Sōjun Minamoto took the severed arm and reduced it to its most essential form—flesh and blood—concealing it beneath his palm.
It looked as if he had swallowed the arm with his hand.
With the weight gone, Satoru Gojo instantly felt lighter. He stretched lazily, fully regaining his mobility.
If the weight had been evenly distributed, he could've managed to move. But with it dragging down just one side, it threw off his balance completely. There wasn't much he could do.
Had the opponent planned even that?
To be able to strategize this much while under attack from Tsukumo—was that even possible?
The thought left Gojo a little impressed.
Yuki Tsukumo gently pushed Garuda aside. She had already purified the red from her body and recovered.
That cursed technique was incredibly aggressive—straightforward in its hostility. Even though it was happening within her own physical domain, it pressed on with the intent to kill, forcing her to respond with full force from the very start. And in the end, she had indeed died.
As two fighters who both believed in brute force overcoming all techniques, the stronger one was simply the one with more power. There wasn't much else to say.
Still, it left a bitter taste.
"Let's fight again sometime," she said to Sōjun Minamoto. "A proper one-on-one."
Sōjun simply nodded.
The crowd that had been watching them fight now swarmed in, faces full of excitement.
Special Grades—there were only three in the entire jujutsu world. To witness them clashing in person was an unbelievable stroke of luck.
Naturally, Satoru Gojo was now considered to have passed his promotion.
The others congratulated him first, then crowded around Sōjun Minamoto, chattering away. A few even sneakily reached out to touch him here and there.
We won't name names.
At this point, he still hadn't released his flesh-and-blood form.
This was his default state of power. Unless he consciously deactivated it, it would remain active. Since it relied solely on physical strength, the energy cost was minimal as long as he wasn't in a prolonged battle.
To Gojo, the whole scene felt oddly familiar—like it had just happened days ago.
Only his best friend, Suguru Geto, stayed beside him.
"Congrats. You've been promoted to Special Grade," he said with a strained smile.
Then he turned to Sōjun Minamoto.
"Congrats to you too. Strongest Special Grade—make sure to keep it that way."
At that moment, Sōjun's senses were especially sharp. He could tell that Geto wasn't as happy as he looked. It wasn't jealousy—it was the ache of watching his friends surpass him one by one.
He stepped forward and patted Geto on the shoulder.
"Beating those two doesn't make me the strongest. I'll be stronger tomorrow than I am today. And there's always another tomorrow. I'll never be 'the strongest.'"
"So what he's really saying," Gojo cut in, "is that his definition of 'strongest' doesn't include anyone else. Just himself."
He stared at Sōjun Minamoto's face. The guy didn't react, expressionless and indifferent.
"You really are arrogant," Gojo added.
He'd figured it out—Sōjun Minamoto was still proud. He just disdained everyone equally.
Whatever.
Suguru Geto watched the two bicker and felt a little better.
He understood—Sōjun's words were meant for him too.
There was no point comparing yourself to others. Just focus on your own path. Make steady progress. That was enough.
He remembered last summer, that bleak and silent stretch when he'd sunk into himself. It was Sōjun who had dragged him out on missions. It was the Aragami incident that finally snapped him out of it.
Same with the Cursed Spirit Orbs.
And now again—Sōjun had picked up on his emotional shift before he'd said a word.
Subconsciously, Geto had always thought of Sōjun Minamoto as a gentle person.
Where was the arrogance?
On that point, he disagreed with his best friend.
"Let's go eat! I'm so hungry."
Sōjun Minamoto suddenly smiled, dispelling his technique and returning to his usual form. For a moment, he seemed distant, like someone from far away. But his bare-chested appearance brought him right back into the group.
"Pervert!"
Riko Amanai pointed at him, bursting into laughter.
A lively crowd headed toward the cafeteria.
Nearly the entire school was present, and even with Sōjun Minamoto and Shiko Mishima, there were only a handful of people.
The massive cafeteria was overtaken by just them, with tables and chairs pushed together into one long line. They sat in two rows, facing each other.
The atmosphere was cheerful. Everyone was still buzzing about the earlier battle, with Riko Amanai being especially animated.
She declared that Sōjun Minamoto and Satoru Gojo were no big deal.
Strangely, she didn't dare act so bold around Yuki Tsukumo, behaving rather subdued in front of her.
After lunch, Satoru Gojo left early to register his updated information. The others also began to disperse.
Sōjun Minamoto was about to head back to the dorms when Yuki Tsukumo suddenly stopped him and Suguru Geto.
"As we said last time, we should get to know each other's ideals. Got time now?"
Sōjun Minamoto and Suguru Geto exchanged a glance and nodded. The three of them stepped outside the cafeteria.
Sōjun bought three bottles of tea from a vending machine and handed one to each of them. He looked at Yuki Tsukumo.
