Curse Return: Demon Void Girl Doesn't Want to Be a Weakling

By the time I got back to the apartment, it was completely dark.

Mashiro stood in the entryway for a moment. After the Tide Sound mission was over, she used a water control technique to dry her clothes and hair, but the salt remained.

The collar felt rough and grainy when it rubbed against the back of my neck, and the cuffs were just as uncomfortable against my wrists.

I can't stand it, I can't stand it for even a second longer.

She quickly went to the bathroom, stripped herself naked, and threw her clothes into the laundry basket.

She turned on the shower, and the hot water sprayed from the showerhead onto her head, flowing down her silver hair over her shoulders and back.

The skin was washed clean by the water, and the salt in the hair dissolved in the hot water and was then washed away.

She closed her eyes and stood there for a long time, motionless, purely enjoying herself.

The bathroom was soon filled with steam, and the condensation on the mirror grew thicker and thicker. She took a deep breath and relaxed completely.

Mashiro tilted her head and pulled her hair down to her chest to look at the ends. She noticed that her hair had grown back. It was shoulder-length when it was cut by the water blade that morning, but now it was almost up to her shoulder blades.

She squeezed out her newly bought shower gel, which smelled of mandarin oranges.

The last time I went to a convenience store with Kugizaki, she said this smelled good. She said it didn't matter, but she still bought it.

All the wounds from the previous battles on her body have disappeared, and the dozens of cuts on her arms from the water blades are now completely gone, not even the shallowest traces can be found.

She raised her arm to look closer. The skin covered by foam was smooth and intact. Her fingertips traced the deepest wound from before, and the texture was no different from the surrounding skin.

After the upgrade, her body seemed to have undergone some changes. She closed her eyes and sensed it; her physical fitness had been comprehensively improved.

I'll go to the vocational college for a thorough test tomorrow. For now, I'll continue enjoying my hot bath.

When she came out of the bathroom, she was wrapped in a bath towel, and her hair was wrapped in a hand towel. A few strands of silver hair still stuck out from the edges, clinging to the wet nape of her neck, even though the towel was pressing them down.

The dripping water gathered into a small puddle at her feet. She raised her hand, and the water in her hair was quickly drawn out, forming a fist-sized ball of water in her palm. Within seconds, her silver hair went from being soaked to fluffy and dry, with a small tuft of hair sticking up at the ends.

She casually tossed the water balloon into the sink, then looked at herself in the mirror.

The silver hair was very fluffy after it was completely dry, with the ends sticking outwards and a few strands standing up on top.

She reached out and pressed down, but the few strands of hair bounced back. She tried several times but gave up.

Damn it, this mere hair dares to openly challenge its owner's authority in front of the mirror. I'll let you off this time.

The next morning, Mashiro arrived at the training ground ahead of schedule.

The training ground was deserted in the early morning, with yesterday's footprints still visible on the sand.

She came here today to test how much her physical fitness has improved.

She walked to the wooden stake at the edge of the training field, pressed her palm on the surface of the stake, and slowly applied force. The surface of the stake began to crack, and the cracks spread outward from the center of her palm.

She withdrew her hand and instead used one finger to brace against the wooden stake. The force was applied from her fingertip, sinking half a millimeter into the surface of the stake, leaving a neat indentation.

Yes, the precision of my strength control has also improved.

Its overall defensive and explosive power is roughly at the level of Heavenly Curse, and it would be even higher with the addition of curse power.

She mentally compared herself to Zenin Maki and felt they were about the same.

Then she reached out, palm up, and the rain, which had been illusory, became real, with the silver blade extending from her palm and finally fully manifesting.

That's right, Congyu has also evolved. Now it can switch between reality and illusion, which not only plays an unexpected role in battle, but also means it doesn't have to carry its sword around every time.

She pulled Cong Yu back into her body and then tested the technique.

She condensed a water ball from the air, compressed it into a water needle, and shot it at the wooden stake, leaving a pinhole-sized hole in the stake.

Then a transparent water wall, about half a person's height, unfolds.

She added sonic vibrations to the water wall, and the vibration frequency of the molecules on the surface of the water wall immediately doubled, increasing the defense by at least one level.

She re-condensed the water needle in her palm, this time adding high-frequency vibration to the tip, making the hole in the wooden stake nearly twice as deep as the first one, and increasing its penetrating power.

Footsteps came from the entrance of the training ground; Itadori and Kugizaki had arrived.

"Mashiro-nee? You're up so early." He was wearing a tracksuit, with the sleeves rolled up halfway.

Kugizaki saw Mashiro standing in front of the wooden stake, then his gaze fell on the row of neat pinholes on the stake. "...When did you get here?"

"Just now." Mashiro turned around in front of the wooden stake.

Huzhang walked closer to examine the row of needle marks, measured the depth with his hand, and then paused for a moment before asking, "What was used to make these?"

