Chapter 177: The Strongest Trio, Youth That Can Never Return
Behind Tokyo Jujutsu High stood a secluded shrine.
Its weathered stone steps were covered in moss, pale beneath the moonlight.
The noise of the festival felt far away. Only the occasional muffled boom of fireworks reached the shrine from somewhere below the mountain.
All around them, summer cicadas cried without pause.
Yami, Satoru Gojo, and Suguru Geto sat side by side on the cold stone steps.
The three of them represented the peak of the current Jujutsu World.
Together, they possessed enough power to overturn the entire country in a single night.
Yet at that moment, each of them simply held a bottle of chilled Ramune.
Hiss.
The sharp sound of a cap being opened cut through the quiet night.
"Suguru, you dragged us all the way out here in the middle of the festival. What exactly do you want?"
Gojo took a long drink and stretched his legs carelessly across the steps.
"The goldfish stall owner was about to bring out some rare golden koi. I could have caught it in one try."
Yami said nothing.
He drank his soda in silence, the cold moon reflected in his dark red eyes.
He already understood that this conversation would become a dividing line in the history of the Jujutsu World.
Geto ignored Gojo's complaints.
He lowered his head and watched the bubbles rising inside his bottle.
For a long time, he remained silent.
Then he finally spoke.
"Satoru. Yami."
His voice was soft, but every word had clearly been considered again and again.
There was no hesitation left in it.
"I'm leaving Tokyo Jujutsu High."
The cicadas seemed to fall silent.
Gojo's hand froze around his bottle.
Behind his sunglasses, his pale blue eyes narrowed.
For a brief instant, the pressure of the strongest leaked into the air.
"Say that again."
His voice had lost all laziness.
"You're leaving Jujutsu High?"
Gojo turned toward him.
"To go where? Are you planning to lead that ridiculous Star Religious Group? Or become the Curse User those rotten old men already want you to be?"
His expression darkened.
"Suguru, have you lost your mind?"
Geto did not react with anger.
Instead, a faint, relieved smile appeared on his face.
"Calm down and let me finish."
He lifted his head and met Gojo's eyes directly.
"I've spent the last few days thinking about everything that happened."
"The rules of Jujutsu High are chains. As long as we remain inside them, the higher ups will keep using those chains to control everyone around us."
Geto tightened his grip on the Ramune bottle.
"They will never truly leave Riko alone. Even if she lives overseas under another name, they will eventually find her and use her against us."
"And Kenjaku is still hiding somewhere in the shadows, watching us."
His gaze sharpened.
"As long as I remain at Jujutsu High, Haibara, Nanami, Shoko, Senior Utahime, and everyone else will keep being targeted."
"The higher ups will continue assigning false missions, creating traps, and using the people around us to force our obedience."
Geto drew a deep breath.
"That is why I have to leave."
Gojo's expression tightened further.
"But I won't simply disappear."
Geto continued before he could interrupt.
"I will present myself as an extremist who despises ordinary people and intends to overthrow the entire Jujutsu World."
"I will draw the higher ups' fear toward myself."
"And I will make sure Kenjaku believes I have become exactly the broken vessel he wants."
A faint chill passed through the shrine.
This was the plan Suguru Geto had formed after countless moments of pain and hesitation.
A false defection.
"You two will stay inside Jujutsu High."
Geto looked toward Gojo.
"Satoru, you will remain the strongest in the open."
"With your power, you can deter the higher ups and protect the students."
He paused.
"And take care of Shoko and the others. Do not let those missions grind her down."
A small smile touched his lips.
"Senior Utahime too. She gets provoked far too easily."
Gojo did not smile back.
Geto turned toward Yami.
"Yami, you are the greatest variable in this world."
"You can operate from the shadows, search for Kenjaku, and find the opportunity to uproot both him and the higher ups."
Then Geto placed a hand against his own chest.
"And I will become their greatest nightmare."
A dangerous smile slowly spread across his face.
"One of us in the light. One in the dark. One moving between both sides."
"Only then can we protect Riko, protect everyone we care about, and finally overturn this rotten chessboard."
Even Yami was impressed by the scale of the plan.
In the original future, Suguru Geto had been driven toward self destruction by confusion and despair.
Now, after being pulled back from the edge again and again, that same pain had transformed into vision and courage.
But Gojo's expression remained tense.
"I refuse."
He stood abruptly.
The Ramune bottle in his hand crumpled beneath his grip.
"Suguru, do you understand what this plan means?"
"You will bear the name of a Curse User."
"You will become a wanted criminal throughout the entire Jujutsu World."
He stepped toward Geto.
"Everyone will misunderstand you. They will curse your name."
"Even Principal Yaga and the others will be forced to treat you as an enemy."
Gojo's voice rose.
"You intend to carry all of that darkness alone?"
His eyes burned with anger.
"I will not allow it."
"We are the strongest."
"If the higher ups refuse to listen, then the three of us can destroy them together."
Geto looked at him in silence.
Beneath Gojo's anger, there was fear.
Not fear for himself.
Fear of losing his closest friend.
Warmth rose in Geto's chest.
Satoru Gojo, who acted as though nothing in the world could reach him, truly cared.
"Satoru, killing a few rotten old men would be easy."
Geto stood and faced him.
"But what comes afterward?"
"Who rebuilds the system?"
"Who drags Kenjaku out of hiding?"
His tone remained calm.
"If every problem could be solved by killing the people in front of us, then how would we be different from the monsters we fight?"
Gojo's jaw tightened.
"This is the only path I can see that breaks the deadlock."
Geto's eyes held no trace of retreat.
"And I have already decided."
Yami slowly rose from the steps.
He looked at the two men facing one another beneath the swaying lantern light.
Their three shadows stretched across the stone path and slowly merged.
Yami understood.
The moment Satoru Gojo loosened his fists, the original script of this world would cease to exist.
There would be no path left by those who came before them.
No future they could safely follow.
Only the bond between the three of them would guide their way through the darkness.
....
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