Unconscious

Megumi Fushiguro had some combat experience, after all. He had tamed several shikigami himself. While the Onikiri in his hand was not as outstanding as Dojigiri at piercing Cursed Energy defenses, it was still a cursed tool and more than capable of killing cursed spirits.

With the two Divine Dogs assisting his attacks, there were no immediate problems. But... this cursed spirit seemed somewhat different.

Several times, Megumi Fushiguro tore its body apart, only for it to gather itself again like a cloud of mist, though it became slightly smaller each time. Its form was that of a snake, but it was only a form. Shen Yuanyi had never seen a snake capable of stretching its mouth into something like a bottomless pit.

At the same time, a powerful suction force dragged everything nearby toward its black-hole-like mouth. Megumi Fushiguro, who had braced himself, was unaffected, but the rocks, grass, and trees pulled in around him strangely vanished inside without causing any visible change to its body.

Megumi Fushiguro simply dodged and attacked calmly, dismembering the black snake again and again. The Great Serpent formed from black mist steadily shrank, unable to escape the encirclement of one human and two dogs. It could only struggle futilely.

As the scales gradually tipped toward victory, the black snake suddenly spat out a great deal of wood and stone. After dodging the debris flying at him, Megumi Fushiguro was startled to see a human figure tumble out as well.

Shen Yuanyi's attention was drawn over too. He used his technique to pull the figure toward him. It was a man dressed in a thick outdoor jacket. He was completely unconscious, but still breathing faintly.

Having read the mission briefing, Shen Yuanyi recognized him at once. He was the missing person reported by the police nearly four days ago. Had this cursed spirit swallowed him?

"Megumi, don't exorcise it all at once. This cursed spirit seems capable of swallowing both dead and living things. There might be other people inside it who were swallowed too."

Megumi Fushiguro was relieved to hear that. Good thing I didn't use Great Serpent. Though this cursed spirit kept reconstructing its body like mist, it was still only a curse. It likely would not withstand many attacks that were overly powerful or wide-ranging. He had been using it to gain practical combat experience, which was why he had waited until the black snake spat out that man.

After hearing Shen Yuanyi's words, Megumi Fushiguro formed a circle with both hands and curled his little fingers, summoning the shikigami "Gama" from the shadows. A toad as large as a calf crouched on the ground, then, at Megumi Fushiguro's command, attacked the black snake cursed spirit alongside the Divine Dogs.

Before long, as the cursed spirit's body shrank further, it spat out more debris. At the same time, three bodies fell to the ground. But when Shen Yuanyi examined them, he discovered that they had been dead for quite some time, and every one of them had died by hanging.

In other words, these people had been swallowed by the cursed spirit only after committing suicide. And it had swallowed far more than just people—it accepted all sorts of miscellaneous objects as well. Shen Yuanyi had no idea how a body formed from black mist could contain all of that. Curses really were mysterious.

"Then could this cursed spirit swallow cursed tools too? Wouldn't that make it the kind of 'storage tool' I've been looking for?"

Megumi Fushiguro had already beaten the cursed spirit to within an inch of its life. His combat experience was decent, but he still seemed somewhat unaccustomed to fighting nonhuman beings, and his weapon skills were rather crude. Once he enrolled, Shen Yuanyi would have Maki teach him.

"Megumi, wait. This cursed spirit might be useful. Don't exorcise it yet. I'll see whether I can subdue it and make a contract with it."

In the Jujutsu World, so-called Shikigami Users drove cursed aggregates formed through jujutsu or other means into battle by making contracts with them. Some also captured wild cursed spirits and used them as shikigami. The latter approach was far too uncertain, however. Aside from certain special techniques, ordinary Jujutsu Sorcerers had to account for the specific nature of the cursed spirit they targeted.

Cursed spirits were born through particular circumstances. Powerful ones were often accompanied by extreme negative emotions and aggression, and most cursed spirits could not communicate. Even if someone forcibly made a contract with one, differences in strength or an especially aggressive "personality" could cause trouble later, requiring constant vigilance. It formed a vicious cycle: powerful cursed spirits could not be subdued, while weak ones were not worth subduing.

Thus, only cursed spirits with special abilities might be selected. But Shikigami Users could not command unlimited shikigami, so they usually carefully considered their options before subduing one within their capabilities. Even fewer people would take interest in functional cursed spirits like this one, which was not particularly impressive in combat.

Of course, there were still such examples. Shen Yuanyi did not lack this little bit of combat strength. What he wanted was this cursed spirit's ability to store objects inside its "body." From the looks of it, it could even store living creatures, though not for long.

Shen Yuanyi knew how to make a contract. He had studied it before alongside Barrier Technique and other subjects, but he had never had an opportunity to use it. This was a perfect chance to try. Though, he seemed to recall that he first had to "subdue" the cursed spirit. Still, Megumi Fushiguro had been the one fighting until now, and the cursed spirit did not look like it could withstand Shen Yuanyi's attacks.

