[But someone here was faster than him.]
["Hey, hey. Don't ignore me."]
[Satoru Gojo's voice cut through the air beside you, laced with irritation and a wild, untouchable arrogance.]
[No contact. Gojo simply raised a single finger, aimed it at the direction Toji Fushiguro was charging from.]
["Cursed Technique Reversal: Red."]
[A crimson, violently unstable repulsion field detonated between them.]
[Toji's pupils shrank. He'd never seen this move before.]
[It didn't matter. His body launched backward like he'd taken a cannon shell to the chest, smashing through three walls before grinding to a halt.]
[All he managed was a single line.]
["What a monster..."]
[Gojo stood in front of you, not bothering to turn around. His voice came out flat, almost bored.]
["Go, Hayase."]
["I'm not letting you die in front of me a second time. Leave this to me. Right now, I'm... a little too strong for my own good."]
[Toji rose from the rubble, brushed the dust off his shoulders. His gaze flicked toward you.]
["...Fine."]
[He made his call. Chasing you was pointless. If he couldn't put down the monster standing in his way, he wasn't killing anyone today.]
["Then I'll butcher you first, you awakened freak."]
["Butcher me?" Gojo threw his head back, laughter ripping out of him. "Your mistake was not cutting off my head. That, and not using that cursed tool to stab through my skull."]
[...Mistake? The fight had barely started.]
[You didn't look back at the war between god and devil unfolding behind you. You tore through the corridors of the Tombs of the Star like something possessed.]
[The first thing you saw was Misato Kuroi, collapsed in a pool of her own blood, a gaping wound split across her abdomen.]
["Miss Kuroi!!"]
[You rushed to her side and activated Reverse Cursed Technique.]
[She was breathing. Barely. The cut was savage, but whoever dealt it hadn't bothered to finish the job, too pressed for time.]
[As healing energy poured in, Kuroi coughed, a wet and painful sound, and her eyes dragged open.]
[She didn't spare a thought for her own wound. Her blood-soaked hand seized your sleeve with a grip so fierce it made your chest ache.]
["Ri... Riko..."]
["Please... hurry... Riko, she's..."]
[Desperation bled from her eyes like an open wound.]
[Your heart plummeted.]
[You pulled out your phone, dialed Shoko's number, and said exactly one sentence: "Tombs of the Star. Critical injuries. Get here now." Then you tossed the phone aside.]
["I'll save her. Hold on."]
[A hollow promise. You turned and bolted toward the elevator to the lowest level.]
[The elevator plunged. The weightlessness churned your stomach, but what sickened you more was the smell of blood thickening in the air with every floor you dropped.]
[When the doors opened, you saw the main hall of the Tombs of the Star.]
[Beneath that enormous sacred tree and its surrounding structures, there was no sign of the lively girl.]
[Only Suguru Geto, slumped against a wall with all composure gone, legs splayed on the ground. Vicious slash wounds carved across his body.]
[Around him, nothing but the shattered Residual Cursed Energy of destroyed Cursed Spirits.]
["Geto!"]
[You rushed over to check him. Severe blood loss, but alive.]
[Your eyes swept the dim space, searching, while the question tore out of you.]
["Where's Riko? Where's Riko Amanai? The assassin already left, didn't he?"]
[Geto didn't answer.]
[His head hung low, bangs curtaining his eyes. You couldn't read his expression.]
[But his shoulders trembled. His fists clenched so tight his nails had broken the skin of his palms. Every part of him screamed of something beyond grief.]
[After a long silence, he raised one hand and pointed to a spot on the floor nearby.]
[Nothing there. Only a pool of blood, vivid and obscene against the sacred stone of the Tombs of the Star.]
["That man... used a gun... and killed Riko."]
[Geto's voice scraped out of him like gravel dragged through a wound, soaked in a despair that could break you just to hear it.]
["Just now... right when Riko decided to give up the merger. Right when she chose to come back with all of us..."]
[You stood frozen, staring at that pool of blood.]
[You'd known about the Star Plasma Vessel's death from the simulation. But when it happened for real, right in front of you, when you'd burned everything you had to bring Gojo back and believed, for one desperate moment, that you could change something... reality answered with a backhand across the face.]
[They'd even taken the body. For the Star Religious Group's bounty, no doubt.]
[Resentment, rage, regret, self-blame. Negative emotions churned through you like black sludge.]
[You'd come so far.]
[Gojo and Geto had both chosen to defy Tengen. Both committed to protecting that girl's future.]
[So why did it end the same way?]
[Why, even knowing what was coming, even throwing yourself into the path of fate with everything you had, could you only watch the tragedy play out again?]
["We promised her..." Geto's voice cracked through the silence again, raw and breaking, like a child who'd lost his way. "We promised Riko..."]
["No matter what she chose, we'd protect her future..."]
["She smiled at the end... said she wanted to spend more time with everyone... wanted to see more places..."]
["And I... couldn't do a single thing."]
["Satoru lost. I lost. What kind of 'strongest' are we..."]
[The seed called righteousness split open with a massive crack inside Geto's heart.]
[He hadn't lost to a man with no Cursed Energy. He'd lost to the cruelty of fate itself.]
[You listened in silence.]
["That's enough, Geto. Stop."]
[You knelt, forcing down the storm raging inside your chest, and pressed the energy of Reverse Cursed Technique against his wounds.]
[Your voice shook. But the words came out steel-hard.]
["If you get too worked up... the wounds will reopen."]
["It's not over. Satoru's back. That man isn't getting away."]
[You looked into Geto's ashen eyes and spoke each word like a nail hammered into the ground, a vow to him and an oath to yourself.]
[This was not the end. You swore you would never accept an ending like this.]
---
More chapters are on the way… In the meantime, gimme those Power Stones :)
New Target 100PS