Time: 01:30 AM
Hanzo sat in the snow with his back leaning against a dead oak tree.
Huff-puff.
He had rested for exactly ninety minutes since finishing his limit-break binding vow.
BZZZ.
The freezing winter air stung his bare face.
Hanzo muscles were incredibly stiff from his earlier ice bath.
His cursed energy reserves hovered right around eleven percent capacity.
"This should be enough. Resting another hour will waste another time..."
Creak. Snap.
Hanzo stretched his legs out and rolled his shoulders.
He felt the heavy exhaustion deep in his bones.
But he also felt a deep, pulling sense of anticipation.
He completely refused to wait another day to test his combat theories.
Daytime was completely useless for his plans.
The daylight hours were filled with laundry chores, training classes, and the watchful eyes of the Kamo clan.
The dead of night was his only real window for freedom.
Hanzo turned around and pushed his hands into the deep snow at the base of the tree trunk.
RUSTLE.
His fingers brushed against cold, wrapped leather inside a hollow root cavity.
"Hopefully no one will notice that I brought this home."
Hanzo grabbed the handles and pulled his weapons out into the moonlight.
They were a pair of wooden kama.
He had used these exact same wooden sickles for his daily training over the past years.
The hilts were permanently stained dark from his own blood and sweat.
Hanzo gripped them tightly in both hands and tested their familiar weight.
He looked out at the dark, silent tree line leading toward the western perimeter.
The Kamo Clan did not use giant, visible brick walls to secure the outer buffer zones of their territory.
They relied entirely on a complex detection net.
The clan put hidden paper talismans into the dirt and strung invisible barrier cords across the tree branches.
These barriers acted as a massive, overlapping tripwire system.
If any unregistered cursed energy walked through the woods, the barrier master sitting inside the main compound felt the disturbance instantly.
In the world of Jujutsu, the universe does not grant power or bypasses for free.
A Binding Vow thrives entirely on real-time risk.
To slip past a clan's security net, a sorcerer must sacrifice something with immediate, potentially fatal consequences.
"It's time.."
Pat. Pat. Pat.
Hanzo stood up and brushed the snow off his loose gray pants.
He squeezed his left eye tightly shut.
He gripped his wooden sickles and muttered into the cold air.
"...Alright," Hanzo whispered softly. "...Take the left side."
He visualized the complete loss of his depth perception.
"...Leave me totally blind on that flank," Hanzo continued. "...Just let my right eye see the residual tracks."
He established the strict limitation in his head.
A temporary and conditional binding vow.
If he opened his left eye even a single millimeter, the contract would break.
A sudden, sharp heat spiked behind his closed eyelid.
The universe accepted the heavy physical disadvantage.
Hanzo opened his right eye.
The dark forest shifted instantly.
"I really needed to train to see residual cursed energy in the future..."
His normal, binocular vision faded into dull gray tones.
Bright, burning neon strings suddenly appeared in the empty air.
They crisscrossed between the tree trunks in a dense, glowing web.
Those were the clan's invisible alarm tripwires.
"Hmm.."
Hanzo looked down at the dirt path.
Faint, glowing blue footprints marked the soil.
They were the lingering cursed energy tracks of the outer patrol guards from several hours ago.
'Genji and Ryu were telling the truth,' Hanzo thought.
He could clearly see the patrol gaps now.
But seeing the tripwires was only the first step.
He was still naturally leaking a tiny amount of cursed energy just by breathing.
The barrier net would still detect his signature the second he crossed the glowing lines.
He needed to make his second temporary binding vow.
He focused entirely on his stomach.
He forced his cursed energy to stop leaking, trapping the eleven percent reserve deep inside his gut.
"...I will lock it all down," Hanzo muttered. "...No leaking."
He took a slow, steady breath.
"...In exchange, I drop all my passive cursed energy reinforcement," Hanzo finished. "As long as no one finds me or I'll deactivate it, this vow will remain active."
