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The alarm on the nightstand screamed its sharp digital beep. The boy was awake before the alarm. Yet he didn't turn it off. Despite the blaring sounds, all he could think about was how he had to go to school.
That was the problem.
He loathed every second of his school life. A slow-burning hell that had swallowed him whole two years prior. It had all started in the seventh grade. He had been standing in the brightly lit aisles of a local convenience store, clutching a couple of cheap onigiri.
"That'll be 200 yen."
Just as he reached out his hand to pay the cashier, a hand snatched his government assistance card mid-reach. The boy spun around to find a tall teenager with aggressively bleached hair with a heavy backpack slung over a shoulder.
"You're in my class, right?" The bully turned the plastic card over in his fingers. "What is this? A kid's card?"
"Give it back."
"This is that thing, right? The one for people the government pays for." The bully looked down at him with an expression that went far past mere contempt. "Are you a beggar?"
Desperate and humiliated, the boy lunged forward and grabbed the older kid's wrist. He didn't even see the punch coming. The blow connected before his own motion could finish.
The boy was left stunned; one hand pressed against his burning, throbbing face, watching his dropped onigiri roll across the dirty floor. He didn't need to ask who the bully was; everyone knew the name.
Saitō Musashibō Benkei.
Saitō was a Junior Champions League fighter who came from a rich family. He possessed the kind of name that teachers uttered with thick layers of unearned respect.
On that day, he had to make a calculation that no child should ever have to make. He didn't fight back. He couldn't. Saitō was stronger, popular, and far more important than he would ever be. Even now, the boy still wondered what would have happened if he had just swung back.
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The months that followed required very little explanation.
He watched his father's small business fail quietly into bankruptcy. His model-student grades began to slip and then slide. While Saitō decided to make him his personal "sparring partner," which was really just a thinly veiled excuse to legally beat him to a pulp. He would return home most evenings covered in fresh, purple bruises. His mother was drowning in her own stress, and stopped asking questions when he claimed he had joined the school's boxing club. Even when his parents did express mild concern, he forced a smile and pretended everything was perfectly fine. They had enough problems of their own; he refused to burden them with his.
The government-issued assistance card effectively became Saitō's personal snack allowance. Saitō had more money than he could ever spend, yet he derived a sick, twisted pleasure from taking things from someone who had absolutely nothing.
When the boy finally broke down and reported the bullying, he found himself sitting across from a tired counselor.
"You can't bother people and call it training, Saitō."
"I was just joking," Saitō replied. His smooth voice was utterly devoid of remorse. "I'm sorry."
"Shake hands and don't do it again."
Saitō held out his hand, locking eyes with the boy. A gleeful smile stretched across his face. A look that explicitly told the boy that no one in authority would ever punish him.
"What are you doing?" the teacher snapped at the victim. "A boy shouldn't cry over something minor like this. Go back to class."
On the long walk back down the crowded hallway,
"You're really stupid, beggar. Think about it," Saitō whispered, his breath hot against the boy's ear. "You're a student from a broke family living off a kid's card. I'm the son of a conglomerate owner who brings championship medals to this school. If you were anyone in this building, who would you choose?"
The boy didn't answer.
I want to die, he thought repeatedly on the bleak walk home. Maybe that's the only exit from this hell.
But he didn't do anything about it. He just held on, bitterly counting down the remaining days toward the end of the school year.
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Today at lunch, he sat in the furthest corner of the cafeteria. That was his strategy to not get bothered. Just be as small as possible.
Just a few more months, he repeated to himself like a mantra. Then I can transfer to a decent high school where none of these monsters exist anymore.
Across the room, a round-faced boy named Maito leaned across a table toward Saitō.
"Dude, did you hear the rumor?"
"What rumor?" Saitō muttered, sucking down the last of his bannana milk with an expression of pure boredom.
"Some girl from class 2B said she saw something terrifying in the fourth-floor bathroom."
"People are saying it's completely haunted."
