Chapter 3: Something is Here

"Hey, girl, something's coming."

"What is it..."

As soon as Hayashizaki finished speaking, Yukinoshita Yukino felt an indescribable presence. If she had to describe it, it was like suddenly falling into a swamp, her body slowly sinking into a bottomless abyss.

The empty apartment seemed to turn into a cage, and a cold, evil presence slowly washed over her like a tide, bringing a sense of suffocation.

"Level three, no, is it level two? The presence is too weak to tell."

But as Hayashizaki's voice sounded, all the discomfort Yukinoshita Yukino felt disappeared, as if it had never been there.

However, the unsettling presence did not disappear.

"What exactly are you talking about?"

Yukinoshita Yukino closed her book, stood up from the sofa, and looked around uneasily, but saw nothing except the familiar furniture.

"A curse spirit, a monster born from people's negative emotions. They are ranked from level four to special grade by sorcerers." 

Hayashizaki explained,

"By the way, sorcerers are also ranked this way, and Sukuna is special grade."

"So? Where's the monster you mentioned?"

Yukinoshita Yukino nervously opened the apartment door and peeked outside, but the hallway on the fifteenth floor was still empty. She went back inside.

"Normally, if there was a Grade 2 curse spirit in this building, it would have caused a lot of deaths and the place would be sealed off. But you're still living here just fine. So, it appeared suddenly?"

Hayashizaki continued explaining, but Yukinoshita Yukino didn't want to listen. She glanced at her white nightgown and quickly went back to her room to get some sportswear.

After hesitating for a few seconds, she realized she couldn't get rid of the annoying Hayashizaki. She decided to just change out of her nightgown and put on the sportswear for easier movement.

"Think about it, I just woke up not long ago, and a Grade 2 curse spirit appeared here. It must have absorbed Sukuna's leaking cursed energy and evolved quickly. Now it wants to devour you to become stronger."

"It's like a pervert smelling the youthful hormones from a girl and going crazy. So gross."

Luckily, Hayashizaki kept talking and didn't notice her changing clothes. Yukinoshita Yukino quietly sighed in relief.

"It's okay, small is cute too."

"..."

This guy is so infuriating!!!

But now wasn't the time to dwell on that. Her unease was growing. After changing into her sportswear, she went to the living room and put on her shoes, ready for any sudden situation.

Seeing her nervous look, Hayashizaki found it amusing.

"You don't need to be so tense. Just let me take over, and it'll be easy to handle."

Yukinoshita Yukino's face turned cold.

"That's your real goal, isn't it? I am..."

Before she could finish, Hayashizaki interrupted,

"Up there."

The young girl subconsciously looked up and realized that a layer of black ripples suddenly swirled on the ceiling, followed by an incomparably ugly giant head peeking out from the ripples.

It was said to be a head, but it was just a polymer made up of countless disgusting lumps of flesh piled up, and then two huge dead fish eyes were roughly glued on top of it, and its looks were even more abstract than a kindergarten child's clay modeling work.

A huge slit ripped open, revealing sharp, yellowing teeth, and slimy green slime dripped down the monster's open mouth, an unpleasant, fishy odor instantly hitting its face.

"Still not running?"

Yukinoshita Yukino winced, quickly reacting to Hayashizaki's reminder and dodging to the side without letting the disgusting-looking slime drip onto her body.

Slime dripped onto the floor, making a sizzling sound. The carpet got burned with holes, and steam rose up.

"Is this a curse spirit?"

the black-haired girl said, trembling.

"It's just a second-grade one, and it was born not long ago. It's very weak,"

Hayashizaki said casually.

"Are you really not going to run? If you do, the other people in this building might get killed too."

The curse spirit dropped from the ceiling to the floor. It was so big that the living room could barely hold it. Its humped back touched the ceiling, and its eight clawed feet easily crushed the glass coffee table into pieces.

It looked like a beast-shaped curse spirit, and from its appearance, it was just like a stray dog from a zombie movie, with its whole body rotting and oozing pus.

"Is it really that weak?"

Yukinoshita Yukino trembled and stepped back. As an ordinary person who had never seen such a terrifying monster, it was already brave of her to still be standing, especially since this curse spirit looked like the dog form she feared the most.

She wanted to turn and run, but she couldn't. At least she couldn't let other innocent people get hurt.

"You said I wouldn't die, right?"

the girl swallowed and asked.

"You won't die, but it will hurt a lot,"

Hayashizaki said playfully.

"If you want to feel what it's like to be bitten by a wild dog, I don't mind."

"..."

Yukinoshita Yukino didn't speak, and Hayashizaki suddenly realized he could control her body.

Her silence was her last bit of stubbornness.

"See, isn't this better?"

Black lines slowly appeared on the black-haired girl's face. Her four eyes were filled with a violent aura, and her sharp canine teeth gave her a vampire-like, eerie beauty.

The moment Hayashizaki took over Yukinoshita Yukino's body, the curse spirit seemed to sense something. It had planned to attack, but now it curled up like a scared puppy, retreating and whimpering.

"Beasts have sharp instincts."

Hayashizaki chuckled and waved his hand. Before the curse spirit could react, its body was cut into pieces, and purple blood sprayed from the clean cuts.

What had looked terrifying just moments ago was now a pile of meat on the floor.

Hayashizaki snapped his fingers, and a flame appeared on the broken corpse, burning it to ashes in no time.

"Well, I'll leave the cleanup to you."

With that, he returned control to the girl. The black lines on her face faded, and the extra pair of eyes closed, leaving small marks like tiny scars.

"Is it over?"

Regaining control of her body, Yukinoshita Yukino blinked at the mess Hayashizaki had left.

"Ryoumen Sukuna? Hayashizaki-kun? Mr. Scumbag?"

But no matter how she called, the previously talkative Hayashizaki didn't respond, as if he had vanished.

He was just playing the silent expert.

...