They’d come to subdue the Kamo clan, only for the mastermind to show up right away.
Keeping their guard up, yet unable to hide their shock, the brothers watched Kenjaku grin with oily amusement.
"You’ve gotten stronger in the meantime. As expected, the last piece I made really is different."
Kenjaku’s eyes swept over Yuji with obvious interest.
Though they were family bound by blood, there wasn’t a shred of affection in that gaze.
It was as if he were appraising not a child, but some inorganic product.
Anger flared instantly, but Choso clenched his teeth and glared at Kenjaku.
While making the plan, they had expected the Kamo clan to resist fiercely.
They had even considered the possibility that Jujutsu Headquarters might already have fallen into Kenjaku’s hands.
But to think he would be here in person. And posing as the clan head, no less.
"What happened to the previous clan head?"
"Killed him. He was useless. I’m the twenty-fifth clan head now."
"That’s possible?"
"Why wouldn’t it be? I was Kamo once, too. With Jujutsu Headquarters in my pocket, twisting a few orders was child’s play."
After the Shibuya Incident ended, Kenjaku subdued the Kamo clan on his own.
The Kamo clan had always been closed off, and with Jujutsu Headquarters quietly helping from the shadows, it was only natural that no one knew.
Taking the name of the body he had once used, he rose as clan head and began cleaning house without a sound.
"The one who pushed for Geto Suguru’s execution. The one who recommended Okkotsu Yuta as the executioner. I dealt with everyone except the corrupt faction they were colluding with. Now the Kamo clan, the mother of the conservatives, and conservatism itself are all in my hands."
"That’s too bad. It’s all getting overturned today."
"Well, I know that much. This was never more than a bit of amusement. Shall we change the venue?"
As Kenjaku muttered something incomprehensible and waved his hand, the surroundings changed completely.
The main house of the mansion that had surrounded them shimmered and vanished, and an open sky came into view.
Before they knew it, they were in a place that looked like a training ground used by sorcerers.
"!!"
"I laid a barrier over the entire mansion. I copied that Tengen bastard’s little trick. What do you think?"
A stage modeled after the siege barrier at Hongsung Palace.
A place he had prepared to receive his guests.
At the sight of such monstrous barrier technique, the brothers broke out in cold sweat.
'I didn’t sense any residue at all. How skilled is he?'
'So from the moment we stepped inside, we were already in his domain...'
Perhaps having sensed their thoughts, Kenjaku smiled gently.
They could fight right now if they wanted, but seeing the "works" he had created gathered in one place was moving even for him.
He ought to show them, at least.
The possibilities of the world to come, or part of them.
"I’ll show you."
At his manipulation, the outline of the siege barrier inverted and transformed into something like a movie theater.
Before the three of them, seated side by side where they could see the screen at a glance, the image he had created spread out.
"What’s happening?"
"More tricks!"
"Take it slow. Nobody’s dragging you off anywhere. We’ll play after this."
One by one, bizarrely deformed drawings and images began to appear.
As if he had been waiting for the moment, Kenjaku sucked on a cola and began laying out the words he had prepared.
"Choso, you heard me, didn’t you? Why I’m doing all this."
"Did your brain with those teeth rot after a thousand years of living like a shut-in? You don’t need to do us any favors—just crawl into a nursing home on your own."
"That’s harsh talk for your father. Well, I’ll make it clear now."
Click— the screen advanced, revealing a scene with three images and a cycle drawn between them.
What each image symbolized was Tengen, the Six Eyes, and Idle Transfiguration.
"My plan needed three things."
First: Tengen had to evolve into a form close to a cursed spirit, unable to merge with the Star Plasma Vessel.
Second: he had to avoid interference from a Limitless sorcerer with the Six Eyes.
Third: I needed a [technique] that could turn a non-sorcerer into a sorcerer.
"Mahito and teacher Gojo....!"
"Getting my hands on Mahito was luck. I’d obtained a similar [technique] a thousand years ago, but this was the first one so precise and intuitive."
"So sealing Gojo Satoru was part of that too?"
"Killing him with my own power was impossible from the start. That guy is exceptional even among all the Limitless users in history. Besides, even if I killed him, another Six Eyes might be born, so sealing him was the best option."
The third problem could be solved with time.
The real problems were the first and second.
"Tengen, the Six Eyes sorcerer, and I are bound by a powerful ‘cause and effect.’ It’s like a fate that anyone with cursed energy has to obey."
Whenever a sorcerer with the Six Eyes was born, they were killed as an infant.
He had killed Tengen’s Star Plasma Vessel more times than he could count.
And yet fate, mocking him, kept throwing up new trials, and at the crucial moment, a newly born Six Eyes sorcerer and a new vessel would always ruin the plan.
