Premature Death

As they entered the village, an inexplicable pressure enveloped them. Riko Amanai fell unusually quiet, shrinking behind Suguru Geto.

"Something's wrong. The curse here should already have taken shape. Why is it still accumulating cursed energy?"

Suguru Geto's gaze turned grave as he fixed his eyes in one direction, where the cursed energy was strongest and the chill most sickening.

A cursed spirit...

Riko Amanai was no longer an ordinary person. She, too, could feel the malice crashing over them.

"What... happened here?" she asked. "Didn't the intel say it was an ordinary Grade 2 Cursed Spirit? Why is its cursed energy almost on par with Grade 1 now? Did the school's intel go wrong again?"

Again... The word reached Suguru Geto's ears, sending a chill through him.

A Semi-Grade 1 Cursed Spirit. Faulty intel.

But Suguru Geto knew perfectly well that this time, the intel wasn't to blame.

Someone was unconsciously releasing enormous amounts of malice. There was only one reason the cursed spirit hadn't destroyed the village yet.

It treated this place as a natural buffet. All it had to do was stay in the village, and it would have an endless supply of curses to feed on.

"There's something wrong here," Suguru Geto concluded at once. Jujutsu sorcerers couldn't consciously create cursed spirits. Only ordinary people who couldn't control their cursed energy output could do that.

That meant someone had to be trapped in despair or resentment.

Was the cursed spirit keeping humans like livestock?

No... Ordinary people couldn't see cursed spirits, and killing them with curses wasn't their first choice.

After all, cursed spirits only killed ordinary people when there wasn't enough despair, using their deaths to spread fear.

But now...

Suguru Geto sensed the endless stream of malice. It came not from a cursed spirit, but from humans.

Hatred, resentment, disgust.

Like a tangled knot of threads, like overlapping needles, it swept over their skin with the wind, leaving a faint sting.

"What on earth happened here..."

Suguru Geto picked up his pace. The eerie scene stirred unease in his heart. He had to reach the cursed spirit quickly, eliminate the threat, then investigate why the curses were accumulating.

"Hey, Geto? Wait for me!"

The cursed spirit was subdued. It was a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit, and the situation wasn't as bad as he'd expected.

It was only a step away from becoming a Semi-Grade 1 Cursed Spirit and had already begun developing a special ability.

Suguru Geto held a pale pink orb in his hand. The cursed spirit had been huge and bloated, with only two feet and no other limbs.

Its head, however, had been enormous, with black eyes bearing blue irises scattered irregularly across it.

Its ability was to burn-to burn away the kindness in people's hearts and amplify the ugliness of human nature.

It posed no threat to a sorcerer. Suguru Geto had subdued it with little effort.

He pressed the orb into his mouth and swallowed. An indescribable stench rolled down his throat, like a filthy rag that had just wiped up rotting, maggot-infested ground meat, forced all the way down into his body...

This one tasted even more unbearable than the Special Grade ones. Suguru Geto clutched his neck and dropped to one knee, raising a hand to stop Riko Amanai from approaching.

"I'm fine. Our priority is to make sure the villagers are safe..."

"Riko, sorry for the trouble, but please go count the villagers for me. I'll check what's happening at the source of the cursed energy."

At his words, Riko Amanai gave Suguru Geto a worried look, then followed his instructions.

The school had indeed assigned them to take a head count as part of the cleanup. Besides, the cursed spirit had already been subdued. What other unexpected trouble could there possibly be?

And so Riko Amanai temporarily left Suguru Geto's side.

Then... everything went wrong.

By the time she came to her senses, more than half the village had already been destroyed.

Riko Amanai tried to stop Suguru Geto, only to be knocked unconscious by a cursed spirit controlled through Cursed Spirit Manipulation. She survived only because of the unusual nature of the blood in her body.

Suguru Geto... had defected.

At the center of the cursed energy vortex, Suguru Geto realized, once he actually set foot there, that he had still underestimated human cruelty.

He had just finished his work, and the stench in his throat hadn't fully subsided. Yet the sight before him made him press his thumb against his forehead, trying to ease the swelling ache of his chaotic thoughts.

"What is the meaning of this..."

He fought back his nausea to ask the question that made his head throb.

"What does it mean? These two animals are the cause of all our problems!"

His body trembled with anger.

His nail dug into his forehead, and the pain helped him calm down a little.

"No..."

Children... Two terrified girls, breathing rapidly, their bodies covered in injuries. Nothing remained in their eyes but fear.

The slightly older, dark-skinned girl held the other, fairer girl protectively in her arms. Her injuries were severe, and the other girl seemed unable to open her eyes for the moment. It looked as though she had taken a heavy blow...

