Jujutsu High? No Thanks

"So?" Satoru Gojo sat on the sofa with one leg crossed over the other, eating the cake Ren had bought as if it belonged to him. "Want to come to Jujutsu High with me?"

On the television, the news was reporting the collapse at the construction site. The anchors, ignorant of cursed spirits and jujutsu, were already dressing the story up with rumors about ghosts.

Ren leaned listlessly against the sofa with a freshly opened can of cola in hand.

"No thanks," he said. "I really can't get interested in school."

He had heard of Jujutsu High.

But being reborn once only to put himself under someone else's supervision and join a school? Ren had no interest in that.

Besides, the old men inside that institution were stubborn and rotten in their own ways. His abilities came from the system and were far too unusual. Sharing a roof with people who could only hide in the dark did not make him feel safe.

It was not that he feared them.

He simply had no reason to invite trouble.

Even without joining Jujutsu High, Ren had the Eight Supreme Arts. One day, he would stand at the top of the world.

Even the boy beside him, the man who would later be called invincible, was someone Ren believed he could one day stand beside without falling behind.

Gojo did not look surprised.

He knew Ren well enough that he had never expected him to actually say yes. If Ren had agreed, that would have been the shocking part.

"Fine, fine. But this place is pretty nice." Gojo removed his sunglasses and looked around with interest. "Has the Zenin clan become this generous?"

The two of them were inside a seaside apartment of several hundred square meters.

Everything in the room was complete, polished, and expensive. Even the paintings on the walls looked like pieces from famous artists.

It was no wonder Gojo was curious.

He had more properties than he cared to count as the future head of the Gojo clan, but Ren was supposed to be an exile.

For a discarded child of the Zenin clan to live somewhere this expensive made no sense.

That family barely provided for anyone without cursed techniques. Ren had severed his connection to them completely.

"This has nothing to do with the Zenin clan," Ren said. "It's payment."

He rolled his eyes, pulled a business card from his pocket, and flicked it at Gojo.

The card cut through the air with a sharp whistle.

Gojo did not even lift his head. His long fingers shifted slightly, leaving afterimages behind, and the card appeared between them.

"Ren's Agency?"

He read the three large words printed on the crudely made card and looked up.

"You opened an agency?"

Two years earlier, after leaving the Zenin clan, Ren had unlocked Divine Forge ? Hundred Refinements. At the same time, he gained the ability to see the cursed spirits that had always been hidden from him.

Back then, he had only a few thousand yen on him.

By chance, he helped a grocery store owner who was being harassed by Fly Heads, the lowest sort of cursed spirits. The owner paid him a surprisingly generous reward.

From that day on, Ren established an agency.

It gave him money, and solving supernatural incidents gave him practical combat experience.

This seaside apartment was payment from a real estate developer after Ren exorcised a Grade 2 cursed spirit.

As a special agency that handled supernatural problems, Ren's business had become quite famous in a small place like Sugisawa.

Its rules, however, were a little different from an ordinary agency's.

"That's right," Ren said. "Any supernatural problem solved. Price depends on my mood. No bargaining. Fair to children and elders alike."

He crushed the empty cola can in one hand and tossed it into the trash by the door. Then he looked at Gojo with a strange smile.

"Interested? Join my agency. I'm short one assistant."

"It sounds fun," Gojo said. "But 'price depends on my mood' really doesn't sound like a shady business to you?"

Even Gojo had to comment.

Ren clicked his tongue.

"How is it shady? They pay. I solve the problem. Everyone agrees. Ask around Sugisawa. Everyone knows I'm the most honest agency owner in town."

"You're also the only agency owner in town."

Gojo smiled.

"And if the jujutsu authorities hear about this, you're going to get more trouble."

He stood and stretched.

"Still, it doesn't sound bad. Jujutsu High's already been decided for me, though. Maybe after I graduate, I'll come work part-time."

"Sure."

