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Tokyo was Japan's capital and its largest, most prosperous metropolis.

It was a stage where young people sought opportunities and the top destination for most foreign tourists. The area's prosperity drew people in, while the cramped living space gave rise to all manner of friction, which in turn produced negative emotions.

Rather than a stage of opportunity for young people, Tokyo was a massive factory for Cursed Spirits.

Then again, negative emotions arose wherever there were people, so there was no avoiding the birth of Cursed Spirits.

Kamiki Yūhaku walked down the street, biting into an apple as his green-tinged eyes took in everything around him. He wore a light gray coat and had medium-length, pale pink hair. His complexion was as deathly pale as an albino's, and the way he looked around made him seem just like a child leaving home for the first time.

A silver chain dangled from each of his wrists, however, and they struck each other with a clear clink whenever he walked.

It was late at night, but Tokyo's streets were still brightly lit, and the shops around him still had their lights on. Every so often, he saw a middle-aged man lying drunk by the roadside. Kamiki Yūhaku watched them with his eerie green eyes and took a crisp bite of his apple.

Just then, a scream rang out nearby. It drew not only Kamiki Yūhaku's attention, but that of most of the people around him as well.

A disheveled woman lay on the ground outside a hotel while a man punched and kicked her.

Kamiki Yūhaku tilted his head and moved closer as he ate his apple. More and more people gathered to watch. Someone called the police, but more people took out their phones and began filming. Kamiki Yūhaku turned to the man beside him and finally spoke his first words.

"What are they doing?"

The middle-aged man taking pictures beside him didn't even look at him. "Probably another spouse catching the other cheating. Come to think of it, this is the third time something like this has happened this week, isn't it? This hotel isn't cursed or anything, is it?"

Kamiki Yūhaku looked carefully at the hotel, then shook his head. "It isn't cursed."

"Huh?" The man turned to look at Kamiki Yūhaku, and when he saw him, he got quite a fright.

His excessively pale face and eerie green eyes, paired with the red apple in his hand with several bites taken out of it, might have been mistaken for cosplay during the day. But it was nighttime, and under the dim streetlights, he looked almost exactly like a ghost from a movie.

The man cursed under his breath and turned to leave, wanting nothing to do with the strange young man.

After a moment, he stopped and took a picture of Kamiki Yūhaku, as though to bolster his courage. But the instant he pressed the shutter, his face turned deathly pale.

The young man was nowhere to be seen in the photo.

The man stared at the picture in terror and scrambled away.

Kamiki Yūhaku paid him no mind. He stood calmly where he was, watching. The man was still beating the woman, until at last some people could no longer stand by and joined forces to pull him off her. His furious shouts and abuse filled the scene until the police and an ambulance arrived. The woman who had been beaten lay curled up on the ground without moving, blood slowly trickling down from her forehead.

The police took the man away, and the woman was placed in the ambulance, but the crowd didn't disperse. Standing there, Kamiki Yūhaku could hear the people around him.

"Is that blood? Eugh, how scary!"

"What's going on with this hotel? Things like this happen all the time. Wasn't someone killed outside it last time?"

"Could it be cursed?"

"Don't say scary things like that. What if it hears you?"

"Come on, let's get out of here."

Kamiki Yūhaku stared at the hotel before him. A twisted insect crawled out of the blood on the ground. It looked like a fly, buzzing with every beat of its wings, and countless eyes were embedded in its head.

"Ah, now it really is 'cursed.'"

Kamiki Yūhaku tilted his head and ate the last bite of his apple.

Leaving the apple core where it was, Kamiki Yūhaku continued on his way, looking around as the night of this world reflected in his eyes.

After walking for a while, Kamiki Yūhaku turned his head and saw people standing by the roadside, waiting for the light to turn green. He went over like a curious child, and the moment he reached them, the light changed. People began walking onto the crosswalk, and Kamiki Yūhaku followed them across the road.

Just then, someone on the phone caught his attention.

The man wore a black suit and carried a briefcase. He stood outside a shop, talking on the phone.

"Yes, yes! I'll come back and work overtime right away!" the man kept assuring the person on the phone. "I'll definitely finish it by the deadline! So please don't fire me!"

"Yes, yes, I will!"

The moment he finally hung up, the man gritted his teeth. He muttered something under his breath, and judging by his fierce expression, it was nothing pleasant. Carrying his briefcase, he passed Kamiki Yūhaku. Seeing that the green light was about to change, he hurried into a run, but even then, he failed to make it in time.

He stamped his foot in frustration, pouring out an angry stream of curses.

Kamiki Yūhaku watched him pace, quietly counting down under his breath.

"Five, four, three..."

