Jogo looked at the security door; on it was a clear Cursed Energy seal:
[Gacrux].
This should have a tangible meaning.
If he could understand this meaning, there would surely be a way to break through the current predicament.
So, what exactly did this seal mean?
Jogo closed his eyes and calmed down, beginning to think.
Mmm.
Hmm.
Hah.
Processing...
Jogo's mind was completely blank.
"Pfft."
Suddenly, there was a faint sound of laughter.
Jogo immediately opened his lone eye in annoyance and glared forward.
Kirara was covering their mouth with their face turned to the side, their shoulders trembling slightly, as if they were holding something back.
Jogo said with a wooden face,
"Laugh if you want to..."
"Pwahahahaha!"
Kirara burst into loud laughter.
The volcano on top of Jogo's head erupted with flames as he roared with a distorted face,
"You bastard! I'll definitely burn you to ashes! I'll make sure there's nothing left of you!"
"Pfft, but, but..."
Kirara's shoulders shook as they struggled to stop laughing.
"That blank look on your face was just—even though we're in the middle of a fierce battle—but, sorry, I'm really sorry, I just couldn't help it, I couldn't hold it in! Pfft, hehe, hehehe, hahahaha!"
"Bastard!"
Jogo roared in impotent rage.
Hanami suddenly said,
[Look closely, Jogo. ]
Jogo paused.
"What's wrong?"
[Observe, think. ]
Hanami stared at Kirara's entire body, speaking in an unknown language that everyone could somehow understand.
[Look, your jujutsu isn't entirely useless. ]
Kirara's laughter stopped.
Jogo observed carefully and indeed saw the difference.
There were faint burns on Kirara's body.
But this wasn't right, because Jogo's fire technique had clearly never hit Kirara—
not even a grazing blow.
Where did the burns come from?
They should have been completely unscathed.
Then, suddenly, Jogo realized.
"...You can only redirect my power, but you are helpless against the physical phenomena triggered by my Cursed Energy, right?"
Kirara sighed.
"What a pity. I thought we could just stay like this until the end of time."
Jogo stomped hard on the ground, sending a piece of floor debris flying fiercely toward Kirara.
But they remained calm, merely glancing at the stone.
Mid-flight, the stone suddenly swerved and flew back toward Jogo.
Jogo casually crushed the stone in his hand, and in an instant, the stone melted into golden-red magma.
"It's not just Cursed Energy—even objects imbued with my Cursed Energy residue won't work."
"If it were a human, a physical throw with a hand devoid of power might work, but I am a Cursed Spirit, a being made of Cursed Energy."
"As long as I touch a physical object, it will inevitably leave residue, so I can't attack you like that."
"What a troublesome spatial control Cursed Technique."
Jogo spoke of it being a pity, but a smile appeared on his face, revealing his black teeth.
Fire Technique: Maximum Output!
"Since physical objects with my Cursed Energy residue won't work, what about energy propagation?"
"Can you also control energy that has no Cursed Energy residue?!"
Raging flames suddenly surged, but this time he did not project the fire.
He kept the flames burning quietly, then increased the temperature.
Kirara felt their eyelids grow heavy; they blinked slightly, and a drop of sweat fell from their eyelashes, instantly evaporating into steam.
They felt their mouth and throat grow parched.
Their lips became dry and cracked with the slightest contact.
The rising temperature caused mist to billow throughout the corridor.
Kirara momentarily saw a distorted Jogo;
the air was being warped by the heat, causing the light to become abnormal.
Thermal radiation—
a pure physical phenomenon.
When human flesh encounters temperatures exceeding two thousand degrees, it melts before it even burns.
For some reason, Kirara recalled this piece of knowledge.
Their head began to spin, and sweat soaked their shirt, yet they felt no stickiness.
Perhaps it was psychological, but they felt that even sweat wasn't allowed to exist now, becoming water vapor the moment it appeared.
They silently increased their Cursed Energy reinforcement.
At this, Jogo revealed a smile.
"It's effective, isn't it?" he said.
It was indeed effective, and at a rate faster than imagined.
Although a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer, Kirara was actually not skilled in physical reinforcement.
Their Cursed Technique excelled in kiting and support, but was not outstanding in a direct frontal assault.
In the past, such offensive and defensive duties were left to Kinji Hakari;
they only needed to restrict the enemy's movements or provide support at critical moments.
They were indeed skilled at kiting.
If an enemy couldn't see through their Cursed Technique, they would be reduced to impotent rage like the Cursed Spirit before them, completely helpless.
As such, they had no need for strong Cursed Energy reinforcement.
But now, the flaw of insufficient fundamentals had pushed them into a desperate situation.
A realization dawned on them.
—If this continues, I'll lose consciousness from the high temperature, and the Cursed Technique will naturally dispel.
