"Well... this, I never would have believed I'd end up in such a godforsaken hole," declared a man in professional attire.
Jin cast a brief glance toward him, but immediately shifted his attention back to the ordinary park in front of him.
A week had passed since his reincarnation into this place filled with cursed spirits, but also sorcerers.
During that time, Jin had started practicing again the martial arts his father had instilled in him from a young age.
The task had been difficult at first, as he had to juggle work and training. Yet he made every effort to keep going.
In doing so, he gained a bit of muscle and regained the combat skills he thought he had lost.
"You say that, but I paid the travel expenses... Mr. Gong Shi Woo," he said, turning his gaze away from the children in the park to observe the man seated on the bench.
"Should I assume you're my client?" he asked while lighting a cigarette.
Jin remained silent for a short moment, but eventually nodded.
Indeed, the man sitting beside Jin was Toji Zen'in's partner in the Jujutsu Kaisen manga: Gong Shi Woo.
(Image)
'I only have limited knowledge about this man, but I remember he's a pure and hard businessman,' he thought to himself.
From what he understood, Gong Shi Woo wasn't a bad person. However, he wasn't exactly pure as snow either.
This individual only moved for money and never mixed professional life with personal matters. That was why he had established a clear boundary in his relationship with Toji.
He had even been able to cooperate without scruple with Geto, so that the latter could seize the Astral Cult, which had previously been one of his clients.
The more he thought about it, the more Jin convinced himself that he needed to remain vigilant around the intermediary Gong Shi Woo.
"Not very talkative, I see," he said after observing Jin's calm demeanor.
He had no idea that his interlocutor simply didn't want to give him any information, out of caution.
Jin didn't want to make things easy for him if one day his head ended up with a bounty on the black market. After all, Toji was often broke.
It would be regrettable if Gong Shi Woo came to see him as easy money.
"I simply prefer to avoid any non-professional conversation," Jin explained in a calm tone.
Gong Shi Woo looked at him for a moment, then nodded with a thin smile of approval.
'I've never heard of this guy before, but he doesn't seem like a novice,' he thought while observing his new client.
"I understand, but we'll still need to talk to finalize the request," Gong Shi Woo replied.
A temporary silence settled over the bench before Jin turned toward him.
"Alright. Then I'll get straight to the point. Can you kidnap a curse user?" he asked in a calm voice.
Gong Shi Woo was stunned for a moment by the request, but eventually nodded slowly.
"Yes... but the price won't be cheap," he replied while exhaling cigarette smoke.
"To be honest, the rate will depend heavily on the strength of the curse user," he continued, before being interrupted by a sheet of documents.
"Masamichi Yaga... he's a Grade 1 sorcerer. I want neither his death nor for him to discover my identity," Jin declared in a composed voice.
He stood up from the bench after those words and walked away.
Gong Shi Woo stared at Jin's back for a long time before taking out his phone to contact his most reliable partner.
[Hello... Toji?]
...
Masamichi Yaga.
A Grade 1 sorcerer... at least, officially. Yet that information was false, according to Jin's memories from his previous life.
The man known as Masamichi Yaga was in reality the equivalent of a Special Grade sorcerer, if one referred solely to the definition of the title.
"This man has the power to overthrow a country, but he's too good by nature," Jin muttered while walking down the street.
Yaga's cursed technique allowed him to create "cursed corpses" without needing to sustain them with his own cursed energy.
What did that mean?
Simply that Yaga could raise an army of autonomous sorcerers that he controlled remotely.
Technically, he was a sorcerer similar to Suguru Geto.
A one-man army.
'It's all well and good to think about learning Yaga's technique, but I also need to raise my own level,' Jin thought while checking information on his phone.
Dangerous cursed spirits weren't really common outside major cities like Tokyo.
But Jin had managed to locate some.
How? Simply thanks to urban legends.
"I understand now why sorcerers need a reliable information network," he thought as he arrived in front of a "haunted" house.
Jin had had a bit of free time after his latest martial arts training sessions, inherited from his father.
It was during that period that he had set out to search for black market intermediaries, eventually stumbling upon a man who knew Gong Shi Woo.
Beyond that, he had also obtained information on several haunted areas in the city.
Unfortunately, he had only come across stupid pranks.
Urban legends weren't reliable.
"This glow on the ground..."
Jin bent down.
At first he was perplexed, but his expression soon gave way to a smile of understanding.
He realized the origin of that luminous mark on the ground.
Residues of cursed energy.
"Interesting—"
Before he could finish his sentence, Jin was violently thrown back by a massive tail.
"Cough... damn it! Do you have any idea how hard it is to maintain clothes?" Jin declared, imagining Kaori getting angry at the state of his outfit.
After a brief reflection, he decided to discard them.
'Better for these clothes to disappear than for Kaori to see them in this condition,' he thought, picturing Kaori furious.
It was a situation he didn't want to experience personally.
Unfortunately, he didn't have time to think about his private life. Jin emerged from the wall debris to face the serpentine-looking creature.
No serious injuries were visible, but he showed no trace of arrogance on his face as he observed his opponent.
"K-kill... kill... kill!" The cursed spirit was enormous.
Jin estimated its power at a glance: the beast was certainly Grade 2, based on his limited knowledge of cursed spirits.
"Doesn't matter, it's going to taste Chunchunmaru," he told himself while summoning his weapon.