Hajime Kashimo felt perfectly calm. He neither argued nor broke down, merely pursing his lips casually before lowering his head with a smile.
"Never thought I'd become an old man left behind by the times. Not much point complaining about it, though."
He pointed at the blade in Xia Xia's hand.
"Modern jujutsu sorcerers really are a bunch of monsters, if they can make cursed tools like that."
"And I've spent my entire life hunting monsters like you. I've seen astonishingly gifted youngsters, cursed techniques that could cut through the sky, and death traps with no chance of survival."
Xia Xia sat quietly at the roadside bus stop, waiting for him to finish. It had been a long time since he had heard stories about the strongest man from four hundred years ago. What could he do?
"Young people like you might not understand, but aging and illness frighten me far more than defeat or weakness."
"Watching yourself fall apart day by day, all your former glory erased by death along with you, with no way to turn it back."
Hajime Kashimo looked into the young man's black eyes. Dimly, countless other people with black eyes faded from his memories at that moment, leaving only his lonely reflection in the mirror.
"I didn't come to this era to prove I'm the strongest. I just wanted to fight Sukuna."
"Even if I get killed, I'll have only my own lack of skill to blame. At least, that's how jujutsu sorcerers were in our time. We disregarded life and death and scorned heroes."
"Just to ease the loneliness inside. Or perhaps all these meaningless things we do are in pursuit of that almost unattainable thing called 'love.'"
Xia Xia gave a soft laugh.
"Love?"
"Someone obsessed with reaching the pinnacle of martial skill, like you, would actually say something that weak?"
Hajime Kashimo's answer failed to satisfy him. The old veteran's easy acceptance irritated him.
"Just hearing that word feels like a hassle. I'm even so certain I despise such a pure emotion. That's what I think."
"The world is fake, and so is love."
"Everything is nothing more than a condition for achieving a goal. If the day ever comes when I realize my dream, perhaps I'll look back on these moments of weakness that belong to old men."
Hajime Kashimo did not rebuke him. He simply met his gaze, his clear blue-green eyes reflecting Xia Xia like the surface of a lake, giving him the feeling that he was being "sketched."
"Is that really what you think?"
"Then what's your dream? Why would a jujutsu sorcerer like you take part in the culling game?"
The wind swept across their faces. It was only a simple conversation, yet suddenly it carried a hint of danger, as though a single word from either of them could ignite a fight to the death.
Honestly, Hajime Kashimo did not care whether his opponent was good or evil. He only cared how strong they were. But faced with something as blatantly twisted as Xia Xia, he began to wonder whether the young man was human at all.
If he's a cursed spirit, I should just exorcise him.
Are you really human?
"Immortality."
Xia Xia gave an answer that could only be called absurd.
"?"
Hajime Kashimo wanted to say that incarnation through cursed objects and fusion jujutsu could both theoretically achieve that directly. Immortality was not especially difficult to attain in Jujutsu Society. But looking at the young man's shadow, he felt that this simple goal seemed to carry a different meaning.
He had a premonition that the "immortality" Xia Xia spoke of was different from the rebirth through incarnation he understood, and even from Jujutsu Society's definition. The answer would be terrifying.
Why is this guy just like Kenjaku, who got me to sign that contract back then? Common sense doesn't apply to him at all.
I'll ask again. Are you really human?
"That's what it is for now. As for any prefixes or suffixes, allow me to spend the rest of my life filling in this era's blanks."
Xia Xia offered no further explanation. He flashed a nasty smile, then pointed at Hajime Kashimo.
"Hey, old-timer, quit wasting time. You should have enough points, right? Go do what you want to do."
"Let's look around the other colonies. Then, if we survive, let's go fight Sukuna."
He made it sound so easy, treating a battle against the King of Curses like stopping by a café for a cup of coffee. But that reaction made Hajime Kashimo realize he was changing the subject.
He did not want to keep exchanging empty talk about ideals and goals, much less listen to an old man tell stale stories of bygone battles. This kid only wanted to reach the front lines of conflict as soon as possible.
Like a bloodthirsty beast, he hunted and slaughtered openly, drinking deep of the crimson gushing from his enemies' wounds and staining himself all over with the colors of war.
At his core, he was chaotic and vile.
What right did a ghost who had been dead for over four hundred years have to lecture a hero of this era? Xia Xia was not a genius who still needed to grow. He was fully developed already, steadily advancing toward the future... Was he really not a cursed spirit?
Hajime Kashimo could not help wondering whether this era, four hundred years later, was even crueler than the Warring States period he had lived in, to have raised someone so twisted.
Right. The Jujutsu Higher-Ups probably had a hand in it.
If you encountered a particularly twisted person or cursed spirit in Jujutsu Society, there was no need to ask. Nine times out of ten, it was a mess the Jujutsu Higher-Ups had brought upon themselves.
