Dragon-Bone and Red Lotus

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"The blond punk really does have a taste for sadistic killing."

Listening to the muffled laughter behind him, White Zetsu let out a soft sigh.

"Hey, Itsuki. When are you sending Haruta away?"

"Why?"

A faint, odd smile appeared on Itsuki's face. "Don't tell me seeing cursed spirits suffer has made you want to avenge them."

"Tch."

White Zetsu laced both hands behind his head and swaggered forward with all the arrogance in the world. "We may technically be the same kind..."

"But how could those low-grade things possibly compare to yours truly?"

Walking at the back, Naobito felt the corners of his eyes tighten as he sensed White Zetsu's cursed energy level.

A Grade 4 saying that with a straight face?

White Zetsu licked his long, crimson tongue, greed flashing in his eyes.

"Don't you think that kid's technique is interesting?"

"Miracles, right? Even the name sounds cool."

His eyes burned as he looked at Itsuki. "Forget Number 9527 for now. Let me have Haruta instead."

For a moment, Itsuki said nothing.

Then he nodded.

Seeing White Zetsu's delighted expression, Itsuki added in a low voice, "You can have Haruta, but not yet."

"The Zenin Clan's sorcerers are all busy right now. If you don't want to stay here chopping cursed spirits all day, don't touch him for the time being."

"Aah..."

White Zetsu whined in dissatisfaction. "You already brought the old man down here. Just have him take over the work."

Naobito said nothing.

Itsuki answered quietly, "He has another job."

Listening to the conversation between one man and one curse, Naobito's gaze toward White Zetsu shifted from surprise to deep unease.

What did he mean, the technique was interesting and he wanted it?

After personally watching White Zetsu awaken inside a corpse, Naobito could not stop a chilling idea from rising in his mind.

The body this thing occupied... perhaps it was not simply a vessel for resurrection.

After passing through the long, dark tunnel, the screams of cursed spirits behind them faded until they could no longer be heard.

In their place came the crisp ring of metal striking metal.

Two dim yellow lights cut through the darkness ahead. Beneath them, a perfectly upright human silhouette stood motionless.

The three of them walked forward slowly. Naobito fell silent again.

The figure he had seen from a distance was not a person at all.

Only after getting closer did he realize it was an eerily lifelike plastic mannequin.

Behind the mannequin stood a bent coat rack, making the sight even stranger.

Two wooden doors stood half-closed on either side of the passage. The mannequin and coat rack leaned against the door on the left, and the metallic sound came from inside that room.

Itsuki pushed open the left door without changing expression, and the dim space instantly brightened.

"Haruta, how many times have I told you?"

"Don't bother me while I'm working, or I really will turn you into a coat rack and hang you up!"

The bald curse user had his back to them. He was bare from the waist up, wearing only a gray apron. The hammer in his hand struck the forging table again and again, sending scattered sparks into the air.

Itsuki's gaze swept over the cursed tool on the forging table, and he spoke softly.

"Juzo. Is the cursed tool I ordered finished?"

At the familiar, terrifying voice, Juzo Kumiya froze mid-swing and hurriedly looked back.

"Clan Head Zenin. Almost. Almost."

"Give me seven more days, and it will absolutely be done."

Only after Juzo turned did Naobito clearly see his face.

Thick black paint ran from his eyes down beside his nose, and the gray apron hanging over his body was marked with two bones.

The heavy paint made the fear in Juzo's eyes stand out even more clearly.

Naobito was not surprised. Judging from that look, this man had probably only been captured by Itsuki two years ago.

Zenin sorcerers were different.

Ten years.

After ten years, their bodies still trembled on instinct, but their eyes held only machine-like numbness.

Itsuki's scarlet eyes swept across the room.

"I'll come back in seven days."

"If it isn't finished, or if it fails to meet expectations, you know what happens."

"Don't worry, Clan Head!"

At the mention of forging cursed tools, confidence returned to Juzo's eyes.

"If I can't finish it, I'll turn myself into a coat rack on the spot!"

White Zetsu's gaze swept over the matching uniforms gradually taking shape on the forging table, and he grinned.

"Iron Man, what about the cursed tools I asked you to make?"

Iron Man, because the man hammered iron for a living.

At first, White Zetsu had planned to call him Baldy, but Itsuki's offhand comparison to a school principal had ruined the nickname.

So he had given Juzo a new nickname.

"Those two little toys have been done for ages."

As Juzo spoke, he turned and pulled two custom cursed tools from behind the forging table.

The first was a sharp, one-meter chopping blade, its edge gleaming coldly.

Juzo lifted it with one hand and introduced it proudly.

"Cursed tool: Dragon-Bone."

"Its sharpness speaks for itself. The blade automatically stores force received by the weapon."

"According to the user's intent, that stored force can burst from the back of the blade at any time, greatly increasing the power of the next strike."

Juzo placed Dragon-Bone on the forging table, then drew out a pink revolver with his right hand.

He stroked the gun body gently, reluctance flashing through his eyes.

"Cursed tool: Red Lotus."

"It must be charged with cursed energy in advance. When fired, that cursed energy becomes lotus-shaped bullets and shoots toward the target."

"I specially modified the barrel. The bullets it fires have a wider damage area and stronger explosive force."

"The gun body can hold the combined cursed energy of more than five Grade 1 sorcerers."

Juzo finished explaining its performance and usage without mentioning the adorable color at all.

If anything, he seemed faintly disgusted. And wronged.

"Not bad."

White Zetsu laughed in satisfaction.

"Iron Man, your craftsmanship really isn't bad."

He snatched the pink revolver from Juzo's hand and turned it over, inspecting every inch.

The color had been White Zetsu's firm request before the weapon was made.

Girls obviously looked flashier with pink.

Behind him, envy flickered in Naobito's eyes.

The first glance told him these two cursed tools had been prepared for Maki and Mai.

He was not envious of the cursed tools themselves.

He was thinking that if Itsuki had treated the Zenin Clan's sorcerers this way, how different things might have been.

With that thought, Naobito cursed a certain Zenin who had been dead for over ten years for what must have been the thousandth time.

White Zetsu opened his mouth to an exaggerated degree and performed a sword-swallowing stunt right in front of the three of them.

He lifted the one-meter blade and shoved it straight into his mouth.

Only after the handle vanished completely did White Zetsu wipe the blood from the fresh cuts at the corners of his mouth and raise his brows at them.

All three were speechless.

With his mouth open that wide, everyone clearly saw the cursed spirit lodged in his throat.

Itsuki was even more at a loss. He had only just given this idiot a new body, and the blade had already cut two slashes into the corners of his mouth.

His face was already pale enough. With that huge grin split open, he looked like a painted clown.

"Here. Charging it is your job."

White Zetsu laughed and tossed the pink revolver to Itsuki.

Itsuki did not reach for it. Pink did not suit him.

A withered branch flashed beside his shoulder, cursed energy surging violently.

In roughly one second, Red Lotus, a gun capable of storing the cursed energy of five Grade 1 sorcerers, finished charging.

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