Shigen One quickly emerged from the shadows and ran towards the moving taxi. The driver seemed to notice him, and the car's speed noticeably increased.
Shigen One raised his hand, condensing a small amount of cursed energy, and aimed at the taxi's rear tire, firing.
However, a cursed aura then surged from the seemingly ordinary taxi. An unseen Cursed Spirit had merged with the car! He could vaguely see strange things emerging from the taxi's surface, and these attacks were blocked, failing to pierce the tire.
Seeing the accelerating taxi about to shake him off, and unable to blast the car with Zhu Mie since Akari Nitta was still inside, Shigen One didn't look discouraged. On the contrary, he smiled. "As arrogant as I thought. I'll rescue Miss Nitta first."
"Time Wheel, Turn!"
The speeding taxi abruptly froze, hovering in place like moths fluttering near a streetlamp, as if encased in invisible amber.
Shigen One quickly reached the taxi, punching through the locked car window. The shattered glass also hung suspended in mid-air, only moving slightly when touched by Shigen One.
Opening the car door, he lifted the statue-like Akari Nitta out and carried her over his shoulder. With his other hand, Shigen One drew the katana from his waist and smoothly plunged the blade into the neck of the driver—the culprit they were tracking—whose face bore a maniacal grin.
Shigen One then smoothly retreated, and the "Timeless" state was dispelled. The moths fluttering in the light began to beat their wings again, and the stationary taxi instantly transitioned from extreme stillness to extreme motion.
Along with it, several explosive sounds created a deafening resonance at the same instant. The taxi suddenly veered off the road, flipped violently, and rolled several times, its glass and body shattering and deforming, finally sliding for more than ten meters before coming to a stop.
Like someone surfacing for air after nearly drowning, Akari Nitta instinctively grabbed Shigen One, gasping for breath. Once she grasped her surroundings, she reacted, hastily saying, "That Cursed User... he has the ability to influence others' consciousness and movements. I'm not sure if it's a cursed technique yet."
Setting Akari Nitta down and flicking his blade to clear the blood from its tip, Shigen One looked at the overturned, broken car on the ground and calmly stated, "It's fine. He's just flailing in his death throes now."
Akari Nitta looked confused. Just then, a sound came from the wrecked car. The car door suddenly flew open with a clang, and a man covered in fresh blood crawled out.
"That's him!" Akari Nitta exclaimed, pointing at the man, her eyes still filled with bewilderment. The figure was utterly disheveled, crawling out of the car with one hand clamped to his neck.
Crimson blood continuously seeped from between the fingers covering his neck. His face, once full of reckless abandon, was now etched with terror and rage.
As the man crawled out of the car, peculiar phenomena, invisible to ordinary people, began to occur around him. Black, sinister energy suddenly rose from the overturned car body.
Within a few breaths, it condensed into a bizarre entity. At first glance, it looked like a swirling mist, but it was covered with many eyes and mouths that constantly moved, looking utterly horrifying.
Judging by its dense cursed energy, although its size wasn't particularly large, it was no less potent than the Grade 2 Cursed Spirit they encountered during their mission with Maki.
If this Cursed Spirit also possessed a cursed technique, it would be a standard Semi-Grade 1 Cursed Spirit. From the current situation, it seemed to be an obedient spirit summoned by the Cursed User.
After the dying Cursed User summoned this Cursed Spirit, it swayed and floated to his side, then twisted into a strip, like water or smoke.
It then drilled into the Cursed User's body. Where his neck had been a large, continuously bleeding hole, strange black substances now emerged, bubbling up like murky swamps.
Soon, this layer of black substance completely enveloped his wound. The previously dying Cursed User visibly recovered significantly, struggling to his feet.
But his expression grew even more grim. The Cursed User looked at the "prey," the blonde woman standing not far away, and the stern-faced young man beside her.
Undoubtedly, the inexplicable severe injury he had just suffered, and the rescue of his prey, were all thanks to this young man... Damn him!!!
The Cursed User's rage almost made him lose his mind, but this anger was triggered by a profound, unparalleled fear within him—the most primal fear of death.
The wound on his neck was not easily resolved. Shigen One's attack, which didn't exist in his memory, had indeed struck a vital point; the sharp blade had horizontally pierced his artery and trachea.
He was still alive purely due to some effects of his Shikigami's cursed technique, but this was only temporary. His Shikigami couldn't heal him from this desperate situation like "Reverse Cursed Technique" could.
To use a more fitting analogy, he was merely experiencing a temporary recovery before death. His Shikigami's cursed technique could, to a certain extent, manipulate or "deceive" a person's body. He had used this to quietly lead young women to his crime scenes and brutalize them.
Now, he used this to temporarily stabilize his wound, but the thought of imminent death overwhelmed him with immense terror.
"Is this... what death feels like...?"
But soon, his mind was warped by these negative emotions: "No! I can't! There are so many 'bitches' who haven't been punished. I can't die like this!"
Looking at Shigen One, the "culprit," the Cursed User's thoughts were gradually twisted and drowned by surging rage and hatred, making him even disregard the disparity between them. All he wanted now was to kill this young man. No! He wanted to break his limbs, then torture the woman he saved to death before his eyes!
