He was breaking him.

Blood spots trickle and stain the grey cement underneath him as he lays there, exhausted. He breathes heavily and props his elbows on the ground. An eye twitches from the heavy bruise above his eyelid but it feels excruciating and almost like its weighing it down.

"All this for her?" His father's figure towers over him and inspects all the cuts and gashes across his body. Tamaki whimpers and reaches a hand in front of him, trying to grab the handle of his sword but his father simply crushes his scratched hand with his foot.

He flinches from the pain and tries to slide his hand away but he digs his boot in, looking at his own son with disappointment.

"Ah! S-Stop it-" Tamaki hisses and his father's eyes narrow in response. He lets out a 'tch' and slings his sword over his shoulder.

"You think this is some game, huh?" Tamaki opens his mouth and tries to disagree but his father's provoked tone silents him like a disclaimer not to talk over him.

"This isn't like your kendo class. You don't take turns and wait for the person to make their next move. You have to fight like your life depends on it."

Haru Hatsumi is a man of many surprises. His appearance alone, looking alot in his late twenties but is actually in his prime forty. He looked alot like his son without the clean shave but instead a shadow stache' on his features. The older sorcerer stood over his son with his shirt completely discarded, showcasing the set of abs he's worked on for many years with dragon and its scales tattooed behind the muscle on his back.

"In this game, there's no such thing as cheating. Spirits, evil sorcerers, they will do anything to get what they want. Do you understand? They manipulate, trick you into doing things, and the simpler one of all, they can easily be strong."

Tamaki gasps when his father's hand grabs a hold onto his collar, pulling him up with upmost strength before pushing him back but the boy gradually holds on by his heels.

"Again." He simply holds on sword at him, the other three holstered on his side stay. Tamaki pouts at that and feels he's not being taken seriously.

He grabs both of his swords and takes a step back before launching his entire body at him. He swings his blades at him and he blocks it, though he doesn't let up. He clashes harder and harder as he grips the swords tightly in his hands. He pretends to put all focus at one hit but Tamaki uses the left sword to try to stab his knee.

Haru smirks and lifts his leg up, placing the soles of his black boots on top of the sword. He's completely pinned. Tamaki looks into his eyes and his father doesn't hesitate to slam his skull hard against his. The boy cries out and does the dumb mistake to let go of his weapons.

his father screams at him and before Tamaki can look up, his dad pushes him down. His face meets the floor and he tries to heave his body but his father's weight is crushing him with his hands behind his back.

Suddenly, a loud crunch erupts in the room and his bone pops out. Tamaki lets out a blood curling scream. His father twisted it without remorse and watches his son with shame.

"Don't you see! This is what they can do to you, or much much worse!" He doesn't care if his son is in pain. He wanted him to know what he was going to deal with if he became a sorcerer.

"It hurts! It fuckin hurts!" Tamaki screams some more as tears trickle down his cheeks. His dad shakes his head with a huff. He thinks he's a coward.

"If you can't handle it, then you shouldn't be a sorcerer. You're not even capable of hitting me with your sword or imbuing curse energy....

You're useless, Tamaki. JUST ACCEPT IT!"

Tamaki shakes his head against the floor and his dad looks at him, slightly taken aback by his ambition.

"N-Never!" The boy shoots back. He grunts before pushing up with the arm that wasn't injured. He gets up with the one sword in his hand.

"Don't you dare tell me I'm useless." He says now so coldly. "You know nothing of me. You're my father and yet, I'm only just a stranger to you still.."

"That's not true-"

"Yes, it is! This is the first time in we got to do something together. I know that doesn't seem long enough for you, but it was. It was a long, painful years of neglect coming from you..."

He takes a stance, holding the sword with his working side. Tears dried up in his face and now he looks like he lost the emotion he spurred back there on the floor.

"But that's not the point...I'm going to become a sorcerer, whether you like it or not...

And I don't care how ridiculous it sounds to you, but I will see her again!"

"That's if you become a sorcerer.." His dad retorts and Tamaki feels a strange sensation of anger in his body. Like an energy blowing out of proportion in his body and it wants to burst like fireworks.

"Dad...!"

Haru's heart broke in two. His stoic face wrinkles and tears into sadness. His mouth left agape, almost like he wanted to say something about that but he gulps it down. Looking back at his son in shock.

He then does the unexpected. That frown on his face for a moment quirks into a smile.

"Good, good. Use that and channel your energy, Tamaki.." His father softly advises and Tamaki cocks a head, feels unexpected by his reaction.

"All your anger, hatred. Your passion, love. But don't let it explode. Let it flow instead and not let it go spent."

'Do it Tamaki.'

