Zenin Naobito, the current head of the Zenin clan and a special grade 1 sorcerer that serves the jujutsu council. He was a strong looking old man, with bulging muscles and a condescending glare.
However, if you asked Shuichi, he would describe him as senile. That was the case for most Zenin clan elders and old people in the jujutsu world in general.
Perhaps cursed energy corrupted the mind, bringing otherwise wise people to pedestrian level intellect.
Shuichi went ahead to open the gate to his mansion.
As much as he disliked the zenin clan, having the clan head of a great family standing on your door was important business.
As he approached the gate, he felt Naobito's gaze wandering his figure. His eyes seemed to be built like a hawk, capable of discerning the deepest secrets of one's soul.
Reaching the gate, Shuichi greeted him.
"Good morning to the Zenin head. To what do I owe the pleasure of meeting you?"
Naobito scowled, "You brat, you rejected my invitation and have the balls to act like that?"
Although his words sounded threatening, his tone told a different story. It seemed more like ridicule and dumb fun.
"Invitation? I don't remember recieving something like that." Shuichi said, feigning ignorance like a child.
"Don't kid yourself. Are you so ill mannered to keep an old man waiting at your door?!" Naobito yelled a bit at the end.
"Of course not." With a nod, Shuichi opened the gate, letting Naobito in.
"What have you been upto since you got exiled?"
"Nothing much, just some things here and there. Excorcisms and fighting curses."
Naobito laughed mockingly. "Exorcising curses?
You? I remember a time when even the weakest curse would overwhelm you by a long shot." His eyes again wandered over his figure, scanning him from head to toe. "Look at you now. So brimming with curse."
Shuichi didn't mind the jab Naobito threw at him. Instead, he smiled.
"And I remember a time when you used to get straight to the point of the matters. It seems old age has taken a heavy toll on the already senile brain of yours." He said tersly.
Hearing his words, Naobito huffed a bit.
"The youth really has no respect." He muttered under his breath. However, to Shuichi's enhanced senses, he couldn't have spoken louder.
Inside the mansion, they swiftly sat down onto the sofas. Naobito looked around in interest, keenly gazing at the modern architecture that wasn't present in the Zenin clan compound.
"Tea? Coffee? Though I'd prefer not to serve you anything." Adding a remark at the end, Shuichi got off his sofa and began to head towards the kitchen.
"Nothing of that sort, I wish to swiftly get to business."
"Well, alright then. I'll just take some things for myself." Shuichi nodded.
However, before Shuichi could take two steps, Naobito already began speaking.
"I came here to personally invite you back to the Zenin clan compound." Naobito continued. "With the current situation, there are some things that need to be corrected. Your exile is one of those things, I intend to end it."
Not responding to his words, Shuichi simply walked over to the opposite side of the room and into the kitchen.
Seeing such blatant disregard for his presence, a vein threatened to pop on Naobito's head.
Damn Brat! Just because he got a little strong, he now thinks he can get away with disrespecting me!
Naobito thought in exasperation.
Naobito sat in silence on the sofa. His eyes turned to look around, taking in the general layout of the mansion. His eyes were a bit glazed over, presumably, he was in deep thought.
After some time, Shuichi returned with a large cup of coffee in one hand and a plate which carried various sweets on the other.
Keeping them on the table, he sat back down.
"I hope you don't mind me eating while we talk. I haven't eaten anything since yesterday." Shuichi laughed, and without waiting for Naobito's response, he began eating.
Naobito glared at him for a moment before shaking his head.
"As I was saying, I am here to invite you back to the Zenin clan compound. Your exile has hereby been cancelled; you are a member of the family again."
Shuichi took a sip from his coffee.
"'Family'? It's strange that you would mention that word here." He continued. "Anyways, the exile was something that you called for. However, it seems that I have grown quite fond of my time here."
"You mean?"
"Exactly what it sounds. I won't be coming back." He crossed his left leg over the other and leaned back into the sofa. Taking a sip from his coffee, he spoke, "The way I'm living right now is dozens of times better than the life I led at the compound. Family? There was no family there to begin with.
"You people only care about power, you senile old retards care little for what happens to anyone outside of your own little bubble of self contentment."
Naobito's gaze darkened visible. His fist clenched up under his robe, an action which was 'felt' by Shuichi.
"Such actions, not only do they hold as little face value as the dirt on the ground, but they are petty. Well, I guess I inherited some of that pettiness through the Zenin blood." Shuichi smiled, completely taking in the sight of Naobito seething internally at his words. "I'll show you just how petty I can be."
"So... I take it you decline?" Naobito probed. Seeking one final confirmation.
"Oh, did I not make it clear enough?" Shuichi smirked. "Let me say it more clearly. 'Fuck off!'"
And that broke the last straw.
Naobito, in the split second that it took for Shuichi to say the two golden words, already leapt across the table in an impressive display of speed unlike anything Shuichi had seen since his transfer.
His left hand grabbed onto Shuichi's collar, lifting him off his seat and spilling his coffee and sweets.
With a flabbergasted expression, Shuichi watched as the coffee mug slowly travelled through the air.
Eventually, hitting the ground and shattering into pieces.
Gasp!
Shuichi have out an exaggerated gasp. Naobito, seeing Shuichi pay more attention to the coffee than his enraged state was even more pissed.
