Ten Times Gojo's Bounty

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Once the sorcerers disappeared, most of the coldness faded from Itsuki's face.

"Sit."

Itsuki took two expensive seat cushions from the Kamui Dimension and set them out for the girls.

Seeing that the floor had been cleaned, Mai relaxed slightly.

Suppressing the fear still lingering inside her, Mai lifted her head and called out in a clear little voice, "Brother Itsuki."

He accepted the lunch box Maki handed him and nodded.

"Has anyone in the clan been bullying you lately?"

The two girls sat across from him and shook their heads.

Since they began delivering his meals, no one in the enormous clan, servant or sorcerer, had dared ostracize them openly.

At least not in the open.

Contempt still followed the girls in every glance.

The girls did not dwell on it. With practiced movements, they opened the second lunch box in Mai's hands.

Kobe beef, lobster sashimi, fugu, matsutake mushrooms...

Neatly sliced Densuke watermelon.

The four-tiered lunch box was packed full of high-end ingredients the girls could never have enjoyed before.

The clan employed more than a dozen nutritionists just to manage Itsuki's diet and health.

After all, he was at an age where his body was still growing.

Because of a single word from him, the twins now enjoyed the same top-tier treatment.

Only after he picked up his chopsticks did the girls begin eating.

After half a year of eating and drinking alongside him, both of them seemed to have put on a little healthy weight.

"Brother Itsuki," Maki said, lifting her small head with a determined expression, "I want to train with the Kukuru Unit."

Mai froze.

She stared at her sister in disbelief, her cheeks puffed full of rice that she forgot to chew.

She truly could not understand.

Their life at home had only just improved. Why would her sister choose to step into hell on her own?

He smiled and agreed without hesitation.

It seemed the earlier scene had taught the girl the importance of strength.

"Then I want to go too!"

Mai swallowed the rice in her mouth in a hurry and clutched Maki's sleeve tightly.

At that moment, she had only one thought.

She wanted to stay with her sister forever.

Even if that meant going to hell with her.

Maki started to object, then stopped.

She had been the one to ask first.

How could she tell Mai to give up?

"Fine," Itsuki said. "Training will be good for you."

"Once you learn enough, you can choose whatever cursed tools you want from the cursed warehouse."

He made the promise with an easy smile.

Perhaps it was because, before he awakened, these two girls had been the only people in the clan to show him kindness.

Or perhaps it was because their misery in the Zenin Clan before the age of six was far too similar to his own childhood.

These two girls were among the few people for whom Itsuki still felt any goodwill.

Everyone else was just a monkey.

After eating his fill, Itsuki glanced at the sisters still chewing carefully across from him and took an old notebook from the Kamui Dimension.

"Maki, what month is it?"

For the past half year, Itsuki had been too busy.

Growing the Ten Shadows shikigami.

Feeding cursed spirits to the Gedo Statue, along with the occasional sorcerer.

Refining cursed energy control, studying Reverse Cursed Technique, learning Simple Domain.

Fortunately, the Zenin Clan had deep reserves.

The cursed technique records it collected, the experiences left by past Ten Shadows users, and the notes on Domain Expansion had all greatly accelerated his growth and saved him a tremendous amount of time.

Food, clothing, living arrangements, daily expenses, and every other material concern went without saying.

Even sorcerers had to earn a living.

Nanami would eventually leave jujutsu for a corporate job.

Toji Fushiguro took assassination contracts.

And curse user groups had operated in the shadows for years.

Sorcerers ran around for money all the time.

"August 2007," Maki answered without hesitation.

After speaking, the two girls looked curiously at the notebook Itsuki had opened on the table.

They could not recognize the strange writing on the pages at all.

Itsuki flipped through the pages until he reached the period Maki had named.

The dense lines were notes he had written as a child because he was afraid he would forget the plot.

They were not written for anyone else to read.

Even someone from his old world would have struggled to decipher them.

The cramped shorthand looked worse than a doctor's prescription.

It was less handwriting than a private cipher.

When he reached the month Maki mentioned, several lines on the upper half of the page had been crossed out in black.

Those were events that had already happened.

06: Star Plasma Vessel incident.

06: Satoru Gojo's awakening.

06: Toji Fushiguro's death.

Itsuki's gaze moved lower.

A faint smile touched his lips.

07: Suguru Geto's fall.

One line of warped writing was still recognizable to him.

Elsewhere, in the courtyard of the former Zenin clan head.

After receiving a subordinate's report that another sorcerer had died in the cursed warehouse, Naobito scowled.

In these eight months, Itsuki had killed sixteen clan sorcerers.

Add the two servants, and the estate had lost eighteen people to him.

The thought only made Naobito's expression worse.

"What?" Jinichi asked, lifting the cup in front of him and flashing Naobito a mocking smile. "Can't take it anymore, old man? Thinking of making a move?"

"I told you to put away those petty thoughts."

Naobito glanced sideways at him.

"Are you waiting for me and that boy to kill each other so a seat opens up for you?"

Seeing Jinichi's body go stiff for an instant, Naobito let out a dry laugh.

"Blood ties in the Zenin Clan really are a joke."

Then his tone shifted, filled with warning.

"You can say things like that in front of me. Fine."

"But if you dare play those little games in front of that boy..."

"I do not think you would last three seconds."

In the end, Naobito had already done more than enough for Jinichi, his nephew.

If Naobito had not lowered his pride last time, Jinichi's head would have rolled across the floor eight months ago.

Seeing Naobito's serious expression, Jinichi froze, then said in confusion, "If you have no intention of moving against him, why did you have me disguise people as members of the Kamo Clan and raise that kid's bounty on the black market?"

"Eight hundred million yen, thrown out just like that. And you expect me to believe you had no intention at all?"

Itsuki's bounty on the black market had already reached a terrifying one billion yen.

That was ten times the bounty Satoru Gojo had carried as a child.

"You think I wanted to do that?"

Naobito snapped, furious at how little Jinichi understood.

"Use that shriveled brain of yours."

"The Zenin Clan would treasure him for the Ten Shadows Technique alone. You think I would send people to kill him?"

"Add a special-grade-level cursed spirit under his control, and a spatial technique that nearly killed you in one hit."

"A monster who is in no way inferior to Satoru Gojo, and you think I would place a bounty on him?"

"That thing on your shoulders is supposed to be a head, not decoration."

After venting, Naobito let out a long breath.

Jinichi, thoroughly scolded, stared at him for a while before finally recovering.

"No, wait. You yourself told me to do it."

Naobito sighed.

"Do not forget. I am only the head of the Hei now, not the head of the Zenin Clan."

Jinichi grimaced.

"You mean Itsuki himself gave the order?"

Naobito did not deny it.

Jinichi looked even more confused.

"Why would the clan head do that?"

"Do you think that boy looks like the type to explain himself properly to me?"

Naobito looked at him as though he were an idiot.

He seriously wondered what went on inside Jinichi's head.

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