JJK: Chapter 72

Title: One Eyed Feline

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When Shin Shuichi arrived at the prison, the situation was far more severe than the previous incident. From the moment the curse was detected, there hadn’t been enough time to carefully assess its grade. Initial observations suggested the curse’s aura wasn’t particularly strong.

The closest sorcerers, a Grade 1 and a Grade 2, were dispatched to handle it. What was expected to be an easy mission, however, ended with the grim news of their deaths.

Realizing the escalating danger, the incident was immediately reported. Fortunately, the two sorcerers had managed to set up a barrier before their deaths, trapping the curse inside. Using their final moments, they further reinforced the barrier with their lives, keeping the threat contained within the prison.

Shin’s arrival surprised the personnel stationed outside the barrier. It had been barely any time since the report was made. Could this young sorcerer really handle such a dangerous special-grade curse?

“Jujutsu High, Shin Shuichi. What’s the situation inside?”

The support staff in suits froze momentarily before realization struck. This was the renowned special-grade sorcerer. They had only heard his name before and were now seeing him in person for the first time. His reputation, akin to that of Master Gojo Satoru, truly matched his flawless demeanor.

The leader of the group replied respectfully, “Master Shin, the curse is extraordinarily powerful. Few managed to evacuate. The situation inside is dire… Please do your best. Exorcising the curse is the top priority!”

Acknowledging their words with a nod, Shin entered the barrier, the well-wishes of the staff fading behind him. Inside, silence enveloped the space, and the faint presence of the curse lingered like an elusive shadow.


---

As Shin moved further into the prison, he soon encountered the first set of corpses. His expression remained unchanged as he crouched to inspect one. The victim, dressed in a prisoner’s uniform, bore a face frozen in terror and panic, as though struck down while desperately fleeing from something unknown.

The abruptness of their deaths had etched their final expressions permanently. They likely had no idea what ended their lives.

The corpses had no obvious external injuries. Their pale, bloodless skin revealed only small puncture wounds near the carotid artery. These wounds, likely caused by a sharp blade, were subtle, as there were no bloodstains to draw attention to them.

The victims had been entirely drained of blood, leaving them lifeless—a scene eerily similar to what had occurred at Satozakura High School. The corridor ahead was littered with similar bodies, stretching all the way to where Shin stood.

It wasn’t difficult to deduce: the prisoners had attempted to open the doors to escape but were swiftly slaughtered by the curse within moments.

Stepping over the bodies, Shin advanced deeper into the prison. As expected, the interior’s structure had been altered. In various rooms, he discovered more corpses—mostly prisoners, with a few staff members among them. Their expressions mirrored the fear and despair of those he had already encountered.

Throughout his journey, Shin only encountered minor curses, like fly-head spirits. Despite extending his cursed energy to provoke a response, he detected no sign of the special-grade curse. It seemed adept at hiding itself.


---

A faint cry for help from behind a wall suddenly caught Shin’s attention. Drawing his katana, Doujigiri, he struck the thick wall, leaving deep cuts before kicking it down effortlessly.

Behind the broken wall, a panicked prisoner came into view. Even after seeing Shin, the man hesitated only briefly before rushing toward him, shouting, “Monster! There’s a monster!”

Shin quickly scanned the surroundings, his cursed technique ready to activate. Yet, no trace of a curse appeared.

“Calm down. You—”

Before Shin could finish, the prisoner’s expression froze mid-panic, his life force vanishing in an instant.

Shin immediately activated his technique, heightening his perception and reflexes to search the area. However, there was no sign of a curse, even after breaking through adjacent walls and rooms.

Deactivating his technique, Shin examined the prisoner’s body. He was undoubtedly dead, but unlike the others, his body bore no injuries. His blood remained, his skin retained its color, and his heart hadn’t stopped abruptly—it still faintly pulsed.

Yet, from Shin’s perspective, the man was entirely devoid of cursed energy. It was as though his very soul had been erased, leaving him akin to lifeless wood. Only living beings could generate cursed energy, driven by emotions. Lifeless objects could not.

“This is strange… Two distinct methods of killing—similar yet different. One drains blood, leaving the victims pale. The other erases their cursed energy completely without leaving a mark.”

Shin stood, gripping Doujigiri tightly. His expression darkened as he realized: two separate culprits were at work here. One drained its victims’ blood, while the other robbed them of their cursed energy.

The true threat lurking deeper within the prison was more cunning and dangerous than he had anticipated.

Shin Shuichi stood up and surveyed his surroundings before deciding to proceed deeper into the prison. His Technique Reversal running. Even though the attack method was unknown, as long as it caused him harm, he could instantly reverse the damage, returning both himself and everything within a small radius to its previous state. Therefore, as long as he could catch the attack...

Suddenly, Shin felt an unusual sensation. In that moment, he realized that he had already been attacked! His technique had indeed been triggered, but where was the curse?

Invisible? Long-range attack? Or perhaps some unknown technique effect?

Shin didn’t immediately activate Time Stop, as the technique couldn’t be used properly for a short time after it ended. Although brief, under the protection of Technique Reversal, the curse couldn’t kill him. So, he decided to gather more information.

He started using his technique unpredictably and moved in a certain direction. Sure enough, after deactivating the technique for a while, he wasn’t attacked again, which ruled out the possibility of a long-range attack.

Then, in a relatively open area, Shin used Rain of Time, a technique that combined his jujutsu with barrier techniques, expanding his perception to a large area. Most importantly, if anything entered this range, he could sense its presence, even if his normal senses couldn’t detect it.

Standing still, Shin prepared to try again, hoping to capture a trace of the curse’s attack. His focus was now on detecting what kind of attack the curse used.

