Clan Head (1)

Although Chinatsu wanted to say she was free, she remembered the pile of jujutsu assignments she had only just sorted out. She sighed helplessly and pressed a hand to her forehead.

"I'm not free right now, but I should be tonight."

"Tonight, then. There's no rush."

The Elder's words left Chinatsu looking puzzled. But she was temporarily devoting all her brainpower to working out how to save Yu Haibara and fully stabilize Suguru Geto's mental state in the future, so she had little capacity left to think much of it.

After ending the call with the Elder, she began exorcising cursed spirits in eastern Tokyo according to her original plan.

Although Chinatsu did not advocate using jujutsu in everyday life, the barriers had stopped working, making this an emergency. Unless these dangerous cursed spirits were dealt with as soon as possible, ordinary people could fall victim to them.

Even before their awakening, Chinatsu and Satoru Gojo had been highly efficient at completing jujutsu assignments. After awakening, their efficiency rose to another level, mainly because gaining reverse cursed technique let Six Eyes sorcerers exploit a loophole.

The precise cursed energy control granted by the six eyes allowed jujutsu sorcerers to reduce their cursed energy consumption to the point where it virtually never ran out. The drawback was that prolonged use overworked and damaged the brain.

Reverse cursed technique could heal the body, even repairing brain damage in an instant. Its drawback was its enormous cursed energy consumption, which made prolonged or repeated use difficult.

The strengths and weaknesses of the "six eyes" and "reverse cursed technique" unexpectedly canceled out both sets of drawbacks, leaving nothing but advantages. That was why mastering reverse cursed technique counted as an awakening for a Six Eyes sorcerer.

When an ordinary sorcerer awakened reverse cursed technique, their strength rose a tier.

When a Six Eyes sorcerer awakened reverse cursed technique, their strength rose to another dimension.

Chinatsu went out that morning to clear away cursed spirits and finished all the jujutsu assignments on her hands by dusk. Feeling relaxed, she returned leisurely to the Gojo Clan estate.

Although she had not been back for a while, this was still the place where she had grown up. It was far too soon for it to feel unfamiliar.

When the servants at the estate saw Chinatsu return, they gathered around her with smiles on their faces. Their enthusiasm was almost more than she could handle.

Such a scene would have been utterly impossible in the Gojo Clan of old. In fact, no one would even have imagined it.

If the Zenin Clan could be described as a gathering of arrogant people who fancied themselves nobility, then the Gojo Clan of old had been a gathering of utterly emotionless blocks of ice.

Chinatsu smiled as she responded to everyone's warmth. She would never ignore these servants, because in her eyes, they were not servants at all. They were relatives who shared some measure of blood with her and had cared for her as she grew up.

"By the way, miss, did you come back to take care of something important?"

"Something important? Oh, right. The Elder asked me to come back. He said he wanted to discuss something with me."

If no one had suddenly brought it up, Chinatsu really might have forgotten why she had come home.

At her words, everyone around her instinctively turned to exchange glances, their eyes gleaming.

Before Chinatsu could catch on, the servants understood at once. They happily urged her to hurry over to the Elder. Although somewhat bewildered, Chinatsu nodded and made her way to his room.

When she reached the door to the Elder's room, it opened on its own before she could speak or knock. Chinatsu studied it suspiciously and spotted traces of cursed energy within it through her six eyes.

It must be... a cursed technique?

In Jujutsu Society, discussions of the Gojo, Zenin, and Kamo families generally centered on the three most powerful cursed techniques passed down through their bloodlines.

Limitless

Ten Shadows Technique

Blood Manipulation

But these three were simply the strongest, most elite techniques. Among the Three Great Families, some jujutsu sorcerers also awakened ordinary or rare cursed techniques, or inherited family techniques a tier below those.

Examples included the [Construction Technique] awakened by Mai Zenin of the Zenin Clan, and the inherited [Projection Sorcery] awakened by Naobito Zenin's line.

Like the Zenin Clan, the Gojo Clan was in the same situation. It could hardly rely entirely on "Limitless." After all, "Limitless" could only be used by someone with the six eyes, and a Six Eyes bearer only appeared once every few hundred years...

Chinatsu stepped into the room, puzzled. Before she could reach back to shut the door, it closed on its own.

The windows were shut, the curtains drawn, and not a single light was on, leaving the room extremely dim. Combined with the door opening and closing automatically, it felt rather like walking onto the set of a horror movie.

An ordinary person might genuinely have been frightened, but was Chinatsu ordinary? In both her previous life and this one, there were only two kinds of movies she liked watching.

Comedies

And

Horror movies

The door's automatic opening and closing was the work of a remotely controlled jujutsu technique. The dim lighting did nothing to stop her special eyes from taking in her surroundings, either.

In fact, even before entering, Chinatsu had sensed several fluctuations of cursed energy hidden inside the room.

"Come out. Honestly, you're all old enough to know better. Is playing this sort of trick on me really that much fun?" With one hand on her hip, Chinatsu lowered her head and sighed helplessly.

As Chinatsu finished speaking, the lights came on. Little old men and old women emerged one after another from their carefully chosen hiding places.

They were the Gojo elders, led by the Elder. There were even a few Chinatsu had never met, but that hardly mattered. Knowing they were elders was enough.

The elders now reproached the Elder in embarrassment, venting their displeasure over the stunt. Clearly, this grand scare operation had been his idea alone.

The Elder kept smiling. How could he not have known that such a petty trick would not work on Chinatsu? He had simply wanted to have some fun.

After a brief commotion, the room finally settled into something approaching quiet. But as Chinatsu looked at the Gojo Clan elders gathered before her, a faint sense of foreboding rose within her.

The Elder raised a fist to his mouth and cleared his throat loudly, his expression turning solemn and serious.

"Chinatsu, the Gojo Clan has eleven elders in total. Seven of them stand behind you and hope that you will succeed as the next head of the Gojo Clan."

"..."