By the time Yang Jian woke up, it was completely dark.
The moon hung high outside the window, casting cold white light onto the tatami mats. He had slept on the sofa for nearly five hours, and his neck was a little stiff.
"System, cooldown time."
[9 hours, 14 minutes.]
Nine hours. Still a long way to go.
Yang Jian rubbed his neck, got up, and went to the kitchen for a glass of water. Half a box of the fried chicken Satoru Gojo had brought remained. It was cold, but he wasn't picky. He picked up a piece and stuffed it into his mouth.
On his third piece, he sensed something.
It wasn't a sound.
Just a sensation. Very faint, very thin. Something icy brushed across the back of his neck.
Yang Jian froze.
He put down the chicken, slowly turned his head, and looked toward the window.
There was only moonlight and the shadows of trees outside. Nothing unusual.
But the sensation remained. And it was moving. From left to right, along the window frame, as though something had crawled past against the outside of the glass.
Yang Jian had no cursed energy. He shouldn't have been able to sense anything unusual.
But the area on the back of his right hand with the two-degree temperature difference felt faintly cold. The supernatural power lingering in his body had left him with a trace of perception.
Enough for him to sense danger.
Yang Jian didn't open the window.
He was an ordinary person. Going to investigate now would be asking to die.
He stood quietly where he was, controlled his breathing, and waited for the sensation to disappear.
About thirty seconds later, the sensation faded from the back of his neck.
Yang Jian walked to the window. He didn't open it, only peered outside through a gap.
The flagstone path was deserted. Branches swayed in the night wind. But there was a wet streak on the trunk of the nearest camphor tree, running from the ground all the way into its crown.
As though something had climbed up it.
Yang Jian took a step back and drew the curtains.
It wasn't a cursed spirit.
He had seen a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit at the hospital. Things like that had a powerful presence, their cursed energy spilling out until even the air became sticky. The thing outside his window had been different. There had been no fluctuations in cursed energy, but the pressure it exerted felt more primal, more fundamental.
The cold patch on the back of his right hand suddenly grew colder.
"System."
[Here.]
"When do the instance incursions from the supernatural realm begin?"
[The first instance incursion will be triggered after the host earns points for the first time. Current points: 0.]
"So if I don't kill any cursed spirits, the instances won't start?"
[Yes.]
Yang Jian fell silent for a few seconds.
Then what was that thing outside the window?
The system hadn't issued a warning, which meant it hadn't counted as a lethal threat. But it hadn't said this was normal, either.
He picked up his phone and glanced at it-Masamichi Yaga had provided him with an older-model phone containing only three numbers: the Jujutsu High general affairs office, Shoko Ieiri, and Satoru Gojo.
Yang Jian considered it for two seconds, then put the phone down.
If he called in the middle of the night to say, "I think something crawled past my window," Satoru Gojo would laugh at him for a year.
He lay back down on the sofa without turning off the light or going to sleep.
Staring at the ceiling, he began turning other matters over in his mind.
His medical examination with Shoko was tomorrow morning. The examination itself wasn't a problem. The results would only show that he was an ordinary person. But the temperature difference Shoko had discovered was a potential problem.
If the people at Jujutsu High dug into its cause, they might uncover the supernatural power lingering in his body. How would he explain it then?
The Ghost Eye trial card had been used up, yet its traces hadn't entirely faded. That meant his body had some kind of "memory" for supernatural power.
His body's "memory" of supernatural power was both a risk and a bargaining chip. Every time he used a trial card, his body retained some residue.
For now, that was a good thing.
Little by little, it would accumulate. Sooner or later, it would produce a qualitative change.
Yang Jian rolled over to face the back of the sofa.
In six hours, it would be light.
Dawn came sooner than he had expected.
Yang Jian changed into the clothes Masamichi Yaga had sent someone to deliver-a dark gray long-sleeved T-shirt and black trousers, both a perfect fit. He adjusted his collar in the mirror and went out.
