“Big brother…
let’s play!” The tender, childish voice erupted from the mouth of a colossal infant, a sight that sent a primal shiver down the spine.
The air suddenly turned viscous, clinging to their skin like heavy grease.
Taira no Minamoto and Inumaki Toge felt their hair stand on end; the pressure radiating from this Curse was on an entirely different level compared to the syringe-monsters from before.
Exchanging a quick look, Minamoto whispered, “Fall back.
This space is too cramped.” They began a cautious retreat, eyes fixed on the monstrosity, when the floor beneath them suddenly vanished.
In an instant, Minamoto and Toge were gone.
When they regained their footing, Minamoto scanned their surroundings and realized they had been deposited in the hospital’s main lobby.
They weren’t alone—Maki and Panda, who had been separated earlier, were already there.
In the center of the hall, Minamoto finally got a clear look at the “Ghost Baby.” Its skin was a sickly mottled blue-black, and its eyes were hollow voids.
Its massive frame was bloated, resembling a victim of “giantism” post-mortem.
It clutched two dead women in its grip, treating them like macabre ragdolls.
As the Curse fixed its hollow gaze on the four gathered sorcerers, a supernatural chill paralyzed their limbs.
The group immediately closed ranks.
Panda was supporting Maki, who seemed to have arrived well before the others.
“Minamoto,” Panda called out, his voice low.
“The Curse haunting this hospital has laid down a barrier.
It warped you here.
Maki and I already tried to engage it.” The gathered intel was grim: 1.
The barrier was indestructible from the inside; it could only be broken from the outside or by exorcising the Curse.
2.
The Curse was at least Grade 2, with skin so durable it defied standard physical strikes.
3.
The Curse possessed a defensive displacement ability—it could teleport attackers away when sensing a lethal threat.
That was how Maki had been injured.
“I’m going to use Drumming Beat to cause internal damage,” Panda added.
“Damn it…
my leg is shot.
I’m just dead weight right now,” Maki growled, leaning heavily on her naginata.
“Big brother, let’s play hide and seek!” the eerie voice chirped again.
The group decided to strike first.
Inumaki Toge pulled out a megaphone emblazoned with the “Snake Eyes and Fangs” seal.
He yanked down his high collar, revealing the Inumaki clan marks on his cheeks.
“Twist!” The Ghost Baby’s arm contorted at an unnatural angle.
The Cursed Speech had landed.
However, due to the Curse’s massive size and cursed energy, Toge suffered an immediate rebound, falling into a fit of violent coughing.
Panda, already shifted into Gorilla Mode, seized the opening.
He lunged forward, slamming a palm directly into the Curse’s eye.
The Drumming Beat, which bypasses external defenses, hit the naturally vulnerable eye with devastating effect.
The Curse, previously lost in the pain of its twisted arm, let out a piercing shriek as its eye burst.
The “playful” facade shattered, replaced by a raw, murderous fury.
Minamoto watched the Curse thrash.
It had the intellect of a four-year-old—and an uneducated one at that.
Panda, perched on the Curse’s head, attempted to widen the wound in its eye, but the monster swatted him away like a fly.
As Panda hit the ground, struggling to find his footing, a massive hand descended to crush him.
In a flash of black, a figure appeared in front of Panda.
Interlocking black and white blades caught the giant hand in a cross-block, the sharp edges carving deep furrows into the bloated flesh.
It was Minamoto.
He gave a sharp command: “Sever!” The massive arm was lopped off cleanly, though strangely, no blood sprayed from the stump.
“AAAH!
IT HURTS!” The Curse’s scream was deafening.
Driven mad by the loss of its limbs, it lashed out, but just as Minamoto prepared for a finishing blow, he was suddenly displaced.
In a blink, Minamoto and Panda were warped to the far side of the lobby.
In their place stood the defenseless Maki and the exhausted Toge.
The arm Toge had mangled with his speech had already regenerated.
Unlike humans, Curses were naturally adept at healing with cursed energy.
Though the new limb lacked the density of the original, the sheer scale of the Ghost Baby ensured it still packed immense power.
It swung its arm in a wide arc, aimed directly at the vulnerable pair.
Maki was the only one who could react.
With a desperate leap, she held her naginata horizontally across her chest to brace for the impact.
The blow sent both her and Toge flying across the room.
Minamoto and Panda leaped to catch them.
Seeing blood trickling from the corner of Maki’s mouth, something snapped in Minamoto.
For the first time, he was witnessing his comrades bleed.
“Watch over them, Panda,” Minamoto said, his voice eerily calm.
“Leave the rest to me.” The Curse’s arms were fully restored now, and its eye was knitting back together.
It watched Minamoto approach, sensing the shift in the air, and held its ground to gather strength.
Minamoto gave his swords a dry flick.
“My innate technique is Projection Sorcery—or ‘Tracing.’ By understanding the structure of a weapon, I can project it from my memory using cursed energy, reinforcing its durability and replicating its effects.” Disclosure of One’s Hand.
By revealing the mechanics of his technique, his cursed energy surged, and the potency of his sorcery spiked.
The Curse, sensing the sudden swell in Minamoto’s power, lost its patience and lunged with a massive fist.
Minamoto crossed his twin blades, parrying the strike with a violent shiver of steel.
He diverted the force, shoved the arm aside, and delivered a brutal kick to the Curse’s face.
As the monster reeled, it swung again.
Minamoto dodged the follow-up, darting into the Curse’s guard.
With a reverse grip, he carved a series of deep, smoking wounds across its torso.
The pain drove the Curse into a frenzy.
Ignoring the gashes on its chest, it brought both hands together in a thunderous clap aimed at Minamoto.
Anticipating the move, Minamoto kicked his blades deep into the Curse’s existing wounds, using the recoil of the kick to flip backward and out of danger.
In mid-air, two identical shortswords materialized in his hands.
As he landed, he began the chant, the words of the blades’ inscription flowing from his lips: “Flawless and firm, our strength never fails,” He hurled the twin swords at the Curse.
they traced beautiful, overlapping arcs through the air, homing in on the target.
“Our souls and weapons, as one at the peak; our spirit and technique, crossing the Great River,” He projected and threw another pair.
Four blades now circled the Curse from different angles.
The Ghost Baby held up its arms, tanking the impact of the four shortswords.
“Names only remain, two heroes together.” A final pair of Kanshou and Bakuya appeared in Minamoto’s hands.
A brilliant white light erupted from the steel.
The shortswords transformed, extending into long, jagged blades shaped like wings—the Overedge form.
Because the true “name” of the blades was missing, only the “Wing” aspect was liberated—granting a massive damage bonus against Cursed Spirits.
“Triple-Linked Crane Wings!” The Curse’s body was literally shredded.
As the monster slumped, barely clinging to its existence, the twin blades in Minamoto’s hands vanished.
He turned his back and began to walk away.
Panda started to shout a warning that the Curse hadn’t been fully exorcised yet, but Minamoto simply uttered a single phrase: “Broken Phantasm.” A violent explosion erupted from within the Curse’s chest, where the initial blades had been embedded.
The Ghost Baby was blown to atoms, leaving nothing behind but a lingering heat.
The Semi-Grade 1 Curse: Ghost Baby—Exorcised.
Because cool guys don’t look back at explosions.