"We live in an age of advanced technology," a third boy, Shōta, chimed in. "Is there any actual proof beyond one girl's overactive imagination? Any video evidence?"
"Can't you just enjoy life for a single minute, asshole?" Maito snapped.
"Let's say it's real," Saitō interjected. "Why on earth should I care?"
"Because if we catch a real ghost on camera, we become famous. Like, actually viral," Maito knew exactly which of Saitō's psychological buttons to press. "Think about the fame."
Saitō stared up at the cafeteria ceiling for a moment.
"Well, I'm definitely not staying the night in a locked school for some stupid video," Shōta said firmly.
"We don't have to," Saitō said. A grin spread across his face as he turned around and pointed directly at the boy sitting alone in the corner. "He's going to make the video for us. Any problem with that, beggar?"
He stayed completely quiet, staring down at his lunch.
"Ten thousand yen if you get us the footage," Saitō added.
The boy's heart gave a sudden, painful thud. His mother's birthday was in a week, and he wondered if a gift would lift up her mood. Maybe she wouldn't fight his dad afterwards.
Slowly, the boy nodded his head.
If only he had never gone into that building that night...
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"Don't worry, Mom, I'm staying over at a friend's place tonight to study."
"Okay, dear. Don't get hurt."
"I won't. Goodbye."
He ended the call, the screen cutting to black. He stood inside a cramped bathroom stall on the first floor.
The plan was remarkably simple: hide in the shadows until the janitors finished their final rounds. Make his way up to the abandoned fourth floor, record whatever empty, creepy darkness looked like, and go home with the money.
Simple.
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The school at night wasn't the same school he attended during the day.
The hallways were identical, but the absolute absence of life altered their proportions. The darkness seemed to stretch the corridors out infinitely while simultaneously narrowing the ceilings. The glowing emergency exit signs cast a sickening, blood-red hue across the linoleum floors. The silence of the building was deafeningly loud.
He could hear the friction of his clothes. He could hear the frantic, rapid beating of his own heart. He tried walking slower, stepping on the balls of his feet, but it didn't help. Every single footstep echoing back to him. He kept freezing at any new sound, spinning around to ensure the trailing sound was just an echo.
He climbed past the second-floor landing.
In between the second and third floor, he felt the skin-crawling feeling of being watched by an unseen pair of eyes. He whipped around, shining his light down into the stairwell, but nothing.
Fourth floor.
The infamous bathroom sat at the very end of the hall. He walked forward, his phone's flashlight beam cutting a fragile hole through the dark. He tried desperately not to look at the glass mirrors lining the walls.
He pushed the fourth stall's door open.
It had a traditional squat-style toilet. A Washiki. He squatted down and opened his camera app.
Recording.
Through the gap at the bottom of the stall door, he could see the gray tiles of the floor. They were slightly reflective, offering a thin, distorted mirror of the rest of the dark room.
Nothing.
Five minutes passed.
Then ten.
The sheer absurdity of the situation began to calm his nerves. He was about to stop the video recording, open his messaging app and compose a text to Saitō. But he heard a sound. A distinct step outside the bathroom door.
Then another.
The boy's thumbs froze over the digital keyboard.
"Saitō? If this is a prank... it isn't funny, man."
The footsteps didn't stop. They moved with slowly across the tiles, coming to a dead halt directly outside his specific stall. The boy slowly lowered his eyes to the gap at the bottom of the door.
Nothing.
Before he could breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe he was just imagining something.
A voice drifted down from the darkness just above the top frame of the stall door.
"Do you want red paper? Or blue paper?"
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"Saitō, you think this is a good idea?" Maito asked, as they sneaked through the school.
"Well, obviously that beggar isn't going to get an actual ghost on camera," Saitō said. "So let's give him one. We scare him, film it, and get our viral video."
"Nice call," Shōta muttered as they climbed the stairs, stopping just in front of the fourth-floor bathroom door. "Man... why does it smell so weird up here? Aren't girl bathrooms supposed to be cleaner than the boys?"
