In the face of Kamo-Sensei's expectant gaze, I'm not really sure what to say. I mean, 'Let's talk Jujutsu,' is a pretty open-ended statement, what am I supposed to say to that? That's like when people say 'Tell me about yourself.' Like what do you want, my three sizes? My favourite colour? Which Ninja Turtle was my favourite?
Obviously it was Mikey. Anyone but Raphael really, fuck that guy. He was so mean for no reason.
"Well?" Kamo-Sensei presses, leaning forward with clear expectation, as if we are being reticent on purpose.
Evidently, Sukuna felt similarly on the subject.
"Were you perhaps dropped on your head as an infant? It'd explain a lot of things, least of all being that scar of yours."
Kamo-Sensei smiles mysteriously as Sukuna's words, one of his hands rising to gently brush against the long scar across his forehead.
"Pretty much!" Kamo-Sensei cheerfully agrees, his smile turning a touch reminiscent as his hand falls back down to his lap. "Though, I wasn't an infant at the time."
A brief snicker leaves him before his posture becomes animated again, and seeing that, I know before he opens his mouth that he's about to start acting like he's performing in a theatre again. My Sensei is really extra sometimes.
"A scary bad man made me fall! Kyaa~! Scary~!" Kamo-Sensei dramatically shivers and hugs himself while swaying side by side for a moment before his arms abruptly spread out wide and his grin grows. "My head popped open! Waaah~! How did this happen~! But I was alive! Yaaay! The scary bad man became good! Yippie! A stitch and a stich and the bits of me that fell out were all safe and sound once again! And then something amazing happened! I fell again! Oh no~! But this time, I knew how to stitch myself! Yay! I didn't need the scary bad man to save me! This time, I was the scary bad man! Ya-hoo~!"
Kamo-Sensei's exaggerated smile abruptly falls, his exuberant act fading away like so much smoke in the wind as his posture returns to normality as if the childish, excessive story telling was but a dream.
It kind of gives me a whiplash to see him change so quickly, but Kamo-Sensei just shrugs into the following silence with a faint, almost mocking—though I'm not sure who's being mocked—smile.
"Something like that, anyway."
Once again, I'm not really sure what to say. His 'story' isn't exactly very clear, but what I can gather is that he got the scar when he was younger and got hurt in an accident that likely wasn't actually an accident. I can only assume from what I know that someone—probably another Kamo in his clan—tried to kill him. It might have even been his own father, disappointed in his weakness or something.
That's only a guess though, since the part about him not dying makes me think that his Technique must have awoken on the verge of death. I've seen him use his Blood Manipulation to reattach severed limbs, so maybe he used his Technique to save himself and then whoever tried to kill him decided that he should live instead.
Less so from the rest of the story and more so from my understanding of Kamo-Sensei, I can only assume that the latter half of the story is to say that once he learned Reverse Cursed Technique he then went and killed whoever taught it to him.
Regardless of whether my interpretation of his story is accurate or not, what is clear enough is that it's a sad story.
So I do what is only natural and move to sit next to Kamo-Sensei and give him a hug.
"You're still too muscular for me to be sexually attracted to you, you know?" Kamo-Sensei says, immediately ruining the moment.
"I'm your student, don't be weird." I pull my arm back from the hug, but keep myself leaned shoulder to shoulder against him.
Kamo-Sensei laughs in my face, a single syllable of pure surprised amusement. "It's normal for students and teachers to have that kind of relationship you know~?"
"Haah? No it's—" I begin only to freeze. Right. Oldey times. I forgot. "Whatever. If you touch my butt I'll explode your arms."
He let's out another chuckle at my grouching. "Taking after Sukuna-kun~? My, aren't you just smitten~?"
We both lean to opposite sides simultaneously as a new gash opens in the wall behind us and we barely manage to keep our heads.
"Don't bring me into whatever the fuck this is," Sukuna glares.
"You think I want to be a part of this?" I pout at him as I complain. "Sensei is the one making it weird."
"You're the one that hugged me," Kamo-Sensei interjects smugly, and it's obvious that he's just playing around, which is why my annoyance is entirely friendly in turn.
