Curse of Ignorance Ch 17

During the lunchtime of the next day, the atmosphere around the dining hall table was a little weird. Again. It was the same thing as last time, furtive whispers to each other, quick glances at me when they didn't think that I was looking. Unlike last time, though, I did not make any moves to escape from this position. I just continued to eat, keeping my gaze locked onto my food with something that one could almost call determination.

The reason for this change in behavior was that yesterday's attack still loomed large in my mind. The impact of almost dying was a hard thing to shrug off, after all. That cocktail of fear, relief, and shock still lingered, poisoning my brain with unwanted emotions. I had been able to muster enough focus in the Gojo clan's library despite that, but that was more like me postponing the time I would need to process and accept everything, rather than eliminating that need entirely.

Now that I wasn't under pressure to make the most of my time at the Gojo estate, the feelings had come back with a vengeance, almost like they were exacting interest for the time that I had drowned it out with study and sleep. In the face of these overwhelming emotions, the slight discomfort of being in a somewhat awkward situation was nothing.

If I was in a better state of mind, I might have laughed. It turns out that a great cure for social anxiety is a brush with death. Dr. Kei recommends it for all children ages 5 and up. Hahaha! What a joke! How humorous! Suggesting that children get put in a position where they almost die!

The joke wasn't funny at the current moment, however. It was just a grim reminder.

Mio stood up from her seat and sidled up to me, before tapping me on the shoulder. Her expression told me that she wanted to ask me something.

The dots connected.

Of course. This is almost exactly the same situation as yesterday, where they were anxious to ask me for information. It didn't take much to conclude that they wanted to ask me for information again today. And yet, I didn't arrive at that conclusion until it was staring me in the face.

I took it as proof that I was really not in my best condition. There wasn't really anything I could do about it, though.

I sighed. "What do you guys want to know?"

Mio gave me a bright smile, which somehow had the paradoxical effect of making me more exhausted. "Sorry to bother you when you seem to be so tired, but my friends and I had another question."

I nodded, signalling her to go on.

"Well, my friend has a brother who works at the Jujutsu Headquarters. She told me that her brother told her that a Gojo clan member arrived last night. He came to report that Gojo Satoru had been attacked by a curse user and that the curse user had been killed in self-defense. Even if it's allowed, you still have to go through all the procedures to justify it, you know? Anyway, that's not the important part. The important part is that apparently the curse user was related to the one that attacked at school!"

Ah. So it was about that. I honestly didn't want to talk about it, for all the reasons stated before. I opened my mouth to tell her and everyone else that this topic was off limits, at least for now. However, before I could actually do so, I was cut off. Mio had spotted the recognition on my face and pounced on it.

"Oh! It looks like you knew about it too! Who told you? It was Gojo, right? You're close to Gojo, aren't you? He must have told you about it!"

The conversation was moving too fast for me. I didn't even say anything, and she was already answering her own questions. It was more like I was a prop in this talk than an actual conversation partner.

Frustrated at not being given a chance to speak and not wanting to continue down this line of conversation, I shoveled the rest of my food into my mouth and stood up from my spot. I was going to leave the situation entirely.

Of course, the group of five was not going to let me go so easily. They formed a line in front of me, blocking my path to the exit.

"Woah woah woah! Isn't it kind of rude to just up and try to leave like that? Mio was having a conversation with you, you know!" Hayato spoke out.

It was funny how he said that like he thought it would magically change my mind. Whether or not I looked rude was not even part of the equation. "There's no conversation to be had. I'm not telling you guys anything."

Sayaka cried out. "Please! In that attack, Touya was hurt!" The boy that normally had a hot temper looked away in what seemed to be embarrassment. "It would mean a lot to him—no, it would mean a lot to all of us—if we knew for a fact that something like that can't happen again."

The attempt to garner my sympathy failed due to the simple fact that my emotional bandwidth was already completely occupied. "I said no."