"I'll set up the camera," Maito whispered, ignoring the odd smell as he focused on his screen. "Once I give the signal, you two kick the door in. We rush inside and record his reaction. Make sure you get right in his face."
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At Maito's thumbs-up, the duo threw their weight forward, slamming the bathroom door open against the wall. They expected a shrill scream of terror from the boy hiding inside. Instead, they found an empty bathroom.
"Great. That beggar didn't even show up," Saitō said, his voice echoing sharply off the tiles. "He is getting a massive beating the next time I see him."
"Yeah, totally chickened out."
Shōta wasn't listening. His flashlight was pointed on the floor, where something metallic glinted in the harsh LED light.
"Guys, look at this."
He picked up a smartphone. The screen was cracked, but the display was fully lit. It was still actively recording.
"You don't think..." Shōta started. A sudden unease creeping into his chest.
Maito cut him off with a dismissive scoff. "Yeah, right. Something must've spooked that beggar into dropping his phone and running off. Probably heard a stray cat and ran home crying."
"Wow, what a absolute loser," Saitō laughed. "Anyways, Shōta, get into the stall."
"What? Why?"
"Because we could just fake the video while we are here."
"Dude, let's just go back," Shōta muttered. "This place gives me the creeps."
Saitō's smile was replaced by a cold, hardened stare that Shōta knew all too well.
"Fine, fine. Let's just do this stupid thing and get it over with."
Shōta stepped into the fourth stall, stopping the current recording on the dropped phone. He figured he might as well check the footage to see what had actually scared the other boy into fleeing. He squatted down, queued up the last video file, and hit play.
"Do you want red paper? Or blue paper?"
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Outside the bathroom stall, Saitō and Maito were busy arguing.
"Okay, so let's do a wide opening shot here..." Maito's words were cut short by the audio of a video suddenly playing from inside Shōta's stall. It was the beggar's voice saying the word, "Blue."
"Dude, what the hell are you watching?"
The video continued to play.
As the duo heard a shrill blasting from the stall. It sounded like deep ocean water being violently sucked down a drain. It was mixed with the sickening sound of bones snapping and flesh being violently compressed. Then came the scream of Shouta mixing in with what sounded like an animal being crushed alive. A visceral, agonizing shriek of torment that tore through the bathroom. The audio on the phone cut out into silence. But the real-life screaming kept going before dissolving into a choked gurgle.
Saitō took a sharp step back.
"Dude... you okay in there?" Maito pulled the door to the fourth stall open.
The breath completely left their lungs.
Shōta was slumped against the wall, but his body was barely recognizable. Deep, jagged knife slashes and stabs were carved across his entire body, shredding through his clothes and deep into his torso. Blood was actively spraying from the open wounds, going down toward the squat toilet bowl below.
"No, no, no!" Maito cried out. He lunged, reaching out to pull his friend away from the horrific vortex. But the moment his fingers touched Shōta's shoulder. A dry, scraping voice whispered, so close it felt like it was inside Maito's own head.
"Do you want red paper? Or blue paper?"
"Who said that?!" Maito yelled, spinning around wildly. "Who's there?!"
The oppressive weight in the room pressed down on his chest, forcing his lungs to constrict.
"Red," Maito gasped out against his will.
Schwip.
A massive, invisible blade sliced cleanly through the front of his throat. A fountain of crimson erupted over his hands. A violent, deep stab wound materialized out of nowhere on his chest, followed by another, and another.
"This is a nightmare," Saitō whispered to himself, forcing a hollow laugh that sounded more like a choked cough. His heart was hammering so hard against his ribs he thought it would burst. His hands were shaking so violently he couldn't control them. "My brain is just playing tricks on me. This isn't real. I'm asleep in bed. I'm just dreaming. The boxing match earlier... I took a bad hit to the head. That's it. Concussion. This isn't real."
He repeated the delusion like a mantra, trying to force his mind to block out the sight of Maito desperately clawing at his own throat.
