"So that's it… You just want me to stop Riko-chan from merging, right?"
Yukinoshita Haruno said with certainty.
"Oh? And what makes you think that?"
In the soul domain, a black-haired young man, seated high above on a Buddhist altar, raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
"Well, after being stuck with you for over two months, I think I've got a pretty good idea of your personality, Demon-kun." Haruno's lips curled into a confident smile.
"At first, you tried to train me in cursed techniques and combat, but when I said I wasn't interested, you didn't push it. You're like that with a lot of things—it's clear you don't really care what I do."
"Like the first time you took me to the park, when we saved that homeless man from the curse. If I had just turned around and left, letting the curse kill him, you probably wouldn't have reacted at all, would you?"
Hayashizaki responded with a chuckle but didn't deny it.
"Then, when I overheard the Star Religious Group's plan and said I wanted to mess with them, you should've been happy that I was getting involved in the jujutsu world. But instead, you barely reacted."
"It wasn't until I lost to that bar owner from the Star Religious Group that you finally stepped in to mock me. At first, I thought you were just making fun of me, but now I see it more clearly."
Haruno spoke with absolute confidence, analyzing the situation piece by piece. "You were provoking me, pushing me to keep getting involved in the Star Plasma Vessel incident. You even brought up little Yukino to provoke me. I have to admit, your plan worked perfectly—that's why I'm here, struggling over whether I should let Riko merge or not."
"If you truly didn't care what I chose, you wouldn't have reacted. But if you wanted to push me in a certain direction, you'd keep talking, just like you are now. Am I right?"
Even though she was just a high schooler, full of youthful energy, the smirk on her lips already carried a hint of maturity, showing a glimpse of the woman she would become.
"You really are a demon." Haruno's tone suddenly turned helpless. "I'm starting to believe that little Yukino trusts you more than she does me in this world. Given her personality, she probably sees you as more reliable than an older sister who always teases her."
"I'm just stating the truth," Hayashizaki said calmly. "So, now that you've figured it all out, what are you going to do?"
"If Demon-kun is trying to make me stop Riko-chan from merging with Tengen, then that means you're confident you can handle what happens afterward." She rested her chin on her hand, curiosity in her eyes. "Just to check—how do you plan to deal with the consequences if the merger fails?"
"If the merger fails and Tengen evolves into a higher lifeform, there are only two possibilities: either he stays rational or he loses himself." Hayashizaki smiled. "If it's the first, then great. If it's the second, well… that's easy."
"We kill him."
Haruno's lips parted slightly. Hayashizaki said it so naturally that, for a moment, she didn't know how to respond. It took her a while to snap out of it.
"Well then, what's there to hesitate about?" The short-haired girl's smile returned, bright and carefree. "I've been fed up with that old monster for a while now."
"The whole merging thing—this probably isn't the first time, right? Every time he needs to keep his body young, he sacrifices an innocent life. Honestly, it'd be better if he just disappeared sooner."
Now that she had made up her mind, she felt completely at ease, as if she had put on fresh clothes on the first day of the new year.
"So, where did they take Riko-chan?" Haruno glanced around.
"No idea. While we were talking, they already moved out of my range," Hayashizaki replied, shaking his head.
He was definitely strong, but he wasn't all-knowing. Right now, he had no idea where to find Gojo Satoru and the others.
"But one thing's for sure—they have to take Amanai Riko back to Jujutsu High. We just need to head straight there and wait."
"Do you know the way?" Yukinoshita Haruno asked.
Hayashizaki smiled slightly and said, "I'm actually a part-time teacher there."
…
Meanwhile, on the rooftop of a building.
Gojo Satoru held Amanai Riko in one hand and his phone in the other, looking relaxed as he faced a group of masked muscle-bound men blocking his way.
"Someone's offering 30 million for Riko's head?"
"Yeah, the bounty's posted on the dark web that curse users frequent. The deadline is 11 AM the day after tomorrow."
"I see. Got it."
Gojo Satoru hung up, stuffed a hand in his pocket, and sighed. "Man, sorcerers are always short on people. You should consider switching jobs, old man!"
"Nah, seems like being a job recruiter isn't easy either," the masked man replied as he summoned another copy of himself. "Just hand over the kid, and we won't have any trouble."
Amanai Riko's eyes widened as she saw five identical masked men surrounding her and Gojo. "Three, four… five of them! And they all look exactly the same! Are they shikigami?"
The white-haired sorcerer scoffed and waved a hand. "What's so special about this brat anyway?"
As his arm moved, the masked man who had just spoken was suddenly yanked off his feet by an invisible force, crashing headfirst into another clone.
"What the hell just happened!?" one of the masked men shouted in shock.
The two clones collapsed helplessly on the ground. Riko, still hanging from Gojo's grip, craned her neck to see and gasped, "The shikigami didn't disappear… which one is the real one!?"
"They're not shikigami. They're clones."
Gojo Satoru explained, just as two more masked men charged at him.
As Riko let out a panicked scream, Gojo casually tossed her into the air. "They're all the real body."
The masked men attacked from both sides, fists swinging. But as their punches neared Gojo, they suddenly slowed, as if sinking into an invisible, dense liquid. No matter how hard they pushed, they couldn't move forward another inch.
"What's going on!?"
"It's Infinity. Like Achilles and the tortoise," Gojo grinned, catching Riko effortlessly with one hand while keeping the other in his pocket.
"Huh?"
"In other words, studying is important."
The moment he finished speaking, Gojo finally pulled his right hand from his pocket and punched both men in the face, knocking them to the ground. He still had plenty of time to explain.
"It's a clone technique. The user can split into five, including the original. They can freely decide which clone is the real body. If the main body is in danger, they can just switch to a safe clone as the new main body."