This was why he had confidence in Technique Reversal, as it could heal him afterward, allowing him to probe the enemy in such a dangerous way.

While Shin remained fully focused on sensing his surroundings, he soon detected the attack he was waiting for. It was a peculiar sensation—it wasn’t the feeling of his body being struck by an unknown force.

In fact, Shin felt his body was completely intact, with no abnormalities in his organs. He suspected that the cause of death for the previous victims—sudden death—hadn’t occurred in his case. The Rain of Time had also failed to make contact with the enemy.

What he felt was a brief moment of mental fog, followed by the triggering of Technique Reversal, which returned everything back to normal. The sensation was...

Shin quickly recalled something familiar from his memory: “It’s the soul!” This was an attack purely on the soul level. That’s why the person who died earlier didn’t have any physical wounds, and he couldn’t detect any traces of the attack either.

Very few sorcerers could truly comprehend the existence of the soul, and since it’s beyond their recognition, it’s difficult to protect it perfectly. Only a few sorcerers, while guarding their bodies with cursed energy, unknowingly protect part of their soul.

This was why the technique of Mahito were so deadly. The soul is a field very few people dare to touch, and its alteration is directly connected to the body. Once Mahito changes your soul’s form, your body also changes in tandem.

Moreover, Reverse Cursed Technique couldn’t heal the soul, so once this kind of change occurred, it almost meant a death sentence. One could only wait for the body to collapse.

In this case, the ordinary people who had no defense at all against this type of soul-based attack were killed with their souls destroyed, which could be understood as brain death. However, Shin had some protection, and the instant he was hurt, Technique Reversal automatically triggered.

“It’s not a long-range attack. It’s some unknown way to hide both itself and its attack method. You must be within this range!”

Time Stop!

Within a 200-meter range, Shin Shuichi activated his Time Stop technique, freezing everything around him. This included both physical objects and cursed energy, leaving only himself unaffected.

From another corner of the room, a figure abruptly materialized—a grotesque cursed spirit. Its twisted, feline form was covered in a faint black-purple hue. At its center, a massive vertical eye glared malevolently, its crimson slit pupil exuding an eerie, sinister aura.

The creature's tail split into two, and its enormous body hovered in the air, partially transparent except for certain grotesque, hyper-realistic parts.

The most disturbing detail was the side of its head, where a human face bulged grotesquely out of the cursed spirit’s form. The expression on the face was one of agony and despair, lifelike to an unsettling degree. Upon closer inspection, the spirit’s limbs were also fused with human arms and legs, blending horrifyingly with its original feline features. The main body exhibited patches of similarly merged human and spirit anatomy.

"This form... it’s reminiscent of that artificial sorcerer, Tengu," Shin muttered, comparing it to a previous incident. The cursed spirit’s grotesque fusion bore a striking resemblance to the uncontrolled artificial sorcerer’s condition, though this was a spirit rather than a human-based anomaly.

Raising his blade, Shin showed no hesitation. A single slash severed the spirit’s head, the cursed blades embedding themselves into its body. Only after delivering the strike did Shin deactivate Time Stop.

Though the cursed spirit was incapacitated, it clung to life, teetering on the brink of death. Its severed head, now lying on the ground, emitted a pitiful, human-like cry: "Help me."

Shin’s expression remained cold. He knew better than to trust appearances. This fusion of human and cursed spirit wasn’t a case of a curse possessing a human host or coexisting symbiotically, like certain rare examples. Instead, it was the result of two souls merging into a single entity.

Even though the human consciousness might seem intact, they were already inseparable. Death would mean the obliteration of both souls, leaving no chance for survival or redemption. The voice pleading for help was nothing more than a lingering reflex, a remnant of the human soul fused with the spirit.

"This is the same origin as the artificial sorcerers from the Higher Ups," Shin murmured, watching the remains of the cursed spirit with caution. "Hopefully, it’s not another one of their experiments. Those are always a pain to clean up."

As Shin observed the cursed spirit’s remains, he noticed something unusual. While most of the body began to fade away, the process wasn’t the typical disintegration of a purified curse. Instead, it seemed to erase itself entirely, as if wiped away by an unseen force.

The human-faced head still moved, its grotesque form unsettling. Sensing something amiss, Shin activated the curse technique within his blade, Shura’s Shadow, and struck the remains. The disfigured head twitched momentarily before he skewered it with a final, decisive blow. This time, the entire body vanished, leaving no trace behind.

Though his blades no longer felt tangible resistance, Shin was certain the cursed spirit hadn’t been fully exorcised. After a brief moment of thought, he decided to continue his search within the prison.

It became clear that no one had survived. Every hidden corner revealed only corpses. The damage to locked doors and the mutilated bodies bore evidence of a second cursed spirit, one that drained its victims’ blood.

The coordinated actions of the two cursed spirits suggested an external manipulator—most likely those rogue sorcerers allied with the artificial sorcerer experiments.

Just as Shin confirmed there were no survivors, he was attacked once more. Reactivating Time Stop, the feline cursed spirit revealed itself again.

Raising his blade, Shin allowed a flicker of curiosity to enter his eyes. "Let’s see how many times you can revive."

The answer, eventually, was eighty-six.

Initially, each time the cursed spirit was killed, its ability to hide itself diminished. Its form became increasingly incorporeal, but the human-fused sections remained tangible and vulnerable to his strikes. With each death, its physical cohesion grew, making subsequent encounters even easier.

By the later stages, Shin no longer needed to use Time Stop. The spirit’s revival became predictable, and each time it was instantly dispatched with ease. Escape was no longer an option for the spirit.

Its final demise was marked by absolute obliteration.