"You're seriously pulling that trick? You hideous hag!!!"
The Slit-Mouthed Woman cursed spirit was naturally displeased to hear that. Anxiety over her appearance was, after all, part of the "premise" that had given birth to her.
At the same time, she felt a little smug. At least Suguru Geto's predicament proved that Shoichi Kano was merely an exception. In most cases, her cursed technique worked just fine.
So she conjured a pair of scissors with a vicious grin and snipped at the air.
Snip! Snip! Snip! Cutting wounds erupted across Suguru Geto's body, but his cursed energy had already reinforced his flesh, so the Slit-Mouthed Woman's attacks were effective only in the loosest sense of the word-they merely slashed open his Jujutsu High uniform and left the skin underneath slightly red. They did not even draw blood.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman had no choice but to establish binding vows one after another to increase her technique's output.
Her first binding vow increased the technique's power at the cost of "reducing the Simple Domain's duration and area." The second changed the Simple Domain's barrier to "allow direct entry from outside," further boosting her technique's output.
After all that, Suguru Geto finally began to bleed. The blood spraying from his wounds looked frightening, but they were nothing more than superficial cuts.
Meanwhile, Shoichi Kano had dealt with Rainbow Dragon as well. In a burst of wild inspiration, he had wondered whether, since he could make other things out of thread, he could weave himself a pair of wings. That would let him take to the sky and fight Rainbow Dragon in midair.
The idea actually worked, but it drained his cursed energy like water, so he could not sustain flight for long.
Instead, he used the Wrongful Death Blade to fire a blade wave imbued with his "cursed technique," temporarily trapping Rainbow Dragon in a sticky web of cursed energy that he could not break free of anytime soon.
Only then did Shoichi Kano land safely and run toward the Slit-Mouthed Woman, scythe in hand.
Her Forced Q&A Simple Domain was already struggling to hold together. Her cursed energy had grown turbulent, and the barrier's boundaries were becoming indistinct. Suguru Geto could break free at any moment.
Kano began to panic too. He swung with all his strength, sending a blade wave straight through the Simple Domain's outer shell, which now allowed one-way passage, and struck Suguru Geto in the neck.
Geto, the poor bastard, had devoted most of his cursed energy to resisting the Slit-Mouthed Woman's technique and battering the Simple Domain's structure. Naturally, he had not anticipated an "attack from outside the domain."
Kano's strike disrupted his cursed energy distribution, allowing the Slit-Mouthed Woman's cursed energy to regain the upper hand in their deadlock.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman shot Kano an encouraging look.
Now Kano understood!
He promptly turned into an old farmer hoeing a field, swinging his scythe again and again to fire blade waves. The Slit-Mouthed Woman, meanwhile, turned herself into a broken record, repeating "Am I beautiful?" over and over to keep Suguru Geto locked down!
To squeeze in a few more swings, Shoichi Kano even tried communicating with "Old Man Heaven," seeing whether he could establish binding vows like "no breakfast tomorrow" or "no taxis for a month" in exchange for a little cursed energy.
Naturally, some of those utterly ridiculous binding vows could not be established. But Kano was lucky, and even a blind squirrel found a nut now and then. He always managed to scrape together another "microloan," letting him continue wearing Suguru Geto down.
At first, Suguru Geto could still defiantly spit out insults like "hideous hag." But the cursed energy in his body also had to obey the law of conservation of energy. With nothing coming in and everything going out, it was bound to run dry eventually.
And so this member of Jujutsu High's "strongest," this genius Cursed Spirit Manipulation user on the verge of promotion to special grade, was worn down by an almost idiotic tactic until he collapsed from exhaustion and passed out!
At the same time, the Slit-Mouthed Woman's Simple Domain shattered with a crash. She could not even be bothered to put her mask back on. She simply held one hand against her ample chest, bent forward, and panted, utterly spent.
