There was a wide array of Gion tattoos to choose from. Most Grim Raiders and Rangers chose from three basic types: defense, recovery, or reinforcement. Veterans, however, usually mastered two, most often defense and recovery or reinforcement and recovery, depending on their combat style, meaning the grim deck they had built.
I had already decided on a reinforcement type Gion tattoo, but the options were overwhelming. The one that caught my eye was the True Name Sutra. It was more than just a reinforcement type Gion tattoo. It was also incredibly versatile. I came across it while searching for a Gion tattoo with a low learning curve and fastest deployment time. After all, what good was an ability if you cannot deploy it when it matters?
Many Grimlocks would call that short-sighted, but not everyone had the luxury of planning far into the future. I couldn't even leave the institute campus without worrying about being kidnapped. With the Garrison Reserve registration taking place at the city's reserve garrison, I simply didn't have the time to worry about the future. Survival came first.
True Name Sutra was a Forbidden Gion tattoo derived from the sealing art known as the True Name Forbidden Seal. Grimlocks used this seal to confine Grimmon, artifacts, spells, and other entities stronger than themselves within their grim deck by invoking the Grimmon's true name.
The seal came with several severe major drawbacks. One of them was if the Grimmon, or the spirits of the artifacts, spells, and other entities, sealed by this sealing art learned the Grimlock's true name, they could forcibly undo the seal. Because of that risk, despite its powerful and tempting abilities, the sealing art was labeled forbidden and rarely used by conventional Grimlocks.
Similarly, True Name Sutra, a gion tattoo designed after this forbidden seal made use of the Grimlock's true name to function, as such it too was also labeled as forbidden. However, this set of forbidden sealing art and gion tattoo were just right for me thanks to my Grim Cypher's sub ability False Fate. For now, it was only a hunch. I had to try it to know for sure.
[ — Gion Tattoo —
Name: True Name Sutra
Effects: An external circuit etched onto the skin that links all 361 Gion points of a Grimlock into a single pattern that uses Grimlock's True Name to help them sense their Will and command it through their Intent.
i) True Force: An outward manifestation of a Grimlock's Will, sensed and stabilized through their True Name, shaped by Intent, and invoked through the Gion tattoo. With it, a Grimlock can project an invisible influence into the physical world, allowing them to pressure, push, pull, grip, strike, or block objects or beings as if using an unseen limb.
ii) Imbue Force: Grimlock can also channel the true force inward, strengthening the Grim Cypher, their body, senses, gion microbe colonies, or any object in contact with them by imbuing it with Intent Force, greatly increasing their sensitivity, durability, impact force, and resistance to external pressure.
iii) True Stealth: the Gion tattoo allows a Grimlock to reduce or completely conceal their presence from anyone who does not know their True Name.
Note:
i) True Name is what Grimlocks were known by before becoming a warlock of Grimmyth.
ii) True Force and its effects are completely ineffective against anyone who knows a Grimlock's True Name. However, they become twice as effective against those who do not know it.
iii) When used in sync with the True Name Forbidden Seal, Grimlock can use 'Seamless Share' ability with their servant cards.
iv) Overexertion could lead to spiritual exhaustion, clinical depression, and suicidal tendencies.]
In simple terms, once a Grimlock etches and activates the True Name Sutra Gion tattoo, it uses their True Name to sense their Will and channel it through a clear Intent, producing a controlled invisible force that can influence the physical world. However, this force becomes ineffective against anyone who knows Grimlock's True Name.
Having decided on the True Name Sutra, I immediately began to memorize, understand, and practice it in my dream domain with a single focus without worrying about its drawback for now. I believed that understanding and reputation of the gion tattoo would help me efficiently use it in day to day life and combat.
After what felt like an eternity in my dream domain practicing the gion tattoo in its simulations I was not confident that I would be able to etch the True Name Sutra on my body and deploy the Gion tattoo in real time.
Waking from sleep, I equipped Mary's Dendron's Descendant and invoked Dendron's Mercy on myself. A gentle surge of vitality flowed through my body, washing away the heaviness of fatigue and clearing the fog in my mind. By the time the effect settled, the lingering stiffness from sleep had already faded.
I took a slow breath and focused. One by one, I activated my Gion points. The response was immediate. From all three hundred and sixty-one points across my body, reddish-black Gion ink began to seep outward, surfacing through the skin like living threads of liquid shadow. The ink did not drip or scatter.
With careful concentration, I guided the streams across my skin, drawing them toward one another. Lines extended, curved, and intersected as the ink connected point to point, forming a precise pattern over my body following the structure of the True Name Sutra.
Once the pattern was complete, the gion ink pattern settled into place and began to emit a faint reddish glow. The hue was subtle but steady, the telltale sign that the Gion tattoo had formed correctly and the flow of Gion across the pattern was stable and ready for activation. Even though I had practiced this countless times in my dream domain, I still found myself slightly surprised that I had succeeded on my first attempt.
Satisfied, I moved on to the testing phase. I invoked the True Name Sutra using my true name, Crayon V. Wyatt, exactly as it was mentioned on my Cypher card.