The wind was sharp at the top of the rooftop.
Kai crouched on the ledge of a four-story tenement in Gotham's east district, one knee up, one hand resting on the concrete as he surveyed the streets below.
The city pulsed beneath him — flickering lights, distant sirens, neon signs bleeding into puddles. Rain misted in the air, soft but cold. From this height, the people below looked like drifting shadows, unaware of what passed above their heads.
But he wasn't watching them.
He was watching the threads.
Through his Six Eyes, Gotham glowed with layered movement. Cursed energy trailed from windows and alleys, curled around storm drains, and pooled in intersections where sorrow had taken root.
Most people didn't see it.
Most people couldn't feel it.
But Kai could.
And now, after months of quiet observation and silent survival, he was no longer content to stand still.
Tonight, he wouldn't just watch.
He would act.
His hoodie was fitted tight against his frame, lined with cursed-thread that muffled energy bleed. His gloves flexed silently as he adjusted his grip on the edge. The blindfold dulled his spiritual signature, but through it, his vision remained crystal-clear — layers of energy stacked over a breathing, wounded city.
He checked his belt.
Three talismans.
Two cursed nails.
One sealed dagger.
He reached up and tied the blindfold tighter.
Then stepped into the air — and vanished into the night.
The first cursed signature hit just past midnight.
A sudden flare near the old bus depot — sharp, erratic, hunger-based. Not powerful, but volatile.
Kai darted across rooftops, leaping from ledge to ledge in silence, each movement precise. He landed on a rusted overhang above the depot and crouched low.
Below, a cursed spirit twisted between dumpsters.
It was malformed — a stitched mass of resentment and jealousy, formed from decades of isolation. Its limbs coiled like wire, and its face wore three mismatched eyes that blinked in different directions.
It was feeding on the echo of an argument between two teenagers who had just stormed off in opposite directions.
Kai didn't hesitate.
He dropped into the alley, pressed a talisman into the ground mid-fall, and activated it with a pulse of cursed energy.
The moment his feet touched the pavement, the glyph flared — and the spirit snapped toward him, all three eyes locking on his blindfold.
It screamed.
Kai was already moving.
He slipped behind it, cursed nail in hand, and jabbed it into the spirit's back. The spike shattered on impact, flooding the spirit with destabilizing energy.
The creature lurched.
He drew the dagger.
One slash across the core — clean, fast, precise.
The spirit convulsed, then evaporated in a cloud of static.
Kai stood still.
Listened.
No one had noticed.
The teenagers were gone.
The depot was empty.
He wiped the dagger against his sleeve, sheathed it, and melted back into the darkness.
One down.
Between 1:00 and 4:00 AM, he eliminated three more.
A spirit hiding inside a subway tunnel, formed from years of missed trains and drowned promises.
A lingering fragment haunting a nurse's footsteps on her way home — one that had attached itself to grief and unspoken exhaustion.
And finally, one watching from a rooftop mirror, staring into windows without reflection.
Each one died without a sound.
Each one left no trace.
And each time, Kai's movements grew more fluid, his decision-making sharper.
This wasn't survival anymore.
It was method.
This was what he was born to do.
He returned to Hollow Keep just before dawn.
The base was quiet, sealed in silence. The barriers hadn't been triggered — good. No one had followed. No spirits had wandered in.
He hung his gear by the meditation shrine and took a long breath.
He didn't feel tired.
He felt present.
He opened the central log scroll and began writing:
Patrol 001 Summary:– Cursed entities exorcised: 4– Techniques used: 3 talismans, 2 cursed nails, 1 dagger– Locations: East depot, subway line C, Parkview rooftops, Mercy Hospital alley– Energy output: 18% capacity– No exposure. No sightings. Clean route return.
He paused.
Then added:
First night operating as active counterforce successful. No signs of cursed energy accumulation at known hotspots. Spirits are weaker now… cautious. A pattern is forming.
Another pause.
Then, just below that:
I am not Gotham's guardian. Not yet. But tonight, I became its shadow.
He leaned back on the mat, arms crossed behind his head, staring up at the flickering glyph light overhead.
He wasn't smiling.
Not exactly.
But he wasn't empty anymore either.
Elsewhere in the city, people stirred.
A woman at the hospital looked around on her break and felt the strange calm of being alone — not watched. Not haunted.
A subway janitor, used to strange noises in Tunnel C, found only silence.
A man who had screamed at his partner in anger last night couldn't remember what made him so upset.
All of them went on with their lives.
None of them would remember the fear.
Or know what had been feeding on it.
But something had changed.
And deep in their subconscious, some part of them felt it:
The pressure was gone.
Atop a rooftop near the docks, Kai stood once more.
Wind tugged at his hoodie. His blindfold fluttered softly in the breeze.
He held a fresh talisman between his fingers, watching it glow faintly in response to a weak cursed trail passing below.
He didn't activate it.
The trail dissipated on its own.
Good.
They were starting to fear him.
He looked out over the city.
Still broken.
Still cursed.
But less than it was the night before.
And tomorrow, it would be less again.
That was enough.
He turned to walk away, but paused.
Took one last look at Gotham's skyline.
And whispered:
"The war has already started. You just don't see it yet."
Then he vanished into the fog.
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Thanks for all the support so far on this novel. I'd never thought that this novel would be doing so well as I was more focused on my other novel Luffy: The Multiversal Animator and this novel just became more popular than that and I only made this for fun. So I will be taking a short break until coming Monday so as to properly plan out the next arc and I wanted your thoughts about it.
I want the next arc to be a timeskip to either middle or high school where gojo has his jjk personality and is friends with damien wayne (the robin). I want to get the teen titans to slowly get involved with gojo throughout the next arc with the big finale being him battling a bunch of special grade cursed spirits at the end. If you have any ideas please comment as I am open to suggestions. This part will be removed in a few days