Chapter 3

"Ding! Detected that Seele eliminated a Grade 1 cursed spirit to protect the host, reward 500 Points."

A few seconds later, the system's prompt sounded in An Xiu's ear again.

"Tch, boring."

Black Seele, who had returned to An Xiu's side through the smashed-open hole, said listlessly, then promptly handed control of the body back to Seele.

"All the cursed spirits here have been cleaned up by Seele. It's already very late now, so let's head back, An Xiu-ge."

After carefully sensing the surroundings and confirming there were no lingering cursed spirits left, Seele spoke to An Xiu in a gentle voice.

"We really should go back. Running out this late has made me a bit hungry. Seele, can you cook?"

"Well... I don't know many dishes, but Seele will do her best."

After the two left, the abandoned construction site fell back into silence.

But not long after, another unfamiliar figure approached the area.

"Honestly, just finding this godforsaken place wastes a fair bit of time. I'll have to ask Jujutsu High for an extra hardship fee when I get back."

Chapter 5: Meimei's Investigation, Suspected Special Grade?

"A remote place like this takes considerable effort just to locate. No wonder Jujutsu High outsourced it as a commission."

A tall, mature woman with silver hair tied into two long braids—one in front, one behind—wearing a deep purple dress, complained about how unfriendly the target location of this commission was as she walked unhurriedly toward the abandoned construction site.

"This should be the place, no mistake. It's a minor internet-famous suicide spot, and there won't be a second similar building within several kilometers."

After taking a distant look to confirm she hadn't gotten the wrong place, Meimei double-checked the commission's intelligence.

"According to Window's observations, this commission site is suspected to have Grade 1 cursed spirit activity, along with a large number of low-grade cursed spirits. Exact numbers unknown..."

"Well, it's a big job. No time to waste—let's get to work."

Running a commission in the dead of night, Meimei planned to hit a familiar izakaya for a good drink once this was over.

She smoothly activated her technique—Crow Manipulation—and directed a pre-prepared crow to fly over the construction site. Sharing the crow's vision, she observed the abandoned area.

Yet, the mission site, which should have been swarming with cursed spirits as per the intelligence, was completely empty under Meimei's observation. Not even a single Grade 4 cursed spirit was in sight, let alone the Grade 1 that had been specifically flagged.

"What the hell? Could Jujutsu High's intel be wrong? The cursed spirits at the commission site all vanished—it's not like they went on a team-building trip, is it?"

"Wait... there are signs of battle here!"

Circling over the empty site through the crow's vision, Meimei quickly spotted numerous traces of combat.

The ground split cleanly as if by something sharp, broken walls, collapsed buildings—and most crucially, lingering cursed energy that had yet to dissipate on the battlefield.

"Someone beat me to it?"

Faced with this situation, Meimei felt no anger about having her commission stolen. After all, she always collected payment upfront before doing the work.

The money was already in her hands; whether the mission target was eliminated first was none of her concern. There was no way she was returning the cash—it wasn't like she, a Grade 1 sorcerer, could come all this way for nothing, right?

Still, Meimei lowered the crow's flight altitude to gather more detailed intel, planning to use it to placate Jujutsu High later.

As the crow flew into the construction site, Meimei suddenly sensed through her technique a chilling, deathly aura of cursed energy that inspired visceral fear.

"Hey, hey, isn't this a bit much? I'm observing through my technique right now—I haven't even gone in yet..."

Her tall frame stiffened for a moment. Meimei wiped the cold sweat from her forehead. Could cursed energy this cold and terrifying, like pure death itself, really belong to a human?

Damn it, could this place have quietly birthed a Special Grade cursed spirit?

Considering that possibility, Meimei prudently retreated to what she deemed a safe distance before using Crow Manipulation to guide the crow deeper.

There were plenty of battle traces across the abandoned site, but from her observations, Meimei judged that most fights had ended in an instant. The large number of cursed spirits that had gathered here seemed to have been one-shot by some powerful entity, with no sign of prolonged struggle.

The battle marks throughout the site were largely identical. Guiding the crow into the main abandoned building, she found the situation inside much the same.

Flying up to the upper floors, Meimei finally spotted something different where a large hole had been torn in the ceiling.

