Kaito Kamishiro swiftly stepped out from the shadows and sprinted after the moving taxi. Its driver seemed to notice him, and the vehicle immediately picked up speed.
Kaito raised a hand, gathered a small amount of Cursed Energy, and fired at the taxi’s rear tires.
But then a cursed presence surged from what should have been an ordinary taxi. A Cursed Spirit whose full form could not be seen had fused with the vehicle! Strange things vaguely protruded from the taxi’s surface, blocking his attacks before they could puncture the tires.
The accelerating taxi was about to leave him behind, and Kaito could not use Annihilation to blow it up. Akari Nitta was still inside.
Yet Kaito showed no frustration. Instead, he smiled. "Bold, just as I thought. Let’s get Ms. Nitta out first."
"[Wheel of Time], turn!"
The speeding taxi abruptly froze. Like moths fluttering around a streetlamp, it hung motionless in place, as though trapped in invisible amber.
Kaito rapidly reached the taxi and smashed the locked window in the door with one punch. The shattered glass also remained suspended in midair, moving only slightly when Kaito touched it.
He opened the door, pulled out the statue-like Akari Nitta, and slung her over his shoulder. With his other hand, he drew the blade at his waist and effortlessly drove it into the neck of the driver—the killer they had been tracking—whose face wore a crazed grin.
Kaito smoothly retreated, and the [Timeless] state was released. The moths in the lamplight resumed beating their powdery wings, while the frozen taxi instantly shifted from absolute stillness to extreme motion.
Several explosive bangs erupted at once, producing a piercing roar. The taxi suddenly swerved, violently flipped, and rolled several times. Glass shattered, metal crumpled and warped, and it finally skidded more than ten meters down the road before coming to a stop.
Like someone finally able to breathe after nearly drowning, Akari instinctively clutched Kaito and gulped down air. Once she saw where she was, she snapped back to her senses and hurriedly said, "That Curse User... He has an ability that can affect people’s consciousness and movements. I don’t know yet whether it’s a Cursed Technique."
Kaito set Akari down and flicked the blood from his blade. Looking at the overturned, wrecked vehicle, he said blandly, "It doesn’t matter. He’s only making his final struggle now."
Akari looked confused. Then a commotion came from inside the ruined car. The door suddenly flew off with a clang, and a man drenched in bright red blood crawled out.
"That’s him!" Akari cried, pointing at the man. Her eyes remained full of disbelief. He was now utterly pathetic, crawling out of the car with one hand clamped over his neck.
Dark red blood continuously spilled through the gaps between the fingers covering his throat. His once brazen, arrogant face was now filled with terror and rage.
As the man crawled out of the car, a bizarre phenomenon invisible to ordinary people began unfolding around them. Black, uncanny energy rose from the overturned vehicle.
Within a few breaths, it condensed into something grotesque. At first glance, it looked like a shifting mass of mist, but countless eyes and mouths were scattered across it. Those eyes and mouths kept moving, making it deeply unsettling.
Judging by its dense cursed aura, though it was not especially large, it was no weaker than the Grade 2 Cursed Spirit Kaito had faced on that mission with Maki.
If this Cursed Spirit possessed a Cursed Technique as well, it would be a standard Semi-Grade 1 Cursed Spirit. Given the situation, it was most likely the Curse User’s shikigami.
After summoning the Cursed Spirit, the dying Curse User watched it sway over to his side and twist itself into a strip like water or smoke.
Then it burrowed into the Curse User’s body. At the gaping wound in his neck, where blood had been pouring out nonstop, black unknown matter began to grow, like bubbles constantly rising from a dark swamp.
Very quickly, the black substance wrapped around the entire wound. The Curse User, who had been on the brink of death, visibly improved at once and struggled to his feet.
But his expression became even uglier as he looked at the blonde woman who had been his prey, then at the stern-faced boy beside her.
There was no doubt about it. This boy was the one who had somehow dealt him a devastating blow and stolen his prey away... Damn it!
The Curse User’s fury nearly drove him mad, but that rage came from an indescribably deep fear—the most instinctive fear of death.
The wound in his neck had not been resolved so easily. Kaito’s attack, one that did not exist in his memories, had indeed struck a vital point. The sharp blade had sliced horizontally through his artery and windpipe.
He was still alive only because of certain effects of his shikigami’s Cursed Technique. But it was merely temporary. His shikigami could not heal him from such a hopeless state the way Reverse Cursed Technique could.
A fitting way to put it was that he was experiencing a final burst before death. His shikigami’s Cursed Technique could manipulate—or rather, "deceive"—the human body to a certain extent. That was how he had silently led those young women to the crime scenes before brutalizing them.
For now, he had used it to stabilize his wound temporarily. Yet the thought of death closing in on him drowned his heart in boundless terror.
"So this... is what death... feels like?"
But soon, all those negative emotions twisted his heart again. "No! I can’t! There are still so many ‘bitches’ who haven’t been punished. I can’t die like this!"
Staring at Kaito, the culprit behind it all, the Curse User’s thoughts were gradually twisted and swallowed by surging anger and hatred. He even forgot the gap between them.
Right now, he wanted only to kill this boy. No—he would break all four of his limbs, then torture the woman he had saved to death right in front of him!
