The acrid scent of scorched vegetation hung heavy in the air.
The Special Grade Cursed Tool, Shiranui, was driven deep into the earth, radiating a domineering heat that caused the surrounding space to shimmer and warp.
Yoru stood atop the hilt on one foot, looking down from his high vantage point.
His eyes, usually filled with a gentle calm, were now as cold as eternal ice, locking onto the two people below.
The gale whipped his black Jujutsu High uniform, making it snap and flutter.
...
Suguru Geto's feverish mind was jolted back to clarity by the terrifying heat.
He looked at the back of the figure that seemed like a descending deity and subconsciously took a half-step back, a flicker of panic crossing his eyes.
It was like a child being caught red-handed by a parent.
"Oh?"
Compared to Geto's panic, Yuki Tsukumo quickly regained her cynical composure after a brief moment of shock.
She eyed Yoru with interest and even let out a whistle.
"That pure physical strength... and that strange cursed tool that releases such high heat."
"Are you the legendary Cursed-Energy-Less Sword Saint Yaga keeps talking about?"
Yuki Tsukumo crossed her arms. Though her tone was light, her body instinctively shifted into a defensive stance.
From the boy before her, she sensed an aura of death so pure it surpassed even Toji Fushiguro's!
"Special Grade Sorcerer, Yuki Tsukumo."
Yoru ignored her banter.
With a light push of his toes, he leapt from the hilt and landed firmly on the scorched earth.
With a sharp metallic ring, he drew Shiranui with one hand, flicking away the dirt clinging to the blade.
The dark crimson tip of the blade pointed ruthlessly at Yuki Tsukumo's face.
"As a senior, it's bad enough that you aren't teaching your juniors how to exorcise cursed spirits."
"But to come to Jujutsu High and peddle your nonsensical world-ending theories to an impressionable minor?"
There wasn't a trace of reverence for a Special Grade in Yoru's voice, only unabashed mockery and coldness.
"That so-called causal therapy of yours..."
"On the surface, it looks like you're searching for a permanent cure, but in reality, it's nothing more than an excuse to hide your own incompetence and cowardice!"
Boom!
The moment those words left his mouth, the smile vanished from Yuki Tsukumo's face.
An immense cursed energy—powerful enough to make the entire training ground tremble—erupted from the Special Grade who had spent years wandering abroad.
"Hey, kid."
Yuki Tsukumo's gaze turned lethally sharp, like an enraged lioness.
"Watch your tongue."
"You say I'm running away? Then tell me, besides stripping humanity of cursed energy or turning everyone into sorcerers..."
"...what other way is there to completely eradicate the disgusting source of cursed spirits?"
She took a step forward, her violent cursed energy forming a visible cyclone around her.
"Are we just supposed to spend every day, year after year, cleaning the sewers and exorcising monsters that never stop coming?!"
Facing the terrifying aura of a Special Grade Sorcerer that could crush any ordinary person.
Yoru didn't even blink.
Shiranui remained steady in his hand, pointed at her without a tremor.
"So that's your excuse for inciting Suguru to slaughter all non-sorcerers?"
Yoru scoffed, his voice booming across the open field like a giant bronze bell.
"If this is what you Special Grades call 'justice,' then let me make one thing clear!"
"Besides those two extreme dead ends of yours..."
"...there is a third path!"
A third path?!
Those words struck like a bolt from the blue, stunning Yuki Tsukumo and causing the lost and confused Suguru Geto to snap his head up.
In their minds, the problems of the jujutsu world were an unsolvable, vicious cycle.
You either protect the weak until you die of exhaustion, or you slaughter them and become a tyrant.
Where could a third path possibly come from?
"What? Surprised?"
Yoru lowered Shiranui to his side, his gaze filled with an absolute confidence that seemed to pierce through the mists of history.
"Your thinking has been shackled by those rotting higher-ups and the bullshit rules established over a thousand years!"
"How are cursed spirits born? From the leaked cursed energy of non-sorcerers."
"And why do they leak energy? Because they can't control their negative emotions, and because they fear the unknown!"
Yoru turned his head, his piercing gaze fixed on Suguru Geto.
"Suguru! Do you really think killing billions of ordinary people will create a paradise for sorcerers?"
"You're wrong! Dead wrong!"
"Even if you wiped out billions of people, do you think the remaining sorcerers wouldn't produce negative emotions?"
"The infighting, the killing, the jealousy, the greed between sorcerers—all of it creates cursed energy!"
"When that happens, you won't be facing weak, low-level spirits. You'll be facing monsters far more terrifying, born from the malice of sorcerers!"
Geto felt as if he'd been struck by lightning. He swayed and stumbled back several steps.
Yoru's words were like a razor-sharp scalpel, ruthlessly exposing the fatal logical flaw behind his 'justice.'
It was true.
If all of humanity were sorcerers, then who would exorcise the curses born from them?
"Then what exactly is this third path you're talking about?"
Yuki Tsukumo frowned and withdrew her cursed energy, her voice carrying a genuine thirst for knowledge for the first time.
Yoru took a deep breath.
He knew that what he was about to say would completely overturn the perceptions of these two—and perhaps the entire jujutsu world.
"The third path is to break the absolute monopoly the higher-ups have over jujutsu information!"
"To establish a brand-new order!"
Yoru's voice echoed across the training ground with undeniable authority.
"Stop hiding cursed spirits like they're some eldritch horrors. Instead, make the existence of cursed energy and spirits public in a standardized, scientific way!"
"Use barrier techniques to create massive safe zones! Use technology to monitor and direct the flow of cursed energy!"
"Even go as far as researching how to convert cursed energy into clean energy for human use!"
Yoru swung Shiranui, tracing a brilliant arc of fire through the air.
"Stop making decisions for ordinary people! Stop playing God and deciding who lives and who dies!"
"Give the power of choice back to life itself!"
"Let them know what they fear and teach them how to face it. That is the true causal therapy!"
Dead silence.
Whether it was Suguru Geto, who had contemplated genocide, or Yuki Tsukumo, who searched for the root cause, both were utterly stunned by Yoru's earth-shattering theory.
Breaking the monopoly?
Publicizing jujutsu?
Combining it with technology?
Any one of these ideas would be enough to make those rotten oranges at the General Headquarters flip in their graves!
And yet, it was a grand blueprint that was logically sound and brimming with hope.
Looking at the stunned pair, Yoru turned and tossed the dented bottle of ramune into Geto's arms.
"Suguru, that wasn't justice."
Yoru looked at his dear friend who had nearly fallen into the abyss. His voice carried the anger of disappointment, yet it hid a trace of subtle tenderness.
"That was just arrogance born from being driven mad by pressure!"
"It was the ultimate desecration of life!"
Geto scrambled to catch the ice-cold bottle.
The biting cold against his palm snapped him back to reality.
He looked at Yoru, his lips trembling.
He suddenly realized how horrifying and foolish his thoughts had been.
He had been on the verge of becoming the very monster he loathed—one that trampled on life at will.
"Yoru..."
Geto lowered his head, his eyes reddening.
"I..."
Just as Geto was about to speak, Yoru suddenly raised a hand, cutting him off.
"No need to apologize yet."
Yoru turned back to Yuki Tsukumo, a dangerous glint in his eyes.
"Since we've already come this far..."
"...to completely shatter those unrealistic fantasies of yours..."
"...I don't mind showing you a bit more of... the cruel reality."