Shoko did not ask about what had happened outside.
She took blood collection tubes and a tourniquet out of a drawer, then deftly pulled on latex gloves.
"Sit still. Straighten your arm."
Yang Jian complied.
The tourniquet went on, its rubber digging into his skin.
Shoko felt for the vein inside his elbow and inserted the needle. Dark red blood flowed through the tubing into the collection tube.
One tube, two tubes, three tubes.
Yang Jian looked down at his arm, his expression outwardly calm.
The new body created by the Deceiving Ghost Necklace had all its physiological parameters set to normal human standards. Blood composition, body temperature, heart rate-all normal.
The absurdly outrageous examination report Shoko had received last time would not happen again.
Shoko withdrew the needle and secured a cotton swab with tape.
"Hold that down. Don't move."
She carried the three tubes of blood back to her swivel chair, switched on a palm-sized portable analyzer on the desk, and injected the samples into its testing slots one by one.
The machine hummed.
Shoko held her unlit cigarette holder between her lips and crossed her legs as she waited for the results.
Yang Jian remained seated on the edge of the examination bed, taking the cola from his pocket with his other hand and unscrewing the cap for a sip.
Three minutes later.
The analyzer beeped.
Shoko leaned closer to look at the screen.
Then she went still.
For a long time, she remained bent over, staring at the screen without moving.
Yang Jian paused mid-sip, then continued drinking.
"...What did you do to yourself?"
Shoko finally straightened.
"Nothing." Yang Jian set the cola on the bedside cabinet.
"Normal red blood cell count, normal white blood cell count, normal platelets." Shoko read each item aloud, her voice growing increasingly flat. "Hemoglobin concentration, 127 g/L. Perfectly within the standard range.
"Prothrombin time, twelve seconds. A textbook value.
"Body temperature, 36.4. Heart rate, seventy-two."
She turned her chair to face Yang Jian.
"When I drew your blood last month, its cells tripled on their own within ten minutes of leaving your body. Your heart rate was consistently below fifty, your temperature was several degrees below normal, and an unknown substance that Jujutsu equipment couldn't detect coated your blood vessel walls."
Yang Jian remained expressionless.
"And now you're telling me all of that is gone?" Shoko took the cigarette holder out of her mouth and pointed at the screen. "Your blood is more normal than mine."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
Shoko did not smile.
She removed her gloves and pulled out last month's paper report again. With both sets of data spread across her desk, she spent a dozen seconds comparing them.
"Yang Jian."
"Yes?"
"I don't care how you did it, but a person's physiological readings don't go from 'nonhuman' to 'perfectly healthy human' in a month. Even if you used some kind of treatment, there would be traces of the transition."
Shoko stood and walked over to Yang Jian.
"But yours..." She patted Yang Jian's forearm. "No transition, no residue. As clean as factory settings."
She paused.
"Did you change bodies?"
Yang Jian's hand paused for half a second as he drank his cola.
This woman's intuition was ridiculous.
"You're overthinking it." Without any change in expression, Yang Jian crushed the cola can and tossed it into the nearby trash.
"No, I'm not." Shoko leaned against the edge of the desk, arms folded. "It felt wrong the moment I put the needle into your arm. Last month, your subcutaneous fat layer was thin, there were signs of old injuries at your muscle attachment points, and the web between your right thumb and forefinger was callused."
She tipped her chin toward Yang Jian's right hand.
"That spot is smooth now, with no sign of any thickened skin. A hand that's been used for a month doesn't look like that."
Yang Jian lowered his eyes.
The body created by the Deceiving Ghost Necklace had indeed replicated his appearance. His features, height, and build were identical.
But Shoko was right... the necklace could not recreate certain microscopic traces of his life.
Calluses from years of holding a blade, for example, or scar fibers in the dermis from old injuries.
An oversight.
"You're not going to explain?" Shoko tilted her head.
"No."
Rather than getting angry, Shoko gave a little smile.
She took out her phone and waved it in front of him.
"Explain or don't. Either way, a doctor needs to know what's going on with her patients. If you won't tell me, I'll make my own notes."
She opened her notes app and typed in front of Yang Jian:
[Patient Yang Jian: physiological parameters completely reset within one month. Suspected replacement of entire body. Evidence: skin texture, disappearance of calluses, blood activity reduced to zero. Further observation required.]
Yang Jian glanced at the screen without stopping her.
"You're certainly open about it."
"Would you tell me the truth if I hid it?" Shoko pocketed her phone and sat down again.
Yang Jian did not answer. After a few seconds of silence, he spoke.
"What will you put in the examination report?"
"Normal." Shoko switched on her computer and began typing. "All readings within acceptable limits, healthy physical condition. Maintaining a healthy routine recommended."
Without looking back, she added another remark.
"I'll keep your actual data on my personal encrypted drive, as usual. Don't worry. The higher-ups won't get it."
"Thanks."
"Don't thank me." Shoko's fingers never stopped moving. "You owe me yakitori, plus a bottle of twelve-year-old Yamazaki."
"Fine."
"One more thing."
Shoko stopped typing and turned around.
"I kept one tube of your abnormal blood from last month for ongoing culture observation."
