Jujutsu World: Unlocking Killer Queen at the Start, Section 48

Yu Haibara charged at the mountain-of-flesh monster without hesitation. His Cursed Technique was quite ordinary.

But at that moment, it proved immensely useful. With Yu Haibara drawing the monster's attention,

Kento Nanami could finally build up his momentum and prepare a killing blow. Yu Haibara lowered his body and lunged forward.

The next second,

he had reached the monster's flank. Bam!

His fist, concentrated with Cursed Energy, slammed into the monster's bloated body. The blow did little damage, but it thoroughly enraged the monster.

Sure enough, the monster's attention shifted entirely to Yu Haibara. And that

was exactly what Kento Nanami wanted.

The monster raised an arm and slapped at Yu Haibara's position. It was extremely fast.

But Yu Haibara had been watching its movements all along. The monster's strike missed.

That made it even more irritable. Meanwhile,

Kento Nanami's momentum continued to build.

The dense concentration of Cursed Energy made the monster feel a trace of unease. It flung aside Yu Haibara, who had come to harass it.

The monster began wriggling toward Kento Nanami.

It could sense that this human was the source of the power that frightened it a little. Kento Nanami's buildup had reached a critical point.

And the monster was drawing ever closer to Kento Nanami. "I won't let you get near Nanamin!!!"

The monster's body abruptly stopped. It turned to look.

Yu Haibara, whom it had swatted away earlier, had actually wrapped his arms tightly around it.

Yu Haibara spat out a mouthful of blood-streaked saliva and stared fiercely at the monster. He had made a promise to Kento Nanami.

"You bastard, don't make me break my promise to my friend!" Yu Haibara roared, concentrating all his Cursed Energy into his arms.

"Get away from him!" With a furious roar,

Yu Haibara actually hoisted the monster's bloated body into the air through sheer force. "Nanamin, now!"

Kento Nanami's ears twitched.

After identifying where Yu Haibara's voice had come from,

he drew his left foot back and pushed off, leaning forward with his right hand in a reverse grip on the handle of his curse-marked short blade.

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Two streams of white vapor escaped Kento Nanami's mouth.

Kento Nanami now resembled a keen sword about to leave its sheath! "Wooo! Wooo!"

The monster howled uneasily, dozens of arms hammering wildly at Yu Haibara as it tried to break free of his hold.

Clang!

The blade sliced through the air. "Ratio Technique: Collapse!"

With his eyes tightly shut, Kento Nanami murmured the words. His figure flashed forward, slashing toward the monster like a bolt of lightning. It all happened in an instant.

It was so fast that even Yu Haibara could not see what had happened. All he could sense was a black flash streaking past!

Hiss! Hiss!

Electric currents seemed to linger in the air, crackling from time to time. Yu Haibara felt the monster stop struggling.

He tentatively loosened his arms.

The monster's body crashed to its knees like a toppling mountain or pillar. "I-is it over?"

Yu Haibara began to stammer. Kento Nanami had been too fast.

Before he could even react, the monster had been beheaded with a single slash.

Yu Haibara looked into the pitch-black hole in the monster's neck, and a sudden chill rose within him. Something inside seemed to be watching him.

Before Yu Haibara could think any further,

the monster's corpse suddenly burst apart.

A slender black shadow shot out from the scattered chunks of the monster's body, hurtling toward his face at tremendous speed with deadly intent.

"I've been waiting for you!"

A curse-marked short blade spun past Yu Haibara's cheek and pinned the black shadow directly to the wall. "Nanamin!"

Yu Haibara cried out excitedly.

He had thought Kento Nanami had fainted again from exhausting his Cursed Energy. After all, it would not have been the first time.

He had not expected Kento Nanami to have kept something in reserve this time.

"Tsk, tsk. Interesting. You actually managed to kill my Earwig Shikigami." Clap! Clap! Clap!

