Chapter 44: Anomaly
"I've always believed that improving in combat comes from constant fighting. So, let's start by feeling it through the blade in your hand."
Maki and Megumi Fushiguro stood facing each other, each holding a wooden sword. The lesson quickly began, and it wasn't long before Megumi Fushiguro was at a disadvantage, barely managing to defend himself in a flustered manner.
While Maki attacked fiercely, she also offered him advice on what he should do. After watching for a while, Kamihara Hajime, to avoid Maki bothering him later, greeted Panda and the others and slipped away.
"Gojo Satoru seems to need me for something. I'm leaving now, bye-bye."
Kamihara Hajime wasn't lying; Gojo Satoru had indeed messaged him on his phone. When he arrived, he saw Gojo Satoru talking to Yaga Masamichi.
"Gojo Satoru, did you call me for a mission?"
Gojo Satoru leaned back on the sofa and said, "That's right. This time, the target is a Curse User, quite infamous in the Jujutsu World. He often travels around, using or creating malicious incidents to breed ferocious Cursed Spirits."
"Previously, this person fled abroad, but recent intelligence shows he's returned to the country and is targeting this."
Taking the papers Gojo Satoru handed him, he quickly scanned them, and the information on them was clear to him.
Essentially, there was a criminal who imitated the modus operandi of a former serial killer, but it was rather crude, and his tracks were quickly discovered.
However, strange events then derailed this otherwise ordinary case. The murderer, who had violently resisted arrest and was shot dead on the spot by the police at the crime scene, reappeared two days later and committed another bloody crime.
The police, who had barely managed to suppress the news, immediately sought help from relevant parties, and subsequently, investigators also discovered the Curse User's whereabouts.
After further investigation, it was basically confirmed that this dangerous Special Grade Curse User was involved in the matter, and the report was quickly sent up and now landed in Kamihara Hajime's hands.
"No Special Grade missions?" Kamihara Hajime flipped through the mission intelligence. This Curse User might be threatening to ordinary Jujutsu Sorcerers, but Kamihara Hajime showed a bored expression.
Gojo Satoru chuckled, scolding him, "You brat, where are you going to find so many Special Grade Curses for you to exorcise? This one is already good. The target's actions are extremely vile, there's no need for detention, you can just exorcise him on the spot."
Kamihara Hajime nonchalantly waved the papers in his hand. Yaga Masamichi, standing nearby, wanted to say something but stopped. After Kamihara Hajime left, he spoke to Gojo Satoru, "Gojo, your student is only a first-year…"
Gojo Satoru chuckled softly, his eyes hidden by the blindfold showing no emotion: "He's almost a second-year…"
Seeing Yaga Masamichi raise his eyebrows, Gojo Satoru continued before he could speak, "I know what you mean, don't worry. Genichi is much more outstanding than you think; he has that resolve."
…
Standing in front of an abandoned factory on the outskirts, Nitta Akari looked at the photo in her hand and said to Kamihara Hajime, "This is it, the last place the culprit committed a crime. According to the current intelligence, there might still be traces of Cursed Spirits inside."
Kamihara Hajime nodded, then formed a hand seal and chanted a spell to erect a barrier. Then, amidst Nitta Akari's "May your martial prowess flourish", he walked towards it.
This place had been abandoned for some years; the overgrown weeds were half a person tall. What should have been a desolate area now had many traces: tire tracks and footprints extending towards the factory.
Kamihara Hajime stepped through the factory gate, and as soon as he entered, he frowned. The overwhelming Cursed Energy felt like the piercing wails of vengeful souls, making him uncomfortable.
"Hiss… that's not right…"
Looking at the traces inside this dilapidated room, which used to be a factory workshop, Kamihara Hajime, feeling puzzled, then searched the surroundings.
The unnatural cracks, the damaged and rusty machinery, and the Cursed Energy residue everywhere all pointed to one fact: a battle between Jujutsu Sorcerers or with Cursed Spirits had occurred here.
"If the intelligence is correct, I'm the first Jujutsu Sorcerer to handle this. These battle traces can only be related to the mission target."
"The police just withdrew from here yesterday, and now there are these traces. Did that Curse User come back and fight with an unknown entity? Is he that arrogant?"
"Clang…"
A crisp sound echoed through the empty factory building, instantly catching Kamihara Hajime's attention.
Black magatama earrings hung down with wisps of mist, and Totsuka-no-Tsurugi slid out from them, caught by Kamihara Hajime.
Walking to the source of the sound, he found a heavily rusted, thick door. As if it heard Kamihara Hajime's footsteps, the unknown entity inside, which had quieted down, suddenly slammed into the iron door, creating a deafening roar.
Kamihara Hajime raised an eyebrow and sneered, "You want out so badly? I'll help you."
