Chapter 8: Hangman's Reckoning

Shin attempted to loosen the knotted rope just enough to free himself, but the curse noticed and forcefully pulled him back. This caused Shin to lose balance and fall to the ground. Now on the ground, he was dragged backward, feeling his body being lifted up from the ground.

Struggling with the tight rope, Shin was horrified to realize that the rope curse had successfully hanged him from a tree trunk. Desperate, he focused on trying to get loose before losing consciousness. But as his attempts proved fruitless, Shin started growing desperate. With only 25 seconds left before he went limp, he changed his method.

Grabbing hold of the rope, Shin decided to pull himself up to the trunk. Luckily, the rope curse didn't notice this change in focus, preoccupied with hanging him.

Hanging off the tree, Shin successfully untangled his neck before taking a deep breath. Angry, he looked around for the rope curse and found it busy hanging the bodies of dead curses.

Dropping down quietly, Shin picked up Armor Breaker and looked around for the big curse he had seen earlier. Not too long after, Shin found it jumping, trying to grab ahold of one of the hanged curses. An idea came to Shin's mind.

Shin switched his focus to the rope curse and snuck his way behind it. As it was too busy tying ropes around dead curses' necks before throwing them over trunks to hang, Shin was able to approach it within arms' length. He surprised the curse by subduing it to the ground, grabbing both its arms, and pulling them backward before getting on top of it. This resulted in the curse thrashing and struggling, but nothing could be done since its arms were restrained.

The curse, now out of breath, struggled less. Taking the opportunity, Shin used one of the ropes the curse had to bind its hands together and another rope to bind its feet, rendering the curse immobile.

Once done, the curse was angry and annoyed, viciously screaming and struggling on the ground. The scream caught the attention of the previous big curse, which shifted its attention towards the bound rope curse, completely ignoring Shin.

Another opportunity presented itself as the big curse approached closer, ignoring Shin's presence. Shin grabbed a pair of ropes and waited until he could place himself behind the big curse.

As the beast bent down to pick up the rope curse, Shin used extra force to grab the beast's hand and maneuver it behind its back to bind it as fast as he could. The beast realized what had occurred and tried desperately to free itself but gave up shortly before targeting Shin out of anger.

With its hands tied, the beast was limited in what it could do. Due to a change in balance, it tripped over. Struggling to get up, the heavy curse exhausted itself from its desperate attempts to get up while screaming. Shin wasted no time in binding its feet once the curse eventually ran out of stamina. Now with two grade 3 curses, Shin decided to use the ropes the rope curse was creating from its body to capture and round up more curses, especially massive and heavy-looking curses.

The night continued as the moon hovered, illuminating the forest top and floor. One curse after another, Shin subdued and bound, collecting and putting them in a pile that got bigger and louder with each capture.

As the morning sun rose, Shin felt a bit exhausted from wrangling with curses all night. "How many did I catch? Was it 27 or 45? Oh well, with this amount, I can finally have some fun."

Finding a comfortable area, Shin placed his staff down and picked up one of his catches. Using a strong tree trunk and rope, Shin managed to create a makeshift punching bag with live curses as the bag.

Pleased with his creation, Shin wasted no time practicing and improving his martial arts, strikes, form, and stamina. As one curse screamed and begged before getting beaten after another, Shin was able to feel himself gaining proficiency and power after every curse.

This time counting, Shin had minimized the count considerably after exorcising 35 curses. With the remaining curses totaling 25, an idea came to Shin's mind.

Smiling, Shin glanced at the newest punching bag, "Let's practice a one-inch punch, I've always wanted to be like Bruce Lee."

Initially, progress was slow, but after 5 hours, Shin managed to exert more power with each attempt. Finally, Shin was able to exorcise 5 curses on his 200th attempt.

Shin smiled widely. "This is fun. What I'm doing is for the greater good, especially since your curses cause harm to us without reason."

Tired from all the training, Shin approached one of the curses lying face flat on the ground.

Seeing Shin approaching, all the restrained curses started desperately nudging as much as they could away from Shin. The curses were so desperate they started pushing the flattened face curse closer to Shin, hoping he'd use the exile curse instead of them.

Shin, seeing this, chuckled at the curses' struggles and desperation. Standing atop the exile curse, it closed its eyes, which were filled with tears, but it later opened them wide as it felt a mass pressing down on its body.

Using the curse as a seat, Shin closed his eyes to experience the forest's hidden beauty and earthly smell. Shin's meditation was suddenly interrupted as his seat was now screaming in pain. Annoyed, Shin slapped the curse aggressively until it stopped its high-pitched screams.

Feeling rested, Shin got back up and used his seat as the next punching bag. Looking at the curse, Shin became confused. "What else do I want to practice with the remains curses? … Jabs, I want to throw lightning-fast jabs, ones that'll catch the enemy off guard."

