May 13, 2020

  Waldo and Mara stand about 50 meters away from each other. They both assume a combat stance, standing firm and ready. Mara watches Waldo carefully, looking for any openings she can use. However, just as she expected, Waldo leaves no openings in his stance, guarding himself perfectly against whatever Mara will throw at him. But this doesn’t mean she can’t continue trying. Mara propels herself forward using the air. She then takes a sudden sharp turn while propelling and throws a punch at Waldo’s hip. Waldo suddenly appears behind her, dodging the attack entirely, and kicks Mara across the face into a tree.

  “You could see that feint from several miles away. Always trying to constantly one up the enemy will make the effects backfire on you. Sometimes, a direct and immediate approach is the best response.”

  With that being said, Waldo sprints off from his position and very quickly begins to close the distance between him and Mara. Mara manages to get up and react on time, moving out of the way of Waldo’s kick. Waldo’s kick makes contact with the tree log instead and blows the log away into a shower of sawdust. Mara then blocks a right hook from Waldo, but there was a lot of swing to it and so she is still knocked onto the ground. She looks back up and sees Waldo’s foot being lifted. She quickly rolls out of the way, avoiding her face being stomped by Waldo. The stomp leaves a small crater in the ground.

  “Slippery brat.”

  Mara jumps back to her feet. She takes a small breather, doing better than she was initially expecting. There’s a question lingering in her mind, more of a curiosity than a question really.

  “Mister… use your technique against me. I want to fight it at least once. Do it, please!”

  Waldo stands there staring at Luna as if he just heard something blasphemous. This child could barely hold her own against him with pure hands. Now, she wants him to fight using techniques? He looks down and then begins to laugh out of nowhere.

  “You let your mouth run wild! Well, if that’s what you wish then so be it, Mara! Don’t start crying or I’ll put you through even worse pain!”

  Mara wipes a small trickle of blood from her mouth and stands firm. She’s never had the chance to actually witness and stand off against Waldo’s cursed technique. The only thing she knows about his cursed technique is that it has to do with some kind of waves. She remembers seeing him fly through the air using his cursed technique. Mara is curious for even more of it. Perhaps she can even learn a thing or two from witnessing the cursed technique in action.

  Suddenly, when Mara is about to move from her spot, a loud boom is heard and Waldo instantly appears in front of her. She looks up slowly, flabbergasted at the speed of his travel. Waldo holds out his hand at Mara, a shockwave compressed in his palm. The shockwave is then released straight at her face and Mara is sent flying hard. She travels through the air at an approximate 54 miles per hour. Her body then collides with a random stone hill. She coughs out a portion of blood and falls to her knees. She looks up and sees Waldo looming over her once again.

  “Are you giving up already? Seeing such an immense power in front of you… your human nature can’t help but submit to it. Well, that isn’t going to fly. You’re a sorcerer now. You cannot have the characteristics of an ordinary and pathetic human being. The instant I see any of that in this training, I will dissect you piece by piece and feed you to a damn curse or curse user. Do I make myself clear?”

  Mara slowly gets back up, using the cracked rocky surface to help support her. She nods as she gets back up, clutching her ribs with one hand. Waldo turns around and begins to walk away.

  “Let’s not dilly dally any longer. Meet me back at the wagon for further instructions.”

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  In a flash, Waldo uses his shockwaves and disappears into the distance. Mara takes a deep breath and uses her technique to help soothe her muscles. She takes a couple of steps forward before stopping and turning back. She just realized it, but there’s a small patch of dried blood on the rocky hill. That definitely wasn’t hers. She goes back to the front of the hill and walks around it. There, she unexpectedly finds a human corpse that has been mauled beyond recognition. Its face has been gashed out, several deep cuts line their insides. Their stomach was even torn out. This isn’t something a human has done, but is a curse capable of being so cruel?

  “I have to tell this to Waldo. There was something very dangerous here. It could still be around.”

  Mara turns away from the mauled corpse with fear and disgust and runs in the direction of the wagon. She pulls her arms behind her and uses the air to move faster. She sees Waldo in the distance moving around some of the corpses on top of the wagon. He eventually hears her running and glances behind him.

