Jinsuke strolled deeper into the mountains, following the sound of battle ahead.
Up ahead, Kento Nanami and Riko Amanai were surrounded—locked in combat with more than a dozen baboon-like Cursed Spirits. The trees above were crowded with hundreds more of the creatures, screeching and clapping, watching their kin tear through the clearing below.
None of them were particularly strong. Most barely reached Grade 4 or Grade 3 at best, and only a handful might qualify as Grade 2.
Given how Nanami and Riko were performing, this level of Curse was well within their ability to handle.
"Stupid monkeys! Let me show you my Cursed Technique!"
Riko darted between the Cursed Spirits' attacks, refusing to engage them head-on. Cursed Energy swirled between her palms, compressed tighter and tighter as her body arched like a drawn bow.
Then, with a sharp motion, she hurled the condensed sphere straight into the mob rushing her.
BOOM!
The blast erupted like a bomb, obliterating two Grade 4 Cursed Spirits and one Grade 3 instantly, their bodies reduced to dust.
"Heh-heh!" Riko grinned proudly.
That was her Cursed Technique—Star Limit.
It allowed her to infinitely compress her Cursed Energy—so long as her concentration wasn't broken. Theoretically, she could keep going until her body couldn't take it anymore.
If her physical endurance improved, this ability could easily rival a nuke. At minimum, she had the potential to reach Grade 1. Maybe even Special Grade someday.
No wonder the Star Plasma Vessel wasn't supposed to awaken a Cursed Technique. This kind of power was downright absurd.
Watching her casually toss compressed Cursed Energy like grenades, Jinsuke, observing from a distance, couldn't help the twitch at the corner of his mouth.
A blossoming schoolgirl, huh? More like a walking artillery strike.
"ROAAAAR!"
A deep, bone-shaking howl tore through the mountain, flooding the forest with an oppressive wave of Cursed Energy.
Both Nanami and Riko stiffened instantly. That pressure—there was no mistaking it.
Grade 1. Maybe even stronger.
"Not again…" Nanami muttered, gripping his short blade tighter, eyes sharp with determination. He refused to let another tragedy unfold in front of him.
But before the new threat appeared, the baboons abruptly stopped.
One by one, they turned and fled into the darkness of the mountain, as if responding to an unseen command.
Then—
BOOM!
The ground trembled as a violent clash of Cursed Energy erupted deep within the forest.
Jinsuke's eyes lit up. "Well, that's interesting."
And with that, he vanished from sight.
Riko and Nanami exchanged a look.
"What do we do?"
Normally, this kind of situation called for immediate retreat and a report to Jujutsu High. But their instructor had just—run off to spectate.
"…Let's go too," Riko said finally. "The old man's no weakling. Even if he can't win, he can at least get us out alive."
Nanami considered it. She wasn't wrong.
They didn't know the full extent of Jinsuke Zenin's strength—but judging from what Satoru had said about his brother, there was no way he was just some ordinary sorcerer.
At the very least, if things went south, he could move fast enough to escape with them.
"Fine." Nanami nodded.
The two set off toward the source of the battle.
A few minutes later, they arrived.
Jinsuke stood at the edge of a clearing, arms crossed, watching with an amused look.
In the center, a massive baboon—easily three meters tall, its entire body covered in shaggy white fur—was snarling, locked in a standoff with a single human figure.
When Riko and Nanami saw who it was, both froze.
"Suguru Geto!?"
He was dressed in dark monk's robes, his expression eerily calm—the very same Suguru Geto that Jujutsu High had branded a Curse User and sentenced to death.
"Well, if it isn't Riko and Nanami."
Suguru's tone was casual, almost amused. He'd sensed two sorcerers fighting earlier, but he hadn't expected them to be familiar faces.
"Huh? You're here too?" His gaze flicked toward Jinsuke and, for a brief second, his expression faltered.
If not for Riko and Nanami standing nearby, he might not have noticed Jinsuke at all—the man was standing there like a ghost, silently spectating as if none of this had anything to do with him.
"Geto! Why'd you do it? Tell me you were framed!" Riko demanded, voice trembling.
She still couldn't accept it. No matter how many times Satoru and Shoko told her the truth, she refused to believe it—not without hearing it from him.
How could someone change that much, that fast?
Suguru smiled faintly. "Sorry, Riko. Everything I've done—I chose it myself."
He turned toward Jinsuke. "Actually, I should thank you. Your words last time helped me sort out my thoughts. They gave me the resolve to finally do what I want."
"Huh?"
Jinsuke blinked. "Whoa, whoa, hold up. Don't drag me into this. Your choices are your fault, not mine."
He raised a hand as if fending off a false accusation. "If anyone's to blame, it's Yuki Tsukumo. Not me."
"Wait, what?!" Riko's eyes widened as she swung toward him. "Are you saying you had something to do with him turning into a Curse User?!"
Jinsuke threw his hands up, exasperated. "No, it's not like that!"
"It's true," Suguru interrupted calmly. "It's not his fault. He just helped me realize a few things."
Instead of wallowing in doubt or despair, he'd chosen action. To do what he believed was right.
And right now, that meant erasing every non-sorcerer from existence.
The massive white-furred baboon before them—this semi–Special Grade vengeful spirit—was part of that plan.
Born from generations of fear, whispered through bedtime horror stories to terrify village children, the creature was on the verge of evolving into a true Special Grade.
That was why it had been sending its minions to devour villagers—to feed on their terror and accelerate its transformation.
Of course, that also made it the perfect target for Suguru Geto's next acquisition.
If he could absorb this baboon king, plus the army of underlings it commanded—it'd be a solid deal.
"ROAAAR!!"
The white-furred beast howled to the sky, its cry answered by hundreds more as the forest came alive with motion. Every lesser baboon surged toward Geto, shrieking, claws tearing through the air.
In its eyes, only Geto posed a threat.
The other three? The two young sorcerers barely radiated enough Cursed Energy to matter—and the man with none at all might as well have been a rock on the roadside.
"Tch. Semi–Special Grade?" Suguru sneered. "Give up and submit—that's your only choice."
He didn't even bother to take it seriously.
After all, a Jujutsu Sorcerer's rank was typically higher than a Cursed Spirit's of the same grade.
A Grade 1 Sorcerer could exorcise a Grade 1 Curse. A Special Grade could destroy a Special Grade.
And this one?
Just a Semi–Special Grade with delusions of grandeur.
To Suguru Geto, it was nothing more than another specimen waiting to be claimed.