The Gojo residence.
Dappled patches of light swayed and fell upon the floorboards before Ieiri Yuuki.
He wore a pale blue kimono, secured at the waist with a black obi.
He was blending in with local customs.
People of the Gojo family basically all wore kimonos.
Ieiri Yuuki lay in the center of the room, surrounded by scattered yellow cursed talismans.
These were materials provided by the Gojo family, which he had subsequently drawn and replicated himself.
A cursed talisman near the door was gently fluttered by a light breeze, drifting low as it floated outward and happened to bump into someone.
The other person bent down and picked up that cursed talisman.
As a newly crafted cursed talisman, naturally, it still carried the scent of ink.
The cursed characters on the yellow paper were complex and difficult to understand, but the brushstrokes were sharp.
The person walked inside with a very light tread. First, he placed the cursed talisman aside and called out softly, “Ieiri?”
Ieiri Yuuki, who had been in a daze, heard the voice and stirred.
He turned his head to bury his face in the long sleeve of his kimono, mumbling, “Fushiguro, good afternoon.”
His voice was very soft and light, combined with the natural advantage of his vocal timbre, making listeners unconsciously soften their hearts and find themselves unable to be harsh with him.
Fushiguro Megumi remained unmoved.
Because he had already developed antibodies.
Fushiguro Megumi said coldly, “Ieiri, it is already well past the time to say good afternoon.”
“Starting from yesterday, you haven’t eaten or slept for over twenty-five hours.”
With that, Fushiguro Megumi’s face turned completely stern. “Are you trying to work yourself to death?”
[Our Megumi is young, yet he’s already acting like a mother]
[We want a male mother!]
[Don’t rely on being young to stay up late; once you get older, you’ll go bald]
[Words of wisdom born of blood and tears]
They had all been staying at the Gojo estate this past week. Living close by meant they had grown much more familiar with each other’s routines.
Itadori had tried persuading him earlier, but it hadn’t worked; Fushiguro was the final line of defense.
From Fushiguro Megumi’s perspective, Ieiri Yuuki had a good temperament and was an easy person to get along with.
Yet he constantly relied on his curse of immortality to recklessly abuse his own body.
Take these past few days, for instance: in order to study cursed talismans, he had reached the point of forgetting to eat and sleep.
Fushiguro Megumi also knew that Yuuki was working this hard to become strong rapidly.
He admired the other’s determination, yet couldn’t help worrying about his health.
“Don’t worry, I’m immortal; I won’t starve to death,” Ieiri Yuuki comforted him.
Fushiguro Megumi: “……”
You’re seriously planning to starve yourself?!
He decided to switch directions and prescribe the right medicine for the symptom: “Are you running into a bottleneck with your research on cursed talismans?”
“Mm.”
At the mention of this, Ieiri Yuuki propped himself up into a half-sitting position.
A cursed talisman slipped off his chest, and he picked it up.
He said, “Ancient texts of the Gojo family record that there was once a sorcerer who could directly command cursed talismans in combat. And I—”
Before his voice trailed off, a cursed talisman floated upon his fingertips.
“I can also use cursed energy to make cursed talismans move, but it’s just ‘moving,’ and nothing more.”
He said, “I can’t manipulate them to fight directly.”
Fushiguro Megumi didn’t know much about this: “Perhaps some steps are missing in the process?”
Ieiri nodded. “Mm, it’s hand gestures.”
“Hand gestures?”
Ieiri Yuuki thought for a moment, giving an example that Fushiguro Megumi could easily understand.
“Just like the different hand shadows you use when summoning different shikigami.”
“If I want to manipulate different cursed talismans, I also need different hand gestures, but there are no relevant records in the books, so I can only figure it out myself.”
Hearing this, Fushiguro Megumi couldn’t help freezing in place.
Figure it out yourself?
How diverse are human hand gestures? Doing this was no different from searching for a needle in a haystack.
Perhaps noticing Fushiguro Megumi’s grave expression, Ieiri Yuuki chuckled softly. “Fushiguro, have you ever watched Naruto?”
Fushiguro had watched it and nodded.
Still, what did that have to do with cursed talismans?
Ieiri Yuuki looked a little proud. “I took inspiration from the ninja hand-seals and figured out two techniques.”
“Want to see? It’s quite interesting, you know.”
Fushiguro Megumi felt a bit curious as well and nodded once more.
“Then, I’m going to start,” Ieiri Yuuki said. “This is the first technique, a basic attack—”
He raised both hands, shaping them into a roughly triangular form. His knuckles were fair and slender, quite pleasing to the eye, and immediately afterward, the ring fingers and pinkies of both hands simultaneously curled inward.
