The Cast-Off Body

"What is it, Miss Kuroi?"

Ren looked at the woman before him with some doubt. She was still catching her breath.

"I am truly sorry," Kuroi said, bowing deeply. "Miss Riko does not mean any harm."

Her voice carried an indescribable bitterness.

Ren watched her without expression. He did not step forward to comfort her like an ordinary man might. If anything, he found her a little strange.

Did she truly think he would do something to a little girl?

Then Kuroi's next words made him even more speechless.

"Mr. Ren, I do not have much contact with the jujutsu world, but I have heard your legends. I know that no rule can bind you. So please, do not be angry with Miss Riko."

"If you truly need to vent, direct it at me."

Kuroi spread her arms and stood in front of Ren, eyes closed, eyelids trembling. She was frightened, but she did not step back.

As the person responsible for the Star Plasma Vessel, Kuroi had watched Riko grow up. Her feelings were complicated.

On one hand, Riko was Tengen's future vessel and should have carried supreme honor. As Riko's caretaker, Kuroi should have felt proud, not sad.

On the other hand, Kuroi was human. The girl she had watched grow up had become almost family.

Under that contradiction, Kuroi became extremely sensitive toward anyone who might harm Riko. She was like a hen trying with all her strength to protect her chick until the moment the chick entered the oven.

Today, however, she had met someone she could not resist no matter what.

Ren Zenin.

The legendary sorcerer who had crushed an era by himself, nearly overturned the Association, and turned into the shadow of the younger generation. The jujutsu world attached many labels to him: violent, cruel, lawless, invincible.

Kuroi could not imagine what would happen if he truly cared about Riko's rudeness. Could Tengen's order bind such a man?

She did not dare gamble.

So she had watched Ren from the shadows. The moment he rose and walked away, she could no longer bear the pressure and rushed out.

Looking at the woman who seemed ready to die, Ren found it a little funny. Under the Sovereign Wind Array, Kuroi's thoughts were almost impossible to hide.

"I do not need to argue with a girl."

After saying that, Ren did not look at her again. He walked directly toward a pavilion nearby.

Kuroi, stiff all over, let out a breath as if she had been pulled from a dead sea.

A person at his level had no reason to deceive her.

She hurried to the side of the pavilion.

On the table, a wine glass and a bottle of precious red wine had appeared at some point. Scarlet wine moved in the glass like ripples across a world.

"Your name is Kuroi, correct?"

"Yes, Mr. Ren."

She still looked restrained. Her hands pressed tightly along the seams of her pants, and her posture was painfully straight.

"Do not be nervous. I am not a monster that eats people."

Ren lifted the glass.

"I am only an ordinary boss."

Kuroi thought of his legends.

Were the requirements for being an ordinary boss this high now?

Crushing a generation, killing the Association chairman, overturning the order of the jujutsu world; if that was ordinary, what was she? A crawling insect?

Of course, she did not dare say any of that.

"You are joking, Mr. Ren. Your agency is already nearly at the top of the jujutsu world."

That was not flattery.

Ren had no interest in lingering on the topic. His pale eyes reflected Kuroi's figure. His mouth curved slightly, as if he had seen through her body and mind.

"Do you think she is your family?"

Kuroi's expression froze.

Confusion appeared in her eyes. She had asked herself this question many times, but never found a true answer.

Did I really treat Riko as family?

What did she actually want?

Was I only a caretaker reading from a script?

Ren's voice seemed to carry a strange force, pulling her into a state she could not escape. She bit her lip hard enough that blood appeared, but she did not seem to notice.

"If she is your family, are you truly willing to let her become another person?"

His voice sounded beside her ear. At some point, he had appeared next to her and finished the wine in his glass.

Then his figure flickered through the void, leaving Kuroi alone with her memories.

Ren stopped in a corner of the school.

Mind-Wandering Spirit quietly faded. His gaze moved slowly through the surrounding garden, as if searching for something.

"If you like hiding in the dark, then stay there forever."

"You followed from the beginning until now. Are you not tired?"

"Trash."

His voice was cold enough to freeze the air.

Black blood began bubbling from the ground. It carried a nauseating stench, like a corpse thrown into a sewer.

