"Kyoto, third-year. Aoi Todo. Introductions done. Kira, we're friends now."
"What kind of woman do you like? Answer quick—guys work too. Preferences reveal everything about a person. A man who has zero interest in women is guaranteed to be boring, and I hate boring men more than anything."
"Answer me. What kind of woman do you like?"
Nanami Kira glanced at the dim sky outside and sighed inwardly. He returned his gaze to the underclassman standing before him—short hair, a dark cloth wrap around his head, and a faded brown scar across one eye.
The muscular man named Aoi Todo stared at him with burning intensity.
"Slender fingers," Kira answered wearily.
"Oh, what a weird fetish! I like tall women with big butts—maybe we really could become best friends!"
Todo's face lit up with genuine admiration.
Tch.
Kira checked his watch again. The sky was growing dark, and the wind was howling outside. If this didn't wrap up soon, he wouldn't get to bed on time tonight.
This was supposed to be a welcome ceremony arranged specifically for him by Kyoto Prefectural Jujutsu High, but he still hated not being able to go home on schedule. He hated overtime. Overtime made his fingernails grow uncontrollably.
Suppress it... I'm a dependable adult.
He glanced at Todo, the one assigned to receive him, and frowned slightly. "How much longer until your idol comes out?"
"Any second now! Takada-chan is absolutely amazing!"
Looking at Todo's ecstatic expression, Kira finally understood what this so-called "welcome ceremony" really was: an excuse to give this guy official leave to chase his idol.
Irritating.
His fingernails had started growing again at a visible rate. The nails always betrayed his emotions—ever since he was a teenager, whenever he got agitated, they'd grow like crazy. And anything that deviated from his plans never failed to agitate him.
Nanami Kira hated change.
He shoved his lengthening nails into his trouser pockets, his expression unchanged.
"Kira, why do you like women with slender fingers?" Todo never missed an opportunity to discuss preferences.
"Boki."
"Huh?"
Kira ignored him and jerked his chin forward. "She's coming out. Your idol."
"Ohhhhh—" Todo instantly forgot his confusion. He craned his neck, hands raised, straining to see. The fans up front erupted into screams. The crowd surged like crashing waves, and at the far end of those waves, the corridor cleared by security was the only calm stretch of sea.
A young woman emerged in a schoolgirl uniform. Stockings hugged her long legs. Tall, with a big butt, smiling as she waved to the fans.
"Minna-san, I love you all!"
"Takada-chan, we love you!" The crowd roared even louder. Todo was right there among them, cheering. Only when Takada sat down at her table across from them did the noise die down.
"See, Kira? Didn't I tell you Takada-chan is incredible?"
"Mm. She really is beautiful." Kira stared straight at Takada's slender fingers—pale skin flushed with a hint of pink, nails painted with pretty polish.
The nails in his pockets grew faster.
"You wanna pick her up off that chair and take her home to marry, right?"
I want to cut it off her body and take it home to marry.
Suppress it, suppress this urge—I'm an adult now... Kira clenched his fists, nails digging deep into his palms, his expression still perfectly calm.
Just as he'd said, Nanami Kira was indeed an adult. An adult who could control his desires quite well. As long as there was no direct contact, he was confident he could endure this—
"Let's go, Kira! I've got two handshake tickets. My treat!" Todo waved the tickets in the air.
"Handshake what?"
"Handshake tickets." Todo looked confused and scratched his head. "You didn't know we were at Takada-chan's handshake event?"
Kira's breathing grew heavier. But he kept it under control.
He looked up and finally noticed the banner reading "HANDSHAKE EVENT," then locked his gaze onto Takada's hands again—that smooth, pale skin, those alluring nails, those slender fingers, those captivating palm lines. Like a bewitching little siren, like a queen of the nightclub, flaunting and teasing. Like a mother's friend, a kind auntie, a gentle English teacher. The idol's fingers stirred something entirely new in Nanami Kira's heart, unlike anything he'd felt with his past girlfriends.
This was it—butterflies in his stomach, the kind you can't dodge. Like a first love.
