The shikigami stepped forward, first offering a gentle and refined bow to the young shikigami master, before speaking softly.
“My lord, my name is Tamayo. I have answered your summons and come.”
Appearing as a young girl, yet with a lingering thread of melancholy and gentleness woven between her brows, this female shikigami radiated the aura of a Madonna.
And when facing Ieiri, she was exceptionally tender.
[A beauty……]
[Lady Tamayo’s debut that scene where she scratches herself to unleash her Blood Demon Art was so gorgeous, surrounded by swirling purple smoke, dreamlike and illusory]
[Yushiro’s trap]
[By the way, Yushiro is the only demon still alive after the final battle, right?]
[Will he appear?]
Gojo Satoru: “Hm…”
The Six Eyes determined that [Tamayo] was not a Special Grade, yet she, alongside [Muzan], possessed a flawless human appearance.
Interesting.
“Teacher Gojo.”
Gojo tilted his head, indicating he was listening: “Hm?”
Ieiri Yuuki said, “Unlike last time, this time my mind has been filled with some information regarding Lady Tamayo
Her technique is hallucinatory incense, activated by causing self-harm to draw blood.”
Tamayo smiled and nodded to everyone.
Although Tamayo’s appearance remained fixed at nineteen years old, she had actually lived for four hundred years.
After her death, her soul had drifted into a realm of chaotic space, and she had no idea how long she had lingered there. Only today, upon being summoned, did she suddenly realize she had transformed into a completely different species—a Curse.
The young shikigami master exuded a friendly aura, and [Tamayo] held a very favorable impression of him.
Moreover, the fact that he carried cursed talismans made Tamayo think of that child
Yushiro.
He also used cursed talismans.
Thinking of him, a trace of a smile couldn’t help but surface in Tamayo’s eyes.
“Looking at it this way, [Muzan] really isn’t normal, is he?” The white-haired teacher muttered, a hint of a smile tagging the end of his sentence as he offered his evaluation.
Muzan’s background remained a complete mystery.
Fushiguro Megumi: “……”
Isn’t that obvious?
Would a normal shikigami try to devour its master the moment it appears?!
[The God of Sarcasm]
[Fushiguro Megumi, a teenager with a remarkably high reliability coefficient. Ever since he was six years old, he has been dragging Gojo Satoru up through sheer bitterness and toil……]
[Dying of laughter]
“……You mentioned Muzan just now?”
Hearing that name, Tamayo abruptly raised her head, her eyelashes trembling violently.
“Kibutsuji… Muzan is still alive?”
Inside Tamayo’s mind, memories rushed forward in a flurry; disgust, terror, and murderous intent intertwined.
The hatred branded deep within her bone marrow was stirred up.
Having sacrificed so much and schemed for so long, was that monster… still alive?
“Alive? Probably not quite,” Ieiri Yuuki explained the situation. “Just like Lady Tamayo, he was a curse-shikigami summoned by me.”
Tamayo was startled, lowering her head: “I see. Forgive me, I lost my composure.”
A curse-shikigami.
That meant Kibutsuji Muzan was already dead.
Noticing Tamayo’s hatred and disgust toward Muzan, Gojo Satoru smoothly sought information from her, perfectly accustomed to tattling.
“Lady Tamayo, you probably didn’t know, did you?”
“My poor student, the moment he summoned him, he got killed by him!”
Gojo Satoru feigned wiping away tears: “If not for the fact that my cute student carries the curse of ‘immortality’ and the shikigami’s master-devouring failed, his death anniversary would already be overdue!”
Selling for sympathy, expertly selling for sympathy.
[Twenty-eight years old, truly the prime age for playing the victim]
[Death anniversary overdue, hahahaha!]
