Chapter 30
That summer, the cicadas at the Kyoto Jujutsu High were especially loud.
Seventeen-year-old Suguru Geto stood in the shadow of the training ground, holding a freshly extracted cursed spirit orb—a black ball the size of a pigeon's egg, its surface rough, glowing with an ominous purple-black luster in the sunlight.
He stared at it, his Adam's apple unconsciously bobbing.
Swallow.
That was the price his technique, "Cursed Spirit Manipulation," demanded.
He had gone through countless mental constructions, convincing himself that it was for power, for protecting more people, for the ideal of "making it so the weak no longer suffer from cursed spirits."
But every time the cursed spirit orb approached his mouth, an indescribable stench still made his stomach convulse.
It wasn't an ordinary smell. It was the embodiment of countless negative emotions condensed—the taste of despair, hatred, and fear. He had once described it to Satoru Gojo:
"It's like taking a rag that's been used to clean up vomit, stuffing it into rotten entrails, pickling it for three months, then pouring it with ten-year-expired canned herring soup."
"Geto, staring at it won't make it taste any better."
Satoru Gojo's voice came from above. The white-haired boy was hanging upside down from the horizontal bar of the training ground, his sunglasses sliding down to the tip of his nose. His Six Eyes looked at Geto through the gap in the lenses, with his usual relaxed tone.
"None of your business," Geto replied, took a deep breath, and shoved the cursed spirit orb into his mouth.
Nausea.
An indescribable nausea exploded from the tip of his tongue and burned down his esophagus into his stomach. He suppressed the urge to vomit, barely swallowing. The veins on his forehead bulged. After swallowing, he held onto a tree trunk and dry-heaved for a while before barely straightening up.
"Every time I see you eating that thing, I feel like my 'Infinity' activates automatically," Satoru Gojo flipped down from the horizontal bar and patted Geto on the back. "Are you sure you don't need me to beat it up first? Maybe it'll taste better if it's tenderized?"
"It's useless," Geto shook his head, his face pale. "The taste is part of the cursed spirit's essence. It can't be changed."
He had come to this conclusion in his second year. Whether wrapped in candy, honey, or the strongest mint candies, the stench emanating from the soul would pierce through all barriers and directly assault the taste buds.
Until he found a dusty manuscript deep in the college library.
The manuscript was carelessly shoved at the bottom of the bookshelf under "Basic Cursed Energy Theory." The cover was tattered, the paper yellowed, but the handwriting on it was still clear—written in modern Japanese, but with an archaic style. Geto thought it was a senior's study note, but when he flipped open the first page, he was stunned.
The title read: "On the Deceptiveness of Cursed Energy Perception and the Possibility of Self-Cognitive Regulation — An Incomplete Manuscript by Zen'in Genji, Part One."
Zen'in Genji.
That name was a legend, a myth, a name enshrined in the jujutsu world. Geto had only seen sparse records of him in the most confidential archives: the strongest sorcerer a thousand years ago, the complete Ten Shadows Technique, the power to set up a global barrier.
And at this moment, this legendary figure's manuscript was sitting in the college library, covered in dust.
Geto carefully took the manuscript back to his dormitory. It was a research note on the nature of cursed energy. The content was complex, involving many microscopic theories of cursed energy manipulation and hypotheses about the intervention of consciousness in cursed energy. Most of the content was too advanced for Geto at the time, but one short paragraph caught his attention:
"Human perception of the external world comes from the various sensory organs of the body receiving information and transmitting it to the brain, forming all vision, hearing, taste, and touch—these are essentially sensations created by the brain. If the brain is fooled, the unpleasant sensations brought by the external world can be isolated."
Geto stared at this passage and read it all night.
The next day, he began to experiment.
It wasn't just "psychological suggestion." It was using his own jujutsu to build a cognitive firewall deep within his consciousness. The equation "Cursed Spirit Orb = Disgusting" was forcibly changed to "Cursed Spirit Orb = Odorless Energy Block" at the moment of swallowing.
