"Suguru, doesn't this place feel exactly like some old-school dungeon crawler?"
Satoru Gojo stood before a set of heavy doors, gesturing animatedly. "Every time you open a door, a bunch of monsters jump out to attack. Each room connects to four others, and you have to follow a specific route to reach the Boss Room. Then, after you beat the boss, some old lady NPC pops up to repair your gear and offer services."
"What kind of games are you playing in your spare time?" Suguru Geto asked, standing beside him. "As sorcerers, we're supposed to go into every mission with the resolve to face death. Can you really play video games under that kind of pressure without breaking a sweat?"
"What's the big deal?" Satoru raised his hands over his head, performing a series of serious warm-up stretches. "We're the strongest!"
They actually look reliable when they're being serious, Utahime thought silently from behind them.
Shoko, on the other hand, offered no comment on their ridiculous banter.
Suddenly, Satoru spun around, his face stopping a mere inch from Utahime's. "What do you think, Utahime?"
"Wh-what?" Utahime's face flushed instantly, her heart skipping a beat in pure startlement. This jerk is way too close!
"Whoa, are you blushing?" Satoru pulled back, unfazed. "I'm asking if you don't think our party composition is just like an RPG. Suguru and I are the main DPS, Shoko is the Healer... but what about you?"
Satoru rested his chin in his hand, looking thoughtful. "Right. Utahime must be the Support. You buff allies and debuff enemies while chipping in a tiny bit of damage. Basically, what's known as the 'Wild Card'—or the useless one."
"Show some respect, you brat! I'm your senior!"
As a girl from a traditional family of shrine servants who had received a strict education at Kyoto Jujutsu High, Utahime wasn't a "street-smart" gamer like Satoru. Her hobbies usually involved reading popular romance light novels, flower arrangement, or tea ceremonies. She didn't fully grasp Satoru's gaming terminology, but she understood enough to know he was insulting her.
Any shred of goodwill she had felt after hearing their "confident" talk moments ago was instantly incinerated.
Unlike Hasegumo's group, which operated on pure vibes, Gojo and Geto were more calculated. Before setting out, Suguru had suggested they swap intel. Consequently, Satoru not only knew the specifics of Utahime's technique but also had a rough idea of her close-quarters combat ability.
Technique: Solo Forbidden Area After a specific period of chanting and ritualistic incantations, allies (including the user) within a designated range receive a temporary boost to their total Cursed Energy reserves and output.
"Is it really going to be like this?" Suguru Geto muttered after they had cleared three consecutive rooms of cursed spirits. "Your guess was so spot on, Satoru, you should try your luck with the lottery."
"Who do you think I am?" Satoru Gojo brushed his hair back with a cool, arrogant flick of his wrist. "I'm the head of the Gojo clan. Money is nothing but a passing cloud to me."
"In that case, my esteemed Lord Gojo..." Suguru's voice remained gentle, though the sarcasm was so thick it was practically dripping. "Would you be so kind as to use your invincible Six Eyes to tell us which door we should pick next?"
"We're underground; I don't have X-ray vision." Satoru acted as if he couldn't hear the mockery. "But since you've requested it, your merciful Lord Gojo shall assist you."
Satoru scanned the doors with his Six Eyes. "From a Cursed Energy standpoint, there's no difference. The engraved barrier techniques have masking and spatial-linking functions. They all look identical."
"So the answer is 'I can't see anything,'" Suguru Geto said, filtering out the nonsense to get to the truth. He walked up to a door, running his fingers along the recessed, engraved patterns.
"I feel like I've seen these somewhere before..." Suguru began to ponder, only to be interrupted by Satoru's sudden movement.
"Following an established framework and playing by the designer's rules is for mediocre talents," Satoru said, raising his right hand. Cursed Energy began to condense at his fingertips. "If I just destroy the entire underground labyrinth, the choice of doors won't matter. Whatever curses or curse users are hiding inside will be erased along with the walls."
"You're really the type who wouldn't mind destroying the world as long as you were strong enough, aren't you?" Utahime interjected. "You'd destroy all the clues and evidence along with it!"
"More importantly," Suguru said, placing a hand on Satoru's shoulder, "these doors function as spatial links or portals. That means we likely aren't even underneath the area where the Curtain was cast anymore."
"If we're currently beneath a major metropolitan area and you cause that level of destruction, the surface buildings would collapse. It would cause a massive civilian panic."
"Tch. This is why I say who cares about the Curtain. Normal people can't see Cursed Energy or spirits anyway. We could just blame it on a gas line explosion or an earthquake later."
