A/N: It's my birthday on the 23rd of March ✌😑. If any of you feel like blessing me early for my birthday [ko-fi.com/tenten100].
You can tip any amount from $1. Thank you in advance :)
---
Morning arrived slowly over the village.
Golden light spilled across the earth in long, warm strokes, catching on rooftops, trees, and the soft dust of the paths between homes. The air was still cool, the kind of cool that never lasted long once the sun truly settled in.
Oden followed behind Miguel in silence.
He had eaten. He had slept. He had washed the salt from his body. And yet none of that changed the strange feeling lodged in his chest.
Everything was unfamiliar.
The land.
The people.
The language drifting faintly in the distance.
Even the air felt different.
Miguel walked ahead with his hands in his pockets, relaxed as ever, as though leading a mysteriously powerful child through a Kenyan village was the most normal thing in the world.
Eventually, they left the center of the village and entered a wide clearing bordered by scattered trees and tall grass. The ground there was flat, worn down from repeated use.
Miguel stopped.
Oden stopped a few paces behind him.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Miguel turned around.
"This is fine," he said.
Oden looked around. "…For what?"
Miguel studied him for a second, then folded his arms.
"For teaching you."
Oden blinked.
"Teaching me what?"
Miguel exhaled through his nose, as if deciding where to begin.
"Cursed energy," he said. "And cursed techniques."
At those words, Oden's expression shifted. Slightly.
Miguel noticed.
"Listen carefully," he said. "Because this is the kind of thing that decides whether people live or die."
That made Oden go still.
Miguel crouched down slightly so he was closer to the boy's eye level.
"Cursed energy," he began, "is born from negative emotions. Fear. Anger. Regret. Grief. Humans produce it naturally."
Oden listened quietly.
"Most people leak it unconsciously and can't do anything with it. They can't see curses. They can't fight them. They live their whole lives blind."
Miguel straightened.
"But some people are different," he continued. "Some are born with the ability to perceive cursed energy. To control it."
His gaze sharpened.
"And some are born with cursed techniques."
Oden frowned faintly.
"That's the thing you said I have."
Miguel nodded.
"A cursed technique is an innate ability. A power engraved into your very being. You don't pick it. You're born with it."
Oden looked down at his own hands.
Miguel kept going.
"The snakes you talked about? The ones that came out to protect you?"
Oden's fingers twitched.
"…Yes."
"That's almost certainly your cursed technique," Miguel said. "Or part of it."
Oden was silent for a moment.
Then—
"So that means…" he said slowly, "I really did kill that boy."
Miguel stared at him.
Then sighed.
"You really are stuck on that."
Oden didn't answer.
Miguel's voice remained calm.
"You were a child being attacked. Your ability reacted to danger."
"But he died."
"Yes."
Oden's voice tightened.
"So I killed him."
Miguel watched the boy's face for a long second.
Then he said, plainly—
"If you want to survive in this world, you need to stop freezing your mind at the moment something terrible happens."
Oden looked up.
Miguel continued.
"What happened, happened. You can drown in guilt later. Right now, you need to understand what you are."
The words were harsh.
But not cruel.
Oden lowered his gaze again.
Miguel rolled his shoulders and stepped back a few paces into the clearing.
"Alright," he said. "That's enough explaining."
Oden blinked. "What?"
Miguel lifted one hand and beckoned him forward.
"Use your cursed technique."
Oden stared at him.
"…What?"
Miguel's expression didn't change.
"Use it," he repeated. "Because we're fighting now."
Oden froze.
The sentence didn't even register properly at first.
Then his eyes widened.
"…Fighting?"
Miguel nodded once.
Oden took an involuntary step back.
"What do you mean, fighting now?" he asked. "You didn't say anything about that."
"I'm saying it now."
"But—I don't even know how to use this so-called cursed technique!"
Miguel shrugged.
"Then figure it out."
Oden's face stiffened.
"…That makes no sense."
Miguel smiled.
"Maybe not."
Then the smile vanished.
"But if you can't bring it out when your life is in danger, then it's useless."
A pulse of pressure filled the clearing.
Oden's breath caught.
Miguel had released only a sliver of his presence, just a sliver and yet it was enough to make the air feel heavier.
The boy's body locked up on instinct.
Miguel's voice came out low and even.
"This isn't a game, Oden."
Oden took another step back.
Miguel took one forward.
"If you stay ignorant," he said, "if you stay helpless, if you keep waiting for someone else to explain everything gently and slowly—"
Another step.
"—then one day you will really die."
Oden's throat tightened.
Miguel's gaze held no pity now.
Only expectation.
"So I'll say it again."
He lowered his stance slightly.
"Use your cursed technique."
Oden's pulse thundered in his ears.
Nothing happened.
He looked at his hands.
At his shadow.
At Miguel.
"I don't know how!" he shouted.
Miguel moved.
Fast.
Too fast.
One instant he was standing several meters away.
The next—
he was in front of Oden.
Oden's eyes widened in horror as Miguel's fist stopped just short of his face, the force alone sending a violent gust of air into him and knocking him off balance.
He stumbled backward and crashed to the ground.
Miguel didn't pursue immediately.
He just looked down at him.
"That," he said, "was me being nice."
Oden's chest heaved.
His heart pounded so hard it hurt.
Miguel's voice cut through the clearing again.
"Get up."
Oden's limbs trembled.
"Miguel—"
"Get up."
The tone left no room for argument.
Oden slowly rose to his feet.
Miguel watched him carefully.
"Fear," he said. "Panic. Survival instinct. Those things are ugly, but useful. Your cursed energy should already be responding."
Oden could hear his own breathing.
He looked down.
At his shadow.
For the briefest second—
he thought he saw something ripple.
Miguel saw where his gaze had gone.
And smiled.
"There," he said softly. "That's it."
Oden jerked his head up.
Miguel rolled his neck once.
"Again," he said.
---
Find early chapters and daily updates on my patreon
[Patreon.com/tenten100?]