The First Clash with Jujutsu High (1)

On the streets of Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, people came and went.

Lin Yi moved through the crowd, holding a cosplay photo of a young girl. He asked around in the Shinjuku Ward shops that hired cosplayers to help attract customers, wondering whether anyone had seen the girl in the picture.

This was his commission: find a young girl who had gone out to look for a friend and then mysteriously disappeared.

Since it had happened in Shinjuku Ward, where he lived, Lin Yi was now something of a fierce outsider in the district. He was fairly familiar with the rules around Kabukicho in Shinjuku.

He had thought it would be an easy job. He could make a little money and perhaps have a little story with the shapely young woman who had hired him.

But after searching for quite a while, he still found nothing.

"Mr. Ichiro, we run a legitimate business here. We don't do that sort of thing. You've come to the wrong place."

Lin Yi hit another wall at a shop with yakuza connections. Dejected, he returned home. The moment he opened his door, he saw Manami Suda, the beautiful secretary by Suguru Geto's side, waiting in his room.

"I'm saying, do you people have no manners? If the owner isn't home, wait properly outside or come back another time."

"Mr. Ichiro, Lord Geto asked me to find you."

At the mention of Suguru Geto, Lin Yi frowned.

Suguru Geto was ready to make a move against Jujutsu High? Had Yuta Okkotsu, the warrior of pure love, enrolled already?

Based on the plot he knew, that was the only thing Lin Yi could think of. He sat down at his desk and gestured for her to continue.

Manami Suda did not waste words. She placed a document before Lin Yi. He picked it up, looked through it, and smiled.

It was not what he had thought. Suguru Geto was not preparing to attack Jujutsu High. Rather, an out-of-town church called the Yosei Association was competing with the Time Vessel Association, where Geto served as leader, for followers.

Japan already had all sorts of strange religious sects. On top of that, Cursed Spirits were everywhere and curses ran rampant. These sects had developed far better here than in Lin Yi's original world. More or less every sect had a sorcerer or curse user backing it.

Seeing that Lin Yi was interested, Manami Suda handed him the phone on which she had connected Suguru Geto's call. Lin Yi took it, and Geto's voice came through the receiver.

"Ichi-chan~ According to the Binding Vow we made, I have to put you to work now."

"As the leader of the Time Vessel Association, you're dedicated to creating an era for sorcerers. Yet you care about a sect founded by ordinary people stealing your followers?"

"If they have curses among them, then I do care quite a bit."

"Go on. I'm listening."

Lin Yi straightened in his chair. He was genuinely interested now.

"No, no. Leave this kind of intelligence-gathering to you, Ichi-chan. Oh, and if you find any decent Cursed Spirits, remember to package them up and take them away for me. Manami will help you. I'm counting on you."

The call ended. Lin Yi looked at the phone helplessly before handing it back.

Only after glancing at Manami Suda, who was waiting for him to set out, did he get up and return to his room.

"Mr. Lin Ichiro, aren't we leaving now?"

"What's the rush? It's not easy to work in broad daylight. The address is already written down. It won't be too late to move tonight. I'm going to sleep for a while. Make yourself at home, Miss Manami. Remember to lock the door when you leave. We'll meet near this building at eight tonight."

Ignoring her urging, Lin Yi returned to his room, shut the door, and went to sleep.

Manami Suda was left standing in the spacious room, speechless for a moment.

That night, atop a building in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo.

Feeling the night wind blowing across the rooftop, Lin Yi tightened his trench coat. Looking at Manami Suda, who had already been waiting for him, he teased, "How interesting. Do all of you like arranging meetings on rooftops?"

"Please do not change the subject, Mr. Lin Ichiro. Focus on the task Lord Geto assigned you."

"Yeah, yeah. I won't waste much of your time."

Lin Yi gave her a perfunctory answer, then activated the sorcerer form of his technique, Two-Stage Reversal. A pair of tactical binoculars took shape in his hands, constructed from his cursed energy, and he used them to observe the nearby Lori Group building across from them.

This was one of the targets Suguru Geto had asked him to investigate.

A sect from Central America called the Yosei Association had partnered with a Japanese company called the Lori Group. Their cooperation seemed to involve researching how ordinary people with cursed energy but no innate technique, and thus unable to use cursed energy, could steadily produce Cursed Spirits.

It seemed they had attracted quite a few wealthy businessmen and powerful figures to invest recently. Those people covered for them, allowing them to seize people off Tokyo's streets for experiments.

No wonder Suguru Geto was interested. Still, Jujutsu Society in Japan should have noticed something like this, shouldn't it?

According to the information Suguru Geto had provided, all of Japan was actually wrapped within an enormous barrier technique. This barrier had turned Japan into the world's vortex of cursed energy, which was why the country had produced Cursed Spirits and sorcerers in abundance for centuries—and why it had given rise to Satoru Gojo, the strongest sorcerer of the modern era.

