Arcane arts could pierce through the defenses of of either magic or sorcery. Using both to defend was the only way to stop arcanistries from getting through. Using only one could still hinder the arcanistry used, though. If someone had either a sorcery or magic defense up then Marik's only real killing technique would likely still hurt and maybe disorient an opponent but was unlikely to do any major damage. After years of training and mastering arcane arts Marik may be able to push through with skill or strength against such defenses but as he was now it would be impossible. This was the conclusion after several experiments where his master used magic and sorcery to defend various nuts, twigs, and rotten fruits.

Marik considered adding more to his repertoire of arcanistries for a while until he realized that it would just give him more things he would have to work on and keep him from making what he already had effective enough for practical use. Instead, he focused on improving his current arcanistries through both training and adjustments. He would look through lists of spells and known uses of sorceries at least once a week to see if there were a way to add onto, shorten the preparation of, or otherwise improve each arcanistry he had. He managed to improve his mind cloth slightly and make it more stable while making his mind shield require just a little less effort to always keep up. His snap explosion and taser burst only saw improvements through constant practice, unfortunately. It was, oddly, his blur that found the greatest improvements. By adding and substituting some spell parts and throwing some wind in he found that he could leave a minor afterimage. It wasn't a fancy thing that tickled the imagination by making him seem like he was in a place that he had already left. Instead it made his outline become fuzzy, like it had before, and whenever he moved quickly enough it left just a little bit of a visual trail behind as well, kind of like when you move a small light in a dark place how it leaves a bit of a light trail behind.

It was two months after the twins' birthday that he decided his rate of improvement was too slow. It wasn't that he thought he wasn't improving at all or wanted to give up, but that if he wanted to go out and live his life before he was an old man he would need something other than arcane arts. Thus he proceeded to initiate his ultimate fall back plan: talk to his master. He already had a small bit of martial arts training and practice, even if most of it was self-styled, by this point so he wanted to get some kind of official training that matched as close as possible to what he already knew and did. His master had agreed that it would probably help but had little to no martial arts experience himself so they spent a month checking on various places every other day to find something that Marik thought would match most closely to what he already did.

This was the time when Marik learned something new that made him confused and, for the first time ever, angry at his master. There was a dojo that people summoned from another world had started. People had been summoned from another world before? How was his knowledge new and dangerous then? How had he come across no mention of summoning magic? Where were the stories of the summoned people? He felt like he was going to explode until his master dragged him back home and sat him down to explain.

Since the people summoned were always humans then only very rarely had anyone other than humans ever even tried to do the summoning. The stories of anyone except a human trying to do the summoning all ended in incredible tragedies and were mostly wiped from history leaving only enough behind for those who were even close to being capable of going through the attempt to be given the warning so that they wouldn't. As for the stories of the people summoned by the humans, they rarely ended all that well either, even if it was better. Humans, being as short-sighted as they tended to be, would still try every couple hundred years anyways. Most of the legendary heroes in human history were actually a summoned person, and he had in fact read some of those stories in his studies. The summoning itself wasn't exactly a magic spell by itself but a bunch of combined spells requiring a lot of people as well as some kind of offering because all the spell combination really ended up doing was allow them to make a deal with one of the gods. There were also, apparently, certain restrictions on who could be summoned. They had to be between 15 and 20 years old, about to die, have a mindset at least partially aligned to the reason of their summoning, and have led a life with the appropriate skillset.

In addition to all of that, the gods had apparently set a rule to mess with the summoned people's souls slightly. They had a unique type of mystical arts which only they seemed to be able to understand. In addition they usually had some kind of automatic ability that vaguely resembled arcane arts in the way that it was neither magic nor sorcery but something like a mix. However, as far as his master knew, it was still different from arcane arts and the summoned people always called it their 'cheat' or 'unique ability'. His master offered to try and get some extra materials on the subject to add to the nightly study material and they called it a night. Marik felt slightly ashamed lying in bed that night and tried hard to figure out why he had jumped to strange conclusions so quickly. He soon found a likely answer and announced at breakfast the next morning that there was a good chance he was in the early stages of his body preparing to go through puberty and he apologized now for his future actions. His master laughed.

The next day they checked out the dojo and found that there were several martial arts there. Most of what had been brought from the other world was at least slightly incomplete or needed adjustments to adapt to this world. The better way to explain would be that the base of the martial arts here were from the other world and had then been modified over hundreds of years to actually usable martial arts suitable for this world. There were plenty of martial arts that were purely of this world, of course, and it would have been hard to make a good argument that the other world's martial arts were better instead of just interesting. However, they were usable and working martial arts and what Marik wanted wasn't a full lifetime course but just a better base on which he could pile on actual training and experience to match to his own ways with his arcane arts in the future.

Marik finally decided on one that seemed to fit what he wanted. At first he thought it was aikido but when he asked one of the nearby instructors they told him that it was jujutsu and then went on to explain how it was brought from great hero from summoned from another world. It was around there that Marik stopped listening because he didn't particularly care about the history of how the martial art came to be in this world nor did he care how great someone thought a dead guy who escaped an early death by being kidnapped and told to fix someone else's problem until he died might have been. What he cared about was learning the necessary basics to be an effective hand to hand combatant and surviving long enough to become old.

