processes and what I was thinking about at the time, or at least, what I remember all this time later. And finally, I talked about the fight, giving a play-by-play on both mine and the curse's moves. I even physically acted out some of it when I found it hard to put into words. The classroom was silent the entire time.

"Some time after that, some other stuff happened in order to make sure that my fight didn't lead to the existence of Jujutsu Society getting leaked, but that's about it." I ended my story there.

Juba-sensei took over. "Okay class, let's start from the beginning. Imagine that you are in Gosho's situation. You open the door and you see a curse on your neighbor's shoulder. What would you do in that position? Think about it for a minute, then you'll share your answer with the class."

The minute passed by quickly. "Alright, time's up! Who wants to go first?"

No one volunteered. "If no one wants to go, I'll pick someone myself," Juba-sensei warned. "Shibahara, what would you do?"

A girl with short hair sitting near the back responded. "Uh, hit it with my innate curse technique?"

"No, that's worse than attacking the curse physically like Gosho did." Juba-sensei rejected the response immediately. "You have to remember that the flames that your curse technique creates are completely normal. It is more accurate to say that your technique isn't fire, it's starting fires. This means that the neighbor would have seen you spontaneously create fire from nothing. In terms of suspicion generated, blatant supernatural abilities are worse than acting a little strange."

Juba-sensei immediately picked someone else. "Katsunoi, what would you have done in that situation?"

A boy sitting near the middle sat up straighter after having his name mentioned. "I would do nothing initially, but call for help afterwards."

"Good answer." Juba-sensei approved. "Gosho, why didn't you do this at the time?"

Everyone's gazes turned to me. They felt like they were boring holes into my body with their intensity. Still, I tried to answer in a calm manner. "I did consider this, but at the time, I didn't think that I had a method to ask for help. It wasn't until a few days later that I remembered that I had the contact information of the person who brought me to this school in the first place."

Juba-sensei sighed. "Well, it's not like I can put too much blame on you for that. In normal missions, there will be an auxiliary manager overseeing you, so the question of who to contact has a clear answer, but this was not a normal mission. To make things worse, you all are young, without the experience and connections from previous missions to call on whenever you encounter a situation that you aren't sure you can deal with."

The lesson continued like that, with Juba-sensei going over the various scenarios involved with that situation, asking all of us what our responses would be, and poking holes in our answers. The "ideal response" to each situation that Juba-sensei revealed were almost always enlightening, either because the answer was unexpected or because there was a nuance to the thought process behind this answer that I did not anticipate. This lesson in particular showed all of us that we have a long way to go as sorcerers.

School had just finished for the day, and I walked in the direction of the dining hall, like many others. I was intending on getting some food in me before getting my own personal training in, but something interrupted my plans before they could even get started. An arm slung itself around my neck from out of nowhere, stopping me right in my tracks. I did not stop out of shock at the sudden sensation of an arm around my neck, no. It was just like all of my forward momentum was just used up without actually moving me anywhere. This combined with the total lack of any sensation indicating that something was touching my neck, even though I could clearly see it, can only lead to one conclusion. The owner of this arm is Gojo Satoru!

Sure enough, when my gaze followed the arm that was currently stopping me from moving, it met his distinctive electric blue eyes. As our eyes met, he smirked. "Yo, I heard you fought a curse, and wanted to confirm it right from the source."

Was this really such a big deal that Gojo Satoru had to go out of his way to confirm it? Sure, Juba-sensei and everyone else in my class's reactions made it seem like I was at the very least among the first in my class to fight curses, but Gojo's in a higher year than me. Surely by that point, fighting curses isn't that unusual. That's not even mentioning Gojo himself, who has many rumors circulating round him. According to those rumors, Gojo is a prodigy at the point where he's able to take on Grade 1 curses by himself. If he's at that level, then surely he's been desensitized to the idea of fighting curses at this age.

No, I realized, it's not the fact that some kid fought a curse that's important, it's the fact that I fought the curse that's important. I thought that Gojo Satoru's interest in me had totally died out after I spent months doing nothing interesting after telling him the future. But that curiosity must have lingered in the back of his mind, until this incident reignited it!

While I was caught up in my own head connecting the dots, Gojo continued speaking. "They were saying that the curse was Grade 2. That's quite impressive. I wonder what method you used to get so strong so quickly."

