Acting

The mountain road on the outskirts of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area was silent and deserted.

Yuko Takagi, a first-year transfer student at Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College, was desperately running down the road, using the Cursed Energy she could barely muster to reinforce her body. Following the navigation on her phone, she was heading to Jujutsu High for help.

Behind her, a figure pursued her relentlessly, yet still had the leisure to play a game of cat and mouse with Yuko Takagi, a young girl who had only just entered the Jujutsu Society.

"You're a lucky yet unfortunate child, little girl. But don't worry. I'll soon save you from the misfortune of being a sorcerer."

The chilling voice echoed through the forest, agitating Yuko Takagi's mind. The fear and unease made the Cursed Energy within her surge even more actively.

Unbeknownst to her, every movement in this chase through the mountain road was being watched by Lin Yi from a hilltop several kilometers away.

Lin Yi stood atop the hill, bow drawn, the string pulled taut like a full moon.

All the Cursed Energy coursing through his body gathered within the arrow on the bowstring. Its density made Miguel and Larue, one black and one white, watching from the side, twitch their eyelids.

They could not understand how an unreasonable sorcerer and Cursed Technique like Lin Yi could possibly exist.

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Under his normal disguise, Lin Yi possessed a keen intuition for sensing Cursed Energy fluctuations and Cursed Spirits, as well as physical abilities comparable to a Grade 2 Sorcerer using Cursed Energy reinforcement.

Form One allowed him to construct disposable Cursed Tools for beyond-visual-range attacks. Without the Binding Vow requiring him to create permanent Cursed Tools, Lin Yi had become a walking armory.

If some genius thought Lin Yi was merely a ranged shooter, he could still reinforce his body with Cursed Energy and throw hands with them.

If he found that Cursed Energy-reinforced brawling was not enough to win, he could seamlessly switch into the close-combat Heavenly Tyrant: Kamen Rider form.

He was completely immune to Cursed Energy attacks below Grade 1. Against Grade 1 and higher attacks, damage was reduced by a percentage based on output. Combined with the permanent Kamen Rider Joker suit, a permanent Cursed Tool bound to his body and soul, his ordinary Knight Punches and Knight Kicks could hide Black Flashes. One careless hit would empty your health bar and leave you owing him half of his own.

And that was only how he fought before mastering Domain Expansion. Who knew what changes this Cursed Technique would undergo once he gained a Domain Expansion with guaranteed hits?

But then again, sorcerers were an unreasonable bunch to begin with, so the two of them soon accepted it.

Lin Yi did not have as many thoughts as the black-and-white duo watching at his side. He knew his own limits. His Cursed Technique was indeed formidable, but his current strength only fell somewhere between Grade 1 and Special Grade.

In his sorcerer form, his highest single-target damage was only about as powerful as a howitzer shell. It was far inferior to True Love Warrior Yuta Okkotsu's Pure Love Cannon, let alone comparable to Satoru Gojo's Cursed Technique: Blue, Cursed Technique Reversal: Red, or Hollow Purple.

He simply had plenty of it.

Enough to support him in spraying his single-target attacks like a Gatling gun for suppressive fire.

Fortunately, the Curse User Kenjaku had sent was no powerful opponent. Judging from the Cursed Energy strike Lin Yi had taken earlier, he was only somewhere between Grade 2 and Grade 1. Then again, once the outlier four Special-Grade Sorcerers—Satoru Gojo, Yuta Okkotsu, Suguru Geto, and Yuki Tsukumo—were excluded, Grade 1 Sorcerers were the main force for exorcising Cursed Spirits.

Grade 1 Sorcerers were not cabbages growing by the roadside. Without releasing the ancient sorcerers he had accumulated over a thousand years, where would Kenjaku find so many high-level enforcers to use?

This arrow would be enough.

The moment he released the bowstring, the Cursed Energy-infused arrow tore through the air. Locked onto its target by Lin Yi's Cursed Energy, it reached the back of the Curse User pursuing Yuko Takagi in mere seconds. Only then did the sonic boom break out from Lin Yi's side.

"Boom!"

Flames burst forth, followed by an explosion echoing back from the distance.

Lin Yi did not bother checking the results. He knew the Curse User Kenjaku had sent could not possibly survive. You got ambushed from behind and still expected to live? Who did you think you were, Satoru Gojo?

"Alright, tell Suguru Geto about what happened here. If someone really is making a move against Jujutsu High, then as an outstanding former student of Jujutsu High, he should show some initiative."

"Yi-chan, you're becoming more and more like family. Say, once you master Domain Expansion and the Reversed Cursed Technique, would you win against Satoru Gojo?"

Having witnessed the power of Lin Yi's sorcerer form up close, Larue, the white foreigner, teased Lin Yi with the easy familiarity of an old friend.

Lin Yi did not want to answer. Nobody in the world of Jujutsu Kaisen who answered that question ended well.

After Satoru Gojo answered it, Sukuna cleaved him into Gojo 2.5 with a Spatial Slash.

If Lin Yi answered, Satoru Gojo might blast him from Lin Yi into Lin 0.5 with a Hollow Purple. Maybe there would not even be a Lin 0.5 left—he might be blasted straight down to zero!

"Yi-chan's glare is terrifying. I won't ask anymore. Miguel, let's head back and tell Geto."

Seeing the displeased look Lin Yi gave him, Larue promptly raised his hands in surrender. He called to Miguel, who had been standing guard nearby, and prepared to return and report, only for Lin Yi to stop him.

"Larue, could you ask Suguru Geto whether he knows any sorcerers who specialize in making Cursed Tools? I want to make one."

"With a Cursed Technique like yours, Yi-chan, you still need a Cursed Tool?"

"It's for my disguise form. It does not need many functions, just one: it needs to draw Cursed Energy from the air and coat it onto my bullets. I'll pay whatever compensation is needed to make a Cursed Tool like that."

Lin Yi flashed the Colt Python hanging inside his jacket. He had also realized that, in his disguise form, he lacked effective ways to deal with Curse Users or Cursed Spirits.

If he could become a Cursed Tool user like Maki Zenin, he would not have needed to put on this whole act today.

A Curse User between Grade 2 and Grade 1 was someone he could handle in his normal disguise form. Even if he could not win, he could still use his Cursed Technique to turn the tables with the advantage of information asymmetry.

"Yi-chan really does think things through. Got it. I'll tell Geto."

After teasing Lin Yi once more, Larue finally left together with Miguel.

With everything settled, Lin Yi stretched lazily, shoved both hands into his pockets, and strolled down the hillside. The people from Jujutsu High would handle the cleanup next. He needed to play his role properly.

Lin Yi glanced at his body, which had fallen onto the road without a scratch, and sighed helplessly.

"After all that, I still have to use a little self-inflicted suffering. Damn it!"

Half an hour later, at the tunnel entrance leading to Tokyo Jujutsu High, Yuko Takagi, who had gone to Jujutsu High for help, had arrived with the relevant personnel led by Principal Masamichi Yaga, a Grade 1 Sorcerer, and taken control of the area.

Maki Zenin and the others, who had not been injured in Kenjaku's trap, also arrived at the scene by car.

"Yuko!"

"Maki, I'm here."

After surviving one danger after another, Yuko Takagi waved to Maki Zenin and the others who were worried about her. Meanwhile, Lin Yi lay on a stretcher, groaning miserably.

This was not acting. It really hurt.

To keep the people of Jujutsu High from becoming unnecessarily suspicious of him, he had given himself a couple of hits. Now, while playing the victim, he was wailing in pain.

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