In today's society, people in their thirties are generally the ones still fighting on the front lines of the workplace.
The pressures of daily life, exhausting jobs, and everything else in between often leave them stuck in a subhealthy state, and that kind of condition is easy enough to spot.
You can usually tell at a glance, both from their mental state and from how they look.
In fact, once someone passes twenty-five, minors start calling them "uncle."
But Ijichi was different from most people. At only twenty-seven, he was already the kind of man even fresh adults would call "uncle"...
Ijichi was in the middle of sorting through an Excel file when he rubbed his shoulders, stood up, and stretched. Then he promptly sat back down again, clutching the lower back he had just strained...
Stiff shoulders and neck, a foggy head, an upset stomach... Ijichi had reached the point where he often found himself thinking, If only body parts could be replaced with new ones.
He had only just finished dealing with the forest damage caused during the "Sister School Exchange Event," and now Satoru Gojo had dumped another huge mess on him. It was not that he and Megumi Fushiguro had damaged the forest again while subjugating a Shikigami. This time, they had actually behaved pretty well...
What needed cleaning up this time was the fact that when Satoru Gojo left, he had used teleportation without caring where he was and smashed through a whole line of trees.
He had been moving so fast that he did not actually knock them down. Instead, over a stretch of nearly two miles, he had punched a human-shaped hole through every single tree.
"Just a little issue," my ass! This was even more spectacular than crop circles!
Over the course of nearly a month, it had even spawned an urban legend: "The Human Shape Crossing Through the Woods."
Ijichi shook his head and continued dealing with the aftermath, silently hoping it would not combine with stories about "people who went into the forest and never came back" and end up forming a Cursed Spirit...
Lately, Satoru Gojo had vanished off somewhere too... All the Special Grade missions had piled up on Geto-san, and even the teaching work had been handed over to Megumi Fushiguro... Maybe he had gone back to the clan?
Well... come to think of it, Megumi Fushiguro actually was fairly experienced. Akira-san had called him in to teach students before too...
Ijichi grabbed an energy drink and took a long swig, then set the bracelet Megumi Fushiguro had handed him the day before for cleaning onto the cabinet behind him, preparing to get back to work.
What he did not notice was that the bracelet flashed the moment he put it down.
The shadows behind Ijichi suddenly began to churn.
The darkened space behind the desk, people's shadows, even the edges of clothing. Every bit of visible shadow slowly peeled away from where it should have been, writhing like something alive as it gathered into a human figure in a black trench coat, with faint dark circles under his eyes...
Akira Zenin looked around first, but did not see Megumi Fushiguro anywhere. That string of Buddhist prayer beads was no longer just a medium for barrier techniques. It was also a set of coordinates for his "descent."
"Ijichi?"
Hearing the familiar voice, Ijichi, who had been completely absorbed in his work, stood up, went to the instant coffee machine, made a cup of coffee, then turned and handed it to Akira Zenin.
"Akira-san, I'm a little busy right now, so have some coffee first... If there's something you need, we can talk in a bit..."
With that, Ijichi sat back down and started typing again.
After the room stayed quiet for a while, Ijichi suddenly jerked his head up and looked behind him.
"Ak... Akira... Akira-san?? You're back?"
Akira Zenin looked at Ijichi with interest.
"Mm... to be precise, my soul has already fused with the core of the [Realm]. What remains now is adapting to it and taking control of the entire [Realm]. The rest is just a matter of time and effort..."
"Ah... well..."
Ijichi shook his head.
"I'm just an assistant supervisor. I do not really understand the way you high-level sorcerers talk, but it does look like you're in much better shape now?"
"Mm... I'm not sleepy anymore. After all, Heaven and Binding can't restrain the [Realm].
"This body only has about one 'Megumi Fushiguro' worth of Cursed Energy, so it's actually pretty easy to use."
"Uh..."
After filtering out the parts he did not understand, and also filtering out Megumi Fushiguro being used as a unit of measurement for Cursed Energy, Ijichi pulled out his phone and looked at Akira Zenin with a questioning expression.
"Then should I notify everyone now?"
"Not yet. My main consciousness still needs to oversee the adaptation over there. I came here because I had something to do, and I'll be going back afterward. I'll return properly after some time."
"Then... I wish you all the best."
Akira Zenin nodded with a smile, and his whole body melted back into the shadows.
When Akira Zenin appeared again, he found himself in a fairly bright living room. Another bracelet sat on the coffee table.
Back when he had given Megumi Fushiguro the Buddhist prayer bead bracelets, he had given him two. But Megumi Fushiguro had passed one on to Tsumiki to keep her safe...
From within the [Realm], Akira Zenin had sensed a trace of malice through the bracelet. He had planned to go to Megumi Fushiguro first and have him bring him here, but who would have thought Megumi Fushiguro had handed his own bracelet over to Ijichi for cleaning...
Akira Zenin glanced at the moon outside, then heard the sound of someone turning over in the bedroom nearby and muttered quietly,
"Good thing the bracelet's in the living room..."
Then he looked out through the window toward the rooftop of another building. Someone was watching this place from there...
Akira Zenin shook his head. After taking out three teams of curse users today, his second uncle had patrolled the area a few times before heading off to a nighttime casino... The person on that rooftop had obviously investigated his second uncle's movements...
...
The wind on the rooftop was pleasantly cool, bringing a trace of freshness to the season as summer shifted into autumn.
A woman in a black tracksuit stood there, staring at a distant room with a foolish smile on her face.
"Miss, what exactly are you doing here?"
"Obviously, I'm checking on the condition of my future 'incarnation'..."
"You're not satisfied with your current state?"
"This body can only bring out seventy percent of my power. Of course I need a better condition if I'm going to face my Sukuna..."
Akira Zenin glanced at the woman before him. Since Tsumiki had been under Toji's protection all this time, had Kenjaku actually used some method to wake her up ahead of schedule?
"In other words, because of you, one person has already died... and yet you still want to kill another girl."
Yorozu froze for a second, then quickly turned toward the voice behind her.
She had not noticed anyone come up behind her at all. She had to have been too focused on observing the vessel just now!
"Who are you?"
"Mm~~"
Akira Zenin looked at the woman before him, the one who had pursued Sukuna a thousand years ago, and silently offered a prayer for the person who had died because of Yorozu's incarnation.
"I'm her teacher."