Chapter 75: Secrets of Yasohachi Bridge
Darkness.
Boundless, sticky darkness.
The moment the four of them stepped through the black Curtain and entered the barrier, the world around them twisted completely.
The riverbank was gone.
The old bridge was gone.
Even the sound of traffic from above had vanished as though it had been swallowed whole.
What replaced it was a cavernous underground space riddled with holes, half collapsed tunnels, and slick walls coated in some foul, glistening slime. The air was wet and heavy, thick with the stench of rotting flesh and stagnant cursed energy. Every breath felt dirty.
"Ugh…"
Nobara covered her nose at once, her face twisting in disgust.
"What is this place? It smells worse than a sewer."
"Stay alert."
Yami walked at the front, Shiranui resting in his hand. The black blade gave off a faint reddish glow, just enough to push back the darkness and reveal the path ahead. His Transparent World remained fully open, scanning every corner, every movement, every shift in the air.
In a place like this, one careless step could get someone killed.
Yuji looked around, brows raised.
"So this is what Yasohachi Bridge looks like on the inside?"
The walls around them were crawling.
Tiny slug like curses clung to the stone in clusters, their bodies pulsing and writhing as they let out wet, sizzling sounds that made the skin crawl.
Megumi's expression stayed grim, but the panic from earlier had sharpened into focus.
"These are lower level curses spawned from a stronger source," he said. "If we do not find the main body and kill it, they will keep reproducing."
"Then we do not waste time."
Yami did not slow down. He continued straight toward the deepest part of the cavern, where the foulest concentration of energy gathered.
That was where Sukuna's finger was.
And something else.
Something worse.
"Hey, look."
Yuji suddenly pointed toward the ground ahead.
Scattered across the slime coated floor was a pile of old clothing and shoes. Some pieces had already rotted into shapeless scraps. Others still looked recent enough to recognize.
Nobara's eyes narrowed sharply.
One of the jackets belonged to a high school uniform.
Rizakura High.
Megumi's voice turned tight.
"The missing people…"
A suffocating stillness spread through the group.
They had all heard the rumors. Students drawn here by the urban legend of Yasohachi Bridge. Girls cursed after coming here. People vanishing without a trace.
Now the remains of those traces were right in front of them.
Belongings.
Shoes.
Uniforms.
Proof that they had made it this far and no farther.
Yuji's fists clenched.
Cursed energy began to stir around him.
"Damn it…"
There was raw anger in his voice now.
He hated this kind of thing more than anything. Curses that treated people like food. Monsters that turned fear and curiosity into a grave.
If Yami had not interfered when he did, Tsumiki could have ended up here too, reduced to a name on a missing persons report and a pile of abandoned clothes on a cave floor.
Yami lifted one hand, stopping Yuji before he could surge ahead.
"Do not rush."
His eyes remained fixed on the darkness in front of them.
"It is here."
The next moment, the entire cavern shook.
Rumble.
The sound came first.
Then the footsteps.
Heavy. Slow. Each one carrying enough weight to make the ground tremble under their feet. The low curses plastered to the walls began to shriek and writhe in panic as something huge moved through the shadows ahead.
Then it stepped into the light.
The thing was enormous.
More than three meters tall, its frame was grotesquely humanoid in the torso yet wrong in every other way. Its head resembled a swollen mole, bloated and blind looking, while the rest of its body was covered in eyes, tentacles, and twitching folds of cursed flesh. Its skin seemed constantly in motion, like it could not settle on one shape.
But the most striking thing was its chest.
Embedded there, like a rotten jewel, was a shriveled finger.
Even at a glance, the evil radiating from it was overwhelming.
Yuji inhaled sharply.
"Sukuna's finger!"
Megumi was already moving.
His hands came together in preparation while Divine Dogs leaped into position, low and ready.
"It is a Special Grade," he said through gritted teeth. "And it evolved after swallowing the finger."
The monster opened its mouth.
A shrill roar tore through the cavern.
