Hi guys, author here! Please share your thoughts in the comments and reviews. And if you like it, don't forget to drop some stones — they're a great motivator!
--------------------
"What are its abilities? Cursed Technique, physical prowess, etc.?" asked Naoya.
"He can form weapons from cursed energy. Turn terrain into weapons and has the usual Grade-1 level physical prowess. It can remotely control said weapons. It's currently an infant, so I don't think it knows much about its abilities to take full advantage of them," explained Haruto.
"Meaning he can have some other abilities that might be lying dormant..." muttered Naoya and focused back towards the place where the cruse was sent flying.
Naoya's eyes narrowed as he felt something coming towards them, and in that instant, a volley of flying, sharpened stones came flying towards the three sorcerers.
Mako stepped forward and activated his technique, intending to nullify the technique, however the moment the stones entered his technique's zone, they didn't turn to positive energy.
Understanding that the stones were not pure cursed energy, Mako clicked his tongue in annoyance and braced himself for the impact.
Naoya, however, had different plans. He trapped Mako in a frame and sent the frame flying while also dodging the stones with ease. Haruto was already out of the way of the attack and had already sent clones towards the cursed spirit.
Mako broke free from the frame and looked confused. He was in a different place and had sustained no injury at all. Still, the booming sound coming from the hole where the curse crashed through made him snap out of trance and look towards the source.
*BOOM*
In an instant, all the clones that rushed towards the cursed spirit were destroyed, and Haruto's head was full of hair.
Naoya and Haruto got serious, wanting to know what happened to the clones.
They soon got their answers when a volley of grenades came flying towards them.
"Shit!!!" cursed Haruto and made more clones from his hair and let them take the hit for him.
Naoya was already inside his shadows, out of harm's way.
*BOOM!!!*
All the grenades exploded simultaneously, causing a loud explosion that sent shrapnel flying in every direction.
"Dummies alive?"
The curse finally entered the room once again and looked around with a smile. Happy at the destruction caused by his weapons.
His gaze swept through the room and spotted Haruto and Mako, who were bleeding from various places that had been hit by shrapnel.
"Where is the weapon dummy?" asked Zankyo.
"Behind you."
Naoya emerged from a shadow behind the curse, trapped it in a frame and a second later, Mr. Hiss rushed out of his shadow and crashed through the frame, sending the curse flying.
The curse spat out some blood and felt pain all over its body.
It glared at Naoya hatefully and used its cursed technique to conjure weapons mid-air.
Swords, spears, arrows, firearms, and many other weapons materialised in the air, all pointing towards Naoya.
Naoya looked around, a bit worried. He could go into his shadow to dodge the attacks, but that would not help him in defeating the cursed spirit and would only stall time.
He needed to exorcise the curse as soon as possible since a sudden moment of realisation or awakening can alleviate the curse to the Special-Grade category.
[Nue]
The owl shikigami emerged out of Naoya's shadows and immediately charged up lightning and fired it towards the cursed spirit.
Zankyo, seeing the attack coming towards him, dodged the lightning bolt but failed his chance to fire the weapons towards Naoya.
Naoya, seeing that he was successful in delaying the attack, summoned [MaxMammoth] from his shadows as well and made it to attack the cursed spirit too.
Zankyo, angered by the continuous attacks raining down on him, slammed his fist on the ground and activated his cursed technique.
[Murder Reliquary]
The ground glowed with cursed energy, and gigantic swords made of concrete rose from the ground and formed a safe perimeter around him, protecting him from the lightning, while a multitude of the same gigantic concrete swords rose from the ground to slow down the pressurised jet of boiling water from the mammoth.
Naoya, seeing that he got an opportunity, used Frieza, the mammoth, as a stepping stone and jumped over the sword barriers to strike the curse.
The curse, as if anticipating it, smiled at Naoya and pointed his hand towards him, and soon the hand changed into a giant cannon that started charging up with cursed energy.