Lin Yi watched the building through his constructed tactical binoculars, pondering those questions.

Just as Lin Yi was wondering, he noticed two black Toyota cars pull up outside the Lori Group building. The people stepping out were personnel from Tokyo Jujutsu High whom he recognized.

When Lin Yi spotted a silver-haired woman among the Tokyo Jujutsu High personnel getting out of the cars, his heart immediately sank.

The tactical binoculars in his hands dissolved into cursed energy. He decisively switched back into his disguised form, grabbed Manami Suda beside him, and dragged her into the stairwell without explanation.

"Hey, what are you doing, Mr. Lin Ichiro?"

"People from Jujutsu High are here."

Manami Suda froze briefly, then said, "Isn't it perfectly normal for Tokyo Jujutsu High to take notice? The Binding Vow between Lord Geto and you did not say that you couldn't come into conflict with Jujutsu High. It only said that you could refuse any order from Lord Geto to kill Jujutsu High personnel."

"I know the terms of the Binding Vow better than you do. I'm not planning to refuse this job, either. But don't stay with me. Go back to your territory right now, immediately. Don't use cursed energy. Act like an ordinary person. I don't want Jujutsu High to notice you and drag me into it."

Lin Yi spoke irritably. The reason he had immediately pulled Manami Suda into hiding was the silver-haired woman he had seen through his tactical binoculars.

She was a Grade 1 Sorcerer. Her technique was called Bird Manipulation. She could share the full field of vision of the crows under her control. When necessary, she could even sacrifice a crow's life, causing the tiny amount of cursed energy in its body to erupt and turn it into a living bomb that attacked her opponent.

Without knowing whether she had released any birds as scouts, Lin Yi could only hide first and consider how to intervene once they made their move.

"Heh, you really are cautious, Mr. Lin Ichiro. In that case, I won't disturb you while you work. Lord Geto and I will await your good news."

Manami Suda's praise carried a trace of mockery, but she did not refuse Lin Yi's suggestion. She left with graceful steps.

Lin Yi did not care. After confirming that Manami Suda, the overseer, had departed, he adjusted his appearance in the stairwell. Once he made sure there were no flaws in his disguise, he pushed open the door again and pretended to be an exhausted office worker who had come to the rooftop for some air after working overtime.

That way, even if he entered the vision of birds released by that Grade 1 Sorcerer, she would not pay him much attention.

Outside the Lori Group building, the first-year trio from Jujutsu High, assigned an extracurricular Cursed Spirit exorcism by Satoru Gojo, stared at the brightly lit skyscraper before them.

"Mr. Ijichi, is it really okay for us to barge in so openly?"

Maki Zenin rested a long naginata on her shoulder and spoke carelessly, as though she would charge inside for a slaughter the moment assistant supervisor Kiyotaka Ijichi said it was fine.

"Yes. The Jujutsu Supervisory Council has confirmed that large-scale Cursed Spirit experiments are being conducted here. For this operation, Mr. Kento Nanami, Mr. Takuma Ino, and Miss Mei Mei will lead the assault. You will clear out the weaker Cursed Spirits inside the building. Everyone in the building is involved, so you need not worry about harming innocents."

"Good! Then let's see who kills more Cursed Spirits!"

"Maki's really fired up!"

"Salmon roe."

Panda and the other student, Toge Inumaki, chimed in alongside Maki Zenin's battle-hungry declaration.

But before they could charge into the building, Kento Nanami, the Grade 1 Sorcerer who had returned to Jujutsu High, was already walking ahead of them. Grade 2 Sorcerer Takuma Ino was beside him, along with the silver-haired Grade 1 Sorcerer Lin Yi had seen through his tactical binoculars, Mei Mei.

"You are the second team. You may enter only after we confirm that there is no fatal danger inside the building."

"Huh? Mr. Nanami, are you trying to keep all the good stuff for yourself?"

"No. It's because I'm an adult, and you're still students. Ijichi, lower the Curtain."

"Yes. From the darkness, darker still. Purify all that is impure."

As assistant supervisor Kiyotaka Ijichi recited the incantation, a translucent black Curtain with a radius of fifty meters descended over the building like an inverted bowl, isolating it from the outside.

The three sorcerers led by Kento Nanami entered the building first, leaving Maki Zenin, Panda, Toge Inumaki, and assistant supervisor Kiyotaka Ijichi behind to wait.

Standing on the rooftop and looking at the barrier only dozens of meters away, Lin Yi smiled.

Cursed energy surged around him as he leaped from the rooftop.

Add Bookmark

Return to Contents

Report Chapter Error

Share with Friends: