Yuta Okkotsu took a deep breath, his hands gripping the katana tightly. After a flash of black blade light, he sliced the last low-grade cursed spirit in two.
The foul-smelling mucus splattered against the walls of the shopping street, making a nauseating corrosive sound.
"Finally... it's done."
Yuta Okkotsu leaned on his katana, panting heavily.
Though they were only a few Grade 2 mob cursed spirits, they still took a significant toll on Yuta, who had yet to fully master the massive cursed energy within his body and relied entirely on physical combat.
Moreover...
During this mission, to protect Yuta—who had nearly been ambushed several times—
Toge Inumaki had used high-intensity cursed speech like 'Twist' four times in a short period.
"Cough, cough..."
A series of violent coughs echoed from beside him.
Yuta Okkotsu turned his head sharply. He saw Toge Inumaki covering his mouth, blood seeping through his fingers and dripping onto the floor tiles, a startling sight.
"Inumaki-kun!"
Yuta's heart tightened, and he rushed forward to support the staggering Toge.
"Are you okay?! I'm so sorry... It's all because I was too slow, that's why you..."
Seeing Yuta Okkotsu's face filled with self-reproach and guilt,
Toge Inumaki, though trembling from the pain of every breath, forced himself to endure the discomfort and shook his head gently.
"Dried bonito." (Don't worry about it, this is my duty.)
Under Instructor Yoru's guidance, he had already learned how to use basic breathing techniques to repair and alleviate some of the pain brought on by the backlash.
However, that required a high level of concentration and time.
In the rapidly changing chaos of the previous fight, he simply hadn't had the time to adjust his breathing frequency and could only force the cursed speech through pure instinct.
Four consecutive high-intensity bursts had pushed his vocal cords and throat to the brink of collapse.
Toge Inumaki pointed weakly toward a drugstore at the corner of the shopping street.
"Salmon." (Help me over there to buy some throat medicine.)
Yuta Okkotsu nodded heavily and carefully supported Toge as they walked into the pharmacy, which had not yet closed for the night.
He watched as Toge Inumaki expertly picked up a bottle of special throat spray and, enduring the sharp pain without so much as a flinch, sprayed the medicine into his raw, mangled throat.
Yuta's eyes reddened once again.
"It clearly hurts so much, so why do you push yourself so hard for me..."
At this moment,
Yuta Okkotsu finally understood the weight of Maki's previous words.
This boy, who seemed eccentric and spoke only in rice ball ingredients, possessed a heart that was incredibly gentle and kind.
He was not a man of many words, yet he used the most practical—and even most cruel—methods to silently protect every comrade by his side.
'I absolutely cannot remain a useless burden anymore!'
Yuta Okkotsu swore an oath in his heart. A flicker of unprecedented determination flashed in his bloodshot eyes, which were heavy with self-blame.
He had to become strong! Strong enough to turn around and protect the comrades who had accepted him!
Just as the two had finished buying the medicine and were preparing to leave the shopping street,
"Oh my, what truly touching camaraderie."
A gentle, even somewhat magnetic chuckle suddenly rang out in the empty street corner.
"Who's there?!"
Yuta Okkotsu's heart jumped. He spun around, his hand already gripping the hilt of the blade at his waist.
Under the dim yellow glow of the streetlamp,
A man wearing a gojo-kesa with his hair tied in a bun and a strange smile on his face had appeared silently in front of them at some unknown point.
"Pleasure to meet you, Yuta Okkotsu-kun."
Suguru Geto kept his hands tucked into his sleeves.
His narrow eyes squinted slightly, making no effort to hide the fanatical greed in his gaze, as if he were looking at a peerless treasure.
"I have... been looking forward to this day for a long time."
Hearing that name and sensing the terrifying, albeit restrained, waves of cursed energy from the man,
Toge Inumaki's pupils instantly shrank to the size of pinpricks!
As a second-year student at Jujutsu High, he had certainly seen this face in the archives!
The man who defected from the school ten years ago, judged as a Special Grade Curse User, and the most dangerous terrorist in the jujutsu world—Suguru Geto!
So the abnormal gathering of cursed spirits on this shopping street wasn't a natural occurrence at all; they were bait intentionally released by this man!
"Tuna mayo!" (Yuta! Run!)
Toge Inumaki ignored the tearing pain in his throat.
He violently pushed Yuta Okkotsu away while simultaneously grabbing the zipper of his high collar with his right hand.
"Don't be so tense, Toge-chan."
Suguru Geto merely gave Toge a passing glance, the smile on his face remaining so gentle it was hair-raising.
"I didn't come here today to kill you talented sorcerers."
"On the contrary, I am here to invite you."
Suguru Geto redirected his gaze toward the wary Yuta Okkotsu.
"Yuta-kun, you possess the most absolute power in this world."
"The Special Grade Vengeful Cursed Spirit... Rika."
"If this power is controlled by those decaying rotten oranges in the higher-ups, your ultimate end will be to become nothing more than a tool in their hands—discarded like trash once your value is squeezed dry."
Suguru Geto stepped closer to Yuta, his voice filled with a seductive, charismatic magic.
"But if you join me, everything will be different."
"We are going to build a true paradise where there are no monkeys, only sorcerers."
"In that world, you won't need to hide your power, and you won't have to endure the ignorant stares of those ordinary people."
"You could even be with Rika forever and become the god of that new world!"
Hearing Suguru Geto's words, Yuta Okkotsu's mind fell into a brief blank space.
Build a world without ordinary people? Stay with Rika forever?
This persuasion, while insane to the extreme, struck directly at his deepest vulnerabilities, causing him to waver for a split second.
"Okaka!" (Don't listen to him!)
Seeing the confusion in Yuta Okkotsu's eyes, Toge Inumaki grew desperate.
He yanked down his collar, revealing the Snake Eyes and Fangs seal on the corners of his mouth that represented absolute commands.
"Don't move..."
However, before he could shout the high-level command—even at the cost of his vocal cords tearing apart—
*Pat.*
An exceptionally long, pale hand suddenly reached out from behind Suguru Geto, resting casually on the 'Most Evil Curse User's' shoulder.
Immediately following,
A cold, indifferent, and even slightly playful familiar voice boomed across the empty street!
"Hey, Suguru."
"Coming out in the middle of the night to bully children..."
"That doesn't really seem like your style."
Upon hearing this voice,
The Suguru Geto who had been wearing a manic smile suddenly stiffened, his pupils constricting violently in that instant!
Meanwhile, Yuta Okkotsu and Toge Inumaki, standing opposite him, widened their eyes as a burst of wild joy erupted within them.
"Instructor Yoru?!"
Under the dim yellow glow of the streetlamp,
Yoru stood there in his black Jujutsu High uniform, the storage scarf around his neck emitting faint ripples of cursed energy, with that unremarkable standard-issue steel blade still tucked into his waist.
He looked like a ghost that had suddenly stepped out of the shadows.
Without releasing even a shred of cursed energy, he instantly crushed Suguru Geto's suffocating Special Grade aura into powder!
Ten years later, these two old friends who had once set a world-shaking plan on the stone steps of a remote shrine,
Finally had their first true public confrontation on this night of variables, within the script titled 'Justice'!
The temperature in the air felt as though it had dropped completely to the freezing point.