Jin had to learn when to activate it, when to release it, and how to maintain it without interfering with ordinary movement.
He trained while walking.
He trained while eating.
He trained while talking.
He practiced allowing harmless objects to pass through while stopping anything moving with enough force to hurt him. He learned to distinguish between a threat and an inconvenience. He learned that Infinity could protect him, but only if he understood what he was asking it to do.
The process was frustrating.
Every mistake became another adjustment.
Every failure gave him more information.
It also created some awkward moments.
Jin once activated Infinity while reaching for a glass of water and spent nearly a minute staring at it as the glass refused to reach his hand.
Scott watched from across the room.
"Need help?"
"No."
"You're losing a fight with water."
"I'm testing the limits."
"Of water?"
"Of my patience."
Eventually, something clicked.
Several objects were thrown at him from different directions. Jin watched them approach.
For the first time, he didn't consciously activate Infinity.
The objects simply stopped.
Jin looked at them.
Then at Scott.
Scott stared back.
"You didn't activate it."
"I know."
"It activated itself."
Jin nodded.
"That is both impressive and slightly terrifying."
Scott glanced at the suspended objects.
"Mostly impressive."
"Give it time."
That was when Jin realized Infinity was beginning to become part of him.
The template was no longer something he was merely borrowing.
It was becoming part of his natural instincts.
The world outside the training room continued to change.
Jin noticed it in small ways.
News reports.
Quiet conversations.
Changes in public opinion.
The X-Men appearing more frequently in the media.
The growing fear surrounding mutants.
None of it seemed directly connected to him, but Jin had learned enough to understand that the world rarely waited for people to become ready.
Something was coming.
He didn't know what.
He only knew that his training needed to become more serious.
So did his preparation.
He pushed himself harder, and eventually another breakthrough followed.
Jin read the new understanding twice in his mind.
The system appeared.
[M.O.T.S.]
[Tainted Satoru Gojo]
[Assimilation Threshold Reached: 60%]
[New Abilities Acquired]
[Reverse Cursed Technique]
[Red]
The knowledge settled into him, and he immediately understood that these were not ordinary abilities.
Infinity was control.
Reverse Cursed Technique was restoration.
Cursed energy was normally negative. Reverse Cursed Technique required him to produce positive energy by combining that negativity against itself. The principle was simple to understand and incredibly difficult to perform.
His first attempt failed.
His second attempt was worse.
His third left him sitting on the floor, staring at his hand.
Scott approached.
"You okay?"
"I'm fine."
"That didn't look fine."
"I'm still fine."
"You keep saying that while sitting on the floor."
"Because it remains true from the floor."
Scott studied him for another moment before stepping back.
Jin tried again.
This time, something changed.
A warm, positive flow moved through his body.
It was subtle, but unmistakable.
Jin examined the sensation carefully.
Reverse Cursed Technique wasn't just healing. It was a completely different method of manipulating energy, and the difference mattered. If he wanted to use it reliably, he couldn't treat it like a simple switch.
He practiced until the flow became stable.
Then came Red.
The first time Jin released it, the force tore across the training area and sent the target crashing into the far wall.
The impact echoed through the room.
Several people outside stopped to see what had happened.
Jin stared at the damage.
Scott stared at Jin.
Jin looked down at his hand.
"That was stronger than I expected."
Scott nodded slowly.
"Yeah."
Jin glanced toward the wall.
"Is that fixable?"
"Probably."
"Probably is not a comforting word."
Red wasn't subtle.
That was going to be a problem.
After that, Jin became even more careful.
Power wasn't his biggest concern anymore.
Control was.
Infinity had taught him that.
Reverse Cursed Technique reinforced it.
Red made it impossible to ignore.
Jin began training away from the school whenever possible, choosing isolated locations where he could experiment without attracting attention. He learned how much force Red could produce, how to shape it, and how to control its direction.
More importantly, he learned not to rely on raw power simply because he possessed it.
The Tainted Satoru Gojo template was making him stronger.
Jin refused to let it make him careless.
His combat instincts continued developing alongside his abilities. Eventually, Scott stopped being able to surprise him during their normal exercises.
That didn't mean Jin always won.
Scott had experience.
Jin had ability.
Those were not the same thing.
But the gap between them was shrinking.
It also meant Scott had to get creative.
"You're going to throw something at me from behind a wall, aren't you?" Jin asked.
Scott stood on the other side of the training room.
"No."
"You're absolutely going to throw something at me from behind a wall."
Scott threw something at him from behind a wall.
Jin caught it.
Scott sighed.
"You're getting annoying."
"Thank you."
"That wasn't a compliment."
"I choose to receive it as one."
One evening, after another long training session, Jin sat outside.
The sky was dark.
He looked upward.
The Six Eyes revealed details in the distance that ordinary vision could never have caught, but this time he didn't allow himself to become distracted by them.
He simply watched.
Something inside him shifted again.
Jin stared into the darkness.
He knew what was coming.
He had been waiting for it.
The next breakthrough arrived during training.
Jin was moving through a series of exercises when the world seemed to fall silent.
He froze.
Then the system appeared.
[M.O.T.S.]
[Tainted Satoru Gojo]
[Assimilation Threshold Reached: 70%]
[New Ability Acquired: Hollow Purple]
Jin looked down at his hands.
Red was already dangerous.
Infinity was extraordinary.