Feeling the amount gathering in the cannon, Naoya's arm glowed with cursed energy as he threw Shisui towards the curse that flew straight and stuck in the ground beside the curse.
"Your aim was bad!!!" exclaimed the curse as he looked towards the short sword and then looked towards Naoya, ready to blast the kid away.
However, once again, Naoya was not in his sight.
"And you are too slow," came Naoya's cold voice from beside as the curse turned around and saw Naoya emerging out of the blade's shadow and touching him with his cursed technique active, trapping the cursed spirit in a frame.
Naoya then took a stance, gathered as much cursed energy as he could in the time frame and struck the stuck cursed spirit, breaking the frame and severely damaging the cursed spirit.
Though this time, instead of sending it flying, Naoya activated his technique again and appeared above the cursed spirit and slammed his fist, along with Zankyo, into the ground, making a small crater in the area where the cursed spirit was struck.
"AHHH!!!"
The curse screamed in pain, its body hurting all over. However, Naoya didn't give him any rest, and with his already immense speed amplified by the [Projection Sorcery], Naoya started to rain down punches and kicks one after the other, making the crater deeper and deeper with each passing second.
Haruto and Mako looked at the scene with astonishment, Mako even remembering the beating he got from Naoya during the initiation ceremony and realising that he got scot-free when compared to the spirit.
However, their expressions suddenly turned grim when the ground glowed.
Naoya realised it as well and trapped Zankyo in a frame before jumping away from the curse.
But one look at the area around them made the sorcerers panic, as around them, the entire chamber was filled with explosives.
"RUN!!!!!" ordered Naoya, only to notice Haruto and Mako were already on the run, with Haruto summoning two Naobito clones that took him and Mako away using their watered-down [Projection Sorcery].
"Some Zenin pride these two have, leaving behind a kid!!!!" complained Naya as Nue's wings sprouted from his back as he used them with a combination of his own [Projection Sorcery] to escape the building
But 2 seconds were already up, and the curse was set free from the frame. The moment it noticed that Naoya was gone, he wasted no time and detonated all the explosives, causing a small earthquake and exploding the entire abandoned facility in an instant.
The sorcerers were not out of the effective range of such a huge explosion and were blown away by the force.
Haruto and Mako were somewhat safe because of Mako's technique; however, both of them were burned by the intense heat from the explosion and had their ears bleeding because of the loud explosion.
The damage was healing rapidly thanks to Mako, but the two were not sure how long and how many more of such attacks they could face.
Naoya was safe, already quite far up in the sky, though he couldn't see anything on the ground because of the smoke cloud.
"That was a suicidal attack? Did the curse decide to take itself out just to defeat us three?" muttered Naoya.
However, unlike the other two, Naoya didn't know that the curse's weapons didn't hurt the user themselves.
Zankyo, freed from continuous attacks, looked around, seeing the flames, smoke and destruction everywhere.
"This is what the true essence of weapons is. The chaos and destruction accompanied by the heat and the smell of smoke...the only thing it is missing is the red tint of blood," said Zankyo and relished in the destructive scenery made by him.
He placed his hand on the ground and let his cursed energy spread around. He sensed two humans, but the fast one with weapons was not there. Still, he needs to start from somewhere.
[Arsenal of Fear - Murder Reliquary]
Mako and Haruto, who were still in the middle of being healed, suddenly had their limbs impaled by metal swords.
The Weapon curse, which could only make weapons with cursed energy or the material available to him, was now freely able to make solid metal weapons out of thin air.
Haruto and Mako realised this as well, seeing the metallic swords that were not affected by Mako's technique at all.
The curse was starting to evolve.
Haruto gritted his teeth, and his hair shot out, and the clones appeared near them and broke the swords, freeing the two sorcers.
Zankyo felt that as well, but didn't think much of it. He was close to something; he could feel it. A new power was rising within him.
"CLOSE YOUR EARS!!!!!" came a loud warning from Naoya, surprising the other Zenins and even Zankyo.