Those tantalizing little hands, that mother's friend, that kind auntie, that gentle English teacher—right now, they were clasping one sweaty fanboy's hand after another. Those pristine, beautiful fingers gliding across one thick, grimy, hairy paw after the next. Right in front of Kira, his beloved, being held by man after man in turn. This strange, unsettling sensation somehow gave Nanami Kira a peculiar thrill...
A bit indecent, he knew, but—
Cut them off. Cut them off... His nails grew wildly.
"Hey, hey! You coming?" Todo waved a hand in front of his face.
Todo... Nanami Kira maintained his calm expression and thought to himself: You're inciting me to commit a crime.
Only now did Kira realize that for him, attending a fan handshake event was conceptually identical to visiting a brothel. This was a path he'd never imagined.
"Do you go to a lot of these handshake events?"
"I'm at pretty much every one."
"If there's a similar event, invite me next time."
If the brothel analogy held, then Todo—who attended every handshake event—was a seasoned john. Kira was a humble office worker who knew how to learn from his betters. With all the earnestness of a first-timer at a pleasure house, he respectfully consulted his senior:
"Todo, from today on, you are my best friend. Truth is, I also like tall women with big butts."
The moment he heard this, Todo's face transformed into an expression of profound regret—regret at not having met sooner. His eyes glistened, deeply moved.
"Kira..."
"Todo."
"Kira, you really are a fascinating man. Worthy of being my best friend."
"Running together into the sunset, huh..." Todo tilted his face skyward. God only knew what fabricated memories he was conjuring out of thin air—tears and snot streamed down his face at a perfect forty-five-degree angle as he sighed:
"Kira, have you become a Takada-chan fan too?"
So the hand's name is Takada? What a cute name... Kira thought this to himself, his face betraying nothing. "Todo. Do you only follow one idol? There are other idols holding handshake events here right now, aren't there?"
"Could it be... could it, could it really be that you want—" Todo's pupils dilated. He swallowed hard, staring at Kira's eyes in disbelief, his voice trembling: "One idol isn't enough for you?"
"Three? You want three?"
"I'll buy tickets to every idol's handshake event."
Cut them off. Hands—white, slender, cute little hands—cut them off. All of them... all of them.
Looking at Nanami Kira's calm face, Todo swallowed hard again.
What a greedy man.
A terrifying man.
A horrifying man.
A kindred spirit—no, a senior whose ambitions far surpassed his own. When it came to women, this man had transcended the mortal plane, ascended to enlightenment, reached a level where he could found his own school of thought.
Yoshi yoshi yoshi yoshi yoshi yoshi... Todo raised his thumb in utter admiration and exclaimed: "Kira! I can't hold a candle to you!"
He, Aoi Todo—a man wild by nature, who looked down on everyone, who showed not a shred of respect even to Special Grade sorcerers—had for the first time in his life genuinely admired someone from the bottom of his heart.
Yoshi yoshi yoshi yoshi.
Kira paid no attention to Todo's dramatic expressions. He turned his gaze forward, straightened his tie, and smoothed the wrinkles on his shoulders.
He raised his wrist and checked his watch.
Time trickled by. The line ahead grew shorter and shorter. The clock ticked on, and the moon sank low. The evening wind in Kyoto was fierce; as it swept through, row after row of streetlamps flickered to life in its wake. The sky hung dark as gauze, and all the lights of Kyoto couldn't pierce it.
When the last person ahead finally left, it was Kira's turn at last.
His nails had grown to half an inch. He couldn't endure it any longer.
Gazing at the fair, delicate hand extended toward him, Nanami Kira's face remained as placid as still water, maintaining the image of a composed adult. But inside, he was thinking:
Just one touch. I won't take it home. It's fine. It's fine. I can't hold back anymore. Nobody can stop fingernails from growing, and nobody can suppress an inborn nature... Just one touch...
What a beautiful hand. Shame there's a person attached to it.
Kira reached out. His fingertips were about to make contact—
Suddenly, a massive explosion rocked the building from outside. The shockwave rolled in with a piercing howl, shattering window after window. A man dropped to his knees, clawing at his own eyes. Bloody tears streamed from his hollow sockets as his flesh rippled in waves. The fans scattered like startled birds, screams and cries filling the venue. Everything descended into chaos.
