Chapter 21: The Horror of the Star Religious Group
Gojo Satoru felt like luck wasn't on his side today, mostly because he had received a mission this morning.
Those useless higher-ups in the Jujutsu world had surprisingly ordered him to head over to the Shinomiya family residence.
Word was that the eldest son of the Shinomiya family, Shinomiya Oko, had seemingly been targeted by a curse, and they wanted Satoru to go and exorcise it.
To be completely honest, Satoru hadn't intended to pay any attention to this mission at first. After all, whether Shinomiya Oko lived or died had absolutely nothing to do with him, given that he wasn't close to the guy at all.
He had genuinely wanted to defy the order right from the start.
With his strength, those useless higher-ups couldn't exactly force him to carry out a mission anyway.
But right at that moment, he learned something interesting from Principal Yaga Masamichi.
Not too long ago, the eldest daughter of the Shinomiya family, a girl named Shinomiya Kaguya, had unexpectedly passed away in an accident.
And now, Shinomiya Oko was allegedly targeted by a curse.
It was glaringly obvious that someone was targeting the Shinomiya family, and anyone bold enough to pull off something like this certainly wasn't a simple character.
But again, what did that have to do with him.
There were far too many people in this world who deserved to die. If others could die, was Shinomiya Oko somehow exempt.
Even so, Gojo Satoru ended up accepting the mission afterward.
It wasn't because he wanted to keep Shinomiya Oko alive, but rather, a thought had suddenly crossed his mind.
His students seemed to have been a little too relaxed lately.
Maybe he could use this mission to give them some practical experience and let them stretch their legs.
After all, flowers raised in a greenhouse can never grow strong.
Without weathering the storm, how could they ever expect to see a rainbow.
If the enemy turned out to be weak, it would be the perfect chance for his students to gain some combat experience. And if the enemy happened to be incredibly powerful, he could just wait until his students were beaten half to death before making a magnificent entrance.
Not only would he save his students, but he would also establish a towering, heroic image in front of them.
More importantly, it would give his students a taste of defeat, and that very failure would ultimately become the nourishment to help them grow and bloom into the most beautiful flowers.
Ah, he really was an excellent teacher who put every ounce of thought into his students' well-being.
Teachers as deeply responsible as him were truly hard to come by these days.
Thinking about this, Satoru felt deeply moved by his own greatness. He really was incredible.
Once the decision was made, Satoru assigned his students, Fushiguro Megumi and Zenin Maki, to move out together.
As for himself, he would hide in the shadows, monitoring the enemy's every move and remaining ready to step in at any moment to back up his students.
Right as Satoru was busy brainstorming a flashy and cool way to make his grand entrance, his phone rang. It was a call from his student, Fushiguro Megumi.
"There's no curse," Megumi's explanation was as brief as always.
"Huh?"
"I mean, there isn't a curse here at all. Shinomiya Oko crossed paths with a powerful individual at Totsuki Resort yesterday, got scared out of his wits, and fell ill as soon as he got back."
Megumi explained succinctly, "This guy has been suffering from chronic fatigue for a long time, and falling sick this time happened to be quite severe, but he panicked and assumed he was cursed, so he frantically contacted us. This entire situation is just a massive misunderstanding from start to finish."
Hearing this, Satoru felt incredibly annoyed.
Maki's voice also echoed through the phone, "In short, it's just a classic case of self-induced terror. Rich people like him are terrified of dying; the moment they hit a slight bump, they immediately assume they're cursed."
"What a complete waste of manpower, making us travel all this way for nothing."
Satoru couldn't help but click his tongue in disappointment. He had already prepared several cool poses for his grand entrance.
To think it was just this... wealthy people nowadays were truly getting more and more cowardly.
If he had known it would be like this, he wouldn't have bothered coming.
"Fall back." After dropping those words, Satoru decisively hung up the phone.
However, right as he prepared to leave, within the perception range of his Six Eyes, he suddenly noticed a highly suspicious Jujutsu Sorcerer approaching the Shinomiya residence.
Oh, what's this... where did this guy pop up from.
Satoru found it puzzling. Shinomiya Oko clearly wasn't cursed, so why was this Jujutsu Sorcerer showing up now.
Who exactly was he coming to the Shinomiya residence for.
Was it for the people of the Shinomiya family, or for his own adorable students.
Driven by curiosity, Satoru silently slipped up behind the Jujutsu Sorcerer, grabbed him, and began to interrogate the man.
To his surprise, the guy turned out to be a total coward and spilled everything instantly.
This included, but wasn't limited to, his purpose for coming to the Shinomiya family this time, as well as his true identity.
A Jujutsu Sorcerer from the Star Religious Group, Igarashi Naoto.
Hearing the name Star Religious Group caused Satoru's pupils to contract sharply.
"Speaking of which, I used to have a very good friend who is currently in the Star Religious Group. His name is Geto Suguru. Does that ring a bell?"
"Vice Leader Geto Suguru?"
"Oh? Vice Leader?" Satoru was slightly taken aback. He was genuinely surprised. His five fingers tightened around Igarashi's head, and with just a tiny bit of force, he could easily lift the man's skull right off.
"If I remember correctly, Geto Suguru was supposed to be your Leader. Why are you calling him the Vice Leader."
Igarashi Naoto stammered in absolute terror, "Vice Leader Geto Suguru indeed used to be the Leader of our Star Religious Group, but not long ago, he abdicated and handed his position over to our current Leader."