In the first week, he failed hundreds of times. Every time he swallowed a cursed spirit orb, the stench remained the same. And because of the negative reaction after failing the intentional perceptual defense, it became even more unbearable. He vomited so violently that Satoru Gojo almost took him to Shoko Ieiri to have his stomach pumped.
"Give it up, Geto. Worst case, I'll beat up all the cursed spirits for you in the future, and you'll have to eat a few less," Satoru Gojo said, uncharacteristically serious.
Geto shook his head. His face was pale, but his eyes were firm. "I have to do this."
Because there were too many people he needed to protect. Those ordinary people without cursed energy, those weak people with no power to fight back against cursed spirits. If he couldn't even overcome this small revulsion, how could he talk about "protecting everyone"?
In the second week, he found the thread. It wasn't at the moment of swallowing the cursed spirit orb that he erected the perceptual defense, but before that—during the process of extracting the cursed spirit and condensing the cursed orb—he began to wrap it in his own cursed energy, "sheathing" it with his consciousness, like a sharp blade being slipped into a scabbard.
On the seventeenth day, he succeeded.
When the Grade 3 cursed spirit orb slid down his throat, Geto didn't feel the slightest nausea. Instead of the foul stench, his taste buds registered a neutral, almost nihilistic "touch"—like swallowing a piece of tasteless jelly. The cursed energy flowed smoothly into his body, and the control over the cursed spirit clearly appeared in his mind.
He opened his eyes and saw the surprised faces of Satoru Gojo and Shoko Ieiri.
"You did it?" Satoru Gojo walked over, his gaze scanning him. "The flow of your cursed energy is very smooth… you actually did it?"
Geto nodded. For the first time, the corners of his lips curled up because he had swallowed a cursed spirit orb.
From that day on, "Cursed Spirit Manipulation" transformed from a painful burden into a pure means of gaining power. His efficiency in absorbing cursed spirit orbs increased significantly, and the number of cursed spirits he collected grew at an astonishing rate. By the summer of his third year of high school, Geto had over a thousand cursed spirits, many of them close to Grade 1 in strength.
He was getting closer and closer to his ideal—possessing enough power to protect all the weak.
Until that summer that changed everything. Until the girl named "Riko Amanai" appeared.
---
The Star Plasma Vessel escort mission started out smoothly.
Riko Amanai—a girl who called herself "the vessel" and considered Misato Kuroi her family—was easier to get along with than expected. Geto even thought that if she hadn't been destined to be the Star Plasma Vessel, she would have lived a noisy and happy life at an ordinary school.
But she was the Star Plasma Vessel. Her fate was to, one day at the age of fifteen, be sent to Master Tengen, complete the assimilation, erase herself, and become a "part" that kept the barrier functioning.
"Protect her until the assimilation is complete," their teacher, Masamichi Yaga, had said when assigning the mission, his expression serious. "This is an iron rule of the jujutsu world."
Geto and Satoru Gojo took on the mission. Along the way, they repelled several waves of attackers—remnants of the Star Religious Group "Q" and other forces trying to seize the Star Plasma Vessel.
The journey was exciting, but mostly because Satoru Gojo was there. He was the "strongest."
But the string in Geto's heart was tightening.
Not because the enemies were strong, but because of Riko Amanai.
She was a person. A living fifteen-year-old girl who could laugh and be playfully afraid.
Not a "part."
---
The night before the assimilation, Geto had a dream.
In the dream, Riko Amanai stood in the center of the main hall of the Star Palace. Her figure gradually became transparent, then turned into a speck of light and disappeared. She turned, smiled at him, and said: "Master Geto, thank you for protecting me to the very end."
He woke up in a cold sweat.
---
The next day, they arrived at the Star Palace. The ancient building was deep within a barrier, the air filled with the scent of sandalwood and the passage of time. Riko Amanai had changed into a white shrine maiden's outfit. Misato Kuroi knelt before her, tears streaming down her face.
"It's time to go, Lady Riko."