"You damn disrespectful brat!!" With a furious yell, he threw Shuichi's relatively smaller frame through the wall.
Boom! Crash!
With a tremendous crash, Shuichi smashed through the wall of his mansion, landing outside in the garden.
"Goddammit! You senile old f*ck! First my coffee! Now, even my house!" Shuichi screamed in anger.
Naobito slowly walked out of the destroyed building, his figure relaxed. "What's the big deal? Just a wall.." He said disdainfully.
"Yeah? See me break your nose! It's just your face!" Shuichi said, clenching his fist in front of him.
"Heh. Let's see then." said Naobito.
Whoosh
With a gust of wind, akin to the sound of a travelling bullet, Naobito was already right beside Shuichi.
Rapidly turning around on his heels, Shuichi blocked a kick from the older Zenin.
Sliding back several meters, he stabilized himself.
His cursed energy trembled and bubbled inside his heart, his body getting reinforced to the limits.
Naobito didn't rest. Again making use of his speed, he appeared behind Shuichi; kicking him in the back.
Once again, Shuichi ragdolled ahead towards the back of the garden.
Damn! Projection sorcery is annoying.
With a thought, Shuichi activated the Records of Tenjin, while simultaneously strengthening his senses with cursed energy.
Naobito began to run all around the garden, his figure appearing in several places in the shortest span of a split second.
Shuichi's relatively smaller stature compared to Naobito stood in the middle, his eyes rapidly darting around everywhere.
This... Shuichi, for the first time since transmigration felt a sensory overload to his brain. He could 'see' the sounds, 'hear' the smell and 'feel' the light around him. It could said that using Records of Tenjin to buff sensory assimilation was more than a buff. It almost overturned his entire world view.
However....
"This is awesome!" Shuichi yelled with a crazed expression, a gigantic smile etched along his face.
He jumped up into the air, narrowly dodging a speeding punch from Naobito. I'm the air, he materialized a plethora of objects, ranging of guns, cold weapons and random stone like objects.
The pressure gradients in the air, the temperature differences in the atmosphere, the smell of dirt, the slightest sussurus of wind, the blood in my veins, the clenching of muscles, the electric impulses travelling in my body... With a sonic boom like sound, the objects were all lauched at high speeds towards the ground, right towards the places Naobito was moving at.
Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom!
Dozens of explosions sounded in the matter of seconds. Reducing the entire garden into a desolate land of rubble and soil.
I can sense all of them... Even though his head pained a bit from all the sensory inputs he was getting, his technique was quickly helping him adapt; reprogramming his brain to think and perceive on that scale on a normal level.
Landing back onto the ground, he looked ahead towards a dust cloud.
"Come out. I know you dodged all of them." Shuichi said, the smile not leaving his face even for a moment.
The dust cloud dissipated with a violent wind.
Naobito walked out, his arms crossed over his chest; his eyes a mixture of surprise and acknowledgement.
"To think you've grown to such an extent. Though this much is to be expected if you can take on that Gojo kid." He scratched his chin. "Now, it is even more imperative that I get your secret."
"Hoh? Secret?"
"I'm going to ask this one time. How did you get so strong?" Naobito said, getting back into a battle stance.
In response, Shuichi adopted a battle stance of his own.
"I guess you'll just have to find out."
With the last straw being broken, Naobito again disappeared from view.
Shuichi quickly blocked his left side, sensing Nabobito appearing.
However, just as he was getting ready to counter, he froze up.
His entire body seemingly turned into a 2 dimensional slide. The three dimensions compressed into an imcomparably thin slice of space, like a frame of a video clip.
What? He though. Even his thoughts had turned sluggish as he got enveloped in the frame.
Projection sorcery! He realized. Records of Tenjin hummed in cursed energy, deeply analyzing the technique.
However, before he could do anything, or the time limit could end, Naobito's fist landed on his face inside the slide.
The slide broke down into a thousand pieces and Shuichi's figure flew out.
Quickly stabilizing himself, he tried to get up.
Just to get turned into a frame again!
"Too slow." A voice called out from behind.
Crash!
Another blow to the back shattered the frame as he was thrown out again.
Once again stabilizing himself, he blocked the blow from Naobito, however, it turned him into a frame all the same.
"You didn't forget did you?"
Shatter!
"Anything that I touch while under projection sorcery must follow the 24 frames per second rule."
Shatter!
"If you can't do that, you'll be turned into a frame and stunned for a second!"
Shatter!
The sound of glass shattering kept echoing in the garden.
Shuichi, who was getting pummeled to the ground had one thought in his mind.
If it goes on like this, he'll completely ruin my garden...
I need to drag him into an enclosed space, where there won't be too much destruction if I went all out.
With that thought, his gaze drifted towards the door to his workshop.
Slowly, a smile crept up onto his face.
Bam!
Naobito's eyes widened as he looked at the spectacle before him.
Shuichi... had actually blocked his attack without getting frozen!
"Let's start again from the top!" He said, his bruises quickly healing up.
~~~
A/N: Say, if I were to open a patreon with like 10 to 20 advanced chapters, would anyone be willing to support? Just a though.
Also, throw some stones. And tell me your thoughts on the chapter.