41 Chapter 40: The Aftermath

"Look at the mess you all have caused!" Watase Genbu slammed his fist on the circular wooden table, causing a flurry of whispers among the occupants of the room.

"Genbu-dono! Please watch your tone in front of Zenin-sama." An unorthodox clan member chided loudly, but Watase remained silent, keeping his gaze down.

"It's alright, Kawabata," the old man Naobito said calmly, nodding in appreciation towards his faction member as he stood up from his seat.

"As I have stated before, the victim was already deceased by the time we arrived. Our only option was to ensure justice was served upon the perpetrators." He looked around at his colleagues and added, "We did what we could to bring closure to this situation."

Multiple voices chimed in with nods of agreement, and Naobito confidently sat back down, satisfied with the outcome.

Currently, the old man was sitting in the Council of Internal Affairs room at the Jujutsu Headquarters. This department oversaw the daily operations and management of the Jujutsu society.

Interestingly, the internal affairs council held the second-highest position of authority in Japan, ranking just below the supreme council presided over by the jujutsu commander.

However, Naobito was not a member of either of these councils. It was an unwritten rule that the Heads of The Eight Great General Houses were not allowed to take a seat in any primary decision-making body of the country.

Officially that is.

In reality, both councils had designated seats for members of the Hachidai Shougunke. These members were carefully chosen at the recommendation of the Head of the House, showcasing their immense influence on political affairs.

This was amply evident by the fact that the Zenin clan's representative member for this council quietly stood behind Naobito, not even daring to participate in the conversation.

"The presence of a deceased Congress member on our soil, and the fact that his killers are dead, remains as the naked truth," the representative for the Shinra clan spoke up. "To make matters worse, this ICM member was on a highly confidential top-priority mission and had urgently reported an early completion just the day before his death. And to top it off, he was a bloody Englishman!"

All the members in the room let out a collective sigh as they felt their blood pressure rise. "But he was on a Congress mission. Do you think the Brits would try to create some drama over this?" The Nakiri representative, who was new to the council asked with a confused tone.

"Create some drama?! Those uncultured, arrogant fuckers love to stir up a storm in teacup for literally nothing! And to make matters more complicated, we were the ones who killed the perpetrators responsible!" Another council member replied sarcastically, giving a disapproving look towards the unorthodox representatives.

"I have repeatedly emphasised the fact that we didn't kill them. The wizards died in their own unsuccessfully attempt to bring us down with them." The Zenin patriarch was growing tired and irritated by constantly denying their involvement in the wizards' deaths.

'What a bunch of cowards' he sighed to himself.

"Do you think those Brits would buy that? They won't just let this go," someone else chimed in.

"Let them fuss all they want." Norio Kushihashi of the Kushihashi clan finally spoke up after remaining silent throughout the meeting, bringing a hushed silence over the room.

"Those wizards don't have the spine to do anything. At most, they would fuss about this topic at the Congress meeting for a few months, before forgetting about it."

"But they have Albus Dumbledore. He won't back down easily," another member argued.

"Grand Wizard Dumbledore won't pursue this matter if there is no evidence of wrongdoing on our part. And without him, the Brits are powerless to do anything," Norio concluded confidently.

The Kushihashi's reassurance pacified the Orthodox faction since Norio was the younger brother of the Kushihashi Clan Head - one of the 4 Special Grade Sorcerers in Japan, and the Orthodox clan's pillar.

On this table, Norio represented the Kushihashi head's will. Knowing they had the support of a Special Grade behind them, everyone in the room breathed a collective sigh of relief and felt emboldened to speak their minds.

"Zenin-sama, didn't you have something else to share with us?" With the atmosphere significantly cooled down, Norio directed his curiosity towards the Zenin clan head, who smiled mysteriously in response.

"Yes....Everyone, I bring a piece of good news to share." The eyes of those gathered in the room brightened with anticipation as they waited for Naobito to continue.

"I think it's safe to say that - Japan will be having its 5th Special Grade soon."

