It was an indescribable sense of omnipotence.
The wind in the air, the ground beneath his feet, and countless other forces all seemed to fall under his control the moment he touched them.
Unfortunately, that feeling did not last long.
Idle Transfiguration had altered Konoe Mayoru’s brain, granting him an instinctive understanding of the necessary formulas.
However, the instant he perceived the countless streams of energy around him, his mind went blank.
‘Wait.
Is it really this complicated?’ Even an ordinary building contained countless interacting forces, with an enormous amount of energy constantly flowing through its structure.
That was nothing compared to larger and more complicated targets.
There was no way he could calculate everything instantly.
Whether it was wind, gravity, or any other force, he first had to calculate the original vectors and then determine the effects of changing their directions.
Just thinking about the required calculations made his scalp tingle.
In other words, there was nothing wrong with the formulas, but the weakness still existed.
That was only natural.
Even when Accelerator first awakened Vector Manipulation, his brain had already undergone countless rounds of development.
Mayoru, meanwhile, had only received one unauthorized brain modification from Kenjaku through Idle Transfiguration.
Furthermore, his understanding of cursed energy remained extremely shallow.
Vector Manipulation was still a cursed technique, so it required cursed energy to function.
His control over cursed energy was also closely connected to the precision of his Vector Manipulation.
Had he possessed the Six Eyes and its atomic-level control over cursed energy, Mayoru could have quickly optimized the formulas.
He might even have modified Vector Manipulation’s operating system to better suit his personal style.
Unfortunately, Idle Transfiguration had only altered his brain.
It had not granted him anything comparable to the Six Eyes’ precision.
Under ordinary circumstances, this would not have been a serious problem.
Cursed-energy control could be trained.
Since his brain had already been modified, Mayoru would eventually push Vector Manipulation to a terrifying level if given enough time.
Alternatively, he could land several Black Flashes, grasp the essence of cursed energy, and greatly accelerate that process.
Then came the real problem.
‘Where am I supposed to find that much time during the Culling Game?!’ Was he supposed to imitate Itadori Yuji?
Yuji had spent the first fifteen years of his life as the Tiger of West Junior High, then went on to become an unstoppable monster.
Unfortunately, the manga had focused entirely on the most miserable six months of his life.
Just like the future Emperor Yuji, Mayoru lacked time.
Despite feeling discouraged, he did not truly give up.
He decided to begin by studying the most fundamental application of Vector Manipulation.
Reflection.
Then he froze.
Precise vector control was extremely difficult, but reflection…
Why was it so easy?
The required processing power and cursed energy were both almost negligible.
All he needed to calculate were the values necessary for ordinary life, such as gravity, air pressure, light, oxygen, heat, and sound wavelengths.
Those were all familiar conditions his body had already grown accustomed to.
What came next was simple.
Anything outside those permitted values would be reflected.
‘Precise vector control is difficult, but what happens if I simply don’t control it precisely?’ ‘I’ll calculate only the minimum vectors necessary to stay alive and let my cursed technique reflect everything else.’ How much processing power could that possibly require?
It barely consumed cursed energy.
The technique could truly continue operating through his subconscious even while he slept.
After realizing this, the first thing Mayoru did was force down the corners of his rising lips.
‘No.
I can’t laugh yet!’ ‘But how am I supposed to keep a straight face after discovering something like this?!’ Who claimed Vector Manipulation was not an overpowered crutch?
Did they seriously believe the ability needed to be even stronger?
Using Vector Manipulation skillfully demanded enormous processing power, but reflection was completely different.
He did not need to calculate every vector produced by an opponent’s attack because the default result was already reflection.
Furthermore, Vector Manipulation was not limited to vectors in the strict physical sense.
As long as the user could understand it, the direction of any form of energy could be manipulated.
That was why Accelerator could subconsciously maintain reflection whenever his ability was active, even while unconscious.
Naturally, cursed energy was included.
Mayoru had only awakened it recently, but he already understood its basic nature.
Cursed techniques were generally activated through cursed energy.
That meant mastering reflection had effectively made Mayoru immune to ninety percent of sorcerers—perhaps even more.
There were still techniques like Unlimited Void, whose effects might not possess a direction that could be reflected.
There were also strange abilities like Takaba’s Comedian and monsters like Mahoraga, which might eventually adapt even to reflection.
Aside from exceptions like those, however…
There did not seem to be much worth fearing.
After reaching that conclusion, Mayoru abandoned his original plan to hide and wait for the situation to change.
Instead, he went outside.
His first targets were wandering cursed spirits.
To be precise, Mayoru had not chosen them.
The spirits sensed that his cursed energy was not especially abundant and decided to prey upon what appeared to be an easy target.
As expected, they never intended to hold back and were easily provoked.
With their limited intelligence, they could not understand that the harder they struck him, the faster they would die.
The final result was that Mayoru never attacked even once.
The cursed spirit killed itself.
After experiencing it personally, Mayoru finally understood why Accelerator eventually became someone who merely stood still during battles.
‘Fight?’ ‘Isn’t fighting just standing here and waiting for the enemy to come over and kill themselves?’ Perhaps that was what the ancient saying about time flowing endlessly, day and night, had truly meant.
Clearly, it was an ability that demanded far too much skill.
Only after Accelerator suffered brain damage did he begin developing more complicated applications of Vector Manipulation.
Before that, he probably had never encountered enough worthy opponents to feel any need to improve it.
However, Mayoru was not like the early Accelerator.
Being satisfied with reflection alone would simply be tasteless.
During half a day of experimentation, he had already confirmed one important fact.
His computational ability could gradually be developed because his brain had been modified through Idle Transfiguration.
His current clumsiness was mostly caused by a lack of experience.
He possessed Vector Manipulation, but his altered brain could not instantly adapt to the sudden transition from an ordinary person to someone capable of destroying everything around him.
Even Gojo Satoru had needed time to grow.
As Mayoru deepened his understanding of Vector Manipulation, his brain should gradually simplify and optimize its formulas.
To accomplish that, he first needed to understand cursed energy.
The deeper his mastery of cursed energy became, the more familiar he would grow with his technique and the more processing power he could free up.
The important question was how to improve his cursed-energy control.
When he first awakened cursed energy, Mayoru noticed that he was unusually sensitive to it.
Vector Manipulation allowed him to control the direction of any energy he could understand, which naturally included cursed energy.
Its flow, dispersal, and concentration could all be perceived as data through Vector Manipulation’s formulas.
“The real problem is still time.
If I could find a stronger opponent and land several Black Flashes, I should be able to shorten the process.” Black Flash.
According to Mayoru’s understanding, it was a phenomenon that occurred when cursed energy struck within one-millionth of a second of a physical blow.
When Black Flash occurred, space distorted and erupted with violent black fluctuations.
The force of the strike was raised to the power of 2.5.
In simple terms, it was a critical hit.
However, that was not the aspect Mayoru truly valued.