JJK: Wheel of Time

"The location is in the west wing. I've already evacuated the area. Would you like to head there immediately, or...?"

Yamaguchi Takayoshi, the warden leading the way, wore a friendly smile as he guided Shin Shuichi and Ijichi through the prison. Entering from the east gate, they still had to cross the central area to reach the west wing, where the incident had occurred.

As they passed through, Shin could still see some prisoners in their cells. The prison was overcrowded, and it wasn't feasible to relocate everyone, so only the essential areas had been cleared. The remaining prisoners wore expressions of confusion and fear, unsure of what was happening.

The sudden deaths of so many inmates, along with the fatalities among the guards, had shaken even the most hardened criminals. Stories of ghosts and curses that they once scoffed at now crept back into their minds, fueled by the eerie events unfolding around them.

One particularly unsettling incident involved a notorious inmate known as "Mangy Dog." He had been muttering incoherently toward the direction where the blood had pooled from the dead prisoners, terrifying the other criminals. Even those who once feared nothing had been shaken.

As the warden, accompanied by two strangers—one of them a strikingly handsome young man—passed through, the prisoners began to stir with desperation.

"Warden, please! Get us out of here! I don't want to die in this cursed place! I have hidden money outside—I'll give you all of it if you get me out!"

Among those begging to be moved were others who reacted to the pressure by becoming even more aggressive, banging on the iron bars and shouting profanities at Yamaguchi.

"You bastard pig! Get me out of here, or I'll kill your entire family! I'll haunt you even if I become a ghost!"

Yamaguchi's face twisted with anger. Under normal circumstances, none of these criminals would dare speak to him this way, and he had plenty of ways to discipline them. But now, driven to the brink by fear, they were beyond control. He wanted to punish them but couldn't do so in front of the officials. So, he forced a smile, choosing to ignore the insults for now, and focused on briefing Shin about the situation.

"Don't mind these scum, gentlemen. The people locked up here are beyond redemption."

As he spoke, a dull thud followed by a muffled groan caught Yamaguchi's attention. Turning toward the sound, he saw one of the prisoners huddled in the corner of his cell, clutching his mouth in pain. Blood oozed between his fingers, and several teeth were scattered on the floor.

"What just happened…?" Yamaguchi tried to recall. That prisoner had been shouting at the young man just moments ago, hadn't he? In this place, where the worst of the worst were confined, it wasn't unusual for them to lash out, especially at someone who looked as out of place as Shin. Yamaguchi had assumed the officials would ignore the vile insults, though the younger one might have been bothered. He had planned to send some guards later to deal with the matter.

But now, seeing the prisoner suddenly injured, Yamaguchi had a good guess of what had happened. Yet, he quickly pushed the thought away. Without a word, he turned back to guiding Shin and Ijichi toward the west wing.

Shin glanced briefly at the prisoner whose teeth he had knocked out in an instant. The curses and threats hadn't even registered with him—his focus was elsewhere, on the oppressive atmosphere that seemed to thicken with every step they took.

The heavy sensation that pervaded the air was a clear indication of a powerful curse at work. As they crossed into the now-deserted west wing, Yamaguchi froze. The ceiling here had inexplicably risen, and the corridors and rooms had twisted into strange, unfamiliar shapes. Sweat beaded on the warden's forehead as he struggled to comprehend the scene before him.

"Wh-what is...?" Yamaguchi stammered, but before he could continue, a hand rested on his shoulder.

"That's enough. You can leave now."

Relieved, Yamaguchi mumbled a few quick words of thanks before turning to flee, almost tripping in his haste to escape the cursed area.

Ijichi recited an incantation, sealing off the west wing with a barrier, and watched as Shin disappeared inside.

The sound of Shin's footsteps echoed through the empty corridors and halls, accompanied only by the sight of dried, dark-brown bloodstains splattered across the cracked tiles.

*Thump, thump.*

A faint, rhythmic noise reached Shin's ears, and his body vanished from sight as he continued deeper into the prison. Despite reaching what should have been the end of the building, more paths appeared before him, leading further into the maze-like structure.

Eventually, Shin arrived in a large hall where he finally saw something "alive." A humanoid figure, its skin a sickly gray-white, stood in the center of the room, striking a large concrete pillar with its bare fists. The tiles covering the pillar had long since shattered, exposing the rough concrete and rebar beneath.

Shin observed the humanoid curse with a calculating gaze. According to his senses, this curse wasn't particularly strong—not even on the level of a First Grade curse. Had the "Window" team made a mistake in their assessment?

Not bothering to conceal his presence, Shin was immediately noticed by the curse. It stopped its assault on the pillar and turned to face him.

The creature was bald, with two small horns protruding from its head. Its nose was missing, replaced by a smooth surface, and its eyes were nothing more than black voids in its sockets.

Letting out a low growl, the curse charged at Shin with razor-sharp claws outstretched. But just before it could make contact, Shin easily sidestepped the attack.

With a single, lightning-fast punch, Shin sent the curse flying, leaving a gaping hole in its chest. Dark, viscous liquid sprayed from the wound as the curse's body tumbled through the air.

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through Shin's chest. He glanced down to find a large hole in his own torso, identical to the wound he had just inflicted on the curse. Though it healed instantly, Shin knew this wasn't a trick of the mind.

The curse hadn't touched him, yet the injury was real. And the wound on his chest matched the one he had given the curse.

"Is this a reflection-type curse?" Shin mused.

He vanished again, reappearing above the flying curse. With a swift thrust, his blade pierced through the creature's abdomen. But just as before, the same wound appeared on Shin's own body, quickly healing after a moment.

"This is... interesting."

As Shin Shuichi landed gracefully on the ground, he tapped into his reserves of cursed energy. He began fusing his technique with the cursed energy saturating the air, utilizing the principles of barrier techniques. What emerged was a unique creation—an incomplete domain of sorts, which Shin had named "Shigure".

