"So this is the mission site?"
Kaito Kamishiro cast a glance at the deserted hospital ahead, its emptiness lending it an unsettling air. He and Maki stood before the building, each carrying a long cloth case on their backs.
Maki adjusted her glasses. "The Windows have confirmed it. There’s a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit in the hospital. They found it a little late, and it’s already spawned some low-grade Cursed Spirits."
(P.S.: Windows are non-sorcerers professionally trained to perceive Cursed Spirits, responsible for monitoring designated areas.)
"They reported it after evacuating everyone from the hospital. That bandage-wearing idiot sure thinks highly of us, sending us to deal with a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit right from the start."
Both Cursed Spirits and Jujutsu Sorcerers were generally ranked from Grade 4, the lowest, up to Grade 1, with Special Grade standing above them all.
Under normal circumstances, below Special Grade, a Cursed Spirit of the same grade was no match for a Jujutsu Sorcerer of that grade. That was why Maki said what she did. She was quite confident in herself, but normally, weren’t they supposed to work their way up gradually?
"I’ll put up the Barrier."
"Emerge from darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure."
As Kaito formed a hand sign and recited the incantation, a grayish-black curtain descended from above the hospital, blocking ordinary people from entering and concealing the building from their sight.
This would hide any unusual phenomena caused by the battle, preventing civilians from witnessing them and developing unnecessary negative emotions that could give birth to Curses.
Not long after Kaito and Maki entered, they spotted several Cursed Spirits with limbs like blades and needles. Seeing the fodder Cursed Spirits notice them and charge over, Maki opened her cloth case to reveal the naginata inside. She gripped it, spun it in a flourish, and rested it behind her back as she sneered disdainfully. "Hah! The weaker these Curses are, the more they love clustering together!"
Maki stomped off the ground and shot toward the Cursed Spirits like an arrow released from its bow. The mindless creatures repeated the same cries over and over: pain, I don’t want to die.
Just before they collided, she exerted her entire body. A powerful force erupted from her waist as she twisted her body, her feet striking the floor in rapid succession. In an instant, she had swept past the Cursed Spirits.
The naginata held behind her back had already moved with her spinning body, tracing smooth, circular slashes through the air.
When Maki came to a stop, the Cursed Spirits abruptly froze. Their cries ceased, replaced by low, rasping huh-huh growls. Then purple-black blood burst from their necks, waists, abdomens, and limbs. Their bodies fell apart in pieces, scattered across the floor beyond recognition.
The instant Maki planted her feet, a crisp round of applause sounded from Kaito’s direction, nearly making her lose her balance.
With veins practically popping across her face, Maki turned her head. Kaito had [Annihilation] tucked under his arm and was applauding with an earnest expression. When he saw her looking over, he even praised her aloud. "Wow! That strike was amazing, Maki. Clean, decisive, and every hit landed on a vital point..."
"Shut up! Hurry up and find the Cursed Spirit."
To Maki, she had only killed a few fodder Cursed Spirits, so Kaito’s praise left her feeling embarrassed and irritated. And because he seemed to be praising her sincerely, that feeling only grew stronger!
Heaven knew Kaito genuinely thought that strike had been cool. She had rushed in, used her spin to drive the blade, and severed every vital point on those Cursed Spirits. That took serious skill, all right? More importantly... it looked awesome!
Unsure what expression to make, Maki simply kept a cold face and walked ahead with her naginata. Kaito waved a hand. "I’ll search from the rooftop down. Call me if anything happens!"
After receiving Maki’s response without her even turning around, Kaito scaled the hospital’s outer wall and easily reached the rooftop of the five-story building. His view immediately opened up. He watched Maki charge into the dark building with her weapon in hand, then turned and entered through the rooftop door himself.
These Cursed Spirits were weak. Kaito barely had to put any effort into using [Annihilation]. Most of the fodder he encountered could not endure even a single arrow. He even had enough leeway to control its power so he would not blow holes through the corridors and walls.
