Kenjaku, the mastermind behind Jujutsu Kaisen…
No, more precisely, the one currently occupying Geto Suguru’s body, was in a rather bad mood.
There was a simple reason for that.
The low-level cursed spirits he had carefully stationed around his base as an early warning system were disappearing for no apparent reason.
Of course, Kenjaku had placed those cursed spirits there as a smokescreen.
They were weak, easy for sorcerers to detect, and therefore perfect targets for Jujutsu High, whose sorcerers would naturally exorcise them on sight.
As for sorcerers unaffiliated with Jujutsu High?
Kenjaku had already ordered the cursed spirits patrolling the area not to attack ordinary humans or other sorcerers unless provoked.
If an independent sorcerer happened across them, they might exorcise one or two, but there would be no reason to go out of their way to wipe out every last one.
And as for curse users, unless they possessed Cursed Spirit Manipulation like Suguru Geto, there was even less reason for them to bother hunting cursed spirits.
No other user of Cursed Spirit Manipulation had appeared in over a century.
So if large numbers of those spirits suddenly started getting wiped out, it would mean that sorcerers from Jujutsu High had gotten dangerously close to his base.
At that point, Kenjaku would have to seriously consider relocating.
At least, that was how it was supposed to work.
But Kenjaku had survived for a thousand years in the jujutsu world by transferring his brain from body to body, and someone as calculating as him naturally had confidence in his own preparations.
For instance, he was certain that the location he had chosen for his base was somewhere Jujutsu High would never discover.
And beyond the low-level cursed spirits serving as decoys, he had also stationed stronger cursed spirits skilled at concealing themselves to secretly watch the perimeter.
He was at least that confident in his precautions.
And yet, something strange had still happened.
The higher-grade cursed spirits hidden around the outer perimeter had noticed absolutely nothing, while the low-level spirits closer to the center of the area had suddenly begun disappearing one after another.
The killings weren’t particularly fast.
But whoever was doing it moved unpredictably and showed no intention of letting even a single cursed spirit along the way escape.
Could Gojo Satoru have come for him?
According to Kenjaku’s information, only Gojo Satoru, the strongest sorcerer of the modern era, whose Limitless allowed him to travel tremendous distances at incredible speed, should have been capable of something like this.
So even Kenjaku, who had operated from the shadows for centuries, felt a chill the instant he realized his cursed spirits were being wiped out.
He was genuinely alarmed.
If it were any other Special Grade sorcerer, the current Kenjaku wouldn’t have been particularly concerned.
Especially with four Special Grade cursed spirits born from humanity’s fear of natural disasters at his side.
But if the person heading toward his base was Satoru Gojo…
Even with all four of them together, their entire group could still be wiped out in an instant.
That was not an exaggeration.
Although Gojo shared the rank of Special Grade with the original owner of Kenjaku’s current body, the gap between Satoru Gojo and other Special Grade sorcerers was not something sheer numbers could make up for.
Still, Kenjaku had spent a thousand years navigating the jujutsu world.
Running away in a panic just because he suspected the intruder might be Gojo would have been far too hasty, even for him.
Besides, although those cursed spirits had been placed “near” the base, they were actually far enough away from Kenjaku’s true location to give him plenty of time to escape.
Otherwise, there would have been no point in placing them there in the first place.
So after regaining his composure, Kenjaku headed in the direction where the low-level cursed spirits had stopped responding.
And the farther he went, the more his confidence returned.
Although Gojo did not possess the greatest total amount of cursed energy in the modern era, he was still near the top.
If a sorcerer of that level were using a cursed technique, there was no way Kenjaku would fail to sense the surge of cursed energy from this distance.
The fact that he hadn’t sensed anything meant whoever was responsible was far weaker than Gojo.
With that realization, Kenjaku regained his composure.
But at the same time, an inexplicable irritation began building inside him.
“Who the hell is killing all my cursed spirits…?”
When he reached the source of the cursed energy disturbance, Kenjaku saw a young man.
Black hair, black eyes, naturally messy curls, and a face carrying the kind of irritating optimism and recklessness that immediately got on his nerves.
“So it was just some kid.”
