Solo Kill: Suguru Geto

"Die!!!!"

Suguru Geto roared, and at his command, Rainbow Dragon charged out, sending the seemingly defenseless monster flying!

As fast as a streak of white light, the dragon drove his enemy hard against the pitch-black earthen wall.

But he wasn't finished. Changing direction, he flew straight toward the Tombs of the Star Corridor, intent on crushing his opponent inside the buildings.

Yet Toji Fushiguro reached out from atop the dragon's head, locking onto Suguru Geto's head from afar with his extraordinary senses.

Bang, bang, bang!

Three shots rang out, but the bullets were blocked by a cursed spirit Suguru Geto summoned. The instant they struck its remarkably elastic skin, they stretched out three protrusions, just like Monkey D. Luffy from a certain shonen manga.

The attack failed. Rainbow Dragon drove Toji Fushiguro straight through three more rows of buildings, pinning him beneath his hard head and grinding him down for several seconds before gradually fading away.

With a dark expression, Suguru Geto jumped down and approached the wreckage left by the collision. He had meant to confirm the man's death, but a human silhouette gradually emerged through the dust...

"Don't be so impatient..."

Fushiguro looked at the black-haired boy nearby, the sneer never leaving his face.

He turned and strolled into the passage on the left, as casually as if he were wandering through his own backyard.

"The Tombs of the Star Corridor and the Cursed Warehouse have [concealment] barriers, so their entrances aren't guarded."

"That means anyone who knows where the entrances are can come and go freely."

"At this time of year, jujutsu sorcerers are busy as hell, and Jujutsu High is crawling with fly heads..."

As he spoke, Fushiguro casually pointed his handgun upward.

"Must be utter chaos up on the surface."

Suguru Geto listened to the man's bullshit, not to learn what he knew, but to pinpoint his location.

In a passage a short distance below, he slowly followed that blatantly audible voice through the wall, muffling his footsteps as he crept along...

Fushiguro didn't care that he could barely hear any movement. He simply continued explaining his abilities.

"Me? I have no cursed energy. That's what makes me invisible."

Tap...

The footsteps stopped. Toji Fushiguro stood on a staircase, and as the footsteps fell silent, Suguru Geto likewise suppressed the agitation in his heart.

Stay calm. I have to keep my killing intent under control...

I can't let him escape!

"But there's one problem. Whenever I hold a cursed tool, its cursed energy makes me stand out like a tagged bee..."

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Suguru Geto chose fast, virtually silent cursed spirits in an attempt to assassinate him. They resembled squid, but their heads were extremely sharp. Once launched, they easily pierced the wooden wall and shot through to the other side.

Did they hit?

"I wasn't finished."

What!

That voice came from behind me!?

He twisted around in disbelief. Sure enough, the monstrous man stood in the shadows.

He opened his mouth and pointed inside.

"I raised a cursed spirit that can store things. I have it swallow my cursed tools, then carry it around with me."

"Yeah, you don't have to tell me. I know that would make me visible again."

Suguru Geto stood at a distance, watching him silently, with no interest whatsoever in responding.

Bleugh...

The bastard spat out a disgusting ball. A cursed spirit? I really hope that thing tastes like a filthy rag too... no, better yet, like shit!

"I hide it in my stomach. That way, it can't be detected. Then I can stroll right through that ridiculous barrier carrying whatever cursed tools I want."

"That's also why I didn't use a cursed tool at first. The Six Eyes might have spotted it. Same reason I didn't go straight for the star plasma vessel..."

"Enough. It's just heavenly restriction. I know revealing your abilities can strengthen you too." Suguru Geto interrupted the incessantly talking man. He'd had enough.

His clenched fist creaked, the cursed energy coating it betraying the turmoil inside him.

It was anger.

"Answer me. How did you know where the entrance was? We didn't leave any cursed residue!"

"Tracks. Footsteps, smells, whatever. Heavenly restriction doesn't just enhance my body. It enhances all five senses..."

He interrupted the man's explanation of his abilities again. "You should have encountered a woman on the way here. What did you do to her?"

Silence. The man who could never remember people had almost forgotten that feeble woman.

"Oh, the maid."

"Who knows? Probably dead? I wasn't paying attention. I gave her one casual hit, and she dropped right there."

"If she's lucky, maybe she's still alive?"