Another arrow reduced a Cursed Spirit draped in what looked like a white bedsheet to ash. To be fair, this one at least did not have some grotesque, bizarre appearance. It kind of resembled a dark version of a teru teru bozu. The longer he looked, the cuter it seemed.
As Kaito let his thoughts wander, his gaze suddenly snapped toward the window. A powerful surge of Cursed Energy had just risen from the annex beside the main building, and faintly, a noisy commotion could be heard from that direction.
Looks like something was happening on Maki’s side. Kaito did not dare delay. He left an afterimage in the corridor—but faster than him was a blue streak that instantly shattered the waist-high window at the end of the hall.
Kaito leaped through it. Surging Cursed Energy flowed throughout his body, allowing him to cross the nearly ten-meter gap in an instant. While still in midair, he formed another arrow and blasted out the window of the annex where he intended to land.
After landing safely, Kaito adjusted his stance and carefully sensed his surroundings. He found that the fluctuations and rumbling were coming from below. He was on the fourth floor, and from the sound alone, he roughly judged that the battle was taking place on the second floor.
Taking the stairs would be too slow. Kaito silently apologized, then placed his right hand on [Annihilation]’s bowstring. A deep-blue arrow pointed at the floor from afar, piercing through layers of stone and construction in his perception as it locked onto the intense pulse of Cursed Energy.
Maki’s Cursed Energy was below that of an ordinary Jujutsu Sorcerer—roughly at an average civilian’s level. So that huge, churning mass of Cursed Energy below had to be the Cursed Spirit! Still, he needed to be careful that the aftermath would not hit Maki. After concentrating and aiming for a while, Kaito finally seized a fleeting opportunity.
The moment he released his fingers, a massive hole appeared in the floor. It pierced diagonally forward and downward, and the floor immediately began to crack apart under its own weight.
...
After entering through the main doors, Maki seemed to be charging recklessly ahead, but in truth, she carefully observed her surroundings. She could not perceive Cursed Spirits directly on her own, so she normally relied on a Cursed Tool—her glasses—to see them.
Maki had no Cursed Technique, and her Cursed Energy was insufficient to exorcise Cursed Spirits. In exchange, she had gained exceptional physical abilities, allowing her to exorcise Cursed Spirits with Cursed Tools.
In the jujutsu world, a Binding Vow meant trading certain costs for something else. If such vows could be made and carried out according to a person’s will, then there was another, rarer kind of vow that was inborn. Whether the person wanted it or not, such an innate vow forcibly took something from them while granting talent in another area. It was known as a [Heavenly Restriction].
It was difficult to say whether a [Heavenly Restriction] brought suffering or salvation. Still, it was probably more often the former. After all, it was also a kind of "curse"...
After easily dealing with several Cursed Spirits, Maki reached the second floor and encountered another group. Most of these Cursed Spirits had bodies made of strips of grayish-black, tattered cloth. Some were tall and narrow, while others were broad and fat. They poured from the patient rooms on both sides of the corridor, letting out meaningless roars as they scrambled toward Maki.
Thinking they were just another cluster of fodder, Maki met them head-on. Even in the narrow corridor, she used her footwork and naginata in perfect coordination, sweeping out blade-light like a raging storm.
Broken and scattered Cursed Spirits littered the path Maki had taken. Just as she was about to chase down and kill the last two rag-cloth Cursed Spirits, her instincts suddenly warned her. She turned her weapon toward the left and only barely managed to raise it in defense.
The wall to her left exploded. Several black shadows burst through the cloud of dust, shooting toward her. Maki only caught sight of several black, tentacle-like objects striking the naginata she held before her. The immense force slammed the naginata hard against her body and sent her flying backward.
"Cough..."
Maki smashed through the wall behind her and landed in a patient room. She climbed to her feet looking somewhat disheveled, but her injuries were not serious. Before she could catch her breath, she rolled aside to evade another incoming attack. Pushing off the floor and wall for momentum, she ran out of the room—and finally saw the Cursed Spirit clearly.
It somewhat resembled the rag-cloth Cursed Spirits from before. Most of its body was made of filthy, worn grayish-black strips of cloth. Beneath them was something like black mist, within which a mass of flesh could vaguely be seen writhing. It was rather large, with no limbs or facial features—or perhaps the gaps between the strips of cloth were its "mouths."