"Be careful, then. Contact me if anything happens. Also..."

Before Gojo finished speaking, cursed energy rose around him. His body vanished from the room, leaving only the curtains by the window swaying gently.

"Your cake wasn't sweet enough."

Ren stared at the empty space.

"Eat that much sugar and see if you don't get fat."

At the same time, outside the window, dark blue cursed energy began to spread.

The surrounding space trembled faintly.

Then the cursed energy gathered in the air, and a strange skull appeared from nothing.

It floated slowly, two ghostly flames burning in its empty eye sockets. An ominous aura rolled off it as it stared into the room.

Ren lay on the sofa as if asleep.

"Target confirmed," the skull whispered. "Ready to act."

Though it was only a head, it carried a dangerous amount of cursed energy.

"Be careful," a cold male voice sounded beside it. "According to our information, he is at least Semi-Grade 1."

The skull should not have been capable of expression, but its bones somehow carried a human sneer.

"Relax. A technique that creates cursed tools is impressive, but it won't be enough to resist me. The monster from the Gojo clan is gone. Leave the rest to me."

"Fine."

"Heh. I hope the brat knows how to behave."

The ghost flames in the skull's eyes flickered as it watched Ren with open contempt.

"What?"

The skull suddenly cried out.

The flames in its eye sockets shook violently.

Ren, who had been lying inside the room, had vanished.

The skull could swear it had not blinked. Even if it wanted to, it had no eyelids.

Ren had disappeared as if erased from the world, leaving no trace of cursed energy behind.

"Impossible. He was right there."

The window shattered.

Wrapped in cursed energy, the skull floated into the room.

"Ghost Trace Technique."

Blue cursed energy spread out from the skull, drawing strange patterns in the air. Wails like mourning ghosts echoed from within them.

Then a cold flash appeared.

A flying knife shot straight toward the skull, reinforced by cursed energy and moving fast enough to arrive almost instantly.

"Damn it!"

The patterns around the skull shattered.

It barely dodged the flying knife in midair, but for some reason, a deep sense of danger rose inside it.

It felt as if a terrible presence had fixed its attention on it.

"You've been watching for a long time," Ren's voice said from behind it, edged with murderous intent. "I charge for that."

His figure slowly appeared behind the skull.

The skull went still.

It did not move.

It did not dare turn around.

Behind it was not a boy.

Behind it was an abyss.

If it looked back, it might fall into a darkness that would never see daylight again.

I'm going to die.

The thought screamed inside the skull.

What is this thing?

Its body was made from cursed energy, but at that moment, instinct warned it of death.

From Ren, it sensed its cursed energy being devoured.

"A curse user?"

Ren grabbed the skull and lifted it in front of his eyes.

Six Vaults Devourer kept running, absorbing the cursed energy around the skull without restraint.

"Strange thing."

The skull said nothing and pretended to be dead.

Ren studied it with curiosity.

Six Vaults Devourer could absorb cursed energy and convert it into Ren's own power. His body and energy both strengthened through it.

But absorbing cursed energy had one strict condition.

It had to be unclaimed.

Whether it came from a cursed spirit or a sorcerer, Ren had to defeat the target first. If everything that carried cursed energy were a drink, Six Vaults Devourer required him to remove the cap before he could drink it.

This thing in his hand was different.

It was like a drink already poured into a cup.

He could pick it up and swallow it directly.

"If you keep playing dead, I don't mind draining you completely," Ren said. "Believe me. I'm very good at that."

He shook the skull a few times.

It still did not respond.

A cruel smile appeared on Ren's face.

As he had said before, he was a lazy person. He had no interest in playing mind games with something in his hand.

He opened his mouth slightly.

The devouring force surged.

"Damn it! I really will die!"

The skull, which had been pretending to be dead, felt alarm bells explode through its mind the moment Ren opened his mouth.

It dropped the act at once.

"Sir! Please! Give me a chance!"

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