Kenseki

Toji Fushiguro held the ore in his hand.

Through the faint glow around the stone, he looked at Ren Zenin.

"These rocks are good stuff. Make lenses out of them and they can see through almost any illusion."

Ren felt the energy inside the ore. It carried warmth like sunlight and a damp saltiness like the sea.

"Bringing proof that you have been slacking off directly to your boss takes courage," Ren said. "I have to praise that."

Toji's smile froze.

"This month's salary is gone."

The stone slipped from Toji's hand and hit the floor before he noticed.

"You..." He stared at Ren. "No wonder people call you the real boss."

The stones in the sack rose as if summoned. One by one, they arranged themselves in front of Ren like soldiers waiting for inspection.

"What do you need these for?" Ren asked.

Toji watched the stones line up and suddenly felt that everything he had carried back looked less impressive.

He had been searching for Kenseki recently and had found no clues. Even the information network had almost no record of it.

With only Taiga Yashima's description of its properties, Toji had searched nearby sea areas. That morning, on an unnamed island, he had sensed a familiar cursed energy.

It was the same disgusting trace as the rats from the drug transaction.

Sure enough, he had found the muscular man from that deal swinging a hammer and digging out the ore.

After clearing out the laborers, Toji discovered why the work had been slow. The ore rejected cursed energy. It could only be mined with raw physical strength. Explosives were useless too. The ore was brittle enough that blasting it into powder would leave almost nothing except material for poor lenses.

Seeing Ren make the ore obey so easily made Toji feel, for one brief moment, like a hired tool.

"I ran into a few rats before," Toji said. "I wanted glasses made from this ore so I could catch them next time."

"And today?"

"Good luck. I stepped on one nest of rats and brought the ore back."

The people on that island belonged to Haruto Nakatsui. They had claimed the Kenseki mine and destroyed every public trace of the material. Even the researcher who had once displayed the stone at an academic exchange had been seized after the event and turned into a Nakatsui researcher.

Anyone who mixed with the jujutsu world knew that kind of family's attitude.

Cooperate, or die.

Ren smiled faintly and sent the stones back into the sack.

He did not ask who the rats were. He also did not ask why Toji had not come to him for help with the glasses.

Toji had his pride. Pushing into that matter would only damage their relationship.

"All right," Ren said. "Go do whatever you need to do."

The dismissal was blunt. Toji did not waste words. He picked up the sack and left through the window.

Outside, in the sewer below that window, a mass of dirty water trembled as if frightened and slipped quickly into the pipes.

"Rats," Ren murmured. "They are annoying."

That afternoon, at the Nakatsui estate, Haruto Nakatsui sat in his room and listened to the report from his subordinates.

His expression grew darker with every sentence.

"That bastard. That bastard!"

With a crack, the low table in front of him broke beneath his palm.

The destruction did not calm him. His anger only climbed higher.

Two cold, soft hands settled on his shoulders from behind. Their chill was not quite ice, but it flowed through his body, spread into his limbs, and returned to his head.

Haruto slowly calmed down.

"Master," one of the women behind him said, "do not be angry. We already have enough Kenseki to use. We no longer need the mine."

"Keeping those people alive was wasting food anyway," the other woman said.

Haruto considered that.

True. The island had served its purpose. Beyond punishment, it no longer had value.

Still, abandoning it like this left his anger unresolved.

As head of the family, however, he could not drag the entire house into disaster because of pride.

"I will report this and see what it wants us to arrange."

He went to the rear courtyard again. Although autumn had already arrived, the courtyard remained green and full of flowers, as if seasons had no authority there.

Haruto knelt outside the room and reported what had happened at the Kenseki mine.

"What should we do next?"

"It does not matter," the voice inside said. "What you brought back is enough. Follow my formula and make what we need."

"Recently, avoid going out as much as possible. Do not create trouble."

Haruto lowered his head.

The future plan burned in his eyes.

Satoru Gojo. Ren Zenin.

One week from now would be the day they died.

And the old men in the jujutsu world could wash their hands of it and wait. After this, his family would be the one speaking.

When his footsteps faded, the room behind the door grew quiet again.