Despite being inside the hall, raindrops began to fall from the ceiling. Within seconds, the light drizzle became a steady rain that filled the room with a misty veil. Shin held out his hand to catch the raindrops, but as they landed, they vanished like illusions. At the same time, some droplets seemed to rise from the floor toward the ceiling, defying gravity.

The curse spirit, bewildered by the sudden change, tried to retreat but instantly found itself back in its original position. The wound that had healed moments ago reappeared on its body.

Shin raised a finger, pointing at the curse spirit. A faint, pale arrow made of cursed energy formed at his fingertip, nearly invisible in the rainy veil.

*Bang!*

Although the arrow took the shape of a projectile, Shin mimicked the sound of a gun firing as the "Arrow of Time" skipped over the process and went straight to the result. The cursed spirit, despite attempting to dodge, collapsed as its lower body disintegrated into dust, leaving its legs as scattered particles on the ground.

The rain above and below suddenly left a noticeable gap where the curse's lower half had been, but it quickly filled back in. Shin, however, wasn't surprised when his own legs suffered the same fate, but he immediately healed the damage using his technique.

Moments later, the curse spirit's legs regrew from stumps of flesh at an alarming speed. Not only that, its cursed energy surged, and its body became even larger, standing well over three meters tall. Its muscles, now more pronounced, rippled beneath its grayish skin, giving it the appearance of a granite statue. The horns on its head elongated as the spirit stomped forward, launching itself at Shin with explosive speed—much faster than before.

"Let's test this," Shin murmured.

With a simple gesture, Shin manipulated the rain. The curse spirit, which had been charging through the rain, suddenly vanished, reappearing exactly where it had stood moments ago. The cracks in the floor where it had pushed off with force still showed, yet the creature found itself reset to its original spot. It tried again, only to end up in the same place as before.

Shin watched calmly as the curse spirit struggled, repeatedly getting trapped in the same loop. It was as though the spirit had become an insect trapped in amber, unable to escape the confines of time.

"I'll call this move 'Amber,'" Shin mused. Amused at himself for naming every move he makes.

Amber wasn't designed to defeat opponents directly; it was more of a containment technique. It continuously reset the target back to a predetermined moment in time, trapping them in an endless cycle. It could even be used to protect allies in the heat of battle. Of course, Shin could end the effect at any time.

Shin followed up with several "Arrows of Time," his attacks becoming more fluid and powerful under the effects of Shigure. With everything in the rain's domain accelerating, each hit landed more devastatingly than the last. The curse's body parts disintegrated into ash upon contact with the arrows, as the accelerated timeline brought them instantly to their demise.

Yet, despite its continuous injuries, the curse spirit kept regenerating, growing stronger and more formidable with each revival. It now stood as a monstrous three-meter-tall beast, with muscles that resembled iron bulging beneath its skin.

Under Shigure's influence, the spirit's speed and strength had also skyrocketed, but Shin was not surprised. After all, everything within the rain's domain was affected by its accelerated time, including the enemy.

"That saying comes to mind," Shin thought. "If everyone is accelerating, no one is. But the downside of acceleration in this rain isn't something you can escape. I can reverse the damage with my technique, but how will the enemy counter it?"

Without the means to counter the rain's effects, the curse spirit would eventually be pushed toward an inevitable death. Time in this domain flowed ceaselessly forward, without respite. That was why each "Arrow of Time" could reduce parts of the curse's body to dust instantly upon impact.

"This spirit absorbs damage and reflects it back, while using the absorbed attacks to strengthen itself," Shin analyzed in his mind.

The curse spirit's technique was dangerous—it started off weak, but as the battle progressed, it became stronger by reflecting damage back onto its opponent and absorbing power from the attacks. If Shin had rushed in recklessly, the spirit might have grown even stronger.

But the curse was up against Shin, who didn't rely on trading blows. Using his reversal technique to heal any wounds, Shin ensured that the spirit was the only one taking real damage.

Instead of trying to find a weakness in the curse's technique, Shin opted for the brute force approach: he would continuously wound and nearly kill the spirit until it reached its limit, at which point he would eradicate it completely.

This also gave him the perfect opportunity to further refine his own techniques. Shigure was originally an attempt at creating a domain expansion, but it had fallen short of that. Shin had wanted to incorporate reverse cursed energy or positive energy into it, but the effects hadn't been what he envisioned. Though the forward flow of time was enhanced, the resulting energy collision he had hoped for didn't manifest.

'Perhaps I should focus on refining the balance between forward and technique reversal first.' Shin thought.

He unleashed a series of slashes with his cursed blades, severing the curse spirit into multiple pieces. Yet, when it reformed this time, its energy level didn't increase further.

"Reached your limit already?" Shin taunted with a chuckle.

In response, the spirit roared and brought down a massive hand the size of a millstone, aiming to crush Shin beneath its weight. The cursed energy swirling around its arm was dense enough to distort the air.

But with Shigure's influence accelerating the spirit toward its own demise, Shin easily outmaneuvered the sluggish, if powerful, attack. At times, the curse's own abilities backfired, leaving it trapped by the very power it sought to harness.

In an instant, Shin hurled his three cursed blades through the air, pinning the spirit's head and shoulders to the ground. His fist, now glowing with dark energy, struck like a signature flourish on an intricate painting, scattering ink-like fragments of cursed energy across the scene.

With the spirit's body split open and no longer regenerating, Shin knew the fight was over. As he withdrew his technique, the blood and flesh suspended in midair vanished into dust.

No gore, no spectacle—just ashes that faded into the atmosphere. All that remained was a single, shriveled object lying on the ground: a desiccated finger.

°°°

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