"Yeah. That'd be cool. We'll see." Pause. "So, what are my strengths and weaknesses?"

"You gathered a lot of information in a very short amount of time, and while you focused too much on my cursed technique you figured out a tactic and stuck to it. You did not spend time hesitating or second-guessing your intuitions, which is going to be very useful once you have developed more refined ones.

"I think you could have stood to try to be more lethal. You may be used to the needles but if you're using the weights then things that would hurt a lot with needles don't. There's probably something to be said about finding optimal uses for different tools."

She nods. “That’s fair. And the downside of suddenly having to adjust to new equipment. … Though in a sparring match, I’d honestly rather be not lethal enough instead of too lethal. Until I have a better feel for what will seriously hurt you, and what won’t.”

He tosses the disc he's been fidgeting with up in the air then catches it again as it falls. "This won't."

“Okay, okay,” she agrees, amused. “I need to practice my aim with them anyway, they feel and fly differently than needles. And my fan can’t be used with them.”

"What is the fan for, anyway?"

"Oh! It's a control aid," she retrieves her fan and shows Fushiguro; there are several needles carefully stitched to different sections of the fan. Several along the fan's ribs near the end of the fan, and several at its base, near the fan's head. "This way I can cause multiple needles I throw to spread out," she opens the fan, "come together," she snaps it closed, "turn them midair," she opens the fan again, and then twists it sideways, "and generally keep track of which way they're pointed, so I can make sure they go pointy-end in."

She pauses. "And also this side of the guard has a sharp end, so if I remove its sheath and then close the fan, I can stab things with it. Because it seemed practical for a ranged specialist to have some sort of close combat self defense."

"I think that is evidence in favour of my gun idea working, if you can rig something."

She gives a firm nod.

"Even if I don't think I'll have the same finesse with a gun that I do with a fan and needles, there is something to be said for overwhelming firepower."

The black dog barks and pants at her. "Yes, there is."

The black dog gets scritches because he is a good boy. The white dog, too. They are both very good boys.

"I think that about covers the ridiculous sparring match. Want to move on to part two of our assignment? Talking about curses, I think it was?"

Nod.

"So I don't really have a good feel for curses in Tokyo yet, but in the country you kind of need to hunt them down. The dangerous ones, anyway, the ones that are just floating behind people or standing on their shoulders making them feel horrible are pretty straightforward. But - does Tokyo have a lot of old, quiet curses? Because there are a lot of those in the countryside. Old, sneaky curses, waiting for victims to spring the trap that's been there for years." She gives a bit of a shudder. "And lots of them aren't even drawn into barriers that have been set up, they get extremely attached to where they began. So. Hunting them down."

"City curses cluster," he says, folding his arms and assuming a more thoughtful expression. "Many small ones around a big one, or sometimes an amalgamation, a big one that assimilated the small ones. They also tend to strategise, force unpleasant choices upon you, take hostages."

"Eeugh. Yes, I saw that with the kid, that was an unpleasant surprise. So that's just what curses are like in the city? That... does not sound fun to deal with. You'll forgive me if I kind of want to go back to hunting down curses under bridges in the country. But I suppose city curses are more numerous."

"They also... travel, but not far. Usually when multiple locations are close to each other, like the abandoned building that was next to the cemetery yesterday. They know that they will find friends close by if they look."

"Curses making friends. That is a concept that will take some getting used to. How good at working together are they?"

"Varies, but they can get pretty cooperative, when they don't just eat one another and merge. They can strategise."

"Mm. Okay. Glad I've got peers to tackle this with, then. I don't like the idea of being surrounded and outnumbered while they strategize against me and figure out a way to take me down."

"Your technique at least is fairly good at area of effect."

"Yes. If all else fails, I find an open space and kill them until they stop coming. But, you know. Probably best to avoid getting cornered like that."

Nod.

"I got it!" comes Itadori's voice, heralding the man himself. "Look! I got it!" He is holding a plush sheep and the sheep is making sheep noises.

But he pauses before he's quite reached them. "Wait, did I miss it already? Aww, man, I wanted to watch it."

"Excellent job, Tokan-kun!" calls Gojo, looking up from his phone.