Shigen One watched as the Cursed User merged with the Cursed Spirit, then stumbled to his feet, staring straight at him. The malice in his eyes was almost palpable, but... it was just the snarling of a dying mad dog.
Akari Nitta, however, was somewhat nervous. She watched as the already dying Cursed User suddenly stood up again, looking as though he wouldn't give up.
And because this incident happened so suddenly, they hadn't had time to set up a curtain. If the Cursed User caused another major disturbance that was witnessed by nearby residents, it would be another troublesome matter.
After confiding her worries to Shigen One, Akari Nitta saw the calm young man nod, acknowledging her concerns. He then walked towards the Cursed User, holding his blade.
Asking Akari Nitta to step back, Shigen One approached the Cursed User with his blade in hand. His mind recalled what Gojo Satoru had once told him...
"Genichi, your cursed technique, in some ways, is the nightmare of Cursed Users and other Jujutsu Sorcerers! Humans... have limits. Most, or nearly ninety percent, of Jujutsu Sorcerers haven't mastered 'Reverse Cursed Technique.' This means that if a vital point is hit and they don't receive treatment quickly, it means death."
"And your cursed technique... far exceeds the limits of human reaction. Apart from some special trigger-based cursed techniques, your extreme speed can even cut down an enemy who activates their cursed technique after you."
At the time, Shigen One had excitedly responded, "Then I'm super strong, aren't I?"
Then Gojo Satoru maliciously shattered his dream: "Not necessarily~ Besides the trigger-based cursed techniques I mentioned, if your opponent masters Domain Expansion and successfully activates a domain to encompass you, that would be bad."
"And our main enemies—Cursed Spirits—higher-grade Cursed Spirits generally have extremely fast recovery speeds. Vital points barely exist for them, so you still need to be very careful."
Coming back to his senses, Shigen One couldn't help but strongly agree with Gojo Satoru's assessment. When it came to Cursed Spirits, perhaps it was difficult to predict victory or defeat due to their varying strangeness, but Cursed Users like this... they were simply too easy!
Cursed Spirits required him to expend a large amount of cursed energy to exorcise, while trash like this, whose name wasn't even worth mentioning, could be dealt with by a single light slash. Even if he encountered this situation again, it would just be a repeat performance.
If he fully mastered "Cursed Technique Reversal," and even combined the forward and reverse rotation of his cursed technique like Gojo-sensei... That's it! When that time comes, he'll challenge Gojo Satoru. He really wanted to see the look on his smug face when he was defeated! Hahaha...
Shigen One, engrossed in his future fantasies, suddenly felt a surge of cursed energy. Looking up, he saw the Cursed User clenching a spike-like object in his hand, and a black-tinged, sharp cone was already shooting through the air.
The Cursed User's ecstatic ugliness was fully observed by Shigen One. He smiled, holding his left index and middle fingers together vertically: "Time Wheel, Reverse."
The Cursed User's mind was already picturing the abhorrent young man's body being pierced. Just as he was excitedly about to forget the threat of death, he suddenly saw the young man raise his left hand, and then his full-power attack vanished without a trace in an instant!
"What's going on? What did you do?"
The exasperated Cursed User was on the verge of madness. The hideous black substance on his neck was nearly devouring half his face. His mind, almost unable to think normally, he merely cursed wildly, while once again squeezing all his cursed energy to try and launch another attack.
"Time to finish this..." Thinking this, Shigen One activated his cursed technique again, entering the "Timeless" state. With a few strides, he reached the Cursed User. Shigen One chose not to use his blade; it would make the aftermath too messy...
A cursed energy-infused punch landed on the Cursed User's heart. Shigen One then followed up with another punch to his abdomen, confirming he had shattered all his internal organs, before dispelling the cursed technique.
"Pfft!"
Shigen One, who had already positioned himself to the side, dodged the sudden spray of blood from the Cursed User, which was mixed with unrecognizable fragments of internal organs.
The Cursed User, directly brought to the brink of death by this familiar attack method, knelt on the ground, unable to speak coherently. Even the Cursed Spirit "merged" within him was injured and now powerless.
With a regained clarity, the Cursed User's eyes filled with venom. He used all his remaining strength to break the Shikigami's restraint: "Rele... Release! Kill... everything!"
Purplish-black flesh began to swell from his body. In a blink of an eye, a grotesque tumor-like monster replaced his figure on the spot.
The Cursed User was confirmed dead!
Now, all that remained was dealing with the Cursed Spirit he had left behind. Looking at the tumorous monster before him, Shigen One shifted the katana from his left hand to his right, activating his cursed technique once more...
"Wh... what happened?"
Akari Nitta watched as the Cursed User was suddenly punched, coughing blood, then fell to the ground as if dead, only to quickly transform into a terrifying form and stand up again.
After that, as if a film was skipping frames, the swelling, tumor-like Cursed Spirit suddenly broke apart like building blocks, and Shigen One was standing in front of it at some unknown point.
"Is this his cursed technique? This level of speed is too terrifying..."
Before she could express more amazement, Akari Nitta saw Shigen One waving her over. It turned out he wanted to discuss how to clean up the scene.
The sound of the car overturning had been quite loud. Fortunately, Shigen One had dealt with it quickly enough. They could still disguise the scene as a car accident, and it wouldn't be too late to contact someone to handle it.
(End of Chapter)
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