A Bizarre Body

The heavy impact brought no dull crunch of shattering bones. Instead, there was a muffled splash, like something heavy plunging into a deep pool.

Feng's body struck the muddy ground and instantly lost its solid shape, most of his limbs turning into a pool of clear water that splashed outward.

"Huh... it doesn't hurt?"

Beneath the moonlight, the liquid rapidly contracted and writhed, climbing back up as though alive to reconstruct a human outline.

But the body that rose again was noticeably thinner than it had been in the stairwell. Clothes that had fit him moments ago hung loosely from his frame, giving him a frail look, as though their support had vanished.

"What's going on? Did I transmigrate?" Feng's surprise carried a hint of unease and confusion.

Gravel and dead grass floated in the puddles. Before his quiet mutter could fade into the wind, a savage pressure tore through the air overhead.

Thud-!

Mahito descended like a meteor. The instant his feet slammed into the ground, his right hand had already become a long, slender spike. With a sonic crack, it drove down through the newly formed body.

The spike plunged straight through the crown of Feng's head, followed the path of his spine, and pinned him firmly to the wet earth.

There was no spray of blood, no scream of pain.

The moment the spike touched him, the firm, flesh-colored tissue around the puncture turned transparent, becoming a rushing vortex that spun rapidly around it.

Then his body actively split and stretched to either side of the puncture, like torn silk.

The "physical core" that had been pinned in place dismantled and rebuilt itself in an instant. Like a slippery silver fish, he abruptly slipped free through a blind spot in Mahito's attack.

His shapeless body gathered again several meters away. Feng's dark red eyes were filled with shock and doubt, but his survival instincts had already sent his feet flying once more.

"Whatever this is, it's definitely not a dream! Run!"

Mahito kept one hand buried in the ground and slowly raised his head.

His long hair whipped in the wind. Watching the figure fleeing wildly through the weeds, his mismatched eyes shone with almost pathological excitement.

He scraped his fingers through the soil, drawing out a trace of damp coolness.

"Wow, that's incredible!"

Mahito rose from the deep crater and brushed the dirt from his hands, his body trembling slightly with excitement.

"Your brain and heart were clearly pierced, yet even your soul's fluctuations stayed steady...

"No, should I say your 'body' itself is some kind of flowing cursed energy wrapped around a consciousness? Even I'm jealous of a structure like that."

He set off again in what looked like a casual stroll, but his form twisted with every step.

Powerful, insectlike hind legs grew from his ankles. Each push left deep cracks in the ground and launched him like an arrow toward his fleeing target.

"If you won't die, why don't we take our game a little further?

"I want to see whether you'll still make that face if this pool of water gets completely evaporated, or poured into different containers...

"Hmm, that funny little 'cursing your head off' expression?"

Mahito's arms transformed again. This time, slender, barbed chains grew from all five fingertips, carving vicious arcs through the air as he tried to hook the now slimmer body from behind.

The barb at the end of a metal chain gleamed cold blue beneath the moonlight. Curving in at a treacherous angle, it hooked precisely into Feng's left shoulder.

Squelch!

A dull sound of piercing flesh rang out, accompanied by the strange noise of liquid gushing in great quantities.

Not a trace of red blood appeared where the hook tore into him. Instead, there was only a clear, pure stream of water.

With a violent tug of the chain, a large chunk of "flesh" was ripped from Feng's shoulder.

But the instant it left his body, the substance collapsed into crystalline droplets. They traced an arc through the air before gathering back into his body as he staggered off balance.

Feng's footsteps left a trail of uneven wet prints across the grass.

His body seemed to grow increasingly thin as his cursed energy was rapidly consumed. His now oversized clothes snapped harshly as he ran, as though the frame supporting them was steadily shrinking.

Let's assume I really did transmigrate. Then that must have been my cursed technique just now... think, hurry...

As he kept adjusting his balance while running, Feng's brow furrowed tightly, and his clenched knuckles turned white.

Water... I've never heard of this. What does cursed energy feel like? I can't sense it at all!

Oh, right, emotions... feel the emotions inside me.

As he tried to grasp that abstract feeling, wisps of cold air began seeping from the previously calm surface of his body.

For an instant, the soil beneath his feet seemed to become unusually damp. Even the dead grass around him gathered tiny droplets in the sudden humidity.

Mahito landed lightly on an abandoned bench less than five meters from Feng. One hand rested on the backrest while his long gray-blue hair lashed across his facial stitches in the eerie wind.

"Oh, that's a nice expression."

The body ahead, constantly rebuilding and shrinking, was reflected in Mahito's mismatched eyes. His voice held the fervor of someone discovering a fundamental truth.

"Are you trying to find 'that'? Fear, hatred, or a shudder at the unknown?"

