I Can't Fucking Use Fire Release!

Boom!

The huge rock slammed into the ground, and masses of black hair erupted once more.

Having lost the initiative right from the start, Hidan could only scramble desperately, barely fending off the attacks!

If he hadn't acted decisively and slashed straight at his own ankle without worrying about hurting himself, he probably would already have ended up in that thing's "stomach."

Even so, being so close to the mouth of the well put him in grave danger.

And his most powerful jujutsu, Death Controlling Possessed Blood, had absolutely no effect on this thing.

That left Hidan utterly frustrated!

When he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Shinji had finished dealing with the surrounding villagers, Hidan couldn't help shouting, "How the hell are we supposed to deal with this thing? It never stops!"

Shinji didn't rush to help Hidan. Instead, he began carefully observing it and retracing what had happened.

From opening the treasure chest to suddenly being attacked, then escaping the Dry Well... black hair... a strange fragrance no living creature could resist... feeding...

There's no way this thing has no weakness. I must have missed something... but what...

"Hey! What the hell are you spacing out for? Get over here and help! I can't hold out much longer!" Hidan's frantic voice rang out.

In that brief stretch of time, he had been reduced to a single kunai. His other one had been knocked away somewhere.

If that thing hadn't seemed to possess nothing but the instinct to attack, making its attacks relatively predictable, Hidan might already have been engulfed by that dense mass of long black hair.

But even though Hidan had started fighting for his life, defeat still seemed only a matter of time.

He couldn't inflict any meaningful damage on the thing's actual body, and merely cutting off the black hair it used to attack was utterly useless.

Shinji paid no heed to Hidan's plea for help and shouted instead, "Hold out a little longer! I'm looking for its weakness!"

"Akagi Shinji! You bastard! I'll remember this!" Hidan cursed. Seeing that Shinji really had no intention of coming to help, he could only pull himself together and slash frantically.

Meanwhile, with his train of thought interrupted by Hidan, Shinji began sorting through it again.

Based on what I've observed, this strange thing doesn't seem to possess any real intelligence. It's only acting on instinct...

And there's another important point. We didn't smell any fragrance while it was attacking. It only gave off that enticing scent after retreating into the well.

If it could use that scent whenever it wanted, there would be no reason to do that. In fact, if it had released the fragrance before attacking us at the start, Hidan and I might have fallen for it right then.

So, logically, this thing should have two behavioral modes. One is a luring mode, where it releases its fragrance to draw prey into its hunting range. The other is a feeding mode, where it captures prey with its black hair. From what I've seen, these two modes don't seem able to operate at the same time.

But... that's not enough! Knowing this still won't let us finish this thing off. What exactly is its weakness?

Shinji took several deep breaths to calm himself, putting everything else out of his mind. Even if Hidan slipped up and got caught, he wouldn't die right away, which would give Shinji more time to observe.

So he stopped fixating on it, set aside his earlier deductions, and began going through everything again.

Went down... opened the chest... got attacked...

Wait!

Why was I attacked?

Recalling the moment he opened the chest and was attacked, Shinji suddenly realized there was a detail he had overlooked all along.

The black hair's first target hadn't actually been him, but... the torch in his hand!

Right.

That's it! He had been so startled that all he could think about was getting out of the well, which was why he had missed it.

If he had been its first target, he would definitely have been caught off guard, and escaping wouldn't have been easy.

Thinking back now, the thing had extinguished the torch before turning to pursue him. That was why he had managed to escape with only a slightly rough time of it.

After ruling out the absurd possibility that the thing held a grudge against torches, the most likely explanation was...

"Shinji, you bastard! If you don't get over here and help-"

"It's fire!"

"Huh? What?"

"This thing's weakness is probably fire!"

"Are you sure?"

"Trust me! Hurry up and burn it with Fire Release!"

"Fine! I'll burn... I'll burn your whole fucking family! I can't fucking use Fire Release!!!"

Hidan's furious roar left Shinji feeling thoroughly awkward.

Fuck, I got so excited I forgot about that.

Forget Fire Release. The two of them were useless scrubs who couldn't perform a single fucking ninjutsu!

At that thought, Shinji turned and took off running!

"You bastard! You're really fucking running away? You... at least take me with you! Fuck!"

First Hidan looked utterly incredulous, then he launched into a torrent of curses!

I might not be human, but you're a real fucking dog!

I'm done with this!

I'm going back to the Jashin Cult!

Believing he had been abandoned, Hidan immediately lost his will to fight. He stopped stubbornly holding his ground and tried to get out of the thing's attack range so he could run away.

But getting in was easy. Getting out was hard.

How could the black hair, still hungry, tolerate the escape of the only food right "in front" of it?

And so Hidan... was screwed!

He realized he seemed to be trapped.

He had managed to retreat before because the two of them had worked together, and they had been farther away.

Now he was alone, and he had practically courted death by running right up to its lair. How was he supposed to escape?

As his thoughts fell into chaos, so did his movements.

Hidan, who had barely been holding his own, suddenly made a serious mistake. By the time he realized it, black hair had already wrapped around both his legs.

He tried to cut it off using the same trick as before, but the surrounding hair gave him no chance, swarming him in an instant!

Even though Hidan swung the kunai in his hand with all his strength, its reach was simply too short, and he was caught in the end.

Masses of black hair wound around him, quickly wrapping him into a cocoon.

Hidan could feel those vile strands trying to worm their way into his mouth, nose, and ears.

All at once, he seemed to understand why those animals had died in such a state.

At that moment, even Hidan wasn't sure whether his Immortality could withstand this.

It's all because of that bastard Shinji! He ran off on his own when it mattered most! If I survive this, I'm going to kill him!

Just as Hidan closed his eyes, cursing a certain someone a thousand, ten thousand times in his heart, he suddenly felt a searing heat, as if his skin were about to catch fire!

Shinji had returned without him noticing. Carrying two wooden buckets, he splashed the liquid inside them liberally over the black hair, then pulled a firelighter from his waist and threw it straight out!

Whoosh!

Blazing flames instantly soared into the sky!

He hadn't left to abandon Hidan and run away. After realizing neither of them could use Fire Release, he had run into the village to gather fuel.

The stuff had been genuinely hard to find, which had slowed him down a little.

Fortunately, he had still returned with all the fuel he could find before Hidan was eaten!

"Fuck, let's see you survive this!"

Watching the masses of black hair writhe and struggle in the roaring flames before burning away completely, Shinji decisively poured all the remaining fuel into the Dry Well, then threw in his last firelighter!

Amid the towering flames, he thought he heard that thing's agonized wails. They were music to his ears!