Cursed Speech

Yuta heard Toge's excited voice and smiled gently.

"All right. Five million."

Just as Yuta prepared to pay, Toge stopped him.

"Dried fish."

He took a card from his own clothes and paid for it himself.

Most exorcism missions for students were public work, but Gojo usually gave them extra money after each mission. They were people, and people needed money.

Toge did not have many hobbies, so most of that money had stayed saved.

After paying, he looked at Ren with clear expectation.

He was anxious, but he did not show it too much. He did not want to put pressure on the agency boss, and he did not want to look desperate.

Ren watched him and smiled faintly.

Cursed Speech was a lesser form of making words become law.

Toge could not fully control when the technique activated, so he often hurt others by accident. For most people, solving this would be difficult.

For Ren, it was simple.

He snapped his fingers.

A glass of red wine slowly appeared on the table in front of Toge.

"Drink it. The side effects of Cursed Speech will disappear."

Toge stared at the red wine in shock.

Such a troublesome problem could be solved with one glass?

He lifted the glass and looked carefully at the liquid inside.

For a moment, a vague face seemed to appear on the wall of the glass.

Toge swallowed and glanced at Yuta.

Yuta looked serious and nodded for him to drink.

Toge closed his eyes, raised his head, and drank it all.

His eyes widened.

He set the glass on the table with difficulty and pressed one hand against his chest.

"Ah..."

Comfortable.

It was a comfort he had never felt before.

The cool liquid slid down his throat and spread through his body, then gathered around his heart. The feeling reached all the way to his soul, making him unable to hold back a sound.

Toge could not see the change himself, but Yuta saw it clearly.

The cursed marks around Toge's mouth were slowly disappearing.

"Inumaki-senpai, the marks are fading."

Toge heard that and rushed to the mirror.

He stared at his reflection.

The marks on his mouth were truly gone.

"Salmon roe. Salmon roe."

He was too excited and instinctively used rice-ball language again.

Then he paused.

"Can I really speak normally?"

Yuta nodded quickly and gestured for him to try something else.

That phrase had no meaning, so it could not prove anything.

"Fall down," Toge said carefully.

Nothing happened in the room.

"Fall down. Explode. Back up. Move forward."

As time passed, the two confirmed that the side effect had vanished.

"Can you still use your technique?" Yuta asked.

Toge nodded.

He could feel that his cursed technique had not disappeared. That was why he had been so careful.

He closed his eyes and guided cursed energy.

The old markings appeared on his face again.

He released the energy.

The marks faded.

Confirmed.

Now, Toge could speak like a normal person too.

"Thank you, Boss."

"You paid. I did the work. Mutual benefit."

That was one of Ren's principles.

"Oh? What are my two students doing here?"

Gojo's voice came from outside.

"Did you come to see the real Amaterasu in person? Come on, I still have photos. Looking at them together with the real thing is the proper experience."

Yuta and Toge instantly felt chills rise across their skin.

"Sensei, no need. Our business is done."

"Right, sensei. We still have something to do. You and the boss can talk. We will come again when we have time."

The two fled as if something terrible were chasing them.

Ren's eyes turned dangerous.

"Did you come today to fight?"

"No, no. I came to chat."

Gojo said that, but his phone was already in front of Ren.

A video began to play.

"I have said before," Ren said, "if I do not allow it, no one can record my image."

Gojo looked at the phone and smiled.

"So the Amaterasu from last night really was not you."

He had not taken the photos only for amusement. He had been making a final confirmation.

"Do you know how much influence last night's incident had on the whole jujutsu world? No, on society itself?"

Gojo sat opposite Ren and leaned back like him.

"What influence?" Ren asked. "It is not the first time something like this appeared. Besides, did it not bury the impact of the deaths?"

Ren glanced at him.

Trying to use that to pressure him was too naive.

Gojo laughed.

"I am only relaying their words. Do not be so serious. But with such a large disturbance last night, do you really have nothing to tell me?"

He leaned closer.

"For example, why did that cursed spirit look like you? Or why could ordinary people see it?"

Ren turned his gaze aside.

"You should ask it directly."

Anyone familiar with Ren would know that this meant no answer would come from him.

Gojo was not disappointed. Those questions were not what he cared about most anyway.

"Ren, look. Last night, you showed such a merciful expression."

Gojo showed him a still image on the phone.

"Do you know what went through my mind when I saw it? Surprise. Pure surprise. Want to see?"

Ren looked at the clown in front of him calmly.

For some reason, he suddenly wanted to test Hands of Dual Perfection on Gojo.

For example, changing his sex.

Gojo, who had been showing off, suddenly shivered.

He felt as if a powerful malice had covered him.

"Well, I just remembered I have something else to do. Rest well. Bye."

Gojo vanished.

The annoying man was finally gone.

Strictly speaking, this was the fault of the two people inside the mirror.

In the Mirror World, Geto and Yashima were tied inside the mouth of a volcano.

Burning lava flowed around them. The heat was terrifying, but their bodies had no injuries.