Back when Hajime Kashimo reached his peak, some bastards had even tried to treat him like Sukuna and sacrifice young boys and girls to him, as though he really had become a demon. With that much time on their hands, they should have found him a few opponents who could actually fight.
That'll do for now. Stick to the original plan: request a rule change, then head to the other colonies.
"Hey, don't get the wrong idea, old-timer."
"When I said we'd travel together, I meant getting out of this damned cage together and going to the other cages. You've nearly killed everyone here. We need to get out and look around."
"Once we're outside the colony, we go our separate ways. Don't get in the way of my dreams, Hajime Kashimo."
"If you're still alive by the end, you'll definitely see me again when it's time to fight Sukuna."
Hajime Kashimo finally agreed.
"At least tell me your name. It's a little unfair that you're the only one who gets to call me by mine."
"Xia Xia. The first Xia means summer, and the second means down."
"That's certainly a distinctive name."
"More or less. Let's go."
The culling game had ten colonies.
Hajime Kashimo and Xia Xia were currently in Tokyo, in what was officially called [Tokyo No. 2 Colony]. It was worth mentioning that there were no particularly strong opponents in this colony...
Among the ancient jujutsu sorcerers here, Hajime Kashimo was the only one who could rank among the best. As a result, after the culling game began, he had practically slaughtered his way through Tokyo No. 2 Colony.
"What should I do?"
After walking for a while, Xia Xia and Hajime Kashimo reached the edge of the Tokyo colony, where a black barrier of cursed energy blocked their path.
"Call out that golden bug, then tell him you want to go to the other colonies."
Xia Xia summoned his Kogane, resisted the urge to crush the thing, and gestured for Hajime Kashimo to do the same.
"The culling game's original rules forbid players from leaving the colonies. What you need to do is use your points to add a rule to the culling game."
"Tell him the new rule is that players can freely enter and leave the colonies. If you have enough points, he'll add it."
Hajime Kashimo complied without question.
Although he wanted to fight powerful opponents rather than waste time, and really knew little about these colonies, the little lunatic beside him seemed even more excited than he was. It was unlikely he was lying.
"You can do everything he said, right?"
Hajime Kashimo asked the golden bug shikigami.
"As long as it doesn't conflict with the culling game's existing rules, simply adding a rule is entirely possible."
"You currently have 117 points. That is enough."
"Good. Do it."
Kogane wasted no words, immediately spending Hajime Kashimo's points and adding the ninth rule.
"Rule nine: players may freely enter and leave the colonies."
Every player was notified of this new rule. While considering what it meant, they were also shocked that some ruthless individual had actually achieved a hundred kills in just a few days.
Under normal circumstances in the culling game, one kill equaled one point, and killing an opponent earned you all the points they possessed. Essentially, it was a massive battle royale with everyone racing to stay out of the danger zone.
To stop players from slacking off, the organizer, Kenjaku, had also added a rule stating that "if a player's points remain unchanged for nineteen days, their cursed technique will be removed, resulting in death." It was practically a timed death match.
If you did not want to die, you could only take someone else's life. In other words, at the outset, those inside the colonies had no choice but to prey on the weak.
Unless someone showed enough mercy to introduce a rule allowing "everyone to freely transfer points," the words "stay alive" meant slaughter. But adding a peaceful rule required 100 points. Where were those hundred points supposed to come from?
You still had to kill.
The culling game was, at its core, a game of unrestrained slaughter. As the saying went, looking across the four heavens and nine realms, I understood only a single word...
"Done?"
"Yeah, it's done. Let's go."
Xia Xia reached out through the colony's barrier. Finding no resistance, he nodded to Hajime Kashimo.
"Let's get out."
"Where to?"
As soon as Hajime Kashimo asked, he realized it was a stupid question. An old relic like him did not even know how much territory the colonies covered, let alone how to find his way or give directions.
But then he remembered Xia Xia had said they would part ways after leaving the colony. Ah, I'll take it one step at a time.
"Wherever we end up. Just kill anyone we see. Having some points saved up is always useful."
Xia Xia did not mind. A bloodthirsty expression appeared on his face again, and he pointed toward a cluster of buildings off to one side.
"There's a really strong cursed energy signature over there."
"Don't you want to take a look?"
Hajime Kashimo swept past him like the wind, then vanished into the darkness. There was no goodbye, nor any other words. They had been strangers who happened to have time for a brief chat, nowhere near close enough to call themselves companions.
As for Xia Xia, he headed in another direction.
Although he did not know what lay that way, he had a feeling he would not be bored by what came next. His instincts had always been sharp. They would not fail him.
Besides, now that he had leveled up and left the beginner village, it was time for him, as a player, to pick a new spawn point, right?
And so, southward.
Before you continue