Instant kill

"Please get in, everyone. I'll take you to the abandoned streets in the eastern scenic district."

A middle-aged man wearing black-rimmed glasses opened the car door.

Looking at the black-rimmed glasses on the man's face, Sukuna rubbed his chin and fell into thought...

"What grade is the cursed spirit?"

Although Masamichi Yaga hadn't told them, they all had mouths and knew how to ask for themselves.

"Oh, you don't know yet? It's a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit." He glanced at them through the rearview mirror, then continued.

"But I didn't expect all four of you to come. It's only a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit, after all."

His words sounded perfectly reasonable, but somehow they still came across as a backhanded dig.

"Shut up and drive." Satoru Gojo couldn't stand even a little of that and snapped right back.

Suguru Geto patted Satoru Gojo's shoulder. "Satoru, we should be polite when we're out. Let's just wait until dark and beat him up then."

The man heard the two openly planning to throw a sack over his head that evening, while the girl beside them clapped excitedly.

Realizing they weren't people he could afford to provoke, he hurriedly redirected the conversation toward Sukuna, the only silent one.

"Haha, I was only joking. But why does this jujutsu sorcerer have tattoos all over him? Was he some delinquent before his cursed technique suddenly awakened?"

He might genuinely have wanted to start a conversation, but the topics he chose were clearly terrible.

The man was so oblivious to his own impending doom that even Shoko, the only relatively normal member of the trio, didn't know what to say.

After all, Sukuna was strong enough to thrash Suguru Geto, even if neither of them had used his true strength.

In any case, blowing this car apart with one kick would be no problem for him.

Watching the monkey prancing around in front of him, Sukuna had no desire to engage. With a casual snap of his fingers, he turned the sedan into a convertible.

A bead of cold sweat slid down the middle-aged Window operative's face and dripped onto his neatly pressed suit trousers. Apparently, none of his passengers were people to mess with.

All he could do was silently push the speed up to 130 and deliver them to the abandoned streets in the eastern scenic district at a pace fit for racing down a highway.

"Born from darkness, darker than black."

The moment they stepped into the abandoned streets, they sensed powerful cursed energy residue, though only Shoko thought their opponent seemed a little strong.

Grade 1 trash like this was usually left for Suguru Geto to eat.

Sukuna had clearly thought of that too. He really wanted to watch Suguru Geto swallow a filthy sewer rag.

His expression the instant he swallowed it would surely be entertaining. Unfortunately, Sukuna didn't have a camera, or he could have recorded it.

"I heard the Window discovered this cursed spirit before it had a chance to kill anyone."

Shoko clutched Suguru Geto's sleeve tightly. This was her first real battle.

"Are you scared, Shoko? You can hide in my arms and cry."

At Satoru Gojo's ill-timed teasing, Shoko immediately straightened from her hunched posture.

"Who... who's scared? I'm not scared!"

She even raised her voice a little as she spoke. Unfortunately, there was no alcohol around. A few bottles would definitely have given her courage.

"There's only cursed energy residue left. I should go a little farther in."

Suguru Geto sensed the lingering cursed energy and made a very professional assessment.

Meanwhile, centipedes kept dropping from his hands and crawling into the darkness.

These were cursed spirits he had recently subdued, and they could help him scout. Although he couldn't share their vision, they could still speed up the search.

"There really aren't any around here. Let's go farther in."

Suguru Geto pointed into the pitch-black depths of the street. Although the Window operative had sped off in a wild getaway, he had still put up a curtain before leaving.

"Then why waste time talking? Let's just go in and look."

With that, Satoru Gojo strolled in nonchalantly, his hands in his pockets.

Sukuna also kept his hands in his pockets. His scarlet eyes shone dimly in the darkness, making him look like a beast poised to strike.

"Don't be afraid, Shoko. Just stay with me."

Suguru Geto patted Shoko's hand and let her keep holding his sleeve.

With two people that strong up front, he could slack off a little at the back.

It was only a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit, anyway. He didn't need to use [Cursed Spirit Manipulation] yet.

At present, Suguru Geto seemed to be the only person who had fully mastered [Cursed Spirit Manipulation]. He could turn a cursed spirit he had beaten into submission into a black sphere and swallow it, allowing him to control it in battle. The only drawback was that once subdued, a cursed spirit could only remain at its current grade.

One feature was that if the difference in strength was large enough, he could forcibly absorb a spirit and even make its abilities his own.

However, Suguru Geto had yet to fully grasp that step at this stage. It wasn't forcibly understood until after the brain-swapping operation.

