Curse of Ignorance Ch 2
I had thought about the revelations that Mister Amano had given me for a couple of minutes, and I have come to the conclusion that I am a massive idiot. If I thought about it for more than a second, I would have been more suspicious of the offer to ship me off to some fancy school that I never heard of.
"Your son has a great talent"? Yeah, right. What talent could I possibly have shown off in kindergarten worthy of something like that? Doing some addition quickly? Remembering my times tables? What a joke. Now with the power of hindsight, I can tell that what Mister Amano was referring to at that time was my ability to be a jujutsu sorcerer. He must have felt so smug, dropping hints that only he could understand right in front of our faces. "Oh, look at the poor ignorant normal people, they don't know about the true dangers of the world!" This really annoys me.
I should have expected it. Of course the invitation to a fancy rich school is actually the monster-fighting shadow organization trying to kidnap you to Japanese Hogwarts. What else could it be?
Wait, no. Now that I articulated that into words, that doesn't sound right. I couldn't have possibly expected a countrywide conspiracy to recruit me, but I should have been more suspicious. Okay, that sounds about right.
Alright, now that we're done examining the past, let's look towards the future. What do I want to do, now that I have been abducted to be trained to fight monsters? Do I actually want to do that? My first instinct is to say no. Monster hunting seems like it carries with it a risk of death. I don't want to die. So, I shouldn't go along with their plans. Simple, right? Except for one small issue. How do I get out of this situation?
The… Binding Vow that was placed on me doesn't prevent me from running away. But doesn't that just mean that they'll catch me the old fashioned way when I try to get out of here? I don't know what kind of other supernatural abilities these guys have, other than agreements enforced by the Heavens themselves. There's no way that this is the full extent of their abilities. How would they fight monsters if that was the only thing they had going for them? Rules lawyer them to death? No, for all I know, they have some magical way of tracking me no matter how hard I run. There's no point in even trying unless I get a better hold on their abilities.
So, if running away is not an option, the only thing left I can do is… go along with their plans? No, that can't be right, can it? Can't I just… you know… not show up to training? But that runs into the same issue as before, I just don't know enough about what kind of magic these guys have at their disposal. They could have a way to force me to train even if I don't want to.
How about sending a letter to my parents? Tell them that I want to leave for… reasons that I can't tell them unless I want to get struck by lightning or even worse. Assuming that the sorcerers don't intercept my mail and erase every trace of me wanting to leave. Assuming that the sorcerers haven't mind controlled my parents into refusing to let me leave. The more I think about it, the less this idea seems to be feasible.
Is there no other way?
Cheer up, the voice in my head cajoled me, isn't this what you wanted? In the first life and the beginning of this one? To be special, to have an exciting life? This is your chance, all you have to do… is take it!
Maybe training to fight monsters wouldn't be so bad after all? I mean, that's the whole point of training right? To make sure that the chance of dying is as low as possible? Maybe this is a good thing. If I ever end up encountering a monster in a dark alley somewhere, I'll know what to do, instead of just ending up as monster food. Yeah…. Okay! I've decided! I'll learn to fight! For the sake of my own safety!
Now that thinking time is over, it's time for sleep. All that worrying and theorizing has me exhausted….
The next morning had me milling about in the classroom building unsure of where to go. What did Mister Amano say yesterday? "Report to the classrooms by 7:00 AM"? Which classroom do I go to? Mister Amano? Don't you think you left out something important? Were you too busy shattering my conception of the world as I know it and binding me to absolute secrecy on the threat of a very gruesome punishment to think of mundane things such as this?
"Hey!" A voice broke me out of my nervous pacing. I looked to the source of the voice. It was a short boy in a jacket and pants that were a blue so dark that it was almost black. The jacket was open, revealing a sweater vest underneath it. A white button-up shirt and tie peeked out from under the collar of the sweater vest. He looked young. Not as young as me, but maybe around middle school age? The bowl cut of black hair certainly wasn't helping with that impression.
"You a new kid?" Oh, was he going to show me where to go?
"Y-" As soon as I started to reply, his hand shot out and grabbed my upper arm. As soon as his grip was secured, he started dragging me towards some unknown destination. This guy was strong. Like, unnaturally strong. His hand around my arm felt like it was a metal claw gripping me, not mortal flesh. Is it strengthening magic? Or are sorcerers just somehow stronger than normal?
My forceful guide opened up one of the sliding doors with a slam, and dragged me through the doorway. Inside the room were a bunch of small children sitting at their desks, learning from… a bunch of people that looked the same as the guy holding on to my arm right now? Identical siblings? No way, there are around ten of them! If this was actually the case, I could only feel sorry for the poor mother. So… clone magic?
As we walked through the doorway, all the clones abruptly went silent and turned to face our direction in unison. Creepy. Seeing their teacher act like this, the children followed their gaze and went silent as well. The clone holding my arm spoke, addressing the whole room.
"Everyone, as you can see, we have a new student joining us today! Please introduce yourself!"
