Mahito's mouth felt a bit dry.
After learning Yoshino Junpei's name, he knew for certain he would be targeted, but he hadn't realized he was being watched so early.
It seemed that if Jogo hadn't suddenly spoken up, he wouldn't have even noticed Jogo and Kenjaku's surveillance.
But there was a question: why did Jogo and Kenjaku appear at the same time?
In the original story, Kenjaku was the one who took the initiative to find the Cursed Spirit group, and before Kenjaku met them, Mahito was already their leader.
When Kenjaku and the Cursed Spirits first appeared, although Mahito didn't show up, Jogo and Kenjaku's conversation revealed snippets about the Cursed Spirit group's leader.
Mahito only officially appeared after Jogo fought Gojo Satoru.
But now it was completely different.
Before Mahito had even met Jogo, Kenjaku had taken the initiative to bring Jogo to his door.
This plot development was something Mahito could not have predicted at all.
"I haven't introduced myself yet. I am Jogo, the manifestation of the earth's Curse."
Jogo stood before the park fountain, looking at it.
Beside him was Kenjaku, who maintained a constant smile.
Jogo introduced Kenjaku as well, "And this Curse User beside me is Geto Suguru. He was the one who took the initiative to find me, and then led me to you."
Standing behind Mahito, Yoshino Junpei couldn't help but murmur under his breath, "The Curse... of the earth."
Jogo glanced at Yoshino Junpei and suddenly asked, "Human, what is your name?"
"Ah, yes, my name is Yoshino Junpei," Yoshino Junpei responded timidly.
"As a human, you actually want to die for a Cursed Spirit?" Jogo asked.
Yoshino Junpei took a deep breath, trying his best to make his voice sound flat.
"I just want a better tomorrow, and I believe that if no revolution occurs, that better tomorrow will never come. You can consider me a traitor to humanity, but I don't believe I've betrayed them."
"On the contrary, humans are fundamentally evil, and this kind of evil cannot be overcome by humans themselves. We humans need a god, a supreme god to manage us—that is far better than humans managing themselves."
Yoshino Junpei stumbled a bit at the beginning of his sentence, but as he spoke, his voice grew louder and more fervent, until it was nearly a roar at the end.
The light of faith flickered in his eyes; he truly viewed Mahito as a god, and himself as Mahito's follower.
He wasn't just a fanatic—
Rather, after deep consideration, he had concluded that humans could not save themselves, which led to his fanatical worship of Mahito, who wanted to become a god.
To some extent, he would respect Mahito even more than Jogo did.
It was a spine-chilling kind of faith.
Jogo nodded thoughtfully and looked back at Kenjaku.
"Is this also how you handle your spy among the Jujutsu Sorcerers? Because that spy has also fallen into despair regarding current humanity and thus wants a revolution, the outcome of which is unknown?"
Kenjaku shook his head slightly.
"No, I have another plan. It wasn't perfect before, but if I can use Mahito's power, it will be foolproof."
Mahito remembered that in the original story, Kenjaku's spy was the Kyoto Jujutsu High student, Kokichi Muta—Ultimate Mechamaru.
His body was extremely fragile due to his innate Heavenly Restriction, making him unable to move in the outside world.
He could only interact or fight with others by remotely operating mechanical bodies.
He desperately craved a body that could move freely, so he signed a Binding Vow with the Curse User Uraume.
He would act as a spy, but in exchange, Uraume had to heal his body affected by the Heavenly Restriction.
Indeed, as Kenjaku said, it had nothing to do with ideals or faith; it was a simple transaction.
That's why as soon as Kokichi's body was healed, he immediately turned hostile.
Mahito looked at Kenjaku calmly.
"It's truly rare for a Curse User to take the initiative to seek cooperation with Cursed Spirits. You call yourself Geto Suguru?"
Kenjaku nodded gently with a smile.
"Because we share common interests. I want to recreate the grand era of Jujutsu Sorcerers from a thousand years ago, while Jogo wants to reverse the relationship between humans and Cursed Spirits. Whether it's me or Jogo, we are both dissatisfied with the current Jujutsu society, which is why we are cooperating."
Mahito calmly interrupted his nonsense: "You're lying."
Kenjaku froze for a moment.
Mahito looked at him and reiterated, "You lied."
Mahito wasn't bluffing; he truly saw that Kenjaku was lying.
