Phew~
Feeling a bit worn out.
Immersive exorcism turned out to be even tougher than expected. You'd think with so many Cursed Spirits dying off every day, the task list would shrink, but checking the Sorcerer Forum shows it's only getting longer. These incidents keep popping up in remote corners, and sorcerers are constantly on the move, chasing after curses like reaping wheat—clear one batch, and another sprouts the next day.
Once something becomes a task, it just starts to feel tedious.
I used to enjoy exorcising curses.
Yuki Tsukumo showed up for the third time and added mass to the Eye. Same formula as before—Cursed Energy drained completely, and the Eye successfully gained the strength of Four and a Half Nations.
Sōjun Minamoto wasn't very mobile now.
One of him stayed stationed at Jujutsu High to serve as the bearer of the Star Eye, while the other four went out to exorcise and assimilate Cursed Spirits.
He'd truly taken multitasking to its limit.
...
Shiko Mishima hadn't been in a great mood lately.
She couldn't split herself into five.
And the Cursed Tool tachi she'd relied on for so long had broken during her last promotion mission.
It had been her most beloved weapon—her treasure.
And expensive!
She'd spent a fortune pulling every string she could to get it, and it only lasted a few years before breaking. Now there wasn't even a place to buy a replacement.
So she went around sulking all day, no longer enthusiastic about exorcising curses.
Money issues—especially big ones—were just too much for her to handle alone.
"So this is why you came to me?" Sōjun Minamoto rubbed his forehead in exasperation. All this over that?
Shiko Mishima bit her lower lip, looking pitiful. "I'm heartbroken... my sword!"
"You're not drunk, are you?!" Sōjun Minamoto snapped.
"..."
Shiko Mishima looked at him, tempted to mimic Riko Amanai—throw herself on the floor and roll around to see if he'd magically produce a new Cursed Tool.
She almost did it. Thankfully, reason stopped her. A 19-year-old woman still had a little dignity—no way she'd actually go through with that.
Sōjun Minamoto fell into thought. He didn't use Cursed Tools much himself, but he remembered that Jujutsu High had a lot of Forbidden Vaults with plenty of tools stored. It shouldn't be impossible to get one.
He knew the three major clans shared a public Forbidden Vault deep within the school, storing centuries' worth of collected Cursed Tools. They weren't exactly rare, though.
There were two main ways Cursed Tools came about. Some were ordinary weapons transformed over time by sorcerers repeatedly pouring Cursed Energy into them, eventually developing unique properties. Others were forged by blacksmiths using materials with high Cursed Energy conductivity.
Sōjun Minamoto knew a bit about forging—thanks to Mrs. Minamoto.
Honestly, he was pretty good at it.
His approach to forging, like his Cursed Technique philosophy, was unconventional.
He'd made a few Cursed Tools before using rather unusual materials—
What could conduct curses better than his own body?
He'd extract bone marrow, pluck hair from the root, and blend it with modern metals... Whenever he was low on funds, he'd forge a few Cursed Tools and post them on the forum. They sold out instantly.
No cost, zero risk, high profit.
He looked up at Shiko Mishima. "Got any money?"
Her eyes lit up. "You can get one?"
Sōjun Minamoto nodded—just buy from him.
"What kind of Cursed Tool do you want? Still a tachi?" he asked, starting to assess the client's needs.
From what he'd seen, Shiko Mishima wasn't really suited to using a tachi. She wasn't especially attached to swords—it's just that a sword had been the only thing available.
"I can choose?" Shiko Mishima lit up, clearly surprised at how shady his connections were.
She perked up immediately!
"Do you have any suggestions? I'd prefer something long-handled, but not a naginata—I don't like those. Nothing too heavy either, I'm more on the agile side..." She rattled off her requests, then clapped her hands.
"Something strong and cheap, that's what I want!"
Strong and cheap?
Do you hear yourself? Even my eyes are protesting.
"Go home and wait. Transfer the money to my account."
"Got it!"
...
Sōjun Minamoto returned to his specially set-up forge.
He decided to use this chance to level up his blacksmith grade.
Forging Cursed Tools wasn't all that different from forging regular weapons—just the materials were a bit more unusual. The steps were the same.
First up: materials. Modern metals provided strength and durability. With enough money, even special alloys could be bought—which is why Shiko Mishima had to foot the bill.
Sōjun Minamoto logged into the dark web.
Here, money ruled everything.
Cursed items were the priciest. "Normal" materials were cheaper by comparison.
Alloys with properties like invisibility, hydrogen resistance, superconductivity, shape memory, wear resistance, vibration damping—even metal matrix composites—were all easily found.
For rarer stuff, you could post a request. The higher the bounty, the faster the results.
After some thorough searching, Sōjun picked out the right metals, confirmed prices with suppliers, and paid the deposit.
The platform handled part of the transaction process.
Of course, if you were strong enough... why pay when you could just take?
Sōjun Minamoto was confident. If the seller dared to take his money and disappear, they'd basically be begging to get robbed. The so-called dark web? It was only "dark" to most people.
With the metals secured, next came the Cursed materials. Combining modern tech with Cursed Techniques would make for a truly powerful tool.
Few forgers in the jujutsu world paid as much attention to non-curse materials as Sōjun Minamoto did.
As for curse materials, those were easy—sorcerer's fingers, hair, eyes... especially his own. His body was top-tier when it came to curse conductivity.
But that came at a different price...
A few days later, the materials arrived without a hitch. Sōjun Minamoto was almost disappointed.
Now that everything was ready, it was time for the next step: blueprint design.
The shape, dimensions, even the decorations of the Cursed Tool had to be finalized ahead of time so there'd be no surprises later.
He was being extra meticulous this time—even preparing a rough prototype as reference.
After a long consideration, he reviewed the many types of long-handled blades: cavalry sabers, war scythes, guandaos, executioner's blades, ōdachis, naginatas… But after ruling out the unsuitable ones, only a few remained—and even fewer once Shiko Mishima's preferences were factored in.
Ironically, a naginata would've been the best choice for a woman—but she shot that idea down right away.
What a hassle. Might as well forge her a scythe and let her go mow the lawn.
Sōjun Minamoto settled on the tool type. Images of battle scythes flashed through his mind. Functionality came first, followed by compatibility with Shiko Mishima's height, build, and combat habits.
He drafted the specs: handle length, curve, blade length, spine width, blade arc... Each measurement laid out in detail. At last, the blueprint was complete.
Then it was time for the real forging.
Sōjun Minamoto locked himself in the forge. He needed to heat the metal to just the right temperature and perfectly fuse the cursed material, removing impurities.
By evening, he finally emerged from a full day in the forge.
It had failed.
The flames hadn't reached a high enough temperature, and the heat control was unstable.
Sōjun Minamoto frowned in thought.
The flames... that's what was missing.
He needed to catch a curse that specialized in flame-based techniques.