Chapter 9

I hate insects. All of them. That glossy sheen they have, the feeling when you touch them—absolutely unbearable. Still, I wonder… when I become a proper old lady someday, will I be able to crush them without hesitation with my shoe?

Anyway, the name’s Naoya Zenin, currently teamed up with a genius gorilla in a makeshift combo. And our opponent… Kurourushi.

There are plenty of things to hate about bugs. What people find the worst probably differs from person to person. Some can’t stand the sound they make. Others are fine seeing them but can’t touch them. Some just can’t deal with them suddenly appearing nearby.

But the thing I find the creepiest is—

When there are a whole lot of them.

"No, no, no—this is way too disgusting! And they’re way too fast!"

Accelerating with Projection Sorcery, I pour cursed energy into a stone and throw it sideways. A sharp clap echoes, and our positions swap. Barely—just barely—we escape the black, roiling torrent.

"There’s no way I’m squishing them one by one. We’re seriously lacking firepower. Should’ve brought Jin’ichi along after all… the look on his face would’ve matched this perfectly…"

"However, there is good news, Miss Zenin. Their numbers are large, but in the end they are nothing more than a rabble. If they swallow you whole, it will be instant death, but crushing them is simple."

"Well, they’re basically cockroaches in the end. Isn’t there some convenient sorcerer around who has no flesh to eat and happens to have plenty of firepower?"

"As expected of a senior. The optimal solution. Mechamaru—your turn!"

Bang! A crisp sound echoes.

A cursed corpse? That thing? Sure, it doesn’t have flesh to be eaten, but the kind of firepower needed to sweep these away—

"I’ll show you!"

"Grand Exorcism Cannon!!"

So he can do it, huh… Seriously, the students from the technical college are impressive. I wish the idiot sorcerer currently being eaten by that big brute would learn from them. The cursed corpse kid’s hard work is about to go completely to waste.

"...Aoi-kun, do you have any counter for a Domain?"

"I have mastered the New Shadow Style."

"Good enough. Hold out for a minute."

The black torrent begins to form again, feeding on that piece of trash as bait. Worse, it’s learned—it’s scattering in every direction. If we let this one escape, we’re done for. The cockroaches feed on trash, multiply, then feed on more trash in an endless loop. At that point we’d have no choice but to call in Satoru himself.

I form a hand seal and steady my breathing.

Overwrite the world with your own ego.

"—Domain Expansion: Time Cell Moon Palace."

"New Shadow Style: Simple Domain—"

Before my domain fully unfolds, Aoi-kun shields himself. That way I don’t have to bother selecting targets for my technique. Honestly, he’s ridiculously capable.

The insects that were about to spread throughout the city are trapped within my domain. To remove the obstacle standing between them and their meal, they switch their target to me—

"Too late, you bugs."

Under the effects of Projection Sorcery, if you fail to construct movement within 1/24 of a second, you freeze for one full second.

Inside this domain, however, the requirement expands all the way down to the cellular level.

The result?

Every single cell freezes separately for one second each—shattering the body into complete ruin. Creatures like these bugs could never understand that moving even slightly would be fatal.

And besides—

"You thought standing still would save you? That’s adorable, you piece of trash."

Living organisms cannot stop moving while alive. Circulatory systems with beating hearts, respiration, digestion—all of it falls under the effect of my technique inside this domain. Heartbeats. Breathing. Digestive activity.

No one in this world can perform those within 1/24 of a second.

…Well, except Satoru.

Anyway, against anyone without domain countermeasures, this is my trump card. I’m confident it can completely shut them down on its own.

I could only maintain it until Aoi-kun’s Simple Domain collapsed, but the damage dealt is more than enough to decide the battle. At this point, technique burnout doesn’t matter. Crush the head and it’s over.

"Good work, Aoi-kun. Now let’s just wrap this up and call it overtime—"

"Miss Zenin!"

—My miscalculations were twofold.

The first was assuming this thing was a cursed spirit specialized purely in reproduction. I thought it had some kind of cockroach-manipulation technique, but in truth…

The swarm itself was part of the same single curse.

I only learned that after the battle.

The second—

"I! LIKE! THE TASTE! OF! MEAT!!"

"...You piece of trash!"

It had already finished reproducing.

Parthenogenesis.

The cursed spirit lunges to bite me. My reflexive punch is blocked by something like a butcher’s knife.

A cursed tool? No—cursed spirits wouldn’t use something like that.

Which means it’s part of its body—

Clap.

The rubble that swapped places with me is split apart by the blade. Something is planted into the ground where it struck—

An egg.

A cockroach bursts out and begins writhing.

"So if you block it, you get eaten from the inside, huh? Fine by me…!"

Question: How do you exorcise a cursed spirit whose attacks cannot be blocked?

Answer—

Crush it with speed.

My technique accelerates me by tracing pre-set movements. The drawback is that it’s weak to counters. Even if I design movements anticipating a counterattack, there’s a limit. So to compensate, I incorporate motions where I touch the opponent.

"Making me touch something this disgusting…"

One second of freeze.

During that gap, I stack the technique.

Acceleration. Freeze. Acceleration—

The freeze effect of Projection Sorcery occurs when a target fails to construct movement within 1/24 of a second or performs a movement that violates physical laws.

In other words—

If they succeed, they can use my technique to accelerate as well.