The energy inside of him shooting up and down in his body halts is attempt to escape his body. It stops for a moment before he breaths, inhale and exhale. The energy began to find the right tracks, flowing down to his arms and exert out to the blade.

The arm he got injured began to feel normal when his curse energy wraps itself around. It lets him maneuver it temporarily while imbued.

He brings up the katana up and the blade is glowing blue. And before Haru can react, he charges at him and with a cry.

He lifts his arms up before bringing the metal down at his. Haru deflects it, thinking he'll stop the curse energy.

Haru was wrong.

His eyes widened when the impact felt so much heavier and the curse energy lingered on the blade and when it hits, it's normal for a second. But then,

the energy wave from the blade blasts his sword into pieces and shoots Haru back with force. Almost, like the blast was a delay after they made contact.

Haru manages to catch himself and land on his feet after almost tumbling into the wall. He looks up before turning at his sword, completely obliterated.

"His curse energy was more impactful than mine.." He whispered to himself. He then looks at his son, who even looks surprised by it.

No way..

'I-Is he going to surpass me?'

"Good job, Tamaki." His dad shouts before walking over at him. Tamaki stays in his spot, trying to contain the excitement from finally imbuing his energy onto the sword.

"You did it. The Batto sword drawing." It was the step in the right direction. Almost every jujutsu swordsman/sorcerer had to know this trick. But there was a sense of proudness in his heart because often times, it takes more than a month to grasp the technique. But for Tamaki, he learned it half a week of the first one of training.

"I didn't expect that blast.." Tamaki admits with a chuckle and Haru smiles at him.

"Neither did I." He says with a hint of amusement and Tamaki starts to look down his feet, a sudden sense of shame for saying those words to his dad. He knew he broke his heart in that moment and now, all he wanted to do was apologize.

"D-Dad, I'm sorry for saying I-"

He puts a hand up to him,

"Don't."

"But-"

"Hey, you were just overwhelmed, son. My fault, really. But then again, I did warn you training would be brutal."

He looks at the arm he twisted earlier and points at it,

"You should get it fixed. We got someone here who can heal it like new."

Tamaki forget about it after his display. He looks at it then at his dad before exiting the dome for a bit,

"Yeah, okay."

-

Tamaki forgot what sleep felt like. All through the night, he was practicing with dummies and doing the exercise regiment he dad told him to do. He did all the essential workouts to get close to the body his dad possessed.

Every day, he wounded up with an injury. Whether it was his arm, his leg, he would cry about it in the first week. But the more and more he received it, it felt like nothing. It made Haru relieved, because knowing if he does that, he will make his son much durable to the simplest of attacks.

"Alright, I got an assignment for you, son."

"What is it?" Haru holds out a blindfold before giving it in his hands. He then points at a strange, dark room.

"See that room? It has low spirits in there. I want you to kill them, blindfolded of course."

Tamaki panics,

"H-How am I to do that with this stupid thing on my eyes?"

His dad sighs with slouched shoulders. He thought his son would get it by now.

"Tamaki. If you concentrate, you can still see the curse energy or the presence of those spirits." he puts a hand on his shoulder,

"Now, try not to get hurt."

Tamaki's body stiffens as he gets close to door. He opens it partially with the blindfold already around him. He takes out both swords, looking left and right.

He can hear a 'buzz' in the room and then it grows dead silent. He gets himself deeper and deeper until he feels a swarm above him.

He gasped out when they began to tug on his hair and make strange noise as they do so. He shoves them off with a hand before walking backwards up against a wall.

He tries to breath and breath.

"Come on, do your breathing exercises." He tells himself. Those breathing skills had help him activate his energy in the last week. He closes his eyes behind the blindfold before opening them, to see through the cloth around his eyes.

He can see their little bug-like bodies flying around. He then pulls up his swords again, initiating his batto drawing technique.

"Batto drawing technique!" He shouts and lets out a roar, slicing down a few in his way. The others start to panic and try to find their way out of the room but he swats them down with his sword. His shadow-style technique became something easy to use the more he utilized it.

He smiled and took off the blindfold. He was getting there.

More training ensued involving swordsmanship and working out the muscles in his body. Progress was being made day by day and he could even feel it.

'I wonder what Maki will think when she sees me?' He ponders to himself. Knowing her, she might start a fuss over why he's coming over. Though not for bad reasons

'Hopefully it's something positive...' He says with unlikenesses in his head.

--

"Father, can I ask you something?"

The two battled each other with their shikigami to the side. Suki in her more monstrous form against Tora, a tigress far stronger than his. Her sharp teeth traces poison if anyone makes contact with it. Though Haru was not afraid of his shikigami hurting Suki, because he realized how sturdy her body is.