Mio jumped back in. "Not even if we pay like last time? Since it's important, we're willing to pay a lot. All five of us."

"No, not even then. Then, if you'll excuse me."

I pushed past the wall of bodies and escaped to the outside, in a worse mood than when I started.

A few weeks later

I was back at the Gojo estate library, continuing from where I left off in the book on barriers. In my time away, I had practiced my blurring barrier to the point that I was satisfied with it. The world on the other side of the plane was consistently blurry. All the previous mistakes in the formation of the barrier that were causing some spots to suddenly become clear have been fixed. Additionally, I could cast it at that level of quality reliably, without even having to consult the book.

So, I thought that it was about time to move on to the next step. This next step would not be too large of a leap. It was turning the two-dimensional plane that blurs everything on the other side into a three-dimensional cube that blurs everything on the other side.

Well, technically, the plane was already three-dimensional, since it's not an actual plane. To be more precise, this progression is more about taking advantage of the additional surface area that we open up by increasing the volume that the barrier encloses.

With this new surface area, we can increase the efficiency of cursed energy. Of course, this comes with the tradeoff of being more complicated and harder to memorize. Luckily, due to it being an extension of the ideas behind the blurring barrier plane, many details were the same.

And so, when I cast the barrier, it wasn't a complete disaster. All faces of the cubic barrier properly blurred the world. Observing each face for a while, they didn't have any areas which flickered between blurry and clear either. That was something I was worried about, so having bypassed that issue entirely was a relief.

In terms of cursed energy efficiency, though, the barrier was a failure. It made sense, since intuitively, more faces meant more cursed energy drain. However, the grooves, ridges, and other details built into the other faces were supposed to offset the cost of their own existence and then some. It was supposed to use less energy than the plane does.

Gojo Yuuto, sitting at a table not too far away, looked up from his book. Or at least, I think he did. He was on the other side of the blurring barrier, so I could only see the smudge of color representing his head move upwards. "Looks good," he commented, before turning his attention back to his book.

I wasn't really sure why he was here. Sure, he seemed to be just reading a book. But the library was big. He could have chosen to sit anywhere else where he wouldn't be distracted from his reading by my barrier experiments. He deliberately choose to sit close by. So I wasn't really believing that. However, he hasn't really done anything yet. He has only made some small comments to me and read his book so far, which makes my tension feel silly. But then I remember that he's an interrogator for the Gojo clan, a very intimidating job title, and my suspicions feel warranted again. In short, I was conflicted about Yuuto's presence.

From within the barrier, Gojo Satoru, who was sitting at the same table that I was, let his gaze roam over the barrier, his special eyes allowing him to see much more than just the visible effects. "You used way more energy than you should've." He said this with a kind of smug smirk on his face, a look that screamed "I am superior to you because I can do something you can't."

Unlike with Yuuto, there was no confusion as to why this Gojo was here. It was a behavior that he exhibited before, when he wanted me to create a shikigami for him, and it was a behavior he is exhibiting now. He was treating my attempts at jujutsu like entertainment. While I didn't know the exact reason why, I suspected that it stemmed from his innate talent. When you succeed at everything on the first try, it must be amusing to him to see someone fail, something that he can't even conceive of doing himself.

I started the process of looking back and forth between the book and the barrier, checking for discrepancies. As I did so, I replied to Gojo's criticism. "Oh, come on! It worked! That's good for a first try. I would like to see you do any better."

Gojo responded to my challenge with action rather than words. With a wave of his hand, a barrier split the space between us, blurring everything into colorful smudges. The barrier he had created intersected with mine, so I was forced into dismissing it in order to confirm that it was actually the cubic barrier, not the plane. It was.

The next test was when I stuck my hand through the barrier in order to get a sense for the amounts of cursed energy powering it. The parts that were touching the barrier didn't feel that heavy, meaning that there wasn't much cursed energy saturating them. Comparing it with the amount of cursed energy to cast my own barrier, which was still fresh in my mind, Gojo's barrier was clearly more efficient.