"You did initiate," fucking Sukuna agrees, nodding sagely.
"What is it, gang-up-on-Narauko day? Just 'cuz you two can't fathom platonic affection doesn't mean I want to fuck this old, ugly, smelly, rotting hag with sagging skin and—"
"Oi!" Kamo-Sensei jumps in with shocked dismay, "What's with this sudden harassment!?"
"Twas just trying to make a faithful description~," I grin with faux innocence that doesn't hide my smirk.
"There's nothing faithful about that!" Kamo-Sensei complains in outrage.
Sukuna hums thoughtfully, a finger on his chin. "Aren't you older than dirt? I think it was a pretty faithful description."
"Oh you talk big for someone who used to cry about eating vegetables!" Kamo-Sensei immediately counters, full of offence and zero defence and by Yomi, what an offence it is.
"Hahaha, you cried about eating vegetables?!" I exclaim and both of them answer at the same time.
"No."
"Yes!"
Two guesses as to whose answer is whose.
Sukuna glares flatly back at our Sensei and me both. "I did not cry."
"You totally did~!"
The conspicuous absence of any Dismantles has me on edge with paranoia, but none seem forthcoming. That's nice.
"Your cooking is awful," Sukuna continues, oblivious to my suspicion.
"My cooking is amazing," Kamo-Sensei counters without modesty, before turning and slapping my shoulder with the back of his hand. "This guy's better though, otherworldly food is apparently way better than what we have around here."
"The fuck does that even mean?" Sukuna asks and I blink. Have I not told him? Wait who even knows about my reincarnation?
Kamo-Sensei, Tamamo, Shōshi and her handmaidens... I can't remember if I told anyone else, but there's also some number of Ōkami that know too. No idea how many though.
"Hah! You haven't told him?" Kamo-Sensei asks with incredulous amusement. I guess it's fair enough, he probably assumed Sukuna would always be the first I'd tell my secrets to, and he's not really wrong. It was just the timing of it all.
"I never thought I'd tell anyone in the first place," I answer, before turning to Sukuna and grinning smugly at him. "I remember my previous life."
Sukuna blinks once and then nods his head. "No wonder you're always saying incomprehensible shit."
His answer brings a fond, wry smile to my lips.
"No questions?" I ask, already knowing the answer in my bones as he simply scoffs and rolls his eyes.
"I truly do not care."
Yeah, that's about right. The previous me wouldn't have been your friend, after all.
"What a terrible lack of curiosity you have," Kamo-Sensei theatrically laments.
I get the feeling that he doesn't really understand Sukuna's answer, and that thought fills me with a profound sort of sadness. But there's also some joy there. It's odd, but there is a part of me that wishes that more people, or at least Kamo-Sensei, could truly understand Sukuna and I, while there is another part of me that is glad for it because it makes our friendship that much more special.
"Regardless," Kamo-Sensei waves a hand through the air as if to dispel the previous conversation, "We've gotten off-topic. I want to hear about what insights the black sparks have given you two. There isn't a Sorcerer alive who has hit a Black Flash without learning something from the experience, but you two already know just about everything I can teach you, so now it's your turn to share."
My eyes meet with Sukuna's before I let out an amused sigh and shake my head. "Guess I'll start then, hm? Let's see..."
Popping a finger on my bottom lip, I lean back in thought until my back hits the floor. I'm really not sure where to begin, it's still an open-ended question and it's not like this is the kind of thing that can be summed up concisely.
"Well, I'm not gonna tell you about the coolest, most super special discovery I made..."
Kamo-Sensei's expression falls flat. "Why would you mention a coolest super special discovery if you're not going to share it?"
"I don't know," I shrug at him. "I decided to be mean because you probably deserve it."
"What is this, bully-the-greatest-Sensei-there-is day?" Kamo-Sensei asks, parroting my earlier words with a somewhat spiteful grin.
"Yup." I agree without hesitation. "What's the date? I better write it down so I remember for next year."
"It's the fifth day of the sixth month in the fourth year of Chōwa," Sukuna blandly answers, making me blink, because I have no idea what that means.
"Why do you look so confused?" Kamo-Sensei asks, so I glare at him.