The smile that appeared on Kenjaku’s face when he saw Atsushi was not the confident smile of Jujutsu Kaisen’s greatest schemer calmly controlling everything from behind the scenes.
He was smiling because the situation was so absurd that it annoyed him.
This kid only had about as much cursed energy as a Grade 3 sorcerer.
His natural physique also looked weak enough that, without cursed energy reinforcement, he might even be physically inferior to an ordinary person.
And this was the guy who had put Kenjaku on high alert and nearly made him abandon the area?
Although Kenjaku still wore that same composed smile, he immediately ordered the Grade 1 cursed spirit beside him, Ko-Guy, to kill Atsushi.
Under normal circumstances, sorcerers and cursed spirits could roughly be matched one grade apart.
A Grade 1 cursed spirit was approximately comparable to a Grade 2 sorcerer.
A Grade 2 cursed spirit corresponded roughly to a Grade 3 sorcerer, and so on.
So when Kenjaku chose to send Ko-Guy after him, he fully expected Atsushi to die on the spot.
Kenjaku was slightly curious about how Atsushi had managed to slip past the stronger cursed spirits watching the outer perimeter.
But if the kid couldn’t even defeat a Grade 1 cursed spirit.
Then it didn’t matter what kind of cursed technique he possessed.
Kenjaku had no interest in wasting time talking to someone that weak.
However, when Atsushi brought his hands together and a thin streak of bright red flashed from his palms, Kenjaku was slightly surprised.
Kenjaku possessed a technique that allowed him to transfer his brain into other bodies, and during the thousand years he had survived in the jujutsu world, he had once taken over the body of Kamo Noritoshi, an infamous member of the Kamo Clan, one of the Three Great Families.
And the technique Atsushi was using, Blood Manipulation, was the inherited technique of the Kamo Clan.
The moment Kenjaku saw Piercing Blood forming in Atsushi’s hands, he briefly fell into thought.
Blood Manipulation was the Kamo Clan’s inherited technique, and Kenjaku still kept an eye on the clan even now.
This irritating kid was obviously not a member of the main family.
Was he descended from some forgotten branch of the Kamo bloodline?
Or perhaps he was somehow connected to one of Kenjaku’s old experiments…
But the moment he saw the Piercing Blood Atsushi fired, Kenjaku was deeply disappointed.
No.
There was no way this kid had anything to do with those experiments.
Even the results of that old project had been far more capable than this.
To think someone could use Piercing Blood this crudely.
Even with an enemy about to reach him, firing an incomplete Piercing Blood without first using Convergence was inexcusable.
Blood Manipulation had plenty of other ways to handle a situation like this.
Blood Edge.
Flowing Red Scale.
Blood Binding.
There were several options.
Piercing Blood at this level of completion was practically an embarrassment to anyone who used Blood Manipulation.
This kid really would be better off dying here.
With that thought, Kenjaku narrowed his eyes, as though he had already pictured the grisly sight of Ko-Guy biting Atsushi’s head clean off.
But what happened next went completely against Kenjaku’s expectations.
The sluggish Piercing Blood, which looked more like something fired from a child’s water gun than a lethal cursed technique, made only a soft splurt.
And then it effortlessly punched straight through Ko-Guy’s skull.
“Impossible!”
Kenjaku’s eyes widened.
“Ko-Guy may not be especially intelligent, and choosing to take Piercing Blood head-on with his skull was stupid, but even without a cursed technique, he’s still a near Grade 1 cursed spirit.
And that’s the hardest part of his exoskeleton.
How could Piercing Blood from someone with the cursed energy of a Grade 3 sorcerer, fired without even using Convergence, possibly break through it?”
A thousand years of accumulated jujutsu knowledge told him that what he had just witnessed should not have been possible.
And yet, without realizing it, the corners of Kenjaku’s mouth began to curl upward.
That’s right.
This was exactly the feeling he wanted.
Something unknown.
A result that defied his expectations.
A spark of genuine delight began to take root inside Kenjaku.
Looking at Atsushi, whose face had gone pale and who was already panting heavily after firing just a single Piercing Blood.
This time, Kenjaku smiled from the bottom of his heart.
(To be continued.)