The residual cursed energy here was denser than elsewhere—likely the location of the suspected Grade 1 cursed spirit from the intel.

The battle traces here were slightly more numerous than in other spots, but still very limited.

By examining the battlefield from all angles and calculating the number of exchanges based on a Grade 1 cursed spirit's destructive power, Meimei inferred that even with a Grade 1 present, the entire fight had lasted less than ten seconds.

A Grade 1 cursed spirit couldn't even last ten seconds?

As a Grade 1 sorcerer herself, Meimei was confident she could eliminate a Grade 1 cursed spirit, but the process would never be this clean.

Continuing upward through the hole in the ceiling, Meimei soon found another spot where residual cursed energy was notably higher than the surroundings.

"I see—there was a second Grade 1 cursed spirit. I knew Window's intel couldn't be trusted."

"But..."

Observing the second battlefield, Meimei quickly arrived at an absurd conclusion.

If the first Grade 1's battlefield had at least shown a brief exchange lasting a few seconds—meaning the cursed spirit had put up some resistance—then no matter how much she studied this second site, the only conclusion was: instant kill.

There was no trace of a fight at all. A formidable Grade 1 cursed spirit had been one-shot without offering any resistance.

The entire battlefield bore only a single scar—a slash over ten meters long that split floor and ceiling in two, the rest filled with residual cursed energy reeking of death itself.

Slaughter. Even a Grade 1 cursed spirit had been one-shot. Clearly, before she arrived, this abandoned construction site had hosted a thorough massacre.

From this alone, the being that had killed every cursed spirit here before she could was undoubtedly a Special Grade!

In other words...

"Damn it, did I take a loss on this job?"

Compared to running off to some remote place to wipe out a Grade 1 cursed spirit plus a bunch of low-grade ones, a commission involving a Special Grade paid several times more—and was several times more dangerous.

In other words, with this commission, Meimei had essentially taken the pay for a Grade 1 extermination job while unknowingly doing work related to a Special Grade.

Given the intelligence error from the school—there weren't one but two Grade 1 cursed spirits originally infesting this place—even without the current situation, she'd likely have taken a loss anyway.

Suddenly, Meimei felt like she'd been played for a fool.

"Raise the price. I'm making the school pay up when I get back! Suspected Special Grade intel—no way they're not interested."

With the idea of making a fat profit, after finishing her investigation of the abandoned construction site, Meimei didn't linger. She dispelled her technique and immediately left without stopping.

After all, a suspected Special Grade had been active, and judging by the residual cursed energy, probably recently. Since she'd gotten the intel, staying nearby gave Meimei zero sense of security.

Chapter 6: Gojo Satoru's Arrival

Evening. Tokyo. The top of a building nearly forty stories high.

A silver-haired man in a uniform, wearing a blindfold, with spiky hair, stood on the edge of the rooftop railing in a casual pose that would scare any acrophobe to death on the spot.

He held a phone, apparently talking to someone.

"Suspected Special Grade appearance, huh. Looks like an unexpected surprise."

"Get serious, Gojo! This is an unrecorded suspected Special Grade existence. We have to investigate their identity, confirm whether they're a curse user, and if possible, bring them over to the sorcerer side."

On the other end of the line, listening to Gojo Satoru's familiar unserious tone, Gakuganji Yaga—who had just finished dealing with Meimei—felt a surge of irritation and corrected him in a stern voice.

Since Meimei's commission had been issued under the school's name, after returning to a safe area, she'd sent the intel to Yaga, the principal of Tokyo Jujutsu High School, and also squeezed a hefty sum out of him for intel fees and compensation.

Yaga had no particular reaction to this. After all, completely unrecorded Special Grade intel was indeed important. The moment he got the detailed information, he contacted Gojo Satoru, who was out on a mission, and explained the matter.

"Relax, relax. I'll go check out the scene myself and try to find their trail."

"If I find them and confirm they're not a curse user, I'll extend an invitation. Of course, if they're not interested, that's not my problem."

And if they were a curse user?

Yaga didn't even bother asking. He could guess what Gojo would say if he did.

"Don't worry. After all, I'm the strongest."