Jujutsu High was quieter in the early morning than it had been during the day yesterday. The air smelled of dew.
He walked over to the camphor tree where he had seen the wet streak the night before.
The mark was still there, but most of it had dried. Judging by what remained of its shape, it didn't look like an animal had climbed there-it was too wide, and one section in the middle was broken, as though the thing had lingered on the trunk for a while.
Yang Jian crouched to examine the roots. There were slight depressions in the soil, irregular and unlike footprints.
He stood up and brushed the dirt from his hands.
"What are you crouching under a tree looking at this early?"
The voice came from overhead.
Yang Jian looked up. Satoru Gojo was sitting on a branch, one leg swinging, with a half-finished can of juice in his hand.
"When did you get up there?"
"Before you came out." Satoru Gojo jumped down, landing without a sound. "I make a round of the school every morning."
Yang Jian didn't ask why. The answer was obvious-Satoru Gojo was patrolling with the Six Eyes. Every fluctuation of cursed energy across the campus was within his perception.
"There was something on this tree last night," Yang Jian said bluntly.
Satoru Gojo took a sip of juice, his expression unchanged.
"I know."
Yang Jian looked at him.
"At two seventeen this morning, the Six Eyes picked up an anomalous signal." Satoru Gojo crushed the juice can. "It wasn't cursed energy. It wasn't like the thing that appeared on you at the hospital yesterday, either. Weaker, more scattered, like a shapeless mass of noise."
"Did you follow it?"
"I did." Satoru Gojo tossed the flattened can into a roadside trash bin. "It disappeared at the school gates. It didn't disperse. It just suddenly vanished, like someone had flipped a switch."
Yang Jian frowned.
Someone had flipped a switch-that description was intriguing. Something that existed naturally wouldn't disappear that way. Unless someone was controlling it.
"What did Yaga say?"
"I haven't told him."
Yang Jian was a little surprised.
Satoru Gojo slipped both hands into his pockets and tilted his head at him.
"If I tell him, he'll tighten campus security and bring people in to investigate. Too much commotion. If that thing came for a particular target, alerting it would only make things worse."
Yang Jian might well have underestimated him. Seventeen-year-old Satoru Gojo might have had no filter, but his mind worked faster than anyone's.
"Who do you think it came for?" Yang Jian asked.
Satoru Gojo gave him a look.
The meaning of that look was clear-you only arrived yesterday, and that thing only appeared last night. Who do you think it came for?
Yang Jian didn't argue.
Because he had been considering that possibility himself.
"Yesterday, you said someone had been feeding that cursed spirit," Satoru Gojo said. "Could last night's thing be connected?"
"I'm not sure. But I've got a bad feeling."
"What kind of feeling?"
Yang Jian considered how to phrase it.
"That wasn't a cursed spirit."
Satoru Gojo raised an eyebrow.
"Other things exist outside the cursed energy framework." Yang Jian looked at the dried traces remaining on the trunk. "I'm from China. We don't have your jujutsu system there, but we have other things. Very ancient, and utterly beyond reason."
"Like what?"
"Ghosts, for instance."
Satoru Gojo dropped his usual nonchalance and thought seriously for a few seconds.
"You're saying there's another supernatural system?"
"What I sensed from that thing last night was completely different from a cursed spirit."
Cursed energy was a product of human negative emotions.
The thing outside his window last night had been cold, deathly still, and beyond the bounds of human understanding.
Satoru Gojo was silent for a long while.
"Interesting." His voice dropped a little. "This just keeps getting more interesting." He turned and headed toward the classroom building.
"Your examination is at nine. Don't be late. Shoko gets really cranky when people keep her waiting."
"Wait." Yang Jian stopped him.
Satoru Gojo looked back.
"What about the cola you promised yesterday?"
Satoru Gojo paused for a beat, then pulled a can of cola from his pocket and tossed it over.
"Got it from the vending machine. It's not cold anymore."
Yang Jian caught it, pulled the tab, and took a sip.
Room temperature.
Good enough.
Before you continue