Haruto and Mako followed the order immediately and shut their ears; however, two swords rose from the ground and sliced their arms off their bodies.
Blood spilled and the two sorcerers winced in pain.
The clones came to rescue as they shut off the ears of the sorcerers, while another one grabbed the fallen arms.
Naoya, who was still in the air, had a shadow rippling on his shoulders. From it, the Frostings' and Cupcake's head popped out, and Naoya immediately started charging the dogs with his cursed energy.
[Divine Dogs- Maximum Output Supersonic Screech]
Shaodos covered Naoya's ears, protecting him from the damage, and a second later, a strong blast of wind accompanied by a deafening screech came out of the dog's mouth, blowing all the smoke and fire away.
The ground cracked from the attack, blowing away the debris, making the entire field appear in clear sight to Naoya.
Naoya's gaze immediately landed on the curse that was damaged from the supersonic blast.
The curse inturn looked up towards Naoya and, with a warcry gathered a large amount of cursed energy in his body and slammed his hands together.
[Arsenal of Fear- Endless Murder Reliquary]
The cursed energy exploded out of the curse's body, and the entire sky was filled with weapons all locked on Naoya.
The attack was similar to what the curse tried to use on Naoya when they were still in the chamber, but this time, all these weapons were oozing an even greater amount of cursed energy than before. All of them were at least Grade-1 cursed tool level.
Naoya looked around and soon realised that he was surrounded.
Haruto and Mako looked at the scene in horror. There was literally no escape for Naoya.
"DIE!!!!" yelled the curse, and the volley of weapons, bullets and energy blasts rained down on Naoya.
The Zenin in question took a deep breath and took out his [Inverted Spear of Heaven] from his shadows and unsheathed the short sword.
"Fast as possible," muttered Naoya and focused solely on the incoming attacks.
He wasted no time in calculating the weapon trajectory and order and activated his [Projection Sorcery].
The moment the first weapon got close to Naoya, it got slashed apart by Shisui.
The second was destroyed by the Inverted Spear of Heaven.
One by one, each of the weapons raining down on Naoya got destroyed by his swift movements.
Zankyo looked at the scene of his weapons getting destroyed, but for some reason, he wasn't showing displeasure; he was in a trance. Lost at the sight of Naoya's swift and beautiful use of his weapons.
"...Beautiful....So beautiful....I need that beauty.....a weapon forged with that dummy. I WANT IT!!!!!!!!!" screamed Zankyo, and as if something snapped in him, he stopped moving.
The weapons slowed down a bit making Naoya enough time to spare a glance at Zankyo, only to realise something was wrong with him.
Haruto and Mako realised something was wrong as well, and immediately, a look of horror appeared on Haruto's face. He was still in the middle of getting his arms attached by Mako, but he got out of Mako's technique. Domain and used his cursed technique.
[Void Puppet- Kagenori Zenin]
Immediately, all the remaining cursed energy within Haurto got consumed, and a spectral Kagenori manifested from a hair strand. Haruto had stored it for emergencies, and it seemed like it was time to utilise it as well.
Naoya spotted the spectral Kagenori as well and wondered where he came from; his Grandpa was bald. Where did that hair strand come from?
The spectral Kagenori, without even being told, formed a shadow dragon and fired it towards the curse.
The curse simply glanced at it and pointed his hand towards the shadow dragon while still in a trance.
A cursed energy blast came from him and intercepted the dragon, nullifying the attack.
"I....need....more weapons..." muttered Zankyo and was enveloped in a cursed energy that started filling him up. Soon his body, which was starting to dip low on cursed energy, was full....more than full.
"So much power..." muttered Zankyo in amazement, feeling the power surging within him.
He looked up at Naoya destroying the last of his weapons, and pointed his finger at him.
"You! I am Zankyo! The manifestation of humanity's fear of weapons! What is your name?!" asked Zankyo.
Naoya took a deep breath, feeling a bit drained and replied, "Naoya."
