The Scent of Tea Has faded, That Classroom Will Never Be Full Again (6.10)
ArtemisAvant
No longer running, from carpal tunnel
- Location
- Cornfield Central, Indiana
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The Scent of Tea Has faded, That Classroom Will Never Be Full Again (6.10)
The sky had at last begun dying.
Screaming with bloody hues of pretty red and endless crepuscular rays cascading, a dark orange picture bleeding into deeper purples. Shadows like long fingers stretched across the tiny clearing of this awful village, haloed by the falling sun. There, the nightmare conductor to this distorted orchestra, a tall curse stood, hunched in the middle of its weeping followers. It was almost as if it was gently guiding them, touching their backs with a fatherly hand.
Not far off. Bloodied and puckered skin, dotted with innumerable holes and almost melting off his bones, Kamo Noritoshi wheezed against the sloughing off his own mouth suffocating his airways.
One thing stood out, as clear as crystal, the hand of Itadori Yuji punching out Kamo's chest. The wet spray of arterial blood, the noise, a flash. The crush and piercing, the ugly pop. Shredded alveoli like confetti in the air, a clenched fist shiny.
The crushed, slightly betrayed, struck numb expression of Itadori Yuji as he stared at his own forearm, stained all the way down with his comrade's blood. The wide grin on his cheek laughing with something that sounded like hysteria but in truth could only be malice. Sukuna.
Time slowed as my brain, the strange and alien thing I had made it be, processed information faster and faster in inhuman, no, all-too-human rationality.
Singularity lasted for precisely 3 minutes and 27 seconds. The time it took for Arakawa Reiko to... And in those three minutes, and twenty seven seconds, I was inviolable, unchangeable, perfectly static against cursed techniques. I could not be changed and I would not be.
Which meant, right now, for the barest minute that Singularity had left, The Curse's Innate Technique didn't affect me, a Minute, 60 seconds, to save Kamo-san, a time processed in infinities to remove both Itadori Yuji and Kamo from the situation and disable them as they were clearly too affected by the Curse's technique to be able to fight properly.
Singularity did not remove mental strain, and shock, numb dissociation, had long set in— therefore, they'd be useless as of now.
That was okay. I was just as useless, the crowd of villagers, the people in my way, the non-sorcerers and the space between my destination and now, too far to cover in a single minute to apply my cursed technique reversal on Kamo Noritoshi before he died from shock. Not now without my cursed energy reinforcement, not without bursting myself to the point of breaking, just to reach.
Still, the only person I could depend on. Was myself and those behind me.
Kamo's Death, ETA. 59 seconds
The cocking back of a hammer behind me, the involuntary gasp, feminine, Mai. She was aiming—
What did I have? What could I use to save Kamo? Was I going to let another person die because of my negligence? Think! Don't shout at yourself, don't waste your precious time by thinking, just act! But without thinking I'd only throw myself uselessly into the problem and fail everyone. I needed to think. I needed to act. I needed to do both at a quickness that could not be human. I needed to change, become better, evolve, die. I needed everyone else to stay the same, to be my anchor, to live. Why, Why did I have to be distracted by Mai? Why did I waste time talking— no, the silence at that time... This had already happened, likely at the precise moment the Curse allowed Zen'in Naoya to die in favor of concentrating its efforts on Itadori and Kamo, brain death took approximately four minutes from oxygen deprivation, severe blood loss takes four minutes, keep that hand there Itadori Yuji! Don't you fucking move. Stand and Live. Subtract time from egregious skin failure and membrane separation from obvious disease on skin, none of that mattered.
Only a minute(ETA: 58 seconds) I had left to cross in order to apply Singularity on Kamo before the Curse manipulated what I saw. Only this time now.
Wait. Mai? The hammer cocked back, the aiming— She was also under the Curse's Technique! Only Singularity, only the immunity to any and all Cursed Energy prevented me from flailing into the same trap! What was she seeing, who was she aiming for?! Fuck, fuckfuckfuck could I trust, Mai's judgement, too see through the Curse instantly without any real understanding?! It had to be said to be understood, even if it was said no one would understand. Fuckfuckfuck, everyone was compromised, everyone was marked, everyone was deaddeaddead.
