"Is Shier a Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer?"
Fushiguro was somewhat surprised. Although he knew the curse inside Shier was extremely powerful, wasn't the curse inside Yuji powerful too? Special Grade ratings did not work like that.
"You didn't come to training this morning, so you wouldn't know."
Gojo Satoru explained, "Don't let little Shier's appearance fool you. Even without letting the other her out, she has the power to exorcise a Special Grade Cursed Spirit~"
"That really is surprising..."
Fushiguro studied Amber again. He simply could not tell that such a shy, gentle girl was actually such a powerful Jujutsu Sorcerer.
After all, powerful Jujutsu Sorcerers were all a little abnormal in one way or another.
The three of them chatted outside while waiting for the two inside to settle things and come out.
This test's main target was not Yuji, but Nobara, who had come to the big city from the countryside.
Compared to the countryside, cities had greater pressure and larger populations. Cursed Spirits were generally much stronger and possessed a certain degree of intelligence. Nobara could deal with rural Cursed Spirits, but whether she could keep up with Tokyo's pace was what Gojo Satoru wanted to see.
It was not as though failing to keep up meant expulsion. Jujutsu Sorcerers were scarce, after all. It mainly affected a sorcerer's rating and the missions they would receive afterward.
Fortunately, neither of them disappointed Gojo Satoru. While Nobara was not particularly outstanding in solo combat and lacked both physical skill and stamina, her cursed technique was rare and powerful.
As long as someone could create a situation where the enemy was injured, whether it was a limb or blood, she could use it to inflict damage on the enemy. She was an extremely powerful finisher and backline damage dealer.
Her only weakness was that her combat ability was rather limited when she was alone. She could manage in overwhelming battles, but evenly matched fights would be difficult. In a losing battle, if she could not injure the opponent, she would effectively be banned outright.
Seeing the two emerge completely unharmed, Gojo Satoru was in an excellent mood. He had treated the three first-years to a feast yesterday, and today he took Nobara out for another meal. When she learned that everyone had already eaten once before she arrived, Nobara felt incredibly unbalanced.
Why had she arrived just one day later?!
Everyone got along extremely well. Seeing them become close so quickly put Gojo Satoru in an even better mood, but every gathering had to end eventually.
That night, after they returned to Jujutsu High, Gojo Satoru finally approached Amber alone. "Little Shier, your test is here too. It may be nighttime, but give it one more push~"
Special Grade Assessment.
"Shier's test?"
Amber had thought her own test would come in a few days. Were Special Grades really that common?
"High-grade Cursed Spirits are not numerous, but they can still be found if you look for them. Follow legends, or urban ghost stories that frighten people, and you can usually find something."
Gojo Satoru explained, "Generally speaking, mountain villages—especially remote places with religious customs—have more Cursed Spirits. Some are weak, but others are powerful enough to qualify as Special Grade."
"Is this one like that?"
"That's right."
Neither of them liked to waste time. Without further nonsense, they got in a car and headed to the airport. After flying for an entire day, they took another car to the foot of a mountain.
"There used to be a shrine here, halfway up the mountain. Several nearby villages worshipped there. During one festival, one village failed to send anyone. The next day, a mudslide struck and damaged all the surrounding villages, yet the shrine halfway up the mountain remained completely untouched. People interpreted it as the gods' wrath."
As they walked up the mountain path, Gojo Satoru explained the origin of this Cursed Spirit. "After that, the villagers became terrified of the shrine, believing the gods were punishing them. Even though they moved far away because they feared further punishment, that fear continued to accumulate until it eventually formed a Special Grade Cursed Spirit."
"So that's how it was..."
Amber nodded in understanding.
"Little Shier's mission is to exorcise this Special Grade Cursed Spirit and prove that she has the strength of a Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer."
Standing before the shrine gates, Gojo Satoru smiled as he spoke.
"But didn't Shier kill a Special Grade Cursed Spirit by herself last time?"
Amber tilted her head.
"Based on both your own testimony and Maki Zenin's, the one who killed that Cursed Spirit was not little Shier, but the other you inside her."
Gojo Satoru pointed to the faint red mark visible on Amber's chest. "Don't use her power this time, okay? We're testing little Shier, after all."
"Shier understands."
The girl nodded.
"Becoming a Special Grade may bring some trouble, but it also comes with quite a few benefits. Teacher Gojo went through a lot to apply for this, you know~"
Gojo Satoru was extremely pleased with his student's obedience. It had been so difficult. After teaching for so many years, he had never encountered a student who gave him peace of mind. Now that he finally had one, shouldn't he enjoy the feeling of being admired by his student?