He felt his body instantly grow heavy and empty.
By completely erasing his occult presence, he surrendered his natural cursed energy defense.
His physical durability plummeted exactly to the level of a seven-year-old boy.
But this physical strength is based on his own strength.
By doing the daily limit break binding vow, his body was already stronger than those fourteen years old clan members in the clan.
A single ambush from a feral curse right now with his new temporary eyesight wasn't that dangerous.
After all making bindings vows, you always need to find a loopholes that will benefit you at the end. Don't ever create ones that is so useless like Miwa.
Hanzo smiled slightly in the freezing woods.
He fully accepted the equivalent exchange.
He gripped his wooden sickles and stepped forward into the gray forest.
He carefully ducked under the first glowing neon tripwire.
And disappeared quietly into the western perimeter.
--<>--
Hanzo ducked carefully under a thick, glowing green tripwire.
He kept his left eye clamped entirely shut.
His open right eye tracked the dense, overlapping web of neon strings strung between the dark branches.
He looked down at the snowy dirt path.
Faint blue footprints marked the ground.
Those were the lingering cursed energy tracks left by the outer patrol guards.
Some of the tracks were barely visible.
'They definitely walked this route hours ago.'
He stepped carefully forward.
He placed his bare feet exactly inside the glowing footprints of the guards.
He knew they had already swept this specific trail for hidden ground talismans.
He walked silently past the crumbling stone foundation of the old weapon forge.
The dirt path split into two directions.
A dead oak tree stood right in the middle of the fork.
Hanzo stopped and looked at the glowing blue tracks on the ground.
The footprints stopped completely at the edge of the left path.
The outer guards clearly refused to walk any deeper into the dark.
Hanzo gripped the wooden hilts of his sickles tighter. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
He stepped past the dead oak tree alone.
BZZZZ.
The freezing winter air instantly shifted.
It suddenly smelled strongly of old pennies and rotting meat.
The ambient negative emotion was thick enough to make his skin crawl.
The trees finally thinned out into a wide, snowy clearing.
Dozens of small, rounded dirt mounds covered the open field.
This was the abandoned graveyard of the branch servants. Not the same graveyard as those jujutsu sorcerers like his late father.
A wet, heavy buzzing sound filled the clearing.
BZZZZ. BZZZZ.
"They're really disgusting to look at."
Hanzo stared up at the sky in pure disgust.
Dozens of tiny, fleshy baby heads hovered directly over the graves.
They had twisted, distorted faces and small, buzzing insect wings.
"Watching this in a show is entirely different from smelling them in real life."
The Grade 4 Fly Heads were completely harmless pests born from everyday stress.
He completely ignored them and kept his left eye tightly shut and hid his presence to not get found out and break his temporary binding vow.
A heavy, wet scraping sound echoed from the center of the clearing.
SCRAPE. SCRAPE.
Hanzo crouched low in the snow.
Three shapes crawled over the top of the largest dirt mound.
They were roughly the size of large wild dogs.
Tight, hairless gray skin stretched painfully over their protruding ribs.
Six jointed human hands extended from their sides to grip the freezing dirt.
One of the feral beasts stopped crawling.
It turned its smooth, completely eyeless face directly toward Hanzo.
It opened a gaping mouth filled entirely with jagged human teeth.
SCREEEEE!
The high-pitched screech tore through the quiet forest.
The other two beasts snapped their heads toward the sound.
The pack locked onto the fragile seven-year-old boy crouching in the snow.
They scrambled violently down the dirt mound.
And charged straight at him on all fours.
--<>--
The piercing screech tore through the quiet forest.
The lead Grade 3 curse locked its smooth, eyeless face directly onto Hanzo.
The conditional stealth vow shattered instantly.
Huff-puff.
Hanzo exhaled sharply as the seal on his stomach broke open.
His cursed energy flooded violently back into his limbs.
The cursed energy reinforcement returned to his muscles and wrapped his entire body.
Hanzo opened his left eye.