Facing the curse, Shin got into a boxing stance and was about to throw a fast jab, but stopped in his tracks when he noticed that the curse was now crying silently as tears dripped onto the floor.

"That is not easy to look at… Anyway."

Shin launched left and right jabs while shifting his stance every now and then to effectively output stronger, explosive punches. The curse remained silent from then on, as if it had given up hope before finally being exorcised.

Shin jabbed for the next 4 hours, exorcising the remaining curses until finally the last two original curses were left, the rope and above-grade curse.

A bit annoyed from the last neck entanglement, Shin decided to hang the Rope curse exactly similar to how he was hanged, this time Shin watched the curse give out and dissipate to ensure it didn't escape.

Shin turned his attention to the last curse left, deciding to use the remaining ropes to hang the massive curse up high but not out of reach. The curse dangled and swung left to right while twirling around. Once it stopped moving, Shin picked up his staff and held it like a bat before bashing the curse like a piñata.

Relentlessly attacking the hanging curse with no restraint, Shin unloaded a stream of blunt attacks. With each swing, the curse swayed higher but also screamed louder. Unbeknownst to Shin, due to the screams from the beast, other low-level curses were hiding in fear of being targeted.

Growing exhausted again, Shin stopped to catch his breath and noticed that the curse had turned into a clump of hanging meat after being tenderized for the past 3 hours. "If you could eat curses, can you also cook them?"

Thinking of food, Shin's stomach growled before he looked around him as the forest floor, once green and earthly, had stains and chunks of meat surrounding him. Looking up, Shin noticed he was having too much fun and failed to realize that the day was now in the late afternoon, with dark orange skies. "I think I've completed what I came for; time to rest and leave in the morning."

Shin remembered he saw some abandoned tents not too far from his location when he was exploring the forest and decided to make use of them since their owners no longer needed them. "One man's trash is another man's treasure."

Finding a good-quality tent with no holes or vegetation inside, Shin was a bit challenged, but it didn't take long for him to find a pretty spacious tent that had some canned food that was still good to use. Shin ate and slept soundly as the curses around him were too fearful to act, given what they had witnessed and heard.

Morning arrived, and Shin woke up to inhale the morning scent of the forest before remembering his path back to the bullet train. Leaving the forest, many people were a bit confused as to why someone like Shin was leaving such a place so early in the morning, prompting them to gossip among themselves and give Shin weird looks.

Making it to the train station and waiting, Shin received a call from an unknown number. "Might be a scam call, better just cancel it." The phone rang again, but Shin canceled the call, annoyed by the recurring calls. Despite his attempts, the unknown caller tried 3 more times before Shin, irritated by the persistent calls, answered.

Asking who was calling, a sad voice replied back.

"You know it's not nice to not pick up the phone the first time, especially if it's from someone who gave you the phone and especially if it's from your favorite teacher. But as the nice person I am, I forgive you. Anyhow, did you manage to reduce the curse number? I hope you didn't hide for the past few days and run back with your tail between your legs; I would be very disappointed."

Hearing Gojo's voice, Shin felt bad for canceling but quickly responded back. "Yeah, I dealt with them swiftly. It was actually pretty easy and enjoyable. Keep sending me out on missions like these, dealing with curse spirits."

"Wow, sounds like you're growing hungry. I love your attitude. But for your next one, you won't be soloing, since you're not a high-grade sorcerer. Not to worry, though; you keep producing results like this, and I'll get you to grade 1 sooner than you'll believe. Anyway, I gotta go now; cya."

"Working with a partner? Hopefully, it's just one partner; having two will cause more problems for me if they aren't good enough." Entering the train, Shin rested his eyes near the window but woke up when a weird smell caught his attention. Waking up, Shin looked around and noticed a pair of figures wearing masks and unique attire with weird symbols on their shoulders that reeked of the same smell that curse spirits give off.

Not wanting to draw attention, Shin kept his eyes on them without being noticed while at the same time listening in on their conversation.

"Thank god we managed to catch the last curse spirit on the list. Had we been late, the boss would've had us become the stars for tonight's show."

"I heard this year, new investors are showing interest in the undergrounds after watching the previous matches. Luckily, we're tasked with just catching and collecting curses. I can't imagine being the contestant."

Shin, hearing their conversation, grew interested. "Underground show, and they're tasked with collecting curses? I don't remember something like this from the manga, but I guess this world is more in-depth if you are a part of it."

The train reached its first-morning destination, and the pair got off. Shin decided not to pursue them since he preferred returning home to rest before setting out again, especially when he reeked of sweat.

After 30 minutes of riding the train, Shin got off and walked his way back home, enjoying the sunny side of the city. Approaching the school entrance, Shin suddenly heard a loud commotion inside the school, prompting him to run inside quickly to investigate the cause.