I didn't tell him that, though. I just removed my hand from the barrier and turned my gaze back to my book on barriers. I wanted to see if I could determine where I went wrong before casting again. I couldn't let Gojo waste my limited time with his distractions.

Gojo let his own barrier disperse, his smug grin telling me that he knew that I knew that his barrier was better. He didn't say anything, though, just letting the atmosphere fester.

Yuuto spoke up again, breaking the uncomfortable silence. "Do not be discouraged, Gosho. Satoru's Six Eyes give him an unfair advantage in most areas of jujutsu. You should not compare yourself to others. If you only compare your current self against your past self, then you will see your own progress better."

It was good advice for sure. It wouldn't be out of place in some best selling self-help book or something. Unfortunately, humans were not creatures that could change their mindset with a snap of a finger, or in this case, the dispensation of a trite phrase.

Yuuto's attention then turned to Gojo. "Satoru, don't tease your friends." His tone and words both felt parental in nature. He was too young to be Gojo's dad, though.

Gojo scoffed and turned away, probably acting on the logic that if he pretended that Yuuto didn't exist, then his words would hold no weight.

I took this opportunity to ask him what I've been wondering this whole time. "Why are you here, anyway?"

The response was somewhat unexpected. "It is the duty of the elder family members to look after the younger ones. I am here to make sure that you two don't get in trouble."

Trouble? What trouble was there to get into? I was studying peacefully in a library. I wasn't doing anything dangerous or anything. Surely he was referring to Gojo. He must have done something in the past that warranted this kind of supervision.

I looked over at him to check on his reaction to Yuuto's words. He was still studiously looking in the other direction, but from what I could see from his expression, he wasn't showing anything out of the ordinary. That in and of itself was unusual. When a relative brings up a past incident that you caused, wouldn't you be feeling strong emotions? Embarrassment at having your indiscretions revealed, anger at the one revealing them, or something else along those lines?

But then I remembered my previous times at the Gojo estate. Gojo had walked around unsupervised plenty of the time. There was no hint of this policy that Gojo had to be monitored at all times. So maybe whatever incident caused this was recent? But no, if the incident was a recent thing, then Yuuto's words would be salt in fresh wounds. That doesn't fit with Gojo's lack of reaction.

It was at this point in my thought process that I remembered I could just ask for the answer. I guess I was just too used to having to decipher everything on my own. "What do you mean, 'get in trouble'?" What kind of trouble are you expecting? Has something happened?"

"Just the general things that children get up to. Deciding to use each other as targets for their innate curse techniques, training destructive techniques in inappropriate areas, sparring without adult supervision. I don't think you two will do those kinds of things," he reassured. "Satoru is very smart for his age, and you seem well-behaved enough, Gosho. I'm just here as a precaution. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, after all."

"Why start now, though? I've been here a few times already, but this is the first time someone's been watching like this."

"I was occupied with other matters the other times you have come to visit, Gosho. Believe me, if I was available, then you would have seen me earlier."

The reason he gave, combined with the way he said it, pushed me towards one conclusion. "You're doing this on your own. This isn't something that the adults of the Gojo clan collectively decided should happen, you just decided that this was something you wanted to do."

Yuuto smiled and nodded.

Although I understood his purpose in being here now, why Yuuto decided upon this purpose was baffling. He just decided that watching over children was a good use of his time. If I was in his position, I wouldn't be going out of my way to make more work for myself. Especially not work related to kids.

Maybe this was normal in a clan setting. I never grew up in an environment where a bunch of relatives were in close proximity, so I wouldn't know. But considering the fact that he was doing this of his own initiative, with no one else available to pick up the slack when he was otherwise preoccupied, I think that this was just Yuuto's unique personality.

Still, since I was reassured by the fact that he wasn't looking for an opportunity to drag me back to the interrogation room or anything, I was able to resume my studies with less worry. These barriers weren't going to study themselves.

