Chapter 172: Fushiguro Toji
The term "Curse User" is simply another name for bounty hunters and mercenaries. It serves to distinguish traditional bounty hunter groups composed of ordinary people from those composed of sorcerers who can use cursed energy and techniques.
Since they are bounty hunters, Granny Ogami and her ilk, who chose to become curse users, naturally work for money. As long as someone provides enough wealth, they will do anything—be it arson, murder, or worse.
Granny Ogami, an old woman in her eighties, went even further. Because her innate technique wasn't a combat-oriented one, her most frequent activities involved kidnapping children. she would trick and brainwash them into believing she was their grandmother so they could serve as fodder and vessels for her techniques.
But that wasn't all. Due to the unique advantages of the Seance Technique in assassination—where one can kill a person and use their corpse on the spot to summon their information and take on their appearance—Granny Ogami, unlike Jiro Awasaka, usually aimed to wipe out entire families when taking a hit contract.
The first to die by her hand were always the elderly, the weak, and children. Only by doing this could she easily complete the Seance possession and change her form to approach her target without much effort. She was a piece of scum utterly unworthy of pity!
Once Emiya Shirou confirmed this, he didn't hold back at all. He used the high-speed barrages of [Pseudo-The World] to punch through and blow apart Granny Ogami's body.
"It's over."
Zen'in Maki, who had recognized the technique as a Seance, watched. Though she couldn't see how Emiya Shirou suddenly vanished and reappeared behind Granny Ogami, she knew that once the practitioner died, the technique would end. No matter what Granny Ogami had summoned, it should disappear as the technique concluded and the cursed energy ran out.
Thinking this, Maki, the girl with long black hair, breathed a sigh of relief. Since they were already exposed, she figured she might as well get some answers. She looked toward Emiya Shirou and asked Okkotsu Yuta, "Yuta, that guy didn't do anything to you, did he?
And that Gojo-sensei... not only did he fail to notice enemies following him, but he even dumped his own debt onto you... next time I see him, I'm definitely not letting him off!" Maki said, slamming her fists together in anger.
Gojo Satoru's behavior was truly unreliable. What kind of teacher uses his student as collateral to pay off a debt?
Toge Inumaki, the kind-hearted boy with ash-blonde hair, nodded in agreement. "Salmon."
However...
Neither Emiya Shirou nor Okkotsu Yuta were looking at Maki. In fact, Yuta's muscles remained tense, his body instinctively staying in a combat-ready state.
"Yuta? ...Wait, could it be!?"
Due to the influence of her [Heavenly Restriction], Zen'in Maki could not produce cursed energy and could only train in martial arts. She quickly sensed the state Yuta was in. After all, she was the one who helped train his martial arts, so no one was more familiar with his physical reactions. Realizing something instantly, she whirled her gaze toward Emiya Shirou—or more accurately, toward the vessel of the Seance!
"This... how is this possible...!?"
"Oh, no cursed energy?"
On the other side, as if finally being awakened, was the young man who had been deceived by Granny Ogami into believing she was his grandmother, bound by that manufactured bond of affection. Since the successful Seance, his appearance, height, and voice had begun to converge with the summoned target. He had remained motionless even after Granny Ogami was killed.
He showed little interest in Emiya Shirou, the one who killed the old woman. Instead, he looked at Zen'in Maki with great curiosity.
"I see. A [Heavenly Restriction] just like me."
"..."
"...!?"
"...!?"
This was the umpteenth time Zen'in Maki had gasped in shock. First, it was Emiya Shirou. Now, it was this summoned Fushiguro Toji. Despite her [Heavenly Restriction] giving her kinetic vision that few sorcerers could match, she was encountering people whose speed far exceeded her perception one after another.
"...So weak."
Without the complicated thoughts Maki had, Fushiguro Toji simply moved, appearing instantly in front of her. He reached out and gripped the spear cursed tool in her hand. With a slight flick of his wrist, he lifted the spear along with Maki's entire body, spinning her around and flinging her away.
"By the way, this is Jujutsu High, right?
But according to the intel I used to collect, there shouldn't be students like you here. And the last memories in my brain seem to be quite different from my current situation."
Toji spun the spear with a flourish to get a feel for the weapon, speaking as if Okkotsu Yuta and the others weren't even there.
"Can someone tell me what happened?"
Fushiguro Toji remembered his last mission: the assassination of the Star Plasma Vessel. Although the target was protected by Gojo Satoru—the famous sorcerer since birth—and Geto Suguru, a Special Grade with [Cursed Spirit Manipulation] whose talent rivaled Gojo's, they were still too young. Toji had completed the assassination with ease.
Originally, that should have been the end of it. He could have just walked away. But as a man born into the Zen'in family—a clan where status was determined solely by sorcery talent—despite having zero talent for jujutsu, he had encountered Gojo Satoru, the man destined to be the strongest.
Having been suppressed and discriminated against for so long, Fushiguro Toji truly wanted to see if the world's "sorcery-only" ideology was correct. He wanted to see if a man born without cursed energy could stick a middle finger to the Zen'in family and the narrow-minded jujutsu world—by slaughtering Gojo Satoru, the pinnacle of sorcery.
"..."
"And then my memory cuts off right there," Toji said matter-of-factly. "As payment for answering my questions, I might consider leaving you alive, depending on the situation."
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