Chaotic.
Jin's mind became just that after seeing the image of Kenjaku bloodied on the grassy ground.
'What the hell is she doing?!' he roared inwardly while trying to approach.
Unfortunately, a barrier was created around Kaori's body shortly after she extracted her own heart from her chest.
"Y-you won't be able to pass… n-not until you… awaken your innate technique… koff," Kenjaku stammered before spitting out a mouthful of blood.
It was clear she had very little time left.
"Stop this bullshit and use your Reverse Cursed Technique!" Jin retorted after being repelled by the barrier.
Kenjaku didn't answer him. She simply sketched a wide, confident smile after noticing his attempt to stop her.
It was as if she trusted him.
'No… Kenjaku doesn't trust anyone… so…'
Upon reflection, Jin's eyes widened at the cruel truth.
Talent.
Kenjaku was betting on Jin's innate talent to force the awakening of his technique through an extreme mental shock.
Take Higuruma as an example.
The man already possessed an innate technique, but his brain was incapable of handling cursed energy.
It took Mahito's innate technique to correct that problem. Yet it didn't happen instantly.
He needed an emotional shock to use his technique for the first time, in that courtroom.
Kenjaku was adopting a similar approach.
"Even knowing I'm being manipulated…" Jin murmured as his hands burned from contact with the barrier.
Even while fully aware of his wife's manipulation, he couldn't help but feel a deep anger toward himself.
Indeed, he was dancing to the rules imposed by Kenjaku. Yet if he found himself in this situation, it was solely because of his own weakness.
'No… there's still a solution!' he told himself after perceiving a faint glimmer of hope amid the despair.
Instinctively, he wanted to activate Megumin's amulet to force his way through. Unfortunately, the millennium-old sorcerer had already factored that element into her equation.
The moment Jin tried to infuse it with magic, Kenjaku crushed Kaori's heart against the ground to draw his attention.
The message was clear:
'If you try anything… I'll kill myself faster.'
Shameless blackmail. Yet Jin knew she was capable of it.
She had lived for millennia to satisfy a simple question born one morning under the sun. Nothing would stop her from dying if it served her curiosity.
That was just how unstable the being named Kenjaku became when a subject interested her.
'Do I really have enough talent to satisfy her?'
The instinctive answer was: no.
A reaction that would have made Yaga and Gong want to slap him immediately.
Jin Itadori was talented.
Sure, he relied heavily on his guild card to learn and progress. But that didn't change the fact that he was profoundly talented.
The bespectacled man hadn't noticed that he had evolved at an abnormal speed with his skills and had learned Vow in a single night.
He had even created his own restrictions without assistance, based on the vague information Yaga had given him during their first meeting.
His real problem was his dependence on the guild card, which he considered a universal remedy.
He had underestimated himself.
"Stop! I-I'll find another way to become stronger!" he shouted toward his wife.
Kenjaku simply shook her head.
Her complexion had become extremely pale. The blood loss was massive. She could no longer even sit properly; oxygen deprivation was already reaching her brain.
At this rate, Kenjaku would soon need to change bodies.
"Dad!!" Nayuta screamed upon seeing Jin relentlessly striking the barrier.
He heard nothing.
His eyes were bloodshot as he hammered the obstacle preventing him from reaching Kenjaku. He didn't even notice the blackness creeping over his hands, burned by prolonged heat.
He didn't even take the time to remember that he hadn't mastered Reverse Cursed Technique to save Kenjaku.
Jin was desperate.
The family man simply didn't want to relive the sensation that the former Jin had transmitted to him through his memories.
Losing a loved one.
"A-am I still at the bottom of the food chain…?" he murmured, short of breath.
The cursed energy around him became intense, almost uncontrollable, as if something were trying to impose itself on reality itself.
Crack.
Finally, Jin reached his breaking point upon seeing Kenjaku slowly close her eyes.
Simultaneously, an immense self-hatred mixed with an overwhelming desire for power manifested tangibly in the world.
"Kenjaku!!" he roared while losing control.
"One piece… for one piece…" an unpleasant voice muttered after the mental shock.
A Domain Expansion deployed.
…
Money.
If strength is the measure of a person's value in supernatural worlds, then money is in real life.
A cold truth that reduces human beings to a mere market value. However, isn't that simply the cruel reality of a capitalist society?
In theory, we are all born equal under the heavens. Yet social classes slowly emerged due to the notion of "wealth" anchored in the collective consciousness.
Thus, everything became possible with money—including access to a higher class.
You want a beautiful woman? Be rich.
You want a big house? Be rich.
You want a happy family? Same thing.
Some will speak of the impossibility of buying people with principles, but those speeches reek of hypocrisy.
Money can buy everything.
If you can't obtain something, it's simply because your bank account isn't full enough.
All that to say that Claud was a workaholic.
He didn't work for pleasure nor purely for profit, but for a deeply human goal:
Desire.
He wanted to fulfill his desires, in the image of the capricious Sukuna of the Heian era after reaching the top.
That's why he quickly adapted to the mentality of this new world after meeting Kenjaku and his new "family."
"The game" had never really changed at its core, even after he abruptly left normal Earth.
Money had simply been replaced by strength.
"One piece… for one piece," a richly dressed goblin muttered repeatedly behind a stall overflowing with objects.
The forest clearing had long since disappeared to make way for a market, where Jin and the others found themselves transported right in the middle.
"Father?!" Nayuta immediately raised her guard against the suspicious goblin holding a jar bearing an enormous smile.
(Image)
…
Author's note:
Lol, I love Yu-Gi-Oh!! stories way too much. Unfortunately, there aren't many online, and the good ones are rare.
Anyway, I drew inspiration from the card Inexperienced Goblin and Greed Pot to create the protagonist's innate technique.