A few days later, West Tokyo, Eishu Juvenile Detention Center.
The sky was gloomy, as if a storm was about to break.
Directly above the playground, a house-sized circular egg-like object floated in the sky, witnessed by several inmates.
It looked like a golden, transparent egg, within which some kind of monster with misaligned facial features and limbs was gestating.
According to Jujutsu High’s identification, this was a Cursed Womb of a Special Grade Imaginary Cursed Spirit.
“We have already evacuated people within a five-hundred-meter radius, and the facility has been completely sealed off.”
Mr. Ijichi stood in front of the four first-years, his expression serious.
“If the Cursed Womb is of the metamorphic type, it is possible for it to grow into a Special Grade Cursed Spirit.”
“There are still five inmates remaining in the second dormitory building with the Cursed Womb.”
“The situation is critical; your mission is to find and rescue them.”
Ijichi raised a finger to emphasize:
“If you truly encounter a Special Grade Cursed Spirit, absolutely do not fight! In front of such an existence, there are only two choices: run or die!”
Tokiwa muttered inwardly: ‘I don’t want to fight either…
If only I could really get away…’
Over the past few days, he hadn’t been able to get any missions from Gojo or Nanami, so his points had naturally stagnated.
Ijichi looked sincere: “Fushiguro, Tokiwa, you both have considerable mission experience, so I will leave the decision-making to you.”
“Sho! Is my son Sho okay!”
Not far away, in front of a human wall formed by several Jujutsu High intelligence agents, a woman looked anxious.
Ijichi used his body to block Itadori, who was showing signs of compassion, and said to the woman:
“Please go back, ma’am.”
“There is a gas leak in the Juvenile Detention Center; it is very dangerous here.”
“How can this be…” The woman burst into tears, nearly collapsing.
Itadori’s expression became firm: “Let’s go, everyone.”
“We must save them.”
Tokiwa closed his eyes.
‘It’s coming…’
‘The biggest crisis.’
Over the last few days, he had sparred with the trio, and they had all improved their physical combat abilities slightly.
But facing a Special Grade Cursed Spirit, he wasn’t confident.
After sending the three to the dormitory building, Ijichi stopped.
“I’ll stop here. Everyone, be careful.”
“I will lower the Veil.”
He chanted the incantation, and a spot of ink descended from the sky, transforming into a barrier that isolated the view from the outside.
The four walked along the corridor and soon arrived in front of the dormitory building.
Fushiguro crossed his hands: “Divine Dogs!”
His shadow twisted and deformed, and a snow-white Divine Dog emerged from it.
Tokiwa stepped forward and pushed open the door: “Everyone, get ready for battle.”
Boom—
The door swung open, but what came into view was not the scene of a dormitory building, but a sprawling, twisted forest of steel.
Bathed in dark red light cast from an unknown source, the ceiling was gone, leaving only pipes crisscrossing in the darkness.
Seeing the drastically different scenery, Itadori and Kugisaki were shocked: “What’s going on?!”
Fushiguro frowned deeply: “It’s an Innate Domain constructed of Cursed Energy…”
“This is also the biggest difference between a Special Grade and a Grade 1.”
“But why is it so big?!”
While they were shocked, the door handle Tokiwa was holding suddenly slipped from his hand and flew backward.
Bang!
The door closed.
The group turned back, and there were only reinforced concrete walls behind them; not a trace of the door remained.
“The door… has disappeared.”
“Ah~~ what do we do~~ what do we do~~”
Itadori and Kugisaki, the idiot duo, were already circling the Divine Dog.
Fushiguro supported his forehead: “No need to worry about that. My Divine Dog has already memorized the scent of the entrance.”
Tokiwa nodded: “Then let’s keep moving forward.”
“Once we rescue the survivors, we’ll have Fushiguro lead us to the exit.”
Itadori smiled: “Oh, Fushiguro, you’re actually quite reliable!”
“You can help many people, and you can help me too!”
Hearing this straightforward statement, Fushiguro felt complicated inside.
“Let’s keep going.”
They hadn’t walked far before several mutilated corpses appeared in front of them.
“Okazaki Sho…” Itadori saw the name on a corpse’s name tag at a glance.
“Sho…”
He had said before that he would bring him out.
But before them, only half of his body remained.
‘You are strong, so you must help others.’ His grandfather’s “curse” before he died echoed in Itadori’s ears.
Itadori felt depressed and was about to step forward, but was stopped by Tokiwa with one hand.
“Everyone.” Tokiwa spoke.
From the moment he saw the corpses, he felt a bone-chilling cold sweep over him.
Tokiwa’s eyes widened.
He gripped the hilt of his shigurekiri tightly with his right hand, goosebumps rising all over his body.
“A Special Grade… is here.”
“How is that possible?! The Divine Dog…”
Fushiguro’s eyes were bloodshot.
Its body was gone, and only half of its head remained, with red and black blood smeared on the wall.
“Quick, let’s run…”
Before Fushiguro could finish his sentence, a hideous face with a grin appeared in front of the four.
It was bare-chested, with four black claw-mark-like protrusions on its head, and four fingernail-sized eyes embedded in the middle.
It wore black bell-bottoms on its lower body, likely stripped from some unfortunate soul’s corpse.
The palpable pressure washed over them like a tide, nearly crushing them.
A Special Grade Cursed Spirit.
Unlike the distant glimpse of the Pterosaur, and unlike the soft, strange feeling of the Laughing Specter.
No Cursed Technique, no complete Domain, and no basic intelligence.
Relying solely on a formidable physique and massive amounts of Cursed Energy, it entered the Special Grade realm with a beauty of pure numerical values.
Tokiwa had previously naively thought that he had already touched the threshold of a Grade 1 Sorcerer.
At this moment, he realized he was terribly wrong.
Even Nanami, who was relatively average among them (compared to Mei Mei, Aoi Todo, Kusakabe, and Naobito), was far superior to him.
The strength Nanami had displayed previously probably didn’t even reach his working hours limit (80%).
Nanami, you really have caused me a lot of trouble…
The four felt as if they had fallen into an ice cellar.
Itadori, driven by fear to anger, was about to draw the Slaughter Demon from his waist and slash at the Cursed Spirit in front of him.
Slap.
Tokiwa pressed his palm down, gripping Itadori’s wrist, stopping the latter’s reckless behavior.
[Ability Amplification Card used. For a short time, the ability “Lord Flame” will be upgraded to A-rank.]
[Ability Amplification Card (B) used. For a short time, the ability “Fireball Jutsu” will be upgraded to B-rank.]
“You all retreat first.”
Having decisively used two consumable items, Tokiwa stared closely at the Cursed Spirit and whispered to the three.
“Kugisaki, provide long-range support. Fushiguro, use the rabbits and frogs to distract it.”
The Cursed Spirit, like a child who had seen a beloved toy, stared wide-eyed and smiled as it sized up the four people in front of it.
Even though Tokiwa was passing on intelligence right in front of it, it didn’t care at all.
‘It’s playing; it isn’t going all out.’
Tokiwa understood this in his heart.
“Go!!”
Tokiwa shouted, and his shigurekiri was unsheathed.
The high-temperature energy of Lord Flame surged wildly, and the surrounding air was distorted.
At the same time, he took a deep breath, and the B-rank upgraded Fireball Jutsu was unleashed.
Boom!!
Facing the incoming fireball and slash, the Cursed Spirit tilted its head and, not to be outdone, spat out an energy ball.
A clash of beams!