"Perhaps influenced by the frequent disasters last year, Cursed Spirits have been emerging in a never-ending stream."
"This summer, I've been particularly busy..."
Late into the night, Suguru Geto, dressed in the black Tokyo Jujutsu High uniform with his hair tied in a half-bun, walked the streets like a "living corpse." Despite being exhausted both mentally and physically, he continued to hunt for any potential Cursed Spirits.
"It's the scent of a curse."
He paused in front of a dark alleyway and then swayed unsteadily as he walked inside.
"I thought it would be a routine exorcism."
"I didn't expect a 'colleague' to have beaten me to the punch."
"An innate technique I've never seen before. His cursed energy fluctuations clearly don't differ from those of an ordinary person, yet he's managed to pin a Cursed Spirit—one nearing Grade 2—against the wall, rendering it unable to move."
"Because of the nature of my own technique, I hoped he would hand the spirit over to me."
"But the moment those deep blue eyes gazed at me, an inexplicable sense of pressure washed over me. For a second, I almost thought it was my friend."
"But it wasn't. It was that 'eccentric' I crossed paths with once before."
The man who had rejected the olive branch extended by Jujutsu High, the so-called "cradle of sorcerers."
"Thank you for your business."
Geto was still lost in thought, but by the time he snapped out of it, his wallet was lighter by 100,000 yen.
Having received the payment, Kenmyo Isayama cleanly deactivated his technique. Losing the restraint of "Telekinesis," the half-dead Cursed Spirit slumped to the ground, paralyzed.
"Sucker."
That was Kenmyo's internal evaluation of the man who had suddenly appeared behind him—a smiling guy who looked a bit like a playboy.
The guy actually didn't haggle at all, paying 100,000 yen for a half-dead curse. If that wasn't a "sucker," what was?
Kenmyo had originally wanted to test the second effect of [Spirit Devourer] to see how much Mana it would grant him. But when a second person appeared on the scene asking for the curse, Kenmyo wasn't about to let him have it for free. What, did the people from Jujutsu High think they were so overbearing they could just seize a curse without giving anything in return?
He recognized the man: a second-year student from Tokyo Jujutsu High, apparently named Suguru Geto, part of that noisy trio. Kenmyo had a hard time forgetting them; they were the ones who instantly turned into "good little boys" standing at attention the moment their teacher yelled.
"I don't know what you want this curse for, but if you really want it, you'll have to buy it."
With 230,000 points currently to his name, Kenmyo wasn't overly attached to a curse that would only net him about a hundred points. So, he named a price.
"100,000."
"This was my prey. It would be difficult for me to agree to let you take it without offering something."
Then, Kenmyo watched as Geto pulled out his wallet.
"Even if the Jujutsu Association is inhuman, their subsidies and benefits are truly excellent."
Geto was just a student, yet Kenmyo saw at least forty or fifty "Fukuzawa Yukichi" (10,000 yen notes) in that wallet.
"Spending 100,000 without so much as a blink."
Seeing the other's generosity, Kenmyo even wondered if his asking price had been too low. He tucked the money into his pocket.
"Well, an unexpected gain for a night out."
Little did he know, Geto was also feeling the absurdity of the situation. He had paid 100,000 yen because of a few sentences, and his mind even felt the logic was sound. But once money is spent, it's like water poured out; to obsess over whether it was worth it would only cheapen his status as a sorcerer.
Geto had his pride, after all.
In truth, this was primarily due to the "Mental Field" Kenmyo unconsciously radiated after ascending to Theta-grade. His influence on others had intensified. Especially after the [Psionic Codex] transformed into [The Rubric's Redemption], granting him access to all disciplines, Telepathy-based energy had begun to subtly bleed into the air around him. Though faint, it added a touch of "persuasion" (or hypnosis) to his words.
Against someone mentally exhausted, the effect was outstanding.
Geto had fallen right into Kenmyo's verbal suggestion. His brain thought it made sense, and his body acted directly, pulling out the wallet to let him take what he wanted.
"Sigh, there goes tonight's overtime pay."
Geto sighed and raised his hand toward the Cursed Spirit. His voice turned cold.
"Exorcise."
In the empty alley, a wind rose from nowhere, kicking up a massive storm of cursed energy. The paralyzed spirit had no way to dodge; its entire body was submerged in that vast, azure cursed energy.
Trapped within, the skeleton-like spirit began to sizzle as if soaked in concentrated sulfuric acid. It smoked and gradually decomposed; bones snapped, and every inch of its body disintegrated.
The sheer output of violent, crushing cursed energy Geto displayed was far beyond the level of an average Grade 1 sorcerer.
The grandiose exorcism and the piercing shrieks of the curse swirling in the alley made Kenmyo, who had already walked a distance away, stop and look back.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk."
"How much of a grudge do you have to torture it like that?"
As expected, the psyche of a jujutsu sorcerer was a bit twisted.
The spirit lasted less than three seconds before melting away entirely in the storm. Nothing remained. As the alley fell back into dimness, aside from the half-eaten corpse, no one would know a near-Grade 2 curse had ever existed there.
Geto retracted his cursed energy, and the spirit was compressed into a small, navy-blue sphere.
"There's nothing special about the things I see."
He stared at the sphere in his hand; inside, the form of a skeleton writhed and clawed, letting out silent, agonizing roars.
"Just the ugliness everyone knows about."
"Knowing this, I still chose the path of saving the masses."
"I've told myself that since the day I became a sorcerer."
"Therefore, I must become stronger."
Geto raised the small sphere to his mouth and forced himself to swallow it whole. Despite the look of intense suffering on his face, he compelled himself to finish.
"No one knows the taste of a Cursed Spirit."
Due to the unique nature of his technique, he hadn't spent 100,000 yen for any other reason. It was solely to eat.
"Exorcise, consume, repeat."
To this day, he didn't even know how many he had swallowed. As Geto gasped for air, having finally finished swallowing the coconut-sized, soft sphere, Kenmyo—who had been watching in silence—voiced the question in his heart.
"What does a Cursed Spirit taste like?"
Geto wiped the corner of his mouth, his breathing still heavy. A trace of helplessness flickered across his face as he replied:
"It's something like swallowing a rag used to wipe up vomit."