The silence was the worst part.
Kenji stood in the echoing cavern of the Black Market Auction House basement, utterly alone amidst the inert figures of the **Cursed Assembly**. The air still tasted of cold, corrosive **Dark Mana**, a lingering taint that made his clean **Jujutsu** feel dirty and sluggish. The **Blade of Volcanic Flare**, now inert and cool, lay on the concrete floor, its disastrous energy contained.
He hadn't fought a battle; he had executed a termination sequence. The ultimate forbidden spell, **$\text{\[The Rules of Play\]}$**, had achieved absolute magical subjugation. The Assembly members were conscious, but their Mana cores were locked under the binding contract, leaving them paralyzed and magically passive.
Kenji moved with mechanical effort, the exhaustion not physical, but magical and psychological. He used a tiny, efficient spell—a controlled application of his normal, clean **Mana Efficiency**—to lift the **Blade of Volcanic Flare** and seal it into his **Dimensional Sheath**. He could not be caught holding the relic of a Code Delta.
---
## The Special Grade Interrogation
The moment he ascended to the main floor, the environment snapped from chilling silence to frantic activity. IAB **4th Grade Enforcers**, now free of **Finn's Sensory Nullification**, flooded the area, securing the neutralized targets.
**Ren** and **Sora** rushed toward him, their expressions a mix of awe and concern.
"Grandmaster," Ren said, his voice quiet. His **Snap Cast Mastery** was already analyzing the residual energy. "The neutralization was immediate. The Mana disruption was... profound. Glitch's shield just vanished. What did you use?"
Sora didn't wait for an answer. Her hand reached out, hovering near his shoulder, worried by the unnatural pallor of his skin. "You look like you fought a ghost. That wasn't your usual move. Did you find the victims?"
"Victims secured," Kenji stated flatly. He used a quick, precise spell to point toward the inner vault. "Still weak from the energy drain, but alive. Get them triage." He offered no further explanation about the Dark Magic.
Before he could offer a lazy excuse or slump back into his bored persona, the crowd parted. Commander **Elara** stood there, her face a mask of official fury and barely concealed fear. She had witnessed the **Code Omega** event from the central command, and her function as Kenji's handler had just shifted from annoyance to deep suspicion.
"**Special Grade Grandmaster Kenji**," Elara's voice cut through the chaos, intentionally using his full title to exert authority. "You are relieved of command immediately. You initiated a Code Omega protocol without prior authorization. Your deployment of an **unspecified, high-density counter-Jujutsu** resulted in the instantaneous, systemic shutdown of five high-grade targets, including a continuous **Kinetic Negation** field."
She stepped closer, her eyes scanning his aura for any trace of the forbidden energy. "You bypassed all known IAB defensive parameters. What, precisely, was the nature of the technique you deployed?"
---
## The Lie of Omission
Kenji met her gaze, his expression sliding back into his mask of weary detachment. This was the moment of his life's biggest performance—the lie he had built his career upon.
"It was a **Special Grade Counter-Measure**," Kenji said, speaking with careful, minimum effort. "Glitch's negation field was absolute against standard kinetic energy. My Mana Efficiency allowed me to deploy a **Temporal-Pressure Wave**—a technique I developed to exploit the minimal lag time between a defensive shield's activation and the final stability of its Mana structure. It collapses the shield by pushing the Mana inward."
It was a beautiful lie, perfectly crafted. It used terminology that sounded complex and Special Grade, but it was just detailed enough to sound plausible.
Elara's jaw tightened. "A Temporal-Pressure Wave is theoretically impossible without highly specialized equipment or a dangerous amount of ambient Mana."
"That's why I'm a **Special Grade**, Commander," Kenji replied, adjusting his straw hat and finally allowing a tired slump into his posture. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to file the requisite eight thousand pages of paperwork for this egregious interruption of my day."
He turned and walked away, leaving Elara to process the victory and the terror of the power she had just witnessed. Kenji had defeated the Cursed Assembly and rescued the victims, but at the cost of deploying his secret. He knew the fight wasn't over. Elara had her proof of his dangerous capabilities, and the search for the true nature of his power—the **Dark Magic**—had only just begun. Kenji's escape was only temporary.