13 Troubles below the Surface

It had been about 2 weeks since the day that Shuichi fought the cursed demon baby in the graveyard.

And in the time that he had spent, he had gotten considerably stronger. His strength increase was not as quantitative as it was qualitative.

He had leveled up 4 times from killing that cursed baby, which was quite a lot considering the amount of difficulty in killing that curse was not that high.

His status at this point in time looked something like this.

{[Status]} [Skill Tree] [Inventory]

[Name: Zenin Shuichi

Level: 14

Class: Sorcerer

Cursed Technique: Cursed Heart; Hard to Kill

Innate Skills: Cursed Technique Creation; Corrupted Mind

Skill Points: 90]

His skill points had reached a whopping number of 90. This was 1800 points of proficiency! A staggering amount considering the increase only 500 points could bring.

Even then Shuichi did not rush to use all of these points.

'I can already increase my control and reinforcement with the aid of my techniques, I shouldn't rush to increase my abilities. It would be better to use them once I've hit a wall.' He thought.

Right now, he sat inside of his shop, waiting for some more customers to show up.

His business had now begun to gain some recognition. The nice lady that had visited his shop that day came back with her friend, who turned out to be haunted by a grade 4 cursed spirit. Anyway, a simple flick of Shuichi's fingers obliterated the curse, freeing the woman of any discomfort that she might have.

Obviously, he did not just flick his finger and kill the curse. He had to put up an act. And thus, he had organized some sort of imaginary ritual to go through with the exorcising process, which was completely unneeded.

But even though he lied, it allowed him to put up a satisfactory performance.

Once he had freed the woman of the cursed spirit, the word quickly spread and just like that, people who were plagued by curses came to him for an exorcism.

Though most people that came to him weren't even plagued by any curses, he wouldn't be so kind as to not scam them. A sorcerer is nothing but a con artist, as a battle of sorcery is a battle of deception.

What kind of jujutsu sorcerer would he be if he couldn't even scam some normal people?

Anyway, that worked out, and by now, he was able to have a steady stream of cash. The superstition in this world was really an all time high. Which wasn't so wrong considering the existence of cursed spirits and curse users.

Aside from the obvious increase in his business, his skill screen had also taken a tremendous leap in numbers.

His cursed energy control had reached the number of 1600, surpassing the 1500 mark which earned him another piece of enlightenment.

His cursed energy reinforcement went over 1000, further improving his battle prowess with a qualitative change. His cursed energy flow and reinforcement could be compared to a grade 1 sorcerer now.

And considering that it had barely been a month since he reincarnated, the growth was absolutely monstrous...

It was to the point of being impossible, but hey, he wasn't one to complain. He had especially designed his cursed techniques to gather as much strength as he could and as fast as he could.

He didn't have any improvement in the black flash department despite trying his hardest to achieve one.

His normal skills like cooking and stuff had also increased a bit, but nothing that was worth mentioning.

His CQC had also increased to 800.

'If I keep up the speed of improvement, I don't doubt that I'll reach the level of a special grade within another month.' Shuichi thought to himself.

'Though I feel like I'll hit a wall soon. The pieces of enlightenment would probably come in handy at that time.'

As he was thinking, the door to his shop opened up to give way to customers.

"Welcome to the-" Shuichi was about to welcome them, but paused as he saw a couple of buff looking men in black suits walked inside.

They all had bulky muscles that were hardly contained by their black suits, black glasses on their faces which impeded anyone from seeing their eyes and along with that, every one of them had atleast one scar that was visible in some way.

On the chin, on the eyebrow, on the neck, on the cheek. For a moment, Shuichi wondered if they had purposely slashed a part of their faces to appear more intimidating in a group.

As the black suited men walked inside to the shop, suddenly they parted up in two groups, like a bunch of lackeys giving way for someone of a higher position to make their way.

From the outside, a somewhat heavy and bulky man walked inside, dressed in the same black suit like the other people.

