"Hey… you've built yourself quite the nice little reputation since last time," Gong Shi Woo said, sketching a professional smile.
A few weeks had passed since Jin and Gong Shi Woo last met at the park.
The two men hadn't stayed in touch after finalizing the last details of the contract, which Jin considered priceless for his progress.
So the black market broker was surprised to suddenly receive a phone call from Jin.
"Is he upset because of how slowly the job is being carried out?" he wondered, trying to keep calm.
Gong Shi Woo knew he had acted a bit too slowly.
Normally, Toji would complete a mission within the same week he received it. However, things had gotten a little complicated lately.
Toji had become a father.
Gong Shi Woo had always believed that Toji's erotic adventures would never turn serious.
Unfortunately, time had proven him wrong.
"A reputation?" Jin asked reflexively.
Gong's words sparked a bit of curiosity in him. That's why he let a different emotion slip through the mask of the stern client.
Gong stretched his fake smile a little further.
He saw an opportunity to avoid talking about the delay in carrying out the task, thanks to the rumors circulating about the man in front of him.
'Even though I don't like giving out information, this isn't exactly a secret in this small town,' he thought to himself as he pulled out his second cigarette of the day.
Sendai is the capital of Miyagi Prefecture in Japan. Normally, it would be hard to call it a small town.
But Jin (Claud) and Gong were foreigners by nature, even though they lived in Japan.
Their common sense was a little different.
So Gong didn't notice that he had used an impressive talent to dig up information.
What the immigrant considered valuable information, others treated like garbage.
"The rumor talks about a crazy guy in cosplay who does clan jobs for free," Gong summarized after taking a few drags from his cigarette.
Jin put on an indifferent expression, but he felt a little embarrassed by Gong's words.
'Wearing that mask and Kazuma's thief outfit really wasn't a good idea…' he thought inwardly.
Jin swore to himself that he would only use the Vanir mask next time.
"Weird, I don't understand why you assume the guy from the rumor is me," Jin decided to deny Gong's claims for now.
Even though he planned to work actively in the shadows of the jujutsu world, Jin didn't think it was time to be known yet.
He preferred to wait for the right moment.
"You're denying it? Yet you appeared on the black market at almost exactly the same time as this guy," Gong stated.
In response, Jin chose silence. The man in front of him was a former detective who had turned to the darker side of society.
The ex-employee wasn't stupid enough to get into an argument contest with someone like that.
"Oops, I touched a sensitive subject. Sorry, I went a bit over the line," he apologized in a sincere tone.
"No problem—"
Just as Jin was about to change the atmosphere by bringing up the delay in the task related to Yaga, Gong's phone rang in his pocket.
[I've got the target. Where and when does the client want him?]
A calm voice sounded after Gong answered the call.
Jin had never met Toji and wasn't even sure Gong would actually call the man. Yet he decided to take the gamble.
"I won my bet," he thought as a "wicked" smile drew itself on his lips.
Gong had indeed called upon the strongest man of this era, without an awakened Gojo Satoru.
The One Who Left It All Behind
Toji Zenin.
(Image)
…
"An animal cemetery? You want to bury him after you're done with him?" Toji asked nonchalantly after observing his surroundings.
Yet Jin remained temporarily silent as he stared at the "anomaly" before his eyes.
'No cursed energy… no, he doesn't emit any presence at all,' he thought, looking at the man with a cursed spirit wrapped around his neck.
Indeed, Toji emitted nothing.
No killing intent, no presence.
Jin felt like he was facing a void, even though his eyes clearly saw Toji.
It was a strange and unique experience.
"You listening?" Toji pressed after noticing his interlocutor's silence.
"Hm… sorry, I was fascinated by that creature around your neck. As for your question, I'm not going to kill this man," he declared in a calm voice.
"Hm?!" Immediately after hearing Jin's words, the bound man at Toji's feet began to struggle.
After a few small movements, he managed to shift his position slightly to get a better view of Jin.
Yaga's eyes expressed deep resentment toward the former employee.
