The Bunraku

"Good shot, Kuro," Shiro praised.

"No, that was a bad shot," Kuro opposed. "That was a perfect surprise shot, and he reacted. I'll never hit him from this range now."

Kuro pulled himself up to a crouching position. "I'll move close enough, so he can't dodge even if he reacts." He slung his sniper rifle over his shoulder. "You stay there and keep pressuring him."

"Understood," Shiro confirmed.

"Rey-san's arm..." Nitta whispered.

Rey held the stub of his right arm, his forearm blown off by the sniper attack. Blood ran freely from the wound. His face held an unreadable expression.

"Aww..." Midori sighed. "I wish I could've fought him one on one."

"The second-ranked Bunraku team: two-semi grade one and two grade two sorcerers," Nitta analyzed, "It's a strong lineup, but something's not right. Why won't Rey-san fight back?"

"Hmm," Gojo replied. "I can think of two reasons. First, the Bunraku are simply choosing good positions. When one approaches him, the other is always moving into Rey's blind spot. If Rey focuses on one, the other immediately moves to exploit the opening. So Rey tried to get to a larger space to avoid the pincer attack, but they anticipated that too, and he was sniped."

"Does that mean he doesn't stand a chance?" Nitta asked.

Gojo let out a laugh. "No, of course not. In Rey's current state, they'll serve as a good indication to Rey of how limited his powers are. You see, the second reason Rey doesn't fight back is because he's probably concerned about me."

"You, Gojo-san?"

"That's right," Gojo confirmed. "It wouldn't look good on me if jujutsu sorcerers were killed by the curse under my supervision. Rey knows that it will give an excuse for the higher-ups to tighten their bonds on him and put the blame on me. So he tried to negotiate peacefully, but they didn't listen to him."

Nitta sucked in a breath of cold air. "So Rey-san has no way out?"

"Don't worry," Gojo said. "That doesn't mean Rey will just let them kill him."

Nitta watched Midori hurl his spear at Rey. Another explosion followed as the spear bit into the ground. Rey landed a few feet away from the weapon, still carefully nursing his wound.

"Right now, Rey's probably thinking of how he can amicably neutralize his opponents."

"Amicably? Can he win like that?"

"I'm sure Rey-kun still has a lot of tricks up his sleeve," Gojo chuckled. "Let's just wait and see."

"Don't make this difficult, curse." Aka reloaded his pistol. "Just give up and let me exorcise you already."

This is a bad position. I need to concentrate to sense my left side, and I need to take into consideration the sword. Rey turned so that Aka was on his left and Midori on his right. But... the spear is the most dangerous.

Midori stabbed forward with his spear, and Rey stepped backwards to avoid the blow. At the same time, Aka fired to Rey's left. The familiar shadow shield appeared again.

What...?

Rey's eyes widened as the bullets passed through the shield and embedded themselves in his body. A brief moment later, heavy black bolts erupted from Rey's left shoulder, forearm, and wrist. Pulled down by the weights, Rey fell to the ground.

What is this?

"My Cursed Technique allows me to covert cursed energy into solid, liquid, and gas form," Aka explained. "When you deployed your shield, I changed the cursed energy into gas form and then back to solid form to bypass it."

"It's over, curse!" Midori exclaimed triumphantly. The two sorcerers leapt into the air, weapons ready to deal the final blow.

"Rey-san!" Nitta cried.

A flexible restraining technique huh? Rey's eyes narrowed. Hnnh, then allow me to show you mine.

Rey's left hand curled up to form a fist. "Umbral Haze: Grasping Shadows!"

Tendrils of shadow erupted from Aka's and Midori's shadow on the ground and whipped around their owners' limbs. They fell downwards, pinned to the ground and unable to move.

"He neutralized the opponents in one move!?" Nitta exclaimed.

"This technique, it's the same one he used to absorb our attacks. It can do more than just defend?"

