He believed that the Yoshino Junpei before him would surely provide him with immense assistance. As it happened, Yoshino Junpei was also very eager to communicate with him. This was a moment of mutual attraction, so he naturally wouldn't withhold his knowledge.
These thoughts passed in an instant. In the next moment, he spoke to begin his explanation for Yoshino Junpei:
"Before discussing Cursed Spirits, there is one thing you must know." Mahito and Yoshino Junpei walked along the sidewalk. Neither had anything else to do—in other words, they were both quite idle—so they decided to wander aimlessly. "In this world, everyone possesses Cursed Energy, but only a very small fraction of people have the ability to control it and become Jujutsu Sorcerers. Most people simply radiate their Cursed Energy outward during their daily lives."
Although Mahito hadn't known this before realizing this was the world of Jujutsu Kaisen—since his research hadn't delved that deep yet—now that he knew, these "settings" of the world held no secrets from him. He could talk about them boldly and fluently. Perhaps those old scholars who studied Cursed Energy didn't even understand the essence of research as well as he did.
"Cursed Spirits are aggregates of Cursed Energy that leak out from humans. Even if they aren't physical entities, terrifying images that share a collective consciousness can easily manifest as powerful Curses," Mahito said. "For example, this country's well-known monsters or urban legends."
Yoshino Junpei nodded thoughtfully and suddenly asked, "Then what about you? Is a Great God also formed from something similar to Cursed Energy?"
Mahito looked at him in surprise. Although he was explaining Cursed Spirits, Mahito hadn't told Yoshino Junpei from the beginning that he was—
—a Cursed Spirit.
In Yoshino Junpei's understanding, he was still supposed to be a god.
He asked with interest, "Why do you think that?"
"Because of various light novel settings," Yoshino Junpei said bashfully. "Monsters formed from fear, gods formed from faith... the real world seems to be the same. Cursed Spirits are formed from the curses of ordinary people, taking concrete forms from widespread terrifying images. So what about the opposite, positive energy? It should also be able to form other things. According to most light novel settings, that's how gods are formed."
Mahito truly didn't know about that part, but he did know such a thing existed. Reverse Cursed Technique was exactly that. For spirits formed from the accumulation of negative energy, Reverse Cursed Technique was like a natural enemy. But for humans, Reverse Cursed Technique was a panacea that could save the dying and even regrow flesh on bones.
As long as a person wasn't dead, they could be saved. That was the power of Reverse Cursed Technique.
Aside from natural talents who could use it instinctively, this high-end form of technique could indeed be mastered through study. In other words, this form of technique could be called a "technology."
A technical application of techniques that was not inferior to, and perhaps even stronger than, most Innate Techniques.
This interested Mahito immensely. He became even more determined to obtain an incarnation, because only with an incarnation could one learn Reverse Cursed Technique. Reverse Cursed Technique surely hid more secrets, and he hoped to figure them out.
"While I'd love to say I'm a Great God formed from the beautiful wishes of humanity," Mahito thought for a moment and chose not to deceive, but to be honest, "unfortunately, I am merely a Special Grade Cursed Spirit."
This time, Yoshino Junpei was truly shocked. "You... you are also a Cursed Spirit? But... you said Cursed Spirits are formed from human curses. That means, logically speaking, a Cursed Spirit formed through human curses must be an enemy to humanity, because it is born from human malice. But you aren't like that; instead, you choose to... well... help those fallen people."
Mahito waved his hand dismissively. "No need to dress it up with beautiful words; I'm just distorting minds. It's just that I only target those scumbags who deserve death, rather than picking an innocent person at random. By now, you should have guessed why I can distort human thoughts so effortlessly."
"That is still very impressive; you have betrayed your instincts," Yoshino Junpei said.
Mahito looked back at him; the boy's eyes were wide and shimmering with light. He truly believed it. Even after learning the fact that Mahito was a Cursed Spirit, and that Cursed Spirits were beings absolutely harmful to humans, he didn't have the slightest prejudice against him.
He truly viewed Mahito as his savior.
Even though Yoshino Junpei was played so easily by Mahito in the original work, the fact that this boy was still like this in the real world truly left Mahito at a loss for words.
Yet Mahito understood him in an incredible way.
When the world is in total darkness, if a beam of light shines before one's eyes, no matter what that light is, a person in the dark will surely grasp for it without reason or wisdom, even if it is poison.
"I haven't finished, Junpei." Mahito looked at Yoshino Junpei. "You're right. Terrifying images like widely circulated monsters and urban legends do indeed easily gather curses, and such curses are bound to be very powerful, called Special Grade Cursed Spirits by Jujutsu Sorcerers. But there are other things that have been more concrete and more terrifying than widely circulated monsters and urban legends since ancient times."
Yoshino Junpei was stunned, and something suddenly occurred to him. "Are you... talking about natural disasters?"
