The sky was still this dark. Not a soul on the streets—empty, desolate. The civilians had been evacuated early, and with the Curtain's descent, the world grew darker still. The lonely streets looked like a speck of dust adrift in the vast cosmos.
Every sorcerer present felt it—that bleak, desolate weight. The closer they moved toward the target, the more it felt like what awaited them wasn't Curse Users, but the end of the world.
Alone and adrift, like mayflies born between heaven and earth—not knowing when they'd die, not knowing why they lived. A nameless sorrow and confusion crept into their hearts, as if what they saw before them was exactly what they felt within.
The Grade 1 sorcerers frowned, scanning the dazed faces around them.
"Snap out of it."
"Snap out of it!"
The Grade 2 sorcerers jolted awake one by one, drenched in cold sweat. But the sorcerers below Grade 2 still wore expressions of agony and bewilderment.
"What's the point of living?"
"Where did I come from? Where am I going?"
"I was born into this world, and I'm sorry for it."
"Reiko, you think I'm gentle? That gentleness was paid for with my life."
Kira could feel it—their souls were starting to fracture.
"Wake up!" "Wake up!"
"...Leave this to me. I know an advanced technique."
"But Kira, I thought you can't use jujutsu?"
Kira raised a hand, signaling them to wait. He walked up to a brawny man standing near the front. The burly sorcerer had a darkly seductive look in his eyes, though his lips curled in a faint, knowing smile—as if he'd seen through all of humanity's pageantry. When Kira approached, the man gazed at him with soulful intensity:
"You've seen a bar at two in the morning, haven't you? Some people swaying half-drunk, some passed out in corners, some pretending to be sober while their bodies are already drowning in the night."
"They say darkness is loneliness's seasoning—everything tastes sweeter in the dark than in the day. If you don't believe me, just try—WHAT THE HELL!"
Kira's boot slammed into the region just below the man's lower abdomen. In an instant, every trace of enlightenment, every flicker of profundity, every ounce of worldly insight drained from his eyes and condensed into a faint, delicate sadness. Then came the long, whistling intake of breath:
"—Hssssss"
"Kira, do you have any idea where I—hssss!"
Kira cut a path through the crowd. Every man he passed produced the same sharp gasp, then curled into a ball on the ground like a writhing grub. The chorus began:
"All my pain, all my—you son of a bitch!"
"I need to wash the seaweed, wash the seaweed, wash—MY BALLS!"
Sometimes, the best cure for a troubled youth was a good beating.
Under Kira's masterful application of physical therapy, everyone regained their senses. They stared at each other wide-eyed and innocent, utterly clueless about what had just happened.
The only question was: why did everything feel so... sad down there?
Kira didn't spare a glance for these Santa Clauses, lone warriors, and Bakugan kids. He clapped his hands and squinted at Kabukichō's gaudy neon glow ahead, brow furrowed.
Just moments ago, the enemy's cursed technique had silently infiltrated their minds.
This cursed poison, once inhaled, trapped the victim in a spiral of existential despair—powerful enough to dissolve the soul itself.
What made it truly terrifying was that even the Grade 1 sorcerers among them had been completely oblivious to it.
"Que Yin Poison."
An elderly sorcerer spoke up. His lips were cracked, and a deep film clouded his eyes. Kira recognized him—a retainer of the Kamo Clan, one of the Big Three Families. A Grade 1 sorcerer.
Que Yin. Despite the somewhat vulgar sound of the name, it was actually one of the Seven Spirits in the Three Souls and Seven Spirits system, governing the emotion of sorrow. According to the ancient Daoist text Baopuzi, the corporeal spirits were governed by the Life Soul. After the Life Soul descended into the womb, it distributed energy across the body's seven chakras, forming the Seven Spirits.
When the Seven Spirits dissipated, the Life Soul scattered with them—which was why the cursed poison had nearly annihilated the souls of those with low Cursed Energy.
Something else clicked in Kira's mind. Two days ago, an account called "Tai Guang" had posted that beheading video online.
And Tai Guang was one of the Three Souls.
Interesting. Getting more interesting by the second... Kira mused.
"All sorcerers below Grade 2—hold position here."
Todo clicked his tongue sharply, glaring at Kabukichō just ahead, teeth grinding.
Kira nodded.
Logically, even a Special Grade Cursed Object shouldn't be able to corrupt this many people instantaneously.
There was only one explanation: this was enemy territory. The closer they got to the source, the denser the negative emotions, the lower their mental defenses—and the more vulnerable they became to a soul-based cursed poison like this.
The enemy had clearly anticipated their arrival and already planned measures to clear the field.
"Todo, Mechamaru—you're with Kira. Your team infiltrates Kabukichō, exorcises the curse, and eliminates the newborn Cursed Spirit. You can feel it too, can't you?"
Kira could feel it.
When he layered Cursed Energy over his eyes, the entire world transformed.
In the darkened sky, pillars of dead, suffocating energy rose from the horizon. The grey streams converged in the air, merging into an ever-larger mass of negative emotion.
Like a colossal vortex, strand after strand spiraling around Kabukichō at its center—and there, in the eye of the storm, something monstrous was being born. Crimson eyes, slowly opening.
"It's absorbing all of Kyoto's darkness right now. It's at its most vulnerable. This is the best window to exorcise it."
The Kamo Clan elder's hoarse, aged voice rang out: "And you three—especially Todo and Kira—are the most suited for assassination. This mission is yours."
"As for the frontal assault..."
The old man slowly tore open his shirt, revealing his aged upper body—withered, covered in wrinkles. Skin like ancient bark, clinging to bone, exposed to the wind and rain. He looked like an old banyan tree being battered by the storm.
And in that moment, the old banyan erupted with life. Behind him, one towering tree after another burst from the earth—not trees, but sorcerers, their Cursed Energy blazing to life. Brilliant. Searing. Blinding.
"The frontal assault—Tai Guang, Que Yin, whatever comes—leave it all to us old-timers."
He bared his teeth in a grin. Like a fanged demon.