Chapter 25

According to reports given by the Intelligence Department, Curse Activity throughout Japan, especially in Tokyo, is getting more aggressive and intense as days go by. More missing reports are happening, Curse Spirits' appearances have become more frequent, and the worst of them all...

Five new Special Grade Curse Spirits have been spotted. Making the list of the original 14 registered Special Grade Spirits now 19 in total. 

Facts that made every member of the Jujutsu High suffer a massive headache.

Of course, the Higher Ups are obviously aware of the reason for such a phenomenon.

In the past, this already happened numerous times, and in the old records, it was even stated that this always happens, coincidentally, whenever the Six Eyes make its appearance in this world.

That's why, upon knowing that Satoru was born, they already expected this to happen and quickly made some preparations in advance. But what they didn't expect was the scale of it.

Even in the past, it never reached the level it has now. 

If the current level was compared to how it was before, then it would be comparable to a situation if, by chance, two Six Eyes users were born in the current era. That's how worse it became.

But such a situation can simply not be the case, it would've been good if it was. At least, that's what everyone hopes for.

Even though many disliked the existence of Six Eyes, anyone can agree that 2 ups with 2 downs are much better than 1 up with 2 downs.

In any case, given the severity of the current situation, fortunately, it's still manageable somehow. 

That's probably because the higher-ups did not hold back anymore and issued lots of orders that could potentially help to ease this entire situation. So much so that even the Big 3 Clans could not ignore it and had to participate.

Any kind of excuse to not participate is not an option for those who received it.

One of those said orders has something to do with Sukuna's Fingers.

These fingers were graded as Special Grade Objects.

Originally, due to their immense cursed energy, these fingers were placed in areas susceptible to receiving cursed energy to ward off curses.

But, currently, not only the Curse Spirits are getting more aggressive than before, but the talisman used to seal these very fingers is also starting to weaken. If a certain Curse Spirit gets to it and consumes it, the result would be disastrous. 

Hence the higher-ups ordered its retrieval.

Aoto, a grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer, is one of the guys who was tasked to do it. Together with his colleagues, on one particular night, they ventured to a certain forest where one of Sukuna's Fingers is located.

However, one could say that it's quite excessive to send five Jujutsu Sorcerers, fully armed with Cursed Tools, just for a simple retrieval mission.

And it is.

So much so that it's more than excessive actually. If that were truly the case that is.

Cause Aoto and his crew have a different mission. It's a pretty hard mission, hence the number of people they have in their group.

Jujutsu High is currently lacking manpower, greatly so, that's why they willingly sent more than enough people on this particular mission to avoid some possible accidents that could potentially lead to some losses.

So the retrieval of the fingers is just a side quest, something that they will do on their way toward their main one.

Well, the finger is located not too deep in the forest and was merely kept inside a simple wooden box.

Although the seal was said to be weakening, it still drives Curse Spirits away so, this is relatively easy and should go without any problems at all.

It would be no different than taking a stop at a nearby convenience store to grab some food to eat.

Or at least, that's what they expected to happen.

Because upon their arrival at the said location of the finger, they found nothing. Even the box where the finger should be stashed is missing.

What remains in place are only the remnants of the broken box itself.

Fortunately... or unfortunately, it seems that they didn't need to make any kind of investigation just to know what caused the disappearance.

Cause not far from them, there they saw something floating in the sky. 

The five of them are experienced Sorcerers with a year of experience at least so they immediately knew what they were staring at. 

A Cursed womb.

Aoto, being the acting leader of the group immediately decided to attack and bring down the womb. He doesn't know how long has it been since the womb appeared but they can simply not allow it to exist for much longer. 

However, before they could even do whatever they were trying to do, the flesh that was covering the entire womb started pulsating. And the next thing that Aoto knew, he was standing alone in an area he could not recognize. 

The Cursed womb was hatched. A finger bearer was born. The reason he was suddenly alone was most likely because of the property of the Innate Domain that instantly swallowed the entire area they were in upon the hatching of the womb.