"No one's taught me how dates work, Sensei. In my last life the calendar was Gregorian, I don't know how it works here. Also, I didn't know Sukuna could read." My eyes get cut in half, but the wound doesn't even exist long enough to hurt.
"Hah! Who taught you!?" Kamo-Sensei laughs, and so I glare harder. "Oh, right... Well..." He holds his chin between his thumb and forefinger and leans side to side as if deep in contemplation before simply snapping his fingers and nodding his head. "Hmmmm, yup! I can't be bothered to explain it, ask someone else."
I squint at him incredulously. "How did you get your job?"
"Bribery and extortion."
"...Riiight."
I think I'm going to home-school my eventual kids, because I've just suddenly remembered that Sorcerers are to a one, absolutely horrible people. I'm sure there will be, or already are, plenty of people that'll hate me for being better than them, and I'm just now realising how incredibly easy it would be for them to take that out on my kids if I let them roam freely in a world so filled with corruption.
Then again, there isn't a chance in Yomi that I won't be constantly aware of their Shadows from the moment they're born 'till the moment they die, so it's kind of a moot point anyway.
"So you were saying something about the plain, moderately average discoveries that you've made?" Kamo-Sensei prompts, getting a brief amused exhale from me for his phrasing.
I take another moment to think at his prompting. It's not like I've been putting this conversation off intentionally after all, I'm just as interested as he is. I've just had a lot on my mind and haven't really had the space to think about the minutiae of Jujutsu.
"I don't think there's much to say in terms of ground breaking discoveries, well, not beyond the super cool thing I'm not gonna tell you anyway." Kamo-Sensei's eye twitches over his smile. "Everything is just... clearer; I'm a lot better with my Technique now, but that's par for the course so eh. What I've got that might interest you is some ideas for how to make Spells viable for combat; I think I can probably design a Spell for teleportation too, though it might need to be bound to gates like what the Principle Clans use with those Torii. Oh, and I guess I figured out how to create Souls, maybe?"
Kamo-Sensei's face falls flat as he stares at me. Even Sukuna raises a brow in silent intrigue. I guess Kamo-Sensei did say at some point that if I could figure out how to make Spells as viable as Innate Techniques that I'd change the world, so I can guess the cause of their expressions.
They're jealous that I figured it out first~. Huhu~, aren't I cool~?
"I implore you to sound more enthusiastic when you say stuff like that," Kamo-Sensei comments with an unmanly pout. "I have told you that widely available teleportation is one of the few bridges that separate humanity from the greater races, right? And I shouldn't even need to say anything for you to know that creatingSouls is the realm of the Divine, right? Right?"
I shrug. "Every living being is capable of creating Souls, the only condition on them is a peer with the right set of genitals to contrast their own. Surely it can't be that impressive, really. The Spell stuff was a lot more difficult to figure out y'know?"
Sukuna does that thing where you nod your head to the side and raise your brows; a kind of reluctant agreement. Kamo just squints at me like he's trying to figure out if I'm making fun of him.
I'm not, but I smirk back at him anyway as if I were. He doesn't fall for it though.
"If it's so simple," he says, gesturing widely, "Then show us."
He pauses briefly as he finishes his sentence, glancing at Sukuna with a surprised sort of amusement, as if caught off-guard by the fact that he would say 'us' instead of 'me'.
My friends are so selfish, I think with a fond sigh before simply shrugging in answer to him and turning my attention inwards.
In any other time, I probably would've had to have refused my Sensei and suffer endless mocking for it, but the timing this time is actually pretty convenient. Despite what I've said, making a Soul is a somewhat complicated endeavour. I wouldn't call it a difficult process, but it certainly isn't so simple as to just do it on a whim whenever.
At that thought I catch myself before I can go any further, remembering that I have two curious friends next to me. Better to think out loud so that they can follow along.
"I think it might have actually been the process that I came up with for my Spells that made it so easy for me to understand this," I explain, my eyes still closed as I focus. "The process is pretty similar. More or less the same really. See, I thought a lot about what you said; your disgusting attempt closest to success, and I wound up with this."
