18 Making Cursed Energy In This World

-2 days ago-

"Hey Suzaku, don't you think that what we're doing is like... You know, creepy?" Sae said as they tailed Otto while covering themselves in Reni's concealing magic.

"Why are we following him anyway?" Shigune asked Reni.

"Nothing much, I just felt that the man had a strong, turbulent magic in him." She replied, but it wasn't what made her follow him rather it was Otto's necklace that managed to catch her interest as she had seen it in the past, but couldn't recall where.

"You reckon he has a strong sacred gear?"

"Maybe..."

They followed Otto for 20 whole minutes.

"He arrived at the Houzouin Temple... Why would he go to be there?"

"Maybe he's a monk" Suzaku answered, as it would make sense as to why he had a strong self-restraint to his urges.

"Oh, that doesn't seem the case." They looked at Otto fighting with a disciple monk.

"What a strange technique... I don't sense magic from it. And it might just be pure brute strength." Reni commented when Otto's staff created a wind vortex.

"That's Inshun Houzouin. So he's there to challenge the temple!?" Suzaku recognized the bald man, as he sometimes visited the five principal clans to give respect to the shrines.

They wondered if the man had a death wish as they saw him, launching at Inshun recklessly.

"I think the kid would lose... Maybe he won't even get out alive." Otto was easily pushed back by Inshun's strike.

"That's not possible, those monks don't kill-..." Just before Suzaku could say more, Otto was impaled by Inshun as he was thrown away.

"Never mind..."

"Do you want to help him? He's going to die from bleeding at this point." Sae looked over at Reni who had a concerned look.

They thought that Reni wanted to recruit him to Slash Dog.

"I will." Reni immediately disappeared towards Otto who was being carried by the monks.

...

"Hey monks, what did you do to my little brother?" Reni confronted the monks, acting like Otto's big sister.

"He's your little brother!?" They looked at Reni and Otto who share the same hair color.

"Yes." She nodded, as she picked up Otto.

"Uh, then you should've watched him more... He recklessly challenged the temple like a mad demon, that this outcome happened to him." One of the monks showed pity on Otto as Inshun could easily kill him, but let him go instead. Because it went against the Houzouin Temple's rule on killing people.

"Is that so? Then we will be leaving now." Reni bowed, leaving them perplexed at the current situation.

"Brother... Do you think she's the kid's big sister?" One of the monks asked.

"Sister or not, the kid is already away." The monk just scorned and hoped that Otto wouldn't come back to challenge Inshun anytime soon.

...

Reni who was carrying the unconscious Otto to a nearby hospital.

"Hmmm?" She took off his blood-soaked clothes, before blushing accidentally getting a glimpse at his thing.

"Ehem." She composed herself, as she needed to treat his wounds.

"His wounds closed itself..." Amazed at his regeneration, and thought that he had some kind of a healing-based sacred gear or device. As shown that he was a blazer when he fought Inshun.

After finishing cleaning his wounds up and dressed him up neatly. Reni inspected Otto's necklace closely.

"His necklace seems to have healing properties." Reni leaned closer to him, checking if there was a mark, on who made the artifact.

*Door opens*

"Ehhh?" Sae, Suzaku, and Shigune came to bring some fruits to Reni. Whom they find too close to the patient.

"Oh my, I didn't know you went that fast." Suzaku tried teasing Reni, who looked like s finished kissing him.

"Oh no, it's you just misunderstanding it. I'm just looking at his pendant, look." Reni explained as she showed Otto's necklace.

"Right..." Shigune didn't want to bother with Reni's love life.

"What about it?" Suzaku seemed to sense something within it.

"I don't know just yet, I can't seem to decipher where it came from." Reni just sat as she looked at Otto's belongings, which weren't much and only contained: ID, a credit card, and two sealed letters.

"Hm... Name Otto Apocalypse, what an odd surname for a German descent." Reni read his ID as she wanted to know more about him.

"Hey Reni, isn't it a crime to look at another person's personal information? I mean we're not working at least..." Shigune said.

"And... Huh-!?" Just as she continued to read his information, she noticed that his date of birth was just 10 years different.

"Is there something wrong?" Suzaku moved closer to Reni who seemed confused on reading Otto's ID.

"Is it fak-???" She looked over as Reni showed it to her.

"What!? The kid is only 10!?" Suzaku was confused not because he didn't look like 10, but because he could fight well against an adult... Not to mention, to fight against Inshun who is the grandmaster of spears.

"10? You two must be joking." Saehe had couldn't believe it for a second before Reni, showed her.

"..." They were all silent before looking at Otto's beautiful face that could rival a woman's appearance.

"You know. He does look like a woman up close..." Shigune commented on Otto's looks.

"You sure he isn't a she?" Sae joked.

"He's certainly a boy... No, man." Reni said before turning her head down, trying to hide her blush while trying to check the remainder of his things.

As she did that she noticed the names written on the letters.

"Nangou Torajirou, and Edelweiss?" Reni muttered in surprise before putting his belongings back.

After a few hours of them casually talking, the 3 left Reni alone with the boy.

"Otto... Where did I hear that name?" She caressed the boy's soft cheeks.

