A/N: Welcome to my latest story: Potential Man. Here we go with this one. Next two chapters are up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) already if you want to see them early. Since I just started a new story, there's a cheeky discount on said patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) page for anyone interested(expires in two days from now so don't snooze it).
Faster than Hakari for sure was my first takeaway from our initial exchange. He was nimble as well in a way the gambler was not. Hakari hit like a tank. Each blow he clocked you with seemed like it was going to end the fight. That was a feature of his serrated cursed energy. Kashimo, on the other hand, approached things in a different way. His hits were no less forceful in terms of the strength behind them, but the cursed energy only imposed a comparatively tiny toll for each direct hit he landed.
I knew what would happen once enough of them stacked up, though. I ducked underneath a roundhouse kick and blocked a punch with my arms reinforced with cursed energy. Still, I felt the tiny jolt that came from just a bit of his own cursed energy leaking through. I twisted to the side and kicked out. He blocked with his staff but still went skidding backwards. I was right then. Cursed energy reinforcement was one of those skills that didn't really have a ceiling. It was based on just how much cursed energy you were willing to imbue into your strikes and your body's ability to deal with the backlash.
Well, in a way both of those were limits. But if you had enough cursed energy, then using more of it was just the wise thing to do. And then if you were one of the monsters in this world, then your body's limits meant little and less. Reverse Cursed Technique running semi-constantly would repair all the little tears that came as a result of that kind of use of cursed energy. Sadly for me, I wasn't one of those monsters—not yet. So my initial clash with Kashimo was going to be it for now.
There was a wide smile on his face as he shot at me again, but this time, he ended up being rammed into by the Ox that rose from my shadow right before he could reach me. At the last second, he had managed to bring his staff to bear and it had taken the brunt of the charge, so he had escaped relatively unscathed.
"A shikigami?" he muttered more to himself than to me.
I twisted my fingers again. From behind me, Round Deer rose. Its positive energy washed over the entire battlefield. I felt all the micro-tears I'd incurred from my somewhat careless enhancement fix themselves. Now that the Round Deer was tamed, its positive energy did not disturb my use of cursed energy, but I was willing to bet Kashimo was going to have some trouble using his cursed energy for reinforcement, and if he decided to pull out Mythical Beast Amber on me, he was going to have a surprise coming.
"There's more where that came from," I said, twisting my fingers again. Tiger Funeral and the Divine Dog Totality rose from my stretched shadow like a pair of ambush predators—wolves stalking their target. They shot at him, approaching from either direction.
He did not step backwards to gain distance like most would have in the face of the approaching group. He smiled—a nasty, twisted thing—and shot for Tiger Funeral. Wrong choice, I decided. His fist smashed into the shikigami's guard and it retaliated with a kick that he took straight on. He stepped backwards and it continued to push the attack. One punch to the left, and then another to the right when he blocked the first one. He dodged it and then smashed a straight kick to Tiger Funeral's midsection.
"The deer is outputting positive energy constantly to mess up my control over my own cursed energy," he said out loud.
"That means that this fight is even harder than it should be," he said next.
"Maybe you should quit then. After all, you haven't even asked me for the information you want—you just went straight on the attack," I said.
"Quit? Hell no. And what are you talking about? Did you not tell that other man that you would only give the information I want if I beat you to death first?" he said. Of fucking course.
"That's—untrue. Let's just come to a deal, you and I. You give me your points and I can set up a fight between you and Sukuna later on," I said.
"I don't believe you," he said, and then he punched straight at Tiger Funeral. The shikigami blocked, but the punch had been a feint. His attack never landed as he spun past the tiger and began to head straight for me.
"When fighting a shikigami user, the rules are simple. Ignore the shikigami and engage them in close combat," he said, shooting through the space between us. I formed a seal with my fingers and from my shadow came a trumpeting Max Elephant.
The shikigami wasted no time in shooting a concentrated jet of water straight at him. He dodged to the side, avoiding it, and that interruption in his straight path was enough for Tiger Funeral to reach him again. He punched at it once more. This time it allowed the punch to skid past its head as it dodged out of the way before countering with a punch of its own that went blocked.
Kashimo twisted and then began to wail on the tiger shikigami. Punch, punch, kick, punch, over and over again. But Tiger Funeral proved to be more than a match for every attack, putting up a perfect defence. But even with its defence, I knew what was coming, so I prepared my own attack for right when he unleashed it. Tiger Funeral took one step backwards before shooting forwards suddenly. It was on the attack now. A punch missed Kashimo's head by less than an inch. The high knee that followed it was blocked by the hand that held the staff.
Tiger Funeral snapped out a roundhouse that knocked said staff from his grip, sending it to the side where it buried itself in the ground upright.
