Capítulo 41: I Don’t Want to Be a Heroic Spirit [41]
Inside the moving taxi, Jasmine was practically glued to the window, frowning as she stared at the passing scenery.
She could see things invisible to ordinary people—a huge black dome covered the spot where Baobhan Sith had gotten out earlier, obscuring anything within from her sight.
She believed her sister was the strongest, undefeated.
But still…
"When will I be able to stand by her side…"
She wanted to be of help to her sister, even if what she could do seemed trivial, even if it was just adding another brick to the wall her sister built.
All she wanted was to stand by her sister's side, to see the same view her sister saw.
The taxi suddenly came to a halt. Before Jasmine could even look puzzled, the driver poked his head out the window and yelled.
"Hey! Don't just stand in front of the car! What if I hit you?"
What was going on? Was someone there?
Jasmine blinked in confusion, her gaze gradually sharpening.
"Hey! Can't you understand me?" the driver shouted again.
He got out of the car, ready to confront the shadowy figure blocking his path, but as he got closer and made out the creature's appearance, he fell back in horror.
"A m-monster! It's a monster!"
Imagine—late at night, confronted by a repulsive creature with a long snout, blue skin, and a grotesque, bloated shape. Terrifying, right?
The driver scrambled to his feet and bolted, abandoning his car and his passenger without a second thought.
The fleeing driver went ignored by the creature, whose focus was on someone else.
A petite figure leapt onto the car roof. Under the moonlight, Jasmine's shoulder-length grey hair seemed to gradually turn silver, and her golden eyes gleamed brightly in the night.
"This strange cursed energy… A curse spirit? No, that driver could see it, so…"
Cursed spirits were born from humanity's negative emotions, aggregates of cursed energy invisible to those lacking sorcerer talent or with sparse cursed energy.
Zenin Maki, the second-generation Sorcerer Killer, couldn't see cursed spirits. In the beginning, she relied on special glasses to perceive them. Later, after achieving her Heavenly Tyrant abilities, she could still strike down spirits purely by intuition, though they remained unseen.
Jasmine's face darkened as she pieced it all together.
"Grk grk…"
"Raaaargh—"
"Grrrrumble grumble…"
The chorus of monstrous calls assaulted her mind. One by one, the grotesque creatures emerged from the shadows, surrounding Jasmine in an ever-tightening ring.
Jasmine immediately understood: these monsters were tied to the same enemy Baobhan Sith was facing.
Baobhan Sith couldn't possibly lose, so…
"This is an attempt to capture me, to use me against my sister, isn't it?"
A chilling glint instantly sharpened Jasmine's golden eyes.
---
"Why the surprise? Did you really think you'd hidden your motives that well?"
Baobhan Sith drifted down gracefully from the top of a wooden post. Hanami hurried over, transforming the sturdy wood into soft vines to extract it from Jogo's body. Whatever couldn't be removed was burned away by Jogo himself, who now bore a gaping hole in his torso, nearly splitting his upper and lower halves apart.
Jogo had been the strongest attacker among the three cursed spirits, consuming far more cursed energy than Hanami or Dagon. Without enough cursed energy, his regeneration rate had slowed significantly.
Blood-covered Dagon staggered over to stand alongside Jogo and Hanami, the three of them now facing Baobhan Sith from afar.
"You… knew we were stalling from the start?"
Hanami's feminine voice carried disbelief and shock as she spoke.
"What other reason could there be for you to continue a fight with no chance of victory?" Baobhan Sith closed her eyes, casually rubbing her neck. "I didn't even know who you were before today, so there's no reason you'd suddenly target me. And the barrier set around us isn't like anything the three of you could conjure."
The barrier prevented her from seeing Jasmine's side, likely a secondary function of its setup.
Usually, barriers were cast by jujutsu sorcerers to block ordinary people from witnessing the battles within and to restrict anyone without cursed energy from entering.
But if a barrier were configured to prevent only one person from entering or exiting, even someone as powerful as Satoru Gojo would struggle to break through it in a short time.
In the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, there existed a unique mechanism called binding vows. By imposing restrictions or making sacrifices, one could bolster their abilities in other areas. For instance, sorcerers often revealed the workings of their own techniques to enemies; though it appeared to weaken them, it actually enhanced their cursed energy and battle prowess.
The same principle could apply to barriers. By limiting the number of those able to pass to a single person, the barrier's defense could be maximized to its limits.
Whoever set this barrier likely specified it to restrict Baobhan Sith alone, turning it into a binding vow.
However, the enemy was clearly aware of Baobhan Sith's fearsome power and didn't expect this barrier to hold her for long. That was why Jogo and the others hadn't fled the moment the barrier went up; instead, they stayed to buy time.
"To let your allies capture Jasmine, and then come here to support you, am I right?"
"…"
The three calamities said nothing, but their silence confirmed her suspicions.
"...If you knew we were stalling, then why aren't you in a hurry?"
Hurry? Far from it—she seemed perfectly at ease.
Jogo had seen that smile on Baobhan Sith's face too many times to count. With each glance, it looked more like she was mocking their naivety.
Could it be… she didn't care about that little girl's life at all?
"That's what I mean when I say you're all far too naïve."
Baobhan Sith folded her arms across her chest, smiling faintly.
"You underestimated my power, you underestimated Jasmine's, and above all, you underestimated the trust we have in each other."
---
Meanwhile, Jasmine was surrounded by monsters, yet she calmly assumed a Ba Ji Quan stance.
One of the creatures closest to her couldn't resist lunging forward. Before it could swipe its claws at her tense face, Jasmine's aura locked onto it.
Her mind was clear as a mirror, her golden eyes unflinching. Every movement the creature made was hers to read, memories of all her sister's teachings flashing through her mind.
Lower stance. Steady breath. Strike.
Every movement flowed seamlessly into the next.
Her punch was as fierce and decisive as thunder, directly impacting the creature's chest. Instantly, her cursed energy surged out, dark lightning streaking across the night sky, slithering along the ground like black serpents.
—Black Flash!
Estado de energía semanal
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