"So? How was it?"
Puck hovered in front of them both, grinning.
Gojo felt fine. Subaru, experiencing it for the first time, had gone pale, cold sweat beading along his temples.
"That was incredible!"
Once the shock wore off, excitement blazed in his eyes.
"Way better than I imagined!" He was practically bouncing. "Puck, teach me how to do that!"
"It's pretty simple, actually. You imagine a Gate inside your body, and then..."
Puck launched into the basics of casting Yin Attribute magic for Subaru's benefit.
Gojo, meanwhile, was running comparisons in his head.
Cursed Energy was inherently negative. That was true for cursed spirits and Jujutsu Sorcerers alike.
Which was precisely why Reverse Cursed Technique had the power to regenerate.
If this world's framework holds, then reversing Cursed Energy with Reverse Cursed Technique would mean I have a second attribute. Yang Attribute.
He stared at his open palm, turning the idea over.
And Shamak itself reminded him of something familiar: the Curtain, the Barrier Technique Jujutsu Sorcerers used most often.
The two shared certain similarities. Both produced effects within a defined area.
But a Curtain targeted those outside the barrier, hiding everything within from anyone who lacked Cursed Energy, making the interior invisible and undetectable.
Shamak did the opposite. It targeted those inside, stripping away their senses.
Gojo replayed what the Six Eyes had shown him during Puck's casting: the energy patterns, the structure of the spell. He layered that over his own experience deploying Curtains.
He extended one hand.
Ink-black fog erupted from his palm, spreading outward in a rush, swallowing the area around them whole.
Subaru had been hanging on Puck's every word. One second he was deep in the lesson. The next, his senses vanished again.
No voice. No awareness of his surroundings. His body felt sealed inside some strange pocket of nothing, conscious mind intact but cut off from everything else.
A dull pop, and it faded. Same as before, it dissolved fast.
Daylight flooded back.
"Gah... hkk..."
Violent coughing. Subaru braced his hands on his knees, forehead slick with even more sweat than before.
"That's not okay, you know. When you're going to cast a spell, at least warn us first." Puck landed on top of Gojo's head, tiny fists thumping his scalp twice for emphasis, voice stern. "And casting magic for the first time without anyone supervising? Dangerous. If it had been something stronger than Shamak and you'd hurt my precious daughter Lia, I would not have let that slide."
Gojo pressed his palms together and dipped his head toward Emilia. "Sorry about that."
She shook her head, gracious about it, though concern softened her expression.
"How do you feel? The first time casting, without experience, it's easy to hurt yourself."
Gojo checked himself over, then thumped his chest with a grin.
"All good."
"Casting magic isn't as hard as I expected, honestly. Pretty easy."
"Alright!"
Subaru's eagerness surged. If Gojo had picked it up that fast, then even with less natural talent, it couldn't be that difficult.
"Let me try too!"
Puck floated off Gojo's head and settled onto Subaru's.
"I'll help. Now, start by slowly imagining..."
Gojo watched Subaru's focused expression and let his thoughts drift to an earlier conversation. Subaru had mentioned wanting to learn Cursed Techniques. They'd talked about it once and then let it slip through the cracks.
Seeing today's results, though, the kid was Yin Attribute too. Looked at from a certain angle, maybe that meant he had aptitude for Jujutsu as well.
If so, teaching him wasn't out of the question.
Protagonist or not, walking around without a single useful ability was embarrassing. And Gojo had never been the type to hoard knowledge.
If Jujutsu could take root and spread in another world, that might be entertaining in its own right.
Mid-thought, something at the edge of his vision snagged his attention. Subaru's body was doing something strange.
"Huh?"
Puck, still perched on Subaru's head, made a noise somewhere between surprise and discomfort. His expression turned awkward.
Gojo reacted before anyone else processed what was happening. He grabbed Emilia, who hadn't registered the danger yet, and flickered backward, clearing a wide gap in an instant.
The moment they moved, it detonated.
A torrent of dense black smoke erupted outward from Subaru's body in every direction, violent and uncontrolled.
When Puck or Gojo had cast Shamak, they'd held it for a few seconds at most before releasing it.
Not this time.
Subaru's Shamak gushed like a broken valve, fog billowing endlessly, thick and dark. He looked like a panicked squid dumping ink into open water.
"Was Subaru a squid in a past life?"
Gojo had pulled Emilia back a good twenty or thirty meters, enough to stay clear of the spreading cloud.
"Not a squid." Emilia watched the roiling darkness, hesitant. "He... seems to have lost control?"
"Lost control?"
Gojo's brow creased. Puck was supposed to be supervising. How had things gone sideways?
"It looks like he couldn't regulate his Mana output. He's stuck in a continuous release state." Emilia's explanation was quick, clipped. "If he doesn't stop, it could be life-threatening."
Gojo's eyes sharpened. His gaze cut through the fog to find Subaru.
But the worst didn't come.
As he watched, the black fog around Subaru was already thinning, pulling inward, contracting. Slower, then faster, until the last wisps dissolved into nothing.
The instant the fog cleared, Subaru collapsed face-first into the grass.
"Puck, is he alright?"
Emilia rushed over, panic edging into her voice.
Puck had promised to help guide Subaru through it. That it had gone this wrong was hard to excuse.
"He's fine. Released a bit too much Mana, that's all. His body's tapped out."
Puck stuck his tongue out at Gojo, sheepish.