Chapter 165: Spoiling the Future, Shocking the Special Grade
"A crueler reality?"
Yuki Tsukumo raised an eyebrow.
She looked at the boy standing before her, the one whose calm carried a maturity far beyond his age.
As a Special Grade Sorcerer who had traveled around the world for years, Yuki had seen more ugliness and despair than most people could imagine.
Twisted Curse Users.
Cruel Cursed Spirits.
Villages swallowed by fear.
Cities rotting under the weight of human malice.
But for some reason, when she met Yami's bottomless black eyes, a faint chill rose in her chest.
Yami did not answer right away.
He slowly closed his eyes and adjusted his breathing.
When he opened them again, his gaze had changed.
[Transparent World, activated.]
In an instant, the world in Yami's eyes lost its surface colors.
Everything became transparent.
Muscles.
Bones.
Blood vessels.
The flow of Cursed Energy.
The rhythm of breath and heartbeat.
He saw through Yuki Tsukumo and Suguru Geto's physical condition. At the same time, his perception spread outward with terrifying precision.
Within several kilometers, a tiny insect hiding inside a tree hollow, a leaf slowly falling from a branch, and even the faint residue of Cursed Energy buried deep underground appeared clearly in his mind.
A moment later, Yami withdrew his perception.
"No spies from the higher ups."
His voice was calm.
"No eavesdropping Cursed Technique either."
After confirming the surroundings were safe, the atmosphere around Yami changed.
A moment ago, he had been an angry swordsman.
Now, he felt like an arbiter holding the script of fate itself.
To truly wake Suguru Geto up, and to pull the dangerous variable known as Yuki Tsukumo into his side, Yami decided to administer strong medicine.
"Suguru."
His voice was not loud.
But it carried a force that allowed no one to ignore it.
"If you are truly determined to walk that dead end of killing all non sorcerers, I can tell you clearly what waits at the end."
Geto's body trembled.
His fingers tightened around the soda can in his hand.
Some instinct told him that what Yami was about to say would shatter all his pride and fantasies.
"Because of that paranoia and arrogance, you will be abandoned by everyone."
Every word landed heavily on Geto's heart.
"You will leave Jujutsu High."
"You will become the worst Curse User in the eyes of the entire Jujutsu World."
"For the sake of that ridiculous cause you call righteousness, you will even raise your hand against your juniors."
Geto's pupils shrank.
"And in the end…"
Yami looked straight into his eyes and delivered the final judgment without mercy.
"You will die by Satoru Gojo's hand."
Suguru Geto froze.
Die by Satoru Gojo's hand.
Those words exploded in his mind like thunder.
"Impossible."
Geto staggered back.
His face turned pale in an instant, and cold sweat soaked through his back.
"Satoru…"
His voice shook.
"How could Satoru kill me?"
His breath became unsteady.
"How could I attack the juniors at Jujutsu High?"
He shook his head, desperately trying to deny Yami's prophecy.
But Yami's certainty, along with the ruthless logic he had already shown, made it impossible for Geto to dismiss those words as nonsense.
"This is the price of your so called paradise."
Yami did not let him breathe.
"And do you think your death would be the end?"
His gaze sharpened.
"No."
"That would only be the beginning of a much larger, much more evil conspiracy."
Yami turned toward Yuki Tsukumo, whose expression had also changed.
"Senior Yuki, you have always wanted to find a way to cut off the source of Cursed Spirits."
His tone was steady.
"But you do not know that your theory can also become a piece on someone else's board."
Yuki's eyes narrowed.
"After Suguru dies…"
Yami took a slow breath.
Then he threw out a truth heavy enough to shake the entire Jujutsu World.
"A monster who has lived for a thousand years will appear."
"A disgusting existence that survives by constantly replacing its brain."
"Kenjaku."
Yuki's expression shifted.
Yami continued.
"He will dig up Suguru's grave and steal his body."
"He will use Suguru's Cursed Spirit Manipulation to begin a death game that affects all of Japan, and possibly the entire world."
"The Culling Game."
Yami's voice grew heavier.
"Countless ordinary people will be forcibly given Cursed Energy."
"Countless ancient Jujutsu Sorcerers will awaken."
"They will be thrown into slaughter, forced to kill each other like insects trapped in a jar."
The air around the training ground seemed to become colder.
"And his final goal…"
Yami's eyes were dark.