I pull my robe down sightly as I speak, exposing the antlers painted across my collarbone. Shikatsumi's home.
"You got a tattoo?" Kamo-Sensei asks leadingly, earning a derisive scoff from Sukuna.
"That's not ink," Sukuna states with a ton of hostility that is easily ignored through great practice doing exactly that.
"Looks like ink to me," Kamo-Sensei shrugs blithely, and that admittance may singlehandedly be what tells me how far apart we have grown; because to me, and evidently Sukuna as well, the tattoo is very clearly not one of ink. Yet Kamo-Sensei seems unable to notice.
"It's blood, bone and Soul," I cut in before they can start fighting. "I don't think I can replicate what Michizane did. I've come to realise that he was probably using his Technique to force the Spells he wove into believing that they were Innate Techniques instead. I don't have his Technique, so instead I mimicked what you told me, but better. Death into Life; a sacrifice willingly made. The process of creating this Spell is in part inspired by the process of creating Life in general, and as a result, the Spell itself is alive."
I summon forth Shikatsumi in demonstration, the little deer happily floating circles around my friends, basking in their curiosity with the joy of a newborn too young to understand what dangers curiosity can bring.
"By making the Spell a living thing, I can bring it closer conceptually to an Innate Technique, giving it the substance to function at the same level. Shikatsumi basically functions as a Innate Technique by himself, though I think it'll take a century or three before he really has the right level of power. Narrowing the scope down from a full Technique into actually specialised Spells should solve that problem though. Regardless, creating a Soul isn't too dissimilar in process. It's all the same, really. Creation." I pause for a moment, trying to gather my thoughts as I feel that the explanation I am giving was starting to drift off point.
It's kind of funny how I find it so much more difficult to explain than I do to figure things out in the first place. No wonder geniuses tend to make terrible teachers.
"'Creation' is a vague concept." I begin again, my speech slow as I figure the words out as I say them. "There are many types of creation, lots of ways the word can be defined. Tinkering, painting, dreaming. But when I choose to narrow the word down to only a singular meaning, one that I find to be the most significant of all definitions tied to the word, it came down to 'conception'."
With my eyes still closed, I feel more than see Kamo-Sensei lean over to Sukuna and cup his mouth to speak in a stage-whisper. "He's become a sex obsessed fiend, just like in those Yōkai stories~."
"What kind of stories are you reading?" The depth of Sukuna's distain could drown cities.
"Oh you know~, only the—"
"Do you want me to explain or what?" I cut in, opening my eyes enough to glare at Kamo-Sensei for disrupting my focus. He mimes zipping his mouth shut and throwing away the key—a gesture that I taught him in the first place.
Shaking my head, I reclose my eyes and try to fall back into the mindset I was searching for.
"As I was saying, 'conception' is what it came down to for me. The dawn of Life. From there, it became a matter of breaking down the concept of 'conception' into its fundamental parts. It's like math, really." I didn't even think about that until now, but it really is like those 'find x' equations.
Kinda.
"So what are the core components of conception? A mother and a father, intense emotional and physical stimulation and a conjoining of two into one. Bits of both splitting to gestate within the 'mother' in order to create something entirely new under the flesh. For this," I absently tap a thumb against my collar, "I made a Ritual that focused on these steps, with some more added so that what I made was actually a Spell and not just another deer."
"The first stage is the establishment of consent. A willing sacrifice is worth a thousand unwilling, and I just don't think I could have made it work without consent, not with the symbolic meaning I'd already applied to it all. Maybe someone else could, but with the nature of this entire process, it's deeply personal and would likely vary for person to person."
What remains unsaid is that for someone like Sukuna, the establishment of consent would probably weaken the Ritual, since it is so against his core nature to bother with such things.
"So to begin the Ritual, I asked Shikatsumi's father to die for me, and he did. Willingly. The second stage was that Death, invoking The End right at the beginning so that the product does not have to fear for impermanence."
"In the third stage, I condensed Shikatsumi's father's blood and flesh into their core essence and mixed it in with my own as I carved these lines into my own flesh, closing the wound with bones crushed to dust. The pain accounted for the intense physical stimulation while the grief at killing someone that I Loved accounted for the emotional aspect, as well as the intrinsic Love that I already feel for all deer."
