JJK: Red Priest Pathway

"In childhood, Yuta and Orimoto Rika were best friends, but after a certain incident, he ended up cursed, and the girl became a Cursed Spirit," Satoru explained with a serious expression, shifting his gaze from the hole in the wall to his four students. "In short, he was cursed by his beloved."

"True love cannot speak, for it is shown more in actions than in words," I quoted a famous figure, expressing myself.

"Exactly!" Satoru agreed, smiling cheerfully. "Is that Shakespeare?" Panda stared at me.

"Surprised you know," I glanced approvingly at the big guy.

"Now, let's welcome your new classmate again, Okkotsu Yuta!" Satoru energetically circled around the transferred student, clowning.

"Hey," Panda waved his paw.

"Hmm!" Maki snorted, still unhappy that she wasn't warned about Yuta's peculiarity.

"Comb," Toge nodded faintly.

"Yo," I greeted the new special-grade Sorcerer, waving my hand. "And is that all?" Satoru frowned irritably, somewhat disappointed. Our group just fell silent, awkwardly avoiding eye contact.

"Fine. These guys are a bit rebellious, so I'll introduce them myself," the blond turned to Yuta.

I was sure that after these words, all of us were thinking the same thing: "We're like this because of you, stupid headband!"

"Cursed weapon user, Zenin Maki," Satoru began, pointing at the girl. "A true master of martial arts and weapon handling."

"Invoker, Inumaki Toge," the teacher nodded towards the guy with a high collar. "His vocabulary is limited to a set of phrases from onigiri ingredients. So good luck chatting with him."

"And this is Panda," Satoru stated briefly.

"I'm Panda, nice to meet you," the big guy introduced himself equally briefly.

"And... Yami Sukehiro, the biggest jerk of them all," the blond introduced me with his trademark irritating smirk.

"Sorry for what happened, I was curious to test the strength of our new special-grade comrade," he waved to the slightly confused guy.

"So, five first-years," Satoru summed up, scratching his chin. "Not a bad year."

"Wait, stop," Maki suddenly interrupted the atmosphere, surprised. "You said special grade!?" Panda finished the girl's sentence.

***

While my classmates went to exorcise Cursed Spirits under Satoru's supervision, I chose to stay and spent over six hours on the training ground behind the school. All for one very persistent idea... You see, ever since I joined the Seventh Sequence, the thought of combining the martial art my grandfather taught me, the Kai Men Bajiquan, and my Cursed Technique - Pyromancy, wouldn't leave my mind.

Kai Men Bajiquan was the main martial art of Tyrant Abaka, which earned him considerable fame in China and the Middle East. The style consisted of the "six big openings" and the "eight big techniques." The "six big openings" were six methods of breaking an opponent's defense, six types of hand actions. The "eight big techniques" were eight basic techniques of Bajiquan. The style's uniqueness lay in generating maximum force in a strike, causing significant blunt damage to internal organs. When combined with Cursed Energy, the old man could easily exorcise a group of first- grade Cursed Spirits.

I had mastered this style thoroughly, and although it couldn't match the strength of Cursed Technique, thanks to it, even an ordinary person, without using Cursed Energy, could fight against Cursed Spirits of the fourth or sometimes third grade. Essentially, it was the perfect weapon for those lacking talent.

But what would happen if you combined what compensated for the lack of talent with the talent itself?

"First big technique: Palm Strike," every time you pronounced the technique's name, it became easier to use it; it was a kind of self-hypnosis.

Immediately after my words, a small spark appeared deep in my soul, instantly igniting into a fiery wave. Feeling the warmth filling me from the inside, I smiled anticipatorily.

In the next moment, my hand heated incredibly, so much so that it resembled molten steel. With my heated hand, I swung towards a five-meter boulder. Since the essence of the First big technique was a strike with the edge of the palm, my swing looked like a sword strike, hence the name of this technique.

