The crisp February air carried a faint chill as Roy crouched atop a low wall, golden orange eyes locked on a faint blur clinging to the back of a man reading his newspaper.
To anyone else, there was nothing there, just an ordinary middle aged civilian enjoying a quiet morning in the city.
But Roy's senses told him otherwise.
A small curse, twisted and insect like, was gnawing at the man's shoulders, feeding off his stress.
Roy exhaled slowly, a grin tugging at his lips.
'Alright, let's wrap this up nice and clean.'
With a thought, the world around the man shifted.
Trickster was active.
The light bent, sounds dulled, and an almost imperceptible "bubble" wrapped around the man like a thin veil.
Within it, Roy's illusions reigned supreme.
The civilian would never notice a thing.
In reality, Roy stepped off the wall, silent as a shadow.
He crossed the short distance in a blink, cursed energy sparking faintly around his fist.
The curse twitched, sensing danger too late.
Crack!
Roy's punch smashed through the writhing spirit, its body splintering like glass before dissolving into nothing.
The man continued to flip his newspaper, sipping his coffee, blissfully unaware that his unseen burden had been obliterated just a breath away.
Roy dusted his knuckles, suppressing a laugh.
'Man, illusions are busted. This guy's gonna finish his coffee thinking nothing happened, while I just went full exorcist right next to him.'
Pulling his hood up, Roy strolled down the street, hands shoved into his pockets.
The veil around the area flickered away, returning the street to its normal hum of life.
It had been months since Gojo found him, August felt like a lifetime ago.
The chaos of those early days under the bridge had been replaced with a rhythm.
Training, eating, sleeping, sparring, laughing with the Fushiguros… for the first time in years, he wasn't just surviving. He was growing.
'Soul Tree… '
He thought to himself, rolling the name around in his head.
That's what he had started calling his innate technique.
Every blossom on that strange, radiant tree was a life, a fragment of him, waiting to be drawn out.
But for now, he kept things simple.
He had chosen to master just two petals, Trickster and Threadstep.
And the progress had been insane.
When he first unlocked Threadstep two months ago, even stacking three threads would drain him fast, and he'd tumble like a ragdoll if he lost balance.
But now? Even a single thread could sling him ten meters in the blink of an eye, 0.1 seconds flat.
It left his joints aching, his muscles screaming, but the strain was less each week.
His body was adapting, sharpening.
Roy smirked as he stepped into an empty alleyway, crouching low.
A single thread shimmered under his feet, like a taut strand of silk.
"Let's test it."
He stomped.
WHOOSH!
The world blurred again, buildings whipping past in streaks of color as his body shot forward.
He landed cleanly, rolling once before snapping back to his feet, heart racing with the thrill.
His grin widened.
"I'm getting faster…"
But as his excitement faded, Roy slowed his pace, walking back toward the main street.
Still, the Soul Tree had given him something new.
Something that made his blood burn with anticipation.