That last part was addressed to me. But I don't know what to say! How are you supposed to introduce yourself to wizards in training? Is there a secret greeting ritual or something? They don't teach you this in kindergarten!
"Uh… hi? I'm Gosho Kei?" was what came out of my mouth after thorough, rational deliberation.
"Good to meet you, Gosho! My name is Juba Daiki! I'll be your teacher for the foreseeable future! You can call me Juba-sensei!" The clone that was still holding onto my arm shouted exuberantly. He then turned to address the rest of the class. "You may continue with whatever you were doing before."
He then proceeded to drag me to the back right corner of the classroom, away from everyone else, and maneuvered me into a chair. He finally let go of my arm. I rubbed at it, trying to get feeling back into it after being squeezed to death.
Juba-sensei stood in front of the desk, somehow managing to loom over me despite being not that much taller than me.
"Now, Gosho. How much do you know about jujutsu sorcery and jujutsu society?"
"Uh… nothing?"
Turns out, I didn't know just how right "nothing" was. Juba-sensei spent the whole morning lecturing me on the most basic of basics, stopping only for lunch. Even then, he didn't cover everything he wanted to. What he did manage to cover, though, was very enlightening.
Juba-sensei started off with what I would consider to be the boring part. Lessons about society. Sure, he's teaching me about the secret monster hunting wizard society, but that stuff's boring compared to learning magic.
Anyways, society. Jujutsu Society to be specific. This is the society that lies underneath the society that everyone knows and loves, the minority that protects the masses from the shadows, made up of jujutsu sorcerers and support staff alike. Jujutsu Society is mostly centered on Japan, since for some reason, we get a disproportionate amount of curses forming and in turn, a disproportionate amount of jujutsu sorcerers. And the very center of operations for jujutsu sorcerers in Japan is right here, on this mountain. Well, the top of this mountain at least. Apparently, there is a second school up there masquerading as a Buddhist temple. Underneath that school, there is some dude named Tengen constantly maintaining a barrier over the whole mountain, protecting budding sorcerers from being attacked by cursed spirits. Because Tengen, the world's premier barrier master, is making this mountain the safest place to be, it is also the place where Jujutsu Headquarters convenes. Jujutsu Headquarters is basically Jujutsu Society's all-in-one government, a group of people with the power to make and enforce laws regarding jujutsu sorcerers. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the mountain that I am living at the base of now is the beating heart of the new society that I have found myself dragged into.
Next, on to the good stuff. Magic. Or, if you want to be all technical about it, jujutsu sorcery. Jujutsu is fundamentally about the manipulation of cursed energy, the miracle energy that can do everything from creating clones to manipulating space itself. Cursed energy is created by all humans as a byproduct of feeling negative emotions. In the majority of the population, that energy leaks, accumulates, and turns into a monster, a curse. In some humans, an abnormally large amount of cursed energy is produced, granting them the ability to see curses and manipulate their cursed energy. These are the people that have the capability to become jujutsu sorcerers.
Juba-sensei says that it takes a curse to kill a curse. At first, I thought this meant that we catch them like Pokemon and use them to fight each other. Apparently, while this is a technique that exists, that is not what the phrase means. It takes a jujutsu sorcerer using cursed energy to kill a curse. Punch a curse with your bare fists or even shoot them with a gun, no meaningful damage will be done.
The main way that jujutsu sorcerers will do combat with curses is using their innate curse technique. As the name suggests, this technique is something that you are born with. Even without conscious direction, one's cursed energy will naturally move itself in the patterns corresponding to one's innate technique. Jujutsu sorcerers use their innate technique the most because it is the most efficient. They barely need to think in order to activate it, and trying to use other techniques means fighting against your cursed energy's natural inclinations. In a life-and-death fight, those kinds of inconveniences could mean death.
I thought that this was awesome. I get a personal, unique superpower? Hell yeah! My only hope was that the innate curse technique I get doesn't require me to get up close to a curse in order to be effective. Getting close means a higher risk of dying, after all, and dying isn't fun. I know from personal experience. Personally, my hope is for some sort of ranged attack or a support ability. Everybody loves support! That means that everyone would gladly put their bodies on their line to protect me! I get to help fight monsters, while being safe! Wouldn't that just be the best?
Anyway, that's the broad strokes of what Juba-sensei covered with me. Right now, I'm standing in formation with the rest of the class in a medium-sized dirt training field, with the multiple Juba-sensei clones wandering throughout the group, supervising and giving advice. If the time before lunch was the part of the day dedicated to the theoretical stuff, now was the time for the practical stuff. Which means martial arts and magic.
Right now, we were practicing punches that Juba-sensei showed us earlier. And after that, kicks. "The foundation of every jujutsu sorcerer is their body" or something. Personally, I think Juba-sensei is biased by the fact that he has multiple bodies. If I get a ranged or support technique, all I need to do is sit at the back and pick enemies off or throw some buffs onto my allies.
After doing way too many punches and kicks, and then a couple of laps around the training field "for good luck", we finally got to the good part, the magic. I got separated into a group of children with minimal skill at cursed energy manipulation, with our very own personal Juba-sensei to guide us. The other, more experienced children got separated into their own groups according to skill level.
