As the swaying of the Wind Chime of Indulgence slowed to a halt, the figure in the sky began to stir. Like someone waking from a pleasant dream, the spirit let out a slow, languid stretch.
Is such a perfect face even meant to exist in this world? Though she wore voluminous, flowing robes, the mere glimpse of her profile made the thought flash through Suguru Geto's mind. She's beautiful...
"Hehe~ Where are you looking?"
A gentle, feminine voice whispered directly into his ear. It was a voice drenched in charm, possessing a magnetic pull that made one ache to turn around and see the speaker.
However, Suguru felt no trace of attraction. Instead, his adrenaline spiked. Cold sweat broke out across his forehead as he mobilized his cursed energy and whipped around, throwing a punch into the empty air.
"Fast."
There was no one behind him. Only a light breeze brushed against his cheek, a chilling reminder that something had indeed been standing right there a second ago.
Suguru scanned his surroundings. Tamamo-no-Mae had already reappeared in mid-air, dozens of meters away.
"Why so handsy right from the start?" Her nine white tails swayed rhythmically behind her. She raised her left hand, partially hiding her face behind a wide sleeve, her vibrant, expressive eyes locked onto Suguru. "Boys like you won't get any girls to like them, you know~"
"I'm only seventeen, right in the prime of my youth. I don't need an old lady like you worrying about my love life."
With a sharp wave of his hand, a line of bizarre cursed spirits manifested behind him. "Zenigame! Use Water Severing Wave!"
A cute, blue, turtle-like cursed spirit stepped forward. Its cheeks puffed out before it unleashed a high-pressure jet of water from its mouth. The stream, sharp as a laser, sliced through the air toward the target in the sky.
Tamamo-no-Mae clearly recognized the lethality of the attack. she took flight, weaving through the air with the agility of a pro dodgeball player. The water column chased her silhouette, instantly cleaving through every obstacle in its path like a hot knife through tofu, yet it couldn't quite catch the phantom-like figure.
While his "Zenigame" worked, Suguru wasn't idling. He reached into Chobo's mouth and pulled out a three-section staff. It was the legacy he had inherited from Toji Fushiguro: Playful Cloud.
Special Grade Cursed Tool: Playful Cloud An ordinary-looking, red-lacquered three-section staff. It is the only Special Grade cursed tool not imbued with a cursed technique. Its power scales proportionately with the user's physical strength, dealing purely physical damage.
After observing for a moment, Suguru noticed that her flight didn't suffer from the directional limitations of a bird. Like a superhero, she ignored inertia, capable of pivoting 360 degrees on a dime.
"Zenigame's technique can't land?" Suguru gripped Playful Cloud in his left hand, gave it a flick, and tucked the front section under his arm as he charged. "Heh. Time for a substitution, then."
"ZOMBA!"
Behind Suguru, another cursed spirit—an elephant-headed entity with red eyes—manifested, sitting cross-legged half a meter off the ground like a meditating Buddha. Its fur was a pale blue, and its hands were held in ritualistic mudras. Taking advantage of the enemy's preoccupation with the water jet, it unleashed its technique.
A pillar of golden light erupted from the heavens, slamming into Tamamo-no-Mae's back. The force pinned her toward the earth just as she was pivoting to avoid the Water Severing Wave.
"Zeni-zeni!" Zenigame rubbed its aching cheeks, eyes wide as it watched the enemy go down.
Being a creature of flight, Tamamo-no-Mae managed to right herself as ZOMBA's power waned. She prepared to land with an elegant, graceful touch.
But a split second before her feet hit the ground, her world tilted. Her foot found no purchase; her balance shattered into a comical mess. Tamamo-no-Mae faceplanted into the dirt with a heavy thud.
The Earthquake Catfish (Jishin Namazu) had seized the opening to trigger its technique, creating the perfect winning chance for its master.
Simultaneously, Suguru Geto arrived. He swung Playful Cloud with the full momentum of his body, aiming directly for her head. He intended to end the fight here, capitalizing on her lack of information regarding his arsenal.
The strike was both precise and brutal.
There was no telling how many times the cursed tool had multiplied his raw strength, but it was safe to assume that even if Tamamo-no-Mae had been wearing a Level 3 helmet at full durability, she would have walked away with a severe concussion at the very least.
However, the moment the blow landed, Suguru felt a sickening lack of resistance. It was as if he had swung his staff into a pile of cotton.
Tamamo-no-Mae had successfully used her tails to entwine Playful Cloud during the split second of his approach, blocking the impact just inches from her skull.
"What a terrifying boy." With a flick of her tails, she sent Suguru—who refused to let go of his weapon—sailing through the air. She rose slowly. "That wasn't beautiful at all."
"You're still worried about being 'beautiful' like this? If you ask me..." Suguru stabilized his stance, gripping both ends of Playful Cloud as he lunged again. "Dead curses are the most beautiful ones."
This time, Tamamo-no-Mae didn't take to the sky. She intended to meet him in a fierce, close-quarters brawl.
In the early days of his career, Suguru Geto didn't have many powerful spirits at his disposal. Having been interested in martial arts since childhood, he had discovered more than once that he could defeat opponents through basic cursed energy reinforcement alone.