The sound crashed over them like a physical wave. The lesser curses on the walls burst one after another, collapsing into puddles of black sludge. Even the air shook with the force of it.
Nobara pulled out nails and hammer in one smooth motion.
"This thing feels worse than the one at the detention center."
Yuji lowered his stance.
Megumi's shikigami prowled forward.
But Yami did not move.
He kept one hand on Shiranui and stared past the giant curse, deep into the darkness behind it.
Then he spoke.
"Come out."
His voice was flat and cold enough to slice through the cavern more cleanly than the roar had.
"Hiding behind it and watching is a bad habit."
Megumi's head snapped slightly toward him.
There was someone else?
A soft laugh drifted out from the shadows.
High pitched.
Almost playful.
It made the place feel even filthier.
Two figures descended from above and landed lightly on the Special Grade's shoulders.
They looked human at first glance.
That illusion lasted less than a second.
The one on the left had revealing leather clothing, grotesque fleshy wings, and makeup so garish it bordered on madness. Yet behind the absurdity was unmistakable danger. The one on the right was shorter and bloated, more like a lump of flesh shaped into a person, with tiny wings on his back and a warped smile that never should have existed on a living face.
Megumi's pupils tightened.
"The Death Paintings…"
Eso.
Kechizu.
The two cursed wombs smiled down at them as if this were entertainment.
"Oh my," Kechizu said, twisting his body with theatrical exaggeration. "You found us already?"
His tone was light, but his eyes were vicious.
"We wanted to let the big one have some fun first."
Eso giggled, fat cheeks twitching.
"Brother said unnecessary fighting is troublesome."
"Brother?"
Yuji frowned.
He looked from one to the other.
"What are you supposed to be? Humans? Curses?"
"How rude."
Kechizu licked his lips, baring a cruel grin.
"We are the new humans."
"The Cursed Womb: Death Paintings. Beings born to inherit the future of this rotten world."
He barely finished speaking before Eso attacked.
The fat little monster opened his mouth and spat a flood of blood straight at them.
At the same time, Kechizu's wings spread wide, launching a rain of blood red projectiles sharp enough to pierce stone.
"Rot Technique: Maximum Technique: Wing King!"
The assault came all at once.
Blood.
Feathers.
Poison.
Corrosion.
A killing field without gaps.
"Look out!" Megumi shouted, ready to summon more shikigami for defense.
He was too late.
Clang!
A blade of golden red light flashed across the cavern.
Yami moved.
He did not step back.
He did not dodge.
He simply drew and cut.
One slash.
That was all.
Yet under the precision of the Transparent World, that single strike split through the incoming barrage with impossible accuracy, severing the path of every blood feather and parting the wave of poisoned blood before it could reach the others.
Flames ran along Shiranui's edge.
The instant the corrosive blood touched the heat of Sun Breathing, it hissed and evaporated into steam.
The attack vanished.
So did the smugness on Kechizu's face.
His grin froze.
Eso's eyes widened.
The young man standing before them carried no cursed energy they could sense. No aura. No overflowing pressure like a sorcerer.
And yet he had just neutralized their combined attack with a single swing of his sword.
Yami slowly raised his head.
His red eyes were no longer gentle.
They burned.
Not wildly.
Not recklessly.
But with the cold, unwavering intensity of a swordsman who had already decided what must be cut.
"So these are the Death Paintings."
His voice was calm.
That calmness was far more frightening than rage.
Then he angled the blade forward.
"If you chose to stand with curses…"
A faint flare of golden red ran down the black steel.
"…then be ready to fall with them."
The air burst.
Yami vanished from where he stood.
He moved so fast the slime under his feet exploded outward. A heartbeat later, he was already in front of the Special Grade curse, directly beneath the monstrous thing's chest.
Its eyes widened.
Too late.
Yami's grip tightened.
The blade rose.
"Sun Breathing, First Form…"
Light bloomed.
Not bright enough to banish the entire cavern.
Just enough to make the darkness recoil.
It looked like sunrise forcing its way into a grave.
"Dance."
.....
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