"Soon! Just a little bit more!"
Rin's consciousness was pulled back and forth in intense pain; every breath felt like swallowing shards of glass.
His school uniform had long been soaked in blood, dark red stains dripping from the hem to form small puddles on the ground. Wounds of all sizes covered his body, with shards of white bone embedded in gashes so deep they reached the bone.
But his eyes were startlingly bright, his Crimson Sharingan locked onto the Cursed Spirit's movements.
Just as the Bone Armor Cursed Spirit's arm blade slashed down with a whistling wind, Rin suddenly ducked, sliding almost flush with the ground. The sharp bone blade grazed his scalp, taking with it a few strands of blood-stained hair.
"Heh—ah!"
The anger and unwillingness accumulated in his chest suddenly exploded, and Rin let out a beast-like roar.
The black arm blade on his right hand was wrapped in thick, dark red Cursed Energy. Using the momentum of his slide, he slashed at the Cursed Spirit's abdomen with all his might!
Puchi!
The crisp sound of the sharp blade entering flesh was extremely piercing.
Dark purple Cursed Spirit blood, mixed with fragments of white bone, sprayed into the air like a rainstorm, splashing onto Rin's face and body.
He had finally made this arrogant Cursed Spirit taste the sensation of bleeding!
The intense pain in its abdomen drove the Cursed Spirit into a complete frenzy.
Instead of retreating, it lunged forward. A "creak-creak" sound of grinding bones came from its throat again, and three glinting bone spikes instantly shot out, aiming straight for Rin's face!
The distance was too close! Rin had no time to manipulate his hair for defense and could only instinctively raise his right arm to block with the black arm blade.
Clang! The bone spikes slammed into the arm blade. The massive force made his arm go numb, and the arm blade was instantly covered in cracks.
But the Cursed Spirit's attack wasn't over.
A fierce light surged in its eyes as it pulled back the arm holding the bone blade, then slashed straight at Rin's abdomen with a whistling sound that tore through the air. This strike was so heavy and powerful that if it hit, Rin would surely die!
Rin's pupils constricted. His body seemed to be pulled by invisible threads as he suddenly twisted to the side.
He kicked off the ground hard, spinning in the air like a top and barely avoiding that lethal strike.
The blade edge grazed his clothes and slammed into the ground with a "clank," sending sparks flying and soil splashing as a deep trench split open in the earth.
But before he could stabilize himself mid-air, the Cursed Spirit's following fist smashed toward him like a heavy hammer, accompanied by a dull whistling sound. With nowhere to exert force in mid-air, Rin could only instinctively raise his left arm to block.
Bang!
The dull thud was so loud it made his eardrums ache.
The fist slammed solidly into Rin's left arm. The immense force traveled through his arm to his chest, and he flew through the air like a broken kite, crashing heavily into the White Bone Cage behind him!
Crack!
The bone pillars cracked with spiderweb-like fissures upon impact. Rin tumbled to the ground, and metallic-tasting blood immediately overflowed from his mouth.
The black hair wrapped around his right arm lost its Cursed Energy support and scattered back to its original soft form. His left arm was twisted at a bizarre angle; the flesh at the break was turned outward, and white bone fragments pierced through the fabric, looking particularly jarring on his blood-stained arm.
Rin lay prone on the ground, his chest heaving violently, every breath bringing a shattered sense of pain.
His sternum, which hadn't fully healed to begin with, was now like a tile crushed by a heavy weight, irregularly caved inward. With even the slightest movement, bone-chilling pain spread through his nerves across his entire body.
He let out a suppressed groan. Not daring to use his broken left arm, he used only his intact right hand to prop himself up on the ground, slowly straightening his body.
The moment his back leaned against the thick bone pillar, a sudden surge rose in his throat. With a muffled "Heh—" sound, blood with a heavy metallic scent sprayed out, landing on the ground and mixing with the blood seeping from his other wounds, spreading into a bottomless red stain.
"Cough... cough, cough..."
A series of dry coughs were dragged from deep in his throat, and only then did Rin feel the tightness in his chest ease slightly.
Forcing down the intense pain from all over his body, he looked toward the Cursed Spirit. Its condition was no better; a large gash had been slashed across its abdomen, dark purple blood pouring out continuously. Even its majestic bone armor was hacked to pieces, with cracks splitting open in multiple places.
The Cursed Spirit was currently kneeling on one knee, surrounded by faint blue Cursed Energy, clearly using its remaining energy to repair the wound on its abdomen.
Rin knew that a Cursed Spirit's body was made of Cursed Energy; as long as it had enough, it could heal wounds quickly. But seeing its struggling posture, it likely didn't have much Cursed Energy left.
At this thought, the corners of Rin's tightly pursed lips suddenly curled upward.