"And then, ta-da! An existence outside that cause and effect appeared."
A simple animation played, showing someone breaking the chain of cycles tangled between Tengen and the Six Eyes.
The heavenly-born tyrant, Fushiguro Toji.
Completely severed from cursed energy, he possessed the power to break even the flow of the world.
"That was my cue to move the plan forward."
"Wasn’t that just pure luck? If that man hadn’t existed, if Mahito hadn’t been born, how long were you planning to wait?"
"Seizing an opportunity is skill too. I waited a thousand years for the ideal conditions. It’s not like I did nothing in the meantime."
Geto Suguru, the original owner of this body, might not know it, but the one who founded the cult that caused the incident twelve years ago was Kenjaku.
It was also his influence that led to the hiring of Fushiguro Toji and the assassination request for Amanai Riko.
Geto Suguru’s fall was driven most of all by his own rigid nature, but even that had been nudged from behind by Kenjaku.
He fed false information into mission reports, got Haibara Yu killed, and tipped him off to a village where twins were being abused.
When Geto finally went mad and killed his own parents, Kenjaku had laughed so hard.
"You have no idea how much legwork I put in."
"And you’re proud of that? Playing with people and manipulating them?"
Yuji’s fists were already trembling with rage.
Well. He wasn’t proud of it.
It had been fun, but even that was just part of the entertainment.
"Anyway, once all the pieces were in place, I was going to start the game. Make every human in this country cross over to the other shore, and create a cursed spirit formed from a hundred million units of cursed energy."
Humans who merged with Tengen became closer to cursed spirits.
What would a cursed spirit made from a hundred million people’s cursed energy look like?
He had never imagined anything more delightful. It felt like being a little kid with a crayon in front of a blank sheet of paper.
"Why would you do something like that...?"
"Didn’t I say it? Because it’s enjoyable. Imagining things like that."
"Are you a hedonist?"
"I’m not driven only by private feelings. I have convictions too."
Seeing something new was always a pleasure.
He had always been that way, ever since the Heian era, when all he had was a feeble body.
"What do you think life is?"
"Family."
"Happiness."
"Both sound plausible, but my answer is a little different. Life is ‘development’ and ‘discovery.’"
Human beings had always advanced by pursuing new things. In the process, they also discovered unexpected joys.
How long did they think it took for the strong and mighty to decline, and for someone who could only swap bodies to rise to the top of the food chain?
He had always struggled and pursued new possibilities, and that had become the foundation of who he was, a temperament he could never separate from himself for a lifetime.
"If you actually do the thing you wanted to do, aren’t you curious what result will come of it? Isn’t that life?"
After the age of curses collapsed, the humans of this country merely lived by inertia.
They pursued only peaceful daily life, never even knowing what darkness writhed beneath the bright surface of society.
That was not proper "life."
"Someone had to do it, and it just happened to be me."
The brothers’ stunned faces came into view.
To them, it probably sounded like nothing but the rambling of a madman. Maybe he was already insane.
But so what?
"What should I call you...?"
"Call me an evolutionist."
Life is newness itself, the manifestation of possibility.
He could hardly wait for the new era that was about to arrive.
Pleasure was a fruit to be savored at the very end.
"Well, once Yoshino Junpei showed up as an unexpected variable, I scrapped that plan. It became something a little more concise and intuitive."
"Stop dancing around it and say it plainly. You’re scared of Junpei."
"I am scared. He’s my natural enemy. But at the same time, I hope there’ll be someone like him in the new era too."
That was enough. He wouldn’t show them the rest.
They’d find out soon enough anyway, so there was no need to spoil it.
He had enjoyed the diversion he’d used to buy time.
Whoosh—
As the siege barrier flipped over, the three of them returned to the original training ground.
With Yuji and Choso’s cursed energy surging, Kenjaku waggled a finger at them.
"If you have any last questions, I’ll take them."
"Why did you make us?"
Father and mother.
A question they had always wanted to ask the parent who had given them blood, even if their sexes were different.
Both Yuji and Choso had always turned that over in their hearts.
What, exactly, was the reason they had been born into this world?
"Yuji, you just need to stay as you are. Because of your nature as a vessel, curses will never stop gathering around you. That’s all there is to it."
Yuji’s fist clenched tightly.
"Choso, you were made when I was studying cursed spirits. I thought you were a product of evolution, but you were a failure. Too ordinary."
A grinding sound came from between Choso’s teeth.
He already knew.
He had only been denying it in his heart.
As if driving a wedge through that thought, Kenjaku twisted his mouth into a smile.
"You’re both boring."
With those words, the battle began.
[Piercing Blood]
[Convergent Fist]
In response, what Kenjaku drew out was...
special-grade vengeful spirit—
Aguro Oodake
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