Jujutsu Kaisen: Purple

Chapter 24: Therapy

The crackling of cursed candlelight extinguished Shinjuku-Dori Avenue's acoustic absence. Kana transferred her vision from the special-grade spirit to the sky and furrowed her eyebrows.

That sounded like Hinotori.

Countless rows of parallel ropes flanked the purple-haired woman; Utsuro struck his palms together.

Extension Technique: Lateral Splice Snap!

A dome of purple flames enveloped the female sorcerer before incinerating the enclosing ropework and dissipating.

I can't keep wasting cursed energy. I need to buy time.

"Why are you so intent on killing humans?" asked Kana, glaring at the apparition.

The cursed spirit scowled. "Like I stated during our first meeting, I wish to free humanity from the burden of existence." He slid a noose over his head and tugged at the remaining rope. "Pre-emptive euthanasia is an act of mercy."

The purple-haired woman clenched her fists. "Dying doesn't end our daily curses! If anything, they'll just follow us into the afterlife, and besides..." her implacable pupils contracted, the candlelight around her amping its brightness, "no one gave you the right to take away our lives."

"How can you say that when you humans are the ones who inflict suffering upon your own kind?!" roared Utsuro — particles of saliva sprinkling the ground. "Bullying, discrimination, murder... every problem faced by humanity is caused by other people! You'll continue to destroy lives as long as you're alive!" The apparition quelled his belligerent tone and narrowed his eyes.

"The only solution to mankind's misery... is to kill you all."

Standing by the edge of a nearby rooftop, Shira gazed down at the cursed spirit while extracting the glass vials from the bands attached to her belt.

Why fold...

She flicked their lids open and held the vials over the building's precipice. A guileful grin covered the girl's face.

...When you can go all in!?

The female sorcerer sighed in response to the cursed spirit, her eyes downcast. "I know how you feel..."

"I told you not to interact with that sickening failure!"

Kana's wisteria-coloured eyes pierced Utsuro's soul as a cacophonous conflagration scorched her surroundings.

"...But you parasites can die all the same."

The apparition jolted upon sensing an abundance of cursed energy above him and glanced upwards: a variegated cascade fell from the sky, a fiery jet concurrently nearing his body. The cursed spirit sprang sideways, the colourful liquid evaporating centimetres above the dissolving inferno.

Are overhead ambushes all you know, Candlelight Sorcerer?

On a partially perpendicular street directly around the corner, a network of nerve fibres swept across the road. Shinji hopped backwards — scarcely eluding the electric vines — and materialised four whip-like blades from his right palm along with a basil-coloured shield over his left forearm.

I need to hurry up and help Hinotori!

Through the mask's misty panes, the man espied a yellow flicker to his right. He threw the shield in front of his face before swinging his other arm; electrical sparks bounced off the basil barrier's surface, a series of severed strands dropping to the ground. Shousa appeared multiple metres behind the sorcerer and propelled her hair at him.