The figure that had been standing on the building's edge vanished instantly, leaving only the surging cursed energy in the air to mark where a powerful sorcerer had stood moments before.

The next day. Noon.

Having slept until the sun was high, An Xiu finally got up with a yawn, dressed by Seele's help.

Nothing had happened after they returned last night. An Xiu wasn't a lust-driven man; he wasn't about to bed Seele on his first day in this world.

At the very least, he needed some time to adjust. So last night, he'd simply held Seele's soft, fragrant body as a pillow and slept.

The experience was quite pleasant. Hugging a beautiful girl to sleep was good for both body and mind—the netizens from his past life had a point.

After washing up and eating the breakfast—no, lunch—Seele had prepared, An Xiu sat in a chair and stared into space while Seele cleaned the dishes.

He was thinking about a very important issue: making money.

Sure, he'd transmigrated into Jujutsu Kaisen, but he still needed money for food, clothes, and daily expenses. In this world, An Xiu's identity was a high school dropout working in online business, with a meager income that barely supported himself and almost no savings.

He had no intention of continuing that line of work. It didn't make much money anyway.

Though writing light novels was a classic transmigrator money-making route, An Xiu wasn't planning to do that either.

After all, he was a kept man. What kept man needed to earn his own money? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of being kept?

Maybe he could consider some sorcerer-related ways to make money. Seele was pretty strong, after all.

"Seele, I don't want to work anymore. How about you earn money to support me?"

"Huh? An Xiu-ge doesn't want to work anymore?"

Hearing this, Seele looked over from the kitchen, then smiled and nodded.

"Okay. Seele will work hard to earn money and support An Xiu-ge."

"It's not just about working hard, you know. I have standards for my quality of life. Eating and drinking well, occasionally upgrading my computer and getting a better graphics card, plus games, light novels, merchandise—those expenses add up. Ideally, I'd want to move to a bigger house too. Add it all up, and Seele will need to earn a lot of money."

"Mhm. Then Seele will work hard to earn lots and lots of money. I'll buy An Xiu-ge a new computer, a new house, and all the other things he likes. I'll cook for him, clean the room, and stay by his side forever."

"Yeah, that's the idea. But don't worry, Seele. I'll definitely manifest other clones to work hard too. I won't let you support me alone."

Hearing Seele's answer, An Xiu fully gave up.

Sorcerers—or rather, powerful sorcerers—had plenty of ways to make money, good or bad. With Seele's strength, she'd have no trouble earning money in this world.

All he had to do was sit back, wait for Seele to earn money for him, and then spend it to enjoy himself.

"Ding! Detected host lying flat. Reward: 50 Points."

The system's prompt sounded in his ear.

Yes, lying flat like this and relying on someone else to support him could also earn Points—after all, this counted as a classic case of living off a woman, and it was even a continuous source of Points.

But the interval was long. An Xiu had heard it once yesterday, and this was the second time now. So it only triggered about once a day?

Just then, Seele suddenly came to An Xiu's side.

"An Xiu-ge, someone's here."

As she spoke, Seele turned her gaze toward the window.

On the street across the way, a man with silver spiky hair and a blindfold was waving at the two inside.

Noticing their attention, Gojo Satoru, standing outside, immediately flashed a smile he thought was both serious and handsome.

"Yo, you two. Good afternoon."

"Not planning to invite me in? Or... want to come out and chat?"

Admittedly, living in the suburbs had its perks—especially in this apartment where An Xiu and Seele were now. Within a few kilometers, it was hard to find a single living soul. If they wanted to do something inconvenient for others to see, there was no need to hide.

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Gojo Satoru. I'm a teacher at Tokyo Jujutsu High School, and also a Special Grade sorcerer."

"By the way, if you two haven't been exposed to the Jujutsu World yet, you can think of a Special Grade sorcerer as the strongest kind of sorcerer. And I happen to be the strongest among the Special Grades."

On the rooftop of the abandoned construction site building where An Xiu and Seele had cleared out curses last night, Gojo gave a brief self-introduction in front of them.

"How did you find us?"

An Xiu didn't comment on Gojo's introduction. After all, he already knew about the man from his past life, so this kind of low-key self-promotion was only to be expected.