Ah~ Tsukasa~

Tsukasa Hatayama let out a deep breath and stopped himself from charging forward to cut her down.

Kaori Itadori covered her mouth and giggled softly. "Tsukasa, why did you stop? Did hearing the words 'secret affair' get you all worked up?"

"Sharp tongue."

Tsukasa Hatayama's tightly knitted brows relaxed slightly as he said pointedly, "You might have curves in all the right places, but I don't like men."

The smile on Kaori Itadori's lovely face abruptly froze, and a barely perceptible flash of shock crossed her eyes.

She stared intently at Tsukasa Hatayama, then suddenly covered her mouth and laughed again, chiding him. "My hair may be short, and I might look a little masculine, but I'm undeniably a woman through and through."

"If you don't believe me... I can take you into the woods behind us and let you inspect me. Seeing is believing, after all, and touching comes next."

Her repeated, brazen teasing brought a blush to Kaori Itadori's lovely face, and her dreamy eyes never strayed from Tsukasa Hatayama, as though she were gazing at a treasure.

Tsukasa Hatayama shook his head speechlessly. Judging by how excited Kenjaku was, he had probably taken a fancy to him-or, more precisely, to his body.

What he had done in the Kamo Clan during the early Meiji era was enough to show what a sick freak he was. He had used the woman sharing his bed for experiments with cursed spirits, without a shred of humanity.

That woman had conceived a cursed spirit's child nine times and undergone nine abortions. One could only imagine the suffering she had endured while alive, and how cruel it had been.

"Looks like you want me to expose you, don't you, Kenjaku?" Tsukasa Hatayama delivered the words in an even tone.

The blush drained from Kaori Itadori's face, and she took several small steps backward at those words. "You... what nonsense are you talking about? My name is Kaori Itadori!"

"Heh heh heh... keep fooling yourself."

Tsukasa Hatayama gave a cool, mocking laugh and said pointedly, "I once read about the Three Great Families' dirty laundry in the Jujutsu High library. The Kamo Clan during the early Meiji era caught my attention in particular."

"Rather than the Kamo Clan itself, it was Kenjaku who interested me-the man the world called an evil jujutsu sorcerer."

"I looked into Kenjaku's life. He had a good reputation when he was young, but everything changed in his later years."

"I couldn't find out exactly what heinous acts he'd committed, but if people called him the most evil jujutsu sorcerer, he must have done something utterly unforgivable."

"To find out why, I went through a great many old books and records. In the end, the stitches on his forehead in his later years struck me as suspicious."

"The records said that from the moment those stitches appeared, Kenjaku's personality underwent an unprecedented change, as though he'd become someone else."

"So I figured someone must have taken over his body, then used his identity to conduct some kind of secret experiment within the Kamo Clan."

"And although you don't have stitches on your forehead, those scars gave you away. Am I right, Kenjaku?"

"Ha ha ha ha... oh, Tsukasa~"

Kaori Itadori's mouth stretched into a grin as she let out peals of laughter, her face twisting bizarrely. The hazy, heated gaze she fixed on Tsukasa Hatayama grew scorching.

"I only meant to tease you a little, but I never imagined you'd give me such a wonderful surprise. I really, truly love you more and more."

"Since you've already figured it out, there's no point in pretending anymore. I'll come clean. I'm the one who took over Kenjaku's body!"

Tsukasa Hatayama replied lazily, "Yeah, figured that out. Anything else?"

Kaori Itadori's laughter cut off again, and she asked in bafflement, "Could you act a little surprised? Shouldn't you look shocked, like you can't believe what you just heard?"

"Oh, did I hear that right? You really did take over his body." Tsukasa Hatayama put on a lazy, utterly expressionless show of surprise.

The corner of Kaori Itadori's mouth twitched, and she grumbled inwardly, Not a shred of humor. No wonder you're so handsome and still don't have a girlfriend!

Tsukasa Hatayama cast a sidelong glance at Kaori Itadori, with her woman's body and man's brain, and sneered. "My sense of humor depends on who I'm talking to. It's hard to have one around something neither male nor female like you."

Kaori Itadori nonchalantly tucked her hair behind her ear and said, her eyes brimming with affection, "Go ahead, insult me all you like. It's my fault for finding you so special."

Tsukasa Hatayama frowned deeply in disgust. "Keep saying that nauseating, suggestive crap, and I won't mind cutting this conversation short."

Kaori Itadori ignored him and carried on as she pleased. "Since you're special, I'll tell you something special."

"The truth is, taking over Kenjaku's body in the early Meiji era was just a whim, a way to pass the time when I was bored."

"But not long afterward, I discovered something interesting. There was a woman who could actually bear a cursed spirit's children!"

"Rejected by her relatives and family, the woman came to me. Oh, no-she came to Kenjaku, the original owner of that body."

"Driven by curiosity, I locked the woman up, then had her mate with a cursed spirit and used my blood in the creation process."

"Tsukasa, this was art!"

"The first time, I was nervous and excited. But when the result came into being, I wasn't satisfied, so I took things even further!"

"I made her mate with a cursed spirit nine times and undergo nine abortions. The final results still fell short of my expectations, and gradually, I grew numb and disappointed!"

"Because none of those born were the works of art I'd hoped for. They were defective failures. They let me down!"

"You're not even human!"

Tsukasa Hatayama cursed without holding back. Even though he had learned the truth from the original story, he still couldn't resist cursing that sick freak Kenjaku.

He could imagine how that woman's life... had been worse than death.

"Thank you for the compliment." Rather than feeling ashamed, Kaori Itadori took pride in it. She reflected for a moment. "Those nine cursed objects should now be in the Cursed Object Warehouse at the Tombs of the Star Corridor. They even have a nice name-Cursed Womb: Death Paintings."

"Speaking of which, aren't you curious about my true identity?"

"A dead person doesn't deserve to have me learn their identity!" Tsukasa Hatayama swung Kitetsu, sending two scarlet crescents of sword energy slashing straight toward her.

Then something unexpected happened. Just as the two slashes were about to strike Kaori Itadori's body, their trajectories inexplicably shifted, sending them into the stone pillars on either side.

Kaori Itadori clicked her tongue in wonder. "What unusual slashes. Not the slightest fluctuation of cursed energy. Is this the sword energy you see in manga?"

"Oh, Tsukasa~ you're simply too perfect. You're constantly drawing me in. I have to have you, and then we can share one body together!"

"Is that so?"

A chill ran down the excited Kaori Itadori's back, and alarm bells rang in her mind. At some point, Tsukasa Hatayama had appeared behind her.

Tsukasa Hatayama gave Kaori Itadori no chance to react. He clenched his left hand into a fist, black and red sparks flickering through the space around it.

Without the slightest hesitation, he drove his fist toward the back of Kaori Itadori's head. Yet the inexplicable gravity surrounding her deflected the attack once again.

"Oh, Tsukasa~ why the hurry?"

Kaori Itadori turned around with a playful smile. Her face full of flirtation, she reached out and stroked Tsukasa Hatayama's cheek, then closed her eyes and sniffed her hand like a lovesick woman.

"Ah~ Tsukasa~"

"Your scent gets me so excited!"