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Timeskip: 1 year
Currently, in a slightly isolated area of Zenin clan, Naoya stood alone in the middle of the ground. His eyes were closed in deep concentration.
He formed some hand signs as his shadow darkened.
"Cupcake, Frosting" called Naoya as the two wolves jumped out of his shadow.
"Maou. Be on standby, call the army." said Naoya.
The rabbit peeked out of his shadow and gave a salute, and in an instant the entire area around him was filled with rabbits.
"Everyone ready?" asked Naoya.
The rabbits gave a salute in affirmation, while the wolves barked.
Naoya gave a final nod and formed a hand seal.
[Ten Shadows Technique: Exorcism Ritual: Toad]
The surroundings around him darkened as Naoya felt cursed energy gathered around him.
Soon a chained figure of a large toad appeared in front of them and before he could even be unchained the entire demon army jumped upon the toad.
A minute later the giant toad dematerialized into cursed energy.
"...That was underwhelming. Well, better safe than sorry." muttered Naoya gaining new information about his new shikigami.
Ding~
>Gain 3 shikigami(+1 point)[Collect]
Naoya dismissed the notification and formed a seal once again summoning his new shikigami.
[Toad]
A huge orange toad materialized in front of him. {His shikigami look different from Megumi's}
*Ribbit*
The toad croaked towards its new master.
"A chonky boi." muttered Naoya and patted the toad's head.
*Ribbit*
The toad croaked in happiness.
"Should we name you too? What would be a good name for you?"
After thinking for a bit Naoya smiled.
"How about Twister. Because you have a long and strong tongue, so you can be tounge twister." said Naoya.
As if responding to Naoya the toad shot out it tongue in the air and twisted it into a knot before unwinding it and pulling it back in.
"Worthy of your name." said Naoya with a chuckle.
"Alright guys, considering that we did the last one too easily, how about doing it once again with a different shikigami?" asked Naoya.
All the shikigami replied in affirmation as Naoya got back on his feet.
He checked for Shisui that was resting on his waist and nodded. This time the shikigami might be dangerous so he was not gonna be underprepared considering that he cannot use projection sorcery during the exorcism ritual or the ritual will be cancelled.
Naoya gave a final nod to his shikigami and formed a hand seal.
[Ten Shadows Technique: Exorcism Ritual: Great Serpent]
Cursed energy gathered once again as a chained figure of a snake materialized in front of them.
It was a big shikigami.....maybe too big.
[Exorcism Ritual: Cancel]
Not even thinking twice, Naoya cancelled the ritual. The snake was too big for him to consider fighting. He didn't know whether it was strong or it was just huge, but he still decided to let the shikigami be for now. He will deal with that later, once he got stronger.
"Alright guys pack up." called Naoya as one by one all the shikigami jumped back into his shadow.
Naoya sighed in relief, and then called upon to his system.
'System.'
Ding~
____________________
Name: Naoya Zenin
Title: Body Stealer, Possible Zenin Heir
Cursed Technique: Ten Shadows Technique (Active) / Projection Sorcery (Inactive)
Cursed Energy: 3250/3350
STR: 83 (+31)
DEX: 67 (+29)
VIT: 98 (+32)
INT: 93 (+23)
LUK: 33 (+8)
Extra Points: 4
Achievements: More(+)
_____________________
Naoya clicked on the achievements tab and collected the extra point that he got just now, making it increase from 4 → 5.
Looking back on his stats once again Naoya decided to allocate his points.
____________________
Name: Naoya Zenin
Title: Body Stealer, Possible Zenin Heir
Cursed Technique: Ten Shadows Technique (Active) / Projection Sorcery (Inactive)
Cursed Energy: 3250/3350
STR: 85 (+2)
DEX: 67
VIT: 100 (+2)
INT: 93
LUK: 34 (+1)
Extra Points: 0
Achievements:
_____________________
Ding~
>Have 1 stat equal 100 (+10% potential increase)[Collect]
>Increase VIT to 100 (+10% resistance to poisons, diseases, status conditions, body damage)[Collect]
Naoya blinked in surprise. These type of rewards, he hasn't seen before.
'Potential increase? What does it do?' thought Naoya not understanding.
The second reward he somewhat understood.
Deciding to collect the rewards since usually explaination fills his head after getting the rewards.
And just as he guessed the explaination entered his head.
Potential increases his body's natural ability to improve in a particular field. Like suppose his body could only reach 200 STR without the help of extra points, then now his body could reach upto 220 STR without extra points.
The amazing thing about this was that it was not limited to stats, every aspect of him gained that 10% increase, be it talent in a particular field, like singing dancing, swimming, etc. everything's limits increased by that 10%. He just need to work for that talent to improve since those things didn't increase like stats by adding extra points.