[Gojo’s mouth is something else]
[The background music right now is quite upbeat, but it can’t mask the fact that Muzan is a freak who rips out hearts the moment he appears]
[The person above used a single rhyme]
[And he’s uncontrollable, too. Imagining it from Yuuki’s perspective, I feel like even if I were immortal, I’d still be terrified it’s like having a venomous snake coiled beside your pillow that might bite you at any second]
[Yet Senior Wife has always been so composed……]
[Muzan is far too capricious]
[Transforming from a freak who rips hearts out in the dark into a late-night tutor imparting knowledge without holding anything back]
[Mainly, we know he’s faking it, and Yuuki knows it too]
[Yet Yuuki’s reaction……]
[He’s acting as if he’s… playing a game]
[Sigh, speaking of which, it’s no wonder the comments basically all ship the two of them. Muzan is a moody madman, and Yuuki isn’t normal either; both of them have a bit of a screw loose…… yet whenever these two are in the same frame, they exude a strange aura, hard to put into words]
[Famously known as, sexual tension!]
[The protagonist of the IF line is definitely Yuuki. Will they ever mention how this kind of personality was forged? So fascinating]
[Didn’t the production crew plant a piece of foreshadowing earlier? That curse of ‘immortality’]
Listening to Gojo Satoru’s words, Tamayo’s face grew pale, while the intense emotions in her eyes demonstrated her deep concern for the shikigami master.
“Thank goodness you are safe and sound……”
Tamayo said.
Gojo Satoru observed her expression and seized the opportunity to question her regarding information on Muzan.
Tamayo weighed her words carefully before sharing what she knew:
Kibutsuji Muzan had originally been human.
When he was born, he had neither breath nor pulse and was deemed a stillborn fetus.
It wasn’t until he was placed among burning firewood to be cremated that he let out the first cry of his life, escaping being burned to death.
After growing up, teetering on the edge of death, he discovered a medicinal concoction. Upon consuming it, he transformed into an ageless, immortal demon who fed on humans.
Yet he suffered a fatal weakness A fear of sunlight.
Only by consuming the “Blue Spider Lily” could he eradicate this weakness.
Kibutsuji Muzan’s blood could transform humans into demons, so he continuously proliferated the number of demons to search for the whereabouts of the Blue Spider Lily on his behalf.
“……Transformation?!”
Itadori Yuji’s eyes flew wide open as he turned to look at his companion for verification:
“Back then, [Muzan] was trying to transform Ieiri into a demon, wasn’t he?!”
“Definitely.”
Kugisaki Nobara crossed her arms and abruptly chimed in, “Ieiri, I suspect he wants to transform you so he can keep you captive.”
Itadori and Fushiguro: “What do you mean?”
“When Ieiri first summoned him, it was still daytime. That means once he became a Curse, his sole weakness was gone, and his appetite took top priority.”
Kugisaki Nobara: “Don’t forget, his menu is identical to Sukuna’s.”
“To him, Ieiri is a burger that can be infinitely ‘refreshed’.”
“No, Ieiri is probably a double-cheese burger, which he definitely loves even more.”
A silent Ieiri Yuuki: “……”
Fushiguro Megumi, who hadn’t expected such a fierce analogy: “……”
A bewildered Itadori Yuji: “……”
Gojo Satoru: “……”
Gojo Satoru: “Nobara, promise Teacher one thing, alright?”
“Don’t use burgers for analogies like this in the future, okay? Because Teacher here still wants to be able to eat burgers single-mindedly in the future!”
[Hahaha]
[Kugisaki’s analogy is truly wondrous]
[And what’s even more wondrous is that using this logic to explain Muzan’s caprice actually seems to check out]
Only Tamayo furrowed her brow, worrying that what Kugisaki had said might become reality.
In Tamayo’s eyes, Kibutsuji Muzan was the embodiment of evil, an unrepentant, fallen creature.
Even if reincarnated as a Curse, he would only stubbornly choose to devour his master.
Such an existence… Should simply fall into hell for eternity.
Yet he had somehow managed to crawl back up. And become a Curse.
And now, the shikigami master stood as an obstacle in his path. He would never be willing to bow beneath another.
Tamayo said in a low voice, “Lord Ieiri, please be sure to be careful around him.”