Unfortunately, his mouth was gagged with cloth and his limbs were in bad shape.
None of his curses could be understood.
'I hope he can still demonstrate his cursed technique in this state,' Jin thought as he casually grabbed Yaga by the collar of his shirt.
The action resembled a cat handling its kitten.
"Not so fast!" The moment Jin made to leave, he immediately felt a firm grip on his shoulder.
"Problem?" he asked, frowning slightly but avoiding being rude toward such a fearsome assassin.
The gap in strength between him and Toji made him realize that the few cursed spirits he had eliminated were nothing but trash from an era of peace.
Jin was weak…
"You paid the deposit, but not the full fee," Gong explained after noticing the atmosphere.
Jin quickly realized his mistake.
"Sorry, I just have a lot of questions for this person," he said in an apologetic tone.
The action surprised Gong a little, because Jin hadn't seemed so "cooperative" in their previous exchanges.
So he found his attitude strange at first until he realized something while observing him.
Jin was speaking "politely" to Toji.
'Has he realized Toji's strength?' the former detective analyzed.
The implications of that idea might seem trivial, but they were incredibly valuable from Gong's point of view.
How many jujutsu practitioners had ever realized Toji's strength with just a glance?
The answer was obvious… none.
Toji bore no trace of cursed energy. That situation had granted him immense physical strength, but every orthodox sorcerer would instinctively despise him.
After all, cursed energy was everything in their world.
And now Gong was meeting a sorcerer who didn't despise Toji or make a disgusted face while looking at him.
Beyond those two already surprising elements, Jin seemed to grasp Toji's strength without having experienced it himself.
One word instinctively came to Gong's mind: genius.
Only a genius could see through Toji.
"There, I sent the money to Gong's account," Jin declared after speaking to the bank on the phone.
The latter wasn't comfortable with the idea of Jin transferring all the money he had earned by putting his house up as collateral to a shady account.
But she didn't really have a choice.
After all, the customer is king.
Beep.
Gong's phone displayed a notification confirming that the money transfer had succeeded.
"It's good, Toji," Gong declared after reading the notification.
Toji removed his hand from Jin's shoulder, but the nonchalant air around him was gone.
He seemed intrigued by the hooded man.
"Well, I'm leaving this time. I hope we'll do business again," he said as he left the place with Yaga.
"Is he strong?" Gong asked after judging that the distance between him and Jin was large enough.
"No," Toji denied, but his eyes were unusual. Something Gong noticed easily.
'This guy… is he like that kid?' Toji thought as the image of a young boy noticing his presence for the first time overlapped with Jin.
The former employee hadn't "noticed" Toji, but he had been able to recognize him.
Just that element was enough for Toji to consider him an anomaly. Unconsciously, Jin left a strong impression on Toji.
The sorcerer killer judged him weak, but decided to be cautious.
…
"Cough… no matter if you torture me or threaten me, I won't demonstrate my cursed technique," Yaga declared in a determined voice.
Jin frowned but managed to keep calm in the face of the future principal of Tokyo Jujutsu's words.
' Sometimes I envy Rika at her peak, ' he thought as he leaned toward the man battered by Toji.
The learning ability of the adventurer class was theoretically limitless, but it rested on certain rules.
First, Jin had to witness the ability he wanted to learn from the target.
Second, he had to have the target's agreement regarding learning the ability.
Finally, Jin had to have enough points to learn the targeted ability.
That's why he had trained hard before arranging his meeting with Gong.
Jin needed a certain base level of strength because he was forced to hunt to earn skill points.
So only two more conditions remained to fulfill with Yaga to obtain his cursed technique.
"Okay, I'll try to make a compromise. However, if we don't reach an agreement, then believe me…" Jin locked eyes with Yaga before manifesting his cursed energy mixed with pure killing intent.
He had invested a great deal of time and money to obtain Yaga's power. That's why his mood had soured after this short exchange of words.
"You'll regret having that cursed technique," he said as he drew Chunchumaru.