"Geto Suguru stepped down and handed over his position?"
This answer left Satoru profoundly shocked. Based on what he knew of Geto Suguru's personality, his friend was absolutely not the type of person to willingly step down and hand his position over to someone else.
What in the world could have happened to force Geto Suguru to abdicate and surrender his title.
Could it be that the new Leader of the Star Religious Group was overwhelmingly powerful.
"Who is your Leader?" Satoru asked out of genuine curiosity.
"I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"It's true, we don't know the new Leader's name, nor do we know where the new Leader came from. All we know is that the Leader is powerful, terrifyingly powerful."
Igarashi Naoto spoke of this Leader with a dread that seemed to be etched into his very bones.
"Just by relying on a terrifying pressure alone, the Leader forced all of us to keep our heads down, including Vice Leader Geto Suguru. The Leader's strength is easily on par with the legendary Onmyoji, Abe no Seimei."
"Oho, is that so."
Satoru narrowed his eyes. Geto Suguru was his friend, and he knew Geto's strength inside and out. The man was a bona fide Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer.
Even though Geto wasn't his match, defeating him would still require Satoru to put in a decent amount of effort.
To rely solely on an aura of pressure to make Geto Suguru unable to even lift his head.
Yeah, sorry, but even he couldn't pull off something like that.
So, did that mean this new Leader of the Star Religious Group was actually stronger than him.
That was impossible. After all... he was the strongest.
But looking at the expression on Igarashi Naoto's face, the man didn't seem to be lying. This sparked a deep interest within him regarding this new Leader of the Star Religious Group, prompting him to ask about the Leader's whereabouts.
"I don't know." Igarashi Naoto shook his head and said, "Even though we are members of the Star Religious Group, unless we receive an explicit summons from the Leader, we have absolutely no way of meeting them."
Following that, Satoru threw out a few more questions and managed to get a solid grasp of what this new Leader was all about.
First off, this new Leader was exceptionally strong, but their background was a total mystery. They had suddenly appeared during a gathering of the Star Religious Group, challenging the Leader at the time, Geto Suguru, with the clear intent of seizing the Star Religious Group for their own use.
Then, right before everyone's eyes, with just a casual wave of a hand, they defeated Geto Suguru and intimidated the entire Star Religious Group into submission.
After that, Geto Suguru stepped down, surrendered his position, and became the Vice Leader.
Every single higher-up had witnessed this event firsthand, leaving them deeply terrified of and respecting the new Leader's methods and capabilities.
Upon taking over the Star Religious Group, the new Leader began providing massive backing to the organization, passing down numerous techniques that caused the group's overall strength to undergo a massive transformation.
Furthermore, the new Leader possessed a mysterious Cursed Tool.
This object was a notebook.
No matter who it was, as long as their name was written inside that small notebook, they would die.
Be it a Youkai, a Cursed Spirit, an ordinary human, or a Jujutsu Sorcerer—as long as their name was recorded in it, death was guaranteed.
That small notebook couldn't just kill people; it could even orchestrate the exact cause of death, making it utterly terrifying.
Yet, the new Leader was remarkably generous. Whenever someone performed a great service for the Star Religious Group, the Leader would tear a blank page from the small notebook and present it to the meritorious subordinate as a reward.
These blank sheets of paper carried the same killing effect, though their power seemed to be a watered-down version.
They could only kill ordinary humans and were ineffective against Jujutsu Sorcerers or entities like Youkai.
In addition, the new Leader also seemed to possess an ability that could transform ordinary humans into Jujutsu Sorcerers.
No matter how foolish a person was, or how utterly lacking in talent they might be, under the new Leader's guidance, everyone could be turned into a true Jujutsu Sorcerer.
On top of all that, the new Leader seemed to be plotting a grand, magnificent scheme.
Despite taking over the Star Religious Group and vastly expanding its influence, they didn't allow the group to expose themselves to the public eye, choosing instead to let the organization develop entirely underground.
The Star Religious Group had now evolved into an absolute colossus. Whether in the political arena or the business world, and even within the police force, they had placed their own people everywhere.
Furthermore, there were plenty of their operatives embedded within the Jujutsu world as well.
It wasn't an exaggeration to say that as long as the Star Religious Group wished it, they could stage a coup at any given moment and easily place whoever they wanted into the position of Prime Minister.
One could say that the current Star Religious Group had already seized complete control over this country.
Yet even with this level of control, the Leader of the Star Religious Group still showed no intention of exposing themselves, continuing to quietly amass power while already extending their claws into international territories.
"They're truly terrifying, aren't they, this Star Religious Group."
After finishing his listening of Igarashi Naoto's narrative, instead of feeling any fear, Satoru actually grew excited.
An enemy this powerful existed, and yet he had been completely in the dark about it.
There were only two possibilities.
First, Igarashi Naoto was lying through his teeth, and the Star Religious Group wasn't anywhere near that amazing.
Second, Igarashi Naoto was telling the absolute truth, and the Star Religious Group was indeed powerful enough to cover up everything perfectly, which was why he hadn't heard a single whisper about them.
This was because the Star Religious Group, whether intentionally or unintentionally, had completely blocked information in this field to prevent a Jujutsu Sorcerer like him from finding out.
His intuition told him that the second possibility was highly likely.
If that was the case, then he would just have to personally flip this massive hidden underground giant upside down.
He wanted to see for himself, between him and that new Leader, who exactly was the strongest.
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