Saitō remained completely frozen in fear. Despite all the physical strength and wealth he boasted, he was just a terrified teenager at the end of the day. He wasn't built to deal with the supernatural.
Breaking out of his paralysis, Saitō turned and rushed toward the main bathroom door.
A pair of slit eyes on a mask bore directly into his soul.
Saitō's instincts flared. He wanted to swing his fist, yet his muscles locked completely solid. He couldn't even twitch a finger. This wasn't just fear holding him back. No, this was the absolute law of the land. In this room, the human rules of strength meant nothing. This thing was in total control.
"Do you want red paper? Or blue paper?"
Saitō's mind screamed for help, but his mouth opened, whimpering the only other option left. "...Blue paper."
The rigid control returned to his limbs. With a roar of something primal, Saitō swung his fist forward as hard as he could... his knuckles struck nothing but empty air.
The squat toilet in the fourth stall began to hum with a deafening sound. An unnatural wind seemed to warp the very air around him, howling through the small concrete room.
Saitō's clothes instantly snapped tight against his skin as if he had been caught in the violent center of a hurricane.
An unbearably crushing pressure seized his chest as the impossible suction went to work. Saitō gasped, but no air entered his lungs. Instead, he watched in paralyzed horror as the skin on his hands began to wither. The violent force was dragging the blood right out of his veins, pulling the crimson fluid through his flesh and down into the abyss below.
His vision blurred into sharp static. His limbs grew entirely numb and unresponsive. The crushing vacuum ruthlessly drained him until his heart gave one last, pathetic flutter and stopped.
The very last thing Saitō heard before his mind faded into permanent blackness was the echoing sound of water rushing fiercely through the pipes.
[ DATE OF INCIDENT: August 8, 2015 ]
[ LOCATION: Municipal Junior High School, 4th Floor Restroom ]
[ INCIDENT: Severely compacted remains of four male students from within the building's internal drainage and plumbing system. ]
[ CAUSE OF DEATH: REDACTED ]
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"You have been awfully quiet," Suda said, navigating the busy Tokyo traffic.
Naruto swung his legs back and forth in the passenger seat. "I don't know if you hate me or not."
"Why would I hate you?"
"Because I hurt Negi-san."
Suda sighed, keeping her eyes on the road. "I can't give you an unbiased assessment. Everyone in the family has known Negi a lot longer than you."
Naruto nodded quietly.
"But objectively speaking, you never meant to harm him. Negi chose to use excessive force when he pulled out those explosive and fireball talismans. You simply responded in kind. Negi couldn't handle the heat."
Naruto felt good to know he wasn't viewed as the villain.
"I'm still angry that my friend got hurt," Suda added. "But I'm not going to blame you for fighting back."
"That's fair, dattebayo." The boy turned back to the window, watching the Tokyo buildings. He imagined what it would look like to jump across these rooftops. "So, who is the mission guy?"
"Mission guy?"
"The guy who is going to pay us for the job."
"No one."
"But Geto-san told me that funds come from wealthy non-sorcerers. Someone who pays for curses to be lifted from their businesses, homes, or families."
"Yes. But let's add some context." Suda changed lanes smoothly. "The Star Religious Group has members all across Japan. Their primary function is working regular jobs and sending their earnings back to the organization. Their secondary function is intelligence. If they encounter a curse or someone afflicted by one, they report it directly to us."
"Why?"
"Unlike Jujutsu High society, we don't have the political power to operate openly. We have to be creative. Our main approach is responding to the supernatural threats our own members discover out in the field. Most times, those members introduce afflicted individuals directly to us."
"Why don't they just stop the curses themselves?"
"The ability to see cursed energy and wield techniques is incredibly rare," Suda said. "The vast majority of our followers are ordinary monk... ahem... people. They observe and report. We handle the combat."
"And I get paid for the handling part."
"Well, aren't you a genius?"
Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "But who is actually paying?" In Konoha, a client came to the village, paid upfront, and the Hokage's office took a cut before passing the rest down to the assigned shinobi.
