Kyoto.
The Zenin Clan.
The young man stood in front of the mirror without a word.
Beneath his messy short blond hair was a face that looked deep-set and cold. There was nothing of the usual Eastern softness or restraint in his features. His eyes and brows carried an inborn arrogance and a trace of malice.
Arrogant.
Harsh.
Lofty.
This was Naoya Zenin.
As the designated next head of the Zenin Clan, one of the Three Great Families, he had shown genius-level talent from his student days. By the age of twenty-seven, he had already risen to the rank of Special Grade 1 Sorcerer, a heaven-favored prodigy standing at the very top of the jujutsu world.
He was also the kind of villain who made countless people grit their teeth in hatred, rotten to the core, with not even the slightest room for redemption.
And yet, at this moment, inside this man who had always done whatever he pleased and committed every evil imaginable.
Someone else had quietly taken his place.
"...I can't believe I got transmigrated into Jujutsu Kaisen, and on top of that, I became the kind of guy the main cast can casually kick to death."
The new Naoya Zenin frowned and stared hard at the gloomy, noble-looking pretty boy in the mirror.
Before transmigrating, Jujutsu Kaisen had been one of the most hotly discussed manga on the internet. He had followed the plot closely enough to count as a hardcore fan, so of course he knew exactly what kind of person Naoya Zenin was.
As a villain in the middle-phase Culling Game Arc of Jujutsu Kaisen, Naoya Zenin had reached the level of a Special Grade 1 Sorcerer, but his actual combat performance was complete trash. From the moment he appeared, he existed purely as a stepping stone, basically taking turns propping up the entire protagonist side.
And it was not just his strength that fell flat. His morals and personality had absolutely nothing going for them either.
Cruel, heartless, arrogant, conceited, unscrupulous, a bully to his younger female cousin, intensely misogynistic...
Those things were still, more or less, within the tolerance range for a villain.
What truly made every viewer lose it was that Naoya Zenin clearly possessed a top-tier technique like Projection Sorcery, yet had absolutely none of the pressure or menace a villain should have, and ended up getting kicked to death on the spot like some stray dog on the roadside.
Projection Sorcery could divide a single second into twenty-four frames, and within those twenty-four frames, the user could freely set their movements so long as they did not violate the laws of physics.
In other words, if you set it so that in one frame you could do a standing long jump of two meters, then in a single second you could complete that jump across all twenty-four frames, which meant you could instantly cover nearly fifty meters.
A top-tier ability tied to time and space, and in Naoya Zenin's hands he used it for nothing but throwing punches?
The transmigrator had been so pissed off that he started flaming Naoya Zenin on the spot in the comment feed.
If you don't know how to use it, then don't use it!
Quit disgusting people with this nonsense!
If I were controlling him myself, then hell, even using Projection Sorcery for a crotch grab would be better than punching people like you're scratching an itch!
What he never could have imagined was this.
He really had transmigrated.
And he really had become Naoya Zenin.
The transmigrator was completely losing it.
No way.
Was he seriously going to become the Kato Taka of the jujutsu world, using the godlike speed of Projection Sorcery to grope people's crotches and cripple them?
If it was a woman, fine. He could grit his teeth and do it.
But what about men?
Does Sukuna even have a dick?
Would he need to lend a hand during the final battle and help guide it or what?
"...Fuck. I almost want to kill myself right now just so you bastard will regret it for the rest of your life."
Naoya Zenin glared viciously at his reflection, but the expression in the mirror remained as calm and detached as ever, still carrying that same habitual contempt for everyone else.
And the curse he had originally wanted to spit out instead came out in another form, muttered in a flippant voice and authentic Kyoto dialect.
"It's so boring I could hang myself."
Yes.
And even more unfortunately.
His system was just as useless—straight out of the same bargain-bin webnovel bloodline.
[Speech Failed!]
[Your speech violates [Naoya Zenin]'s character profile!]
[To prevent Heaven's Will from correcting things, the system has modified it into lines that fit the character profile!]
Yes, kids.
I'm still being haunted by the same cursed plot armor nonsense, and now this world has its own goddamn Heaven's Will too!
If he wanted to escape Heaven's Will's erosion, he had to play this utterly vile arch-villain strictly in character.
Otherwise, the original owner's soul would take the body back, and the transmigrator's soul would be completely wiped out.
[Beautiful Young Nobleman · Gold Rank]
[As the next head of the Zenin Clan, one of the Three Great Families, your personality may be utterly rotten, but you possess an exceptionally handsome face, along with a noble aura that practically overflows from you.]
[Effect: Charisma greatly increases. Favorability from the [Nobility] faction rises.]
[Sigma Male · Gold Rank]
[You hate women, especially those clueless girls who think too highly of themselves. You will never fall into a woman's trap. Your clothes and hairstyle must remain neat and immaculate. Merely seeing ugly, vulgar behavior is enough to stir contempt and disgust from the depths of your heart.]
[Effect: The precision of your cursed techniques greatly increases. Your casting movements become extremely difficult to interrupt. Your favorability toward any [female] drops sharply.]
[Doomed Villain · Prismatic Rank]
[Geniuses are lonely and arrogant. You cannot tolerate fools, women, or idiots in the slightest. Your worship of talent above all else spills out as extreme conceit, and it also dooms you to meet the destined death of a villain.]
[Effect: Your alignment is locked to [Chaotic Evil]. Your mental resistance reaches an unparalleled level. No form of moral coercion can influence your actions.]
[.........]
A casual glance at the status panel was enough to show that Naoya Zenin's character setup was downright luxurious.
Even the personality-based traits alone could enhance his cursed techniques and give his strength a considerable boost.
And those almost paranoid mental afflictions had also carried over to the transmigrated Naoya Zenin.
With only the slightest lapse in attention, Naoya Zenin had already, almost on instinct, put the earring on.
That was obviously a style he had hated most before transmigrating.
It had always looked too flashy to him, practically like something a punk thug would wear.
But now, in the mirror, Naoya Zenin actually felt that black earring looked sexy and stylish.
Not a punk thug.
An evil young master.
If not for the blond hair, the trademark look of an Netori protagonist, he would have thought, damn, this is basically me.
Hmph.
A no-laughing challenge? Interesting.
"Young Master Naoya, th-the meeting is about to begin..."
The servant outside knocked on the door, his voice full of humility and nerves.
It was easy to imagine just how much psychological pressure this timid servant was under from having to urge Naoya Zenin along.
"Got it."
Naoya Zenin adjusted the haori over his shoulders, then cast one last look at the elegant, wickedly charming blond man in the mirror. Inwardly, though, he could not help muttering,
"Just wait. One of these days, I'm gonna beat that smug Kyoto drawl of yours into plain, perfect standard speech..."