The moment they stepped inside the gates of Soubu High, Maki Zen'in turned to Akiyama Ren and said, "Help me put up a Tent Barrier. You know I don't have cursed energy."
"Yeah, I got it," Ren replied with a casual nod.
He brought his right hand up, forming a sword seal with his fingers, and held it to his lips. His voice rang out, calm yet solemn:
"Born from darkness, darker than the void—
Defiled, impure, be completely purified!"
The air grew dense. From above the school grounds, an oily black substance—like liquefied shadows—poured downward, spreading like a living tide. Within moments, it engulfed the entire building, sealing it from the outside world.
From beyond the barrier, even veteran Jujutsu sorcerers couldn't perceive the changes occurring inside. For ordinary people, the school looked perfectly normal—no disruption, no distortion. Reality was intact on the surface, but within... a battlefield had been etched.
Ren lowered his hand and exhaled slowly. "Haven't used a Tent ever. Feels pretty satisfying."
Truth be told, with his strength, he didn't need to chant the spell at all. He could cast a Tent instantly with pure cursed energy. But that would've been... too flashy.
If he showed off too much, wouldn't that attract attention from the likes of Gojo Satoru? Or worse—draw the interest of Ryomen Sukuna himself? Better to keep things subtle for now.
Maki gave a satisfied nod as the barrier completed. "Good. Let's move. I can already sense the curse's position—it's lingering around the gymnasium."
Ren tilted his head slightly, frowning. "That pressure… it's heavy. You sure it's just a Grade 2?"
"It's more than that," Maki admitted, already unfastening the wrappings on her naginata. "Probably a Semi-Grade 1. Stronger than I expected."
"You planning to take it on alone?"
"I dragged you in here for a reason, didn't I?" she smirked.
"So that's your play…" Ren said, feigning a gasp of betrayal. "Using me as backup muscle again. I feel so used."
"I'll buy you lunch after. Just keep watch or back me up if things go sideways," Maki said bluntly, grabbing his wrist and tugging him along as she broke into a sprint toward the gym.
As they ran, Ren glanced at her weapon. It shimmered faintly—clearly a high-grade cursed tool. Maki's lack of cursed energy, due to her Heavenly Restriction, meant she couldn't even see spirits without help.
Her glasses weren't just eyewear—they were a cursed item themselves, enchanted to reveal the unseen.
Still, what she lacked in cursed energy, she more than made up for in raw physical power. Her Heavenly Restriction had forged her body into a living weapon, and with cursed tools in hand, she could slay spirits that even mid-rank sorcerers struggled with.
Unfortunately, her restriction was flawed—diluted by her birth as a twin, limiting what could have been monstrous strength.
They reached the gym moments later, and Ren immediately felt the change in atmosphere.
The entire interior was bathed in an unnatural crimson hue. A dense miasma of cursed energy hung in the air like a suffocating fog.
Then, a voice slithered through the gloom.
"Hehehehe… Akiyama Ren. You finally came."
Maki's brows furrowed. "Wait. Did you create this Curse Spirit?"
Ren looked just as baffled. "What? Of course not! Why would I summon a curse in my own school?"
Sure, he'd grown more reckless since awakening the system, but he wasn't a maniac. There were people he respected here—teachers, classmates. He wouldn't endanger them for no reason.
Maki didn't press further, but her frown deepened. "It may not be your doing… but this thing is clearly tied to you."
Ren fell silent. She was right. The spirit had spoken his name without hesitation.
Then came the voice again.
"Ren… do you know how much we adore you? Why did you reject us? But now… now we can be together. Forever. Let us consume you, merge with you, become one…"
The cursed energy that filled the gym began to swirl violently—then collapsed inward as though devoured by an unseen mouth.
Their vision cleared, and the true form of the spirit came into view.
Hovering at the center of the Gym was a monstrous figure—her upper half a seductively naked woman, curves unnaturally perfect, her expression manic and warped by obsession. But from the waist down, her body transformed into the chitinous, segmented tail of a scorpion, complete with jagged pincers and a venom-dripping stinger coiled in anticipation.
Ren nearly gagged. What the hell...? he thought. Resentment turned literal… and venomous. A woman scorned really is the deadliest creature.
Maki glanced at him and quipped, "Wow. You must've broken a lot of hearts. Who knew the school's rejected confessions would turn into a semi-Grade 1 scorpion yandere Curse?"
He rubbed the back of his neck, visibly cringing. "Can we not make this about me right now?"
With a light laugh, Maki dashed forward, uncoiling her Naginata. The cursed tool gleamed faintly under the red-tinted air as she charged the spirit.
The moment the Curse Spirit laid its venomous eyes on her, its face contorted in rage. "You filthy wench! Don't you dare touch my Ren!"
Its slender human arms twisted grotesquely, morphing into giant scorpion pincers that gleamed with lethal poison. One claw swept toward Maki with terrifying speed.
Maki parried the right pincer with the blade of her Naginata, but the left claw came at her low—aiming straight for her waist like it meant to slice her in half.
"Damn it!" Maki hissed through gritted teeth. In a desperate move, she snapped off a chunk of the Naginata's white waxwood handle to brace herself—only for it to be crushed effortlessly under the Curse Spirit's strength.
Despite the weapon's blade being a cursed tool, the handle was still ordinary wood—no match for a creature nearing Grade 1 in strength.
The cursed pressure intensified.
After absorbing the residual energy from the Gym, the Curse Spirit had fully evolved into a semi-Grade 1. And Maki—despite her raw physicality and precision—was completely outmatched.
"Ren!" she shouted, barely dodging the next incoming strike. "Help me out here and I'll buy you two meals!"
From the sideline, Akiyama Ren held up three fingers with a sly grin. "Make it three."
"Fine! Whatever!" she snapped without hesitation.
His smirk widened. "Deal."
Without another word, Ren raised his right hand, thumb pressed to his index and middle fingers.
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Red."
A crimson sphere burst to life at his fingertips, humming with concentrated cursed energy. Its pull warped the very air around it, distorting space like a black hole in miniature.
Boom!
The Gym groaned under the gravitational pressure. Ren carefully restrained the force—too much and the whole campus would be rubble.
With surgical precision, he fired the sphere.
The red energy shot forward like divine judgment, drilling through the Curse Spirit's core with explosive force. Her body twisted, howled, then crumbled into black ash.
Instant kill.
A silence settled over the scene.
Maki stared blankly at the pile of dust where the spirit once stood. "That technique just now... that was Gojo-sensei's Red—wasn't it?"
Ren shrugged as he walked up to her. "Maybe."
He glanced at the claw marks on her waist. With a snap of his fingers, gentle blue light danced around his hand. He placed it lightly over the wound.
"Reversed Cursed Technique."
Maki flinched—but then her eyes widened in shock as the injury vanished, leaving behind unbroken, flawless skin.
"You can use Reversed Cursed Technique too? Seriously, is there anything you can't do?" she asked, genuinely baffled.
Ren tapped his temple dramatically, pretending to think. "Hmm... nope. I can use every Jujutsu technique under the sun."
"Monster," Maki muttered with a mix of disbelief and admiration.
Ren's smile deepened. "You say that like it's a bad thing."
He turned his back, hands in his pockets.
"In this world, people call you a 'monster' the moment you do something they can't. But sometimes... being the monster is the only way to survive."