JJK: Wheel of Time

Shin Shuichi was searching Matsumoto's body for any more clues when he suddenly heard footsteps outside the factory. Turning around, he saw a young man approaching. The man looked fairly youthful, with handsome, delicate features.

The two locked eyes, both wearing expressions of confusion. Shin recognized the man—he was the cursed user that Shin was tasked with eliminating, named Uehara Masanobu. Despite his charming appearance, Uehara's crimes far exceeded even Matsumoto's in their severity.

Shin couldn't help but think how convenient it was for both of his targets to present themselves without him needing to search for them. Couldn't be easier.

Uehara's gaze shifted between the teenager in the familiar uniform, holding a sword, and the monster lying at his feet. His heart sank. Hesitating for a moment, he asked, "Are you from Jujutsu High?"

Shin initially considered finishing him off right away, but the memory of Matsumoto's transformation gave him pause. Changing his approach, he decided not to use any cursed techniques and instead suddenly dashed toward Uehara. In an instant, his dual blades were aimed right at Uehara's face.

Despite anticipating an attack, Uehara was startled by the speed. Several dark-colored tendrils sprang up around him, wrapping him in layers of protection.

However, in just the blink of an eye, Shin's blades cut through Uehara's summoned defenses. A gleam of light passed through the cracks, illuminating Uehara's shocked face.

Immediately after, a powerful kick sent his face twisting in agony. Uehara flipped through the air several times before being caught by more tendrils extending from his back. Although he still crashed into the wall, the impact was softened, sparing him from severe injury.

As Uehara clutched his stomach, despite having been kicked in the face, Shin remarked knowingly, "So, you fought this thing before?"

He gestured at the mutilated remains on the ground, but Uehara's face remained grim and he gave no answer. Instead, he pulled out a talisman and summoned a cursed spirit—a towering, zombie-like creature over two meters tall.

As soon as it appeared, the boils on its body began to burst one by one with sickening pops. Black-green fluid quickly oozed out, covering the ground in a foul-smelling pool.

"Do you know about 'Mahito'? He's a humanoid cursed spirit."

Shin twirled his sword as he spoke. Uehara's mind immediately flashed back to the image of Mahito, the twisted spirit with a face stitched together with both innocence and malevolence. The thought alone sent a shiver down Uehara's spine, an involuntary expression of fear crossing his face.

But then his attention shifted back to Shin, who had begun his next move, white threads of cursed energy swirling around him. In a matter of moments, the tendrils protecting Uehara were severed, and the once menacing zombie-like cursed spirit had been reduced to a pile of grotesque flesh.

"You—"

Before Uehara could finish his sentence, his vision dropped abruptly as his body collapsed to the ground. His legs had been cleanly severed, blood gushing from the wounds and mixing with the filth on the floor. His agonized scream echoed through the factory.

"Tell me about that cursed spirit," Shin said, staring down at him coldly. "If I'm satisfied with what you tell me, I'll use Reverse Cursed Technique to heal you."

Realizing the gravity of his situation, Uehara knew that he had finally met someone he couldn't escape or defeat. This wasn't one of those jujutsu sorcerers he could easily outwit or overpower. He didn't even dare to summon his remaining cursed spirits for an attack.

Memories flooded his mind as fear consumed him. He remembered that humanoid cursed spirit—Mahito—transforming Matsumoto into a monster right before his eyes. He had barely escaped with his life, injured in the process.

Now, trapped by another formidable sorcerer, Uehara was filled with regret for his greed and fear for his life.

With no other option, Uehara forced himself to believe Shin's promise, even if it was only a one percent chance of survival. It was all he had.

"It was that cursed spirit. His face and body are covered in stitches. He's the one who turned that man into a monster, but I don't know his name... He did mention something about going to a nearby hospital…"

As Uehara spoke, realization dawned on him. He glanced at Shin and noticed a shift in the young sorcerer's expression. Then, a sensation spread through his legs—a return of feeling. For a moment, he thought Shin was healing him.

But then something felt wrong. His body began to swell, his voice turning to garbled sounds as he tried to speak. His hand ballooned like an overinflated balloon, and Uehara's last conscious thought was, "When did I... get cursed?"

With that, his consciousness faded, consumed by the overwhelming urge to kill.

Shin watched, unblinking, as the once-human Uehara transformed into a grotesque, mindless creature before his very eyes.

"This technique… It's exactly like…"

With a swift slice from Onikiri, the cursed spirit was easily cut into pieces, its lifeless body quickly withering and decaying. After dispatching the remaining shikigami and cursed spirits that had lost control due to Uehara Masanobu's death, Shin Shuichi took out his phone and snapped a few pictures of the scene, sending a message to Nitta Akari to handle the aftermath.

Leaving the area, Shin opened a map app, searching for the nearest hospital, and headed in that direction.

The hospital was relatively small, and the hallways were sparsely populated. As Shin walked down the corridor, he suddenly stopped. Seated on one of the chairs at the end of the hall was a man.

He wore all black, with long blue hair tied into three braids. His eyes were mismatched—one blue, one black—and his most striking feature was the numerous stitches that crisscrossed his face and arms. It was none other than the special-grade cursed spirit, Mahito.

Mahito sat there, completely unnoticed by the people passing by, as if he didn't exist in their world. He watched the hospital's visitors with keen interest. When he noticed Shin approaching, his eyes lit up. He knew that Shin could see him.

