It was evening.
The fading sunlight spilled gently across the floorboards of Reiji's dorm room, tinting everything with a faint orange. He sat on his bed; his phone pressed to his ear. On the other end of the line was a voice that could make even the best sorcerers straighten up. The hawk-eyed elder of the Kamo clan, Dairoku Kamo.
Despite the man's reputation, Reiji's face remained calm, though the tone coming through the receiver was anything but that.
"I've got nothing, kid," Dairoku barked, the faint sound of cicadas buzzing in the background. "No one I know of has ever reversed Blood Manipulation like this. There are no records of it either. You've gone and done something troublesome again, tch."
Reiji rubbed his temple with a sigh. "I don't know what to do, old man."
That single phrase made the elder's blood pressure spike. Veins bulged visibly on his forehead as his voice thundered through the receiver. "You damn brat! How many times have I told you not to call me that? I'm not even that old yet!"
Reiji didn't flinch. "I'll take your word for it," he said dryly, flipping a page in the notebook beside him. "Anyway, I think I finally understand what Akame's functions are. A friend helped me analyze it using an MRI."
There was a pause. On the other end, Dairoku's tone immediately shifted from fury to cold attentiveness.
"…You ran an MRI on a cursed relic?"
"Yes," Reiji replied matter-of-factly. He turned to glance out his window, where the last fragments of daylight glowed on the horizon. "From what I can tell… Akame enhances night vision, perception, and energy sensitivity. It allows me to detect cursed energy at a microscopic level… maybe even cellular."
He hesitated, grimacing slightly as flashes of memory surfaced… the moments when Akame had seized control of his body, when his own will had been overwritten by something else. He quickly pushed those thoughts down.
"…It also acts up sometimes," he continued, his tone quieter. "It provides massive amounts of cursed energy when… it believes its existence is threatened."
Dairoku didn't interrupt. The old man simply listened; his sharp gaze fixed on the horizon outside his manor. The evening sun cast long shadows across the sprawling Kamo estate, painting it in hues of crimson and gold.
Reiji leaned back, his voice softer now. "To be honest, I still don't know what else it's capable of. Most of these… 'functions' might not even be its true abilities. Maybe they are just byproducts of its structure."
He paused again. The weight of the lie pressed against his chest. He couldn't tell Dairoku or anyone else, about the sentience he'd glimpsed within Akame. The last thing he needed was for the clan to consider him an unstable vessel.
He exhaled shakily. 'At least this much should be enough to appease them,' he thought bitterly. 'Enough to delay my execution, maybe.'
Finally, Dairoku spoke again. His tone had softened — barely. "Well… I'll report it to the elders. Don't worry about that for now."
Reiji stared blankly at the windowpane. "Old man… what do I do now?"
There was a long silence on the line. The sound of cicadas filled the gap.
For a moment, Dairoku's irritation returned — a familiar heat rising in his voice — but it quickly cooled into something gentler, almost paternal. "Come back to the clan for a while. Train here. The people at Jujutsu High are nothing but creepy bastards with inflated egos. You'll find peace in familiar surroundings."
Reiji frowned, stretching his legs. "I've barely been here a month. And the last few weeks have been… well, let's just say 'intense.' I've been training with the two special grades."
That got Dairoku's full attention. "Oh? What kind of training? What could those snot-nosed brats possibly teach you?"
"Close combat," Reiji replied simply. "I've started developing my own martial style. No real progress yet, though."
There was a stunned pause. Then came the incredulous roar. "WHAT? You're learning from them? Those good-for-nothing idiots?"
Reiji sighed, half amused. "They're actually really good at it, you know. I've learned more from them in three weeks than I did at the clan in years."
There was a crackling sound — Dairoku laughing so loud the phone nearly vibrated out of Reiji's hand.
"HAHA! The only reason I didn't teach you martial arts myself is because you were too weak to even stand straight back then! Don't think I've forgotten how you used to faint after a warm-up, brat!"
Reiji winced, running a hand through his hair. "Yeah, yeah. Thanks for the reminder old man."
"But now that you've started," Dairoku continued, his voice regaining its sternness, "you'll want a proper foundation… not the half-baked nonsense those showoffs call 'training.' You should return to the estate, even if only for a short while. Learn from someone who has fought his whole life, not some overconfident children with too much cursed energy and no discipline."
Reiji groaned. "So… a vacation after one month of school. That is just great."
"It's not a vacation you brat," Dairoku snapped. "A sorcerer without a good base is just another corpse waiting to happen."