Following that, as though having made a decision, she spoke up: “Lord Ieiri, could you give me a few Curses?”
Ieiri Yuuki cast an “unconscious” glance at Gojo Satoru before nodding in agreement. “Of course. But what does Lady Tamayo need Curses for?”
“I’d like to dissect them,” Tamayo said.
Itadori’s eyes lit up: “Whoa!”
Fushiguro Megumi and Kugisaki Nobara were also stunned could you even do that?
Tamayo: “Gaining a deeper understanding of creatures like Curses might help us find a method to restrain them.”
That way, the shikigami master would not be left entirely without a trump card when facing the Demon King.
[?!]
[Lady Tamayo—! Awesome!]
Midnight descended.
Gojo Satoru sat on the sofa with his legs crossed, tapping his temple with his fingertip.
“Curses are a combination of human negative emotions and ethereal energy, which is why humans cannot study them, only exorcise them.”
“Yet Tamayo is different…”
Gojo Satoru chuckled derisively. “Because they are, after all, of the same kind.”
She possessed the conditions required to investigate them to the bitter end.
Throughout history, this was the first time.
[Simple summary: Humans can’t do it, but Lady Tamayo can]
[With Lady Tamayo around, sorcerers’ research on Curses has definitely taken a profoundly significant giant leap forward]
[For some reason, goosebumps suddenly broke out all over me, ahhhhh]
The white-haired teacher turned his head boastfully to look at the principal, who was struggling against a mountain of paperwork, and spoke loudly:
“Yaga, look! My cute student has given me another surprise!”
Yaga Masamichi: “……”
He was quite surprised as well, and had long since grown accustomed to Gojo’s flaky attitude.
Yaga Masamichi rubbed the bridge of his nose and handed a file over to Gojo Satoru.
“Take a look? The shrine mission you selected has an initial rating of Grade 2 Curse.”
Gojo Satoru: “Is anyone in the second-year group busy?”
“Are you thinking—”
Gojo Satoru: “A student’s first mission always needs a ‘guardian’ accompanying them, after all.”
The next day.
Parked outside the entrance of the Gojo residence was a black car.
The assistant manager named Ijichi Kiyotaka stood beside the black car.
He was trying his utmost to reduce his own presence, biting the bullet as he waited for people to come out.
Ijichi was somewhat introverted, especially standing in front of a prestigious, wealthy estate like the Gojo residence, which gave off heavy pressure simply by looking at it.
He felt as though the guards’ gazes were constantly lingering on him, sinister and shadowy.
Within a few minutes, he was breaking out in a cold sweat.
Finally—!
A few figures walked out from inside.
As though granted amnesty, Ijichi Kiyotaka immediately went to greet them, blurting out excitedly: “Student Ieiri, nice to meet you!”
He immediately realized he had reacted too excitedly, but fortunately, Student Ieiri didn’t seem to feel offended, allowing Ijichi Kiyotaka to heave a sigh of relief.
When he wanted to greet Student Itadori and the others, they were already staging a tearful farewell drama right alongside Student Ieiri.
“Ieiri, you have to come back safely!”
“We’ll be waiting for you!”
Itadori and Kugisaki cooperated with impeccable chemistry, even manufacturing crying tones, as though they were genuinely parting ways forever.
Fushiguro Megumi didn’t join in; he was relatively aloof and rational.
Ieiri was merely going on a mission, while the other two simply had their acting bugs flare up.
No, make that three.
Ieiri Yuuki joined in on the farce with them.
“I will definitely return safely. Before we leave, let’s take a photo first; I’ll cherish and keep it.”
Ieiri Yuuki said with a deeply moved expression, grasping both of their hands.
Kugisaki: “This is a flag, a total flag!”
“That’s right! It’s the kind of character design that definitely bites the dust on the battlefield!” Itadori picked up the cue.
……What a childish trio.
Fushiguro turned his head away.
Though thinking that, the corners of his mouth unconsciously tilted up just a bit.
“Click—”
The camera froze that exact moment in time.