A cluster of cursed energy condensed at his fingertips.
Then with a “clap,” he brought his palms together, producing a crisp sound.
As his palms parted again, his hands shifted out of alignment, alternating back and forth twice, and the sphere of light in the center grew many times larger!
In the blink of an eye, a cursed talisman appeared, pinched between Ieiri Yuuki’s index and middle fingers.
The sphere of light seeped into the cursed talisman, the cursed characters ignited, and he immediately whipped his arm forward, sending the talisman flying out of his hand.
Boom—!
The cursed talisman struck its target, erupting with an explosive sound midair.
Fushiguro Megumi started, then his eyes widened abruptly: “?!”
[?!]
[So—so high-end]
[Isn’t this a long-range mage?!]
[First time seeing someone fight with cursed talismans. The waifu’s hand-seals look so good, just… just elegant… I want to lick his fingertips]
[The production crew is definitely doing this on purpose]
[I was mesmerized by the close-up of the hand-seals. So long, so white, with pinkish fingertips]
[Gonna lick]
A few other comments were discussing the power of this strike, nearly getting drowned out.
[The power is pretty good, and it’s just a basic attack]
[If it’s a single shot, the strength is above Grade 2 sorcerer? Against the Four Major Disasters, it feels a bit lacking]
[What about rapid fire, or stacking them?]
Fushiguro recovered from his shock and hurriedly asked, “How’s the cursed energy consumption?”
“Very little.” Ieiri Yuuki’s gaze swept over the cursed character on his ring finger. “You know, I’ve been ‘sealed away,’ so I can only mobilize a small amount of cursed energy.”
“I’ve experimented many times these past two days, and I still have over half of my cursed energy left.”
The consumption wasn’t large.
It seemed this technique possessed great practical utility, and Fushiguro Megumi felt a wave of inner joy.
“What about the other technique?”
Ieiri Yuuki said, “The other one is just simple defense.”
He clenched both hands into fists, crossed them before him, and a cursed talisman floated up.
Instantly, it formed a barrier of cursed energy.
“Aside from these two techniques, there are also [Heavy Strike], [Slash], [Repel], [Area Attack], and [Binding], though I haven’t got a clue about those yet.”
Fushiguro Megumi was dumbfounded. “Are these all recorded in ancient texts?”
“No, ancient texts don’t have them. These are the meanings of the cursed characters,” he said. “I figured since the characters were left behind, there ought to be corresponding techniques.”
[God]
[Even AoE is included?!]
[Curiosity about Yuuki’s background just spiked]
[Why am I feeling so excited?!]
[Imagining it, if Yuuki masters all the techniques, it’ll definitely look super epic when he unleashes a major move on the battlefield!]
[But right now it’s all up to Yuuki to research on his own]
[If even prestigious sorcerer clans with deep foundations like the Three Great Families don’t have relevant materials, then it’s truly… feeling for stones while crossing the river]
The two chatted for a while.
Perhaps the dappled flecks of sunlight on the floor outside were too pleasant, or perhaps Ieiri Yuuki was starting to feel a bit drowsy.
Fushiguro Megumi didn’t linger; once the other woke up, he would remind him to eat.
……
Several hours passed.
When he woke up from his sleep, Ieiri Yuuki had a surreal feeling of passing through a lifetime.
Lifting his gaze once more, the room was plunged into pitch darkness a silent, enclosed space.
“……”
He reacted for a moment.
Having slept too long, his soul felt slightly detached from his body.
Suddenly feeling a surge of inspiration, he propped himself up into a half-sitting position, stretched out his hands, and prepared to try forming the hand-seals. At that exact moment—
Icy, slender fingertips probed out from behind him, intertwining with his fingers in a ten-fingered grip, while pale, chilly strands of hair draped down over his calves.
Silent, gloomy, entangling.
Ieiri Yuuki could practically picture the gorgeous yet lifeless face behind him.
That was “Muzan Kibutsuji,” his shikigami.
In this pitch-black space, the other possessed no physical form, resembling a ghost.
Chilly breath brushed against the back of his ear, reeking of ghost Qi and causing his hair to stand on end.
This was an attitude of extreme intimacy.
The youth’s spine was pressed seamlessly against the cursed spirit’s icy chest behind him, and he was nearly enveloped completely by a cool fragrance.
Almost as if, he had been embedded directly into the other’s embrace.
A pair of white, slender hands with exquisite knuckles hands that looked like those of a young noble who had never done heavy labor reached out from the darkness to guide him.
