Love began with the chime, but lingered when it stopped!

"Do, re, mi, do, re, mi!"

"Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti!"

The spotlight spilled over the black and white keys, and scattered piano notes echoed through the private room.

Tokyo, Shibuya, prime real estate.

Imperial View Manor, the club's top floor, a luxury private room.

This was Black Dragon Society territory, and Jiahao came here every month to visit old friends.

The truth: after collecting his regular protection money, he helped himself to a free full-body treatment package.

As the saying went: wise men steered clear of love; Jiahao went for foot baths and massages.

To look like a king, you first needed an oil massage.

Mostly, his old friends were simply too hospitable to refuse. Jiahao only reluctantly obliged.

Meetings with cursed spirits in the morning, tennis at Jujutsu High in the afternoon, and a little relaxation at night. Just right.

Just then, the private room's door swung open.

A woman with delicate features wore a dark red massage therapist's uniform, with a fitted top and straight-cut trousers. Her long hair was tied into a low ponytail, and she carried a tray of towels and massage oil.

"Hello, Brother Hao. I'm the new therapist, Number 888, Ono Mi."

Her voice was soft, and a professional smile rested on her face.

"What happened to Number 666?"

Jiahao rose from the piano bench and stretched.

The woman bowed with a smile. "Number 666 quit half a month ago. I heard she went home to prepare for her wedding."

"Found herself an honest sucker, huh..."

In a flash, Jiahao took off his shirt and teleported onto the soft bed, lying facedown. "Whatever. You'll do."

The woman smiled sweetly, set down the tray, and undid two taut buttons over her chest.

She adjusted the lighting, then put on some soothing piano music.

Massage oil dripped onto Jiahao's back, followed by a pair of warm little hands.

As time passed, the woman's movements grew bolder, and she tried to pull off Jiahao's underwear.

With his arms hanging over both sides of the bed and his face buried in the pillow, Jiahao suddenly asked, "You're Number 888, right?"

"Just thought I'd ask. Do you have a gambling dad, a sick mom, a brother in school, and a poor, unfortunate boyfriend?"

The hands massaging his back paused briefly. Her voice was meek. "You're joking, Brother Hao. My family all passed away three years ago."

"Really? That's a shame."

Jiahao gently swung his hands beside the bed, then suddenly asked, "Have you ever thought about going to see them?"

The smile froze on her face, and cold sweat seeped uncontrollably from her forehead.

"Don't stop. Keep massaging."

Jiahao's tone remained unchanged. "Three years apart. You must miss them quite a bit."

"Oh? Your heart's beating so fast. Are you that eager to reunite with them?"

The woman's pounding heartbeat clashed jarringly with the elegant piano music.

"Can't figure it out?"

"Your massage technique was pretty much the same as a legitimate therapist's, and you didn't talk to me during the massage or give away any unnecessary information."

"So you're scared now, but even more than that, you can't understand how you gave yourself away?"

Jiahao's swinging hands stopped. His voice, muffled by the pillow, was incredibly gentle. "Silly girl. There was nothing wrong with your acting or your expressions. They were flawless. Unfortunately..."

"Nothing can hide from these eyes of mine."

"You didn't do anything wrong. Blame this king for being far too strong."

After hearing that, the woman abandoned her last shred of hope.

Those eyes could see through the cursed energy inside me even without turning red?

What about my cursed technique? Could that bastard see through that too?!

Damn it! The intel from my superiors never mentioned this!

Number 888 cursed her superiors furiously in her mind, but her hands moved without hesitation.

As a bead of cold sweat slid down her cheek, the hands pressed against Jiahao's back suddenly erupted with an eerie purple glow of cursed energy.

"Sssss!"

Her hands pierced the soft mattress. Thick, liquid-like cursed energy dripped onto the floor, sending up wisps of corrosive, poisonous smoke.

"So your cursed technique is poison."

"You're young, but already as strong as a Grade 2 Sorcerer. You're not the sort of elite some third-rate outfit could produce."

Number 888 turned her head in horror, staring in disbelief at Jiahao as he unhurriedly put on his shirt in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.

"How is that possible?!"

Meeting Number 888's wide-eyed gaze, Jiahao leisurely fastened his cuffs. "You're wondering why the poisoned massage oil didn't work on me?"

With her thoughts laid bare, despair crept into Number 888's eyes.

She knew Jiahao had mastered Reverse Cursed Technique, but being completely unaffected was still absurd.

She had confirmed it with her own hands. She had genuinely smeared the potent poison onto Jiahao's body.

Her superiors had spent years developing this cursed-energy poison. It had originally been intended to counter Satoru Gojo's Limitless.

All Jiahao could say to that was: how could a mere Reverse Cursed Technique possibly compare to his Strength of a Hundred Technique?

Thud!

Number 888 dropped to her knees before Jiahao, her eyes full of despair. She pleaded, "Brother Hao, I had no choice!"

