Feigning that she had detected something 'unusual,' Mahiko opened her eyes. She recalled her clones and slowly dispelled the Heavenly Restriction she had been maintaining over herself, letting a smile spread across her face. "Quite the... interesting hiding spot."
The girl spread her wings and flew toward that location.
The place was on the outskirts of Tokyo — a mountain forest fire station. Recently, a new fire crew had moved in.
This new fire crew was none other than the Kamo family's so-called secret unit.
Ha. If Mechamaru hadn't fed her this information, she genuinely wouldn't have noticed anything off about that fire station.
And inside the fire station —
"What?" The captain frowned sharply as he answered the call. "You're telling us to... hide the [Box]? Why hide it? We're already hiding it just fine."
"Because something you absolutely cannot handle is rapidly closing in on your position." The voice on the other end had been processed through a voice modulator — it was Kenjaku's voice. "You're going to die, and running won't help. So quickly hide the most important [Box] and make sure what matters most isn't found by her."
"What exactly is closing in on us?" The fire captain frowned. "Be specific."
"A Special Grade Cursed Spirit," came the reply from the other end.
"And what's there to be afraid of?" the captain said. "Out in the open, maybe we'd have no room to fight back — but here? This is our turf. Do you think we've never killed a Special Grade Cursed Spirit on our home ground?"
"No — I told you, you're going to die. You cannot treat her like a Cursed Spirit." The voice on the other end was languid, unhurried. "You should treat her as [a Disaster]."
What —
"Oh, she's here. Twenty seconds left. I'll count down for you. Go hide the [Box] now... nineteen, eighteen..."
Tch. What on earth is coming?
The captain gritted his teeth and ordered one of his squad members to go hide the [Box].
But where were they supposed to hide it? In twenty seconds, where could they even put it? At best, bury it on the spot right here.
"Thirteen... twelve..."
"Battle positions!" the captain shouted. "Get the barrier up!"
The squad members activated their Jujutsu Techniques and a barrier rose — a defensive barrier. But unlike any ordinary barrier, this one was blood-red. Its surface appeared to be coated in a layer of dried, crusted blood.
"Four... three..."
At that moment, the captain felt it — something was truly, unmistakably coming.
"It'll take the enemy at least ten hits to break through our barrier," he told his squad. "Hold your ground! The moment they breach it, we counter!"
"Three... oh, I'm hanging up now. Good luck to you. By the way — since your soundproofing means you can't hear what's outside, I'll let you know... the technique she's currently using is called [Remains]."
BOOM!!!
The captain and his entire squad were left dumbstruck.
The barrier they had believed to be impenetrable shattered in an instant. A beam of blue-white light tore straight through it, slamming into the ground below and blasting a towering column of smoke and debris skyward.
The earth shook. The world trembled.
The next instant, a white afterimage streaked in through the ruined barrier, shooting straight for the captain — who hadn't even managed to regain his footing yet.
"!!!"
Survival instinct kicked in, triggering a reflexive defense.
The captain surged the Cursed Energy within his body. Crimson blood poured from the blood pouches he carried on his person, coating both his arms and hardening into a pair of armored gauntlets.
He crossed both arms in front of himself and blocked the crushing blow — but the impact sent him flying backward anyway, like he'd been rammed by a car going at full speed.
"Attack— gah——"
Launched through the air, his shouted command warped and mangled at the end.
The next instant, the surrounding squad members finally reacted. They triggered the traps they'd prepared in advance, and several blood spikes shot through the incoming white blur. The white blur stopped — and only then did they realize it was just a cloth doll, no taller than half a person, black and white in pattern, with adorable little rabbit ears.
A Shikigami? Or a puppet?
They all froze for a moment. And in that moment, a black barrier swept in to replace the blood-red one that had just been destroyed, spreading across the sky above them once more.
They looked up.
A blue-haired girl with pure white wings at her back was slowly descending from the sky.
"Hey there, everyone~" Mahiko smiled. "Your Jujutsu Technique... lets you manipulate blood? Pretty stylish."
That doll was a technique Mahiko had recently been developing. Just — not quite there yet.
The rough concept: fashion a cloth doll in the shape of a rabbit, then have it burn through every last bit of its soul energy within three seconds, producing an explosive burst of speed and raw force.
But just now, it hadn't even lasted three seconds before it completely deflated. A catastrophic failure on the research and development front.
And then it got stabbed to death by blood spikes on top of that.
Still though... blood spikes. Mahiko raised an eyebrow.
The Kamo family's hereditary Jujutsu Technique was "Blood Manipulation" — weaponizing blood in combat, in short.
This technique was somewhat weaker than the Zenin family's Ten Shadows Technique and the Gojo family's Limitless — yet the Kamo family was still counted among the Three Great Families alongside the Zenin and Gojo clans. That could only mean Blood Manipulation held some advantage over the Ten Shadows Technique and Limitless in other respects.
Such as... the threshold required to wield it might be somewhat lower.
That said, what the people in front of her were using didn't appear to be Blood Manipulation.
Mahiko had a feeling. She'd never actually witnessed Blood Manipulation in person — but she had her memories of watching the anime in her previous life. And the techniques these people were using seemed somewhat different, at least on the level of "visual effects."
"Does your Jujutsu Technique have a name?" Mahiko blinked.
"You're probably wondering if it's Blood Manipulation — heh. Actually, it isn't. That so-called Blood Manipulation..." The captain wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, smiling. "...is actually inferior to our Vital Blood Art. Care for a demonstration?"
Huh. Vital Blood Art? What's that?
A Jujutsu Technique not found in the original story — that actually fit Mahiko's expectations perfectly.
But what exactly was this "Vital Blood Art"? A degraded version of Blood Manipulation? That tracked — Mahiko had already gotten that impression from the attacks and defenses she'd just witnessed. These guys' technique was clearly far inferior to Blood Manipulation.
If Mahiko's doll hadn't deflated ahead of schedule, that single punch just now would have snapped both of the captain's arms clean off.
"Cursed Spirit — since you've come all this way, you'd better be ready to be exterminated!" the captain bellowed. "Activate it!"
Mahiko blinked.
Honestly, she was genuinely curious what they were about to activate.
But then — Mahiko's eyes went wide with surprise.
Because what she saw was these sorcerers, disguised as firefighters... actually walking up to a fire truck and hoisting the water cannon.
"Vital Blood Art — Grand Blood Pierce!"
Fwooooosh——
The fire truck shot out an enormous column of blood.
Mahiko's eyes went completely round.
Holy — Is THIS how "Blood Pierce" works in your Vital Blood Art?!!
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[Author's Note]
The previous chapter did have quite a lot of explanatory content — mainly because some people kept arguing with me about "why didn't you do such-and-such," so I went through and explained every little corner of it. I'll be more careful going forward.
Dropping two extra chapters for everyone today — these bonus updates are completely unrelated to any bounties or commissions. Totally free additions.
____
👻🔥Walnut-chan ;)🔥👻
🔥 New history: Reborn as Naoya I Really Am Here for Revenge!
Help smash these goals:
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