The talisman was packed with refined, exquisitely controlled reverse cursed technique energy.
"Catch."
Natsume did not even bother walking over. He simply flicked the charm toward Yuji with a lazy motion.
The flimsy looking paper moved as if it had a will of its own, tracing a precise golden arc through the air and landing exactly on the mangled wound of Nobara's arm.
Hum.
The moment the talisman touched her flesh, a warm, gentle radiance burst forth, a golden light saturated with the breath of life.
The glow felt like it carried the power of creation itself.
Before their eyes, the deep gash in Nobara's arm, wide enough to expose bone, began to heal at a speed that completely defied medical common sense.
Torn muscle regrew within the light.
Severed vessels reconnected and flowed again.
Even the icy curse power sunk deep into her very marrow melted away under that warmth, dissolving completely in seconds, evaporating and leaving nothing behind.
The entire process took no more than three seconds.
When the light faded, the talisman scattered into motes of gold and vanished into the air. Nobara's arm showed not even a scar.
The chalk-white pallor of her face quickly returned to a healthy color.
"Eh… cough… where… where am I?"
Kugisaki Nobara, who had already had one foot through the gates of death, slowly opened her eyes and pushed herself up, still dazed.
The ward fell utterly silent.
Yuji … stared.
Kaguya… stared.
Ai… forgot her fear and just stared.
Megumi, who had watched the whole thing from beginning to end, felt his usually steady heartbeat slam violently against his ribs.
Reverse cursed technique.
Inside, a storm even more violent than when he first sensed Natsume's presence raged through him.
No, that was not just ordinary reverse cursed technique. That speed and effectiveness surpassed even Ieiri's reverse cursed technique.
And how, exactly, had he managed to seal reversed energy into a single talisman sheet?
This already lay far outside the limits of modern jujutsu theory.
Before, he had only classified Natsume as someone on Gojo Satoru's "strongest" level…
Then now, his assessment of Natsume had risen to a level he could barely comprehend, a place that could only be described with one word.
Monster.
"Good. Now you can tell me how this thing ended up like this."
Natsume's calm voice broke the silence.
Nobara, her wound gone as if it had never been there, stood with Megumi's help. She flexed her once shredded arm, and her gaze toward Natsume had grown very complicated.
Megumi drew in a slow breath, forcing the shock down, and repeated all the information they had received from the jujutsu committee.
"According to their investigation, this special grade curse was, when alive… the wife of Murata, the Shuchiin Chinese teacher."
"Supposedly, because she was insecure about her looks, she recently went in for lip augmentation surgery. The operation failed. Her lips became severely infected and necrotic, and in the end… they had to be entirely removed."
"Unable to accept being disfigured, she had a complete mental breakdown. In the end, holding the antique mirror her husband had casually picked up at a market, she killed herself in their room."
"Her soul, that intense hatred for the world born from being ruined like that, and the mirror itself, which had stored a massive amount of negative energy over centuries… all three mixed together. That combination produced the special grade curse we are looking at now."
When Megumi finished, the room fell into an uneasy silence.
On every face, the same emotion appeared, a tangle of speechlessness and disgust.
All this, because of a botched cosmetic surgery.
Because her own face was ruined, she had decided to take it out on innocent pretty schoolgirls, dragging them one by one into the mirror to turn them into monsters like herself.
The mindset was so deranged it felt almost unreal.
"What a pointless farce."
Natsume finally shook his head.
Now that he knew the story behind it, the last bit of interest he had in the fight disappeared.
He glanced at the Ghost Sergeant, still locked in a grim stalemate with the lipless spirit, then turned to Yashiro.
"Call your graduates back. This little play needs to end."
With that, he slipped a hand into his pocket again and drew out another talisman.
Unlike the previous charm, which shone with soft gold, this one was pitch black from edge to edge. Blood red cinnabar lines coiled over it, forming a dense script and sigils that radiated severity and annihilation, more violent and intricate than before.
It was a Fivefold Thunder Extermination Talisman, a technique derived from the Ancient Refinement Manual.
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