Over time, this built his confidence in melee combat and shaped his unique style. Even with the versatile Cursed Spirit Manipulation at his fingertips, he grew accustomed to using his spirits as support while his own body acted as the primary output to catch enemies off guard.
Of course, he simply enjoyed the thrill of a fight; he had zero interest in learning Hasegumo's eccentricities about "power flow" or "mental transcendence."
After being utterly stomped by Hasegumo back in their first year, Suguru realized his raw talent for "fist-fighting" wasn't quite at the peak. He shifted his strategy, incorporating cursed tools into his repertoire. The moment he laid hands on Toji Fushiguro's armory, he had fallen in love with the pure, unadulterated power of Playful Cloud.
Now, the only problem was mastering it.
"All I need to do is grab the other end mid-swing and snap it forward. It shortens the interval between strikes and uses inertia to boost the power of the next hit."
Suguru's hands were a blur. He wielded the three-section staff like a lethal sling, snapping it back and forth so fast that afterimages lingered in the air.
As his left hand swung toward the enemy, his right was already positioned to catch the other end, redirecting the momentum for another lash. It was a perfect blend of offense and defense, exerting a crushing amount of pressure.
Clang-clang-clang-clang! The sound of striking metal filled the air.
In the blink of an eye, Suguru had landed over a dozen strikes with Playful Cloud.
"It's useless." Tamamo-no-Mae stood her ground, arms crossed. Her nine tails moved as a single unit, rhythmically parrying every blow. Meanwhile, her extra tails lashed out like whips.
The whistle of the wind and the massive cursed energy concentrated in those tails warned Suguru not to take a direct hit.
"Is this even scientific?" He was eventually forced back by the overwhelming reach of the nine tails. He looked at Playful Cloud in his hands. A normal Grade 1 curse would have disintegrated after one hit. This thing took a dozen head-on and looks like it didn't feel a thing.
This was the first time since acquiring the tool that he had encountered an enemy capable of tanking Playful Cloud so effortlessly.
Tamamo-no-Mae remained stationary. Her eyes were sharp; she realized immediately that the weapon in the boy's hands was no ordinary object. "A cursed tool? With your puny strength, even if you multiplied it by ten, you couldn't leave a scratch on me."
Despite her arrogant words, her soft, fragile tone still inspired an instinctive urge to protect her. Any ordinary man would find it impossible to follow through on an attack, let alone beat her senseless with a three-section staff.
But Suguru's heart had become iron. Having finally understood the meaning of his own existence, he was no longer susceptible to external illusions. He was focused solely on the problem at hand.
Wait, could it be... A plan formed in his mind. As he lunged forward to resume the assault, his spirits launched a treacherous sneak attack from the flank.
"ZOMBA!" The golden pillar of light crashed down.
Tamamo-no-Mae didn't use her tails to shield herself this time. Instead, she pivoted, dodging Suguru's staff while narrowly avoiding the cursed energy beam.
I knew it. Her tails can only tank physical attacks. Suguru felt a surge of exhilaration. Now, I just need to...
He pulled back slightly, and Cursed Spirit Manipulation flared again. Several frogs with gaping maws appeared behind him.
Suguru charged back into the fray. This time, he didn't use the rapid-fire snapping strikes to suppress her. Instead, he gripped Playful Cloud near the center joints like a dagger, constantly trying to bypass her tails to stab at her torso.
As he attacked, the row of frogs puffed out their cheeks. The dense, bumpy warts on their faces made one wonder if they were filled with cursed energy or something far more disgusting.
Croak... croak... Lethal lasers of cursed energy erupted from the frogs' mouths.
Tamamo-no-Mae finally lost her composure. Her tails lashed out to drive Suguru back, but she had to arch her body backward to avoid the frogs' beams.
Squeltch!
The sound of a sharp object piercing flesh.
Suguru had seized the split-second opening as she tried to right herself. He drove one end of Playful Cloud straight through her thigh. With a sudden twist and a violent pull, he completely tore the leg from her body.
Suguru looked at the severed limb on the ground and then looked up with a smirk. "I was right. You really are more beautiful when you aren't moving."
...
Having taken significant damage, Tamamo-no-Mae recoiled through the air, retreating to a high altitude. Beneath her robes, another leg manifested instantly.
"That wasn't beautiful at all."
Her voice grew sharp and piercing. Her once-flawless face was now covered by a thick, grotesque mask. Claws elongated from her fingers and toes, and her body—hidden beneath the robes—bulged and twisted, becoming something horrific and misshapen.
"To think you'd force me into this state."
As she spoke, her nine tails curved around from her back to her front. Cursed energy pulsed through the tails, coalescing into a sphere of pure, pitch-black void. "I hope you've made your peace with death."
"ZOMBA!"
The golden beam struck again, but this time, Tamamo-no-Mae barely flinched. The spirit using the technique was only a semi-Grade 1; its output simply wasn't high enough. Against Tamamo-no-Mae in her "Full State," even a direct hit of pure cursed energy did nothing.
I can't dodge an output of this scale just by moving. Suguru stared at her in the sky. That massive concentration of energy was about to be unleashed directly at him.
He finally realized his fatal flaw: though he had a vast quantity of cursed spirits, none of them could match the raw power of a Special Grade. He had a massive pool of cursed energy, but no way to convert it into high-tier output.
I don't have a finishing move. What do I do? Am I going to die?