...
Sendai City, outer boundary
"They say the worst nightmare has appeared in this city."
The man speaking looked to be around twenty. His entire face was crisscrossed with suture lines.
His blue, medium-length hair was usually braided into three sections, with the rightmost strand draped over his shoulder. One eye was gray, the other blue.
If Shun Gojo were here, he would definitely complain that this look was ridiculously ominous, the very picture of bad luck.
Just looking at him filled people with a deep sense of discomfort.
And you still style yourself like a housewife, looking like that.
This man was not human. His name was Mahito, a special grade cursed spirit.
Beside him stood a figure shaped like a walking volcano.
His name was Jogo, also a special grade cursed spirit.
"In just a few short years she killed so many . That curse really is completely unrestrained," Jogo said with a note of grudging awe.
He looked down on jujutsu sorcerers, but he was not stupid.
He knew that if he did something like that, he would immediately be surrounded and hunted by a massive number of sorcerers.
In that situation, no matter how strong he was, he could still be worn down and killed.
"It seems her technique lets her be killed by sorcerers infinitely and still revive," Mahito said, his interest in Tokisaki Kurumi clearly growing.
"According to the records, she has been killed nearly a hundred times, yet she is still alive."
Jogo nodded. "I wonder if that ability of hers could work on us."
"Even if it cannot, as long as that comrade joins us, that is more than enough."
Mahito smiled brightly, cheerfully, like some guy in his early twenties with a head full of dreams.
But anyone who knew what they wanted to do, and what they had already done, would feel a chill looking at that smile.
Jogo slapped his rocky palm once, excited. "We absolutely have to pull Nightmare over to our side."
"Oh, you can do it, Jogo."
Mahito cheered like the perfect hype man, but the look in his eyes made it hard to tell what kind of bad ideas he was cooking up.
"I also heard that brat who follows Gojo Satoru around is in this city too," Mahito added, remembering the intel they had gathered.
"The brat following Gojo Satoru?"
Jogo snorted. "I cannot even be bothered with Gojo Satoru himself, why would I care about some tagalong punk?"
"If he knows his place, I will ignore him. If he dares to jump around in front of me, I will burn him to ash."
As he spoke, Jogo let out a nasty laugh, flames steadily spewing from his hand.
"Oh, Jogo, you are so reliable."
Mahito applauded him enthusiastically.
Jogo gave him a speechless look. "Can you not talk in such a creepy way?"
"Eh? Did I?"
Mahito tilted his head slightly, pretending to be all innocent and pure.
"..."
Jogo decided it was not worth replying.
And so, the two special grade curses stepped across the boundary into the City.
For the foreseeable future, this city was not likely to know peace.
Faced with three special grade curses, what kind of tricks would Shun Gojo come up with?
...
Maid café
Shun ordered a cup of coffee.
The cat-shaped latte art on the surface was quickly destroyed as he stirred it with his spoon.
He watched the girl in front of him eating with a look of pure happiness on her face, and the corners of his lips tugged up without him realizing.
This girl was actually pretty cute.
Noticing his gaze, Kurumi smiled, eyes curved, and scooped up a spoonful of parfait, holding it out toward his mouth.
"Gojo San, want a taste?"
Shun glanced down at the spoon, curled his lip in disdain, and said, "It is covered in your saliva. No thanks."
Kurumi had clearly expected nothing good to come out of his mouth, so she did not mind at all. Still smiling, she popped the spoon into her own mouth instead.
"Hmph, do not regret it later."
She cleaned off every bit of parfait on the spoon.
When she pulled it from between her lips, the metal gleamed under the lights.
"Mr. Gojo, is your line of work very hard?"
Kurumi looked at him curiously. "It seems really dangerous."
"Of course it is hard, of course it is dangerous."
Shun let out a cold little laugh.
"And the worst part is, there is no insurance, no benefits, and the pay is terrible."
"We are basically walking around with our heads tied to our belts."
"These arrogant higher ups, one day I am going to kill them all."
His tone stayed calm and even, without any obvious emotional ups and downs.
He was describing something horrifying in a voice as flat as if he were discussing the weather.
Kurumi suddenly had the feeling that Shun might actually make good on that someday.
She leaned forward and reached out to ruffle his hair.
Her smile was soft as spring rain.
"Do not be mad, do not be mad. Be good, Shun-chan."
"Smack."
Shun slapped her hand away at once, scowling. "Do not randomly give people weird nicknames."
"Ehehe."
Kurumi just laughed.