Overwhelming force

It wasn't over yet.

Yagami Jue flitted among the remaining three like a phantom.

He had no need for flashy moves.

Absolute strength!

Absolute speed!

This was domination through the purest Taijutsu!

Bam!

A heavy left hook slammed into the second thug's jaw.

The thug didn't even get a chance to scream. His whole body left the ground, flipped once in midair, and crashed into a filthy puddle, knocking him out cold.

His jaw had been shattered!

"Stay back! You monster! Stay back!"

The third thug was scared out of his mind, flailing wildly with a switchblade.

Disdain flashed in Yagami Jue's eyes. His left hand shot out like lightning and clamped precisely around the man's wrist.

He twisted hard!

Crack!

Clang!

The knife fell to the ground. The thug's wrist had been wrenched out of its socket, and cold sweat poured off him from the pain.

Yagami Jue followed through with a shoulder throw, slamming him into the ground!

Only one thug remained, his hair dyed red.

Looking at his companions sprawled across the ground and wailing, he instantly soaked his crotch. The stench of urine spread through the rain.

"I... I'll give you money! All of it!"

Trembling, the redhead pulled a fistful of crumpled bills from his pocket and held them out to Yagami Jue with both hands.

Yagami Jue snatched the bills.

System, deposit, he said silently.

[Ding!]

[130,000 yen in cash detected. Deposit successful!]

[Current account balance: 330,000 yen]

Only after hearing the system notifications in his head did Yagami Jue's mood improve a little.

He slipped his now-empty hand back into his pocket and looked down at the redhead.

"I'll take the money."

As though granted a pardon, the redhead scrambled to flee.

"Did I say you could leave?"

Yagami Jue's icy voice came from behind him.

The redhead froze and turned around, his face filled with despair. "You... didn't you take the money...?"

"You offered me that money yourself."

Yagami Jue drove a vicious kick into the redhead's stomach.

Bam!

The redhead doubled over like a shrimp and flew backward into the wall, foaming at the mouth as he passed out.

"But you'll still have to pay for the distress of robbing me with your bones."

In less than three minutes.

All five vicious-looking thugs lay on the ground, unable to fight.

Some had broken legs; others had fractured bones.

Their screams rose one after another, turning the alley into hell on earth.

Yagami Jue didn't spare them a glance, as though he had merely crushed a few ants.

He turned and walked toward Asakura Yuki, who was huddled against the wall.

Asakura Yuki watched him approach, radiating violence. Her little face went deathly pale, and she instinctively shrank back.

"Yagami... Yagami..."

Like a frightened rabbit, she stared at him with large, watery eyes full of fear.

Yagami Jue stopped in front of her.

He frowned slightly at the girl's pitiful appearance.

In the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, weak ordinary people like her, utterly incapable of protecting themselves, were the most likely to attract curses.

In fact... she already had.

Yagami Jue's gaze passed over Asakura Yuki's head to the wall behind her.

There, a mass of purplish-black mist resembling sludge, invisible to ordinary eyes, was writhing violently!

The temperature suddenly dropped by more than ten degrees.

A nauseating stench of decay spread through the air.

"A cursed spirit..."

Yagami Jue narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze turning razor-sharp.

This was the real reason he had come to this back alley today.

Half an hour earlier, while still at school, he had already detected this faint cursed spirit presence.

Although he had no cursed energy, his system-enhanced body possessed extraordinarily keen senses, allowing him to instinctively detect this cold, negative energy.

The system had told him that killing cursed spirits had a chance of yielding substantial cash rewards, or even special Taijutsu items!

If he wanted strength, if he wanted money, he had to take the initiative!

He had originally thought it was just some worthless Grade 4 cursed spirit.

But now...

The purplish-black mist gradually condensed into a solid form.

A monster over two meters tall, with three deformed heads and a body covered in pustules, slowly crawled out of the wall!

All three of its mouths let out infant-like cries at once.

"It hurts... it hurts so much..."

"Let me... eat your flesh..."

Thick saliva dripped from the corners of its mouths, hissing as it corroded the concrete beneath it!

A grade 3 cursed spirit!

And a Semi-Grade 2 cursed spirit on the verge of advancing to Grade 2, at that!

The extreme fear and despair the thugs had just released had directly accelerated its formation!

Although Asakura Yuki couldn't see the cursed spirit, she could feel a bone-chilling cold creeping up behind her.

She trembled uncontrollably, her teeth chattering. "Yagami... why did it suddenly get so cold...?"

Yagami Jue didn't answer her.

He ranted furiously in his head.

Fuck! Didn't the original story say that little places like Sendai City rarely had high-grade cursed spirits as long as you stayed away from the fingers?!

How the hell did a casual stroll down a back alley land me in front of something almost Grade 2?!

A Grade 2 cursed spirit was a monster that required shotgun-level firepower or a Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer to deal with!

With my stats only just raised to around twenty, could I take it head-on with my bare body?

"System, bring up the panel!"

Yagami Jue drew a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

[Host: Yagami Jue]

[Account balance: 330,000 yen]

"Put every last bit into Strength!"

[Ding!]

[330,000 yen successfully deducted!]

[Strength +33! Current strength: 52!]

Boom!

The instant the system notification ended!

Yagami Jue felt as though a volcano had erupted inside him!

Suffocatingly powerful strength surged wildly through every inch of muscle and every bone in his body!

His muscle fibers tore and rebuilt themselves at an unprecedented rate, becoming harder than steel!

Even his height increased a little in that instant.

His school uniform, which had looked slightly loose before, pulled taut over the bulging muscles beneath it!

"Hiss-"

Yagami Jue clenched his fists. Feeling the power in his palms, as though he could crush the very air, he curled his lips into a wild grin.

"That's the stuff!"

His Strength had broken through fifty!

Now, he was confident he could stop even a dump truck hurtling along at full speed with a single punch!

Just then.

The three-headed cursed spirit seemed to sense the dangerous aura erupting from Yagami Jue.

It let out a piercing shriek, abandoned Asakura Yuki on the ground, and lunged at him!

"Die... die..."

Three gaping, bloody maws opened at once, revealing densely packed fangs as they snapped viciously at Yagami Jue's neck!

It moved with incredible speed, trailing a nauseating gust of foul air!

"Yagami, watch out!"

Although Asakura Yuki couldn't see the monster, she saw the air in front of Yagami Jue distort and instinctively screamed.

"Just what I wanted!"

Ferocity blazed in Yagami Jue's eyes.

Instead of retreating, he surged forward, driving both legs against the ground!

Boom!

Under that single push, the concrete beneath his feet instantly fractured into a vast web of cracks!

Chunks of stone flew!

Yagami Jue shot forward like a cannonball, charging straight into the cursed spirit!

"Can't exorcise a cursed spirit without cursed energy?"

"Fuck your rules!"

"If my fists are hard enough to blow apart the air itself, what the hell is one lousy cursed spirit?!"

Yagami Jue roared, veins bulging along his right arm as he concentrated all fifty-two points of Strength into a single point.

His waist and stance moved as one.

A straight punch without a single trick.

But the speed and power of that punch had already broken the sound barrier!

Bam!!!