[The air froze solid. Even the cicadas outside seemed to choke on the silence.]
["Wha...?!"]
[Haibara's jaw dropped, eyes threatening to pop from their sockets.]
[In his experience, Hayase-senpai had all the romantic sensitivity of a rock. A training-obsessed maniac with zero interest in anything that wasn't getting stronger.]
[Geto whipped his head around, pupils quaking. Three years together, and he'd never seen you express even the faintest interest in any woman.]
[He'd genuinely suspected your one true love was either "getting stronger" or your copied Cursed Technique.]
[And now Hayase was... confessing? To a Special Grade he'd met thirty seconds ago?]
[Even Tsukumo was blindsided by the straight pitch.]
[Her laughter died mid-breath. For the first time, that perpetually composed face went blank.]
[She was no stranger to hearing this answer. She liked asking the question to everyone she met, and people had said it before.]
[But it was always a joke, or a lie. She could spot the difference in a heartbeat.]
[Under Life is Like a Play's influence, though, she found no cracks. No tells. She accepted it as completely genuine.]
["You're not really my type, but I'll think about it."]
[Tsukumo smiled, letting him down gently.]
["Oh. What a shame."]
[You let the disappointment color your voice.]
[Sensing the peculiar atmosphere, Haibara made a swift exit.]
["I'll, uh... be going now."]
[Tsukumo dropped onto the bench beside you as though nothing had happened, claiming the spot Haibara had vacated.]
[She waved goodbye to the retreating second-year with a grin, then turned to Geto. "Your underclassman? Honest and cute. Hayase here already answered my question. So, Geto, are you going to answer or not?"]
[Geto crossed his arms, his expression a knot of conflicting reactions.]
["Wait... hold on. Before that, answer mine first. Who are you?"]
[Tsukumo dropped the mystery without fanfare.]
["Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer, Yuki Tsukumo. Ring a bell now?"]
["You're the legendary...?!"]
["Legendary what?"]
[Tsukumo leaned in with curiosity.]
[You stepped in, answering for him.]
["The legendary Special Grade who never takes missions and supposedly just wanders around overseas with nothing better to do."]
[Hearing her own reputation described that way, Tsukumo lost interest and huffed.]
["And that's why I hate Jujutsu High. Kidding. But I do disagree with how this place operates. Everyone here is obsessed with treating symptoms. What I want is to treat the cause."]
[That hooked you. You pressed further.]
["You're talking about how we deal with Cursed Spirits, aren't you?"]
[Tsukumo's eyes lit up with approval. She smiled.]
["Sharp. Not hunting Cursed Spirits. Creating a world where they never appear in the first place."]
["A world without Cursed Spirits...!" Geto repeated the words under his breath, stunned.]
[Tsukumo's expression turned serious as she addressed the two of you.]
["Think of Cursed Spirits as the accumulated sediment of Cursed Energy that leaks from human beings. To build a world where they never manifest, there are exactly two methods."]
[She held up two fingers.]
["One: eliminate Cursed Energy from all of humanity. Two: teach every human being to control it."]
[Tsukumo saw she'd hooked your interest and kept going.]
["Personally, I think the first approach has real promise."]
[She waggled a finger, her gaze sharpening.]
["And there's a concrete success story to prove it."]
["A success story?"]
[Geto looked up, suspicion plain on his face. In his understanding, that kind of idealized world simply didn't exist.]
[Tsukumo swept a meaningful look over both of you, then spoke with an easy drawl.]
["Someone you're both very familiar with. Toji Fushiguro, or as he used to be known, Toji Zenin."]
[At that name, Geto's pupils contracted.]
[That man was the greatest humiliation of his life, the one who'd shattered his belief that the strong existed to protect the weak.]
[Tsukumo's gaze lingered on both of you, her tone threaded with equal parts regret and admiration.]
["But achieving absolute zero Cursed Energy, completely breaking free from its constraints... in the entire world, he's the only one who's ever done it."]
[Your brow furrowed, and you couldn't hold back your objection.]
["That's meaningless."]
["Even if Toji Fushiguro is a complete anomaly with zero Cursed Energy, Heavenly Restriction is determined at birth. There's no way to replicate it through any method after the fact."]
["If he's a one-off miracle that can't be reproduced, there's no point even discussing how to scale it."]
["You're sharp."]