Even worse than that, even if I force myself to stay conscious...
...I'll be unable to keep up with the rising temperature, causing spontaneous human combustion.
I'll be roasted alive.
Kirara felt it was absurd.
No enemy had ever broken their Cursed Technique in this manner.
This was the first time they had encountered such a brute-force method, as if a volcano had erupted and turned the world into a giant furnace where all of creation was reduced to ash.
"I see," Kirara suddenly spoke.
Their voice was hoarse, as the high temperature had already invaded their throat;
every word was agonizing.
"You are the manifestation of the curse formed from humanity's fear of the earth."
"Are you going to beg for mercy?"
Jogo split his mouth open, revealing his black teeth.
"No, just a comment," Kirara said quietly.
Then, suddenly, they formed hand signs.
"My Innate Technique is called Love Rendezvous."
Jogo frowned.
This was a revealing of one's technique, but things had already reached this point—
what difference would revealing the technique make?
"I can leave markers on people or objects I touch."
"There are five types of markers, each corresponding to a star in the Southern Cross constellation in reality."
"The technique can only be activated once all markers are set."
"What I mark isn't a specific person or object, but Cursed Energy itself."
"Therefore, even a Cursed Technique used by a Jujutsu Sorcerer is viewed as the same entity."
This was why Jogo's use of various Cursed Energy attacks was ignored;
no matter what kind of attack Jogo used, its fundamental composition was still Jogo's Cursed Energy.
As long as it was a technique phenomenon triggered by Jogo's Cursed Energy, it was uniformly regarded as Jogo himself.
Jogo and Hanami simultaneously recalled when Kirara had gone to pour wine for Mahito and had lightly touched their bodies.
Jogo had even glared at them then;
that was when the seals were placed.
It turned out Kirara had been prepared for battle from the very beginning.
"A marked person can interact with objects and people who have no marker or an adjacent marker."
"However, people and objects with the same marker will be attracted to each other, and a marked person cannot approach anyone or anything with a non-adjacent marker."
"If one needs to get close, they must first touch someone or something marked with an adjacent star."
People or objects with the same marker would attract each other, which was why Jogo's ranged attacks would immediately flow back once they reached a certain distance.
Kirara suddenly pointed to Jogo's waist.
"Your mark is on your waist."
"Your companion's is on the back of her calf."
Jogo reflexively pulled his clothes aside, and indeed saw a Cursed Energy seal:
[Acrux].
Hanami lifted her leg to look at the back of her calf and saw a Cursed Energy seal:
[Imai].
"If you knew anything about astronomy, you'd probably recognize my markers at a glance."
Kirara waved away the heatwave and smiled.
"The names of these markers all come from the Southern Cross."
"Although a constellation looks flat, it naturally has depth. Their distances from Earth vary."
"You see, you and your companion can approach each other freely because [Acrux] and [Imai] are adjacent stars, so you can interact however you like."
"But once you try to approach a star that isn't adjacent to yours—like me—"
Kirara showed their fingernail, which actually had a tiny Cursed Energy mark.
Because they wore painted nails, it was impossible to see without looking closely.
They had used this small trick to play everyone in the palm of their hand.
The mark on the nail was:
[Ginan].
"Perhaps you're not aware, but [Acrux] and [Ginan] are not adjacent."
"So, no matter what, you can't get close to me unless you can find the adjacent intermediate, [Mimosa]."
"Of course, [Mimosa] is well hidden and hasn't been found yet."
"That's why it's called Love Rendezvous."
"With the constellation as the standard, one can only move along a fixed path."
"To reach the destination, one must find the correct route and follow it."
"Lastly," Kirara said quietly, "including the remnants of Cursed Energy, they can also be regarded as the user themselves."
Jogo already knew this;
when he attacked Kirara with stones, it was because the stone had his Cursed Energy remnants on it that it was ineffective.
"This thermal radiation filling the corridor, although it's a physical phenomenon caused by the temperature increase from your Cursed Energy flames, the remnants of Cursed Energy are still mixed..."
"...within it, inseparable."
"Usually, of course, I can't operate these remnants because they're too minute; my precision isn't enough to handle them."
"But with my Cursed Technique revealed, I can do it!"
Jogo's pupils constricted;
he immediately understood what Kirara wanted to do.
Kirara suddenly shouted:
"The thermal radiation phenomenon triggered by you—experience it yourself!"
"This is my Love Rendezvous!"
In an instant, countless dense [Acrux] symbols emerged in the air. Those were Cursed Energy remnants invisible to the naked eye, burning quietly alongside the immense heat. Now, Love Rendezvous integrated all these remnants, surging toward Jogo like a tsunami.
Heatwaves, flashes, and explosions erupted simultaneously.
Descent!
BOOM—!!
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