In a vast rural area isolated from the bustling suburbs near Tokyo, a sturdy young man was swiftly handling the body of an elderly woman. After placing the corpse in a sort of metal capsule, he removed his gloves and tossed them onto a metal table not far from the crematorium furnace.
"Come on, Hisagi, don't be so dramatic about our situation. Even though we deal with dead bodies all the time, we need to detach from the job and not act like a dead fish that could easily be mistaken for one of the corpses. Show some expression, smile a bit; it's not that hard."
A man named Aoki wiped the sweat from his forehead with a pleasant smile on his face. He constantly tried to chat with the odd Hisagi in the same condescending tone that older men often used when lecturing the younger generation.
Of course, Aoki was older than the young man named Hisagi.
"This fire consumes the soul the more you work here. You've only been here a few weeks, but I've been watching bodies melt in these flames since I moved to these mountains with my grandfather. Be honest with me, Aoki—could you smile if, instead of hugging a stuffed animal, you had to handle the corpse of a child?" Hisagi, after checking that the hermetic chamber was properly sealed, started the cremation process.
Hisagi was doing all the work preparing the body.
Then, the body was placed in the crematorium furnace, where it was exposed to high temperatures ranging from 760 to 980 degrees Celsius for several hours. This reduced the body to ashes and bone fragments, leaving only a small portion of what was once a human body.
Meanwhile, Aoki took care of all the legal processes before handling the bodies that arrived at the crematorium. In a foreign country, cremating a body might seem rare, but in a place like Japan, it was extremely normal.
In fact, Hisagi had mixed feelings about handling corpses, but there was no way to change his life after the incident he had as a child. His grandfather was a Japanese man in charge of this old crematorium, which he had purchased precisely because of that incident. If Hisagi hadn't been injured when facing that malevolent spirit in his youth, they might still be living in the city.
Although Hisagi would have liked to have a different life, the lack of parents and resources led him to work in this isolated place. In the end, everyone must surrender when it comes to money.
He was somewhat optimistic about it. His grandfather said that after his death, Hisagi would be the sole owner of this private crematorium. By then, he would only need to sign paperwork in the office, sign, and keep signing until the money reached his hands. At that point, someone else would take his place and run this place.
However, a few years later, after taking an indefinite break from high school and dedicating himself to this job, his grandfather was still healthier than a college student. If it weren't for some of the strange events that occurred during this job, Hisagi would have left long ago.
"[+1 Cremated corpse, the flames of your soul have increased!]"
Hisagi stood motionless for a moment, like a tree. His eyes were fixed on the flames, and suddenly, energy surged through his veins, reaching every corner of his body within seconds. Yes, he had a strange sort of panel, but it granted him unparalleled abilities as far as he knew.
"Damn it…" Aoki, his coworker, exclaimed dramatically, saying, "Move a little, man. I'm getting more and more sure you've got some kind of personality disorder."
"Stop being so loud... Take care of the rest. I just remembered an old book I read last night." Hisagi shook his head in frustration and left. That had been the last corpse to process today. He had done almost all the work throughout the day, so it was finally his break time.
Zzi-Zzi! Zzi-zzi!
But as he left the crematorium, Hisagi suddenly stopped when that current of electric energy buzzed in his ears. Instinctively, he sensed something miles away, down the slope to the left. After the sun had set, the path became dark and eerie with the sounds of animals, and typically, no one walked that way.
Moreover, there was only one thing that unnerved Hisagi.
A restless soul is near your location. Grant it eternal rest!
That cold, monotone voice made Hisagi smile as he clenched his fists tightly and muttered with resentment, "After half a month, another cursed spirit has appeared in this place."
Indeed, in the distant shadows, a dark figure slowly revealed itself. When Hisagi clearly saw the cursed spirit, he couldn't help but frown.
"That energy… Is it really a first-class cursed spirit?"
The dark, slender figure in the distance seemed to have been drenched in oil. Its shoulders were broad, but its arms were thin and so long they dragged on the ground. It had three eyes on its head, the middle one glowing a deep, dark red.
"Leave my grandson alone; leave my grandson; you damn bullies..."
Hisagi froze for a moment. These cursed spirits, also known as curses, were categorized by grades—at least that was the information Hisagi had gathered so far. According to what he knew, these monsters were divided into five basic grades. Grade 4 was the lowest, and these could be fought off with a simple wooden bat. As for Grade 3 curses, they could be eliminated with firearms. Grade 2 curses, on the other hand, were impossible for normal people to defeat.
From Grade 4 to 2, curses were relatively easy to handle. But as the curse's strength increased, so did its intelligence. Some were born, while others evolved to higher levels.
The first-class cursed spirit, like the one in front of Hisagi, was an intelligent curse. And that curse's appearance resembled someone very close to him—yes, that figure belonged to his grandfather.
"This explains the recent changes in my grandfather; the reason he miraculously recovered from his illness... is because of your existence." Hisagi had discovered that his grandfather had been suffering from a very advanced and aggressive cancer, but something had happened that left him utterly perplexed. At some point, his grandfather had miraculously recovered. Although it was true that his words and actions had been strange, Hisagi hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary.
Thinking back now, all those events seemed unreasonable, until this first-class cursed spirit appeared. All of Hisagi's doubts were cleared.