Unfortunately, Suguru Geto had yet to grasp the secrets of Loan Kaisen. Otherwise, he surely could have borrowed against something and kept grinding away at them!
Kano figured that if he was going to put on an act, he might as well commit to it. He inched over to Suguru Geto and delivered a heavily altered version of Toji Fushiguro's line from the original story to the unconscious, exhausted boy. "Thank your parents. Without their protection, I honestly don't know how you would've survived this long."
The Slit-Mouthed Woman also struggled over to Shoichi Kano. A few of the stitches at the corners of her mouth had snapped, so Kano reached out and stroked them, feeding in a tiny bit of cursed energy to repair the broken threads.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman gave him a look that said, I'm tired, and muttered, "...Kiddo, next time you get a job like this, go do it yourself. Mommy really can't handle it anymore."
At that moment, Rainbow Dragon finally broke free of Kano's sticky web. But without Suguru Geto's commands to guide him, he had no idea what to do. He merely dragged his battered body back and forth through the air above the Tombs of the Star Corridor, circling in confusion.
Kano watched him for a while, confirmed that he posed no threat, and quietly looked away.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman retrieved her long-handled scythe from Shoichi Kano, then used it as a crutch to inch her way over to the unconscious Suguru Geto. She adjusted her stance and aimed the blade at his neck. "Should we kill him?"
Shoichi Kano shook his head. "If he dies, all the cursed spirits stored inside his body will instantly go out of control and attack everything around them indiscriminately. That would be bad for us."
The Slit-Mouthed Woman raised her scythe slightly, but her tone remained vicious. "Then after all the cursed energy I wasted on him, I ought to collect a little interest, shouldn't I?"
"Do whatever you want, as long as you don't kill him." Kano shrugged.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman thought for a moment, then precisely sliced open one of the red marks on his body with her scythe. She used cursed energy to draw blood from the wound and suck it into her mouth.
Cursed spirits could grow stronger by devouring humans in the first place, since that was itself a way of creating fear. Naturally, the blood of a jujutsu sorcerer with Suguru Geto's potential contained far more "nourishment" than an ordinary person's. After drinking only a little, the Slit-Mouthed Woman felt she had recovered at least sixty percent of her strength.
"Let's go, Mom." Kano gently tugged on her trench coat, signaling that she should not get too carried away with her meal. "We should go... meet up with Toji."
As he said that, Kano glanced behind him and happened to notice the terrified maid, Kuroi, trying to pick up the USP Pistol he had dropped during the fight.
He was so annoyed he laughed. In a flash, he appeared behind her and snatched up his pistol before she could reach it, then slammed the grip hard into the back of her head.
Kuroi screamed and collapsed on the spot, unconscious.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman reluctantly stopped drinking blood. As she put her mask back on, she asked Kano, "Sweetie, what are you planning to do with that Star Plasma Vessel?"
As a cursed spirit, she could sense the signs of life in living humans more precisely, so she had long since realized that Riko Amanai had merely been knocked unconscious by a rubber bullet.
"Let's get her out of the Tombs of the Star Corridor first," Kano said. "We'll take her along when we meet up with Toji. Maybe..."
"A living Star Plasma Vessel will be more useful than a dead one?"
The Slit-Mouthed Woman rolled her eyes at him. "Do whatever you like, then. But Mommy's tired, so you'll have to carry that little girl yourself."
Kano had already expected this, so he had nothing to say. After finding the spot where he had left Riko Amanai, he scooped the unconscious middle school girl into his arms in a bridal carry and headed toward the exit of the Tombs of the Star Corridor.
But when the Slit-Mouthed Woman saw the deeply unconscious girl, a complicated look crossed her eyes.
When they left the Tombs of the Star Corridor buried deep underground and returned to the surface, they were greeted by an astonishing sight!
Shoichi Kano's jaw nearly hit the ground. What he saw proved that much of the "original plot" in his head no longer applied. He had completely lost the "information advantage" he could use to bluff his way through things!
Before you continue