"Amnesia, eh?"
Quinn nodded, shuffling in his seat. "Yuki…Miss. Tsukumo said it was likely the cause of a curse user's technique."
"What—and they dumped you at Jujutsu High when they were done? Little strange, don't you think?"
Pausing, Quinn had to think about his next response. Kusakabe may have been a sorcerer without an innate technique, but he was no less a genius than any other sorcerer he knew. This man was frightening in his own way, which only served to discomfort Quinn as he stirred momentarily, unable to refute his point.
"Listen," the man said, placing a hand on Quinn's shoulder, "I'm not trying to put you on the spot, but other faculty members won't be as easy on you as we've been." Quinn thought back to Yuki as he spoke. It soon dawned on him that the string of luck he'd been following ever since arriving in this world was beginning to shorten. "Simply put: you'll need to be more convincing than that."
Quinn nodded. "Do you think I'm lying, then?"
"It's not about whether you're lying or not," he retorted. "I know you're telling the truth, and the rest of them are likely to agree."
"What's the issue then?"
Kusakabe sighed. "There's more to jujutsu than simply refining your technique and exercising curses, Quinn. Unfortunately, this world is plagued by corruption; which, ironically, inadvertently plays into creating more curses, giving people like us more work to do. Funny, eh?"
"So…you're telling me I should make my situation sound worse than it is?"
He gave Quinn a pointed look as he spoke, and he immediately understood what the man was getting at. Speaking verbally about such a thing would likely be considered deceitful, though Quinn could tell what the man was getting at.
Since the night parade of a hundred demons likely happened a couple months back, he's basically telling me to be careful about who I speak with. The higher ups…they're tricky.
"At the end of the day, maintaining your focus and keeping to yourself is all the school will ask for."
Quinn nodded. "They don't like too much noise, then?"
Kusakabe shuffled in his own seat, chuckling as he adjusted his posture. There was no need to verbally agree, Quinn understood that much. He was the kind of man that followed the line straight through the centre, though couldn't help but veer of the edge to see what else was happening beyond the confines of the line. He played by the book, but he also liked to read other books.
Content, Quinn finally felt at peace. Not the kind of peace Yuki had stirred within him, but the sort you might feel after finally achieving something. That sense of meaning and accomplishment, it was generous to Quinn.
Smiling, he willingly shut his eyes and faced the void directly. It wasn't about falling asleep; though he could have done so if he wished. Instead, it was about facing the spaceman in his domain.
Darkness.
Pure, unbridled darkness.
Weirdly, no light seemed to shine in through his eyelids as he stared it down. It was likely some sort of placebo effect, though Quinn didn't question it too much. Instead, he set out to make adjustments.
Severe adjustments, though necessary ones.
Moving forward, he couldn't afford to simply be a spectator here; he had to seek his ticket to back home actively, not passively.
I have to adjust to this world in order to survive to the next, he thought to himself. It wasn't that surviving was hard; that was the easy part. Living together with the flow of the story was simple, but it wasn't enough. He needed to adjust himself in order to get ahead of the story, maintaining momentum into the tournament. Adjust…I can use someone else as a foundation, the…
Combining pre-established information with his newly found technique…would produce something balanced yet potent. Instead of being something he didn't quite understand, he could…mold it into something fitting his understanding of now just this world, but the tournament itself.
If I limit myself and seek something as contingent, then I can work on something else while protecting what's important!
"That settles it, then," Quinn said aloud, glancing over to Kusakabe. The man stirred for a moment, though eventually glanced over. "I know what my technique does."
Inwardly, while awaiting a response, Quinn focused on that light within him; he focused on his technique. He didn't completely understand what it did, but judging by what he'd seen and how it interacted with the world, applying it to something he did understand was the best measure he could take.
Quinn began laughing. "I'll do it! What does it matter, anyway?!"
Looking deep inside, Quinn erected a set of chains around the light. He sanctioned it, erecting a row of walls around the light that kept it to a minimum, now only allowing for a modicum of it to break through into the darkness.