The Six Eyes gave him perception that bordered on absurd.
But Hollow Purple was something else entirely.
The technique was created by combining Blue and Red.
Attraction and repulsion.
Convergence and divergence.
Two opposing forces brought together to create an imaginary mass that erased everything in its path.
Jin understood the principle almost immediately.
That understanding made him uneasy.
Hollow Purple wasn't simply an attack.
It was a disaster waiting for a direction.
He didn't test it inside the school.
He didn't test it anywhere near the city.
Instead, he waited until he reached an isolated location with nothing around him for miles.
Jin stood in the middle of the empty landscape.
Infinity surrounded him.
The Six Eyes observed every fluctuation of energy.
He began forming the technique.
Blue gathered first.
The space ahead warped as attraction compressed the surrounding area.
Then Red.
Repulsion pushed against it.
The two forces began to overlap.
The air trembled.
The ground cracked beneath Jin's feet.
For one brief moment, Hollow Purple took shape.
Jin immediately dispersed it.
His breathing remained steady, but his eyes stayed fixed on the empty space ahead.
"No."
He glanced at the cracked ground.
"Definitely not near the school."
Not yet.
He didn't need to prove that he could create it.
He needed to know that he could control it.
That was the difference between possessing an ability and being responsible for it.
So Jin trained.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Days became weeks.
Weeks became months.
His body grew accustomed to the abilities now woven into it. His movements became more efficient. His perception became easier to manage. His understanding of cursed energy deepened.
The Six Eyes no longer felt like an ability he had to consciously control every second.
Infinity had become something his body could maintain instinctively.
Reverse Cursed Technique could be activated when necessary.
Red had become a weapon he could use without losing control.
Hollow Purple remained different.
He treated it with respect.
He also treated it like something that could ruin his entire afternoon if he got careless.
Eventually, he performed his first controlled test.
The technique formed in front of him.
Blue and Red twisted together, creating a sphere of distorted space that seemed to reject the world around it.
Jin released it.
Hollow Purple crossed the distance in an instant.
Everything in its path vanished.
The attack continued into the distance before finally disappearing from sight.
Silence followed.
Jin stood motionless.
He looked at the destruction left behind.
Then he exhaled.
"Yeah."
He looked at the enormous path carved through the landscape.
"That is definitely not a training-room technique."
He wasn't finished.
Not even close.
But the difference between the Jin who had first awakened the Six Eyes and the person standing there now was enormous.
He had learned how to see.
He had learned how to fight.
He had learned how to control space.
He had learned how to heal.
He had learned how to destroy.
And yet Jin knew better than to believe that made him invincible.
There were still gaps in his understanding.
There were still abilities he hadn't mastered.
There was still more of the template waiting for him.
He simply had to keep going.
The next morning, Jin sat at the kitchen table with a bowl of cereal and several pieces of candy beside him.
Scott walked into the room, stopped, and stared at the table.
"You know that's not breakfast."
Jin continued eating.
"It is now."
Scott looked at the candy.
Then at Jin.
"How much sugar are you eating?"
Jin shrugged.
"Enough."
"That's not a number."
"It's a lifestyle."
Scott sighed and pulled out a chair.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Scott pointed at the candy.
"How many pieces?"
Jin looked down.
"That depends."
"On what?"
"Whether you're asking how many I've eaten or how many are left."
Scott stared at him.
Jin smiled faintly.
"See? This is why I don't answer questions without clarification."
Scott shook his head.
"How close are you?"
Jin knew exactly what he meant.
"To what?"
Scott studied him.
"To being able to use all of this without thinking about it."
Jin glanced down at his hands.
"Closer than I was yesterday."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one I have."
Scott nodded slowly.
"What's left?"
Jin looked toward the window.
"I don't know."
It was the truth. Jin could feel that his abilities were still developing, but he couldn't tell where the process would end or what the next stage would demand from him. Every new breakthrough revealed another layer of control he had yet to master.
Scott leaned back in his chair.
"You think you'll be ready when something happens?"
Jin looked at him.
"That sounds ominous."
"It wasn't meant to."
"That somehow makes it worse."
Scott gave him a tired look.
The question stayed with Jin.
Not because he knew what Scott meant.
He didn't.
It stayed with him because Jin had begun to understand that preparation wasn't about knowing what was coming.
It was about being capable of responding when it arrived.
He looked down at his hands.
The power inside him was becoming harder to measure.
The Six Eyes.
Infinity.
Reverse Cursed Technique.
Red.
Hollow Purple.
Combat instincts.
And still more waiting.
Jin wasn't satisfied.
But he wasn't afraid either.
He simply understood that the stronger he became, the more carefully he would have to use that strength.
Outside, the world continued moving toward something neither of them could yet see.
Jin finished his breakfast.
Then he reached for another piece of candy.
Scott shook his head.
Jin pointed at the bowl.
"Don't judge me until you've tried one."
"I've tried them."
"And?"
"They're terrible."
Jin ate one.
"You're wrong."
"You're eating sugar for breakfast."
"That doesn't make me wrong."
Scott stood and started toward the door.
"Training tomorrow."
"Training today."
Scott stopped.
Jin gestured toward the hallway.
"Unless you're scared."
Scott turned around.
"That is not going to work."
"It worked."
"It absolutely did not."
Jin grinned and grabbed another piece of candy.
For today, he was ready enough.