Ten Shadows in the Heian Era

The evening finds me in a large open field on the school grounds with two of my classmates.

After the introductions earlier, Kamo-Sensei gave a brief lesson on Barrier Techniques before dismissing us for self study, which is apparently a significant portion of our study time.

According to my classmates, there isn't actually a whole lot that a Jujutsu Sorcerer can teach another Sorcerer. Innate Techniques for example can only be figured out by their user, with the exception of Inherited Technique Users who can benefit from the efforts of their predecessors.

I still managed to get permission to visit the library and borrow some of the books and scrolls there.

Then Ise and Minamoto both had to leave for a mission and Sukuna wondered off somewhere, so my other classmates offered to spar with me.

I think they just want to test me for something, though I'm not sure what, but I don't mind, because I'm here to learn, so this is perfect for me.

I learnt so much in that short fight with Tamamo, and now I feel like I'm addicted to smoking again with how badly I want to experience that again.

Now that I think about it, I could probably smoke without worrying about my lungs now that I have superpowers. Neat.

"I know you're a bumpkin," Taira comments while stretching, breaking the silence without a hint of grace, "So have ya ever been in a fight before?"

Turning to face my classmates properly, I crack my neck as I answer. "Only once," I say with a smile, enjoying the warmth of the sun on my face as that thrill for battle slowly starts to grow for the second time in my life.

Taira makes a face at my answer, as if I'd just said the most unbelievable thing.

"I grew up in an isolated shrine and I only left it for the first time a few days ago," I defend myself, and she lets out a sigh in return, looking put out.

"(¬‿¬)," the orb 'says', facing Taira, who immediately blushes.

"S-shut up!" She yells at Kamo, who floats back a little in an imitation of backing off.

"(￣y▽,￣)╭," is the face Kamo makes, and I feel like I'm missing some inside joke as Taira huffs out a breath and steadily regains her calm.

Well, mostly. She still looks kind of pissed actually.

"Whatever," Taira scoffs as I feel her Cursed Energy spike and she settles into a combat stance. "Let's see how you fare, Special grade."

I turn a dry glare to Kamo at the fact she just got Taira all riled up right before they fight, and the orb ripples and changes in response.

"(ง •.•)ง."

...This school is so weird.

I kind of love it.

"Pay attention!" Taira suddenly yells from right next to me, and it's only instinct that has me raising an arm in time to block her punch from hitting my face.

Even still, there is enough force behind the blow to send me cartwheeling away, which is incredibly disorienting by the way.

Still, I am able to twist enough to land on my feet, and my smile only grows when I look up to see Taira rushing me down, moving even faster than Tamamo did.

She reaches me with a left cross that I block with both of my arms in an 'x', yet the punch still has enough force in it that my knees buckle and the ground cracks beneath us.

Stronger than Tamamo too, I think to myself as I notice her other hand drop to the katana on her waist, and as I move to dodge the coming slash, I am blindsided by a kick to my lower ribs that sends me rolling across the ground.

Palming the floor, I flip myself back to my feet with a spin and bring a hand to my rib, feeling that two of them are broken.

Taira doesn't push the attack this time, so I use the brief pause to channel some Positive Energy and fix myself up, earning a raised brow from the tomboy opposite me.

"So you can use Reverse Cursed Technique then?" She says before settling into a one-handed stance with her sword. "A Sorcerer's entire body is a weapon," she says, "Don't focus on any one part."

It's my first time fighting someone with a weapon, so I guess I did focus on it too much.

"Thanks for the lesson," I happily respond, and she answers with another charge and this time, I move forward to meet her, instead of being entirely passive.

Her sword has the longest reach, so she brings it down on my head in a straight slash, however I am able to keep up with her speed, so instead of dodging, I deflect by slapping the side of the blade with the back of my hand.

The cut goes wide, but her other hand is already closing in, so I meet her fist with an elbow. Unfortunately, her hand unclenches at the last moment and she catches my elbow in her palm, closing her fingers around it.

With my elbow as leverage, she leans back matrix style, pulling me off of my feet with her. Right before her shoulders would hit the ground, her other hand comes back up and her sword drives straight through my shoulder before she completes the movement and throws me behind her.