The blood slowly formed a human shape.

Soon, a man dressed in white like a church believer stood before Ren. His hollow eyes stared at Ren with fanatic excitement, as if a worshiper had finally seen his idol.

Ren had seen that kind of madness only in news from his previous life.

It was the will of a fanatic, capable of happily sacrificing even their own children for faith and calling it devotion.

The man in white gave Ren exactly that kind of disgusting madness.

"Ren Zenin! I found you. I found you."

"You are the lord's gift. The lord's sacrifice."

"Come. Join glorious evolution."

Black blood dripped from his mouth. When it touched the ground, it corroded holes through the stone.

Ren frowned.

He did not think the strange man was difficult to handle. He simply found him disgusting.

His toe touched the ground, and profound forces stirred around him. The Sovereign Wind Array unfolded quietly.

"I do not know what you are shouting about," Ren said, "but you are revolting. Please leave my sight."

"Otherwise, I promise you will regret being born into this world."

Disgust was clear in his eyes. Even his usual smile disappeared.

"How can this be revolting?" the man said, lifting one hand.

Black blood bubbled from his palm like boiling water. It floated in the air with a stench like sewer grease.

"This is the lord's grace."

"Ren Zenin. The man who will kill you is Kamon, a believer of the Divine Kingdom Cult."

He screamed and charged like a leopard.

Every step left black blood that corroded the ground.

Just before he could touch Ren, invisible force surged from every side and imprisoned him in midair.

The power he worshiped as divine grace could not break free at all.

"Heaven Position - Spatial Lock."

Ren formed a sign with one hand and looked at Kamon, who was trapped inside the sealed space.

"Sorry. I am quite interested in your Divine Kingdom Cult, but..."

His disgust overflowed.

"You are too disgusting."

Space rioted.

Inside the imprisoned area, terrifying spatial turbulence tore Kamon's body apart. He burst into black blood mist.

"Not a sorcerer. Similar to that fellow, though."

Ren looked at the mist and thought of the man he had once nearly forgotten, the human who had called himself a hero and wanted to drag Ren into hell with countless dead souls.

"Fanatic believers. A new power besides cursed energy. More entertaining than I expected."

His gaze shifted toward a corner of the school, as if he could see a black figure across distance and space.

"Try inviting me properly next time."

"Do not make me bored."

He seemed to be talking to himself, and also whispering in someone's ear.

"Do not worry," God said from his seat, smiling deeply. "How could I let you be bored? The game has only just begun."

He looked toward empty space as if seeing the white-clothed, black-haired young man.

"Letting such low-grade trash meet you was rude of me. But I need to wait a little longer. You do not want to end the fight in one blow, do you?"

Madness colored his voice.

A thick tube was connected to his arm. The other end pierced the mountain-like cursed womb. Black blood flowed into his body without stopping.

The power different from cursed energy grew stronger and stronger.

Inside the cursed womb, the sleeping cursed spirit gave unconscious cries, as if feeling pain.

Ordinary people could not withstand even a trace of cursed blood. God, however, kept pumping it into himself.

"Star Plasma Vessel. Tengen."

His tone carried deep contempt.

"Five hundred years passed so quickly. Have you still not found your true self? How pitiful."

An image of Riko Amanai appeared before him.

"No progress at all. Only evolution can change everything. You are as foolish as you were five hundred years ago."

He sighed.

"Forget it. Let me solve the trouble. After all, I was once..."

His voice lowered.

"Tengen."

That sigh seemed to cross centuries.

Legend said that the previous body Tengen had cast off was the remains of a believer. Tengen's discarded bodies were usually taken away by specialists for experiments and then cremated. It had been done this way for thousands of years.

Only that believer's corpse had mysteriously disappeared after being cast off.

Even stranger, Tengen, who had always respected his discarded bodies, ordered that the matter not be pursued.

The hidden oddity of that incident had remained like a thorn in the hearts of the higher-ups.

Now, just as everyone was about to forget it, the existence that should have died long ago was about to open a new chapter for the world.

God's eyes held an unreadable meaning.

"Humanity. Cursed spirits. A new era is about to begin."

"Tengen, I will pay for your mistake."

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