Reiji pinched the bridge of his nose, already imagining the mountain of drills that awaited him. "Fine. I guess I'll start packing." His voice dripped with exasperation.
Dairoku laughed again, this time softer, more satisfied. "That's the spirit. Don't worry, kid. Once you get the basics down, I'll send you back before those idiots at Jujutsu High can forget your name."
The call ended with a soft click.
Reiji lowered the phone, staring at the blank screen. "Yeah," he muttered to himself, "sure you will…"
Meanwhile, miles away in the Kamo estate, Dairoku tossed his phone onto a nearby cushion and stretched his back. The fading light bathed the old master's silhouette in gold as he looked out at the sky, a rare, satisfied smile tugging at his lips.
"Heh… kid's starting to sound like a sorcerer now."
******************************************************************************
Reiji slowly made his way to the indoor basketball court at Jujutsu High. He expected his classmates to be there. As he pushed through the gym doors, he found Gojo and Geto locked in a heated game, sweating and laughing between their scuffles. Shoko sat on the sidelines in that same nonchalant way she always had, with one hand idly holding Gojo's sunglasses, and the other a cigarette balanced between two fingers.
Reiji sank down beside her and watched the game for a moment. When she tilted her head toward him, he finally said, "Shoko, I'm going home for a bit."
Her eyes widened, surprised. "Whoa… for real?"
He nodded. "Yeah. Like a mini vacation. I'll try to be back in a week or two. Could you tell them please? They don't seem to be in the mood for rational conversation right now."
Shoko glanced across at the court. Gojo was mid-argument about some trivial rule, while Geto was rolling his eyes and dribbling between his knees. She smirked, then leaned in. "Sure. But when you come back, we're doing that Korean barbecue thing you mentioned."
Reiji's gaze flickered up at her; something like surprise crossed his face. For a moment he closed his eyes, and the tightness around his mouth eased into a small, genuine smile. "Alright. Deal."
**************************************************************************
Reiji woke to a ceiling he hadn't seen in weeks… familiar, and full of the kind of silence only vast estates possess. He sat up slowly and shuffled to the washbasin. The estate felt different now that he had returned; every corner held memories of reprimands, and harsh training.
He had arrived at the Kamo estate the day before, and Dairoku had already issued orders: be ready for training at dawn. Reiji didn't protest, he had nothing pressing to do and no one to meet after all.
He dressed in traditional training garb, knots tied precisely as the Kamo way demanded, and padded barefoot toward the training hall. The floorboards creaked underfoot; the air smelled faintly of oil and old wood. To his surprise, his master was already there.
"You are late!" Dairoku barked the moment Reiji stepped through the sliding doors.
Reiji yawned and offered a polite, if not sleepy, reply. "I overslept, Master."
The old man's hawk-like eyes flashed with rage for half a second, but he calmed down his temper with a controlled breath. He moved closer and began circling the boy, arms folded, inspecting posture and stance as if reading through him. Occasionally he poked and prodded; at muscle, at joint mobility, at the place where Reiji's ribs still bore faint memories of past injuries. When Dairoku finished his slow orbit, he stopped in front of Reiji and gave his verdict.
He sounded disappointed. "Your body hasn't improved much."
Reiji bristled. "I know, old man."
Dairoku's tone softened a fraction. "Nevertheless, it seems your reflexes have sharpened."
Reiji pinched the bridge of his nose, irritation bubbling under the surface. "I already know that," he snapped, then forced himself to be measured. "But I need more power."
Dairoku regarded him for a long moment, reading the determination stitched under the boy's words. A corner of his mouth quirked into something almost like a grin.
'Is this because of that green bastard?' he thought, amused inwardly.
'A child who'd given up on brawling now wants to start again because of some green scaly fool.'
"You should start by showing me your new technique," Dairoku said at last. "As for martial arts... you are too weak to deal any meaningful damage without Flowing Red Scale."
A muscle twitched in Reiji's jaw. He swallowed. "I've been working on it."
Dairoku paced a slow circle, hands clasped behind his back. "You can close that gap," he said thoughtfully, "but not by raw strength alone. Sometimes, a powerful cursed tool can help a weak frame deliver a decisive, fatal strike."
Reiji's eyes narrowed. He had tried weapons before without much success; they never felt like natural extensions of his body. He'd always been better with technique than with cursed steel. Dairoku seemed to read the doubt and smiled.
"I know just the one for you," the elder added as he turned toward the hall's wooden exit, voice low and conspiratorial. "But, it is going to be a pain to learn."
Reiji's heart tightened in a way he didn't expect.