Watching Takako Uro momentarily disappear and then return to the scene fully clothed, Kinoshita’s drifting gaze finally shifted from the empty sky to the woman in front of him.
After the battle ended, Takako Uro, much like Ryu Ishigori, questioned Kinoshita on why he hadn’t killed her for points.
Kinoshita gave a casual excuse—saying he wanted to get some intel on Sukuna from someone of Sukuna’s era.
“You’re really going to challenge that guy?”
“Of course. I incarnated specifically to fight Sukuna to the death.”
Takako Uro was momentarily at a loss for words.
Her intel on Sukuna was mostly stuff that later generations could have recorded anyway.
After spilling the unique information she did have—Sukuna’s open-barrier domain, Furnace, Open, and the binding vows he made while in his original form—she looked at the man before her.
She hadn’t seen it clearly during the fight, but upon noticing the golden handle radiating cursed energy hanging at Kinoshita’s waist, Takako silently turned her head away.
Spending all that effort planning only to fail to even force her opponent to draw his cursed tool…
it reminded Takako of what it was like facing Sukuna in her past life.
It reminded her of Sukuna, bored by the subjugation squad’s attempts, casually wielding Kamutoke and Hiten within his domain.
Even though she hadn’t faced Sukuna head-on, the sight of him obliterating a massive swath of sorcerers like a scythe reaping wheat with a single wave of his hand had left an indelible memory in her mind.
“How did you die?”
Looking at Kinoshita before her, after much deliberation, Takako finally asked this question.
“Me?”
Kinoshita pinched his chin, tilting his head up slightly in mock contemplation.
“After striking a deal with Kenjaku, I committed suicide right in front of him using a cursed tool.”
“…”
Takako Uro really didn’t want to talk to the man in front of her anymore.
He’s a handsome guy, but he’s got something seriously wrong with his head.
“So, do you have any other intel on Sukuna?”
“No.”
“I see.”
Learning there was no more information, Kinoshita turned away.
Takako looked up.
“Hey!”
Watching Kinoshita slowly walk away, Takako called out to this strange man.
“What is it?”
“Why… didn’t you kill me?”
“You’re the second person to ask me that.”
Kinoshita didn’t turn back, merely raising a hand.
“While you aren’t exactly a good person, keeping you alive makes me feel a bit better. If you don’t want me to change my mind, just don’t go laying your hands on ordinary people.”
Lightning flowed across Kinoshita’s back, and Nue’s wings spread out from behind him.
“Farewell.”
“Five points have been added.”
“You aren’t… the dessert I’m looking for either…”
A condensed cursed energy cannon instantly obliterated the body of the sorcerer in front of him.
After absorbing the modern knowledge of firearms stored in his vessel’s mind, Ryu had successfully combined the element of a “handgun” with his cursed energy emission, completely increasing both its release and projectile speed.
“Ha… although not a dessert, I guess you could count as a little cookie. But compared to that guy, it feels like nothing is enough to fill me up.”
Healing his blown-apart right hand with Reverse Cursed Technique, Ryu Ishigori sat on the steps and looked up at the sky.
A streak of lightning instantly flashed across his vision—
“…How many times is that now?”
In the sky above the Sendai Colony, there was a constantly flashing bolt of lightning.
As that lightning rampaged non-stop, the number of players in the Sendai Colony plummeted drastically.
“Haaaaah—”
Stretching lazily while crushing the cursed tool beneath his feet, Kinoshita observed his current location.
It was a single-person detached house.
“Nue. White. Black.”
Three black shadows instantly extended from Kinoshita’s own shadow.
Kinoshita pulled out the golden handle, aimed the front end at the door, and with a click, unlocked it.
Pushing the door open, Black and White surged inside, while Nue maintained its parrot-like body, flapping its wings in mid-air.
“You keep letting people go. Are you preparing for something?”
Nue landed on the table inside the house, its slightly shrill voice ringing out in the room.
“I have to leave some people alive for Kenjaku to maintain the game, right? Plus, I think they’re pretty decent folks.”
Naturally, Kinoshita mainly just wanted to spectate the 1v4 sweep in Sendai, so he was trying his best to keep those key figures alive.
However…
“Of course… haven’t I always been like this?”
“Insidious, deceitful, loves to joke around, and enjoys playing with people’s hearts?”
“Who are you describing?”
Looking into Kinoshita’s eyes, Nue turned its head.
“Mahoraga.”
“Yeah, it does sound a lot like him.”
Kinoshita looked around the layout of the detached house.
The original owner didn’t just raise dogs, they probably raised a parrot too.
Although it looked like no one had returned here for a long time, based on the residual scent in the air, the owner hadn’t been home for over half a month.
Kinoshita slipped into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and pulled out a still-usable cut of beef from the freezer.
Pressing his finger against the beef, cursed energy rapidly diffused, quickly thawing the meat before he placed it on a clean cutting board.
“Ha… nice place.”
Kinoshita didn’t pull out any kitchen utensils.
The cursed energy surged at the front end, quickly forming a sharp kitchen knife.
Sizzle—
Setting a washed frying pan on the stove, as the flames rose, a small piece of beef tallow quickly melted under the heat.
The rendered fat danced at the bottom of the pan, emitting a rich, savory aroma.
While waiting for the pan to heat up, Kinoshita lined up the thickly cut chunks of beef one by one.
“Nue, the seasonings over there.”
Nue grabbed the black pepper shaker with its talons and tossed it to Kinoshita.
Kinoshita caught the shaker, gave his wrist a light shake, and the fine granules evenly coated the surface of the steaks.
Sizzle—!
The moment the beef hit the pan, thick white smoke mixed with the aroma of meat violently shot toward the ceiling, tangling with the roar of the range hood.
Kinoshita used tongs to flip the meat, observing the rapidly forming browned, crispy crust on the surface.
“Ah… the modern era really is great. Here, Black, White, catch.”
Kinoshita flipped the frying pan, and the chunks of meat were swiftly dismantled in mid-air by the Divine Dogs, finally landing perfectly in the dog bowls in front of them.
“Are we just going to stay in here like this?”
The cooking time ended quickly.
Even without eating, Kinoshita could survive perfectly fine, but it was obvious that eating put him in a much better mood.
Pushing Nue’s portion—which had been diced into bite-sized bird food—towards the owl-sized shikigami, Kinoshita first cut a piece of steak for himself and popped it into his mouth.
After chewing for a moment, he looked at Nue.
Hmm, tastes terrible.
“Of course not.”
“Kogane.”
“Happy to serve!”
With a poof, Kogane appeared beside Kinoshita.
“How many points do I have right now?”
“Report: Your score is 95 points.”
95 points, huh…
Kinoshita fell silent for a moment before Nue chimed in at an inopportune time.
“That exhibitionist and that pompadour guy. If you had just killed one of them, you wouldn’t need to be stressing over points here, right?”
“Don’t start.”
“If you feel like it, you could just go out and kill a sorcerer right now, right?”
Faced with Nue’s question, Kinoshita looked at Divine Dogs Black and White, who were currently rolling around in the warm dog beds.
“Can’t you just act like a normal bird?”
“Don’t compare me to those two stupid dogs.”
“You’re a stupid bird too, you’re just slightly smarter than they are.”
“Your mom is a—GAH GAH GAH GAH!!!”
Before Nue could spew any more profanities, Kinoshita immediately revoked its speaking privileges.