The localized gravitational spears pierced inward.
SHLUCK. SHLUCK.
"AGHHH!"
Genshiro screamed in absolute agony inside the pitch-black box.
A barrier is ultimately just mathematical formula constructed of cursed energy.
Hanzo compressed his twenty percent cursed energy reserve to its limit.
The black fluid mapped a perfect three-dimensional grid around the curse user.
Hanzo stood perfectly still in the dusty hallway.
He maintained the complex, crossed-finger hand sign without moving a single muscle.
He dedicated all his mental focus to the calculation loop.
Every single spatial vector inside the barrier violently collapsed toward the center point.
The air pressure inside the black walls and its specific vectors multiplied instantly.
CRUNCH. SNAP.
The shrinking vector space crushed Genshiro's lungs, shattered his collarbones and twisted some of his limbs
Constructing a barrier of this magnitude usually requires a long verbal chant.
Hanzo skipped the chant entirely to see how much power this barrier he developed had. After all on his estimate, a maximum barrier like this needed more that 25% cursed energy output.
But he will be able to perform it, after the ten-years self imposed binding vow is done.
FSSSH.
The pressure generated enough force to shatter some lethal parts of the body.
But.
It lacked the power to destroy the whole body.
It was a half-assed prototype of his two-year theoretical project, Black Coffin.
By sacrificing the strength of the barrier outside, it's inside will lock the opponent.
Even a normal kid without cursed energy will be able to destroy it from the outside.
By focusing only on a specific targeted vectors, it will maximized the lethality of the attack on a tiny surface.
Huff.
Hanzo broke the hand sign and dropped his arms.
The black walls of the customized barrier instantly dissolved.
FSSSH.
The thick curtain material turned into gray smoke and drifted toward the ceiling boards.
"Ughhh..."
Genshiro collapsed completely flat onto his back in the center of the surgical ward.
His clothes was shredded into bloody rags.
His limbs, ribs and bones were broken and twisted at entirely unnatural angles.
One of his legs bent backward at the knees.
His left arm was completely flattened against the wooden floorboards.
Blood leaked steadily from his eyes, nose, and mouth.
He gasped for air through a shattered ribcage.
HUFF-PUFF.
Hanzo walked slowly. His wooden sandals tapped quietly against the floorboards.
TAP. TAP.
He stopped a few feet away from the broken man.
'The vector compression is a lot weaker without the chant,'
Genshiro coughed violently.
COUGH.
A puddle of dark blood spilled over his chin and pooled on the wood.
He looked up at the eleven-year-old boy standing over him.
Absolute terror filled his wide, bloodshot eyes.
"...Wait," Genshiro wheezed.
He dug his working shoulder into the wood and tried to push himself backward.
The movement sent a shock of pure agony through his ruined chest.
"...Please," Genshiro begged, his voice cracking. "...I yield."
Hanzo tilted his head slightly.
"...You were just planning to strip us naked and sell our bodies," Hanzo stated plainly.
Genshiro shook his head weakly.
Tears mixed with the blood and dirt on his cheeks.
"...I was just hiding," Genshiro cried loudly. "...The cash famine ruined everything."
He spat a clump of blood onto the floor.
"...The Kyoto patrols are hunting me for a bounty," Genshiro sobbed. "...I just needed a safe house to lay low."
Hanzo stared down at the pleading man.
"...I can be useful to you," Genshiro offered desperately. "...I can be your dog. I will kill anyone you want."
Genshiro clawed at the floorboards with his broken fingers.
"...Just let me live!" Genshiro screamed.
Hanzo did not say a single word.
He just stood there.
He looked down at the pleading Curse User with a completely blank expression.
"..."
Hanzo felt the battle adrenaline slowly leaving his system.
His heart rate began to drop.
He stood directly on the edge of a massive psychological line.
He had killed cursed spirits in this life and some chickens and fish in his past life.
But...
He had never taken a human life.
--<>--
Ack-cough. Cough.
"I'll be your servant... Master spare me."
Hanzo looked at the tears streaming down Genshiro's dirty face.
He watched the broken Curse User desperately cling to survival.
Hanzo kept his hands away from his sickles.
Those elite sorcerers would easily recognize the unique, curved blunt-force trauma left by his specific weapon.
He stepped forward and placed his bare right heel directly over Genshiro's crushed windpipe.
