Black Flash

"Is this the mission site?"

Shen Yuanyi glanced at the empty, eerily quiet hospital ahead. He and Maki stood in front of it, each carrying a long cloth bag on their backs.

Maki adjusted her glasses. "The Window has confirmed it. There's a Semi-Grade 1 Cursed Spirit inside the hospital. It was discovered a little late, and it's already spawned some low-level Cursed Spirits."

(P.S.: Windows are non-sorcerers specially capable of observing Cursed Spirits. They are responsible for monitoring assigned areas.)

"After evacuating everyone from the hospital, they reported it. Seriously, that bandaged idiot thinks highly of us. He's sending us after a Semi-Grade 1 Cursed Spirit right off the bat."

Cursed Spirits and jujutsu sorcerers were generally ranked from the lowest Grade 4 through Grade 1, followed by the Special Grade above Grade 1.

Under normal circumstances, Cursed Spirits below Special Grade were no match for sorcerers of the same grade. That was why Maki said that. Though she was fairly confident in herself, shouldn't things normally progress step by step?

"I'll put up the Curtain."

"From darkness, born of darkness. Darker than black, cleanse that which is impure."

As Shen Yuanyi formed hand seals and recited the incantation, a gray-black "curtain" descended from above the hospital, blocking ordinary people from entering or seeing inside.

This concealed any unusual phenomena the battle might cause, preventing ordinary people from witnessing it and developing unnecessary negative emotions that could give rise to curses.

Not long after Shen Yuanyi and Maki entered, they spotted several Cursed Spirits with limbs like blades and needles. Watching the small fry rush toward them after noticing them, Maki pulled open her cloth bag to reveal the Naginata inside. She gripped it, twirled it behind her back, and scoffed coldly. "Ha! The weaker these curses are, the more they love huddling together!"

Maki kicked off the ground and shot toward the Cursed Spirits like an arrow loosed from a bow, the mindless creatures endlessly crying out things like "It hurts" and "I don't want to die."

Just before they collided, she exerted strength through her entire body. A powerful force burst from her waist as she spun, her feet striking the ground in rapid succession as she flashed past the Cursed Spirits in an instant.

The Naginata held behind her back had already moved with her body as she spun, carving circular trails of Severing through the air.

When Maki came to a stop, the abruptly frozen Cursed Spirits fell silent. They let out low, rasping growls before purple-black blood suddenly sprayed from their necks, waists, abdomens, and limbs. Their bodies then fell apart across the floor, scattered beyond recognition.

The moment Maki steadied herself, she heard a burst of crisp applause coming from Shen Yuanyi, nearly making her stumble.

Maki turned around with dark lines on her face. Shen Yuanyi had Annihilation tucked under his arm, clapping with a serious expression. When he saw her looking over, he even praised her aloud. "Wow! That strike was amazing, Maki. Clean and decisive, every hit landed on a vital point..."

"Shut up! Hurry up and find the Cursed Spirit."

Having only killed a few minor Cursed Spirits, Maki felt oddly embarrassed by Shen Yuanyi's praise. And because he appeared to be praising her sincerely, that feeling only became stronger!

Heavens bear witness! Shen Yuanyi genuinely thought that strike had been cool. She had dashed in, used her spin to drive the blade, and Severed every vital point on those Cursed Spirits. That took skill, okay? More importantly... it looked cool!

Unsure what expression to make, Maki simply walked ahead with a cold face, Naginata in hand. Shen Yuanyi waved. "I'll start searching from the rooftop. Call me if anything happens!"

After receiving Maki's response without her turning around, Shen Yuanyi climbed the hospital's outer wall and easily reached the rooftop of the five-story building. His view immediately opened up. Watching Maki charge into the dark building below with her blade, he turned and entered through the rooftop door.

These Cursed Spirits were weak. Shen Yuanyi had barely needed to put in any effort even while using Annihilation. The small fry he encountered generally couldn't withstand even a single arrow, and he still had enough control left to keep from blasting holes through the corridors and walls.