"Is to assimilate Tengen."
Yuki's breathing stopped.
"To create a Super Cursed Spirit capable of destroying all humanity."
Silence crushed the training ground.
Assimilate Tengen.
The moment those words appeared, Yuki Tsukumo's playful expression disappeared completely.
Her amber eyes contracted, and her body trembled faintly from shock.
As someone who had once been a Star Plasma Vessel candidate, she understood the weight of the name Tengen better than most.
She also understood what Tengen's assimilation would mean if it was twisted by someone with malicious intent.
That was not merely a disaster.
It was the end of the world.
"You…"
Yuki stared at Yami, her voice tense.
"How do you know this?"
A thousand year conspiracy.
Body possession.
The Culling Game.
Tengen's assimilation.
There was too much information.
So much that even a Special Grade Sorcerer like Yuki Tsukumo felt her mind struggling to process it all at once.
"How I know is not important."
Yami slowly sheathed Shiranui.
Click.
"What matters is that this is the outcome your so called righteousness and your so called root cause treatment may ultimately bring."
He walked toward Suguru Geto.
Geto's knees had gone weak, and he looked close to collapsing.
"Used as a tool without even knowing it."
"Having your body stolen after death."
"Becoming an accomplice in destroying the world."
Yami stopped in front of him.
"Suguru."
His voice was quiet.
"Is that the future you wanted?"
Geto said nothing.
He stared blankly at the soda can in his hand.
The water droplets on its surface mixed with the cold sweat on his palm and dripped onto the ground one by one.
Yami's words were like a sharp scalpel, cutting apart the dream of salvation he had built on sand.
If he truly walked that path, he would not save anyone.
He would become the source of destruction.
He would even force the friend he was proudest of to kill him.
How pathetic.
How ridiculous.
"I…"
Geto's throat moved with difficulty.
His voice was hoarse, like it had been scraped raw.
"I will never…"
He clenched the soda can.
"Never let that happen."
The madness and paranoia in his eyes had completely receded.
What replaced them was clarity.
And a determination born after staring into despair.
Yami looked into Geto's eyes and knew the strong medicine had finally taken effect.
The malignant tumor that had ruined Suguru Geto's life in the original course of fate had been forcibly uprooted.
"Remember what you said today."
Yami patted Geto on the shoulder.
Then he turned back toward Yuki Tsukumo, whose expression had become extremely grave.
"So, Senior Yuki."
His voice was calm.
"After hearing this thousand year drama, are you still going to keep promoting your dangerous theory of turning all humanity into Jujutsu Sorcerers?"
Yuki fell silent.
She looked at the mysterious boy in front of her and took a deep breath, suppressing the shock in her heart.
"I take back what I said earlier."
She bent down and picked up her helmet from the grass.
For the first time, her eyes were completely serious.
"You are even harder to read than that bastard Satoru Gojo."
She stared at him.
"As for that thousand year conspiracy, I will investigate it myself."
Yuki walked toward her heavy motorcycle.
"If it is really as you said…"
She straddled the bike and put on her helmet.
The engine let out a wild roar.
"Then we will meet again soon."
She paused.
"As for the third path you mentioned…"
Yuki's voice came from beneath the helmet, carrying a complexity rarely heard from her.
"It really is the kind of plan only a madman would come up with."
The corners of her mouth seemed to lift faintly.
"But I am looking forward to it."
Boom!
The engine roared.
Yuki Tsukumo rode down the mountain road just as wildly as she had arrived, turning into a blur before disappearing from sight.
The most restless Special Grade Sorcerer had set off on a journey to find the truth, carrying shock and doubt with her.
The training ground became quiet again.
Only the faint smell of scorched grass remained, proving what kind of collision had just taken place.
Suguru Geto sat on the grass as if all strength had left his body.
He opened the warped soda can and took a large gulp.
"Yami."
He looked at the setting sun sinking beyond the horizon.
For the first time in a long while, his voice sounded lighter.
"Thank you."
A pause.
"For pulling me back again."
Yami did not answer.
He only walked over and sat beside him, quietly watching the distant sky.
After experiencing that dangerous devil's whisper, Suguru Geto had finally reached true clarity.
But just when Yami thought everything was moving in a better direction, the rotten oranges among the higher ups could no longer suppress the schemes hidden in their sleeves.
The gears of fate were about to crush another boy's future in a remote mountain village.
....
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