23 Surprise!

Shuichi stretched himself as he walked out of the train station. The sunlight shone upon his face, ridding him of any sleepiness.

'This feels nostalgic.' Shuichi thought, sensing the extreme amounts of cursed energy in the air. He remembered such a high density of cursed energy when he had just started with his curse killing career.

"Hmm. The density seems abnormally high, even higher than what Tokyo had when I had only started to absorb cursed energy." Shuichi held his chin while whispering to himself. It was indeed strange for such things to happen.

Thinking for a moment, Shuichi decided that he would worry about such things later.

'I came here to hunt curses. I'll do that for the entire day then…' He thought to himself before he strode forward and blended in with the crowd.

Ryouta had proposed that a man could pick him up and deliver him to the warehouse he wanted to go. That way he wouldn't have to go there by foot and the paranormal occurrences at the warehouse could be solved as fast as possible.

Obviously, Shuichi refused. Although the reason he had told him was that he could arrive faster on foot than in a car, which wasn't exactly a lie, the main reason was that he wanted to look around for a bit before going to the warehouse. That way, he could absorb a lot of cursed energy from the environment and get maximum benefits. He did not doubt that he would find some weaker cursed spirits while wandering around and who was he to say no to free experience?

As such, after Shuichi found some alleyway which was a bit away from prying eyes, he quickly jumped up the building and began parkouring around the city, looking for some curses to kill while greedily sucking all the cursed energy in the environment.

~~~~~~~~

About five hours after Shuichi's arrival in Saitama, he arrived at the warehouse. The warehouse was located at the far end of the city, on the periphery like most warehouses used to conduct illegal businesses.

In the five hours that he had been in the city, Shuichi hadn't rested a lot. Which turned out to be terrible news for the weaker grade 3 curses wandering around the city.

As normal people couldn't see curses, they obviously couldn't see Shuichi's cursed armaments. Given so, it was extremely easy for him to kill spirits from afar, even from the top of buildings. All he needed to do was throw a few weapons at that.

If the power was too low or higher accuracy was needed, Shuichi would simply disperse his cursed energy around the curse in the air. And since he could remotely control all of his energy, he could simply allow for constructs to form anywhere he wanted as long as his cursed energy could reach so far.

This lead to him getting an idea about some more offensive abilities.

A torrential raging river of cursed energy, constantly flowing all around him for the far end of the distance, allowing him to sense anyone and attack anyone in that range. Such a turbulent and at the same time, perfectly controlled flow of cursed energy would be absolutely powerful in front of any opponent, not to mention the benefits he would get due to 'force dispersion' caused by it.

Any attack at him made through cursed energy would lose most of its attack power after being caught up in the flow, and that would in turn make his blows more powerful as the flow would actively aid the blow. Not to mention the fact that he would be able to make weapons appeared out of thin air, as far as 100 meters from his own body! And that was only underselling it. Who knew how far he could make the weapons appear?!

And the best part was that once such a thing could be implemented, his cursed energy gathering would be sped up exponentially, since he wouldn't have to wait for the cursed heart to suck all of it in. He could simply guide the cursed energy towards himself!

Not to mention spreading his cursed energy in such a way wouldn't allow for cursed energy aggregates, and hence, cursed abominations; the cursed spirits to form.

It was the perfect plan!

Shuichi made a mental note of the idea and decided to work on it once he goes to back to Tokyo. For now though, he focused on the current situation at hand.

His gaze turned serious in a split second as he looked towards the warehouse. The warehouse was just like the typical architecture of its type. There was absolutely nothing that could be said to stand out about it. Yet there was an ominous feel to it.

It was as if the building radiated fear and anger, the extremities of negative emotions.

As a curse user, Shuichi knew the feeling all too well.

Cursed energy, unconsciously exuded by a strong curse that had been holed up in a single place for some time.

Cursed energy, as the name suggested, was an energy type. Yet it differentiated from the typical energy types described as so in physics, although it could still be used in very much the same ways. Other energy types, like Kinetic energy, Potential Energy, Heat, Light, Sound, Nuclear Energy, Electricity, and all the hundreds more that are yet to be said, all had one thing in common.

It was that they inherently did not have a specific 'nature' they leaned towards. They weren't 'negative' like cursed energy was, nor were they 'positive' like reversed curse energy. They couldn't even be accurately described as a 'neutral' source. They just… are.

Yet that distinction in cursed energy with the other energies made it unique and capable of logic defying feats.

It was also the same distinction that gave cursed energy a telltale signature and the capability to be differentiated depending on the type of being it was that used it. Curses and humans had different energy types. Curses that lingered in one place and curses that wandered around had different types of cursed energies.

Cursed energies of curses could differ depending on how much time they had spent in a particular place and how long they had been around for. It was one of the reasons that the windows were able to accurately define how old a curse was and what might be its theorized grade.

The density and the negativity flowing like a tsunami from the warehouse was enough for hm to know that the curse had been here for at least a week, give or take.

Shaking his head to break himself out of his inner ramblings, he walked forward towards the door of the warehouse. And when he walked in a five meter distance from the building, his surroundings suddenly changed.

Shaaaaaaaa~

Whirllll~

A sickening howl sounded in the air, made by the wind propelled by an enigmatic force of a curse.

The surroundings, the bright blue sky and the clean pavement turned haunting. The sky was now colored in a deep black, locking out any sort of light that could have made it in; the ground was now cracked in many places, and from those places came out various vines and am amorphous black substance that did not seem pleasant to touch.

In front of him, the building no longer looked like the warehouse that he had previously witnessed. What laid in front of him seemed nothing more than a dilapidated shack. A wooden shack made of red colored planks, broken apart in several places and looked like it could collapse at a moment's notice.

The windows were broken and the glass shards grew out like teeth, willing to chew on any being that dared come too close.

The haunting figure of the house, looming in the darkness was enough to send shivers up Shuichi's spine.

"Goddamn…" Shuichi muttered as he looked behind himself. Eternal darkness as far as he could see. Shuichi could not sense a boundary. He had sensed one before he walked in here, but he could no longer do so. And that meant that the boundary had been a trap. Once one entered here, they would not be able to leave unless they had exorcised the curse.

'A pseudo domain… No, not quite. It is a barrier, like a veil, but the entry points have been edited.' Thinking about that, Shuichi realized something…

'I forgot to put up a veil again… Well, it should be alright. I'll just absorb the remnants back after the fight.' He thought and focused on the barrier.

A sick and twisted trap that caused discomfort and doubt, along with thoughts of extreme fear and self preservation sprout in the minds of people that entered here.

There was indeed still an exit present, if there wasn't then it would simply be the best sealing barrier ever created, not to mention such a strong curse wouldn't just be resting here randomly.

But that exit could be anywhere, ranging from in the far end of the darkness, to right beside the body of the curse or even inside it.

And so, the only viable and easy option left for the people that were here was to kill the curse to leave.

An option that Shuichi was all the more happy to take.

"I don't choose violence. Violence chooses me." Shuichi said in a somber tone, as if he felt genuine sadness about the fact that he couldn't rest. Yet under that tone was a mocking smile.

Walking to the door, he went ahead and kicked it open. And with a relaxed smile and vigilant eyes, he walked inside.