"Geto-sama pays you directly from the organization's treasury."
She smoothly brought the car to a halt.
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Naruto gazed upon the school. "Is this the place? It doesn't look that scary."
"Well, a few kids were killed here," Suda said, forming a handsign. "Let's just get the curse before the sorcerers come to investigate. Emerge from the darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure."
A thick jet-black liquid manifested at the highest point of the sky above them. The barrier dripped downward in slow curtains, pooling and spreading until it formed a dome that swallowed the building whole.
"What is this jutsu?"
"This is a Curtain barrier," Suda explained. "It isolates the space. Anything that happens inside stays inside. Plus, it attracts the curses, so our job should be easier."
Naruto smacked his fist into his open palm. "These ghosts aren't gonna know what hit them."
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Suda expected low-grade curses to come at them immediately when the curtain was drawn. Rather, they were hiding.
Probably because they are scared of him, she thought, glancing at the boy beside her. Even when she filled her eyes with CE, she couldn't help but see layers. Reddish-orange energy, yellow energy, and a deep red with traces of the weird blue chakra.
Naruto is like an onion. He has so many layers.
The onion in question was peering into darkened classrooms with open curiosity.
"Suda-san! I found a curse!"
Inside the classroom, something about the size and shape of a ball sat in the middle of a desk. It had a mouth full of human teeth.
"Wanna... play...?" it rasped.
"That's a Grade four curse."
"So basically a bug," Naruto said, reaching for the door handle.
"Wait!"
Suddenly mouths began coming out of the walls from every direction.
No fair, why does he get to go home early... When is school going to end... when is it going to end... when is it… Another surprise test... another one... another… So much homework... so much... so much...
"Suda-san, what is that?" Naruto asked, taking a step back.
"Curses form from negative emotion," Suda said, watching the shadows shift and merge. "Low-grade ones tend to repeat the specific emotion that created them. School curses are commonly made from the stress and frustrations of children."
The low level curses merged into a living knot of twisted flesh wrapped around itself. Pale white and pitch-black bands spiraled together like writhing ribbons. Enormous human-like mouths lined every surface, stretched into permanent grins packed with yellowed teeth. Between the mouths, dozens of unblinking orange eyes stared in every direction simultaneously. Thick black appendages branched outward like malformed limbs, curling into ribbon-like tendrils tipped with small fleshy fingers.
Every mouth was still repeating the same words in overlapping layers.
So much homework... when does school end... no fair... another test...
The boy gulped.
"Don't be intimidated," Suda said. "It barks more than it bites. Basically it's still just a collection of grade fours in a trench coat."
"This will be quick then," Naruto said, forming a handsign.
"Let me handle this one," Suda said, reaching into her bag and producing an incredibly expensive perfume bottle. "My cursed technique is Money is Power. My cursed energy reserves and physical capabilities scale with the value of what I'm wearing or using. The more expensive things I wear, the stronger I get."
She moved faster than Negi.
Suda appeared behind the curse before it could react, casually striking a pose to check her nails. The monster twisted into little spheres as a red talisman floated above.
"That was quick."
"I damaged it and sealed the curse," Suda explained, collecting the spheres in a box covered in more talismans. "We try to seal rather than exorcise wherever possible. Geto-sama needs them for his cursed technique."
Naruto looked toward the upper floors, where he could still feel an evil presence lingering deep within the building. "What if sealing isn't an option?"
Suda followed his gaze up the dark stairwell. "Then you exorcise it by destroying it with cursed energy."
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On the third floor, Naruto held down a curse with his clones.
"You know, now that I think about it, I was only afraid of ghosts because I couldn't hit them," Naruto said. "And now that I can hit them. I'm not afraid anymore, dattebayo!"
"That's great, but be careful," Suda advised. "Curses can carry their own cursed techniques. Even a low-grade curse with the right technique can be more dangerous than its rank suggests. Don't go in blindly."
"So I should send in my clones. They take the hit, and we get an idea of the technique."