Though perhaps his personality could not exactly be blamed on anyone else.
Amber was not stingy with her gratitude. In a soft, gentle voice, she said, "Thank you, Teacher Gojo."
"Very good, very good~ Now then, let's see little Shier's performance."
This place was far from the city, so Gojo Satoru could not be bothered to set up a Curtain. He simply gestured for Amber to enter whenever she was ready.
Seeing that, Amber took a breath before walking into the shrine.
She had fought plenty of Demon Beasts in her previous world. At first, their savagery and appearances had made her uneasy, but after killing enough of them, she no longer felt much about it. But... Cursed Spirits were far uglier and more horrifying than Demon Beasts. Compared to Cursed Spirits, any Demon Beast could be called handsome and delicate.
She really worried that something might suddenly jump out and be ugly enough to scare her.
Having gone without cleaning or worshippers for a long time, the shrine looked old and desolate. Unlike last time, this Special Grade Cursed Spirit's Cursed Energy filled the entire shrine, yet it had not expanded any domain. Since its presence was everywhere, Amber could not immediately pinpoint its location.
But as Amber slowly ventured deeper into the shrine, the Special Grade Cursed Spirit, which had been watching the girl for a long time and had confirmed that the other prey had no intention of entering, finally could not restrain its restless desire any longer and attacked Amber.
The next instant, a huge claw capable of tearing the girl's entire body apart appeared soundlessly out of nowhere, wrapped in Cursed Energy as it clawed toward her.
However, Amber did not even need to dodge such an attack.
A scythe nearly as large as her body appeared in her hands instantly. As Amber turned and dodged the attack, the force of her momentum carried the scythe into a sweeping slash at the claw.
Blood rained down in the next instant. Amber's scythe cut through the claw without resistance. Seeing the falling blood, Amber entered a state of Quantization and directly avoided it.
Cursed Spirits vanished after death, yet they had blood...
"Woooo!"
A shrill scream rang out from the direction the claw had come from. Accompanied by the cry, a massive fox appeared before Amber.
"A fox-shaped Cursed Spirit?"
Amber was somewhat puzzled. Cursed Spirits generally took shape according to human fears, did they not?
Probably because this is an Inari Shrine.
Black Amber was not surprised. Inari Shrines are the most common shrines in Japan. After all, Inari is a god of agriculture and commerce, so anyone can worship there.
That made sense.
The severed claw quickly turned into black Cursed Energy and dissipated. Immediately afterward, the enormous brown Fox Cursed Spirit restored its severed claw by pouring Cursed Energy into it. Hatred filled its eyes, and it vanished from its spot once more.
Amber nearly said, Looks like it has the same cursed technique as me.
It's quite simple to deal with.
Black Amber saw through it at a glance. The foundation of a Cursed Spirit is condensed Cursed Energy. Cursed Energy can form a Cursed Spirit, but a Cursed Spirit only disperses into Cursed Energy after death. Its cursed technique probably lets it survive in a state of Cursed Energy without needing to die.
Amber understood now. "That's why it spread its Cursed Energy throughout the shrine. This makes the entire shrine its territory, where it can fight or retreat as it pleases."
So you're not stupid after all.
Black Amber nodded in satisfaction.
Just as Black Amber had said, this Cursed Spirit's technique was quite troublesome. Unless someone possessed the ability to sweep through the entire shrine in a single strike, they would be almost completely helpless against it. They could only wait for it to reveal itself before getting a chance to hurt it.
But...
It was perfectly countered by Amber.
Tai Xu Sword Qi could absorb the surrounding energy for its own use. This Cursed Spirit was practically delivering itself on a platter before Amber. Besides, Gojo Satoru had already regarded this technique as her "extraordinary talent for manipulating Cursed Energy," so it would not count as being out of character, right?
With that thought, Amber simply circulated her Sword Heart and rapidly absorbed the Cursed Energy in the shrine... into Black Amber.
Don't throw garbage over here!
Black Amber complained.
But there's nowhere else to store all this Cursed Energy...
Amber felt a little embarrassed too. But Fu Hua had always been resistant to her using Cursed Energy, let alone absorbing it. She would probably be dragged into Feathered Dust tonight and beaten up.
After thinking it over, Black Amber was the only one who could store it.
Black Amber: Hmph. I really don't know what you'd do without me.
Liao Chan's Scheme.