Grade 2? Where did he hear that fake news from? I needed to dissuade him of this notion, or else he might really think that I'm someone worth sticking close to. "Well, you know how kids are. They exaggerate in order to make their story sound better. It was actually not even Grade 4 in strength."

The look in Gojo's eyes sharpened. "How interesting that you speak as if you aren't a kid yourself. Is it maybe because you were an adult before you time traveled back to the current time period?"

The topic of the conversation took an abrupt turn into dangerous territory. I had to quickly deflect. I forced myself to laugh. "Hahaha! That's such a funny joke! Thinking that I'm a time traveller!"

Gojo was completely undeterred. "So if you're not a time traveller, do you have future sight?"

Seeing that I couldn't make Gojo let this topic go through subtle means, I decided to be a bit more blunt. "What if I don't want to tell you? Will you just cling onto me forever?"

Gojo's tone turned petulant. "Yes! Don't underestimate me or else you'll have me sticking to you until the day you die!"

The way he was saying it, I got the impression that his patience was going to last longer than mine if we got into this sort of stalemate. I had plans for how I was going to spend the rest of my day, after all, and Gojo seemingly didn't.

This forced me to reevaluate whether I should tell him about my status as a reincarnator or not. To be honest, I mostly just kept it as a secret out of habit. The only people I was really close to were my parents. However, I didn't tell them because I thought it would complicate our relationship too much. So, I told no one.

But what's the harm if I tell Gojo? Based on my interactions with him so far, he doesn't seem like the type of person that would react badly. My only real fear is that he tells other people and they decide that it's a good idea to kidnap and experiment on me in order to discover the secrets to reincarnation. That's easily solved using a binding vow, though.

Having taken my train of thought this far, I sighed. "Fine, I believe that you are more stubborn than I am. I'll tell you."

Gojo perked up. "Oh! Was I right, is it time travel? Or is it future sight? Or maybe it's—"

I held up my hand, stopping him in his tracks. "But! I have some conditions. First, I want a binding vow from you that once I tell you, you won't tell anyone else unless I allow it. Second, I don't think it's fair for you to get this information basically for free. Give me something in exchange. I'm interested in getting resources on hand signs, chanting, or shikigami rituals."

Upon the presentation of these conditions, Gojo's expression turned serious. He was probably considering whether the binding vow was worth it. Or maybe he was thinking about what resources he was willing to give up?

A moment passed before he seemingly came to a conclusion. "I could probably get you some books on the rarer side that wouldn't be found in the school library, or I could bring you back home to look at some stuff exclusive to our friends and family, it's your choice. If you take the second option, you'll have to take a binding vow to not teach the stuff you learned to anyone without our permission. You're not going to be allowed to bring any books from our private collection to school either, so you'll probably have to make multiple visits to learn properly. So, which one do you want?"

He agreed, but immediately presented me with a dilemma. Faced with this choice, I was forced to consider the pros and cons. The first choice gets me some rare information, but it seems like Gojo will be choosing what sort of books I would get in specific. There might be a chance that what I get isn't all that helpful, since "rare" isn't equivalent to "useful". The second choice gets me more control over what I get and pretty much guarantees quality, seeing as it's part of a private collection that requires that I take binding vows in order to not share what I learn. Gojo pretty much outlined the downsides of this particular choice for me already. So, which should I pick?

"I'll go with the second choice."

Ultimately, I didn't think that the downsides of the second choice were that bad. I couldn't really envision a scenario in which I would really need to teach another person my methods. Maybe if I end up becoming a teacher like Juba-sensei, but even then, I would be teaching general material, so there would be no need to teach the stuff I will be learning from Gojo. Taking multiple trips to Gojo's house might be a little inconvenient, but it's a small price to pay for the benefit I'm getting.

With this confirmation, Gojo smiled. "Alright, I'll need to get permission to bring you home, which should take a few days. Once I've got permission, I'll find you, bring you back, and then you can tell me what you are. Does that sound good?"

That sounded reasonable to me, so I nodded in affirmation.

With that Gojo detached from me, moving towards an unknown destination. As for me, I continued towards my original destination before this whole encounter with Gojo Satoru, the dining hall.

