Chapter Summaries

Shinji realized the supposedly weak cursed spirit might be only one of several monsters trapping people in the area. In a cellar, a mother protected her daughter from a monster imitating her husband, but it found them through the wooden entrance.

• Shinji suspected that stronger cursed spirits had wiped out the guards and trapped everyone in the area.
• A starving mother and daughter waited in their cellar while the mother reassured the girl with a fairy tale about a hero.
• A voice claiming to be the girl's father returned with food, but the mother recognized it as a monster because it failed their secret-code test.
• The monster imitated a victim begging for help, but the mother kept her daughter from opening the cellar entrance.
• The monster split the wooden board above the cellar and stared down at the mother and daughter, calling them food.

A toad-like Grade 2 Cursed Spirit terrorized Runichi and her daughter with her husband's severed head, but Shinji killed it and hurried on to hunt more monsters. After learning he and Hidan could earn cursed soul points more efficiently by splitting up, Shinji began fighting alone and attacked two Big-Headed Monster Infants.

• The toad-like Cursed Spirit broke into Runichi's cellar and used her husband's severed head to torment her and her daughter.
• Shinji dropped into the cellar and killed the toad monster with a single slash, then left without speaking to Runichi.
• Runichi took her daughter away from the unsafe cellar, while her daughter believed the Hero would defeat the monsters.
• Shinji considered the cursed soul points he earned for exorcising spirits and learned that his bond with Hidan let him gain points from Hidan's kills.
• Shinji and Hidan split up to hunt monsters separately, and Shinji cut down one Big-Headed Monster Infant before attacking the second.

Shinji watched a Blue Monster chase fleeing refugees while a Kusagakure ninja deliberately sabotaged them to feed the monsters’ appetite for despair. The Kusagakure ninja trapped a long-haired man, but the Blue Monster ignored him and charged at the long-haired man instead.

• Shinji killed two Big-Headed Monster Infants and spotted a Blue Monster pursuing a group of refugees.
• Shinji hid in the shadows, wary of fighting the enormous monster without his recently used technique.
• A Kusagakure ninja kicked a refugee into the monster’s path and revealed that he had been sabotaging people to survive by stirring up fear and despair.
• The Kusagakure ninja attacked a long-haired man with fire techniques, then restrained his foot with a Water Whip as the Blue Monster drew near.
• The Blue Monster ignored the Kusagakure ninja and charged at the trapped long-haired man, leaving him shocked.

Shinji fought a powerful blue monster and survived its hidden poisoned-needle attack. He left the creature fatally wounded and destroyed its head with Blood Manipulation: Blood Star Burst.

• Shinji cut off the blue monster’s forelimbs and hind legs, leaving it helpless on the ground.
• The blue monster revealed that the brown fur on its back was a swarm of camouflaged furball monsters, which launched poisoned steel needles at Shinji.
• Shinji activated Flowing Red Scale, expelled the needles and poison from his body, and stopped the bleeding.
• Shinji sent Blood Manipulation: Blood Star Burst into the blue monster’s mouth, exploding its head and piercing many of the brown furball monsters.

Shinji slaughtered cursed spirits and people in the ruined town, building up cursed soul points and lighting the Seven Kill Lamps. He continued searching for monsters, intending to report the mission complete after killing them all.

• Shinji killed one Grade 1 and twenty-three Grade 4 Cursed Spirits, raising his cursed soul points to 5,200.
• Shinji doubled back and killed the hiding Kusagakure Ninja, then took his bloodstained Forehead Protector as evidence.
• Shinji found two groups of desperate people fighting near a house where several women hid, but the groups joined forces to attack him.
• Shinji killed more than a dozen attackers, lighting the Seven Kill Lamps and preparing to use Cloak-Breaking Strike.

Hidan became trapped in a shifting cave and was overwhelmed by a powerful Cursed Spirit. Shinji followed him inside, recognized the labyrinth as a pseudo-domain, and realized a Special Grade Cursed Spirit was waiting there.