He tilted his head backwards and avoided the punch that would have hit hard enough to crush bone that followed the kick. He stepped backwards, yielding to Tiger Funeral's aggression for a second or two before he suddenly lurched backwards. He slammed his hands together and his body glowed for a second. The next, Tiger Funeral was falling to the floor, visibly roasted. Not dead, thank the heavens. Round Deer's influence had probably been enough to turn that from a fatal attack to a nearly fatal one. I returned the fallen shikigami to my shadow.
Piercing Ox, who I'd sent some distance away to gather momentum with his return charge, now was almost in range. Kashimo turned to face the ox at his approach, about to move, only to find his movement restricted.
"Shadow Possession: Complete," I said, feeling a smirk build on my face. His cursed energy fought against mine, but there were too many things working to my advantage for it to even be a close fight. I had more cursed energy than he did thanks to my consumption of Naoya, for one. And then for another, there was Round Deer right behind me messing up his own control over his. So he had to devote mental focus to fighting that influence while still trying to fight me. Needless to say, he had an uphill battle to climb.
Piercing Ox hit, and sent Kashimo flying into the distance. I watched his body as it flew in the direction of the shipping district.
"Well, that was somewhat anti-climactic," I said to myself with a chuckle.
"New Rule: Players can now transfer points to each other." The shikigami I'd been ignoring floating over my shoulder suddenly piped up. Guess that meant that Itadori and Hakari had succeeded with their mission first. Good.
"I might actually have gone overboard. Let's hope he's not dead," I said next as I saw the blood on Piercing Ox's horns. I climbed the horse and began to move as it led me down towards where Kashimo's body had been tossed. On the way, no cursed spirits bothered us so we made good time.
It was a few kilometres away, half buried in the side of a shipping container. His outfit had been torn to shreds and much of the white had been replaced by red from his own blood. I could hear his wheezing breath from here, so that was one of my worries put to rest at the very least.
"You still conscious?" I asked.
"Haha. You—you got me there," he choked out. Piercing Ox had gotten one of his lungs most likely.
"Pretending to need to rely on the shikigami to fight to make me lower my guard while you held a second facet of your cursed technique in reserve. It's been a while since I fought someone so crafty," he chuckled as he said.
"Are you ready to make a deal now? Give me your points," I said.
"What's the point? This body is going to die any moment now."
"My deer shikigami can heal others with its Reverse Cursed Technique," I offered.
"You'll heal me then?" he asked.
"Of course," I said.
"And you will arrange a fight between Sukuna and me," he continued.
"Of course," I said again. He narrowed his eyes at me still, before he finally said:
"Kogane, transfer all my points to him," he said.
The shikigami got to work, and I watched as my point total went all the way up to an even one hundred.
"Kashimo has transferred one hundred points," my own assigned shikigami said.
"Thank you," I said, and then formed a seal with my hands.
"You would have fit right in where I was born," he chuckled as I expanded my domain.
"Domain Expansion: Dance of a Thousand Shadows." We were enclosed in the barrier and the sure-hit factor of my domain immediately got to work, absorbing him.
I could have done it without opening my domain, but there was no guarantee that I was not being observed, and this was one card I didn't want Kenjaku figuring out I had up my sleeves until it was too late for him.
Kashimo was in too weak a state to even attempt to use Hollow Wicker Basket, so my shadow held him still and began to absorb his essence just like it had taken Naoya's. All the while I felt my cursed energy pool swell and the same happened with my output. My output didn't grow as much as my reserves by any means, but it was still a substantial increase all things considered. Consuming Naoya had more than doubled my capacity and output.
Consuming Kashimo seemed to raise my total reserves by about 60-70% by my own estimation, while my output went up by a more modest quarter. It wasn't like I had any cursed techniques that required massive levels of output so it wasn't a problem. To explain the difference between them, cursed energy reserves were the total amount of reserves I had, while cursed energy output was the amount I could use at any one time. That was the distinction between Ishigori and Okkotsu. Ishigori had unmatched output so he could use vast amounts of cursed energy in one go—hence the massive granite blasts—while Okkotsu had massive reserves but much smaller output in comparison.
Of course, there was a relationship between them even if they weren't one and the same. High output needed high reserves, and high reserves almost always led to reasonably high output.
My domain fell as it finished its duty. Kashimo was just skin and bones now, and I turned away from him towards Kogane and considered my wording carefully before I said my rule.
"Kogane, add a rule allowing all players to see the rough geographic locations of all other players regardless of whatever colony they are in," I said.
"Player Megumi Fushiguro has added a rule. The following rule has been added: players may now see the rough locations of other players," it replied.