Despite his dismissive tone, Satoru retracted the Blue he was about to fire. Even if he acted like he didn't care about the rules, he would always listen to his best friend's counsel. Forgetting the rules was one thing; actively disregarding his friend was another.
"Fine then. The story of the noble Lord Gojo and his sidekicks adventuring through an unknown dungeon continues!" Satoru quickly bounced back to his playful state, picking a door at random and strolling through.
Does he really think he's in a game? What a carefree mindset, Suguru thought as he followed closely behind.
"Do we not even get names?!" A fuming Utahime grabbed Shoko's arm and followed Suguru into the unknown.
"Is that the 'Six Eyes' kid from the Gojo family?"
A stout, middle-aged curse user stared at the monitor with wide, terrified eyes. "The job I signed up for did not include dealing with that monster!"
"I'm not asking you to throw your life away. Just observe if our 'creations' can manage to scratch him," said a white-haired man with a stitched scar across his forehead.
"Well... if that's all..." Before the man could finish, Satoru Gojo on the screen seemed to sense something. He turned and stared directly into the camera, flashing a flamboyant, knowing smirk.
"I'm out!" The curse user was so terrified his chair flipped over. He scrambled on the floor, cold sweat pouring down his face. "If he finds out I was involved in this... I'm dead! I'm a dead man!"
"Is that so? Then finish your remaining tasks and you may leave." Kenjaku didn't care if the man stayed or went.
He's just a tool to test the Six Eyes. There are plenty more like him. For now, the priority is gauging Satoru Gojo's current ceiling.
And that other one... the one who broke the cycle. I need to see if he can be used to sever the bond between the Six Eyes and the Star Plasma Vessel.
"Have we finally reached the Boss?" Satoru Gojo raised a hand to partially shade his eyes, limiting the influx of information from the Six Eyes to ease the burden on his brain.
The continuous, non-stop fighting was starting to take a minor toll. While the intensity wasn't extreme, some rooms had contained Grade 1 curses. He had been maintaining his Infinity non-stop to prevent any surprises.
Standing before the final door was a stone pedestal. Crouched upon it was a beast resembling a tiger with wings—menacing, with fangs bared. It was the likeness of Qiongqi, one of the Four Perils.
"We've cleared about twenty rooms. Based on our turns, the labyrinth seems to be a large square," Suguru Geto noted. As a summoner who used Cursed Spirit Manipulation, his mental burden wasn't as heavy as Satoru's, leaving him room to keep a mental map. "This room on the left should be the exact center of the maze."
"Then what are we waiting for? Exorcise this thing and let's reach the end." Satoru didn't move from his relaxed posture, clearly not intending to strike first.
"Cursed Spirit Manipulation—Daruma!" Suguru sensed the beast's energy wasn't particularly high—certainly not at the Special Grade level. He chose his Grade 1 Daruma curse to handle it. It was better to save his trump cards for whatever lay behind the door.
A massive curse erupted into the room. It had a single eye protruding from its forehead and wore a string of prayer beads, looking like a stout, grotesque monk. It swung a massive arm with crushing force at the beast's face.
However, a gust of wind tore across the floor. With a single swipe of its claws, the Qiongqi curse knocked the Daruma flat.
"What? Its energy is lower than the Daruma's... but its physical stats are off the charts," Suguru analyzed. He moved to recall the Daruma and summon the physical powerhouse Rainbow Dragon, but Satoru stopped him.
"Don't use the dragon." Satoru lowered his hand, and with it, the sunglasses he'd been wearing. His brilliant blue Six Eyes locked onto the Qiongqi. "The dragon would probably bring the whole maze down."
He flashed Suguru a grin, recalling their earlier conversation. "Let's take it down with Taijutsu."
Suguru didn't reply. He simply stepped forward, his right hand out and his left tucked near his waist in a disciplined martial arts stance.
Sensing the threat from the Six Eyes, the Qiongqi bared its teeth and roared at Satoru.
Utahime realized from the brief exchange that the beast was a physical monster. During the crawl, Satoru and Suguru had left the weaker curses for her to handle, but there hadn't been a single opening for her to use her technique.
She didn't know how good these two were at hand-to-hand combat, but looking at the beast, she knew she wouldn't last a single round in a melee. She decided to finally provide support.
"Solo Forbidden Area—Activate."
As their Cursed Energy flared under the buff, Satoru Gojo made the first move. He blurred across the room, leaping into the air to drive a right hook into the beast's jaw.