"Not a bad technique," he said, setting Riko down. "But I don't get why you're so weak."
Gojo turned his gaze to the last remaining masked man, standing on a rooftop across from them. A realization clicked in his mind. "Ah, so when your clones get destroyed, you can't make new ones right away."
Having his technique exposed so casually sent a chill down the masked man's spine. "How do you know how my technique works!?"
"Bad luck for you—I have great eyesight," Gojo said, smiling as he removed his sunglasses, revealing his bright blue eyes.
He let go of his sunglasses, but instead of falling, they hovered in midair above his palm.
"My technique works like an infinite series. Anything that gets near me slows down more and more, until it can never actually reach me. When I push this concept further, it becomes the Limitless technique. It's like negative numbers—things that shouldn't exist, like a 'negative one apple.' That's how I create that pulling force."
"But honestly, it's kind of inconvenient. I can't make the effect too strong around myself. And if I want to control its direction, I have to manipulate cursed energy really carefully… well, anyway, it's a hassle."
The bullet-like chunks of debris flying toward Gojo Satoru suddenly stopped in midair. As his technique deactivated, they fell to the ground along with the torn-up black cloth.
"In short, it's just really exhausting."
Tsk, what a tough opponent.
Realizing he wasn't a match for the white-haired young man, the bag-headed enemy quickly retreated.
"Well, everything I used just now was positive energy techniques." Gojo Satoru turned his head toward a nearby building, the corners of his mouth curving slightly.
He stretched out his hand toward the building and casually warned Amanai Riko, "Cover your head."
The girl let out a surprised "Huh?" but quickly wrapped her arms around her head.
In the next moment, a loud explosion echoed through the air as glass shattered. A massive hole was blasted into the building, sending office furniture, debris, and shards of glass flying in all directions, all suspended midair.
In the blink of an eye, Gojo Satoru and Amanai Riko flashed into the building. In front of Gojo's outstretched palm, the bag-headed enemy was tightly held in place, unable to move.
"This is Divergent Infinity." Gojo's eyes widened slightly, his lips pulling into a grin.
"Reverse Cursed Technique—Red!"
He formed his fingers into the shape of a gun, and at the tips of his index and middle fingers, a bright red light flared, bathing the entire floor in a crimson glow.
The bag-headed enemy, now suspended upside down, squeezed his eyes shut and instinctively crossed his arms in front of himself.
But as Gojo finished speaking, the flickering red glow faded away, like a candle burning out.
Nothing happened.
"Failed!" Gojo burst out laughing and sent the dumbfounded enemy flying with a punch. "I really thought it would work for sure!"
Still clutching her head, Amanai Riko looked up at him, her eyes gradually turning blank and lifeless.
What the hell is this guy doing?
Suddenly, her phone vibrated in her skirt pocket. She pulled it out and glanced at the screen.
"Ah, it's a message from Kuroi."
The next second, her expression changed, and she cried out in a panic, "W-What do we do!? Kuroi… Kuroi, she—!"
She quickly showed Gojo Satoru her phone.
On the screen was a photo of Kuroi Misato, tied up and unconscious on the ground.
…
"So this is Tokyo Jujutsu High."
A long stone staircase stretched endlessly up the mountain, winding through a dense, green forest. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting dappled shadows on the steps. The sound of cicadas filled the air, playing the melody of early summer in the ears of a short-haired girl.
Yukinoshita Haruno climbed the stone steps and stopped at the top, where a bright red torii gate stood.
"Alright, don't go any further," Hayashizaki's voice made her pause just before taking another step.
"If you keep walking, you'll enter the school's barrier. Without someone guiding you, it'll set off the alarms."
"It's not a huge problem, but it'd be annoying. Just wait here. Judging by Gojo Satoru's speed, he shouldn't take too long."
"Alright then."
Yukinoshita Haruno nodded, took out her phone, snapped a photo of herself with the red torii gate in the background, and then sat down on the steps to wait for Gojo and the others to arrive.
The scenery was nice, and it was peaceful. Waiting for a little while wouldn't hurt.
One hour passed.
The stone steps below remained empty, and the only sound was the constant chirping of cicadas.
"Are they really coming?" Yukinoshita Haruno asked, looking doubtful.
"They're coming," Hayashizaki replied with a nod.
At this point in time, Gojo Satoru was much weaker than when they had met in the future, but handling a few low-level curse users shouldn't be a problem for him.
The sky gradually turned orange as the sun set. A formation of wild geese flew across the horizon, silhouetted against the clouds.
A faint rumbling noise broke the silence on the stone steps.
Yukinoshita Haruno put down her nearly dead phone, her patience wearing thin.
"This is what you meant by 'they're coming'?" she asked with an irritated look.
"Where are they?!"
Faced with the short-haired girl's questioning, Hayashizaki was momentarily speechless.
Wait… is Gojo Satoru really being held up by those low-level curse users? Was he really this weak back in his school days?
Gojo Satoru, what the hell are you doing?!
"I'm hungry." Yukinoshita Haruno clutched her stomach with an annoyed expression. "I'm going to eat."
"But what if Riko and the others come back while we're gone?" The black-haired young man hesitated before saying, "I'll handle it."
Hayashizaki took control of her body, created a clone, and sent it on an owl shikigami to the city to bring back a packed dinner for Yukinoshita Haruno.
Looking at the boxed meal placed on the stone pavement, Yukinoshita Haruno fell into a moment of silence.
The eldest daughter of the Yukinoshita family… reduced to sitting on a staircase eating a bento. Was this the distortion of human nature or the collapse of morality?
For a brief moment, the short-haired girl thought about many things. But when her stomach growled again, she finally picked up the meal and started eating with a slightly resentful look.
...
(End of Chapter)
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