Killing intent

Yagami Jue curled his lip.

"Only twenty million a punch? When the hell am I going to save up five billion?!"

Just as Yagami Jue was about to rush over and finish Hanami off-

"Don't move!"

An utterly jarring voice, tinged with madness, came from the bushes to the side.

Then-

A young man in a striped shirt, with his hair tied in a long ponytail, came skipping out.

The Curse User-Haruta Shigemo.

He held a bizarre longsword covered in countless tiny hands and watched Yagami Jue with an amused expression.

"My, my, what a scary young man."

Haruta Shigemo pointed his longsword at Yagami Jue, a deranged smile on his face.

"Kicking a Special Grade Cursed Spirit around like a ball? I've never seen anything like it."

"But our Curtain has this whole place covered now."

"All I have to do is keep you here for one minute, and my friends can turn those little cuties over there into specimens."

Haruta Shigemo pointed toward Noritoshi Kamo and the unconscious Mechamaru in the distance.

Yagami Jue slowly turned to look at the murderous psychopath who had been so infuriating in the original story.

The killing intent in his eyes instantly boiled over.

"Friends?"

Yagami Jue's voice was quiet, yet carried a bone-chilling coldness.

"You mean those higher-ups hiding in the shadows, too scared to even show their faces?"

"Or do you think that ugly mug of yours is worth twenty million?"

"Oh, stop it. My head is worth quite a lot, you know."

Haruta Shigemo giggled, and his figure suddenly blurred.

"Cursed Technique: Miracles!"

Using the energy from the "miracles" he had stockpiled, he tried to teleport behind Yagami Jue for a sneak attack.

This was the trump card that had kept him alive.

As far as he was concerned, no matter how strong Yagami Jue was, he could do nothing to him if he couldn't see his movements.

"Miracles?"

Yagami Jue stood where he was, without moving so much as a foot.

"With my True Perception over a hundred and twenty thousand, you might as well be moving in slow motion."

Yagami Jue didn't even turn around. He simply swung a backhand slap.

Bam!

Yagami Jue carefully controlled the force of that slap.

Rather than killing Haruta Shigemo outright, he struck him square across the cheek.

"Pfft-!"

Haruta Shigemo spun a full three hundred and sixty degrees in midair, spraying teeth and blood in every direction.

His body slammed into a nearby rock like a battered spinning top.

"You... how could you possibly catch me...?"

Haruta Shigemo clutched his grotesquely swollen face, his eyes filled with utter horror.

His Miracles had actually failed?!

"Catch you?"

Yagami Jue walked up to him, grabbed his ponytail, and hauled him off the ground.

"You think you're worth the effort of 'catching'?"

Yagami Jue raised his hand and delivered another resounding slap to Haruta Shigemo's other cheek.

Smack!

"That one's for the trees you scared just now."

Smack!

"And that one's for having a face I don't like looking at."

In the distance, Noritoshi Kamo was completely dumbfounded.

He rubbed his eyes, disbelief written all over his face.

"That... isn't that Haruta Shigemo, the insane Curse User on Jujutsu Headquarters' wanted list?"

"He's being held up and slapped around like a little chick?!"

Noritoshi Kamo swallowed. Suddenly, all the superiority he had once felt at Kyoto Jujutsu High seemed like a complete joke.

Before Yagami Jue, Jujutsu Sorcerers and Curse Users alike seemed to have only one option: getting beaten up.

"Stop... stop hitting me... I'll pay! I'll pay!"

Haruta Shigemo had been beaten into a complete breakdown.

Whatever mental fortitude his twisted mind possessed had been utterly pulverized by Yagami Jue's sheer physical brutality.

"I have... thirty million yen on me! It's all in my pockets!"

"Thirty million?"

The moment Yagami Jue heard there was money involved, his eyes softened considerably.

He expertly searched him and, sure enough, found a thick stack of checks and cash.

"System, deposit it."

[Ding! Deposit successful! Account balance: 130 million yen!]

"Tch. Broke bastard."

Yagami Jue casually tossed Haruta Shigemo toward Hanami like a piece of trash.