"Finally, new Life. In this equation, I'd be the mother." Kamo-Sensei snickers but I ignore him. "Within my flesh, a fresh gestalt was born; Shikatsumi, and in doing so, I became his everything. Severed from the cycle of reincarnation—a greater willing sacrifice than even his Death—Shikatsumi is bound to me and empowered by the depth of that bondage. Thus, Death into Life. A living Spell matrix writ into my own flesh by blood and bone. Of course, there are minor improvements I will make to the process in the future, but that is the core of how I invented a system of Spellcraft that should be able to match Innate Techniques."
"I do so admire how you manage to rant so profoundly before ever getting to your original point," Kamo-Sensei comments, a smirk in his voice. "Not that the topic isn't itself fascinating or course."
I don't let his tone distract my carefully firming emotions, continuing with only the calm, banal tone of a man whose mind is mostly elsewhere.
"I'll show you more about the Spell system later, for now, I want you to understand the underlying mimicry that all forms of 'conception' fall under, Sensei. You asked that we teach you for once, so don't be a bad student."
"Tch, teachers are an arrogant breed," Kamo-Sensei comments, very nearly distracting my focus through the sheer irony of the statement.
"The relevance of all this to the creation of a Soul is, as I said, in how the processes rhyme. A mother and father, intense emotional and physical stimulation, and the conjoining of two into one. That core triumvirate principle of conception."
Eyes still closed and focus intact, only now do I finally low myself to pull on the feelings that I have been priming at the edge of my mind. I did say that the timing was convenient.
"The first time I did this it was with Generous Deer." I feel Sukuna's interest pique slightly as he no doubt recalls the moment himself. "At that time, the 'mother' was my Shikigami while the 'father' would have been my memories of home and the deer that live there. The physical stimulation was accounted for by Sukuna and I fighting and the emotional by my refusal to die. Thusly, my memories of home, of deer and the Love I hold for them coalesced within my Shikigami and birthed a Soul."
"You impregnated your Shikigami directly with a portion your 'Self' in place of semen?" Kamo-Sensei comments, thoughtful instead of the playful mocking I'd have expected to follow those words. Evidently, the subject is interesting enough for him to treat it scientifically instead of continuing to play a fool.
I nod absently. "Pretty much. As I said, it's 'conception.' This is simply with the focus on the spiritual instead of the physical. 'Conception' already has aspects of both, there is a spiritual connection even between non-Sorcerers—humans and animals alike—when they mate. That connection is simply of lesser focus to the physical. My process is an inversion of that, where the physical becomes secondary so that the Spiritual can become primary. It's a necessary divergence since what I am creating is a Soul to fit the body of a construct of Cursed Energy—a Shikigami—so unlike regular mating, I'm not creating anything physical at all. That's why the only physical requirements in this Ritual are those that directly enhance the spiritual; pain, pleasure. Physical stimulations that generate spiritual reactions."
With that being said, I think back to the past hour. Specifically, I recall Tamamo.
"This time," I continue, my tone halting as I struggle to keep a running commentary going for their benefit as I actually move through the process, "My memory and affection for Tamamo will be the 'father' while another Shikigami, Kon, will be the 'mother'. The relevancy between the two of them will work well enough to substitute a deeper connection between 'mother' and 'father'."
Just like with Generous Deer, I replicate that depth of thought; that immersion to the past.
It's a difficult mindset to put myself into. It was a lot easier with Generous Deer because of the circumstance, but to enter that headspace intentionally? It's not easy. It would have been even harder if I hadn't just spent the past hour being intimate with a very, very enthusiastic Tamamo on account of my agreement to wed her.
That thought actually helps here, because even just thinking those words fills my stomach with this buzzing, fluttery sort of weightlessness. Like my stomach alone has chosen to disregard the laws of gravity, all the while a giddy sort of energy fills me, leaving me wanting to bounce around the room and shout and hug someone so tightly they break in half.
It's Love, plain and simple, and as I think that, I remember.
Not just the intimate sex, I remember Tamamo-no-Mae.