• Hidan slaughtered the lizard monsters and entered a cave whose entrance vanished behind him.
• Hidan waited in the winding caves, but a four-eyed monster appeared, stole his Bloody Triple-Bladed Scythe, and severed his arm.
• The monster struck Hidan through a wall, broke several of his ribs, and sent his spinning scythe flying toward him.
• Shinji tracked Hidan to the cave entrance, buried [Perfect Perfume] outside, and went in after him.
• Shinji identified the shifting caves as a pseudo-domain created with massive Cursed Energy and concluded that a [Special Grade Cursed Spirit] was inside.

Shinji found Hidan captured by the special grade cursed spirit Greed and began a fight to rescue him. After activating Flowing Scarlet Scales: Load, Shinji landed a powerful blow, but Greed healed itself and counterattacked with a devastating blast.

• Shinji confirmed that the space was a pseudo-domain without a cursed technique, then hurried through it to find Hidan.
• Shinji found Greed holding Hidan's head while Hidan's dismembered body was mounted on a cave wall, and Hidan asked him to kill the cursed spirit.
• Shinji accepted Hidan's quest to eliminate Greed and cut it into eighteen pieces, then activated Flowing Scarlet Scales: Load.
• Greed pinned Hidan to the wall and rushed Shinji with the Bloody Triple-Bladed Scythe, but Shinji reacted faster and crushed its chest with a punch.
• Greed healed its chest with Reverse Cursed Technique and fired an orange-yellow blast that Shinji dodged.

Shinji fought the bald, four-eyed cursed spirit, using a surprise slash and Blood Blades to set up Blood Manipulation: Maximum Technique: Blood Deception. The wounded Shinji faced the spirit again and revealed his next attack, leaving its effect unknown.

• The bald, four-eyed cursed spirit fired powerful blasts of compressed cursed energy, and Shinji dodged and endured them with the help of Flowing Scarlet Scales: Load and immortality.
• Shinji used Cloak-Breaking Strike to split the spirit from its waist through its head, but it began regenerating because its core remained intact.
• While the spirit healed, Shinji stabbed it repeatedly with eighteen Blood Blades made from blood bags and his own blood.
• The spirit fused itself back together and punched Shinji through a wall, cracking the bones in his arms.
• Shinji explained that the Blood Blades had turned to liquid and seeped into the spirit, then announced Blood Manipulation: Maximum Technique: Blood Deception.

Shinji used Blood Deception to cripple the bald, four-eyed cursed spirit, then cut him into exactly eighteen pieces. He returned to Hidan and pulverized the cursed spirit with Extreme Star Rockfall, leaving the threat apparently destroyed.

• Shinji activated Blood Deception, causing the blood inside the bald, four-eyed cursed spirit to trigger a severe hemolytic reaction.
• Shinji cut the weakened cursed spirit into eighteen pieces while counting each slash.
• Shinji returned upstairs carrying the pieces, and Hidan celebrated his victory while demanding to be freed.
• Shinji explained that Blood Deception was still draining the cursed spirit's cursed energy and that it would regenerate if he waited.
• Shinji used Extreme Star Rockfall to turn the cursed spirit's pieces into spiked balls that collapsed and exploded into powder.

After defeating Special Grade Cursed Spirit-Greed, Shinji collected the mission rewards and recovered enough to put Hidan back together. He left with new cursed-energy insights and a reluctant, badly stitched companion.

• Shinji exorcised Special Grade Cursed Spirit-Greed, earning 5,000 cursed soul points, and the spirit's innate domain dissolved.
• Shinji checked his rewards, finding the Greedy Eyeball, 100 bond points, another 5,000 cursed soul points, and Black Flash.
• Shinji studied the Black Flash insights, then got up feeling confident he could defeat the cursed spirit with his fists.
• Shinji smacked and lectured Hidan, who blamed his defeat on the spirit stealing his weapon and ambushing him.
• Shinji pried Hidan's body parts off the wall and stitched him together, while Hidan complained about the crooked, uneven repair.