Sparks of black littered Quinn's vision as he landed a fifth blow to the seventh curse. The kick punctured the bubbly spirit, creating an enormous cavity in the centre of its body where Quinn landed the sixth blow, slicing upwards into the curse with an upward kick. The blow separated it from its lower half, exorcising it and clearing the way for two more curses to take its place.
With a constant flow of cursed spirits, there was little room for rest. Maintaining distance while perpetually localizing his cursed energy was like trying to run and catch your breath at the same time. The concept in and of itself was paradoxical, though it wasn't as though the comparison was identical. Between exercising two or three curses, there was always a moment he could back away and gather himself. It was rarely a long moment, but then what more could he ask for?
This goes way beyond simple training…I could die.
Surprisingly, Quinn had tempered his mind to such an extent the past day that he'd grown comfortable with the situation. The possibility for death was always present and, while it seemed to be ever more present in the presence of these cursed spirits, so too did his growth. He could feel it almost as if it were whispering to him, chanting his name in the back of his mind like a stadium full of fans. Between risking death here at the cost of training and facing almost guaranteed death a month in the future, Quinn was more than happy with the former.
With his cursed energy distributing out to the targeted locations around his body, it was beginning to leave a sort of permanent stain in said locations. It was tricky, but by limiting his output and focusing solely on pressurizing the energy in these localized points, he could enforce Yuki's method with ease. Of course, doing so while limiting his output and fighting off a horde of cursed spirits of varying grades was positively awful.
Not to mention the damned fingers…why'd she give me two?!
They were a real thorn to have to deal with. Dancing around with the curses was hard but not impossible; the same could be said about Yuki's cursed energy method. Doing both while also juggling a pair of Ryomen Sukuna's fingers around was nigh impossible.
That's…just it though, right! he thought inwardly, digging his fist into an approaching curse. I have to live with impossibilities like this if I ever want to try and win this so-called tournament. This is…just one step!
He was managing, though. Failure was naturally an option—and a rather close one, at that—but it wasn't inevitable…or at least it wouldn't have been had Yuki left any source of nourishment in the forest! Aside from the weird dough balls she'd left behind in one of the trees, there wasn't any source of fresh water or food to be found nearby.
It's as if I can just leave the forest with these fingers, either. I don't know what she did to them, but if they're going to be constantly attracting curses like this then…I have to stay here, out of sight.
Until Yuki returned, this was something he'd also have to deal with. Another impossibility to juggle around in the palms of his hands. Together with the rest of the hassles, it wasn't as though it was completely impossible to perform such a feat. If what Yuki had said was true, then the black flashes were only a step in the right direction.
That's what I need right now…encouragement!
Slicing the air in front of him, Yuju slashed a pair of arms clean off from two cursed spirits as they approached. With the momentum, he spun around, kicking his remaining leg off the ground and slamming it into the side of the leftmost curse. The force of the blow sent the curse directly into the second one, exorcising them in one swift kick. Quinn finished three more with slightly less swift motions before finally finding a moment of peace amidst all the chaos.
In truth, Quinn wasn't certain what to make of the situation at all. This entire thing felt like a bizarre dream, but it clearly wasn't. He hadn't spent a day in Japan—much less a fictional universe—only to suddenly wake up from a nap. That wasn't the case, yet he still found it hard to accept. Was this his life now? Would he really spend a month here only to be thrust into a battle of life and death? Was that all he was worth to this spaceman?
It was selfish. He recognised that much. With a thousand other contestants, perhaps they hadn't gotten nearly as lucky as he had. He'd been put somewhere familiar; and better yet, he'd been fortunate enough to find someone willing to help him. Such a situation was strange and unaccommodating considering the circumstances, but in the grand scheme of things, he was incredibly lucky.
There were any number of worlds and stories that were infinitely more terrifying and difficult to imagine experiencing, and yet here he was, complaining about being exhausted and having to hulk some random fingers around with him—which were only serving to strengthen him.
Shaking his head, Quinn found himself distracted—he was still a person, so he'd happily allow himself the grace of compassion and feeling bad for others, but he wouldn't do so at the expense of his life.
After all, dying simply wasn't an option.
Reassured, Quinn focused on his cursed energy and hopped back down from the tree. Strangely, there weren't any curses around for him to pummel. What'd previously been a forest overrun with amalgamated creatures, each just as hasty as the next to get their hands on the pair of fingers in his possession, they'd all but vanished.
Did I kill them all?
That seemed possible. Since he wasn't completely familiar with how the cursed spirits actually operated, there was a chance he'd simply exhausted this area's supply of negative emotions for the time being. Something like that felt possible, but what of his own negative emotions. They were still running rampant, and so there being none at all seemed a little dubious.
"Ah," Quinn muttered to himself. It wasn't necessarily a profound realization, but more of a subtle understanding. The fact he'd managed to pick out the severity of his circumstances all while concentrating on different tasks spoke volumes as to his growth over the past day, and it seemed he was being tested on exactly that.
Crouching down, Quinn focused less on the sturdy sensation of his cursed energy and more on its presence, shutting his eyes to its sporadic outline. Surrounded by that familiar darkness, he could faintly sense a pair of dark, almost sickly forces emanating from the palm of his hand—Sukuna's fingers. Off in the distance, perhaps twenty metres away, he could feel a faint trickle of…something. It wasn't an object like the fingers, but more of a…
Quinn quickly deflected the blow as the figure flashed before him.