Suguru Geto lunged for the creature's rear, striking at its flank to ensure it couldn't focus on either one of them.
The Qiongqi was physically strong, but its Cursed Energy was unrefined—a "fictional" curse that had only recently manifested. Faced with the coordinated assault of the "Strongest" duo, its lack of combat experience was glaring.
It flared its wings, trying to swipe at Satoru with its left claw, but hesitated because of Suguru's positioning. In that moment of mental lag, Satoru's punch connected, snapping its head back in a spray of purple-green blood.
Suguru's follow-up didn't miss either. Seeing Satoru land his hit, he clasped his hands together and delivered a massive double-fist hammer blow to the beast's back, intending to pin it to the floor.
"You've been secretly practicing, haven't you?" Satoru said as he landed, stepping forward to launch an upward kick that sent the Qiongqi airborne again.
"Look who's talking," Suguru replied, leaping slightly and driving a CE-infused fist through the beast's lower body. "One day, I'm going to beat that guy at his own game."
Ever since their crushing defeat in close-quarters combat against Hasegumo, the two had been training their Taijutsu relentlessly, hoping to one day turn the tables.
Six months wasn't a long time, but Gojo and Geto were geniuses. Their aptitude for combat was beyond logic; six months of their effort outweighed years of training for a normal person. Though they were still a far cry from a true martial arts prodigy like Hasegumo, this fight put their new skills on full display.
They shared a look and lunged back in.
Since when were these two so good at melee? Utahime realized she had worried for nothing. This Grade 1 curse had the physical stats of a Special Grade, yet it was being dismantled like a toy.
I wasted all that energy worrying about these two jerks, she thought, huffing a sigh of exasperation.
"Not bad. But at this level, he would still win easily," Kenjaku mused from the corner of the monitoring room. He stood up and waved a hand, causing a desk full of documents to incinerate. "It's too early for them to learn about me."
"On to the next step, then." He rubbed his chin and vanished into the shadows.
"Those bastards...!" A rare expression of pure fury appeared on Suguru Geto's face.
Satoru and Shoko didn't look any better, while Utahime turned her head away, unable to look at the sight before them.
After exorcising the Qiongqi and pushing through the final doors, the quartet found themselves in a massive, plaza-like space. The left side was partitioned into small, cramped cubicles. Inside were people—clothed in rags, their expressions numb and vacant. Several men in black robes stood over them with whips, shouting orders.
"I remember now." Suguru's mind felt clearer than ever as his anger peaked. He recalled the engravings on the doors. "Satoru, those patterns... they're the same as the ones at the entrance to Jujutsu High and the Cursed Warehouse."
Clap. Clap.
The sound of applause drew their attention to a man in a mask. He had purple hair tied back in a ponytail and looked to be of an indeterminate age. "To think you'd find your way here... those idiots in the monitoring room didn't even notify me. I suppose they'll be the next sacrifices for the experiment."
"Sacrifices? Experiments?" Suguru's teeth were gritted so hard they made a sickening grinding sound.
"Kill him later," Satoru said quietly. He could see Suguru's Cursed Energy beginning to leak uncontrollably—a sign that his best friend, who viewed the protection of the weak as his sacred duty, had entered a state of absolute, cold rage.
Satoru placed a hand on Suguru's waist and whispered a short sentence.
Then, he turned to the masked man, his voice sounding deceptively casual. "What's the deal here? Looks like you're cooking up something nasty."
The man didn't even bother to hide it. "Why play dumb? If you made it this far, surely you know our purpose."
"No, I don't have a clue," Satoru deadpanned.
"Our Church has invented a magnificent technology... by using barrier techniques to amplify the fear of ordinary people, we can manufacture any Cursed Spirit we desire. Once the technology is perfected, we will destroy the shackles the jujutsu world has placed upon that Great One, allowing Him to evolve to a higher dimension immediately!"
"When that time comes, sorcerers and non-sorcerers will all be the same—living under the rule of a higher plane. And we, as those closest to God, will attain supreme glory!"
Suguru Geto looked at the man—a fanatic who viewed his atrocities against innocent people as a holy crusade.
"Are you ready?" Suguru asked.
"Ready for what?" The man saw Suguru's rage, but he had no idea how powerful the boy was. Even if he did, he wouldn't have cared; as a fanatic of the Star Religious Group, he was already long past the point of sanity—making him the perfect pawn for Kenjaku.
"Ready to accept the violence of someone stronger than you."
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