A Bizarre Adventure That Begins in Jujutsu Kaisen

As Kaori Itadori stepped into the shadows of the rooftop corner, a slightly mocking, magnetic male voice rang out leisurely beside her, as if it had been waiting for a long time:

"I just woke up from a long sleep, and before I could even have a decent cup of tea, I have to run around with you... I'm really destined to be a workaholic."

Before you see him, you hear his voice.

The shadows rippled slightly, as if they possessed a life of their own.

A humanoid creature emerged from it, as if rising from deep, inky water, its outline shifting from indistinct to solid, carrying a sense of unreal dislocation.

His appearance was not accompanied by a sound; it was more as if he "saw" out from the shadows in the background, as if he had always been standing there, and the light had just decided to reveal his presence to the onlookers.

In fact, the small area where he stood was even more murky in color than elsewhere, as if the ground beneath him was not solid, but rather the boundary between an imagined world of shadows and reality.

This person had the appearance of a handsome young man, but his skin had an inhuman pallor, as if he had never seen the sun.

Those red eyes were particularly striking, their color rich and clear, like polished rubies.

He wore a uniquely designed outfit that cleverly and boldly blended the solemnity of Western clergy with the elegance and refinement of traditional Japanese style.

Specifically, this person wore a wide, pure black robe over a dark, wine-red undergarment.

The neckline features an elaborate white ruff collar, intricate yet structured, with only a stylish teardrop-shaped opening below the throat, perfectly complementing the classic gold cross pendant worn around the neck.

Her long white hair was tied into a neat high ponytail at the back of her head, secured with a bright red ribbon, and elegantly accentuated by a towering ruff collar, with strands of hair swaying gently in the autumn breeze.

He wore dark brown harem pants for easy movement, white socks, and black sneakers.

Because of its unconventional style, the overall impression is strangely beautiful, combining a classical theatrical feel with a modern impact.

"There are four highly intelligent, top-tier cursed spirits who might be worth recruiting. I think it's at least necessary to make contact with them."

Kaori Itadori explained succinctly, her gaze already fixed on the distant city skyline.

"You're really 'indiscriminate' when it comes to food. Naturally born top-tier cursed spirits are wild and untamed, with a mindset completely different from 'humans,' and they're not as 'easy to deal with' as ​​I am." The "man" retorted sharply.

"Shiro, are you even cursing 'Fashion Little Trash'?" Kaori smiled slightly, looking at her collaborator beside her. "Compared to you, those four are just 'newborns' who have just opened their eyes to the world and can't even walk steadily yet, right?"

The "cursed spirit" called "Shiro" replied calmly, "That kind of thing doesn't matter. Aren't you going to invite Ueto Ueto along?"

"Because of Sukuna's fingers, Rime has recently... shown a lot of 'interest' in my son, Hisahito." Kaori paused subtly at this point.

She hesitated briefly whether she should use a particularly vivid description, but after a moment's thought, she ultimately decided against trying to salvage the reputation of the former cursed king's lieutenant.

"She's basically been watching Yuujin like a stalker around the clock, never leaving his side. So she probably won't come. Let's go check on her first."

"Ah—a pervert? Seriously? Rime actually fell into masochism after being forced into a woman's body?"

Shiro raised an eyebrow, his face showing an expression that was somewhere between disdain and amusement.

"Now that your son is destined to become a sorcerer, and may even become a vessel for the two-faced Sukuna,..."

Given this trajectory of fate, is it really necessary to follow the conventional path and attend junior high school?

"Mind your own business."

Kaori's answer was concise and to the point, immediately bringing the topic back on track.

"According to intelligence assessment, the strength of those cursed spirits is at most equivalent to eight or nine Su Nuo fingers."

Too many people showing up makes us seem insecure and makes us look down on.

Moreover, all five top-ranking officers from the General Staff Headquarters are currently gathered in Kyoto; there couldn't be a better opportunity than today.

You can't possibly think that the two of us 'people' aren't enough, can you?

"Of course not." Shiro's answer was concise and confident.

"So confident... It seems that the anime that aired this year really did provide you with a lot of 'nourishment'."

"Shiro, you must have also pre-arranged quite a few puppets in Tokyo that are in 'standby' mode, ready to be deployed at any time, right?" Kaori Itadori asked casually.

Shiro did not directly answer her probing questions about the details of his abilities.

He merely turned his head slightly, casting his gaze towards the distant Tokyo that Kaori Itadori had been looking at earlier: "Tokyo? Give me the coordinates, I'll take a look."

"Nerima Ward, Tokyo, Hikari-gaoka 3-chome, on the edge of the old city redevelopment area, the coordinates are..." Kaori recited a string of precise numbers.

"Okay..."

Inside an unassuming rental apartment in Nerima Ward, Tokyo.

Shiro, who was in a dormant standby state inside the closet, suddenly opened his eyes and activated his wide-area spell perception.

However, there is no need to search deliberately at all.

A super-grade magical energy reaction, exuding a rich forest scent and resembling the manifestation of a nature spirit, lingered brightly near Kong Shiyu.

Is this surveillance?

I'd like to give him a little reminder.

The thought flashed through my mind, but was quickly suppressed by rational judgment.

Reminding him might actually kill him.

He is now, in fact, the "bait" that both sides tacitly agree to place in their shared vision.

Those four top-tier curse spirits are probably waiting for us... or for any being interested in this to take the bait.

As a collaborator with Ryosaku, Shiro has his own ambitions.

