Following the residuals, Jin and Kento Nanami tracked their target all the way to a convenience store in the suburbs.
Chime.
Jin and Nanami pushed open the convenience-store door and stepped inside.
The store was brightly lit.
Pale fluorescent tubes illuminated everything with painful clarity.
Snacks sat neatly arranged across the shelves, while bottles of drinks rested quietly inside refrigerated cases.
The cash register screen was still lit.
Everything looked as though the store was open for normal business.
There just wasn’t a single person anywhere.
Jin tilted his head toward the direction of the storage room and narrowed his eyes slightly.
“They’re here.
Two presences.
One of them has a large amount of cursed energy.”
Nanami looked toward the empty register, his brows furrowing slightly.
It was obvious who the second person was.
Creak~
The storage-room’s metal door slowly opened, and a hoarse, low voice came from the darkness.
“You arrived rather quickly, jujutsu sorcerers.”
A silhouette emerged from the darkness.
The female cashier who had disappeared earlier appeared behind the door.
Her clothes were disheveled, strands of hair stuck to her sweat-soaked face.
Her attractive face was filled with terror, and even her lips trembled constantly.
The instant she saw Jin and Nanami, tears spilled uncontrollably from her eyes.
“Save me!”
Her voice tore through the air, every word trembling.
“Please…
I’m begging you!”
A pale, thin, gloomy-looking man stood leisurely behind her.
Less than half of his head was visible, narrow eyes staring forward.
“Those women were accidents.
I have no interest in torturing ordinary people to death.”
The man gently placed one hand on the trembling woman’s shoulder.
The woman became like a toy whose mute button had been pressed.
Her screaming abruptly stopped.
Only muffled sobbing continued leaking from her nose.
A mocking curve appeared at the corner of the man’s mouth as he slowly spoke.
“Step aside, and everyone will be fine.”
A hostage had appeared during the mission.
A complication like this had already exceeded the scope of what a newcomer should be expected to handle.
Nanami stepped forward, preparing to take control of the situation.
Jin suddenly extended one arm in front of him, blocking his path, then turned and exchanged a glance with Nanami.
Nanami stopped.
After seeing the look Jin gave him, he remained silent for a moment before stepping back again.
Jin lowered his head and unhurriedly rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, speaking with undisguised contempt.
“You’re holding her hostage.
Why the hell should we move?”
“What?”
Wrinkles appeared between the man’s brows, his pupils abruptly widening.
His lips parted, closed, then parted again.
For a moment, he genuinely didn’t know how to answer.
Was this right?
The hostage’s life was in his hands.
Whether she lived or died depended entirely on his whim.
How could this brat dare act like that?!
The female cashier being held hostage stared in disbelief, despair appearing in her eyes.
Jin raised his chin slightly and looked toward the man hiding in the darkness.
“You committed crimes and now you want to run?
You think one little explanation means everyone should just pretend nothing happened?”
He sneered mockingly.
“Coward who can only hide behind a woman!”
The man’s expression suddenly became extremely ugly.
The hand resting on the woman’s shoulder tightened violently, his fingertips digging deep into her flesh.
The cashier wanted to scream from the pain but didn’t dare.
She could only let out pained whimpers.
Nanami’s expression shifted slightly at the sight.
The man noticed that tiny emotional fluctuation and revealed a smug smile.
“Your bluff is useless.
I understand you jujutsu sorcerers.”
“Trying to mislead me…
You’re too naive, brat.”
He withdrew his hand from the woman’s shoulder and lightly flicked away the blood staining his fingertips.
“If you’ve got the guts, attack.
Her life means nothing to me anyway.”
Jin stepped forward, flames spreading across his left fist.
“Strictly speaking, I’m actually an intern.
Everyone knows interns aren’t responsible for anything.”
He swept the hair away from his forehead and threw a punch without the slightest hesitation.
Orange-red flames erupted from his fist and swept forward.
The gloomy man hiding behind the woman gritted his teeth, never expecting Jin to genuinely ignore the hostage’s life.
At the same time, dazzling golden light erupted from Jin’s eyes.
