Kenjaku Appears, Target: Itadori

After that brief interlude, Yuta Okkotsu quickly grew familiar with the others.

Soon, under the lead of Gojo Sawa and the others, this year's new students strode swiftly into Jujutsu High to register in the directory.

Nanako Hasaba, Grade 2 sorcerer, innate technique "Focal Shadow Capture"—using a phone camera as a medium, forcibly freezes a target within the frame for one second, with a one-minute cooldown.

Mimiko Hasaba, Grade 2 sorcerer, innate technique "Rope-Bound Doll"—can control a doll in flight, using the rope connected between her hand and the doll to bind and strangle targets.

Worth mentioning, Suguru Geto made a special trip to South Africa for Mimiko, purchasing a unique cursed tool from the local area—the Black Rope.

Rikyu Negi, Grade 2 sorcerer, innate technique "Explosive Firefly"—generates numerous fireflies that can explode to cause damage.

Though none of the three children Suguru Geto raised were top-tier, they still possessed considerable talent.

Toge Inumaki, Grade 2 sorcerer, last descendant of the Cursed Speech clan, can generate curses through speech.

For this reason, he can't speak carelessly to avoid accidentally harming his allies, and can only express himself using sushi ingredients.

Panda, Grade 2 sorcerer, Cursed Corpse—it seems the higher-ups deliberately obscure things, as there isn't much information about Panda.

However, the ratings for the next two came as quite a surprise.

Maki Zenin, Grade 4 sorcerer, Cursed Tool user—has almost no cursed energy within her, can only see curses through special cursed tool glasses, and fights through physical techniques.

"Grade 4?"

Suguru Geto was somewhat surprised.

From Maki's stance and breathing, her physical techniques had at least reached the level of Kaiden.

At this age, with this achievement, calling her a physical technique prodigy wouldn't be an overstatement—how could she possibly be only Grade 4!

Gojo Satoru made a vomiting expression. "These old geezers are as stubborn and disgusting as ever!"

Yet Maki didn't show any sad expression when she saw "Grade 4."

On the contrary, she had long anticipated this scene.

As for whether she was truly only at the "Grade 4" level, that would naturally become clear once she stepped onto the battlefield—facts speak louder than words!

"Finally, there's..."

Gojo Satoru looked at Yuta Okkotsu, a bad premonition rising in his heart.

Yuta Okkotsu scratched his hair, somewhat shyly pulling out his student ID.

Everyone looked, and their eyes went wide.

"Sp... Special Grade?!"

Staring at the harmless-looking Yuta Okkotsu, everyone's mouths twitched.

Megumi Fushiguro turned to look at the deflated Gojo Satoru.

This is the person you wanted me to defeat in a year?

Warm sunlight shone on the sandy beach; as far as the eye could see, there was an endless blue sky and ocean.

On a lounge chair, a woman wearing sunglasses enjoyed the sunbath, though the conspicuous stitching on her forehead seemed somewhat eerie.

Nearby, there was a one-eyed cursed spirit with a head like a chimney, a red octopus, and a handsome man whose entire body was covered in stitches.

Suddenly, the space twisted, and two figures stepped out.

"Yo! Hanami and Uraume are back!"

The woman with the stitched forehead stood up, revealing a kind smile that, upon closer inspection, seemed fake.

The woman's name was Kaori Itadori, but of course, the one currently occupying this body was a cursed user from a thousand years ago, an existence named Kenjaku.

The one-eyed cursed spirit, Jogo, took a drag from his cigarette. "Hanami, how's the situation?"

Hanami shook his head. "The cursed spirit under Yasohachi Bridge has been exorcised. Yorozu is nowhere to be seen, likely dead."

Kenjaku frowned deeply. "Do you know who did it?"

"No. The other party seemed very experienced—erased all traces of the battle, left nothing behind."

"Kusooo!"

The hot-tempered Jogo's volcano-like head began to smoke.

"Not only did we lose a helper like Yorozu, but we also lost one of Sukuna's fingers!"

Uraume snorted coldly in displeasure. "That crazy woman—whether she's here or not makes no difference at all!"

A thousand years ago, Yorozu had confessed her feelings in front of Sukuna and loudly declared she would take Uraume's place.

That was something Uraume had never forgotten, so he had never held any goodwill toward Yorozu.

If not for Kenjaku saying Yorozu could become a tool to help them, he wouldn't have minded roasting that crazy woman alive.

(Uraume is Sukuna's chef; Sukuna likes to eat people)

Upon hearing Hanami's news, Kenjaku fell into deep thought.

Scenes from over a thousand years continuously surfaced in his mind.

A thousand years of patient scheming, of lying on brushwood and tasting gall, had finally brought him to the critical moment—when suddenly a thunderbolt struck from a clear sky.

The Gojo Clan had birthed another Six Eyes, and twins at that!

Initially, Kenjaku thought nothing of it. The curse of twins existed, so one of them was bound to be a waste. Add to that past experience—assassination attempts on the Six Eyes either failed or simply gave birth to the next pair of Six Eyes to keep opposing him, as if it were an inescapable fate.

So Kenjaku simply left the Six Eyes twins alone, spending these years painstakingly collecting Sukuna's fingers from all over.

But reality slapped his face red and raw.

Neither of the Six Eyes was a failure. They'd grown so strong they were already out of control.

Especially the elder twin, Gojo Sawa. Several times Kenjaku used every means at his disposal to spy on him, and nearly got caught and killed in return!

And the kicker? The Six Eyes twins were bad enough, but then a "Cursed Spirit Manipulation" user appeared, also absurdly powerful.

Pressure! Mountain-crushing pressure!

In a thousand years, Kenjaku had never faced such a hell-difficulty match. He felt like the matchmaking system was messing with him.

So he activated some of his backup trump cards early, like unsealing part of the incarnated cursed objects to add more hands to his side.

Uraume and Yorozu were chosen to be incarnated and resurrected early.

Because both were absolutely loyal to Sukuna, and since Kenjaku's next move was to revive Sukuna, the two would spare no effort to help him.

But now, Uraume was revived.

Yet Yorozu hadn't been alive for even a few minutes before he sensed her presence vanish from the cursed object seal.

Meow!

He'd just summoned a teammate, and before her foot could even leave the fountain, she was gone.

What kind of useless teammate?! Does she even know how to play?

Kenjaku patted his cheeks with some headache, a nameless anxiety rising in his heart.

He always felt like there was a pair of eyes behind him, watching his every move, as if whatever he did next would be deliberately obstructed.

And this feeling was especially strong when monitoring Gojo Sawa.

"Hey! What are you spacing out for?"

Jogo twisted his face into a snarl. "What the hell is this 'Sukuna vessel' you keep talking about? When do we move?"

"If you keep dragging your feet, I'll burn you to ash!"

Jogo—the strongest of the four great disaster curses, and the one with the shortest fuse.

Kenjaku glanced at Jogo from the corner of his eye, cursing inwardly: A mere curse! Thinks he's someone important!

But on the surface, he put on a hypocritical smile. "In that case, let's begin!"

Despite being deeply wary of the Six Eyes twins and the Cursed Spirit Manipulation user, Kenjaku had no intention of stopping now.

"My informant at Jujutsu High got word that one of Sukuna's fingers will be temporarily stored during transport at..."