Inside, books filled the large chamber: child education, philosophy, ideology, and rare volumes that had almost disappeared from the world.

A pale-blue figure set down the book in its hands. Its body was covered with tumors like exposed brain tissue. They moved slowly, as if absorbing the words from the page.

Before long, they settled.

"Master," a foul black shape said from the floor, forming from a pool of sewage. "The preparations are nearly complete. We can act in one week."

The stench filled the entire room.

The pale-blue figure did not react with disgust. Instead, the brainlike growths on its body twitched at the same time. Fluids moved through thin tubes toward its skull, making its head swell as if it might burst.

"Folly," the black shape said. "You have done well."

"After this matter ends, I will recommend you to our master. If everything goes smoothly, you will become one of us. The world will once again move toward an age ruled by cursed spirits."

The sewage vanished.

Only the smell proved it had ever been there.

Folly greedily inhaled the remaining odor.

It had waited too long for this moment.

At last, it would crawl out from underneath.

"As long as the information is correct, my judgment will not be wrong."

Late that night, on an island in the sea, waves struck the beach harder and harder, as if the next blow might erase the island itself.

Deep within the island stood an old castle. From a distance, under moonlight, it looked white and noble, as if taken from a fairy tale.

Closer, that nobility became horror.

The white exterior was piled from bones.

Inside, darkness swallowed all light.

"Filth," a hoarse voice asked, "how are the preparations?"

The voice carried a pressure that made obedience feel natural, as if its owner had been born ruler of that space.

A chandelier lit at the top of the castle. Blue light spread across the walls, revealing countless faces of pain pressing out from the air itself.

"Obo has been informed," Filth said. "He is unhappy, but he did not dare resist. Folly's side is mostly ready. The required items are being produced. It will not take long to reach the necessary number."

It hesitated.

"But?"

"I do not understand the need. We could move slowly. Humans do not live that long."

Silence filled the castle.

"No more waiting. Who knows whether something stronger than those two will appear later?"

Filth understood.

They had once feared the talents of the Gojo and Zenin families and waited for those people to die. Before they could move, Ren Zenin and Satoru Gojo appeared. If they waited again, the next generation might be even worse.

"Falsehood and Yadha have already been erased," the voice said. "If we delay further, the King's return will be postponed without limit."

Filth's oily body shook.

Those two were dead?

They had been beings of the same level as the one before it.

Fear rose, but Filth crushed it. Showing fear here was no different from asking to die.

"Make sure nothing goes wrong. Leave."

Filth bowed and withdrew.

When it reached the beach, it looked across the endless sea and, for an instant, wanted to run.

The impulse became only a sigh.

Autumn pushed away the last strength of summer.

Toji received the Kenseki glasses he needed from Yashima's laboratory and left the remaining ore for research. Nanami also completed the administrative process for promotion under Gojo's guidance. All that remained was a supervised mission: exorcise three Grade 2 cursed spirits alone.

While Nanami searched an abandoned hospital, Ren walked through a distant shopping mall with Gojo.

Ren suddenly looked around with pale-moon eyes.

Nothing obvious appeared.

Gojo noticed. "Worried about your employee?"

"If he found out, that expressionless face of his might actually change."

Ren glanced at him. "I only think you are a troublemaker."

"Compared to me, you attract bigger trouble, don't you?"

Gojo was not willing to take the blame. Most serious trouble went straight to Ren. He was usually just nearby.

Still, he swept the mall with the Six Eyes. He saw no clear difference, yet something wrapped faintly around the area, as if hungry rats were watching from the walls.

Ren had sensed that first.

"You feel it?" Ren asked.

"Yeah. I do not know what it is. We should leave first."

Ren found that interesting. Gojo had started worrying about the ordinary people nearby. That was not entirely a good thing.

Before they could move, two enormous fists wrapped in flame crashed down toward them like falling meteors.

Ren and Gojo vanished.

The place where they had stood exploded into a crater. Stone fragments and scattered fire threw the mall into chaos.

"Disaster is here! The end of the world is real!"

"Get out of the way! Stop screaming about doomsday!"

"Mom! Where are you?"

"Do not run blindly! Watch the people ahead!"

Panic rolled through the mall.

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