"Water Needle." Mashiro formed in his hand and then dissipated.

Kugizaki's lips twitched. "What is this, a new technique?"

"Um."

"The last hole was twice as deep."

"Sound wave vibration was added."

"Two techniques?"

"right."

Looking at her expressionless face, Kugizaki gave up on asking any further questions.

Fukuro arrived last, with the dog following at his feet. He glanced at the pinholes on the wooden stake, his gaze lingering for a moment on the deepest, last hole, before turning to Mashiro: "A new technique?"

Mashiro nodded.

Fu Hei twitched his lips and squatted down to let the jade dog sniff the water stains around the wooden stake.

The jade dog sneezed and shook its head.

Fu Hei stood up and said calmly, "Next time, you can post what you want to be tested in the group beforehand, so we don't have to look at the wooden stakes and guess what you did every time we arrive."

"Then there will be no surprises," Mashiro said, looking at Kugizaki.

Kugizaki rolled his eyes at Fushiguro from the side: "Don't encourage her, I've had enough of being discouraged."

After the three warmed up, the training officially began.

Mashiro stood in the center of the field, raised her right hand and condensed a water ball in her palm. As soon as Kugizaki saw the water ball, he reflexively gripped his hammer.

"I won't use you as a target today," Mashiro said. "I'll teach you how to use your magical power to create nails."

Kugizaki paused for a moment. Itadori stopped his warm-up and turned to look at him. Fushiguro also looked up.

"Nail formed from cursed power?"

"Yes, don't you find it troublesome to make solid nails?" Mashiro compressed and stretched the water ball in her hand, condensing it into a thin water needle that hovered above her palm. "The advantage of water needles is that the material is unlimited, but the disadvantage is that their strength is not as good as metal. The principle of cursed nails is similar to that of water needles, using cursed power instead of water as the material to condense into a solid form."

She removed the water needle, and her palm re-condensed the magical power, gathering and compressing it above her palm until it finally became a thin, long blue nail.

Kugizaki stared intently at the cursed nail.

"Did you understand?"

"I understand it, but it's a bit difficult to put into practice." She tried to infuse her magic power with the Chuling spell, but it was always difficult to condense into a form and eventually dissipated.

"You're going in the wrong direction." Mashiro looked at Kugizaki's hand. "In your technique, the nails are just a medium. You've taken a detour by using the technique to condense the nails."

"Simply using incantation to condense it into a shape, and then applying a spell to it, will greatly reduce the difficulty."

"First, condense your magical power." Kugizaki repeated, then pulled a nail from the nail sheath and placed it in his palm. "My magical power is usually attached to the nail, and its shape is not fixed, so it doesn't require much control over the magical power."

"Yes, so your focus now is on strengthening your control over your cursed power." Mashiro nodded. "Not only that, but you can also directly control the cursed power to create vibrations after using the cursed power nails."

"That means we don't even need a hammer anymore! And we can still create effects remotely." Kugizaki's eyes lit up, and he began his first attempt.

The cursed power gathered in her palm, then exploded as she tried to compress it.

Itachi took a half step back, and Fukuro held down the head of the dog to prevent it from getting closer. Kugisaki's hair was messed up by the blast of air, and then he opened his palm and looked at his palm, which was slightly red from the rebound force.

Mashiro nodded. "This can only be achieved through practice; it can't be done overnight."

Huzhang sat cross-legged on the sand, propping his chin up with his hand as he watched her try. After a while, he reached out his hand, tentatively looking up at his palm: "Can I try?"

"You haven't learned how to project your curse power outwards yet," Kugizaki said, his tone calmer than usual, but there was a fine sheen of sweat on his brow.

Huzhang withdrew his hand, changed his posture, and continued watching.

Fu Hei turned towards Hu Zhang and said in a flat tone, "We haven't practiced yet today."

Itajō stood up, brushed the sand off his pants, grinned at Mashiro, and asked, "Mashiro-neechan, how's training going today?"

"Unarmed combat, forbidden technique."

Kugizaki retreated to the edge of the arena, intending to watch the sparring while continuing to try to condense her magical power.

Fu Hei had the jade dog lie down next to the wooden stake while he flexed his wrists.

Tiger Cane assumes the starting stance, with his left foot forward and his center of gravity lowered.

Mashiro stood in the center of the field, her hands hanging naturally at her sides.

The tiger staff made the first move.

The moment he pushed off the ground, a small patch of sand exploded behind his heel, and he was already in front of Mashiro, his right fist wrapped in cursed power, striking straight at her face.

This punch was faster than the one during the last training session, and it made a muffled sound as it cut through the air.

Mashiro tilted her head and dodged.

The force of the punch grazed her ear, and a few strands of silver hair were lifted by the airflow.

