Tokyo Jujutsu High, Principal's Office.
Principal Masamichi Yaga, one of the leaders of the two Jujutsu High Schools, was carefully reviewing the latest documents passed down from the recent upper-level meeting.
As a quasi-high-ranking figure in the jujutsu world, although he didn't have the authority to participate in the meeting itself, he did have the privilege of receiving its contents immediately afterward.
Back when a number of stubborn old geezers were still alive, he had indeed been heavily suppressed—almost entirely ostracized from the circle. But now, nearly all those old fossils had been killed by the Nightmare, so there was no one left to obstruct his information channels.
Looking over the topics discussed in today's meeting, Masamichi Yaga sighed helplessly.
Yet another day with no progress.
The only good news, perhaps, was that Choso, Eso, and Kechizu had been granted the status of official jujutsu sorcerers.
With nowhere else to go, the three Cursed Womb brothers had been staying at Tokyo Jujutsu High during this time.
Although Yaga could've arranged other accommodations for them, Choso insisted he was Yuji Itadori older brother and didn't want to be separated from his little brother, so they ended up moving into the student dormitories.
Yaga didn't object to this.
Although they were once Special Grade Cursed Objects sealed for over a hundred years and now revived in human vessels, their mental age wasn't very high, and their temperament wasn't particularly bad. So Yaga decided to treat them as students.
They already admitted the vessel of Sukuna—what else couldn't be accepted?
Just as Yaga was about to inform the three brothers of this news to ease their final concerns, he heard footsteps outside the door.
"Principal, I'm coming in."
There was no knock. As the voice sounded, the door to the principal's office swung open.
There was only one person at Jujutsu High who behaved so freely—Satoru Gojo.
Yaga put down the report in his hands and raised an eyebrow at the approaching Gojo.
"You seem to be in a rather good mood," Yaga observed. "Though Choso and his brothers were granted sorcerer status, it doesn't seem like that helps much with the current situation, does it?"
Due to the looming threat of the Nightmare, Gojo hadn't been in a good mood for days.
The usual ease and cheerfulness on his face had rarely been seen.
But now, his mood seemed to have visibly improved. There was once again a subtle smile playing on his lips, as if he had received some good news.
Indeed, it was good news that Choso and the others had been acknowledged by the jujutsu world.
But the greatest crisis still remained unresolved—and not only unresolved, but there wasn't even a clear direction for how to resolve it.
This left Yaga rather puzzled.
"I'm not happy because of that," Gojo replied with a grin. "There's finally some progress in the matter of exterminating the Nightmare."
"Progress?" Yaga frowned, scanning the meeting report again. "I don't see anything—there's nothing in the briefing about that."
"Those old coots are useless. The progress wasn't made officially—it was done in private."
Gojo dropped himself onto the sofa across from Yaga and explained concisely, "I just had a talk with the newly appointed head of the Kamo clan. He offered a plan that might give us a shot at defeating the Nightmare."
"The Kamo clan changed heads?"
"Apparently, yes. They said it was recent, and they didn't want to alert the Nightmare, so they didn't notify the rest of the jujutsu world."
"Is it reliable?"
"Maybe?"
"What do you mean 'maybe'?" Yaga's brows furrowed deeper. "Gojo, changing the head of one of the Big Three families is a big deal. What if you were deceived?"
"The steward of the Kamo clan follows his orders. For that to happen, I don't think anyone other than the head himself could've managed it." Gojo shrugged. "Besides, whether he's really the head doesn't matter to me. As long as he can provide a plan to defeat the Nightmare—whether he is the head now or not—he's bound to become one eventually."
Yaga's suspicion was only natural.
To be honest, even now, Gojo didn't completely trust the man claiming to be the new head of the Kamo family.
But one couldn't deny that the man had indeed presented a strategy that could potentially eliminate the Nightmare.
To deal with the Nightmare, Gojo had even gritted his teeth and endured several days of upper-level meetings—what wouldn't he endure at this point?
