Impressions

(AN: To the readers who don't know, I rewrote the last chapter because I forgot that he had already given pills to his family, so it didn't make sense to test them first.)

Maki's POV

When I first met Katsuo, I immediately judged him as a handsome but boring guy due to nothing of him really standing out beside his handsomeness.

After he answered Panda's perverted question so seriously, I thought that he was a handsome and serious in a funny way kind of guy.

However, after that, we spared, and when people with expertise in martial arts fight, they are able to understand a little of the opponents' personality.

To me, he became the handsome, physically strong and serious on the outside, passionate on the inside, guy, due to his straightforward and unrelenting fighting style.

In the next few months, we four trained and communicated almost every day, we even went on a mission as a team, and as that time passed, more facets of his personality were shown and they only improved my impression of him.

Even though the time we spent together wasn't long, I already thought of him as one of my best friends and comrade who I will fight curses side by side.

After his Binding Vow ended, I requested another spar where he could use CE, and he won easily.

I was overwhelmed by his speed and strength that were enhanced by CE.

I wasn't jealous or anything like that. I knew about the advantages of being able to use CE, from a young age, especially if your body is already so strong, which is his case.

One day, we were training together and Panda asked Katsuo, why he was behaving so weirdly while sitting, something that he was doing the past few days, and something that I also wanted to know, and he satisfied our curiosity.

I was awed at Katsuo's ambition of replicating Gojo-sensei's techniques and the fact that he already had little success on it.

Any one of those techniques was very powerful and useful so I was happy for him, but seeing him advance so fast made me frustrated.

I wanted my comrades to fight beside me, but right now, because of my inadequacies, I was the one who wasn't strong enough to fight beside one, and not just anyone, it was Katsuo, who I saw as one of my best friends.

So, using those feeling as fuel, I went back to training but Katsuo interrupted it again.

Not that I minded after hearing what he said.

"Have I ever told you guys about my innate technique?"

Once again, I was awed but this time at the overpowered usefulness of Katsuo's technique and the fact that he wanted to use it to help us become stronger.

At that moment, I was torn between two feelings.

I was happy and excited that I could become stronger, but my heart felt a little heavy.

Seeing Katsuo share so readily the byproduct of his innate technique with us, even if it wasn't useful for him, made me a little hesitant because I don't think it's fair to accept something so precious without giving anything in exchange, so I said what I thought.

"Katsuo, I'm happy that you are sharing them with us, however, I don't feel that it's fair that we accept them for nothing."

He looked at the pills for a moment and a small smile appeared on his face.

"You are my friends so I wouldn't mind giving them for free, but if you really want to pay me back, you can just pay me with money. 100 Yen for pill, if you don't have it now you can give me in the future."

I knew that he knew that it was a dirty cheap price, after all, no one here thought that Katsuo lacked common knowledge, and as I looked at him smiling brightly on his face, my heart warmed.

Today, I saw another of Katsuo's facets.

His generosity towards his friends.

I, who was raised in the cold and callous environment of the Zennin clan, could count on hand the times I felt like someone genuinely cared for me.

We all agreed on the price, and knowing that it wasn't really fair price, I promised myself to pay him back when I found a chance.

The next few hours, we consumed various pills that enhanced our physical bodies, well, Toge took various pills that enhanced his physical body.

We found that those pills didn't work on Panda, it only gave him indigestion, and didn't work on me because I was already physically strong.

"Hmm, it's a pity. They seem to only work as half efficiency on someone not of my blood. If they worked as well on you as they worked on me, you could probably splinter rock right now, Toge."

(AN: Basically, they have lower effects on people not of his family, thanks to the reader who gave me the idea.)

Toge didn't mind when he heard that. He was already satisfied with the enhancements he had.

Even though there are all kinds of techniques, I never heard of one who could enhance other people permanently,the fact that Katsuo had one like that really amazed me, and he says that the effects aren't efficient.

Funny.

"Don't worry, those weren't the pills that I wanted to give you."

Katsuo said to me and Panda.

So I became very curious since by looking at Toge, who was posing and lifting stuff that only the strongest non-sorcerer could try to lift, the effects were pretty miraculous, so what could the effects of the pills he wanted to give us be?

Katsuo took a pill from his backpack.

"Panda, this is one of the pills you can consume safely, it normally increases CE reserves, but as you are a cursed corpse, the effects could be different."

Panda took the pill that most sorcerers would kill to have and started to balloon, causing us to worry but he stopped and slowly started to return to normal.

"Don't worry~, it seems that the pill works, however, my cores have to digest it first, and it seems that the pill also strengthens the bonds between my cores, something that I would usually have to do by myself for a long time."

We were curious and asked how that affected him.

"Well~, I can switch forms faster and if I keep taking them, I could reach the level of partial transformation or use my other forms techniques. There are also some other effects that I'm not clear about~. when I am I will tell you."

Panda also benefitted a lot and now it's my turn, I'm excited to experience the pill's effects on me.

As soon as the pill touched my palm I immediately threw it in my mouth.

At first I felt nothing and I continued to feel nothing, which I thought it was normal since my sensitivity towards CE was basically zero and it seemed that Katsuo also realized that because he spoke.

"Your CE reserves increased a little, if you take a dozen of them, you will reach the standard CE to start seeing curses."

At that moment, I couldn't be happier and wanted to lung at him and hug him.

Something that everyone around me took it for granted, and finally, I could also have it.

"... or not."

I was about to ask what he meant when I felt my body heat up a little before cooling down and I couldn't help but ask.

"What happened?"

"Your Heavenly Restriction."

And suddenly, I wasn't so happy anymore.

How could I forget my curse, one of reasons that caused the Zennin clan to shun me.

"No need to be sad actually."

I looked at him for him to explain what he meant.

"You see, your heavenly restriction makes it that you have basically zero CE in return for a powerful body, right?"

I nodded and suddenly understood what he getting at.

"So, when your CE was increased, your heavenly restriction became stronger, making your body more powerful, however, because of that, your CE became even lower than before."

I wasn't as content as before because I wouldn't be able to see curses, but at least I wasn't left empty-handed.

Then, as if he could see through my mood, Katsuo spoke again.

"Have you heard of Zenin Toji?"

"I have heard of him."

He was somewhat of a heavy topic in the Zenin clan for some time, even though I never understood why.

"Gojo-sensei told me that he was under the same Heavenly Restriction as you, however, it reached such extreme, that caused the physical to affect the cursed."

(AN: Katsuo only knows the anime, so this was something that Gojo really told him)

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that his Heavenly Restriction was so powerful, that his five senses could pick up curses and he could resist them with his bare flesh, while having zero cursed energy, and you, Maki, with my help, can reach the same realm or even beyond."

As I looked at Katsuo's solemn face, my heart felt like it was going to burst.

I don't know if it was the excitement of me becoming closer to accomplish and surpass my ambition, or if it was something else.