"Huh? Mukuro, you can see them?"
Nanami's voice carried excitement this time. Among kids his age, this was the first time he'd met someone who could not only see curses but also knew what they were.
"Of course."
Mukuro had already figured it out. Nanami wanted to save the girl, but he was still young. He wasn't from a famous sorcerer family, and his control over cursed energy was rough at best.
"Then… Mukuro, are you a sorcerer too?" Nanami's eyes lit up as he asked.
Ever since his technique had awakened, his family had kept telling him he would become a sorcerer in the future and protect ordinary people.
That path was lonely.
But today, at last, he had found someone walking the same road.
"A sorcerer… well… I guess you could say that. Let me deal with these little flies first."
After thinking for a moment, Mukuro replied. By then, his warm-up was already over.
"So fast!"
In the blink of an eye, he vanished before Nanami's eyes, moving at a speed the naked eye could not follow.
An instant later, he appeared more than ten meters away. His short legs kicked both curses at once.
Bang!
The two creatures were smashed into the small grove beside them. Their bodies hit the trees, snapping two of them in half as smoke and dust billowed into the air.
"So strong!" Nanami's eyes widened. Never before had he witnessed such speed and power from another child. Compared to him, the so-called "little genius" of his family, Mukuro was on a different level.
"But… why aren't they dead?"
With that kind of force, the weakest type of curses like this shouldn't have survived. Yet the two Fly Head shook their heads, crawled back up, and came flying at them again.
"Ah, I forgot to tell you. I don't have cursed energy." Mukuro scratched the back of his head and shrugged.
"What?! What's that supposed to mean, some kind of riddle?"
Nanami's mind went blank. He understood each word Mukuro said, but once strung together, the meaning stunned him. People without cursed energy weren't supposed to even see curses. And if he really had none, then was all that speed and power purely physical?
"No riddle. It's exactly what I said. My body is far stronger than normal, and my senses are sharp enough to see curses directly," Mukuro explained calmly. "But along with that, I don't have cursed energy at all. Zero. In that sense, I'm even more ordinary than ordinary people."
"Then shouldn't we run already?!"
Nanami snapped out of his daze. Seeing the cursed flies closing in, he rushed forward, lifted the unconscious girl halfway, and tried to drag her along.
"Don't be afraid. I'm pretty strong." Mukuro grinned and raised one finger in front of him.
"Third Path: Viper!"
His right eye, normally dark blue, turned crimson. A glowing number "3" appeared within.
Behind him, space itself twisted. From the pitch-black void, a giant viper burst forth.
Buzz!
The Fly Heads froze, sensing a fatal danger. In a panic, they turned to flee.
But they were nothing more than bottom-tier curses.
The viper opened its gaping maw. In a flash, it lunged forward, swallowed both whole, then dropped to the ground and slipped back into the darkness from which it came.
"That… was a shikigami? But didn't you say you don't have cursed energy? And your eye…"
Nanami felt like someone had poured boiling water into his head. Everything was so confusing it made him dizzy.
"Have you heard of Heavenly Restriction? You can think of this as a different kind of ability that came from it."
While speaking, Mukuro stepped forward to pick up his schoolbag. When he looked up again, his right eye was back to normal.
"…"
"Forget it. As long as you can exorcise curses, you can be considered a sorcerer. Doesn't matter how you do it."
Nanami's face flushed red as he muttered back. He couldn't make sense of what Mukuro said, so he just went along with it.
"Let's go. We've wasted enough time." Mukuro tapped his wrist like he was pointing to a watch.
"Huh?!" Nanami glanced at his own watch, and realized nearly twenty minutes had passed since school ended.
"What about her?" Although he was in a rush to get home, he still pointed at the fainted girl.
"Leave her. Those curses weren't anything serious. At worst, she'll just sleep here for a while."
Mukuro waved his hand casually and turned to leave.
Nanami hesitated but followed after him. The boy was right. Fly Heads weren't lethal. They only drained people's energy until they collapsed from exhaustion. For a child, a nap wouldn't hurt.
* * *
"Mukuro, is your strength because of that Heavenly Restriction thing?"
On the way, Nanami asked like a curious child. Mukuro's presence shattered his old disinterest in the world of jujutsu.
"More or less. I'm… special."
Whatever Nanami asked, he brushed it off with the excuse of Heavenly Restriction. After all, it wasn't like he could tell him that he had gained the power of the Six Paths during reincarnation.
"Even though you lost cursed energy, this doesn't sound bad. You seem more versatile, like you don't even need to learn how to control cursed energy…"
For some reason, Nanami even felt a little envious.
"Kid, Heavenly Restriction isn't as nice as you think. Most of the time, we lose far more than we gain."
At some point, while walking quickly, they had already stepped out of the school gate and were heading in the same direction.
The two continued talking, so absorbed that Nanami didn't notice when a tall man had started following them from behind.
"Who are you?!"
Nanami grabbed Mukuro and pulled him back a few steps. His small body tensed into a fighting stance.
Just standing there casually, the man gave off overwhelming pressure. The scar running along his mouth, paired with that cold grin, made him look even more dangerous.
"No need to panic. This good-for-nothing is my older brother."
Mukuro patted Nanami's shoulder, his serious tone contrasting with the insulting introduction.
"Older… brother?" The blonde boy lowered his guard.
"Annoying brat. Let's go already." Toji nodded slightly at Nanami, then turned and walked ahead.
The three of them moved together.
* * *
After a while, Nanami stopped. "My house is this way. We should part here."
"Alright, see you later." Mukuro waved and started walking off.
"Mukuro!" Nanami suddenly called out.
He turned to see the boy holding out his fist. His face was serious, with a hint of nervousness.
"See you."
Mukuro lightly bumped his fist against his, and in that moment, their friendship officially began.
**
**
**
Thank you for reading! If you'd like access to extra chapters and want to support my work, you can visit my P@treon:
P@treon/SilverShark769
Vote with Power Stones for Bonus Chapters!
Your support means a lot, thank you!