Yes... Hanzo hardened his resolve.
Genshiro's eyes widened in absolute panic.
"...No!" Genshiro gurgled, blood bubbling violently in his throat. "...Wait!"
Hanzo pressed his heel down.
CRACK.
The cartilage snapped under his weight.
UGHH.
KAAFA.
Genshiro jerked violently against the floorboards.
Warm, thick blood pooled rapidly around the edges of Hanzo's heel.
Then he froze.
His heart rate plummeted.
Cursed spirits simply dissolved into harmless purple ash upon death.
Real human bodies convulsed, choked, and bled.
A massive wave of nausea hit the back of Hanzo's throat.
'Ugh..'
Hanzo gagged.
He violently fought the physical urge to vomit onto the floorboards.
'I cannot stop here,' Hanzo forced the bile down his throat. 'I already sacrificed five years of my life for this.'
He tightened his jaw and actively pushed the human revulsion away.
In the world of Jujutsu, cursed energy is fueled purely by negative emotion.
Empathy, guilt, and pity create heavy turbulence in a sorcerer's cursed energy flow.
Taking a human life for the first time delivers a massive, irreversible shock to the human soul.
By using this exact traumatic moment to ruthlessly crush his own empathy, Hanzo unknowingly altered his fundamental core.
He prioritized his own selfish ambition over human morality.
His soul shed its vulnerable outer layer and hollowed itself out.
This empty, cold void created the perfect foundation to one day digest objects of pure, ancient malice without losing his mind.
The intense nausea vanished completely.
"..."
Hanzo's dark eyes went entirely dead.
"...A crippled dog with a bounty is just a massive liability," Hanzo stated in a quiet tone.
Genshiro choked, reaching weakly for Hanzo's ankle with his broken fingers.
"...It only brings the problems directly to my door," Hanzo finished calmly.
He shifted his entire body weight forward and crushed the rest of the man's throat completely flat.
SNAP.
"GAAHhh~~.."
Genshiro's mouth opened in a silent, final scream.
The terrified light slowly faded from his bloodshot eyes.
His body went completely limp.
Hanzo stood over the corpse in absolute silence.
He felt absolutely nothing.
Kshksh. Kshksh.
He scraped the warm blood off his heels against the clean fabric of Genshiro's ruined cloth.
--<>--
Step. Step.
Hanzo stepped over the broken wooden door.
He walked back into the dusty main hallway.
"So what's next?"
Kenta, Jin, and Soma lay completely unconscious across the floorboards.
Blood pooled beneath their bodies.
Hanzo looked at Kenta's broken wrist.
"...Lets remove my cursed energy residual first."
Those elite sorcerers would easily read the massive residual energy left in this area.
Everyone possessed a unique cursed energy signature.
If the elders felt his specific trait on here, they would lock his identity as the one who managed to kill a rogue curse user when he was so average back in the clan.
Huff. puff.
Hanzo closed his eyes and inhaled slowly.
In his two years of secret night hunting cursed spirits, he already learned how to manually retract his residual energy to hide from the clan patrols.
The temporary binding vow of closing his eyes was just a guide for him at first.
Step. Step.
Hanzo walked slowly down the hallway.
SWOOOP.
He pulled his unique signature out of the air and the floorboards.
He scrubbed the scene completely clean.
The remnants of the customized barrier turned into a blank anomaly.
All his cursed energy in the place was gone.
"Let's complete it..." Hanzo stopped walking.
An uninjured eleven-year-old surviving a Semi-Grade 1 ambush made absolutely zero sense.
And as far as he remembers, this place was in the territory of the Gakugangi Family.
"To fool others you must fool yourself first.."
To trick the universe and the clan, he needed a flawless deception.
He decided to establish a strict, temporary Binding Vow in his mind, formulating the exact parameters before making his move.
'A temporary Binding Vow,' Hanzo dictated internally, laying down the cosmic contract.
'In exchange for sealing my memories of this entire battle within my soul for ten days, I will strip away all cursed energy reinforcement from my body for the next sixty seconds, I will not be able to regenerate cursed energy for three days and I will forcefully expel the remainder of my cursed energy pool into the atmosphere as a final flare.'
He locked the trigger condition.
'The memory seal activates the exact millisecond the flare leaves my body.'
The contract snapped into place.
Instantly, the natural protective shroud of cursed energy faded from his skin, leaving him as fragile as a normal human.