"How would we know what the effect is?"
"It is better than going in blind."
On the fourth floor, a clone pushed open the bathroom door and walked to the fourth stall as instructed by Suda.
"Do you want red paper? Or blue paper?"
The clone frowned. "Red paper."
A knife suddenly appeared, slashing the clone's throat.
Poof.
Outside the bathroom, Naruto abruptly clutched his neck.
"What's wrong?"
"I just got the memories of the clone," Naruto said, blinking in surprise.
"I'm guessing you didn't know your clones had that property?"
Naruto nodded, rubbing his neck.
"Okay, so what did your clone experience?"
"The thing asked a question about whether they wanted red or blue paper," Naruto explained. "My clone answered red, and a knife appeared out of nowhere to cut him."
"If a red answer causes a knife to appear, then answering blue should trigger a different effect," Suda theorized.
Naruto nodded in agreement.
"Okay, rush the bathroom with a dozen clones," Suda ordered. "Let's see if the curse can target multiple individuals at once."
"You heard the lady!"
"Yes, boss!" the clones yelled, rushing into the bathroom. They looked around, but the stalls were completely empty.
"Suda-san, did the curse run away?" Naruto asked, poking his head in. "What a loser."
"I think it is hiding to strike, or it has a specific activation condition," Suda said, her eyes landing on the fourth toilet. "That seems to be the trigger that summons it. If you will, Naruto."
"Will what?"
Suda sighed, looking exasperated. "Just send a clone to the toilet."
Naruto motioned to one of the clones.
"Eat a bowl of ramen in my name, boss," the clone no.7 said, walking into the stall.
The air instantly chilled as a tall, ominous figure manifested before them. It was draped in a long, flowing, hooded red cloak and wore a porcelain white mask with hollow slits for its mouth and eyes.
Aka Manto.
"Do you want red paper? Or blue paper?"
"How about my fist in your face?!" Naruto yelled. He and the rest of his clones leaped forward to attack.
Before their strikes could land, Aka Manto flared its energy, expanding a transparent barrier that instantly forced everyone to a complete halt mid-air.
"This is a modified Simple Domain with a vow of non-violence," Suda replied.
"What's that?"
"A Simple Domain is a barrier technique that erects a small domain around the user, which can be programmed with specific conditions to serve a variety of functions," Suda explained. "In this case, the condition enforces absolute peace until the curse uses its technique."
"Do you want red paper? Or blue paper?" the curse rasped.
"Wait, Naruto, don't answer reck—" Suda was cut off as one of the clones blurted out, "Blue paper!"
Suddenly, the fourth toilet bowl began to violently suck the target clone inside. The sheer vacuum force dragged the rest of the duplicates along with it, their heels scraping against the tile. The real Naruto slammed his feet down, channeling chakra into the soles of his shoes to magnetize himself to the floor. He grabbed Suda by the waist just as her high heels lost their grip on the concrete.
The terrifying suction snapped shut the exact millisecond the target clone popped.
"Naruto, that was entirely too reckless," Suda said, adjusting her blouse as the boy let her go.
"Yeah, but we figured out what blue does," Naruto replied, rubbing his nose. "Regardless, you need to take a smarter approach next time."
"Miss Suda, that pervert is gone again."
"We need to trigger its technique and trap it before it retreats completely."
Naruto's eyes lit up with a plan. "Hey! What if one clone summons the guy, and another clone answers blue from the back? The answering clone can use chakra to stick to the floor so he doesn't get sucked in. Then, while the toilet is trying to pull him, the rest of us beat the trash out of that cloak guy!"
Suda looked surprised by the genius of Naruto. "That is so crazy it might actually work."
"Yay!" Naruto cheered, creating a fresh squad of duplicates. Suda reached into her purse, pulled out a massive, glittering diamond ring, and slipped it onto her finger. The luxury item caused her cursed energy to explode outward, cementing her physical capabilities to an apex level.
A clone rushed the fourth stall, and right on cue, Aka Manto materialized from the floor.
