Chapter 127: The Journey to Find a Blade
Tokyo, Shinjuku District.
In a narrow back alley hidden behind layers of neon signs, aging buildings, and cheap bars, the ordinary world quietly peeled away.
This was one of the entrances to the jujutsu black market.
No signboard marked it. No normal passerby would ever find it. The alley looked abandoned at first glance, but anyone with the right eyes could see the flow of business beneath the grime.
Curse Users traded information here. Brokers sold targets. Cursed Tools with unknown histories changed hands in exchange for cash, favors, or blood.
Yami walked through the alley in a black trench coat and baseball cap, keeping his presence low.
His goal was simple.
He needed a blade.
Not just any weapon. He needed something capable of withstanding the heat of Sun Breathing.
Satoru Gojo had originally suggested that he take something from Jujutsu High's Cursed Tool vault. With Gojo's name, borrowing a tool would not have been difficult. If anyone complained, Gojo would simply complain louder until the other side regretted having vocal cords.
Unfortunately, after Yami inspected the collection, he found nothing suitable.
Even the Semi-Special Grade Cursed Tools stored at Jujutsu High were unsuitable for his needs.
Their power came from the Cursed Energy and techniques imbued into them.
What Yami needed was different.
He needed pure physical durability. Extreme heat tolerance. Thermal conductivity.
He needed metal that could endure Sun Breathing without warping, cracking, or melting. A metal that could channel the heat of sunlight the same way a Nichirin Blade could.
"Scarlet Ore…"
Yami recalled the information Masamichi Yaga had given him.
According to old records, there was a special ore buried deep in an abandoned mine somewhere in Japan. Scarlet Ore absorbed fire-aspected energy from the earth veins year-round, giving it exceptional hardness and an unusual affinity for heat.
For Cursed Tool craftsmen, it was an ideal material for forging top-grade fire-attribute weapons.
The problem was the mine.
It had been abandoned for decades.
Rumors said something powerful had taken root inside, born from the resentment of miners who had died in a disaster hundreds of years ago. Since then, no one who went too deep into the mine ever returned.
Yami stopped in front of a dimly lit shop tucked between a closed snack bar and a shuttered pawnshop.
A crooked sign hung over the entrance.
No name. Just a painted eye.
He pushed the door open.
A bell rang once.
Inside, the air smelled of incense, dust, and old blood. Cursed Tools lined the walls, wrapped in cloth, sealed in boxes, or displayed behind glass. Some gave off faint Cursed Energy. Others felt dead, but not harmless.
Behind the counter, a fat shopkeeper was dozing with his chin tucked against his chest.
Yami placed several ten-thousand-yen bills on the counter.
The man's eyes opened at once.
"What are you buying?"
"Information."
The shopkeeper's smile widened. "Depends on the information."
"Scarlet Ore."
The smile vanished.
The shopkeeper stared at Yami for a long second, then pushed the money back as if it were poisonous.
"No."
Yami raised an eyebrow.
"No?" he repeated.
"No," the shopkeeper said, lowering his voice. "I don't have it. Even if I did, I wouldn't touch it."
"I'm not asking you to sell it."
"That's even worse." The shopkeeper leaned forward, his face serious now. "Young man, you look new here, so I'll give you advice for free. Don't go looking for that mine."
Yami did not respond.
The shopkeeper glanced toward the door, then continued in a whisper.
"That place isn't guarded by an ordinary Cursed Spirit. It's a nest. A monster formed from hundreds of years of resentment. Miners buried alive. Families who never recovered the bodies. Blood, greed, collapse, fire. All of it fused into one curse."
He tapped the counter with a thick finger.
"The higher-ups sent a Grade 1 sorcerer to investigate years ago. He never came back."
Yami listened quietly.
The warning did not frighten him.
If anything, the look in his eyes sharpened.
A powerful curse born from resentment.
A mine filled with heat-aspected ore.
For him, that was less a danger and more a test prepared in advance.
"Tell me where it is."
The shopkeeper frowned. "Did you not hear a word I just said?"
Yami placed another stack of bills on the counter.
The shopkeeper's eyes twitched.
Yami added one more.
The money came from several Curse Users he had run into on the way here. They had tried to rob him first, so he considered the transfer of funds morally acceptable.
Mostly.
"You don't need to worry about what happens after that," Yami said.
The shopkeeper stared at the cash, then at Yami.
In the end, greed won over professional ethics. Not that there had been much ethics to begin with.
He pulled out a stained map from beneath the counter and marked a location in Gunma Prefecture.
"If you die there, don't come back as a curse and blame me."
Yami folded the map and tucked it away.
"If I come back as a curse, you'll have bigger problems than blame."
The shopkeeper's face stiffened.
By then, Yami had already turned and left.
