Kenjaku's Shadow

"Eh? We meet again, Mr. Kento Nanami, Mr. Kiyotaka Ijichi."

After leaving Suguru Geto, Lin Yi went to the police station. He had not forgotten the missing-person case he had taken on under his other identity. Since he had stumbled into it by chance, he might as well complete the job, even if that meant a reduced fee.

Still, he had not expected Kento Nanami and Kiyotaka Ijichi to be here. As long as Satoru Gojo was not around, though, it was fine.

"What a coincidence, Mr. Nanami. This should be our third meeting, right? This is the younger sister my client asked me to find, so I'll be taking my leave now. See you again if fate allows."

Just as Lin Yi was about to take the young girl's hand and leave the police station, she suddenly pulled free from him. Her face was filled with fear as she stared at him.

The instant the girl showed fear, Kento Nanami, being a sorcerer, sensed that something was wrong. Lin Yi frowned as well.

Though he was currently in his disguised form and could not see cursed energy or Cursed Spirits with the naked eye, his instincts were sharp. He could feel cursed energy overflowing from this girl, who could not have been more than seventeen.

This was not the amount of cursed energy an ordinary person should possess. Ordinary people, whose brain structures differed from those of sorcerers, could produce cursed energy, but since they could not guide it, it would dissipate on its own. And they certainly should not have cursed energy overflowing at a level comparable to a sorcerer's.

"Who are you?" the girl asked Lin Yi timidly.

Under the gazes of Kento Nanami, Kiyotaka Ijichi, and the police officers, Lin Yi took out his identification from his pocket and said again, "My name is Lin Ichiro. I'm a private detective and a part-time City Hunter. Miss Takagi, your older sister hired me to find you."

"I don't have an older sister."

The answer from the girl named Takagi stunned Lin Yi. Kento Nanami, who had also realized something was amiss, walked toward him.

"Mr. Lin Ichiro, pardon me, but I think we need to have a talk."

That night, at the police station, Lin Yi explained in full how he had received the commission.

It had been a simple missing-person case. An older sister had asked Lin Yi to find her younger sister, who had been missing for several days. But Kento Nanami, who had just completed a Cursed Spirit exorcism operation that Lin Yi had interrupted midway, noticed the problem.

Of course, Lin Yi had noticed it too.

The Yosei Association, a sect from Central America, had colluded with a major local corporation. They were targeting runaway teenagers on the streets of Tokyo and experimenting on them, trying to make human negative emotions steadily produce Cursed Spirits.

Lin Yi did not know whether the experiment had succeeded, but there was clearly something wrong with the girl named Takagi. To him, her current state felt like that of an ordinary person transforming into a sorcerer.

But one of the underlying rules of Jujutsu Kaisen was that sorcerer talent was innate, and the level a sorcerer could reach was also determined at birth.

Not every sorcerer could fight Cursed Spirits. Assistant supervisors who served the Japanese Official Jujutsu Society and supported combat-capable sorcerers like Kento Nanami were also sorcerers, just like Kiyotaka Ijichi, who sat in front of Lin Yi taking notes.

They could guide and control their own cursed energy, see Cursed Spirits with the naked eye, and erect barriers called "Curtains," but that was all. Their innate cursed energy was insufficient to support fighting Cursed Spirits head-on.

Sorcerers like them made up the majority of Japan's Jujutsu Society. That was why the profession was perpetually understaffed, and sorcerers basically worked year-round without rest. Satoru Gojo, the strongest of the modern era, traveled the world on business even more frequently and slept only three or four hours a day.

So the question was, what sort of experiment could turn an ordinary girl into a sorcerer through acquired means?

Familiar with the broad plot of Jujutsu Kaisen, Lin Yi quickly narrowed down the target: Mahito, the humanoid Special-Grade Cursed Spirit born from human malice, whose technique was called Idle Transfiguration.

By touching an ordinary person's soul, he could alter their brain structure and turn them into a sorcerer.

This was the second underlying rule of Jujutsu Kaisen: the soul took precedence over the body. Only anomalies like the Heavenly Tyrant, who completely abandoned cursed energy, had bodies that surpassed their souls.

But Lin Yi immediately dismissed the thought the moment it surfaced.

The timing did not line up. Mahito, that humanoid calamity of a Cursed Spirit, had been born much later. Though Lin Yi did not know the exact date of his birth, it definitely was not now. This was far too early.

Then who could it be?

"Mr. Lin Ichiro? Mr. Lin Ichiro, are you listening?"

Kento Nanami's voice interrupted Lin Yi's thoughts. Meeting the interrogative look in Nanami's eyes, Lin Yi honestly replied, "Oh, I was wondering whether I've gotten involved in something I shouldn't have, Mr. Nanami."

"Yes, Mr. Lin Ichiro. That is why I hope you will cooperate with us."

"You?"

"Yes. Due to the nature of our work, we cannot tell you the specifics. However, we hope you can provide the contact information and appearance of that client."

"Sure, sure, no problem. The contact information is here. As for the client... well, she had a great figure, a lovely face, exactly my type."

Kento Nanami: ...

After being delayed at the police station for half an hour, Lin Yi finally returned to his home on Ome Kaido in Shinjuku Ward.

The door closed, and the lights came on.

Lin Yi threw himself onto the sofa and began recalling what had happened that night.

First were the two forms of his technique, Polarity Reversal. He had more or less figured out the sorcerer form. It was basically a mage build; as long as he had enough cursed energy, it was practically a copy of Unlimited Blade Works.

It also lacked the many restrictions faced by sorcerers with traditional Construction Techniques. He did not need all sorts of flashy construction procedures. He could materialize swords, pour cursed energy into them, and throw them out like missiles.

From that perspective, his sorcerer form could potentially meet the standards of a Special-Grade Sorcerer. After all, one criterion for Special-Grade Sorcerers was whether they possessed the destructive power to overthrow a country alone.

The only question was whether his cursed energy could sustain the consumption of such an Unlimited Blade Works.

And that was what his Heavenly Tyrant: Kamen Rider form was for. In this form, killing a Cursed Spirit or sorcerer allowed him to absorb 0.1 percent of all the target's attributes as nourishment for himself.

In other words, as long as he killed enough Cursed Spirits, he would not need to worry about running out of cursed energy. The mechanism of his technique, like Suguru Geto's Cursed Spirit Manipulation, had unlimited room for growth in the later stages. He just did not know whether destroying cursed tools could achieve the same effect.

If destroying cursed tools worked too, then he would have to make some moves.

That left only two problems before Lin Yi.

First, what effect would the feedback of absorbing 0.1 percent of a slain target's total attributes have on the disguised form created by his technique's passive effect? Would it make him unable to maintain his disguise as an ordinary person?

Second, there was Suguru Geto's commission for him to steal a Special-Grade Cursed Spirit from Jujutsu High personnel during their Cursed Spirit exorcism operation.

What had happened at the police station gave Lin Yi a suspicion. After ruling out Mahito, the humanoid calamity Special-Grade Cursed Spirit, only one answer remained before him.

The sorcerer who had lived for a thousand years: Kenjaku!

"The Culling Game? Kenjaku, you ancient monster started laying the groundwork this early? Don't tell me you've set your sights on me too."

Thinking of Kenjaku, that godlike sorcerer who had plotted for a thousand years, Lin Yi felt that his current situation was deeply worrying.

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