The mall's first floor

The mall's first floor was unnaturally quiet.

Shelves lay toppled on the floor, a plastic mannequin in the children's clothing store had broken in half, and a stroller was wedged behind a checkout counter.

Long Xi stepped over broken glass, tiny crunches coming from beneath his soles. Flames danced against his palm, bathing the next ten meters in red.

He hadn't started by setting the whole place on fire.

There were people alive here.

Without knowing where they were hiding, turning up the flames would make this rescue a one-way trip to the crematorium.

"Kawahara said they were in the staff passage on the east side of the third floor."

Long Xi looked up.

The escalators had stopped, and the elevator doors stood half-open, with two partially eaten corpses piled inside.

Several insect-like, low-grade cursed spirits crawled beside the bodies. At the sound of him, they all turned his way.

"Don't look at me. I didn't ask to share a table."

The instant the low-grade cursed spirits lunged, Long Xi took half a step back.

Not out of fear, but to draw them away from the elevator entrance.

As the first one leaped into the air, he caught its forelimb with his left hand. Cursed energy burst down his arm, and he slammed the thing into the wall.

The second came around from the side, faster than the first, sliding along the floor like a mass of blackened, wet cloth.

Long Xi pivoted on his heel, dodged its jaws, and drove his knee into its head, pouring flames into it through the strike.

Bang.

The cursed spirit's head exploded into black smoke.

The remaining ones sensed trouble and started climbing higher.

Long Xi raised his hand and hurled two compressed fireballs. One severed the piping on the ceiling, while the other exploded in a corner, its flames cutting off their retreat.

Forced back to the floor, the low-grade cursed spirits had barely landed when he flicked the Emperor Bell with a finger.

A clear chime rang out.

The weak cursed spirits froze, then were swallowed by fire.

[Finally, he's stopped being an Ultra Bomb. That's right, this is how you're supposed to use fire!]

[Don't knock him. Yesterday was an immersive tour of a monster's oral anatomy.]

[Go on.]

[Anyone here from Chunshuitang? Send the streamer some gifts and ask him about the details of the anatomy. Then everyone can benefit!]

Long Xi resisted the urge to swear.

He climbed the escalator, keeping each step as quiet as possible.

There was more cursed residue on the second floor. Scorched handprints marked the walls, as though someone had used cursed energy while fleeing. Around the corner, a faint barrier fluctuation still lingered, already on the verge of dissipating.

Long Xi knocked on the wall with his knuckles.

"Anyone there?"

No answer.

He tried another approach.

"Kawahara over in the parking lot sent me."

This time, movement immediately came from behind the wall.

A woman's hushed voice came through a door.

"Mr. Kawahara? Who are you?"

Her voice was steady, at least steadier than an ordinary person's.

Following the voice, Long Xi found the door to a staff break room.

Shelves barricaded it from inside, and several paper talismans lined the gap around the door. Their edges had curled, their cursed energy nearly exhausted.

A cursed technique? Or something else?

Weird... did the original story have things like this? Suddenly I feel like a fake fan.

"Long Xi, student at Jujutsu High. You have two choices: open the door yourselves, or I take it apart."

"I recommend the first. I'm not paying for repairs."

There were two seconds of silence behind the door.

Then someone slowly moved the shelves aside.

The door opened a crack.

A woman in a black uniform stood inside, her purple hair tied tightly back. Her left shoulder was bandaged, and she held a short blade in her right hand.

Nine others stood behind her: three official assistant personnel and six ordinary people. Among the civilians were a mall security guard, a cashier, and a young brother and sister.

The woman looked at the bandages on Long Xi, then at the fire in his palm. Only then did her tense shoulders relax a little.

"Chiharu Takayanagi, assistant supervisor." She gave her name, her gaze gradually easing.

"Is Mr. Kawahara still alive?"

"He is." Long Xi glanced at the wound on her shoulder. Huge tooth marks remained on it; a cursed spirit had probably bitten her.

"He asked me to bring you back."

Someone in the break room immediately teared up, looking ready to cry. Takayanagi didn't get excited right away. She first turned to check the head count, then sheathed her short blade at her waist.

"There were eighteen of us originally. Seven died along the way, and one was dragged off by a cursed spirit..."

"Seven can walk on their own now. Two need support, and one child has a fever and can't move quickly."

"I should be able to help a little...

She wasn't dead weight. She was official personnel, after all... This woman knew everyone's condition clearly, and even the order in which she spoke prioritized evacuation.

It really was impressive.

"What's the route?" Takayanagi asked. "Back the way we came?"

"We're not going at ground level."

Long Xi raised a hand and sketched a simple route in the dust.

"We'll enter the subway station from the mall's first basement level. The subway line has two connecting passages, and one is close to the parking lot's underground passage."

"There are still a lot of cursed spirits roaming aboveground, and they've wrecked most of the terrain. The route upstairs is too risky."

"The subway station has poor reception and damaged lighting. It'll be easy for cursed spirits to trap us... but we're less likely to encounter high-level players than aboveground..."

"You handle the group. Don't let anyone wander... I'll cover the front and rear..."

"By yourself?"

"What else? Send you up there to give the cursed spirits a snack?"

It was the sort of remark that deserved a punch, but it actually eased some of the tension in the room.

The older brother blurted out a complaint.

"That kind of hurts, you know..."

"Hm?"

