Insights from the Notebook

Page One.

Without immediately reading its contents, Kana Shizumi first let his gaze fall to the footnotes.

Sure enough... there were "timestamps" handwritten by Kenjaku here.

Kana Shizumi blinked thoughtfully, then flipped through several more pages... and found that the contents had basically been arranged according to those entries.

"Keio era 1"

"Bunjō 2"

"Meiji Era 35"

"Showa Era 6"

"Taisho Era 5"

With standards like these listed upfront, Kana Shizumi's expression immediately turned indescribable.

He realized there was a problem.

—Kenjaku's notebook apparently had not been arranged according to the passage of time at all. Even the dates inside were out of order...

What about the contents, then?

After skimming through it, Kana Shizumi found nothing wrong with the descriptions themselves. Even though the dates had been reversed, the passages still connected seamlessly, causing no difficulty in reading whatsoever.

Kana Shizumi belatedly caught on.

"I understand now. Kenjaku must have recorded his insights and understanding in certain years."

There was nothing strange about a researcher leaving traces of his work, and Kana Shizumi could completely understand that from a behavioral standpoint.

After all, just as Kenjaku himself had stated, one could not view things too one-sidedly.

If one wanted to find the true answer, one had to approach it from multiple angles, deliberate over it again and again, and think it through. Only then could one find the right line of reasoning...

Different times and different states of mind would surely give rise to entirely different ways of thinking, even when facing the same problem. So from a researcher's perspective, Kenjaku's ability was indeed the best possible aid.

Living long enough to see all sorts of fun was what that meant, too.

Still, if that were all, it would have been understandable.

What was rather unhinged was what came afterward... After roughly skimming through it, Kana Shizumi could not help scratching his head.

If nothing unexpected had happened, Kenjaku must have reorganized these notebook entries after reaching the modern era. Like a revised edition, he had modified and criticized his former insights and content from multiple angles.

It was obvious, because there were all kinds of footnotes and critiques written over the handwritten passages.

For example, he would cross out an entire sentence and write beside it, "What kind of joke is this? This wild fantasy is making me sick." Then, every so often, he would remove those later comments and replace them with something new...

"What was I thinking in Taisho Era 3? Why did I criticize this idea? This is utterly unreasonable!"

There were countless cases of his left and right brains fighting each other like this.

As expected of the Jujutsu Society's number one Mendel. When he got ruthless, he even cursed himself out.

After getting a basic grasp of the book's overall structure, Kana Shizumi touched his face and tried to compose himself before reading its contents.

All right, one more time.

The first thing Kana Shizumi saw was Kenjaku's hypothesis regarding "Cursed Objects."

If that were all, it definitely would not have required special documentation. Based on the original work, Sukuna had already mastered the method of condensing cursed energy into his fingers and cutting them off to turn himself into Cursed Objects during the Heian Era, allowing him to regain the ability to act a thousand years later.

In other words.

When it came to the question of how to create a "radiation source," both Kenjaku and Sukuna had plenty to say. At the very least, they were both professor-level figures.

What mattered were the derivative thoughts that followed.

"Merely creating Cursed Objects holds no meaning for me. I can live for a very long time without relying on such a method.

What I need is to find something that can break the balance between humans and curses... Right, perhaps something positioned at the midpoint would work as well?

Half-human, half-cursed spirit... That may be a promising hypothesis."

Shaolin kung fu plus soccer—did that have potential?

If nothing unexpected had happened, this should have been the concept that eventually became the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings.

The contents afterward documented Kenjaku's entire process of putting it into practice, and Kana Shizumi had to admit...

Now that he had seen the specific execution process, even Kana Shizumi, who had been wary and even afraid of him, felt a measure of admiration for Kenjaku.

The other man had poured an enormous amount of effort and time into his research. Since there had been no reference material to begin with, he had essentially been feeling his way across the river by testing the stones.

After countless attempts and failures, the notebook also contained declarations that sounded like he had completely snapped and given up.

The varying pressure of the strokes also revealed shifts in emotion... It seemed that even someone as detached as Kenjaku would feel genuine happiness over the progress and changes in his experiments.

Kenjaku in the original work had always remained calm and composed. Even when Okkotsu ambushed him and blew his head off at the end, he had not let out that classic villainous roar of rage after breaking down.

Instead, he had seemed to accept the fact quite calmly... and that had kept Kenjaku's image and bearing from ever falling apart.

After all, people with no desires were the hardest to fathom.

And now, Kana Shizumi had somewhat come into contact with that unknown side of him.

But was that useful?

Damn it, am I supposed to have a heart-to-heart with this thousand-year-old monster now...? No way!

While sighing inwardly, Kana Shizumi suddenly stopped flipping through the pages because he saw a description concerning himself.

"Form of Purity...

This is a unique insight based on the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings.

I originally intended to break the gap between humans and cursed spirits and attempt to create a more powerful individual.

But the facts proved that my line of thought was likely wrong... The fusion of the two did not give birth to an individual beyond normal limits. If the goal was merely to refine something truly powerful, then this attempt itself held no meaning."

So the ultimate purpose of handcrafting these half-human, half-cursed spirits had been to create a world boss?

Kana Shizumi scratched his head.

Wait, according to the original plotline, hadn't that goal already been achieved?

As everyone knew, jujutsu sorcerers and cursed spirits were inherently locked in a competitive relationship. When one side grew stronger, the other side would give rise to stronger individuals to keep it in balance.

Satoru Gojo's birth had changed the world's balance, causing modern curses to become stronger in turn.

What about Yuji, then...

He ate his Cursed Womb brothers, became half-human and half-cursed spirit, and used that exploit of stepping on his own foot to climb higher, forcibly holding out for sixty-eight years before unleashing a world-shaking Dismantle.

At that thought, Kana Shizumi reached enlightenment.

Kenjaku's line of thought had not been wrong. The problem was with the execution!!!