Chapter 97: That Little Bit of Cursed Tools Should Be Enough, Right?
Is it a little too unreasonable? Of course, Emiya doesn't deny that.
But this is combat. Real combat won't have much rationality or predictability.
One-on-one situations are one thing, but one-against-many or many-against-many is completely different.
The relatively stronger side can definitely find the opponent's weak point for a breakthrough, and the relatively weaker side might concentrate their strength at a key moment to turn the tables.
It means that what just happened—a teammate being 'killed' while the comrades completely failed to react—is entirely possible.
A character's death without warning is absolutely a ridiculous move in fiction, but the real world is even more ridiculous than that.
The Sorcerers who lost their lives in battles with Cursed Spirits couldn't predict the day they would meet misfortune. Their friends and family might have been talking about future plans with them up until that day.
Unfortunately, the dead no longer have a future.
If a sacrifice is made out of necessity to protect a comrade, that's one thing. But a sacrifice caused by carelessness, like just now... doesn't that make it completely meaningless?
"Tch, what kind of surprise attack is that?" Maki Zen'in, knowing she was at fault, retracted her naginata.
At least after several days of Emiya's instruction, the students didn't rush to argue when reprimanded. Instead, they immediately thought about their mistakes. Recognizing and reflecting on one's mistakes—that alone makes them better than most people.
"But Inumaki-kun, your Cursed Technique doesn't seem to affect your hands, and your physical abilities aren't bad... Have you considered specializing a bit more in using Cursed Tools?
After all, the side effects of Cursed Speech are quite noticeable. Releasing that reliance onto your body would be a lot easier, and it could also become a crucial combat power in critical moments."
"Salmon."
Faced with Emiya's suggestion, Toge Inumaki nodded very seriously, but the words he spoke were still in that unintelligible tone.
In fact, Inumaki's Cursed Technique is called Cursed Speech. He awakened this technique at a very young age, but because he couldn't control it and constantly hurt others, he gradually started communicating only using the names of rice ball ingredients.
Cursed Speech uses Cursed Markings on the mouth and tongue as a medium, allowing the spoken word to exert a binding force—the most common example being the ability to instantly halt an enemy's actions, as he just demonstrated on Emiya.
The side effect of this technique is that the greater the force used, the greater the damage to his throat and body, and the effectiveness is determined by the difference in Cursed Energy between him and the target.
Because of this characteristic, Inumaki himself rarely uses Cursed Speech excessively in combat, relying more on coordination with his teammates.
"Salmon? Let me think... that should mean agreement, right?"
Communicating with rice ball ingredients certainly prevents curses, but it does make it difficult for people to understand his meaning.
Fortunately, memorizing just a few rice ball flavors and their meanings is quite easy for Emiya. If all else fails, couldn't he just prepare every possible flavor of rice ball?
"Oh, wow, as expected of Emiya-sensei! You mastered the essence of 'rice ball language' so quickly?" Panda, standing nearby, naturally clapped its paws.
It sounds simple, but it took even him a great deal of effort to barely understand the meaning of each flavor back then.
"Don't think that haphazardly playing the straight man will make me overlook your performance just now. Standing still when you see your teammate being attacked is just too much slacking.
Hurry up, one more time!"
Emiya gave the students in the field another chance. This time, they couldn't counter their failure with the excuse of insufficient preparation.
Emiya didn't offer any verbal reminders, but the students quickly completed a relatively complete team division based on Megumi Fushiguro's analysis.
The largest member, Panda, would handle the frontal engagement. Maki Zen'in, who is best at using Cursed Tools, would be the secondary attacker, specifically looking for openings in the clash between the two.
Toge Inumaki and Nobara Kugisaki naturally became the support-type players in the back. After all, a chaotic scenario with too many people is actually detrimental to them, as they don't have the advantage in raw power.
As an Abnormal Cursed Corpse, Panda has no fatal point in the human sense. To completely incapacitate it, one must find and destroy the 'Cursed Energy Core' that serves as its heart. And this is Panda's most special trait—as a Cursed Corpse, it simultaneously possesses three Cursed Energy Cores.
According to its own explanation, apart from its core self, its body also contains an older brother and an older sister, with whom it can swap places at any time when needed.
For example, switching to the older brother core, which can make its size and strength surge simultaneously: the Gorilla Mode.
In this berserk state that disregards Cursed Energy consumption, Emiya could only temporarily avoid the brunt of the attack, constantly dodging and parrying Maki Zen'in's pincer attack while still thinking about how to make the opponent suffer an early casualty.