~~~~~~~~

Outside the warehouse, a black car drove by and stopped. And from inside the car, three people got out. One was Hayato, the window, while the other two were Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru, the two special grade sorcerers.

As they got out of the car, they gazed at the warehouse with interest.

The wonder child of the Gojo clan lowered his glasses to have a better look at the layout of the warehouse.

Imagine his surprise when he found something extremely peculiar~

"This is the place mentioned in the reports. Based off of the energy output, the curse might be a grade 1. Though I don't imagine that would pose too much a problem to you kids." Hayato said monotonously.

"The barrier surrounding the building is built for isolation. There is no specified exit that can be seen at the outskirts of the barrier, only the entrance is present." Gojo said with a smile. His mocking gaze that seemed to be looking intently at something raised some eyebrows, mainly Suguru's, but he decided not to question him for now.

His friend could be… eccentric at times, even more so than he already was.

"Then shall he head inside?" Geto said.

"Why can't I just blast the building with blue?" Gojo said while doing a hand seal, preparing to destroy the building altogether.

"W-wait! NO! You can't do that Satoru-kun!" Hayato yelled. Having become more comfortable with the kids, he left right to talk to them on a first name basis. Hayato looked at Geto with a pleading look, one that was instantly picked up.

"Stop it Satoru. You shouldn't do such childish acts in this place. There might still be people inside there after all." Geto continued "Besides, the warehouse belongs to the local Yakuza. It's not our place to interfere in a matter between the Yakuza and the police. If the place gets destroyed in collateral damage then that's fine, but doing so willingly so out of the option."