In the original story, Mahito could determine if someone was lying through soul fluctuations.
The current Mahito could do it even more easily.
It wasn't that he had already surpassed the original Mahito, but simply that compared to the original, he was more adept at dominating minds and better at detecting the soul fluctuations of humans when they lied.
Jogo looked at Kenjaku suspiciously.
"What's going on, Geto Suguru?"
Kenjaku's expression remained unchanged.
"I wouldn't say that; it's just that I didn't tell the whole truth. Like you, I find the modern Jujutsu world an eyesore. I want to overthrow the modern Jujutsu world. Jogo, you feel the same, don't you? And Mahito, you want to become a god; the modern Jujutsu world must be your greatest obstacle."
What a clever way of speaking—not a single lie, yet skillfully hiding his own agenda.
Mahito narrowed his eyes and nodded.
"That part is true."
Kenjaku feigned wiping away sweat, though there wasn't a single drop of cold sweat on his forehead, and even his smiling face hadn't changed.
"Oh my, oh my."
"I didn't expect a Cursed Spirit to be able to detect human lies. That's quite an impressive ability. Now I must be completely honest with you."
Jogo gave a cold snort.
"You should have done that from the start."
Mahito curled his lips.
"That sentence was also a lie. You're thinking about how to gloss over things and use us, rather than being honest, aren't you?"
Jogo glared at Kenjaku, who raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.
"You can see through that too?"
"Hmm, who knows?" Mahito said with a beaming smile.
This was a lie.
Mahito hadn't actually detected any soul fluctuations just then, because when Kenjaku said those words, he was indeed being sincere.
Someone with little experience might have believed him, but Mahito, who was well-versed in the human art of language, was certain Kenjaku must have a contingency plan.
After all, Kenjaku's goal had a fundamental contradiction with the Cursed Spirit group's expectation of swapping the status of humans and Cursed Spirits.
It was impossible for them to cooperate from beginning to end.
No matter what Kenjaku said now, he would definitely betray the Cursed Spirit group in the end.
There was no doubt about it.
Since that was the case, if he could suppress Kenjaku's prestige, he had to do so.
That way, they wouldn't be easily sold out.
Heat waves radiated from Jogo's body.
"Geto Suguru, what exactly is your goal?"
Kenjaku said seriously, "To overthrow the current Jujutsu world."
Jogo looked at Mahito.
Mahito sighed.
"That is true, but presumably, that isn't his ultimate goal."
"Regardless of my ultimate goal, both sides' interests in overthrowing the current Jujutsu world are aligned. I can enter into a Binding Vow with you: until the current Jujutsu world is overthrown, we shall be the firmest of allies, and neither side shall betray the other in any direct or indirect way. How about it?" Kenjaku said solemnly.
This statement was true, and if he made a Binding Vow, he would certainly follow it.
In this world, a Binding Vow was a very serious matter; even someone as strong as Ryomen Sukuna had to abide by them.
Kenjaku had frequently entered into Binding Vows with others over the past thousand years, and he had fulfilled every single agreement.
Anyone in the Jujutsu world understood this logic, so Jogo stopped pressing.
He gave a cold snort.
"A Curse User full of lies."
Kenjaku looked innocent as he lowered his raised hands.
He already knew that once he mentioned a Binding Vow, they wouldn't be able to fight no matter what—at least not until the current Jujutsu world was subverted.
Mahito looked at both sides and suddenly asked, "Jogo, have you already fought Geto Suguru?"
Jogo was surprised.
"How did you know? Yes, this fellow does have some skill."
Mahito thought to himself: Nonsense. If you hadn't fought him, then as a Cursed Spirit, you wouldn't have been able to tolerate a human lingering in front of your eyes at all.
When Jogo first arrived in Tokyo, he was arrogant enough to want to take on Gojo Satoru, even confident he could kill him.
From that, it was clear he didn't have a deep understanding of the current Jujutsu world.
He must still be in a state of arrogance.
At this moment, if a human came to his door, they would have been incinerated long ago if they didn't have some power.
"Please calm down a bit, Jogo. Look, the Cursed Energy you're unintentionally releasing is making Yoshino-kun break out in a cold sweat," Kenjaku said.
He looked up at Yoshino Junpei and gave him a smile—a smile so terrifying that Yoshino Junpei shuddered all over.
Jogo frowned, glanced at the sweating Yoshino Junpei, and slowly calmed his emotions.
