Chapter 164: Draw the Blade! The Oath of the Third Path
The air was filled with the sharp smell of scorched grass.
Shiranui was buried deep in the earth, its dark red blade radiating an overbearing heat that made the surrounding space ripple faintly.
Yami stood with one foot on the hilt and looked down from above.
The calm gentleness he usually carried was gone.
His black eyes were cold, fixed firmly on the two people below.
A strong wind swept across the training ground, whipping his black Tokyo Jujutsu High uniform until it snapped in the air.
"Yami?"
Suguru Geto's mind, which had been sinking into madness, was dragged back by the terrifying heat.
He stared at Yami's figure and subconsciously stepped back.
A trace of panic flashed through his eyes.
He looked like a child caught doing something wrong.
"Oh my?"
Compared with Geto's panic, Yuki Tsukumo quickly recovered after a brief shock.
She looked Yami up and down with obvious interest, then whistled.
"Pure physical strength, and a strange Cursed Tool that can release this much heat."
Her lips curved.
"So you're the sword saint without Cursed Energy that Yaga keeps talking about?"
Yuki crossed her arms.
Her words sounded casual, but her body had already shifted into a defensive stance.
From the boy standing before her, she sensed an extremely pure aura of death.
In some ways, it was even sharper than what she had felt from Toji Fushiguro.
"Special Grade Sorcerer, Yuki Tsukumo."
Yami ignored her teasing.
He tapped the hilt lightly with his foot, leapt down, and landed steadily on the scorched ground.
Clang.
He drew Shiranui from the earth with one hand and flicked the dirt from the blade.
The dark red tip pointed straight at Yuki's face.
"As a senior, it's already bad enough that you don't properly teach juniors how to exorcise Cursed Spirits."
His voice was calm.
Too calm.
"But you came to Tokyo Jujutsu High to peddle your world destroying theory to an immature minor?"
There was no respect in his tone for a Special Grade Sorcerer.
Only cold mockery.
"That so called root cause treatment of yours…"
Yami's gaze sharpened.
"It looks like you're searching for a permanent cure, but in reality, it's nothing more than an excuse to run from your own incompetence and cowardice."
Boom!
The smile on Yuki Tsukumo's face vanished.
A vast wave of Cursed Energy erupted from her body, heavy enough to make the entire training ground tremble.
"Hey, hey, kid."
Yuki's gaze turned dangerous, like an enraged lioness.
"You can eat whatever you want, but you can't say whatever you want."
She took one step forward.
The violent Cursed Energy around her twisted into a visible cyclone.
"You say I'm running? Then tell me. Other than stripping all of humanity of Cursed Energy, or turning all humans into Jujutsu Sorcerers…"
Her voice dropped.
"What other way is there to eradicate the source of Cursed Spirits?"
The ground under her feet cracked.
"Or are you going to rely on your method? Cleaning them up like a sewer forever? Day after day, year after year, exorcising monsters that will never stop being born?"
Facing the pressure of a Special Grade Sorcerer, Yami did not even blink.
Shiranui remained steady in his hand.
Not the slightest tremor.
"So that's your reason for pushing Suguru toward killing all non sorcerers?"
Yami sneered.
His voice rang across the empty field like a bell.
"If this is what you Special Grades call the greater good, then let me say this clearly today."
His eyes were cold.
"Other than those two dead ends of yours, there is a third path."
"A third path?"
Yuki froze.
So did Geto.
In their understanding, the Jujutsu World's problem was an endless cycle with no true solution.
Either protect the weak until exhaustion destroyed you.
Or kill the weak and become a tyrant.
Where could a third path come from?
"What? Surprised?"
Yami lowered Shiranui slightly, the blade pointing diagonally toward the ground.
His eyes carried absolute confidence, sharp enough to cut through the fog of history.
"Your thinking has always been shackled by the rotten higher ups and the rules they built over thousands of years."
"How are Cursed Spirits born?"
He looked at them.
"From the Cursed Energy leaking out of non sorcerers."
"Why does that Cursed Energy leak out? Because ordinary people can't control their negative emotions, and because they fear what they don't understand."