"He waited for us to deal the final blow and then took advantage of the fact that we were both in the air to catch us at the same time," Aka analyzed.

"Crap..." Midori sighed. "We're so dead."

"I see." Rey picked up Midori's spear. "You can freely transform your cursed tool shape. So that's how it got me even when I avoided it."

Kuro trained his sniper rifle at Rey's figure. "Midori and Aka were defeated. He's dangerous... I'll get rid of him right now."

"Yo, Kuro!" A voice startled the sorcerer.

"Gojo-san..." Kuro recognized the owner of the voice.

Gojo appeared next to the sniper with a bag of sweets in hand. "Give it up already. It's best not to get on his bad side." Kuro hesitated for a moment before reluctantly putting down his weapon.

"It's just like Gojo-san sai-" Nitta started before a familiar voice interrupted her.

"Just like I said, right?" Nitta turned around to see Gojo walking up behind her with Kuro and Shiro. "Is Rey-kun over there, Nitta?"

I heard Gojo's voice over where Nitta was, so I went over to greet him. What's he doing here anyways?

"Are those two also part of the Bunraku second team?" Nitta asked.

"They are the snipers," I answered for Gojo. "I was going to deal with them if Gojo-sensei hadn't shown up."

"Aiyo," Gojo grinned. He placed a friendly hand on my head. "You're in sorry shape, Rey-kun. You get careless?"

"No. I've been holding back." They only dealt damage to me because I didn't want to reveal too much to those who may be watching.

"Your mission went okay, Gojo-sensei?" I asked.

"Of course!" Gojo exclaimed. "You're asking the strongest sorcerer in the world, Rey. Everything went great."

"Mm," I nodded and tilted my head in the direction of the two sorcerers on the ground. "So what do we do about them?"

Gojo turned his attention to the Bunraku.

"See? I told Tatsuya not to do this," Gojo taunted.

"Did you come just to mock us?" Aka growled.

"Haha, of course I did," Gojo replied. "But, it makes sense that Rey trashed you. After all, he is a special grade curse."

"You guys did pretty well even if he wasn't trying to kill you. No wonder you guys are the second-ranked Bunraku," Gojo continued to rub salt into their wounds.

"Go back and tell this to Tatsuya," Gojo ordered. "There's nothing to gain from hounding this kid. He'll only come to regret his actions."

The Bunraku remained silent though they all had unwilling anger in their eyes. Gojo scanned them up and down for a couple seconds before he spoke to me. "Rey-kun, I think they learned their lesson. You can let them go now!"

The restrictions on the Bunraku team dissipated after I removed my cursed technique.

"So how about you return the favor now, Aka-san?" Gojo suggested, pointing a finger at the bolts in my arm.

"Fine," Aka growled and waved his hand at me. The bolts disappeared, and my arm was free. Giving me one last resentful stare, Aka gathered up his team and quickly left the station.

"I've checked the area, Rey-kun," Gojo said. "The ones who's been watching are gone. You can heal yourself now."

"Okay, and can you please stop doing that?" I complained.

I glared at the man who had been using my head as an armrest to prop up his chin for the entire conversation with the Bunraku.

"Whoops, my bad." Gojo put his arm down, but he didn't look the least sorry.

"That's what you said last time," I muttered.

Positive cursed energy circulated in my body as my wounds on my right arm closed up. Directing the rest into the stump of my right arm, I regenerated my missing hand. I flexed my fingers to get a feel for it. Then, I snatched the sweets bag from Gojo and took a handful of lollipops.

Nitta let out a gasp of surprise. "Healing technique?"

"Damn," Gojo whistled. "It's good as new."

I pointed to the stairs. "Can we leave now?"

"Right," Gojo agreed. "Let's go. We're leaving, Nitta-san!"

When we arrived at the parking lot, I suddenly felt a powerful aura from the south. That was Sukuna's aura. What happened? An uneasy feeling sat in the bottom of my stomach as I got into the car.