Chapter 112 (Patreon)

“—!”

Piercing alarms echoed through the streets and alleys of Bunkyo Ward.

Personnel from Jujutsu High had already arrived and sealed off the entire area. Emergency teams moved through the ruins, carrying away one injured civilian after another.

“This is the level of destruction caused by a special-grade cursed spirit.”

Kiyotaka Ijichi stood nearby, holding a thick stack of casualty reports. His expression was grim.

“In less than three minutes, a hundred and fifty thousand people were killed. Around five hundred thousand more suffered injuries of varying severity.”

“I’ve already heard the details from Kagenou and Gojo.”

Masamichi Yaga stared at the sea of flames ahead of him.

The sharp smell of blood and burning debris filled the air, making even him feel sick.

“There’s no way we can keep something this large from spreading. Too many people were involved, and the affected area is far too wide.”

At that moment, Satoru Gojo walked up behind Ragnar Kagenou and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Nothing.”

Ragnar remained silent for a moment before continuing.

“I just don’t understand why that cursed spirit chose Riko.”

“Maybe it was because she was the Star Plasma Vessel.”

“The Star Plasma Vessel…”

Gojo’s expression became slightly more serious.

“A large number of ordinary people have also been disappearing lately. Kenjaku and the group of cursed spirits working with Mahito are probably killing people behind the scenes.”

“Be careful,” Ragnar warned him. “Right now, the two of us are their main targets.”

——————

The next day.

Even though more than a hundred thousand people had died only a day earlier, the rest of the city continued moving as usual.

Yuji Itadori, Megumi Fushiguro, and Nobara Kugisaki were assigned to investigate the Automatic Door Curse Murders.

Bang!

The door suddenly flew open as Rika Orimoto stormed into the room.

“I’m seriously angry.”

Yuta Okkotsu turned his chair toward her and held out a can of coffee.

“What happened? Why are you so upset?”

Click.

Rika opened the can and drank the coffee in one go. After taking a breath, she finally explained.

“I was investigating that curse user named Kenjaku. I was close to finding him, but then a white-haired woman appeared.”

Yuta thought about her description.

“A white-haired woman? Did she have a bob cut and wear clothes that looked like a monk’s robes?”

Rika stared at him in surprise.

“You know her, Yuta?”

“Ragnar does. He fought her while he was overseas.”

Rika leaned back against the lounge chair.

“I see…”

“Her cursed technique is related to ice,” Yuta continued. “She’s an extremely powerful curse user. She may not officially be considered special grade, but she isn’t far from that level.”

That was everything Yuta knew about Uraume.

“By the way, Yuta, do you know where Ragnar went?”

“He said he was going to exorcise a cursed spirit, but he didn’t tell me where.”

“I see…”

——————

Koinokuchi Gorge.

Cars occasionally sped across the road above, their engines echoing through the gorge.

Ragnar Kagenou stood on top of Yasohachi Bridge.

In April of the previous year, Megumi Fushiguro’s older sister, Tsumiki Fushiguro, had been cursed on this very bridge. She had fallen into a coma and had yet to wake up.

Ragnar had not been able to investigate the place before.

Now that he finally had the opportunity, he wanted to discover what kind of cursed spirit possessed the ability to trap someone in an endless sleep.

As he examined the bridge, Ragnar could clearly sense traces of cursed energy.

However, no matter where he searched, he could not locate the cursed spirit itself.

“How strange…”

Just as Ragnar was about to give up, he noticed something unusual when he looked down from the edge of the bridge.

“A drop of water?”

A crimson droplet fell from the sky.

When it struck the edge of the bridge, ripples spread across the concrete as though the droplet had landed on the surface of a lake.

Drip.

Ragnar’s senses suddenly turned upside down.

When he blinked again, he found himself standing in a devastated world.

It was still the same familiar place, but everything around him appeared to have been abandoned for centuries. The bridge, the road, and the surrounding structures were cracked, decayed, and close to collapsing.

“Interesting.”

Beneath Yasohachi Bridge was a vast pool of black water.

Its surface was so dark that it seemed to swallow every trace of light.

The water suddenly began to move.

Countless cursed spirits clawed their way out, fighting to reach Ragnar and tear him apart.

Golden ripples appeared in the air behind him.

One Noble Phantasm after another emerged from them before shooting forward.

The cursed spirits exploded the moment the weapons struck them, sending waves of pitch-black water high into the air.

“There are far more cursed spirits here than in the real world.”

Ragnar watched another wave rise from the water.

“Were these things separated from the outside world by Tengen’s barriers?”

It was not an unreasonable theory.

The low-level cursed spirits continued appearing in endless waves, swarming toward him like insects crawling from a sewer.

“What a pain.”

More golden ripples formed behind Ragnar.

“They just keep coming. They’re like cockroaches.”

No one knew how much time passed.

After being struck by countless Noble Phantasms, the cursed spirits finally stopped emerging from the black water.

“I’ll investigate the other areas first.”

Once he was certain none remained nearby, Ragnar left the bridge.

The surface of the black water slowly became calm again.

A moment later, a woman appeared upon it.

She had long black hair and wore a red kimono.

Standing silently on the surface of the water, she stared in the direction Ragnar had gone.

——————

Inside a building somewhere in the city, Mahito picked up one of the special-grade cursed objects lying in front of him.

It was one of the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings.

“Cursed objects…”

Mahito examined it curiously.

“Why can’t they be destroyed?”

Kenjaku calmly answered his question.

“Special-grade cursed objects are indestructible. The only option is to seal them, usually through the conditions of a binding vow.”

He looked toward the object in Mahito’s hand.

“Cursed spirits that become cursed objects normally require compatible vessels before they can incarnate. The Cursed Womb: Death Paintings are different. They aren’t particularly selective about their vessels.”

A man standing in front of Kenjaku suddenly began shouting.

He was completely unable to see Mahito, even though the cursed spirit was standing directly in front of him.

“He has no talent at all,” Mahito said.

Without hesitation, Mahito shoved the Death Painting into the man’s mouth.

“Gah! Ugh!”

The man gagged violently as the special-grade cursed object entered his body.

His stomach suddenly split open.

A grotesque cursed spirit burst from within him before beginning to absorb the rest of his body.

Kenjaku silently observed the creature.

A failure from more than a hundred years ago…

I never expected it to become useful now.

The Cursed Womb: Death Paintings had been created more than a century earlier, when Kenjaku had possessed the body of the sorcerer known as Noritoshi Kamo.

At the time, Kenjaku had discovered a woman capable of conceiving children with cursed spirits.

He forced her through a series of human experiments, repeatedly impregnating her with cursed spirits while mixing his own blood into the process.

The woman endured nine pregnancies and nine abortions, giving birth to nine stillborn children.

Those nine children, created during the final stages of the experiment, eventually became the special-grade cursed objects known as the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings.

——————

At the same time, Yuji Itadori, Megumi Fushiguro, and Nobara Kugisaki followed the scattered clues from the Automatic Door Curse Murders and eventually arrived at Yasohachi Bridge.

Unlike Ragnar, however, the three of them did not enter the dark, ruined world hidden beyond the bridge.

They sat along the railing as the wind blew past them, unsure of what they were supposed to do next.

Yuji finally broke the silence.

“Are we sure this place has anything to do with a curse?”

He looked around the ordinary bridge.

“It doesn’t look strange at all. I can’t even sense a cursed spirit.”

Megumi opened his mouth, intending to say something, but stopped himself.

It had already been an entire year.

There was no reason to believe the cursed spirit that had placed the curse on his sister would still be here.