His left hand splayed open, cursed energy gathering; the middle finger, ring finger, and thumb of his right hand pinched together to form a “twist” gesture, a cursed talisman floating up as the ball of light instantly flared violently.
He said:
“This is…… [Heavy Strike].”
His voice was low and damp.
Both cold and ambiguous.
The icy fingertips guided him once more.
His thumb and index finger formed a triangle, while the remaining six fingers crossed and transformed into a “six” gesture, the backs of his hands pressing together before he swept them outward to draw a moon-like crescent of cursed energy.
“This is [Slash].”
The shikigami’s fingertips once again pierced into Ieiri Yuuki’s palm, forcefully molding his hand gesture back to its original form.
Following that, guiding him, the backs of his hands pressed together again, his fingers slightly curled. His hands moved closer and then apart, condensing a ring between his palms and pushing it forward rapidly!
Cursed energy formed a circle on the ground not far away.
“This is [Area Attack].”
……
“This is [Binding].”
……
“This is [Repel].”
……
The black-haired man’s low voice rang out, uttering a few syllables that drilled straight into one’s eardrums.
The late-night comment section was flourishing.
[I knew it was hand-gesture tutoring, but anyone not in the know would think this was some kind of late-night livestream……]
[A night raid?! Blessed Bro, taking a massive leap forward in his blessing!]
[Good thing I didn’t miss the stream]
[So erotic. Clearly we can only see their intertwined hands, why is it so erotic]
[I think it’s because Yuuki’s hands look like a bottom’s (?); his knuckles aren’t protruding at all, making his fingers look long and slender]
[Wanna lick again……]
[The size difference has arrived!!]
[Muzan’s hands are obviously a size larger, with thicker knuckles, easily covering Yuuki’s hands]
[Ahhhhhhh!!]
Ieiri Yuuki paid no attention to the contents of the comments; at this moment, he was completely immersed in the hand-gesture tutoring for activating his cursed technique, absorbing new knowledge with total concentration.
Four months.
He still had four months left.
Ieiri Yuuki still remembered the comment mentioning that an unexpected catastrophe would sweep across all of Japan, unstoppable, by Halloween at the end of October.
That text message he saw before transmigrating Ryomen Sukuna was perhaps a hint of some sort.
Ieiri Yuuki’s pupils trembled with excited thrill. He had a premonition that this would be an unprecedented adventure of finding a way out of a desperate situation… and he would definitely not miss it.
……
Starting from this night, the relationship between the master-devouring shikigami and the shikigami master broke the ice.
Fushiguro and the others all noticed this change.
Over the next week, that Special Grade Curse spent most of its time by Ieiri Yuuki’s side, whether practicing cursed talismans or accompanying him.
Meanwhile, Ieiri Yuuki learned more things about his shikigami:
For instance, Muzan detested sunlight and basically never came out during the day unless the sky was heavily overcast;
Muzan harbored a desire for his own blood and body;
Muzan was tyrannical, cruel, possessed an extremely low empathy capacity, an intensely strong sense of possession, plotted ulterior motives toward him, and was moody once he set his mind on something, he would never give up lightly.
During this period, Muzan would also “lend” cursed energy to him.
Unlike the initial Kagura dance, Ieiri Yuuki now bore the “mark” of the god upon his body.
Therefore, if he wished to borrow cursed energy again, he only needed to pray to the god in his heart. Muzan would perceive it.
Day after day passed, and the cycle of the shikigami’s retention period quickly reached its end.
The final day of the two weeks.
The Gojo family’s martial arts training ground.
The youth had overdrawn his physical strength and was utterly exhausted. Sitting in the corner with his hands braced backward, his collarbones prominent, sweat soaked through his clothing, rendering it slightly translucent.
A flush stained his cheeks due to the high-intensity exercise and his breathing was rapid as he regulated his breath.
Muzan’s gaze was deep and dark.
Throughout this week, Muzan Kibutsuji had lowered his posture and played the humble role of being gentle to the extreme, all so that Ieiri Yuuki would choose to summon him once more after the two-hour cooldown.
He felt the results were quite good.
“Muzan.”
The youth called out.
Muzan familiarly extended his hand, and the blonde youth just as familiarly pressed that cool-jade-like back of the hand against his own flushed cheek.
“Mhh—”
He let out a comfortable sigh of satisfaction.
Just like a cat, Muzan evaluated.
Look, he was already unable to do without him.
He was the perfect choice; the other would definitely choose him, Muzan thought with certainty.