Futago POV:
The fifth curse of the week dissolved quietly.
The curse formed a golden core upon its death, so I picked it up to take home.
'I already tested it. When I use Cursed Evolution to turn the cores into liquid, the liquid drops in quality. It's better for me to just take the cores back to Tomogui, even though they are useless right now its better to stack more liquid for when they become useful'
Five complete.
I brushed dust from my sleeve and turned towards the exit of the forest.
That's when I felt it, from the other side of the forest 130 meters away.
A dense mass of cursed energy.
It was strong but unlike other cursed spirits this one controlled its cursed energy well, and it felt dedicated, like it had a purpose.
I immediately shifted and began rushing towards the exit of the forest away from that thing.
'No reason to fight that cursed spirit, the elders will deal with it'
That spirit clearly shifted its travel path the moment I did.
'Its … tracking me? Usually cursed spirits would avoid people with strong cursed energy like me, so why is it tracking me, and its closing in extremely fast.'
That cursed energy I could sense wasn't just traveling, it was jumping distances, teleporting straight towards me.
'This cursed spirit, it can teleport. Moreover this immense cursed energy I'm feeling from it is far beyond any of the grade 2's I fought. This has to be Special Grade, still it feels like an intelligent special grade the way it is cutting off my path to the Kamo estate'
Omoshire. (Anime -> English Translation: Interesting)
I adjusted my path again.
The spirit tracking me immediately began to teleport in a way to cut off my path once more.
'Using any spatial teleportation ability should take a lot of cursed energy, if he wants to keep wasting it, I don't mind it'
'From what I can tell it's only capable of teleporting 10 meters at a time, I should be able to esc-'
Suddenly I saw it standing between two trees in front of me.
Not advancing.
Just standing there.
A cracked cube-shaped body beneath the canopy's shadow.
Its marble head angled slightly downward.
Not just that, there was a green grid that was suddenly overlapping the world, and it seemed to be originating from this silent cursed spirit.
The cursed spirit stood there, silently half its body still covered from a shadow of a tree.
'What the fuck! there was like 60 meters between us, how did he teleport so much'
I didn't slow down, I turned around and decided to jump along the tree tops, maybe I could lose it like this.
The moment I jumped on the trees …
It was gone again.
A flare of cursed energy warned me.
Then–
Directly to my left.
Close enough that it could actually strike me.
It didn't.
It hovered at shoulder height.
Instead of continuing to run, I came to realize it was useless, I would have to kill this thing right now.
"…You're supposed to run," it said.
The voice was warped, and … familiar.
It snapped out of existence.
And reappeared a few feet ahead of me.
"…Why aren't you scared? I tried channeling my inner slasher, kids your age should be scared of that," it murmured.
A pause.
"Come on, scream or cry a little, I want you to feel as humiliated as I was when you killed me" The spirit was getting excited as it half roared at me, suddenly I understood what happened.
"...Are you Kuroda I mean it makes sense, the rubiks cube body" it continued, "and now that I think about it, Toji didn't stab you with the Inverted Spear of Heaven, he must have used a regular weapon. So then are you a vengeful cursed spirit?"
It drifted backward a few meters.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
"Ah so the human with no cursed energy's name is Toji, speaking of which do you know where he will be, I am itching to hunt him down after you"
The words settled.
"Your funny"
I turned slightly.
"Toji is a homeless guy, I don't know where he is exactly but that's not what you should be worried about" I said.
"You should worry about surviving right now, because I am going to kill you properly this time."
I originally just wanted to let the elders kill this guy, but with this speed and teleportation I doubt I will be able to escape, I'll kill him right here and now.
The marble seam widened further.
"Yes, that's it I want to see your confidence so that I can shatter it all the more"
The cursed energy thickened.
"This time, it's just gonna be me and you" Kuroda said calmly, "I hope you can survive long enough to make this interesting"
The cube began to turn—
Click.
Suddenly I was facing the sky and that was how it started.
The rematch began.
The sky swallowed my vision.
I didn't panic.
I immediately twisted my body back to its original position and got into a fighting stance.
The cube in his torso rotated again.
Click.
My center shifted.
Instead of being rotated into the sky I was rotated face into the dirt.