The heat waves indeed gradually receded, and Yoshino Junpei breathed a sigh of relief.
Kenjaku stroked his chin.
"This won't do. Being able to see Cursed Spirits only allows one to do logistics work in the Jujutsu world at most; it's not enough to climb to the top. If that's the case, his use to us will be very limited. Mahito, what do you plan to do?"
Mahito said indifferently, "Don't worry, I can make him be taken seriously."
Kenjaku nodded thoughtfully.
Although he was always smiling and appeared impassive, Mahito possessed eyes that could see directly into the soul.
He could tell that Kenjaku was very happy at this moment.
This guy is testing my abilities, Mahito thought.
To be honest, Mahito actually felt a sense of relief regarding Kenjaku's testing.
It meant that although Kenjaku already knew the characteristics of Mahito's abilities, he didn't know exactly what level they could reach.
He also needed to understand Mahito better to confirm that Mahito was indeed the key he wanted.
As the 'key', Mahito naturally felt resentment toward this, but at the same time, thinking about it from another perspective, as long as Mahito's growth as a key exceeded Kenjaku's expectations—even far exceeding the limit Kenjaku could control—then Kenjaku, in order to complete his own ultimate goal, would instead become Mahito's support.
The status of the two sides would be instantly reversed.
Mahito was going to exploit this very time difference!
Mahito turned to look at Yoshino Junpei.
He believed that the key to breaking the situation lay with Yoshino Junpei—or more accurately, what he intended for Yoshino Junpei to do.
He placed his hand on Yoshino Junpei's head and gently stroked it.
During the stroke, his soul-altering ability had already penetrated deep into Yoshino Junpei's brain.
An immature Mental Seal was slowly but firmly changing his mind, ensuring he could never harbor thoughts of betrayal.
Previously, Mahito had simply used his soul-altering ability without ever naming it.
Before this, he had considered it a divine power, and as such, it required no other name.
But now, he knew it wasn't divine power; he needed a name for it.
Idle Transfiguration.
From this moment forward, his soul-altering ability would be called Idle Transfiguration.
"Junpei, from this moment on, you are my eyes. Everything your eyes see will become my sustenance. I will transform you into half of my clone. You will enter Tokyo Jujutsu High just like the many contaminated people persecuted by Cursed Spirits. I need you to gather any knowledge you can learn, the ability characteristics of any of your companions, or any Cursed Tools that can enhance your own abilities."
Yoshino Junpei's expression was originally tense, but as Idle Transfiguration was activated, his eyes gradually went from bright to vacant.
His expression relaxed unknowingly, his eyes rolled up to show the whites, and his body vibrated slightly.
Layer upon layer of Cursed Energy was gathering and flowing within him, eventually becoming a surging river that filled his body.
Mahito was transforming Yoshino Junpei into a Sorcerer.
This was simpler than he had imagined.
Although he had not yet met other Sorcerers, he had experimented long ago on how to "transfer" his divine power to others.
In fact, his Cursed Energy remained in the body of that starving old man from his first experiment, though this Cursed Energy was too sparse and extremely difficult to detect.
But now it was different.
He wanted to transform Yoshino Junpei into a genius Sorcerer, a vessel extremely suited for his own Incarnation.
That's right—he was going to transform Yoshino Junpei's body into his own vessel!
Mahito said softly to him, "From this moment on, you will become a genius among Sorcerers. You will possess an immense amount of Cursed Energy. This power will constantly reshape your body, allowing it to continuously adapt to higher intensities of Cursed Energy."
"I will modify your brain to maximize your focus, comprehension, and logical thinking. As you develop your self, your intelligence will be further enhanced."
"You will possess the finest learning ability and a capacity for jujutsu casting that others cannot reach."
"I will preserve your innate talent—even though you are awakening your Cursed Energy at a late age, you possess a talent that those ordinary Jujutsu Sorcerers do not. You have your own Innate Technique."
"I won't tell you what your Innate Technique is, because you are about to enter the Jujutsu world as a novice, and a novice shouldn't know so much. You only need to know one thing."
"In the Jujutsu world, talent accounts for eighty percent of a Jujutsu Sorcerer's potential. Effort is merely an accessory to talent. And you happen to possess the most exceptional talent of all—"
If he could, Mahito would have loved to transfer his own Idle Transfiguration ability to Junpei, but he couldn't.
He didn't yet fully understand himself.