After turning another Cursed Spirit draped in something like a white bedsheet into ash with an arrow, Shen Yuanyi had to admit that it at least didn't have a bizarre appearance. It looked a little like a dark version of a Teru Teru Bozu. The longer he looked, the cuter it seemed.

Lost in random thoughts, Shen Yuanyi suddenly turned his gaze out the window. Intense Cursed Energy fluctuations had just erupted from the annex beside the main building, and he could vaguely hear a commotion coming from that direction.

It looked like something had happened on Maki's side. Shen Yuanyi didn't dare delay. He left an afterimage in the corridor, but even faster than him was a blue streak that instantly smashed the waist-high window at the end of the hallway to pieces.

Shen Yuanyi then leaped through it. Surging Cursed Energy flowed through his entire body, allowing him to cross nearly ten meters in an instant. Still in midair, he formed another arrow and shattered the window of the annex where he intended to land.

After landing safely and adjusting his stance, Shen Yuanyi carefully sensed the source of the fluctuations and thunderous impacts. They were coming from below. He was on the fourth floor, and based on the sounds, the battlefield was likely on the second floor.

Taking the stairs was too slow. Shen Yuanyi silently apologized, then placed his right hand on Annihilation's bowstring. A deep-blue arrow pointed toward the floor, locking onto the intense Cursed Energy fluctuations he sensed through layers of stone and concrete.

Maki's Cursed Energy was below the level of ordinary sorcerers, roughly at the level of a normal person. So that massive surge of Cursed Energy below had to be the Cursed Spirit! Still, he had to be careful that the aftermath didn't reach Maki. After focusing his aim for a moment, Shen Yuanyi finally caught a fleeting opportunity.

As he released his fingers, a huge hole instantly appeared in the floor, piercing downward at a slight angle. The floor immediately lost support and began to crack apart.

After entering through the main entrance, Maki appeared to be charging about recklessly, but she was actually observing her surroundings with great care. She couldn't directly perceive Cursed Spirits on her own, so she normally relied on cursed tools—namely, the glasses she wore—to see them.

Maki had no Cursed Technique, and her Cursed Energy was insufficient for exorcising Cursed Spirits. In exchange, she had gained tremendous physical ability, allowing her to use cursed tools to exorcise them.

In the Jujutsu World, a binding was the exchange of certain costs for other "things." If those were made and upheld according to a person's will, then there was also a rarer kind of binding that one was born with. Whether the person wanted it or not, this innate binding forcibly took something away while granting talent in another aspect. It was therefore called a Heavenly Restriction.

It was difficult to say whether a Heavenly Restriction brought pain or salvation, though the former was probably more common. After all, it was still a "curse"...

After easily dealing with several Cursed Spirits she encountered, Maki reached the second floor and ran into another group. Most of these Cursed Spirits were made of strips of gray-black, tattered cloth. Some were tall and narrow, others broad and fat... They poured out of the hospital rooms lining both sides of the corridor, letting out meaningless roars as they rushed toward Maki in a scramble.

Thinking they were another group of small fry gathered together, Maki charged forward again. In the narrow corridor, she used her footwork in tandem with the Naginata, sweeping out blade light that tore through everything like a gale.

Scattered, shattered Cursed Spirits littered the path Maki had crossed. Just as she was about to pursue and kill the last two rag-cloth Cursed Spirits, a sudden sense of danger made her turn her blade toward the left. She only had time to barely raise it in defense.

Then the wall to her left exploded. Several black shadows burst through the dust and shot forward. Maki only saw several black, tentacle-like objects slam into the Naginata held before her. The immense force then crushed the weapon against her body and sent her flying backward.

"Cough..."

Maki crashed through the wall behind her and landed in a hospital room. She climbed to her feet, looking somewhat disheveled, but her injuries were not serious. Before she could catch her breath, she quickly rolled aside to evade another attack. Using the floor and wall for leverage, she ran out of the room and finally saw the Cursed Spirit clearly.