I recall all that she is in my mind. I recall her face, so perfect and beautiful that not even Inari-sama's impossible, Divine beauty can match it in my eyes. I recall a woman with golden hair greeting me with blue fire, cautious violence and deep suspicion.
I recall a Yōkai pretending to be a human, too kind to leave but too scared to stay. I recall a Yōkai who desperately wished to be understood, a Yōkai who smiled so beautifully upon facing defeat, knowing that I could see the whole of her and not just her shores.
I recall Tamamo wreathed in blue flame, the sheer joy I felt as she pushed me to the brink over that lake. I recall the slow mornings that followed; the casual ease that she held herself with as we shared crumpets under the light of the rising sun.
I recall the nights we spent together, the passion and Love entwining in tune with our bodies. I recall the little smiles she would show me every time we awoke in one another's arms; the gentle, chaste kisses that greeted our mornings. The soft smiles and girlish giggles I could rouse from her.
Within my shadow, I feel the ever-present weight of her gift to me, a camera for me to steal moments of time from the world. Further, I picture in my mind with perfect clarity an image, the first photo that gift ever produced; Tamamo and I together, my cheek resting on her head in the moment after our Love was declared.
With each and every moment, each and every memory of her, I feel the depth of my emotions grow; the Love that I feel for her growing more intense by the second as I pull on it until it feels as if my skin is fizzing and buzzing, as if the feeling is so intense that it is trying to escape my meagre physical form, too small to contain the heights of this affection.
I hold on to the feeling, clench it tightly in metaphorical hands and keep it steady.
"The Love that we share accounts for the emotional stimulation," I absently remember to mutter my explanation for my Sensei's sake. "The echo of our recent coupling on my flesh accounts for the physical."
As I say as much, I pull further on the emotions buzzing at my skin and with my other hand I recall the pleasure of her flesh, of her warmth and the ecstasy of our intimacy. I pull the two feelings together, emotional and physical excesses stimulating my Soul; like heat softening metal. A cause and effect that leaves my Soul... malleable. Not fully, not even a great deal, but enough.
"All that is left is the conjoining of two into one. The stimulation eases passage, allowing my memories and my Love to coalesce into something greater; the burgeonings of a Soul only lacking a form to give it the grounding necessary for 'identity'. The final step."
Pulling again on the complex vortex of memory, feeling and connection, I direct it through my Soul and into a very specific point. One that flows into ten.
The natural path is chosen, and I feel as the ethereal ball of potential almost escapes my grip, feeling eager over everything else as it surges down its chosen path with a glee that surprises me.
Then, in the moment that two points within my Soul connect, I do no so much intone a single word as I do carve it fresh into my Soul.
"Kon."
My Shikigami does not burst out of my shadow, it— no, she. She saunters out of my shadow, her form reduced in size to fit within the room but still taller at the shoulder than any of us are standing.
Kon looks mostly the same. Appearance-wise, the only true change is that the eyes covering her form are now hazel like Tamamo's instead of the colours of blood and gold. But the same can not be said about her demeanour.
She moves with a sort of casual grace, an almost sultry sway as she circles the room once before coming to a stop sitting by my side, her body flowing and swaying like water the entire time. I can feel through our bond the playful nature of her newborn Soul, the inherent desire to tease and trick and play pranks.
It is because I feel this nature of hers that I am not overly surprised when Kon's form begins to morph and shift, twisting and shrinking as she changes before our eyes.
Her transformation does not take long, shape changing and fur reclining in only a few moments until what remains is a woman of beauty; a Kitsune that could easily be mistaken for Tamamo's twin, only with pure white hair and fur instead of the golden sheen Tamamo wears.
All three of us stare at her with open curiosity, to which Kon merely smirks mischievously before draping herself against me.
"Kyaa~," Kon whispers, a playful mockery of fear. I'm too stunned by the fact that my Shikigami is speaking to me to really react to that. It shouldn't be a surprise, but this is still the first time this has happened. "Scary stares~, protect me, Master~."
"Holy shit it's actually alive?!" Kamo-Sensei exclaims, immediately snapping me out of my own shock as his words cause me to glare at him.
