LATOM

Remember to join the discord, I put polls and information regarding the future of the story there so it'd be nice if yall could join and give your opinions. 

https://discord.gg/ZrWk2jqjbV (Discord Link)

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The second floor didn't seem to differ all that much from the first.

Ginko simply allowed Mei Mei to continue to deal with the curses as they progressed, uncharacteristically deciding to sit back and merely concentrate on keeping the miasma away. 

Not that it really required an overbearing amount of concentration to begin with. 

'It seems like she's already had a taste of the sparks, can't say it's all that surprising considering the route she's decided to take.' One after the other, she continued to cut down the cursed spirits lurking about effortlessly. Trivializing the efforts of any curses that tried to test her.

'But I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, it's nice that she's uncapped her potential. But doesn't that also mean this is as far as she can go?' He resisted the urge to throw something at her. 'Just use your cursed technique for Pete's sake! Are you really going to settle for just this level of performance?' 

"Since I'm supposed to be supervising you and all, don't you think you should have a go at some of these yourself?" She motioned, not earning much in terms of a reaction from Ginko. 

"Sure." 

He massaged his traps as he entered the last room of the second floor. 

"You're a big one aren't you?" He looked up, met with the sight of an enormous centipede-like creature that was curled up on the ceiling. 

A faint screech-esque sound escaped its mandibles as it slowly uncurled its snake-like body, gradually turning its head to face Ginko. 

"It looks like you're not the one responsible for the miasma either." He sighed as his arms remained within the sleeves of his kimono. "With that said, I'd be pretty disappointed if someone as weak as you ended up being the main dish anyways." 

He raised his leg towards the gigantified insect, moving his foot up and down as if to taunt it. 

"Hurry up. I wanna find the big bad already." 

It clacked its mandibles at him vehemently, lunging at him with a green acid spewing out of its maw. 

"Oh, I guess poison is a trend around these parts." 

Ginko channeled his curse energy throughout his lower body, dodging the attack as he gracefully landed on one of the classroom tables. 

"That wasn't very smart of you. I think?"

Now that the creature was grounded, the fight had become exceedingly tilted in his favor. 

Which bored him to no end. 

"Now your element of surprise is gone. Got anything else up your sleeve by any chance?" It appeared like Ginko was pretty much hoping the cursed spirit could pose a greater challenge. 

"Guess not." 

But like the simple minded creature it was, it could only continue to rush him down in a blind rage. Forcing Ginko to forfeit any hopes he had for his opponent. 

"Fine." 

Instead of just dodging the attack, Ginko followed it up with a solid downwards stomp. Causing the centipede to squirm on the ground as the pain of being struck with his cursed energy hit it in full force. 

SPLAT! 

And after another blow to the cranium by his foot, the cursed spirits head had imploded like a watermelon. 

"I guess that's that." He sighed.

His attention turned towards Mei Mei who was softly clapping at him in the corner of the room. "Well done. But it seems like you didn't use your cursed technique either?" She smirked faintly, convinced that she had caught Ginko's hypocrisy. 

"Do you have memory loss or something?" He retorted, causing her face to contort into a questioning look. "I'm already using it to protect us from the miasma, if I wanted to use it on the spirit I'd have to disengage it beforehand." 

Even though the "barrier" he was keeping around the two was a weak one, it was still a construct he had to constantly pay attention to to prevent any leaks. Which meant that he couldn't simultaneously cast another technique alongside it. 

"Oh, right." She admitted her error with mild embarrassment. "Shall we continue?" She said in an attempt to steer the conversation elsewhere. 

"Mhm." He affirmed absentmindedly. 

The third floor was nothing special either, consisting of only fodder and a singular third grade that wasn't even worth mentioning. 

"Hold on a minute." Mei Mei came to an abrupt halt. 

"What?" 

"If your technique is occupied, then doesn't that mean we won't be able to use it against the spirit that's causing all this?" A justified worry. 

"Yeah." 

"And you don't see a problem with that?" Her brows furrowed. 

"We don't even know what grade it is yet, we'll cross that bridge when we get there." He brushed her concerns off, proceeding in front of her out of the desire to hear any further complaints. 

… 

After a few minutes, the two of them had eventually arrived at the staircase leading to the rooftop of the school. 

"I still can't sense anything." She tensed up, still incapable of making her senses pierce through the all encompassing miasma. 