A few months later

I walked up the staircase of the building in the jujutsu school that held all of the classrooms. The sound of my steps echoed off of the stairs and the walls, emphasizing the emptiness of it all. I made it to the landing for the second floor… then started on my way up to the third.

I wasn't Juba-sensei's student, anymore, after all, so I wouldn't be going to the same classroom as before. It was a new school year, and that meant a new teacher, new classmates, and a new classroom. This was also the point in time where my change in career path, going from the sorcerer track to the auxiliary manager track was going to take effect. So there was going to be a new curriculum, too.

I made it to the third floor and immediately started walking along the halls, searching for the room number that was told to me. Even in the hallways, no one could be found. I had come a little earlier than usual, since I budgeted some time to allow for searching for the new classroom. But, considering the fact that I was already usually early to class in the first place, this meant that I had arrived way earlier than anyone else.

I found the new classroom. It was tucked away in the corner of the third floor, almost like it was put there as an afterthought. I peeked through the window set into the door of the classroom. I didn't see anyone. I tried the doorknob. To my surprise, it turned, allowing me to push open the door and enter.

I scanned the room. Along the walls, desks and chairs were stacked up high, with only a few sets placed in the center of the room, available to serve their purpose, unlike the others. The fact that this classroom seemed to half-function as a storage room, as well as the small number of desks and chairs in use told me a lot. This class was going to be small. Especially when compared to Juba-sensei's class, which was unusually large due to his ability to handle more students than normal thanks to his cloning ability.

It made sense, though. Judging by the circumstances surrounding Juba-sensei offering to transfer me to the auxiliary manager track, it was something only done when it was clear that someone was unsuited to being a sorcerer. With children my age, the bar for this was going to be very high. Everyone is still relatively new to sorcery, so there is lots of room for improvement. It is very likely that the majority of transfers to the auxiliary manager track will happen later, when people begin to stagnate and their final skill levels become clear. At this point in time, only special cases like me, who has eighty percent of a sorcerer's skill set barred from them, will be here.

There weren't many options to pick from as far as seating goes, so I just randomly picked one and plopped down into it. From my backpack, I withdrew my notes on shikigami. I had some more talks with Shuugo as I flew over to the Gojo estate and he was kind enough to give me pointers on what I had so far. I was considering making use of those tips and giving my shikigami more of a body to work with. Paper cut into the silhouette of a person was good for stealth and scouting, but it wasn't the best for fighting, which was my main goal for shikigami. Thankfully, Shuugo was knowledgeable in building shikigami bodies, as evident by how he has a whole zoo's worth of animal shikigami stored up his sleeves.

However, I also had to remain within the confines set by my resource limitations. While someone with an innate curse technique that generated shikigami could turn a single strand of hair into a killing machine, shikigami made without that sort of technique are much more expensive. Shuugo had told about how each of his shikigami had required many corpses of the animal that they resembled. I didn't have those kinds of resources.

Taking out a fresh sheet of paper, I listed out the various ideas as they came to my mind. My resources were mostly limited to paper and the sticks, rocks, and dirt I could gather from outside. So naturally, the images of wooden puppets and earth golems came to mind, which I added to the list. The idea for shikigami made using origami also popped up, but I didn't see too much advantage to it. It was still paper, just three dimensional instead of two dimensional. Therefore, it still lacked the battle power that I was looking for.

I guess if I was really desperate, then I could shave my head and use my hair. Human materials were good for making shikigami, but it didn't mix that well with the other materials I had. If I was making a shikigami using my hair alone, then it would still be pretty small. I wanted something human-sized.

The door to the classroom opened, letting a woman through. She was dressed in a suit and tie which were black, not the very dark blue that I had come to associate with the teachers like Juba-sensei and Shirawachi-sensei. Still, she was an adult and she had come into this classroom with a sense of purpose, so it wasn't too hard to guess that she was going to be my teacher from now on.

"Good morning," I greeted her.

