[The only reason you didn't open with Puppet Manipulation was the woman in the Curse User's grip.]
[She was the Star Plasma Vessel's caretaker, nothing more than a maid. But the faint rise and fall of her chest told you she was alive, without so much as a visible wound.]
[Alive meant leverage. Alive meant your hands were tied.]
[The Q operative stared at the short blade screaming toward his face and froze.]
[He'd never expected it. This kid in a Jujutsu High uniform, all neat and scholarly-looking, striking without a heartbeat of hesitation, aiming to kill.]
[What he couldn't have known was that this apparent ruthlessness came from a very specific line he'd crossed.]
[Under normal circumstances, you wouldn't open by trying to take a life. Even a Curse User had value: intel, techniques worth reading. But when someone threatened your life, or came with the explicit purpose of ending it, elimination moved to the top of the list.]
[Still, a momentary freeze was all it was. Q hadn't sent dead weight to assassinate the Star Plasma Vessel.]
[The faint rasp of a lighter's flint wheel cut through the air, and a ball of fire erupted from nothing directly in front of him.]
[The pressure wave and searing heat slammed Asakirimaru off course, sending the blade clattering against the corridor wall.]
[You ran Phantom Night Parade in parallel, reading his Cursed Energy output. Combined with what you'd already observed from the earlier explosion, a rough picture of his technique formed.]
[He wasn't generating explosions. He was shaping them, controlling the direction and form of the blast's release.]
[Smoke and firelight swallowed the hallway. Instead of falling back, you dropped low and used that split-second blind spot to close the distance.]
[He saw your silhouette punch through the haze. Killing intent flared behind his eyes. One palm came up, aimed squarely at you, teeth grinding hard enough to crack.]
["I'll kill you, you little shit!"]
[You didn't have full knowledge of his technique yet, but you knew exactly what he was doing: lining up his next shaped blast.]
[You threw yourself sideways, rolling through the doorframe of a room blown open by the earlier explosion.]
["Don't run!"]
[He wasn't about to let you go. A savage kick sent the ruined door flying, and he stepped through, technique primed.]
["Where do you think you're going to..."]
[Kokun's roar died in his throat.]
[What replaced it was the wet, muffled sound of a blade punching through fabric, parting muscle, piercing organ.]
[Crimson bloomed across the pristine white of his military jacket, spreading outward from his stomach like a flower opening.]
["Wh..."]
[The pain shattered his control over his Cursed Energy. He twisted to find whoever had ambushed him, but no one was there.]
[Asakirimaru rotated slowly inside him. The agony obliterated what little focus he had left, and his knees hit the floor.]
[Then he saw it. A doll, roughly fifty centimeters tall, gripping a short sword nearly as long as its own body with both tiny hands. The image was almost comical.]
[You'd planted Wukong during the chaos of his earlier explosion, slipping the Cursed Corpse into position while he was focused entirely on you. The moment he released the hostage and committed to his attack, you sent Wukong for Asakirimaru and struck from behind.]
[The little figure carried the blade back to you, presenting it with both hands.]
[You eyed the blood staining Wukong's body and sighed. Another cleaning session later.]
[You took Asakirimaru and drove it through the hand Kokun was trying to shape into a casting gesture. The scream that ripped out of him was barely human. You spoke without warmth.]
["I'd suggest you behave. Don't try anything clever with me."]
["You bastard..."]
[Before the word finished leaving his mouth, you leaned into the blade. The spike of pain nearly broke him.]
[But what came next was worse. Far worse.]
[You channeled Reverse Cursed Technique through Phantom Night Parade and healed his hand. Then you stabbed it again.]
[He hadn't even processed the shock of you using Reverse Cursed Technique on him before the fresh wave of agony dragged him back to reality.]
[Hurt... Heal.... Hurt again. In his eyes, you had become something that crawled out of hell.]
["I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, please!"]
[Raw terror swallowed everything else. He forgot the pain, forgot his pride, forgot he was supposed to be an assassin. Apologies spilled out of him like a reflex.]
[You pulled Asakirimaru free and wiped the blood off the blade using his cheek. Your voice stayed level.]
["Now. Tell me everything about Q. And everything that happened here stays between us. Otherwise... you might not die."]
[Those last four words hit harder than any death threat could have.]
["I'm done! I'm out of this whole thing! I quit being a Curse User! And I'm leaving Q!"]
["R-right, and I'm going back to my hometown! Going to grow rice!"]
[About two minutes later, Geto returned to the floor with the Star Plasma Vessel, a girl wearing a Renchoku Girls' Junior High uniform. He'd traced the Residual Cursed Energy to your room.]
[He took in the scene with visible surprise: the Q operative sitting meekly in the corner, clutching his stomach wound, and you across the room, ignoring the man entirely while checking on the unconscious maid.]
["It's over? You're just leaving a Curse User unattended?"]
[You finished applying Reverse Cursed Technique to the maid, then glanced at Kokun.]
["He's fine. Very cooperative. Right?"]
[Kokun nodded so fast his head blurred.]
["Yes yes yes yes yes yes! Absolutely! Full cooperation!"]
[Geto frowned. Something about the Curse User's reaction struck him as abnormal, though he couldn't quite pin down what.]
[You held your hand out toward Geto.]
["Is that the Star Plasma Vessel? Is she hurt? Let me take a look."]