A migratory bird that had strayed from its flock landed beside an inconspicuous trash can on the street. Its head swiveled all the way around to make sure no one was nearby, then, with a "Blech!", it spat out a partially digested human limb several times larger than its entire body, dropping it into the trash can.
It shook its head to fling the blood from its beak. As eerie green, slit-pupiled snake eyes replaced its black ones, the special grade cursed spirit that had escaped Hajime Kashimo began to move again...
"Newborn" was not stupid.
On the contrary, it had been born with intelligence far surpassing that of other special grade cursed spirits.
It could clearly distinguish which humans were its "food" and which were "prey" capable of putting up a fight.
And... which were the "hunters" pursuing it.
Hajime Kashimo had felt entirely different to it. That was why the newborn cursed spirit had been willing to discard every bit of food it had swallowed to get beyond his reach.
As night fell, the special grade cursed spirit, disguised as a fledgling, finally settled on the roof of an old apartment building and transformed again, this time into a seemingly harmless, docile stray cat...
Its innate ability suppressed its cursed spirit presence until it was almost undetectable.
Under cover of this disguise, its eerie green, slit-pupiled eyes began sizing up every human entering and leaving the apartment building...
Among those humans dressed in suits or casual clothes, one figure caught its attention:
His long black hair was gathered atop his head, a hairpin passing precisely through the center of the high knot to form a bun utterly out of place among the surrounding humans.
Narrow, cold eyes sat beneath a smooth forehead. Faint stitches, together with a dark blue five-panel kesa and gold-and-green jade ornaments, made this young man, whose face wore a constant bodhisattva-like smile, impossible for it to look away from amid the passing office workers and shut-ins...
Countless thoughts and ideas flooded its mind.
But in the end, they all boiled down to a single sentence-
I'm going to eat him.
Thought became action.
The shadow in the darkness grew larger and larger to the sound of swelling flesh.
As the young man turned his gaze toward it, a beast that had no business being here bared its fangs beneath the dim yellow light:
"A tiger? Here?"
Kenjaku narrowed his eyes to slits, but this thousand-year-old monster soon detected the faint fluctuation of cursed energy in the air...
"Interesting..."
He drew his hands out of his kesa.
Facing a beast far larger than himself, Kenjaku actually assumed a modern fighting stance.
Worse still, he provocatively curled his fingertips toward the tiger, which was already baring its teeth and letting out low, rumbling growls...
This was no longer a declaration of war.
This was a provocation!!!
The dim light suddenly flickered under the influence of the unleashed cursed energy.
Seizing this perfect opportunity, it rapidly changed its pupils into those of a feline with night vision. Before Kenjaku could adjust to the change in lighting, the sharp tiger claws and the special grade cursed spirit's massive body were already upon him...
Although it sensed that the person before it was no ordinary opponent, the special grade cursed spirit had great confidence in its strength and did not believe it would lose.
Thanks to its innate ability, none of the beasts it transformed into were entirely normal, purebred creatures.
It could combine the abilities and strengths of other beasts, briefly bringing all their traits together at a single moment...
And its current strike was not only three times faster than an ordinary tiger's, but carried more than six times the force behind its claws...
Even if a human armored vehicle stood before it, it was confident it could tear it apart!
"Oh~"
Kenjaku's smile gave way to a moment of surprise.
But that emotion did not linger on his face. In the time it took the tiger's claws to move a few millimeters, an expression of effortless control had returned-
Because several "vortices" had already appeared at his feet.
There was no chanting, no recitation of incantations.
Dozens of grade 3 cursed spirits, "Centipedes" with green shells and bodies several meters long, suddenly poured out of the vortices.
In an instant, the enormous tiger paw was caught in a dense mass of sharply barbed centipede legs, forcibly halted in midair just centimeters from Kenjaku.
Before it could break free of the Centipedes or change its form, a heavy punch that cracked the sound barrier slammed into the lower jaw beneath its bared fangs...
Bam-
Its heavy body flew backward and crashed into a heap of discarded household goods.
Watching the dust billow from the trash container, Kenjaku casually shook out his long-idle wrist, as though he had merely swatted a fly.
"This body is as sturdy as I expected. It seems the exercise to keep it functioning has had some effect."
His wooden sandals clacked against the cold concrete.
Amid the dust, the tiger rose again, its body swelling and changing once more. Before long, what stood before Kenjaku was a heavily built mantis, metallic black from head to toe, raising two enormous scythes...
Realizing that his strength and speed matched or even far surpassed its own, the special grade cursed spirit decisively changed tactics.
But just as the giant mantis took its stance, intent on killing Kenjaku with its soaring fighting spirit, he suddenly lowered his hands and offered a harmless smile.
"Hey, let's stop fighting for a moment~"
"How about... we talk?"
Kenjaku's voice held a beguiling gentleness.
In the instant the mantis froze in confusion, two presences sharing its very nature had already appeared beside it.
A heavy wheeze escaped its throat.
The pitch-black night and the broken streetlight concealed the faces of its "kin" beside it.
But it knew that both of them were beings of the same grade as itself, possibly even stronger...
It had provoked a powerful "hunter," the very last one it should have crossed...
It was already too late to escape...
"Change into something else. You're too big to fit inside my home."
In front of the apartment building, Kenjaku paid no attention whatsoever to the enormous psychological pressure crushing the giant mantis, or to its collapse into fear.
He merely flicked the hem of his robes and walked up the steps, leaving no room for refusal.
Knowing it could not escape, and puzzled as to why its "kin" had submitted to him, it ultimately chose to lie low for the time being.
The mantis's body broke down and melted into puddles of black water. By the time Kenjaku looked back, the tiger and mantis that had bared their fangs at him had become a meek little cat following behind him...
His lips curved into a slight smile. Kenjaku took out his key and opened the door.
And waiting behind that unremarkable door for this "Newborn" were its other three companions...