From the insect that should have been frozen comes an unavoidable strike.

Clap.

"Don’t forget that I’m here."

The exact moment when one frame of movement ends and the next is being set—the one and only opening.

With the position swap, the rotten cockroach’s knife misses. Instead, I gain the perfect chance to blow a hole straight through its defenseless back.

If you can’t capitalize on an opportunity like this, you might as well quit being a jujutsu sorcerer.

Power is speed and weight.

My fist—accelerated to maximum velocity—comes crashing down on its head.

Black sparks erupt, celebrating our victory.

"Haah… damn, that was exhausting. Terrible matchup. I’ll remember this, Suguru… no, you rotten bangs…"

"Miss Zenin. Are you injured?"

"Nothing that can’t heal with a little spit. More importantly—can you call that cursed corpse kid?"

"You mean to incinerate the remains? …Wait. Remains?"

"Hm? …Huh?"

I smashed its head with a Black Flash at maximum speed.

There’s no way that didn’t exorcise it.

Then why hasn’t it dispersed into residual cursed energy…?!

"Mechamaru!"

"At least explain before you call me—Triple Grand Exorcism Cannon!!"

By the way—have you ever heard the story that cockroaches release pheromones when they die? I’m no entomologist, so I don’t know if that’s actually true. But what matters right now is that there’s a shared belief all across Japan: even if you kill cockroaches, they just keep multiplying.

Just before the cursed energy finishes burning everything away, something tears open the corpse—and from within, that black torrent spills out again.

Thanks to the cursed corpse kid, we managed to burn away a good portion of them. Even so, the remaining numbers are still more than enough to devour a low-level sorcerer, and if left alone they might multiply endlessly.

Swap positions and run?
Pointless. That would only let us escape.

Domain Expansion—can I manage it with the cursed energy I have left? There’s no time to think. It’s a gamble. I form the Kigeiten hand sign—

"...Seems like today’s the kind of day I keep getting saved by my juniors. Maybe I’ve gotten rusty?"

"Max Elephant!"

An elephant shikigami appears overhead, crushing the insects beneath its weight while the rest are washed away in a flood of water. The lack of wide-area attacks is the weakness of Projection Sorcery. Maybe I should look into a more energy-efficient way to deploy my Domain.

"Perfect timing, Megumi-kun. I wouldn’t mind if you hugged me, you know?"

"Is this really the time to be joking?"

His judgment in battle, the versatility of his technique, his quick thinking… once he enrolls at the technical college, he’ll probably rank up in no time. Unlike Maki-chan, he likely won’t have weird interference holding him back.

"Aoi-kun, can I leave the big one to you? I’d like to believe there aren’t any more special grades around."

"Leave it to me. I can’t let the women do all the work. I need to make it in time for the special broadcast as well."

Even though his technique is completely support-oriented, this kid really goes all out. It’s like taking Ranta-kun and turning him into someone who can fight bare-knuckle. At that point, isn’t it just a straight-up superior version?

"So, Megumi-kun… how about some overtime with me? If you’re tired, you can fall back. That one attack earlier already contributed plenty."

Back home, maybe Jin’ichi-kun would’ve been able to deal with something like that. Uncle Ogi might seem like he’d have the advantage with flames, but honestly I can only imagine him losing. He’d probably yell something like, "Come at me, you insects!" and then get eaten by the swarm from behind.

"I can still fight."

"Alright then, let’s go. If you’ve got any shikigami you’re not used to yet, try them out against the rabble."

Aoi-kun and Megumi-kun don’t seem like they’d get along very well. It’d be nice if Megumi loosened up a bit more. For now though, maybe it’s better just to keep them physically separated.

"Our battle is only just beginning!"

"Please don’t say things that sound like a bad omen."

Having someone around to play the straight man is nice.

The cursed spirits in Shinjuku and Kyoto have been exterminated. The curse users who appeared managed to escape, but their leader—the rotten bangs… I mean, Suguru-kun—was taken down by Satoru. Okkotsu-kun, the one we were assigned to protect, is safe too.

All things considered, it’s fair to say the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons ended in victory for us jujutsu sorcerers. As for the Zenin family, Aoi-kun and I exorcised a special grade, so our reputation remains intact.

Apparently there was a curse user in Shinjuku who managed to stall Satoru all by themselves… what kind of monster would that have to be? I’d like to hear how they pulled that off. Personally, I can’t imagine being able to hold Satoru back even for a moment. Maybe if I made my technique recognize "Gojo Satoru," including Infinity, as the target and froze him…?

…No, he’d probably just move in perfect 1/24-second intervals and that’d be the end of it.

"So Megumi-kun, you’ll be enrolling at the technical college soon… if we end up on missions together, I’ll be counting on you?"

"Yeah… but would I really get sent on missions where a Grade 1 is involved?"

"The way they assign missions at the college is pretty sloppy. Though it might depend on how many outside missions the Zenin family decides to take."

Considering Sukuna’s incarnation is bound to happen sooner or later, I can’t help but feel a little overprotective… but judging from today, maybe I’m worrying too much. If he manages to subdue Mahoraga, that’d be perfect. If someone pulled that off, they’d instantly be recognized as the strongest after Satoru.

"Oh, by the way, Megumi-kun—do you have a type of woman you like? Men are fine too."

"I don’t want to tell you, Naoya-san."

"Eh? Do you hate me that much?"