I was spiraling. Panic. Hyperventilation, the tightness in my lungs, Arakawa Reiko flashing before my eyes, hallucinations, my brain fighting if it was Alive(Human) or Dead(Curse).
ETA to Kamo's end. 57 seconds.
Cold rationality and that slapped me back into a semi-functioning state. What did I have at my disposal? What could I use? My Cursed Technique could be applied to someone else, not myself, in Singularity's unbreakable rules. Therefore the Application of Phase Shift could be used— Reactive armor on my feet, rocket myself at the sacrifice of my feet and future speed to reach? Too unstable, too prone to crippling damage that would reduce my ability to get to Kamo and Itadori even faster. Utauken? I could propel it again, Singularity did not prevent me from applying Cursed energy reinforcement to something else, launching it like a javelin at the Curse may kill it, but with everyone in the way, human hostages as its' ablative armor, I'd kill at least half a dozen people and would still not be able to reach Kamo in time. Same goes for Phase Shift, and the cursed energy in the air was only slightly thicker due to the recent fight between Naoya and me and Kamo's blood manipulation. Too spread out, too evenly dispersed. If I was not careful, I would just explode both of them and kill them even faster.
Additionally, I needed to spend even more time preventing Mai from shooting.
It could be done, it had to be possible, it had to fucking be possible! Just because I could not see it as of right now, did not mean it was impossible! Please. Please Pleaseplease.
56 seconds.
While one part of brain descended into blind animal flight, the other fought , analyzing everything before my eyes with perfect detachment. In these two extremes, something in me frayed ever further.
Singularity, Phase Shift, Disruption, these were the only tools I had at my disposal. The things arrayed against the future of Kamo surviving. The Curse, it's mind-whipped villagers, Itadori removing his hand or being further manipulated by the curse to attack me if I moved, Mai's bullet hitting either me or Kamo or Itadori's head. She never missed.
…(s)he was going to die. Again.
Me; who had been given this Cursed technique incredibly suited to kill Curses, losing everything to a Curse. A natural Curse-killer.
Distantly, I realized the stages of grief were already hitting me. Somewhere, somewhen, I accepted Kamo was going to die. In my mind… I had already failed. The only thing left to do… was to realize the future as envisioned.
55 seconds. 54. 53, 52, 51—
At that moment...
I had the strangest thought. A question bubbled in the depths of who Hikigaya Hachiman was. A question that needed no answer, but I asked one of it, regardless. In the dark corners of my mind, in the recesses that were not being filled to the brim with failing and useless plans, they were said and even if they went unheard, they still existed. Could not be ignored.
Was this, really my Cursed Technique?
Resonance. My Cursed technique, the name I had chosen to throw it into faces of monkeys long turned to ash. The catalyst for change, the evolution of cursed energy despite inevitable death and self-immolation. An open palm, a clawed hand filled with flame.
Singularity. My Cursed Technique Reversal, an inviolable world consisting of only myself. A monument to the ego and the hope of nothing changing, an inhibitor. Normalcy. A stolen breath, the inverse: spoken words without action.
At the edge of despair, at the brink of a panic attack, at the edge of something like madness, where I had been stretched thin to the point of splitting apart at the seams for days on end, night and days spent without sleep, forcing myself into good health by abusing Singularity and cursed energy reinforcement without even a minor consideration for the ever increasing mental strain, an uninterrupted consciousness frazzled and sticky with hormones begging for me to sleep, cortisol up to the drowning point, melatonin like I needed it to dream. Where I had been nearly killed. At the end of illusions…
Hikigaya Hachiman grasped something that should not be.
Time fell away.
The words came naturally, impossibly easy as if they had been waiting for me to say them all this time. A secret told only to me, whispered into my ear each and every time I searched, agonized, struggled, and wished for but did not accept an answer. The words engraved themselves into the world and asked all to listen.
"Black and White Koi Fish." Resonance in both hands. "The Musician and the Blackbird." Singularity realized in the stillness. "Painful Truth." They collided. At the moment of impact, I understood Cursed Energy, all its unnatural beauty and all its human ugliness. So with that I solemnly swore, "Reform and Rest."
I promised, vowing to the world, binding a truth that I had decided for myself.
"Imaginary Technique: Horizon."
