The sudden appearance of a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit was rare — but not entirely without warning.
Mahiko had actually noticed a thin film of Cursed Energy drifting through the school for some time now. The concentration just hadn't been high enough before. She hadn't expected it to coalesce into a physical form this quickly, let alone at Grade 1 strength.
Still — a good opportunity.
Mahiko told Junpei to go handle the Cursed Spirit.
Partly, she wanted to see whether the full ability set she'd designed for him would hold up in actual combat. And partly, she had her own moves to make while this incident unfolded.
She'd said it before: if she wanted to deal with Kenjaku, planting suggestions in Miwa's mind was only the first step. There were more pieces to set in place — and the appearance of a Cursed Spirit inside this school was the perfect opportunity to advance her next phase of the plan.
"Huh? Me — me?" Junpei pointed at himself.
He was stunned.
His mind flashed back to the way Mahiko had dismantled those kidnappers at the fire station — the sheer casual violence of it.
I have to fight something like that? Are you serious?
But before the thought could go any further, Mahiko blinked — and vanished.
Leaving Junpei standing there, blank-faced.
No choice. Guess he was doing this.
It was a mission from Mahiko. No matter what, he absolutely could not let her down.
He turned his head — and felt it immediately. A layer of something deeply wrong drifting through the air.
He didn't know what Cursed Energy was. Mahiko hadn't taught him the term yet. But instinct told him — this was the presence of the enemy Mahiko had mentioned. The thing she'd called a Cursed Spirit.
It was honestly terrifying. But Junpei squared his jaw, followed the sensation, and walked toward it.
The trail led to one of the teachers' offices.
He walked slowly, keeping his guard up, breathing deep — pulling himself into a combat mindset.
Before, all his opponents had been ordinary people. One quick enhancement injection and that was enough. But this was different. This was a genuine monster. He had to use the primary combat tool Mahiko had prepared for him.
First: the same physical enhancement shot as before — [Bodybuilding Community Devastation Extract].
Followed by the next two in sequence.
His body began to reinforce and grow once more — but this time the dosage was calibrated properly. None of the grotesque balloon-mutant inflation from the classroom scene. No strange mental or behavioral side effects either.
He grew to around 190 centimeters. Strong, but not cartoonishly so. Muscles defined and angular, like something carved rather than inflated.
The outfit Mahiko had given him was all black — a fitted black ensemble with a long black coat draped over it.
He walked toward the office and pulled the brim of his cap down low.
— Fourth injection. The toxin called [Arrow] began to flow.
This one's function was to ignite his Cursed Energy and fully activate the Jujutsu Technique Mahiko had designed specifically for him.
Bang!
He kicked the office door open.
And then he saw it — and his pupils slammed to pinpoints.
A massive spider Cursed Spirit clung to the office wall, its body spanning nearly half the surface. On the floor below, a particularly heavyset male teacher had been mummified in webbing, foam frothing at the corners of his mouth, eyes rolled white — unconscious. "AAAAAH!! — HELP!!" A female teacher was shrieking in the corner, and the spider was slowly, deliberately creeping toward her.
It was hanging by a thread.
Junpei didn't say a word. He charged.
He swung his fist — Cursed Energy blazing through his knuckles — and slammed it into the spider's body.
The spider tumbled back, rolling from the impact.
Junpei gritted his teeth and looked down at his hand. It was soaked in blood.
The spider's outer shell was hard as stone. And though it looked smooth, its surface was covered in microscopic barbs invisible to the naked eye — one punch and even the skin across his knuckles had been shredded open.
The spider steadied itself and counterattacked. All eight limbs fired at once, launching its entire body at Junpei like a catapult shot.
Junpei twisted to the side.
But in the instant the spider hurtled past him, a tendril shot from its abdomen and slammed directly into his back.
Bang!
Junpei was sent flying. His back crashed into the wall hard enough to crack it.
He coughed twice. Something in his back felt wrong — a few ribs, maybe. The pain radiated outward from his spine and swallowed his whole body.
He looked up. The spider Cursed Spirit was making a rattling, chittering laugh, absolutely smug with itself.
It was in this moment that Junpei truly understood — this was how brutal fights in the supernatural world actually were. This was how terrifying a real opponent could be.
The enemies Mahiko had taken on were definitely far stronger than this spider. He genuinely couldn't fathom how powerful she must be to deal with things like that.
The boy coughed up a mouthful of blood. Then he pressed a hand against the wall and pushed himself back to his feet.
He injected himself with the Jiahao Spirit Revitalizer to kill the pain, and then he looked at the spider Cursed Spirit before him, reached up, and pressed two fingers against the brim of his cap.
"Yareyare..."
But it was fine. The monster was tough — but the power Mahiko had given him was tougher.
And then the atmosphere in the air changed.
Deep blue Cursed Energy began rising off Junpei's body like steam, billowing and spreading in every direction.
The next second, the spider — still cackling and self-satisfied — lunged again. Its body had swollen larger than a car, all eight limbs fully extended, bearing down on him like a mountain collapsing — as though it intended to simply crush him flat.
But the instant that crushing weight fell — a blue silhouette appeared in front of Junpei.
It reached out one arm and caught the Cursed Spirit's full weight with a single palm.
Bang!
The floor cracked beneath them.
But Junpei and the blue silhouette did not move a single inch.
The Cursed Spirit reeled in shock. It landed, then threw itself at Junpei again — but the blue silhouette raised its hand and simply pinned it in place. Even as the spider's limbs scrabbled frantically against the floor, gouging deep grooves into the surface, it could not advance even a centimeter.
Junpei stood like a mountain.
Yes — that blue silhouette was the Jujutsu Technique Mahiko had designed for Junpei.
Through observation and hands-on experimentation, she had discovered that Junpei's jellyfish Shikigami possessed not only a diverse array of venom-secretion abilities, but also an exceptionally resilient texture and a flexible, elastic quality.
But the original Jujutsu Technique had one critical flaw: its venom attacks weren't particularly powerful, and the Shikigami itself lacked effective offensive options — at best, it could serve as a shield.
Like a towel. A towel is tough, but it isn't hard — so swinging one at someone rarely does much damage.
The solution, then, was obvious.
You just needed to wring the towel tight.
The blue jellyfish Shikigami — which, when fully spread, was the size of a compact car — had been wrung tight by Mahiko's Idle Transfiguration. Twisted like a wet cloth being wrung dry.
The Shikigami's body had been compressed into a coiled spring-like internal structure, massively amplifying its physical strength and density — and in doing so, completely reshaping its form.
The great jellyfish, compressed, forged, and recast, now wore a human shape.
"Eh??" The Cursed Spirit let out a sound of pure, baffled shock.
It clearly had not anticipated that the person before it could withstand its assault.
The mist of Cursed Energy that had erupted with the Shikigami's summoning slowly began to disperse — and the true form beneath gradually revealed itself.
It was a Shikigami in the shape of a man, like a statue carved from blue crystal. One arm braced, holding back the Cursed Spirit's full weight. Long hair drifting in the air. Deep blue radiance pulsing from every surface. Muscles cut like marble relief work.
Like a war god descended from the heavens.
"Star Platinum," said the 190-centimeter man, pressing two fingers to the brim of his cap with one hand. "That's the name of my Stand."
It was also the name Mahiko had chosen for his ability — though Junpei himself didn't really understand what "Star Platinum" or "Stand" were supposed to mean.
____
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