Live combat

Ijichi parked the car in front of a shopping mall.

Although it was a shopping mall, it was pitch-black and deserted.

"This is HAPINA Shopping Street. Almost all the shops here are closed now. The original plan was to demolish this place and bring in a large shopping mall. During an earlier inspection, we confirmed that low-level cursed spirits were gathering here. Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer Inumaki, sorry for the trouble, but please take care of these cursed spirits."

Ijichi raised his head, adjusted his glasses, and gave Toge Inumaki his assignment.

But Toge Inumaki, who should have been standing in front of him, was nowhere to be seen.

"Huh? Where did Sorcerer Inumaki go?" Ijichi asked in surprise.

"Oh, Inumaki? He went to buy something at the convenience store nearby. Over there," Akutagawa Shang explained, pointing to the convenience store on the street corner.

"Please come again." The convenience store's electronic announcement sounded just then.

Toge Inumaki slowly walked out, carrying a transparent plastic bag.

"Hey, what did you buy?" Yuta Okkotsu asked, looking at the plastic bag in Toge Inumaki's hand.

Toge Inumaki said nothing. He simply took the item out of the bag and showed it to everyone.

"I'll explain. That's throat medicine. It's used to ease the backlash suffered by Cursed Speech users," Akutagawa Shang explained to the other two.

"Back to the matter at hand. In short, it would be a problem if a building they paid for turned out to be haunted later, so they've asked us to deal with the curses now, while they can. Understood?"

"Salmon," Toge Inumaki replied.

"Then I'll lower the Curtain. Good luck, everyone." Ijichi extended his right hand as he spoke. As his words fell, a pitch-black veil covered the shopping street, separating the three of them from Ijichi.

"Let's go, then." Akutagawa Shang beckoned the other two along and headed deeper into the shopping street.

"It's so desolate," Yuta Okkotsu said, looking around.

"The information said business here had never been very good. It looks like it's been empty for a long time."

The entire shopping street was dilapidated. It was clear no one had come here in a long time. There were even quite a few bags of trash left undisposed of around the corners, leaving the place filthy and chaotic.

"Akutagawa, Mr. Ijichi said there were a lot of weak curses gathered here. Can you sense where they are?" Yuta Okkotsu asked Akutagawa Shang.

"Spicy cod roe."

"Hmm, let me see. Yes, there are a lot of little curses here." Akutagawa Shang glanced around and reached his conclusion.

"Then where are they?" Yuta Okkotsu asked shakily.

"They're already here."

"Huh?"

A child's aggrieved whisper suddenly drifted past Okkotsu's ear. "Mom's so unfair..." He hastily looked down. A black fish cursed spirit with large, bulging eyes and a narrow, pointed mouth swam through the air out of nowhere.

There wasn't a drop of water in the entire area, yet this cursed spirit floated freely as though it were underwater.

But it wasn't the only one. Soon came a second, a third, a fourth...

Countless strange black fish poured endlessly out of every corner of the shopping street.

They gathered in front of the three, countless black fish weaving together into an enormous swimming school.

The school constantly changed shape in midair, finally gathering slowly into a black sphere in perpetual motion. The black sphere suspended in the air churned continuously, tiny fish shadows darting across its surface.

"They really are weak curses. The weaker they are, the more they like gathering together," Akutagawa Shang said with a chuckle.

"But aren't there way too many?" Yuta Okkotsu swallowed, his sword hand trembling slightly.

"There are quite a few, but they should be just right for practice. Wait a moment, Toge. Let Yuta give it a try first." Akutagawa Shang spoke to Toge Inumaki beside him, then pushed Yuta Okkotsu forward with one hand.

"Salmon."

"Huh? Practice? But can I handle this many?" Yuta Okkotsu froze, looking up at the two with some hesitation in his eyes.

"Hey, that's the point. If there were too few, it wouldn't work as live combat practice. Don't be afraid. Just get in there and slash with strength from your elbow," Akutagawa Shang said evenly, giving Yuta Okkotsu a pat on the back to signal that he was leaving it to him.

