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CHAPTER START---
"Why does it always turn out like this?" Taiyo mutters while looking at the Cat Skeleton Shikigami pacing in front of him.
Its bones clatter with each movement, and the eerie, echoing purrs from its hollow skull are deeply unsettling.
Taiyo frowns and flops back into the grass of his backyard as the Shikigami begins walking all over him. "Another failure."
He looks at the Shikigami Talisman in his hand and stops flowing Cursed Energy into it, causing the Shikigami to combust in a flash of neutral Cursed Energy. He closes his eyes, drinking in the morning sun while combing over every step he took in the process, still failing to understand where he went wrong.
"At least this one was able to move," Mei Mei says from her lounge chair nearby, sunbathing in a swimsuit while working on her laptop. "You should give yourself more credit. Most people can't even modify a Shikigami Talisman, and you've only been at this for a few weeks."
"Yeah, well, if the skeleton had wing structures, that'd be a sign of progress. Now I need to start over. Maybe the Binding Vows were off…what do you think?"
"I think you have better ways to spend your time than this pet project. You're fighting Gojo again in a few weeks, go back to training your Domain Expansions."
"My souls need time before I can make them resonate again. Shifting the burden will take a lot more practice to deal with the drawbacks."
"I'd say that's a very low cost, considering how absurd the reward is. But you really shouldn't bet everything on those, after all, your opponent is The Strongest."
"I know, and if I take one wrong step, he'll instantly copy me and remove my advantage. But I have a plan for that, just trust me."
"I always trust you to be both devious and obsessed with victory. Although after last year's showing, setting up the betting sheet will be a lot harder now. People know you're at least strong enough to entertain Gojo, so I won't be able to make as much money as last year."
"The fact that people expected me to lose in one hit was insulting. Entirely possible, but still, insulting." Taiyo sits up and focuses on the talisman, flowing his Cursed Energy through it to change the Binding Vows. "Is there anyone who specializes in Shikigami usage at Jujutsu Tech?"
"Ijichi," Mei Mei says. "Lots of people with no Innate Technique use pre-made Shikigami Talismans to summon them, but none of those Shikigami are useful in combat. There are limits to how much an artificial creature can do. Ijichi is good at summoning them, and uses them in his job as a Manager to work as an alarm system during missions."
"So it really is true that unless a Shikigami is created via Innate Technique, it's worthless in a fight."
"Jujutsu doesn't allow one to create false things so easily. The same way Jujutsu Sorcerers are mostly bulletproof or at least highly resistant to human weapons since nature will always favor those with Cursed Energy. Jujutsu doesn't like it when Shikigami programmed by humans are too powerful."
Taiyo frowns, tapping his chin while modifying the Talisman. "But every Shikigami is just a stack of Barriers programmed to act in a specific way, so it's not impossible."
"Is that your plan? Summon a swarm of powerful Shikigami via Talismans to attack Gojo?"
He scoffs. "I don't plan to use these for anything important. I just think I'd be cool to have, and learning this will take my Barrier Techniques to a whole other level."
"That does make sense. Ijichi has particularly strong Barrier Techniques, even for his limited Cursed Energy pool." Mei Mei glances over at Taiyo, seeing him redouble his focus on the Talisman. "When I first began this line of work, I considered a Crow Shikigami Talisman, but that didn't work out."
"Why not?"
"My Innate Technique is 'Black Bird Manipulation', with the last part being most important. It only works by taking control of real living crows and ravens. It makes it a hassle to raise and grow them, but luckily I don't have to train them since the Innate Technique takes care of that. However, it doesn't work on Shikigami since they have no Soul to suppress, so they're hollow toys.
And what makes it even worse is the fact that my Bird Strike Maximum Technique also wouldn't work even if I could control them. No being can be forced into a Binding Vow, yet I can make the crows activate a Death Binding Vow. They sacrifice their lives in a suicide attack in exchange for a massive boost in Cursed Energy.
This happens because my Innate Technique is more of a suggestive power than a puppeteering ability. They become fully devoted to me and are an extension of my desire in that regard, but they have free will. However—"
"Your Soul overpowers theirs, so the lines are blurred."
She raises a brow, casting a suspicious look his way. "Is that how your Souls work?"
"No. Mine resonate back and forth in symbiosis to stretch the rules of Jujutsu. But I recently learned that two souls sharing one body usually isn't so…amicable."
"Did Yuki's notes teach you that?"
"No. Her notes were lacking. But I am my own perfect test subject. Plus, everything I learned from the twins substantiated my results. The connection to Jujutsu and creation of Cursed Energy starts from the Soul, so it was the most logical place to start my research."
"I see, and that's why you have so much Cursed Energy."
"Partly."
"And by that logic, could you have a second Innate Technique?"
Taiyo chuckles. "That was the first thing I checked. But no, there is a empty space where it would have been in my second Soul. When they resonate I can feel it, almost reach out and touch that void."
"Sounds like you're missing part of yourself."
"No," his face splits with a smile. "That empty space is nothing but opportunity, and I'm going to make the most of it. To fight me is to fight not just two Souls, but two Souls in perfect resonance. Synchronized to accomplish more than the sum of their parts."
"Assuming you can solve the puzzle of yourself. But, you should know, I don't think it would take anything less than that to overcome Satoru Gojo. You impressed everyone by doing as well as you did last year, but now that we better understand what you can do, the expectations are much higher."
"Nobody has a higher expectation for me, than myself. This year I've got a special plan, one that wouldn't be necessary for anyone but Gojo. I just hope he can handle, it, because honestly, I dread becoming The Strongest. I reached the top of the Olympic world at such a young age and everything became boring.
I want Jujutsu to be a lifelong competition that keeps me on my toes. But from the looks of it, when I overtake Gojo, he'll be the only that can potentially compete with me. And so much of Jujutsu Society is complacent, accepting of their station in life without even trying to become the best. It really is disgusting."
Mei Mei scoffs. "Jujutsu isn't something we all start from zero in and slowly climb to the top. Most people are capped where they start. No matter how much I train, I'd never be able to kill you or Gojo, there is nothing wrong in accepting that and doing the best with what we have. You're being blinded by the privilege of your potential."
Taiyo turns to her, pausing for a moment, then smiling. "Then I just need a lot more people with potential to be real competition, problem solved."
"You say that as if it's easy."
"Not easy, but possible," he turns back to his Talisman, ignoring her concerned expression and flowing Cursed Energy through the paper.
Cursed Energy flows through it and into the empty space in front of him, gathering and becoming dense before forming a Skeleton Cat Shikigami, but this time there were little horns on its head and a pair a wing bone structures on its back.
"Much better," Mei Mei says teasingly. "Now you just need to modify it to have everything living animals have, and to no longer use a cat as the foundation."
Taiyo sighs and dispels the Shikigami. "One thing at a time. This isn't for combat anyway, so more Shikigami research can wait until tomorrow…"
END CHAPTER---
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