“You want me to retrieve Sukuna’s finger?”
Luke’s expression became somewhat strange.
The final boss of this world was Ryomen Sukuna, the strongest sorcerer in history from a thousand years ago, and the main storyline began with the fingers that served as the means for his resurrection.
The current point in time was indeed very close to the beginning of the plot.
The people of this world still had no idea that disaster was about to begin.
Naobito, however, remained completely calm.
“The higher-ups detected that the seal on one of Sukuna’s fingers is about to fail. To prevent a powerful cursed spirit from being born, they need a suitable sorcerer to retrieve it.”
Luke pursed his lips.
After learning the details of the mission, he immediately understood that he was about to run straight into the beginning of the main storyline.
After thinking for a moment, Luke agreed.
“Fine, I’ll take the mission. I’ll handle the retrieval of Sukuna’s finger.”
A faint smile appeared on his lips.
With Luke’s current strength and potential, he was no longer afraid of becoming involved in the main storyline and facing the challenges that came with it.
In fact, he had already started looking forward to fighting powerful cursed spirits and sorcerers.
Seeing his eager expression, Naobito nodded slightly.
“With enough strength to defeat Naoya, a Grade 1 mission should be easy for you now, right? Go restore the reputation of the current Ten Shadows user.”
“Mm.”
Luke accepted the mission.
Naobito then asked, “Brat, did something happen to you? Your cursed energy feels a little different…”
Earlier, he had sensed that Luke’s cursed energy had become cold and deep, carrying traits somewhat similar to those of an evil cursed spirit.
Luke knew exactly why.
The Shadowkhan originated from the power of an Oni General.
As a force belonging to the Black Chi side, they naturally leaned toward cursed spirits after entering the Jujutsu Kaisen world.
Luke remained calm and answered casually.
“Yeah. It’s part of a method I’ve been working on recently to get stronger.”
“I see…”
Naobito looked Luke over, then suddenly laughed.
“Hahaha! If young people are this motivated, then an old man like me will finally be able to take things easier in the future.”
Luke complained, “Must be rough having to manage this family at your age.”
The Zenin clan was filled with difficult personalities, and managing the family on a daily basis was anything but easy.
That was why Naobito was still serving as clan head even at seventy-one years old.
…
Several hours later, Luke arrived by car at the place where Ryomen Sukuna’s finger had originally been sealed.
In the world of jujutsu, the negative emotions produced by ordinary people continuously gave birth to cursed spirits.
Places such as hospitals, schools, and factories, where stress and negative emotions accumulated heavily, were especially likely to attract or produce powerful curses.
The moment Luke arrived at the school, he could sense negative energy everywhere.
“Japan already has the conditions for cursed spirits to appear on a large scale. If this were somewhere with even higher levels of violence and social chaos, it’d practically turn into hell on earth.”
Luke casually complained.
Then he suddenly felt the surrounding negative energy being drawn toward him by an invisible force.
“Hm?”
He raised an eyebrow.
His shadow seemed to transform into a gravitational vortex as crimson eyes appeared within the darkness.
They belonged to Luke’s Shadowkhan.
They were the ones attracting the negative energy.
“So you’re saying this negative energy can serve as nourishment for your growth? You really are basically cursed spirits now, aren’t you?”
Luke complained inwardly.
Still, he allowed the Shadowkhan to absorb the ownerless negative energy.
Once they received permission from their master, the shadow filled with crimson eyes immediately deepened into something resembling a black hole, devouring the negative energy scattered throughout the school like a whale swallowing water.
During the process, Luke actually discovered that both the quantity and quality of his cursed energy increased slightly.
“The Shadowkhan becoming stronger feeds back into me as their summoner? Then I can train my skills as a sorcerer while also growing stronger like a cursed spirit by absorbing humanity’s negative emotions?”
Luke immediately realized the benefit.
A smile appeared on his face.
With both hands in his pockets, he casually walked through the campus while silently absorbing the negative emotions produced by high school students suffering under an intensely competitive education system.
Eventually, he reached the box where the Special Grade cursed object, Ryomen Sukuna’s finger, had been secretly stored.
The lock was already gone.
Luke opened the box.
It was empty.
“As expected.”
He wasn’t surprised.
The main storyline had already begun.
Luke turned around and went looking for the person responsible.
It didn’t take long before he found his target on the school’s athletic field.
Among a crowd of students, a young pink-haired boy was competing against a PE teacher in shot put.
“Itadori! Itadori! Itadori!”
The pink-haired boy was clearly quite popular at school, with the surrounding students cheering him on.
Luke watched from outside the field for a while.
Yuji Itadori threw the shot put using a baseball pitching motion.
There was no real technique behind it.
The shot flew roughly thirty meters, directly surpassing the world record of 23.12 meters.
This was far beyond the level of an ordinary athlete.
The PE teacher, who could only throw fourteen meters, was completely stunned.
“So this is Yuji Itadori. Hard to imagine that sixty-eight years from now, he’ll be the strongest sorcerer on Earth.”
The corner of Luke’s mouth rose slightly.
He walked onto the athletic field.
Yuji was currently talking with members of the Occult Research Club.
Luke completely ignored the local social expectation of reading the room and inserted himself directly into their conversation.
He raised his phone and showed them an image of the sealed Sukuna finger.
“Have any of you seen something I lost?”
The sudden appearance of a stranger clearly startled the two Occult Research Club students.
One of them, a girl wearing half-rim glasses, frowned unhappily.
“Hey, has the school’s discipline committee really gotten so lax that people who aren’t even wearing uniforms can just wander around campus?”
Luke was currently dressed in the traditional clothing of a jujutsu family, making him look as though he had stepped out of another era.
He stood out sharply from the surrounding students.
Yuji tried to smooth things over.
“Maybe he’s from a historical costume club or a cosplay club?”
“I don’t think our school has either of those.”
The girl with half-rim glasses immediately shot that down.
Luke’s mouth twitched.
“My clothes aren’t important. What matters is the thing I lost.”
He held up his phone again, displaying the image of Sukuna’s finger while it was still sealed.
The moment Yuji saw the picture, he immediately understood.
“Oh, you mean that thing. I found it. The two upperclassmen from the Occult Research Club were really interested in it.”
Luke smiled and looked toward Yuji and the girl with half-rim glasses.
“Then this is much simpler. Please return it to me.”
He held out his hand toward them.
The girl froze for a moment, then pursed her lips.
“What the heck? Something that creepy-looking shouldn’t have been left lying around in the first place. If it belongs to you and you want it back, come with us. We left it in the clubroom.”
The Occult Research Club students led Luke into the school.
At the same time, in a corner of the campus, a man wearing monk’s robes with obvious stitches across his forehead sensed Yuji and Luke moving together.
A faint, expectant smile appeared on his face.