But just as he finally managed to temporarily escape the two vanguards and was preparing to attack Megumi Fushiguro, who was summoning his Divine Dogs, the latter gave him a surprise.
Fushiguro, with his hands suddenly clasped together, didn't actually summon a Shikigami, but instead pulled a blade from his shadow—
Clang!
The move was a little stiff but quite effective. Fushiguro successfully blocked Emiya's attack, pushing Emiya back into the encirclement.
"The shadow space can be used to store Cursed Tools... That's quite convenient.
However, Fushiguro-kun has certainly put in hard work in using Cursed Tools. Very good."
If Cursed Tools can greatly enhance a sorcerer's fighting style, why don't many sorcerers use them in battle much?
Cost and rarity are only part of the reason. More importantly, many sorcerers' Cursed Techniques are difficult to be compatible with Cursed Tools.
Most Cursed Techniques require the use of both hands to deploy, which is true for both Aoi Todo's Boogie Woogie and Megumi Fushiguro's Ten Shadows Technique.
To deploy a Cursed Technique, they can't use a Cursed Tool, and holding a Cursed Tool affects the release of the Cursed Technique—therefore, abandoning the development of one's own Cursed Technique to pursue the power of Cursed Tools is obviously not an option.
So, is Fushiguro's decision to fight using Cursed Tools wrong?
No, quite the opposite. Emiya thinks this matter is just right.
"Remember, a Cursed Technique is indeed a very important part of a sorcerer, but if you really want to improve yourself, you can't just focus on the Cursed Technique alone.
A Cursed Technique is merely a tool. The final purpose you achieve is still determined by yourselves.
By the way... Fushiguro-kun, is your shadow space large?" Emiya suddenly asked after seriously lecturing everyone.
"I haven't tested it specifically, but it should be about the size of a bedroom. However, even if it's turned into a shadow, the weight...
Excellent! Then I'll entrust these things to you first!"
Fushiguro didn't even get a chance to finish his sentence before Emiya suddenly ran to a nearby room and then returned with an entire basket full of weapons.
"Everyone needs to practice Cursed Tools, but applying for them one by one from the school is too much trouble... It just so happens that a little bit of what I forged myself should be fine for use.
As long as Fushiguro-kun carries them during the exchange event, won't you have absolutely no worries about weapons?"
Since Fushiguro has the shadow space, they can take the Cursed Tools out when they need to fight with them, and when they don't, they can instantly put them back to use their Cursed Techniques instead. Isn't that convenient?
Doesn't that instantly turn Cursed Tools from something cumbersome into the best secondary weapon?
"...Cursed Tools?!"
The other students hadn't quite grasped what was happening, but Maki Zen'in, who had already seen the Kikuichimonji Norimune before, was the first to rush forward, picking up and examining the blades in the basket.
"What's wrong, Maki-senpai? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Nobara Kugisaki leaned in and asked.
"These weapons... are all highly effective Cursed Tools..."
Maki Zen'in was at a complete loss for words to describe it.
Originally, even the Cursed Tools within the high school were quite limited. The movement and use of every single Cursed Tool had to be marked. Even Inumaki and the others could only temporarily borrow from her own personal supply if they wanted to use Cursed Tools.
But the ones laid out before them...
She couldn't promise exactly how many, but surely there were enough for everyone to have four or five to use, right?
"Huh? All of them?!"
Nobara Kugisaki's eyes widened, her gaze repeatedly shifting between Emiya and the basket full of blades.
Even the most ordinary Cursed Tool sells for at least half a billion Yen. Doesn't that mean...
"Are these all for us?"
"What, not enough? My forging speed has been a bit slow lately because I've been studying... Well, they should be fine for getting through this exchange event. We'll talk about the future later."
Emiya brought out these forged items so they could use them in the exchange event. If they were to fight powerful Cursed Spirits later, using only these slightly flawed products would definitely not be enough.
However, Emiya could feel that his forging skills had improved significantly in this time. He was confident it wouldn't take long to break the quality of these weapons into the next tier.
"R-really? Taking such a huge basket of Cursed Tools to the exchange event..."
"What are you afraid of? Fushiguro just said his shadow space can fit them, right? This way, whether it's the Cursed Spirit elimination competition or a direct battle, you'll have an advantage."
"T-truly..."
"Yay!" (×3 voices)
"Pickled roe."
Important Announcement! New Fanfifction
Cote: Daily Intelligence System
Shimizu Akira unexpectedly transmigrated into the world of "Classroom of the Elite," becoming an ordinary student in Class D.
Relying on the advantage of foresight thanks to his daily intelligence system, Shimizu Akira navigates between the various factions.
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