Hanzo walked over to the solid wooden wall of the hallway.
He pressed his left hand flat against the wood.
He locked his elbow straight.
Hanzo gritted his teeth and twisted his torso violently to the right.
Without cursed energy to brace his joints, the friction was brutal.
POP.
His left shoulder dislocated completely out of the socket.
THUD.
Hanzo dropped to his knees.
Then.
He grabbed his right leg with his good hand. He forced his kneecap completely out of alignment.
CRACK.
A wave of pure agony shot through his unprotected nervous system.
He curled into a tight ball on the floorboards. He punched his own ribs hard to create deep bruises.
THUD. THUD.
The sheer pain caused his stomach to heave.
His body was completely broken, fitting the narrative of a desperate survivor.
"Now.. for the final clause."
Hanzo raised his good hand toward the ceiling, dropping the fifty-meter black Veil covering the clinic.
FSSSH.
With the contract demanding its release, Hanzo unleashed the entirety of his remaining cursed energy upward.
Because it was an intentional, self-sacrificing trade for the vow, the energy didn't leave messy residuals, it burned away cleanly as an explosive payment to the universe.
He shot the raw, concussive blast of energy straight up through the broken roof.
VMMMM.
The curse energy left his fingertips, hitting absolute zero.
Click.
The Binding Vow activated instantly in his brain.
Hanzo vision blurred heavily as his nervous system buckled under the sudden, total absence of cursed energy.
The last thing he saw was the dust settling over Kenta's body.
Hanzo closed his eyes and blacked out.
--<>--
Two men in traditional robes walked quickly down the dirt road.
They carried large wooden instrument cases strapped tightly to their backs.
They were sorcerers from the Gakuganji family.
Obu adjusted the heavy strap on his shoulder.
"...The local informants said that curse user named Genshiro was hiding near this ward," Obu said quietly.
Nobu scanned the empty alleys.
"...We need to collect that bounty today," Nobu replied. "...The Imperial retainers want the streets totally clear."
Obu suddenly stopped walking.
He looked up at the sky above the abandoned clinic three blocks away.
"Hmm?"
A subtle distortion in the air suddenly dissolved.
A raw, jagged spike of cursed energy shot directly into the clouds.
"...Did you feel that?" Obu asked.
Nobu gripped the handle of his instrument case.
Nobu confirmed. "...Let's go!"
They sprinted down the dirt road toward the rotting hospital.
--<>--
Obu kicked the broken double doors completely open.
BAM.
They stepped cautiously into the dark hallway.
The air smelled of fresh blood.
Nobu gasped and ran forward.
"...Obu, look at this!" Nobu shouted.
He dropped to his knees next to the unconscious teenagers.
He checked Kenta's pulse quickly.
"...They are alive," Nobu reported. "...But they need a doctor right now."
He looked closely at the dark silk uniforms.
"...These are Kamo clan members," Nobu identified them.
Obu drew a wooden guitar neck from his case.
He looked down at the mutilated corpse on the floorboards.
"...Nobu," Obu called out. "...I found our bounty."
Nobu jogged into the room and stared at the body.
Genshiro's throat was completely crushed.
His limbs were twisted backward.
"...What the hell happened to him?" Nobu asked in shock.
Obu looked around the empty room.
He sensed the massive amount of residual energy coating the walls.
The energy lacked any specific signature.
It felt completely anonymous.
"...An unknown master was here," Shigeru concluded quietly. "...They crushed Genshiro and saved the Kamo clan members."
Nobu grabbed bandages from his pouch.
"...We cannot just leave them here," Nobu said. "...They are bleeding out."
Obu sheathed his wooden weapon.
"...Wrap their wounds," Shigeru ordered. "... We're taking them directly to the Kamo Clan."
--<>--
Location: Kamo Estate, Medical Ward
Time: 09:00 PM
A dull, throbbing pain radiated through Hanzo's left shoulder.
"Ughh.."
He slowly opened his eyes.
Moonlight filtered through the paper screens of the room.
He blinked several times to clear his blurry vision.
He was lying on a soft futon.
His left arm and right leg were wrapped tightly in thick white bandages.
"What's going on?"
He turned his head slightly to the left.
Kenta, Jin, and Soma were lying on three separate futons across the large room.
They were all heavily bandaged and completely asleep.
SLIDE.
