Suguru Geto, renowned religious figure, expert in the monkey-extermination movement, and founder of the cursed spirit talent pool, once said that in his day, three jujutsu sorcerers bore the title of Special Grade, while sixteen curses did.
As luck would have it, Shoichi Kano had run into one of those sixteen.
Honestly, he was a little speechless himself. If his luck was really that good, how come he had never picked a single winner betting on horses?
Oh, right. What had he just said to the Slit-Mouthed Woman standing before him? He must have answered her question about whether she was beautiful.
A boy and a cursed spirit faced off on the deserted street, and Shoichi Kano's thoughts, which terror had scattered to the winds, gradually returned as though drawn back by invisible threads.
Huh?
He noticed something was off.
He had already answered her question, hadn't he? Why had she frozen as though she had glitched?
The cursed spirit before him still had her fingers hooked around the edge of her mask, ready to pull it off at any moment. Yet her current state made it abundantly clear that she was far from calm.
Her fingers were trembling slightly, and so were her pupils.
This lowly human boy, whom she regarded as food in reserve, utterly helpless before her might, had actually called her something so... disrespectful!
She had been born from humanity's fear of a particular urban legend, so naturally, she possessed intelligence that matched the legend's depiction of her, no less than a human's.
But right now, she wished she were a low-level cursed spirit like a fly head, acting on biological instinct alone. Then the word that had come out of the boy's mouth would not have thrown her off, and she could have simply killed him.
"What did you just..." The Slit-Mouthed Woman lowered the hand hooked around her mask. Her pupils stopped trembling, but her eyes held a mixture of murderous intent and bewilderment. "Call me?"
Shoichi Kano froze. This isn't how it's supposed to start! Isn't answering her question supposed to trigger a specific reaction? What's going on? There was nothing about this in the Slit-Mouthed Woman legend!
Wait! Something's wrong!
Shoichi Kano racked his brains, trying to recall that moment, and felt his face turn green-he remembered what an outrageous thing he had done in his panic!
But once he came back to his senses, he felt a secret thrill deep down. He figured that things were already this bad, so taking a little liberty with her would at least let him get something out of it before he died. That was hardly a loss.
Fine. I'm going to die anyway, so I might as well enjoy myself first!
At that thought, Shoichi Kano felt a little more confident. The fear in his gaze diminished as he looked at the Slit-Mouthed Woman, replaced by a hint of fervor. He even licked his lips.
The change in Kano baffled the Slit-Mouthed Woman. Wasn't this guy scared of me like a mouse facing a cat just a moment ago? How did he end up like this in the space of a few breaths?
"Let me go, Mommy!" Shoichi Kano dropped swiftly into a textbook dogeza, lowering himself to the ground while reaching out with both hands to hug her legs beneath her long coat. "I'm skinny and I don't taste good! I haven't showered in days! Mommy, instead of wasting time dealing with me, you should go catch some handsome guys and pretty girls!"
The Slit-Mouthed Woman recoiled in alarm, retreating several steps to avoid Shoichi Kano's embrace and leaving him clutching empty air.
The hem of her brown coat lifted slightly with her movements, allowing Shoichi Kano to see the contours of her legs beneath her fitted trousers. Honestly, they were slender, but not scrawny. All the muscle definition that should have been there was present; they were nothing like a pair of skeletal chopsticks.
And she did not have the bowlegs so common among Japanese girls, which earned her extra points.
"What. Are. You. Trying. To. Do?" The Slit-Mouthed Woman was getting flustered now. For a moment, she forgot she was a special grade cursed spirit capable of using cursed energy and a cursed technique. Instead, she slipped into the role of a girl being harassed by a pervert and demanded an answer, one word at a time.
In fact, if she had calmed down a little, she could have withdrawn the Simple Domain she had just established and run away. But Kano's behavior had left her too furious to think of such a simple strategy.
Normally, once she expanded her Simple Domain, designated the target of her cursed technique, and asked her question, both she and her target entered a state of mutual Inviolability until the target answered. Only then would that state automatically end.
But Shoichi Kano had bypassed that restriction!
He simply had not noticed it himself. The Slit-Mouthed Woman, too overwhelmed by emotion, also failed to notice the fluctuations of cursed energy gradually emerging from the boy.
Whether it was quick thinking under pressure or simply abandoning all restraint, Shoichi Kano discovered that this tactic actually worked. His expression immediately shifted into the "creepy pervert face" he had seen in certain films. With a strange, leering chuckle, he climbed off the ground, straightened up, and ran toward her.
Had any passerby been watching, they would have thought the pervert faces in those films were unconvincing performances, whereas Shoichi Kano, who had completely let himself go, did not look like he was acting at all!
"Mommy, let me go! If you won't let me leave, I'll keep clinging to you!" Shoichi Kano had abandoned every last scrap of shame. As the saying went, a man's knees were worth their weight in gold-but he had already cashed that in! So who cared anymore?
Kano was not a slow runner; he was a healthy, ordinary teenage boy, after all. But the creature opposite him was a special grade imaginary cursed spirit, whose physical prowess vastly exceeded his. Thus, the two began a "game" of chase inside the small circular space enclosed by the Simple Domain. The Slit-Mouthed Woman sprinted ahead, and Kano could not so much as touch a hair on her!
He could only watch the hem of her coat sway back and forth as she ran, and the sight made him itch with longing.
If only I could catch her...
If only I could catch her...
If only I could catch her!
Driven by that intense emotion, Shoichi Kano felt as though something in his brain had burst open. Streams of scalding heat flowed out of his head, surging through the intricate network of blood vessels throughout his body.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman sensed a change in the boy's "presence" behind her. She had also grown tired of this game of chase, so she instinctively stopped, intending to say something.
"I don't care what you're trying to do," she said, turning her head the moment she stopped. "You-"
Seeing her stop, Shoichi Kano's body instinctively followed the impulse in his mind!
He swiftly thrust out his right hand. At his command, five transparent threads as fine as hair shot from his fingernails, flying straight toward the Slit-Mouthed Woman's face.
Thread Manipulation!
His innate cursed technique!
The Slit-Mouthed Woman had not expected this boy-this pervert-to awaken a cursed technique under these circumstances. But her muscle memory remained intact, and judging by her perception of his cursed energy, his strength was only around that of a Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer.
If he's using his cursed technique, then let's fight!
A special grade cursed spirit versus a Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer. I have the advantage!
She deftly dodged sideways, and a pair of metal scissors formed from cursed energy appeared in her hand. Silver flashed, and she snipped through most of Shoichi Kano's threads!
As products of his cursed technique, those threads naturally vanished into the air once they lost the sorcerer's control and supply of cursed energy.
But one fine thread had still stuck to the mask on her face. Shoichi Kano closed his right hand into a fist and gave a gentle backward tug.
The white mask flew into Kano's hand, carrying her distinctive cool fragrance-a blend of green tea, sandalwood, and a faint hint of rotting wood.
When that little piece of white fabric landed in Shoichi Kano's hand, it felt almost unreal. He unconsciously squeezed it a few times, then even lifted it to his nose and sniffed.
His action brought a blush to the Slit-Mouthed Woman's ashen skin, though whether from anger or embarrassment was unclear.
When Shoichi Kano raised his head, he saw her face-the Slit-Mouthed Woman's entire face, no longer concealed by her mask.
She had a classic oval face, slightly rounded in the middle with a subtly pointed chin, its overall proportions harmonious.
Her lips, too, were classically small and delicate. The slits at the corners of her mouth were closed at the moment, tracing the shape of a smile.
Those slits were trembling slightly, however, ready to open at any moment, revealing just how unsettled the cursed spirit was.
Infuriated beyond measure by Shoichi Kano's words and actions, the Slit-Mouthed Woman remembered her cursed technique once again. She asked, "Am I beautiful?"
At that moment, the Slit-Mouthed Woman's chest rose and fell slightly, her face flushed as she fixed her eyes on Shoichi Kano, waiting for his answer. Then she could kill him!
Shoichi Kano looked at the wad of white fabric in his hand, then stared at her face for a long moment.
Actually, if he treated the cracks at the corners of her mouth as some kind of pattern, her face was quite pleasing to look at.
So the boy stepped forward and held out the mask, which his grip had crumpled slightly. While the Slit-Mouthed Woman stood dumbfounded, he gave his answer.
"In my heart, Mommy, you're the most beautiful of all!"
"Huh? Wha?!" The Slit-Mouthed Woman's mind exploded, and a rush of heat surged straight to her head.
Her face grew even redder, and her pupils trembled violently!
Since Shoichi Kano had answered her question, her cursed technique's inherent Inviolability effect had ended. But she had frozen up, unsure whether to take back her mask first or kill the lecher standing before her.
That was exactly the opening Kano wanted.
Summoning his courage, he took her hand and pressed the slightly crumpled mask into her palm.
Then he activated Thread Manipulation. Deliberately shaping the fine threads made from cursed energy into black surgical sutures, he gently stitched together the slits at the corners of the Slit-Mouthed Woman's mouth. Paired with her original cracks, the crisscrossed stitches looked rather like some unusual pattern.
The special grade imaginary cursed spirit, teased by the boy-by the pervert-stood rooted to the spot, her face faintly flushed. One hand touched the stitches on her face, while the other tightly clutched her recovered mask!
Shoichi Kano discovered that the Simple Domain trapping him had vanished at some point. He immediately summoned the newly awakened cursed energy in his body and clumsily channeled it into his legs. Turning on his heel, he sprinted away, covering nearly a hundred meters in the blink of an eye!
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