In between my palms, there rested a feeble light. And yet it reached everything, casting long shadows and in their shade, Cursed Energy fluttered in the air, like the most beautiful purple butterflies. Visible to everyone. I saw it all. I witnessed, a spectator to my own impossible technique, knowing now that I reached it, it faded from my understanding and the beautiful epiphany I had glimpsed in the light disappeared from my memory.
I would summon it again and again, but that answer would be gone.
A red eye opened, a Curse looked upon that light with frozen wonderment, Sukuna stopped grinning, Kamo smiled, Itadori wept, and Mai laughed.
That impossible, colorless light floated away from my hands, and enveloped Zen'in Mai. By colliding my Cursed Technique and my Cursed Technique Reversal, I created impossibility into reality. First, my Cursed Technique: Resonance altered your Cursed Energy to match the Cursed Energy. All the Cursed Energy existing in you, others, and the world itself. Second: my Cursed Technique Reversal: Singularity made that the perfect natural state, reinforcing the paradox of you existing the same as the World and being separate at the same time. Allowing you to exist and use the cursed energy that stretched beyond what your eye could see and enforce a will on it all.
Therefore.
Hikigaya Hachiman could not save Kamo Noritoshi, not as he was currently, not with the way he was now, jailed by Singularity's stasis and even with a nearly effectually infinite reserve of cursed energy. That would not change.
My cursed technique, my cursed technique reversal, they were always abilities I redirected onto myself. But in truth: They had always meant to affect those beyond me.
So, I made someone else do it for me.
Mai stepped forward.
Freed from both her limited Cursed Energy and the Curse's manipulation, with a sweep of her hand, all the Cursed Energy besides me instantly vanished, purple butterflies collapsing into Mai's 'self'. And a gentle snow fell from the sky.
Snow in spring. I looked up. Felt it settle soft on my skin.
Then the villagers began falling to what could only be a sleeping drug based on skin contact — A distortion, a vivid blue-purple-black sphere of energy created with such an immense quantity of cursed energy it seemed to be its very own kind of black hole. A black hole snapping shut with a soundless cry and where it had been… another Utauken materialized above Kamo, before taking on a familiar feeling. My own Cursed Energy, my own Cursed Energy Reversal ready in its blade.
Mai let out a sweet laugh, almost just as surprised as I was. But with Imaginary Technique: Horizon. That too was possible. Or should I say, the combination of Horizon and Construction.
The blade fell.
As the edge nicked Kamo's skin and Itadori instinctively pulled out his hand from Kamo's chest, I saw the flesh and bones regrow back into place, melted and diseased skin returning to clear health. The first breath of rebirth, the shaky and messy cough of someone that should have died, finding out that, impossibly, they yet lived.
Then the second katana imbued with my Cursed Energy Reversal stabbed into Itadori's foot. His skin shivered, and in an encroaching wave of renewal, came upon the wounded and splitting disease-struck skin and devoured it. He stood taller, he stopped shaking and he fell to his knees in terrible, terrified relief. The third sword impaled into the blind mother's hands, the fourth and fifth into So-tan and Takeru, and sixth, seventh, a nigh endless amount of perfect recreations of my Cursed Tool—
Purple-black butterflies died in masse, cursed energy forming a whirlpool that swallowed the entire village in a hurricane of frenzy. We were in the epicenter of a storm. The eye of a disaster in the shape of a miracle.
What did it feel like to stand next to an impossible vast, impossibly fast swirl and unbelievable consumption of cursed energy? It felt like standing on the edge of a skyscraper and staring down into the stretch of everything beneath you. It felt like staring into light falling into black hole… It felt like staring into a crowd of people and seeing someone staring back at you.
She was drawing a ridiculous amount of Cursed Energy forth from the world, leaching it from beyond this village, mountain, the entire surrounding area, maybe even the prefecture itself, to fuel her Technique over and over again.
Mai said, quietly. "Giving me this, Hachiman… That's just ridiculous. What can I even do to repay you?" She sounded both impossibly happy and still that inescapable wonderment like a child seeing the blue sky after rain. She took a breath. "It's nothing, not even scraps comparatively, but let me give you this; I'll explain to you the truth of Construction."
Revealing your hand as well? Just how much were you shackled by Heavenly Restriction?