Before the flames arrived, invisible pressure struck first.
The female cashier rolled her eyes and instantly lost consciousness beneath Conqueror’s Haki, her body falling forward uncontrollably.
The cursed energy inside the gloomy man erupted violently, cancelling out the oppressive force that struck him head-on.
His pupils contracted to pinpoints, deep wariness filling his eyes.
‘This pressure…
this brat!’
Orange-red firelight illuminated the man’s pale face.
He kicked the storage-room’s metal door and abruptly retreated backward.
The flames lifted slightly, passing above the female cashier on the floor before slamming directly into the metal door in their path, sparks flying everywhere.
The next second—
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The metal door was instantly blasted through, and flames surged into the dark storage room.
The damaged door swayed twice before falling forward, its enormous shadow covering the woman on the ground.
At that instant, Nanami moved.
His entire body practically launched parallel to the floor.
He scooped the female cashier from the ground with one arm and pulled her into his chest, while using the other hand to protect the back of her head.
Nanami’s body slid forward beneath his momentum as the heavy metal door crashed down behind him.
Looking at the unconscious cashier in his arms, Nanami let out a quiet breath of relief.
Then, from the ceiling directly above him, two pitch-black claws silently thrust outward.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Fire bullets shot through the air like raindrops and struck the two ugly claws.
“Aah!
Aah!”
A shrill, piercing scream rang out as Nanami quickly carried the hostage to a safe location.
From the ceiling, the shikigami slowly emerged and revealed its true appearance.
The mysterious shikigami wore thin white robes.
It was roughly two meters tall, its build long and slender.
Black hair reached its waist.
Long bangs hung in front of its face, exposing only a single hollow eye that constantly streamed tears.
Seeing the shikigami, Jin immediately confirmed his suspicion.
“As expected.
A shikigami user.”
At that moment, the tall thin man also emerged from the storage room, retreating to one side and preparing to flee at any moment.
“Yukino, we’re leaving.”
“Kuroki-kun…
waaah…”
A wailing cry rang out as large tears fell.
The shikigami named Yukino stared fixedly at the female cashier protected behind Nanami, showing absolutely no intention of leaving.
The man called Kuroki frowned deeply and immediately raised his right hand, which was wrapped in white cloth.
Following his movement, the mysterious shikigami began retreating as though being forcibly controlled.
Jin stood where he was and quietly watched the scene.
The shikigami’s intense hostility toward the female cashier, combined with the fact that all the previous victims had been women…
A possibility appeared in his mind.
‘This shikigami…
was it created after the fact?’
Looking at the woman being protected behind Nanami, Kuroki revealed an expression that said, ‘As expected,’ and parted his lips.
“So-called jujutsu sorcerers…
tch!”
He walked backward across the shattered glass wall and gave Jin a deep look from a distance.
“Clever brat.
Goodbye.”
The night outside was deep.
The light from the fluorescent lamps barely illuminated the area surrounding the convenience store.
Just as Kuroki stepped outside, the star-filled sky above suddenly dimmed.
A semi-transparent black curtain spread outward from a point above the convenience store.
A hemispherical barrier descended over the surrounding area, completely severing any hope of escape.
Kuroki’s expression changed drastically.
He violently spun around while instantly gripping the long sword at his waist.
He had assumed Jin and Nanami weren’t attacking because they were afraid of harming the hostage.
He hadn’t expected them to simply be waiting for the Curtain to finish descending.
Jin leisurely walked out of the convenience store holding a can of cola.
Flames burst from his hand.
He casually melted the empty aluminum can into a puddle of liquid metal.
“Don’t be in such a hurry to run.
The fight…
is only starting now!”
Realizing he couldn’t escape easily, Kuroki drew his sword.
The contempt in his eyes vanished completely, replaced by cold killing intent.
Yukino raised both claws beside him, her constantly weeping single eye locking firmly onto Jin.
Looking at the man and shikigami, Jin couldn’t help chuckling as he thought,
‘This overwhelming sense of déjà vu…
Are you another God of Pure Love too?!’