His master brought him over to where they could register him for lessons and talked about the timeline. The clerk or whatever he was that was dealing with the registration kept looking at them strangely whenever his master asked him the question he was asked. Eventually the clerk man gave up and just started asking Marik himself. Marik set up, with his master's approval on the transportation front, and a schedule of one day a week for the next six months and see where it goes from there. His first day would be in a couple more days so Marik and his master went home and Marik spent time focusing on his arcanistries.

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It was about four months after he had visited the twins on their birthday and about two months since Marik had started learning the basics of jujutsu. He had learned a new stance during he lessons two days ago and was practicing in his usual spot in the forest, wearing his blindfold like normal, when he heard strange sounds coming from a direction he rarely visited. He decided to go see what was happening and soon came to a spot he hadn't been to in so long that he had nearly forgotten about it. In front of him was a cave entrance, mostly blocked by a pile of rocks and boulders. He couldn't exactly see it right now, due to the blindfold, but he definitely remembered it and he knew what the sound of tumbling rocks was. Apparently there was someone on the other side trying to get through the blocked passage and come outside.

Marik left immediately and ran home to tell his master about it. He wasn't sure who or what was trying to come out and didn't want to make any hasty decisions. Not to mention that this was technically his master's place and not his, so dealing with whatever or whoever was there should be left up to his master's discretions until he was otherwise consulted. His master seemed quite intrigued by the prospective visitors and decided to go see the situation before deciding on their next course of action.

Marik followed from behind, filled with curiosity and a little bit of something else. Whether it was fear or just anxiety, he wasn't sure, but whatever else it was that he was feeling wasn't exactly pleasant. Of course, he wasn't going to let that overrun his curiosity. If it really was someone from the cursed village he once called home then he wanted to know why they had left. If it wasn't someone like that then he wanted to know who or what they were and why they were here.

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When they got to a point where they were just out of sight of the still tumbling rocks, Marik addressed his master.

"Master. I'm going to wait behind that tree right there, just in case."

"Just in case, you say?"

"Mhm. Just in case. I can think of several unpleasant scenarios where having me within sight could be a bad thing. This way I'll be close enough to hear and assist if necessary while far enough to not be seen."

"If that's really what you want, boy."

Marik went and stood behind the designated tree. He listened as his master walked several paces further to where he would be within vision of the incoming beings and then they both waited. There's a bit of a rumble as some extra of the blockage seemed to give way and likely open up the cave. He heard the shouting and cheering of young voices, maybe four or five of them, and then painful shouts and complaints about the sudden brightness. After a few moments of that with a little bit of light laughter mixed one of the voices suddenly went quiet halfway through a minor complaint. One by one the other voices also abruptly stopped. Marik could only assume they had just started to recognize his master standing there, watching them.

"Well now. Isn't this interesting? A small group of children tumbling out of a cave, seemingly led by a cursed child. How strange. You all seem to be of the appropriate age from what I know of the cursed villages' customs, yet only one of you is cursed? Hmm. Hm? Perhaps you are not all from the cursed villages? Hmm."

Marik could tell that the very beginning was originally for his benefit but it soon degraded into his master's usual musings upon finding something he actually thought was interesting. At least he now knew that there was one of them from the cursed villages, probably his home village since it was the closest one to the other side of the cave. Unless the had come from that other branch he had found. He had almost forgotten about that.

"So, are all of you from the cursed villages? No no. You must be, after all, given that you are all wolfkin and there are no other wolfkin that I know of so nearby. That does beggar the question, then. Why aren't all of you cursed? Hmm. I suppose the almost equally important question is: why are you here? Though a number of my current hypotheses would sat that an answer to one would prove and answer to the other."

"Umm. Who are you?"

"Well. That's an interesting question coming from someone who barged into my territory. Yes. I think that answers that well enough. Now, as you are the intruders, I would soon like an answer to my own questions."

"Ah. Umm. We're sorry for intruding. We didn't know this was your place."

"Although I do admit that an apology is a good typical start for a first impression, I believe I have the right to have my questions answered before I decide how to proceed with this rather unusual situation. I believe I have already answered one question of yours through kindness even after having asked two of my own: Why are you here? Why does only one of you bear curse marks?"

"We, uh, don't know anything about a curse. I didn't even know one of was cursed. Umm. As for why we're here. Well, I kind of ran away to help these guys because they all got kicked out of the village."

"I see. Ah. I remember now. Your people don't recognize the curse for what it is. Hmm. I would like to study you, actually. I think my colleague may be quite interested in this as well. She has recently begun to be interested in curses. Hmm."

"Uh. I don't really want to bother you and I'm sorry for suddenly intruding like this. We'd be willing to help you with whatever you need if you would be willing to give us some food and point us in the right direction, though."

"Hmm? Well, most of my needs are taken care of quite handily. I would be interested in taking you, girl, and one of the others to study more closely for a time, though. I have not had much chance to study such wonderful specimens in so long. Your bodies and souls may actually provide some answers to some questions and advance my research quite a bit."

"Wait, soul?"