My point total had now dropped back down to five. That was fine. With my new rule, it was only a matter of time before the others found The Angel. Itadori and the others would free Gojo as soon as possible, and most of this mess would be over. I just had to figure out a way to deal with Tsumiki. I'd had Maki communicating with her so far so she was up to speed. Now all I needed was to get the chance to get Hana to use Jacob's Ladder on her and put down Yorozu before she knew we were on to her.
"Kogane, show me the location of Ogi Zenin," I said.
The shikigami created a holographic map that showed a single dot blinking a few kilometres away. It was approaching my location. I felt a suspicion rise in my gut.
"Kogane, show me the locations of Jinichi Zenin, Ranta Zenin, and Chojuro Zenin," I said. And sure as I had felt it, they were spread out across the colony in all directions, but each of their dots was approaching mine. I chuckled at that.
An assassination attempt, most likely. What a coincidence that we would all decide to use the Culling Games as an excuse to cull those in the clan that we felt were unfit. I guess there was some family resemblance there after all. I picked Ogi first and began to chart my path through the city, heading in his direction. He was coming from the left—farther into this shipping complex. I reinforced my legs with cursed energy and jumped to the top of one crate. I then ran along it before jumping to the next, and then the next after it.
If they were making the choice to get me off the board, then it meant I wouldn't need to feel too guilty about what was going to happen. I jumped over the last of the shipping crates and landed on the ground to find him waiting for me with his hand on his blade and in his stance.
"So you felt me coming and didn't run? How careless," I said with a smirk.
"Shut up, fool. We all sensed the activation of your domain earlier. That means you cannot use the Ten Shadows or your domain anymore. You might have been able to defeat that brat Naoya because of your domain, but you don't have it anymore," he said.
"How interesting. So that was the plan. Force Kashimo towards me and tell him that I wanted a fight to ensure we started things off with violence. Since he'd gathered two hundred points, you figured that he would be so strong I would either die against him or need my domain to beat him. So the second you felt me expand my domain, you knew that I would enter cursed technique burnout and so would be ripe for the taking," I surmised.
"Now it is your time to die," he said, shifting his feet to strengthen his stance. Knees bent to place him closer to the ground, and feet poised at me. His katana remained sheathed but both his hands were on it. It was an iaido stance of the finest order.
In a second, he could activate his cursed technique and cleave my head from my shoulders. How deadly. I twisted, bending at the waist to allow an arc of cutting flames to pass right where my head had just been.
So quick. There had been barely any indication that he had been about to move. Only the amount of cursed energy I was reinforcing my body with allowed me to avoid the attack properly. He moved again, twisting his blade and attempting to bury the flaming sword in my chest once I returned to an upright position.
I shifted to the side, allowing the blade to pass me by. He moved with it again and I ducked underneath once more. He feinted an attack to the right and then caught me off guard with a stab to the left. Still, I managed to dodge for the most part. His blade scored a cut on the outside of my left arm and he paid for it as my right slammed into his midsection with a punch practically singing with the amount of cursed energy I imbued it with.
His body folded around my punch as he fell to the ground right in front of me. His hand still clutched onto his sword and it bloomed with cursed energy as he was about to execute some sort of move. I stepped straight on said hand, not stopping to grind my foot in until I heard the crunch of shattered bones.
"The Zenin Clan is all about the strong, yes? So what does it say that someone like you who stands above the rest of them cannot even take someone like me on?" I asked with a smirk.
"Not going to say anything, you—" My body froze like I was under the influence of my own technique. A giant pair of eyes appeared right in front of me. Chojuro? He was even faster than I expected then, I thought with a sigh. The ground beneath my feet began to shift and move as well. What was the name of the one with the earth technique again?
What a trap. I'd almost have applauded them if it wasn't so fucking predictable—Chojuro using his technique from a distance while the others moved to deal with me completely and end the fight. What a boring strategy.
A/N: Cursed Energy reserves are such an interesting concept simply because we actually don't know much about how much of it most of the cast is working with. We know Yuta has more of it than Gojo, and that Sukuna has about twice as much as Yuta does. But beyond that, there's nothing to say where the run-of-the-mill Grade One stands. Let's assume Megumi as a baseline had as much as a Strong Grade One. Combined with MC's smaller reserves, they had just a bit less than Naoya, so Naoya more than doubles their reserves. Naoya wasn't Special Grade, but he was still strong, so let's assume a Special Grade like Kashimo who isn't known for his cursed energy reserves would have about as much as the combo of Naoya and Megumi. Accounting for what he would have expended in combat and what would be lost in absorption, we have MC's reserves swelling by another 70%. But yet, this is still far below Gojo, not to talk about Yuta or Sukuna. Next two chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early. Since this is a new story, so there's a discount for the rest of the month on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (expires in two days from now so don't snooze it): feel free to check that out as well.