Traits

"Geto, Gojo, Ieiri, Hatayama!"

The three remained stunned for a long while. Only when Yu Haibara's energetic voice rang out did they finally snap out of their daze.

"Mm-hmm."

Aside from Tsukasa Hatayama, whose expression remained unchanged, the other three ate their ice pops with mixed feelings, absentmindedly chatting with Yu Haibara and Kento Nanami after their match.

As they talked, they kept looking at Tsukasa Hatayama as though he were a freak. Even with their mental fortitude, this monster had still dealt them a blow.

Satoru Gojo wolfed down one ice pop after another, utterly unconcerned about freezing his teeth. Clearly, he was imagining the ice pops were Tsukasa Hatayama.

Tsukasa was such an infuriating, hateful bastard!

An innate cursed technique with two Maximum Techniques-how many people throughout history had achieved that? Perhaps someone had managed it during the golden age of jujutsu a thousand years ago.

Suguru Geto gave his best friend a congratulatory punch on the shoulder, then asked in bewilderment, "Tsukasa, people can only comprehend one Maximum Technique in their entire lives. How did you break that balance and comprehend two?"

"What?!"

Masamichi Yaga, who had been about to sit down, shot to his feet in shock. Agitated, he pulled out his phone to report this to the retired principal.

He had only gone to watch the new students' match. How had he returned to hear something so outrageous?

Yu Haibara and Kento Nanami, who had just enrolled at Jujutsu High, ate the ice pops Ieiri had handed them, unable to understand any of this.

They only felt that their four seniors and Mr. Yaga were acting a little strangely... They seemed awfully worked up, as though they had heard something incredible.

Tsukasa Hatayama pondered for a moment, then responded to their gathered gazes with a different question. "You all know a person's cursed technique only has one trait, right?"

The four struggled to follow his train of thought. An innate cursed technique could only possess one trait. Wasn't that common knowledge throughout Jujutsu Society?

Although they couldn't work out what Tsukasa Hatayama meant, all four nodded in agreement. After all, that was an immutable law!

As one of only two people who paid attention in class, Suguru Geto spoke first. "I'm not sure what you're getting at, but an innate cursed technique has always been limited to a single trait."

"Take my Cursed Spirit Manipulation, for example. Its trait revolves around subjugating cursed spirits for my own use."

"A jujutsu sorcerer has to use that trait to comprehend the ultimate application of their cursed technique. That ultimate application is called a Maximum Technique."

"What if my Dark Manipulation has two traits?"

Tsukasa Hatayama interjected casually, but to the four listeners, his words were no less than a towering tidal wave crashing through their hearts.

"Impossible!" Satoru Gojo shook his head vehemently, his expression grave. "A cursed technique with two traits is completely unheard of."

"It never happened even during the golden age of jujutsu a thousand years ago. It's even less possible in modern times. It goes against all reason and balance in this world."

Tsukasa Hatayama retorted irritably, "Then what about the Six Eyes, which hadn't appeared for centuries, turning up in the modern era? Does that seem reasonable to you?"

Satoru Gojo fell silent. Thinking it over, his best friend had a point. The Six Eyes, absent for centuries, had suddenly appeared in the modern age.

Was it a prophecy?

"According to some obscure records in Jujutsu High's library, I found that a curse user a thousand years ago possessed a cursed technique with two traits."

"But that was never confirmed, and we have no way of knowing whether it's false. It does, however, suggest that I'm not the first person to possess two traits."

Before the four could digest this, Tsukasa Hatayama casually dropped another bombshell.

Shoko Ieiri suddenly raised her slender hand, sounding languid yet brimming with an anatomist's curiosity. "Who was that curse user from a thousand years ago?"

At that question, everyone else fixed their eyes on Tsukasa Hatayama, scholarly curiosity shining in their differently colored eyes.

Tsukasa Hatayama considered for a moment, then answered indirectly. "Didn't the Higher-Ups inexplicably order students this year to watch for and collect a certain special grade cursed object? Its owner is the thousand-year-old curse user I'm talking about."

Behind Satoru Gojo's sunglasses, his Six Eyes turned solemn. With rare seriousness, he asked, "You mean Ryomen Sukuna, the two-faced, four-armed King of Curses?"