He had a strange air about him, with his chin held high and his arms spread out a bit to display more masculanity as he walked, he felt downright weird to Shuichi.

As the man fully walked inside, every single one of those black suit people turned to him, giving him a scary look.

'Are they... trying to put up an intimidating act?' Shuichi thought, a bit amused by their act.

Shuichi continued to stare at them with calmness, and it wasn't long before they decided to speak up.

"...Are you the one named Shuichi?" One of the lackeys asked him.

"That's right! What can I do for you today?" Shuichi asked with an easygoing smile. One that seemed to make the men look at him weirdly, probably finding my nonchalance at this situation quite strange.

"You do realize that you've made this shop in Boss Ryouta's area right?"

"Hmm? Who's that?" He asked in confusion. It was the first time he had heard that name. Probably the name of a local gang leader. Nothing someone like him should be worrying about.

"Hah? This guy doesn't know who boss Ryouta is?!" One of the lackeys scowled.

"Calm down." said the one in the front, directing a hand towards the one that spoke.

Shuichi could tell that they were all quite annoyed at him. It was easy to tell because of the cursed energy emanating off of them, it had increased somewhat from what it was initially.

As for the reason of their annoyance? Probably because they felt insulted due to their inability to intimidate me.

"Boy, let me tell you." The one in the front continued "Boss Ryouta is one of the most feared gang leader in the entirety of Japan, and what you've done is that you've made a shop in the area without asking for his permission."

"Waaah~ That's feels pretty bad..." Shuichi said in a bored tone. "So... what it is that you need from me?"

Hearing his tone of voice, the men all grew tick marks on their foreheads.

"It doesn't seem like you understand the situation you're in." Saying that, the man turned his back towards Shuichi. "Teach him a lesson." He said.

And with that, all the other lackeys began to take out some kinds of weapons out of their clothes. Knives, chains, etc.

Seeing this, Shuichi yawned.

'Oh man... how troublesome.' He thought.

***

In a dimly lit room where the only source of light was nothing but a few candles, sat down three people.

One of them was a somewhat tall man with a muscular frame and tan skin. He had short, straight, black hair on top that was curled atop his head with the rest of his head shaved. He has thick eyebrows and his facial hair consists of a mustache and goatee combination.

He sat down onto the matted floor, he piercing eyes that were like that of an eagle's gazing at the two younger people that sat before him.

One of the two young men sat in an unruly fashion. He had somewhat spiky white hair that seemed to shine even in the dimly lit environment. His eyes, that would otherwise appear as brightly colored jewels that had the sky imprinted onto them, were hidden by dark, almost opaque, sunglasses.

Anyone looking at him might question how he was even able to look through those glasses. He wore a dark blue zip-up jacket with a wide high collar. He wears slim-fit matching black pants and black dress boots, all that amounted to him looking a bit unruly and generally cocky; which was further enhanced by the cocky smile that was plastered onto his face.

Beside him, sat another unruly looking young man.

He had long black hair partially tied up behind his head. His face adorned small black eyes and bangs that occasionally cover the left eye. He had peculiar earlobes which are large enough to fit fairly large circular earrings. He wore fairly the same type of uniform as the one beside him, the only major difference being his pants which were baggy.

Sitting beside the white haired teen, he also sat in an unusual position, which seemed quite unnatural when one considered the older man who sat in a completely upright position.

These three people were Yaga Masamichi, a teacher at Jujutsu High, Gojo Satoru, the wonder child of the Gojo clan as well as a special grade sorcerer, and finally Suguru Geto, Gojo Satoru's best friend and another special grade sorcerer.

The silence in the room was deafening. With none of the three parties present uttering a word, the room was enveloped in a palpable tension. Yet that seemed to be of little concern to everyone present.

Just then, the white haired boy yawned, breaking the silence.

Seeing this, Yaga had a tick mark grow on his forehead.

But then, he suddenly sighed.