She took a half step back with her right foot, raised her left hand and slapped the inside of Hu Zhang's wrist, using the impact to pull him to the side.

Itachi's center of gravity shifted, but he didn't retract his fist. Instead, he twisted his waist in the direction of the shift and struck Mashiro's temple with his left elbow.

Mashiro raised her hand to block with her forearm, and the elbow strike made a dull thud as it hit her forearm, but she didn't budge.

Then she grabbed Hu Zhang's left arm with her other hand and pressed him down, forcing Hu Zhang's upper body to lean forward.

He immediately retracted his right fist and scooped it up from below, striking at Mashiro's chin.

Mashiro let go, jumped back half a step, and Itachi's fist grazed less than two centimeters in front of her chin.

"It's faster than last time," Mashiro said.

Urajima didn't reply; he was adjusting his breathing.

The exchange of those three movements happened in less than two seconds. He had already pushed the offensive rhythm to its limit, but Mashiro only moved his left hand and two feet the whole time. His right hand hadn't even been raised from his side yet.

Fu Hei spoke up from the sidelines: "She's watching how much force you're putting in."

"Understood." Itajimaru lowered his center of gravity again, this time changing the rhythm.

On his second attack, Itachi threw a series of punches, left, right, left, right, four punches in a seamless sequence. Before the aftershock of the previous punch had even finished, the next punch had already been thrown.

Mashiro used her left hand to block continuously, each punch was caught by her palm or forearm, and each contact produced a short, muffled sound.

Then Itadori changed his rhythm. He suddenly stopped halfway through his fourth punch, shifted to the left, and swept his right leg toward Mashiro's ankle.

Mashiro lifted her foot, stepping on Itadori's sweeping shin, and used the momentum to take a step forward, pressing her left index and middle fingers together on Itadori's forehead.

Hu Zhang froze; he was standing on one leg, his right leg pinned down and unable to move.

He grinned, raised his hands, and said, "I give up."

Mashiro withdrew her hand and took a few steps back.

Fuhei walked to the center of the arena, and Huzhang stepped back and sat down next to Yuquan, scratching its head.

Kugizaki's pose had been still for a long time; she had been watching the sparring session the whole time.

The battle ended very quickly; from the moment Tiger Rod's three moves were broken to the moment his second consecutive attack was read, it took less than two minutes in total.

Mashiro used only her left hand and two foot movements throughout the entire sequence. In the training sparring, Itadori's attack patterns were completely analyzed in front of Mashiro.

"Mashiro-sensei, please guide me," Itadori said.

"The rhythm is too fixed." Mashiro walked up to him. "Every punch you throw has a fixed rhythm. The first interval is about 0.3 seconds, the second suddenly accelerates to 0.1 seconds, and the third is stopped halfway through. You are deliberately controlling it."

"Isn't controlling the rhythm wrong?"

"It's not wrong, but the more deliberately you control it, the more regular the intervals become, and regularity equals predictability."

She drew a line in the air with her finger. "Your problem right now is that your power path is too obvious. Your shoulder moves before you punch, and you look at the target's position before you attack. What Fukuro can see, your enemy can see too."

Itajō scratched his head, making his pink hair even more disheveled. "Then how do I fix it?"

"First, learn to give up thinking."

"What?"

"Judging from the exercise just now, your current attack pattern is designed."

"This carefully controlled rhythm works against ordinary enemies, but it becomes a weakness against opponents who are good at analyzing their patterns."

"Don't anticipate your attack. Observe your opponent's attack and let your body judge where, how, and how much power to strike next. Your muscle memory is faster than your brain. In actual combat, thinking itself is half a step slower."

Itadori paused for a moment, then slowly nodded: "Don't think... let your body fight."

He looked down at his fist, slowly clenching and then releasing it.

Kugizaki watched the whole thing from the sidelines, her eyes never leaving the arena as the cursed nails in her hand exploded and started again.

Mashiro walked up to her and said, "You've been distracted by watching our practice. Try to make the curse nail first. You can only succeed the second time if you succeed the first time."

Kugizaki took a deep breath, shook his numb fingers, and started again.

This time, she didn't look at Itajimaru and Fushiguro continuing their practice on the training field; her eyes were fixed only on her own hands.

The power of the spell gathered and spun in her palm. She gritted her teeth and compressed it sharply.

The blue nail condensed and took shape above the palm, trembled three times, and dissipated after about seven seconds.

Kugizaki stared at the empty air, then shouted, "I did it!"

Distracted by the shout, Itajimaru was punched in the shoulder by Fushiguro, causing him to take two exaggerated steps back before immediately turning to look at Kugizaki: "Did you finish it?"

Kugizaki looked at his palm. Although the cursed nails had dissipated, those seven seconds had truly existed.

Mashiro looked at Kugizaki's face, which went from surprise to delight, and smiled. "Not bad."