On the day of the banquet, Chinatsu and Satoru Gojo, dressed in snow-white kimonos, stepped into a black sedan reserved for them and set off for the grand banquet jointly hosted by the Three Great Families.
During the drive, Chinatsu and Satoru Gojo gazed out the windows on either side of the car.
The world seen by jujutsu sorcerers differed from the one ordinary people saw. Hidden in a world beyond ordinary people's perception were beings known as "cursed spirits."
Cursed spirits were illusory beings formed from human negative emotions and the cursed energy that leaked from people.
Cursed spirits could harm humans, but humans could not harm cursed spirits. Exorcising these beings was the work of jujutsu sorcerers.
Like jujutsu sorcerers, cursed spirits were divided into grades. Conventional human weapons could not harm them.
But assuming human weapons could harm cursed spirits, their threat levels could be roughly gauged as follows-
Grade 4: a wooden bat would suffice.
Grade 3: a handgun would offer a little reassurance.
Grade 2: a shotgun could just about handle it.
Grade 1: even a tank would not be enough.
Special Grade: even carpet bombing with cluster missiles would be useless.
Under the Six Eyes, even the low-grade cursed spirits that concealed themselves well could not escape Chinatsu and Satoru Gojo's notice.
However, most of the cursed spirits on the streets were Grade 4 or Grade 3. Spirits at those levels posed little immediate threat to humans. At most, they gave people the feeling that something was watching them, or that someone was touching them despite there being no one nearby.
"What is it? Interested in those cursed spirits? There's still some time before the banquet starts. We have more than enough time to stop the car and take care of a few low-grade ones."
The Elder, seated in the front passenger seat, noticed that both of them were watching the cursed spirits that occasionally appeared along the streets. Smiling, he suggested stopping the car, but neither Chinatsu nor Satoru Gojo approved of the idea.
Chinatsu: "Come on, those cursed spirits are right out on the street. I haven't learned Blue yet, so I'd have to exorcise them with fists wrapped in cursed energy. If the pedestrians saw me stupidly punching thin air, they'd question my intelligence."
Satoru Gojo: "Exactly, exactly."
Elder: "Uh... I have no comeback for that."
The Elder gave an awkward dry cough. Ordinary people really could not see cursed spirits. Making a show of exorcising them in the street under those circumstances would easily get them mistaken for idiots.
The black sedan continued onward and soon arrived at the foot of a five-star Grand Hotel. For today's banquet, the entire building was filled exclusively with people from Jujutsu Society. There were no ordinary people present.
It was not that they had booked the entire venue. Rather, the building was property owned by the Three Great Families of Jujutsu Society, and it was used for most of their meetings, large and small.
Many vehicles had already gathered outside the Grand Hotel, and most of the groups emerging from them consisted of one elder accompanied by several teenagers.
Inside, the head of the Kamo Clan had already arrived. Though he had no interest in the banquet, as one of its hosts, arriving early was a matter of etiquette he had to observe.
Before long, Naobito Zenin of the Zenin Clan also arrived at the banquet.
At Naobito Zenin's arrival, many of those already inside approached him with smiles, but he waved them off and casually dismissed the crowd.
The Zenin Clan was the most feudal and arrogant of the Three Great Families. To them, all jujutsu sorcerers outside the Three Great Families were trash. Even the Gojo Clan and the Kamo Clan...
With a stern expression, Naobito Zenin scanned the banquet hall and soon spotted the head of the Kamo Clan in a corner.
At the same time, the Kamo Clan head turned his gaze toward Naobito Zenin. Putting on a practiced smile, he waved to him.
"Naobito... it's been a while."
"Indeed it has, Kamo Clan Head."
The two came together, and Naobito Zenin casually picked up a bottle of red wine from a nearby table. With a light flick of his finger, he sent its cap flying.
"Want a drink?"
"No, thank you."
"What a shame."
Naobito Zenin poured himself a glass and began drinking, paying little attention to anything else.
If banquets of this caliber did not offer the chance to sample rare, high-quality liquor, Naobito Zenin would have simply sent someone else in his place.
Speaking of which, Naobito Zenin was no ordinary figure. The official guidebook described him as the strongest Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer, which said plenty about his strength.
Yet Naobito Zenin took no pride in that strength, because he knew he had reached the end of his road to becoming stronger.
Eighty percent of a jujutsu sorcerer's strength depended on innate talent. Now in his fifties, Naobito Zenin knew he could never enter the realm of "Special Grade." On top of that, no child with the Ten Shadows Technique had been born into his clan, leaving him deeply frustrated.
Watching Naobito Zenin drink by himself with that miserable look on his face, the old Kamo Clan head beside him dearly wanted to tease him.
The Zenin Clan was on bad terms with the Gojo Clan, but its relationship with his Kamo Clan was hardly any better. The three families were brothers in name only.
When twins had been born into the Gojo Clan, Naobito Zenin had burst out laughing the moment he heard the news.
Twins were considered an ill omen in Jujutsu Society, so Naobito Zenin had laughed heartily at their misfortune.
But he had barely managed a few laughs before learning that both twins possessed the Six Eyes. His laughter stopped dead, and the smile froze on his face.
"Fuck!!!"
Once Naobito Zenin processed the news, he slammed the wine flask in his hand onto the floor. His entire face flushed as red as a ripe tomato.
The old Kamo Clan head opened his mouth, intending to tease Naobito Zenin, but in the end, he never said what he had planned.
He knew that if he teased him like that, Naobito Zenin would definitely pull a sour face and snap back at him.
"Our Zenin Clan hasn't produced a child with the Ten Shadows Technique yet, but has your Kamo Clan produced one with Blood Manipulation?!"
That... really left him with no comeback.
The Kamo Clan head closed his mouth. Their two clans were now in the same predicament, and there was only one way out: to have a child who inherited their clan's highest-level cursed technique as soon as possible.
But having children was not something they could rush. They could hardly take the place of the women in their clans and hurry through childbirth themselves.
Frustrating... but they could only stew in that frustration...
Before you continue