Aoto is immediately aware of his situation.

Given such a fact, without any hesitation, he immediately ran around intending to find a possible exit.

He needs to escape.

He is not even worried about his colleagues' situation. What he had to do was get out of this place. That's it. Worrying can come after that.

Besides, he knows that his colleagues are surely doing the same thing as well. It's the protocol for this kind of situation.

If all of them weren't separated, it would have been different news. They could be fighting side by side right now.

Sure, they can try to find each other and still do that but with a dangerous Special Grade lurking around, that is simply asking to be wiped out.

At least, one has to get out and notify the school, that's their current goal. 

Unfortunately for Aoto, it seems that his sense of direction was messed up when the Innate Domain was deployed. Cause he thought for sure that he was running away from the direction where he thought the Finger Bearer might be.

!!!

But he immediately realized that he was tremendously wrong because, amidst his running, he suddenly found himself standing in front of the Finger Bearer itself.

At that moment, many thoughts rushed into his mind.

Looking around and seeing how clean the place is, Aoto immediately assumed that he was the first one to find the Finger Bearer. 

He wants to quickly run away like anyone would want to do in this very situation but, he can't.

Seeing how his senses were misled, his colleagues would surely make the same mistake and run toward this area as well.

He gotta send a signal that they should go the other way.

That's the series of thoughts that ran through Aoto's mind in an instant he came face to face with the Finger Bearer.

So without any hesitation, he quickly flared up his CE reserves. Creating a beacon and signal for others to go in another way.

"This f*cking sucks." Aoto cursed as he gripped the sheath of his sword.

Although he may seem like a noble person for doing something like this, in truth, he isn't at all.

As the protocol stated, the first one to encounter the CS in this kind of situation has to buy time for others to escape. He's merely following it.

But If possible, he wanted to escape as well. But sometimes, life doesn't go your way.

Aoto already accepted such a fact that's why, seeing the smiling CS in front of him, as if it was laughing at him, he got into his stance. 

Batto Sword Drawing

After that, with the Finger Bearer making the first move, their battle started. 

"kuk!!"

Thud!

However... not even a minute before their 'battle' started, Aoto could already be seen kneeling on the ground while coughing out blood. 

He lost already, to put it simply.

His sword was shattered, his arm which he used to block one of the Finger Bearer's attacks was now bent in the wrong way, and some of his bones were also broken.

He cannot fight anymore. 

He's about to die.

Looking up, he can see the CS standing in front of him. It isn't laughing anymore, probably cause the toy it is playing with is already broken.

But it is still full of smiles.

"... This really sucks ass." Despite the nearing death, Aoto still managed to give off a laugh.

It's not like he can do anything else given his tattered body.

"PTEW!"

Turns out he still can do something else. Cause mustering his remaining strength towards his mouth, he spat a huge amount of blood on the CS's feet, successfully enraging it in the process.

"What's the matter? Don't like my parting gift?"

After Aoto said that, it seemed that the CS finally decided to finish him. Charging its fist with some raw CE, it drove its fist toward his face. 

'You owe me for this one you bastards.'

At that moment, Aoto, this time for sure, can do nothing anymore but close his eyes and await his incoming death.

He simply hoped that, with the little time he had bought, his colleagues managed to get out of this place at least.

???

However... 1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds have already passed. But for some reason, there's still no impact on his face.

No way death is such a painless process.

Confused as to what happened, he slowly opened his eyes, and there, he saw a fist, inches away from his face. 

It didn't take Aoto that long to realize that it was the CS's fist. The same fist that was about to deliver him to the afterlife just now. But it did not manage to.

"Talk about breaking expectations."

Because, before that fist could even reach him, someone appeared beside him and effortlessly catched that fist.

"Seems you're much uglier than I thought."

Gripping it in place, not allowing it to move even an inch.

___ To be continued... ___