[Tsukumo snapped her fingers, a new spark of appreciation in the look she gave you.]
["You're right, he's an anomaly. Zero Cursed Energy, yet his heightened senses let him perceive Cursed Spirits. And because he abandoned Cursed Energy entirely, his body developed extraordinary resistance to curses."]
[She rattled on without pause, seemingly oblivious to the way Geto's expression was darkening beside her. Or perhaps she noticed and didn't care.]
["That man was practically superhuman."]
[Tsukumo tilted her head, looking past you toward Geto with the breezy tone of someone consoling a kid who'd failed a test.]
["So losing to him? Nothing to be ashamed of. That was a difference in biological tier."]
["I even wanted to study him, but he turned me down... Tch. His death was a genuine loss for all of humanity."]
[Geto kept his head bowed, his bangs hiding his eyes.]
["Nothing to be ashamed of...?"]
[What a joke. Defeated by a monkey with no Cursed Energy. Beaten by a tyrant who relied on nothing but raw physical violence. For someone who'd called himself one of the "strongest," the irony was crushing.]
["Since the first approach can't be scaled, that leaves the second."]
[Tsukumo shrugged and pressed on.]
["Did you know? Sorcerers don't generate Cursed Spirits."]
["Obviously, I'm not counting cases where a sorcerer's corpse transforms into one after death. While alive, sorcerers rarely leak Cursed Energy compared to non-sorcerers. We cycle it through our bodies."]
["So if all of humanity became sorcerers, Cursed Spirits would cease to exist."]
[You listened with your brow knotted, sinking into thought. Instinct told you her reasoning was too neat, too optimistic. There had to be a hole somewhere.]
[But before you could voice your objection, an ice-cold voice cut the air.]
["Then..."]
[Geto lifted his head. Those narrow eyes held no warmth. Nothing at all, just a dead, hollow void.]
["Killing every last person who isn't a sorcerer... would accomplish the same thing, wouldn't it?"]
[Silence.]
[Your expression went cold the instant the words left his mouth.]
[You weren't surprised. If anything, you'd been waiting for it.]
[You'd known Geto was capable of this line of thinking. In your simulation as an Manager, it was this exact ideology that had gotten you killed.]
[Even after everything you'd shared as classmates, it couldn't suppress the visceral disgust that clawed up your throat when this boy, who'd once sworn to protect the weak, spoke those words aloud.]
["What you're describing is technically feasible, Geto..."]
[To your surprise, Tsukumo showed neither anger nor shock.]
[A quiet laugh. She folded her arms and leaned against the window frame, her tone as light as if they were debating what to have for dinner.]
["In fact, it's the simplest method."]
["Huh?"]
[Geto's head snapped up. He'd already been regretting the outburst, bracing for a lecture from the Special Grade veteran.]
[Instead, he got validation.]
["Apply a 'thinning' process to non-sorcerers. A survival strategy that forces them to adapt to a sorcerer's environment."]
["Put simply, you'd be driving their evolution. Like forcing birds to grow wings."]
[Tsukumo spread her hands, her eyes lit with the kind of madness that belonged in a laboratory.]
["Of course, it would require extreme terror and existential pressure. Unfortunately..."]
[Her smile vanished. Those eyes locked onto Geto's soul.]
["I'm not that far gone. And the curses generated by that level of fear would probably destroy the world before the evolution was complete."]
["So what about you, Geto?"]
["Do you hate non-sorcerers?"]
[The question was a scalpel, slicing open an abscess that had been festering in Geto's chest for a long, long time.]
["I... don't know."]
[His gaze dropped. His fingers curled unconsciously, nails biting deep into the flesh of his palms.]
[He buried his face in his hands, voice hoarse with exhaustion and confusion he could no longer mask.]
["I used to believe that jujutsu existed to protect non-sorcerers. That it was the duty of the strong."]
["But lately... watching those ignorant cultists, watching those monkeys breed curses out of sheer cowardice... the value I placed on non-sorcerers has started to crumble."]
["The dignity of the weak? Or the ugliness of the weak?"]
["I can't tell the difference anymore. And I can't tolerate either one."]
["The part of me that despises non-sorcerers, and the part of me that despises that part of me... they won't stop fighting."]
["Being a sorcerer is like running a marathon with no finish line. And the thing waiting at the end, the so-called 'greater good,' feels so blurred now I can barely make it out."]
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Next Target 200PS