"According to our family records, a legendary Sorcerer appeared a thousand years ago, during the peak period of Sorcery's development. He had four arms and two faces, and was named Ryomen Sukuna. He was inherently powerful, exceptionally fond of slaughter, and no one in the entire Sorcery world of that era could match him in strength. However, Ryomen Sukuna belonged neither to the human faction nor the Cursed Spirit faction; he simply acted according to his whims."
"Later, the Fujiwara Clan's Northern Branch dispatched their elite subjugation forces, the 'Sun Moon Star Advance Team' and the 'Five Void Generals,' with the intention of defeating Ryomen Sukuna. But they were ultimately annihilated. The Shogunate had no choice but to invite Ryomen Sukuna into the Imperial Palace in Heian-kyō to be established as a new deity of worship."
"Before his death, Ryomen Sukuna segmented his soul into twenty parts and sealed them into his fingers—like the one you brought, Reiji-kun, which should be one of the twenty."
Akeno Himejima's account was concise and very clear, making it easy for anyone to understand.
However, after listening to all this, Hanakain Reiji stared blankly into the air and fell into contemplation. After a long while, he finally spoke disjointedly.
"It sounds very impressive, but it seems there's a lot of fluff in there..."
"Fluff?" Akeno Himejima was confused.
"Well, this involves a part of the Onmyōji's history."
Hanakain Reiji looked thoughtful.
"I once read my own family's records. A thousand years ago was indeed the fastest developing period for Sorcery and Onmyōdō. At that time, the pinnacle of the Onmyōji lineage was not the Hanakain family, but the Mimana family. The head of the Mimana family at the time was the most widely circulated Onmyōji today—Abe no Seimei—who was also the one who should have been enshrined in the Imperial Palace a thousand years ago."
"It is said that Abe no Seimei's mother was a Fox Yōkai. Initially, Abe no Seimei, as the head of the Mimana family, wished for humans and Yōkai to coexist peacefully—"
Hanakain Reiji spread his hands.
"—But then one day, someone killed his mother and even attempted to turn her into a fur coat to be sent to him..."
"Abe no Seimei then exploded. He didn't stay in the Heian-kyō Palace anymore and completely sided with the Yōkai, becoming the master of all Goblins and Spectres of the millennium."
"So, it looks like Ryomen Sukuna was only allowed into the Heian-kyō Palace after Abe no Seimei ran away."
After this long explanation, the young man paused slightly and curled his lip.
"As for that Fujiwara Northern Branch, frankly, while the Fujiwara family was indeed nobility in ancient Japan, they were just nobility. They couldn't be compared to the orthodox Onmyōji families at all. At most, they spent a lot of money every year to hire some ordinary Onmyōji from the Hanakain and Mimana families as guards."
"It seems normal that a team composed of ordinary Onmyōji couldn't defeat the pinnacle of the Curse world at the time. Furthermore, back then, Abe no Seimei was furious and ran off to side with the Yōkai to oppose humanity. No wonder the Shogunate was desperate enough to invite such a demon-like figure into the palace."
Hmm...
Thinking about it this way, the Ryomen Sukuna in the records seems a bit overrated.
Hanakain Reiji thought for a moment, then nudged his chin towards the Sukuna finger in Akeno's hand.
"So, since those Curse Users all thought about sealing the fingers, didn't they ever consider just destroying them?"
"About that... I'm seeing the actual object for the first time, so I'm not quite sure."
Akeno Himejima shook her head slightly.
"However, according to the records, quite a few people attempted to destroy these fingers, but they all failed. In the end, they could only settle for sealing them as a secondary option."
"...Huh?"
Hanakain Reiji was slightly taken aback.
Seriously, what's with "failed"? It's just a finger! It's one thing not being able to beat the guy when he was alive, but even when only fingers are left after his death, they still can't deal with it?
Are they really not as good as a single finger?
"Is it that difficult? I'll try it now."
Hanakain Reiji said, standing up and taking the Sukuna finger from Akeno Himejima. Golden, terrifying spiritual pressure instantly ignited around his body, and the swirling air currents made the curtains in the lounge flutter wildly, as if all the doors and windows had been thrown open during a typhoon.
