The Vault of Jujutsu High, as the name suggested, was a repository for cursed objects—indestructible cursed tools, valuable cursed artifacts, and the like.
In theory, no one should have been able to pinpoint the exact barrier housing the Vault among Jujutsu High's countless underground barriers. Tengen's barrier techniques were unparalleled in the world, with almost no one surpassing her.
But Kenjaku just happened to be the one who could.
With over a millennium of accumulation, Kenjaku had long become the world's strongest barrier technique master, his mastery in barrier techniques completely on par with Tengen's!
He didn't need to resort to any petty tricks or schemes. Even if he invaded head-on, he could discern which barriers were decoys and which was the true entrance.
Before long, Kenjaku emerged from the Cursed Warehouse.
In his hands were several transparent jars, each densely covered with complex and varied cursed talismans. Through the glass, one could see six fingers and three underdeveloped fetuses that appeared to have been forcibly extracted from pregnant women before birth.
Kenjaku stored these nine jars inside a cursed spirit capable of holding items. Without bothering to acknowledge Tengen who might have been observing him remotely, he turned and retraced his steps.
Soon, he left the underground space and returned to Jujutsu High's grounds.
"OH YEAH!"
"Everybody! Let's get hype~!"
"Hmm?"
The moment he surfaced, excited screams resembling those from a nightclub reached his ears, prompting a puzzled sound from Kenjaku.
Following the noise, he took a few steps and witnessed an utterly bizarre scene.
A pink-haired girl was wildly twisting her body in an open space, arms raised high above her head, tongue lolling out and swinging side to side, her face flushed as if under the influence.
An ugly yet oddly cute slug-like cursed spirit dozed on her head, its antennae twitching intermittently.
The girl seemed to be attempting to mimic nightclub dance moves.
But in reality, she looked more like she was performing an ecstatic ritual dance.
Perhaps she thought herself cool, or with no one around, she'd completely let loose, utterly unconcerned about any onlookers.
"Woo-hoo~! This guitar riff is amazing! Who knew there were kindred spirits at Jujutsu High? How soul-stirring! Should I ask for their contact later? Hahaha, no way, that's way too hard for me, yahoo!"
"Hey, you there."
Kenjaku waved amiably at the pink-haired girl, his face all smiles.
Her attire clearly identified her as a Jujutsu High student.
He'd heard recently about a transfer student joining the first-year class—could this be her?
What an effortless opportunity!
If he could capture this girl, he might be able to trade her to Roy in exchange for Mahito's release.
Click!
Bocchi-chan froze instantly, her entire body petrified.
The sudden voice struck like a thunderbolt, leaving her thoroughly stunned.
All movement ceased as if paused, her wild grin frozen like someone plunged into icy water before their expression could change.
"Petrified? What's this? A technique?"
Kenjaku narrowed his eyes slightly at the sight.
Did he really appear so suspicious that a rookie sorcerer who'd only been enrolled for two months would activate her technique upon first seeing him?
While this body did belong to a wanted individual—once the most notorious in the curse user world—the warrant had been rescinded following Suguru Geto's death at year's end...
"Hmm? What's going on again...?"
Kenjaku slightly widened his eyes, looking at the pink-haired girl with a hint of astonishment reappearing in his gaze.
The pink-haired girl opposite him suddenly had all her colors drained away like ink, leaving behind only a few simple strokes of a sketch.
She dug a hole in the ground, then lay down in it, her face serene.
An unnamed tombstone had somehow appeared beside her head on the ground.
"D-dead???"
Kenjaku involuntarily gaped.
He quickly strained his ears to listen—the girl lying in the hole clearly had no breath left.
Not even a heartbeat could be heard!
She really was dead!
What was going on?
Suicide?
What kind of technique was this?
If she was dead, then she couldn't be used as a hostage anymore, right? There was no way to exchange her for Mahito now… What the hell was happening here??
Kenjaku's millennia of wisdom, accumulated experience, honed techniques, and refined skills—all of it became utterly useless in this moment.
He couldn't even comprehend what had just happened to this girl!
He couldn't figure out what technique she had used!
This ability was something he had never heard of or seen before!
Kenjaku's facial features gradually twisted in frustration.
His expression contorted wildly, as if he were on the verge of losing his mind.
"No, this might just be a diversion, a way to avoid fighting me!"
Kenjaku quickly regained his composure.
He took a deep breath, forcing his overheated brain to start working again.
"I should get closer to listen for her heartbeat… No, I'll just act!"
If she was already dead, he might as well destroy her body!
Otherwise, if that guy Roy saw this scene and assumed he had killed the pink-haired girl, wouldn't that mean he'd be wrongfully accused? If Roy ended up hunting him down over this, wouldn't that be an unjust suffering?
And if she wasn't dead, she'd definitely fight back!
That would suit him just fine!
In the blink of an eye, Kenjaku calmed down and assessed the situation.
He reached into his wide sleeve and summoned a cursed spirit with the head of a crocodile. The moment it appeared, it bared its blood-red fangs and lunged at the girl lying in the hole!
This cursed spirit was a Grade 2, and though it lacked a technique, its bite force was immense. Even a Grade 1 sorcerer could have their body torn apart if caught off guard.