I don't go far, since she lacked the leverage to put much power into the throw, but that doesn't mean I have the time to counter her before she's back on her feet and facing me again.

"You're starting to piss me off," Taira says with a scowl. "Why are you smiling like that?"

"Because I'm learning."

Once again, she charges at me, but I've already seen what she does on flat ground, so this time, right before she reaches me, I raise a foot and stomp.

The ground craters under my Cursed Energy Reinforced geta and Taira looses her footing for just a moment before resuming her dash with even more fervour.

Her sword swings horizontally, attempting to disembowel me. Two quick steps back avoid it and then I have to lean even further back to avoid the roundhouse kick that follows the blade.

Taira spins with the kick, bringing her sword to bare once more in a fluid motion, like a whirlwind of water. Her sword slashes across at me again, and I step back again, but this time her sword pauses mid-swing and transitions into a thrust that I manage to twist past with only a small cut to my clothes.

Reaching my freshly healed arm out, I grab her sword by the blade, my palm on the flat side, and yank it away from her while sending a kick for her gut, but she immediately twists her wrist ninety degrees so that the blade is poised against my fingers and pulls back, regaining control of her sword and taking my fingers with her.

Owwww, I whine in my head even as I raise a knee to block a front kick of hers, jumping with my other foot so I can use the force of her kick to gain some distance.

But as soon as I land, Taira makes a clapping gesture and I quickly leap another step backwards, just in time to dodge as a pair of giant skeletal hand burst out of the earth, following the movement of Taira's hands.

With even more distance between us, Taira doesn't chase again, and I glance down at my fingers, or at least what's left of them.

Can Positive Energy regenerate limbs? Probably. I used Generous Deer to fix the hole in my chest that Tamamo made, but I don't know if I can do that myself yet.

"Oi!" Taira yells, pulling my attention away from my bleeding digits. "Do I look like a whetstone to you!?" She demands, confusing me.

"What?" I ask with a tilt of my head, and she points her sword at me as she continues to glare.

"Do you think I'm stupid? That I wouldn't notice?" She says, practically spitting the words out. "You've been holding back this whole time. You had an opening when you made me lose my footing but you didn't take it! You're not even treating this like a fight! You're treating me like a grindstone to sharpen yourself on and it's pissing me off!"

What she doesn't say, what is bothering her the most, is that his eyes remind her of the way Sukuna looked down on her. The eyes of someone who knows they are better, but gave you a chance to show what you can do just out of curiosity.

The only difference is that Narauko is not blatantly mocking her. He's still looking down on her though, and it pisses her off that he doesn't even seem to realise it.

"You haven't even used your Technique!" She yells.

I don't respond right away, recognising the truth to her words. A part of me feels bad about it, but I truly just can't bring myself to look at her and see a genuine threat to my life, so I wanted to keep the fight going so I could continue to learn.

"My apologies," I say with a slight bow, "I did not mean to insult, I just wanted to keep learning from your example."

"So you think the battle will end once you actually start trying then!?" Taira demands, and her words unconsciously make my eyes briefly flicker to Kamo before returning to her. Unfortunately, she noticed the movement and connected the dots.

Taira's scowl only grows deeper. "Oh? You think I need Kamo's help to put up a fight against you?"

Scratching my cheek, I feel somewhat sheepish at her decidedly unhappy expression. "I mean..." I trail off as I try to think of a diplomatic way to avoid lying, and fail miserably. "Kind of."

Predictably, she doesn't like that answer, however, to my surprise, she actually does seem to take the honesty for what it was instead of just blowing up and turns her scowl to Kamo. "Don't get involved unless it looks like I'm going to lose," she says before turning back to me. "Now start using your Technique."

Sighing at her demanding tone, I don't argue. It's not like I mind how we fight, either way I'm going to be learning, either martial arts or Jujutsu doesn't matter to me.

Looking back down at my stubs of fingers, I only smile at the flow of blood and simmering sting, finding the experience too novel to be upsetting.

