This was Hasaba Nanako’s Cursed Technique.
Compared with the ancient techniques passed down through generations, a Cursed Technique activated through a smartphone felt exceptionally modern even by the standards of the Jujutsu Kaisen world.
That novelty was exactly why so many Jujutsu Sorcerers were caught off guard by it.
If an adorable gyaru came over asking to take a selfie with you, who would imagine that the moment she pressed the shutter was also the moment your death knell began ringing?
The underlying principle of Nanako’s Cursed Technique, however, wasn’t particularly complicated.
Put simply, she could affect a target by manipulating their image.
That target could be either an enemy or herself.
When used on enemies, it could restrict their movements.
When used on herself, it could allow her to avoid certain types of damage.
However, Nanako’s Cursed Technique alone lacked sufficient offensive power.
That was where her twin sister, Hasaba Mimiko, came in.
The instant Nanako activated her technique, Mimiko locked her gaze onto Makoto and Sakiko while slowly tightening the noose around the neck of the doll in her hands.
At the same time, identical ligature marks appeared around Makoto and Sakiko’s necks.
The marks grew deeper by the second.
The intense suffocation and pain made Sakiko’s pupils contract.
She wanted to scream, but no sound came out.
She wanted to move, but an invisible force had bound her entire body.
‘Am I going to die?’ Sakiko looked toward Makoto.
For one brief moment, a thought flashed through her mind.
‘Maybe I shouldn’t have teamed up with Kitano-kun.’ ‘At the very least, we shouldn’t have gotten greedy for rewards and approached Story Characters.’ But that thought vanished almost immediately.
Makoto had been capable of escaping danger from the very beginning, yet he’d stayed beside her and fought all this way.
How could she blame him now?
‘We can’t just sit here and wait to die.’ ‘We have to survive!’ Enduring the pain and fear of death, Sakiko desperately recalled every moment she’d spent with Makoto.
She even remembered meeting Takamatsu Tomori and the others and forming their band together.
‘Happiness.’ ‘That feeling of happiness…
I have to grasp it again!’ Faint rainbow-colored motes began rising from Sakiko’s body.
The invisible force restraining the two suddenly loosened.
Nanako immediately sensed something was wrong.
The photo on her phone was filled with heavy visual noise.
At first, she’d assumed the poor image quality was simply caused by the dim lighting.
But when rainbow-colored motes appeared around Sakiko, Nanako realized something was wrong with the seemingly ordinary girl who had no Cursed Energy.
“Mimiko, hurry!” Nanako pulled out a short blade and charged toward Makoto and Sakiko.
She took several quick strides forward before thrusting the blade straight toward Makoto’s chest.
Clang!
The blade snapped.
Nanako stared upward in disbelief.
All she saw was Makoto’s cold expression.
Even that image quickly began blurring before her eyes.
It was as though a sheet of frosted glass had suddenly appeared between them.
The slight distortion from before rapidly intensified until neither sister could clearly see Makoto or Sakiko.
Mimiko’s technique was immediately interrupted as well.
“Sis!
I can’t see them!” Naturally, this was Makoto’s doing.
The principle was simple.
He had created multiple layers of Spatial Rifts in front of them, each facing a different direction and possessing a different size.
As light passed through those overlapping distortions and repeatedly refracted, it produced an effect similar to frosted glass.
Makoto knew both sisters’ techniques depended on visually capturing their targets.
Nanako relied on her smartphone.
Mimiko relied on her own eyes.
Makoto had prepared a countermeasure against both sisters from the very beginning.
The only thing he hadn’t expected was how decisively they’d tried to kill him.
Fortunately, everything remained under control.
The fact that Sakiko could still enter her rainbow-colored happiness state while facing death only made Makoto even more certain of their victory.
“Not good!” Nanako hurriedly retreated and raised her smartphone, ready to press the shutter at any moment.
She grabbed Mimiko’s hand.
“Let’s go.
Something’s wrong with these two.” The sisters weren’t particularly strong in direct combat.
Ambushes were their preferred method of fighting.
Now that their first attack had failed, retreating was naturally their best option.
However, they’d only run a few steps when a group suddenly appeared ahead of them.
“Get out of the way!” Nanako shouted without even bothering to look closely at them.
The reason was simple.
Just like Sakiko, none of these people possessed any Cursed Energy.
Jack stood at the front of the group with a massive riot shield in his hands.
Laughing loudly, he charged straight at the sisters.
Caught completely off guard, Nanako was slammed backward like a ball.
She crashed into the wall, and the taste of blood immediately filled her mouth.
Mimiko had been half a step behind and narrowly avoided the impact.
But seeing her sister in such miserable condition twisted Mimiko’s face with fury.
She glared at Jack and violently tightened the rope in her hands.
“Die!” An attack strong enough to snap an ordinary person’s neck failed to leave even the slightest mark on Jack.
Instead, the muscles across his entire body merely twitched for a second.
That was the power of Ironhide Muscles.
Every injury Jack suffered was distributed across all the muscles in his body.
A Cursed Technique capable of snapping one person’s neck was reduced to little more than a needle prick when spread across every muscle he possessed.
“Ha!
So Jujutsu Sorcerers aren’t anything special after all!” Jack grabbed Mimiko by the throat and hurled her aside as well.
The two sisters collapsed together.
“Chen, what now?
Kill them?” Jack looked toward Chen Guohao.
Before Chen could answer, Li Huizhen spoke first.
“Of course we kill them and take the reward.” “That Kitano Makoto and Togawa Sakiko must’ve gotten stronger by killing Story Characters too.” Li flicked the thick stack of Fukuzawa Yukichi bills in her hand.
“But before that, there are a few things we need to renegotiate.” Her gaze became sharp and dangerous.
Behind her stood her boyfriend, Park Jeong-ho, carrying two suitcases.
The cowardly, exhausted look he’d worn before was gone.
His face was now faintly flushed with excitement.
Clearly, the couple had already discussed something in private.
Kobayashi Yuu hid at the very back of the group without saying a word, almost like he was trying to make himself invisible.
Chen stepped forward with his cane in his left hand and revolver in his right.
A sinister smile appeared on his face.
“What exactly do you want to discuss?” “Our previous agreement, obviously.” Li’s smile vanished.
“You called yourself a veteran and claimed you’d lead us through this mission.” “But so far, you haven’t done anything worthy of that position.” “Kobayashi-kun handles reconnaissance.” “Jack tanks the enemies.” “And I’m responsible for actually fighting them.” “The only thing you’ve done is pull out some C4 so we could blow open a bank.” Li shook the stack of bills in her hand.
“And for that tiny contribution, you expect to take all the rewards?” “Does that sound reasonable to you?” … Read 10+ chapters here!