Hearing what had happened to Misato Kuroi, Suguru Geto could no longer hide the killing intent in his eyes.

The man's five senses were enhanced, so assassination attempts were essentially useless. Besides, with Kamo Xu's jujutsu, he was far better at assassination than Geto...

In that case.

"Is that so? Then you really should just die!"

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!

In the blink of an eye, Rainbow Dragon was summoned again, smashing through the wall and rushing straight at Toji Fushiguro. But this attack was blocked. Having summoned the Inventory Curse Worm, Toji Fushiguro had already drawn the Soul-Eating Blade!

Rainbow Dragon drove Fushiguro into the air. Suguru Geto had no intention of letting this scumbag off, opening another cursed energy channel to unleash cursed spirits.

Blue light shot straight toward Rainbow Dragon and Fushiguro in midair, like meteors flying backward.

Rainbow Dragon was absurdly durable, so Geto naturally didn't have to worry about these attacks damaging his own cursed spirit. This time, he summoned them with everything he had!

Cursed spirits poured madly out of the channel as though they cost nothing. Seeing the barrage from midair, Fushiguro laughed outright. "Your attacks aren't even as dense as that Kamo Clan brat's. Are we playing house here?"

The Soul-Eating Blade slashed down, splitting a cursed spirit targeting Fushiguro clean in two. Before it could even scream, it dissolved into ash in midair.

Boom!

Fushiguro landed atop the corridor from high above, only for the rubble to surge up like a raging river. A huge, fat, one-eyed cursed spirit punched him and the ground beneath his feet into the air together!

Airborne again...

Fushiguro looked down at Suguru Geto and guessed his plan.

Keep me in the air, with nothing to push off, until you find an opening and kill me?

Ridiculous!

Fushiguro stamped down in midair, using the remaining rubble beneath his feet to launch himself toward the enormous tree!

(In the original, he was knocked straight in that direction. That didn't seem to fit Suguru Geto's combat instincts, so I changed it slightly, but it's more or less the same.)

The next attack was already coming from behind. A situation that would have seemed perilous to anyone else was nothing special to Fushiguro.

The moment his foot touched the trunk, he pushed off hard, and the attack missed. The second and third followed, and Toji Fushiguro evaded every one the same way.

Seeing that his attacks weren't working, Suguru Geto immediately unleashed Rainbow Dragon, who had already succeeded twice.

But a mistake could happen in a single instant!

Without the Six Eyes or knowledge of the plot, how could he know the abilities of the cursed tool in Toji Fushiguro's hand?

Rainbow Dragon charged out, opening his mouth to ram Toji Fushiguro again. This time, however, the man didn't take the hit. He slashed horizontally, cutting Rainbow Dragon clean in two!

"That was Rainbow Dragon, my most durable spirit!"

Sometimes, that was how battles went. One wrong move led to another, and every move became a loss!

Fushiguro hadn't just landed. He had closed the distance!

Before the bisected Rainbow Dragon could disappear, the two halves of his corpse crashed down on either side, breaking the bridge beneath them.

With both sides of the suspended walkway smashed, gravity dragged it straight toward the ground.

"Cursed Spirit Manipulation... not much to it."

Hearing the taunt, Suguru Geto actually lost his anger. His expression became more serious than ever as he kept considering his next move...

Ding!

Space seemed to freeze. Everything stopped in place, as if encased in ice.

Cursed energy so dense it seemed impossible to disperse tinted the entire world a different shade. Toji Fushiguro glanced sideways.

Oh, so that's what it is. That humanoid cursed spirit. You kept it hidden until now, so I thought it was some kind of trump card...

This is it?

[I... am I...]

"You're fucking hideous. What the hell even are you?"

Toji Fushiguro couldn't be bothered with pleasantries. He grinned and cursed straight at the disgusting creature with its crooked mouth, misaligned eyes, and blister-covered lips.

An Imaginary Vengeful Spirit. If it hadn't forcibly prohibited both sides from attacking before he answered its question, he wouldn't even have bothered speaking. He would have simply drawn his blade and cut it down.

It's just the Slit-Mouthed Woman, isn't it? Even a three-year-old knows that story...

The cursed spirit froze. Her scissors-clutching hands, already trembling nonstop, now shook as though she had Parkinson's. Clearly, he had struck a nerve.

This time, she wasn't cutting his ear. She was going for Fushiguro's head!

