"You didn't just change your appearance. You took possession of Gakuganji's body. That's why the resemblance is so perfect... so perfect that even the Grade 1 sorcerers in this academy couldn't see through you."
'Gakuganji' smiled, took another sip of tea, and said, "You still haven't told me the reason why you're so sure."
"Once, you asked me how I felt about Sukuna's fingers. Do you remember?" Kira Nanami's finger tapped rhythmically on the table. Tap. Tap. Tap.
"What about it?"
"I remember replying: 'I hate rotting fingers; I usually change them regularly.'" Kira looked into the old man's eyes, a glint of dark amusement in his gaze. "You weren't surprised at all. As if that was exactly how I should be. As if my nature made such a statement unremarkable."
Gakuganji's expression grew somber. He realized the gravity of his mistake.
"In the Jujutsu world, I have a reputation for being a 'diligent salaryman.' Only in the world of Curse Users—where I am viewed as a 'Curse' myself—would such a dangerous statement be taken as a matter of course."
The imposter swallowed hard. A bead of sweat formed on his forehead, but he ignored it, asking in a low voice, "You said that to test me? You've suspected me since then?"
"No. Earlier." Kira stopped tapping. The rhythmic sound vanished, leaving only the patter of rain against the glass.
"The first day we met, a taxi driver took me the long way. I used my Shikigami to intimidate him. Nothing malicious—I just wanted to get to work on time. I have to say, your subordinates aren't as good at acting as you are."
"He was too cowardly. Even though I'm a very charitable person, and even though he 'shouldn't' have been able to see Killer Queen on his shoulder, he reflexively lowered his shoulder as if something heavy were pressing down on it."
"And he was terrified. Any other driver would have just thought I was a psycho. But he was scared to death..." Kira lowered his head, his voice devoid of emotion. "The detour, the traffic—you arranged all of it to delay my arrival at the school."
"If I'm not mistaken, that's when you assumed my appearance, met the real Gakuganji in my place, and took over his body while he was off-guard. Then, you used his name to commission me to find the fingers. That started everything."
'Gakuganji' placed his tea on the table and shook his head helplessly, a pained expression on his face. "All because of a subordinate's mistake? How disappointing. But then again, Feidu and the others were busy with other tasks."
"Feidu... heh." Kira nodded thoughtfully, his calm smile remaining. "Feidu, Tunzei, Chuhui... the seven poins of joy, anger, sorrow, fear, resentment, hate, and desire. And the three souls: Taiguang, Shuangling, Youjing. Ten in total. Your 'subordinates' are actually just pieces of yourself, aren't they?"
"Even the person talking to me now isn't your true body. At most, you're one of the three souls. Otherwise, you couldn't be this calm. After all, a complete human requires all three souls and seven poins."
Gakuganji's face froze completely. Even Todo, who had been listening intently, straightened his back, his eyebrows shooting up. "Kira-kun, how could...?"
"Todo, remember the corpse in the coffin?" Kira asked softly.
"Tunzei? What about it?"
"That body had no external injuries, yet it died abruptly. From my experience, I can say it wasn't a sudden medical death. The pupils were dilated, but the complexion was healthy. The breathing had stopped, but the heart was likely still fluttering. That is the state of someone who has lost their soul."
"The flesh was intact, but the spirit had fled. If I'm right, that body held only one poin—'Fear.' The Tunzei soul. It abandoned the vessel and escaped before I even arrived."
Kira stood up and closed the window, shutting out the storm. The sound of the wind died instantly. Silence took over the room. A deathly, heavy silence.
"Gakuganji... no, Hasegawa Kaede. Your Innate Technique is [Three Souls and Seven Poins]. Each fragment can possess another person's body. If I'm right, a 'Soul' can possess a Grade 1 sorcerer, while a 'Poin' can take a Grade 2."
"Each fragment has its own technique. The seven poins deal with emotional poisons. I don't know the souls' techniques yet... but one thing is certain:"
"You are a Special Grade Curse User. An unrecorded, Special Grade threat."
The air in the room turned solid. The eerie silence expanded. No wind. No rain. Only the void.
"Truly impressive, Kira-kun. You truly deserve to be called 'The Curse Itself.'"
Now that his ability had been exposed, Hasegawa stopped pretending. Only curiosity remained. "But Kira-kun, you must have suspected me long ago. You knew about my possession ability back during our first meeting, or you wouldn't have tested me with that line about the fingers."
"You've been acting the whole time, pretending to diligently follow my orders. I've been acting too, pretending to be the anxious Principal. But you were the better actor. Tell me... when did you first realize I could steal bodies?"
