------
------
Tokyo…
What a damn good place.
At least, that's how the King of Curses—Minazuki Seishu—sees it.
To his eyes, Tokyo is littered with "gold."
Negative emotions here rise into the sky like plumes of smoke; just a little nudge, and the whole city could be turned upside down.
But Minazuki Seishu isn't stupid enough to pull some "drain-the-lake-to-get-the-fish" stunt.
The fraud-type system he's bound to forces him to live inside intelligent lifeforms.
Sure, that comes with the downside of being restricted by others, but that's just how it is.
The cheat system he got is like this, so he has to work with the reality he's got.
Every single day, all over the world, people die over and over again in an endless cycle.
Take the good ol' US of A for example.
With legal gun ownership, the number of civilian deaths every day is… quite impressive.
All Seishu needs to do is make sure the "death quota" gets topped up just enough to fuel the bloodshed required for spiritual energy revival.
As long as the death count doesn't surpass the country's or society's natural self-repair rate, it's basically "sustainable development."
Same logic here.
If the bloodshed he triggers in Japan still can't match the massive annual suicide numbers, what's the big deal for Japan?
It's just a scratch.
Worst-case scenario—
Isn't there that one certain "Shinigami-grade elementary school kid" who leaves a trail of corpses wherever he goes?
Even if Seishu can't match the original level of "ferocity," it's still common to hear news of Shinichi Kudo cracking another murder case.
Once he's clear on how far he can push things without crossing the line, Seishu knows exactly what to do.
The reins are in his hands—between playing sustainably and playing until it all collapses, obviously the first one is smarter.
Right now, he's lounging in an unused classroom he'd reserved under the guise of extracurricular activity.
As a second-year student at Soubu High, Seishu—whether seriously or just for show—has to join a club.
But he's lazy.
In his previous life and this one, he never really clicked with a bunch of noisy brats.
Better to do his own thing.
Of course—
If a cute girl asks him to fool around, he's definitely not saying no.
Actually, more like—big welcome.
So he went to Hiratsuka Shizuka (a.k.a. "Shizu-kyun") and applied to start a club called Social Observation.
If it had been a regular student, Shizu-kyun would've flat-out refused—obviously just an excuse to milk the school budget.
But Seishu is her star pupil.
He even ranked first in the grade tests, beating Yukino Yukinoshita herself.
An honor student deserves special treatment.
Before his "awakening," Seishu's social circle was pretty much nonexistent—his only "friend" was the meddlesome Shizu-kyun.
After all, back then he hadn't yet acquired the King of Curses—Ryomen Sukuna template.
To the girls, he was just a kid who hadn't grown into his looks yet.
Now that he's taller, hotter, and fully "bloomed," well… naturally, they've also "warmed up" and want to get close.
Alone in the empty classroom, sunlight pours in through the windows.
Judging the time, Seishu remotely directs his curse creations from afar.
After the little test run on Miko Yotsuya, it's time for the main course.
"Wha—!? There's a case? Great! I'll be right there!"
Shinichi Kudo hangs up the phone, barely spares his childhood friend Mouri Ran a quick word, and dashes off.
"Tch, that guy's always like this. The moment he sees a case, it's like a stray dog seeing—mmph!"
Ran quickly clamps a hand over Suzuki Sonoko's mouth.
She is a high-class heiress—how can she be so crude?!
And besides, Ran doesn't want to badmouth her childhood friend.
Sonoko rolls her eyes in annoyance.
Her best friend is hopeless.
What's so great about Kudou anyway?
Every time there's a case, he just dumps Ran and runs off—
All in the name of "justice."
Justice, my ass.
Sonoko knows exactly what the police here are like—she's a rich girl, after all.
Only that naïve idiot Kudou can't see it.
"Listen, Ran, Kudou doesn't care about you at all. You'd be better off finding some tall, handsome guy who actually treats you right!
Like Minazuki-kun, for example!"
"Minazuki-kun?"
"Yeah! The one we saw on the train the other day—I even looked him up!"
Ran forces a smile.
Back in the day, Sonoko just fangirled over hot guys; now she's graduated to full-on investigating them.
Pure predator behavior…
Tokyo, Suginami Ward.
Trouble.
At first, Shinichi Kudo was excited.
But once he arrived at the crime scene, the case turned out to be tricky—tricky enough that he couldn't make his usual bold promises.
"Well, Kudou-kun?"
Detective Inspector InoueMura had a sharp eye—he noticed Shinichi's hesitation immediately.
InoueMura: Police Inspector, Criminal Investigation Department, First Division, Violent Crimes Section Three.
Next to him, the ever-friendly Officer Takagi Wataru looked at Shinichi with eager expectation.
To be fair—
Shinichi's "Savior of the Metropolitan Police" media nickname wasn't just empty talk.
Sure, it made the police look bad, but hitching themselves to this high-school detective meant constant results.
And Shinichi's record for solving cases was famously fast, accurate, and precise.
But Shinichi didn't answer—his expression was serious as he stared into a spacious, well-furnished apartment.
The owner: InoueMura, a middle-class rich man.
Now dead.
Very dead.
He lay in a pool of blood, terror still frozen on his face, clutching a fruit knife in one hand—its blade smeared with his own blood from the gash across his neck.
Suicide?
Shinichi immediately dismissed the idea.
He'd looked into InoueMura's background.
The man was a hedonist through and through.
And as a well-off middle-class citizen, he had no apparent reason to kill himself.
No motive.
"So… murder?"
Inouemura gave Takagi a look—the kind reserved for idiots.
Wasn't it obvious? The guy slit his own throat…?
Shinichi felt a headache coming on.
Inside, several officers were collecting evidence; outside, more officers were keeping gawkers and reporters at bay.
If this had been a random nobody's death, nobody would care this much.
But a middle-class rich man in Suginami Ward was another matter.
The ward was packed with the middle-class elite—and even a few upper-class big shots.
Which is why Inspector Yuumura himself had come—
Someone important had ordered it.
Rich people aren't supposed to die.
Today it's Inouemura—tomorrow, it could be them.
Suicide?
Slitting your own throat?
What a joke.
After getting chewed out by some rich folks, Yuumura had dropped the "let Shinichi handle it" attitude.
"....."