Shun brushed his fingers over the strands of hair that had just been grazed and sighed.
"I literally just got my hair cut."
"Is that so? Then how about I chop your whole head off? That way you will never have to waste time on your hair again."
A charming, teasing voice drifted down from within the clouds.
Shun rubbed the back of his head.
"Can we not talk about killing and maiming for once? How about we sit down for tea, have a meal, and get to know each other a little?"
"That depends on whether the sorcerer can survive first. If you live, I will consider it."
Her words had barely fallen when a gunshot cracked through the air.
No...
Not one.
Several.
Under the observation of Six Eyes, Shun suddenly realized he was already surrounded. Hidden behind the clouds, identical copies of the cursed girl raised their guns toward him and fired.
All the shots rang out at the exact same moment.
At that point Shun had nowhere left to dodge.
"Man, what a pain."
He watched the bullets coming in from all directions and shook his head.
He lifted his right hand slightly. Six Eyes flashed.
In that instant, the bullets that had been moving at terrifying speed suddenly slowed to a crawl.
Technique: Limitless Cursed Technique.
The Gojo clan's inherited technique, one that only a bearer of the Six Eyes could truly master. Its essence was a "convergent infinite series", Infinity made manifest. Once activated, anything approaching the user would experience its speed being reduced more and more, until finally coming to a complete stop. The caster would exist in a state that the enemy simply could not touch.
Normally, despite being a member of the Gojo clan, Shun would never have had access to this technique. But because he had awakened the Six Eyes, and because he had learned directly under Satoru, he ended up mastering it naturally.
It was also the technique he used most often.
"Let's wrap this up quickly so I can go home."
Shun's gaze sharpened, and his whole body sprang forward like an arrow leaving the string as he shot into the clouds.
A dull boom sounded.
The cloud bank exploded as he tore through it.
The cursed spirit hidden inside finally revealed her full form.
A gothic lolita outfit, mismatched eyes, twin tails, both hands gripping guns.
Compared to other curses, her entire style looked completely out of place.
A strange expression crossed Shun's face.
"Such a pretty woman. What a waste."
He could only shake his head. If he had run into her in some entertainment district, he would not have minded a chance encounter that led somewhere fun.
Too bad.
High above the ground, Shun clenched his fist and threw a punch.
When the timing of physical impact and cursed energy output matched within 0.00001 seconds, the resulting blow produced a force far stronger than any ordinary hit, bursting forth with black sparks.
This was Black Flash.
The fist wind shrouded in black lightning roared forward, striking the doll like face of the cursed girl square in the torso without mercy.
A sharp crack rang out.
Her abdomen was punched clean through.
Yet there was no fear, no pain on the curse's face. She was still smiling. Her thin lips curved, her long eyes curved, and the two dimples in her cheeks deepened adorably as she smiled.
Paired with the gaping hole in her stomach, the scene was bizarre to the extreme.
A strange, uncanny beauty spread in the air.
" I did not expect to run into a sorcerer here."
Hearing her voice up close felt like being gently scratched by a cat, a tingling numbness blooming in the heart.
The guns in her hands were already aimed straight at Shun. But at this distance, with Limitless active around him, there was no way this female curse could lay a finger on him.
Still not dead, huh.
Pretty tough.
Shun thought to himself.
He gathered power in his right fist again, ready to deliver another blow.
"It has been a while. You really are heartless now."
"Shun."
The cursed girl's red lips parted softly.
"Hm?"
Shun's eyes narrowed.
This curse knew his name?
Well... it was not that big a deal. In recent years he had been following Satoru around for hands on combat training. Over time, word had spread through the jujutsu world that behind that monster, another little monster had appeared.
It was nothing surprising for his name to have leaked.
Did she think calling his name would make him drop his guard?
That would be far too naive.
"We are not close. Don't call me like we are."
Shun did not hesitate in the slightest as he punched again.
He might act unmotivated most of the time, might complain about his uncle dragging him everywhere, but when it came time to fight, he was as direct as it got.
Whatever secrets you have, whatever tragic backstory, he would cripple you first, make sure you had no ability to resist, then talk.
Ruthless flower crusher, Gojo Shun.
Black sparks bloomed again, surging from his fist.
The female curse spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, but even then she did not make any move to counterattack.
Half of her body was completely destroyed.
Her form began to unravel, dissolving into pure cursed energy.
Her smile, however, only grew brighter.
"You really have gotten a lot stronger."
With those last words, her entire body vanished.
The sky slowly returned to its previous state, the clouds dispersing.
Shun dropped back down to the rooftop.
"Ding. Successfully killed cursed spirit clone. Black Flash proficiency plus one. Limitless Cursed Technique proficiency plus one."
A mechanical voice rang in his ear.
He rolled his eyes.
"Can you stop repeating that every time?"
This thing in his head had appeared back when Satoru had first saved him. Once upon a time, he had also thought he had awakened some kind of cheat like a system, that it was his ticket to a glorious rise.
Satoru had personally crushed that hope.
He had bluntly told him that this thing was just another form of curse.
Apparently, a very high grade curse at that.
It had been born from the intense grudge Shun had held in that childhood accident.
But even though it was supposedly high grade, the benefits it gave him were incredibly limited. Stuff like this ridiculous "proficiency" notification, for example.
Who would not get more proficient just by practicing more anyway?
You think I need you to remind me?
Of course, it was not completely useless.
For instance, when Shun learned Limitless from Satoru, this curse in his head allowed him to see a far clearer image of how cursed energy flowed and how the technique should be cast.
You could barely call it a study aid.
Aside from that, there was one more advantage.
It could confirm the fate of his target.
This so called system curse had an extremely precise ability to judge other curses or cursed spirits.
"So that was just a clone, huh."
Shun rubbed his chin, a thoughtful look flickering across his face.