“I wonder what things are like outside right now…” Inside a convenience store, Konoe Mayoru heard Shirogane Kei murmur while they searched for supplies.
He had gotten excited earlier and resolved to keep fighting until he perfected his technique, but reality still carried a heavy pull.
Before searching for another enemy, Mayoru had to confront a serious problem faced by every human being.
What were they going to eat?
People got hungry, especially after a battle.
It was only natural that Mayoru needed to replenish his energy.
To be honest, conditions inside the barrier were terrible.
Both the electricity and water supply had been cut off.
Fortunately, this was still Japan’s most prosperous metropolitan area.
Now that most ordinary civilians had left the barrier, they would not need to worry about supplies for quite some time.
The only dangers were ancient sorcerers appearing without warning, modern curse users, and cursed spirits hiding throughout the city.
After slowly recovering from the ancient sorcerer’s attack, Kei had begun worrying about the outside world.
What could it possibly look like now?
Since the Culling Game had begun, Shibuya must have already been massacred.
Worse still, the ten million cursed spirits bound by Kenjaku’s contracts were rampaging throughout Tokyo.
Itadori and Okkotsu might be working tirelessly to exorcise them, but there were simply too many.
Most districts had already fallen, and the government had effectively stopped functioning.
Tokyo had become a true demon-infested wasteland.
Mayoru could not bring himself to tell Kei any of that.
Truthfully, he was still having trouble accepting it himself.
‘Wasn’t this supposed to be a peaceful slice-of-life world?
How did everything suddenly turn into this?’ He had finally earned admission to Shuchiin Academy.
His life was supposed to follow a simple path—enter the University of Tokyo, then use it as a stepping stone to escape Japan and build a comfortable life abroad.
Now, he had been forced to accept Vector Manipulation and begin walking down the path toward becoming the strongest.
‘Life really isn’t easy.’ Mayoru sighed inwardly.
Still, the outside world was already in chaos.
Remaining inside the barrier forever was not an option.
Before leaving, however, he needed to become capable of standing on his own.
There was just one problem.
“We need a teacher.” Mayoru suddenly spoke to Kei.
She paused, but quickly understood what he meant.
Anyone capable of entering Shuchiin was unlikely to be stupid.
As one of Japan’s finest schools, it gathered the country’s future elites.
Kei and Mayoru were especially talented among its students.
Even so, learning cursed energy from nothing was extremely difficult.
Having someone teach them the basic principles would be far better than blindly experimenting on their own.
As Mayoru recalled the Jujutsu Kaisen manga, he suddenly felt that Kenjaku was a shameless old bastard.
Kenjaku had complained that none of the newly awakened modern sorcerers, aside from Higuruma Hiromi, were particularly impressive.
Takaba later shocked him, but his original judgment was still unfair.
Even Gojo Satoru had not become powerful overnight.
Most modern sorcerers had been given no time to develop.
How could they possibly compare to experienced ancient sorcerers who had reincarnated through vessels?
Kei strongly agreed with Mayoru.
Before yesterday, she had never even imagined something like cursed energy existed.
Had someone been available to guide her, perhaps she would not feel so helpless now.
Besides…
‘I don’t want to be a burden.’ She secretly glanced at Mayoru.
Now that cursed energy had been revealed, the order of the world would inevitably change.
When that happened, she did not want to remain someone who could only rely on him for protection.
That would be far too pathetic, just like when she had first entered Shuchiin.
As those thoughts stirred in Kei’s mind, she suddenly froze.
Cursed energy.
Even from a considerable distance, she could sense an enormous surge of cursed energy nearby.
It was unquestionably the largest presence she had felt so far.
The energy was ominous like a dark cloud and so dense that it seemed almost tangible.
More importantly, it did not feel human.
Before the creature even appeared, its completely unrestrained cursed energy made both Mayoru and Kei stop what they were doing.
“A cursed spirit…” Mayoru had already eliminated quite a few cursed spirits.
Though saying he had killed them was not entirely accurate.
Most cursed spirits were mindless creatures.
When their attacks failed to harm him, they simply attacked harder until reflection destroyed them with their own strength.
Some of those spirits had been Grade 2.
However, the presence approaching them now was on an entirely different level.
Its cursed energy even surpassed that of the ancient sorcerer Mayoru had just fought.
“Which means…
it’s special grade.” A special-grade cursed spirit.
A sorcerer was generally expected to exorcise a cursed spirit of the same rank with relative ease.
Aside from a certain Fushiguro Megumi who performed terribly under pressure, a Grade 2 sorcerer should have little trouble defeating a Grade 2 cursed spirit.
However, this one was special grade.
That meant even a Grade 1 sorcerer would struggle against it.
Simply sensing its cursed energy filled people with instinctive fear.
Beside Mayoru, Kei’s expression visibly stiffened.
Cold sweat slid down her delicate cheek, and her breathing became short and strained.
“Kogane, is that thing also a player?” The Kogane immediately appeared and announced: “Ding-dong!
It is a newly born special-grade cursed spirit and is currently registered as a player.” Ordinary cursed spirits were not treated as players in the Culling Game.
However, a special-grade spirit with its own cursed technique naturally qualified as a participant.
‘So it possesses a cursed technique?’ Mayoru immediately felt eager to test himself.
He desperately needed combat experience, so the stronger his opponent was, the better.
However, once he left the convenience store, Mayoru discovered that the special-grade spirit already had prey.
A slender figure was running down the asphalt road.
Sweat covered her elegant face.
Blue twin tails streamed behind her, framing a pair of golden eyes that never seemed to lose their light.
Those eyes were unmistakable.
“Sakiko?” As Mayoru called out, Togawa Sakiko noticed him as well.
“Konoe…
and Kei?” The young lady of the Togawa family stared at them in confusion, clearly never expecting to encounter the two of them here.
They naturally knew one another.
In fact, all three lived in the same apartment building.
All three were also poor.
Mayoru was an orphan who survived through part-time work and his Shuchiin scholarship.
The Shirogane family carried an enormous debt.
Sakiko’s family situation was even worse.
Her father had accumulated 16.8 billion yen in debt and been expelled from the Togawa family.
Naturally, he could not afford a decent home, so he happened to rent the apartment above Mayoru’s.
As an exceptionally devoted daughter, Sakiko willingly left the Togawa family and moved in with her father.
That was how she became the neighbor of both Mayoru and Kei.
Unfortunately, the three of them had no time to catch up.
The cursed spirit had clearly sensed Sakiko’s location.
After detecting Mayoru and Kei’s cursed energy as well, it began moving toward the convenience store.
“There’s no time to talk.” Sakiko anxiously addressed them both.
“That thing is about to catch up.
You two need to run!” …