The inner depths of the Star Corridor.
Following their formal assignment from Masamichi Yaga to guard Tengen, Yuki Tsukumo and Toji Fushiguro had arrived at that place uninvited. They relied on Toji's constitution, which allowed him to ignore barriers, and Yuki's senses as a Star Plasma Vessel connected to Tengen.
"Seriously, that old man is a coward. Hiding away is pointless anyway," Yuki complained.
"Don't tell me the barrier is the only thing left and the guy himself is already dead. I saw that happen once during a raid on some weird cult," Toji remarked.
"Oh, you mean the one where a sorcerer became a living mummy inside a barrier and turned into a cursed tool to keep it maintained?"
"That's the one."
"Fortunately, I'm a Star Plasma Vessel. I'd know if Tengen died. That old geezer is probably just terrified, pissing himself while he watches us right now."
As they grumbled, the two looked upon a massive tree.
Rising from deep beneath the Tokyo school, this giant tree was the sacred object and divine pillar. It acted like a radio tower, broadcasting Tengen's power to every corner of Japan.
They had reached this place by using a bit of a cheat. Yuki had entered a storage cursed spirit, which Toji then swallowed to bypass the barrier. Yuki had guided him from inside the spirit using a radio. Since this was a hidden realm protected by the Pure Barrier of infinite emptiness, Yuki and Toji were likely the only modern humans to ever set foot here.
Beneath the roots of the sacred tree, they looked down at a humanoid figure curled up like a fetus, motionless. It had a strangely shaped head. This was presumably Tengen's true body.
The hatred was clear on Yuki's face—it practically screamed, 'I hate this guy.' Conversely, Toji's face plainly said, 'I couldn't care less.'
Then, a voice spoke to them.
'You truly do despise me, Yuki Tsukumo.'
"Obviously. Besides, look at your face. You look like a four-eyed thumb, old man."
'...I am more of an old lady, if anything.'
"Is that so? Well, looking at that thing lying there, I guess you do have breasts, so you're an old lady. That just makes you even uglier."
'You will look like this too if you live for five hundred years.'
"Unlike you, I actually take care of my appearance. Five hundred years from now, I'll still be a beauty, guaranteed."
Indeed, the one Yuki was treating so coldly was a four-eyed figure closely resembling the humanoid lying at the roots of the tree.
Tengen, the cornerstone of the Japanese jujutsu world. This was the end result of an ancient sorcerer who had ceased to be human at the end of their evolution.
"Heh, so this is it? Yuki, he's a bit dull for your boss. The guy is half-dead," Toji noted.
'A monster of Heavenly Restriction, the demon Toji Zen'in. Your ability to see into the soul is truly terrifying.'
"I've been a Fushiguro for a long time. I'm not a Zen'in."
"So, Toji. What do you mean by half-dead?" Yuki asked.
"I said he's half-dead. He has a technique and a soul, but no ego. Or maybe his ego is everywhere? I don't know, he's a hard one to pin down. Is he just stuffing a soul, cursed energy, and a technique into a shell woven from barriers to act as a temporary body...?"
'...It is a bit embarrassing to have it laid bare like that. Indeed, my individual ego as a person is already gone. Now, heaven and earth themselves have become my ego.'
"Maybe you should have just returned to nature and died. Well, the jujutsu world would be in trouble, but since Special Grades are having a clearance sale lately, we would have managed," Yuki said sharply.
'You are harsh, Yuki Tsukumo. Besides, you know that I—'
"Can't die because of your immortality technique, right? I know. Just like I know Star Plasma Vessels only exist because of your technique. I realized it after comparing myself with Riko. We were originally meant to be the vessels for your reincarnation after you died. But because you're immortal, a strange distortion in the cycle of samsara was born, and people like us—human beings with a copy of Tengen's soul—started appearing. The precision of the copy varies, but occasionally, a Star Plasma Vessel with one hundred percent precision, like me or Riko, is born. That's why back when you had a proper flesh-and-blood body, you could only swap bodies with us. You probably don't even realize it because you've absorbed them into your soul, but I can clearly hear the voices of my kind who were devoured by you."
'...And what do they say?'
"Like I'd tell you. If I did, you'd just act all enlightened because of your age. I'm not going to give you that kind of satisfaction. I might tell you as a gift for the afterlife, though."
"What is it, Yuki? Are you starting already?"
'Your goal is to lead the assimilation with me yourself. It is certainly possible given that the souls of the Star Plasma Vessels are equivalent to mine... but for what? To what end?'
"For the sake of the world and its people. What other reason is there besides exorcising the curses from this world? I don't know about you, but I am a jujutsu sorcerer."
Declaring this, Yuki allowed cursed energy to seethe through her entire body. She activated the Extension Technique she had refined specifically for this day.
'I see. With your technique, it's possible. Are you planning to shoulder heaven and earth all by yourself, Yuki Tsukumo?'
"Shut up, you old hag! There's no reason why I can't do something proactive just because you couldn't! EXTENSION TECHNIQUE ACTIVATION: [ . ]"
Immediately after, Yuki's technique to freely manipulate mass was extended. By increasing the weight of her own soul to the absolute limit, she transformed her soul into a conceptual black hole. She dragged Tengen—who possessed a soul of the same quality—into her inner self, assimilating him.
The ego extended across heaven and earth, the immortality technique, and all the souls of the Star Plasma Vessels from the past. Yuki's soul, which had drawn in causality itself along with everything else, nevertheless maintained its dominance through an overwhelming difference in mass, making the absorbed souls follow her like stars swirling around a galaxy.
There was only one chance for success. It was a live performance based purely on a constructed theory. By successfully absorbing the immortality technique, Yuki Tsukumo bypassed the binding vow of "can only be activated once in a lifetime, resulting in death." She was reborn here and now as the new Tengen, a living god bearing a halo like a spiral galaxy behind her head.
"Hey. Which one are you?"
"It's me, Toji. Thank you. It was a success. Though that old lady is being quite noisy inside. She's stubborn. She managed to create a small room within the stars surrounding my soul using a barrier to keep her ego alive. What? A gift for the afterlife? Just look around and you'll see. She can just stay in that little room and lecture me all she wants."
"What are you talking about?"
"The old hag is just loud."
"Fine. Well, my mission was to guard Tengen. Are those curse users coming or what?"
"Give me a moment. I'm not used to this perspective of looking down upon heaven and earth yet. Don't ask the impossible of your cute new rookie goddess."
"Goddess, huh? Well, you certainly look the part. So, how long until you get a handle on that high-and-mighty perspective?"
"I need a day. I'll be concentrating, so talking might get a bit difficult."
"Fine, fine. So I have to take this guarding gig seriously for a day, then. I should have brought a racing form or something."
After that conversation, a silence fell between the newly divine Yuki Tsukumo, who sat in meditation at the base of the sacred tree, and Toji, who leaned nearby with the Split Soul Katana over his shoulder, yawning with boredom.
The change of generations, an event that would shake the very foundations of the Japanese jujutsu world if it were known, was carried out in secret—quietly, yet with absolute certainty.
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