บท 55: Chapter 54
Preliminary Report on the Cursed Spirit Incident at Tokyo ○○ Department Store
Date of Report: October 8, 2005
Author: Honoka Sato, Assistant Supervisor affiliated with Tokyo Jujutsu High.
At approximately 1:25 PM on October 6, 2005, an unregistered special-grade Cursed Spirit appeared on the 7th floor of the ○○ Department Store located in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo.
The initial discovery was made by a department store employee, who, for unknown reasons, found it impossible to enter the 7th floor and immediately reported to the police. The responding officers, unable to access the scene themselves, suspected the involvement of sorcery and contacted the General Headquarters.
The General Headquarters deemed the incident the work of a special-grade Cursed Spirit and dispatched Mei Mei, a first-class sorcerer and a senior student at our school, along with Assistant Supervisor Honoka Sato to the scene.
The cause of the Cursed Spirit's emergence remains unknown.
Due to the incident, the entire 7th floor of the ○○ Department Store transformed and distorted into the Cursed Spirit's innate domain.
Survivors testified that within this innate domain, neither precise hits nor lethal blows were effective. Although no spells were assigned to the domain, it had the effect of separating spaces according to existing structures and trapping individuals within the domain.
As a result, 16 non-sorcerers including employees and customers, along with one sorcerer, were trapped inside the Cursed Spirit's innate domain.
Among them, a non-sorcerer, a 5-year-old boy named Zenin Zoro, confronted the special-grade Cursed Spirit.
...
Zoro glared at the Cursed Spirit before him. His fighting spirit, every sense in his body, even his sword, everything about Zoro was concentrated on his opponent.
He could feel the Cursed Spirit's five eyes rolling towards him.
'That thing is focusing on me.'
It was a relief for Zoro, knowing that Tsumiki and Megumi were nearby. If the Cursed Spirit had targeted them first, things would have become much more complicated.
Swish.
Zoro drew his sword in a Wado Ichimonji stance. The dark blade of his sword pointed directly at the Cursed Spirit.
Holding a kitchen knife in one hand and his sword in the Wado Ichimonji stance in the other, Zoro glared at the Cursed Spirit through the darkness.
'I can't see its eyes at all.'
That wasn't much of a problem for him. Zoro possessed Observation Haki, and in his previous life, he had lived with one eye blind. He even trained his Haki with his eyes closed on purpose.
'The problem is what that thing does in this darkness—!'
Boom!
Before he could finish his thought, a massive pillar seemed to shoot up from the ground, aiming to crush Zoro's jaw.
Zoro jerked his head back to dodge. The pillar continued to rise, striking the ceiling with a loud bang.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Zoro swung his armament-hardened black blade at the four successive pillars that sprang from the floor.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
After cutting through three pillars and dodging one, Zoro recalled an explanation once given by Toji. Both Cursed Spirits and sorcerers possess unique abilities and spells that they use as their primary force.
'Pillars... No, are these supposed to be thorns?'
It seemed that the creature's spell involved creating thorns. It was questionable whether something larger and thicker than an average building's pillar could be called a 'thorn'.
In any case, this spell suited the damned darkness well. Without Observation Haki, I would have been skewered by those massive thorns by now or crushed beneath thorns as thick as pillars.
"!"
With a rapid series of pops, the giant pillar-like thorns vanished, and smaller thorns began to cover the floor.
Zoro dodged the sprouting thorns on the floor, running swiftly. These thorns, about 1 meter in size, were much smaller than the previous pillar-like ones, but there were dozens more of them, and they appeared much faster than the giant thorns before.
Shiiik!
"Argh!"
It was too late. Unable to dodge in time or coat his body in Armament Haki, a thorn pierced Zoro's left foot deeply.
Quickly pulling his foot free from the thorn and dodging another aiming for his torso, Zoro leaped high. Whining about pain was a surefire way to die in a life-or-death battle.
Pit!