"Me neither." 

Without hesitation, Ginko kicked open the rooftop access door. Only to be faced with an even thicker influx of toxic fog, forcing him to increase the cursed energy output for his technique. 

"It's here." 

The corners of Ginko's mouth stretched wide, his fingers twitching as his eyes sharpened. 

"Where?" She asked. 

"Just listen." 

Silence fell for a brief moment as Mei Mei did her utmost to hone her hearing. 

"Can you hear it?" 

And after a few moments, she did. 

The sound of hoarse distorted coughing reverberated through her ear canals, but that wasn't all. 

"Each time there's a cough, the distortion of our senses gets worse and worse. Wait does that mean —" 

Mei Mei froze. 

Her breathing quickened as beads of sweat started to drip down her forehead out of nowhere. 

Her instincts cautioned her to retreat, but for some reason she couldn't convince her body to move. 

All she had done was blink. That was it. 

But there it was, having appeared out of thin air with such speed that made it seem like the creature had just teleported. 

'No, I can't afford to let cowardice overtake me in a time like this.' 

Her grip on her axe tightened like never before, her mind forcing itself to face the thing she was beholding head on. 

"That's more like it." Ginko commented, his words not directed to the upperclassmen behind him. But rather the being in front of him. 

The creature towered over him at almost 8 feet tall, bearing a skeletal figure with pitch-black skin and bones making up its frame. 

Horns protruded out of its face where eyes should have been, and an elongated bony tail stretched out of its waist like a reaper's scythe. Managing to bend over its head and almost reach the front of its face. 

And to top it all off, the creature had chosen to appear right in front of Ginko.

It hunched its back, bringing its face only a few millimeters from his as it smiled at Ginko. 

"Are you watching Senpai? This is what a real cursed spirit looks like." 

And Ginko smiled right back. 

Happily allowing his brightened verdant pupils to meet with its horns. 

His elation was plain to see, slowly he withdrew his arms out of the confines of his sleeves as the creature simply allowed him to do as he pleased. Not intent on attacking just yet for some reason. 

Mei Mei couldn't believe what she was witnessing, the spirit aside, it was like a switch had flipped in the back of Ginko's head. 

Sure he had appeared pretty hot blooded earlier, but what she was looking at right now was just plain —creepy.

However, as his supervisor she couldn't allow herself to remain starstruck any longer. 

"Ginko! That's a —" 

"Grade One, no need to tell me." 

The creature let out a cough, causing a puff of miasma to escape from the sides of his mouth which Ginko pushed away with his cursed technique. 

"LA-TOM." It spoke. 

"Sorry, I don't know what that means." Ginko clenched his fist as he allowed the curse energy coursing through his veins to surge forth. "But if it's a challenge, I gladly accept." 

His fist shot forwards, unapologetically aiming right for its face. 

But it only breathed a low cackle in response, quickly grabbing Ginko's wrist as its superhuman strength locked his arm in place. 

"LATOM?" It repeated, almost as if it were a question of some sort. 

"Like I said, I don't know what that means." 

THUD! 

Ginko immediately had his body dragged upwards, and thrown onto the ground with nothing but brute force as the cement flooring began to crack. 

"That wasn't very nice." But by the looks of things, Ginko still seemed capable of going on. 

However, his situation was in truth a lot worse than it looked right now for numerous reasons. 

1.) In order to keep the miasma away, Ginko could not use his technique in an offensive capacity. 

2.) He needed to make sure the range of his technique remained wide enough to cover Mei Mei. 

3.) Another result of keeping the miasma away was that he couldn't focus all his cursed energy into reinforcement. Meaning his cursed energy reinforcement was only operating at about 70%. Which was far worse than it sounded taking his opponent into account. 

But on the bright side, he wasn't facing the cursed spirit alone. 

Mei Mei rushed to his aide, knowingly trying to keep as close to him as possible so as to not force Ginko to overexert himself. 

"LATOM." 

Ginko rolled out of the way as Mei Mei's axe swung at the creature, aiming directly for its right arm that was attempting to counter her offensive. 

But the force behind the swing wasn't nearly enough, the roughness of its skin had proven to be durable enough to prevent the bladed weapon from going through. 

"Shit." She muttered as the monsters cackling grew louder. 

"Don't be so quick to give up." Ginko lunged forwards, kicking the blunt side of the axe with all of his might. 

