Hello. It's Naoya-kun, same as always.
It's been a while since that day I imposed bindings worse than gutter trash on Mai-chan out of spite.
After teaching Mai-chan, who was down to her underwear, the transformation dance and transformation lines, successfully activating her technique, and having her construct her one and only 'Magical Mai-chan Dress' for the time being, I've been letting her play as her surging cursed energy in 'Transformation Mode' dictates, with the aim of basic cursed energy manipulation and getting used to the technique.
Since doing jujutsu training makes normal life impossible as expected, Mai-chan and Maki-chan, who graduated from kindergarten during the Obon break due to family circumstances, are diligently training today as well. Well, my final academic background as of now is uneducated too.
I think they're really going at it, but maybe this level of anime-like stuff puts more spirit into training? Everyone tries it at least once, right? Like the Kamehameha or the Water Divination.
Well, my training is like something out of V-Cinema, with fire walking, water ablutions, blade walking rituals, and prostrations...
"Turning everyone's feelings into power! Magical Mai-chan, make uuuup!"
"You're doing it. Have you got the choreography down too? ...Yeah, you've got it; you're molding cursed energy. Have you made a change of clothes for the dress? Even if it's a cursed tool, it gets dirty, you know?"
"I made them! Lots!"
"Show me. That's awful many, how many pieces? Were you planning to skip laundry forever?"
"This one is for Maki, and this one for Tsumiki."
"I see? Well, technically there's no restriction on wearing it, so giving it to them is fine. If it's the dress, it's a shoddy cursed tool, so it should be fine."
Yeah. Four-year-olds are idiots after all. I thought she was groaning and making something after enthusiastically transforming every day, but turns out she was mass-producing dresses.
...The 'Magical Mai-chan Dress', which I also incorporated into Mai-chan's bindings, is a Grade 3 Cursed Tool for which I developed the settings while strictly calculating the balance of Mai-chan's cursed energy efficiency, output, and technique efficiency within the bindings. Its effects as a cursed tool are 'Color can be freely changed by the wearer except in transformation mode (fixed pink during transformation)', 'Comfort lighter than a feather', 'Much stronger than random cloth clothes', and 'Size adjusts to the wearer to some extent'. It's basically a joke item that's just interesting.
I filmed Mai-chan dancing in frilly clothes a ton on video, burned it onto Blu-ray, and sent it to Mai-chan's mom. I'm looking forward to the time in the future when she learns the fact that her mom back home holds her dark history, you know?
So, regarding that Mai-chan, well, binding her was worth it; she's become strong enough to produce cursed tools to the point of getting carried away and sharing them, whereas normally she had a trash-tier technique where she'd be wheezing just to make a single marble.
Since the social demerits of this binding should accumulate as she gets older, her talent might still grow from here, who knows?
...Well, having set the table for this much future agony, my daily pent-up annoyance has considerably lowered.
I've relieved enough stress to think that maybe I can seriously raise Mai-chan, who is doing her best as I tell her, as a disciple.
After all, my daily life consists of killing cursed spirits, earning money, taking care of brats, and just when I think I can doze off a bit, getting woken up by Toji-kun pestering me for money after losing at pachinko, and the time I finally get for myself disappears into refining my technique and dealing with bindings. Irritation builds up.
Well, regardless of the trigger, it's a fact that I got to clear that up somewhat. I can do something serious and master-like for a bit.
"Mai-chan, can you make a 'Mai-chan Mace'?"
"Hmm... Maybe?"
"Then make one 'Mace'. I'll teach you something good."
"Okay! Umm... Turning everyone's feelings into form! Magical Make! 'Magical Mai-chan Mace'! ...I did it! It's done! Cute!"
What is in the hands of the rejoicing Mai-chan is a 'Magic Wand' about 2 shaku (approx. 60cm) long. This is also technically a solid Grade 3 Cursed Tool, a simple yet convenient one with features like 'Very good cursed energy conductivity', 'Can charge and store cursed energy in the gem at the tip', and 'Has sufficient durability to be used as a combat bludgeon'. I thought about the weight balance reasonably well, so the swinging feel should be comfortable.
Technically, this wand and dress are assumed to be the main equipment for 'Childhood Mai-chan'. Being cursed tools, albeit shoddy, she can use them for training without hesitation, and yet the usability shouldn't be bad.
"Well done, excellent work. Then, try holding the mace and taking a stance."
"L-Like this?"
"Good feel. Wait a moment, around here... found one. This guy will do. Mai-chan, can you come here a bit?"
"Okay."
"I'm going to touch your head a little, don't mind it. Watch the Fly Head so it doesn't escape."
"Yeah."
Mai-chan, who squeezes the neck of the Fly Head without hesitation along with that reply, might have the talent for being a sorcerer even if her talent for jujutsu is trash, who knows? Normally, even if it looks gross, wouldn't there be more resistance to grabbing a living thing by the neck and strangling it with bare hands?
As expected of someone born in Zen'in, even if rotten. The parts of her that are human scum are coming out properly.
Oops, close one, close one. I almost forgot I was going to give Mai-chan a reward. Then—Cursed Technique Reversal.
"I'll show you my prized 'Record Self Sorcery'. —'Water Surface Moon', 'Reality and Void'."
My 'Cursed Technique Reversal', for which I improved accuracy by lightly chanting a cursed poem.
It is 'Record Self Sorcery', which pours the 'frames' I struck into the target and forces them to trace the movements I decided in advance.
Mai-chan, having that effect slammed into her defenseless head, channeled cursed energy into the 'Magical Mai-chan Mace' with fluent cursed energy manipulation and body control impossible for a four-year-old. Without a moment's deviation, she slammed the mace laden with that cursed energy into the Fly Head, which was choking after being released from the stranglehold...!
'Black Flash.'
'It is not a technique, but a phenomenon.'
'The moment cursed energy collides within 0.000001 seconds of a physical impact, space distorts, and cursed energy flashes black!'
Naturally, a blow from a bludgeon swung seriously with cursed energy, even with a kid's strength, has the power to easily shatter 10 or 20 roof tiles. When accompanied by Black Flash, it is completely beyond the level of power a Fly Head can withstand.
The Fly Head was blown away cleanly as a matter of course, and the idiot Mai-chan was greatly excited, shouting "Amaaaazing!!!!" without understanding what she just did. This child's brain has turned into a complete idiot after landing a Black Flash, but as aimed, the stagnation in her flow of cursed energy has disappeared, and she can circulate cursed energy through her body as if breathing.
Mai-chan, who is completely high on excitement, probably doesn't understand, but whether you have this sensation or not changes your future life as a sorcerer considerably, you know?
Well, it's better for brats not to aim to be sorcerers, though.
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]