Tsukasa Hatayama nodded, meeting Satoru Gojo's gaze with a fleeting trace of complicated emotion in his eyes. He said evenly, "The records describe his cursed technique as slashing, but an ancient treatise by Tengen in the library also mentions something else."

"Karmic Fire."

"So I ventured the guess that his cursed technique has two traits." At this point, Tsukasa Hatayama lowered his eyes in thought as he licked his ice pop.

When Jogo fought Sukuna one-on-one in the original story, the latter had used flames in addition to slashing. That one-eyed cat had also described those flames later in the official guidebook.

Although the explanation was rather murky, it indicated that cursed techniques normally possessed only one trait, while Sukuna's possessed two-or perhaps even more that came later.

That damned one-eyed cat wouldn't even fill in the plot holes. All he wanted was to finish the story. Send him over here, and see if I don't feed him a shit cursed spirit.

For a moment, everyone fell silent, eating their ice pops in bewilderment.

Even Tsukasa Hatayama, who visited the library every day, couldn't figure it out. How could those of them who had other things to attend to possibly understand?

In short, they could simply consider Tsukasa Hatayama an exceptionally gifted genius.

"Tsukasa, since your Dark Manipulation has a second trait, why not show it to us? Let us broaden our horizons."

To keep the silence from dragging on, Suguru Geto had no choice but to liven things up.

Tsukasa Hatayama put his thoughts aside and raised both hands without refusing. Under everyone's gaze, fiercely burning violet flames rose from them.

Though they looked calm, the violet flames made the souls of everyone present ache with a searing pain, as though even a single drop would torment their souls.

With the four watching, Tsukasa Hatayama slowly brought his palms together, then opened them, rotated them, and pulled them apart. The violet flames were like a toy in his hands.

As he completed the final gesture, his hands formed a bow, while the violet flames became an arrow. Then he launched it into the distance.

Twang.

A piercing sound tore through the air as the violet flame arrow shot toward the distant lawn. The instant it struck, it was like a meteor crashing into the earth.

Seeing the small hole punched through the lawn, all four sucked in a cold breath, unable to describe how they felt.

Kento Nanami gave Suguru Geto and Satoru Gojo a long look, sympathy in his eyes. Being friends with Hatayama must make it all too easy to suffer blows to one's confidence.

Come to think of it, how had those two made it through the past year?

Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto exchanged bitter smiles, once again humbled by this monster. For a moment, they felt like crying but had no tears, utterly at a loss for words.

All they could do was walk over and vigorously ruffle Tsukasa Hatayama's hair, messing it up again and again to vent their frustration and helplessness.

Had they not grown accustomed to it along the way, they might already have been crushed beyond recovery. Still, as his two best friends, they were happy for Tsukasa.

Tsukasa Hatayama chuckled and let the two vent, not annoyed in the slightest. Perhaps this was simply the joy men shared with one another.

To protect this innocent friendship, he would personally kill Kenjaku and Ryomen Sukuna in the future. He would sweep away every last clown standing in his best friends' way!

I have to get stronger now. Strong enough to protect what I cherish, strong enough to make up for my regrets, strong enough to withstand every catastrophe the future holds.

This was a binding vow, and also a curse...

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

In a guest room somewhere in Shibuya.

Under the dim, flickering light, a short-haired woman wrapped in a bath towel emerged from the bathroom and sat seductively before a cracked mirror.

The woman picked up her flashing phone with slender, delicate fingers. Someone had sent an anonymous email that read, "An anomaly in Tsukasa Hatayama: Dark Manipulation appears to possess an unprecedented two traits."

The woman, whose silhouette revealed alluring curves, curled her lips into a smile. The towel over her chest grew damp with excitement, giving off wafts of a milky fragrance.

The woman murmured obsessively, "Tsukasa Hatayama, you're simply too beautiful. You excite me. You fill my empty, lonely heart..."

"This damp towel is the love I feel for you, the love I can never have~"

As those anxious, yearning words fell, the flickering overhead light shone at an inopportune angle onto the cracked mirror, revealing a strange stitched scar across the woman's forehead.

"Kaori, I bought some late-night snacks. Would you like to come out and have some?" A considerate male voice came from outside the door, every word filled with concern.

The woman named Kaori paid him no mind. Her face flushed as she browsed a photo album, tracing Tsukasa Hatayama's noble, handsome face with utter obsession.

"Ah~ Tsukasa~"

"You're just too captivating~"