SLICE! 

And thanks to his assist, the weapon made its way through its arm. Causing the cursed spirit to screech in agony as it staggered backwards, looking at its lost limb in horror. 

"What the hell?" 

She watched with bated breath as the miasma in the air started to retract into the cursed spirit's severed arm, removing a good chunk of the toxic air as it regrew its limb. 

"Well that's just perfect." She said sarcastically. 

"Actually we might have just found our victory condition. If we can get it to consume enough of the miasma that's up here I might be able to deactivate and reactivate my technique in time for me to land an actual attack on it." 

"Oh? And you're confident it'll take it down in one go?" 

"Once it's injured enough. Yeah." 

Mei Mei could do naught more than shrug, knowing full well it was best to follow Ginko's lead for the time being. 

"Senpai." 

"Yes?" 

"Follow your instincts. If you start overthinking things against this guy you'll die." He declared plainly. 

"If you say so." She smiled. 

The creature snarled at the two, hate brimming in its non-existent eyes. 

"LATOM!" 

Deeming Ginko's capability to reflect its miasma as the greater threat, the cursed spirit lunged at him, putting all its weight behind its movements. 

But Ginko's smile never wavered. 

He allowed his body to drop to the floor without reservation, and proceeded to catch it in an armbar whilst it readied its free hand to pummel him.

"Sorry but I can't allow my Kouhai's efforts to go to waste like that." 

With the cursed spirit now unable to evade in any capacity, Mei Mei had been offered one of the freest shots that she would ever get against it. 

SLICE! 

And as expected, she would not let it go to waste. 

"I must say Ginko-kun, it was rather cruel of you to go for the same arm." She remarked followed by a slight chuckle. 

"Nah, he gets it." 

More of the miasma around them started to get drawn in by the creature, nearing the stage where Ginko would soon be able to bring his plan to fruition. 

Even if the cursed spirit's intelligence was slightly above average, it was nowhere near the level where it could predict such intent. 

"I'm going to go for a slightly bigger one now, make sure you don't lose your rhythm." 

Ginko was well aware that the cursed spirit had most likely familiarized itself with the current tactic they were employing. But recognizing a pattern, and having the capacity to counter it were two completely different things.

"Do your best to survive, big guy."

This time Ginko was one to take the initiative, rushing the spirit down whilst keeping his attention purposefully fixed on its left arm. 

'At the end of the day all a cursed spirit is capable of relying on is instinct. And right now your instincts should be screaming at you that you don't want to feel the same amount of pain you were just put through.' 

The very second his eyes picked up on the cursed spirits' attempt to react, he slid through its legs. Jumping up behind it and placing it in a chokehold with his legs wrapped around its ribs. 

As if he had the mobility of an ape. 

"Looks like that's a checkmate." Mei Mei smiled as he delivered a bone shattering vertical slash down its chest, causing a burst of its blood to spew in her direction. "It's now or never, Ginko." 

In that moment, causing any and all remnants of hesitation in Ginko had been rendered null. 

His technique deactivated for a split second, causing the miasma to quickly attempt to creep into the small clearing around him as the cursed spirit prepared to let out another cough. 

"It was fun while it lasted." 

With Ginko's hand on the spirits neck, he delivered a point blank [Wind Slice]. 

"But it had to end at some point." 

The creature's head rolled off what remained of its neck, falling onto the floor as it, alongside the rest of its body, turned into dust. 

Aware that there were still some remnants of miasma lingering after its exorcism, Ginko had made sure to reactivate his barrier temporarily in order to minimize any risk of inhalation. 

Considering that it was a Grade One cursed spirit, they had absolutely made the right call to avoid breathing in the toxic smoke at all costs. 

"You're quite the fan of close combat aren't you?" 

"Yup." Ginko dusted off his kimono as his arms returned into its sleeves. "Oh, and you can go ahead and say it." He continued knowingly, causing her lips to curl ever so slightly. 

"I can only guess it has something to do with wind?"

"Binnnnnn-go! Fuuuuull points!" 

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And there you have it, a bit of Ginko action to round off his first official mission as a sorcerer. Or not depending if you count the trial mission as official or not. 

Btw, the decision to make the spirit Grade One was decided by a poll in the discord. So make sure you join up if you wanna be involved in them in the future. 

Bai-Bai!