"Hello," Mahito greeted with a simple smile. Ignoring his unusual appearance, one might almost find him likable.

He continued, "That human didn't come, huh? But you'll do nicely. What a beautiful body you have! I bet your soul is just as beautiful. I'd love to feel it."

As he spoke, Mahito's hand reached out toward Shin, his face lost in a moment of pure fascination. But in an instant, pain shot through his arm, and he noticed that his right hand had been severed at the wrist. He hadn't even seen how it happened.

"Huh? Did you do that?" Mahito looked down at his severed hand in puzzlement. He bent down, picked it up, and waved it around before carelessly tossing it to the floor, where it crumbled into dust. Within seconds, a new hand began to grow from the stump, and soon it was as if nothing had happened.

Mahito flexed his newly regenerated hand, finding it indistinguishable from the original. Across from him, Shin sat without any surprise on his face. He had only meant the strike as a warning. If he remembered correctly, this cursed spirit was unique—ordinary attacks wouldn't affect his true form. Only attacks that could target the soul could cause real damage.

"So, you're Mahito? Matsumoto and Uehara Masanobu—those were your handiwork, weren't they?" Shin's question was rhetorical. Although there weren't many people around, the situation was too urgent to evacuate the building. Mahito wasn't foolish enough to let Shin do that either.

Without the ability to cast a domain, Shin couldn't simply cut Mahito down. And given Mahito's cursed technique, if he didn't kill him immediately, the surrounding people would surely become his playthings.

Mahito's interest in Shin only grew. As he mused over the attack that had severed his hand without him even noticing, he responded to Shin's question, "Probably. I don't know those humans by name, though. After I fulfilled one of their wishes, I just turned the other one for fun. Why? Were they friends of yours?"

Shin smiled lightly. "Not at all. They were criminals. You just stole my targets, that's all."

Fortunately, not many people were passing by, so no one noticed Shin talking to himself. Mahito, amused by this response, chuckled. He toyed with a strand of his blue hair and laughed, "Well, then you don't have to thank me."

"By the way, you're here to kill me, aren't you?"

Mahito's smile deepened, his expression growing more malicious, but he didn't make the first move. Shin was wary of the "hostages" around them, but Mahito was equally cautious after witnessing Shin's earlier attack.

"That was pure speed, wasn't it? I didn't see the trajectory of the strike, or even the weapon. That earring—it's a cursed spirit, isn't it? The kind that can change its form? Quite rare. I bet it's what you use to hide your weapons."

Mahito continued to analyze the information in his mind while regretting that he hadn't created more "toys" from the people around him earlier. Facing an opponent with undetectable attacks, his usual minions might be useless. What a hassle.

Even so, Mahito didn't feel any fear. As long as Shin couldn't touch his soul, any attack was nothing more than a wound that would heal in an instant.

And besides, he couldn't stop thinking about how beautiful Shin's soul must be—how exquisite it would feel in his hands.

Mahito's grin stretched unnervingly wide, his eyes gleaming with an unsettling mix of childlike curiosity and malevolent intent, like a child holding a magnifying glass over an anthill, ready to burn the ants with sunlight.

Shin sighed, glancing down the corridor, then looked back at Mahito. "Any chance you'd leave this place with me and let me kill you quietly? Exorcising you would make my promotion to special grade much easier."

"Nope, I'm just getting started here. But if you let me touch your soul, I might consider it. Otherwise, I'll just keep playing with these cheap toys," Mahito said, his eyes drifting over the hospital's visitors, now filled with a sense of boredom.

Shin, somewhat distracted, didn't seem to care much about Mahito's words. He made some idle conversation before casually asking, "I'm waiting for an opportunity. What are you waiting for?"

Mahito blinked, confused for a moment, but before he could respond, a loud explosion shattered the silence. The door at the far end of the hallway blew apart, taking the surveillance cameras with it. Realizing the danger, Mahito immediately activated his technique.

The scene before him shifted, and in the blink of an eye, he found himself in an underground parking garage, surrounded by dim lights and cold concrete.

Mahito licked his lips, scanning the area with his peripheral vision. He spotted five figures undergoing grotesque transformations—his earlier "toys." Under his control, the disfigured beings stood up and began shambling toward Shin.

These former humans, whose eyes still held a trace of their former selves, shuffled forward, their twisted bodies involuntarily letting out warped pleas for help.

"Help... me..." they moaned.

Mahito laughed, savoring the sight. "Do you like my toys? I made them by altering their souls with my technique. Aren't they beautiful?"

Standing in the shadows, Shin's expression was unreadable, his face obscured by the dim lighting. The nearby surveillance had already been destroyed by his hand. These transformed people… they were beyond saving.

Reversing their condition? It would be pointless. They had been under Mahito's influence for too long. Even if Shin reversed the damage, Mahito could simply cast his technique again. The only solution was to kill him first.

Without any noticeable movement from Shin, the five monstrous figures suddenly reverted to their human forms, only to be thrown backward, crashing into the walls at the far end of the garage.

In front of them, Shin had drawn Onikiri and Dojigiri, with Kumo-Kiri stabbed into the ground beside him.

Mahito's eyes widened as he stared at the three swords, feeling a strange sense of foreboding. Without wasting another word, he activated his cursed technique, starting to alter his form.

Shin's voice echoed coldly through the empty parking garage, like a blade cutting through the air: "Are you ready to die?"

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