Shikigami are really their summoners' fursonas

The subway tunnel was narrower than the platform.

The group followed the maintenance passage, their feet on a slick concrete walkway. Beside them, several sections of track had been warped by the earlier battle.

Long Xi walked five meters ahead, fresh bandages wrapped around his left arm and a hemostatic patch stuck to his side.

Minor injuries.

In the culling game, that already counted as "pretty lucky today."

It was like Kangkang getting trolled with just one "Really?"

Or Zhang Xuefeng eating only one Chocliz ice cream bar all night.

A blessing amid misfortune.

Chiharu Takayanagi led the group close behind Long Xi, counting heads at regular intervals.

Just to keep some lucky soul from accidentally becoming dinner.

There was no way she could have kept these people alive all this time on her own without some ability.

Still... there was one thing Long Xi remained curious about.

"Are those talismans your innate cursed technique?"

"And how did you exchange messages with Kawahara and the others?"

Chiharu Takayanagi took out a sticky note. After a few pinches, it turned into an Origami Crane and fluttered into the air as though alive.

"This is my innate cursed technique..."

"I think there were records of it before, but my cursed energy is so low that it's hard to use..."

"You probably know twins are considered an ill omen..."

"It's the same with my older sister and me. I only managed to contact her by making one of these Origami Cranes with my technique and sending it out."

A powerful technique. Almost unfairly so.

From what he had seen alone, it offered long-distance communication, defense, and attacks.

Absurdly powerful...

What a shame. Another person held back by being a twin.

"...It's fine. You have a real talent for Assistant Supervisor work."

Assistant Supervisors weren't strong in direct combat, but they understood the scene, evacuation, and how to keep ordinary people's fear under control.

Jujutsu sorcerers smashed the monsters. They dragged living people back from the monsters' jaws.

Neither job was easy.

He shouldn't say anything more.

[I said black-stocking dynasty. Anyone get me?]

[Really? Quit trolling, okay?!]

[These NPCs are the easiest to kill off for heartbreak. Author, stop.]

[The parking garage doesn't seem safe either. They could easily end up as XP fodder.]

Long Xi's steps briefly faltered when he saw the last comment.

He was worried about the parking garage too.

Kawahara only had a simple screening barrier left, which couldn't withstand powerful cursed spirits. Long Xi had already been away longer than expected. If low-level cursed spirits gathered nearby, the garage would be in serious trouble.

Otherwise, with the ones he had cleared out while scouting outside... an accident might not necessarily happen.

But with Dhruv Lakdawalla involved, all bets were off.

That old bastard's shikigami had a ridiculous range. If he really drove a horde of cursed spirits over there, Kawahara and the others wouldn't even have a chance to raise the alarm.

"Pick up the pace." Long Xi looked back. "There's a maintenance junction three hundred meters ahead. Once we pass it, we'll be close to the garage's underground passage."

Chiharu Takayanagi immediately adjusted the group's formation.

Everyone followed in silence. When they reached the maintenance junction, Long Xi raised a hand to stop them.

Actually, even if Long Xi hadn't stopped them, they wouldn't have kept going. Here, in a high-speed rail tunnel buried so deep underground-

Something had punched straight through it...

Sunlight streamed straight in from outside through an outrageously huge breach.

There was nothing overhead. A sickening stench of blood hung in the surroundings, and the ground held plenty of remains flattened into QR codes.

Even a wild Cybertronian trying to comfort a Hakimi probably couldn't have flattened them this evenly.

There was no question who had done it.

One of Dhruv Lakdawalla's two shikigami: the one with enormous teeth that looked like a summoned creature from Boom Beach.

Speaking of which, was it possible that jujutsu sorcerers' shikigami were actually their fursonas? Absolutely unhinged.

There had been at least several meters between the surface and the tunnel, yet that moving mountain of a shikigami had reduced it to this.

Everything pointed to two things: Dhruv Lakdawalla's barrier had reached this area, and that Big Furry fursona was absolutely beyond Long Xi's ability to defeat.

"Trouble."

Chiharu Takayanagi approached and swallowed when she saw his expression. They had already been walking for so long. If they had to change routes here, things would only get more dangerous.

"Do we need another route?"

"No." Long Xi stood up. "Since it's already gone, let's just pass through quietly..."

"We probably won't run into it again..."

He took a few coins and screws he had swiped from the mall out of his bag, infused them with a little flame cursed energy, and handed them to Takayanagi.

"If any cursed spirits chase us from behind, throw these on the ground. Don't throw them at people."

Takayanagi looked at the little objects radiating heat.

"Temporary cursed tools?"

"Temporary bombs."

"Will they hurt ordinary people?"

"That's why I said not to throw them at people."

"But I don't think anyone in the Jujutsu Society uses cursed energy this way..."

"..."

Chiharu Takayanagi went quiet for a second, then put them away.

"You really make it hard to stay touched for more than three seconds."

"Three seconds is enough. Any longer gets awkward."

"Are these really reliable?"

"They should work with your talismans, right?"

"Thank you for having so much faith in me..."

"Mm... probably won't explode," he muttered.

The group continued forward.

The closer they got to the parking garage, the more low-level cursed spirits appeared.

At first, there were only a few scattered ones, which Long Xi picked off from a distance.