"Do you want red paper? Or blue paper?"
"Blue paper!" a clone shouted from the back of the room, instantly planting his feet with a surge of blue chakra.
The toilet vortex erupted again, but the answering clone stood rooted in place.
"Now!"
Five clones blindsided Aka Manto, driving their shoulders into its torso and hurling the cloaked spirit straight through the bathroom window. Glass shattered into a million glittering pieces as the curse plummeted into the schoolyard below.
Before Aka Manto could even fully materialize on the asphalt, Suda dropped directly in front of it. The curse executed a rapid series of vicious thrusts aimed at her throat and chest. Suda performed a pivot inside the blade's trajectory. She caught the curse's attacking wrist with a cross-hand grip. The woman stepped deep into the curse's center of gravity, and executed a sweeping hip throw. The momentum flipped the towering spirit clean over her shoulder, sending it crashing violently into the pavement.
Suda let go to dodge the knife.
Aka Manto rebounded off the ground, attempting to flee, but the sky above suddenly turned orange.
"Heads up, mask face!" a chorus of Narutos bellowed.
A tight formation of clones came down. The first two dropped straight onto the curse's shoulders, locking its neck in a vice grip. The third and fourth clones grabbed its arms, pinning them out wide and stretching the cloak taut like a target sheet.
The real Naruto spearheaded the attack. He drove a chakra reinforced punch into the center of the porcelain mask.
CRACK.
The mask was the curse's actual face as it bleed from the force.
"This was really easy."
"Well, the curse is a Grade 2 in terms of its physical strength, but its technique definitely makes it more dangerous," Suda commented, pulling out a talisman.
The curse however wasn't about to go down this easily.
Up on the fourth floor, the suction effect within the bathroom violently intensified. It became so strong that the porcelain toilets shattered, tiles snapped off the walls, and the heavy wooden doors were ripped clean off their hinges. A flying chunk of a broken wall smashed directly into the clone.
Poof.
The broken loop freed the curse. Aka Manto sneered as its body began to turn translucent.
"No!" Naruto yelled, rushing toward forward as memories flooded his brain.
Voom.
Aka Manto instantly deployed its Simple Domain again. This preventing them from launching a physical attack while the curse continued to fade away.
Naruto mind worked overtime in this situation.
The curse only used the Simple Domain after it initiated the question. It hadn't asked the question down here yet. But the domain's fundamental rule still relied on the choice. So maybe, they had asked a question before and hadn't answered until now.
With that thought in mind, Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs, "I choose blue paper!"
Aka Manto looked stunned as it as forced to activate its CT. The fourth stall toilet or what was left was creating a howling vortex that began to drag Naruto up.
"Hahaha! Let's see if you can take us all in!"
With a deafening barrage of pops, hundreds of clones erupted into existence. The massive dogpile of bodies created an overwhelming physical anchor against the suction. With the curse technique in use, the Simple Domain's restriction wavered. Suda didn't waste the opening. She slapped the red talisman onto the spirit's broken mask
"Open!"
The giant cloaked figure twisted into a neat red sphere. The howling vortex instantly shut down. The boy landed hard on his butt. He looked at the massive pile of his own clones and began laughing like a loon.
"Let's do that again!"
Suda picked up the sphere, shaking her head with a mixture of disbelief and respect. "You are still completely lacking in basic jujutsu skill, Naruto. But you have the adaptability, the mindset, and quite frankly, the insanity of an elite sorcerer."
"Dattebayo!" Naruto cheered, giving her a thumbs-up.
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Author Note: And with that the chapter ends in a really fun way. I hope you guys enjoyed it. But let's get into the Q and A.
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1. Why did you add the horror short story in the beginning?
One of my favourite parts of early JJK was the urban horror aesthetic with curses. This sentiment is why many people online think JJK should be a horror manga rather than a battle shonen. I somewhat agree. So I thought about adding the horror element to curses in my story.
But how?