The wooden doors opened loudly.
Matron Ota walked into the room with her arms crossed tightly.
Branch Leader Genzaburo stepped in right behind her.
Elder Yasu followed them inside.
The old man looked incredibly furious.
A young woman in a plain brown kimono stood quietly in the corner near the door.
Elder Yasu stepped past Genzaburo and walked directly to Hanzo's bed.
"...Explain yourself, boy," Yasu demanded coldly.
Hanzo swallowed hard.
His throat felt completely dry.
He genuinely tried to remember what happened at the site.
He remembered going with the trio to exorcise cursed spirits. He saw the difference between their powers and his after the exorcism.
Then.
A curse user suddenly attacked the three of them. He watched while analyzing his cursed technique.
The memories stopped right there. Even though he feels, he can defeat that guy.
The next thing in his mind was pure, blank.
'Shit... Did something happened that I didn't know about?'
"...I do not know, Elder," Hanzo answered in a weak voice.
Yasu narrowed his eyes.
"...Do not lie to me," Yasu threatened. "...You left the clan without official permission."
Hanzo shook his head slowly.
"...I just wanted to see the city for my birthday," Hanzo explained truthfully. "...Kenta-san told me to run."
He looked at his bandaged arm.
"...A curse user suddenly appeared and told us that he will kill us and sell our bodies," Hanzo continued. "...He had a really heavy presence. We could not move."
Hanzo looked back up at the elder. "Kenta-san, Jin-san and Soma-san tried their best but was seriously injured and unconscious... Then he looked at me."
"...After that everything went black," Hanzo finished and omitted some things. Technically he really didn't lie.
"...I just remember waking up here."
Elder Yasu glared at the boy.
He turned his head toward the young woman by the door.
"...Is he lying?" Yasu asked sharply.
The utility sorcerer shook her head.
"...His is completely steady, Elder," the woman reported quietly.
She bowed slightly.
"...He is telling the absolute truth," she added. "...His mind simply blocked out the trauma of the ambush."
Elder Yasu clicked his tongue in deep frustration.
TCH.
"...This makes absolutely no sense," Yasu muttered to himself.
He paced back and forth across the tatami mats.
"...The Gakuganji patrol found the rogue sorcerer dead in the area," Yasu complained aloud.
Branch Leader Genzaburo frowned.
"...Did someone identify the killer, Elder?" Genzaburo asked.
Yasu shook his head angrily.
"...No," Yasu replied. "...His bones were crushed and the residual energy was completely scrubbed clean."
Yasu stopped pacing.
"...Whoever saved these foolish brats was a complete unknown," Yasu concluded.
Hanzo listened to the older men talk.
'Someone saved us?' Hanzo thought in genuine shock. 'An unknown sorcerer?'
He really believed a random sorcerer bailed them out.
Yasu turned and walked toward the sliding doors.
"...I am done here," Yasu announced. "...Keep me updated when the older boys wake up. It seems that those curse users are getting out of hand."
The elder slid the door open and left the ward.
Sigh.
Branch Leader Genzaburo let out a long sigh.
He looked back down at Hanzo.
"...You broke the absolute rules of this clan, Hanzo," Genzaburo scolded him strictly.
Hanzo lowered his head against the pillow.
"...I am sorry, Genzaburo-sama," Hanzo replied. "...I was just curious."
Genzaburo crossed his arms.
"...As punishment, you are confined to the washing yard for two full months," Genzaburo ordered.
He pointed a finger at the boy.
"...No training," Genzaburo stated. "...You will receive twenty strikes from a bamboo cane after you healed."
"...Yes, Genzaburo-sama," Hanzo agreed.
He really didn't expect his casual tag along had many problems.
The Branch Leader turned and walked out of the room.
"Rest and heal, Hanzo.." Matron Ota genuinely reminded him.
She and the utility sorcerer followed him closely.
CLICK.
The sliding doors shut tightly.
"..."
The medical ward fell completely silent.
Hanzo stared up at the wooden ceiling boards.
His shoulder throbbed with intense pain.
He genuinely could not remember a single detail of the fight against the rogue sorcerer.
His mind felt completely empty regarding the clinic.
'Who the hell is the bastard that beat me up... And I feel I could literally defeat that curse user... So what really happened?'
--<>--
For this story be included in the algorithm.
-Dr_Chad
--<>--
Support the journey here: