Mahito

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Ren was searching Matsuda's body for other clues when he suddenly heard footsteps outside the factory. He turned and saw a man who did not look very old, with features that could fairly be called handsome.

Both sides looked at each other in confusion. Ren's confusion came from recognizing him. This was the curse user who served as the mission target: Masanobu Uehara. Although he had a face that easily inspired goodwill, the things he had done were far worse than Matsuda's crimes.

Ren could not help sighing at how effortless this had become. He did not even need to search everywhere. Both mission targets had delivered themselves to him. Could anything be easier?

Uehara's gaze swept over the boy in a familiar uniform holding a blade, then over the monster lying at his feet. His heart sank, and he tested, "Are you from Jujutsu High?"

Ren had planned to finish him off directly, but then he thought of Matsuda. His mind changed. Instead of using his technique, he abruptly rushed toward Uehara. The twin blades in his hands reached the man's face in an instant.

Even though Uehara was prepared, the swift assault still startled him. Several ink-black tentacles suddenly drilled out around him and wrapped him layer after layer.

But in only a daze of an instant, the defense held up by Uehara's shikigami shattered. Streams of light slipped through the cuts and lit his surprised face.

The kick that followed twisted his face again. As he tumbled several times through the air and was about to slam into the wall, a mass of tentacles extended from his back again and caught him at the critical moment. He still hit the wall, but the impact was reduced.

Ren looked at Uehara, who had clearly been kicked in the face but now clutched his abdomen, and showed an expression that said he had guessed correctly.

"You fought that thing earlier?"

Ren pointed at the remains on the ground. Uehara's face darkened, and he did not answer. Instead, he raised a hand and took out a talisman, summoning a vicious shikigami that stood over two meters tall and looked somewhat like a zombie.

The moment the shikigami appeared, the pustules covering its body began rupturing one after another. Crisp popping sounds rang out constantly. Black-green fluid poured from them and quickly spread over the surrounding floor.

"Do you know Mahito? A humanoid cursed spirit."

Ren asked while flicking blood from his blade. Uehara's mind naturally produced the image of that stitched-face cursed spirit, whose smile mixed innocence and malice. Fear resurfaced and made him shudder. The terror on his face appeared before he even noticed it himself.

'Wait. Why is he flicking the blade?'

White "lines" enveloped Uehara. The tentacles wrapped around him fell to the ground, severed. The zombie-like shikigami had already lost its terrifying appearance too, because it had been reduced to a pile of meat that no longer had any shape worth describing.

"You-"

Before Uehara could finish, his view dropped. Then he fell uncontrollably to the floor. His legs had been neatly severed in the middle, and blood flowed from the cuts along with his screams, mixing with the filth on the ground.

"Tell me about that cursed spirit. If I am satisfied, I will heal you with Reverse Cursed Technique."

Ren looked down at him as he spoke.

Uehara, who had been seriously injured in one exchange, knew he had finally run into real trouble. This was not like the jujutsu sorcerers he had easily shaken off or beaten back before. He did not even dare release the other shikigami he had originally intended to use for a sneak attack.

Memories surfaced uncontrollably. That humanoid cursed spirit who spoke human words seemed to stand before him again. Right in front of Uehara, it had turned the deranged killer into a monster, and Uehara had even been careless enough to have his abdomen wounded by it.

He had fled in fear, then returned because of greed. Now he had run headfirst into this disaster. Once he regained his senses, regret filled him.

Under the pressure of death, Masanobu Uehara could only force himself to believe Ren's words. Even if there was only a one percent chance, he had to cling to it.

"It was that cursed spirit. He has stitches on his face and body. He turned that person into a monster, but I do not know his name... He said something earlier about having me look for him at a nearby hospital..."

As he spoke, Uehara seemed to realize something. Then he saw the boy's gaze change. The next moment, feeling returned to his feet, and his body seemed to be swelling.

"Wha... ghh..."

The sounds from his mouth became muddy. He let out futile, muffled whimpers. His raised hand swelled like it was being inflated.

'So... I was already hit. When?'

That was the last thought that crossed Uehara's mind before his consciousness sank into chaos and was swallowed by murderous instinct.

Ren watched with his own eyes as the curse user in front of him transformed from a genuine human being into a monster that only barely retained limbs and facial features.

"This technique really is..."

Timewheel: Forward.

Onikiri easily cut the monster into pieces. The broken body lost its vitality at once and even began to "wither."

Ren casually exorcised several shikigami and cursed spirits that had lost their restraints after Uehara's death. Then he took out his phone, photographed the ground a few times, and sent Akari Nitta a message asking her to handle the aftermath.

After leaving the factory, Ren opened a map app and searched for the nearest hospital. Then he headed there.

The hospital was not very large. There were only a few people in the corridors. As Ren walked, his steps suddenly stopped. He saw someone sitting on a chair down the hall.

Black shirt and black pants. Long blue hair tied into three strands. One pupil blue, the other black. Most conspicuous of all were the stitches on his face and arms. There was no mistake. This was the Special Grade cursed spirit, Mahito.

He sat on the chair, completely "ignored" by everyone passing by. He was studying the people moving through the hospital with interest. Ren's arrival drew his gaze over. When he saw him, Mahito's eyes lit up. He knew Ren could see him.

