"Shikigami Summoning: Azure Dragon - Tail-fire Tiger!"
Seiya slid sideways, knocking over many desks and chairs in the classroom. One arm was wrapped around Sasaki-senpai, who was still in a state of shock. With his other hand, he quickly waved in the air, and a massive ritual circle appeared on the floor. A tiger with a tail burning with fire suddenly rushed out of the flames!
The moment the tentacles were about to coil around Iguchi-senpai and the curse opened its mouth to swallow him whole, a larger maw suddenly enveloped the cursed flesh-ball. Iguchi-senpai, who had thought he was about to die, then watched as the meatball monster in front of him was suddenly bitten in half by the tiger that had just arrived.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"
As the Tail-fire Tiger bit off a piece of the flesh-ball curse, the pale arm that had been reaching for the ceiling, which had just crushed the chair where Sasaki-senpai had been sitting, opened its palm to reveal a massive, glittering eye. After finding its targets, Seiya and Sasaki-senpai, it stretched out its body again and smashed down on them. The curse kept smashing, and Seiya kept dodging with Sasaki-senpai in his arms. Soon, the entire classroom floor was filled with massive holes, and the desks and chairs had all become splinters.
Seiya jumped a few times and quickly landed next to Iguchi-senpai. He then gently placed the still-shaken Sasaki-senpai next to him and said, "Sasaki-senpai, it looks like they were attracted by the finger you have. Could you give it to me?"
Sasaki-senpai was still in a daze from the scare, but she instinctively trusted Seiya and handed him the finger she was tightly clutching. After getting Sukuna's finger, Seiya said to the Tail-fire Tiger, "You stay here and protect them. If you encounter an enemy you can't handle, roar to warn me."
Upon hearing Seiya's command, the Tail-fire Tiger nodded intelligently. Seiya then looked at the still-anxious Sasaki-senpai and Iguchi-senpai and said, "Senpais, this tiger is a Shikigami I summoned. It will protect you. As for me, I'm going to deal with the curses that have been attracted here."
Most of the curses' targets were Sukuna's finger. So, when Seiya took it, they immediately shifted their focus. Looking at the pale arm that was falling from the ceiling again, Seiya didn't dodge this time. Instead, he met it with a punch! He had only been dodging before because it was inconvenient to hold Sasaki-senpai, but now that he had no more worries, Seiya didn't hold back. The curse was a single arm, about two meters long and as thick as a man's waist. But when it met Seiya's fist, the curse's fist, which was the size of Seiya's body, was shattered by his cursed energy-covered fist.
But after destroying the arm curse, Seiya saw more curses pouring in from outside the window and down the hallway. He looked at Sasaki-senpai and Iguchi-senpai, who were still protected by the Tail-fire Tiger, and realized that if he stayed with them, he would only put them in more danger. So, after leaving the tiger to protect them, Seiya kicked the ceiling and leaped onto the roof.
Meanwhile, Yuji, whose grandfather had just died, was at the hospital making arrangements for his funeral when a boy with black spiky hair named Megumi Fushiguro suddenly found him and told him about the Special-Grade cursed object and the curses. Curses are born from human negative emotions like pain, regret, and shame. The cursed object Yuji found was Ryomen Sukuna's finger, the highest-ranking Special-Grade cursed object. Cursed objects and cursed tools themselves are not conscious. The former are remnants and items carrying cursed power, while the latter are weapons with cursed power. But because they carry cursed energy, cursed objects and cursed tools attract cursed spirits. The spirits get stronger by eating them, a behavior driven by instinct. Sukuna's finger is a Special-Grade cursed object, so its allure to cursed spirits was immense.
When Megumi learned that Yuji had given Sukuna's finger to his club senpais and that they were recklessly unsealing the talismans, he was completely flustered. He had seen people do stupid things, but never anything this stupid. After being collected by the Jujutsu School, Special-Grade cursed objects have talismans placed on them, which can repel and suppress lower-level cursed spirits. This was why Sukuna's finger was at Suginami High. But once the talismans are removed, the cursed object's effect changes from repulsion to attraction. The cursed spirits smell the cursed energy and swarm in like sharks smelling blood.
"Did your club senpais say what time they'd unseal the cursed object?" Megumi asked as he started running, and Yuji, realizing he might have put them in danger, ran after him anxiously.
As he ran at a speed not much slower than Megumi, Yuji replied, "They said they would wait for me until 10 PM, but it's almost 11 PM, so they probably already unsealed that cursed object you're talking about. But Seiya is with them. He's really strong. He's never lost a fight since we were kids. He should be..."
"Idiot! What do you think cursed spirits are? What good is being strong if you're a human? Do you think you can kill a cursed spirit with your bare hands without a cursed tool? It doesn't matter, you won't understand. We have to get back to school now." Megumi cut Yuji off and scoffed at his "strong" friend. What good was being strong in the world of curses? Without cursed energy or a cursed tool, a normal person can't kill a curse. Only a curse can fight a curse. However, since the friend Yuji mentioned was physically strong, maybe he hadn't been eaten by a curse yet and could still be saved.