But Shen Yuanyi had overthought it. When he approached the cursed spirit, it tried to flee, only to instantly return to its original spot. After this happened several times, the black snake cursed spirit decisively cowered before Shen Yuanyi, who held Dojigiri in his hand, lying prone on the ground and trembling.

Shen Yuanyi then attempted to make a contract with the cursed spirit on the ground. Since neither side resisted, the contract was completed smoothly. Shen Yuanyi felt an inexplicable connection form between himself and the cursed spirit. It also occupied a portion of his Cursed Energy and imposed a mental burden on him, though both were negligible.

Then the black snake on the ground rose into the air and turned into a nearly tangible black mist. That was its true nature—a mass of black vapor that could merely take on a certain shape. Under Shen Yuanyi's control, the mist gathered around his left ear and condensed into a small black Magatama Earring.

He had initially wanted to keep it near his hand so it would be easier to retrieve items, but he considered that anything near his hand could easily be damaged by an enemy during battle, so he changed it into an earring instead.

Next came testing the cursed spirit's ability. When Shen Yuanyi used it for the first time, black mist suddenly flowed down from the magatama pendant by his ear, then somewhat clumsily but not slowly wrapped around the Dojigiri and Kumo-kiri in his hands.

The two cursed blades melted into black mist as though in sync, then seemed to sink into a swamp—or perhaps be pulled into an unknown space by invisible hands. Looking at his empty hands, Shen Yuanyi smiled. Then he channeled Cursed Energy, and the tip of Dojigiri emerged from a thin layer of black mist over his hand, until he grasped its hilt.

"Pretty useful. I finally won't have to carry a huge box around everywhere."

Megumi Fushiguro, having dismissed his shadow shikigami, watched Shen Yuanyi's actions and asked, "Did it work? What do we do next?"

After taking the Onikiri Megumi Fushiguro tossed him and storing it away as well, Shen Yuanyi replied, "We're basically done. Once we get back, pack up and say goodbye to Sister Tsumiki. Then we'll get ready to head to Jujutsu High."

After Megumi Fushiguro used Gama to place the surviving man in its belly, intending to hand him over to the support staff who had already been notified, Shen Yuanyi continued learning about the cursed spirit through their contract on the way back to Yamaga Shrine. From its simple mental activity—barely enough to be called thought—he learned that it had not been born entirely from the negative emotions brought about by those suicides. In truth, it was connected to a local wild god from the area's legends.

The legends surrounding it contained elements of horror, or perhaps intimidation. Unlike the most well-known orthodox gods, its tales gave rise to negative emotions such as fear. Normally, that would not have been enough to birth a curse. It might not even have been as likely to produce a cursed spirit as some special locations.

But the nearby woods had become a place of suicide. More tangible, intense negative emotions arose when people linked a series of incidents to legends of gods and ghosts, after which several strange events occurred. Under the surging negative emotions, the curse was born.

Perhaps it had not been born solely from emotions like fear and resentment, however. This cursed spirit had no clear thoughts, but it generally had not attacked people much. It merely swallowed things from time to time on instinct. Yet it was not a living creature, and because of its ability, the things it swallowed were mostly preserved intact. That explorer had probably encountered it by bad luck, been swallowed, and was then classified as missing.

Shen Yuanyi and Megumi Fushiguro first waited for the arranged personnel to take the faintly breathing man for treatment. Perhaps they could learn what had happened from him once he awoke. The two then returned to Yamaga Shrine. After thanking Akashino Hiko and bidding him farewell, they also prayed at the shrine for Tsumiki and bought protective charms to bring back to her.

Then they politely said goodbye to everyone. Though they had only spent a short time together and the pair had seemed somewhat unusual, their polite manners and appearances had left an impression. When Akashino Emi learned that they wanted charms to pray for their sick sister, she insisted on giving them to the two for free.

"Look, both our names have the character for Megumi in them. That means we have a bit of fate between us, right? My mother once told me it meant I was a blessing to both of them. I bet your parents loved you very much too. Besides, you and your sister are quite like the two in our family, haha."

Megumi Fushiguro opened his mouth, but ultimately said nothing. After accepting her kindness, he thanked her politely and left the shrine with Shen Yuanyi.

When they returned home, Tsumiki, whose complexion had improved greatly, saw the protective charms they had brought back for her, said to ward off disasters and misfortune, along with two boxes of incense that were supposedly calming, nourishing, and good for dispelling illness. Her eyes curved happily, and she insisted on making the two of them a grand meal as thanks.

In the end, Shen Yuanyi talked her out of it. He had Megumi Fushiguro help him while he cooked the meal himself. It might not have been especially delicious, but food made by family always had an irreplaceable flavor. Since he had finally come back, Shen Yuanyi was not in a hurry to return to Jujutsu High immediately. He planned to rest for two or three days first.

However... an accident occurred at that moment.

Fushiguro Tsumiki fell unconscious once again.