The sea breeze was gentle, and schools of fish swarmed beneath the waves.
With his eyes half-open and his hands behind his head, "Suguru Geto" lay leisurely on a beach chair, basking in the sun.
Space warped slightly. As a rift appeared over a mound of sand beside the beach, a conveniently timed gust swept the hair away from "Suguru Geto's" forehead:
Across his smooth forehead, a gruesome line of surgical stitches visibly divided this special grade curse user's head in two-
The one residing inside "Suguru Geto" was not Geto himself at all-
The infamous [Kenjaku], who had survived a thousand years and existed since the Heian era, had taken possession of this body with its [Cursed Spirit Manipulation] technique, taking over everything Suguru Geto had possessed in life...
"Well, you're looking a little worse for wear-"
Kenjaku's eyes narrowed as he watched the pale figure collapse onto the sand, an irrepressible smile tugging at his lips.
Although the severely wounded Hanami's body had almost fully regenerated, the grayish-white flower on Hanami's left shoulder and barely perceptible breathing made it clear that these injuries would not heal anytime soon.
"Your information..."
"Was completely wrong!"
Beside Hanami, wisps of black smoke were already rising from the head of the short but stocky Jogo-a manifestation of his anger and a silent protest against the false information Kenjaku had supplied.
"Calm down, calm down. It's hot enough in here already~"
Kenjaku waved away the hot wind in front of him. Every time Jogo lost his temper, scorching waves of heat engulfed Dagon's entire innate domain...
He had come here to enjoy the surf and sand, not to sit in a sauna.
"Am I wrong?! Why did you hide information about a special grade sorcerer?!"
Jogo spoke through gritted teeth. The white sand beneath his feet was gradually cracking and blackening from the heat, while the air around him continually warped.
If he had not arrived in time, what appeared before Kenjaku might have been Hanami's corpse...
"Hide information? I told you ages ago not to mess with Satoru Gojo. First you, then Hanami. You brought this suffering on yourselves~"
Kenjaku gave a soft snort, as though everything that had happened to Hanami had been entirely within his expectations.
"Satoru Gojo? We weren't fucking stupid enough to mess with him!"
"It was a new special grade sorcerer! One who appeared out of nowhere, who you never gave us any information about!"
The hoarse, furious shouting finally made Kenjaku open his half-lidded eyes fully.
He sat up in his lounge chair with interest, deeply curious about what Jogo had said...
Seemingly noticing Kenjaku's overflowing curiosity, Hanami, who had remained silent and still all this time, forced a battered body upright and offered an assessment:
"The opponent might not qualify as special grade..."
After several violent coughs, Hanami endured the discomfort and recounted the ambush and every stage of the battle, both before and after the domain expansion, to Kenjaku.
As a cursed spirit, Hanami did not know the names or types of many cursed tools, so the descriptions of the weapons' features offered little to go on. Apart from the pink, spherical wicker basket, Kenjaku gained very little useful information...
"Hollow Wicker Basket..."
"Could it be a chosen heir from an ancient jujutsu sorcerer clan?"
Stroking his chin, Kenjaku considered the jujutsu clans that had lain dormant for so long. As he recalled, quite a few clans had inheritances that skipped generations.
"With more cursed spirits awakening, have these jujutsu clans decided to make a comeback too? Interesting..."
With so little information, Kenjaku could only provisionally classify the jujutsu sorcerer who had defeated Hanami as a scion of one of those clans with rigid rules and ancient barrier technique traditions.
Although this unexpected development would hinder his plans to some extent, in the grand scheme of things, one more grade 1 sorcerer-or even a special grade sorcerer-was hardly a concern.
As long as the opponent had not reached Satoru Gojo's level, everything would be fine.
"A mere ant..."
"Daring to shake a tree?"
The smile that formed on Kenjaku's lips was not merely mockery born of his continued control over the situation. More than anything, it was a sneer at the incompetence of modern jujutsu sorcerers.
"Speaking of which..."
"Haven't you been sitting here a little too long?"
Kenjaku turned toward the delicate-featured youth who was also reclining on a lounge chair, still flipping through a comic book from the human world, and posed the question.
The special grade cursed spirit-Mahito.
As the cursed spirit central to Kenjaku's plan, Mahito had a role to play. Since the jujutsu sorcerers had gained more fighting strength, Kenjaku, as the founder of this fragile alliance, ought to guide these newborn children toward learning and growth...
"You don't have to tell me..."
"I'll do it."
With the light of humanity's pure malice and desire to explore shining in his eyes, Mahito put down his book, rolled his neck, and sat up in his lounge chair.
Hanami and Jogo had both fought jujutsu sorcerers.
So, as a being born from humanity's pure malice...
Mahito naturally could not fall behind.
"By the way, I can kill Sukuna's vessel, right~?"
Mahito leaned toward Kenjaku with a smile, only to receive an utterly unconcerned scoff in reply:
"Go ahead, if you can."
An ordinary human might have immediately understood that Kenjaku's words were a warning about the gap in strength between the two.
But Mahito was a cursed spirit.
Kenjaku's voice sounded as sweet as an order granting a subordinate free rein and immunity from punishment. Almost instantly, Mahito vanished from Dagon's innate domain...
He wanted to grow...
He wanted to touch...
He wanted to taste...
Humans, here he came.
A twisted smile spread across Mahito's face.
He could hardly wait to taste Sukuna's vessel!!
Humans tasted delicious!
But cursed spirits tasted just as good!!! An unwritten rule had always circulated in the world of jujutsu sorcerers.
The stronger the jujutsu sorcerers, the stronger the cursed spirits born from negative emotions.
And the stronger the cursed spirits born from negative emotions, the stronger the next generation of jujutsu sorcerers born and awakened would become.
Now, as a "singularity," Hajime Kashimo had disrupted the previously fairly balanced jujutsu system.
New forces...
Were taking shape...
Before you continue