I slammed into the ground before catching myself and cleaning the mud off my face.
He wasn't even moving.
Just rotating the cube on his body.
'Do you seriously think you can just spam the same move and I wont develop a counter?'
Instead of allowing myself to be rotated constantly, I activated my technique Chiral Manipulation. By sensing the spark of cursed energy in Kuroda, and the movement of his rubik's like body, I would activate a mirrored version of his rotation and neutralize it the moment he activated his technique.
Since I don't have a rubik's cube body, I made a binding vow to move my hand in the direction I want to rotate myself when using this technique.
(The protagonist has to mimic the conditions of the original cursed technique when using his mirrored version. Since he doesn't have a rubik's like body he had to make a binding vow to use his hands instead)
"Ah, so this must be your cursed technique. The ability to neutralize abilities, I wonder if you can neutralize this" He seemed bitter when talking about neutralizing, must be pissed about our last fight. While I was thinking this the cursed spirit began building up speed, dashing around in a circle, and once he built up considerable speed, he rotated his cube.
This time instead of rotating one of the center rows or columns of his sphere like body, he rotated an entire face of his body.
The result was—
Instant teleportation to my right.
When he teleported he didn't stop, all the speed he accumulated was still their as he rammed into me, sending me flying through trees.
He vanished again—
Above–
Still keeping that full speed he rammed into me again slamming me into the ground.
The air began to crack from displacement alone.
'The teleportation, it doesn't slow him down'
He appeared in front of me for half a heartbeat, as I went to counter attack, before his rubik's cube body rotated again and he disappeared.
I immediately sensed him but before I could turn around, he slammed into me with his maximum velocity again.
Gone.
The sound began to overlap—
Clickclickclick—
This Rubik's cube was rotating itself 10 times a second each teleported him to different spots, and the pattern…
That green lattice that originated from the cursed spirit flickered faintly my unique eyes catching it.
Each cube space… was fixed.
Predefined.
Which meant he could only appear at those intersections.
'He can't teleport freely,' I muttered.
The instant I thought that …
He appeared directly above me.
All that stored momentum.
All that stacked velocity.
His entire body descended like a meteor.
I waved my hand and used the technique I copied from him. Swiping my hand left, the Kuroda immediately switched directions from me, to the left.
I watched as his body slammed through dozens of trees and a massive cloud of dirt rose up.
'Tsk, the elders definitely will see this, no way to keep this hidden. Should I just stall him and wait for the elders? Even if they are weak, they should suffice as human shields for me against this spirits'
Impact.
The forest floor cratered.
Shockwaves tore outward, shredding bark and splintering trunks.
Interrupting my thoughts Kuroda emerged from the dust of dirt, no visible injuries from that.
"…Good," he murmured.
"If you couldn't even resist it wouldn't be fun"
"I thought your cursed technique was neutralization so how did you manage to copy my own technique? Well whatever"
The green lattice brightened faintly around us.
"You see the pattern, unlike the other kid, you can actually see this grid"
He raised one hand.
"I will invoke a binding vow."
The cube rotated once more, but this time slowly. Intentionally.
"In exchange for revealing the mechanics of my cursed technique…"
The air tightened.
"…the interval between my techniques activations will decrease."
The cube began turning faster.
Smoother.
Click.
Click.
Click.
"The new ability I awakened after turning into a Vengeful spirit is–"
He tilted his head.
"Discrete Node Displacement."
The forest seemed to divide into invisible cells.
"Within my cursed energy, space is partitioned into discrete coordinates."
"Each coordinate is a stationary solution. A point where net acceleration equals zero."
He tapped his torso.
"At any given moment, only one of these nodes is permitted to contain my mass."
The cube turned.
Click.
"The one I stand on."
Another turn.
Click.
"When I rotate this cube, I redefine which coordinate satisfies this constraint."
"The previous one becomes invalid."
"The new one becomes valid."
He disappeared—
—and relocated 2 meters ahead of where he was previously.
"My mass cannot occupy an invalid node."
"So my body must be sent to the next valid node."
His voice lowered.
The cube began spinning more rapidly now.
"The faster I rotate…"
"The faster I can redefine which locations have nodes"
He stepped back.
"Now lets resume this fight, let me learn more about my new self"