You Think the Two of You Alone Can Take My Life?

A stretch of peaceful days followed, and the Gojo Clan took no drastic action.

Satoru Gojo's injuries had also been fully healed with Reverse Cursed Technique by a sorcerer who lived in seclusion.

Perhaps that was one reason the Gojo Clan had taken no drastic action. After all, it could just about be said that Satoru Gojo had suffered no serious lasting harm.

Their wariness of Tan Man's cursed technique was another reason.

Although Tan Man had officially joined Akari, Naobito Zenin had granted him greater freedom of movement.

He no longer had to sneak out with Toji at night as he had before.

This time, he and Toji turned to betting on horse racing to make money, planning to use Tan Man's Evil Eye to influence the races and earn a substantial income.

[Note to head off nitpicking: this event shares its name with its real-world counterpart, but its specific rules should be treated as fictional.]

After all, compared with underground boxing, a legitimate event open to the general public was less likely to cause problems when they collected their winnings.

Having learned from their previous experience, Tan Man and Toji were also much more cautious. Rather than deliberately picking long shots with the highest odds, they only influenced and bet on the leading contenders whose chances had been considered roughly equal before the race.

They also hid their profits among the bets placed by the vast crowd of monkeys. That would make it harder for the organizers to repeat what had happened last time: easily identifying the beneficiaries and, through them, tracking the pair down.

For that very reason, Tan Man and Toji could not keep placing bets one after another. Too many would still give them away.

Even though using the Evil Eye had nothing to do with cursed energy and left no cursed residue as evidence, anyone determined to investigate their betting results would have little trouble spotting the problem.

Besides, whether within the Zenin Clan or when dealing with the other Three Great Families, Tan Man had never revealed that the Evil Eye could affect things other than humans.

Even its ability to create illusions, how many times it could be used, how many people it could affect, and how powerful its effects could be remained mysteries to outsiders.

[Because of the peculiar nature of jujutsu, sorcerers do not normally reveal or share information about their cursed techniques unprompted.]

Before they set off that day, however, Toji took out a pair of children's sunglasses he had bought especially for Tan Man and put them on him.

Since Tan Man had never been in the habit of wearing glasses, the sunglasses felt somewhat awkward. Puzzled, he asked Toji a question.

"What's this for?"

"Those golden eyes of yours stand out too much. This is much better."

Toji rubbed his chin, studied Tan Man's new look with interest, and nodded in satisfaction.

Tan Man inwardly grumbled. Wouldn't seeing a six-year-old wearing sunglasses stand out about as much as a pair of golden eyes?

Still, everything that followed went fairly smoothly. After they confirmed their target horse for the day, Tan Man talked Toji out of placing a bet in the hundreds of millions.

Next, they headed to the viewing spot they had chosen in advance, beside the final straight leading to the finish line.

All that remained was to wait for the race to begin and use the Evil Eye to adjust the final outcome. With luck, they might not even need to intervene. After all, they had not bet on a long shot, only a horse slightly less favored than the top contender.

During the process, however, Tan Man sensed quite a few sorcerers keeping their distance from him. They seemed to be following him and deliberately observing him and Toji.

Toji noticed something was off with Tan Man and spoke up.

"What's wrong?"

"There are even more sorcerers here than I expected. They're probably here for me. We might need to be a little more discreet."

Tan Man spoke softly to Toji as he considered the situation.

Toji brought his astonishing five senses to bear on their noisy surroundings, but learned little.

"Sorcerers?"

Toji's brow furrowed slightly. Making a move in a place packed with monkeys would be a real nuisance, and he was also worried those people would ruin his grand money-making plan.

"If it's just one race, there's no way I'll let them catch me out."

Even when the race officially began, the sorcerers showed no sign of making a move.

Following the original plan, Tan Man cast the Evil Eye on the horses in the leading pack.

But he only created an illusion that distorted the sense of speed of the horses ahead of their target, making them slow down slightly without realizing it, rather than so obviously that anyone would notice tampering.

After all, using the Evil Eye for something like this left no trace. They could hardly question the horses, and even if they were fluent in horse language, they would learn nothing useful. That was why Tan Man was so confident.

Toji, meanwhile, was ecstatic. The result of a single race had easily earned him tens of millions.

If he had not needed to keep a low profile, he would have tossed Tan Man a dozen meters into the air to celebrate. With Tan Man around, making money was far too easy!

While Toji hurried off to collect the winnings, two sorcerers swiftly approached Tan Man through the noisy crowd.

Tan Man identified one of them out of the corner of his eye. Although the man was younger than Tan Man remembered, he was certain of his identity: Jiro Awasaka, who possessed the Reversal Cursed Technique.

Judging by the information from the original story, the other sorcerer accompanying him had to be either Ogami or Ogami's Grandson.

Tan Man said calmly, "So, Jiro Awasaka and Ogami, you think the two of you alone can take my life?"

Hearing their names spoken accurately by their target, a six-year-old child of the Zenin Clan, both of them visibly froze for a moment.