"Such bloodthirst he had shown when he fought with the bald monk..." She showed pity for him after finding out that he was only 10 years old.

She wondered if he had a rough childhood experience.

"I'm going to gradually teach you about to live and cherish life." She whispered seeing that Otto doesn't seem to value his life when fighting...

.

...

.

-Back to present-

5 days later after Lavinia Reni left him alone after talking about love.

"Tsk, what the hell. What kind of bullshit did she even mean by that... I lost because I don't know love?" Otto grumbled at the absurd reason, as he believed that love wasn't needed in a fight.

"This is no longer an anime where the power of friendship shines through."

He watched the rice fields beside the Houzouin Temple, where he could see farmers toiling the fields in the middle of the sun.

"Why aren't they using machines? They should have those tractors in this era by now." He muttered.

It's been a while since he had used a sword after he got put down by Inshun during their duel.

"!!!" While lost in his thought, he subconsciously looked at the old man that went passed him, when suddenly he felt that he had been attacked by the old man.

"Wha-?" Otto backed off.

"Hm?" The old man turned around to look at him.

"Young man, you hold so much malice in you. I thought you were about to kill me." The old man said.

"Huh? Wait no, you got it all wrong." Otto didn't mean to look at the old man with harmful intentions.

"I just felt like you had just struck me with your walking stick... Maybe I'm just overthinking things." Otto apologized.

"Hmph, what's your name?" The old man asked.

"Otto... Otto Apocalypse."

"Otou?.. You have no grace at all. You show malice to everyone around you."

"What do you mean?" Otto sounded confused and mistook the grace as elegant.

"HAAAAAAAH!" The old man suddenly shouted it making Otto shrink back in slight fear...

"..." He looked at the old man like he had some sort of a problem.

"That's how exactly you acted to me. Your bloodthirst, graceless, and empty art... Hrmph- You thought that I would attack you just with this simple stick?"

"Hmph, you're just imagining your bloodthirst to me and the others as well. Everything is only just mirrors that reflect your bloodthirst." He said wisely, but Otto couldn't seem to understand it and stayed silent.

"..."

"Enemies become one until you've forced them to be one. *gukk* *spit* Your malice also turns everyone around, against you. What you currently possess isn't true strength. Hpmh, Go and find out more about yourself, perhaps you'll find your answers in strength." The old man said before leaving Otto alone.

"What kind of nonsense did that old man yapped about? I don't understand what he's trying to say at all." Otto just dismissed the old man's words and shifted his attention to the scars on his body that Inshun made. Which looked ugly to him.

And wondered if he could replicate an ability like the Reverse Curse Technique from Jujutsu Kaisen to heal himself so that it wouldn't leave any scars behind in the future.

Thinking of Jujutsu Kaisen, he wondered if he should just use his authority to upgrade his ring-sized Eight-Handled Sila, as he already admits that he can't win against everything without relying on his hax. But was aware that it might take longer to fully recover in the future...

Otto sighed as he could no longer call nor pretend himself as a Buddha... He never was enlightened, he couldn't even figure out what the old man's message meant to him. But knows that it was something important that he couldn't figure out, without understanding himself.

After walking to an isolated area, far from the Houzouin Temple, Otto had made up his mind.

"Hoooo... Alright. I'll just use my authority to make myself stronger." Otto used his authority to enhance the Eight-Handled Sila, as it shined bright light around, illuminating the forest.

"Hnn-" Otto groaned as it already took half of his authority power, as the Sila only grew bigger by 3x than the original ring size. Which was a progress in his book.

"Cursed Energy... Cursed Technique... Reverse Cursed Technique." He rapidly muttered as he planned to use the remaining Authority to recreate a cursed energy for himself.

"What is a cursed energy?" He wondered as it had been soo long since he had read anime and mangas from his previous life, why he didn't have the perfect memory of an anime protagonist, who remembers all the details of their past life.

"Was it the negative energy in a person?" He guessed just by the name of it.

"Emotions. Like anger, and sadness?" He was having a hard time imagining it as it was a power system that he was trying to replicate. As it is completely different from just making objects like the Sila and the Code: Unknown.

"Picture it carefully..." Otto pictured himself, becoming sad, becoming angry, wrathful to all. Cursing everyone whom he deems unworthy. Become the bearer of all curses, become... The king of curses.

The once bright light gradually became darker and darker, before it turned into a dark-red color, wrapping around Otto as his authority that he had been saving up for 10 whole years had been completely exhausted.

"Hufff hufff huff." He didn't feel physically tired because of his Code: Unknown. But is, however, prone to mental exhaustion.

"Is this cursed energy?" He wondered as it felt light while it wrapped around him like armor.

"The way it's used is similar to when I wrapped my body in the flaming armor using magic." He felt relieved as it worked as he had intended, his only concern was whether or not he had a cursed technique. If he has then what is it? If he didn't then... It is what it is, he only needed to know how to use the Reverse Cursed Technique anyway, he wasn't hopeful that he would get some overpowered Innate Cursed Technique.

Otto spent the entire night figuring out how to manifest the Reverse Cursed Technique.

...

-Chapter End-