By establishing the binding vow, Quinn unleashed his full potential, while simultaneously sealing it away. It limited the technique while allowing himself the ability to move freely without restraint.
Kusakabe grabbed him by the shoulders not a second after, clearly having sensed the change. "What did you do?!"
"Careful!" Quinn shouted, shuffling away from Kusakabe as the barrier activated around him. "I don't know how to control it yet." Before he could move far enough away, Kusakabe's arm suddenly jolted from where it was, darting in the opposite direction towards the open window. His entire body was sent flying with it in response, though he was quick to readjust himself.
With the blueprint that was Gojo Satoru, Quinn established an infinity of his own, limiting his technique, which likely had a much wider range beforehand, to roughly a metre-wide radius around him.
I can't use those eddy things anymore…at least not sparingly, he muttered, glancing around himself at the faint traces of cursed energy he could sense imbued to the barrier. The eddy surrounding him acted as a sort of shield which, rather than simply repelling forces as Gojo's infinity did, it would alter intent. I get it now… I think. Instead of slowing time or anything like that, it alters the world's perception of cause and effect!
On paper, Quinn was ecstatic to find he possessed such a powerful technique. On the surface, it was a relatively simple and powerful technique. Thinking deeper, there was more to simply adjusting the relationship something had with the universe and altering its effect.
It was a coincidence that Kusakabe had his hand sent the opposite way, Quinn noted. It could have easily slowed down or simply stopped. In the same way, it could have pulled him towards the barrier or flung him a hundred times faster. It's convoluted…yet extremely simple at the same time.
It was chaos.
"It's unrefined," Quinn sighed, sitting back as he dispelled the technique, "but the vow means I can't make mistakes with it. With it, I can focus on the basics of jujutsu while maintaining a degree of control with this barrier."
Kusakabe nodded slowly, apparently still concerned. "You used the Limitless technique as a foundation, didn't you? I couldn't see the barrier, but I could sense it was there when it was activated."
"That was my intent originally, though I'm fairly certain the effect it has on anything that comes into contact with it differs." Quinn was certain it was the correct decision, though the more he thought about it, the more he became frighteningly aware of the power he held. It wasn't as simple as flicking a button or firing a gun; it was pure chaos.
Chaos confined to a simple barrier.
Content, Quinn reached down to Kusakabe's katana and snatched it from the man's lap. The sorcerer immediately recoiled and moved to grab it back, but Quinn was quick enough to slash his own hand before he could take it back.
"Are you crazy?!" he muttered, grabbing his hand as blood began to leak from the wound.
"Just a little bit," he chuckled. As he did, he focused on the chaotic nature of his cursed energy and slammed it into itself, dispelling that same chaos.
「Reverse Cursed Technique」
Kusakabe leant back in amazement, though Quinn was quick to dispel his sudden reverence. "In conjunction with the binding vow, by limiting my innate technique to such a degree, I can do this without an issue." A light, translucent energy formed around his hand, closing the wound up in its entirety. It was satisfying to watch; to see his cursed energy without any of the sudden jerking or smooth motions, but simply existing.
"Do you understand how severe a vow you made?"
Quinn nodded slowly, not entirely certain. "As someone who's lost all their memories, I'm comfortable sacrificing my technique's potential for something like this." As he spoke, he reached out to Kusakabe with his cursed energy and focused on the man's hand, which was bruised slightly by the influence of his barrier. "I'm comfortable knowing I can become a strong sorcerer because I'm surrounded by people who want to see me thrive, not due to the inherent nature of my technique."
Chaos was chaos; there was no arguing that. It was something he had at his disposal, but not something he could comprehend as he currently was, let alone comprehend. Limiting it to something he could understand and control—at least in the near future—was optimal.
Kusakabe scoffed, wiping his blade clean with some tissue. "Most people would kill to have a potent technique like that, you know? This is something you should have spoken about before doing." He gave Quinn another of his pointed expressions, though didn't press him. "If you're happy, though…well, don't let me stop you."
Nodding, Quinn glanced out the window to see…strangely familiar land.
"Ah," Kuskabe mumbled, "looks like we're here."