As a medium-sized thorn struck, a toothpick-sized smaller thorn whizzed by at incredible speed, grazing Zoro's left cheek.
A burning pain spread where the thorn grazed him. The blood flowing from his face felt as hot as boiling water.
'Poison.'
It was just a graze, not a deep wound, but the pain was as severe as if his cheek had been scorched by fire.
Though the veins on his left face bulged and turned scarlet, Zoro, accustomed to pain, ignored the discomfort and, swords in hand, charged at the cursed spirit.
"Two-Sword Style, this time,"
"Nitoryu!"
Zoro slashed upwards at the cursed spirit with both swords. However, only a swishing sound was heard, and his blades caught nothing. Sensing movement behind him, Zoro turned around.
"Santoryu!"
His downward slash was easily dodged by the cursed spirit.
'So fast!'
Kukukuku.
Laughter seemed to emanate from the darkness, as if the cursed spirit was mocking him.
Creak!
Once again, pillar-sized thorns surged from the walls and ceiling, aiming to pierce Zoro's body.
Leaping high into the air, Zoro saw the floor was densely covered with medium-sized thorns.
'Are they trying to prevent me from landing!'
Crack!
Zoro split a pillar-sized thorn in half, only for another giant pillar-like thorn to rush towards him.
"Flash!"
Fwit, Boom!
Zoro sliced through the thick, descending thorns horizontally and darted through them. But soon, countless medium-sized thorns began to sprout from the ground, prompting Zoro to grit his teeth.
'This is never-ending.'
He needed to find a way out. Otherwise…
Fssht!
The smallest, poison-laden thorn flew towards Zoro. Quickly, he swung his Wado Ichimonji, breaking the poison thorn. The cursed spirit, unfazed, laughed again from within the darkness.
Kwagagagang!
Amidst the insurmountable pillars, medium-sized thorns densely filled the space, targeting Zoro. Between them, the smallest poison thorns flew.
'All three types at once…!'
"Two-Sword Style, Cyclone!"
Coating his entire body with Armament Haki, Zoro used his sword wind to knock down the poison thorns and blocked the biggest thorns with his sword.
Kaang!
Zoro's arms bulged with veins under the immense force pressing against him.
—In that moment, the special-grade cursed spirit approached from behind Zoro.
'Ah, no!'
Crunch!
The cursed spirit's thorny foot struck Zoro in the abdomen as he turned, sending him flying into the wall.
Bang!
...
There was the scent of flowers.
Awakened by the sweet smell brushing against his nose, Zoro suddenly looked up. The darkness and the cursed spirit were gone, and he found himself standing in the middle of a garden, brimming with wisteria.
Beneath his feet, red thistles grew thick and strong, covering the earth. The ground, barely visible beneath the tough thistles, was dark red and sticky, as if soaked with blood.
The wisteria was so dense that not even sunlight could penetrate, leaving the sky obscured. Clusters of bell-shaped, lavender flowers bloomed profusely, hanging heavily.
Was this where the sweet fragrance came from?
Zoro reached out and touched a wisteria flower. Then he realized. This body was not that of a child anymore. He was much taller, and his left eye wouldn't open.
It was clearly the body he had before he died.
He turned his head suddenly. In the distance, a plain mixed with cosmos and sunflowers could be seen. Unlike where Zoro stood, that place was bathed in warm sunlight, and the ground was white.
…There was someone unmistakable there.
Even without his characteristic wide smile, the expressionless face couldn't mask the identity of the boy wearing the trademark straw hat with black hair.
No matter his appearance, he could not be anyone but the boy.
The person Zoro had followed with all his heart, for the first and last time.
He slowly began to walk. The boy also walked towards Zoro.
They stopped abruptly at the boundary of their realms. Under the blooming purple wisteria and entangled red thistles on one side, and the cosmos and sunflower field on the white soil on the other.
After a moment of observing the boy's face, Zoro cracked a smile.
"I thought I'd see hell, but I never expected to see you."
Luffy.
Zoro called out the boy's name.
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