I've never regenerated a limb before, and I don't want to mess it up, so I go to summon Generous Deer, only to falter when I bring my hands up to make the shadowgraphic.

...How to I make the antlers without fingers?

That's pretty funny. Can you really disarm Jujutsu Sorcerers by literally disarming them? I guess in the future I should keep in mind to aim my attacks to disrupt ritualistic things like hand signs when necessary.

Well, Kamo-Sensei did say something about this right? He said that techniques are normally powered by Cursed Energy, which is inherently negative, and this process is called Lapse. Then, when Cursed Energy gets multiplied by itself into Positive Energy it's called Reverse, but there's also a subtraction too.

I don't know why it's so mathematic, probably just because maths can explain pretty much everything, rather than it being the other way around. Either way, the point is that subtraction involved limiting the number of steps required to activate a ritual. Basically anyway.

So with that in mind, I drop the injured hand and make half of the shadowgraphic for my Shikigami.

"Generous Deer," I intone, and it feels a little bit less efficient and slower, but a moment later my dear deer is standing tall beside me regardless.

That was easier than I thought it'd be, I think to myself, recalling how Kamo-Sensei briefly described the process. Maybe it's just because my Technique is Shikigami? Or, considering that prank, maybe Kamo-Sensei was just messing with me by exaggerating the difficulty.

Generous Deer's snout reaches for the back of my palm, and in a burst of Positive Energy I feel the strange tingling sensation of my fingers regenerating.

It feels weird.

Wiggling my newly remade hand, I dismiss Generous Deer and face Taira again.

She is faster and stronger than Tamamo was, but not by a massive amount, and Tamamo's illusions made her much more difficult to fight. Plus, that fight let me get over the initial hesitance one has for new things, so I'm easily a much better fighter than then.

It's easier to improve when one is a novice after all.

Time to fight for real then.

"If you die, can I have your sword?" I ask with a sweet smile while subtly sending a thin line of my shadow forward to connect with her own.

Immediately, her scowl grows deeper, and in that moment, I flick two fingers up, causing a giant spike of inky black to rise from the ground right in front of her.

A fight is more than a clash of bodies. Deception is important too and words are weapons. Tamamo taught me that as well, though I already kind of knew it thanks to the wonders of the internet.

Taira dashes to the side fast enough to avoid the spike, but my hands are already in a different hand sign.

"Lion's Pride," I intone, and my lion Shikigami launches out of the shadow spike with an open maw, ready to bite her head off.

In slow motion, I watch as Cursed Energy coalesces around Taira's free hand and conjures up the form of a small, ornate silver bell carved with intricate designs and with a handle of smooth brown wood capped by a golden cap.

The bell chimes, a soft tinging sound that somehow both manages to be perfectly clear and calmingly quiet at the same time. The next moment, the earth between her and my Shikigami explodes outwards.

A giant skeleton rises from the earth, its bones making a low creaking sound as it stretches tall and swings one of its arms at my Shikigami, batting away the lion like it's a stuffed toy, rather than my second strongest summon.

"My Cursed Technique is Rattling Skeleton," Taira informs me as the giant skeleton looms over her, about seven times as tall as she is and radiating an aura of inevitability, like it is foolish to even consider taking the titan down. "It allows me to summon this Gashadokuro, who possesses great strength and complete invulnerability to all forms of damage."

"Why are you telling me this?" I ask, not that I'm complaining. Also, giant skeletons are cool as hell. Every day I wish I had a camera more and more, because I never want to forget this sight. I don't think my new life has ever felt more like a movie than right now, it's just so cinematic with the afternoon sun hanging behind the titan.

"It's a Binding Vow," she answers with a twitch of her brow at my ignorance. "By revealing my technique I am putting myself in greater danger. The 'revealing one's hand' Binding Vow rewards this by boosting the effectiveness of the Technique being revealed. This explanation I am giving is also enhancing my abilities, because I am making the fight more difficult for myself by educating you."

Huh. Seems useful more for people with simple techniques like her. But for me, Ten Shadows is a technique who's greatest strength is versatility, so I don't think it would really be worth it for me to do the same.

