New Employees

Cracks spread across God's body like fractures through porcelain.

They began at his arm and rushed over his chest, neck, and face. Pain unlike anything he had suffered entered his mind.

His body changed again at the edge of death.

The huge frame shrank. Smooth muscle drew inward. Short, dense fur covered his skin. His nose and mouth lengthened into a jackal-like muzzle.

Anubis.

He had reached another form.

The cracks did not stop.

"I do not want to die."

His voice finally returned, broken and desperate.

"Tengen!"

The name tore from him like a curse.

Then his body shattered.

Dust scattered through the tower.

Outside, the dark sky finally released its judgment. Lightning crossed the clouds and struck the headquarters of the Divine Kingdom Cult. The tower, hall, laboratories, dormitories, and hidden rooms collapsed under white light.

Waves rose with the storm and swallowed the island.

Ten minutes later, the sea calmed.

Only a single reef remained where the cult's island had stood.

Something broke the surface.

A young man dragged himself out of the water and lay across the rock, breathing hard. His hair clung to his face. His eyes were scarlet.

He lifted one hand and looked at the object clenched inside it.

A bloody smile slowly formed.

His gaze turned toward Japan.

The island's disappearance became another online obsession almost immediately.

The jujutsu world took longer to react, but once it did, the reaction was sharp.

"Why are we meeting so often lately?"

"Do you think the rest of us have nothing to do?"

"If you hate meetings, do not come. Complaining in your seat is not a skill."

"Say that again."

The muscular man and the delicate-looking man had argued so many times that most of the room no longer reacted. The lower-ranking participants kept their heads down and tried not to be noticed.

"Enough."

The elder at the head of the table slammed the meeting back into silence.

"Every meeting turns into the same noise. If one of you is capable, go kill a special-grade cursed spirit. Then I will drag the other one over and make him apologize to you."

Both men fell quiet.

A screen was placed at the center of the table. The video played from the beginning: the strange weather, the island, the lightning, the sea swallowing everything.

Several people frowned.

"This was online already."

Islands around Japan sometimes shifted under tides and storms. The weather looked strange, but people who knew the sea had seen stranger things.

The elder watched their faces.

"Several sorcerers exorcising curses near the coast reported the same thing. In the moment before the island disappeared, they felt three pressures unlike anything they had encountered."

The room changed.

"Preliminary judgment," the elder said, "is at least special grade."

Still, a special-grade presence alone did not explain a full meeting.

The elder threw a charred sign onto the table.

Those near the front stood to look, then sat down again.

The gold characters were damaged but still readable.

Divine Kingdom Cult.

"I sent people below the water. They found the remains of the cult's headquarters."

This time, the silence had weight.

The Divine Kingdom Cult had survived for years because of its unclear connection to Tengen, but that was not the only reason. It had also supplied the higher-ups with useful products.

The most famous was a recovery injection that restored enough cursed energy in seconds to decide a battle.

"Did you find anything useful?" the delicate-looking man asked.

"Bodies," the elder said. "Countless remains. We also found opened password-locked cases. Whatever they contained had already been taken or destroyed."

Several faces showed disappointment.

One man did not. The researcher with glasses listened with a grave expression.

The elder noticed and said nothing about the cases he had kept. Two divers had been swallowed when they tried to approach them. The cases seemed to have defenses comparable to special-grade cursed tools. If nothing else, they might make good blunt weapons someday.

"I have reason to believe the organization that created Yamata no Orochi was the Divine Kingdom Cult," the elder continued.

That sentence stirred hunger around the table.

"Unfortunately, as I said, nothing useful was recovered. Believe it or not as you wish."

He stood.

"One more reminder. If strange weather appears again, send people to watch. We should not be this late next time."

The meeting ended.

The researcher with glasses followed soon after. He wanted to visit a church hospital and confirm one rumor: more than a dozen researchers had fallen unconscious around the same time.

In Tengen's room, quiet meditation had settled into rest.

Then Tengen opened his eyes.