The Cursed Spirit almost filled the entire corridor. Its flying cloth strips lashed the walls and floor like tentacles, leaving crater after crater. Holding her naginata, Maki smiled, her face full of fighting spirit. "Looks like this one has some intelligence. It even knew to hide and wait for an opening to ambush me... But that just makes it more of a challenge!"
Dragging her blade behind her, Maki suddenly charged forward. She ducked sharply beneath an incoming attack, planted a hand on the floor, sprang back up, and swung her naginata to sever the cloth strips curling toward her. The strips fell to the ground and gradually crumbled to ash as though burning.
Under the Cursed Spirit’s ferocious assault, Maki moved through its crisscrossing attacks like a fish swimming through rapids. Then she closed in and viciously slashed the naginata into the Cursed Spirit’s body.
The blade cut through its body without much resistance. Several sizable wounds spilled black, unidentified fluid and gave off black smoke. But Maki, forced back once more, frowned. "Why does it feel like that did not affect it at all? Did I fail to hit a vital point?"
Black cloth slithered over the wounds like living snakes and bound them shut. In the blink of an eye, it looked as though nothing had happened. A cold gleam flashed across Maki’s glasses as every detail from the fight raced through her mind.
"A weakness! This Cursed Spirit seems to lack an ordinary body of flesh, and it has no obvious weak points like limbs, a heart, or a head. But it has to have a vulnerable spot. Keep probing its defenses, find that weakness, then kill it in one strike!"
Maki continued battling the Cursed Spirit, using the corridor and the surrounding patient rooms to her advantage. In some ways, the cramped terrain was actually beneficial. The Cursed Spirit’s individual attacks were not particularly powerful. Aside from the occasional obviously thicker cloth strip, Maki could cut through most of them with a casual swing.
The troublesome part was its body, wrapped in layer upon layer of cloth. Even when she cut through it, it rapidly repaired itself. Judging from its fighting style, it intended to bind its enemy and drag them back to be devoured by the black mist beneath the cloth. That was probably the truly dangerous part.
After dodging a dense barrage from the Cursed Spirit, Maki suddenly heard a thunderous roar from... above her! Then, within her extraordinary dynamic vision, the ceiling near the Cursed Spirit’s head shattered, and a condensed blue arrow of Cursed Energy shot out.
The Cursed Spirit seemed to sense something wrong as well. The strips of cloth whipping around its body were already preparing to defend. Yet in the next instant, the arrow vanished, and at the same moment, a massive hole opened in the Cursed Spirit’s body.
Just as the Cursed Spirit’s scream began, its body shuddered, then two more unnervingly perfect round holes opened in it. Maki only retained the faintest trace of their paths in her memory. The only thing she could truly catch was the lingering residue of Cursed Energy.
Yet even after being wounded, the Cursed Spirit’s body began rapidly repairing itself again. Perhaps because those arrows had not produced outstanding results, no more Cursed Energy arrows came down. Instead, a figure suddenly burst through the ceiling above and crashed down toward the Cursed Spirit.
"Woohoo~"
A black distortion of Cursed Energy bloomed with light. The fist descending from above smashed brutally into the Cursed Spirit’s body. For an instant, the violent Cursed Energy falling with it seemed to pause—and then the terrifying force that erupted blasted away every speck of dust and rubble around them.
Half of the Cursed Spirit’s body turned to ash, exposing the nauseating sight beneath the strips of cloth. Its true body was a twisted ball of tangled, writhing tentacles, covered in numerous grotesque eyes of varying sizes.
"The weakness!"
Maki, who had been about to rush in, saw Kaito land with a smile on his face. His left hand was already clenched into a fist and driving toward the Cursed Spirit. Black light flashed again. Before the Cursed Spirit, its pained howl shattered apart, could make any move, the ball of flesh writhing in midair crumbled inch by inch within that warped black radiance.
"Huh? I haven’t even put any effort in yet. Why’d you go down already?"
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