"The underlying theory is… complicated," Kamo Itsuki said, crossing his arms with a look of mild exasperation. "You wouldn't understand even if I explained it. Just know that 'Number One' here is the result of fusing principles from Blood Manipulation, Cursed Spirit Manipulation, Puppet Jutsu, and Barrier Techniques."
He looked at Geto and Gojo with undisguised pride. The actual process involved layers of esoteric, interlocking theories far too dense to unpack for an audience he knew had zero patience for lecture halls.
"And we wouldn't wanna hear it. Sounds boring," Gojo confirmed, jabbing a thumb at his own ear as if to block one out.
Geto, however, studied the silent puppet, his brow slightly furrowed. "It's an impressive achievement, Itsuki. But one puppet doesn't solve my manpower problem." He assumed a creation this intricate had to be unique, like the Cursed Corpse Panda—a masterpiece, not a product line.
"Of course not. This is just a prototype. There's a final test phase," Kamo replied, a cryptic smile playing on his lips. "But first, try something. See if you can still recall the curse within it."
Following instructions, Geto activated his Cursed Spirit Manipulation. A dark void opened beside him. The puppet, or rather the consciousness within it, obeyed without hesitation, stepping into the storage space and emerging again upon Geto's summons. After several cycles, Geto focused. "No difference. The connection feels exactly the same."
"Perfect!" Kamo's grin widened. He produced a party popper from seemingly nowhere. With a sharp bang, confetti rained down, as bright as his triumph. "The Cursed Spirit-Type Cursed Corpse is officially complete!"
The recent weeks had been a blur of manic focus—forgotten meals, sleepless nights, his world shrinking to the confines of his lab. But the breakthrough, the moment theory crystallized into a functioning being, delivered a euphoria that made the grind worthwhile.
The first and greatest hurdle had been engineering an independent consciousness within a curse. The second, equally daunting, was giving that consciousness a physical form.
His initial plan was straightforward: craft a sophisticated puppet shell using his Puppet Jutsu. But a critical flaw emerged. If one of Geto's subjugated curses was placed inside a shell he created, the resulting hybrid would only be half-Geto's. Geto's Cursed Spirit Manipulation couldn't freely absorb curses that had formed a master-servant bond with another. Kamo's own experiments with his version of the technique confirmed this deadlock.
"If that path is blocked, I'll forge a new one," Kamo had muttered, his resolve hardening. He thrived on these puzzles; each solved problem was a stepping stone to greater understanding.
To preserve Geto's control unimpeded, he needed to alter the curse itself, not just house it. After countless trials, his search ended with a most unlikely candidate: a lowly Grade 3 Cursed Spirit he'd once encountered on a Jujutsu High mission.
It resembled a large, pallid mushroom. Its power was negligible, but its attack method was unique—it released a mist of microscopic bacterial spores. Any sorcerer inhaling them would find the spores feeding on their cursed energy, eventually causing fungal growths to erupt from their body, perpetuating the cycle.
It wasn't strength Kamo needed. It was the blueprint.
Dealing with it back then had been trivial. The spores were harmless if you simply avoided the mist. Even if infected, the bacteria grew so sluggishly that excising the affected tissue was a straightforward fix.
But Kamo had noted its peculiarities. While curses are invisible to non-sorcerers, the physical mushrooms that sprouted from its victims were not. It was this very paradox—ordinary people falling ill from "unknown fungi"—that had triggered the mission. More intriguingly, the bacteria, after feeding on a host's cursed energy, would take on the attributes of that energy, mirroring its nature.
He'd absorbed it on a whim, a curious addition to his collection. He never imagined that bizarre, low-grade curse would become the keystone of his research.
Starting from this fungal blueprint, Kamo meticulously refined the spore's properties—adjusting toxicity, parasitization speed, and metabolic efficiency. He crossbred its traits with those of other curses and fused it with his hard-won breakthrough in consciousness sculpting via illusion techniques.
The final product was neither a puppet nor a potion, but a dense, jelly-bean-sized pellet of condensed biological and cursed engineering.
He named it after himself: the Kamo Pill.
"Geto," Kamo said, his voice tight with anticipation. He tossed a single, dark pill toward his friend. "Summon another curse. Have it swallow this."
Geto didn't catch it with his hand. With a focused glance, he summoned a wriggling, fish-like Grade 4 curse beside him. It gaped its maw and obediently gulped the pill down.
The change was immediate and violent.
The fish-curse began to thrash, its form convulsing as if from an electric current. Its fins shuddered and elongated, reshaping into rudimentary, human-like limbs. Its tapering tail receded, absorbed back into the mass of its body. The bulbous fish head compacted, features smoothing and rearranging under the skin of cursed energy.
When the spasms finally ceased, the curse was no longer a fish.
It stood on two legs, humanoid in silhouette. Patches of iridescent scales still clung to its cheeks and spine like stubborn memories of its former self. But its most striking feature was its eyes—cloudy white orbs, marked with the same distinct, concentric patterns as 'Number One'.
It stood there, silent and waiting, a fusion of manipulated consciousness and biologically-altered form.
Kamo Itsuki watched, his earlier pride now tempered by a scientist's sharp scrutiny. The prototype was a success. Now, it was time to stress-test the theory of mass production.
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