"That's nice," I say before making a new shadowgraphic, "Rabbit Escape."

A veritable ocean of rabbits swarm out of my shadow, though they're more like hares with their size, and then each other's shadows to create a fluffy tidal wave that drops right onto the giant skeleton to weigh it down, at least for a little bit anyway.

As that happens, I push my body reinforcement as hard as I can and launch myself at Taira. Her eyes widen at my speed but she still manages to block my opening punch with her forearm.

She still winces from the strength behind the blow, but still brings her sword to bare when I go for a kick, causing me to abandon the attack and pivot around in a spin, sending a long sweep at her legs that she hops over.

The moment that her feet leave the ground, my lion launches out of my shadow at her. She tries to twist out of the way mid-air, but my Shikigami still manages to rake its claws down her thigh, and I am ready to follow it up with a rising knee, only to hesitate when my ears barely manage to catch the sound of hands clapping together.

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch sight of Kamo's orb and I see that a pair of heavily scarred hands have reached out of the surface.

The hands are entirely covered in scar tissue rather than skin, looking like the most horrific burn I have ever seen, but regardless they are held steady together, pointing right in my direction.

I don't even think about it as I abandon my advantage and lean backwards, just in time as a thin line of red appears in front of my eyes, cutting through right where my torso was a moment ago.

I don't get to catch my breath as the giant skeleton follows the attack by slamming its palm down at me, not seeming all that bothered by the hoard of rabbits covering it.

My lion falls back into my shadow as I hop backwards, avoiding the palm, and then just for fun, I hop back forward and land a spinning kick on the skeleton's wrist.

My leg immediately shatters on contact, and I have to have my rabbits cover me from Taira's sword so I can get some distance, the woman struggling to cut through so many Shikigami quickly.

My rabbits clear away into black ink that drains into nothing a moment after I have gained some distance, leaving me standing on one foot beside my lion while facing Taira, her skeleton and Kamo, who has retreated back into her orb.

I honestly didn't even think there was a person in there in the first place. I've seen enough magical stuff recently that I was just fully ready to accept that one of my classmates is a sentient floating orb of blood.

Kami this life is so much fucking fun~! I love it~!

"Why did you attack my Gashadokuro, Idiot?" Taira asks, though it comes out more as a demand.

"I was curious," I answer with an unrepentant grin, "Besides, you could have been lying."

A standoff forms between us with growing tension as we wait for someone to make the first move. 

On my side, I want to summon Generous Deer, or I could just try healing my leg by myself, while on their side, Taira's injury isn't too severe, so they probably want to stop me from healing and keep pressing the attack.

If I try to summon my deer, Kamo will probably use that attack on me, and it seems super fast so I doubt I can dodge it while summoning a Shikigami, and Taira's skeleton would stop my lion from disrupting Kamo.

However, if I send my lion forward first, Kamo will probably attack it right away, and then it will be a question of whether I can summon my deer before Taira's skeleton can reach me.

Or... I could always try something new.

I wanted to test merging my Shikigami together before trying to merge them with myself or borrow their abilities, but hey, it's my technique, what's the worst that could happen?

Illusions seem like they would be perfect right now, so I reach deep into my being and mentally take hold of Trickster Fox, bringing the Shikigami closer to the surface as if I was about to summon it forth, but not going all the way.

It's difficult to describe the process, but I try to then layer the Shikigami over myself. I feel it's illusion technique in my mind's eye, and my grin only grows when I make a gesture to create an illusion of myself rushing for Kamo with my Lion-

Crap, I think as Kamo's hands remerge from her orb pointed right at me, I failed~!

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to-

The battlefield is cut in half.

Taira and Kamo both seem to stutter and freeze as an enormous cavern opens in the ground between us like a valley had just opened up between blinks.

Slowly, their eyes turn to the side, where the training field rises up into a grassy bank before the school.

But my attention is more occupied by my Shikigami that was just ahead of me and is now missing its upper half.

That was my strongest one! Other than the combined Divine Dogs of course, but in terms of default strength, Lion's Pride was great! And it's even stronger closer to midday!

