A demon's body!

Then.

The glowing patterns faded, and the Cursed Technique returned.

For a long time after confirming that his Cursed Technique had returned, that sorcerer still refused to use any Cursed Technique again.

The matter was suppressed and never spread outside.

The council chamber remained quiet for a long time.

"That wasn't a Cursed Technique."

At last, someone spoke softly, breaking the silence.

"That kind of method... doesn't belong to the Jujutsu system."

"The way he erased the Cursed Technique was like cutting the technique itself out of that person."

"That was magic," another voice replied, its tone level.

"We don't want to admit it, but magic is the only way to describe it."

The council chamber fell quiet again.

After a moment, a voice rose from a corner, carrying a note of cautious inquiry.

"Then are you saying he really knows magic?"

"And even..." He paused, lowering his voice further.

"That he really can bring the dead back to life?"

The person being questioned did not answer directly.

He merely fell silent for a few seconds before speaking, his tone still calm.

"I'm merely reminding you all."

"Of what makes that monster different from us. Nothing more."

"As for whether those rumors are true... I can't be certain."

As his words faded, the council chamber once again sank into silence.

The figures behind the screens remained motionless. Candle flames flickered gently in brass lamps, casting shifting light and shadow over the patterns on the dark screens.

Then a voice rose, charged with excitement.

"If it's true."

Those words were like a pebble dropped into a deep pool.

Everyone in the council chamber breathed more softly for an instant.

"If it's true,"

the voice continued.

"Then we've witnessed something... completely beyond our understanding."

"Magic! Interference on the level of the soul, bringing the dead back to life."

He paused, the excitement in his voice seemingly tempered somewhat by caution.

"If we could master that power..."

He did not finish.

But everyone understood what he meant.

If that power could be mastered.

If the higher-ups of Jujutsu Society could master magic.

Then they would no longer merely be the people who managed Jujutsu Sorcerers.

They could stand above everything.

In the lull of silence, another person spoke.

"Forget mastering it."

"Have you forgotten how that fellow operates?"

"Without payment, you can't even get him on a call."

"He won't even give Satoru Gojo any face."

"Do you think he'll obediently hand over that power for us to master?"

After that question landed, the atmosphere in the council chamber shifted again.

That excited, restless air seemed to have a bucket of cold water poured over it, turning into a complicated silence woven with resentment and helplessness.

"Yes, that fellow Wangchuan..."

They had tried to win him over.

They had tried to control him.

They had tried to restrain him with the authority and rules of the higher-ups.

But the outcome was always the same: he simply did not play by the rules.

Jujutsu Society's ranks, seniority, and positions were all bullshit to him.

If he wanted to do something, he would do it without being asked. If he did not, even the full authority of Jujutsu Headquarters could not secure it.

This man could not be controlled.

Like Satoru Gojo, but even more unrestrained, with no weaknesses.

They had investigated Wangchuan and drawn a complete blank. There was no information at all, as though he had appeared out of thin air.

The council chamber remained silent for a long time.

Finally, a voice came from behind the screen farthest inside.

"Let's take our time."

"First, let's see whether it's true."

Inside a separate room at Tokyo Jujutsu High.

The cabinet doors were transparent, revealing nine fetal bodies suspended inside.

Each was curled into a fist-sized ball.

With both hands in his pockets, Wangchuan tilted his head and watched for a while.

His gaze swept over them one by one, starting with the first on the left, as though he were choosing merchandise.

"Death Painting Wombs... Choso, Eso, Kechizu..."

He reached out and tapped his fingertips lightly against the glass wall.

"You've been locked up for so long. It's about time you came out to bask in the moonlight."

An inscrutable curve rose at the corner of his mouth.

Then he withdrew his hand and stepped back.

"I'll start with you three."

His gaze settled on the three fetal bodies on the left. "As for Rotting Aspect, Blue Aspect, and the others... they can wait."

The room fell quiet for an instant.

Then Wangchuan closed his eyes.

His body began to change.

Pale blue skin, blood-red eyes, purplish-black hair longer than his body, and long red-and-purple hanfu robes.

Four arms, great arms growing from his shoulders, short limbs tucked beneath his armpits, pointed ears, and a long tongue.

He stuck out his tongue and smiled.

The tip of his tongue curled gently in the air, as though tasting some scent.

"Interesting... as the vessel changes, even my thoughts shift with it, as though the moon's brand were already engraved deep within my flesh and bones, impossible to conceal."

"The gifts this demonic body brings run deeper than I anticipated."

At the same time, he examined his flesh.

"To my eyes... though the human form has its intricacies, this vessel is the shape that truly accords with the soul."

"The tides rise by the moon's choosing, and all things return to their rightful place. A demon's body is my rightful place."

Wangchuan's four arms hung naturally at his sides.

He tilted his head, his pointed ears twitching slightly amid his hair, as though catching some frequency only he could hear.

"The hour has come."

"This elder once promised a reunion beneath the moonlight. Now is the time to fulfill that promise."

"Your fates shall be woven by my own hands."

He extended one of his main arms.

His fingertips settled against the glass wall of the barrier cabinet.

In that instant, all the sealing patterns across the cabinet wall lit up.

Then they went out in the very same instant, as though something stronger had overridden them.

The glass wall did not break.

But Wangchuan's fingers passed through it as though through a curtain of water, without resistance or sound.

His fingertips reached into the cabinet and touched the surface of the leftmost fetal body directly.

That fetal body shuddered violently.

Wangchuan sensed what was inside.

That soul.

Or rather, that fragment which should have become a soul, twisted and sealed away for hundreds of years.

He closed his eyes, slowly sliding his fingers over the fetal body's surface.

"Sealed away for centuries, its consciousness flickers like a guttering candle... hardly surprising."

"But its foundation remains unharmed, its bloodline endures."

"So long as a sliver of moonlight remains, this elder can bring dead wood back to life."

He withdrew that hand, then raised both arms on his shoulders at once.

Dark purple light kindled between his fingertips, glowing patterns spreading in circles and sweeping over the entire barrier cabinet like ripples.

"The soul's locks are linked one to another. One must trace them to their source to untie their knots."

"Yet for this elder, it is merely a matter of plucking a single string."

His four arms began moving at once.

The main arms on his shoulders directed the rewriting on the level of the soul.

The glowing patterns at his fingertips continually seeped into the fetal body, while the short limbs beneath his armpits stabilized the Cursed Technique's structure, like precision-operated auxiliary instruments.

The first fetal body, Choso.

"Choso... an eldest brother is like a father, born with the instinct to protect his young."

"Such a sense of responsibility is rare indeed."

"Though your blood is mixed, your nature is close to human. Interesting."

"Half abyss and half mortal world, just like moonlight reflected in muddy water, the clear and the murky remaining distinct."

"Come to think of it... you and I are rather alike."

"This elder, too, once stood before his younger brothers and sisters, bearing the sun and moon on his shoulders and holding mountains and rivers steady with his spine. Day and night, I never dared forget that responsibility as an elder brother."

"You have been trapped here for hundreds of years, yet even in sleep, you still cling tightly to your devotion to your younger brothers. This elder sees those feelings clearly."

"As a fellow elder brother, I know what weight rests upon your shoulders."

"Very well."

"Since this elder is the one awakening you today, consider it the Moon Demon's tribute to another elder brother."

"May you still hold fast to that original resolve once you awaken."

"Do not let the years wear away the light in your eyes."