Yan Si cheerfully quickened his pace, as though what he had just said was a joke.
If I don't leave now, I'll get them all killed.
He had heard them. Those things were coming for him, and there were plenty of them. He wondered what kind they were this time, whether they were ugly... Never mind, they were all ugly, and they all looked pretty disgusting.
Things like that shouldn't have so many eyeballs. So gross. I want to pop every last one.
A constitution that attracts cursed spirits, huh.
He walked down the darkening street and stuffed the last half of his fried shrimp into his mouth. His cheeks bulged, and the corners of his lips lifted slightly. It was hard to tell whether that curve was self-mockery or genuine amusement.
"How fun~"
"Love playing~"
The Unfinished Building was still the same Unfinished Building. It looked exactly as it had when he returned that evening.
Only the sky had darkened, deepening the building's shadows. In the last streak of sunset, the drab concrete walls took on a dilapidated warmth.
Yan Si went straight up to the rooftop.
He found a concrete ledge and sat down cross-legged, propping his elbows on his knees and resting his chin in his palm.
His fingers stroked the soft skin of his face.
Tsk, how could anyone be this perfect?
Good-looking and rich, and great skin too~
He set the plastic container beside him. There were two pieces of tempura left, but he wasn't planning to eat them yet. He would save them until after the fight.
The sunset clouds blazed fiercely.
Half the sky was orange-red, splashed all the way from the horizon to overhead, as though it meant to set people's hair on fire.
It was almost completely dark now, and scattered lights had already come on in the distant residential neighborhood.
Pretty.
He had eaten shrimp, and the allergic reaction had kicked in. His mouth had gone numb.
His chest felt a little tight.
Whatever. It won't kill me.
Yan Si rested his chin in his hand, his purple eyes made even more beautiful by the sunset, and quietly watched the horizon.
But arriving ahead of the cursed spirits-
Was a bewildered boy with Weird Bangs.
It was March 10, and schools in Japan were on spring break. Suguru Geto had just finished meeting with Jujutsu High and was walking through the unfamiliar streets of Tokyo, neither particularly happy nor unhappy.
He had been recruited by Jujutsu High.
His parents were ordinary people who had worked diligently their entire lives. They couldn't see cursed spirits, knew nothing about jujutsu sorcerers, and had never encountered the world of jujutsu.
Over the past few years... Ever since his ability had awakened, around age eleven, he had been involved in the jujutsu world.
He had told his parents he was learning "exorcism."
At first, they hadn't accepted it, thinking he had been scammed. Eventually, they had resigned themselves to it and treated it as a personal hobby.
At eleven, he had earned his first payment by clearing out cursed spirits. When he brought the money home, his mother had sounded surprised as she said they could finally replace the broken washing machine that month.
That washing machine had been broken for over six months, and his mother had been washing everything by hand.
Thinking about it put a little more spring in Suguru Geto's step.
He had come to Tokyo partly to look around and get familiar with the big city. After all, he would be attending Jujutsu High in Tokyo, so he wanted to get to know the area in advance.
The other reason was to find cursed spirits, eat a few more, complete more assignments, and save up more money to give his family a little breathing room.
But something seemed off today.
Suguru Geto stopped, his brows drawing together slightly as the Weird Bangs on his forehead swayed.
The cursed spirits were moving.
He could feel it.
The cursed spirits he possessed were restless too, as though something were drawing them in. Every scrap of consciousness they had left pointed in the same direction.
Cursed spirits far away, and even farther away, were converging in that same direction. It felt as though-
As though all the cursed spirits in Tokyo were surging toward one place.
He didn't really understand.
He had been in Tokyo for four or five days, and this was the first time he had encountered anything like it.
Was this a big-city thing?
He followed the direction the cursed spirits craved.
He crossed two shopping streets and turned onto an increasingly secluded road, until the abandoned Unfinished Building came into view.
All that longing pointed toward the rooftop.
Suguru Geto stood at the foot of the building and looked up.
He could just make out a seated figure on the rooftop terrace. He considered it-if the person up there was the cursed spirits' target, why weren't they running?
And if not, who could make so many cursed spirits swarm toward them like moths to a flame?
He couldn't figure it out.
So he stopped guessing and went straight upstairs.
Thick dust coated the stairwell, leaving faint footprints beneath his feet.
With each floor he climbed, the yearning emanating from his own cursed spirits grew stronger, carrying a thick, oppressive weight.
But Suguru Geto still looked fairly relaxed. At fifteen, he was at the age when nothing frightened him, and he genuinely had the strength to back it up.
He pushed open the half-closed iron door to the rooftop, and the evening breeze rushed in, carrying the warmth of the sunset and the distant city's everyday bustle.
Then he saw him.
He sat on a concrete ledge at the edge of the rooftop, dressed in a black outdoor jacket, his long legs casually crossed and his posture languid. His long black hair wasn't tied tightly and drifted loose in the evening breeze.
The lingering sunset let him notice it.
The person was looking at him.
Purple eyes, their outer corners slightly lifted, and a red mark between his brows.
Those eyes held a smile. When they turned toward him, Suguru Geto felt as though something had slammed into him.
It wasn't his heart skipping a beat. It was the cursed spirits churning inside him, giving him one hell of a blow.
The person before him looked about fifteen, roughly his own age.
At first glance, Suguru Geto instinctively mistook him for a girl. Only when his gaze shifted down a little, sweeping over the person's chest and the breadth of his shoulders, did he realize-it was a boy.
He really did have a handsome face, the kind that made it easy to mistake him at first glance. Still, whether it belonged to a boy or a girl, it looked pretty great.
But Suguru Geto had no time to dwell on that face.
Because the instant he saw Yan Si, every cursed spirit he possessed erupted even more violently.
The cursed spirits he had subdued surged, howled, and struggled within him. Every remnant of their will sent out the same signal-they wanted to go to him.
They wanted to attack this person and tear him apart.
Suguru Geto was almost instantly certain of one thing.
This person was the source.
The source the cursed spirits wanted to approach.
He didn't understand. Why would a human inspire such intense hostility in cursed spirits?
What? What had he done?
Or was it a cursed technique?
This was no longer a simple case of "being targeted by cursed spirits." It was more like... an instinctive attraction, or rather, a mixture of attraction and hostility.
Yan Si sat on the ledge and watched the boy with Weird Bangs stand in the rooftop doorway, staring at him in confusion without saying a word. Just staring.
So he spoke first.
His eyes curved with his smile, which looked almost unfairly beautiful against the sunset.
"Hey! Buddy, keep staring and I'll gouge your eyes out."
As he spoke, he patted the plastic container of tempura beside him.
"Eaten yet?"
"Want some?"
Before you continue