When we entered the room where Kurorai was sealed, I warned the volcano-headed curse in advance.
"The curse spirit in front of you isn't what you're looking for. It's called Kurorai."
The volcano-head narrowed its eyes slightly before looking toward the massive black core surrounded by a murky yellow liquid.
"Why is it beneath your house?"
"We use it as a power source for the entire city."
The curse spirit in front of me fell silent for a moment, then laughed.
"How ridiculous. A curse, and yet it's being raised like a machine."
I shrugged. I wasn't the one who had decided that, and I had no idea whether the previous owner of this body had been the one behind it.
At the very least, it was useful now.
"It's useful, isn't it?"
I looked at it for a moment before returning to a more important subject than arguing about that.
"As for your offer to search for the fingers... I'd like to go with you."
This time, the volcano-head turned to look at me.
"You mean that?"
"I do."
It narrowed its eyes again.
"You, who sympathize with humans, don't intend to interfere with me, do you?"
I didn't think I was that kind-hearted.
Still, it felt strangely nice to be called a good person when I had never really tried to be one.
I chuckled.
"No, no. Honestly, I just don't have anything better to do right now. And if I truly wanted to stop you, you'd have died long ago."
The atmosphere in the room fell silent at once.
The volcano-head stared at me.
"Are you looking down on me?"
I shook my head before answering.
"No, no. I'm only stating a fact."
I paused briefly.
"Because I'm the strongest, after all."
The curse spirit went quiet for a moment, then laughed more openly than before.
"You say that even while someone named Gojo Satoru still exists?"
But I didn't answer that question.
Instead of explaining, I slowly raised one hand and coated it in a dense black aura.
Since earlier, really.
I knew a little about the Gojo family.
But who exactly was Gojo Satoru?
A mass of shadow gathered tightly in my palm before I swung it out in a wave that passed just beside the volcano-head.
The air tore with a sharp sound.
The wall behind it was instantly carved with a deep, long gash, as if part of the stone had simply been erased.
For the first time, the volcano-head's eyes widened slightly.
It was an attack meant to clear up any doubts.
"This is called the Dominion of Shadows. And your technique is probably related to fire, isn't it?"
The volcano-head looked at the gouge in the wall for a moment, then snorted softly.
I tilted my head a little.
"I really do want to help you. But of course, not for free."
Offering help without asking for anything in return would be suspicious, so I decided to make my own condition clear.
"In case you're wondering, I want a finger."
The volcano-head paused slightly. This time, the look in its eyes shifted from suspicion to obvious interest.
"One finger, you say?"
"Yes. Just one is enough."
"And what would you use it for?"
"That depends on what something like that can be used for, doesn't it?"
I paused a little before asking back,
"And how do you normally use them?"
"I need to find a vessel capable of accepting Sukuna's finger."
"A vessel?"
"Yes. It must be a human. Then that person has to consume the finger."
So I couldn't use it myself, then?
I folded my arms as I listened.
"When that happens, Sukuna's spirit will possess that vessel, and he will be reborn in a new body."
I narrowed my eyes slightly.
"And what if the vessel can't handle it?"
"Then it dies."
...
Even so, I wanted to try eating one.
If I didn't try, I'd never know, would I?
So I lifted my head and looked at him again.
"What would happen if a curse spirit ate Sukuna's finger?"
That question made him fall silent for a moment.
The volcano-head narrowed its eyes and looked at me with obvious suspicion.
"Stop thinking like that."
Its voice dropped instantly.
"The moment Sukuna is reborn, the very first target he'll go after will be the one who consumed the finger."
He had read my thoughts with absurd ease.
So I laughed it off.
"We should probably leave this place now."
We had stayed here too long already. Fortunately, Sebastian still hadn't shown up.
...
We came up from the basement and were walking out of the mansion.
"My goal is to infiltrate the Jujutsu Technical School. I suspect Sukuna's fingers are being kept there."
I had never heard of a school like that before.
This world clearly held far more I didn't know than I had thought.
"How strong are they?"
"At present, I don't know all of them yet. But right now, Gojo Satoru has only recently started studying there."
Gojo Satoru again.
That name was starting to appear in my life more and more often.
To be honest, I had begun to wonder just how strong the person called Gojo Satoru actually was.
"If it were easy to get in, you would have stormed the place long ago, wouldn't you?"
"Yes. And now, more than ever, it's nearly impossible."
His plan sounded no different from terrorism.
If possible, I still didn't want to directly cause trouble for anyone.
He turned and stared at me.
"You're hesitating."
I sighed.
"Hm?"
"Even if I said I'd help you search for the fingers, I still don't want to make enemies of anyone—whether curse spirits or humans."
The curse spirit in front of me fell quiet for a moment, then laughed.
"You're far too conciliatory."
"I just don't want to get caught up in chaos."
It glanced at me again.
"Your words are full of contradictions."
"You mean about helping you find the fingers?"
"Yes."
I smiled at how quickly it judged.
"It isn't contradictory at all. It's not as if I intend to join your ideology."
It narrowed its eyes slightly.
I looked back at it with a small, playful smile.
"Don't misunderstand. To me, this is more like a way to pass the time."
The curse spirit chuckled in its throat.
"Even though you know that helping me search for the fingers could lead to the destruction of humankind?"
"If it really comes to that, I can make my decision then."
It was silent for a moment.
In the end, one corner of its mouth lifted slightly.
"I'm beginning to understand why I didn't want to kill you from the very start."
"What an honor."
"Don't be so sarcastic."
"I'm not being sarcastic."
"That only makes it more annoying."
I laughed as we continued walking down the dark corridor.
"By the way, what's your name?"
"Kujo Tsukiyo. And yours?"
"Jogo."
1
On the path through the park, I walked behind Jogo.
"Where are you going?"
He turned slightly toward me.
"Come to think of it, why can humans perceive your existence as if you truly have a physical presence?"
He glanced at the people walking past us along the road at night. Some instinctively shifted aside to make way for me. Others glanced over only briefly before continuing on, as if they could sense that someone was there.
He continued,
"Normally, only those with cursed energy are able to see our kind."
It was true that vampires originated from curse spirits, but the book had only explained the differences between them and ordinary curses in the vaguest terms.
"Who knows? Maybe it's because I'm not like ordinary curse spirits."
Jogo narrowed his eyes.
"In any case, the answer to your earlier question is that I'm searching for Sukuna's fingers. But this city is so saturated with curse pressure that I can't tell where to even begin."
I looked at the street ahead for a moment before asking,
"Do you really think there's a finger somewhere in this city?"
Jogo fell silent for a brief moment, then looked at me.
"Why do you think otherwise?"
"To be honest, this is my territory. If something like that were really here, and if it could be tracked by its curse pressure, my family would have collected it already."
Jogo laughed.
"You think far too highly of your family."
"What do you mean?"
"Something like that doesn't need to release curse pressure all the time. The fingers I obtained before were almost all sealed."
I didn't know enough about Sukuna's fingers to argue back, so I chose to stay silent.
But then Jogo stopped walking abruptly.
"...Wait."
He turned to look toward a dark alley across the road, his eyes narrowing slowly.
"What is it?"
"A new source of curse pressure has suddenly appeared."
"Then should we go investigate?"
"Yeah."