I Don’t Want to Be a Heroic Spirit

"Looking for someone~~?"

Her voice was sweet, and people often said that just hearing a person's voice could conjure up their image. To Arakami Yuu, such a beautiful voice could only belong to a rare and enchanting young woman.

In ordinary circumstances, hearing such a honeyed voice nearby would be a pleasure.

However, at this moment, the sound chilled him to his core.

As a seasoned curse user, Arakami Yuu reacted in an instant. A massive, ice-blue skeleton with a white veil appeared behind him, its colossal bone hand swinging backward with fierce momentum.

Boom!

After the impact, Arakami Yuu's figure vanished, replaced by a young woman with spiraling red-to-gray hair, clad in an elegant red-and-white dress. Red thigh-high stockings hugged her legs in perfect contours, and her crimson high heels gleamed wickedly.

The ground at her feet had cracked, and the surrounding forest had been opened up, branches and trunks blasted aside.

Her beauty was undeniable, but her smile was cruel, and her words carried a venomous sting.

"The thing about rats is that even when you think you've killed them all, you find one or two more skittering in the corners."

"Urgh…"

Arakami Yuu grunted, suppressing his pain as he struggled to his feet. His ice-blue skeleton familiar was in far worse condition, its ribs shattered and cracks spreading all the way to its skull.

It had protected him by enveloping him in its massive frame, using its ribs to absorb the force of her first strike.

The cost, though, was that it was now barely functional.

Quickly, Arakami Yuu withdrew the damaged familiar.

The Arakami family's secret technique was to use one's own blood as a medium to summon shikigami and bind them with contracts, granting full control over them. This art was known as Blood Contracting.

It was similar to the Zen'in family's Ten Shadows Technique and the Cursed Spirit Manipulation technique.

There were no limits on the number or type of familiars a Blood Contract could summon, as long as the user could fully dominate them. This was similar to the Cursed Spirit Manipulation technique.

However, when a shikigami died, it inflicted backlash on its user, and there were significant limitations on contracting stronger familiars. In this respect, Blood Contracting was akin to the Ten Shadows Technique.

"Congratulations."

Baobhan Sith's sudden words caught Arakami Yuu off guard.

"…Congratulations on what?"

"Congratulations on enduring one of my attacks without falling. In my eyes, you've successfully risen from the level of an ant to that of a slightly larger maggot."

Her slender finger tapped playfully against her red lips as her narrowed eyes looked down on the battered Arakami Yuu with mocking amusement.

"After all, an ant isn't even worth squashing. I wouldn't even stop to think, 'Oh, did I just step on something?'"

Arakami Yuu was still reeling.

If he hadn't reacted so quickly, that blow would've left him gravely injured!

Who is this woman? How did she get so close without me noticing? Why can't I follow her movements?

The snap of a broken branch echoed as Baobhan Sith's crimson heels stepped down, crackling like a warning.

Suddenly, a towering skeleton warrior clad in ancient armor appeared behind her, wielding a long odachi. It was Arakami Iwaichi, who had been quietly ignored by Baobhan Sith.

"I don't know who you are, but to intrude alone into the Arakami family's territory, trespass—"

"Shut up."

A massive broken blade sailed through the air, embedding itself in the ground.

"Urgh…"

Arakami Iwaichi's eyes widened in disbelief as he clutched his stomach in agony.

The warrior skeleton protecting him held only a broken hilt, its blade shattered, before it too dissipated into black mist.

"…Impossible…"

Those were the last words of Arakami Iwaichi.

Baobhan Sith didn't even glance at his corpse as she coldly murmured, "I didn't give you permission to speak."

"Hehe… hahaha—!!"

There was no winning here.

Not even a chance to escape.

This had to be a nightmare, right? There was no other way to explain the existence of a monster like this!

"What's this, broken already?"

Baobhan Sith approached the crazed Arakami Yuu, her cold, gray eyes looking down on him as if he were little more than dirt.

"A broken toy might as well be trash. Luckily, I'm quite good at sorting trash. You, for example… are definitely non-recyclable."

"…"

"Oh? Were you trying to say something?"

Baobhan Sith leaned in, her rose-colored hair cascading past her shoulders.

"…Demon."

"What a rude thing to call a sweet girl like me! At least call me a witch."

Seeming to lose interest, Baobhan Sith turned and started toward the cave's entrance.

Watching the red figure slowly fading from view, Arakami Yuu laughed quietly to himself.

"Satoru Gojo… your rival has finally emerged."

The world was in balance, after all.

He had thought that the birth of that "someone" in the Gojo family would forever disrupt the order maintained in the jujutsu world for thousands of years. Yet here she was, a being who could match him.

If Satoru Gojo was the embodiment of order, then this streak of red was the incarnation of chaos and anarchy.

"I'll be watching from the other side, Gojo Satoru…"

A thin red line suddenly split down Arakami Yuu's forehead, tracing a path downward until it divided his entire body in two.

With a soft thud, each half of him fell in opposite directions.

"…And as for the atrocities you committed, even a demon wouldn't stoop that low."

Baobhan Sith's voice echoed from the cave's darkness, quickly swept away by the blood-tinged wind.

A barrier protected the entrance, allowing only those with Arakami blood to pass.

But could such a crude restriction possibly stop Fairy Knight Tristan? She didn't even need to exert effort; her EX-Rank Magic Resistance let her breeze right through.

"Ah, from the way Master's charging ahead, I almost thought she'd fused with Heracles' Saint Graph instead of Fairy Knight Tristan's," Da Vinci quipped with a sigh.

That was a comment Baobhan Sith was happy to ignore.

The curses thickening in the air—enough to kill an ordinary human in seconds—were equally useless against Fairy Knight Tristan's absurd EX-Rank Magic Resistance.

Yet while they couldn't harm her, the stench was certainly unpleasant.

"Seriously… making my waifu's flawless body set foot in a place this filthy? Whoever's inside… you're so dead!"

Baobhan Sith's rage meter: MAX!

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T/N: I would love to play FGO again but I banned myself from Gacha Games, I can't help but spend thousands...