He leaped again, his figure twisting in midair. Both arms became enormous fan-shaped nets of distorted muscle, seeking to ensnare the constantly changing prey ahead.

"Cursed energy is the filthiest-and truest-sediment that wells up from the hollow of the soul.

"But can someone as clear and transparent as you really produce emotions that heavy?"

Mahito suddenly became extraordinarily swift. He had transformed his feet into powerful hooves, and every push drove a deep crater into the ground.

He rapidly closed in on the figure fleeing beneath the moonlight, his mismatched eyes filled with a pathological urge to dissect and understand.

"If you can't find it, why don't I give you a hand?

"If I crush your 'soul' completely, that cursed energy called 'despair' is sure to come gushing out like a fountain!"

A blade formed from a bone spike treacherously burst through the ground, stabbing straight at the sole of Feng's foot as he pushed off.

Crack-!

"Will you give it a rest!!!" Feng shouted in fury and immediately leaped hard to the side.

The sharp bone blade erupted from the soil and stabbed into the night sky, narrowly grazing the afterimage of his sideways leap.

When it came to bad luck, he was probably the unluckiest transmigrator in history. Who got sent into Jujutsu Kaisen without a system, only to be hunted by a special grade cursed spirit right from the start?

At least he had a cursed technique, and it looked like a crutch strong enough to carry him.

With that furious shout, his rapidly shrinking body used the momentum of a sideways tumble to crash headfirst through a dilapidated window into the ground-floor corridor.

Damn it... why is that emotion getting used up so fast?

Amid the crash of shattering glass, pale moonlight illuminated Feng's current appearance.

After several violent rounds of liquefaction and reconstruction, the fabric that had originally fit him clearly could not be repaired by this unknown cursed technique.

His shirt had vanished completely, exposing a boy's thin back and pale skin. His trousers were equally tattered, as though eaten away by some corrosive substance, clinging wetly to legs that had visibly shrunk.

I can probably nullify physical attacks, at the cost of that cursed energy... so for now, let's assume my cursed technique has something to do with water... water...

Feng kept thinking as he quickened his pace.

His battered, bare-chested figure rolled across the floor to absorb the impact. Then he scrambled up without hesitation and sprinted toward the doors leading out of the hospital.

In the courtyard, Mahito stopped chasing.

Rather than follow through the window, he stayed where he was. His mismatched eyes narrowed slightly as he calmly watched the frail figure recede down the dim corridor.

The manic smile gradually faded from his stitched face, replaced by the chilling, rational scrutiny of a scholar.

"His clothes are gone... and he's visibly smaller, too."

Mahito stuck out his tongue and slowly licked the stitches at the corner of his mouth. A cold gleam of understanding flickered in his eyes.

"I see. Turning into water to avoid fatal wounds isn't a perfect defense without a price.

"Some kind of 'energy' sustaining your existence is draining rapidly, and your shrinking body is the physical sign that the 'vessel' is about to run dry."

Murmuring to himself, he quickly reconstructed his tactical model.

Since his opponent's defense relied on consuming a finite reserve, simply chasing him and using piercing attacks was too inefficient.

He needed a broader, more destructive blow that would force his opponent to expend the greatest possible amount of "water" in one go.

"If you want to run outside, I'll just take a shortcut and wait for you at the finish line."

With a teeth-grating sound of shifting bones, Mahito's legs transformed into thick, reverse-jointed limbs resembling those of an arthropod.

He bent his knees sharply, stamping two deep pits into the ground, then shot skyward like a cannonball. Clearing the three-story building, he landed on the Nursing Home's roof.

Then he raced straight across the rooftop at an unbelievable speed, taking a shortcut to the spot directly above the ground-floor entrance.

Inside the corridor, the glass doors leading outside were already within reach.

Just then, the ceiling in front of the entrance suddenly cracked under an unbearable load.

Crash-!!

Huge chunks of concrete and rebar thundered down from overhead, completely blocking the way out.

Fuck, again! Feng cursed inwardly.

Amid the billowing dust and rubble, Mahito dropped from the second floor and landed firmly between the corridor and the entrance.

He allowed no time to catch a breath.

The instant he landed, Mahito's right arm underwent a drastic transformation.

This time, it was neither a sharp bone whip nor a chain. His entire arm swelled dozens of times over, becoming an enormous flesh-and-blood hammer covered in irregular tumors and hardened bone.

Its weight was enough to drag one side of his body into a tilt.

"If cutting and piercing don't work-"

A smile bloomed across Mahito's face again, filled with utter savagery.

The enormous flesh-and-blood hammer swept toward the frail figure running at him with an overwhelming force, its terrifying wind pressure tearing through the air. It nearly filled the entire narrow corridor.

"Then if I use a plain blunt weapon to completely 'flatten' you against the wall, just how much of that magical 'water' will get squeezed out?"