Kaito watched the Curse User merge with the Cursed Spirit, stagger to his feet, and stare straight at him. The malice in his eyes was practically visible to the naked eye. But... it was only the barking of a dying mad dog.
Akari, standing nearby, was somewhat tense. The Curse User had clearly been on the verge of death, yet he had suddenly stood up again. From the looks of him, he had no intention of letting this go.
And because everything had happened so suddenly, they had not had time to put up a Barrier. If the Curse User caused another major disturbance and nearby residents witnessed it, that would create another problem.
After Akari voiced her concerns, the composed boy before her nodded to show that he understood, then walked toward the Curse User with his sword in hand.
Telling Akari to step back, Kaito gripped his blade and approached the Curse User. Gojo’s words from long ago surfaced in his mind...
"Kaito, in some ways, your Cursed Technique is the nightmare of Curse Users and other Jujutsu Sorcerers! People have limits. Most—nearly ninety percent—of Jujutsu Sorcerers haven’t mastered Reverse Cursed Technique. That means if a vital point gets hit and they can’t receive treatment within a very short time, it means death."
"And your Cursed Technique... has already far surpassed the limits of human reaction. Other than certain special trigger-type Cursed Techniques, your extreme speed can kill an enemy activating their Cursed Technique even when you move second."
Back then, Kaito had said excitedly, "Doesn’t that mean I’m ridiculously strong?"
Then Satoru Gojo had maliciously shattered his dream. "Not quite~ Aside from the trigger-type techniques I mentioned, if your opponent has mastered Domain Expansion and successfully activates their Domain around you, that’d be bad news."
"And our main enemies—the Cursed Spirits—generally have extremely fast recovery at higher grades. Vital points basically don’t exist for them, so you still need to be careful."
Returning to the present, Kaito found himself deeply agreeing with Gojo. It might be difficult to predict victory or defeat against Cursed Spirits because of their varied, bizarre abilities, but Curse Users like this one... were simply too easy!
Exorcising a Cursed Spirit required him to pour in a huge amount of Cursed Energy. But trash that did not even deserve a name could be dealt with using one light slash. Even if he encountered the same situation again, he would only need to do it one more time.
If he could fully master [Cursed Technique Reversal], even combine the forward and reversal applications of his Cursed Technique like Gojo could... Decided! When that time came, he would challenge Gojo. He really wanted to see that smug face when he lost! Hahaha...
In the middle of fantasizing about the future, Kaito suddenly sensed a fluctuation of Cursed Energy. Looking up, he saw that the Curse User was gripping something shaped like a nail. A black-energy-coated spike was already shooting through the air toward him.
Kaito took in the Curse User’s ecstatic, ugly expression and smiled. He raised his left hand, holding his index and middle fingers together. "[Wheel of Time], reverse."
The Curse User could already picture the detestable boy’s body being pierced through. Just as his excitement nearly made him forget the threat of death, he saw the boy raise his left hand—and the attack he had launched by wringing out every last ounce of his strength vanished in an instant!
"What the hell? What did you do?!"
The furious Curse User was on the verge of insanity. The ugly black substance around his neck had nearly swallowed half his face. Unable to think normally any longer, he could only curse madly while once again squeezing every bit of Cursed Energy from himself to launch another attack.
"Time to finish this..." Kaito activated his Cursed Technique once more and entered the [Timeless] state. In a few strides, he arrived before the Curse User. Kaito did not choose to use his blade. Otherwise, cleaning up the scene later would be troublesome...
A fist packed with Cursed Energy landed on the Curse User’s heart. Kaito followed with another blow to his abdomen. Once he confirmed that all of the man’s internal organs had been shattered, Kaito released his Cursed Technique.
"Pffft!"
Having already positioned himself to the side, Kaito avoided the massive spray of blood the Curse User suddenly spewed out, mixed with unrecognizable chunks of internal organs.
Struck by an eerily familiar method and thrown directly into a dying state, the Curse User fell to his knees, unable to form a complete sentence. The Cursed Spirit fused with his body had also been injured and was now powerless.
With some clarity restored to his eyes, the Curse User glared with venomous hatred. Using every last bit of strength in his body, he released the restraints on his shikigami. "Re... release it! Kill... everything!"
Purple-black lumps of flesh began swelling out of his body. In the blink of an eye, a tumorous monster had replaced him where he stood.
The Curse User was confirmed dead!
All that remained was to deal with the Cursed Spirit he had left behind. Looking at the tumorous monster before him, Kaito transferred the katana he held in a reverse grip in his left hand to his right hand and activated his Cursed Technique again...
"What... what happened?"
Akari watched the Curse User suddenly cough up blood after being struck, then collapse to the ground as though dead, only to soon rise again in an utterly horrifying form.
Then, as though a film had skipped frames, the swollen, tumor-like Cursed Spirit suddenly came apart like building blocks, while Kaito was somehow standing in front of it.
"Is this his Cursed Technique? Speed this fast is way too terrifying..."
Before Akari could marvel any further, she saw Kaito waving her over. He wanted to discuss how they should clean up the scene.
The sound of the car flipping over earlier had been quite loud. Fortunately, Kaito had resolved things quickly enough that they could still disguise the scene as a traffic accident. It was not too late to contact people to handle it.
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