Then their numbers began to rise. Things crawled out of the pipes above the maintenance passage, cracks in the walls, and beneath abandoned trains.

They weren't strong, but there shouldn't have been so many gathered here.

The unease in Long Xi's heart was fully confirmed.

Was something else herding them?

He stopped holding back his pace and moved to the rear of the group.

"Takayanagi, lead them forward... when you reach the connecting door to the garage, get it open... someone should be there to receive you..."

"You're covering the rear?"

"Yeah."

"Can you still hold out?"

Long Xi raised his left arm, flames lighting between his fingers.

"Ask them whether I can."

The first wave of low-level cursed spirits pounced.

There were more than a dozen, ranging from grade 4 to grade 3.

The narrow passage left no room for large attacks, so Long Xi compressed the flames into a current flowing close to his body, cutting them apart as he retreated.

His cursed-energy-enhanced body let him change direction in the tightest spaces. He planted his left foot on the wall, shattered a cursed spirit's head with his right knee, then used the recoil to land back on the ground.

But low-level cursed spirits had one advantage: they didn't care if they died.

A cursed spirit with half its body burned away lunged along the ground and grabbed his calf. He had barely kicked it off when another dropped from the pipes above, its claws raking his back and tearing his clothes.

Clearly, though, it couldn't even break through his defenses.

Without so much as a frown, he reached back, grabbed the thing's head, and slammed it into the wall.

Flames exploded against the wall.

When the black smoke cleared, a patch of scorch marks remained.

[Those numbers aren't right. They really look like they're being herded.]

[Streamer, don't get bogged down. Get back to the garage first.]

[Three more in the left pipe behind you!]

Long Xi raised a hand and flicked the Emperor Bell.

Its chime echoed through the pipes, stunning three cursed spirits that had only poked halfway out.

Long Xi kicked a scrap of iron up from the ground and coated it in flame. It spun through the air, impaling all three cursed spirits along with the pipe opening.

"Takayanagi, hurry!"

"Almost there!"

Takayanagi's reply came from ahead.

The group had reached the connecting door.

Knowing the danger, Chiharu Takayanagi had reached the doorway ahead of everyone else and was waiting for someone to let them in.

Kawahara's voice came at the same time.

"Who's there?"

"Chiharu Takayanagi! Open the door!"

The sounds of vehicles and shelves being moved came from behind the door.

The pressure on Long Xi grew heavier.

Another wave of cursed spirits surged from the depths of the passage, packed together like garbage pushed along by water. Long Xi couldn't let them reach the connecting door, or they would overwhelm the entrance the moment it opened.

He pressed his flames down to the ground, drawing a horizontal line of fire.

"Cross the line, pay the toll!"

The leading cursed spirit stepped onto the line, and flames instantly engulfed her. Before she could get her whole body across, she had turned to charcoal.

Even those that tried to retreat were shoved relentlessly forward by the ones behind them, forced across the line.

Long Xi smashed one's head with his fist, then followed through by kicking its corpse back into the horde.

Boom!

The flames inside the corpse erupted a second time, blocking the passage for three seconds.

Three seconds was enough.

The connecting door finally opened.

Kawahara stood behind it. At the sight of Takayanagi and the survivors, he looked as though someone had shoved him hard, nearly losing his footing.

"You..."

"I brought back everyone who was still alive! I'll give you the list of the dead later!"

Kawahara's lips moved, but he only nodded hard.

The survivors were ushered inside one by one, while the people in the garage came forward to help.

Long Xi was the last to retreat through the door. His flames could still hold, and once he was inside the barrier, those things would no longer be a problem.

As soon as he entered, Kawahara noticed the fresh wound on his back and the bandages around his left arm.

"You're hurt again."

"Nothing major."

"But every time you say that, it never looks like nothing major."

Long Xi patted his shoulder.

"We brought them back. Be happy for a couple of minutes first..."

Kawahara looked at Takayanagi, then at the ordinary people they had rescued. His eyes were terribly red... he lowered his head and gripped the talisman paper in his hand, taking a long time to squeeze out a single word...

"Thanks."

Long Xi didn't acknowledge the thanks.

He turned to look at the garage entrance.

The low-level cursed spirits that had chased them all the way here didn't keep charging the door. Instead, they gathered in the distance. That scraping sound traveled from the subway passage all the way to the outside of the garage, dense and growing ever denser.

Chiharu Takayanagi noticed it too.

"They haven't dispersed?"

The joy that had just risen on Kawahara's face was crushed back down.

"What's going on?"

Long Xi stood in the shadows of the entrance, his fingers closing around the Emperor Bell.

There was the scent of something else in the air.

A trail.

The dangerous trail left behind by a passing shikigami.

This wasn't merely a gathering of cursed spirits.

Someone was herding them here.

Dhruv Lakdawalla.

The worst had happened-that furry fanatic had actually followed them here!

Long Xi raised his head and looked into the darkness beyond the parking garage passage.

"Everyone, fall back inside."

Kawahara went pale. Long Xi's wary reaction alone told him this was bad news.

"Something else is coming?"

Long Xi did not turn around. Flames slowly kindled in his palm.

"Yeah."

"This one's going to be a lot more trouble than the last."