The second reward was easier to understand but still it was good. Taking less damage and resistance from passive detrimental effects was a good thing.
Naoya smiled and then decided to go and take his bath, since dinner time was approaching.
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The dinner was rather weird today, probably because for the first time his father was not there to eat with him.
The servants informed him that Naobito was busy with clan affairs, making the boy nod in understanding.
Naobito's absence meant that Naoya could slack off a little on his manners and discipline and eat in peace which the young glutton enjoyed very much.
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Done with the dinner, Naoya came back to his room and went straight to his shelf. There stood a game and a cartridge with "P*kem*n Red written on it.
After booting up the game Naoya decided to play for a while. This was a new source of entertainment for Naoya that Satoru introduced him to and boy did he loved it. Not only was it fun, but...
"There!" exclaimed Naoya throwing a ball at the mon in the game.
The ball opened and started shaking and because of his impatience Naoya started spamming the B button.
"Caught it!" Naoya exclaimed.
Ding~
>Catch 100 P*kem*n (+1 point)[Collect]
Playing games gained him achievement points as well. This was something that made games even more appealing to Naoya.
"Great, next time I meet Satoru, I will get the exclusives from his version and have my dex complete." muttered Naoya.
He could see that the next milestone for him was to complete the dex to gain the next achievement point, which needed for him to have the other copy. Lucky for him Satoru was there.
After playing for a bit longer, Naoya looked at the clock in his room and sighed.
His time for training with Toji has come.
After saving a game like a responsible person {unlike me} Naoya closed it and changed into his training clothes once again.
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In the training area where he usually trained with Toji, Naoya stood there for half an hour but there were no signs of the man himself.
"Is he not coming today?" muttered Naoya.
"Runt..." called Toji announcing his arrival.
Naoya looked at him and widened his eyes in surprise. Today Toji was in a different getup. Usually he came in his yukata but today he was in a T-shirt and baggy pants, and brought along with him a real weapon, instead of a wooden one.
"Nii-san?"
"...today we will have a special session. I will fight you seriously today. Your goal is simple. Survive for 10 minutes....or make me surrender." said Toji in a serious tone.
"What's happening nii-san? You are acting col-"
Before Naoya could continue Toji already launched at him making Naoya jump back as well to avoid the sword that was inches away from hitting him.
Activating his Projection Sorcery, Naoya wasted no time and used to move as far away from Toji as possible.
During this 1 year, his projection sorcery was finally on par with his father's. He could now move at 24 frames per second. Naoya was now unofficially the fastst sorcerer in the jujutsu world.
Once he gained some distance, Naoya switched his technique to bring Shisui out of his shadow before he switched back to Projection Sorcery.
Ten Shadows as versatile as it was, against a Toji this serious will do nothing.
Knowing that, Naoya's only viable option was his projection sorcery to move around and avoid Toji's attack since while using it, he was faster than Toji in pure speed.
Toji stopped moving already guessing what the brat was thinking.
Not wasting any moment he pressed the ground a little harder as cracks started to appear around him and the stones on the ground were flung up.
Using his leg, Toji kicked the stones around firing them like bullets, that were causing massive damage to where ever they hit.
Naoya who could see the incoming stone bullets thanks to his cursed technique, immediately jumped far up to avoid them.
Toji however planned that, and took out a gun with a silencer attached to it and fired at Naoya.
Seeing the real bullets, Naoya's eyes widened as he switched his curse techniques and formed a shadow around him that swallowed the bullets, causing no damage to him.
But that moment was all it took Toji to appear in front of Naoya who looked at the man with a panicked look on his face.
Toji still with his cold expression swung the sword at Naoya who used Shisui, enhanced with his cursed energy to block the hit.
*BOOM*
A thunderous boom occured and Naoya was launched at full speed towards the nearby building.
Seeing the fast approaching structure, Naoya was fast enough to summon the demon army to cushion some of his damage.
"Ouch! Wha-"
Naoya was about to complain, but Toji stood in front of him like a reaper, with his sword raised.
With no time to move Naoya summoned more rabbit that launched out of his shadow and raised him up in the sky like a pillar.
Though Toji caught his leg mid air and threw him back on the ground with full force.
'He is not allowing me to change techniques!' thought Naoya, understanding what Toji's plan was.
Naoya cursed at seeing the fast approaching ground, he could already imagine the pain that he will feel if he fell, just like that.
However, Naoya called Twister out from the shadows that wrapped it's tongue on his leg before swinging him away.
Toji still in midair was not able to pursue Naoya just yet since he hand no footing to launch his body from.
Landing on the building's roof, Naoya switched his technique once again cancelling his summons and used projection sorcery to appear beside Toji and touching his body to suspend him in the frame.
Still being airborn Toji, couldn't move at 24 frames per second.