And then, at the moment of contact between my hand and the boulder, my palm began to burn the hard surface of the stone, so fast that for an observer, it might seem like I simply pierced the boulder, causing even my forearm to sink into the stone. However, it didn't end there; in less than a second, my hand cut through the boulder, and it fell, breaking into two parts under its weight.

"Not bad," I looked at the neat cut on the stone. It felt as if butter was cut with a knife.

That was the essence of the First big technique: Palm Strike. When using this technique, I concentrated all my Cursed Energy in my hand for a brief moment, and thanks to the peculiarities of my Cursed Energy, my hand heated intensely. Then I had to strike with the edge of the palm, which, due to the high temperature, cut even metallic objects like butter or pierced through a body with a simple jab.

"Against this, even the strongest Cursed Spirits of special grade would hardly survive," I noted, looking at the burnt grass around.

This technique possessed truly incredible penetrative power, but in return, the other parts of the body were left unprotected. Therefore, it was worth using this technique only in a one-on-one battle and only when I was confident in my defense.

"Now, what else to do," I said, looking around at the empty school grounds.

And it was just the right time. Without Satoru Gojo's supervision and without the eyes of the members of "Team 7," I had the opportunity to explore this place.

Of course, I wasn't going to take a sightseeing stroll to see all the beauty of this place. With my activated Spiritual Sight, I carefully examined my surroundings, and honestly, what I saw was much more astonishing than any landscape.

One of the Five Pure Landscapes of Japan - the Pure Land of the Dead Star Palace. Even though they were deep underground, on which the Tokyo Magic School was built, they still took your breath away. A vast amount of Cursed Energy gathered in this place, creating numerous whirlpools and currents, thereby nourishing the entire system of barriers built by Tengen. And when I say the entire system, I mean the entire system of barriers in Japan.

"Interesting... Don't like it when someone peeks behind your back?" I smirked, noticing a special layer of barriers that didn't allow even my Spiritual Sight to understand its structure and what was behind it. "But unfortunately for you, every technique has its weakness, and the weakness of barrier techniques is my existence."

In the next moment, deep from my soul, Spiritual Energy surged with a powerful flow.

"Enlightenment," I uttered, forming the bird seal.

Following that, the world before my eyes exploded with a multitude of colors. And I saw a strange structure, resembling a tree, its crown supporting the school complex, while its roots spread in all directions, as far as I could see. Knowing Tengen and his fetishes, I could confidently assume that this is how all five Pure Lands of Japan and the barriers forming a strong shield for the entire Sorcerer society are connected.

But the most crucial thing I found was not this, but a small space within the roots where the mummified body of one of the greatest Sorcerers in Japanese history lay.

"Damn you, Tengen!" My astonishment knew no bounds, and not because I finally found one of the key elements of my plan, but because...

"Why the hell do you look so much like me?" I muttered, disbelieving what I saw.

This homunculus certainly wasn't Cursed Spirit, but why then did it evoke a similar feeling? Could it be that the Cursed Technique of this guy is closely linked to Spiritual Energy? Or did he evolve into something that so closely resembled a Cursed Spirit?! But in any case, his very existence puts me in danger, as I'm not the only one targeting him.

Stop. The question is also why this wasn't in the manga? Or... Damn it! I should have thought about it earlier; Kenjaku's plan itself was closely related to soul manipulation, so Spiritual Energy had to be involved.

However, this still doesn't explain why this guy looks so much like a Cursed Spirit.

Unwilling to observe further, I deactivated my Spiritual Sight. If this guy is indeed so close to the Spiritual world, I shouldn't needlessly provoke him...

"This is a new variable," I pondered deeply on this matter because essentially, everything is at stake...

***

Somewhere deep beneath the Tokyo Curse Technical College.

In a completely white space, where concepts like up or down didn't exist, an elderly laughter resounded.

"What an interesting guy."

In that place, something sat—a bipedal humanoid with four eyes and a cylindrical head devoid of hair. Crossing its legs and resting its head on its hand, Tengen's face adorned a disgusting smirk.