Anger...

"These two aren't right in the head!" a villager accused hysterically from behind Suguru Geto. "These two animals have been hurting people all along, using their damned abilities to attack the villagers!"

His fingertip kept digging into his forehead. Suguru Geto kept forcing himself to stay calm, but the shrill malice continued plucking at the taut string in his heart.

"I've already subdued the source of the problem..." Suguru Geto still wanted to explain that the girls weren't to blame, but someone else cut him off before he could finish.

"My grandson was nearly killed by them!"

"He did that himself..."

"Shut up, you little bitch!" It was the old woman who had just spoken. "Your parents were monsters, too! We should have strangled you the moment you were born!"

Like a beast without a thought in its head, concerned only with its own desires. Even when its claws and fangs pierced someone else's skin, it merely licked off the blood and carried on.

Suguru Geto glanced at a cursed spirit about to be born. Right beneath his eyes, openly and without restraint, it bared its fangs and reached toward the two girls.

Yet the girls looked numb, as though they had long since grown used to it.

This wasn't the first time?

Heh... Hahahaha.

Everything became clear...

Ignorant adults, trapped within the cramped, narrow worldview they believed in, were pouring merciless malice onto two children who could see cursed spirits.

Suguru Geto didn't know whether it was because of that cursed spirit's ability, but all he felt now was the heart beating in his chest turning cold.

If only there were no curses!

Suguru Geto smiled, a smile of relief.

This time, the burden on his shoulders didn't merely grow lighter. He threw it off entirely.

He was done...

Exhaustion,

weariness,

disgust!

Toil!!

Running everywhere!!!

Everything,

time after time,

over and over and over and over again!!!

For what?

What was any of it for!

Who was I even doing this for?

My junior died for these ignorant animals?

For people like these!

They're the reason my companions keep dying, one after another. This marathon of subduing cursed spirits keeps stretching on because of these monkeys!

How many people in those mountains of corpses had he known? How many of the dead had died for these ridiculous ideals?

They were why there was no end to the cursed spirits, no way to slaughter them all. These people who deserved to go to hell were the reason others died before their time!

I hate them...

Snap!

The string broke...

"Everyone... let's step outside for a moment."

Suguru Geto had never felt as light as he did the instant those words left his mouth.

The tangled thoughts in his mind finally fell into place.

All I need is for there to be no curses.

Flames surged... In an instant, the houses became shattered ruins.

That cursed spirit, the target of this mission, appeared again with its head covered in eyes. He would use it to end this futile labor. He would let it open a new farce.

Wails filled the village as despair rose together with curses.

Well, what do you know? These monkeys die just like everyone else. There's no difference at all...

"No, no, no! Please, spare me!"

Well, what do you know? You can beg for mercy, too. You understand how precious life is...

"Wait, I have money! As long as you... Aaaah!"

Well, what do you know...

For the first time, the light left Suguru Geto's eyes. Only one thought remained in his mind.

An idea so extreme that his former self would never have dared voice it. A task so simple that his present self could accomplish it with ease.

"So it wasn't that much trouble... So it was this simple..."

He spoke in a low voice, commanding the cursed spirit to kill another monkey, and continued his work amid the victim's piercing screams.

Whenever a cursed spirit formed, he subdued it as a matter of course and swallowed that revolting taste.

Subdue, absorb, repeat.

For the first time, he felt his work was this simple. For the first time, he felt he was finally no longer wasting his efforts.

"Geto? What are you doing!"

A girl's voice reached him. That voice, which had given him a headache throughout the journey and made him wish he could get away, now sounded so distant.

It was Riko Amanai.

She stared in horror at the carnage before her. Flames, blood, and severed limbs flooded her vision.

She demanded to know why Suguru Geto was doing this, why he was mercilessly killing innocent villagers!

There was no response, only silence. The boy, still only in his teens, didn't spare her so much as a glance.

Right before her eyes, Suguru Geto ordered that cursed spirit to slaughter another villager.

That was his answer...

Riko Amanai drew on the cursed energy in her body, manipulating her blood with her still-unpracticed control to try to stop him. But her opponent was Suguru Geto!

One of the three strongest!

There was never any doubt. Riko Amanai lost.

When Suguru Geto failed to complete his mission by the deadline, the Assistant Supervisor rushed to the scene to investigate and found only the unconscious Riko Amanai.

And the village destroyed by cursed spirits, with cursed residue scattered everywhere, all pointing to Cursed Spirit Manipulation...

"Hello, is this Mr. Yaga? Suguru Geto... has defected!"