Of course, the girls' skirt hems were also fluttering wildly.
"Hey... wait, Reiji, you're not planning to go all out right here, are you?"
Rias, on the sofa next to him, pressed her hand against her skirt hem, looking somewhat flustered.
Although they hadn't known each other for too long, they had collaborated several times, and she had witnessed Hanakain Reiji's power in battle.
If this guy were to unleash his spiritual pressure indiscriminately right here in the old school building, not to mention the old school building itself, the entire Kuoh Academy could be in danger of being blown up!
"Ara, ara, Reiji-kun certainly looks serious this time~"
Akeno Himejima, across the table, remained elegant, her hands gently folded over her legs, her beautiful face carrying its usual gentle smile.
Even Koneko Toujou, the petite, white-haired girl who had been focused on her cake from the start, was forced to hold down her skirt with one hand, squinting slightly from behind her cake and muttering softly.
"Senpai Reiji always gets inexplicably competitive whenever something related to Curse Users comes up."
"Perhaps that's the pride of being an Onmyōji?"
Akeno Himejima added, the two girls responding to each other in turns.
Hanakain Reiji stood still without a word, his hands intertwined in the air, forming a spherical shape, with a fierce golden light emanating from his palms, enveloping the Sukuna finger.
The posture was akin to someone manually forging the core of an artificial sun.
Soon, as the spiritual pressure the young man applied intensified to a terrifying degree, a crisp snap was heard, like a breakable candy being cracked, and a golden fissure appeared on the Sukuna finger, which was reputed to be "absolutely indestructible."
Hanakain Reiji continued to increase his output.
Then came the second, third, fourth cracks...
A moment later, as the golden spiritual pressure around Hanakain Reiji gradually subsided, when he released his hands, the Sukuna finger, which had been broken into several charred pieces, fell from mid-air and smashed onto the coffee table, scattering into a pile of fine ash.
"That wasn't difficult at all."
The young man said plainly, looking at the completely destroyed Sukuna finger on the coffee table.
"Impressive..."
The petite, white-haired girl across the table swallowed her last bite of cake. Looking at the young man's quite handsome display, she raised a crucial question.
"So, now that the finger is destroyed, what happens if that Jujutsu Association comes to find Senpai Reiji and demands the finger back?"
"That's right, it is their Association's property after all," Akeno Himejima added, tapping her cheek. "They might even demand compensation?"
"..."
Upon hearing these two sentences, Hanakain Reiji, who had been quite satisfied with his accomplishment just a second ago, instantly froze.
Demanding compensation, while highly unlikely—after all, they could only seal it because they couldn't destroy it, so they should be rushing to thank him for destroying it—given the poor relationship between Curse Users and Onmyōji, and the character of those old fogeys in the upper echelons of the Sorcery world, emmm... they might actually pull such a stunt.
So, the question is, if the Jujutsu Association comes to argue with him, what should he do? He certainly doesn't have the money to compensate those nouveau riche. And if he were to involve the Kyoto Hanakain family to handle it, things would become extremely complicated. Tsk... what should he do?
No sooner had this question popped into the young man's mind than the landline phone on the office desk in the lounge suddenly rang.
Ding-a-ling-ling-ling!
"Ah, the phone..."
Akeno Himejima, as the Vice President of the Occult Research Club, instinctively got up to answer it.
But Rias, using her advantage of proximity, beat her to the punch, picking up the phone and waving her hand at her friend, signaling she would handle it.
"Hello? This is the Kuoh Academy Occult Research... Uh, I see, alright... I understand, I'll pass on the message."
Apparently having received some kind of notice, the red-haired girl hung up the phone after a brief exchange of information, then turned to look at Hanakain Reiji, who was also curiously watching her from the sofa.
"It was the school gatekeeper calling. They said there's a female high school student from another school at the main gate asking specifically to see you. Her name is apparently 'Saeko Busujima.' Do you know her, Reiji?"
"..."
Man!