"Get lost. Don't dirty my hands."

By then, Hanami had crawled out of the wreckage.

Hanami's severed arm was writhing as it regenerated at an excruciatingly slow pace.

Looking at Yagami Jue, Hanami's eyes showed an emotion called "fear" for the first time.

"Retreat..."

Hanami sent the order directly into the minds of Haruta Shigemo and the other Curse Users.

"This human... isn't someone we can handle right now..."

"Trying to run?"

Yagami Jue sneered and was about to give chase.

Suddenly, his system panel flashed an urgent red alert.

[Warning! The host's disciples-Junpei Yoshino and Asakura Yuki-are facing an extremely dangerous situation!]

[Location: Southeastern side of the forest.]

[Danger level: Special Grade!]

"Junpei and Yuki?"

Yagami Jue's gaze abruptly turned icy.

He remembered that Hanami was supposed to be the only invading Special Grade in the story.

Had his arrival sent even this part of the plot spiraling out of control?!

"Fuck! I haven't even trained them into proper ATMs yet! Who dares touch them?!"

Yagami Jue abandoned the fleeing Hanami and Haruta Shigemo.

He stamped his foot.

Boom!

His entire body became a current of air moving at the speed of sound, instantly vanishing into the depths of the forest.

He left Noritoshi Kamo standing alone, utterly bewildered in the wind.

On the southeastern side of the forest.

There had once been a tranquil lake here.

But now, its waters had turned an eerie, inky green.

Asakura Yuki lay by the lakeshore, covered in blood, the heavy Iron Hammer in her hand broken.

Her legs trembled nonstop, yet she stubbornly spread her arms, shielding the gravely wounded and unconscious Junpei behind her.

"Go away... don't touch him..."

Asakura Yuki's voice was barely audible, her beautiful, wide eyes brimming with tears.

But she didn't cry.

Because she remembered Yagami Jue saying that tears were ornaments for the weak.

And before her-

A young man covered in stitches, with delicate features yet an aura of utter evil, tilted his head and studied her curiously.

The Special Grade Cursed Spirit-Mahito!

"Huh? What a surprise."

Mahito crouched and reached out with his stitch-covered hand, intending to stroke Asakura Yuki's cheek.

"You don't have even a trace of Cursed Energy, yet you survived one of my attacks through physical strength alone."

"Tell me, what shape... is your soul?"

"If I turned you into a caterpillar covered in tentacles, what kind of face would Yagami Jue make?"

Mahito's lips stretched into a grotesquely twisted smile.

"Don't... don't say my teacher's name!"

Finding strength from somewhere, Asakura Yuki suddenly grabbed a rock and hurled it hard at Mahito's face.

Smack.

The instant the rock approached Mahito's skin, an invisible layer of soul-infused Cursed Energy deflected it.

"Oh my, quite a temper."

Mahito stood, his gaze turning sinister and cold.

"In that case, I'll just eat you first."

"Idle Transfiguration-!"

Mahito's palm instantly became a mass of eerie purple light as he thrust it down toward Asakura Yuki's forehead!

At that critical instant!

"Get the hell... away!!!"

A thunderous roar descended from above!

Then-

At that very moment, a terrifying surge of air pressure struck the waters of the entire lake.

And split them clean in two!

Rumble-!!!

A black blur appeared before Mahito in an instant, like a meteor falling from the heavens.

Bam!

Before Mahito's hand could touch Asakura Yuki-

An enormous fist, carrying the power to destroy everything, slammed into the side of Mahito's face!

That punch-

Punched tiny black fissures into the very air!

"Pfft-!"

Mahito's entire face caved in and twisted in an instant, its stitches snapping apart.

His body skipped wildly across the water like a tattered sack, traveling hundreds of meters before finally slamming into the stone wall on the opposite side and collapsing into a pile of pulp.

Yagami Jue landed in front of Asakura Yuki. He had moved so fast that friction had even sent sparks flying from his school uniform jacket, leaving wisps of white smoke rising from it.

He did not turn around.

He simply stared coldly at the distant ruins.

"Teacher..."