3 months later
——
Isamu blocked the wrapped blade of Maki's staff with his own wrapped katana. He lifted his leading leg out of the way of a follow up leg sweep from Maki. Maki quickly stood back up and blocked the counter strike from Inumaki with the middle of her staff.
Isamu rushed forward, not letting maki regain the range advantage, he grabbed the haft of her staff and struck downward with the pommel of his katana. Maki, in an impressive display of quick thinking, released her grip on her weapon, back stepped out of the reach of his blow, before grabbing and wrenching his blade from his grip.
Isamu sent a straight kick towards Maki which was blocked by the flat of his now stolen blade. Maki took a few steps back to recover from the force of the kick while Isamu grabbed Maki's staff in a second hand and took up a new position.
They were about to engage each other once more with their newly stolen weapons, when they were interrupted by the strongest.
"Yo! Lookin good Inumaki, your ability to imbue weapons with your cursed energy and your martial skill have both exceeded my expectations, keep this up and you'll be a first grade sorcerer in no time." Gojo said proudly as he descended the stairs leading to the track and field.
"What? No complements for me?" Maki asked coldly after Gojo reached them.
"No, no, I was just so blown away by your continued success that I was lost for words. Now, I'd like you to go help panda and inumaki while I talk to Isamu here." Gojo said, speaking to Maki.
"Help them with what exactly?" Maki asked curiously.
"Oh you know, the same old stuff. Now shoow!" Gojo said as he waved Maki off.
She gave Gojo a look before she walked over to Inumaki and handed him his sword as she grabbed own weapon. "You did good today." She said with a rarely seen gentle smile, she then turned around and walked off.
Isamu and his classmates had become good friends over the last few months, but he got along best with Maki and vice versa. It was partly due to there frequent spars and lessons together, and partly because Maki liked the peace and quiet he gave off while still wanting some company. Her and the others had even begun to learn sign language.
"So Isamu, I'd like to talk to you about your future growth." Gojo began once Maki was out of sight.
"You are currently a semi-first grade sorcerer, and I have no doubt you will become a 1st grade sorcerer by the end of the year. But I see more in you, you have great potential, and I think you have the mindset to reach that potential. So starting today, I will be giving you personal lessons every other day for the foreseeable future." Gojo said in a surprisingly serious voice.
Isamu was confused. Cursed speech was a good technique and all, but it had many weaknesses, weaknesses that made it hard to grow. It had a high floor but a low ceiling. You started strong but there wasn't much room for growth.
"Now now, I know what you're thinking. Something along the lines of "curse speech is a good technique but there's not much room for growth." But that thinking is poisonous to your potential." Gojo stated seriously, surprising Isamu with his accuracy.
"I'll explain more later, but for now, why don't you fire some cursed energy my way?" Gojo said, back to his more lighthearted self. Isamu was confused but trusted in his sensai. Inumaki was well above average when it came to cursed energy control so simply firing cursed energy in a direction was well within his ability.
Isamu raised a hand and fired a small blast of energy. It was super weak and he would be lucky if Gojo even felt pain, but if it made contact, it would most likely tare his clothes.
"New Shadow Style: Simple Domain." Gojo chanted as he crouched and placed his hands back and close to his waist, clasped them together in a hand sign, as if mimicking the act of drawing a sword.
Isamu's blast saw an exponential decrease in output and power before it was completely dead, leaving Gojo and his clothes completely untouched.
"What I just did is called simple domain and is similar to an incomplete domain expansion without any cursed technique imbued in it, some call it the domain for the weak." Gojo explained.
"As you saw, it affects any foreign cursed energy, eating away at its output. Best case, it completely dispels the technique, as i did just now. Worst case, it simply weakens the technique by a good amount, either way is very beneficial." Gojo continued as Isamu took in all the information like a sponge.
"That is probably its best use, but it's not it's only one. It's also an anti domain technique, but best case, it only buys you a few seconds before it breaks and you are subjected to the sure hit of the domain expansion. It's other use is as a sword technique, the reason the hand signs mimic the unsheathing of a sword is because it was made with a sword in mind back in the edo period I think, but if you want to know about that and other sword techniques under New Shadow Style, you'll have to go to Kusakabe." Gojo lectured.
"Now, let's get started on teaching you how to do it."
——
Isamu laid sprawled out on the field as he panted, he'd just finished training with Gojo and he was exhausted. Gojo said he had gotten the basics of simple domain down and told him to keep practicing.
He heard the sound of grass being crushed under foot, so he turned his head in the direction of the sound, even that slight movement a little tough, and found Maki approaching him with a bag containing her staff slung over her shoulder.
