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A creeping feeling of dread and impending doom gripped the cursed spirit's psyche as it desperately tried to heal the bloody wounds Kiniro's fists had left behind. However, the Cursed Spirit found its cursed energy sluggish. The same went for its body; even the slightest movement felt arduous as if the air around the curse had thickened to a tar-like consistency.
"You can feel it, can't you? The weight of your sins," Kiniro taunted the curse, while still stuck to its underside and covered in its blood, "Isn't it a miserable existence, to carry such a burden with you?"
"SCHHEEE!"
The curse cried out in response, but its struggle only served to entice Kiniro as he reached out and placed his hand against the curse's bloody carapace, "I feel your agony, allow me to relieve you, allow me to absolve you."
"Beelzebub"
The Prince of Gluttony's name reverberated through the air as every sin across the curse was absolved, causing each individual mark to transform into a cluster of wriggling maggots. The dark red grubs were no larger than grains of rice, but there were hundreds, possibly thousands, now covering the curse. But the true horror didn't begin until the maggots extended their circular mandibles lined with razor-sharp teeth that they punched into the curse's flesh.
In a matter of seconds, the maggots disappeared from view as they burrowed through the cursed spirit, leaving behind perfectly circular holes that were eerily absent of blood.
The spawn of Beelzebub, the lord of flies, were ravenous. They gorged themselves on the banquet of flesh with frightening speed, draining the cursed spirit of its vitality and causing it to stumble and wilt.
Dropping to the ground, Kiniro leisurely walked out from underneath the curse while licking the blood from his fingers like it was honey.
Meanwhile, the curse collapsed to the ground, completely devoid of strength as it was consumed from the inside out.
"Scheee"
With a final agonizing cry, the curse went still, ceasing all movement as its current incarnation ended. With a satisfied smile, Kiniro opened his mouth wide, revealing his dangerously sharp incisors and a long, almost serpentine tongue that extended well past his chin.
In response, the spawn emerged from the curse's decrepit body; instead of taking maggots, the spawn emerged as a dense cloud of flies. The sound of their wings was near deafening as they flew through the air and funneled into Kiniro's open mouth, disappearing down his throat with startling speed.
And as they vanished from view, the flies revealed their true function, turning into cursed energy that flooded Kiniro's reserves, replenishing what he had lost and more.
Snapping his mouth shut, Kiniro swallowed before wiping his lips that quickly morphed into a pleased grin, 'So much cursed energy…I nearly doubled my reserves with a single meal…though if I'm comparing myself to someone like Sensei, it seems I would need to consume at least a couple thousand curses of a similar strength to come even close.'
As Kiniro mused about his relative strength, the curse spirit and the blood covering him began to disintegrate, crumbling into a fine ash that was swept away by the wind.
Frowning at the loss, Kiniro clicked his tongue in disappointment, 'Note to self, grab a snack before landing the killing blow.'
Before Kiniro could mope further, he was interrupted by applause, "What a show, what a show!"
Turning around, Kiniro stared at Saturo with an unimpressed gaze, "I'm so glad you enjoyed it, Sensei."
"I most certainly did," Saturo replied without an ounce of shame, "Such a roller coaster, I almost thought the curse finished you off in that initial blitz."
A small grin split Kiniro's lips as he remembered the rush of being sent flying through the air, "I won't lie, it caught me by surprise. But I'd say I won our open exchange after popping its eye like a grape."
"With a stick no less. I am a bit curious how you knew to infuse the wood with cursed energy. " Saturo asked, tilting his head to the side.
Kiniro scratched his head and shrugged, "I don't know, I just kinda remembered how the talismans in my cell were infused with cursed energy, and they seemed just to be made out of paper, so I guess my thought was, why couldn't I do the same with a random stick I found?"
"And how many tries did it take you to pull it off?"
"Uh…one?" Kiniro replied after a second of hesitation, "Is that not normal?"