As Amber rapidly absorbed the Cursed Energy, the Fox Cursed Spirit finally realized something was wrong. To prevent Amber from absorbing all its Cursed Energy, it could only gather its scattered power back together. Yet even so, half of its original Cursed Energy had already disappeared.
Amber felt somewhat regretful. Her Sword Heart was only at the first level, which meant she could not instantly absorb the energy within several kilometers like she could in her previous world. Both the range and speed were far too limited.
However... her opponent was likewise nowhere near as strong as those from her previous world.
Special Grade Cursed Spirits possessed a certain degree of intelligence. At this moment, how could the fox not realize that it had reached the end of the road? But that only further aroused its ferocity. Seeing the girl standing not far away, it charged at her without hesitation and opened its jaws to bite.
Though it's a Cursed Spirit, it still has the form of a fox. Canines have weaknesses that are far too obvious.
Why could a feline of the same size easily kill a canine? It was not merely because felines had faster reflexes and more agile bodies. It was also because a feline's weapons were not limited to biting with its mouth.
A rear naked choke was a fatal finishing move against canines, but against felines, a big cat could use its sharp claws to shred your arms into bloody flesh.
In comparison, canine claws lacked far too much dexterity.
Faced with such a straightforward pouncing attack, Amber did not hesitate to swing her scythe. Under Quantization, the body strengthened by Cursed Energy was no different from tofu or air. With no sensation of resistance at all, as though she were simply swinging through empty space, the Fox Cursed Spirit was effortlessly split in two.
"Very well done~"
Gojo Satoru appeared before Amber the next instant. Applauding, he said, "Although its cursed technique was countered, even without that advantage, you could have dealt with it easily after spending some time, right~"
The Fox Cursed Spirit's technique was indeed nearly impossible to deal with for Jujutsu Sorcerers without wide-area destructive power, but was Amber's technique any less disgusting?
Even if she could not simultaneously teleport, defend, and attack like the curse inside her, any one of those abilities alone was already troublesome enough.
Still, Amber's performance just now did not qualify her as Special Grade. At most, she was an extremely strong Grade One capable of exorcising Special Grade Cursed Spirits. But... that did not really matter.
After all, she had only just enrolled. When Yuta Okkotsu had first entered school, he could not even defeat a Grade Three Cursed Spirit, much less a Special Grade. He had relied entirely on the power of the Special Grade Vengeful Cursed Spirit, Rika.
The reason they could not make an exception and grant her Special Grade status through the same method this time was also because Gojo Satoru was too disobedient. And the higher-ups, who did not want another Special Grade under the command of someone as disobedient as him, already had one Special Grade student in his hands.
But as always, they could not stop them even if they wanted to. They could only use procedural delays to disgust the two of them.
Something's not right.
Black Amber suddenly said.
Something's not right?
Amber did not know why she had suddenly said that. What's not right?
I can't say for sure.
Black Amber frowned. She did not have a favorable impression of humans, so she had very little contact with them. Her knowledge had not been taught to her by anyone; rather, it came from books the Herrscher of Reason had brought her to pass the time.
She had never been interested in human nature, because there was nothing good about human nature in her eyes. Though she knew her thoughts were wrong, it was difficult to change that stereotype due to instinct.
Had this incident really been arranged merely to disgust the two of them?
Black Amber felt there was a problem. Naturally, Amber would not dismiss her concern as baseless, so she explained the matter to Gojo Satoru.
"So, the other you thinks this matter isn't that simple?"
Gojo Satoru rested his chin on one hand and tilted his head to the side, thinking about what he might have overlooked. Yet he could not come up with anything at all.
Why not ask that self-proclaimed Immortal?
Black Amber suddenly suggested.
The self-proclaimed Immortal?
That strange combination of words sounded unfamiliar to Amber.
The Herrscher of Reason. Isn't she good at this sort of roundabout thinking? Rather than us sitting here guessing wildly, why not have her think about it?
Amber nodded, then sank her consciousness into Feathered Dust.
In that snowy-white world, a familiar figure floated cross-legged in the air. Fu Hua had her eyes tightly closed and did not react to Amber's arrival.
Amber was not surprised. Because the Herrscher of Reason had left, and because Amber and Black Amber had fused, Fu Hua could not rest easy about either side. She could only move her consciousness back and forth between them. Since she was not here now, that meant she was with the Herrscher of Reason.
The girl stepped forward and called out to Fu Hua, who was on the other side.
"What happened?"
Before you continue