"Hello," Mahito said with an innocent smile. If not for his abnormal traits, he might have even inspired a little goodwill.

He continued, "That human did not come? But you are good too. What a beautiful body. Your soul must be beautiful as well. I really want to feel what it is like."

Mahito's face turned intoxicated, and he instinctively reached out. Then pain woke him. Looking closely, he saw that his extended right hand had been severed at the wrist. He had not seen how it happened.

"Huh? Did you do that?"

With only curiosity on his face, Mahito bent down, picked up the hand, waved it in front of his eyes, then tossed it aside indifferently and let it slowly turn into ash. Flesh began to wriggle at the stump. In a few breaths, a new hand grew out.

He flexed the new hand. It looked exactly the same as the original. Ren sat in the chair opposite him with no surprise on his face. The earlier attack had only been a warning. If Ren remembered correctly, this cursed spirit was very special. Ordinary attacks had little effect on his true self. Only power involving the soul could cause real damage to him.

"You are Mahito? Matsuda and Uehara were both your work, right?"

Ren phrased it as a question, but his tone was certain. There were not many people in the hospital, but only relatively speaking. The situation was urgent, and there was no time to evacuate them. Mahito would not stupidly sit there and watch Ren do it either.

Not being able to lower a Curtain meant Ren could not immediately draw his blade and cut Mahito down. With Mahito's technique, if Ren failed to kill him instantly, the people around them would probably become toys in his hands in the blink of an eye.

On the other side, Mahito's interest in Ren only grew. While thinking about the attack he had failed to detect, he heard Ren's question and considered it seriously.

"Probably? I do not know those humans' names. After I finished one person's wish, I changed the other one too. Why? Were they your friends?"

Ren smiled faintly. "No. They were criminals. You just stole my work."

Fortunately, not many people passed by. Otherwise, Ren might have been treated as a madman talking to himself. Mahito laughed happily when he heard that. He played with a lock of hair hanging by his face and chuckled.

"Then you do not need to thank me."

"Right. You came to kill me, didn't you?"

Mahito's smile grew deeper and more malicious, but he did not strike first. Ren was wary of the hostages around them. Mahito, meanwhile, was wary of Ren's earlier attack method.

'Was that pure speed? I did not see the attack path, and I did not even see a weapon. That earring on his ear is a cursed spirit, right? A type that can change its form? Rare. It should be hiding his weapon too.'

Mahito analyzed what he could while faintly regretting that he had been too busy observing these humans and had not made a few more toys. His stock seemed a little lacking. Against an opponent with an attack method he could not observe, those small toys probably would not do much. What a headache.

Even thinking that, Mahito felt no fear. If the attacks could not touch his soul, then to him they were only injuries that healed in an instant.

And his soul had to be wonderful. That sensation must be exquisite.

Mahito's smile nearly split to his ears. The malice in his eyes was undisguised, but it was more like a child who had found an anthill and brought over boiling water just to see how the ants would react.

Ren sighed, looked toward both ends of the hallway, and said, "Can you leave here with me first, then obediently let me cut you to death? Exorcising you should make my Special Grade application easier later."

"No. I have not started playing yet. But if you agree to let me touch your soul, maybe I could. Otherwise, I will keep playing with these low-quality toys."

As Mahito spoke, his gaze swept over the people in the hospital, and it turned a little bored.

Ren, somewhat distracted, did not care much about Mahito's words. He casually exchanged a few more lines with him, then said as if by accident, "I am waiting for an opening. What are you waiting for?"

Mahito paused. His reply was interrupted by an explosion. A door at the right end of the hallway suddenly burst apart for no reason, destroying the nearby surveillance camera as well. Realizing something was wrong, Mahito immediately activated his technique.

But the scene before his eyes changed instantly. Cars were parked sparsely around them. Above their heads were thick concrete and lights illuminating the area.

An underground parking lot.

Mahito stuck out his tongue and licked the corner of his lips. From the corner of his eye, he swept over five figures undergoing horrifying changes. They were the "toys" he had casually transformed earlier.

Under his control, the five unrecognizable figures staggered to their feet and moved toward Ren.

Looking at these beings who still retained a few human traits, with tears streaming from their eyes and bodies moving against their will, Ren heard them instinctively let out distorted pleas for help.

"Save... save me..."

Mahito smiled freely. "Well? Do you like my toys? I made them by changing their souls with my technique."

With the light overhead behind him, Ren's expression was hidden. He had already destroyed the surrounding surveillance cameras in passing. As for these people who had been transformed... they could no longer be saved.

Reverse them to their previous state? That would only be futile. They had been affected by Mahito's technique too early. Even if Ren reversed them, Mahito would only activate his technique again. That would not solve the root problem. He had to kill Mahito first.

Without any visible movement from Ren, the five people who had fully transformed into monsters suddenly returned to human form. Then they flew backward and landed in a corner on the other side.

Ren had already taken out Dojikiri and Onikiri. Kumokiri stood stabbed into the ground in front of him.

Mahito looked at the three blades. Their presences seemed faintly connected, and an ominous feeling surged in his heart. Without wasting another word, he activated his technique and began changing his own form.

Ren's voice rang through the empty underground space like a cold blade scraping across the throat.

"Are you ready to decide how you die?"

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