That's what Naoya thought...
Toji's hands moved rapidly to strike Naoya.
Seeing those movements Naoya got shocked and covered his body in denser cursed energy.
"AH!" screamed Naoya as pain coursed through his body, all of Toji's strikes landed on him and sent Naoya crashing through a tree that broke and fell.
"Never expect your opponent cannot do something. Specially when he is stronger than you." said Toji as he landed and walked towards Naoya who was now stuck under te tree.
"I surrender nii-san! Spare me!" yelled Naoya in pain.
"Someone who is after your life won't stop just because you surrender." said Toji as he stood in front of Naoya and raised his sword to finish him.
Seeing his indifferent gaze, Naoya felt a shiver pass through his spine.
"Show me how you survive." ordered Toji and swung his blade.
Naoya who had changed his cursed technique summoned the rabbits to fill the space between the ground and the tree, lifting it from top of him setting Naoya free, however the blade didn't stop just because of that.
It cleaved through the rabbits, and was about to slice Naoya, but suddenly his figure disappeared from Toji's sight.
Toji blinked in surprise. He looked around, but saw no one in sight. It was as if Naoya disappeared.
"Runt?" called Toji.
But no response came.
Toji looked around trying to sense the kid but couldn't feel a thing.
"Oi kid! Where are you? Come out. Ten minutes are up." but no voice responded.
Toji was lying trying to bait the kid but that didn't work.
It was also not as if the kid had died since the rabbits were moving around him looking at him with caution.
Finally once the ten minutes were over, Toji sighed and unsheathed his sword and gave a clap.
"It finally over kid. This time for real. Come out now." said Toji and looked around to find the trace of the kid.
"Boo!" Naoya yelled near Toji's ear taking the man by surprise who immediately swatted him away making Naoya roll around in pain.
"What the hell?!?! Why did you do that?" complained Naoya, he was already in pain and now he got hit again by Toji.
"Your fault for scaring me." said Toji in a deadpan tone, though he ws actually caught off guard for the first time in his life.
"Where were you?" asked Toji.
"Not telling you. If you don't know then it's my trump card. Also, I should not expose my tricks lest someone comes to kill me." said Naoya with a smirk.
"Smart kid. You learned well." replied Toji with a smirk as well.
Naoya was actually sunk in his shadow by mistake though in there he realized that he could move without any issues at all and merged with shadows of other things as well. So he decided to stay hidden inside the tree's shadow and by how Toji was not attacking him he knew that even Toji with his superhuman senses could not sense him while he was in the shadow realm.
"So what's the big deal today? You almost killed me today?!" complained Naoya.
"Hmph, thought I should test if you can handle your shit in times of emergencies. After all today is probably the last time that I will teach you the art of ass whooping." replied Toji.
This made Naoya look at Toji with surprise.
"What does that mean?" asked Naoya seriously.
Toji looked up at the night sky with an indifferent gaze.
"I am leaving the clan." said Toji.
"...Why?" asked Naoya in disbelief.
"The clan finally decided to cut off my support, so from now on, no freeloading on this shitty place. I need to earn my own money plus I need a place to stay as well." replied Toji.
Naoya didn't know that.
"Should I ask my father to help mediate this situation. Maybe we can extend it for a while or I can ask them to appoint you at some position." asked Naoya.
"Relax kid. This is the Zenin clan, they won't spare a single coin on me if they have already decided to do so. It's not a big deal, I was planning to leave this shitty place for quite some time now." replied Toji.
His gaze then settled on Naoya, "Though I guess, I overstayed because I found something interesting." said Toji with a smile.
Naoya's eyes were already filling with tears.
"Don't go nii-san...if you are gone, how will you see the chaos within the clan." asked Naoya.
"Heh, that's indeed a shame." replied Toji.
"Work hard runt. I've ingrained some of my teachings within you but that doesn't mean you should slack off just because I am go-"
Before Toji could finsh Naoya was already hugging him and crying.
"Damn kid, crying over me....I guess you really were interesting." said Toji.
"Don't go." called Naoya in between his sobs. Toji was probably the one of closest person to him in the clan, his father was there but seeing Toji leave made him feel sad.
"I have to...." replied Toji as he placed his hand on Naoya's head.
This made Naoya cry even more, knowing full well that Toji's mind was not going to change.
"Naoya..."
For the first time, Toji called him by his name.
"...become strong, and grow well. Be different from the bastards of the clan. Study well, if possible go to school and make friends...." said Toji in a calm tone.
For the first time in his life Toji felt sad leaving about the thought of leaving the clan.
He continued to give advice to the crying Naoya for a while and then without another word, Toji turned and walked toward the gate. His figure faded into the darkness, leaving Naoya standing there, tears streaming down his face.