Behind the first-class cursed spirit lay some crushed fruits, and the direction from which those fruits came was a place where Hisagi's grandfather used to spend most of his time.
"Even though my grandfather was cynical, he was a father figure I respected and appreciated honestly. He liked planting fruit trees, sneezed loudly, and never brushed his teeth. But he was true to his feelings. I never hated him; I was always grateful." Hisagi looked at his staff in the distance, frowned, and turned to the first-class Curse: "My grandfather is no longer in this world, so now I will kill you and free my grandfather's body from that invasive darkness."
"Aren't you afraid?" The first-class cursed spirit inside Hisagi's grandfather's body was somewhat surprised. What it said earlier was not part of its own desires but the obsession of Hisagi's grandfather's corpse. Just now, it wanted to kill some people, but when it was about to do so, it ran into this boy who seemed to be the grandson of its vessel. Even now, knowing that his grandfather had died, the boy was remarkably calm.
The spirit had been watching Hisagi for three months, and there was nothing unusual about him. This young man only complained about wanting to quit his job and return to the city, but in the moment it sensed him, there was a shift.
Hisagi was calm, which made the first-class cursed spirit feel deeply unsettled.
"Afraid, or maybe surprised?" Hisagi looked at the first-class cursed spirit in front of him and lamented not having eliminated all the cursed spirits around him earlier.
That might have been the reason he had ignored this evil spirit before. It had seemed weak and harmless, but now it was a monster that had stolen his grandfather's life.
This time, Hisagi would free his grandfather's body, an old man who had suffered greatly in life after losing most of his family.
Seeing that Hisagi was no longer speaking, the cursed spirit seemed to cast aside its doubts. A young man without a trace of power couldn't instill fear, so it rushed forward, intending to finish off Hisagi with a single blow.
Hisagi had been waiting for this critical moment. As the cursed spirit lunged at him, he slid his right leg and bent his fist downward, taking a deep breath. With a seemingly simple strike, the moment the cursed spirit entered his safe zone, a white light formed on Hisagi's fist. His punch synchronized with the energy, not only increasing his speed but also boosting his raw strength.
Boom!
The cursed spirit's chest caved in from the blow, and its entire body flew like a bullet, crashing onto the path far away, stirring the ground and raising a cloud of dust.
Hisagi retracted his arm and moved his right foot from the ground, watching the smoke and dust rise in the distance. He murmured, "Under normal circumstances, a regular cursed spirit would have been disintegrated by that punch... It seems that older cursed spirits are much more special than I imagined."
Could it be because this cursed spirit had consumed too many people?
"Well, it doesn't matter anymore. Either way, you must be eliminated today." Hisagi moved his arm and took off his shirt, which had been torn by the powerful blow he had unleashed moments ago. After that, he walked toward the cursed spirit.
The smoke and dust hadn't cleared, but the black shadow had disappeared from the crack in the ground. Feeling a presence to his left, Hisagi's calm eyes scanned the surroundings. Suddenly, sensing the wind rushing from one side, all he could do was raise his arms to block his chest. In that moment, a sharp pain surged through all the bones in his arms, and he flew back, crashing near the house in the distance.
"No, I'm still too strong to easily withstand this kind of damage." Hisagi had strengthened his body with his own exercises to adapt to the enormous power growing within him, but the results of this training couldn't stop the physical attack of a cursed spirit of this level. At this moment, both of his arms were already injured.
In fact, there was some danger right now. Even though his first encounter with the power coming from corpses had felt quite pleasant to his body and soul, the strength of his initial attack hadn't been enough to eliminate his enemy in one blow.
And the reason he didn't use his sword was that he wasn't yet skilled in its use. He hadn't received a direct inheritance, so to speak.
However, consumed by a powerful will from within his soul, he wasn't scared. Instead, the boiling blood in his body made him grind his teeth and move aggressively.
In the next moment, a large hole opened where Hisagi had just moved, and strange energy flowed senselessly from the surroundings, revealing the cursed spirit's full power.
"Let's continue..." Hisagi appeared in mid-air, violently pressing a foot downward, and just as he was about to touch the cursed spirit's head, a black and blue light appeared on his right leg, seeming to slightly tear the space around it.
Boom!
"Once more!"
Hisagi swung his leg again instantly after landing, and the black and blue light shimmered. Alongside the white aura, they fused.
One kick!
Two kicks!
Three kicks!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
By the sixth kick, Hisagi slowed down and stepped back to ensure safety before making any other moves.
"Can it only unleash... six of these attacks? Is that the limit of combining my cursed energy with my soul's power?" Hisagi's legs were slightly weak after landing at a safe distance.
The cursed spirit, with its current strength, couldn't withstand the overwhelming power of Hisagi's physical attacks. After enduring six kicks charged with energy, it was at its limit.
After all, this cursed spirit wasn't of a higher class. Its vessel's head and body had been struck so hard that it was struggling to regenerate, and each time its regeneration slowed down. At this point, its human body began to die and collapse, cracking the shell of its vessel more and more.
"After all, these aren't ordinary attacks with demonic energy."
Hisagi regained mobility in his injured hands. After seeing the cursed spirit collapsed and lifeless, he murmured, "This first-class cursed spirit... I wonder how many souls I'll save if I kill it."