Riko Amanai nodded, turned, and walked deeper into the corridor. Her back was straight, but Geto noticed—her shoulders were trembling slightly.
At that moment, something broke inside him.
"Wait."
He didn't speak loudly, but his voice was especially clear in the silent hall.
Everyone looked at him. Satoru Gojo. Misato Kuroi. The priest in charge of the ceremony. And the figure slowly emerging from the depths of the hall—the existence that was…
Tengen.
He looked ordinary, with no unusual features, except for his eyes—clear and deep, as if they had lived for a thousand years.
"Suguru Geto," Tengen's voice sounded directly in his head, calm, without emotion. "Do you have something to say?"
Geto stepped forward and stood in front of Riko Amanai. Satoru Gojo said nothing, just silently stood beside him, his Six Eyes flashing with an elusive light behind his sunglasses.
"I oppose this assimilation," Geto said, pausing. "Riko Amanai is not a 'part.' She is a person. She has the right to choose her own life."
Dead silence fell over the hall. The priests' faces turned pale. Misato Kuroi covered her mouth. Riko Amanai stared at Geto's back with wide eyes.
Tengen quietly looked at him. Those eyes seemed to see through everything.
"If your choice leads to the failure of the assimilation," Tengen's voice came again, "causing me to go berserk, the barrier to collapse, and tens of thousands of people to die from rampaging cursed spirits… would you still insist?"
Geto's heart suddenly clenched.
He remembered the "weak" he had sworn to protect. Those ordinary people without cursed energy, those with no power to fight back against cursed spirits. If he saved Riko Amanai today, the price might be the death of even more people.
On one side of the scale—the future of one girl.
On the other side of the scale—countless lives of strangers.
Wasn't his ideal, the meaning of swallowing countless disgusting cursed spirit orbs, all just to protect "everyone"?
But…
He turned his head and glanced at Riko Amanai. The girl bit her lip, tears welling in her eyes, but she tried not to let them fall. She looked at Geto, her eyes full of fear, hope, and a nearly desperate plea.
"I…"
Geto opened his mouth, but couldn't make a sound.
"I don't mind."
Tengen's voice sounded again, interrupting Geto's internal struggle.
The being tilted its head slightly.
"It doesn't matter to me whether I become a human, a cursed spirit, or something else. This body, this identity of 'Tengen,' is just a duty entrusted to me a thousand years ago."
He looked at Geto, and for the first time, something that could be called "emotion" appeared in those clear eyes—not anger, not sadness, but… a relieved lightness.
"If you wish," Tengen said, "I will ask you to share some of this duty."
Silence fell over the hall.
Geto stood there stunned. Satoru Gojo was also stunned, his sunglasses sliding down to the tip of his nose, his Six Eyes widening as he looked at Tengen in disbelief.
"You… what do you mean?" Geto heard his own voice tremble.
"It means," Tengen raised a hand slightly, his fingertip tracing an ancient rune in the air, "I no longer need the body of a Star Plasma Vessel. This girl can live. As 'Riko Amanai,' not as a 'part of Tengen.'"
The rune lit up, then shattered. Some invisible "shackles" within Riko Amanai's body broke. Her legs gave way, and Misato Kuroi caught her.
"As for me," Tengen's voice became ethereal, "I will try… a new form. Don't worry about the barrier's effect. It will last a little longer. And you—"
"—are responsible for your own decisions."
With those last words, Tengen completely disappeared. The hall was left with the stunned priests, Riko Amanai and Misato Kuroi embracing and sobbing bitterly, and two young sorcerers standing in a daze.
Responsible?
Geto pondered this word.
He had saved Riko Amanai, but at what cost? Tengen had abandoned the assimilation and chosen an unknown "new form." How long would the barrier's effect last? If the barrier collapsed, how many people would die?
Now, all this responsibility rested on his and Satoru Gojo's shoulders.
---
After that, many things changed.
