Chap 168: Fight with healing.

The boy has a bright future as a healer; Takumi just needs to help him become more outgoing. Is that timid and laid back attitude that left him behind while the other two were each heading to their own demise.

'Would that still happen if he tried to reach out? Would that be too drastic for the future ? How much will he change ?' Such thoughts are left behind by now, since he arrived, everything has changed, as for how much. That is unknown.

Getting away from the girls' bickering was a nice change of pace, Hoko didn't hate them, Gojo and Geto were quite the amusing duo to be around.

Shuffling his hair, if there's someone who is more confusing than those two then it would be him.

Hoko looked up at the man, he's driving them to...... somewhere. When asked, Takumi didn't reply and just gave him a smile.

"We're here." Hoko nods and follows him out.

"So..."

"Ah, right you're wondering why we are at some empty mountain right?" Instead of some city or any place that has a high number of curse spirits, Hoko was taken to a remote mountain.

"You know curse energy doesn't react well with reverse curse energy." He said, grabbing a tiny grade four curse spirit at random, curse energy from Takumi flowed, and turned to reverse curse energy.

"Curse spirits are naturally made of negative energy so by that logic...." Hoko said as he was looking at Takumi's hand. "They would react violently."

The white energy reacts to the purple of the grade four, making it squirm in pain before exploding in a mess of purple blood.

"You want me to use RCT in combat?" The realization dawned on him.

"Yes, but more than that." Takumi got into a stance. "I want you to improve on yourself."

Everything was moving way too fast, he wasn't trained a day in his life and on his first day he was to fight.

"Hey, hang on. I'm not ready!" Immediately he turns tail and runs.

The curse spirit was a simple grade 2 so it wasn't so difficult. But being a male, Hoko's body was not properly developed for fights.

Hoko didn't listen and kept running until he hit an invisible wall.

"A barrier?" Franticly tried to find another way out, the curse was closing in fast. "Hey, you can't be serious, at least let me activate my RCT first."

"Do you think your enemy would let you be ready?" The sudden change in Takumi's tone startled the boy.

He was serious, threatening, nothing like what he was just seconds ago.

This is a fight he cannot avoid.

With no other option, Hoko stops in his tracks. Taking a deep breath, he spun his body, throwing a blind punch. His fist connected with the curse's face, positive energy reacted with the curse and it reeled back in pain.

Just as he was getting some confidence, the curse stood back up, hitting him with a gut punch.

Hoko's body flew back and hit a tree, a sharp pain ran through his body. Making him vomit out blood.

"Hey, get up quickly. It's coming for you again." Hearing Takumi's warning, Hoko's eyes open just in time to see the next attack.

He rolled to the side, dodging a claw strike that cut the tree behind him in half. His injuries healed almost instantly, and Hoko slipped himself between the trees making it even harder for the attacks to land on him.

With RCT constantly activated, not only could Hoko dodge without worry to his loss of stamina, it would also be a shield that repels any negative energy that came into contact within his range.

This help him with their speed diffirence, with every time the curse attack got close to him. Its body would be burn by his RCT.

*Roar* The curse was getting more aggravated by the time this fight went on.

If he had a lot of curse energy, he could just let the spirit attack him and let it die upon contact. But Hoko didn't, so he has to focus the RCT into one finishing move.

Stomping at the curse feet, as it was about to attack him. Hoko stunned the spirit for one brief moment and that was enough for him.

With his skill in biology, he can accurately guess which body part would be the easiest to strike and also cause the most damage.

While curse spirits' anatomy is not like that of humans, he can still observe and make an educated guess about them.

*Thud*

Punching at its sternum, his RCT burns the curse through the chest, and as his fist was still inside its body, he pushes more of his positive energy to flow into the curse.

It reacted like being boiled alive, Hoko's positive energy quickly burn the curse until there was nothing left.

Takumi smiled at Hoko who sat far from him, it was the boy's first time using RCT in a fight. He was exhausted from using it.

"Hey, can I leave now ?"

"Sure, we can focus on more fighting styles for you next time."

Hoko's shudder thinking about what their 'next time' is going to look like. He knew, that this road was going to be difficult, and the gap between him and his classmate was too wide.

Yet, Hoko can't help but feel a sense of accomplishment, for his first time excosirsing a curse spirit.

Hoko wasn't too hopeful about this at the start but with his teacher's help, he may even have a chance to stand as an equal to Gojo and Geto in the future.

"Where do you see yourself?" Takumi asked, his arm around Hoko's shoulder and walked them back.

"Honestly, before meeting you, I always thought a mourge suit me just fine." He replied while gazing at the distant sky.

"Away from fights?"

"And people. I kinda not that great with...you know."

"social interaction?"

"I was going to say working in the field but yes, I guess that too."

"Something off sir?" Looking at Takumi, his face was hard to discern. He was looking off to somewhere far away.

"Nothing, let's go back for now."