"It should be called Infliction and Forging in truth. Cursed energy cannot create, so how can I construct a bullet, how can I make all this?" She asked, and answered. "It's Reversed Cursed Energy. Nothing else. My Cursed Technique then… My Cursed Technique forms Curses."
Your Cursed Technique, if it created you or if you decided it, it defined you indelibly. Like a law that cannot be changed, you and your cursed technique created the reality you saw and forced it to make sense.
Sukuna disagreed from Itadori's cheek, forehead, hands, everywhere he could form a mouth. Shouting with all that same awed voice. "That is impossible. This… is all impossible! Yoruzu could not do that. Never. " Undisguised hunger lingered on us, a possessive glint to his eye, and even as he refused to believe it, Sukuna similarly failed to stop the desire, layering his voice thick. Not even Sukuna could deny the reality before him.
Mai curled her lip. "Don't compare me to that ancient savage. This is my Technique. No one else's." She looked back to me, eyes happy, and soft in the evening red blanketed by glittering snow. "So to make your cursed tool, Hachiman, I Inflicted a Curse of you and in the Forging, alloyed it to the weapon…. This is how Cursed Tools are made." She made a small noise, an involuntary chuckle. "Usually, it'd kill me to make one, having to use my own cursed energy to make one and all."
My eyes snapped to hers, wide and unblinking.
In response, she giggled, breathlessly. "Don't look so pained, Hachiman. I said usually, didn't I?" Her expression, her eyes crinkling, her hand to her mouth in surprised joy, an uncontrollable, indescribable feeling. Another epiphany, another enormity that hid behind a wickedly beautiful face. "Caring so much about me… you, idiot."
An insult that settled like a caress.
I looked at her, my breath catching in my throat as she stared at me, unburdened and unspeakably, painfully, genuine. She glanced back on the impaled slivers of steel and curses, as if to remind herself. She exhaled shakily and Mai finished her revelation.
"This is my Cursed Technique. This is who I am."
And as spears, bayonets, daggers, chains, and an endless fall of cursed steel descended onto the Curse, streaking across the sky like silver stars.
I let myself fall, my head landing on Mai's shoulder, my face bruised in her soft hair. Utterly drained, I, finally, finally let myself sleep.
…
…
The sky had at last begun dying.
Screaming with bloody hues of pretty red and endless crepuscular rays cascading, a dark orange picture bleeding into deeper purples. Shadows like long fingers stretched across the tiny clearing of this awful village, haloed by the falling sun. There, the nightmare conductor to this distorted orchestra, a tall curse stood, hunched in the middle of its weeping followers. It was almost as if it was gently guiding them, touching their backs with a fatherly hand.
Not far off. Bloodied and puckered skin, dotted with innumerable holes and almost melting off his bones, Kamo Noritoshi wheezed against the sloughing off his own mouth suffocating his airways.
One thing stood out, as clear as crystal, the hand of Itadori Yuji punching out Kamo's chest. The wet spray of arterial blood, the noise, a flash. The crush and piercing, the ugly pop. Shredded alveoli like confetti in the air, a clenched fist shiny.
The crushed, slightly betrayed, struck numb expression of Itadori Yuji as he stared at his own forearm, stained all the way down with his comrade's blood. The wide grin on his cheek laughing with something that sounded like hysteria but in truth could only be malice. Sukuna.
Time slowed as my brain, the strange and alien thing I had made it be, processed information faster and faster in inhuman, no, all-too-human rationality.
Singularity lasted for precisely 3 minutes and 27 seconds. The time it took for Arakawa Reiko to... And in those three minutes, and twenty seven seconds, I was inviolable, unchangeable, perfectly static against cursed techniques. I could not be changed and I would not be.
Which meant, right now, for the barest minute that Singularity had left, The Curse's Innate Technique didn't affect me, a Minute, 60 seconds, to save Kamo-san, a time processed in infinities to remove both Itadori Yuji and Kamo from the situation and disable them as they were clearly too affected by the Curse's technique to be able to fight properly.
Singularity did not remove mental strain, and shock, numb dissociation, had long set in— therefore, they'd be useless as of now.
