Chapter 43: Reclaiming the Voice and Winning Over (Patreon)

Chapter 43: Reclaiming Her Voice, and a Recruitment Pitch

...

"That's right. Rigidity after the technique activates, cooldown time, prerequisites, incantations, hand seals, environmental requirements—any of these disadvantageous conditions can serve as the price of a Binding."

"For example, you could add a requirement like saying 'please' or 'listen to me' first. Without saying those words, Cursed Speech can't activate—the technique simply won't trigger."

"You could also move the cursed marking for Cursed Speech—say, transfer it to the hand—so that using Cursed Speech would require covering your mouth."

Anjouin explained it all patiently to Nishikawa.

He kept jotting notes on the notebook on the low table, helping her understand that a price could sometimes work in her favor.

Right now, for instance, she hated how the Cursed Speech technique had stolen her voice.

But if the technique were restricted to only a few minutes a day—or at most ten-odd minutes—then for the rest of the day, no matter how much she spoke, Cursed Speech simply wouldn't trigger.

Her voice would naturally be hers again.

"Um..." Nishikawa had meant to say something, but staring at the mechanisms scrawled in the notebook, she suddenly felt her brain couldn't keep up.

And by limiting how long she could use Cursed Speech each day, its power would naturally increase.

That meant she'd have to rely on Elbow Technique the rest of the time, but since everyone was learning Elbow Technique these days anyway, it didn't trouble her much.

Nishikawa nodded firmly again.

She bit her upper teeth into her lower lip, seeing hope that her voice would return.

The reworking of the technique's mechanism continued.

Even the cursed marking at the edge of her lips was being reshaped under the Binding's influence.

Nishikawa cared more about getting her original voice back than about Cursed Speech itself, so whether the technique grew stronger or not didn't really matter to her.

Still, Anjouin had no intention of stripping away her potential as a jujutsu sorcerer.

Reshaped by the Binding's rules, the Cursed Speech technique—now limited to just ten minutes of use per day—visibly transformed into something terrifying.

Her words alone could shake the very air and tear apart an entire steel-and-concrete skyscraper.

The cursed marking at her lips would now only surface while she was actually using Cursed Speech.

Shortening it further to three minutes would boost its power even more, but that was too brief a window—and the stronger a technique grew, the heavier its toll on the body, not to mention the cursed energy it burned through.

Better not to use up all her cursed energy on Cursed Speech and have none left over for Elbow Technique.

"Binding complete—"

Anjouin let out a soft breath.

A vast web of Binding rules had reshaped the Cursed Speech technique into something entirely different.

The compulsion it now carried was strong enough to make its target obey her commands absolutely.

If this technique hadn't relied on the mouth instead of the eyes, one might've mistaken it for some sister-obsessed prince's Absolute Command.

"It worked..."

Nishikawa murmured without thinking.

The voice that came out of her mouth was as clear as it used to be—no, even clearer.

"That's wonderful, Nishikawa~"

Asuka Shiraishi was thrilled that her new friend had gotten her voice back.

"Mm, mm-hm!"

"My voice—my voice is back."

That bright, pleasant voice no longer carried a curse.

Overwhelmed with emotion, Nishikawa couldn't stop the tears from falling.

"Ah, my eyes sting."

"No wonder—you've been crying all day. Your eyes are all swollen."

Shiraishi hugged her and rubbed gently at her reddened eyes.

Seeing the two girls sharing a tender moment, Anjouin kept a low profile, unwilling to intrude.

He didn't really understand girls' friendships anyway.

"I'll head back to class this afternoon."

"You should really rest a bit longer. You already took the whole day off sick, and your eyes are so red right now, it looks awful."

"I don't want to trouble everyone."

"It's fine, everyone will understand. As for this afternoon's specialty class, I'll borrow the notes from Ichinose for you~"

As Shiraishi and Nishikawa talked, it wasn't long before they started calling each other by their first names.

Asuka this, Ryoko that—the two of them looked practically inseparable.

"Thank you, Anjouin."

Nishikawa's cheeks flushed slightly. Her attention had just been drawn away by her new best friend, but she knew exactly who her true benefactor was.

"I won't forget what happened today. Please, let me repay you someday."

"I'll hold you to that, then."

Anjouin waved a hand casually, not particularly bothered either way.

He hadn't helped her expecting repayment in the first place.

"If you're ever unhappy with this Binding, once I've mastered the Reverse Cursed Technique, I can undo it and forge a new one instead."

"But I really do think you should get some proper rest. You must have awakened your technique right at the tail end of the day before yesterday—you probably haven't slept well since yesterday's early hours."

"Shiraishi, are you staying to keep her company?"

Anjouin turned to ask her.

"Hmm, Ryoko, want me to stay?" Shiraishi looked tempted to, but she checked with Nishikawa first.

Even though the two were close friends now, Nishikawa wasn't necessarily eager for Shiraishi to keep watching her in such a state.

Nishikawa gave a small shake of her head, clearly declining.

In truth, she kept her head bowed, not wanting Anjouin to keep looking at her face either.

She felt like she looked terrible right now.

Before her voice came back, she'd been somewhat resigned to letting herself go, but now that it had returned—even bare-faced, her bookish, literary charm was as captivating as ever—she still felt embarrassed.