Not only his current self, but even the Mahito from the later stages of the original story couldn't achieve this.
The original Mahito's understanding of the soul allowed him to transform humans into clones networked with his own thoughts, but he couldn't make the clones use Idle Transfiguration.
Innate Techniques indeed have their "black boxes."
In the entire series, there are only three situations where this black box can be cracked.
Unfortunately, Idle Transfiguration cannot crack it yet.
Mahito already had some ideas regarding this, but now was not the time to implement them.
Aside from the Innate Technique, Mahito gave Yoshino Junpei everything a genius possesses.
This was also preparation for learning the Reverse Cursed Technique.
Mahito was a Cursed Spirit and could not learn the Reverse Cursed Technique, but Yoshino Junpei, who was equivalent to his clone, could.
Over the past month, Mahito's understanding of the human brain had become unquestionable.
Yoshino Junpei was already smart enough, and now, after his modification, he would reach a higher level.
When Mahito decided to send him to Jujutsu High, he determined that Yoshino Junpei must become a genius.
He had to learn all the common jujutsu comprehensively—not just the Reverse Cursed Technique, but also simple Shikigami manipulation, Barrier Techniques, Simple Domain, or Cursed Tool creation.
As long as it wasn't an innate talent, he would have the ability to learn it.
The more techniques Yoshino Junpei learned and the stronger his abilities became, the more they would ultimately return to Mahito.
Just as everything a god's follower learns eventually returns to the god.
And now, Mahito was Yoshino Junpei's god!
From the corner of his eye, Mahito caught a momentary flicker in Kenjaku's expression.
But that flicker wasn't fear; on the contrary, it was joy.
This was the key Kenjaku needed—the ability to freely change the degree of Incarnation in another's body.
Mahito had demonstrated this ability perfectly, and Kenjaku was ecstatic.
Now, it was a race against time between Mahito and Kenjaku.
Either Mahito's growth would be insufficient and he would eventually be made into a key by Kenjaku, or the positions of the two would be reversed, and Kenjaku would have to crawl at Mahito's feet to achieve his ultimate goal.
Kenjaku couldn't help but say, "What do you plan to do? Are you going to cut off one of Yoshino Junpei-kun's arms? That alone won't be enough, will it? The people in the Jujutsu world won't believe that a Cursed Spirit like you would let a human go just for the price of an arm."
"Of course, just an arm or a leg won't fool the people in the Jujutsu world," Mahito said calmly.
"But as long as he becomes my 'twisted toy,' those Jujutsu Sorcerers will surely be at ease."
Jogo and Kenjaku looked at each other.
Kenjaku asked, "A toy? What do you mean?"
Mahito looked down at Yoshino Junpei, who was now completely relaxed and at Mahito's mercy.
He smiled, a smile as gentle as a spring breeze.
He said, "It's simple. I'm going to turn him into a woman."
"...Huh?" Kenjaku and Jogo questioned simultaneously.
Yoshino Junpei suddenly shuddered.
His relaxed body abruptly tensed.
He widened his eyes, the whites showing bloodshot veins like a crimson spiderweb.
He began to scream, "Wait, you still haven't forgotten about that Shrine Maiden? I don't want to be a Shrine Maiden! I refuse! I refuse—!"
"How could you do this? How could you do this to me?!"
"Junpei, this is the best way, isn't it?" Mahito said gently.
"With your level, it would be impossible to escape the pursuit of Cursed Spirits like us anyway. Theoretically, death is the only possible outcome for you. Any other result—even losing an arm, a leg, or an eye—couldn't be explained by simple luck. Such a version of you wouldn't gain trust in the Jujutsu world."
He said slowly, "But becoming a girl is different—"
Mahito's smile didn't show his teeth; he looked very gentle and refined, but the words he spoke were like the whispers of a demon.
He said softly, "—This is my 'twisted hobby.' You can go right ahead and complain to the other Jujutsu Sorcerers about it. No, you don't even need to complain. Turning a boy into a girl... even if you don't say a word, the people in the Jujutsu world will naturally take it as my twisted amusement and won't suspect you. I believe this is much more believable than you losing half your life, isn't it?"
Yoshino Junpei roared with all his might, "No! Absolutely not! No, you can't do this to me! You can't do this to me! You can't—!"
He didn't notice that in these short five minutes, his voice had changed from a male's to a female's.
He had become a she.