Yang Jian's fingers curled slightly.
"When I opened the incubator to check it two weeks ago, the sample was still multiplying on its own. It was even more active than the day I collected it."
Shoko stared at him.
"But the blood I drew from you today is completely normal. Zero mutations. What does that tell us?"
Yang Jian did not answer.
"It tells us that the blood flowing through your current body isn't the blood you had before."
Shoko tapped the unlit cigarette holder in her hand.
"That 'old blood' of yours is still alive. It's in my refrigerator, growing more vigorously than human stem cells."
Several seconds passed in silence.
Yang Jian spoke. "What are you planning to do with that tube of blood?"
"Keep culturing it and see what it grows into." Shoko sounded as casual as if she were commenting on the nice weather.
"Aren't you afraid it'll grow into something you can't control?"
"If I can't control it, I'll destroy it. High-temperature sterilization plus chemical corrosion. If I can't kill a tube of blood, I might as well quit this profession."
Shoko turned back and resumed typing.
"Besides, if the data from your old and new bodies differ this much, that living blood sample is the only evidence that you were ever 'abnormal.'"
She paused.
"I need to keep it, in case you need it someday."
Yang Jian leaned against the wall and stared at the ceiling for a while.
The Deceiving Ghost Necklace could create a perfect human replacement, but it could not replace biological samples already removed from the body and preserved.
The tube of old blood in Shoko's possession really had come from his original body-a body deeply ravaged by supernatural forces.
Destroy it? No need.
Shoko was not an enemy. She was even actively helping him conceal the truth.
And that blood's ability to multiply on its own might genuinely prove useful someday.
"Suit yourself." Yang Jian rose from the bed and pulled down his sleeve. "Just don't lose it."
"I've never lost anything in my lab."
Yang Jian headed toward the door.
"Wait."
Shoko pulled a kraft-paper envelope from the bottom drawer and tossed it over.
Yang Jian caught it and felt its thickness.
"What's this?"
"Satoru asked me to give it to you. He said people would keep making trouble for you if you didn't have an official position at Jujutsu High. He spent two days wrangling with the higher-ups to get what's inside."
Shoko shrugged.
"Your recommendation letter for Semi-Grade 1 sorcerer status, and your appointment as a fixed-term assistant to Jujutsu High's teaching staff."
Yang Jian opened the envelope and scanned the documents inside.
Satoru Gojo's signature, Masamichi Yaga's countersignature, and stamps from three different departments.
Semi-Grade 1 sorcerer.
The title itself was a joke.
He did not possess even a trace of Cursed Energy. Giving him Semi-Grade 1 status amounted to Satoru Gojo staking his own reputation to force a protective umbrella into his hands.
"He certainly moves fast."
"Well, you did help him look after Megumi Fushiguro all night." Shoko snorted. "Satoru Gojo might be useless at other things, but nobody's quicker to protect his own.
"Still, he's the only one who could pull this off. For anyone else, Jujutsu Headquarters wouldn't have signed."
Yang Jian slid the documents back into the envelope and tucked it under his arm.
"Thank him for me."
"Thank him yourself. He's waiting for you at the training grounds."
Yang Jian pushed open the door.
The corridor still smelled of moldy old wood.
Ahead, at the corner, a tall, slim figure dressed in white leaned beside a window, hands in his pockets, his hair fluttering in the breeze.
Hearing footsteps, Satoru Gojo turned his head.
His sunglasses hid his expression, but the corners of his mouth lifted.
"I heard you scared someone from Jujutsu Headquarters to tears outside just now?"
Yang Jian waved the envelope in his hand.
"You're well informed."
"This is my turf. I know even when a mosquito flies through." Satoru Gojo straightened away from the windowsill and planted his hands on his hips. "So, you got the appointment letter? With that, those old men won't dare come after you openly for a while."
Yang Jian slipped the envelope into his coat's inner pocket.
"It treats the symptoms, not the cause."
"Of course it does." Satoru Gojo took two steps forward. "What scares them isn't how well you can fight. It's that they can't get to the bottom of you. Someone with no known background and no Cursed Energy, who can still take down a Special Grade Cursed Spirit-to the higher-ups..."
He stopped in front of Yang Jian.
"You're a variable. Nobody likes a variable they can't control."
"So?"
"So you need..." Satoru Gojo raised one finger. "A track record."
Yang Jian frowned.
"Solve more problems, build up more leverage, and make the higher-ups realize you're worth more alive than dead." Satoru Gojo tilted his head, his tone turning casual. "Don't worry. Your chance will come soon."
He pulled his phone from his pocket, scrolled through it, and held the screen out to Yang Jian.
A new mission notice was displayed on it.
[Successive disappearances in the Funabashi area of Chiba Prefecture. Suspected Special Grade Cursed Spirit involvement. Missing persons: 17. Investigation by a team of Grade 1 or higher sorcerers required.]
Yang Jian finished reading the notice and looked up.
Behind Satoru Gojo's sunglasses, the Six Eyes flickered faintly.
"I can't take this mission. Yaga assigned me to put Megumi Fushiguro through acclimation training. It's yours."
"Fine." Yang Jian did not hesitate. He had been about to start farming points anyway.
Before you continue