Special Grade Cursed Spirit

The thought that a special grade cursed spirit might be lurking inside this abandoned mine sent waves of excitement surging through Chinatsu.

For her, fighting grade 1 cursed spirits no longer counted as training. After all, she could kill them instantly by raising her hand and firing off a few shots of "Blue."

Special grade cursed spirits were another matter entirely. Even the strongest grade 1 cursed spirit would be utterly crushed by the weakest special grade cursed spirit.

Grade 1: even a tank could not deal with it.

Special grade: even carpet bombing with cluster missiles would be useless.

Standing outside the abandoned mine, Chinatsu let out a breath, a faint light flickering in her azure eyes.

Please, let it be a special grade...

Chinatsu muttered inwardly. Other jujutsu sorcerers desperately hoped they would not encounter overly powerful cursed spirits. Only Chinatsu was this unconventional.

With that, Chinatsu stepped into the mine.

The mine was dim and cramped. Had the Six Eyes not enhanced Chinatsu's perception, the terrain alone would have knocked an ordinary jujutsu sorcerer's strength down a notch.

Chinatsu's footsteps echoed through the abandoned mine. The cursed energy residue was distributed so evenly throughout it that she could not immediately pinpoint the cursed spirit's location.

Yet that very evenness made Chinatsu all the more hopeful about the grade of the cursed spirit lurking within.

At the very least, it had to be at the top of grade 1!

Chinatsu forced down her excitement and ventured deeper into the abandoned mine. As ordinary people pushed farther into unknown territory, fear of the unknown would gradually take hold of their minds and throw them into disarray.

Chinatsu, however, was completely unaffected. She hardly looked as though she were venturing into a dangerous, dark, cramped cave. Instead, she looked like someone returning home after a long absence, smiling as she glanced around, looking here and there.

This utterly exasperated the cursed spirit secretly watching Chinatsu from the darkness. It grew increasingly restless until it finally snapped.

Cursed spirit: This is my home! Not yours!!!

In an instant, the rock wall above and behind Chinatsu shattered. A non-humanoid cursed spirit resembling a four-legged beast leaped down from above, striking straight at her back.

But its claw strike hit nothing, stopped by the invisible barrier formed by Chinatsu's "Limitless Defense."

The cursed spirit's eyes shook as it sensed that invisible barrier. In the instant before Chinatsu's Limitless power could immobilize it, it performed a spinning flare in midair. The moment it landed, it hurriedly leaped backward to put some distance between them.

The cursed spirit stared fixedly at Chinatsu. Corrosive saliva dripped from its fang-filled maw, eating away at the ground.

"That amount of cursed energy... those reflexes... it really is a special grade cursed spirit!"

Looking at the savage, beastlike cursed spirit before her, Chinatsu could no longer suppress her smile. Her lips spread into a crazed grin.

Chinatsu longed for a breakthrough, and a sufficiently intense battle was the best fuel for pushing past her limits.

Chinatsu raised her hand, shaped it into a finger gun, and shouted with a broad grin, "Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue!"

Blue light instantly blossomed from her fingertip. A strange substance, like both light and flame, rapidly expanded into a small azure black hole that hurtled toward the special grade cursed spirit.

The special grade cursed spirit tried to dodge, but the powerful gravitational pull dragged it back, blasting a large hole through its body.

Although it appeared to have suffered a grievous wound, only a few seconds passed before the hole in its body regenerated at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Unlike human jujutsu sorcerers, cursed spirits had little difficulty regenerating their bodies. Special grade cursed spirits recovered at an even more astonishing speed.

Of course, human jujutsu sorcerers who learned "Reverse Cursed Technique" could do the same, regenerating severed arms or even returning from death...

Once the special grade cursed spirit's body had fully recovered, it promptly opened its bloody maw, rapidly condensing a projectile of pure cursed energy.

Within just a few seconds, the cursed energy projectile blasted ferociously through the cramped cave.

BOOM!!!

A deafening explosion rang out from the abandoned mine. Thick smoke billowed from its entrance and rose into the sky.

A savage grin spread across the special grade cursed spirit's hideous face. But before it could get more than a few laughs out, several shots of "Blue" suddenly flew out of the thick smoke, blasting several more large holes through its body as it laughed.

Meanwhile, Chinatsu slowly emerged from the smoke, raising her hand to fan the air around her.

"Unleashing that much cursed energy in such a cramped space... just what you'd expect from a cursed spirit. You really don't care about anything," Chinatsu said flatly.

Thanks to "Limitless Defense," the cursed energy cannon naturally could not harm her in the slightest. The abandoned mine, however, could not withstand such an impact.

When Chinatsu had faced the cursed spirit's cannon moments earlier, she had instantly realized that even its shock waves could put the abandoned mine at risk of collapse.

That was why Chinatsu had expanded her "Limitless Defense," neutralizing as much of the cannon's output as possible. If the abandoned mine collapsed, it would count as her defeat even if she ultimately exorcised the cursed spirit.

Still...

Chinatsu stared at the special grade cursed spirit before her. Over the years, she had trained "Blue" to the point where she could cast it instantly, even firing it repeatedly, just as she had done moments ago.

Yet now the special grade cursed spirit was regenerating for the second time. Overall, her attacks had accomplished very little.

This was Chinatsu's current weakness.

Her defense was top-tier, but her damage output against cursed spirits was nowhere near that level.

Chinatsu had already been well aware of her shortcomings, but now that she had directly witnessed a special grade cursed spirit's regenerative abilities, that weakness had become all the more glaring.

Yet as she stared at the special grade cursed spirit, another question suddenly arose in Chinatsu's mind.

There was something wrong with the cursed energy it emitted. Faint traces of a second source of cursed energy, one that had not originally belonged to it, were seeping out of its body.

Wait, this ominous cursed energy...

In a brief instant, realization struck Chinatsu. She understood exactly what the abnormality hidden inside this special grade cursed spirit was.

"A special grade cursed object, Sukuna's Finger!"