"Sigh* Do you two know why I have called you here today?"

"It is because Gojo forgot to put up the barrier." Geto replied without missing even a single beat.

"It is your job to put up barriers. Everyone knows you're the more responsible one. I just get to have my fun." Hearing Gojo's reply, Geto scowled.

"Huh? What do you-"

Seeing the situation developing into something that wasn't supposed to, Yaga quickly put a stop to it.

"Shut up! Both of you!" He said in an annoyed tone. He rarely ever gets so angry, even in the case of these two peculiar students... Okay, he might get angry when it involves these two, but that wasn't the point.

"I haven't called you here to discuss who's responsible for putting up the barriers."He continued "I have called you both here to discuss a matter of utmost importance..."

His grave tone and serious expression spoke wonders about the kind of thing that they might be dealing with. Yaga was really serious about the situation. Whatever it could be that would make their teacher adorn such a serious expression was beyond their imagination. Probably because they did not want to imagine it in the first place. The process of thinking through things was upto their grown up teacher!

The students get to have their fun!

"What is it, Yaga-sensei?" Seeing as the matter might be serious, Gojo got straight to the point. Yet there was still a hint of mischief in his voice.

"Is there a special grade curse somewhere?" Geto asked with a bored tone.

"No." Yaga spoke, "Has it come to any of your attention that you have been getting sent to more and more missions lately?"

"Hmm? Is that so?"

"Now that you mention it, you have been giving us more work to do these days."

"Here I thought you were just trying to make us more responsible."

"Oh well, it's not like I care. I can get some sweets after the mission so its always a win win for me."

"I think spicy food is way better."

And just like that, the entire topic of conversation was drawn by the two teenagers to a discussion about food.

Bam**

Two sounds rang across the room with intensity as Yaga hit the heads of the two students with his fist.

"Behave! This is a very serious matter!" He said

""Yes! Yaga-sensei!"" Both said, immediately straightening up.

"Sigh* Anyway, as I was saying. The two of you have been sent to more and more missions these couple of days." He took a pause in between, mostly likely to add to the dramatic effect.

"It is because the amount of cursed spirits and cursed energy in the entirety of Japan has had a sudden explosion in intensity." he continued.

"It started somewhat a month ago. An unusual amount of cursed spirits were reported all over Japan. Approximately 500 cases were reported in the Kyoto region, 200 in Tokyo, 300 in Osaka, and many more."

As they heard, the expressions of both Gojo and Geto solidified.

"Although most of them were not extreme, it was still an unprecedented number. Cause: Unknown."

Yaga took some papers from beside him and slid it over to the two teens. The papers were various graphs and reported incidents.

"A large number of jujutsu sorcerers were heavily injured, a lot of them died. For the jujutsu community that's always under-employed, it has been a tremendous loss."

"According to these graphs, the cursed energy density and curse activity has only been elevated to more extreme levels, with multiple grade 2 and grade 1 spirits being seen all around Tokyo."

"But within the month, while the curse activity in the other regions kept on increasing at a somewhat steady pace, it took a dip in Tokyo." He said, once again taking a pause.

"In Tokyo, the curse activity subsided to normal once again after a momentary increase. Which was not seen anywhere else in Japan." he said finally pausing for good, giving time for his students to analyze the information provided to them.

"So... what do you want us to do, Yaga-sensei?" Gojo asked

"Do you want us to go to more missions?" Geto commented.

Yaga inhaled a deep breath and spoke, "No, what I want from you is simple." Yaga once again passed them a document.

"This is a request from the higher ups. They think that the perpetrator to this phenomenon is in Tokyo." He said "Along with that, they want you to take care of any special grade curses that might come forth before the perpetrator gets caught."

"With the six eyes of Gojo and the hundreds of curses of Geto, the higher ups want you two to become the ultimate surveillance duo." He finished.

Hearing that it was the request of the higher ups, both Gojo and Geto scowled.

""HAH?!""