Let's reach 150 stones, I'll add extra chapter later!
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Feeling the massive power flooding into his body, Akuto was exhilarated.
He hadn't expected that sentence to raise his Role-playing Degree.
"If you don't try, how will you know? The greatest charm of life lies in its uncertainty, doesn't it?"
Yoshimura Kuzen wasn't annoyed at all; after whispering that little secret, he turned and walked behind the counter.
Akuto couldn't be bothered to make a fool of himself.
He really looked down on this so-called Anteiku.
Yoshimura Kuzen led a group of "reformed" Ghouls, scouring for suicide or naturally-deceased corpses to use as food.
But honestly, what was the point?
The CCG didn't care whether you'd ever killed anyone, let alone Ghouls with criminal records.
If you wanted to change the status quo, you had to fight for it!
Go kill! Go engage in cannibalism, obtain overwhelming power, and crush everything!
Go seize! Snatch powerful authority and achieve great deeds for the integration of Ghouls and humans.
Go learn! Acquire knowledge, research humans and Ghouls, figure out why Ghouls can't eat normal food, and change things from the root.
And what did Yoshimura Kuzen do?
He buried his head in the sand, thinking no one could see him.
Both sides of the conflict had left.
Only Kirishima Touka remained, staring blankly at her hand.
Just now she had shoved Akuto—and hadn't budged him.
"Was I not using enough strength?"
Things had happened so fast; Touka had pushed him, afraid he'd provoke the manager into a death wish.
The result left her doubting her entire existence.
After drinking a cup of coffee, Akuto left Anteiku; in the afternoon Touka still had remedial classes, and Akuto had nothing entertaining to do.
He simply decided to subdue a shikigami.
He drove to the foot of a mountain, then in a few flashes ascended the slope.
Clearing out a patch of open ground, he began attempting to summon a shikigami.
"Divine Dogs!"
"Awooo—"
With twin wolf howls, a black and a white wolf slowly stepped out of Akuto's shadow.
The two wolves looked majestic, about one meter sixty at the shoulder and two or three meters long.
"Bigger than I expected."
The Divine Dogs nuzzled his hand; Akuto petted them and found the texture no different from that of normal dogs.
The Divine Dogs were essentially a freebie of the Ten Shadows Technique.
They required no subduing and could be used right away.
Mostly useful for control and reconnaissance, their combat strength wasn't high.
"Next up… Nue!"
Akuto made a hand sign.
"Screee!"
In the next instant, a terrifying beast over ten meters long burst from his shadow and shot skyward!
The shikigami resembled an owl yet also a moth; its face was a chilling human visage, and it had a tail.
Its overall color was ashen-gray.
Electricity crackled all over its body.
"Too much Cursed Energy can be a bad thing." Akuto figured that if his Cursed Energy were weaker, the thing might have been only two or three meters.
Now it was just making trouble for him.
"Whoosh!"
"Bzzzzzt…"
Nue melted into darkness, then dived from above before Akuto could react, streaking past him at near-invisible speed.
Immediately he felt horrific lightning spreading through his body.
The powerful current left him unable to move.
"Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!"
He dodged each successive strike at the limit of his reflexes.
Nue's wings were razor-sharp, every slash aimed at his throat.
One slip and he'd be parting ways with his head.
Akuto strained his ears trying to hear Nue, but the creature flew in utter silence.
Only when it was right on him did sparks flash.
"Got you!"
Suddenly Akuto back-flipped, reaching out mid-air toward the ground.
In that instant, Nue appeared precisely where his finger pointed.
"Release!"
"Rip!"
Nue dissolved into shadow, flowing like liquid back into Akuto's silhouette.
Subduing successfully.
Over the next few hours, Akuto subdued a toad for control and protection, a serpent that could coil around foes with immense strength, the water-spraying Manzou, and the lightning-fast Rabbit Escape.
Enjika gave him real trouble; its ability was Reverse Cursed Technique and it could nullify Cursed Technique attacks.
Akuto's "dismantle" and "slam" were almost exhausted mid-air against it.
Anything that landed did next to no damage. In the end, he relied on raw physical strength and literally beat it into submission.
"Next, Penetrating Ox."
After a short rest, he made the sign. "Penetrating Ox."
The shadow rippled, and a five- or six-meter-tall monstrous bull strode out.
Before Akuto could even ready himself, the ox suddenly charged.
"Crap!"
He couldn't dodge at such close range; the ox slammed into him and thundered forward.
Trees and rock faces were smashed aside as its speed and power kept climbing.
Akuto's Reverse Cursed Technique couldn't keep up with the damage.
"Release!"
The instant his arm was healed he cancelled the subduing ritual.
"Cough-cough-cough…"
Sprawled on the ground, Akuto coughed blood and shakily rose using a tree for support.
After a brief rest, he started the ritual again.
This time he was prepared, dodging the instant the ox appeared.
But the ox wheeled around!
"Dismantle!"
He slashed out several arcs.
They merely left half-meter-deep cuts—no real effect.
With the ox almost on him,
Akuto seized the moment and vaulted into the air.
Yet the ox suddenly lifted its head—and jumped!
"Thud!"
Akuto was flung sky-high; when he came to his senses he was looking down at the clouds.
Both arms were blown off, and half his torso was shattered!
Below, the ox was still rampaging.
"Reverse Cursed Technique!"
Limbs regrew as Akuto plummeted toward the ground.
"Nue!"
"Screee!"
Nue burst from darkness, caught him, and soared back into the sky.
He tried every method, summoning other shikigami—none worked.
At last, he had no choice but to cancel the ritual.
Sitting on the ground, he panted heavily.
"Penetrating Ox is way trickier than I thought."
"Sure, it only charges in a straight line, but within a meter it can adjust direction slightly."
"So to dodge safely you need to side-step seven or eight meters the instant it closes within that one-meter range."
"Also, if you let it run for more than a minute it becomes basically unbeatable—especially in wide open terrain like this."
He realized he'd picked the perfect playground for the ox.
In a city, it wouldn't have such freedom.
Out here it could keep charging, loop around the mountain, and come right back.
Its ability: the longer it runs, the more damage it deals.
Given enough space it could theoretically gore even Mahoraga to death.
Of course, that was only theory.
Keep it running for days and Sukuna's Cursed Energy would collapse first.
"Idiot—once I dodge I can just chase and attack from behind."
With that plan, Akuto restarted the ritual.
This time, after evading the first charge, he followed behind, spamming "Dismantle."
Sure enough, the ox couldn't take the damage and stopped to turn.
It scraped the ground, snorted twin clouds of steam, and charged again!
Akuto repeated the tactic; within five minutes he wore the ox down. "My Cursed Technique is still too weak; raising my role-playing degree is urgent."
Tearing off his shredded shirt, he headed down the mountain.
Penetrating Ox had been his limit, barely subdued through a trick; the upcoming Tiger Burial and Mahoraga were far beyond him.
He guessed Tiger Burial might be manageable at five to eight fingers.
Mahoraga wasn't even worth looking at without at least fifteen fingers.