Kira leaned against the window frame. Outside, the thunderclouds rolled and surged. Leaning there, it looked as if he were leaning against the weight of the entire world.
Todo had a fleeting hallucination—that the storm outside belonged to Kira. That the world's fury was born for him. He shook the thought away, focusing his fading consciousness on Kira's words.
"At the very beginning," Kira said. "Our first meeting. In the mall. You staged a terrorist attack, and Todo and I just happened to run into you. I knew it then."
"I'm listening."
"There were two Curse Users. One Grade 1, one Grade 2. If I'm right, one was one of your 'Souls,' and the other was one of your 'Poins.'"
"Correct."
Kira tapped the window sill. "The Soul begged me for mercy. The Poin charged in to die."
"Because that Poin was the fragment of 'Anger.' A bit of a hot-headed idiot," Hasegawa said, scratching Gakuganji's head awkwardly.
"Is that so?" Kira looked at him with amusement. "If your 'Soul' intended to beg for mercy, why didn't it just run away the moment I engaged the 'Poin'? It would have been the logical choice."
Kira walked back to the tatami, leaning over the coffee table to look down at Hasegawa.
"There's only one possibility. The Soul had already run away."
"But I killed two men. I felt the impact. I definitely killed 'him.'"
"However, I only killed a shell. The Soul inside had fled the moment it saw me. Your plan was simple: sacrifice the pawn to save the king. Abandon the Poin to ensure the more important Soul escaped."
"Kira-bro, how is that possible?" Todo interjected. "If the Soul had already left, how did the body talk to you and beg for mercy?"
Kira didn't look at him. "You had the Poin provoke me. While I was distracted, the Soul left the body. But to be safe, seconds before the Poin's own body—the Grade 2 user—was destroyed by my bomb, the Poin itself shifted into the Grade 1 body that the Soul had just vacated."
"So the person talking to me, the person fighting me... it was always your Poin. All of it was a delay tactic to let your Soul get away."
Kira sat back down, straightening his disheveled jacket.
"Because it was just a Poin, even in a Grade 1 body, it could only perform at a Grade 2 level. That battle was the seed of doubt that made me step back and re-examine this entire incident."
Kira was, after all, a salaryman who excelled at performance reviews and post-mortems.
"The victory was too easy. You shouldn't have been greedy for that one Soul and one Poin. If I were you, I would have abandoned them both immediately."
"To refuse to lose a hair is to lose your head. Greed was your downfall."
Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap.
Applause rang out slowly in the silent room, echoing off the walls.
"You are amazing. Truly amazing," Hasegawa said, staring into Kira's eyes. "Then tell me... what is my true goal?"
Kira looked back at him, his voice flat. "To wait until the school was empty, then release every Cursed Object and Cursed Spirit sealed within the Temple Annex."
Hasegawa took a sip of tea and smiled. "I wasn't lying during our first meeting, was I? I do have the strength to fight you. I am a Special Grade."
"And you... you're working so hard just for someone else's paycheck. You hate working, don't you?"
"Let's just end this here. I'll leave the mountain immediately. I'm very powerful. Why not spare me? As you said, you don't want to make enemies that keep you up at night. Let's be friends. It's the best choice for both of us."
"Because I understand your true nature better than those hypocritical sorcerers ever will. Suppressing yourself is exhausting. Join us."
Kira smiled back at him softly. "It's true. I hate working. Your proposal is quite tempting."
Hasegawa nodded in agreement.
"But I refuse. I hate changes to my lifestyle. Things are fine just the way they are."
Kira's face was a mask of calm.
"Is that so..." Hasegawa put down his cup. His gaze remained fixed on Kira, eerie and unsettling. "Then I suppose I'll just have to let you die at your desk. For a salaryman, that's an honorable death, isn't it? Something they dream of!"
"For you, think of this as just a little bit of overtime."
The thunder that had been rolling in the clouds finally broke. A massive bolt of lightning tore through the sky, turning the world white for a split second. In that flash, everything was illuminated: the ceramic teapot, the floating tea leaves, the mahogany table, the pale blue window frame—and the faces of Kira Nanami and Hasegawa Kaede.
The silence was shattered. The only thing left was the rolling roar of thunder.
BOOM—!!
[Currently Available Information 2]Hasegawa Kaede (Special Grade Curse User)
Innate Technique: Three Souls and Seven Poins.Can divide his consciousness into ten fragments. Each fragment can possess a human or sorcerer.The "Souls" are more powerful (Grade 1 level); the "Poins" are specialized in emotional "Cursed Poisons" (Grade 2 level).If a vessel is destroyed, the spirit fragment can migrate to a nearby empty or weaker vessel if timed correctly.