That was okay. I was just as useless, the crowd of villagers, the people in my way, the non-sorcerers and the space between my destination and now, too far to cover in a single minute to apply my cursed technique reversal on Kamo Noritoshi before he died from shock. Not now without my cursed energy reinforcement, not without bursting myself to the point of breaking, just to reach.
Still, the only person I could depend on. Was myself and those behind me.
Kamo's Death, ETA. 59 seconds
The cocking back of a hammer behind me, the involuntary gasp, feminine, Mai. She was aiming—
What did I have? What could I use to save Kamo? Was I going to let another person die because of my negligence? Think! Don't shout at yourself, don't waste your precious time by thinking, just act! But without thinking I'd only throw myself uselessly into the problem and fail everyone. I needed to think. I needed to act. I needed to do both at a quickness that could not be human. I needed to change, become better, evolve, die. I needed everyone else to stay the same, to be my anchor, to live. Why, Why did I have to be distracted by Mai? Why did I waste time talking— no, the silence at that time... This had already happened, likely at the precise moment the Curse allowed Zen'in Naoya to die in favor of concentrating its efforts on Itadori and Kamo, brain death took approximately four minutes from oxygen deprivation, severe blood loss takes four minutes, keep that hand there Itadori Yuji! Don't you fucking move. Stand and Live. Subtract time from egregious skin failure and membrane separation from obvious disease on skin, none of that mattered.
Only a minute(ETA: 58 seconds) I had left to cross in order to apply Singularity on Kamo before the Curse manipulated what I saw. Only this time now.
Wait. Mai? The hammer cocked back, the aiming— She was also under the Curse's Technique! Only Singularity, only the immunity to any and all Cursed Energy prevented me from flailing into the same trap! What was she seeing, who was she aiming for?! Fuck, fuckfuckfuck could I trust, Mai's judgement, too see through the Curse instantly without any real understanding?! It had to be said to be understood, even if it was said no one would understand. Fuckfuckfuck, everyone was compromised, everyone was marked, everyone was deaddeaddead.
I was spiraling. Panic. Hyperventilation, the tightness in my lungs, Arakawa Reiko flashing before my eyes, hallucinations, my brain fighting if it was Alive(Human) or Dead(Curse).
ETA to Kamo's end. 57 seconds.
Cold rationality and that slapped me back into a semi-functioning state. What did I have at my disposal? What could I use? My Cursed Technique could be applied to someone else, not myself, in Singularity's unbreakable rules. Therefore the Application of Phase Shift could be used— Reactive armor on my feet, rocket myself at the sacrifice of my feet and future speed to reach? Too unstable, too prone to crippling damage that would reduce my ability to get to Kamo and Itadori even faster. Utauken? I could propel it again, Singularity did not prevent me from applying Cursed energy reinforcement to something else, launching it like a javelin at the Curse may kill it, but with everyone in the way, human hostages as its' ablative armor, I'd kill at least half a dozen people and would still not be able to reach Kamo in time. Same goes for Phase Shift, and the cursed energy in the air was only slightly thicker due to the recent fight between Naoya and me and Kamo's blood manipulation. Too spread out, too evenly dispersed. If I was not careful, I would just explode both of them and kill them even faster.
Additionally, I needed to spend even more time preventing Mai from shooting.
It could be done, it had to be possible, it had to fucking be possible! Just because I could not see it as of right now, did not mean it was impossible! Please. Please Pleaseplease.
56 seconds.
While one part of brain descended into blind animal flight, the other fought , analyzing everything before my eyes with perfect detachment. In these two extremes, something in me frayed ever further.
Singularity, Phase Shift, Disruption, these were the only tools I had at my disposal. The things arrayed against the future of Kamo surviving. The Curse, it's mind-whipped villagers, Itadori removing his hand or being further manipulated by the curse to attack me if I moved, Mai's bullet hitting either me or Kamo or Itadori's head. She never missed.
…(s)he was going to die. Again.
Me; who had been given this Cursed technique incredibly suited to kill Curses, losing everything to a Curse. A natural Curse-killer.
Distantly, I realized the stages of grief were already hitting me. Somewhere, somewhen, I accepted Kamo was going to die. In my mind… I had already failed. The only thing left to do… was to realize the future as envisioned.
55 seconds. 54. 53, 52, 51—
At that moment...