Because of the Grade 1 Cursed Spirit, quite a few Grade 3 and Grade 4 cursed spirits had gathered in these alleys.

Looking at the groups of hideous cursed spirits before him, Sukuna felt a little excited. This was his first real encounter with cursed spirits.

Even Shoko could easily exorcise these low-level cursed spirits.

"[Dismantle]"

Sukuna swept his red-glowing eyes over the surrounding cursed spirits and unleashed ordinary slashes on every spirit along both sides of the street at once.

In the next instant, the cursed spirits were cut into pieces, dark purple fluid gushing everywhere.

"Hahaha! Now this is satisfying-a large-scale slash!"

Sukuna laughed with unrestrained arrogance. Together with those red eyes, he looked even more terrifying in the dim alley than the cursed spirits themselves.

"Ah!" Shoko's sudden scream caught Sukuna's attention.

He glanced back and found she had merely been startled by the cursed spirits' corpses.

The cursed spirits that had completely lost all signs of life vanished entirely. This was what was called exorcism.

Satoru Gojo continued walking leisurely ahead, unsurprised by either what had happened behind him or the cursed spirits' deaths.

"Sukuna, why did you suddenly exorcise all those cursed spirits?"

Shoko complained quietly, mainly because she didn't dare speak too loudly. Sukuna's face looked truly savage and frightening right now. In daylight, she hadn't even noticed his eyes were red.

Compared with the innate indifference of Satoru Gojo's azure Six Eyes, those red eyes seemed particularly dangerous.

"I just wanted to see what they looked like inside. Don't you like dissecting things, Shoko? I forgot to leave any alive for you."

Sukuna glanced back at Shoko without getting angry at her questioning him. He might still need her to pay for fried chicken once they went out.

"N-no need to leave any alive for me. I'll just practice dissecting the ones Jujutsu High provides."

...While they were still talking, Satoru Gojo stopped up ahead and turned back to them with a smile.

A Grade 1 Cursed Spirit with three heads had appeared before him. Its whole body was covered in pustules, making it look particularly revolting.

Seeing people approach, the Grade 1 Cursed Spirit immediately activated its ability, spraying large amounts of yellow pus from every pustule on its body.

The flying drops of pus landed on the ground with sizzling sounds of corrosion. Their potency was probably comparable to sulfuric acid.

Its target was clear: Satoru Gojo, who stood at the front.

But the closer the pus came to Satoru Gojo, the slower it moved, until it stopped entirely about five centimeters away from him.

Seeing that its attack had failed, the cursed spirit, whose lower body was a fish tail, leaped high into the air and charged recklessly at him with its tail.

Whoom! Sounds of air being torn apart rang out overhead.

Satoru Gojo glanced at the cursed spirit still hurtling down toward him. The corners of his mouth lifted slightly, and he held out a hand.

"[Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue]"

[Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue] was an enhanced version of Limitless that could shift from "positive infinity" to "negative infinity," using powerful attraction to draw objects together and make them collide. It could also be used for instantaneous movement.

An overwhelmingly forceful surge of cursed energy erupted from him, and the rubble on the ground gathered uncontrollably at his fingertips.

Soon, a long dragon formed from massive rocks appeared before them as Satoru Gojo turned his gaze toward the cursed spirit overhead.

The dragon of rubble slammed straight into the Grade 1 Cursed Spirit. The reverse cancellation it produced made half the spirit's tail disappear.

Looking at the half-dead cursed spirit before him, Satoru Gojo waved a hand casually and tugged his sunglasses a little lower.

"Geto, go eat it."

Smiling, Suguru Geto slowly walked forward alone and stopped in front of the cursed spirit.

As he extended his left hand, the cursed spirit before him turned into a pitch-black sphere in his palm.

He opened his mouth wide and swallowed the black sphere made from a cursed spirit, with its flavor of a filthy sewer rag.

"All right, we should head back."

With the cursed spirit successfully exorcised, the curtain naturally dissipated on its own.

"We finally got a chance to come out. I'm going to buy my favorite Kikufuku!" He walked out of the gloomy alley.

Satoru Gojo pointed at the crowded street, indicating that he intended to cut in line again to buy Kikufuku.

"Satoru, didn't you just buy a whole bag to eat?"

Having just swallowed the black sphere, Suguru Geto felt his stomach churn, but his expression remained unchanged. After all, he was already used to the taste.

Like hell! Nobody could stand a taste that disgusting. He was just good at keeping his expression under control.