  “That took you long enough. Just what were you doing that kept you so occupied?”

  “I saw something bad back at the hill. It’s not something that happened from a curse or a human. I think you should come and see it.”

  Waldo ponders it over. He’s wondering if Mara is just trying to troll him and waste his time. Well, knowing now that Mara is aware of his behavior and attitude, that most likely isn’t the case. Maybe this could actually be something.

  “Very well. I shall check your little mystery. If you dare to waste my time I will skewer your arms and turn them into a snack.”

  Mara leads Waldo back to the rocky hill again. Waldo instantly smells the scent of blood and human flesh once they arrive. He goes around the hill. He sees the human corpse that is laid down next to the base of the hill. As Mara told him, this is something unusual that he hasn’t witnessed before. Cursed spirits don’t normally play with their food, eating them right away. Humans are also not like this. Despite some of them being cold hearted, they can never manage to mutilate their own kind like this. Humans are too soft of creatures to be able to do something like this. Of course, there is the absence of any bite marks. This was not the work of a human or a curse.

  “It seems your mystery paid off. This was indeed not the work of a human or a curse. Although, I would not raise my expectations. It could be a wild animal of some kind, or perhaps another mutant. It shouldn’t be surprising that this new environment gave birth to new species. Your father is a prime example. Let’s hold this off for now and continue on our way.”

  “Yes, mister. But it’s really weird isn’t it? The blood is dry, but it still looks recent. Do you think we just missed it?”

  “Whatever the case, this was the work of a violent creature. However…”

  Waldo smirks widely. He turns around, looking behind him as he sees a bundle of cursed energy form together.

  “There are none in this land that are more violent than the War Spirit.”

  Mara senses a large amount of cursed energy and looks behind her. There’s a presence but no one there. Waldo also stares and smiles.

  “I was always curious as to what happens when a sorcerer perishes. It turns out… they morph into something even more hideous.”

  Waldo watches as the culmination of cursed energy gives birth to the creation of the reborn sorcerer. It’s been stated before that when jujutsu sorcerers fight to the death, they must always kill using jujutsu. If they fail in doing so, that jujutsu sorcerer is reborn as a cursed spirit. Waldo can faintly feel an instance of this occurring before: Naoya Zen’in. Prior to Waldo’s birth, such an occasion of a reborn jujutsu sorcerer indeed happened a couple of years ago. Their new state granted them a higher plane of power than when they were a human. Now, Waldo gets to fight such a being himself.

  “I know you were just born and awakened, but how about you die once again, eh?”

  The reborn sorcerer looks at Waldo as his body fully forms into the world. There is a very angry expression on his face.

  “You damn bastard! Now look at what has happened to me! I don’t remember what happened or who killed me, but I’m pissed off! I’ll release all of this anger on you!”

  Suddenly, the reborn sorcerer’s body begins to shapeshift and weapons sprout from all over their body. Their entire body begins to spin incredibly fast. Unexpectedly, they launch themselves towards Mara. Mara sees the attack coming and jumps out of the way. However, the weapons sprouting from the reborn sorcerer grow larger and cleanly cut off half of Mara’s arm. From her elbow down, her arm has been removed. She clutches at her wound and begins to scream. Waldo sees this happening as he’s in the air, and his eye begins to glow furiously.

  “You really shouldn’t have touched her, you grotesque maggot. I was planning on simply being easy with you, but you’ve sealed your own fate.”

  The reborn sorcerer looks up at Waldo and opens their mouth. An entire rocket suddenly spews out of the mouth like a rocket launcher. Waldo launches himself straight towards the rocket. Ignoring what is to come, it explodes on him. However, he comes out of the cloud of smoke uninjured and throws a devastating punch straight at the sorcerer’s head. The sorcerer’s head immediately crumbles and bursts into several fragments of flesh and bone. Waldo isn’t finished yet, however, as he jumps violently on top of the body, slamming it into the ground. He then lifts his arm in the air and the ground below erupts. Multiple shockwaves completely disintegrate the new cursed spirit’s body. Waldo walks out of the dust cloud with a furious look on his face.

  “Go back to hell, you piece of shit.”