"Nishida Kagetatsu?" Gojo Satoru had only heard that name yesterday—from the mouth of a special-grade cursed spirit, a special-grade whose head had been transformed by a legendary vengeful spirit.
He had originally planned to go back and check the classics to see where the name was mentioned, but who would have thought that just as a student came looking for him, he would run into the master himself.
Nishida Kojūrō Kagetatsu, or rather, a reincarnated... Hey, wait—reincarnation?
"Megumi, did you say reincarnation?"
Gojo Satoru raised his eyebrows, his voice full of doubt, suspecting he had misheard.
Megumi Fushiguro looked up, gave him a barely perceptible glance, then tilted his head back and covered his face with his hands, recalling what had happened last night. He firmly answered Gojo Satoru:
"Yes, the reincarnation of Nishida Kagetatsu. Although I don't know how he did it, to be honest, he can guarantee that his soul won't be damaged and can continue to be reincarnated. Frankly..."
After a short pause, Megumi Fushiguro glanced at Gojo Satoru and slowly said:
"Your title of 'the strongest'—it's time to change hands. You're just an incompetent, stupid teacher."
As soon as he said this, Gojo Satoru immediately felt a sense of crisis in his heart. Megumi was practically his adopted son, and in less than a day, his position in this child's heart had become so precarious? (Megumi Fushiguro: What position in my heart? I don't have any sense of that in my heart.)
On the other hand, without even seeing Nishida Kagetatsu's face, Gojo Satoru already felt a faint hostility toward this man in his heart and grew suspicious.
Because he had never heard of such a thing. Why had this Nishida Kagetatsu suddenly appeared like this?
No, something was wrong.
"I can't reincarnate, teacher. Why can he? Don't you have the slightest doubt?"
Megumi Fushiguro rubbed the dark circles under his eyes and sighed, looking at Gojo Satoru with a hint of jealousy, afraid that this idiot would start an inexplicable competition. He had to suppress his fatigue and calmly explain:
"Actually, I didn't believe it at first either. But do you remember the Sukuna vessel I told you about?"
"I remember. What about it?"
"A thousand years ago, Sukuna was sealed by him. But it seems something went wrong. He disappeared after sealing Sukuna, and Sukuna also vanished. Then Sukuna's twenty fingers became cursed objects."
Hearing a story completely incompatible with his own understanding, or even contradicting it, Gojo Satoru suddenly relaxed, thinking it wasn't his problem, and that Megumi must have been fooled by the other party.
After all, the story of Ryomen Sukuna was well known throughout the jujutsu world. To suddenly come up with a new version and expect anyone to believe it—that was no different from the 16th-century flat earth theory waiting for the church to burn you at the stake.
"Heh heh heh."
"How is that possible? Sukuna is clearly a curse that transformed from a natural death. You must have been deceived by the other side."
Faced with Gojo Satoru's disbelief, Megumi Fushiguro wasn't surprised at all. He looked at the figure emerging from the crematorium, stood up, and said meaningfully to Gojo Satoru:
"Then what if I told you that all of this was said by Ryomen Sukuna himself?"
"?!"
——————————————————————————————————————————————————
"Dr. Locke, thank you."
Knotted hugged his grandfather's urn tightly as he walked out of the crematorium, hiding his lowered gaze, but still trying to smile as he looked at Locke.
Locke raised his hand and patted him on the shoulder, his tone casual: "Just call me Locke. If you're not used to it, feel free to call me big brother."
"Okay, big brother." Knotted answered quietly, paused, and then spoke again, a hint of surprise in his voice: "Big brother, you're so powerful. You can just walk into the crematorium without waiting in line."
Locke scratched his head, glanced at the long queue in the distance, and said casually: "Most of the crematoriums across the country are essentially Chinese-run. I'm familiar with them. My adoptive father had a special status, so they all show respect."
He paused, his voice softening: "I didn't expect the cursed spirits to be so restless yesterday, and such a long queue this early in the morning."
As soon as he said this, a moment of silence fell between them. Knotted hugged the urn in his hands tighter, his fingertips slightly whitening. He closed his eyes and didn't know how to respond for a long time.
"By the way, Knotted, I want to tell you something."
"Huh? Big brother, go ahead."
"Your grandfather probably should have told you—you can come to me whenever you want to know about your parents. But I still think you should know the truth first."
"Your mother... has a problem."
Soon, Locke explained his reasoning to Itadori, vaguely suggesting that his mother had given birth to him with a certain purpose.
But he didn't expect that this set of arguments would indirectly convince the other party to push everything in an uncontrollable but extremely favorable direction.
"I see. No wonder I'm such a suitable vessel. It seems this is that guy's doing. Thanks to him, I was able to find it."
Sukuna, who had been silent within Knotted's body and gradually adapting to Itadori's body, listened to Locke's explanation and also understood why Itadori had been able to regain control of his body.
It was probably something this guy did. Although he didn't know what this man named Kagetatsu had done to plant those memories in his head, there was one thing even Sukuna had just realized.
Ever since he had been filled with false memories, his cursed energy and techniques had changed. In other words—
He had become stronger.
Moreover, according to Locke's description, the other party was a reincarnation whose soul could pass through multiple lives unchanged and could even be forcibly descended. Only such a strong man was worthy of defeating him, Sukuna.
At this moment, he fully believed Locke's words, believed in the other party's identity, and had an idea why he had had those impressions before.
The binding vow must have been a servitude contract. At the beginning, he hadn't turned himself into a cursed object with that servitude contract in his memories. Instead, he had turned his sealed "self" into a cursed object to escape Nishida Kagetatsu's seal.
In other words, now that he had become stronger, it didn't necessarily mean he was stronger. Rather, he himself was so strong, but at the cost of some power and memories, exchanging them to forget the existence of Nishida Kagetatsu. Through some ritual, the evidence of Kagetatsu's existence had been erased.
It seemed that after Kagetatsu's death, Kenjaku had gone to great lengths to erase all traces of this guy's existence, along with the cursed spirits he had sealed, completely cutting off Kagetatsu's existence.
But he hadn't expected Kagetatsu to be able to reincarnate again. The moment he saw him, the seal was completely broken, and the memories awakened once more.
If that was the case, then everything made sense.
Thus, without Locke's full knowledge, his opponent Sukuna had helped him fabricate a great lie and become his loyal "believer."
╔══════════════════════╗
📘 Want more?
Join me on Patreon for bonus chapters
and early access!
🔗 https://www.patreon.com/cw/OverlordD
╚══════════════════════╝