“Together?” Yuta Okkotsu stammered, looking confused.
“To be precise, you’re observing,” Gojo said with a clap of his hands, his tone becoming uncharacteristically serious.
“Jujutsu is diverse.
You could say there are as many ways to exorcise curses as there are sorcerers.
Arata-kun is an excellent example–watch and learn carefully.”
“Observe?” Yuta looked up.
“But…
I just got here…”
“That’s exactly why you’re going,” Gojo hopped down from the podium, walked over to Yuta, and patted his shoulder.
“In this business, you don’t learn by sitting in a classroom.”
“That’s just your excuse for not teaching!” Arata flipped Gojo the bird.
Maki Zenin rested her chin on her hand and glanced at Arata, her voice flat.
“What was your first mission like?”
Arata paused, biting his lollipop stick as he thought.
“Hmm…
I don’t really remember much.
The outcome wasn’t great, though–I ended up lying in the infirmary for three days.”
“Alright, alright, there’ll be plenty of time for nostalgia later.
Arata-kun, here are the mission details.” Gojo interrupted their chatter, pulling a folded piece of paper from his pocket and tossing it.
The paper arched through the air and landed precisely on Arata’s desk.
Arata unfolded the paper, scanned it quickly, then stuffed it into his pocket.
“Got it.
When do we leave?”
“Now.” Gojo checked his phone.
“The Assistant Director is already waiting at the gate.
Yuta, watch and learn.”
“Yes, sir,” Yuta nodded nervously.
Arata walked over to Yuta and patted his shoulder.
“Relax.
I’ve got your back.”
The two prepared their gear and headed to the school gates, where a man in a suit stood beside a black sedan.
Seeing them approach, the man bowed slightly.
“Hoshino-kun, Okkotsu-kun.
I am Assistant Director Kiyotaka Ijichi.
I will be responsible for transport and the on-site briefing today.”
“Thanks for the hard work, Ijichi-san,” Arata nodded, pulling open the back door and gesturing for Yuta to get in first.
As the car left Jujutsu High, Ijichi briefed them on the mission.
Yuta listened quietly, his fingers unconsciously gripping his pant legs.
“Based on the preliminary investigation, the Cursed Spirit is estimated to be below Grade 2, but we cannot rule out the possibility of multiple spirits.”
“Understood.”
The car stopped at the entrance of a shopping district.
The area had been completely abandoned and cordoned off, slated for demolition to make way for a new mall.
“Let’s go.” Arata pushed the door open and stepped out.
Yuta scrambled to follow, their footsteps echoing sharply in the empty street.
Once they entered, Ijichi began casting the Veil.
“Emerge from darkness, blacker than black.
Purify that which is impure.”
As the incantation finished, a black, liquid-like substance descended from the sky, forming a massive dark dome that turned the afternoon sky into artificial night.
Looking at the familiar shops, Arata grasped the situation.
In the original story, this was supposed to be Toge Inumaki’s designated mission three months later.
For some reason, it had been moved up.
But Arata didn’t overthink it.
He was a Semi-Grade 1 sorcerer; with Blood Manipulation and Reverse Cursed Technique, dealing with the Semi-Grade 1 spirit that would appear later shouldn’t be difficult.
If all else failed, he still had Cursed Speech.
The abandoned district was desolate.
Glass was shattered, shutter doors were twisted, and the air smelled of dust and a faint, rotting stench.
As they reached the central plaza, a frantic “swimming” sound erupted from above.
Hundreds of small Cursed Spirits, resembling piranhas with jagged teeth, swirled in the air like a school of fish, eventually forming a massive vortex.
“There’s…
so many!” Yuta froze.
“Low-level curses are weak individually, so they swarm to increase their threat level.” As he spoke, Arata stepped in front of Yuta.
A second later, Yuta noticed strange markings appearing around Arata’s mouth.
Before Yuta could ask, Arata took a deep breath, aimed at the swarm, and barked in a clear, low voice:
“Explode!”
The moment the words left his lips, every spirit detonated simultaneously.
BOOM!!!
Flames and black smoke erupted as fragments of curses rained down like soot.
In less than a second, the entire swarm had been exorcised.
Yuta stood there, jaw-dropped.
“Was that…
Cursed Speech?”
“That’s Toge’s technique.
Its core principle uses the seals on the mouth and tongue as a medium to imbue words with cursed energy, forcing them to manifest as reality,” Arata explained, his voice sounding slightly raspy from the backlash.
“My technique is Perfect Copy.
I only need contact to perfectly replicate someone’s ability, but the downside is that I copy the side effects too.”
“That’s amazing…
but Senior, your throat…” Yuta looked at Arata with concern.
“It’s fine,” Arata said, walking toward the exit of the Veil.
“Huh?
The Veil hasn’t vanished?” Yuta touched the barrier in confusion.
“Strange, the curses were clearly destroyed…”
Arata knew exactly why the Veil was still up.
It was Geto’s twisted sense of humor.
Just like the original plot, a Semi-Grade 1 curse would ambush them while they were confused.
*It should be coming right about…
now.*
Thinking this, Arata closed his right eye.
Red seals began to manifest around his left eye.
The next moment, a Cursed Spirit with green fur and an elephant-like trunk materialized behind them.
It didn’t hesitate; with a mere wave of its hand, a thick, searing beam of white light erupted from thin air above their heads.
Arata’s reflexes were lightning-fast.
He shoved Yuta aside and rolled away himself.
The beam slammed into the ground where they had been standing, blasting a massive crater and sending debris flying.
With Flowing Red Scale active, Arata’s strength, speed, and kinetic vision were all heightened.
Seeing the elephant-trunk spirit preparing another attack, Arata raised his hand.
“Blood Manipulation: Slicing Exorcism!”
Blood seeped from his palm, instantly forming a ring-shaped blade that whistled toward the spirit, only to be vaporized by a direct hit from the spirit’s light beam.
The blood mist evaporated into a red haze.
Arata clicked his tongue and leaped backward to create distance.
“A technique triggered through the hands, huh?
In that case, let’s start by making sure you can’t move.”
Arata pulled a blood bag from his gear.