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"Grr…" The Special Grade cursed spirit expressed its confusion with a strange growl after getting back to its feet.
The explosion had indeed hit it, but it had managed to deploy its Domain Expansion the moment it detected cursed energy.
It had even counterattacked using the sure-hit attack of its domain. Yet something wasn't going as usual.
The intruder wasn't dead after the three-second countdown following its sure-hit attack.
The smallpox curse hadn't worked.
"Cough… sorry, my friend, but—"
Jin emerged from the crater he had created while leaving the coffin summoned by the spirit's cursed technique.
Crack.
He lightly shook his sore shoulders before tightening his grip on Chunchunmaru.
"Your smallpox has no effect on me," he said, sketching a mocking smile.
However, the truth was entirely different.
Jin… was bluffing.
The amulet that Megumin had crafted for Kazuma using Aqua's hair could indeed nullify a curse.
Nevertheless, its use was limited by Jin's mana. In other words, he couldn't use it indefinitely like Toji's Inverted Spear of Heaven.
Jin was simply too weak for that.
"Seven?… No. If I factor in the mana used for skills as well as for combat, I can use it three times at most," he evaluated while charging toward the beast.
So he no longer hesitated.
'I think I remember this cursed spirit,' he thought while dodging the rocks hurled by the supernatural entity.
The Smallpox Deity.
A cursed spirit that appeared during the Shibuya Incident in the Jujutsu Kaisen manga.
Jin remembered it because it had allowed fans to realize that Mei Mei wasn't just pleasant to look at—she was also a powerful Grade 1 sorcerer.
'If I want to beat this guy, I need a proper distraction like Mei Mei, or—'
Jin didn't finish the thought, immediately activating the skills he deemed necessary.
The Flee skill, combined with cursed energy control for reinforcement, allowed Jin to reach astonishing speed.
The cursed spirit had taken real damage from Jin's homemade bomb, but it remained a Special Grade cursed spirit.
The former employee could clearly see it recovering physically before his eyes.
Bang.
Just as Jin came almost within range of the creature with his trusty Chunchunmaru, the entity once again used the sure-hit attack of its territory to trap him in a coffin and bury him under a boulder.
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Bam.
Unlike the first time, when Jin had been caught off guard and suffered the smallpox curse,
he immediately destroyed the coffin and the rock above it using Chunchunmaru reinforced with his cursed energy.
'It moved away…' he thought, frowning.
The cursed spirit's tactic was simple, yet insidious in some ways.
It planned to trap Jin in a coffin every time he emerged, in order to inflict its curse again and again.
The idea was to exhaust his cursed energy, but also his magical reserves.
The cursed spirit was waging a war of attrition against him.
'Did it guess that I'm constantly using the Lurk skill to conceal my cursed energy reserves and prevent it from identifying that weakness in my constitution?' he wondered while releasing even more cursed energy around himself.
Jin glanced at the time on his watch and at Kaori's last message, then performed a bewildering act for anyone observing the scene.
He abruptly removed his mask, followed by Chunchunmaru.
This unusual action surprised the supernatural entity. However, Jin didn't stop and continued executing his "joker."
"You know? At this hour, I should already be home, eating the wonderful dishes prepared by a housewife," Jin muttered as he returned to being an ordinary bespectacled man after removing the Vanir mask.
Bang.
The cursed spirit trapped him in a coffin again, but this time Jin destroyed it almost instantly with a punch.
Around his arm, charged with intense cursed energy, a necktie was perfectly wrapped.
"All my working hours are supposed to end at midnight," he continued to "explain" the situation to his opponent.
The situation was bizarre.
It was as if Jin was trying to explain to the cursed spirit that he wasn't supposed to be out at this hour, nor working.
Beyond that aspect, Jin's cursed energy only intensified further, tied to his abnormal situation for a salaried employee.
No, he hadn't gained a massive amount of cursed energy thanks to his self-imposed vow.
He was further increasing his production and control of cursed energy thanks to the self-imposed vow.
What did that mean?
Jin Itadori could now strike with disproportionate power, far beyond what his cursed energy reserves should normally have allowed.
The former employee was crudely imitating the cursed technique of an ancient sorcerer from the Edo era, Ryu Ishigori.
(Image)
An exploit made possible through an approach similar to Nanami's, but also Gon Freecss's.
A self-imposed vow.
Crack.
The ground beneath Jin's feet cracked as the use of the Flee skill and cursed energy control operated with unprecedented vigor.
Bam.
"Grr…" The cursed spirit was stunned: the coffin born from its cursed technique had not appeared to bury Jin.
"One… more time… Two more and…"
After consecutively using Megumin's amulet, Jin prevented the activation of the domain's guaranteed hit.
Even though it fell under the rules of a Domain, the power of a guaranteed attack remained a form of curse.
The abilities of the goddess Aqua are and will remain the bane of this kind of dark art, because jujutsu is, by nature, a power based on dark arts.
A truth affirmed by Gojo Satoru to Yuji when he first enters the world of jujutsu.
That's why Jin was no longer targeting the smallpox itself with Aqua's power, but the very origin of the smallpox curse process.
"Surprise, son of a bitch," he said before delivering an uppercut to the cursed spirit's stomach.
"Grr!" The cursed spirit vomited a mouthful of purple blood before being propelled into tombstones.
Unfortunately for the creature, Jin wasn't done with it yet.
"Faster… more control… more production, and more precision," he repeated to himself while feeling the influx of energy infused into his body by the self-imposed vow.
Ryu Ishigori didn't have a particularly incredible technique on paper, unlike Yuta Okkotsu.
However…
"Grr," the spirit groaned after being slammed to the ground by a head kick resembling an axe chop.
However…
Ryu's cursed technique allowed him to produce far more cursed energy than anyone else in the manga.
The result was simple.
Ryu hit harder than Yuta Okkotsu, even though the latter possessed more cursed energy than him.
He was simply increasing his cursed energy output and control through the self-imposed vow.
He wanted to hit harder and more heavily.
Even if it turned him into a candle with an immense flame.
Jin Itadori was burning himself up to obtain greater power, but in return… he gained raw strength superior to Nanami's.
The law of jujutsu is this:
The higher the risk,
The stricter the conditions to fulfill,
The greater the reward.
"So, big guy? Shall we dance?" he said while observing the entity trapped in the rubble of the graves crushed by its body.
At that moment, the cursed spirit knew it was done for.
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Author's Note:
For now, I haven't included the specific details of Jin's vow in this chapter. Why? Because it would have disrupted the rhythm between the fight and the explanation.
You will therefore get the detailed explanations in the upcoming chapters. However, you can already imagine, thanks to the information provided here, that it concerns Jin's love for Yuji and Kaori, as well as Claud's fear of Kenjaku.
You also have to take into account his working hours, with a hint of his opponent's participation in fulfilling the vow.