"Bah! You're no fun. Maybe I should've come alone!" Gojo said with a huff.

"Sniff* You've changed so much Suguru! I still remember the time when we first started exorcising curses together! Sniff* Sniff*" Gojo said with comical tears at the corner of his eyes.

Seeing this, Geto rolled his eyes.

"You can do whatever you want after you become stronger than me. Though I doubt that's ever going to happen." Geto said with a matter of factly tone as he stuck his tongue out a bit and looked at the sky.

"What?! If you're looking for a fight you got one!" Gojo said pulling up his sleeves.

"P-Please stop!" Hayato at this moment was even more panicked. Oh how difficult it was to control two special grade teens.

'I just want to get home early today… It's my wife's birthday, I have to get a suitable gift…' He lampooned.

But as abruptly as the duo had decided to start fighting, the fight ended and they began to walk up to the warehouse.

"Put up the veil Mr. Hayato!" Geto said

"Right away!" Hayato yelled and chanted the incantation of the veil.

And with that, the duo walked into the barrier.

~~~~~~~~

"Man, this is so… huge…" Shuichi said in awe as he navigated the gigantic labyrinthian structure that had been made of the small shack, heading towards a small and recognizable cursed energy signature. When he entered the small shack, Shuichi had not expected anything, yet as he ventured inside, the door closed behind him. And then, with a sharp noise of a clap, he was standing somewhere completely different than before.

The walls extended upwards for several feet, the turns and geometry looked bizarre, the walls seemed to have a life of their own and were reinforced with energy.

Along with that, everytime a clapping sound rang out, Shuichi found himself in a completely different place than before. Yet, upon further inspection, he found that he had not been teleported, it was just that the surroundings had changed with such speeds that he had not been able to notice.

The pendant that hung from his neck shone with a bluish black hue and settled down again. And that was when shit started to go down.

Claps were heard every second, and with every clap, a wall slammed down into Shuichi. From the right, from above, from below, from everywhere all at once.

Shuichi had an extremely hard time trying to navigate and stabilize himself as he tried to protect himself with reinforcement. Which was a hard task in itself as the walls were all enhanced with cursed energy.

For that reason, Shuichi had to use a lot of cursed energy to protect himself.

The Pendant on his neck glowed again.

But at that time, Hard to Kill kicked in and he was able to handle himself better. His reinforcement seemed to be getting stronger and his balancing system in his ears seemed to have mutated and become stronger.

Shuichi felt like he was at the top of the world. The new balance that Hard to kill had provided him with, along with the extremely enhanced vision and reflexes were addicting.

Obviously, it was only after about getting slammed into walls about a hundred times that he was able to get such adaptations, Shuichi felt content.

As of right now, with each clap, a wall was hurled at him, and Shuichi masterfully dodged them. Not all were avoidable but that was only because he was not fast enough.

The shifting of the structure was so fast that it felt like teleportation for someone that stood still.

As such, it was already shocking that Shuichi was able to dodge some of them.

Injuries were also not a problem as Hard to Kill took care of them.

"Making this technique is the single most best decision of my life." Shuichi said with a silly smile as another wall smashed into him.

But it was not long before he came face to face with the curse that manipulated the structure.

At first, Shuichi had thought that the entire structure was the curse itself. But then he realized it was merely an extension of its cursed technique. A cursed technique that allowed it to manipulate whatever place it was connected to, hence, the barrier not having an exit; simply because the location of the exit could be changed at will.

For such a curse, Shuichi felt like the best course of action would have been to nuke the entire building. But since he was here, he might as well make the most out of it.

As he landed in front of the curse, he witnessed a grotesque humanoid cyclopean… thing.

The curse had yellowish brown skin with a single eye in the place of its head. On it's torso was eight arms, six of which were making different hand seals. It's mouth, or more specifically, mouths were all on its palms.

As for the legs, they were pretty normal, like a human's.

'A first grade!' He smiled. 'It's not quite special grade, but the sheer amount of cursed energy it has is shocking. Really hit the jackpot with this one…'

With Shuichi landing in front of it, the curse hurriedly sprung into action. It's small frame that was no bigger than Shuichi himself, the curse rushed at him and punched with one of its arms.

'Fast!' Shuichi was surprised by the speed, yet blocked nonetheless.

Imagine his surprise when the fist travelled uninterrupted, smashing his arm completely and throwing him far into the distance with a broken arm and a damaged torso.

"What the fuck!" Shuichi yelled as he crashed into the wall. Not soon after, a clap was heard and he got crushed in between the walls.

The pendant shone again.

For some reason, Shuichi felt like it was going to be a tough battle.

