The Devils of Jujutsu

Chapter 12: Finger Bearer

(Asta's p.o.v.)

Me and and Liebe were ready to fight against the Special Grade cursed spirit. We were waiting for it to charge at us so we could counter attack, but the curse's cheeks puffed up and it spit out a shot of pure cursed energy right at us, Liebe and I were able to dodge it. I slid to the right, my brother slid left, and when we stopped, the cursed spirit appeared right next to me and and threw a punch straight at my face with almost blinding speed. Luckily, I managed to block the attack with my swords but I was pushed back a great distance. The curse came charging at me but Liebe appeared and attacked from it's right side with his sword, however it stopped the charge and jumped back to avoid the strike. Me and Liebe huddled up and discuss a plan for defeating that thing. "It's faster than the other cursed spirits we fought before." Liebe stated. "Yeah, not only that it's a better fighter as well." I replied. "Maybe one of us can flank him and deal a fatal blow." Liebe suggested. "Well, whatever we do we better get done here soon before the Heart Kingdom's knights decide to come back in here." I reminded him. "You're right, we gotta work fast. Well, let's see if we can't flank him anyway, and if we can't, let's just pull him into our domains." Liebe replied. I nodded in agreement. I infused cursed energy into my fist and punched the ground beneath us, kicking up dust to make a smokescreen to hide our presence. I went out of the dust cloud, while Liebe stayed back for a bit until I got the curse spirit's attention. I charged toward the curse with my swords in hand, and started with a downward slash, but it jump back and charged forward again with a left hook. I ducked and thrust my wakizashi into it's stomach, after I pulled it out the curse kneed me in the jaw and kicked me away I rolled a few feet but I got back up. When I did, I saw that the wound I left on the curse spirit had healed. That didn't upset me though since that wasn't my goal anyway.

I saw Liebe right behind the curse getting ready to land a fatal blow on it. However, the curse knew that Liebe was behind it, then spun around and gave him a roundhouse kick to his left side. The force of the kick sent Liebe flying into the wall. I decided that we need to pull out all the stops. I sheathed my swords and made a sign with my hands, I prepared to unleash my trump card.

Domain Expansion: Cathedral of the Demon God.

With that, all three of were in front of my malevolent chapel. I used my imbued technique to mince the Special Grade. The cursed burst into purple flames and the innate domain disappeared along with it. Liebe stood up and put his weapon away, and walked up to me, hold his left arm. Then, suddenly, Liebe noticed something on the ground where the curse disappeared and said, "Hey Asta, look at this." I walked up to him and saw what he was looking at. It was a red petrified human finger. I picked it up and after closely inspecting it, I realized it was a cursed object. From what we've learned at the academy, when a cursed spirit eats a cursed object, it grows more powerful. Meaning, that the Special Grade must have swallowed the finger. I put it in my pocket and went on to heal Liebe's wounds, with a reverse cursed technique. After he was healed, my brother went back into the grimoire and we stealthily made our way to the exit. Before I walked out, I took down the veil and peeked through the door to make sure the coast was clear. It was and I slipped out without anyone noticing I was there. We made my way back to the academy and reported to Gojou and when we got to the part about defeating the curse spirit, we brought up what we found, "Right where the Special Grade vanished, we found this." I said as I pulled the finger out of my pocket and handed it over to Gojou. He said, "Well, it would seem you two fought a finger bearer."  We questioned, " A finger bearer?" Gojou answered, " Yep, it's a cursed spirit that has eaten one of these, the special grade cursed object: Ryomen Sukuna's fingers." "So you're saying that there could be nine more of those things out there?" Liebe asked. "No, Sukuna has 4 arms, so there's 20 fingers in total, this makes the 6th finger we found." Gojou replied Liebe's question. " If I remember correctly, Sukuna existed a thousand years ago, how come only 6 fingers were collect in all that time?" I asked Gojou. He replied, "Good question. In ancient times, sorcerers would wrap talismans around cursed objects to make protective charms that could keep away weaker cursed spirits, but as time passed the curses has grown stronger and causing cursed spirits to be drawn to them like sharks to blood. But, in the case of Sukuna's fingers they were scattered across the continent, to keep them hidden from those who would want to resurrect him." Me and Liebe were shocked to hear that there would be people out there that would want to revive such a monster. " Thanks, guys. I'll submit the finger to the higher ups and they'll have it sealed away. Go and get yourselves some R&R." We nodded and left the room. We headed to a lake outside the academy's barrier to do some fishing to clear our minds from the stress of our latest mission. We fished until sunset, and we headed straight to the academy's cafeteria to get some dinner. After we ate, we went to our room, lied down and went to sleep, but one thought was on our minds as we dozed off, and that's the fact that we almost completed our training at jujutsu academy.