"Jeez, what happened to you?" Maki asked as she stood over him, looking down at him. Isamu signed 'training' before covering his eyes with both hands. While Maki was still new to sign language, she got the general idea.
"Heh, sucks to be you." She said with a smile as she sat down next to Isamu's prone form. "Will you be doing any more training tomorrow?" She asked, turning her head to see Isamu's response. Much to her surprise, she was met with a nod.
"I know you're borderline addicted to training and getting stronger but there's limits. If you train without any rest, you'll end up doing more harm than good." Maki scolded as nicely as she could.
Isamu just tried to roll onto his side in an attempt to turn away from her in a clear sign of refusal. Unfortunately, he couldn't even manage to do that, striking home Maki's point, which didn't go unnoticed by the cursed tool user.
"See. I'm right and you know it. How are you supposed to train if you can't even get on your feet by yourself?" Maki questioned, much to Inumaki's annoyance. But Maki knew her simply telling him not to wouldn't make it so.
"How 'bout we both take the day off and we can go do something? That way I know you aren't training and you'll have some company on your day off." Maki asked convincingly.
'Like a date?' Isamu signed.
Maki was about to respond but she came up short. She didn't really know how to respond to that. Sure, Isamu was her friend, and she admittedly got along better with him than with Panda or Toga, but she didn't know if she saw him like that.
On one hand, she couldn't deny the obvious chemistry they shared. On the other, she wasn't really a people person and she didn't really want to mess things up by biting off more than she could chew, much like what happened with her sister.
After a long pause, and right before Inumaki was about to apologize for being inappropriate. Maki took the fence sitting option, leaving both paths open for now.
"If you want to see it that way, sure. But you have to promise me to relax, because if you aren't and you're still tired the next day, I'll make you take another day off, no matter what the blindfolded idiot says." Maki stated, to which Isamu agreed, not wanting to draw her ire needlessly.
"Come on, let's get you to bed." Maki said as she stood up and reached down to Isamu with a hand. Isamu fought through the soreness and grabbed her offered hand. He then winced in pain as seemingly every muscle in his body also winced.
"I'm sorry, I didn't think you were this beat up, the idiot really put you through it huh?" Maki said, half laughing and half apologetic.
Inumaki simply nodded and gave a pained smile. Maki then grabbed a hand and carefully moved his arm around her shoulder. They then started to move towards Isamu's dorm, Inumaki leaning on Maki quite a bit.
Maki didn't mind too much though. Due to her heavenly restriction, she was a decent bit stronger than Isamu, even after his improvements in cursed energy enhancement and refinement.
Eventually, they'd reached Isamu's dorm room. Maki twisted the door knob with her foot as both of her arms were occupied with supporting Isamu.
Isamu then hobbled into the room with Maki's help, quickly making his way to his bed before he flopped unceremoniously down on the mattress, his desire for sleep outweighing his avoidance of pain.
"Hmmm, I'll come over in the morning to check on you and make sure you're not going back on our deal. But feel free to get as much sleep as you want, this is your resting period after all." Maki said as she turned and left, shutting off all the lights on her way out.
Isamu laid face down in his bed while thinking of his lesson with Gojo. More specifically, his final words to him before he'd left him to suffer on the field.
"…don't compare yourself to others, not me, not Maki, not anyone. Doing so will just stunt your growth and limit your potential. Instead, imagine a more powerful version of yourself and work to catch up."
Those were his final words, and Inumaki intended to take them to heart. In truth, he'd never seen himself making it past first grade, very few even saw special grade as an option, and even fewer actually reached that height. But things had changed in the last few months, especially after those words from Gojo-sensei.
Ideas were already forming. Ways to improve his technique, his swordsmanship, his simple domain, his barrier techniques, and even ideas for binding vows all raced through his mind and he was eager to put them into practice and to start "catching up" as Gojo-sensei had put it.
But he'd made a promise to Maki, and he would honor it. Mostly because it was Maki asking.
——
Gojo sighed as he twirled his pen between his fingers unconsciously. He was thinking of his recent lesson with his most promising pupil. Simple domain was a good start, especially if he learned other barrier and new shadow style techniques, but it wouldn't be enough for what both Gojo and Inumaki wanted.
They both wanted him to become powerful, to become a special grade. When people talked about who was the strongest, Gojo didn't want them to instantly say Satoru Gojo, he wanted them to be uncertain, for it to be a toss up between him and other power houses.
"But how? How will Isamu Inumaki become a special grade sorcerer?" Gojo said out loud to the empty room. A grin then creeped on to his face as he leaned forward in his seat. "I can't wait to find out."