~~~~~~~~

Gojo and Geto strode through the structure at a comfortable pace. Knowing that the cursed spirit could manipulate the environment through clapping, the duo was able to maneuver through without problems. Gojo used blue to clear a direct path towards the curse while Geto's spirits tore through the walls that closed in on them. Even when the floor was swept from under their feet, they were able to keep moving without problem.

"Satoru, you feel that?" Geto asked his friend, who was busy observing something with his six eyes.

"You mean the sorcerer fighting the curse?"

"Whatever else could I mean?"

"A lot of things actually~"

"Quit playing around" Geto said with annoyance dripping off his voice.

"Yeah, Yeah I feel it. Though I do think I've seen that signature somewhere. It feels very familiar." Gojo said, remembering the cursed energy attracting talisman.

Suddenly, he smiled.

"This is going to be fun." He said with his infamous cheeky grin.

~~~~~~~~

Shuichi staggered, his steps a bit weak in approach. Yet a bloody smile was plastered on his lips at all times, betraying his current physical exhaustion.

Although hard to kill had healed most of his injuries, they weren't healed completely, he would need at least a day for that. After all, the more fatal the injury the faster the healing process; once the injury was healed to a certain extent, the healing speed slowed down.

Not to mention his cursed energy reserves were not looking good. He was already down to half of his cursed energy.

But he was not worried. Why? All the energy in the environment was also his to use. And with hard to kill, as long as he kept fighting he would win.

He knew the cursed spirit was toying with him, something he was not happy about but allowed him to improve.

Honestly speaking, he had not expected the power of a first grade cursed spirit to be so much different from that of a semi-first grade. After all, he did not have any trouble with a semi-first grade he encountered, but here he was, getting ruthlessly pummeled to the ground by a grade one.

Inhale*

Inhaling sharply, Shuichi dashed forward with newfound speed.

Blitzing all throughout the weird geometry, he dashed all over the place, slowing getting closer and closer to the curse.

The curse looked around in wonder, trying to pinpoint the exact location of the human it was trying to kill. At one point, it had even started to use six hands, two for clapping and the other four for fighting.

Bamm*

A punch impacted the face(Eye ball) of the curse, drawing purple blood, followed by quick jabs all over the body and swords and ballistics that hit it all over.

Its cursed energy surged and the curse healed in a split second, yet before it could regain it's bearings, Shuichi smiled.

'Time to use 'that' for the first time in a fight.' He thought.

Closing his fist and reeling it back, the pendant of his neck glowed with a bluish hue.

Punching forwards towards the torso of the beast at almost imperceptible speeds, his fist stopped just one centimeter from the curse's body. Yet, in that small instant, a tremendous force was suddenly released from the small gap.

Bam* Bam* Bam* Bam*…

Boooom!*

With a glorious explosion of air between them, the torso of the beast was blasted away into a mix of gore and blood.

The body of the curse was thrown away, shocked by the sudden power than befell upon its body.

The pendant on Shuichi's neck glowed and he smiled.

But just when he was about to go for another blow to finish off the spirit for good, the wall behind him was suddenly smashed open by a blue light, and with it, Shuichi felt a slight attraction.

Sensing far more danger behind him than before, Shuichi hurriedly turned around, almost instantaneously.

And what met his eyes were two pearls, enchanted with a beautiful sky like pattern and a piercing power.

"Yo! Aren't you the one that put that talisman in the graveyard~" Even though the words were said in a sing-song voice, he did not dare assume that the owner of the voice was a pushover.

Looking at the entire face of the person in front of him, and the strange man that accompanied this eccentric person, Shuichi realized something.

He was face to face with the wonder child of the Gojo clan and his special grade friend.

And it was at this moment that he knew… he fucked up…

~~~~~~~~

A/N: Any guesses about the third cursed technique? Comment about it, along with the reason why you think so. I want to see how imaginative the readers are.

This was the longest chapter till now. Though don't expect other chapters of the same length. I only made the chapter so long because I wanted to get this event over with. This is where the actual story would begin… I hope.

Random quote of the day:

"A Quasar is brighter than your future."