As she spoke, Number 888 shuffled closer on her knees. "Please spare me just this once! The Three Great Families are behind this!"

Just as the therapist was about to grab his trouser leg, Jiahao smiled and took a step back.

Good! That's right, keep watching me!

Number 888 screamed inwardly, while her face retained its pitiful, helpless expression.

Continuing to crawl forward on her knees, she raised her tear-streaked face. "It was one of the Three Great Families, the Ze-"

Boom!

Right at the crucial revelation, the deafening rush of a blade splitting the air erupted less than a meter behind Jiahao.

In a previously empty corner of the room, a barrier concealing cursed energy shattered.

A man whose face was covered in crisscrossing scars gripped a blade slightly longer than a dagger and thrust it at Jiahao's neck.

Dressed in a white shirt and black jacket, Jiahao straightened his clothes with his left hand and raised his right middle finger behind him.

Clang!

Something unexpected happened. The short blade broke through Kamui's intangibility and drew a thin line of blood across Jiahao's middle finger.

Thud!

A drop of blood from Jiahao's middle finger fell to the floor along with his ambusher's head.

"Number 9527!!"

The hope that had just appeared on Number 888's face froze, and her eyes once again filled with crushing despair.

She simply couldn't understand how Jiahao had detected Number 9527 inside the concealed barrier ahead of time, or why he had even played along and moved toward her companion's hiding place.

Those eyes...

Just how far could they see?!

Jiahao retrieved his cursed tool from the headless corpse's hand and examined it for a moment. "Interesting."

A special cursed tool that could break through intangibility and forcibly cancel an active cursed technique.

Jiahao couldn't help thinking of Fushiguro's gambling-addict father, the Heavenly Restriction Tyrant who had slashed Satoru Gojo into awakening.

"An effect similar to the Inverted Spear of Heaven..."

Holding the short blade, Jiahao began experimenting on his forearm.

Although the original Inverted Spear of Heaven that Toji had used had already been destroyed by Satoru Gojo, having a cursed tool craftsman forge another with a similar effect wasn't impossible.

"The Zenin Family, one of the Three Great Families, sent me and Number 9527 to assassinate you."

Number 888 stared blankly at the headless male corpse in the pool of blood and revealed the truth in a trembling voice.

"Tsk, tsk. With acting skills that good, why waste them on this? Wouldn't debuting in movies be better? But no, you had to become an assassin."

Jiahao put the cursed tool into the Kamui Dimension and looked down at Number 888 with amusement. "Girl, you're still acting?"

"First, a poison designed to counter Limitless. Then a special grade cursed tool that could break through this king's intangibility and also bypass Limitless's defenses."

His gaze shifted to the corner where the headless nobody had been hiding. Jiahao continued, "Very sophisticated barrier technique. Even Satoru Gojo's Six Eyes might not have detected it."

"I only joined Jujutsu High a month ago, and I only defected in the last couple of days."

"You managed to forge a special grade cursed tool similar to the Inverted Spear of Heaven in that little time?"

Jiahao smiled. "My guess is, all this was prepared for Satoru Gojo."

"Since this king's cursed technique belongs to the same space-time category as Limitless, you just happened to have all these things ready."

"You say the Zenin Family is behind this, but could that bunch of gambling addicts really set up a barrier this sophisticated?"

The Zenin Family and the Gojo family certainly had a poor relationship, but the Zenin Family's current head, Naobito Zenin, didn't seem like that much of an idiot.

The Heavenly Restriction Tyrant alone had nearly slaughtered the entire Zenin Family. Would they dare to take a cheap shot at Satoru Gojo, the man who had killed him?

"It wasn't the Zenin Family. It was those old fossils at Jujutsu Headquarters, wasn't it?"

Detecting a momentary disturbance in the cursed energy inside Number 888, Jiahao smiled.

"Relax. I don't make a habit of attacking women."

"After all, you were just following Jujutsu Headquarters' orders. I'm not so heartless and insensitive that I'd tear a beautiful woman like you into eight pieces!"

Jiahao stepped forward and patted Number 888's trembling little head, then went over to the bed and picked up the Brick Phone he had bought that day.

Ding-dong!

Just then, a chime sounded in the private room, signaling the end of the therapist's session.

"Love began with the chime, but lingered when it stopped."

Hell would soon gain one insignificant soul, but the massage world had lost its Shakespeare forever.

One thing had to be said: Number 888 really was good at massages.

Jiahao shook his head regretfully and spoke into the phone. "Is Comrade Xia there?"

"Bring Mahito to Imperial View Manor."

Jiahao had said he wouldn't lay a hand on women, but when it came to curse attacks...

There was nothing he could do.

After all, he was just an utterly ordinary Grade 4 Sorcerer.

P.S. Here's a big three-thousand-character chapter! To all you generous readers who made it this far, please leave a good review!

Any generous folks handing out free gifts around? Jiahao is online and begging to be fed!