Takada yanked her hand back and fled under her bodyguards' escort.
Kira's hand froze in midair.
"More, more, more! More hatred, more fear! Let our cursed spirits grow!"
"Quiet, Murashita."
Todo's face darkened as he watched two men emerge from the smoke. Both wore black, their faces hidden behind masks covered in eyes.
Curse users.
Unlike jujutsu sorcerers, these were people who used curses to kill.
"Die." Todo exhaled slowly and clenched his fists, ready to charge—when a hand blocked his path.
"Todo, you handle the evacuation and set up a ward to keep people away." Kira spoke quietly, his back to him. "I'll deal with these two."
"You're giving me orders, best friend? I hate being ordered around. You're about to lose our friendship. I'm furious right now."
Section 2
"No—not an order. A request. A request between friends. Because I need to vent my anger too."
Kira raised his head, letting Todo see his eyes.
Calm.
Like stagnant water.
Stagnant water with rotting corpses floating in it—that was how calm, how utterly undisturbed they were.
Calm to the point of being terrifying.
Todo considered for a moment, then nodded. "For friendship's sake, I'll let you have this one."
"Crush them for me." He tossed the words over his shoulder and walked away without looking back.
"Sure. Not even dust will be left."
"Cocky old man!" The scarred leader laughed in disbelief. He sneered and jabbed his finger at Kira's nose. "Looking like some pathetic salaryman—even if you're a sorcerer, you're Grade 2 at best! My boss is Grade 1."
This guy looks kinda familiar... Scarface curled his lip, finger still pointed at Kira's nose.
"Coming to a handshake event... pitiful middle-aged office drone. You probably blow your entire paycheck just to shake hands with an idol! Corporate slave."
"Eight-thirty."
"What?"
"It's eight-thirty. I normally clock out at seven. That's an hour and a half of overtime."
"What's your point... huh?"
An explosion—skin fragments flew in every direction, spreading outward from the finger pointing at Kira. Murashita looked like a porcelain doll smashed against the floor, chunks of flesh peeling away from his body. Silent detonations crawled through him like a soundless serpent, climbing from his fingers, up his arm, through his chest. Before the flames consumed his skull, Murashita finally noticed something gripping his finger—a large pink cat.
Nanami Kira's calm voice reached his ears:
"All I'm trying to say is that I personally have no grand desires. I just want to live a quiet and peaceful life. Winning and losing—those are things I hate getting into with people.
"That's the kind of contented man I am. That's my philosophy of life.
"But if it ever came to a fight, I wouldn't lose to anyone.
"In other words, if someone appears who disrupts my sleep, if there's a nuisance or an enemy that prevents me from clocking out on time—before they even open their mouths... they'll run into this."
He pressed the switch again.
Red flames consumed Murashita whole. Before consciousness left him entirely, a terrifying name surfaced in his mind:
Blond. Looked about thirty. Dressed like a salaryman. And that bizarre shikigami.
Nanami Kira.
Rich in cursed energy but incapable of cursed techniques—could only command a single shikigami. The most unusual jujutsu sorcerer in history. Hailed as the strongest below the four Special Grades, the mad genius most likely to surpass Satoru Gojo. Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer.
And in the cursed spirit world, this was how they described him:
More than a sorcerer, he's closer to a curse itself.
More than a hero, this man is better described as a pure villain.
Killer Queen.
"Mr. Kira." The boss behind him watched his subordinate die without a flicker of emotion. He removed his eye-covered mask, revealing a face as calm and unperturbed as Kira's own.
"My apologies. My subordinate was out of line."
"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kaede Hasegawa. Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer. I have a certain reputation in the jujutsu world—something of a prodigy, you might say. In a real fight, I might not be any weaker than you."
"Besides, you want to clock out early, don't you? Let's just trade apologies and call it even. Fighting me wouldn't be easy for you either. I'm quite strong."
His manner was relaxed, casual—the posture of a man who had everything under control. Confidence laced his even tone as he said:
"So how about it—dare to let me live? I'm this talented, this young. I'm not done living yet."