Chapter 87: Black Flash, Mastering Cursed Energy
Kaito Shirogane pushed open the door. The stench of rotting corpses hit him in the face. All the bodies, dead for who knows how long, had been hidden in this warehouse. Kenjaku had placed a Cursed Technique on the building, preventing anyone from noticing the abnormality, sealing all curses and negative energy within. Naturally, this wasn't to protect the surrounding people. He was having Yuji Itadori collect these bodies to cultivate Cursed Spirits.
After Kaito entered the warehouse, his eyes quickly adjusted to the dim light. Cursed Spirits were not afraid of the sun, so the skylights in the roof had not been covered. The corpses lay on the floor, but several Cursed Spirits, their faces completely covered by long hair, were crouched in the corners.
"Uu… uuu…"
The spirits turned. They didn't speak, only whimpered, and then lunged at Kaito.
Kenjaku had, in fact, miscalculated one thing. He assumed that a normal person, when faced with Cursed Spirits—especially ones that so closely resembled ghosts—would be overcome by an instinctual fear. Fear was, after all, a powerful negative emotion, a catalyst for Cursed Energy.
But Kaito didn't feel fear.
His eyelids lowered. He walked toward the Cursed Spirits and raised his hand.
BOOM!
He threw a punch, and a visible, transparent shockwave shot from his fist. The Cursed Spirit was instantly sent flying, slamming into the wall.
Cursed Spirits were fundamentally different from "ghosts." They were special life forms with physical bodies. They could touch and kill humans, and humans could touch them back. However, an attack made without Cursed Energy could not inflict any effective damage.
Kaito frowned. That punch had done nothing. In other words, he had not yet grasped the flow of so-called cursed energy. He hadn't mastered the power to let his negative emotions surge.
He clicked his tongue and calmly walked toward the next Cursed Spirit.
BAM!
BAM!
BAM!
The sound of horrific impacts echoed through the warehouse. Kaito was still completely unable to feel the Cursed Energy. This was not an ability being "written" into him by the Nexus. This was Kaito, stubbornly trying to grasp it on his own. It was worth noting that touching the Cursed Spirits did not complete his [Spirit Toucher] milestone. Clearly, in the Nexus's judgment, Cursed Spirits and spirits were two different things.
He continued to pummel the Cursed Spirits' bodies. These newly born curses were incredibly weak, their attacks simple. For Kaito, dodging their physical strikes was easy. The scene devolved into Kaito one-sidedly beating on several Cursed Spirits.
Suddenly, a new thought struck Kaito. Negative emotions were many things, not just fear, hatred, and resentment.
A feverish look entered his eyes, and a grin spread across his face.
"To be honest, the feel of you guys is pretty good," he said to the spirits.
"And... you don't break."
Kaito was suddenly energized. His usual training with punching bags and iron sand had always lacked a sense of interaction. But now, faced with several living punching bags that couldn't be broken, the desire for destruction within him began to rapidly swell. It was an irrepressible impulse, one that anyone accustomed to combat and physical violence would understand. It was the same impulse you'd feel if you knew you had the power to shatter a wall with one punch, and then you saw a fragile body. You couldn't help but want to hit it.
This wasn't Kaito being a pervert or a psycho. It was the desire for destruction, a fundamental instinct rooted in the human psyche.
Kaito's right palm twisted, and he lashed out.
[Koei Style - Rakshasa's Palm]!
BOOM!
The Cursed Spirit's body instantly coiled up, as if it were about to be torn apart, and was sent flying. Kaito no longer cared about sensing Cursed Energy. He began to treat this as a training session, unleashing his terrifying physical violence upon them.
In the Itadori house, Yuji was cleaning, while Kenjaku sat by the window, frowning as he listened to the constant impacts from the warehouse. Had he misjudged? Was this "Mercenary Tao" just another monkey who couldn't grasp Cursed Energy? Of course, it was possible to defeat these low-level spirits with brute force, but that kind of "victory" was a boring display that only a monkey would be proud of.
Kenjaku shifted his attention. He began to consider what to do if this pawn turned out to be useless. The identity of that "Red-Robed Man" (Kaito) still puzzled him. In a thousand years, he had never heard of such a sorcerer. Could he be from one of the "Fangshu" families from the ancient empire next door? Jujutsu in Japan may be ancient, but who was to say that ancient empire didn't have an even older, more systematic framework of sorcery?
