Not to mention the terrifying strength of Special Grade Cursed Spirits; each one requires top-tier Jujutsu Sorcerers to work together just to barely suppress it. Attempting to capture one for Rin to devour is as difficult as reaching the heavens.
Rin looked up, meeting Suguru Geto's gentle gaze, and finally decided to tell the whole truth.
Sure enough, after hearing the requirement of "ten Special Grade Cursed Spirits," a bitter smile appeared on Suguru Geto's face.
He shook his head gently, his tone carrying a rare sense of helplessness: "If that's the case, I'm afraid even I can't help you. Ten Special Grade Cursed Spirits... that's something I truly cannot manage right now."
"You've already helped me a lot," Rin said quickly, his tone sincere. "From awakening Cursed Energy to the evolution of my Sharingan, without you, I don't know how long I would have had to wait."
"I'm already very satisfied with how things are. I'm really embarrassed to ask for anything more."
Suguru Geto looked at his frank expression, a trace of complex emotion suddenly rising in his heart. He patted Rin's shoulder, his tone carrying a hint of certainty:
"There's no need to say that. While Special Grade Cursed Spirits are rare, it's not like there's no way at all. From now on, we'll keep an eye out for information on Special Grade Cursed Spirits everywhere. We'll eventually gather enough. Your Sharingan is worth our time to wait."
Under the morning light, the two figures stood side by side.
Looking at the determination in Suguru Geto's eyes, Rin quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps the goal of ten Special Grade Cursed Spirits was distant, but at least for now, he wasn't facing this hardship alone.
"So, what should we train next?"
Rin rubbed his hands together, his eyes still sparkling with excitement from just evolving his Three Tomoe.
Although jumping from Double Tomoe to Three Tomoe today and unlocking Genjutsu was progress big enough to brag about for half a month, he looked up and saw the sun had only just climbed over the treetops. It was still early, and he felt like he'd be losing out if he didn't find something to do.
Suguru Geto propped his chin on one hand and pondered for a couple of seconds. The sleeve of his black monk's robe slid down slightly, revealing the cursed markings on his wrist:
"You've gained enough today: Three Tomoe, Genjutsu, and the copying of Cursed Spirit Manipulation. If you try to stuff in more new things, be careful not to bite off more than you can chew."
He changed the subject, his fingertip lightly tapping the stone ground of the training field. "However, we can warm up for tomorrow. Your Sharingan should have finished copying [Cursed Spirit Manipulation] by now, right?"
"Of course!" Rin nodded, his chest puffed out with pride. "I tried it out right after I finished copying. The process is very smooth; I can use it directly now!"
Hearing this, Suguru Geto suddenly waved his hand with a flourish, as if scattering some treasures.
In the next second, a mass of pitch-black shadows popped up on the open ground of the training field. Fifty Grade 1 Cursed Spirits with sharp fangs crowded on the left, while fifty Second-Grade Cursed Spirits with long tails huddled on the right. A total of a hundred were packed together, looking like "dark mushrooms" that had just sprouted from the ground.
"There are fifty Grade 1s and fifty Second-Grades here,"
Suguru Geto clapped his hands, his tone as casual as if he were handing out snacks. "Subdue them all using [Cursed Spirit Manipulation] now and store them as training materials for tomorrow. Once you're done with this, I'll let you 'off work' early today."
Rin leaned over to glance at the hundred Cursed Spirits standing obediently, then pulled out his phone to check the time. 8:30 AM. It was still a long way from noon.
He immediately straightened his back: "No problem! A job like this will be done in half an hour!"
Seeing the boy's confident look, the corners of Suguru Geto's mouth curled up slightly, a hint of "watching a good show" hidden in his eyes:
"Alright, I'll leave the rest to you then. Call me if you need anything. Remember, don't force it; if you can't do it, just take it slow."
Having said that, he turned and slipped away faster than anyone. His black figure disappeared around the corner of the training field in a few seconds, leaving Rin and the hundred "obediently waiting" Cursed Spirits staring at each other.
"Sigh, and here I thought it would be a lot of trouble."
Rin breathed a sigh of relief and leisurely walked up to a round Grade 1 Cursed Spirit in the front row.
Under Suguru Geto's control, this Cursed Spirit was as well-behaved as a pet dog, even retracting its sharp fangs.
According to the normal process, subduing a Cursed Spirit required beating it until it had no strength to resist, then activating the Cursed Technique to turn it into a black ball and swallowing it. But now, the first step was skipped. Cursed Energy surged at Rin's fingertip as he lightly tapped the Cursed Spirit. "[Cursed Spirit Manipulation]"
The Cursed Spirit shrank with a "poof" into a shiny black ball, just the right size to fit in the mouth, its surface shimmering with a faint glow of Cursed Energy.
Rin held the black ball, about to put it in his mouth, when he suddenly seemed to hit a pause button. Wait! He suddenly remembered Suguru Geto mentioning the taste of these things in the anime—didn't he say it was "worse than moldy stinky tofu mixed with bile"?
Cold sweat suddenly broke out on Rin's forehead, and the black ball in his hand instantly felt like a hot potato.
He stared at the black ball, hesitating for three seconds, before finally gritting his teeth: "What's there to be afraid of! It's just one bite!" Closing his eyes, he swallowed the black ball with a "gulp."
In the next second, Rin's face turned pale.
It wasn't physical nausea, but a sense of rejection bubbling up from the depths of his soul, as if his mouth had been stuffed with a stinking rag covered in vomit, mixed with an indescribable "taste of negative emotions." Even his temples began to throb.
Leaning against the stone table nearby, he bent over and gagged for a long time, barely managing to suppress the urge to throw up his entire stomach.
"Damn... why does this thing taste so bad!" Rin wiped his mouth and looked up to complain, but as his gaze swept across the training field, he instantly froze.
The remaining ninety-nine Cursed Spirits were standing perfectly in place. Some even tilted their heads to look at him, like "good babies" lined up waiting to be fed.
The sunlight shone on their pitch-black bodies, but at this moment, it looked exceptionally "horrifying."
Rin looked at the dense crowd of "Cursed Spirits to be slaughtered," then felt his still-trembling throat. A drop of cold sweat slid down his cheek and hit the ground: "I'm doomed... a hundred of them... this is going to leave me psychologically scarred..."
At noon in the living room of the Star Plasma Cult base, Miguel, wearing an apron with a few grains of rice stuck to it, brought the last bowl of tonkotsu ramen to the table. A golden soft-boiled egg sat tremulously on the noodles, and green scallions floated on the surface of the soup. The aroma could waft all the way to the training field.
He wiped his hands and shouted toward the inner room: "Nanako! Go call Geto and Rin for lunch! If they don't come soon, the noodles will get soggy!"
A short while later, Suguru Geto walked over, following a skipping Nanako.
The hem of his black monk's robe still had some grass clippings from the training field, but his hair was still neatly combed.
Miguel stared at the empty path behind the two of them. His chopsticks paused for a moment as he joked with a smile: "Eh? Where's Rin? Don't tell me this kid has become so obsessed with training that he forgot to eat?"
Suguru Geto sat down leisurely at the table and picked up his chopsticks to take a bite of the onsen egg. The yolk flowed down the chopsticks as he said slowly:
"It's fine, let's eat first. Rin is 'busy' over there. I doubt he'll be able to eat this lunch. Leave two bowls of ramen for him later; let's see if he can recover by this afternoon."