More importantly, the new Kamo head had shown extreme confidence in his plan. He had even placed a Binding Vow on himself, swearing: "If this plan fails, may this body rot and die."
If not for this Binding Vow, Gojo might have hesitated for a few more days.
But the vow had already been made. If he still refused, he would look like a coward.
So Gojo had agreed to cooperate and had just finalized the preliminary strategy.
After explaining all this to Yaga, the mature and steady principal fell into deep contemplation.
To him, Gojo actions were not just rash—they bordered on foolish.
An unknown man presented an unproven plan, and Gojo accepted it?
"Gojo, I know you're desperate—but you can't just grasp at straws," Yaga sighed as he pinched his brow. "If this so-called strategy fails, and that nobody from who-knows-where dies, it's no big deal. But if you die, then the jujutsu world truly has no hope."
Only Special Grades can fight other Special Grades. And to fight something beyond Special Grade, you need someone beyond that level.
The Nightmare strength had unquestionably surpassed the level of Special Grade sorcerers.
If Satoru Gojo fell in battle, who else could face her?
Unless Panda, one of Yaga's Cursed Corpses, suddenly awakened to become the Dragon Warrior, it was hopeless.
Even if the remaining Special Grades—Yuki Tsukumo and Yuta Okkotsu—joined forces, Yaga still held a pessimistic outlook.
That's why he couldn't allow Gojo to act so recklessly.
Upon hearing Yaga's advice, a bitter smile tugged at Gojo lips.
"So what else can I do?" Gojo countered. "Keep wasting time in those useless meetings? Even if that guy's just a quack, at least we have a quack. Sitting here and waiting for death is worse."
Yaga fell silent.
According to what the Nightmare rogue double had said, she was devouring sorcerers, curse users, and cursed spirits to store massive amounts of cursed energy—her goal was to unlock the abilities of the [Chronostasis] (Kokkoku Tei).
In other words, the more they delayed, the stronger she would become.
And during this period, many upper-level officials had already been hunted and devoured by the Nightmare, becoming her nourishment.
The shadow of the Nightmare was spreading rapidly. If left unchecked, it would soon engulf the entire jujutsu world.
"Gojo... what if we just..."
After a long pause, Yaga finally spoke again, his voice hoarse: "What if we just give up?"
"Give up? Give up on what?" Gojo blinked. "You mean the plan? But I just said—"
"Not the plan."
Yaga uncharacteristically interrupted him and said seriously, "I mean give up on defeating the Nightmare."
Seeing Yaga's completely serious expression, Gojo was dumbfounded.
It had never occurred to him—to give up.
He had never expected that the words "give up" would come from Yaga Masamichi's mouth.
For a moment, he didn't know whether he should feel sorrow or rage.
Because even those utterly useless Top Brass, throughout all these recent meetings, had never once proposed giving up the crusade against Nightmare, to act like ostriches with their heads buried in the sand.
This wasn't just a betrayal of the jujutsu world.
It was a betrayal of the many virtues and values they had upheld all this time.
And more than anything, it was a betrayal of Tokisaki Kurumi, who had passed on the torch of hope with her life.
"Why?"
Forcefully suppressing the emotions churning in his heart, Satoru Gojo took a deep breath and calmly asked, "Principal Yaga, I know you're no coward, so please tell me—why would you say something like that?"
At this moment, there was no longer a trace of a smile on Gojo face.
Yaga could even feel the sharp gaze emanating from beneath that black blindfold.
Anyone under such pressure would undoubtedly feel nervous.
Yet, Yaga's expression did not change at all—he showed no sign of guilt or wavering.
"Do you understand Nightmare?"
Yaga asked this unexpected question.
Caught off guard, Gojo found himself at a loss for how to answer.
Soon, he began piecing together the words in his mind, trying to form a coherent view based on what he knew about Nightmare.
"The most malevolent cursed user of our time... Nightmare, with the blood of tens of thousands on her hands..."