She seemed a bit surprised to see that someone had arrived before her, but the surprise very quickly faded into a neutral expression.

"Good morning," she replied. "What is your name?"

"Gosho Kei, miss. And what is your name?"

"Gennyo Juri. Call me Gennyo-sensei."

With that, it was confirmed that this person was a teacher. I nodded. "It's nice to meet you, Gennyo-sensei."

I turned back to my sheets of paper. I couldn't think of any other ideas for shikigami that weren't just slight tweaks of the ideas that I had already written down, so I moved on to deciding which one would be the easiest to create first.

As I was listing out the required materials for each one and rating the estimated difficulty behind each creation process, Gennyo-sensei walked around to peek at my papers from over my shoulder.

Obviously, I noticed her doing this and I wouldn't just let it slide without comment. "Did you need anything, Gennyo-sensei?"

Instead of answering my question, she commented on the contents of my papers instead. "Shikigami, huh?"

"Yes, I've been working on them for a while. My plan is for them to act as fighters if needed. They're not quite as good as an innate curse technique, but they are still capable of being strong, just based on how their bodies are constructed."

Gennyo-sensei's expression became complicated. "You do know that as an auxiliary manager, there won't be many situations where you will be expected to fight, right? It'll only happen when things go very wrong, which is very unlikely. In fact, fighting is the last resort. It's better to run away and save your own life while bringing back the news that the situation devolved, rather than dying and leaving everyone else clueless."

From Gojo's explanations, I had expected that this would be the case, but it was still good to have confirmation. However… "It's still better to prepare for the worst case scenario, rather than being caught off guard, isn't it? Just because it's unlikely, doesn't mean that it won't happen. If I get caught in that sort of scenario, then I want to be able to fight at least a little bit."

She sighed. "No, I don't think you understand what I'm saying. When I said that it is very unlikely, I meant that it is very unlikely. In all of my years of experience, I can count on one hand the number of times that an auxiliary manager was forced to fight."

"That still means that it's possible that it will happen to me," I pointed out.

She seemingly gave up on the conversation, slumping a bit and waving a hand through the air dismissively. "Sure. Whatever. You'll see when you become an auxiliary manager."

With that, she moved to sit down at the teacher's desk at the front corner of the classroom. She then took out her own sheets of paper and a pen from her bag, and started working on them.

I went back to working on my own shikigami ideas too.

Time passed quickly, with students trickling in slowly. Everyone that entered saw the atmosphere in the air and took out their own things to work on as we waited for class time to start. Before long, all seats in the classroom were filled. Gennyo-sensei noticed this and stood up from her spot. She clapped once in order to get everyone's attention before she spoke.

"Alright, it looks like everyone's here, so let's start a little early. My name is Gennyo Juri. You all can call me Gennyo-sensei. I have been working as an auxiliary manager for twelve years, and you all are here because you will be following in my footsteps. Let me make this clear from the start. This class is not for sorcerers, so we will be focusing much less on sorcery beyond what you will need to fulfill your duties. We will not be doing any sort of combat training within this class. In its place, we will be focusing on the skills that are needed in this line of work, and the guidelines that you will need to follow. What you do in your own free time is up to you, so you can train your combat skills in that time, if you wish. I just hope that none of you hold any delusions of being a sorcerer. If you are here at this point in time, it is because it is either because it has been identified that you are much more valuable as an auxiliary manager, or because you are lacking the talent to be a sorcerer."

For some reason, I felt like Gennyo-sensei was looking directly at me, when she said those last sentences. I didn't completely understand why. I guess that from our conversation before, she thought that I still held on to some secret hope of becoming a sorcerer? Was keeping up on combat training as an auxiliary manager really that unusual? To me, though, this seemed like the only natural course of action.

This train of thought was interrupted as Gennyo-sensei called for each of us to stand and introduce ourselves to each other. When that was done, class had officially begun. The school year has kicked off, in a slightly different form than before.