Kenjaku narrowed his eyes, carefully observing the girl's reaction.
But who could have guessed?
Even as the cursed spirit closed in on her in an instant, the girl in the hole showed no reaction whatsoever.
Instead, it was the crocodile cursed spirit that changed.
Its colors were rapidly drained away like ink, its ferocious outline simplified, until it was reduced to nothing more than a few sketch-like lines—a cute, plush-toy version of a little crocodile.
The tiny crocodile chomped down on the pink-haired girl's leg, producing a bizarre "gabu" sound from nowhere.
Its rows of fangs vanished, leaving only four tiny canine teeth that sank into the girl's leg as if biting into rubber.
Not a single drop of blood spilled.
Not a single wound appeared.
Let alone her leg being bitten off.
The little crocodile stared blankly at the scene.
A mighty Grade 2 cursed spirit had been reduced to a joke in an instant.
"A reaction! This brat isn't dead!"
Kenjaku's gaze sharpened like a blade the moment he saw this.
If she were dead, the crocodile curse spirit should have bitten her body in half!
It's precisely because she's not dead that the unknown spell is probably still in effect, which has caused the crocodile curse spirit to take on this simplistic form!
"Ah?"
At the same time, as if to confirm Kenjaku's guess, the pink-haired girl sat up from the pit.
She looked at the crocodile curse spirit that was biting her leg with a shocked expression, then turned to Kenjaku, who appeared amiable but was actually on high alert.
She suddenly realized.
"Oh, so you're the enemy!"
It was as if a heavy stone had been lifted from her heart, and she let out a deep sigh of relief.
"If I'm the enemy, what of it?"
Seeing this, Kenjaku slightly pursed his lips, his smile gradually cooling, and a faint, bone-chilling aura emanated from him.
If she's not dead, that's even better.
As long as he can subdue this little girl, he can go exchange hostages—
"If you're the enemy, then I'll kill you!"
Boochi-chan grinned.
Her features twisted as if possessed by a demon, her smile turning cruel like a starving beast, her eyes becoming a blood-red.
A pitch-black aura spread from her like thick fog, enveloping her entire body except for her blood-red eyes, which stared at Kenjaku as if ready to devour him.
She looked like a demon that had emerged from hell.
"I absolutely cannot allow that dark history to be seen by anyone else ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah————!!!"
Kenjaku was fully on guard, his curse power radiating throughout his body.
With his strength, he shouldn't need to be so wary of a novice girl, but everything about her was strange; no matter how he looked at her, she was filled with oddities, and Kenjaku cautiously felt he couldn't let his guard down.
But he could never have imagined.
The battle was so one-sided.
"Boom!!!"
Kenjaku felt a flash before his eyes, and he was sent flying like he was on a roller coaster.
His entire body was howling in pain, every part of him was in agony!
Even his head felt like it had crashed, and compared to the pain of repeatedly hitting steel, concrete, and giant trees, the sensation was almost negligible.
"What happened?"
Kenjaku quickly reacted, hurriedly activating a reversal spell to heal his body, as countless broken bones rapidly healed under the influence of this positive energy.
What terrifying power, it knocked him into the mountains with a single blow!
He stood up.
In an instant, his heart and lungs stopped.
A figure wrapped in black mist, resembling a demon, appeared before him as if it had teleported.
Kenjaku tensed up, activating a spell with the fastest reaction of his life.
"Anti-gravity mechanism!"
With the positive energy from the reversal spell injected, he formed a reversal of the spell!
The anti-gravity mechanism instantly transformed into a gravity device, and a terrifying weight fell upon Bocchi-chan in the blink of an eye.
But Bocchi-chan seemed completely unfazed, ignoring his spell entirely, her form not even swaying as she kicked toward his waist!
Kenjaku summoned several curse spirits as shields in front of him at lightning speed, then, disregarding his image, dove to the side.
"Boom——!!!"
With a single kick from Bocchi-chan, several shield-like cursed spirits dissipated like smoke. Before Kenjaku could even lunge forward, the remaining force of that kick struck him square in the chest.
Once again, Kenjaku's vision went black, and he nearly lost consciousness.
His eyes burned with fury, bloodshot with rage, his heart nearly bursting from sheer frustration.
"Special Grade Cursed Spirit—Ogre King Dairokuten!"
With a flick of his sleeve, a massive cursed spirit emerged, its cursed energy nearly on par with Hanami's. It surged toward Bocchi-chan!
Boom!
Like the toll of a temple bell at dawn.
The Special Grade Cursed Spirit was obliterated by a single kick from Bocchi-chan.
Not a moment of hesitation, not the slightest bit of resistance.
It didn't even get a chance to attack—no one ever learned what its cursed technique was.
It died like an extra.
But after annihilating the Special Grade Cursed Spirit in one strike—
Bocchi-chan suddenly froze.
Her eyes widened as she frantically scanned her surroundings. At some point, Kenjaku had vanished without a trace.
Tears welled up in her eyes before bursting forth uncontrollably.
"Come back here! You can't just run off with my embarrassing secrets—waaahhhh! Why does this always happen to meeeee? Waaahhhh—!"
The demonic aura surrounding Bocchi-chan vanished in an instant.
Now, she stood there sobbing pitifully, tears streaming down her face, utterly devastated.