Chapter 76: Black Flash and Reverse Cursed Technique
The next day, a certain dojo at Jujutsu High.
Today, this place was still dedicated to the mission of teaching and nurturing, but the only difference from yesterday was that Emiya had gone from being the one in charge of education to the one being educated.
The person acting as the teacher was Satoru Gojo.
This guy had talked a few days ago about teaching Emiya how to use Cursed Energy, but it wasn't until today that he finally managed to squeeze out a little free time.
This timing was even accelerated by the factor that Emiya had just awakened his Innate Technique; otherwise, Gojo's promise would have been postponed indefinitely.
For Sorcerers, the continuous development of the Innate Technique is indeed paramount, but even before that, the application of Cursed Energy must be practiced to a certain degree of proficiency.
The manipulation and activation of any Cursed Technique cannot be done without the participation of Cursed Energy. If a technique is an electrical appliance, Cursed Energy can be described as the electricity that powers it, as well as the remote control for fine-tuning its operation.
The in-depth development of a technique is essentially a deep operation of Cursed Energy.
Therefore, to develop his Innate Technique, Emiya must first skillfully apply Cursed Energy to a certain level.
"Emiya-kun, first try to concentrate Cursed Energy onto your fist now."
Before formally starting the lesson, Satoru Gojo first instructed Emiya to manipulate his Cursed Energy, wanting to check his proficiency level.
Extending his palm, Emiya followed the instruction and mobilized the Cursed Energy inside his body, quickly condensing a visible black sphere of light onto his fist.
This was the product of highly condensed Cursed Energy; if Emiya's Cursed Energy wasn't special, the effect might not have been so obvious.
"I see, just as I thought."
Satoru Gojo's face showed a look of confirmation, and he then explained to Emiya: "The Cursed Energy refined by ordinary Sorcerers flows throughout the body starting from the navel. During combat, it passes through the chest, shoulder, and arm, finally injecting into the fist or weapon.
This adherence to the process results in Cursed Energy lag."
Cursed Energy is, after all, a truly existing form of energy. Just as electric current has a transmission speed, Cursed Energy is naturally the same.
"Cursed Energy lag?"
Emiya lowered his head to look at his palm. The processes of generating intent, mobilizing Cursed Energy, and successfully condensing it do indeed waste a fraction of time, but this has rarely impacted Emiya, who seldom uses Cursed Energy directly in combat.
"Exactly, exactly. Many people subconsciously regard the navel as the core point of the human body, and of course, for some, it might be the heart.
So when refining Cursed Energy, they subconsciously start refining the Cursed Energy from the navel... But this idea is actually wrong.
Even if Cursed Energy is truly generated based on psychological awareness, the part that refines the Cursed Energy should be the head, not the heart or navel."
Satoru Gojo held an anatomical dummy that he'd somehow brought over, pointed to its head and heart, and finally drew a large circle around it.
"In fact, the human body is a whole, and the conversion of Cursed Energy is born based on this whole."
"Since some people can, based on their subjective perception, locate the Cursed Energy source at the navel or the heart, then, by the same logic..."
Satoru Gojo clenched his fist, causing Cursed Energy to instantly appear within it.
"Any part of the body can become the source point for Cursed Energy generation."
Emiya nodded thoughtfully upon seeing this.
He had genuinely never considered this, as the generation of Magecraft relies on the Magic Circuits to convert life force, and there is no concept of converting magical energy throughout the entire body.
The quality, quantity, and location of Magic Circuits vary for every Magus. Emiya's own Magic Circuits are mostly concentrated in his left arm, hence the birth of his magical energy starts from his left arm.
With the technique for controlling magical energy as a foundation, and now with Satoru Gojo illuminating the concept, Emiya immediately extended his palm and attempted to condense Cursed Energy within it. In just a moment, visible pitch-black Cursed Energy covered his entire arm. Although there was still a slight delay, he had at least grasped this technique, and all that remained was training.
"You truly have a unique innate talent, Emiya-kun."
Seeing Emiya's progress, Satoru Gojo smiled and continued to explain: "There's another point. The essence of Cursed Energy is the curse generated from negative emotions. Therefore, the more heightened a Sorcerer's emotions are, the greater the intensity of their Cursed Energy will become.
But while this is fine sometimes, constantly maintaining strong negative emotions during combat will obviously affect one's thinking.
So, a Sorcerer must learn to refine Cursed Energy from minimal emotions... to be focused yet without affecting their thought process.
The best training method for this is probably watching a movie? Focusing on the content while performing a limited output of Cursed Energy... I will arrange a special training session for you and Itadori-kun later."
After saying this, Satoru Gojo suddenly dropped his playful attitude somewhat and began explaining truly important things to Emiya.
