Mai clicked her tongue.
"That's why you're here to observe," she said. "You've got raw power, sure. But you don't know how the jujutsu world actually works."
Miwa gave a calmer explanation.
"Grades run from Four to One. Above that is Special Grade—for both sorcerers and cursed spirits."
She adjusted her grip on her sword.
"But the scale isn't symmetrical. A Grade 3 sorcerer is certified to reliably exorcise Grade 3 cursed spirits. A Grade 1 sorcerer can handle Grade 1 curses."
She looked at Ren directly.
"So this mission is within our capabilities. You're not in danger."
Ren exhaled slowly.
That framework clarified things.
If he was officially Grade 2, but possessed power comparable to Grade 1, then a Third Grade curse was well below his threshold.
The tension in his shoulders eased.
Ahead, something slid through the wall.
An octopus-like curse drifted into the corridor, its tendrils swaying lazily.
Ren bent, picked up a chunk of broken concrete, and hurled it.
The projectile ripped through the air—
—and passed straight through the curse.
The wall behind it exploded inward from the impact.
The curse remained intact, hovering as if nothing had happened.
Ren froze.
He was certain he had hit it.
His vision was precise. Its movement slow. There had been no miscalculation.
So why—
"Seriously?" Mai muttered. "Use cursed energy."
Ren glanced at her.
"You didn't infuse that throw, did you?"
He hadn't.
He'd assumed physical force alone was enough.
"Only attacks reinforced with cursed energy can harm cursed spirits," Mai said. "That's basic."
She smirked faintly. "Welcome to the job."
Ren nodded once.
He picked up another fragment of concrete, this time feeding a thin layer of cursed energy into it—just enough to coat its surface.
He threw.
The stone tore through the octopus curse.
This time, the body split and dissolved into smoke.
"That's how it works," Mai said.
"You may be strong, but you're still a rookie."
She holstered her weapon.
"From here on out, everything below the main target is yours."
Ren glanced at her. "You're assigning me labor."
"You're learning."
He didn't argue.
The lesser curses that followed were dispatched quickly. A flick of reinforced stone. A narrow Cleave. Minimal output, precise application.
They consumed little of his stamina.
Then the air changed.
They entered a wide factory hall lined with heavy machinery.
Something dropped from above.
It landed with a heavy thud.
A simian shape straightened slowly—its body covered in blinking red eyes. Its elongated arms ended in hooked talons, curved and serrated.
It beat its chest and roared.
The cursed energy it emitted was thicker than anything they had encountered so far.
Ren's senses sharpened automatically.
That was the target.
"Third Grade," Miwa confirmed.
She stepped forward.
Her stance shifted—one hand on the scabbard, one on the hilt.
"New Shadow Style: Simple Domain."
Cursed energy erupted outward from her body.
Not as reinforcement.
Not as projection.
It spread evenly in a spherical radius around her—dense, controlled, extending roughly two meters in every direction.
Ren's eyes narrowed.
He had never seen cursed energy used like that.
The monkey curse lunged.
Its claw shot toward Miwa's torso—
—and in the same instant, steel flashed.
Her blade cut cleanly upward.
The curse split diagonally from hip to shoulder.
The two halves slid apart before dissolving into smoke.
Miwa lowered her sword.
She hadn't even looked directly at it.
Ren stared.
"What was that?" he asked.
"Simple Domain," Miwa said, catching her breath. "It's not an Innate Technique. It's a style."
"A countermeasure," Mai added. "It neutralizes interference inside its range. Automatic response."
Ren studied the fading traces of cursed energy in the air.
"You didn't track it," he said.
Miwa shook her head.
"The domain handles that."
She hesitated, then added quietly, "It's the highest-level technique I can use."
Her fingers tightened slightly on the hilt.
"It belongs to my school's lineage. I can't teach it outside that tradition."
Ren nodded immediately.
"I understand."
He looked back at the place where the curse had stood.
Cursed energy spread into space.
Automatic interception.
A structure layered over reality itself.
His expression didn't change.
But behind his eyes, something was already calculating.