As for Geto Suguru, who was currently rallying the official forces of the Jujutsu world in Kyoto… Kenjaku wasn't concerned. He coveted Geto's Cursed Technique, but the time wasn't right… Someone like Geto needed to be in the spotlight. Only then could someone like himself continue to operate from the shadows. This was Kenjaku's entire philosophy. Many of the connections and powers Geto now possessed had been intentionally arranged and fed to him by Kenjaku. Geto was simply the perfect target to draw the attention of enemies like that Red-Robed Man.
Compared to that grand plan, the nuclear strike was just Geto's little tantrum. So you want a terrifying Cursed Spirit born from a nuke? Fine. I'll let you have it, as long as you can use it to block the Gojo-Curse. What does it matter if you get to be the pinnacle of the Jujutsu world for a few years, or even a few decades? He was deliberately letting Geto, the genius sorcerer who fell from grace, become the "savior" and the target for everyone else to aim at.
As Kenjaku was thinking, a terrifying roar suddenly echoed from the warehouse.
FZZZZT!
A flash of black light instantly erupted, piercing straight through the barrier around the warehouse.
Kenjaku slowly turned his head, his gaze returning to the warehouse. His lips curled into a grin that nearly tore the withered skin of his host's face.
"What… an undisguised destructive desire."
"Mercenary Tao… is this what you meant... by purity?"
[You have completed the Hidden Faction Quest: Trial of the Thousand-Year Sorcerer.]
[You have mastered the special energy: Cursed Energy.]
[Using Cursed Energy will consume both Spirit and Energy. If Spirit or Energy is too low, Cursed Energy cannot be used.]
Kaito looked at the Cursed Spirit, its head now shattered, purple blood pooling on the floor, no longer able to rise. A strange expression of regret crossed his face.
He clenched his fist, truly feeling the new power, one that was completely different from Hamon. If Hamon was an energy that flowed within his blood vessels, muscles, and bones, Cursed Energy was an energy that flowed in a special layer between flesh and soul. It was a cold, numbing sensation that could not be controlled by his muscles. Or rather, "control" was the wrong word. A sorcerer "wielded" Cursed Energy, using their own will and emotions to generate a powerful intent to achieve a goal. The Cursed Energy then moved to fulfill that intent.
Hamon was positive, tangible, and something he could physically control.
Cursed Energy was negative, imperceptible, and a purely metaphysical power.
[Milestone Update: Black Flash (Rare) (1/3)]
Kaito's last, visceral punch, his destructive desire fueling his Cursed Energy, had perfectly synchronized with the frequency of his fist, creating an explosive attack. This was the [Black Flash], a special phenomenon in Jujutsu combat. Because Cursed Energy cannot be perfectly "controlled," a sorcerer cannot normally synchronize the timing of their Cursed Energy impact with their physical strike. This leads to two specific outcomes. One is the [Divergent Fist], where the sorcerer's body is so fast that the Cursed Energy impact lags behind the physical punch, resulting in two separate impacts.
The other is when the physical strike and the Cursed Energy impact occur within 0.000001 seconds of each other. At this moment, the intense Cursed Energy, in perfect sync with the flesh—a union of body and soul—creates a terrifying attack that causes space to distort slightly, and the Cursed Energy flashes black. The power of this single blow is the user's normal power output to the power of 2.5. It is one of the most advanced attacking techniques a Jujutsu Sorcerer can achieve. Because the conditions were so strict, there were almost no sorcerers in the world who could use [Black Flash] at will (before Yuji Itadori).
Kaito savored the memory, then threw another punch. The Black Flash did not appear. But the feeling of that one attack had been utterly exhilarating. He turned his greedy eyes to the other Cursed Spirits in the warehouse.
Knock, knock, knock!
The warehouse door was being pounded on. Yuji Itadori's voice called from outside. "Mr. Tao! Grandpa says he needs to see you!"
Thump! Thump! After a few more quick, heavy blows, Kaito pushed the door open and walked out. His face was calm. Yuji looked past him into the warehouse and saw that the "patients" he had rescued were now lying in pieces all over the floor.
"Ah! Mr. Tao, what did you do?!" Yuji cried. "Don't worry, everyone, I'll save you!"
Hearing Yuji's voice, Kaito paused. He looked back at the boy who should have been this world's protagonist, now being manipulated like a fool. A smile touched his lips. He walked back to Kenjaku. His entire aura and expression had changed. He tilted his head back slightly, his posture arrogant. This wasn't an intentional act; it was the Cursed Energy itself. Intense emotions bred intense Cursed Energy, and in turn, intense Cursed Energy bred irrepressible emotions.
This was Kaito's instinct, showing Kenjaku his true face: I am not your pawn. And… I am strong enough to kill you.
Kenjaku smiled. "You've awakened. Congratulations, Mercenary Tao. You are no longer a monkey."