It's quick?!
The blow sent him gliding across the ground, kicking up discarded leaves and branches.
Shutting his eyes again, Quinn widened his search and focused hard on his surroundings. It wasn't necessarily that he was trying to detect cursed energy, but more so that he wanted to try and alert it. Since he couldn't control his own energy properly, simply displaying it out in different directions while maintaining the same output as before meant he could almost trace the outline of his surroundings without directly sensing them.
It's…almost like I'm coating the world with a layer of paint, only it's my cursed energy instead.
Having expanded it enough, he caught the attention of another signature as it came into contact with his energy—it was fast; far faster than the previous figure.
Quinn found himself pinned to a tree before he could react to the shift in pressure.
Garuda swam into his vision a moment later, spiraling around trees and twisting through gaps in bark as he arrived, now circling its master. Yuki, now dressed in a vest and blue jeans, smiled as she released her grip around Quinn, letting him drop to the floor.
"Your technique caught me by surprise," she muttered. "What were you doing?"
Quinn glanced up. "Sort of like how snow builds up and clogs land…I was coating everything in residue cursed energy. When you strode over it, I could tell someone was moving around the forest."
In theory, it was a relatively simple technique. Quinn was quite happy with himself, though considering he'd taken inspiration directly from the series, his confidence quickly fell back down to where it'd been moments prior. Whatever the case, Yuki was back.
"Not a bad compromise," she muttered, distancing herself.
Quinn glanced down and immediately recognised the issue.
"You can wash up once we're back," she chuckled. Before she continued, she snatched the fingers out of Quinn's hands and hurled them up to Garuda, who snatched them without so much as a sound. "First, I'd like to know how far you got."
Quinn frowned. "You were only gone for a day…it's not like I magically became stronger."
"There's more to jujutsu than your cursed energy output," she said, extending a hand out. She exposed her palm, placing it directly in front of Quinn. "Hit me."
Quinn stepped back. "You're…not gonna hit me back, are you?"
"I doubt it."
Gulping, Quinn took a deep breath and steadied himself. Since she'd already made her intention clear, there was no need trying to prolong something she'd eventually get out of him anyway. Avoiding Irritating the woman in any way was still priority number one.
With a swift motion, Quinn pulled his fist back and thrust it forward. It was the same as any other punch he'd thrown at the cursed spirits, yet it felt inherently wrong. Was that because he wasn't punching anxiety? Yuki wasn't exactly the warmest, most comforting person on the planet, but she was a far cry from a cursed spirit and so the correlation made enough sense.
Punching someone like her was wrong, even if she'd asked him to do so. The essence of acting out against a person was wrong, plain and simple. The notion wasn't an issue; in fact Quinn welcomed that unwitting pacifism…if only for one key detail. Perhaps it was the most important aspect to consider…
What if this happened in the tournament?
Could he allow such an emotion to get the better of him in a fight to the death? What if his enemy had already dealt with this issue? What if they were content with killing another person? Would he accept death in such a situation?
Gritting his teeth, Quinn slammed his fist into the palm of Yuki's hand. As he did, sparks of black spread out from the impact, clouding his vision in an eerie darkness reminiscent of the spaceman's void. It was uncomfortable, but it filled him with enough determination to strike Yuki—it was a vile, abhorrent determination, but it was also his lifeforce.
If he was determined to live, he'd have to face death; just not his own.
The earth seemed to shake as the sparks flew. He'd struck her palm perfectly, however she remained where she stood, not having moved an inch. Quinn was somewhat familiar with how her technique worked, however he wasn't familiar with the sheer destructive force of cursed energy; not firsthand, at least. He'd seen it utilised in the series, of course, but that was nothing like experiencing it in real life. Like watching a bomb be dropped in a movie and feeling one explode in the distance, landing a black flash with such force was unlike any sensation he'd ever felt in his life .
When the dust and rubble finally subsided, the potential Yuki had mentioned previously began to trickle into Quinn's mind in the form of true determination. It wasn't some hollow sensation or poultry attempt at making himself feel better, but true, unbridling confidence.
An enormous crater was left behind where Yuki stood, expanding outward and downward some twenty-feet. Yuki, naturally, stood without so much as a scratch on her, with Garuda still harmlessly hovering around the air like a motionless insect.
"Interesting," she muttered to herself, leaning in. "Cursed energy is rather interesting when you get right down to it. Recognising a unique trait and feeling that same trait is completely different. I knew there was something off about your energy, but I didn't fully understand until that black flash of yours just now. How peculiar!"
"You've…lost me," Quinn admitted, placing his back to a tree as he collapsed to the ground.
"It's quite simple, actually," Yuki muttered, crouching down beside him. "The same way a black flash amplifies a strike to the power of two-point-five, your cursed energy seems to possess a similar trait."
Quinn cocked his head, confused. "I…can hit hard, then?"
Yuki chucked, shaking her head. "Your cursed energy is more sharp than it is hard. In the same way a black flash amplifies a strike, you could say your energy has a sort of serrated edge, like a knife. It gives your strikes that same effect."
Vision swimming, mind empty, Quinn found a little solace in the previous void the spaceman had trapped him within. It was strangely comforting, in a vile sort of way. The prospect of inevitability was undoubtedly terrifying, but Quinn, having already escaped the grasp of death, welcomed it wholeheartedly as darkness began clouding his vision.
Before he could contest the sudden intrusion, the void swallowed him once more.