The Totsuka-no-Tsurugi in his hand merely trembled slightly, and the iron door in front of him immediately let out a piercing shriek, instantly torn into pieces by the four-way slashes.
Then a shadow rushed out from inside. Kamihara Hajime didn't immediately move, but instead looked at the strange thing.
"Is it a Cursed Spirit?"
The thing was roughly humanoid, but its facial features were twisted as if rotated more than half a turn counter-clockwise, then rotated once clockwise in different places. Its two arms were unbalanced and deformed, the left large and the right small, and a purple-skinned hand even protruded from its abdomen.
Its body was covered in hard, spiky skin, and its lower limb joints were reversed.
The most conspicuous part of this thing was the hand of its thick left arm; it wasn't really a hand but more like a heavy blade welded to its flesh. The sound earlier must have been caused by this thing.
Kamihara Hajime's confusion about it stemmed from the subtle differences between this thing and other Cursed Spirits.
Before he could think much, the monster suddenly charged at him. The swift, thunder-like impact returned to its original spot in an instant, then the monster's entire body suddenly trembled, violently slammed into the ground by an immense force.
Then a vibrating hum arrived belatedly, and the culprit behind all this—Totsuka-no-Tsurugi—was deeply embedded in the monster's chest, straight into the earth.
The sword in Kamihara Hajime's hand had already become Onikiri. He observed the monster struggling to get up from the ground. The organ that might or might not be a mouth was muttering something indistinctly… Kamihara Hajime, listening closely, barely managed to make out some meaning.
"Kill… kill you…"
He stomped the monster, which was about to break free from being pinned to the ground, back down. The concrete floor beneath his foot instantly cracked, and a wave of dust spread outwards.
Then, he raised his hand and severed both its arms with two slashes, saving himself trouble. Kamihara Hajime used the tip of his sword to prod at the clothes on its body, which were almost fused with its flesh.
Yes, upon closer inspection, this monster was actually wearing clothes. Kamihara Hajime pierced a relatively intact pocket on its upper garment, and from it dropped… a notebook?
Looking at the monster, which instinctively tried to pick it up but no longer had arms, Kamihara Hajime picked it up. The notebook wasn't large, about the size of a palm. Kamihara Hajime casually flipped open a page, and then his expression became very strange.
He quickly flipped through a few more pages, then disgustedly threw it on the ground. By this point, he also knew what this monster was: it was the resurrected murderer.
"His name was Matsumoto Den, right?"
The notebook was filled with pencil sketches, quite vivid, but their content was extremely disturbing.
The intelligence was correct; this perverted murderer would leave traces of his finished "artworks," and this notebook was the medium, containing scenes that would sicken ordinary people but intoxicate the killer.
"Four words to describe it: unforgivable crimes. You got off easy."
He raised his blade and placed it on the forehead of the monster—or rather, Matsumoto Den—who was firmly pinned under his foot. With a slight push, Onikiri could plunge into its brain and shatter it to pieces.
But Kamihara Hajime hesitated. He was pondering a question: ordinary people could turn into Cursed Spirits after death, though it was hard to say if they would still be their original selves.
But to become a Cursed Spirit and still wear clothes from life, even carrying real objects, and this blood… and this unusual feeling…
Kamihara Hajime's free left hand took out his phone, opened the camera, and aimed it at the monster on the ground, taking a picture. Then, a scene that greatly changed his expression appeared: the photo in his album clearly showed the monster's full appearance.
Ordinary people cannot see Curses, and some modern technological creations like cameras and surveillance cannot capture traces of Curses. Therefore, there was only one possibility for the current situation: this monster was not a Curse formed from Matsumoto Den's death, but a monster created from his flesh.
"This situation… it's that Cursed Spirit!"
Kamihara Hajime recalled an entity that had left a deep impression on him: the Special Grade Cursed Spirit—Mahito! Its Technique could alter the souls of those it struck, thereby causing changes in their physical bodies.
Kamihara Hajime then carefully examined Matsumoto Den's condition. Perhaps because it was his first encounter with such a thing, he didn't immediately identify it. If not for these characteristics, he wouldn't have even thought in that direction.
Remembering the fate of such victims, it seemed irreversible. Of course, even if there were measures to save him, Kamihara Hajime wouldn't necessarily act. Death was already letting him off easy, let alone saving him?
Kamihara Hajime then cut off its head with a single slash, and the struggling body quickly became still. Pulling out Totsuka-no-Tsurugi, another doubt arose in Kamihara Hajime's mind: Matsumoto Den was here, so… where was that Curse User?
The traces around didn't look like they could have been caused by just one monster. At the very least, this monster, Matsumoto Den, had already fought with the Curse User himself or the Cursed Spirits he controlled.
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