Chapter 144: The Pleasure Seeker
Who is this person? How did he appear?
At the same time that he had deliberately used a certain Cursed Spirit to lure Gojo Satoru away from Tokyo, Kenjaku had also used the pawns he buried within the Jujutsu world to guide Fushiguro Megumi to the vicinity of Itadori Yuji. This was so that the only sorcerer currently awakened with the [Ten Shadows Technique] would meet Itadori Yuji and establish a collaborative connection.
Kenjaku could not understand, no matter how hard he thought about it. How could his seamless plan have failed?
And most importantly...
Itadori Yuji, who had been chosen by him to be Sukuna's vessel, actually didn't even get the chance to swallow Sukuna's finger when he was supposed to. He had escaped the danger that supposedly could only be resolved by swallowing the finger.
There was no longer a need to worry about the trap Kenjaku had specifically set...
How could this be allowed?!
"Furthermore, who is this person?"
Following his confusion, even more perplexing matters flooded Kenjaku's mind. He was certain that he did not know Emiya Shirou.
The problem was, this should have been impossible. There were his people within the Jujutsu world, and the side of the Cursed Spirits was basically his home base. Kenjaku also knew quite a few Curse Users of decent caliber. Yet among all these people, not one fit Emiya Shirou's characteristics.
"Could it be that he is like Okkotsu Yuta—a new sorcerer born by chance due to some special accident... No, that's unlikely.
That Cursed Tool of his is not something a sorcerer born by mere chance could possess."
The more he watched the memory images sent back by that Cursed Spirit, the less Kenjaku could grasp Emiya Shirou's true identity. Although in Emiya Shirou's eyes, items projected via Projection Magecraft automatically drop by one rank—meaning his projected [Gáe Bolg] would drop from its original B+ to a C+ rank—this drop in rank does not cause the projected item's abilities to vanish.
The curse of [Gáe Bolg] that reverses causality, along with the unhealing curse that ensures death by piercing the heart, still clung to the spearhead. In this world of Jujutsu Kaisen, where height is measured by curses, it surpassed almost all Cursed Tools in Kenjaku's cognition.
Never mind what would have happened if Emiya Shirou truly were an ordinary person before this. Even if he weren't, such a Cursed Tool would be enough to incite the greed of other sorcerers. Especially those lawless Curse Users—they wouldn't care if Emiya Shirou was an ordinary person; they would only want to seize a Cursed Tool with a curse so ridiculously strong.
Yet, there was nothing. Before Emiya Shirou appeared holding that tool, there were no records in the Jujutsu world related to it.
However...
"Things have become interesting."
Although there was a slight hitch in his plan, Kenjaku remained unbothered. He even looked at this change with some delight. After all, was Kenjaku's goal the resurrection of Sukuna?
No. Even though a thousand years ago he had indeed signed contracts with Sukuna and even top-tier sorcerers of various eras, promising them resurrection in the future, such contracts and binding vows had long since become void as he constantly switched bodies and identities through his technique.
The one you're looking for is XXX, what does that have to do with me, Kenjaku? .jpg
The reason he wanted to resurrect Sukuna was simply because Gojo Satoru was too powerful. The [Six Eyes] constitution was sufficiently broken. As long as Gojo Satoru remained alive, his plan would be difficult to succeed. That was why he wanted to resurrect Sukuna—to use Sukuna to defeat Gojo Satoru.
Beyond that, Kenjaku wanted to see the [Ten Shadows Technique]—a technique that normal people simply cannot handle. If it were adapted onto Sukuna, making Sukuna the best possible vessel for the [Ten Shadows], would Sukuna be able to break through the limits of Cursed Spirits once he could fully utilize Mahoraga's adaptive evolution?
For Kenjaku, who had lived for an unknown number of years, this was the only purpose left for his existence.
Sorcerers who can see how the future will unfold from the moment they are born; Cursed Spirits that stop growing once they are formed; the unions of sorcerers and Cursed Spirits where, aside from the interesting specimen that was Itadori Yuji, the rest were utterly disappointing...
Having watched these boring things for thousands of years, Kenjaku wanted to see something else. He wanted to see what kind of powerful Cursed Spirit would be born if the Cursed Energy obtained from sacrificing the 100 million people of Japan as an offering were used.
This was the true goal of a pleasure seeker like Kenjaku.
It was true that Sukuna, the strongest Cursed Spirit, had not merged with Itadori Yuji, the strongest human body, as per his plan. This did indeed leave several missing materials for Kenjaku's plan to create a powerhouse that could break boundaries.
However, regarding the Cursed Tool in Emiya Shirou's hand and the curses carried by that tool... after observing it carefully for a while, Kenjaku had discovered some very interesting things.
"Similar to my idea of turning Tengen into a Cursed Spirit, this Cursed Tool seems to have had the Cursed Energy and curses of an entire nation's population forged into it."
Kenjaku, who viewed the human fantasies that form Noble Phantoms as Cursed Energy, naturally viewed [Gáe Bolg] as a special Cursed Tool forged with a logic similar to his own plan.
"Though I don't know how he did it, or how he achieved such a thing without alerting others, just as I was only able to create a more perfect Itadori Yuji after creating the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings...
Originally, I thought that with Tengen as the only vessel, I would only have one chance for my experiment. I didn't expect a coincidence I laid out casually to trigger such an interesting event.
Unknown sorcerer, let me witness just how much power that Cursed Tool of yours can reach."
Of course, because this could very well be an existence on the same level as the final work he had yet to create, ordinary Cursed Spirits going there would be meaningless. To go and test him, it had to be a Special Grade Cursed Spirit that was worth showing off.
Which meant...
Opening a door with his hand, Kenjaku appeared as if he had opened Doraemon's "Anywhere Door," instantly arriving from the noisy city to a certain tropical beach.
He smiled at the aberrations on this beach—creatures that didn't look human at all and emitted a thick sense of malice toward humanity—and laughed, "Yo, everyone, I've discovered something very interesting."
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