A bare-chested man with sinister patterns tattooed all over his face emerged from the darkness, clapping. "It took me so much effort to collect all those materials, and now you've ruined everything." "Tell me, how are you going to compensate little old me?"

Holding his fingers in a delicate, orchid-like gesture, the bare-chested man approached the Earwig Shikigami pinned dead by the curse-marked short blade. Riiip!

Under Yu Haibara's horrified gaze,

the bare-chested man tore half the insect's body straight off the Earwig Shikigami, put it in his mouth, and began chewing. Crunch, crunch!

The crisp chewing echoed through the dim basement, sounding especially eerie and terrifying.

Gulp.

Yu Haibara swallowed. The man's entrance had been far too bizarre. And,

he did not even spare his own Shikigami, stuffing it into his mouth and feasting on it. That behavior looked deranged no matter how one viewed it.

It was nothing a normal person would do.

Suddenly, the bare-chested man faced Yu Haibara and Kento Nanami, a strange smile curling his lips. Whoosh! Ah!

The remains of the Earwig Shikigami that the bare-chested man had swallowed shot toward Kento Nanami and Yu Haibara at tremendous speed.

Those severed limbs were not only sharp but extremely fast.

If they were careless enough to get hit, the sharp jointed limbs would tear away a large chunk of flesh. "Hah, hah, hah! That was close!"

Yu Haibara panted heavily, staring with lingering fear at the earwig limbs buried deep in the wall. If Kento Nanami had not pulled him aside just now,

he would already have become a wandering, headless ghost. "Honestly, you Jujutsu Sorcerers are always so cautious."

"Why don't you just be good and become part of my collection? I'll take very good care of you." The bare-chested man licked his lips, staring intently at Kento Nanami.

"Those who weren't cautious enough are all dead."

After answering, Kento Nanami recalled his curse-marked short blade and stared straight at the bare-chested man. "Nanamin, how did you realize there was another enemy hiding?"

Yu Haibara asked curiously.

"Now isn't the time to think about that, Haibara."

Kento Nanami gave a brief reply, his eyes still fixed on the bare-chested man. "Who are you?"

"You're asking who I am? Someone who opposes sanctimonious Jujutsu Sorcerers like you would naturally be... a Curse User."

The bare-chested man laughed sinisterly.

"Still, Jujutsu Sorcerers' skulls are highly collectible."

The bare-chested man extended his long, slender tongue and licked his lips, his snakelike gaze roaming greedily over Yu Haibara and Kento Nanami.

"How lucky I am to have run into two Jujutsu Sorcerers-and young ones, at that." "People like you are worthy of joining my collection, the collection of Hayato Zenin."

Hayato Zenin's expression instantly became utterly savage.

"So, could I ask you not to resist? I'll take good care of your heads!" Before he had finished speaking,

Hayato Zenin suddenly lunged. The next second,

Kento Nanami and Hayato Zenin collided. Blade and fists crossed.

The short blade slashed his fists until blood streamed from them, but Hayato Zenin continued laughing wildly as though he could feel nothing.

Then the two separated and faced off again.

Riiip!

Hayato Zenin's expression changed, and he jumped backward, putting distance between himself and Kento Nanami. "Heh heh heh, you nearly cut off half my shoulder."

"What was that? Your Cursed Technique?"

Hayato Zenin paid no attention to his injuries, showing great interest in Kento Nanami's Cursed Technique instead. Kento Nanami flicked the blood off his curse-marked short blade and ignored him.

Just a little more. Just a little more, and he could have cut off his opponent's shoulder. But now, he was nearly spent.

The battle with the monster had still consumed too much of his Cursed Energy. Although he had kept something in reserve beforehand,

the fierce exchange with Hayato Zenin had nearly exhausted what little Cursed Energy he had left. One could say

that Kento Nanami was now strong only on the outside, holding on through sheer willpower. "Oh my, you look like you're almost done for."

Hayato Zenin seemed to have noticed something wrong with Kento Nanami.