Riko Amanai left Japan under the pretext of "transferring abroad." Misato Kuroi went with her. Their teacher, Masamichi Yaga, didn't blame them. He just took a deep breath and said, "Since you've made your choice, you must bear the consequences."
The most obvious change was in Satoru Gojo. He shed his perpetually cynical smile and began training frantically, becoming stronger, taking on missions. He no longer said, "I'm the strongest." He proved it through his actions—he had to be the strongest. He had to be strong enough to cover everything.
"Because of our stubbornness," Satoru Gojo said to Geto after a mission, sitting on the rubble, "many people might die. So I want to become stronger—strong enough that even if Tengen goes out of control and the barrier collapses, I can exorcise all the cursed spirits that appear myself and protect everyone."
When he said this, his eyes were terrifyingly serious.
Geto didn't answer. He just silently swallowed the cursed spirit orb he had just extracted—using the technique left by Zen'in Genji to block the taste, but unable to block the weight of responsibility.
He began to collect more and more cursed spirits. Grade 1, semi-special grade, special grade… as long as it was controllable, he swallowed it. His inventory of cursed spirits grew from one thousand to two thousand, then to three thousand. He became stronger, but also quieter.
Because he knew that Satoru's light wasn't strong enough for him.
Satoru Gojo could rely on his power to cover the bottom line, but he couldn't. The essence of his technique was "manipulation." No matter how much you manipulated, there was a limit. And cursed spirits couldn't be killed—as long as humans had negative emotions, cursed spirits would continue to multiply.
A fundamental solution had to be found.
A way to keep Tengen functional, to maintain the barrier, and to prevent cursed spirits from harming anyone ever again.
He began frantically searching for materials—from the college library to the secret collections of the Zen'in clan, from ancient books to modern documents. He found more of Zen'in Genji's manuscripts, and his research on barrier principles, the nature of cursed energy, and the relationship between human emotions and cursed spirits made him feel like he had found a treasure.
But it wasn't enough.
Genji had left behind tools, theories, but not "answers." The strongest man a thousand years ago hadn't been able to solve the fundamental problem himself.
Geto began to lose sleep. He lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, countless thoughts churning in his head: What was the root of cursed spirits? Could negative emotions be eliminated in humans? If not, could they be converted? Could the barrier be improved? What exactly was Tengen's "new form"? What if he failed and went berserk?
Every question was like a boulder pressing on his chest.
Satoru Gojo sensed his abnormality and stopped him after a training session.
"Geto, you're pushing yourself too hard," Satoru Gojo said, concern in his eyes behind his sunglasses. "Tengen's situation isn't your fault. It was our choice. And we'll bear it together."
Geto just shook his head.
"Satoru, you don't understand," he said. "Your 'strongest' can solve many problems. But some problems can't be solved with strength."
"Then what can solve them?"
"I don't know," Geto admitted. "That's why I need to find the answer."
---
He left the college under the pretext of "traveling." Satoru Gojo didn't stop him, just said, "When you need me, contact me anytime."
Geto traveled all over Japan, went to many places. He saw more tragedies caused by cursed spirits, but also more warmth between ordinary people. He helped many people and swallowed even more cursed spirits. His power grew stronger, his reputation grew, but the emptiness in his heart grew larger.
Until one day, he met Nanako and Mimiko in a remote mountain village.
The two twin girls, called "monsters" by the villagers, had been abused and neglected because of their innate cursed energy. Geto saved them.
He witnessed the greed and exploitation of sorcerers' power by ordinary people. He saw hearts that were uglier than the cursed spirits born from envy, cowardice, and selfishness.
He protected the weak, but the blades of some "weak" people also pierced the protectors.
He took the girls with him, taught them to control their jujutsu, and gave them a place to live. Nanako and Mimiko called him "Master Geto" and regarded him as their only support.
But Geto understood that this wasn't enough.
Saving two children couldn't change the fate of thousands of children. Exorcising one cursed spirit couldn't stop thousands of cursed spirits from multiplying.
He needed a deeper answer.
An answer that could solve the problem once and for all.