Yami turned to Geto.
His gaze burned like a torch.
"Suguru, do you think killing all ordinary people would create a paradise for only Jujutsu Sorcerers?"
"You're wrong."
His voice hardened.
"Completely wrong."
"Even if you really killed billions of ordinary people, would the remaining Jujutsu Sorcerers stop feeling negative emotions?"
Geto's pupils shook.
"Conflict. Slaughter. Jealousy. Greed."
Yami's words struck one after another.
"Jujutsu Sorcerers have all of those too."
His tone was merciless.
"And when that time comes, the curses you face won't be those weak low grade Cursed Spirits born from ordinary fear."
His eyes narrowed.
"They will be far more terrifying monsters born from the evil of Jujutsu Sorcerers themselves."
Geto's body shook as if he had been struck by lightning.
He staggered back several steps.
Yami's words were like a scalpel, cutting open the most fatal flaw in his so called greater good.
That was right.
If only Jujutsu Sorcerers remained, who would exorcise the curses born from them?
Yuki slowly frowned.
The Cursed Energy around her began to withdraw.
For the first time, genuine curiosity appeared in her voice.
"Then what exactly is this third path?"
Yami took a deep breath.
He knew what he was about to say would overturn the understanding of these two.
Perhaps even the entire Jujutsu World.
"The third path is to break the higher ups' absolute monopoly over jujutsu information."
His voice echoed across the training ground.
"Establish a new order."
Yuki's eyes narrowed.
Geto stared at him blankly.
Yami continued.
"Stop treating Cursed Spirits as indescribable monsters that must be hidden away. Make the existence of Cursed Energy and Cursed Spirits public in a standardized, scientific way."
"Use barrier techniques to create large scale safe zones."
"Use technology to monitor and guide the flow of Cursed Energy."
His grip on Shiranui tightened.
"Go even further. Research how to convert Cursed Energy into clean energy that humanity can actually use."
Yami swung Shiranui.
A bright trail of fire cut through the air.
"It is not about making decisions for ordinary people."
"It is not about standing above them and deciding who gets to live or die."
His voice became firm.
"It is about returning the right to choose to life itself."
"Let people know what they fear."
"Let them learn how to face that fear."
His gaze swept over both of them.
"That is true root cause treatment."
Silence.
Dead silence.
Whether it was Suguru Geto, who had nearly proposed destroying the world, or Yuki Tsukumo, who had spent years searching for the source of curses, both were stunned by the blueprint Yami had thrown before them.
Break the monopoly.
Make jujutsu public.
Combine it with technology.
Any one of those ideas would be enough to make the rotten higher ups crawl out of their coffins in rage.
But within those shocking words was a logic they could not dismiss.
And more than logic, there was hope.
Yami looked at the two stunned figures.
Then he turned and tossed the deformed can of iced soda into Geto's arms.
"Suguru."
Geto scrambled to catch it.
The cold metal pressed against his palm, snapping him further awake.
"That isn't justice."
Yami looked at his friend, who had almost fallen into the abyss.
His tone carried anger, disappointment, and a trace of tenderness hidden so deeply it was almost impossible to notice.
"That is arrogance born from pressure driving you insane."
"It is the worst kind of desecration of life."
Geto lowered his head.
The coldness in his palm made his thoughts clearer by the second.
He looked at Yami, and his lips trembled faintly.
Only now did he realize how terrifying his previous thought had been.
How foolish.
He had almost become the same kind of monster he despised most.
A monster that trampled over life in the name of righteousness.
"Yami…"
Geto's eyes reddened.
"I…"
Before he could continue, Yami raised a hand and stopped him.
"No need to rush into an apology."
Yami turned his head and looked back at Yuki Tsukumo.
A dangerous light flashed in his eyes.
"Since we have already come this far…"
His voice lowered.
"To completely destroy those unrealistic fantasies in both of your hearts…"
Yami slowly raised Shiranui.
"I don't mind showing you something else."
The dark red blade caught the last light of the sun.
"An even crueler truth."
....
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