Long Xi patted the fire axe in the boy's hands.

"Hold on to that axe. Better hurt feelings than a slit throat."

Such exuberant vitality, everyone brimming with life.

The barrage of comments still hadn't stopped, especially after the viewers spotted the wounded beauty.

Long Xi glanced over the comments without responding to a single one.

Finding them painful to look at, he turned them off.

Before they left, Takayanagi divided the remaining paper talismans between two assistant personnel, then used the last of her cursed energy to dab concealing cursed residue onto the civilians' wrists.

It was a delicate touch and not particularly powerful, but it could reduce the chance of low-grade cursed spirits picking up the scent of living people from a distance.

This must be her innate cursed technique. Was it just ordinary white paper before she touched it and turned it into this?

That's a powerful ability...

Long Xi watched without saying anything. Asking about her cursed technique wouldn't do much good, after all. She was still too weak.

Her cursed energy hadn't even reached Grade 3 levels. He merely tossed her a sports drink he'd found in a convenience-store cabinet.

"Get some sugar in you. It'll be a pain if you pass out halfway."

Takayanagi caught the bottle and paused.

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it. Have Kawahara reimburse it later."

"Though I doubt the owner will ever see that money."

The group left the break room.

Long Xi led the way, keeping his flames low, just bright enough to light the path.

Takayanagi and two assistant personnel guarded the middle. The security guard and a young store clerk supported the injured, while the siblings' mother held their hands as they walked on the inside of the group.

They had just reached the second-floor escalator when a dense scuttling sound came from upstairs.

"Stop."

Chiharu Takayanagi reacted quickly, instinctively raising a hand to halt them.

Long Xi had already looked up.

More than a dozen twisted, revolting faces peered over the third-floor railing, all belonging to low-grade cursed spirits.

They clung to its edge like a string of broken lanterns.

The next second, they all jumped down.

One civilian nearly screamed, but Takayanagi clapped a hand over their mouth.

Long Xi didn't retreat.

He stepped onto the escalator's side rail, forced cursed energy into his calves, and shot diagonally upward.

Before the first cursed spirit could land, he caught it by the neck in midair. Flames curled from his palm, setting its entire body ablaze, and he hurled it behind him like a burning weight.

It knocked two cursed spirits over.

A third slipped around the line of fire and lunged at the side of the group.

Takayanagi drew her blade and met it. A thin layer of cursed energy coated the short blade as it slashed across the spirit's forelimb, but failed to sever it.

The impact knocked her half a step back. The middle-aged security guard immediately followed up with his axe. Its edge couldn't directly injure the cursed spirit, but thanks to the fiery cursed residue Long Xi had left on it earlier, the blow forced its attack off course.

Still on the escalator, Long Xi flicked the Emperor Bell with his other hand.

The chime rippled out, freezing the cursed spirit. Takayanagi seized the opening, plunged her short blade into the residual core in its head, and burst cursed energy from the tip.

That short blade... was it a cursed tool?

The cursed spirit dissolved into black smoke.

The impact left Takayanagi's wrist numb, but she still looked up at Long Xi.

Long Xi had already slaughtered his way through the rest.

There was no showing off. Every strike was short.

His fists shattered joints, his flames sealed off escape routes, and the Emperor Bell sounded only when the cursed spirits' numbers threatened to overwhelm him. He conserved cursed energy and time, while keeping the fight away from the civilians.

Thirty seconds later, the escalator entrance was quiet again.

Long Xi landed back at the head of the group. The wound on his shoulder had reopened slightly, staining his bandages red.

This is still pushing it a little...

But as long as I don't run into anything above Grade 2, it won't be a problem. Even a Grade 2 cursed spirit couldn't exorcise me!

When it came to beating Megumi Fushiguro!

Long Xi was brimming with confidence!

"Um... are you all right?"

Long Xi turned to find Chiharu Takayanagi looking at him with concern-or, more precisely, at his wound.

"Not bad. Got anything to stop the bleeding?"

"I still have some bandages..." As soon as she said it, Chiharu Takayanagi handed Long Xi the medical supplies she carried on her back.

Long Xi said nothing else. Once he had bandaged himself, he started moving again.

The group continued toward the first basement level.

The farther down they went, the damper the air grew, and the stronger the stench of cursed spirits became.

The subway entrance was at the end of the mall's underground passage. Its rolling shutter was jammed, leaving only a person-high gap.

Beyond it was pitch-black. Wind blew out from within, carrying the smell of railway tracks and standing water.

Long Xi stood before the entrance and shone his firelight inside.

Deep in the tunnel, something dragged its body along.

That's a lot of cursed energy. And it feels disgusting.

He glanced back at the others.

"From now on, don't make a sound."

Takayanagi tightened her grip on her short blade again.

"Is there something inside?"

Long Xi stared into the darkness.

"Yeah."

"And it's heard us, too."

(Is anyone reading? Feels like no one is...)

(Could you give me five stars?)

(From now on, I'll add an extra chapter for each five-star rating. Hoping to reach 100; I'll stop adding extras then.)

(I should be posting extra chapters over the next few days. Let's get the word count up to around 80,000 first.)

(Also, I'm not that familiar with all the lore in Jujutsu Kaisen. If I get anything wrong, you can tell me, or join the fan group.)

(A QQ group, to be precise. I'll create one the day after tomorrow.)