Chapter 97 - 98 : Special Grade (1)

Chapter 97: Chapter 98 : Special Grade (1)

Nobara stared at the corridor where Mark had disappeared, her face twisting with irritation.

"What the hell is wrong with that teacher?"

Yuji looked at her. "What?"

"There’s supposedly a special grade in this place, and that idiot just tells us to go find the victims while he wanders off by himself." She shook her head.

"What kind of teacher does that? What if we run into it? He won’t even know we’re in trouble. And the entrance vanished too." She threw her hands up.

"What if we find the curse, get trapped in here, and die? I’m too young to die!"

Megumi glanced at the Divine Dogs. "Relax. The dogs remember the entrance. Once we confirm the victims’ condition, we’re gone."

Nobara relaxed instantly. "Good boy."

She patted one of the dogs on the head, then looked back toward the corridor, grinning.

"Let that fool wander around and get stuck in here crying."

She laughed and walked off. Megumi followed without arguing. Yuji hesitated a moment before catching up.

A short distance away, Mark stood quietly in th shadows, watching them go. He shook his head. "That girl really has the loudest mouth."

He hadn’t actually gone looking for the special grade — no point wasting time searching for it when it would come to them eventually. Mark looked deeper into the domain and waited.

"Let’s see how long it takes."

***

Megumi and Yuji pushed on through the distorted corridors, the Divine Dogs sniffing out a path ahead. They found the detainees eventually. None of them were alive.

Yuji stood over the bodies, his expression darkening. "We should take them with us."

Megumi shook his head. "We can’t."

"We can’t just leave them here."

"They’re already dead. We need to get out before the curse comes back."

"We came here to save them."

"I know." Megumi’s voice didn’t waver. "But carrying the bodies will slow us down, and we don’t know what else is in here."

Yuji clenched his fists, clearly unhappy with the answer.

Nobara looked between the two of them. "Can you two not do this right now?" She rubbed her forehead. "Unbelievable, both of you."

She stepped forward. The ground beneath her rippled.

Nobara glanced down. "...What?"

A puddle of cursed energy spread beneath her feet. Before she could react, the floor gave way.

"Wait—!"

A rush of air passed beside her. An arm caught her around the waist and yanked her out of the opening.

Mark appeared beside the group with Nobara tucked under one arm like a sack of rice.

She immediately started thrashing. "Hey! How can you carry a girl like this?!"

Mark glanced down at her. "You’re alive, aren’t you?"

"Put me down!"

"There’s no pleasing you."

"Not when you’re hauling me around like luggage!"

Mark’s gaze shifted to the distorted puddle beneath them. "Complain later." His voice sharpened. "The curse is here."

Megumi felt the surge of malevolent cursed energy first. He moved forward with Yuji instinctively, putting distance between them and the source before turning to face it.

The special-grade cursed spirit stood in the corridor, its pale, muscular body and twisted face pressing down on the space around it.

Nobara’s expression turned serious. "That’s the special grade?"

Megumi’s Divine Dogs surged out of his shadow, already snarling. "Yeah," he said. "In the flesh."

Yuji stared it down, fists tightening.

Mark stood off to the side, unbothered. Nobara shot him a look, still annoyed about being carried, and he finally set her down. She dropped straight onto her face.

"Ow!"

Before she could push herself up, the cursed spirit lunged at Mark, throwing a punch straight at his head.

Mark caught the fist with one hand. The floor cracked under his feet.

"Watch closely," he said, glancing back at Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara. "This is how you fight cursed spirits."

He twisted the curse’s arm and drove a foot into its stomach.

Boom!

The special grade launched backward and punched clean through a wall, leaving a crater in the concrete.

Nobara pushed herself up, glaring. "You could’ve warned me!"

Mark ignored her as the curse dragged itself out of the rubble, expression twisting with rage.

He cracked his knuckles. "Yeah, fuck you too."

It charged. He met it head-on. The two collided in the corridor, trading blows at close range while Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara watched from behind.

The curse swung again, then again, changing angles each time — but every strike stopped short of Mark’s body.

"You’re not getting it, are you?"

He stepped in and buried a punch in its gut. It flew backward through another wall. Before it could recover, he was already on it, grabbing its arm, spinning it, and hurling it down the corridor.

It hit the floor and pushed itself back up anyway.

Mark walked toward it. "Come on."

It rushed him again. Its claws stopped dead against nothing.

He caught its wrist and drove a kick into its chest, sending it through another wall, then followed it through the opening, beating it back through the building — punching it through concrete, kicking it down corridors every time it tried to recover.

It finally staggered to a stop and stared at him.

Mark stood several meters back, hands in his pockets. "You’re making this place look worse than it already did."

The curse roared and charged one more time.

Mark sighed. "Fine."

He stepped forward to meet it.

A/N : There will be Minor crossover and the next world is Jujutsu Kaisen

****

A/N: Advanced Chapters are available on Patreon.

👉 patreon.com/Mark841

Currently, 22 advanced Chapters are available