Cannon Pawn Two Advances Seven

With the Zenin Clan incident wrapped up, Xuan returned to Fallen Star Palace at incredible speed. As for Maki, with the Merchant God's Scepter in her possession, ordinary people should not be able to hurt her—Cursed Speech would probably last around five minutes. After obtaining the cursed tool, Maki planned to enter the colonies to exorcise cursed spirits, save ordinary people, and search for Angel while she was at it.

Yuta Okkotsu, meanwhile, headed for the Sendai Colony. At present, the place with both the highest scores and the greatest number of strong opponents was the Sendai Colony.

Before heading to the Sendai Colony, Yuta Okkotsu specifically had Yuji Itadori and Megumi Fushiguro train during their limited time while searching for Kinji Hakari.

Grinding points was secondary. With Xuan, the king of point-grinding, all they needed was to add a rule allowing points to be transferred between participants, ensuring ordinary people's survival in the Culling Game.

Tsukumo Yuki and Choso voluntarily chose to protect Tengen, so they remained in Fallen Star Palace.

Xuan was a free agent. He could go to Egypt or do whatever he wanted.

Yuji Itadori and Megumi Fushiguro trained under Xuan's personal guidance while searching for Kinji Hakari.

At the same time, using Xuan's technique and Tengen's control over the barriers, the two secretly created so-called walkie-talkies.

They were made from Xuan's shadows and stabilized by Tengen's and Xuan's barrier techniques. As long as cursed energy was poured into them, they could connect and be used for communication.

"This is Yuta Okkotsu. I've arrived on Honshu Island."

"This is Xuan. Received, received!"

"Mr. Xuan, don't shout into the communicator. Fushiguro, Itadori, have you found Kinji Hakari?"

"We've already confirmed Kinji Hakari's location."

Xuan's figure appeared once more within Fallen Star Palace. He had placed markers between the communicators in advance, allowing him to rapidly teleport back and forth between their locations.

Listening to their voices through the earpiece, Xuan opened a hidden door in Fallen Star Palace and stepped into the room where Tengen was.

"Which door leads directly to where those higher-ups are?"

As he stepped inside, Xuan looked at Tsukumo and Choso, who were playing chess, as well as Tengen, who was pretending to be a potted plant nearby.

"They're outside Fallen Star Palace. You don't need to find a door."

"Um... right. Where is Masamichi Yaga?"

"Oh? Is little brother Xuan going to save someone?"

Tsukumo, who had successfully checkmated Choso, raised her head and looked at Xuan as he entered.

"How should I put it? Someone paid for two weeks of all-you-can-eat McDonald's."

"..."

Other than Choso, who was still pondering the chessboard, Tengen and Tsukumo fell silent at the same time. Then Tengen raised her head.

"Even if you save him, the higher-ups of the jujutsu world won't let him go."

"Then have him come here to you."

"True. The higher-ups probably have no way of coming here to find anyone, right, Tengen?"

Tengen did not reply, merely nodding.

"For my two weeks of all-you-can-eat McDonald's, I'd better do a good job."

"The higher-ups of the jujutsu world—"

Just as Xuan was about to leave, Tengen spoke again.

"At the very least, leave Yoshinobu Gakuganji behind. Jujutsu High still needs someone to keep it running."

"...What does he look like?"

Tengen's projection appeared before Xuan and transformed into Gakuganji's appearance.

"What about everyone else? Which of those useless fools who only know how to sit among the higher-ups are still useful?"

"No one else. We only need one person to organize the evacuation from the Culling Game and represent the jujutsu world publicly. The rest are completely useless."

"That's awfully cruel, Tengen. You've changed a lot too."

"They expelled Kinji Hakari, secretly ordered Yuta Okkotsu's execution, and held no compassion for lower-ranking jujutsu sorcerers. After the Culling Game began, their first concern was not how to destroy it or stop the harm it would cause, but immediately branding the already sealed Satoru Gojo a traitor—and choosing to turn our fighting strength into wanted criminals."

Xuan looked at the words unfolding before him like a PowerPoint presentation, along with photographs of the people who had done those things.

"You're making it sound like I'm some player taking a job. What reward do I get for doing all this?"

"..."

Tengen fell silent for a while, her four eyes dimming—then lighting up again.

"I'll treat you to a year of all-you-can-eat buffets."

"Oh?"

"Your shikigami's food and anything those creatures need will be covered too."

"Great! I accept."

So this was all about checking the Cursed Repository's assets...

Tsukumo watched Tengen's clearly offline expression, the corner of her mouth twitching. A year of all-you-can-eat buffets was not really much compared to a special-grade sorcerer's salary, and for Xuan, it was an amount he could obtain effortlessly—

This guy really was interesting. Despite possessing strength far beyond everyone else's, he had always retained the bottom line of being human.

Watching Xuan walk away, Tengen sat down again and looked at the chessboard between Choso and Tsukumo.

"Again."

Choso had already reset the Chinese chess pieces. Then, he looked once more at Tsukumo, who had effortlessly beaten him in over twenty games.

"Anytime, Choso~"

"Cursed Womb: Death Paintings, no matter what, opening with Cannon Two Advances Seven is just too..."

"Shut up! I'll definitely use this move to beat that woman someday."

Tengen was speechless. She silently sat in her chair and continued cosplaying as a potted plant.

Tap, tap.

"...This is the place."

Kenjaku walked through the Kamo Clan estate, following the traces he had left behind toward the Kamo Clan's Cursed Repository.

"Ah... To be able to create a cursed tool like this, to become the strongest on par with Sukuna while still being an unaffiliated sorcerer..."

Kenjaku walked along the path through the Kamo Clan's Cursed Repository. Around 150 years ago, when Kenjaku had still been called Noritoshi Kamo, he had stored the strongest corpse in the mountains beside the repository, hidden away in a particularly remote corner.

Holding an iron shovel, Kenjaku forcefully turned over the earth and dug up a solid wooden coffin.

"Ah, it's good that I remembered correctly—now, I no longer need Cursed Spirit Manipulation."

Inside the coffin lay Xuan's body in silence. His eyes were closed, and his intact corpse rested within.

"Even though I cut off the little finger of his right hand, it regenerated under Mahoraga's Mark?"

Kenjaku examined Xuan's body. After a moment, he placed his hand on it.

"...Idle Transfiguration."

Kenjaku's cursed energy rapidly drained away, and Xuan's body swiftly began to change. But before the transformation could settle, it reverted—

A corpse had no soul; altering the soul was equivalent to altering the flesh. Thus, Mahoraga's self-restoration ability was continuously taking effect.

Along with the effect of Mahoraga's Mark—

Click.

Click.

Click.

Click.

With four crisp turning sounds, even the technique capable of altering souls had been adapted to by Xuan's corpse—but before the adaptation was complete, stitches had already appeared across Xuan's forehead.

"Truly... powerful."