A Grade 1 Cursed Spirit — don't let the label fool you into writing it off.
Right now it just looks pathetically weak next to Mahiko, like a speed bump in human form. But a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit appearing at the very start of the story — back when Megumi Fushiguro and Yuji Itadori first crossed paths — would have been enough to back both of them into a corner with no way out.
And for a boy who had held his Jujutsu Technique for less than half a day, this Grade 1 Cursed Spirit was a genuinely dangerous opponent. One with serious credentials.
"This is an earthquake disaster drill. All students please evacuate through the fire exits immediately…"
The school PA system crackled to life.
It was Mahiko's voice.
While simultaneously casting a Curtain over the entire school, Mahiko used Cursed Speech through the broadcast to hypnotize all the ordinary students, guiding them out and away from the building — preventing them from getting caught up in whatever battle was coming.
She had deliberately made the Curtain large. Very large. Any Jujutsu sorcerer in the area would definitely notice it.
But that was fine.
She wanted the sorcerers to notice. That was exactly what her plan called for. She wanted them to come here — to witness what she needed them to witness.
Back in the office, Junpei heard Mahiko's voice through the announcement.
Miss Mahiko.
She's helping evacuate the students, which means she's nearby, watching.
The boy let out a quiet breath of relief, then pulled his full attention back to the spider monster standing in front of him.
To put it plainly, Yoshino Junpei's current Cursed Energy level was that of an entry-level Grade 2 sorcerer at best.
Technique control: low.
Cursed Energy output: low.
Combat experience: virtually zero. This was, in fact, the very first time he had ever faced a real opponent.
Under normal circumstances, any sorcerer facing a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit would be in for a brutal, grinding fight — even if they won, they'd come out the other side so badly wrecked their own parents wouldn't recognize them.
But Yoshino Junpei was different.
His Jujutsu Technique was "Mahiko-brand, premium edition."
The Cursed Spirit was bewildered — its usually unstoppable attack style had just been tanked with laughable ease.
The powerfully-built figure narrowed his eyes. "ORA!" The blue Shikigami at his side let out a thunderous roar, swung its other fist, and drove it straight up into the spider Cursed Spirit's jaw.
BOOM!!
The spider Cursed Spirit was sent flying by the single punch, its lower jaw caving inward, its head snapping violently backward. The skull smashed into the ceiling above, sending a shower of debris raining down.
The female teacher nearby stood frozen in stunned disbelief.
Having been attacked by the Cursed Spirit, she could perceive a rough, faint silhouette of the spider — but she couldn't see the Shikigami standing beside Junpei.
All she could see was the spider Cursed Spirit inexplicably going airborne, shrieking and flailing as it was beaten senseless.
"Don't be surprised," Junpei said, adjusting the brim of his hat. He wasn't at all bothered by the teacher's expression of utter shock. "After all, the person who taught me said — only a Stand User can see another Stand. Go somewhere safe."
The PA system repeated the announcement, this time with the hypnotic suggestion aimed at the teachers. The female teacher turned and fled toward the exit, and Junpei refocused entirely on the Cursed Spirit.
Stand ability, Stand User… All of that was knowledge Miss Mahiko had given him.
He was deeply grateful to her.
Because Mahiko hadn't just given him power — she had taught him a great deal about "Unusual Beings," "Magical Girls," and "Stand Users." It had all been genuinely, tremendously useful.
And most importantly: the power Mahiko had given him was genuinely strong.
Every inch of the Shikigami's body coiled with terrifying force, compressed like springs loaded to the breaking point. An opponent that would send any novice sorcerer into a cold sweat of dread had nothing to offer against this Shikigami's raw, savage strength — it simply got hammered.
Overwhelming force. Devastating results. That was all there was to it.
"SKREEEE!!——"
The monster lunged. This time it was furious — throwing everything it had at him.
"ORA!"
Completely useless.
The blue Shikigami erupted with monstrous strength, its fist a bolt of lightning. One punch straight to the creature's face — blood sprayed in all directions.
The sheer force of the impact blew the spider Cursed Spirit clean through the window. It crashed down into the schoolyard below, cratering the ground on impact.
Without a moment's hesitation, Junpei vaulted through the shattered window frame, his black coat billowing and snapping violently in the open air.
He dropped from the third floor and landed solidly in the schoolyard, the ground fracturing under his feet.
His physical durability had reached a genuinely frightening level.
The Cursed Spirit dragged itself out of the crater, all eight limbs trembling, barely beginning to mount a counterattack —
"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA——!!"
Junpei was already on top of it.
The blue Shikigami unleashed a relentless barrage of punches. One, two, three… each blow carried a gust of wind in its wake, blurring into countless afterimages, every strike detonating with explosive force.
The Cursed Spirit desperately tried to shield itself with its arms and tentacles, but the Shikigami hit hard enough to punch straight through the guard — flesh and arms alike — each impact tearing loose chunks of wet, visceral debris.
Under the continuous assault, the Cursed Spirit staggered backward step by step. Two of its limbs were broken off entirely. Several of the eyes dotting its abdomen shattered. Slick fluid sprayed across the ground in every direction.
Finally, the blue Shikigami raised one leg and drove a kick straight into the Cursed Spirit's body.
BANG!!