Half a day later, Gunma Prefecture.
The abandoned mine sat deep in the mountains, swallowed by trees and silence.
The entrance was half-covered in vines. Rusted warning signs leaned crookedly near the path, their words nearly erased by rain and time. The air around the mine was unnaturally hot, and a faint smell of sulfur drifted from the darkness within.
Even from outside, Yami could feel it.
Cursed Energy lingered in the air like old smoke.
Not scattered residue, but something alive. Something that had been waiting for a long time.
"Looks like this is the place."
Yami took a slow breath.
His lungs expanded. His heartbeat steadied.
Then he stepped into the mine.
The deeper he went, the hotter the air became. Moisture clung to the walls, then evaporated in waves. The stone underfoot had a dark, burnt sheen, and faint red crystals began appearing along the tunnel walls.
Scarlet Ore.
Small deposits, not enough for a proper blade, but proof that the records were not wrong.
Yami stopped beside one of the glowing crystals and reached out to test its quality.
Before his fingers touched it, a roar tore through the mine.
"Raaaaaagh!"
The entire tunnel shook.
Pebbles and dust rained down from above. A wave of Cursed Energy surged from the depths, thick with rage, grief, and something almost volcanic.
Yami's hand paused.
The pressure was several times stronger than the Grade 1 Cursed Spirit he had fought in Shizuoka.
Not quite Special Grade.
But close.
Very close.
A slow smile touched his lips.
"So there really is a big one."
He did not retreat.
He moved forward.
Meanwhile, in Tokyo.
Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto had already made contact with the Star Plasma Vessel, Riko Amanai, and her maid, Misato Kuroi.
The group moved through a crowded street, the two Jujutsu High students in their black uniforms drawing occasional glances from passersby.
Behind them, Riko Amanai walked with her hands on her hips, cheeks puffed in irritation.
"Hey, White Hair! Walk slower!"
Gojo looked over his shoulder.
"What did you call me?"
"This young lady is going to become Master Tengen's Star Plasma Vessel. You should treat me like a princess!"
Gojo pulled down his sunglasses and stared at her as if she had just said something profoundly stupid.
"Princess? Do you have any idea what situation you're in? Every Curse User in Japan wants to turn you into prize money right now. If I weren't protecting you, you'd already be chopped up and traded for the bounty."
Riko's face turned red.
"You are unbelievably rude!"
"You're unbelievably loud."
"Satoru," Geto said with a sigh, stepping between them before the argument could evolve into something even more childish. "Stop provoking Riko-chan. Our mission is to keep her safe until she reaches the Tomb of the Star Corridor."
"Tch. Boring."
Gojo shoved his hands into his pockets and looked ahead.
"Instructor Yami said he was going to find a new weapon. Wonder how that's going."
He clicked his tongue.
"This mission feels weirdly dull without him around to complain."
Geto glanced up at the sky.
He did not say anything immediately.
Ever since Yami mentioned a "variable," a faint unease had settled in his chest. It was not strong enough to be called fear, but it refused to disappear.
What kind of variable could make Yami insist on joining a mission guarded by both him and Gojo?
A few streets away, on the rooftop of an office building, Toji Fushiguro sat on a folding chair.
He looked completely at ease.
One leg crossed over the other, he wiped a short blade with slow, practiced movements. Resting nearby was a cursed tool wrapped in cloth.
The Inverted Spear of Heaven.
A Special Grade Cursed Tool capable of forcibly nullifying an activated Cursed Technique. Against Gojo Satoru's Limitless, it was not just useful.
It was lethal.
Kong Shiu's voice came through the earpiece.
"The target has appeared. Current guards are Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto."
Toji's hand paused.
"What about that outside instructor? Yami."
"Not present," Kong Shiu replied. "According to our information, he went to an abandoned mine in Gunma Prefecture. Seems to be looking for some kind of material."
Toji's mouth curved.
"Off in the mountains looking for rocks?"
His smile became sharper.
"What a hardworking brat."
He rose from the folding chair and slid the Inverted Spear of Heaven into place.
"That works for me."
From the rooftop, Gojo, Geto, Riko, and Kuroi looked no larger than pieces on a game board.
"With the most annoying variable out of the way, hunting two greenhouse geniuses should be simple enough."
He stepped onto the edge of the rooftop.
The wind tugged at his black shirt.
Then he vanished.
Only one sentence remained, swallowed by the city noise.
"The hunt begins."
At that moment, fate split cleanly in two.
In the depths of a burning mine, Yami advanced alone toward an unknown curse, searching for the ore that might become his blade.
In the streets of Tokyo, Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto walked beside the Star Plasma Vessel, unaware that the deadliest assassin in the Jujutsu world had already begun moving toward them.
The Star Plasma Vessel escort mission had truly begun.
.....
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