"Remember to control it. Don't break the sword in one go."

Yuta Okkotsu took a deep breath, suppressed the panic in his heart, and nodded solemnly.

"Okay! I'll try!"

The next second, he opened his eyes and stepped forward.

Shing-

The cursed sword slid half an inch out of its sheath, a thin, even layer of cursed energy settling steadily over the blade.

He slashed straight at the constantly writhing black sphere of fish before him, exorcising a large swath of black fish with that single stroke.

An enormous gash tore open in the black sphere suspended in midair, though the swimming fish quickly closed it completely.

But the school seemed to have been provoked. The fish, which had previously only moved in circles, split off into streams of swimming fish that surged toward Yuta Okkotsu.

Yet after getting a feel for that first slash, Yuta Okkotsu seemed to have broken free of some shackle.

He bent his knees slightly, planting himself firmly on the ground.

The black torrent rushed toward Yuta Okkotsu at high speed, but he merely raised his sword. Cursed energy traced an arc through the air, and the charging fish turned straight to ash beneath his blade.

The fish kept charging, but Yuta Okkotsu simply stood where he was and swung his sword. Slash after slash neutralized every attack. The cursed spirits' attacks could no longer inflict effective damage on Yuta as he was now.

"Looks like it's working pretty well," Akutagawa Shang said to Inumaki beside him.

"Salmon." Inumaki nodded too, agreeing with Akutagawa Shang.

"That should be about enough," Akutagawa Shang said, walking over to Yuta Okkotsu.

"That's enough, Yuta," he said, patting Yuta Okkotsu on the shoulder and casually blocking a stream of fish attacking them with Reverse Cursed Technique.

"We've gotten what we needed out of today's practice. As for the rest... Hey, Toge! Since this is your assignment, I'll leave the rest to you." Akutagawa Shang called out to Toge Inumaki, then pulled Yuta Okkotsu back.

"Salmon." Toge Inumaki slowly stepped forward and lowered his neck warmer, revealing the cursed markings around his lips.

"Explode." The crisp words of Cursed Speech fell slowly.

The cursed fish that had been roaring and crashing through the air abruptly froze. Even the air itself seemed to have stopped.

Countless tiny cracks of white light suddenly lit up within the black sphere of interwoven fish shadows, rapidly spreading across its entire body like shattered glass.

Every black fish cursed spirit was forcibly subjected to the Cursed Technique command to "explode."

With no room to resist, the solid, tightly packed sphere of cursed spirits began to fracture and disintegrate from its core.

Crackle, pop-

A dense series of tiny explosions resounded throughout the shopping street.

In midair, the black tide that had blotted out the sky receded at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The entire process took no more than an instant.

The endless tide of cursed spirits vanished completely, reduced to dust and smoke, leaving only a little cursed residue in the air.

Yuta Okkotsu watched, stunned.

"So that's Cursed Speech? He exorcised them all in an instant. Amazing."

Yuta Okkotsu shouted to Inumaki, "Is that it?"

"Mayonnaise." Toge Inumaki's face was covered in sweat, and his voice came out hoarse.

"His voice is completely gone." Yuta Okkotsu looked horrified.

"So that's why he needed to buy throat medicine."

"Very good, very good. Both Yuta's live combat practice and the assignment were completed successfully." Akutagawa Shang applauded everyone.

With the assignment over, the three composed themselves and headed toward the shopping street's exit together.

But Toge Inumaki, who was walking at the front, suddenly stopped and uttered a warning in a low voice. "Bonito flakes."

"What's wrong?" Okkotsu was bewildered.

"Something's wrong. The Curtain hasn't lifted." Akutagawa stepped forward and reached out, his fingertips lightly touching the pitch-black barrier wall. A heavy, unyielding resistance pressed firmly against his palm.

The evening breeze passed through the empty street, stirring scraps of trash into a rustle.

Akutagawa Shang suddenly sensed a surge of cursed energy several times denser than that of the fish appearing in the street that should already have been cleared.