Chapter 190: I Still Have to Thank You, Emiya Shirou
For both parties, this conversation was highly necessary.
Emiya needed to grasp the basic information of this space to clarify his goals within a short time.
Kenjaku, meanwhile, clearly wanted to use this to stall for time, preventing Emiya from accidentally ruining his plans while moving about without restraint.
To ensure his stalling tactic worked, Kenjaku didn't resort to ambiguous words or evasion. Instead, he threw out intelligence that seemed to have no immediate impact on the present but was crucial to the grander scheme—
"Everyone in the jujutsu world knows that the source of cursed energy is the negative emotions of non-sorcerers. Because these 'incomplete' humans cannot control the cursed energy leaking from their bodies, that energy, tainted by various emotions, solidifies into [Curses], which in turn give birth to creatures like [Cursed Spirits].
But why is it that in a tiny island nation like Japan, the frequency of cursed spirits and curses is so high? Why does it account for over 50% of the world's cursed energy resources?
Considering the 120 million people in this country could all die overnight without dealing a fatal blow to the world—or more accurately, to human society—why is that?
The reason for all of this is because of the existence of this place: [Magano]."
A population of 120 million sounds staggering, and in reality, it is.
Over the course of a lifetime, the number of people a person meets—including strangers they only glance at once without ever knowing their names—likely wouldn't even total a million. That is a hundredfold difference from the exaggerated figure of a hundred million.
But for a comparison to exist, there must be an object of comparison; size and quantity are always relative.
Compared to the 8 billion people in the entire world, 100 million is indeed not that significant. Japan's only "advantages" are its sufficiently high population density and its high-pressure social environment.
However, such conditions are clearly insufficient to support it producing over 50% of the world's curses. There are countless places far more tragic and miserable than this one.
Of course, for the true elite of human society, they don't care at all about the hardships of those below them—as long as it doesn't affect their own lifestyle or quality of life.
The high-level governments of various nations are, naturally, aware of the existence of the jujutsu world. They also maintain government agencies similar to the General Headquarters to manage emergencies.
For them, since cursed spirit incidents aren't as frequent as in Japan, the most important issue isn't how to protect the safety of non-sorcerers, but how to best utilize [Cursed Energy]—this peculiar, emerging energy source.
A new energy source that can be produced solely from negative emotions with immense power, efficiency, and near-infinite output... if it could truly be precisely controlled by humans, who knows what the world would become?
Perhaps the day cursed energy can be directly utilized by humanity, war will not be far behind.
And the primary target of such a war would undoubtedly be Japan—a nation small in stature but uniquely occupying a vast amount of "cursed energy resources."
It's terrifying, isn't it? Humans don't care about the harm "curses" bring to their own kind; they care more about how to seize the benefits for themselves, even to the point of waging war on their own species.
Whether it was during Emiya's travels with Kiritsugu as a child, or the memories belonging to Heroic Spirit Emiya and Emiya Alter, there were always scenes of humans being cruel enough to start wars for profit.
From that perspective, things like cursed spirits and curses are merely insignificant skirmishes.
"Looking at your expression... Emiya-kun, you seem to have a deep understanding of the baseness of the human species as well, don't you?
Knowing full well it's a dangerous thing they cannot master, they still desperately and crazily slaughter their own kind for profit. If they don't change, they will sooner or later perish by their own hands.
Now is the critical junction where humanity can welcome a historic transformation. I will lead the human species to leap to a new level, where they will no longer fight for such senseless things."
Perhaps because the following words would directly relate to his upcoming plan, Kenjaku immediately stopped the topic there and continued his introduction to Emiya: "Well then, let's get back to the point and focus back on the existence of [Magano].
Thought has mass. From the moment of their birth, humans have been emitting negative energy every single second. It is this energy that gives rise to beings like cursed spirits. Thus, cursed spirits born from negativity are inherently designed for destruction.
However, jujutsu sorcerers can easily eliminate cursed spirits—which are tangles of countless emotions—using only the cursed energy generated from their own individual emotions... Do you think such a thing is logical?"
Take Mahito, for instance. He calls himself a cursed spirit born from "the hatred between humans," meaning almost every human provides him with cursed energy. The humans of the entire world are feeding such a spirit.
His strength is great, but there are quite a few sorcerers who can withstand him. Yet, a sorcerer's cursed energy is generated entirely from their own personal emotions.
How can the individual suppress the collective?
"It's strange, right? You might say I'm just playing with concepts, but the reality is right in front of you—
I only recently discovered a miraculous thing: the world itself possesses consciousness, and this [Magano] is the measure it uses to protect itself.
Human negativity is simply too hideous, and the filth they have accumulated over hundreds of thousands of years has reached a level where the world itself can no longer digest it. Thus, [Magano] appeared.
The excess cursed energy in the world is sunk into this barrier used for draining filth. This is exactly why the number of curses worldwide is far lower than the theoretical value.
As for why Japan has so many curses? That's because the largest entrance and exit for [Magano] lies within this country's territory."
As he spoke, Kenjaku suddenly laughed and raised his palm, gesturing for Emiya to look toward the distance, where violent rumblings were continuously echoing—
"Because even the air in [Magano] is saturated with filth, the cursed spirits here are several times stronger than those outside, much like the difference between a fish in water versus one on dry land.
If the gates of [Magano] were opened completely, do you think humanity could withstand the filth they created themselves?"
Emiya could certainly feel it. The cursed energy concentration in this world was dozens of times higher than outside—to the point where even the power of techniques would be magnified.
As for whether the cursed spirits accumulated in [Magano] over countless years could wipe out all humans? Emiya couldn't be sure, but as the front line, Japan would definitely fall.
No matter how hard he and Gojo Satoru worked, they couldn't possibly block an army of unknown numbers.
"So, this is the goal of your thousand-year effort? Just to destroy humanity?" Emiya asked calmly, despite the flood of information.
"Destroy humanity? Of course not. My ideal is to sublimate the human collective, to make them existences that transcend non-sorcerers, sorcerers, and cursed spirits.
You know, for a thousand years, I have been worrying about how to make such a vast human population achieve sublimation simultaneously.
A flawed result is not what I pursue.
The biggest difficulty of this problem lies in how to obtain enough cursed energy to encompass billions of humans within a technique at once to complete this noble ideal.
Fortunately, the existence of [Magano] solved this problem perfectly for me... It not only preserves tens of thousands of years of cursed energy and filth but also covers a vast area, with [Passages] of varying sizes all over the world.
In one stroke, it solved most of my difficulties.
I really have to thank you for this, Emiya Shirou."
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