"Please don't call an elementary schooler rigid…"
"Can't I? Then I'll just say you're overly mature…"
Megumi Fushiguro withdrew the Divine Dogs into the shadows and collapsed onto the ground. That one fight alone had taken almost as much out of him as an entire year's worth of training.
"It's not over yet."
"Huh?"
"I brought you here so you could see what a high-ranking Cursed Spirit looks like. That thing just now was a bonus.
Look, the real one's here~"
The moment Akira Zenin finished speaking, heavy footsteps rumbled closer. The ground began to shake under their weight.
A Cursed Spirit nearly ten meters tall emerged. Sixty percent of its body was taken up by a massive, sculpted human face. Where its hair should have been was a huge cicada-chrysalis-like mass, every fold studded with eyes. Two thick, knotted legs crushed the roof tiles beneath it, and six human arms jutted from its torso, swinging restlessly. Its presence, its oppressive aura, the sheer scale of its cursed energy—everything about it far surpassed any Cursed Spirit Megumi Fushiguro had ever seen.
"Eh—eh—eh—ah… my… child…
Why… hasn't my child come back??
Why hasn't my child come back!!!"
As beams of cursed energy shot wildly from the Cursed Spirit, Akira Zenin explained calmly,
"A Grade 1 Cursed Spirit. And one of the strongest among them. Megumi-chan, just watch this time. This one's not something you can handle~"
"Things like this aren't common, right…? If you actually made me fight that, I'd have to say you've seriously lost it…"
"I was wondering earlier. Normally, powerful Cursed Spirits without intelligence don't coexist easily.
But listening to its rambling… maybe it thought that cow was its child? That's just ridiculous…"
The cursed energy sealed within Akira Zenin's body gradually loosened. This was a Binding Vow he had placed on himself:
By "reducing the number of times he acted" and "limiting his cursed energy usage," he gained a mental state close to that of an ordinary person.
Unlike vows made with others, a vow made with oneself could be broken at any time—though the benefits would drop sharply afterward.
Just like the vow Kento Nanami set for himself: limiting his cursed energy to 80% during normal hours in exchange for being able to use 120% during overtime.
If Nanami used 100% during regular hours, there would be no punishment—but for a while afterward, even during overtime, he'd only be able to push it to 101%.
The Cursed Spirit let out a savage howl and charged. At three stories tall, its sheer mass alone made it terrifying. Every stomp sent tremors through the ground. Every swing of its arms carved deep trenches into the earth.
Like a compressed spring snapping back, the partial release of cursed energy cleared Akira Zenin's mind for a brief moment. He reinforced his body with cursed energy and rushed forward head-on.
With his bare hands, he grabbed the Cursed Spirit—and, incredibly, began lifting its enormous body off the ground.
Given the huge difference in their size, there was really only one way to describe it: like a delicate maiden lifting an entire tree straight out of the ground.
Given the difference in their size, there was only one way to describe the scene: Lin Daiyu uprooting a weeping willow…
A crazed grin spread across Akira Zenin's face as he hurled the Cursed Spirit like a javelin.
The Cursed Spirit tumbled violently across the ground, and the house collapsed completely into rubble…
"This thing really can't handle a fall.
Megumi, next I'll show you how our Cursed Techniques are actually used.
The Ten Shadows is an extremely versatile technique. How could it possibly be something so clumsy?"
[To make it easier for Megumi to get used to it, I'll use a more conventional Ten Shadows method—something closer to standard Shikigami usage… I'm honestly touched by my own thoughtfulness~]
Akira Zenin raised his hand and formed the hand sign for Divine Dogs. Unlike before, however, two shadow-formed arms extended from beneath him. Each shadowed arm coordinated with one of his real hands, forming separate seals at the same time.
"Compound Shikigami (Self-Chimera) — Divine Dogs [Heavy]."
A massive figure, at least twenty meters tall, rose from Akira Zenin's shadow.
It was a gray giant wolf with two heads. Its eyes were hollow and pitch-black, devoid of pupils, ghostly blue flames flickering outward from within. With every breath it took, immense Cursed Energy surged and billowed around its body.
Megumi Fushiguro's eyes widened.
Huh? What did I just hear?
This thing… is that really Divine Dogs?
Despite its enormous size, the two-headed wolf moved with shocking speed, pinning the Cursed Spirit to the ground in an instant. Just as the Spirit tried to fire off a beam of Cursed Energy in retaliation, the wolf casually exerted a bit of force and tore it cleanly in half.
As the Cursed Spirit screamed in agony, the wolf devoured it alive.
A long, resonant howl echoed through the night. Then the giant wolf slowly dissolved into shadows, disappearing beneath the dark sky…
Watching the scene, Akira Zenin frowned slightly.
Under normal circumstances, Divine Dogs [Heavy] should be around ten meters tall, and their eyes should be sharp and lively—not so hollow. What he had just summoned looked more like some evolved Zombie Tyrannomon…
Maybe he had used too much Cursed Energy?
It seemed his Cursed Energy had grown stronger again—so strong that it was becoming difficult to control.
He began establishing new Binding Vows to seal his Cursed Energy once more.
"For the next while, I'll start teaching you how to subdue Shikigami, along with the various ways to use them."
"Ways? I—I'll try my best…"
...
After completing the Binding Vow, Akira Zenin returned to his usual lazy demeanor, looking even more drained than before.
The two of them began clearing the rubble as they normally did—though Megumi Fushiguro handled most of the work. Inside one of the partially collapsed rooms, they found several children huddled together, trembling.
Beside them were "bowls" made from cut soda cans, filled with a mushy substance resembling mashed potatoes—if one ignored the wires and screws mixed into it…
"Raised as children by a Cursed Spirit? That's unfortunate… and yet, in a way, incredibly fortunate too…"