Starlight flickered in them, cutting across the distance like a blade.

For a moment, he seemed to see God's final expression.

Pain. Fear. Refusal.

Tengen sighed.

God had been a remnant of him. Some trace of will had always remained between them. That was why God could disrupt him during assimilation cycles, and why Tengen could faintly sense his condition even from far away.

Now the connection had snapped.

But the energy God had seized before death was fascinating.

Madness crept into Tengen's eyes.

He suppressed it at once.

Why was he suddenly so attached to the idea of his evolved state?

Something was wrong.

Then he paused.

The feeling was not unpleasant.

After a long silence, Tengen stopped resisting and allowed the fascination to fill him.

A week passed after the island sank beneath the sea.

The incident was buried under gossip, speculation, and newer fears.

Early one morning, Ren came to the agency and found Kento Nanami drinking tea inside.

Nanami set the cup down without surprise.

"Boss, people have been looking for you these past two days."

"Who?"

"Two girls wanted to invite you over."

"And?"

"A man with glasses. He seemed to want to ask you about research."

Nanami did not bother repeating their full explanations. His boss would not care about the decoration around the facts.

"Mm."

Ren returned to his office.

Less than half an hour later, the man with glasses arrived at the agency.

"Hello. Is Mr. Ren here?"

"In the office," Nanami said.

"I see. Then I will..."

The man's expression changed. "You said he is in the office?"

"Yes. End of the corridor, door on the left."

"Good. Good."

The man hurried down the hall and knocked.

"Come in."

He entered and found Ren leaning back in his chair, looking at the ceiling.

"Mr. Ren, hello. My name is Taiga Yashima. I am a researcher."

He paused, waiting for a reaction.

Ren gave him none.

"I am also a participant in the higher-ups' meetings."

That earned him Ren's attention.

Yashima's excitement rose.

"Continue."

"I heard you possess the complete experimental record for manufacturing a special-grade imaginary cursed spirit. I would like to buy it from you."

"Why do you think I would sell it?"

The data was useless to Ren, but that did not mean he had to hand it to someone else.

Yashima's excitement cooled into focus.

"Because you do not need it. In your hands, it has no value. In mine, it can open a new path."

"And your offer?"

"I will become your informant. I will bring you the topics and results of every higher-up meeting."

Ren smiled faintly. The betrayal was interesting.

"Not enough."

Hope, not despair, appeared on Yashima's face.

"All products from my laboratory will be delivered to you first."

"Not enough."

"Twenty percent of laboratory profits."

"Not enough."

Several rounds passed. Yashima's forehead filled with sweat. At last, he had nothing left to offer.

"Mr. Ren, name your price. If I have it, I will pay it for those records."

Ren looked at him.

This man was willing to accept nearly any condition for a stack of data.

"I have one requirement."

Yashima straightened immediately.

"Become my employee."

For a second, Yashima thought he had misheard.

"You... what did you say?"

"Unwilling?"

"No. No, no. I am willing."

His voice nearly tripped over itself.

Ren placed a stack of documents on the desk. They were the files taken from the Divine Kingdom Cult laboratory.

Yashima clasped his hands together as if praying before a shrine. His expression became almost intoxicated.

He wanted to begin verifying the data immediately. Instead, he forced enough reason back into himself to touch each stack carefully.

In less than ten seconds, he had touched every document.

Then all of them vanished.

"Boss," Yashima asked, barely able to hide his impatience, "do I come here to work every week?"

"No. I will find you when something is needed. There is no salary in the usual sense."

Yashima's mouth twitched.

Was his worth really less than a few coins?

He wanted to complain. Reason told him he did not yet have the right to joke with Ren.

If he wanted that right, he had to digest the data quickly.

"Then I will leave first."

He fled the office like a thief leaving the scene.

Nanami watched him hurry away with pity in his eyes.

What had that man experienced to look so frightened and so happy at once?

Before Nanami could think further, two voices appeared near the entrance.

"Excuse me, is..."

"Let me say it. Is your boss here?"

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