Chapter 52 — The Curse
Crash!
Ren smashed through the window and escaped from the violently spinning cable car.
"Aaaahhh—!"
Maki was still screaming as the freezing wind blasted against her face, intensifying the fear surging from deep within her.
She clung desperately to the boy in front of her.
Driven by pure instinct and terror, she grabbed onto him like he was the only thing keeping her alive.
"Maki, don't panic. I've got you."
Ren's calm voice cut through the chaos and pulled her mind back from the disorienting weightlessness.
Only then did Maki realize her current position.
She was practically hanging off him like an octopus.
Her arms were wrapped tightly around his back.
Her legs were locked around his waist.
Even her chin was pressed firmly against his shoulder for leverage.
Their bodies were pressed so close together there wasn't the slightest gap between them.
She could clearly feel the outline of his body—
the firmness of his muscles, the elasticity and strength beneath his clothes.
Maki froze for a moment.
This woman… Ren hissed quietly.
Even though she had no cursed energy, her physical strength was remarkable.
With how tightly she was clinging to him, he could actually feel a faint ache in his body—as if she were trying to embed herself into him completely.
Her warm body temperature and the tight pressure against him were unmistakable.
Instinctively, Maki wanted to let go.
But the roaring wind at her back and the dozens of meters of empty air below them instantly crushed that thought.
"You… can fly?" she asked, lifting her head.
Only now did she notice the wings behind him.
Two pale blue wings, formed entirely from cursed energy, spread from Ren's back.
Each feather looked vividly real, layered beautifully like the wings of an angel.
"Yeah," Ren replied calmly.
He flapped his wings and began descending toward the ground.
Just then—
From far above them came a strange grinding sound.
Zrrrk—! Crack!
Then—
BOOM!
Two terrified screams echoed through the sky, rapidly approaching.
Ren's expression sharpened instantly.
Something's wrong.
He looked up.
Another cable car was plummeting from the sky.
Even higher above—
A grotesque creature crouched on the steel cable.
Its bird-like claws gripped the cable tightly, while its other two limbs—shaped like electric screwdrivers—spun at high speed as it raced toward another cabin.
Damn it.
So this wasn't bad luck.
It was a curse.
"Hold tight!" Ren shouted to Maki.
In the next instant, his wings burst open and he shot upward like a missile toward the falling cable car.
Holding Maki in one arm, he grabbed the falling cabin with the other.
He flipped directions midair and descended rapidly—almost as fast as the cable car had been falling.
Panicked screams continued inside the cabin.
In the blink of an eye, Ren safely lowered both the cabin and Maki to the ground.
Almost at the same moment—
Two more terrified screams echoed from above.
Another cable car tumbled from the sky.
Ren shot upward again and caught it with one hand.
Looking up, he saw the curse still running along the cable toward yet another cabin.
In seconds it reached the next one.
It raised both arms—its drill-like hands spinning violently—and aimed them at the bolt holes of the cable clamp.
Ren raised a hand toward the creature and formed a one-handed seal.
"Sever."
A blade of invisible force shot through the air.
In an instant, both of the curse's raised arms were sliced clean off.
"Sever."
A second slash followed immediately, splitting the curse's torso in half at the chest.
To avoid damaging the steel cable and causing an even greater disaster, Ren deliberately angled the attack upward.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
The third, fourth, and fifth strikes arrived one after another—
Shredding the curse's already mangled upper body into fragments midair.
Ren carried the cable car down and set it gently in the forest below.
Then he flashed back to Maki's side—
the crash site of the cable car they had originally fallen from.
Ren hadn't climbed down from the last cable car he saved.
Instead, he deliberately returned to the wreckage of their own cabin.
The reason was simple—he needed to make it look like they were just another pair of "lucky tourists" who had fallen from the sky but miraculously survived.
This was to prevent any information about sorcerers or curses from leaking out.
Curses are born from humanity's negative emotions.
If ordinary people learned about their existence, the resulting fear, hatred, and revulsion would only increase the probability of curses forming—and make them even stronger.
That was why the activities of jujutsu sorcerers had to remain hidden.
It was one of the most fundamental laws of the jujutsu world.
As for how Ren moved from the last cabin back to his own—
His speed was nearly instantaneous even to ordinary sorcerers.
To normal people, it simply looked as if he had appeared beside the fallen cabin.
That is… assuming anyone even had the presence of mind to notice the other cabins at all.
---
By this time, Maki had already regained her composure.
She hurried toward the two unfortunate cabins that had fallen and began helping the passengers climb out while checking if anyone was injured.
Ren followed behind her, appearing as though he had just returned.
Fortunately, because Ren had acted quickly, no one had suffered serious injuries.
At worst, a few passengers had minor bruises and scratches from the cabin rolling.
Once everything settled down, Ren looked at Maki and gave a helpless smile.
Unlucky… still unlucky.
Who would have thought that even on a vacation, they'd run into a curse?
Perhaps because they had just survived such a thrilling danger, Maki seemed more relaxed now.
She glanced at him and gave a knowing smile.
"Having to work on your day off sucks, huh?" she said with a crooked grin.
"By the way, what happened up there just now? What kind of curse was it?" she asked casually.
Ren froze slightly.
She didn't even see what it looked like?
For a professional sorcerer to panic that much… wasn't that a bit unprofessional?
He studied the girl's face carefully.
But in the next moment—
He suddenly paused.
The old-fashioned purple-framed glasses that usually sat on Maki's face were gone.
It was as if dust had been wiped from a pearl, or the moon had emerged from behind thick clouds.
Only now did Ren truly notice her features.
Her face was clear, sharp, and unexpectedly beautiful.
For the first time, he fully realized that she and Zen'in Mai were twins.
Yet that didn't mean they could be mistaken for each other.
In Ren's mind, he unconsciously compared the two.
Two nearly identical faces—
But with completely different auras.
Mai was proud and seductive.
Maki was cold and razor-sharp.
The contrast was strangely fascinating.
---
Just as Ren was lost in thought—
"Oh no!" Maki suddenly cried out.
"What?"
"My glasses!"
Ren clicked his tongue helplessly.
Of course.
Speak of the devil.
What kind of strange obsession did she have with that pair of old, unfashionable glasses?
Why was she so determined to wear them all the time—
As if she were deliberately sealing away her own looks?