"Earthquakes,Hurricanes, volcanoes, forests, oceans," Mahito said in a low voice. "Compared to monsters and urban legends, these things, most of which have been granted 'divine status,' are even more terrifying. If these things are curses, you can imagine how terrifying the resulting Cursed Spirits would be."
Yoshino Junpei stared blankly at Mahito, and his expression suddenly turned terrified.
He quickly lowered his head to hide his expression and said tremblingly, "You... you shouldn't be a Cursed Spirit formed from those natural disasters."
Mahito asked with interest, "Why?"
"According to what you just said, a Cursed Spirit formed from a natural disaster would surely have power like a natural disaster. They are the embodiment of natural disaster curses and should have corresponding abilities related to those disasters. But your ability is not like that. The only curse I can think of that matches you is one."
Yoshino Junpei took a deep breath and looked up again, the trembling gone from his eyes.
He spoke with a certain tone, like a detective identifying a culprit in a shonen manga:
"Humans. You are the curse formed from the fear humans have of other humans!"
"Truly clever," Mahito praised inwardly.
However, he wasn't surprised. In the original work, Junpei was actually very smart. When talking to the original Mahito, he was praised as a human who could "keep up with my topics." One must know that even the thousand-year-old Jujutsu Sorcerer Kenjaku was often shocked by Mahito's startling words, and a proud Special Grade Cursed Spirit like Jogo was still willing to view him as the King of Curses.
A person who could be favored by Mahito must have something extraordinary about them. If it wasn't a technique, then it was the person himself.
And now, even though they had been in contact for less than half an hour, Mahito fully understood why the original Mahito had held Yoshino Junpei in such high regard.
Of course, the original Mahito also showed his "regard" when he struck Yoshino Junpei, letting him experience firsthand that admiration is the furthest distance from understanding.
Now, Mahito was starting to feel fortunate. Being able to meet Yoshino Junpei again as if by fate was truly wonderful. To have such a stubborn... I mean, to have such a loyal yet clever believer was truly Mahito's luck.
But this time, Mahito wouldn't treat Yoshino Junpei like the original Mahito did. Yoshino Junpei deserved a better way of being used.
"Exactly. You guessed right. I am the fear formed from humans' fear of humans, so I am born with the ability to control humans," Mahito admitted.
He turned his head and looked up at the sky.
Looking at the sky at a 45-degree angle, he began to spout nonsense.
"Junpei, although I am a Cursed Spirit, my desire to become a god is sincere. Did you notice anything special in what I just told you?"
"That's right. Cursed Spirits are born from human curses. In other words, although my instincts as a Cursed Spirit keep reminding me that exterminating humanity is what I should do, the fact is that if humanity were truly exterminated, the next moment would be the moment Cursed Spirits go extinct."
"As a Cursed Spirit, I shouldn't harm people. Quite the opposite, I must save humanity—not for humanity's sake, but for the continued existence of Cursed Spirits."
Mahito said with total sincerity, "I want to become a god. I want to save humanity. These words come from the bottom of my heart."
"As you have experienced, the cruelty of humans toward their own kind far exceeds the persecution of humans by Cursed Spirits—"
"To say something that might make you feel uncomfortable: a Cursed Spirit's harm to humans is nothing more than killing, but you must have a deep understanding of how terrifying the persecution of humans by humans can be."
These words were indeed sincere, but in fact, they were pure sophistry.
In the end, no matter how much humans persecuted each other, that was an internal human problem. It was like how no matter how hard people's lives were within a country, it was still that country's own issue. If you suddenly suggested inviting foreign forces to station themselves in the country for political reform, what kind of nonsense would that be?
This kind of sophistry could be seen through by any other experienced political creature, but for Yoshino Junpei, a second-year high school student, it clearly wouldn't work. It wasn't that he wasn't clear-headed or smart enough, but simply that he lacked the experience. The school hadn't taught him this, had it?
Ultimately, the political ecology of this country dictated that its citizens had no resistance to the entry of foreign forces. After all, this country was currently like a semi-colony of the United States.
Considering this country's political ecology, Mahito's words met no resistance from Yoshino Junpei. This was why Mahito frankly revealed the fact that he was a Cursed Spirit, because it was impossible for Yoshino Junpei to resist his words. Their country's political environment determined Yoshino Junpei's attitude toward Mahito.
Therefore, Mahito spoke without restraint. He said loudly:
"So, I want to become a god."
"So that humans will no longer harm humans. Therefore, I want to become a god."
"So that Cursed Spirits can continue to exist."
"So, I want to become a god, a supreme god, because only a supreme god has the power to sanction the entire world."
"I want to create a society where everyone can survive. I want to create a paradise where Cursed Spirits exist eternally. I want to become the common god of humans and Cursed Spirits, using my power to make humans and Cursed Spirits exist eternally in interdependence—"
"And ultimately make this planet... my Divine Kingdom!"