"Once you've mastered these two basic theories, it's time to attempt the very first technique that truly belongs to Cursed Energy application.
Black Flash."
Satoru Gojo extended one finger and held it in front of Emiya.
"Black Flash is a spatial distortion created by perfectly timed Cursed Energy and a physical strike, the concept of which is similar to a critical hit. In this situation, the Cursed Energy shines with a black light, and its power is 2.5 times that of a normal strike.
Matching this astonishing power is an extremely demanding condition—the spatial distortion phenomenon of the Black Flash will only occur when the error between the physical strike and the Cursed Energy impact is less than 0.000001 seconds."
"0.000001 seconds?
It's impossible for human consciousness to capture that instant, right?"
No matter how much confidence Emiya had in himself, he wasn't naive enough to think he could achieve this level.
The minimum frame rate for an animated film is 24 frames, because when twenty-four continuous images flash by in one second, the human eye can no longer capture individual frames.
The normal human reaction time is only 0.3 seconds, and even with great effort, a normal person can only compress it to 0.1. Even an Agility-specialized Heroic Spirit couldn't boost their brain's reaction speed by more than ten thousand times, could they?
"That's right. So, besides the precision of Cursed Energy manipulation, the remaining requirement for releasing Black Flash depends on coincidence and insight.
But undeniably, a person whose precision in Cursed Energy manipulation has not reached a certain level absolutely cannot unleash a Black Flash.
No Sorcerer, including even myself who possesses the Six Eyes, can deliberately release a Black Flash.
And Black Flash has another layer of meaning for Sorcerers, which is enlightenment... A Sorcerer who has successfully executed a Black Flash will have an understanding of Cursed Energy that is one dimension ahead of those with no Black Flash experience."
Gojo's meaning was quite clear—that once Emiya increased his Cursed Energy operation precision to a certain level, the next step would be to attempt a breakthrough through continuous combat.
Furthermore, this combat must not be solved by relying on Projection Magecraft and magical energy; it's best to use only pure Cursed Energy and physical techniques, as the probability of successfully executing a Black Flash will be greater.
"In that case, Gojo-sensei, under what circumstances did you land your first Black Flash?"
As long as sufficient effort could solve the problem, Emiya wasn't afraid of whether he could succeed. Conversely, he was somewhat curious under what premise Satoru Gojo managed to meet the conditions for releasing Black Flash.
"Me?"
Satoru Gojo's face revealed an 'I knew you'd ask that' smile, and he waved his hand, stating: "I just somehow used it when I was playing around with a Cursed Spirit as a kid. There really isn't any experience I can pass on to you."
Emiya: "..."
He didn't recall the other party having such an arrogant side before.
Fortunately, Satoru Gojo didn't dwell on the matter himself; instead, he shattered his own dignified air the next second.
"However, the record holder for consecutive Black Flash occurrences isn't me, but the one you're quite familiar with—Kento Nanami."
"His record is four times, meaning four consecutive attacks triggered Black Flash simultaneously. It's enough to hold a moment of silence for that Cursed Spirit."
Kento Nanami's Cursed Technique Ten−Tenths Technique can inherently produce an effect similar to a critical hit. If Black Flash is stacked on top of that, it truly results in what can be called 'explosive damage.'
"Nanami-sensei?"
Indeed, Emiya's impression of Kento Nanami was that of a serious yet reliable senior, and the other party's strength within the Sorcery World definitely belongs to the core forces.
"Well, besides the Black Flash technique, the only more advanced Cursed Energy manipulation left is the Reverse Cursed Technique.... Emiya-kun, you must have deeply experienced it firsthand through Sukuna, right?"
"Even with a fatal injury like a missing heart, the Reverse Cursed Technique can easily heal it. The only drawback is that it can only be used on oneself."
While there are indeed people in the Sorcery World who can use the Reverse Cursed Technique on others, they are exceptions among exceptions, so we won't consider them for now.
"Because it is born from negative emotions, the essence of Cursed Energy is negative energy. It can strengthen the body but cannot be used for healing or regeneration.
The essence of the Reverse Cursed Technique isn't a technique either, but a high-level operation of Cursed Energy. Its principle is the rule of 'negative multiplied by negative equals positive'—multiplying the negative energy of Cursed Energy to obtain positive energy that can heal the physical body.
Just describing the principle makes it difficult to actually achieve. Emiya-kun still needs to first improve the precision of his Cursed Energy operation; only then is there hope of mastering this technique through continuous attempts.
As for a method to train operation precision..."
An idea suddenly popped into Satoru Gojo's mind.
"How about we try attaching Cursed Energy to the soles of our feet and trying to walk on water?"
Emiya: "...."
He has watched Naruto too!
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