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CHAPTER START---
Stepping into his family home for the first time in months, Taiyo carefully holds the ornate wooden box under his left arm and his phone to his right ear while kicking the door closed behind him.
"No. If we're making a long-term contract, it has to end after the next Olympics. That way, I can renegotiate after winning more medals," he says while kicking off his shoes and walking through the house.
He turns down the hallway and moves toward the kitchen.
"I'm going to win. It's me. I don't miss. We'll get to increase prices for all our sponsors after that, not just these people."
He sees Mei Mei sitting at the island, eating from a large bowl of ice cream, reading something on her laptop.
"Yeah, sure, I can wear one of their watches to the next event, but it has to match my outfit."
Taiyo walks over and rests the box on the kitchen island, then kisses her on the cheek.
"Yeah, just send them to me and I'll choose one. I'll be at home for the next few days until the baseball game."
Mei Mei feeds him a spoonful of ice cream as he listens to his agent. And Taiyo stifles any exclamation while making a disgusted expression, then forces himself to swallow the dessert.
"No. Just send them to me. I'll sign them and send them back. Is that all?" Taiyo asks, and a moment later ends the call and glares at Mei Mei, who he now notices is wearing a pair of shorts and one of his shirts. "What the hell did you put in my mouth?"
"Rainbow rum and raisin caramel fudge."
He rolls his eyes. "You really are evil. If Jujutsu didn't take so much glucose, that spoonful would have given me diabetes."
"I don't think that's how diabetes works," she raises another spoonful to his mouth, which he doesn't open.
Taiyo narrows his eyes at her.
"Try it again." She does her best angry face at him, which he can't take seriously.
He keeps glaring at her, but accepts the ice-cream, making a familiar disgusted expression as the sickeningly sweet treat invades his mouth.
"Why do I even put up with you?" he asks while moving to the sink and pouring himself a glass of water.
"Let's hop into the shower and I'll remind you…after I finish negotiating this deal."
Taiyo takes a sip of his water and walks back to her with the glass. "I want to try out my new toy before the sun fully sets."
Mei Mei glances at the box, then back at Taiyo.
"Go ahead. I already opened it in the car. It's legit."
She slides the box over to them as he gets seated beside her, pushing her laptop aside for her to place the box between them.
Opening it, she sees a seemingly ordinary steel chain with the link at one end being black and the other end having a regular clip.
"I expected it to be…prettier." She picks it up, sliding her fingers across each link in the 30cm -1ft- long chain. "You could have asked for damn near anything, or anyone, but you asked them for this of all things."
"This was the optimal choice." He takes the chain from her and holds it carefully at both ends. "The Chain of a 1000 Miles, the most interesting of all Special Grade Cursed Tools."
"Because men are fascinated by things that get longer?"
He gives her a bored look as she's clearly amused with herself. "Because all Special Grade Cursed Tools contain the Innate Techniques of either the user or those instilled in them by a Barrier master."
This one is unique even among them. A self-adjusting Barrier. Your Innate Technique is incompatible with Cursed Tools, so you'll never have a 'Black Bird Manipulation Axe', but Nanami could have a 7:3 Sword, eventually.
In fact, that likely has already happened since he's been using that thing for over a decade."
"Your point?"
"My point is. Not all Innate Techniques can be placed into a Cursed Tool. And for the few that can be, it takes saturating a Cursed Tool for years with your Innate Technique for the process to be complete.
And for most people, this process has to be long and subconscious. Innate Techniques effectively exist within our brains. Without that part, we can't perform it, just as some other parts determine our ability in other aspects of Jujutsu.
But to use an Innate Technique, the Cursed Tool would need an extremely complex Barrier that mimics that part of the brain. Effectively asking you to build a virtual brain with Jujutsu into an object.
Cursed Energy can be programmed, but that level of complexity is beyond most people, so saturating it and hoping for the best is the usual approach."
"I see. So you needed a Special Grade Cursed Tool to study and reverse engineer. That way you could learn the process…and give me an Immolation Axe sooner."
"That's part of it."
"And the other part?"
Taiyo pulls the chain tight while holding both ends, then slowly pulls even more.
The end of the chain moves as he pulls more and more links from inside his other fist, extending the chain.
"Yes," she says. "The chain extends for many miles, once the master link at the other end isn't visible. But why this one over others?"
Taiyo wills the chain to retract, and it doesn't, so he instead places it on the counter. "That will take some figuring out. But the reason I chose this is that it makes something physical from effectively nothing. And constantly adjust its makeup. A self-programming Barrier that's always in flux."
"I see. You intend to make a Domain Expansion Barrier that doesn't require dissipating and reforming to change the properties. Breaking the belief of Jujutsu that the rules of a Barrier must be set in stone until it's recast."
Taiyo smiles. "If I can do that, I can get closer to beating Gojo."
"I've never had any luck summoning a Shikigami. Are Shikigami the same?"
"Similar, but different. Shikigami are effectively Jujutsu flowing through you to form a creature of some kind. One that mimics life, but isn't really alive. Some Innate Techniques naturally do this, but some people use Talismans—"
"That's what I tried."
"Exactly. Innate Techniques have a set Shikigami. But Talismans effectively let you pour Cursed Energy into them, and your Cursed Energy will form one, but the user has very limited control. At best, you can layer a few Binding Vows to get something that's good at one thing.
But mostly, it's random until then. And even then, so many variables affect it that unless you have an Innate Technique that summons specific Shikigami, being a Shikigami user isn't very good.
At least not if you want them for combat. But at the end of the day, they're like Barriers that mimic life. Eventually I'll study them, but for now, this is more important. Besides, Shikigami are some complex systems that I'm not sure how long it would take to reverse engineer a custom one. And I don't know if what I learn would help me against Gojo next year."
"I see. So the reason I'm no good at Shikigami is that I'm no good at Barriers. Since both of them are effectively imposing rules on a set space via Cursed Energy, but Shikigami are far more complex. No wonder I've never been able to manifest one."
"You don't need it," he says. "Shikigami powerful enough to fight can only be made with an Innate Technique, not through Talismans. Anything made with Talismans or other methods is extremely limited in use because of how complex the Barriers are.
Not to mention the strain it would place on your Cursed Energy, and the diminishing returns in efficiency you get. It just isn't efficient to use them to fight, so they'd be recon and utility—"
"Which my crows already do. So studying Shikigami summoning really would have been a waste of time."
"Absolutely."
Mei Mei smiles. "You always know exactly what to say. That's why I brought those Talismans I could never get to work for myself. They're upstairs. I'm curious about what type of Shikigami you create, if any at all."
Taiyo laughs before leaning forward and pulling her into an intense kiss, then pulls away from the flushed woman.
"So excited about summoning little monsters?"
"Excited about all the things I'll learn from research this week…"
END CHAPTER---
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pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene [Read ahead & support me]
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