My group was focused on gaining the ability to manipulate cursed energy as soon as possible, so we can stop the leaking of our cursed energy. Not only is it good practice to be efficient with your resources in the middle of a fight, leaking cursed energy leads to the formation of curses. If we have the ability to stop leaking, we should, in order to prevent any unnecessary deaths by curses.
So here we were, sitting in a circle in meditative poses, getting insulted by our teacher that looked like a middle schooler.
"Gosho! Is that all you can do? I thought you wanted to learn! I guess we'll just have to leave you to be eaten by curses!"
"Tanioto! You've been doing this for over a week now! How long are you going to make me wait?"
One girl's face contorted, looking like she was about to cry.
"Katsunoi! You're leaking out more cursed energy than all of yesterday combined! Are you trying to make a curse!?"
Another boy started to frown, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration.
Of course, Juba-sensei explained beforehand what the purpose of these insults were before actually getting into it. Cursed energy production increases with negative emotions. The insults make us feel negative emotions and increase our cursed energy, serving various purposes for those in this group.
For me, who can't sense my own cursed energy, the increased volume makes that task easier. It is like trying to find a pebble on the ground compared to trying to find a fist-sized rock. It is much easier to spot the large rock.
The others in my group are on the next step in the process, trying to manipulate the cursed energy inside of them now that they can sense it. They are getting insulted too, because at this point, they still need the increased volume of cursed energy to be able to sense their own energy. Some might think that the next step would be slowly lowering the volume of their cursed energy until they get to the point where they can sense their own energy when it is at normal levels, but the priority here is to stop the production of curses. Even if having a larger volume of cursed energy inside of you makes it harder than usual to manipulate, this way is still considered the fastest way to stop the leaking of energy.
Intellectually, I knew that the insults were for training purposes only. You would think that would diminish the impact they had on me. You would be wrong. Getting yelled at just creates a feeling of unease within me, like I did something wrong even when I know that's not the case. Which is the point, I guess.
I was sitting cross-legged, trying to meditate my way into sensing the cursed energy within me. That's how they do it in the stories, right? Meditation in order to access their mana, chakra, or whatever else? It didn't seem like it was working. Maybe I'm just bad at meditation? Or maybe meditation isn't the correct way to do this? Meditation is about clearing your mind and stuff, while cursed energy comes from feeling stuff. Maybe that's the issue? I should be feeling more and not less?
Think negative thoughts. Think negative thoughts. Think negative thoughts.
If I don't get this… people will die. I will die. Dying is bad. Dying hurts. I don't want to die. I don't want to feel pain. Dying…
My breath quickened.
I forced myself to remember my death. I forced myself to remember the car crash.
Impact. The world spinning. Pain. Blood. My blood. Warmth, dripping down my forehead and into my eyes. A tingle at the back of my neck.
Wait.
A tingle at the back of my neck? Is this… cursed energy? As I try to focus on this strange sensation, the feeling starts to disappear. It is like trying to grab smoke. Seeing this, I immediately try to change my frame of mind. I'm probably losing the sense of my cursed energy due to the decrease in my negative emotions caused by turning my focus away from imagining my death. What I need to do is to feel strong emotions, while simultaneously retaining enough focus to sense my cursed energy.
Easier said than done, though. Just saying that I need to be able to focus but also not focus at the same time is about as good as just telling myself to "get good". Which is to say, not helpful at all.
I won't lose hope though. I know I sensed my own cursed energy before. If I can do it once, I can do it again. And if I can do it enough times, eventually I will get to the point where I can do it consistently. It's just a matter of time.
Think negative thoughts. Death, dying, pain. I imagine that getting eaten by curse wouldn't be too different from dying to a car crash. In both, you get cut, sliced, and crushed. Death, dying, pain. The taste of blood in your mouth. Death, dying, pain.
I was broken out of my trance by a loud voice.
"Time's up! Good work today! Eat some food and get some rest!"
I was annoyed. I'm completely sure that with just a little bit longer, a bit longer without something distracting me, I could have reached that state again. I might have been imagining it, but I thought that I felt my cursed energy again. Not as strongly as last time, but I still felt something. Something akin to the sensation of spider webs on skin. With just a little longer, I'm sure I could have strengthened that sensation. I could've been able to sense my own cursed energy with only one day of training! How frustrating!
I stalked off the training field towards the direction of the cafeteria. Juba-sensei was right. I had to eat. Even now, I felt the sensation of uncomfortable hunger radiating out from my stomach. Juba-sensei may be right, but that doesn't mean that I have to like it.
I sat cross-legged on top of my bed, finishing off the roll of bread that I had taken from the cafeteria. I chose not to stay and eat a hot meal because I wanted to get back to my room as quickly as possible, where I would not be disturbed.
I was determined. I will be able to consistently sense my cursed energy by the end of this day! I won't sleep until I get it!
I closed my eyes. Think negative thoughts. Death. Dying. Pain.