"So you only killed 3 cursed spirits today huh" Tomogui asked me, while laying on the couch.
"Yeah, I underestimated this challenge, I think the hard part wasn't supposed to be actually exorcising the curses but finding them"
"Still you found 3 in one day, you can probably finish tomorrow"
"Originally I planned on turning in Kuroda and hoping I might get some clan benefits, I mean he was talking about killing Kamo sorcerers, he probably would have been worth a lot." I remarked "Still stealing a bounty from Toji wouldn't have been a good idea, moreover the stuff we learned from Kuroda's corpse and Holy Ichor was worth it"
"Enough about that, why are you studying chirality so much, immediately after returning from the forest you opened that textbook."
"Nothing, it's just that I have been thinking, since I got this technique I never bothered learning more about it and how I could apply it." I started pondering "Since the fight with Kuroda I realized if I do want to achieve greater heights I can't restrict myself to only learning about the fundamentals of Jujutsu"
"What do you mean?" Tomogui asked
"When I first got my technique, I thought it was limited to mirroring phenomena related to cursed energy. However, after awakening my eyes, I could finally perceive my cursed techniques effect on real matter and how it is capable of switching the chirality of matter itself"
"So what is your plan with this new knowledge, study materials with dangerous chiral states, and use those in the future?"
"No, being reliant on an external substances to activate abilities is rubbish, what if I don't have those substances on me at the time of a fight, I prefer my methods of combat to be universally applicable"
"So what's your plan regarding Chiral Manipulation's development?"
"I've been thinking about Chirality as a whole, and why we even named the copies we create mirrors"
"The reason we name them mirrors is because that is how chirality works, if you have an atom that is a chiral center with 4 different connecting atoms, then look at the reflection of that atom from a mirror and the swapped locations of the 4 connecting atoms, that is the other chiral identity that the atom can have"
"Yes but why have we limited our cursed technique to atoms with chiral centers? Cursed energy and phenomena relating to cursed energy have no chiral centers, yet they are assigned L and R in our eyes" I responded with feverish speed . "So what is the actual limit to the things we can mirror, we can mirror phenomena tied to cursed energy, we can mirror tools made of cursed energy, whats to stop us from mirroring an actual person with cursed energy"
"What's stopping us is unknown, but there definitely is something stopping us, considering we tried that years ago and failed"
Silence lingered for a moment.
Futago closed the textbook slowly.
"I'm going back to the forest, tomorrow anyway, time to sleep" I said before turning and leaving the living room to go to my room.
Tomogui didn't argue.
The moon rose, and night approached.
Tomorrow morning
"Hey Futago, you better not get into any trouble again. I seriously want to just lay in my room and study for the elder's task"
"... Stop lying, we both already learned whatever the elder wants you to study, you just want to be lazy in your room, or play with Kenta"
"Anyway, don't fight some crazy serial killer sorcerer again"
"Got it, I'll avoid any serial killer sorcerer's this time"
Little did I know I would be telling a half truth with that line.
I quickly approached the forest, ready to finish my weekly curse exorcisms.
Daichi POV:
The second day felt different.
I had already exorcised one curse today.
Two total now.
Two remaining.
I adjusted my stance and stepped deeper into the trees.
The forest was too quiet.
Not the normal type of quiet, there was absolutely nothing.
No cricket's no birds, it was like all the life in this region had been taken away.
Click.
I stopped walking.
That sound wasn't organic.
Another click echoed from behind me.
Slow. Deliberate.
I turned slowly.
At first I thought it was some kind of stone statue left to rot in the forest.
Then it moved.
A large Rubik's cube formed its entire torso, replacing what should have been a chest and stomach. The colors were wrong, faded, and lifeless. Red looked dried and brownish. Yellow was dirty and dim. Blue had dulled into gray. Even the green seemed muted, as if the vibrancy had been drained out of it years ago.
Not polished.
Cracked.
Weathered.
Not a smooth human skull. It was a blocky, cube with faint panel lines running across it. A mouth split across the lower half, carved like a seam between tiles.
[Image]
When it tilted its head, the motion was too precise.
Too deliberate.
The torso cube shifted slightly. It was floating 3 inches off the ground.
Click.
The sound echoed clearly in the quiet forest.
Then the cube-mouth curved just enough to open.
"My first Kamo huh? Or more accurately, my first Kamo in this state"
The voice was warped, and raspy.
I felt my pulse spike.
'T-this cursed spirit is on a completely different level, even the second grade cursed spirit I fought yesterday is nothing compared to this thing'
"Let's see if I can do 'it' to a human" The vengeful spirit's warped voice echoed the otherwise silent forest before charging at me with immense speeds.