I had the strangest thought. A question bubbled in the depths of who Hikigaya Hachiman was. A question that needed no answer, but I asked one of it, regardless. In the dark corners of my mind, in the recesses that were not being filled to the brim with failing and useless plans, they were said and even if they went unheard, they still existed. Could not be ignored.
Was this, really my Cursed Technique?
Resonance. My Cursed technique, the name I had chosen to throw it into faces of monkeys long turned to ash. The catalyst for change, the evolution of cursed energy despite inevitable death and self-immolation. An open palm, a clawed hand filled with flame.
Singularity. My Cursed Technique Reversal, an inviolable world consisting of only myself. A monument to the ego and the hope of nothing changing, an inhibitor. Normalcy. A stolen breath, the inverse: spoken words without action.
At the edge of despair, at the brink of a panic attack, at the edge of something like madness, where I had been stretched thin to the point of splitting apart at the seams for days on end, night and days spent without sleep, forcing myself into good health by abusing Singularity and cursed energy reinforcement without even a minor consideration for the ever increasing mental strain, an uninterrupted consciousness frazzled and sticky with hormones begging for me to sleep, cortisol up to the drowning point, melatonin like I needed it to dream. Where I had been nearly killed. At the end of illusions…
Hikigaya Hachiman grasped something that should not be.
Time fell away.
The words came naturally, impossibly easy as if they had been waiting for me to say them all this time. A secret told only to me, whispered into my ear each and every time I searched, agonized, struggled, and wished for but did not accept an answer. The words engraved themselves into the world and asked all to listen.
"Black and White Koi Fish." Resonance in both hands. "The Musician and the Blackbird." Singularity realized in the stillness. "Painful Truth." They collided. At the moment of impact, I understood Cursed Energy, all its unnatural beauty and all its human ugliness. So with that I solemnly swore, "Reform and Rest."
I promised, vowing to the world, binding a truth that I had decided for myself.
"Imaginary Technique: Horizon."
In between my palms, there rested a feeble light. And yet it reached everything, casting long shadows and in their shade, Cursed Energy fluttered in the air, like the most beautiful purple butterflies. Visible to everyone. I saw it all. I witnessed, a spectator to my own impossible technique, knowing now that I reached it, it faded from my understanding and the beautiful epiphany I had glimpsed in the light disappeared from my memory.
I would summon it again and again, but that answer would be gone.
A red eye opened, a Curse looked upon that light with frozen wonderment, Sukuna stopped grinning, Kamo smiled, Itadori wept, and Mai laughed.
That impossible, colorless light floated away from my hands, and enveloped Zen'in Mai. By colliding my Cursed Technique and my Cursed Technique Reversal, I created impossibility into reality. First, my Cursed Technique: Resonance altered your Cursed Energy to match the Cursed Energy. All the Cursed Energy existing in you, others, and the world itself. Second: my Cursed Technique Reversal: Singularity made that the perfect natural state, reinforcing the paradox of you existing the same as the World and being separate at the same time. Allowing you to exist and use the cursed energy that stretched beyond what your eye could see and enforce a will on it all.
Therefore.
Hikigaya Hachiman could not save Kamo Noritoshi, not as he was currently, not with the way he was now, jailed by Singularity's stasis and even with a nearly effectually infinite reserve of cursed energy. That would not change.
My cursed technique, my cursed technique reversal, they were always abilities I redirected onto myself. But in truth: They had always meant to affect those beyond me.
So, I made someone else do it for me.
Mai stepped forward.
Freed from both her limited Cursed Energy and the Curse's manipulation, with a sweep of her hand, all the Cursed Energy besides me instantly vanished, purple butterflies collapsing into Mai's 'self'. And a gentle snow fell from the sky.
Snow in spring. I looked up. Felt it settle soft on my skin.
Then the villagers began falling to what could only be a sleeping drug based on skin contact — A distortion, a vivid blue-purple-black sphere of energy created with such an immense quantity of cursed energy it seemed to be its very own kind of black hole. A black hole snapping shut with a soundless cry and where it had been… another Utauken materialized above Kamo, before taking on a familiar feeling. My own Cursed Energy, my own Cursed Energy Reversal ready in its blade.
