A Rich Lady's Happy Crow

Silence was torn open by a sickeningly sweet, fishy stench.

Cold sweat slid from Mizuki Makoto's fingertips and fell toward his feet.

There was no crisp splash. Instead, there came the crackle of something hard scraping against dead branches.

Mizuki Makoto abruptly looked up. A barren mountain formed from countless twisted skeletons suddenly seized all attention. Ghastly white bone spines viciously pierced the purple sky. Every fragment of bone trembled faintly, emitting a teeth-grating hum like the chanting of sutras.

"Last wish?"

Feeling the chill welling up from the depths of his soul, Mizuki Makoto looked coldly toward the mountain's peak.

Atop the heaps of white bones, a half-human, half-demon monster gazed down at him. Its right eye, bearing two pupils, overlapped and revolved like an eclipse, locking tightly onto the ant trying to shake a mountain.

"Old bastard, I only have one wish."

Mizuki Makoto flexed his left hand. A faint yet incomparably pure crimson gleam gathered at his fingertips. The next second, he shot forth like a meteor and vanished from Ashiya Dōman's sight.

"It's for you, you centuries-expired slab of cured meat, to get the hell out of my body and crawl back into your grave!"

"Hehe... A counterfeit who crossed the ages. Your temperament is far more arrogant and interesting than the sorcerers of my era."

The man known as Ashiya Dōman during the Heian era let out a crazed laugh. He suddenly curled his right hand into an eerie vajra mudra. The two pupils in his eye spun madly until they overlapped, and cursed energy capable of rivaling Suguru Geto's surged forth without restraint.

It spread, then unfolded.

"Though you are a counterfeit, this body can touch Infinity. I shall offer you my highest praise. So..."

"[Domain Expansion—Withered Glory Nirvana Realm]!"

The vast purple waters vanished in an instant, replaced by an endless, desolate dead forest. Countless half-bodied stone Buddhas rose from the horizon, some gazing down with compassion, others glaring with savage fury, scattered throughout the deathly silent domain.

"My soul... has been locked?"

Mizuki Makoto's pupils contracted sharply. His soul, once leaping like fire, seemed to be flooded with molten lead at that instant, cooling and solidifying at once.

The sure-hit effect of the domain [Withered Glory Nirvana Realm]—"Soul Lock."

"Cursed energy is the metabolism of the soul."

Without the flow of the soul, cursed energy could not be refined. No matter how powerful one's cursed technique was, one would become an empty gun incapable of pulling the trigger.

If Todo Aoi had not taught him [Simple Domain], that was.

The instant before that absolute "locking" effect swept over his entire body, he staked all his focus on spreading a thin defensive layer, as delicate as a cicada's wing.

[Cosmic Guard: Red]

He frantically squeezed out the last trace of activity in his soul. Dozens of crimson repulsion waves spread around him, attempting to use the most primitive clashing force to slow the petrification's advance.

But faced with Ashiya Dōman's overwhelming cursed energy, the Simple Domain let out a grating crack. In less than three seconds, an ash-gray stony texture had already crept across half of Mizuki Makoto's body.

Damn it... I might really be finished this time.

"Brother!!!"

Todo Aoi's roar reverberated through the tunnel.

The moment Mizuki Makoto's consciousness was dragged into the domain, the body that had been "incarnated" completely went berserk. With a casual sweep of its mutated right hand, it unleashed an almost tangible shockwave that instantly sliced reinforced steel pillars into dust.

"Miss Mei Mei, now's the time! In this state, once my brother's body dies, that incarnated bastard will die with it. To protect himself, he'll definitely do everything he can to preserve my brother's body before defeating his soul. So the more pressure we put on him now, the less power he can keep inside the domain!"

Todo stared fixedly at the body emanating the aura of decayed curses, his knuckles white from excessive force.

As he explained the situation, he also pushed his mind to its limits, trying to forcibly enter that miraculous state that occurred once in 11.38 billion instances.

"Todo, putting pressure on yourself at a time like this will create unnecessary additional costs."

Mei Mei's calm, almost cruel voice descended from above.

Ten seconds after confirming that Gojo Satoru had gone missing and that Kyoto Jujutsu High's reinforcements were still on the way, she slowly lowered her phone, a professionally cold curve lifting at the corner of her lips.

"Since he is a disciple Gojo values, I'll be a little extravagant. I'll send Gojo the bill for this bad debt later—principal and interest included."

Her slender fingers traced through the air. The hundreds of black crows, previously restless with fear, now seemed to have received some divine decree and let out ear-piercing cries.

It was an utterly bizarre yet magnificent sight.

The first crow began a suicidal charge. Yet at the instant its body was destroyed, its cursed energy did not dissipate. Instead, through some connection, it was forcibly absorbed by the second crow streaking past from behind.

The second, the tenth, the hundredth...

Hundreds of crows formed a long black spiral through the tunnel. Each sacrifice added even more terrifying momentum to the next. This insane transmission of exponentially increasing cursed energy defied all reason, yet under Mei Mei's accountant-like control, it became a violent relay.

Until, at last—

It was a "Crow King," nearly pure black beneath its condensed cursed energy. The frequency of its wingbeats had surpassed the limits of physics, setting off continuous sonic booms in the tunnel as its speed reached—

"Mach 3."

Mei Mei watched the black streak tear through the darkness, whispering softly, "And an extra gift for the final payment—"

BOOM!!!

The crow, carrying the essence of hundreds of its kind, touched Mizuki Makoto's body—and black electric flames erupted wildly, illuminating the entire dim tunnel!

Using the Crow Vessel as its medium, Mei Mei forcibly triggered that phenomenon known as a miracle through this ultimate compression and collision.

—[Black Flash: Divine Wind]!!!

[Soul Domain: Withered Glory Nirvana Realm]

"Ha—Aoh!!! Even modern sorcerers can offer this monk such sweet nectar?! This truly is—"

The demonic monk, who had been sitting steadily atop the mountain of corpses, let out a bloodcurdling howl.

The indestructible forest of stone Buddhas collapsed violently beneath that blow which crossed reality and illusion, as if struck by a magnitude-ten earthquake. The pressure of its sure-hit law instantly crumbled by more than half!

"...Looks like Mei Mei's 'security fee' for this job was money well spent."

Mizuki Makoto knelt amid the shattered stone statues, purple mist steaming from his entire body. His soul was in agonizing pain, but he had reclaimed its "flow."

"Old bastard, didn't you ask me what my wish was?"

Mizuki Makoto raised his head. His gaze was unfocused from pain, but the smile he stubbornly wore even in the face of death grew ever more distinct. He forcibly simulated all the cursed energy around him as [Star's Fury].

He pointed upward, as though he could see through the domain to Mei Mei outside, collecting debts with a massive axe, and Todo, drenched in sweat.

"You old bastard, you stood up and pedaled while test-driving my body... It's time for you to get off the damn bike!"

At the very limit of their life-and-death clash, chaotic yet powerful cursed energy fluctuations finally burst in from the tunnel entrance.

"Todo! We're here!!"

Kamo Noritoshi's blood arrow tore through the air. Kyoto Jujutsu High's reinforcements had finally forced open the gates at the final moment before death shut them!

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