It was a new day. It was a Wednesday, which is the day of the week where Juba-sensei and I do our weekly test for my innate curse technique. I had high hopes for this one, since this is the first session that we will be having since summer break. Given all that time, surely my innate curse technique would have completed the engraving process, right?

Well, Juba-sensei and I were here in our usual corner of the training field in order to find out. By this point, I've gone through this process so much that I barely need Juba-sensei's supervision. He just gives me the go-ahead and watches over me as I quickly run through the process of getting cursed energy up to my brain, circulating it with as loose of a grip on it as possible, and observing my own state and the state of my cursed energy. I give it a minute or so before I come to the conclusion that no new behavior has popped up since the beginning of summer break, and relay this conclusion to Juba-sensei.

Instead of directing me to the training group that I should move on to, he sighed. "Gosho." I instantly knew that Juba-sensei was going to pull me into a serious conversation from his tone. "I think it's time that we start considering the possibility that you may not have an innate curse technique."

Those words were… not quite shocking, since it has been something that I've been considering before, but it was still upsetting. Innate curse techniques are supposed to be a jujutsu sorcerer's specialty, the thing that makes them stand out from all the rest. To consider that maybe, I won't have anything special about me, that I would be forced to rely on things that anyone could do? It was definitely upsetting to think about.

Juba-sensei continued. "It's been months since you first started using cursed energy. We are way past the average time it takes for an innate cursed technique to present itself. While it's still possible that the engraving process just hasn't finished yet, it's unlikely, and keeps getting unlikelier as time passes. I don't want you to hold on to false hope."

I nodded at that, since that was pretty much the same train of thought that I had. To my surprise though, Juba-sensei had even more to say.

"In light of this, I think that you should reconsider your future as a jujutsu sorcerer. The innate curse technique makes up the majority of a jujutsu sorcerer's skillset. While it is possible to exorcize curses using other techniques to make up for this deficiency, it is like fighting with both hands tied behind your back. It's very risky. Even if we try to assign sorcerers to missions of the appropriate grade, there are times where we don't have all the information, leading to misgradings. Not having an innate curse technique to fall back on makes it hard to adapt to those kinds of situations."

While I kind of expected for Juba-sensei to suggest that I had no innate curse technique, him asking me to reconsider being a jujutsu sorcerer completely blindsided me. Even when I had that doubt about whether I had an innate curse technique in the back of my mind, I never considered the possibility that it would disqualify me from being a jujutsu sorcerer. No, "disqualify" isn't quite right. Juba-sensei himself said that it is possible to make up for the lack of an innate curse technique using techniques that are capable of being performed by anyone. The path to being a jujutsu sorcerer is still open. It's just that other paths have opened up due to missing an innate curse technique.

I thought that I would be a jujutsu sorcerer no matter what, innate curse technique or not. I didn't think there was much of a choice, considering the fact that the war between jujutsu sorcerers and curses is an all-hands-on-deck kind of situation. I thought that I would just have to work around the handicap as best as I could. Now Juba-sensei's telling me that there's a way out of having to risk my life? I was intrigued, to say the least. Juba-sensei must have read that interest from my expression, as he resumed speaking.

"Why don't you pursue the path of an auxiliary manager? They are the ones that handle things like briefing jujutsu sorcerers on their missions, transportation, and erecting a Curtain so the exorcism can proceed smoothly. They may not be as flashy as a jujutsu sorcerer, but they are just as important, if not even more so. They are the ones that enable jujutsu sorcerers to exorcize curses at their best. Judging by how far ahead in most academic subjects you are, I think that you will do well as an auxiliary manager. You might end up being the best in the field, even."

Juba-sensei seemed to be really trying to hype up this "auxiliary manager" thing, which instinctively made me feel like it wasn't as glamorous as he made it out to be. What were the drawbacks that he wasn't telling me about? When he saw that I wasn't exactly jumping all over the opportunity, he decided to end the conversation there.

"Well, you don't have to make the decision right now. Whether you become an auxiliary manager or a jujutsu sorcerer, they both require the same fundamental skills that I'm teaching right now. You can tell me what conclusion you come to later. For now, go over to that group over there." He pointed with a finger in order to indicate which group, exactly, he was referring to. "I want to see if you kept up your training over the summer break."