In the years after Suguru Geto defected, life at Jujutsu High went on. Satoru Gojo and Shoko Ieiri graduated in 2009; one became Jujutsu Society's formidable ace, while the other became Jujutsu High's most dependable support.
Kashimo still had not carried out Suguru Geto's execution. Whenever he was asked about it, he refused on the grounds that he "didn't know his exact location."
His trips between Sendai and Tokyo also grew increasingly frequent, as though something kept drawing him back, forcing him to travel between the two places over and over.
Yet in November 2010, he abruptly stopped going to Sendai. It was as if someone had pressed pause on him; he never set foot in that city again.
July 2017.
The summer cicadas' cries poured through the window, filling the dimly lit room. Kashimo leaned back in an old wooden chair, his teal hair tied into two buns at the back of his head. The Nezha-style buns were a little playful, hardly suited to his perpetually expressionless face.
Kenjaku had done his hair. His handiwork was decent; he just liked doing all sorts of flashy things with Kashimo's hair. Kashimo could not be bothered to resist. He did not care about such things anyway.
"So the new vessel you found for me belongs to that person who uses Cursed Spirit Manipulation?" Kenjaku stood opposite him, still using Kaori Itadori's body. That face wore something between a smile and a smirk, the fine stitches across its forehead appearing and disappearing in the shifting light.
Kashimo nodded. "That's right. Cursed Spirit Manipulation is extremely versatile and portable. And you know perfectly well that Tengen is now essentially the same as a cursed spirit, correct?"
Kenjaku's fingers paused beside his ear, and the curve of his lips deepened slightly. "Indeed. In