Inside the pitch-black house, a phone lying on the floor gave off a pale, ghostly glow.
Its light faintly illuminated a human figure.
A silver-haired young man wearing a short black leather jacket had fallen asleep against the wall.
The room was deathly silent, with only the sound of his steady breathing echoing through it.
Slide!
In another corner of the room, the sliding door of the Japanese-style room was pulled open.
A long-haired woman crawled inside on all fours, her posture twisted and unnatural.
The hands supporting her body were a sickly white, their joints bent backward.
The white clothes covering her body were stained with mottled patches of blood.
As the woman entered the room, a strange and horrifying sound suddenly rang out.
“Uhhhhhhhhhh…”
Like a spider, she rapidly crawled over to the silver-haired young man.
One pale hand stretched toward his ankle.
“If you’re hungry, go eat something.
Quit groaning.
You’re noisy as hell!”
Jin opened his eyes and looked down at the woman sprawled beside his feet in that bizarre posture.
The woman’s pale hand froze in midair.
As if she had short-circuited, she paused for a second before slowly lifting her head toward him.
A pair of completely black eyes entered Jin’s vision.
“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”
The rhythm of that eerie noise suddenly accelerated, as though the woman had been enraged.
Her horrifying eyes widened, and large amounts of dark-red blood began pouring from their corners.
She suddenly sprang up and lunged at Jin.
Jin chuckled and raised one hand toward her head.
The next second—
Orange-red flames instantly burst from his palm, erupting into a massive pillar of fire.
The woman’s figure was swallowed by the flames, and the tremendous impact blasted her away.
Boom!
She smashed through the wall of the Japanese-style room and crashed heavily onto the floor.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle.
Raging flames wrapped around her body.
Black smoke rose into the air as the temperature inside the room rapidly climbed.
The edges of the tatami mats blackened and curled, while the smell of something burning filled the air.
Jin slowly stood up and stretched his stiff body.
Looking toward the woman, he muttered under his breath.
“A Grade 3 cursed spirit…
No.
If that attack didn’t kill it, its strength should be around Grade 2, right?”
While he was still thinking, more than a dozen thick hemp ropes suddenly appeared above him without warning.
Jin glanced upward and raised an eyebrow.
“Ghost ropes?”
The instant that thought crossed his mind, one of the ropes had already looped around his neck.
It tightened violently—but caught nothing, failing to bind him as expected.
A brief hollow appeared where Jin’s neck should have been, orange-red flames flickering in its place.
The next second, the rope burned to ash and drifted to the ground.
Jin slowly turned his head and looked behind him.
The female cursed spirit stood there blankly, still holding the other end of the rope.
Her pitch-black eyes reflected his smiling face.
The corner of Jin’s mouth rose as he gently lifted his left arm.
A large amount of fire surged from his shoulder, rolling and coiling around his arm until his entire left arm and fist were completely engulfed.
The orange-red flames illuminated half his face, making his golden eyes shine brilliantly in the firelight.
Feeling the scorching heat, the female cursed spirit retreated two or three steps and raised an arm in front of herself.
“Ropes and fire don’t exactly mix.”
Jin’s voice was quiet.
Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, he abruptly spun around and threw a punch.
“Fire Fist!”
The flames surrounding his arm exploded outward.
The air shrieked under the intense heat.
Orange-red fire burst from the surface of his fist.
The moment it left his hand, it condensed into an enormous flaming fist—five fingers clearly defined, its knuckles rough and pronounced.
The instant it slammed into the female cursed spirit, she was sent flying as though struck head-on by a battering ram.
Her body tore through the wall, smashed across the corridor, and flew out into the open air.
A pillar of fire several meters long pierced through the courtyard, driving back the darkness.
The female cursed spirit’s body grew smaller and smaller beneath the flames until it was reduced to ash and disappeared completely.
[First Grade 2 Cursed Spirit Killed.
Flame Strength +16%.
Claim immediately?
Yes/No]
“No.”
Jin withdrew his fist, and the flames around his arm slowly died away.
He dusted off his hands and turned around.
“Job done.”
Jin picked up the phone that had fallen to the floor, slipped one hand into his pocket, and walked outside.
Flames licked at the ruined building, illuminating the old house with their glow.
After stepping through the broken wall, Jin suddenly stopped and turned his head toward the left.
Inside the dimly lit room, three corpses hung from the ceiling by ropes, gently swaying from the impact of the earlier fight.
Jin pulled a cigarette pack from his pants pocket and placed one between his lips.
With a snap of his fingers, a tiny flame appeared at his fingertip and lit the cigarette.
“Haa…”
He exhaled a cloud of smoke, a satisfied smile appearing on his face.
At the same time, he raised his head and looked at the three people in front of him, who were doing a rather convincing impression of hanging teru teru bozu dolls.
“Didn’t anyone tell you you’re not supposed to use the house as a swing set?”
The flames devoured the wooden structure, spreading larger and larger.
As the culprit responsible for the fire, Jin showed absolutely no intention of putting it out.
He simply turned around and left.
“WEE-OO!
WEE-OO!
WEE-OO!”
The piercing sound of police sirens carried through the air.
Jin glanced back at the towering flames behind him and tilted his head.
“I’ve caused this much commotion and the jujutsu world still hasn’t reacted.
Their efficiency really is terrible.”
It had been roughly a week since Jin transmigrated into this world, and he had more or less adapted to his new life.
As a transmigrator, he naturally came equipped with a system.
The beginner package given by the system had rewarded him with the Logia-type Flame-Flame Fruit.
After eating the fruit, its abilities had been converted into his innate cursed technique.
Aside from completing main quests, hunting cursed spirits could also grant him mission rewards.
For the past few days, Jin had been wandering around Tokyo, completing missions while deliberately causing some commotion to attract the attention of the jujutsu world.
Thinking back to the cursed spirit he’d just killed, Jin clicked his tongue.
“Uhhh, uhhh, my ass.
For a second I thought you were Kayako.
Nearly scared the hell out of me.”
A thoughtful look flashed through his golden eyes.
“If it actually were Kayako, she’d probably be an imaginary vengeful cursed spirit on the level of a Special Grade, right?”
After all, she had traumatized an entire generation.
If she genuinely appeared in this world, there was no way she’d be weak.
With Jin’s current strength, Grade 2 and Grade 3 cursed spirits were easy prey.
He could crush them without effort.
A Grade 1 cursed spirit was harder to judge, but thanks to the mechanics of elementalization, even if he couldn’t win, escaping would still be easy.
Elementalization—the special ability of Logia-type Devil Fruits.
None of the small-fry cursed spirits Jin had encountered so far had been capable of inflicting any real damage on him.
Behind him, the fire burned more fiercely.
The sound of wooden beams cracking and collapsing filled the air.
Jin tossed away his finished cigarette.
The butt landed with a soft tap on the rubble beside his foot, scattering sparks.
“Ahh…
time to go home and sleep.”
Jin yawned, raised his foot, and crushed the cigarette butt beneath his heel.
The sparks died out, leaving only a small patch of gray-white ash that scattered in the night wind.