"For someone completely new to jututsu sorcery, no it is not," Saturo answered even as a broad grin spread across his lips, "Infusing too much energy into an object can cause it to rapidly deteriorate, meaning that sorcerers need to limit their cursed energy output if they intend to use the object for an extended period."
"I kinda got a sense of that when I threw the stick, felt like I was holding a live grenade," Kiniro muttered before he started to scratch his chin, "But when I first started reinforcing the stick, I could feel a drain on my reserves, like it was taking some of my cursed energy for itself."
Saturo paused for a minute before shaking his head with a wry smile on his face, "Your senses are something else. My guess is you felt the stick beginning to become a cursed tool. With repeated and prolonged exposure to cursed energy, weapons, and items can produce cursed energy of their own, and even have the chance to gain innate techniques. This allows those without cursed energy or techniques to level the playing field and potentially exorcise powerful curses."
"So you're saying that if I hadn't blown up that stick, I could have eventually turned it into some kind of super-powerful curse-killing weapon?" Kiniro proposed.
"Most likely not, creating a cursed tool isn't that straightforward a process," Saturo corrected, "Though I'm not really the one you want to be asking when it comes to crafting things with cursed energy. If you're really interested, consider talking to the Principal. He specializes in Cursed Corpses, but he should have some more general knowledge that you might find helpful."
"Corpses, like a necromancer?" Kiniro muttered as he tapped his chin in thought, "That doesn't make any sense. I felt his soul; he isn't capable of something that dark."
"Definitely not like a necromancer," Saturo interrupted while ignoring Kiniro's comment about feeling Masamichi's soul, "You'll see once you talk to him."
Kiniro clicked his tongue in disappointment, "Fine, keep me in suspense. Now, are we done here, or do you have another curse up your sleeve?"
"I've seen all I need to," Saturo replied as he dismissed Kiniro with a wave, "You're free to go."
Kiniro's face lit up as he grinned, "Finally!"
In the next instant, Kiniro was gone, running across the turf before jumping, launching himself onto a nearby roof, and speeding off towards the dorms.
Watching Kiniro leave, Saturo was deep in thought.
When he had released the Curse on Kiniro, Saturo foresaw three outcomes. One where Kiniro became paralyzed with fear, facing his first life-or-death battle, a second where he wasn't paralyzed with fear, but still failed due to his inexperience with cursed energy and his technique. However much to Saturo's joy, Kiniro settled on the third outcome.
'Maybe I should have released an actual grade 1,' Saturo mused, recalling how Kiniro had slowly blossomed over the course of the fight, quickly dominating the Curse at every turn, 'The Higher Ups are going to lose their minds over this.'
Kiniro's cursed trait alone was enough to mark him for execution. The ability to absorb the cursed energy of items and domains meant that it would be extremely difficult to seal or confine whoever possessed the ability.
'And of course, if the user becomes strong enough, they may have the potential to become Tengen's antithesis with the power to dismantle the Pure Barriers that have stood for thousands of years.'
Saturo had no doubt that such a possibility was what convinced the Higher Ups to sentence Kiniro to execution. And before seeing him in person, Saturo would have been doubtful that anyone could possess such a power, but now he wasn't sure.
'It's not just that his combination of powers is inherently powerful,' Saturo thought as he remembered the crazed smile across Kiniro's face, 'But his mindset gives him an incredibly high aptitude for Jujutsu Sorcery.'
Saturo could see it; Kiniro's eyes held no fear or concern for his life; it was pure bliss that drove him to fight, the thrill of the constant conflict and chaos.
'One could blame it on his upbringing, raised by a fanatical cult of humanity's most despicable member. But Saturo would have bet that, regardless of Kiniro's origin, there would have been very little change in his personality. 'Like the chicken and the egg, is Kiniro like this because of his gifts, or did Kiniro manifest his gifts because of his personality?'
The answer was one that no one besides Kiniro could determine, and Saturo imagined it would be quite some time before Kiniro was ready or needed to confront his nature.