Normal binocular vision returned to his sight.
The glowing neon tripwires and residual tracks completely vanished from the snowy clearing.
SCREE.
RAAH.
SCROO.
The three feral cursed spirits scrambled over the dirt mounds.
They charged straight at him on their human hands.
Hanzo did not panic or draw his weapons.
He simply raised his left hand and crossed his index and middle fingers.
He mapped the flat five-by-five grid directly in front of him.
"...Guardian Angel, Superior Protector," Hanzo chanted into the freezing wind.
The three curses closed the distance to twenty meters.
"...Bring unto me the fruits that thine garden doth bare," Hanzo continued smoothly. "...As I render unto you."
The feral beasts scrambled over the dirt at terrifying speeds.
"...Ensure that the attempts of the malicious Demons prove fruitless!" Hanzo chanted. "...Annihilate their offences!"
He deliberately exposed his back to the open forest to enforce the equivalent exchange.
"...Vanquish their hopes!" Hanzo finished. "...Split the Void!"
FWOOSH.
The semi-transparent blue wall snapped into existence right in front of his face.
SMASH.
The three beasts slammed face-first into the dense Danku barrier.
The impact cracked their twisted skulls and left thick black blood smeared against the invisible wall.
The curses dropped into the mud and instantly started clawing at the barrier.
SCRATCH. SCRATCH.
Hanzo stood perfectly still in the snow and watched them.
He kept his fingers crossed and counted the seconds in his head.
Ten seconds passed.
Twenty seconds passed.
The cursed spirits thrashed and bit at the flat blue wall with their jagged teeth.
They did not even leave a scratch on the surface.
Hanzo looked at the disgusting, multi-handed creatures like they were mere experimental subjects.
"The defense is okay but it needed more pressure. Grade 2 or 1 should probably test the durability of this barrier..." Hanzo analyzed quietly. "Now for the offensive test."
He uncrossed his fingers.
The blue wall shattered into falling sparks.
The three curses immediately lunged forward.
Hanzo aimed his left hand straight down at the snowy dirt beneath them.
He did not shout a chant this time.
He calculated the formula entirely inside his head, mapping a completely flat square on the ground.
'No roof. Walls are weak both inside and outside. ' Hanzo formed the formula internally. 'Just downward pressure. And multiply the gravity.'
A glowing blue square snapped into existence on the mud.
VMMMMM.
The three curses dropped to the ground.
But they immediately pushed off the dirt and started to stand back up.
The localized gravity inside the square had only doubled.
Hanzo frowned slightly.
'The equivalent exchange is completely unbalanced,' Hanzo realized. 'I also need a proper spoken chant.'
The new barrier was completely useless in its current state.
Hanzo dropped the weak gravity seal completely.
He reached down to his belt and drew both of his wooden sickles.
He channeled his remaining cursed energy directly into the dark wood.
The blades glowed with a faint, lethal aura.
Hanzo lowered his arms and let the tips of the wooden sickles drag lightly against the snow.
SWISH.
He walked calmly forward to meet the charging beasts.
The lead curse leaped through the air toward his throat.
Hanzo spun the right sickle effortlessly in his hand and sidestepped the attack.
He swung the wooden blade up in a brutal, vertical arc.
CRACK.
The CE-imbued wood sliced cleanly through the curse's neck.
The second cursed spirit snapped its jagged teeth at his legs.
SPLAT.
He ripped the sickle out and kicked the dead body into the snow.
SKREE.
The final curse shrieked and scrambled backward.
Hanzo closed the distance in a single, terrifying burst of speed.
He swung both sickles horizontally in a perfectly synchronized strike.
SWISH.
The wooden blades cleanly decapitated the third beast.
The three twisted bodies spasmed violently in the dirt.
They bubbled and rapidly dissolved into piles of purple ash.
Hanzo stood perfectly still and rested the sickles against his shoulders.
He looked down at the dissolving ash.
