You call this a projection?

Wha... what happened? Only Stand Users can see Stands. Those without the ability cannot see them. Similarly, they couldn’t see the Stand flames created by [Pseudo-Magician’s Red] using its ability.

All they could perceive was the scorching high temperature emanating from those flames and the phenomenon of surrounding objects spontaneously combusting under the influence of that heat.

Jiro Awasaka and the others, who could feel they were under attack through the changes in air temperature, had managed to block the explosive damage before the flames of [Pseudo-Magician’s Red] reached them. But even Awasaka, who had personally blocked the attack, couldn’t actually see the Stand flames, let alone see that they had already touched his body. He only felt the surrounding air was extremely hot, requiring him to constantly use his technique for defense.

If even Awasaka was like this, the other elderly woman—the one Awasaka called ”Medium Hag,” Granny Ogami—was even more blind to the flames. She had no idea what had just happened; she only saw Jiro Awasaka instantly charred to a crisp!

”...!?”

This sudden shift in the situation momentarily terrified Granny Ogami to the point where she almost stopped the incantation she was chanting. Fortunately, as an eighty-something-year-old who had survived for countless years in the curse user industry—where one either kills or is killed—she knew very well that the more critical the moment, the more her incantation must not stop.

In fact, she had to speed up. She had to complete her chant before Emiya Shirou and the others reached her!

”Though there were some minor hiccups, in the end, it is I who have the upper hand.”

Stopping her chant—or rather, having used that cumbersome ritual and Binding Vow to trade for the maximum enhancement of her technique—Granny Ogami looked with a smile at Emiya Shirou, who hadn’t reached her yet.

She then looked at Okkotsu Yuta and the others, who were a step slower than Shirou, and laughed. ”And what’s better, Awasaka didn’t just complete the task of diverting your attention. His death ensures I don’t have to worry about when he might betray me or try to snatch that Cursed Tool capable of defeating Gojo Satoru.

For things to proceed so smoothly, it seems the Heavens are still looking out for this old woman.”

At this point, Granny Ogami turned back to the young man guarding her. ”It’s time, my dear grandson. Time to show your true power—”

”Yes, I understand, Grandma.” The young man nodded and swallowed a container holding someone’s body tissue. He used this action to respond to Granny Ogami’s subsequent command:

”—[Fushiguro Toji]!!”

-

-

-

What’s going on? The atmosphere changed?!

The first to notice something was wrong was Zen’in Maki, who had rushed to Okkotsu Yuta’s side after realizing things were turning sour.

...No Cursed Energy!

As the current possessor of [Heavenly Restriction], Zen’in Maki had gained physical prowess far exceeding normal humans at the cost of her ability to perceive Cursed Energy and her own inability to ever generate it. Similarly, having not become an ordinary person because of it, but rather entering Jujutsu High as a student, she was more sensitive to the presence of Cursed Energy in others than even regular sorcerers.

But the scene unfolding before her eyes violently upended Maki’s worldview. It looked miraculous that the young man’s face began transforming into another person’s after he swallowed the container. But as a student of Jujutsu High who understood the effects of most classic techniques, Maki knew this was merely a Seance Technique summoning the physical information of a deceased person onto the practitioner’s body.

In other words, the person summoned by the enemy through the Seance Technique at this moment would undoubtedly be a powerful sorcerer. Yet, this contradicted Maki’s observations. Any sorcerer must carry Cursed Energy; even someone as powerful as Gojo Satoru couldn’t avoid this.

There were only four possibilities for this complete lack of Cursed Energy: First, the person summoned by the enemy’s Seance was just an ordinary person; Second, the summoned sorcerer possessed a technique specialized in hiding Cursed Energy; Third, and the worst possibility, was that this summoned sorcerer might be even stronger than Gojo Satoru; Fourth, it was...

”[Heavenly Restriction]. No, it should be called the [Heavenly Tyrant · Fushiguro Toji].”

Emiya Shirou, recognizing the sorcerer summoned by Granny Ogami, spoke the fourth possibility for Zen’in Maki.

”As I suspected, [Heavenly Restriction] isn’t just a special constitution, it’s a ’talent’.”

Since it was a talent, it could naturally be projected by Projection Magecraft. Emiya Shirou, whose eyesight was quite good, had already stored the contents of that container in his projection inventory before the youth swallowed the tissue under the effect of the Seance.

If Shirou wanted to, he could now project Fushiguro Toji’s [Heavenly Restriction] talent onto himself. However, it wouldn’t be very useful. The physical stats provided by Heavenly Restriction were indeed strong, but Projection Magecraft automatically drops the rank of projected items by one level. Even if he projected that constitution, Shirou couldn’t reach Toji’s level; he would only be around the level of Zen’in Maki, who shared her talent with her twin sister.

Besides, even with the complete version of Heavenly Restriction, Shirou didn’t believe that in a pure contest of physical stats, he—possessing the [Pseudo-Anubis] Stand which grows stronger and evolves through battle—would lose to [Heavenly Restriction].

Having seen what he wanted to see, Emiya Shirou pronounced the final fate of Granny Ogami and her group with a hint of disappointment. ”I thought that with Gojo still around, you would only dare invade Jujutsu High after finding the corpse of a much stronger sorcerer. I didn’t expect your specifically prepared Seance candidate to be Fushiguro Toji.

One who was already defeated by Gojo in the past... frankly, I’m a bit disappointed.

Kashimo Hajime, Ishigori Ryu, Uro Takako... why haven’t you, who have already collaborated with Cursed Spirits, obtained the sorcerer corpses held in Kenjaku’s hands?”

Read ahead (100 chapters) by supporting me on buymeacoffee com/varietl or ko-fi edwriting