It was somewhat similar to the rag-cloth Cursed Spirits from before. Most of its body was also made of filthy, worn gray-black cloth strips. Beneath them was something like black mist, within which flesh-and-blood masses could vaguely be seen squirming. It was quite large, with no limbs or facial features—or perhaps the gaps between its cloth strips were its "mouth"?

The Cursed Spirit nearly filled the entire corridor. Its flying cloth strips lashed against the walls and floor like tentacles, leaving crater after crater. Maki gripped her Naginata, a smile appearing on her battle-hungry face. "Looks like this one has some intelligence. It even knew to hide and wait for an ambush... But that makes it more of a challenge!"

Dragging her blade, Maki suddenly lunged forward. She ducked sharply beneath an incoming attack, planted a hand on the ground, sprang back up, and slashed through the cloth strips sweeping toward her. Once they hit the ground, the strips gradually dissipated into ash as though they were burning.

Under the Cursed Spirit's frenzied assault, Maki moved through its crisscrossing attacks like a fish swimming through rapids. Then she closed in and viciously slashed her Naginata across its body.

The blade cut through the Cursed Spirit's body without much resistance. Several large wounds leaked an unknown black fluid and released black smoke. Yet after being forced back again, Maki frowned. "Why does it feel like this Cursed Spirit wasn't affected at all? Did I miss its vital point?"

The black cloth slithered like living snakes and wrapped around the wounds on the Cursed Spirit's body. In the blink of an eye, it looked as if nothing had happened. A cold gleam flashed across Maki's glasses as countless details from earlier ran through her mind.

"Weakness! This Cursed Spirit seems to lack the usual flesh-and-blood body, as well as weaknesses such as limbs, a heart, or a head. But it must have a vulnerable point. Keep probing with attacks, find its weakness, then kill it in one blow!"

Maki then used the corridor and surrounding hospital rooms to fight the Cursed Spirit. In some ways, the cramped terrain was even an advantage. This 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 strips. Once cut open, it quickly repaired itself. Judging from its attack pattern, it seemed to want to trap its enemies, then drag them back to devour them with the black mist beneath the cloth. That was likely the truly dangerous part.

After dodging one dense barrage of the Cursed Spirit's attacks, Maki suddenly detected a thunderous sound. The direction was... above her! Then, within her astonishing dynamic vision, the ceiling above the Cursed Spirit suddenly shattered, and a condensed blue Cursed Energy arrow flew out.

The Cursed Spirit seemed to sense something unusual as well. The cloth strips around its body were already moving to defend it. Yet the arrow vanished in the next instant, and at the same time, a large hole opened in the Cursed Spirit's body.

Just as the Cursed Spirit's howl rang out, its body trembled, and two more perfectly round holes eerily burst open. Maki only vaguely caught a trace of something that remained in her memory. The only thing she could truly detect was the residual Cursed Energy.

Yet after being wounded, the Cursed Spirit's body began rapidly repairing itself again. Perhaps because those arrows had not produced impressive results, no further Cursed Energy arrows fell. Instead, a figure suddenly smashed through the ceiling above and crashed down toward the Cursed Spirit.

"Woohoo~"

A black wave of Cursed Energy twisted as it bloomed with light. The fist descending from above slammed viciously into the Cursed Spirit's body. The surging Cursed Energy falling with it seemed to pause for a fleeting instant, and then the terrifying force that erupted blew away all the surrounding dust and rubble.

Half the Cursed Spirit's body turned to ash, revealing the nauseating sight beneath the cloth strips. Its true body was a twisted mass of tangled tentacles and flesh, covered with several bizarre eyes of varying sizes.

"The weakness!"

Just as Maki was about to charge in, she saw Shen Yuanyi smile after landing. His left hand was already clenched into a fist and smashing toward the Cursed Spirit. Black light flashed once more. Before the howling Cursed Spirit could make any move, the writhing flesh ball hanging in midair shattered inch by inch within the distorted black radiance.

"Huh? I hadn't even put any force into it. Why did you already go down?"