"Suguru Geto," Yashima said, "when do you think we can leave? I still need to turn this experiment into a report."

"Is this not your fault? Why are you throwing all the responsibility at me?"

"Wait. Do you feel like the temperature is rising?"

"Ah! My hair!"

Listening to Yashima scream, Geto suddenly felt heat on top of his head.

His hair seemed to be burning too.

New Year's Day arrived.

The streets were decorated for the new year, but the hottest topic online remained whether Amaterasu truly existed.

More people had shifted their attention to the deity's appearance.

Ancient records differed greatly from what everyone had seen.

Some even painted modern portraits of Amaterasu based on the videos and their own imagination.

Anyone who knew Ren Zenin was shocked by the resemblance.

For a while, Ren's name became famous in the jujutsu world again.

The rumors about his identity deepened.

Amaterasu's reincarnation.

If not, how could he be so young and so strong?

It became annoying enough that Ren wore sunglasses when he went out. Otherwise, people would stare.

He disliked that feeling.

Every time it happened, he wanted to throw Yashima and Geto back into the Mirror World for another round.

One day at the agency, Gojo came again.

"Hello, Lord Amaterasu. Busy lately?"

Ren did not answer.

Gojo sat across from him without hesitation.

"I came to thank you for Inumaki. After he started speaking normally, he seemed like a new person. Communication must have weighed heavily on him."

He continued, "Also, Yuta remembered something I once told him. The world is big, so he went traveling with a friend of mine."

Ren looked at him strangely.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Are you not my boss?" Gojo said seriously. "These students will be agency pillars in the future. Who else should I report to?"

He almost believed it himself.

"Also, for some reason, the number of cursed spirits in the city has gradually decreased, but their grades are rising. Do you think someone is playing tricks again?"

Since Gojo and Ren had appeared, cursed spirits seemed to be forced to evolve. Like prey adapting because hunters existed, the overall level of curses had been pulled upward.

New-generation sorcerers were starting to struggle.

"I do not know," Ren said. "If it does not interfere with me, I do not care."

Gojo thought for a moment.

"The monk named Shufuku Mizo died while you were in seclusion. Before he passed, he asked me to ask you for help with Horyoji Temple in Kyoto. They also have a demon sealed there."

An old scripture appeared on the table.

"This is the payment. I estimated it before coming. If auctioned, it should be worth around one million."

Gojo's tone was fair. He did not mix in his own emotions.

Ren picked up the scripture and flipped through a few pages.

A faint Buddhist chant seemed to sound near his ear.

It looked like it had been copied by an accomplished monk.

"Did you check the place?"

"I did. There is no cursed energy activity beneath the Buddha statue. The demon probably broke out long ago, but it did not slaughter anyone, so they do not know."

Ren glanced at him.

"Then are you bringing this up to amuse me?"

"No, no. They asked me to pass it to you. I cannot pretend I never heard it and return it."

Gojo put the book down.

"I should go. I have a meeting with those old men, or Principal Yaga will scold me again."

Footsteps came from outside.

"Blindfold, you are here too? Not staying to chat?"

"Hello, sensei."

"Ah, Megumi is still the polite one. Not like someone who does not know gratitude."

Gojo disappeared before Toji could start cursing.

"Bad luck," Toji muttered.

"Hello, Uncle Ren," Megumi said obediently.

The jade charm he had received here had saved his life. It made him understand just how terrifying the young-looking man before him was.

"Sit."

"No need," Toji said. "We still have something to do. Recently this kid has been sent to recover cursed objects often, so I came to get something for storing them."

A gorgeous box appeared on the desk.

Toji looked at it.

"This looks familiar. Is this not from the Zenin clan?"

"They sent it over. The box was decent, so I modified it."

Ren said it casually.

Toji rolled his eyes.

There was nothing else to say when the strong could do whatever they wanted.

The two left with the box.

Outside, fireworks rose into the evening sky. Pedestrians stopped and looked upward, wishing for a better new year.

In the underground room of a villa, only the center light was on.

An old, dried corpse lay on an operating table.

Footsteps approached.

"I thought my plan would have to be shelved indefinitely after Geto followed Ren Zenin," Noritoshi Kamo said softly. "I did not expect another sealing sorcerer besides the Prison Realm to exist."

He looked greedily at Hayato's corpse.

"If only you were thirty years younger. This body is still a little old."

A dark glimmer appeared and drew his attention.

When he saw the object clearly, his pupils shrank.

"I did not expect you to have something like this."

He smiled.

"Your luck is truly bad. If I had known you earlier, perhaps we could have allied. Now everything you have belongs to me."

After six days of preparation, he no longer wasted time.

He placed everything he needed beside the operating table and formed seals with both hands.

Terrifying cursed energy swallowed the room in darkness.

There was no sound and no light.

After a long time, the darkness receded like a tide.

A naked young man stood there.

Sharp eyes, a firm face, strong muscles. Every part of the body showed its strength.

Noritoshi Kamo laughed.

"Good. Good. With this body, the plan can still be carried out."

On his chest, a pure white pendant gleamed faintly under the operating light.

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