Curse Energy Trait.
A special characteristic of someone's cursed energy manifests as a specialized trait of its own, either by being influenced by the nature of the person's soul, body, or mind, or under the influence of one's innate cursed technique itself.
This trait stands apart from one's innate cursed technique, as this trait is imbued into the very nature of their cursed energy.
A good example is some special grade curses who are born of an element like Fire, Water, or Wind... their entire being revolves around their cursed technique since that is what gave them birth as the byproduct of human negativity, and as such, their very cursed energy from birth itself has evolved into one of such traits.
Even in humans, sorcerers to be exact, these traits manifest; however, it's rarer than one might think. Specifically, someone is born with or later acquires a trait that could change the very nature of their cursed energy.
In extreme cases, the cursed energy may even act, feel, and look like part of the trait it has inherited.
As for why it's important to know, it's because I just recently fought someone like this.
Chizuru's claws were already retracting, resetting for another strike, his grin all teeth and hunger, entirely too pleased with the fact that he'd drawn first blood.
Pain shot out from my side, nothing to make me wince. I had already endured enough by now to ignore something this small, but an irritation flared inside me. The kind that entirely came from seeing the man smirking at me because he landed a hit by making Remi bait.
Or was she really bait? Was he really trying to kill her? By the height difference, it would have been her heart where this bastard struck me.
My cursed energy flared up with the building anger, the increased output and unusually explosive nature of it even caught me off guard.
I didn't even fully register the decision — just the anger and the cursed energy surging into my fist without me consciously calling for it.
Before I knew it, I was already punching the bastard for the stunt he pulled. And by the looks of it, I recovered a bit too fast and retaliated even faster for him to be ready for my incoming punch.
My fist caught Chizuru square in the chest.
The room went white and loud at the same time.
It wasn't a punch anymore by the time it landed — it was closer to a detonation, cursed energy and impact fusing into something with far more bite than my fist alone should've carried.
I could feel my bones tremble at the very impact, my fist sting with a sharp pain, and then Chizuru's whole body left the ground, hurled backward in a burst of explosive pressure that cratered the wall behind him on impact, dust and plaster raining down over his crumpled, twitching form.
His chest had been smoking to a crisp, skin burned off, he coughed out a mouthful of blood and almost passed out.
And I was left standing there with a smoking fist, my own skin burned off from the knuckles, stinging like a bee.
'Sonofa..'
I jerked my smoking hand as fast as possible to relieve the burning sensation, felt my arm go numb from the impact, and internally cursed at the situation.
'Seems like I have to be mindful of how this Hazenoki's cursed trait works from now on...'
Yes...
Outside special grade curses like Dagon and Jogo, Hazenoki was the first one, at least the first human I had fought, who possessed a curse energy trait.
It was rather weak to the point his technique outshone it almost completely; however, his cursed energy did have an explosive trait, most likely inherited by coming into contact with his cursed technique itself.
I only learned that when I killed him, and I wasn't expecting something of this level.
But it makes sense, if I actually think about it — my own reserves dwarfed his by the time I had gotten his reserves and output. And then I had to go and sacrifice his technique, knowing I wasn't psycho enough to get my own eyeball out to turn it into a grenade.
In return, I just got a much stronger cursed energy trait from him.
Apparently that math worked out extremely well for me and extremely badly for Chizuru.
The ringing quiet that followed lasted only a second before Remi finally seemed to catch up with what had just happened.
She blinked, her breath catching, and only then seemed to register exactly how close we were — my arm still locked around her, her hands fisted in my ruined shirt, chests pressed together, faces close enough that her next breath ghosted warm against my jaw.
Her heart felt like it was accelerating, while she didn't even seem to realize that she was inches away from being pierced through the heart.
"...You—" Her voice came out smaller than I'd heard it all day, her gaze flicking between my bleeding side and the smoking crater where Chizuru now lay motionless.
"H-he was going for me." Her voice came out shaky, understandable seeing that even after my recent high output and dense reinforcement, that man was able to leave behind deep claw marks on my side. Then she could have been completely pierced by that attack.
"Yeah." I didn't loosen my grip yet, some leftover instinct still half-convinced there was another attack coming.
Only when my senses confirmed to me there wasn't any other cursed energy signature besides the one already there around us did I let her go. One more glance at Chizuru was enough to know that he wouldn't be a problem for the time being, so I finally turned towards Reggie Star, who no longer seemed to have that 'everything under control' smile on his face anymore.
Remi by then had her eyes come back up to me. Even though I wasn't looking at her, something raw and unguarded flickered there as she heard this.
"...Remi, get out of here. It's gonna be dangerous from now on."
She didn't answer that. Just stayed there a second longer than she probably meant to, fingers still curled into the back of my shirt. I could feel it.
"I... why did you? Even after knowing that I'm..." She muttered out, none of what she said made sense standing alone, but I knew what she meant.
"We'll talk later, Princess... for now, just get out of here."
She pursed her lips. Even though my eyes never left Reggie for a second and she was behind me, I could tell she wished to say something, perhaps wanted answers; however, she did just as I asked her to, turned around and ran out.
But not before stating this.
"Don't die..."
For reasons unknown to me, a smile spread across my face.
"Can't promise, but I'll do my best."
"Well, well... I have to be honest, I did feel that output you were hiding the moment you came in, but I wasn't expecting that." Reggie Star finally spoke, his eyes briefly shifting towards the still form of Chizuru and then back to my own hand, which wasn't smoking anymore, but the burn signs were clearly there.
"I believe it makes sense now, that's how you defeated Hazenoki. Your cursed energy has explosive properties."
"Does it really matter how I beat him?"
"Hmm. No, I guess. However, it just pains me to see how fruitless all that power is in your hands. For all this power, and what do you do with it? Playing hero...
Come on, Akindo, we don't have to fight. Join me. Together we can unite the entire colony; we might even have a chance against Higuruma. I'm certain you should have heard about him if you are hunting points, right!...
Think about it, inside this place, we rule together, use our powers the way we see fit, with no one to oppose us." Reggie once again said.
I wasn't expecting him to try to convince me one more time, but perhaps that little show of power made him care a bit more.
Unfortunately for him, my answer was still the same.
"No thanks, I'm good."
His smile, forced as it was, seemed to twitch at the corner. "Is playing hero for an outcome you yourself aren't even certain about really worth that much to you?" He asked, annoyance clearly laced in his voice.
"Perhaps... at least I know the outcome will be better than not doing anything about it." I shrugged.
His shoulders visibly deflated at that. "Sigh, such a shame... guess I'll never understand how you modern sorcerers think."
"Well, there is a large generational gap after all," I said with a grin, taking a fighting position.
"Time has changed quite a bit since you were alive. People don't try to conquer the world anymore, at least none have tried after Hitler...
And believe me, that turned out fabulously disastrous back then."
Reggie nodded. "I see... must have been quite a sorcerer of his era, this Hitler." Taking a fighting stance as well.
"Oh, you have no idea..."
xXx
A/N : Ah, I really wish to give him some sort of curse energy trait... explosive fist also sound cool as heck.
Would appreciate stones if you can spare any. Thank you.
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