Chapter 170
"Heh, don’t worry. I’m terrified of dying. Of course I’ve prepared a few backup plans."
Kiriya grinned, his face full of confidence.
"As long as you know what you’re doing."
Gojo nodded, then offered several suggestions from an outside observer’s perspective, pointing out areas where the technique could still be improved.
That was precisely why Kiriya had invited him to watch the test.
The Six Eyes were absurdly powerful when it came to observation and analysis.
Failing to make proper use of them would have been more than wasteful—it would have been a crime.
Once he had finished giving his advice, Gojo teleported away.
He still had plenty of work waiting for him.
Taking time out to observe the test had already been a favor to Kiriya, and now that it was over, he needed to return to his responsibilities.
Kiriya carefully memorized every point Gojo had raised, then resumed refining Lightning Release: Rasengan Railgun.
From that day onward, the unfortunate little island was repeatedly swallowed by dazzling blue-white lightning, trembling beneath one violent energy storm after another.
...
Outside a juvenile detention center in Tokyo, Ijichi held a thick stack of documents as he explained the situation to Kiriya.
"That’s everything we know. For reasons we haven’t yet identified, a cursed womb has appeared inside this facility."
His expression was grave.
"If it’s allowed to continue absorbing the enormous amount of cursed energy gathered here, it will soon develop into a special-grade cursed spirit. That’s why we have no choice but to trouble you, Kiriya-san."
"No trouble at all."
Kiriya waved cheerfully.
"The more problems like this you give me, the happier I’ll be."
He glanced toward the building.
"You keep evacuating the surrounding area. I’ll go inside and take care of it."
"Understood. I wish you success."
Ijichi bowed deeply.
Kiriya kept one hand in his pocket and waved with the other as he walked toward the two-story detention block.
When he opened the entrance, a deep, gloomy corridor stretched out before him.
A Curtain had already been lowered, leaving the interior dim and oppressive. The passageway looked like the mouth of a road leading straight into hell.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Kiriya’s steady footsteps echoed through the corridor, accompanied by the sound of him casually whistling.
He looked less like someone entering the lair of a potential special-grade curse and more like a tourist out for a pleasant afternoon stroll.
Bang!
The door slammed shut behind him.
Kiriya looked back and found that the entrance had vanished, replaced by a solid wall.
"Oh? An innate domain?"
The corner of his mouth lifted.
"Interesting. Looks like this cursed womb has developed quite nicely."
That was good news.
The stronger the curse, the more energy he would gain after exorcising it.
After tirelessly hunting curses for the past several months, Kiriya’s ocular power had reached a bottleneck.
The progress toward awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan had stalled stubbornly at ninety percent.
No matter how many weaker curses he absorbed, the number refused to move.
Kiriya suspected that, once he reached this stage, ordinary cursed spirits simply no longer contained enough high-quality energy to make a difference.
A special grade, however, might finally push the progress bar forward.
That was why he had been so pleased to learn that the curse here had already formed an innate domain.
"Hehehehe..."
Layered laughter suddenly echoed through the darkness, eerie enough to make the corridor feel even colder.
Kiriya looked up.
Countless mask-like creatures floated overhead, their empty eyes all fixed upon him.
"Wow. You little things really are impressively ugly."
Even as he spoke, his body blurred forward.
"Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap and Flash."
With a cursed blade in hand, Kiriya transformed into a streak of lightning and tore through the swarm.
He darted between the masked creatures, changing direction too quickly for them to react. In the blink of an eye, more than half had been cut down.
"Tch. Just weak fodder."
Feeling the pitiful amount of energy entering his body, Kiriya clicked his tongue in disappointment.
He activated Energy Perception as a tremendous source of power was rushing toward him.
From behind.
Clang!
Kiriya spun and raised his blade, blocking a savage strike from the cursed spirit.
Its razor-sharp claws tore through the air, producing cutting winds that opened several shallow wounds across his face.
Before the curse could attack again, Kiriya drove a kick into its abdomen and sent it flying backward.
The two landed some distance apart and faced each other.
Only then did Kiriya get a proper look at it.
The cursed spirit had a lean, heavily muscled humanoid body and wore nothing but a loincloth.
Its bald head possessed only eyes and a mouth, with no visible nose or ears, while a long braided ponytail hung from the back of its skull.
It looked as though someone had tried to design the most aggressively strange delinquent imaginable.
Its personality was no less bizarre.
When it noticed Kiriya studying it, the curse covered its face with both hands and twisted its waist so dramatically that its body nearly tied itself into a knot.
"Haha... hahahahaha!"
It released a shrill, unhinged laugh, then opened its mouth and spat—
No, not saliva.
A torrent of cursed energy!
RUMBLE—!
The blast carved a deep trench through the floor as it tore across the corridor.
Kiriya narrowed his eyes.
"Pure cursed energy alone can produce that much force?"
He smiled.
"That level of power... you must already be a special grade."
The cursed womb had completed its transformation.
It was now a true special-grade cursed spirit.
Fortunately, Kiriya had been the one sent here.
Had Jujutsu High dispatched less capable sorcerers without understanding the threat, the casualties could have been severe.
Bzzzzzt—
The curse became even more excited after seeing Kiriya dodge so easily.
It spread its arms, creating a huge vortex of energy before its chest. The vortex compressed into a roaring pillar of cursed energy and fired straight at him.
BOOM!
The attack took far too long to prepare.
Kiriya read the movement in advance and stepped aside before it was released.
The spinning beam tore through several reinforced concrete walls as though they were paper, leaving enormous holes behind.
"AAAAAAAH!"
The curse threw its arms wide and stared toward the ceiling, squealing with the delight of a child who had just discovered a fascinating new toy.
"You’re really loud."
Kiriya’s eyes quietly shifted into the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
He gave the creature a cold stare.
"Hm?"
The curse froze.
Not because it was fascinated by the tomoe.
It had been caught by the Shackling Stakes Technique.
Within its mind, invisible stakes pierced its body and pinned it completely in place.
Bzzzzzt—
The instant the curse stopped moving, Kiriya appeared in the air above it.
The Rasengan in his hand rapidly expanded until it became a massive sphere nearly two meters across.
"Big Ball Rasengan."
The sphere slammed down onto the curse’s head.
Its body was crushed inch by inch beneath the enormous pressure before the violent rotational force twisted what remained into dust.
BOOM!
Kiriya drove the special grade all the way through the building and into the lowest floor, the raging energy completely swallowing its body.
"ROOOOOAR!"
The curse released one final, furious howl.
Then its entire form vanished from the world.