After being asked to leave the convenience store, Mashiro wandered the streets of Shibuya for another half hour.
Her stomach was still growling.
Murasame hung quietly at her waist, but her silvery blade couldn't serve as food. Until hunger actually harmed Mashiro, she couldn't adapt to it, either.
Damn it, why was adaptation so inconvenient?!
"I need to figure out how to make some money..." Mashiro rubbed her stomach as she roamed aimlessly through Shibuya late at night. "I can't starve to death before I even meet Sukuna, can I?"
That would be way too pathetic.
She turned into a relatively quiet alley, hoping to find somewhere to sit and rest, but halfway down it, she heard a strange sound.
"Heh... heh..."
It sounded like someone gasping with a hand around their throat.
Mashiro stopped short, her right hand settling on the sword hilt at her waist.
Cursed spirits. And more than one.
She cautiously peeked toward the back of the alley.
A middle-aged man in a suit had been cornered against a wall, his briefcase lying on the ground. His mouth hung open in terror, and three cursed spirits of different shapes stood before him.
Mashiro narrowed her eyes.
Two looked like skinned monkeys, their limbs long and thin. They scrambled swiftly along the walls.
The other resembled an inflated pufferfish, its round body covered in dark purple spikes as it growled at the man.
Don't recognize any of them... Mashiro muttered inwardly. These small fry never showed up in the manga.
Although she didn't recognize them, she could sense their approximate strength: somewhere between Grade 4 and Grade 3.
The three cursed spirits surrounded him. Suddenly, the pufferfish at the front swelled up and shot several spikes from its body!
The man fell to the ground in fright. The spikes embedded themselves in the wall behind him, their tips dripping with some viscous purple liquid.
Poisonous. The judgment flashed through Mashiro's mind. One look at that disgusting color told her everything.
Three of them. I don't know if I can stop them all. If even one gets past me, that man will die.
Mashiro sighed. The situation had gotten worse again.
The pufferfish swelled once more, while the two monkeys on the wall crouched down, ready to pounce.
No time to observe. If I don't act, he's definitely dead. Mashiro drew Murasame and leaped out of the shadows.
"Hey," she called.
All three cursed spirits turned toward her at once. Sensing the fluctuations of cursed energy coming from her, they grew even more agitated.
The man looked up too. Seeing a little silver-haired girl, he froze for a moment. "K-kid, run!"
"Thanks for the warning," Mashiro said, stopping five meters in front of him. Her gaze swept over the three cursed spirits before returning to the man. "But that's how the weak think."
The cursed spirits couldn't understand human speech and launched an attack. Mashiro whipped out Murasame, knocking the incoming spikes away.
Clangs rang through the alley.
Watching Mashiro hold off the cursed spirits in front of him, the man stammered, "What do you mean... the weak?"
Sigh. Ordinary people really can't pick up on these references. Only the strongest keep churning out those absurd quotes.
But this is a chance to make money! I'm not letting it slip away!
"I deal with them, you pay me. That's what I mean." Mashiro turned her head, trying to keep her voice calm. "Fifty thousand yen. Cash. No bargaining."
The man froze.
"Do you agree or not?" Mashiro asked again, keeping her eyes on the pufferfish.
"Y-yes! I'll give you a hundred thousand! No, two hundred thousand!" the man babbled. "As long as you can-"
"Deal. Fifty thousand is enough." With that, Mashiro's gaze sharpened, and she moved.
Holding Murasame diagonally in front of her in her right hand, Mashiro channeled her cursed energy and accelerated toward the pufferfish.
The pufferfish seemed startled and swelled again. This time, more than a dozen spikes fired simultaneously, covering every direction she could dodge.
"Here they come!" Mashiro charged straight into the spikes without slowing.
Just before they struck, Mashiro swung Murasame rapidly, knocking most of them away. Still, one struck her left shoulder, another her right leg, and a third her flank.
Shhk!
