Firelight exploded, instantly turning the entire inside of the Curtain as bright as day.
A deafening roar rang out as the ground shook violently.
Inside the massive sea of fire, a small vacuum-like clearing appeared.
Kuroki lay flat on the ground, staring blankly at the sky.
His originally pale face had turned bright red beneath the scorching heat, yet there were no additional injuries on his body.
At the very last moment, the shikigami named Yukino had blocked the entire attack for him.
Jin slowly walked up to Kuroki and looked down at him, his tone calm.
“Any last words?”
Kuroki still had some cursed energy remaining, but at that moment he only felt overwhelming exhaustion.
He had completely lost the desire to resist.
He raised his right arm, which was wrapped in white gauze, as a line of tears slowly ran from the corner of his eye.
“After coming this far…
why do I suddenly regret it again?”
During the violent battle, the tightly wrapped gauze had loosened slightly.
Through the gaps, hideous burn scars could vaguely be seen underneath.
Whether those were crocodile tears or genuine regret didn’t matter to Jin.
He raised one finger toward Kuroki’s heart and answered the question.
“Love is the most twisted curse—and the sharpest blade.”
Kuroki closed his eyes, a relieved smile appearing on his lips.
“Ha…
No matter how you look at it, I lost to you in every way.”
Jin smiled faintly.
“What’s the sword called?
I’m taking it as spoils.”
Kuroki gently turned his head toward the scorched mark beside him.
“Forget it.
I don’t have the face to say it.”
“Then…
goodbye.”
BANG!
An orange fire bullet shot from Jin’s fingertip and instantly pierced Kuroki’s heart.
Kuroki let out a muffled groan before slowly closing his eyes for the final time.
Jin stared at Kuroki’s corpse without blinking.
Several minutes passed.
Seeing absolutely no special changes appear on the body, Jin sighed in disappointment.
“No cursed tool…”
When a jujutsu sorcerer died, their curse didn’t necessarily disappear.
Under certain circumstances, a cursed technique could remain behind in the form of a cursed tool.
After Kento Nanami’s death, the Ratio Technique remained in a cursed tool.
Kuroki’s technique had tremendous potential.
In a certain sense, it was basically Sorcerer Manipulation—or perhaps it should be called Human Manipulation.
It could transform the souls of allies or enemies into shikigami while preserving their cursed techniques.
The ability was sinister beyond belief.
It was several times more powerful than even Masamichi Yaga’s puppet techniques.
Jin shook his head, resentment entering his voice.
“I went through all that trouble giving you emotional counseling, and you won’t even drop a cursed tool for your little brother.
Kuroki, that’s not very righteous of you.”
He crouched down and pulled the scabbard hanging from Kuroki’s waist free.
Before Jin could even stand, the system notification suddenly rang in his ears.
[You have killed the Grade 1 Curse User—Kuroki.
Reward Obtained—Soul Puppet (Maximum: Return to the Abyss) Trial Card x1]
[Accept Reward?
Yes/No]
“I get a reward for this too?!”
Ecstasy flashed through Jin’s eyes.
His expression changed instantly, and his grin nearly reached his ears.
The trial card alone wasn’t enough to make him this happy.
But the fact that the system had issued a reward meant killing curse users was also part of a repeatable mission series!
“System, what is the definition of a curse user?”
[Any jujutsu sorcerer who has repeatedly massacred ordinary people without cause will be judged a curse user.]
Jin pulled out a cigarette, placed it between his lips, and fell into thought.
By the system’s standard, Ryomen Sukuna, Brain, Uraume, Yorozu, and the various ancient sorcerers such as the Four Kings of Sendai would basically all count as curse users.
“Special Grades are too difficult to kill.
Right now, the only one I could realistically target is Brain…”
A wary look flashed through his eyes.
Brain, who possessed the open-barrier Domain Womb Profusion, stood among the very top tier even within Special Grade.
Killing him would be insanely difficult.
As for modern curse users, very few amounted to anything.
After Satoru Gojo’s birth, curse-user organizations had practically collapsed without needing to be attacked.
Only a handful of stragglers remained.
Forget Special Grade—Grade 1 already counted as top-tier strength among them.
Special Grade was still far beyond Jin’s current reach.
He lit the cigarette in his mouth and took a satisfied drag.
“I can’t beat Special Grades, but killing a few more Grade 2s and Grade 3s should be effortless.”
Jin opened the system panel and checked his newly obtained reward.