"Yes, girl. Soul. A chance to study your soul would be quite worthwhile in many ways. Hmm. That said, to make it a fair trade is somewhat difficult. Ah. You said you wished to be pointed in some direction. As far as I know, the closest thing of any relevance to here would be the cursed villages and you just came from there. Is there somewhere else you aim to go?"

"Umm. Well. That is. I'm not sure? I'm looking for a boy named Marik who came from our village, Goron. He probably came this way a long time ago but maybe he met you, too?"

"Hmm? Ah, yes. As I recall, he got bitten by a quickshade spider. Very deadly little critters. Very rare, too. I'm still somewhat annoyed that he killed it, actually."

Marik silently told himself that he would make it up to his master someday. All these years later, apparently his master's influence had rubbed off on him because he kind of wanted to study one as well.

"Wait. So. He's dead? But...no."

There was a light sound of sniffling coming from the girl who seemed to be the leader and spokesperson of the group.

"Tell me this. What is your relation to the boy?"

"*sniff* He...he was my brother. I wanted to see him again and that's why I left. I never knew what happened to him until he was already gone."

Marik did vaguely remember having a sister. He decided that was probably enough playing around for him. He wasn't hiding just to make some random girl cry. He stepped out from behind the tree and began walking towards them.

"He didn't die," he said as he approached his master's side.

"Huh? Wait, is that you, Marik? Did you go blind?"

"Hmm? Oh, right," he replied before removing his blindfold and placing it in his pocket. "Kind of forgot I still had that on. So now that you found Marik, what do you want to do? Ah, wait. Master, since I helped them find Marik, doesn't that technically mean I completed the deal? This means we can study the curse on my sister, right? Since I completed the deal it means I get to help, right? This could be a good chance for me."

"Aren't you becoming to much like me, boy? And why would you be interested in curses? There's nothing...ah, I see. That does make sense. Hmm. I'm sure that would warrant at least something, yes. As a deal, I mean. We would likely have to offer more to them if we want to keep your sister long enough for a proper study, though. I would also still like to have one of the others as well. But if we cna make such a deal, then I suppose it's only fair if you get to participate."

"Great! Thanks, Master. Ahem. So there you guys have it. What do you want from here now that you found me?"

"Wait! I'm your sister! Don't you remember me?"

"Hmm? I mean, kind of? It was a pretty long time ago. That's not really important right now, though. What's more important, no matter how I try to look at it from your side at least, is what now? I mean, it's not like I won't still be here for a while longer. You guys, on the other hand... Do you need food, clothing, shelter, education? I'd probably say yes to all of these if I were you, but then again I'm not you. Maybe you want something else? More? Less? Directions to the nearest civilization that's not one of the cursed villages?"

"What are the cursed villages?"

"Right, lack of education. I forgot. Master, I kind of respect you even more now."

"Hahaha. Is that right, boy? No worries. I've had fun these past few years."

"Wait! What are the cursed villages? What do you want to do with me? I demand-"

"No! Sorry, sister. This isn't your home or your village. I don't remember all the rules of how that place worked anymore but you're out here now. Demanding something after trespassing just because you don't understand isn't how things are done. As for you questions. I can answer them both if you really want me to but you probably won't like the answer to one and we already answered the other. We want to study your body and soul. Mostly soul, I would say, but there's got to be something about the body, too. If you're worried we want to hurt you or something, then don't. All we want is a chance to learn about your curse."

"Okay. I think? Wait. What curse? I'm cursed?"

"Yes. You're cursed. I don't think you're ready to hear more, though. From what I remember, those places are pretty prideful and I don't want to see you do something stupid like try and attack just because you heard the truth. And so, Master? A thought occurs? Do we even have a place to put them?"

"Ah."

"So, no. I don't know if asking the old lady will help, either. I mean, I'm sure she'll help until she gets so mad that she kills one of them. I can really see her doing that..."

"You might be right, boy. She really might kill one of them out of pure anger. Either way, if we're going to study them then due to your pact we'll have to let her know. Might be better to do so now rather than later. Her place is pretty empty right now, anyways."

"You know. I've always wondered about that. I understand about the girls but why is there only Matilda there?"

"I think that should be for another time, boy. It's also not my story to tell."

"That's fair. So, sister and company, here's the deal: we can get you a place to stay for a little while with food and all that. In return, we get to study my sister and at least one more of you for a while. If you misbehave too badly you could die, though, so be careful about that. Also, no more questions asking to know or understand things. If you want to be taught that badly we can work out that deal later but I'm willing to bet none of would like a lot of the answers to the questions you have right now. Do we have a deal?"

"What if we don't accept this deal?"

"Then we throw you out into the forest and take the rest who do accept, I guess? By the way, in case any of you are thinking about it, this forest is very different from where you came from. It has a lot more dangers, creatures you know nothing about, and most if not all of what you might have learned about living in the forest won't work. If you really don't want to accept the deal and want to try it anyway, I won't stop you. Seems like a silly risk, though. Everything you could want and need as long as you don't anger an old woman or try to survive in an unknown place full of unknown things where creatures as small as your finger could attack you in your sleep and make you dead in minutes."