"Naoya....REJOICE NAOYA, YOU WILL BECOME MY FIRST MASTERPIECE!!!!" yelled Zankyo and formed a hand sign.
[Domain Expansion - Grave of the Unsung Soldier]
Naoya, who was still in the ai,r suddenly found himself in a different location.
The entire world around him smelled like blood, and the ground was red with dried blood mixed in the soil.
"For god's sake, target the other two as well!!!!" complained Naoya and activated the anti-domain technique.
[Secret Art: Falling Blossom Emotion]
A thin layer of cursed energy covered him, cancelling the auto-hit effect of the domain.
Naoya was considering landing on the ground as it would provide him more mobility with his [Projection Sorcery], but the cursed spirit had made the entire ground a minefield.
Suddenly, Naoya's ears picked up a loud noise and spotted tanks and missiles approaching him.
Another second later, he was surrounded by machine guns aimed at him once again.
"...Shit."
"Naoya!!! Show me more of your beauty before I turn you into my craft!" demanded Zankyo.
"...I am not feeling safe with him alone," muttered Naoya and started moving as the bullets, tank shells, and missiles started raining down on him.
At first, he was able to neutralise the attacks, but the longer he fought back, the more weapons Zankyo formed and attacked Naoya with them. A few of them soon started to get past him and strike him as well, making Naoya resort to [RCT].
'Faster!' thought Naoya and increased his focus even more, actually going upto his 48 fps limit.
A stray missile suddenly hit him, exploding in his face, yet Naoya held on with determination to survive and live and [RCT].
'Faster!' complained Naoya, and decided to get even more serious.
[Binding Vow: I renounce my power to use my legs to halt things with my [Projection Sorcery]. In exchange, I want my technique to function in 0.5 seconds rather than 1.]
As if an imaginary shackle held onto his legs, Naoya felt his ability to stop things with his legs to be restrained. In return, the 48 frames per second speed of his technique changed to 48 frames in 0.5 seconds, effectively doubling his speed.
The sudden speed boost caught Zankyo off guard, and before he could form even more weapons to play with, he found Naoya already in front of him.
"DIE! YOU BASTARD!" yelled Naoya and stabbed the [Inverted Spear of Heaven] in the curse's chest, cancelling the domain and the technique.
"Naoya! Show me mo-" asked Zankyo in a feverish tone.
"Shut it, you pervert!!!" yelled Naoya, silencing the spirit and deciding to end him.
[Cursed Technique Reversal: Shadow Containment]
Shadows emerged from below Zankyo and grasped the cursed spirit before pulling him inside and tearing his body apart.
Zankyo tried to scream, but no voice came; the shadows made sure that no sound escaped outside.
Naoya looked at the cursed spirit struggling and sighed.
He finally slumped on the ground and looked towards the sky, feeling drained.
"You okay, little boss? Need a hand?" asked Haruto and offered one of Mako's chopped hands to Naoya.
"...I am in no mood for those jokes," retorted Naoya.
"...want mine instead?" asked Haruto, and this time offered one of his chopped hands.
"...Get healed and inform the jujutsu division to deal with the cleanup. Deal with the formalities. Let me rest," ordered Naoya.
"As you wish. Here, Mako, catch it," said Haruto and tossed Mako's hand to him.
The two sorcerers walked away, and once they were out of sight, Naoya sat up and looked at all the destruction that was caused by the cursed spirit.
"So this is what a cursed spirit around a Special Grade is capable of....a good addition," muttered Naoya and formed a hand seal.
[Zankyo]
His shadow expanded, and Zankyo's figure came out of the shadows and looked towards Naoya.
"Master," called Zankyo, though this time, instead of a cursed spirit, the one standing before Naoya was a shikigami.
"Bend down a bit."
Zankyo followed the order and bent down before a smack landed on his head.
"That's for actively targeting me. Now go back," ordered Naoya, still a bit pissed at the weapon curse.
"Understood," replied Zankyo and went back inside Naoya's shadow.