The man looked back and forth between his watch and the red light. At last, he anxiously glanced both ways and dashed across the road.

"Two." Kamiki Yūhaku watched him.

"One."

The instant Kamiki Yūhaku reached one, a car came speeding toward the man. Bang! It sent him flying as he crossed the road. His black briefcase fell from the air and hit the ground, and the laptop inside tumbled out, landing at Kamiki Yūhaku's feet with its keys scattered everywhere.

Kamiki Yūhaku gazed at the laptop on the ground as the scene gradually overlapped with the one in his mind.

Then he calmly turned and walked away, leaving the chaos behind him.

He raised an arm and pressed his hand to his neck, a silver chain hanging over his shoulder. Kamiki Yūhaku felt the night breeze and kept his eyes ahead. After a while, he came to a dim little park. Seemingly satisfied with the spot he had chosen, he sat down and pulled another apple from his pocket.

There was a crisp crunch as he bit into it. Kamiki Yūhaku chewed the apple, his eyes resting calmly on the lights ahead.

"Delicious," Kamiki Yūhaku murmured.

At that moment, two streets away, Megumi Fushiguro stood on a Tokyo street beside a milk tea shop. Nearby, Yuji Itadori and Nobara Kugisaki were discussing where to get a late-night meal. As for Satoru Gojo, the adult no one could tell what he was thinking was standing in line to buy bubble tea.

"Hey, we didn't come all the way out of Jujutsu High in the middle of the night just to buy milk tea and eat a late-night meal, did we?"

"What's wrong with a late-night meal?" Nobara Kugisaki shouted. "I want sushi!"

"Steak!"

Satoru Gojo finally returned with his milk tea. "As much as I'd like a late-night meal too, we have a mission today."

"Huh?" Yuji Itadori blinked. "But Gojo-sensei, you don't seem worried at all. You even lined up to buy bubble tea, so it can't be a very important mission, right?"

"Something like that." Satoru Gojo walked along, drinking his milk tea. "It's actually an order from the higher-ups."

"Because of the matter of Ryomen Sukuna inside Yuji, the higher-ups are quite worried. After thinking it over, they sent someone here. He'll probably be your new teacher, although he won't actually be in charge of anything."

Megumi Fushiguro followed him. "So we're going to pick up this new teacher? What kind of teacher would have you go pick him up?"

"Actually, we're not going to pick him up," Satoru Gojo replied quite naturally as he drank his milk tea. "He ran away. The higher-ups told me to catch him."

Megumi Fushiguro: ...???

"He ran away?"

"Of course. That guy finally got his chance, so of course he'd run off right away," Satoru Gojo said as if it were obvious. "But he has a control device on him, so he can't get far. He's probably wandering around nearby. Let's split up and look for him. Find someone with chains on his wrists."

"So what's going on, exactly?"

Satoru Gojo took a drink of milk tea and waited until he'd swallowed before speaking. "Because he's not human."

The three first-years looked at Satoru Gojo in surprise again.

"What do you mean, he's not human?"

"Exactly what I said. He's a Cursed Spirit, and he was Special Grade from the moment he was born."

"What?!"

Yuji Itadori and Nobara Kugisaki aside, even Megumi Fushiguro looked surprised.

He was a Special Grade Cursed Spirit!

Special Grade was the highest rank for Cursed Spirits, and they posed an immeasurable threat. Only sixteen Special Grade Cursed Spirits had been recorded so far, and almost every one was a disaster on the level of a natural calamity. What's more, Cursed Spirits were formed from human negative emotions and were naturally hostile toward humans.

Wasn't that really bad?!

"Don't worry." Satoru Gojo looked around as he walked. "Although he's a Special Grade Cursed Spirit with very powerful Cursed Energy, and the higher-ups have kept him sealed and under control all this time, don't panic. His Cursed Technique isn't offensive, so he can't cause much trouble."

"Really?"

"Otherwise, why do you think the higher-ups have kept him sealed for so long?" Satoru Gojo chewed on the tapioca pearls, his speech slightly muffled. "Anyway, go look for him. He's male, with chains on his wrists. There's probably a noticeable distance between him and the people around him. Oh, right, ordinary people can't see Cursed Spirits, so under normal circumstances they can't see him either."

Megumi Fushiguro looked around, then turned and headed back the way they'd come.

"Fushiguro went back, so let's each take a side," Yuji Itadori said, raising his hand. "I'll go left!"

"Then I'll go right." Nobara Kugisaki walked in the opposite direction from Yuji Itadori. "Once we find him, we'll get that late-night meal."

Satoru Gojo watched them with a faint smile at the corners of his mouth. After a moment, he turned and headed in the one remaining direction.