Roughly fifty kilometers southwest of Tokyo lies Kanagawa Prefecture.
Outside the suburbs, a boy with a blank expression had just finished handling the last corpse. He took off his slightly blackened gloves and tossed them aside.
"Ara-chan, don't look so much like a corpse yourself. Sure, our job is dealing with dead bodies, but work is work, and life is life. You've got to smile a little, come on, give me a grin."
Hijikata Shichiro put down the iron shovel in his hand, smiling as he lectured Aragami Arashi in the tone of an elder teaching a junior.
Of course, judging by Hijikata Shichiro's age, he was indeed Arashi's senior.
"If you had to deal with corpses every day, could you still smile?", Arashi shot him a wordless glance.
All the corpse lifting and cremation work was done by Arashi. Hijikata Shichiro only used the shovel to add coal and bricks to the furnace, just to keep the fire burning stronger.
In truth, Hijikata Shichiro had a strong aversion to "corpses." But there was no helping it. His grandfather was the manager of this crematorium. Even though Shichiro was a hundred times unwilling to work here, in the end, he had to bow down to money.
That's right, his grandfather, Hijikata Izumi, had told him that after he passed away, Shichiro would inherit this small private crematorium. By then, all he'd have to do was sit in the office and sign some papers to make money. The hard labor would be done by someone else.
However, years had passed, and his grandfather was still alive and kicking, while Hijikata Shichiro was about to break down.
"Ugh...", Hijikata Shichiro covered his mouth, gagging repeatedly, "Stop talking about it. I'm already about to puke."
"Tch! Just a while ago, who was it telling me to smile again?", Arashi shook his head and walked out. It was already closing time. The corpse just now had been the last one of the day. The rest wasn't his problem.
Clack-clack~ Clack-clack~
After leaving Hijikata Crematorium, Arashi suddenly stopped walking. His eyes turned toward the slope to his left. After sunset, the road looked dim and eerie, a place no one usually passed by.
Yet as he stared at the narrow mountain path, the corner of Arashi's mouth curved into a faint smile, "Half a month since last time, and another cursed spirit showed up?"
Sure enough, in that dark slope, a pitch-black silhouette slowly took shape. When Arashi saw it clearly, his brows twitched slightly.
"A Grade 1 Curse Spirit?"
Its thin, black body looked as if it had been drenched in tar. Its shoulders were broad, arms unnaturally slender, and three eyes gleamed on its head, the middle one a deep, sinister red.
"Leave my grandson... Leave my grandson..."
Arashi froze for a second.
Curse spirits were divided by ranks, five in total. In terms of ordinary weapon comparison, a wooden bat could handle a Grade 4 curse, a handgun a Grade 3, a shotgun a Grade 1, a tank might take on a Grade 1, while even a cluster bomb carpet strike might still fail to kill a Special-Grade.
A curse spirit's rank was tied to its intelligence. Generally, Grade 4 curses had almost no self-awareness, they acted purely on instinct to hunt and feed.
As their strength increase, so does their intelligence. Some born that way, others evolve later.
The one before him was clearly intelligent. Yet the words it had just spoken did not sound like its own. More like...
'Right, that's it. The reason Hijikata Izumi hasn't died yet must be because of you,' Arashi narrowed his eyes.
Three months ago, Hijikata Izumi had been on the verge of death, but somehow made a miraculous recovery. Although his speech and actions became odd afterward, no one suspected anything.
Thinking about it now, it didn't make sense. Until, this Grade 1 curse appeared. Now everything made sense.
Behind the curse spirit trailed a faint black ribbon, barely visible, and that ribbon led straight toward Hijikata Izumi's house.
"Hijikata Shichiro might be a lazy otaku who stinks up the room, loves anime girls, and hates brushing his teeth... but at least he's honest and kind. I don't dislike him," Arashi curled his finger at the Grade 1 curse, his expression turning greedy, "Come on. I'll take you down, then Shichiro will finally get his wish."
"You're not afraid?", The curse seemed surprised. The words it had said earlier weren't from its own will, they came from Hijikata Izumi's undead obsession. Only now did it realize that the black-haired boy before it was far too calm.
But it had already observed Arashi for months. Nothing about him seemed special. If there was anything unusual, it was how unnervingly calm he stayed while handling corpses.
Calm to the point it was painful to watch.
"Afraid?", Arashi looked at the curse in front of him, then seemed to remember something. The last few times he'd dealt with curses, he'd done it so fast they probably hadn't even realized what had happened.
Seeing Arashi remain silent, the curse spirit seemed to lose its hesitation, 'What can a boy with no cursed energy possibly do?'
It flashed forward, trying to end the fight with one strike.
That was exactly what Arashi had been waiting for. The instant it charged, he swung his leg in a sweeping kick, a simple move. But in the 0.000001 seconds before impact, black light burst forth, laced with a flicker of blue.
BOOM!
The curse's left arm exploded instantly, and its body was blasted into the ground like a cannonball, kicking up dust.
Arashi drew his leg back and stomped the ground lightly, his gaze piercing the smoke, "Normally, that kind of hit would've shattered a regular curse. You're a bit special."
'Is it because it has absorbed too much resentment and cursed energy?'
"Well, doesn't matter. You're getting erased tonight," Arashi shook his leg and stepped toward the fallen curse.
Before the dust even cleared, the black figure vanished. Arashi's eyes darted, and he suddenly turned, raising his arm to block. A numbing pain shot through his body as he was sent flying backward.
"This body really can't take much punishment...", Arashi muttered. He had been training to better adapt to the immense cursed energy in his body. But such training couldn't withstand the strike of a Grade 1 curse. His hands were already numb.
Things were dangerous now. It was his first real fight against a Grade 1 curse. Though excited inside, he knew his current strength wasn't enough to crush it. At best, it would end in mutual destruction.
Yet instead of fear, excitement flickered in his eyes. He shook out his arms and quickly moved from his spot.
A moment later, where he had been standing, the ground exploded into a crater. Black energy poured out, the curse's unique aura.
"Take another one!", Arashi leapt into the air, stomping down hard. Just as his foot touched the curse's head, the black-blue light flared again.
BANG!
"Again!"
Landing, Arashi swept his leg again, the black-blue light flashing once more.
One kick! Two kicks! Three kicks! Four kicks! Five kicks! Six kicks!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Only... six times? That's the limit, huh...", Arashi landed and shook out his legs. With his current power, six consecutive Black Flashes were his temporary limit.
He could unleash more, but right now, under specific conditions, only six could be chained. After that, he needed a cooldown.
A Grade 1 curse was still not a Special-Grade. After taking six direct Black Flashes to the head and body, even it couldn't withstand the devastating impact. Its form began to collapse, and the black ribbon connecting it to Hijikata Izumi snapped apart.
"After all... this isn't just an ordinary Black Flash."
Arashi exhaled deeply, shaking his numb hands. His eyes suddenly lit up with excitement.
"A Grade 1 curse, huh... I wonder how many points that'll be worth."
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