"She," I emphasise the word deeply as I glare at him, feeling oddly protective.
"It's still a fucking Shikigami," Sukuna scoffs with a roll of his eyes.
Not a moment later, a ring of pale blue fire burns through the table separating us and slams into his chest.
Huh, I think, feeling out the changes in Kon within my Soul and seeing that she has gained a lot more than just a Kitsune-appearing form from the influence of her heritage. I guess I've finally gotten that cool fire attack I wanted.
Neat.
...Tamamo won't be mad, right?
///
Taira no Tadatsune
///
The view, by itself, would have been a pleasant, calming thing. Any view from mountain peak often is. Being able to see so much of the world sprawled out before one's eyes, distant to such an extent that even great trees appear as if a colony of ants.
However, Tadatsune struggles to find any peace in this view, one that he would not let himself ignore. No matter how much easier it would have been to keep the presence of mind.
From the jagged peak of an unnaturally sharp mountain, Tadatsune gazes first to the side, where more mountains line themselves in a range with a gentle curve. Each peak sharply steep on the outside of the curve and gently sloping on the inside, as if drawn by brush.
In the distance ahead of him, he can barely make out the range of mountains continuing beyond the horizon before the steady curve loops around again to his other side, completing a full circle that his men tell him is roughly thirteen kilometres around—four from end to end.
Finally looking away from the circle of mountains, he observes what lies hidden behind this bowl of earth. A lush, green landscape that almost seems to glow like a vision of paradise. Its only imperfection sits roughly a kilometre inwards of the curve of mountains—a black scar of thickness alike to the width of the Imperial Palace, mimicking the circle of mountains in miniature, following the curve before giving way again to yet more lush greenery.
A month ago, this land held a single mountain, a small forest and a swathe of grassland. There was a river.
It's absurd.
The strength of a single man.
Except there are two of them, his traitorous mind reminds him. He has seen the other monster's handiwork just as well.
To reshape the land to such an extend is an authority that should only belong to the Kami above.
Yet... here he is. He cannot deny what sits before his very eyes.
Is this what it took to break through Masakado's Technique? Tadatsune can only wonder. He had thought it impossible for Masakado to be killed—at least by a mortal anyway—but he had also thought this level of power impossible for mortal hands.
The reports of the fight are sparse and confliction. He has heard that Narauko killed Masakado well before any of this absurdity redrew maps, but that wouldn't make any sense. There is the possibility that he faced a powerful Yōkai immediately after Masakado, but more likely is that the weaklings simply failed to understand what they were seeing.
"Taira-sama..." A hesitant voice pulls his attention, and he turns to regard his clansmen, seeing in them the same cocktail of fear, unease and awe that he has seen in the faces of everyone else he brought with him. "Are we... I mean... Narauko-sama is on our side, right?"
Never before has Tadatsune felt the weight of his bones than in recent weeks. The youthful vigour that he has carried with him even as he has aged has never felt so week as when confronted by the simple answer to that question.
He does not know.
Tadatsune feels old.
"Takiyasha-chan and he are both fond of one another," he answers instead without looking back. "Once Narauko-dono comes out from his meditations, it is inevitable that he will be elevated to Nobility, and thus wed in order to properly birth a new Clan."
Only, Tadatsune isn't certain if he is trying to convince his clansmen or himself with his words.
Narauko and Takiyasha are both fond of one another, that much is true. So it has to be true that they will wed and Narauko will be tied by Takiyasha to the Taira Clan.
It has to be.
///
A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
Holy fucking shitballs, I wasn't even really procrastinating this chapter. I legitimately spent about a week trying to get that explination of how to make a soul right, because I had to also tie it to the explination for his new magic system, whilst also explaining that and keeping continuity with the rest of the fic.
Legit wrote like 200 words a day for i think a week straight, maybe 6 days. I've literally never done that before. You probably won't feel it reading it, since it's obv already done, but holy fucking shit it was so goddamn difficult to figure out the right words for that whole thing, jesus christ.
contrary to that bs, the little Tadatsune bit at the end was basically an afterthought lmao, wrote it in like 5 minutes...