The spider Cursed Spirit was launched backward again, rolling across the ground in a series of chaotic, tumbling somersaults before grinding to a halt.
"Hm?"
Junpei frowned slightly.
He suddenly realized his feet weren't moving. He looked down — spider silk. It had appeared at some point without him noticing, plastered his soles firmly to the ground.
Was that the Cursed Spirit just now?
When?
That thing managed to secretly lay spider silk at its absolute limit… while rolling around on the ground getting beaten half to death?
Junpei's brow furrowed.
But it wasn't over.
Skreeee… skreeee…
The Cursed Spirit across the yard trembled, dragging its shattered limbs upright. Its ruined mouthparts split wide open, and it launched a torrential stream of spider silk directly at Junpei.
So this was the spider Cursed Spirit's real attack pattern.
Junpei commanded the Shikigami to raise its arms as a shield.
But the silk hit the arms and stuck fast — and kept sticking, kept layering, kept building up, until Junpei's entire lower body was wrapped in a dense, suffocating cocoon of webbing.
The powerfully-built figure's brow creased.
The silk was a real problem.
His Shikigami was enormously powerful, but it had one critical weakness — it couldn't stray too far from its user.
If the distance stretched too far, the muscles packed into the Shikigami's frame would come apart, reverting back to its loose, jellyfish-like state.
And a spider with a long-range attack option was, consequently, a serious issue.
This thing had taken a savage beating — but if it could simply sit at a safe distance and keep spinning webs to immobilize him, there was a real chance Junpei would end up completely locked down, unable to move at all.
The spider Cursed Spirit let out a harsh, grating sound that might have been laughter. It seemed to think it had found the black-clad man's weakness.
But in the next instant, Junpei said nothing. He simply extended the Shikigami's hand toward the spider Cursed Spirit, index and middle fingers pressed together, leveled like a barrel.
Fingertip aimed directly at the spider Cursed Spirit's forehead.
"Meteor Finger," Junpei said quietly.
The spider monster's laughter died instantly.
Fwoosh—
The blue Shikigami's two fingers shot forward in an instant.
Like a switchblade snapping open on a spring.
All the stored elastic energy released in a single heartbeat — two blue fingertips crossed roughly thirty meters of open air and struck the spider Cursed Spirit dead center on its already thoroughly pulverized face, right between the eyes.
Like a spear driving straight through its skull.
Splat——
Blood everywhere.
The blue fingertips punched all the way through, bursting out the back of the spider Cursed Spirit's head in a trail of black fragments and thick, viscous blood.
After being skewered through the brow, the spider Cursed Spirit took a second or two to process what had happened.
Then it started screaming.
Junpei lowered his eyes slightly, and retracted the Shikigami's extended fingers.
"Meteor Finger."
That was his only long-range attack — and the one technique Mahiko had drilled into him again and again, telling him no matter what happened, never forget this move.
By instantly releasing the force stored within the Shikigami's spring-loaded structure, it could extend a part of the Shikigami's body in a flash, striking at range.
It couldn't be used in rapid succession, but as an ambush technique, its effectiveness was peerless.
"SKREEEEEE!!——"
The spider Cursed Spirit's eight shattered limbs thrashed wildly, rolling across the ground in agony, its screams climbing higher and more desperate with every second.
Devastated by that final strike, it lost all will to fight entirely. Shrieking in anguish, it began dragging its broken body toward the edge of the school grounds, fleeing.
It didn't make it.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
One step. One step. Steady, deliberate footfalls.
Across the schoolyard, a blond man in a suit and sunglasses was walking calmly forward, a blunt blade wrapped in cloth strips held loosely in one hand.
Nanami had arrived — having spotted the conspicuous Curtain, he had made his way here in time.
And he had walked straight into the fleeing spider Cursed Spirit's path.
The man raised his hand. Cursed Energy condensed along the blunt blade.
He lifted it high.
He brought it down.
A single stroke — cleaved straight through the already critically wounded Cursed Spirit's skull.
The spider Cursed Spirit's massive body split in two, flesh and fluid erupting outward before rapidly disintegrating into ash that drifted apart in the open air.
Nanami raised his head. His gaze crossed the settling ash and fixed on the figure standing across the yard.
The Cursed Spirit was dead — but the genuinely troublesome matter wasn't the Cursed Spirit.
The more pressing issue was that stranger standing in the distance, a blue Shikigami at his side.
An unfamiliar sorcerer? Never seen him before. Unaffiliated?
Nanami was on guard, turning the question over in his mind.
The blue Shikigami's user, meanwhile, gave a sharp, straining pull — and tore free of the webbing wrapped around him with a resounding rip.
Junpei adjusted the brim of his hat. The blue Shikigami hovered at his side.
The two stood roughly forty meters apart across the open schoolyard, staring each other down.
Junpei noticed Nanami's gaze land on his Shikigami.
Ah. I see.
He can see my Stand. Which means he's a Stand User too.
So this is what Miss Mahiko meant when she said "Stand Users are drawn to each other."
"So," Junpei said, cutting straight to the point. "Are you a Stand User too?"
Nanami blinked.
He stared in baffled confusion, turned the words over several times, and slowly produced a question mark.
"What's a Stand User?"
What on earth are you talking about?
____
👻🔥Here: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: COTE: Confessing to Sakayanagi From the Start
We have set new community milestones:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for all readers