Deafening silence stretched out for a moment before all chaos broke out.

The occupants of the table erupted into chaos, shouting at Naobito with fervour, while he looked back at them with the same mysterious smile.

_____

Meanwhile, the man in question, the future 5th Special Grade himself lay on his bed scrolling through supernatural videos on his phone. Despite no longer needing much sleep, he still yawned like a chronically exhausted person.

The faint light of dawn seeped in through the expansive floor-to-ceiling windows of his spacious master bedroom as he mindlessly gazed at the screen of his phone.

His mind kept replaying his last day's events, searching for clues or overlooked details. "What am I not seeing?" he wondered to himself, unable to make sense of it all.

After the trio took care of the wizards, a group of reinforcements from headquarters arrived shortly afterwards. The victim, Gareth Greengrass, as identified by his Observe was a Grade One wizard officially registered as a British ICM member and also served as one of the English Ministry of Magic's liaisons to the Congress.

But such a man was specifically targeted and murdered by two individuals from a highly secret and mysterious organization called Ordo Mortis Antiquae, also known as the "Order of Ancient Death" in Latin. And if the wizard's memories were correct, this same organization were searching for 'Ancient Magics' which they believe can be found at Hogwarts?

While August was bewildered by the events, it wouldn't be accurate to say that he had never heard of ancient magic before.

In the original Harry Potter novel, Albus Dumbledore referred to Lily Potter's sacrifice to protect Harry from the Killing Curse as 'Ancient Love Magic', confirming its existence even though it was not fully explained in the book. 

This, and the black and blue fog that unsuspectingly took out his right arm, increasingly convinced him of the dangers of such magic.

If an ancient magic cast by a weak grade one wizard was effective enough to pierce through an Ultimate Class shield, the magical community would be completely flipped upside down in a matter of hours.

August let out a heavy sigh as he set his phone down and gazed out the window at the gradually lightening blue sky. 'I cannot allow this to occur,' he thought to himself. 'To execute my schemes for the underworld, I must have at least one faction under my control. This is my chance.'

That is why he came to Japan.

As soon as he acquired the system, he knew that one day he would have to take over the underworld. However, he quickly realized that trying to do it all alone would be too strenuous.

To make things easier for himself, he made the decision to 'hijack' an existing faction.

August found the perfect opportunity when he stumbled upon the Jujutsu Society. However, there was one major hurdle in his path: Gojo Satoru.

It was then he came to the realization that he couldn't simply force his way through this situation but instead had to cleverly manoeuvre his way into gaining complete control. One of the key components to achieving this was getting Satoru to join forces with him willingly.

Ironically, it was not as daunting as it appeared. The dynamic between Satoru and the Jujustu higher-ups had been tense for some time now, and it was only a matter of time before it reached its boiling point.

Only he needed to persuade Satoru by then, that joining him was not as terrible as it seemed.

Because it was not.

August might be a cold-blooded serial killer, but he had no aspirations of world domination or mass genocide. His goal was to simply take over the Underworld in order to progress through his future sequences and, on a more personal level, to free the suppressed devil society from the shackles of the 72 pillars.

'Heh, maybe my idea isn't that bad after all.' He mused to himself as his phone rang.

He was surprised when he saw the Caller ID of his silver-haired sensei pop up; he wasn't expecting any calls at this time. "Talk of the devil..." he muttered as he answered the call.

"Hello?" Satoru's voice greeted him on the other end.

"What do you want?" August asked with a hint of grumpiness in his voice.

"Arey? Why are you so grumpy this early in the morning?"

"I couldn't sleep the whole night. And you called just as I was about to fall asleep," August replied, trying to half-heartedly reason with him.

"Fair enough," Satoru chuckled at August's response.

"So, why did you call me?"

"A few of my friends and colleagues from Jujutsu High gather together once every two months or so for dinner. We're having one tonight. Come over, I'll introduce you."

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Author-san here!!!

Too many easter eggs and hidden references are in this book.

I have seen a few of them in the comments already! Can you guys find out all of them?

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