She was hard to pin down, which was perfect for Haru. Suki fights up and center, distracting the enemy while Tamaki makes decisive actions to sneak up and finish them up.

"What is it?"

"When I fought that spirit in the alley...I used something." He looks at Suki. "She fused with me and then suddenly, I was different. My eye..became red and I felt this hyper rush all over my body. L-Like I was craving the idea of killing..

Like bloodlust."

His father lets out a 'hmph' but deep down, he's shocked by the revelation. The fact that his own son carried the curse eye too.

"They call it the curse eye." Tora looks at him and merges into his body. Without hesitation, he puts fingers between his eye and it turns red. Tamaki looks at him, amazed.

"This starts off as a last resort technique but the more advanced you are, the more you can do it whenever you want. As many times as you want, thought after it's used, it does make you a bit exhausted. I've done it for years and I feel a bit fatigue after a fight."

"I see..but what does it do?"

"It forsees enemies' actions before they commit them. It sees it when a user amplifies a certain amount of energy into one part of themselves."

"I see.." It made sense bit by bit. All he remembered is that he knew she would lunge at him again and he instantly countered her at fast speed.

"I know you don't want to here this in the middle of training but.. honestly I'm quite afraid of it." He puts his hands into a fist.

"When we fused, I felt like I became someone I'm not. As I was killing her, I felt my blood pumping and I was..infatuated seeing her die. Like I was enjoying it so much. Almost like I needed to keep fighting to satisfy this lust in me."

Haru nods,

"Yes, that's the burden of the curse eye. When I say it's used last resort, it means it's used only if there's no other option and you're on the losing end. All that adrenaline of energy pumps inside of me and I admit, it does make you crazy sometimes.."

He looks at him with reassurance,

"But I promise you, it won't hurt anyone you love. You'll be able to stop it after defeating your enemy. I promise."

He feels safe by his words.

"Thanks, dad."

He smiles before turning his back on him, slowly walking to the dome again.

"Now let's train you on a new skill, shall we?"

"New skill?"

He turns to him,

"The sword ambush technique."

—

More and more days of training and deep black circles form underneath his eyes. He's tired and his muscles hurt.

But that's the cost of wanting to be a sorcerer, that's the only mindset pumping him.

Days later.

"Tamaki? Where are you?" Tamaki was doing hundred push ups in the done and there, he's approached by his dad and three other figures behind him.

"Right here!" He chimes before making his way with a towel in his hand.

He then stops, a bit nervous to continue forward. He points at the creature behind him,

"Dad, why is there a walking panda behind you?"

It has to be someone in a costume suit, right?

Right?

"Oh that's Panda." He says so nonchalantly. "These two are your possible classmates, if you pass the test of course." He pushes the two first years up to him.

A Panda towering over him and Tamaki gulps at the sight.

"Yo, I'm Panda! Pleasure to meet you.."

He puts a hand out.

"Umm..nice to see you too." He hesitates but then he shakes his fluffy hand.

"And this is Inumaki!" The Panda greets. "He only speak in rice ball ingredients."

"Salmon." He nods at the Panda then bores his eyes at Tamaki.

"Uh, can I ask why?" He cocks his head at the doll and Panda laughs,

"He's a curse speech user. If he says daily dialect then he can accidentally cause it to actually happen. It's powerful but dangerous!" He exclaims with a finger in the air.

"Oh, can you also do sign language?" Tamaki says, realizing this is his chance to do all he learned from school. He starts to perform what he knows but Inumaki looks at him in silence.

"..."

"Fish flakes." He mutters with avert eyes.

"Okay, he doesn't know then." Tamaki sweat drops to himself.

"Maki is on a mission, unfortunately." Haru says. "I'm sorry, Tamaki. I tried to get her to see you soon."

"It's okay.." He says with a frown. "I guess just as long as I see her eventually."

"Ohhh, do you have a crush on Maki or something?" He turns to see who said that.

A man in white hair with a blindfold wrapped around his eyes. He had a very lengthy body and walked over with a smile on his lips.

"Heh, don't tease him too much or he'll burst." Haru chuckles at the teacher as he crosses his arms.

"Who..are you?"

"I'm Gojo Satoru. Teacher at Tokyo Jujutsu high.."

He pulls up the blindfold, revealing one eye.

Tamaki looks and stares, mesmerized by his blue ocean gaze.

"But I'm alsooo kinda the strongest sorcerer too!"

Things were going to get interesting

—

Alright guys whatcha think of the chap?

Next one will be showcasing the test and finally, REUNION TIME!!

Also hope you like the new cover

Bye !