But midway through his words, Gojo realized—he couldn't continue.
Because that was all he knew about Nightmare.
It was only now that he was somewhat shocked to discover that, even though he had regarded Nightmare as his lifelong nemesis, he didn't know anything about her past, her thoughts, or her goals.
He didn't even know why she killed.
From the very beginning, his understanding of Nightmare had been nothing more than the labels the jujutsu world had stuck onto her.
"I've been sidelined by the Top Brass, so I have no say in decisions. I'm not particularly strong, so there's no need for me to exorcise curses. As a principal, I oversee fewer than ten students. That gives me a lot of free time."
Yaga picked up his teacup, took a sip of perfectly warm tea, and said calmly, "So in my free time, I tried investigating information about Nightmare."
"Did you find anything?" Hearing something in Yaga's tone, Gojo expression shifted as he pressed further.
"Nothing at all," Yaga shook his head. "Her past is shrouded in total mystery. I suspect she deliberately erased all traces of herself."
"Then what's the point of bringing this up?"
"Even if I couldn't uncover her past, I could look into the people who had contact with her."
"People who had contact with Nightmare? Who? Hasn't she always operated solo?"
"Those who've encountered her, even fought against her—and yet lived to tell the tale."
At this, Yaga's tone paused for a moment, as if contemplating how best to express what came next.
Because the investigation into Nightmare had so little to go on, Yaga had no choice but to take this unusual angle of inquiry, hoping to glean some meaningful information.
Over these past days, he had visited many people who had narrowly escaped from Nightmare hands.
At first, he held little expectation—only thinking, "I don't have anything better to do. Keeping busy might give some meaning to things."
But as the number of people he visited increased, he began to notice a commonality among these "lucky survivors."
"They were all good people."
Yaga put down the teacup and, recalling each person he had met during his visits, narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Those who survived her... were all good people by conventional standards. Some were warm and hospitable, some were polite and kind, some were gentle and compassionate. All of them were rare examples of good people in the jujutsu world.
They varied in age and gender, in strength and background—but frankly, none of them had the power to escape Nightmare on their own.
So gradually, I began to form a hypothesis:
Perhaps... these people didn't survive by luck.
Perhaps Nightmare intentionally let them live."
As he listened to Yaga's slow recounting, Gojo eyes gradually widened.
Because he had already grasped what this dark-skinned, middle-aged man in front of him was trying to say.
And precisely because of that—he couldn't help but find it utterly absurd.
"Principal Yaga, that's probably just a coincidence," Gojo mouth twitched a little.
"You're not seriously trying to claim that Nightmare—the most feared cursed user of our time, dreaded by jujutsu sorcerers, cursed users, and curses alike—is actually someone who only kills bad people... a good person, are you?"
"Why not? The appearance of Tokisaki Kurumi already proved that there's still kindness and a moral boundary deep within her heart, hasn't it?" Yaga countered mildly.
"After all, that clone was merely a magnified manifestation of the original's benevolent personality, wasn't it?"
For a moment, Gojo found himself unable to refute.
Perhaps because Nightmare had killed Tokisaki Kurumi, he had subconsciously viewed them as enemies—and thus ignored the most crucial fact:
In essence, they were the same person.
"But even if that Nightmare still retains a sliver of kindness in her heart—what of it?" Gojo shook his head.
"Principal Yaga, are we really supposed to entrust our future to the mercy of our enemy? Isn't that a little too... pathetic?"
He completely understood what Yaga was trying to say.
So long as they hid and avoided provoking Nightmare, she likely wouldn't come after them.
But Kurumi Tokisaki hadn't sacrificed her life so they could cower and falter in front of Nightmare.
"Principal Yaga, my decision is made. Three days from now, I will join the Kamo Clan in the campaign against Nightmare."
Gojo tone was resolute, leaving no room for negotiation.
But what he said next, softened.
"If I lose, I leave my students in your care.
Don't let them seek revenge for me."