A Bizarre Adventure That Begins in Jujutsu Kaisen

After successfully capturing the special-grade cursed spirit corresponding to the legends of "Shuten-dōji" and "Ōtakemaru", Theo received an unexpected surprise during a short "skipping work" trip he took in private to change his mood.

At that time, Dio had started watching a folklore and mystery exploration program called "Wednesday Special" because of Xia Youjie's recommendation.

The episode he watched was titled "The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons in Japan: The Mystery of the Vanishing Spirits."

The light and shadow on the screen flickered in the dimly lit room as the camera slowly zoomed in on a white-haired folklorist.

He sat in his quaint study, with bookshelves piled high with Japanese-style books behind him, and an oil lamp in front of him reflecting the wrinkles around his eyes.

The old man spoke in a slow, hoarse voice about the mysteries of those things that "disappeared into thin air" in the deep mountains, abandoned settlements, and misty ancient roads.

Someone visited a mountain shrine at dawn, stepped into a thick fog that suddenly rose up, and never returned.

Some people were walking together on the mountain path when they clearly heard their companions calling their names from behind. But when they turned around, their companions had vanished without a trace, leaving only the mountain wind blowing.

Children were playing in the woods at the village entrance, their laughter clear and bright like bells. But in the blink of an eye, they vanished, leaving only their laughter echoing through the woods.

As the narration unfolds, the visuals are interspersed with close-up shots of a dark forest, the flickering light of lanterns, and the silhouettes of torii gates appearing and disappearing in the mist, deliberately creating a subtle sense of eeriness and unease.

"Disappearance," the scholar gently pushed up his reading glasses, "is usually explained in various Edo period documents as a phenomenon where 'mountain gods' or 'tengu' take humans away."

Some people who disappear by mysterious means will suddenly reappear at the place where they disappeared years or even decades later, but they have no memory of everything they experienced.

Some disappeared without a trace, as if they had been completely erased from the world.

This sounds like an ancient version of an "alien abduction incident," doesn't it?

But what is the truth?

As we all know, in the process of passing down stories by word of mouth, people in ancient times inevitably exaggerated, embellished, or even unconsciously distorted the facts.

Thus, the authenticity of information is constantly eroded and distorted during the long process of transmission…

Theo leaned back on the sofa, his fingers tapping unconsciously on the armrest.

Yuki Tsukumo poked half of her naked body out of the kitchen, holding a spatula in her hand, and keenly sensed something familiar was amiss:

"Dinner's almost ready. You're not thinking of going 'field research' again, are you?"

"Yes." Theo casually took a coin from the piggy bank on the coffee table and tossed it into the air.

The coin landed on the back of his hand, heads.

He looked up and smiled, as if to say that he would go to the nearby convenience store to buy a bottle of laundry detergent tomorrow.

"Don't worry, I won't go out tonight. I'll set off first thing tomorrow morning and be right back."

This time it feels different, it might be very interesting…

When Theo uttered the word "interesting," it was essentially a euphemism for "Life is too peaceful; I'm going to do something."

That feeling is probably like a spotless bookshelf eventually being covered with stickers of anime characters and crammed with light novels.

Yuki pursed her lips and ultimately didn't try to persuade her anymore.

She knew all too well that once this man developed a desire to explore something, even ten top-tier cursed spirits couldn't pull him back.

Besides... if we can successfully subdue a wild, top-tier cursed spirit, it won't be a bad thing for anyone.

"Are you coming back for dinner tomorrow?" That was all she asked at the end.

"Of course, I'm just going for a quick look around, it won't waste much time."

The next morning, Theo set off alone for the deep mountains.

Choosing to travel alone is precisely to facilitate quick travel back and forth by using the "unlimited technique" for distance operations at any time.

The destination is an unnamed mountain located on the border of Gifu and Nagano prefectures.

Due to its remoteness and inconvenient transportation, this area has seen numerous incidents of hikers going missing, and the news often takes a long time to reach the outside world.

For this reason, it was selected as a typical case for analysis in the Wednesday Special.

The term "unnamed" doesn't mean it's not actually marked on a map, but rather that it reflects a local superstitious tradition.

People have avoided calling him by his name for generations, as if saying it would awaken the beings that should be sleeping in the mountains.

Dio flew upwards along a nearly dried-up valley, the mist slowly spreading among the trees.

The moment we stepped into the cedar forest at the end of the valley, the light suddenly dimmed.

The fir trees soared into the clouds, their canopies obscuring the sky, with only scattered beams of light leaking through the gaps, casting dappled shadows on the ground.

The air was unusually humid, and every breath felt heavy with moisture, making it feel less like an inland forest and more like being on a coast where the morning mist had not yet dissipated.

There were no birdsong, no insect chirping, and even the sound of the wind seemed to have been sucked away by something.

"You've followed me all this way," Theo stopped and said without turning his head, "Aren't you tired?"

There was no response from the fog behind me, but something moved.

Theo turned around.

A huge outline slowly emerged from the mist.

The newcomer was over ten feet tall, with a red face and a long nose. He was dressed in the ancient Shugendo attire of a mountain hermit, wearing high-toothed wooden clogs, and had a taiko drum hanging from his waist.

What is most striking is its pair of jet-black wings on its back, with a wingspan of over three zhang (approximately 10 meters), each feather silently burning with eerie blue flames.

"Transformed into a Great Tengu" is a top-tier imaginary vengeful spirit born from the intersection of mountain beliefs and "disappearance" legends around the world, formed from humanity's deep-seated fear of the concept of "disappearance".

Theo narrowed his eyes slightly.

This guy was probably used to being wild, unlike Shuten-dōji who was sensible, or Ōtakemaru who was Buddhist-like, he didn't bow down and worship.

"Finally showing up?"

The Great Tengu did not answer Dio's provocative question.

It slowly raised its jet-black companion artifact, the "Hidden Feather Fan," and then suddenly swung it downwards.

The next instant, Theo's vision distorted.

It's not a distortion of vision, but a distortion of space itself.

Centered on Theo, everything within a five-meter radius—the cedar trees, the mist, the fallen leaves on the ground—began to collapse toward an unseen point, as if being swallowed by an invisible vortex.

This is the technique "Leaf Fall and God Conceals" from the "Transformation into a Great Tengu" technique.

Similar to Obito Uchiha's "Kamui" in "Naruto", it can lock onto a target within its field of vision or the range of its magical power perception, "cut" it from its real-world coordinates, and instantly transfer it into a self-contained small world inside the feather fan.

But Theo was unharmed. The distorted space seemed to have crashed into an invisible wall in front of him, making a screeching sound, but it could not "cut" him off.

This is because the difference in the power output between the two sides is too great, and Dio's "concept endowment" has an absolute crushing priority.

Knowing the legend of "Great Tengu", he had already given himself two concepts in advance: "immunity to invisibility" and "immunity enhancement".

Good luck.

Even if the actual manifestation of the opponent's ability is "spatial shearing", its "form" and "name" are ultimately "mysterious disappearance".

Therefore, his conceptual attacks completely countered the opponent's abilities.