The spikes pierced her flesh, but not deeply-only about two centimeters.
A second later, however, intense pain hit her. Not from the punctures, but from the poison.
Purple venom traveled down the spikes into her body, making the wounds burn as though they had been soaked in sulfuric acid.
"Hiss-" Mashiro sucked in a sharp breath, doing her part for global warming.
It hurts! So much more than I expected!
Click, click. The Dharma Wheel began to turn. Adaptation had begun.
She felt the burning gradually weaken and clenched her teeth. It takes time... Adapting to this poison takes time.
By then, she had reached the pufferfish. She swung a backhanded horizontal slash. As the blade passed through it, she felt a sluggish resistance, followed by the dull sound of flesh and bone separating.
Pufferfish-exorcised.
Without sparing a moment to mourn the pufferfish's death, the two monkeys immediately entered the fray.
They leaped down from the walls, moving so quickly that an ordinary person could see only afterimages.
"Watch out!" the man shouted, warning Mashiro.
She hadn't yet steadied her footing after her charge, but her blade abruptly accelerated. An upward diagonal slash severed the claws of the first attacker, only for the second one's claws to rake her back.
Riiip-
Her already ragged tracksuit was completely ruined. Three bloody marks scored her back, burning fiercely.
She also felt poison on the claws. It differed from the venom on the spikes, producing a sharp, stinging pain.
Sneaky bastards. Three devious little geniuses in one tiny alley.
Different toxins require separate adaptations. Mashiro took a deep breath, working out how her adaptation functioned at this stage as she delivered another backhand slash.
Murasame passed across the monkey's arm. She didn't sever it, but left a wound deep enough to expose bone. Her special effectiveness against cursed spirits had taken effect: even a glancing cut inflicted considerable damage.
The monkey roared and retreated, trying to put distance between itself and Mashiro again.
"Too slow!"
Mashiro wasn't about to give it that chance. She pressed in close, using the narrow alley wall as a foothold. Kicking off it, she flipped and brought her flashing blade down from above, using her fall to add force as she slashed hard at the second monkey.
Shhk-
There was no resistance.
Murasame split its body as smoothly as cutting tofu. Exorcised.
The remaining cursed spirit froze in terror, then tried to flee with its severed arm dangling. But it was too late. Mashiro caught up and cut it in half at the waist.
"Fleeing the battlefield is no act of bravery," Mashiro snorted.
Two clouds of black smoke rose.
Murasame absorbed another two portions of cursed energy. Mashiro checked herself and found that the cursed energy within her had grown considerably stronger.
"About... the level of a Grade 3 Jujutsu Sorcerer?" she guessed.
She sheathed Murasame and turned to look at the man.
The man had been stunned speechless. He sat slumped in the corner, staring at Mashiro in lingering terror, oblivious even to the glasses he had dropped on the ground.
"I-is it over?" he asked shakily.
"It's over." Mashiro crouched in front of him and held out her hand. "Fifty thousand yen. No credit."
"Ah, yes! Here, I'll pay!"
The man fumbled out his wallet, pulled out all the cash-roughly seventy or eighty thousand yen-and stuffed it into Mashiro's hand.
"I only want fifty thousand." Mashiro counted out five ten-thousand-yen notes and returned the rest. "We agreed on fifty thousand, so that's what it is."
"B-but you saved my life..."
"Honesty is the foundation of business." Mashiro stood and tucked the cash into her pocket. "Can you walk on your own?"
"I-I think so." It took the man several tries to get shakily to his feet. "Thank you. What exactly were those things?"
"Cursed spirits. Monsters nurtured by humanity's negative emotions. Next time you see something like that, turn around and run. Don't throw your life away."
Mashiro checked her surroundings. Finding no more traces of cursed spirits, she turned and left.
Watching Mashiro's petite figure recede, the man opened his mouth. In the end, he spoke softly.
"Thank you."
Before you continue