Plenty of girls felt they couldn't face other people without makeup on.

"Got it." Shiraishi hugged her once more.

Then she handed over the warm, easy-to-swallow food they'd packed from the cafeteria earlier, and wrapped up the visit.

"Ryoko, I'll come see you again tonight."

"Okay~ Asuka."

—

"Sorry, reworking the technique's mechanism ended up taking a while."

After leaving the dorm, with barely any lunch break left, Anjouin ended up buying yakisoba bread with Shiraishi.

It was something of a specialty snack of the island nation—cheap, quick to make, and filling.

It was practically the school store's signature item, and at Advanced Nurturing High School it cost only 50 points—with the Class 1-A thirty-percent discount, just 35 points.

At convenience stores near an ordinary school, it usually went for 100 to 140 yen.

"My treat, I guess—though it's not like it's expensive."

"It's fine, I've been wanting to try one for a while."

Shiraishi took the yakisoba bread, curiosity in her eyes.

A soft hot dog bun stuffed with fried island-nation noodles.

The sauce—made from soy sauce, sugar, mirin, Worcestershire sauce, and the like—had a sweet-and-savory complexity.

As the flavor spread through her mouth, Shiraishi's eyes went wide.

"Hm, not as bad as I imagined."

"Tastes decent—I guess it suits a high school boy's palate."

The right balance of sweet and salty in the sauce brought out the noodles' flavor even more.

"Anjouin, do you have any plans for which faction to join after graduation?"

...

Perhaps having just witnessed something almost unbelievable, Shiraishi couldn't resist making a pitch after all.

"There are still three years until graduation—over a thousand days. It's too early to be talking about that."

Anjouin didn't refuse outright.

But the deflection itself was, in effect, a refusal.

Shiraishi didn't think Anjouin had missed her meaning, so she let the matter drop.

After all, her real assignment was to watch Ayanokoji, not to recruit people, so she had little real drive to press the issue.

The two of them headed to the big classroom in the academic building, where students from Class 1-A and Class B were already trickling in.

"How'd it go, Shiraishi-chan~"

"Shiraishi, is Nishikawa doing okay?"

"Nishikawa's fine, right?"

Seeing several girls crowd around, Anjouin tactfully stepped back and let Shiraishi field their questions.

But he hadn't gone more than a few steps before a strikingly beautiful girl with golden-pink hair stopped him.

Ever since Class 1-A and Class B decided to join forces, in the days they'd spent studying together, the Class 1-A students had come to know Honami Ichinose fairly well.

It was a good thing she wasn't in Class 1-A, or the Katsuragi Faction would basically be finished.

In pretty much every respect, Ichinose was Katsuragi's equal—her looks were even more popular than his, and she was more careful about privacy than he was.

The Katsuragi Faction was down to just five members now, largely because Katsuragi had bluntly, almost obliviously, asked faction members what technique they'd awakened—something Ichinose would never have done.

And compared to the delicate, adorable little princess type, Ichinose—with her killer figure, easy grace, and warm, outgoing personality—would win a popularity contest hands down.

"Ichinose?"

Anjouin found the archangel's behavior a bit odd.

But turning around, he found that his little tail had caught up with him.

"Satoru, I've been taking good care of the Anjouin-Blue Faction for you."

"Good work, Little Blue."

Anjouin patted Ai Morishita's head.

With her help, he really did have more time to handle other matters. Building up his own faction mattered, but it also slowed down how fast he could grow stronger.

"Anjouin, could I have a moment?"

Ichinose spoke up, hesitation on her face.

"Is it urgent?"

Anjouin asked.

"Um, not especially."

"Then let's talk after class."

"Okay." Faced with Anjouin's brush-off, Ichinose looked a little dejected.

Once she'd walked off with her head down, Anjouin quietly asked the little tail behind him.

"What do you think?"

"Hmm, it's probably about her technique."

"Figures."

Though today was the ninth day of formal classes, and technique awakenings had happened two days ago, plenty of people who'd awakened a technique had chosen to keep it hidden.

After all, in their general education class, the instructor had stressed that in fights between jujutsu sorcerers, aside from compatibility of techniques, information mattered most of all.

The side holding more information had a far easier time winning.

No one knew what technique an opponent might have, and plenty of techniques were lethal precisely because they caught people off guard the first time.

Even Satoru Gojo had once paid the price for a lack of information, back at the very start.

Ambushed by the Heavenly Tyrant, Toji Fushiguro, he took several hits from the Special Grade cursed tool, the Inverted Spear of Heaven, which forcibly nullifies any technique it touches—and he very nearly died.

"Ryoko-chan's problem's sorted out?"

"Sorted."

"Mm-hm, I'm amazing."

Ai Morishita struck her usual cocky pose, the one that said the two of them together could rack up eighty-eight points.

"Tonight it's Orleans-style roasted wings, as a reward for your hard work today."

Hearing that, Ai Morishita was overcome with emotion, tears streaming from the corners of her mouth.

Slurp.

This was the perk of being someone's little sister.

[Author's Note: Third update today.]

[Author's Note: Ai Morishita: It's all about being spoiled—wants to be his wife, too. Ugh, geez (dragged off).]