"Sukuna-sama," Taira says after subtly swallowing whatever her first response was, and I follow her eyes to see the guy in question standing on the bank, looking down on us with a disinterested frown.

However, whatever else Taira was going to say is cut off by me. 

"Oi!" I yell up at him, "I have to tame my Shikigami you know! They don't just respawn! So don't go killing them, Asshole!"

"Haaah?" Sukuna questions dangerously, looking down at me with disapproval, and then, without a word of diplomacy, he swipes his hand at me and I briefly fall into my shadow to avoid the wide, invisible slash, remerging right after it passes.

Why do I feel like a Whac-A-Mole doing this?

"Violence isn't the only answer to everything you know?" I sardonically ask him. "You should try being diplomatic and just apologise for killing my Shikigami! I can't get that thing back now! Ever!"

"Why should I apologise?" Sukuna asks in a slow drawl that is clearly supposed to be mocking.

"Because it is the polite thing to do when you upset someone!"

"Really." He says again, not sounding convinced. "You don't look all that upset."

His words cause me to falter slightly, and I bring a hand up to my face to realise that yes, I'm actually smiling pretty widely right now.

"Yeah well... It's still polite to apologise for breaking other people's things! Even if they don't get mad about it!" 

I try, but I really just can't bring myself to be angry. Part of it is that I know through my dogs that Lion's Pride's strength will be carried on, but mostly it's just because Sukuna's Technique is so cool that I just don't care.

"Too bad," Sukuna shrugs, smirking down at me. A second later, he changes the conversation entirely. "We've been assigned a mission together from Kamo. Hurry up, if you slow me down, I'll kill you."

I can tell that he means that last part, so is it weird that it makes me want to get to know him even more?

Probably.

Whatever.

Focusing on my Cursed Energy, I smash it against itself and send the resulting Positive Energy down to my injured leg, not trusting Sukuna to not kill my deer if I summoned it.

It's a bit more challenging to fix, since I need to make sure the bones are all set right, but ultimately it's pretty easy. Probably just because I've seen Generous Deer do the same, so I'm not fumbling in the dark.

Turning to my classmates, I give them a smile and a wave, "That was fun! Thanks for the lesson, I'll see you later!"

With my piece said, I set off on a jog to catch up with Sukuna.

"You know," I start once I reach his side, "Even just a 'my bad'-" I step backwards once to avoid death and forward twice to continue my sentence, "Would be fine~."

Sukuna doesn't answer.

"So," I start again after a minute of silence, "Mind filling me in on where we're going and what we're to be doing?"

"Shut up."

"Tsk."

Whatever. I can be patient. Sukuna clearly doesn't want to talk right now, and I don't feel like needling him just yet.

I have a feeling he'll be more willing to open up later, so I let the matter rest for now and just enjoy our walk. Though, even as I admire the architecture and floral arrangements we pass, I do make sure not to let my guard down, just in case he randomly decides to kill me.

This guy is seriously a scary kind of guy after all. He'd totally be a serial killer in my last world.

Wait... "Hey are you a serial killer?"

He doesn't answer, but I get a certain sense of smugness from him that makes the answer clear enough, and I stifle a laugh at that.

Murder is obviously a bad thing, but it's also just another part of nature, so even if I don't plan to indulge in it, I'm not going to throw a fit about someone else doing it.

At the end of the day, he is just doing as is his nature, it would be hypocritical of me to condemn him for that when I am the exact same in essence.

Still.. Didn't think I'd ever make friends with a serial killer.

"Hey, are we friends?" 

An invisible blade very nearly removes my head from my shoulders and I grin.

Yeah, we're friends.

///

A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

Could have probably made this chapter longer, especially since it was only supposed to be the start of the chapter leading into the mission, but I ended up writing 4k words, so now I'm feeling like I might as well just split the setup into its own chap and have the mission be separate.

Plus it means I can sperate things more cleanly to keep avoiding any cliffhangers with my uploads.

If you want to read ahead or just support me, there is an extra 6 chapters right now on my patreon, Kevin the Bored. Donations are taken with much gratitude, I am broke and jobless, so I really do appreciate it :)