The sudden "environmental limit breach" incident more than half a month ago was like a boulder thrown into stagnant water, prematurely waking him from his long hibernation.

Then, as if by fate, a phenomenal animation was broadcast this year, and the strong negative emotions of nearly ten million people towards a certain "villain" swept over him like a tsunami, greatly accelerating his evolution process.

Cursed power, as the emotional power flowing from the soul, inherently contains the terrifying potential to turn imagination into reality.

To transform this potential into tangible power, "concrete imagination" is indispensable.

Ordinary people's fear of natural disasters often remains superficial.

They fear earthquakes, yet find it hard to truly imagine the moment when the earth's crust breaks beneath their feet.

They fear the "volcano," yet cannot vividly describe the details of lava engulfing their homes.

This vague fear generates a relatively weak and diffuse curse. Not to mention, negative emotions also have a time limit.

But this time is different.

The collective consciousness of nearly ten million people has injected an excessive amount of negative emotions into his name and experiences during his lifetime.

This vast and targeted "concrete imagination," the fictional experience of "dying to become a spirit and then being reborn as a human being," allowed him to construct a more powerful self-image.

As one of the few special-grade cursed spirits in the world to be formed from a human sorcerer through the "curse of post-death enhancement," he has been waiting for the opportunity to "break through the limit" for far too long.

After losing their physical bodies, their souls are imprisoned in pure magical energy blocks, constantly subjected to countless indiscriminate washes of negative emotions.

The speed at which his mind, memories, and even the outline of his "self" wear down and become distorted is far faster than that of a "living" person like Lu Suo who retains a vibrant physical body.

Otherwise, he wouldn't need to emulate the legendary vampires by putting himself into periodic, active hibernation to alleviate the erosion of negative emotions by giving up thinking.

Shiro could clearly sense that the gears of time were accelerating.

The massive waves that are about to be unleashed will far exceed the scope that ordinary "special grade" measures can measure and cope with in terms of scale and depth.

In this accelerating and turbulent vortex of cause and effect, the overall combat power of both humans and cursed spirits is rising at an almost pathological rate, surpassing the limits of the previous second every second.

Who will ultimately ride the turbulent waves of the times to truly reach the pinnacle?

Hehe... It's getting more and more exciting!

Once again, Shiro of the Nerima Ward was instructed to enter a hibernation standby state to recover his curse power and computing power. A glint seemed to flash in Shiro's ruby-like eyes in Sendai.

"...I have already 'seen' it. They dare to gather in Tokyo so openly. It's truly a case of the blind under the lamp."

Judging from both 'quality' and 'quantity,' they are indeed not strong, not even as good as Shi Liulong's 'cannon,' let alone Lu Ziyun's."

"I don't remember you ever meeting that 'Thor'?" Kaori keenly noticed the name and asked curiously.

Shiro was silent for a moment, as if flipping through a dusty scroll of memories: "You know, four hundred years ago, 'I' was besieged and killed by the shogunate army."

And that "Thor"... in a similar desperate situation, he fought his way through the encirclement.

Even in his later years, when his strength was no longer at its peak, he still managed to eliminate the top fighters in the army as easily as mowing grass.

He didn't even use any spells at that time, clearly not giving it his all!

However, facing an army that had been thoroughly decimated by Lu Ziyun and whose elite forces had been wiped out, "I" struggled to cope and ultimately suffered defeat and death...

I have heard that many military generals have challenged him, giving their all and burning everything in their path.

Those people may not all be cursing him; perhaps they just want to be personally "affirmed" by him, to confirm through him what they really are in this world.

His response was to personally slaughter every single one of them.

Shiro didn't let the reminiscence linger for too long, concluding, "This kind of loneliness and compassion of the strong is something I have never been able to understand..."

He is a peak that I can never forget.

The difference is that obvious.

"Alright, it's time to set off, lest something unexpected happen and they move on ahead of schedule."

As he finished speaking, the shadow at his feet rippled silently.

Immediately afterwards, an individual with the exact same height, appearance, and clothing as him silently "emerged" from the shadows.

The third Shiro held a huge black velvet curtain in his hand, and with a flick of his wrist, he raised it into the air.

The moment the curtain unfurled in the air, it was like a magician's trick of making people appear out of thin air. Wherever the fabric covered, the space was silently folded and replaced, and the three figures suddenly disappeared from the spot.

The gravitational distortion caused by point-to-point spatial transfer has not yet completely subsided, and all three have appeared near the target area.

Just as the teleportation was completed, a pair of hands emerged from the shadows and pulled the third Shiro back to "another world".

Immediately afterwards, those hands reached out again, offering a katana sheathed in a simple black scabbard.

The first Shiro precisely grasped the hilt of the sword with his left hand, picked it up, and hung it at his waist.

Just as his right fingertips touched the hilt of the knife, he suddenly let out a soft exclamation, his gaze flashing like lightning as he quickly swept over the source of the burst of magical power in the distance.

"They actually dare to take the initiative?!"

"Unexpected, yet reasonable... How interesting!" At almost the same moment, Kaori Itadori also sensed the sudden, undisguised, scorching magical power, and a smile of anticipation appeared on her lips.

Five hundred meters away, at a three-way intersection near a suburban apartment building.

"Louhu"—that special-grade cursed spirit with a volcano on its head and a temper that is clearly more volatile than its origin has appeared.

Instead of hiding or observing, it proclaimed its existence in the most flamboyant way!

At the pinnacle of curses, I reign supreme over the world; with my treasured pot, there is heaven!