Chapter 169: This is the Feeling of Freedom
In fact, the effect of Emiya Shirou's action was even better than he had imagined.
It wasn't just because Shirou had set off such a massive explosive firework using the Stand ability of [Pseudo-Magician's Red]. Unless they were blind and deaf, Itadori Yuji and the others staying at Jujutsu High couldn't possibly fail to notice the earth-shaking roar and the smoke billowing into the sky.
Furthermore, to Jujutsu High, Emiya Shirou was undoubtedly an outsider. This was especially true for the second-year students like Zen'in Maki, who were very close to Okkotsu Yuta. Upon hearing that the reason Shirou had come here was to collect on a Binding Vow made with Gojo Satoru—requiring Yuta to pay the debt—the only reason they hadn't kicked Shirou out immediately was because their knowledge of jujutsu was up to par. They knew the consequences of an unfulfilled Binding Vow.
But if anyone expected them to give Shirou a warm welcome, they were dead wrong. Naturally, upon hearing the news of Okkotsu Yuta's return, Zen'in Maki and the others had moved into position long before Gojo and Yuta arrived. They had been lying in ambush around Shirou's room.
This was exactly why Shirou, having activated his life-detection flames, was certain that the newly arrived targets were not Zen'in Maki's group. Similarly, due to the close proximity, Maki and the others could sense the vibration in the ground; they all shifted their gaze toward the direction of the explosion.
"To think that even after successfully hiding from Gojo Satoru, we would still be discovered?"
"Those Cursed Spirits' abilities really are useless," a slightly aged female voice croaked from within the smoke.
"No, you should look at it this way, Ogami-baba.
If we, who hid even from Gojo Satoru, were still discovered, doesn't that just mean the intelligence we received is quite reliable!?"
Still within the smoke of the explosion, a short but robust elderly man used his body to sweep away the surrounding haze. Looking at his position, it seemed he had been the one to block the flames of [Pseudo-Magician's Red] just now.
Appearing completely unharmed and indifferent to the fire and explosion, he turned to the elderly woman behind him—who was gradually shifting her form back to her original appearance—and said: "There really is a Cursed Tool here capable of defeating Gojo Satoru!"
"I told you, as long as we followed Gojo Satoru, we would inevitably find our target! See, I wasn't wrong, was I!?"
—[Idle Transfiguration]!!
The exclusive technique of Mahito, one of the Four Disaster Curses. The effect is brutally simple: it allows the user to remodel the soul of any human touched by their palm. While remodeling the soul, the physical body is remodeled along with it. Because the human body usually dies quickly during this remodeling process, it is a "certain-kill" technique against anyone who cannot perceive the soul or defend against it with Cursed Energy.
...That is the effect of [Idle Transfiguration] when used normally. But that doesn't mean the technique can only be used that way. Just as Kenjaku's motive for approaching the disaster curses was partly to find a group of fodder to help him seal Gojo Satoru, another reason was for Mahito—specifically, to seize Mahito's technique using [Cursed Spirit Manipulation].
Another effect of [Idle Transfiguration] is the ability to forcibly remodel an ordinary person into a sorcerer. By that same logic, remodeling a sorcerer into an ordinary person is perfectly possible.
These two elders, and the silent young man behind them acting as a guard, had been remodeled into "ordinary people" to completely evade the gaze of the [Six Eyes]. Before the flames of [Pseudo-Magician's Red] arrived, they had already used their Cursed Energy to isolate the effects of [Idle Transfiguration] on the surface of their bodies (with Mahito's permission during the casting).
The moment they were exposed, they erupted with Cursed Energy to disperse the technique's effect and restore their original forms, while simultaneously activating their own techniques to defend against the fire.
Knowing they had lost the advantage of deception and could no longer exploit the weakness of the [Six Eyes]—which primarily sees Cursed Energy and struggles to spot non-cursed objects through obstacles—they knew Gojo Satoru would eventually realize something was wrong. At the moment of exposure, they either began pumping Cursed Energy into their limbs to charge at Shirou or started chanting incantations to maximize their techniques.
...In short, they had to quickly eliminate the witnesses and complete their objective!
"Is this what they call a game of tag?"
"Will Gojo Satoru come back first to catch and kill us, or will we catch and kill you first... Heh heh heh, my bones haven't seen action in so long, I'm starting to get excited!"
The elderly man who chose to reinforce his limbs and charge forward, Jiro Awasaka, wore a distorted grin as he turned toward Emiya Shirou's group. "Ready to enter the real world of jujutsu, brats?
The debt your teacher Gojo Satoru owes will be collected from you kids!"
Ever since Gojo Satoru was born, these people—who could have used their strength to act willfully and make money with their techniques—had been forced to live like rats. This was finally their chance to break that humiliation.
The thought that if he could just get his hands on the rumored Cursed Tool that could defeat Gojo Satoru, he could go back to freely trampling the weak and live even more lavishly than before, gave Awasaka a surge of pleasure.
As for what would happen to Japan without Gojo Satoru... what did that have to do with curse users? Cursing others and dying by curses was the law of this world. They were simply returning the world Gojo had changed back to its "proper" track.
Relying on the unique nature of his technique—which, to some extent, could be called invincible—Awasaka hadn't taken many steps when the flames of [Pseudo-Magician's Red] (which he had ignored and allowed to burn on his body) suddenly fell back under Emiya Shirou's control as Awasaka entered the Stand's effective range!
Boom—!!
"Alright, next," Emiya Shirou said, without so much as a second glance at the instantly charred body of Jiro Awasaka.
Read ahead (100 chapters) by supporting me on buymeacoffee com/varietl or ko-fi edwriting