And not just there. His legs, abdomen, and shoulders were all targeted with lethal intent.

"So this is what it feels like?"

The good news: it was a guaranteed hit.

The bad news: Fushiguro's reaction speed rivaled Falling Blossom Emotion.

It was even better...

Still, Fushiguro didn't dare get careless. At his mental command, the Inventory Curse Worm immediately spat out the Inverted Spear of Heaven. His arm swung constantly, shattering every pair of cursed energy scissors the blade touched.

Before the cursed spirit could react, the countless cursed energy scissors had all been smashed apart. The domain had failed, leaving her no choice but to retreat.

Before Toji Fushiguro could even breathe air free of that dense cursed energy, Suguru Geto was already close!

He extended his hand, barely two meters from his opponent!

"Idiot..." Sensing that his opponent had entered his attack range, Toji Fushiguro pronounced his sentence. "You're finished."

"You're the one who's finished!"

His target was the Inventory Curse Worm!

As cursed energy surged through his palm, his tightly clenched fist finally opened. This was the moment he had been waiting for!

Drawn by his cursed energy, the Inventory Curse Worm was dragged toward him like a loach caught in a powerful vacuum cleaner!

Cursed Spirit Manipulation was a technique that allowed him to absorb subdued cursed spirits and control them freely.

If the difference is two grades or more, I can skip subjugation and use them directly!

Your cursed tool arsenal is mine...

Bang!

The instant his fingertips touched that bald head, they were repelled?

Why?

Cursed Spirit Manipulation... the subjugation failed!?

Why!

Suguru Geto had suffered another devastating setback. He didn't know that he could only absorb spirits without a master.

And this mistake... was fatal!

The Inverted Spear of Heaven's edge turned. Toji Fushiguro drew a fresh blade from the Inventory Curse Worm's mouth. At this distance, he only needed to take one step...

Steel flashed past. Two blades struck in an instant!

Two lines of blood crossed over Suguru Geto's chest, instantly leaving him gravely wounded!

Then a kick slammed hard into his chest. The blow might have broken his ribs, but Suguru Geto could no longer feel the pain.

Because that blow knocked him unconscious on the spot...

The bridge fell. This utterly one-sided battle ended at the same time. Standing on the ground, Fushiguro slowly spoke. "I held back. If you're a sorcerer, you won't die."

He walked toward the unconscious Suguru Geto. "If they were shikigami, I'd just kill you. Who knows what happens to Cursed Spirit Manipulation when you die..."

"Better not complicate things."

He kicked the boy in the face with considerable force, knocking his head to the other side.

"Be grateful to your parents... Even jujutsu users like you can lose to a monkey like me who can't use cursed energy."

"Remember that if you want to live long."

Everything... was settled.

Jujutsu High's three strongest had all been wiped out by the same man.

There had been no doubt about the outcome...

Tap, tap, tap...

The footsteps gradually returned to where it had all begun. A pitiful girl lay there alone.

Toji Fushiguro came up from below, climbing the stairs one step at a time.

"Finally over. Now I can collect my payment..."

Hm?

Something's wrong...

Is that... a heartbeat?

Fushiguro looked toward the sound, but only his bounty lay there... no, Riko Amanai.

The star plasma vessel isn't dead?

He approached and crouched, gripping the girl's chin and roughly turning her face to inspect the wound his bullet had made.

Blood churned... but none spilled out?

And a flattened bullet floated quietly atop that churning blood...

"Well... that's impressive. Protecting the star plasma vessel even after you're dead?"

So he could control other people's blood too? When did he...

Toji Fushiguro recalled what Kamo Xu had done before leaving his group, and suddenly remembered something that had seemed out of place.

"I can only help you this far. The rest depends on whether you're tough enough to survive."

Back then, Kamo Xu's hand had been... [resting on] Riko Amanai's shoulder.

"So that was when he did it."

Toji Fushiguro smiled. That guy had actually surprised him more than the other two.

Even setting aside the fact that he could hurt him, the sight before Fushiguro alone was enough to make him remember the guy for a while.

Kamo Xu, an interesting guy...

Still, it didn't matter. A dead man wasn't worth remembering for long. Maybe he'd forget him in a few days.

Toji Fushiguro tied Riko Amanai up, ordered the Inventory Curse Worm to swallow her, and strode away...