Mai let out a sweet laugh, almost just as surprised as I was. But with Imaginary Technique: Horizon. That too was possible. Or should I say, the combination of Horizon and Construction.
The blade fell.
As the edge nicked Kamo's skin and Itadori instinctively pulled out his hand from Kamo's chest, I saw the flesh and bones regrow back into place, melted and diseased skin returning to clear health. The first breath of rebirth, the shaky and messy cough of someone that should have died, finding out that, impossibly, they yet lived.
Then the second katana imbued with my Cursed Energy Reversal stabbed into Itadori's foot. His skin shivered, and in an encroaching wave of renewal, came upon the wounded and splitting disease-struck skin and devoured it. He stood taller, he stopped shaking and he fell to his knees in terrible, terrified relief. The third sword impaled into the blind mother's hands, the fourth and fifth into So-tan and Takeru, and sixth, seventh, a nigh endless amount of perfect recreations of my Cursed Tool—
Purple-black butterflies died in masse, cursed energy forming a whirlpool that swallowed the entire village in a hurricane of frenzy. We were in the epicenter of a storm. The eye of a disaster in the shape of a miracle.
What did it feel like to stand next to an impossible vast, impossibly fast swirl and unbelievable consumption of cursed energy? It felt like standing on the edge of a skyscraper and staring down into the stretch of everything beneath you. It felt like staring into light falling into black hole… It felt like staring into a crowd of people and seeing someone staring back at you.
She was drawing a ridiculous amount of Cursed Energy forth from the world, leaching it from beyond this village, mountain, the entire surrounding area, maybe even the prefecture itself, to fuel her Technique over and over again.
Mai said, quietly. "Giving me this, Hachiman… That's just ridiculous. What can I even do to repay you?" She sounded both impossibly happy and still that inescapable wonderment like a child seeing the blue sky after rain. She took a breath. "It's nothing, not even scraps comparatively, but let me give you this; I'll explain to you the truth of Construction."
Revealing your hand as well? Just how much were you shackled by Heavenly Restriction?
"It should be called Infliction and Forging in truth. Cursed energy cannot create, so how can I construct a bullet, how can I make all this?" She asked, and answered. "It's Reversed Cursed Energy. Nothing else. My Cursed Technique then… My Cursed Technique forms Curses."
Your Cursed Technique, if it created you or if you decided it, it defined you indelibly. Like a law that cannot be changed, you and your cursed technique created the reality you saw and forced it to make sense.
Sukuna disagreed from Itadori's cheek, forehead, hands, everywhere he could form a mouth. Shouting with all that same awed voice. "That is impossible. This… is all impossible! Yoruzu could not do that. Never. " Undisguised hunger lingered on us, a possessive glint to his eye, and even as he refused to believe it, Sukuna similarly failed to stop the desire, layering his voice thick. Not even Sukuna could deny the reality before him.
Mai curled her lip. "Don't compare me to that ancient savage. This is my Technique. No one else's." She looked back to me, eyes happy, and soft in the evening red blanketed by glittering snow. "So to make your cursed tool, Hachiman, I Inflicted a Curse of you and in the Forging, alloyed it to the weapon…. This is how Cursed Tools are made." She made a small noise, an involuntary chuckle. "Usually, it'd kill me to make one, having to use my own cursed energy to make one and all."
My eyes snapped to hers, wide and unblinking.
In response, she giggled, breathlessly. "Don't look so pained, Hachiman. I said usually, didn't I?" Her expression, her eyes crinkling, her hand to her mouth in surprised joy, an uncontrollable, indescribable feeling. Another epiphany, another enormity that hid behind a wickedly beautiful face. "Caring so much about me… you, idiot."
An insult that settled like a caress.
I looked at her, my breath catching in my throat as she stared at me, unburdened and unspeakably, painfully, genuine. She glanced back on the impaled slivers of steel and curses, as if to remind herself. She exhaled shakily and Mai finished her revelation.
"This is my Cursed Technique. This is who I am."
And as spears, bayonets, daggers, chains, and an endless fall of cursed steel descended onto the Curse, streaking across the sky like silver stars.
I let myself fall, my head landing on Mai's shoulder, my face bruised in her soft hair. Utterly drained, I, finally, finally let myself sleep.
…