"...We need to look for some grade 2 cursed spirits"
His physical speed and melee techniques were flawless.
But his barrier theory needed a lot more work.
--<>--
Location: Western Burial Mounds
Time: 03:45 AM
Hanzo pulled his wooden sickle out of the skull of a Grade 4 Fly Head.
SQUELCH.
"Still no grade 2 curses..."
He shook the dark blood off the wooden blade.
He had spent the last hour clearing out six more Grade 3 curses and a handful of annoying Grade 4 pests.
But then.
He stopped walking and looked toward the tree line.
The freezing air suddenly felt incredibly weird.
"This is it..."
The hairs on his arms stood straight up in the cold.
He sensed a much denser, darker pool of cursed energy lingering in the shadows.
A massive shape stepped out of the dark woods.
It was a Grade 2 cursed spirit.
It was heavily bloated and dripping with thick black mud.
The beast was clearly formed from the pure terror of drowning in the recent tsunami.
It stared at him and let out a low, vibrating growl.
GRRRRR.
Hanzo sheathed both of his wooden sickles in his belt.
He wanted to test his raw physical agility against a real threat.
The Grade 2 curse lunged forward with terrifying speed.
It swung a massive, muddy arm directly at Hanzo's head.
SWISH.
Hanzo dropped his weight and ducked cleanly under the sweeping strike.
The cursed fist sailed past him and slammed heavily into a stone grave marker.
CRASH.
The solid rock shattered into dozens of sharp pieces.
SWISH-SWOSH.
Hanzo wove around the cursed massive legs.
WOOSH.
WOOSH.
He saw its attack patterns while effortlessly dodging another heavy swipe.
His daily limit-break training gave him the raw physical speed to avoid the lethal hits.
Then Hanzo found his opening.
He stepped directly inside the curse's guard.
And initiated a split-second, conditional Binding Vow in his mind.
'I strip all cursed energy reinforcement from my head, torso, and legs,' Hanzo dictated internally.
He felt his body instantly become incredibly bare.
'I funnel one hundred percent of my remaining energy directly into my right fist.'
He timed the massive energy spike perfectly with the physical movement of his arm.
'The vow breaks the exact second the strike ends.'
He drove his glowing right fist directly into the bloated stomach of the Grade 2 curse.
BOOM.
The impact created a massive, explosive shockwave across the snowy clearing.
The raw, concentrated force instantly blew a hole completely through the curse's torso.
SCREEee~
The beast screeched and violently ruptured outward.
SPLAT.
Chunks of muddy flesh dissolved instantly into purple ash.
HUFF-PUFF.
Hanzo stood in the snow and breathed heavily.
The temporary vow dispelled automatically.
His cursed energy spread evenly back through his body.
His right knuckles smoked slightly in the freezing winter air.
"Shifting all my energy to the exact point of impact gives me explosive power," Hanzo analyzed quietly.
"But it requires absolutely flawless timing. I need to practice it more, that I can do it a hundred percent all the time.
Right now, it should be beginners luck..."
If he missed the target by a fraction of a second, his completely unprotected body would have been injured.
It was an extreme, high-risk gamble.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"This should be enough..."
He was highly satisfied with the results of his combat test.
Hanzo squeezed his left eye tightly shut.
He immediately sealed his cursed energy leakage back inside his body.
The glowing neon alarm tripwires reappeared in the dark forest.
He turned away from the burial mounds and walked back toward the estate.
--<>--
Hanzo silently slid the paper door of the sleeping quarters open.
SLIDE.
The room was completely dark and quiet.
SNORE. SNORE. SNORE.
The steady sound of snoring came from the other people sleeping on the floor.
Step. Step.
Hanzo stepped carefully inside.
He walked across the tatami mats to his corner of the room.
He lifted the edge of the floorboards and placed his wooden sickles gently into the hidden compartment.
CLACK.
"I'm tired..."
--<>--
For this story be included in the algorithm.
-Dr_Chad
--<>--
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