The smile was initially somewhat bleak, as if squeezed out from nerves numbed by pain, but it soon took on the sharpness of a hunter locking onto its prey. His eyebrows twitched slightly, and even the wet blood foam on his lips seemed to come alive.
"...It worked."
His voice was faint but carried an unquestionable certainty. His dark eyes were frighteningly bright, and the smile rooted on his face, mixed with his disheveled state and bloodstains, made him look like a lone wolf in a desperate situation that had finally waited for its prey to exhaust its strength.
On the rooftop, Miguel raised an eyebrow as he watched the blood-covered Rin on the playground, his tone carrying a hint of curiosity and confusion:
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Suguru, still not going to act? This kid seems to have gone mad. He's been beaten into this state, yet he's still smiling."
He rubbed his bald head and added, "Could his brain have been damaged?"
"And looking at the situation, he's clearly destined to lose." Miguel pointed at the kneeling Cursed Spirit. "Now is the perfect time for you to 'hero saving the beauty.' Why aren't you going?"
Despite Miguel's urging, Geto Suguru made no move.
Leaning against the railing, his eyes were fixed on Rin's figure. His fingers unconsciously rubbed his cuff as he spoke slowly:
"No, Miguel. I feel that the boy hasn't lost yet."
"How is that possible?" Miguel shook his head vigorously, his tone firm. "That Cursed Spirit's Cursed Energy is indeed almost depleted, but this kid doesn't have much left either! Look at him—his left arm is broken, his sternum is caved in, and he can barely even stand up. How can he fight?"
Geto Suguru remained noncommittal, simply asking back calmly:
"But what if he can make the bones in his arm and chest grow back?"
Miguel was stunned for a moment, then, as if hearing a joke, he shook his head and a smile tugged at his lips:
"Impossible! He doesn't know Reverse Cursed Technique, so how could..." Halfway through, he suddenly stopped, a flash of realization in his eyes. "You mean? Those eyes that can copy a Cursed Spirit's Cursed Technique?"
Geto Suguru didn't answer, only tilting his chin to signal him to keep watching.
On the playground, the Cursed Spirit finally used its last bit of Cursed Energy to repair the wound on its abdomen.
The Cursed Spirit slowly stood up and walked toward Rin with stumbling steps.
When it saw the smile on Rin's face, it was clearly taken aback, its tone filled with surprise:
"What are you laughing at, Jujutsu Sorcerer? You don't actually think I'm that badly injured, do you?"
"Haha..." Rin chuckled a few times. Instead of answering, he said mockingly:
"I'm curious, why haven't you fixed that 'turtle shell' of yours yet? Could it be... that you can't do it anymore?"
The Cursed Spirit looked down at its tattered bone armor but didn't get angry. Instead, it tilted its head, its tone carrying a sort of bestowed pity:
"So what? Even without my armor, what can you do?" It pointed at Rin's left arm. "Look at your broken arm. You can't even stand up right now. Do you have any way left to stop me?"
Hearing this, the smile on Rin's face vanished instantly, like a spark being snuffed out.
He slowly raised his eyes. The Sharingan, which had faded due to Cursed Energy consumption, suddenly re-emerged. The crimson Double Tomoe spun rapidly as he glared at the Cursed Spirit. His expression no longer held its previous strangeness, leaving only undisguised coldness, like a blade about to be unsheathed.
The sudden change made the Cursed Spirit take a sudden step back, an inexplicable chill rising in its heart.
What was going on? How could this human, who could barely stand, still burst forth with such terrifying momentum?
Rin's gaze was locked onto the Cursed Spirit. He slowly raised his left arm, which was twisted at a bizarre angle, and said coldly:
"Hey, are you talking about this?"
In the next second, a tooth-aching "creak—" sound abruptly rang out on the playground.
The dislocated bone seemed to be guided by an invisible hand. The white bone fragments aligned and merged bit by bit, and the bones beneath the flesh writhed and grew frantically.
Within just a few seconds, the originally twisted left arm gradually returned to its natural form, and the flesh at the break also healed rapidly under the nourishment of Cursed Energy.
Simultaneously, a dull sound of bones cracking came from his caved-in chest.
The indentation swelled slowly like an inflating balloon. The collapsed sternum reset and healed within his body, and the originally gruesome depression gradually smoothed out.
Even the wounds on other parts of his body inflicted by the Cursed Spirit were covered with a thin layer of white bone. Only the dark red bloodstains on his clothes still bore witness to the trauma just now.
The Cursed Spirit's eyes, burning with eerie blue flames, trembled violently, their light dimming as if they were about to go out.
It instinctively leaned its massive body forward, and for the first time, its originally violent face was tinged with complete astonishment.
The sharp bone blade hung in mid-air as it actually forgot its next move, simply staring fixedly at Rin, as if confirming whether it had seen correctly?!