[Soul Puppet (Maximum: Return to the Abyss) Trial Card x1.
Extract the soul of one opponent and combine it with your own cursed energy to create a shikigami belonging to you.]
The description was very simple, almost identical to the information Kuroki had revealed about his own technique earlier.
“Pretty much the same.
Kuroki refused to drop a cursed tool, so the system compensated me—and even gave me the Plus enhanced version.”
A Maximum Technique was the ultimate expression of a cursed technique.
In other words, aside from Domain Expansion, it was the strongest move available to a technique.
Kuroki himself probably hadn’t even mastered the Maximum.
A smile appeared on Jin’s face as he considered how to use the trial card.
If used properly, this card could be no less valuable than adding another cursed technique to his arsenal.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle.
The sound of water instantly evaporating rang out.
At some point, the Curtain overhead had been released.
Rain fell and immediately transformed into steam the instant it touched the flames.
Jin froze slightly and raised his head toward the sky.
At first, the rain was as fine as silk, not even enough to wet the ground.
A few seconds later, the rainfall abruptly became violent.
Bean-sized raindrops poured down over his head and face.
They struck the blackened ground with dense pattering sounds.
Hissssss…
The sea of fire released its final dying shriek.
Orange-red flames struggled wildly beneath the curtain of rain.
Steam surged into the sky, covering the entire battlefield in thick white mist and making visibility hazy.
Kento Nanami stood behind the convenience-store door and looked toward Jin, who had remained standing alone in the rain for a long time without moving.
He quietly sighed and thought,
‘No matter how mature he acts, in the end he’s still a child.’
Nanami frowned.
‘His very first mission involved a curse user…
This is reckless!’
Being a jujutsu sorcerer was a dangerous and extremely dark profession.
Cursed spirits might be monsters, but they still had biological forms.
Humanoid cursed spirits especially resembled living beings.
After killing them, many people experienced emotions such as fear and disgust.
And Jin hadn’t killed a cursed spirit.
He had killed a living human being.
Even if the other person had been a thoroughly evil curse user, at the instant you ended someone’s life—
The warmth of splattering blood.
The process of life fading from their pupils.
Those sensory memories wouldn’t automatically disappear just because you called what you did “justice.”
Nanami had watched the entire battle.
Jin’s strength was undoubtedly sufficient.
His destructive ability was even greater than Nanami’s own, despite Nanami being a Grade 1 sorcerer.
What Nanami couldn’t understand was this:
Focusing only on strength while ignoring psychological preparation—
After what had happened back then, that kind of educational policy shouldn’t have been repeated again.
Chime.
The convenience-store door opened.
Jin walked inside with a cigarette between his lips, his body releasing waves of scorching steam.
Even beneath the heavy rain, the cigarette in his mouth hadn’t gone out.
Orange-red embers continued glowing and dimming at its tip.
Nanami looked at Jin’s expressionless face, his lips moving slightly.
He wanted to say something but didn’t know whether he should.
After a brief silence, he finally spoke in his usual manner.
“Jin-kun, you have successfully passed your sorcerer-grade evaluation.
Congratulations.”
Nanami was currently wearing only his dark-blue shirt.
His suit jacket had been draped over the unconscious female cashier lying on the floor.
Jin turned his head toward Nanami and lightly nodded in response.
He walked forward two steps and leaned sideways against a shelf, raising one hand to gently rub his temple.
With the cigarette between his fingers, Jin exhaled smoke and thought,
‘I wonder what grade they’ll give me.
Grade 2 at minimum, right…?’
Seeing Jin’s gloomy appearance only reinforced Nanami’s earlier guess.
He lowered his gaze toward the female cashier on the floor and asked with concern,
“Jin-kun, this girl?”
“She’s only unconscious.
She’ll wake up on her own after a while.”
Jin’s voice was faint, with no emotion apparent in it.
“Understood.”
Nanami bent down and gently lifted the girl from the ground.
Jin looked outside through the shattered glass window.
A thin crack had opened along the horizon, and gray-blue morning light seeped through it.
The rain had come quickly and left just as quickly.
A few remaining clouds were rimmed with thin golden edges, their borders dyed a translucent orange-pink.
Puddles in front of the convenience store reflected the sky.
When the morning breeze passed over them, the gray sky shattered into tiny ripples.
Jin casually burned the remaining cigarette butt to ash, then let out a huge yawn, a little moisture appearing at the corners of his eyes.
“Ahh~ I’m starving.
At this hour…
it’s time for breakfast.”