With Naruto being fairly strong and his Shadow Clones being very much broken for the average JJK sorcerer and curse, it was a challenge.
Now I'm a fan of horror and creepypastas in general so I figured why not make short creepypasta stories that make you care about a random curse in the story before Naruto shows up to deal with it.
Let me know what you guys thought. And yes, I won't add a creepypasta to every curse, but ones that have significance to the story will get one. Like Aka Manto was Naruto's introduction to curses so I gave him a short story compared to the low grade curses on floors two and three.
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Q: Can you explain the structure of Geto's cult?
Okay so let's start with what canon actually tells us. In chapter 78, Geto takes over the Star Religious Group, executes its leader Shigeru Sonoda in front of the remaining executives, and rebrands the organization to fund his actual mission.
And that's kind of the problem. This setup makes Geto look like he is barely utilizing what he has. He has an entire cult at his disposal and canon barely shows him doing anything with it beyond the basics. On top of that it leaves Naruto with very little to do in terms of actually dealing with curses under Geto's watch.
So I restructured how Geto runs his cult.
1. Geto utilizes all the non-sorcerer members actively. We don't know what he did with the rank and file after the takeover. He could have killed them all but in the manga he only executed the leader and kept the rest alive. I expanded on this. He gets them to live normal lives on the surface while funneling money back into the organization like an actual cult.
2. We know from canon that glasses can be made to allow normal people to see curses. Maki, the US President, and others use them in the manga. Now imagine Geto distributed these glasses to all his normal members to spot curses and cursed humans in their daily lives. Curses get reported for Geto's people to collect. Cursed humans get approached and convinced to meet Geto to have their curse removed.
I feel like these changes add a lot more dimension to Geto's competence and intelligence compared to canon where the cult always felt like an underutilized resource. Hope you guys liked it and let me know what you think.
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Q: What is Aka Manto?
Aka Manto ( aka Red Cloak or Red Cape ) is one of Japan's school urban legends. It haunts public and school bathrooms, targets the last stall, and appears when a person finds themselves without toilet paper. The offering of red or blue paper is the supernatural side of the legend, with both choices resulting in the death of the person who answers. Red means sliced until the body resembles a red cloak. Blue means drained of blood until the skin turns blue. Any attempt to name a different color or refuse to answer results in being dragged to the underworld.
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Q: What is Suda's cursed technique?
Suda Manami has no canonical CT in JJK. She may be like Miwa, using CE without an innate technique. But I wanted to give her something that felt specific to who she is as a character. Two things define her in canon: she is always impeccably dressed, and she manages the organization's finances.
Cursed Technique: Money is Power
An innate technique that converts expensive clothing and accessories into cursed tools while Suda is wearing them. The attack and defense output of each piece scales directly with its monetary value. Rings and gloves amplify striking force. Expensive dresses and suits provide proportional defensive reinforcement. Makeup and beauty products strengthen her CE reserves and output directly rather than through a specific item.
The core weakness is obvious. The technique demands a continuous financial investment to maintain combat effectiveness. If her clothes are destroyed mid-fight, her output drops with them.
Full credit for this CT concept goes to Reddit user Jolly-Benefit-84. Their account is inactive so I couldn't get direct permission, but I want the attribution on record. The idea is theirs.
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Q: Can you use a Simple Domain like Aka Manto?
Yes.
Canonically, Kuchisake-Onna in chapter 73 can create a Simple Domain that enforces non-violence between her and her target until her question is answered. Once the question has been answered, she can attack with her scissors, conjuring numerous shears around the target.
Basically the toilet curse spirit does the same but with the condition that he must ask the question first. The Simple Domain activates until it gets an answer, which then activates his technique.
How does one do this? Binding Vows.
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That's It… For Now.
I want to thank you all for taking the time to read, comment, and follow along with this story. Your feedback means more than you know, and it helps push me to make each chapter bigger, sharper, and more true to the worlds of Naruto and Jujutsu Kaisen
Until next time,
Nah, I'd win.
-Adam-