"What's on your mind?"
Yuki Tsukumo popped open her can and took a sip.
Her brows furrowed. "So bitter."
Once she relaxed, she continued.
"There's a rumor going around Jujutsu High that I'm just some lazy wanderer aimlessly drifting overseas..."
"I hate Jujutsu High!"
"Actually, I'm doing real work. People here believe in treating symptoms. I want to treat the cause. Not by hunting Cursed Spirits—but by creating a world where they never appear in the first place."
"Treat the cause?"
Suguru Geto wasn't familiar with the concept. A world with no Cursed Spirits? Wasn't that just killing them all?
"There are two ways to create such a world:
One, eliminate all Cursed Energy from humanity.
Two, teach everyone how to control Cursed Energy."
Yuki Tsukumo held up two fingers.
"There are precedents for the first option. Toji Fushiguro had no Cursed Energy. But cases like his—Heavenly Restriction—are extremely rare.
That's why I lean toward the second.
Everyone knows sorcerers don't create Cursed Spirits. If everyone became a sorcerer, Cursed Spirits would stop appearing.
Of course, I'm not counting the rare cases where a sorcerer's corpse turns into a Cursed Spirit after death.
My goal is to teach all humans how to control Cursed Energy—to give them the basic talents of a sorcerer."
Suguru Geto fell into deep thought.
Faces of non-sorcerers he'd saved flashed through his mind.
His belief that "sorcerers exist to protect non-sorcerers" had already begun to waver.
The group was massive.
Could it be done?
Was it even worth doing?
He thought of the Star Religious Group. Toji Fushiguro's voice echoed in his mind—"Ignorant monkeys..."
He lowered his head, letting shadows obscure his expression.
A soft sigh slipped out.
"If we just killed off all the non-sorcerers... wouldn't it be the same thing?"
?
"Hmm... that does make some sense," Yuki Tsukumo said thoughtfully.
??
Is it them that's weird, or me?
Sōjun Minamoto spiraled into self-doubt.
They jumped from one extreme to another—all over a few words?
Now they wanted to start slaughtering people?
Sometimes, he really felt out of place with this crowd.
Maybe he was the most normal one after all.
He praised himself inwardly.
"What about you? What do you think?"
Yuki Tsukumo suddenly elbowed him.
Suguru Geto looked up, too.
"Me?"
Sōjun Minamoto paused.
"I think the foundation of the Jujutsu World is humanity—both ordinary people and sorcerers. It includes everyone.
Your ideas are hard to pull off. Geto's too.
They're both way too extreme."
"That's basically saying nothing. I know it's hard. So what's your bright idea? One that actually works and can create a curse-free world?"
Yuki Tsukumo rolled her eyes and elbowed him again.
Sōjun Minamoto was inwardly speechless at her antics, but quickly sobered up, becoming more serious.
"I actually do have an idea..."
"What is it?"
"Separate Cursed Spirits from humans. Cursed Spirits stay with Cursed Spirits. Humans stay with humans.
You can't completely sever the connection between the two—but if you can find a balance point, something that both links and separates them, it's possible."
"Isn't that even harder? I don't even know where to start."
Yuki Tsukumo couldn't quite follow.
"It's actually not that hard.
Humans generate negative emotions. Those emotions accumulate and form Cursed Spirits.
Negative emotion is that 'balance point.'
Once you identify it, the next step is figuring out how to divide it, where to separate it, and what role those emotions should play.
Your ideas are surface-level—you chip away at the problem slowly, but can't erase it completely.
Mine goes straight to the root.
You've got to zoom out and look at the bigger picture.
Human growth and reproduction is continuous. Whether you want everyone to become a sorcerer, or wipe out all ordinary people—'everyone' is impossible.
Can you live forever? Keep doing this forever? Of course not."
Sōjun Minamoto had ideas. The existence of non-physical realms like where Shikigami dwell—those were promising.
And even if he couldn't create a new world, establishing a separate space might be possible.
Negative emotion originates from humans. If it can create Cursed Spirits, it can also be used to bind them.
If harnessed properly, it could be the perfect divider.
Most of the components were already in place. The only question was how to make it work.
The current state of the Jujutsu World had persisted for thousands of years.
No matter the change, it would be hard to implement.
It was a matter of which solution was more feasible.
And a few people alone couldn't do it.
Sōjun Minamoto might be able to—but it would take the help of others.
That sounded like a pain.
And he hated trouble. Why take on something so exhausting and thankless?
Suguru Geto and Yuki Tsukumo were both deep in thought.
Sōjun's words made them realize—reaching "everyone" really was near impossible.
But his plan wasn't something they could dismiss either.
It seemed plausible… but they couldn't see where to begin.
Silence fell between them.
To Sōjun Minamoto, these two—one was a bit of a self-styled hero, the other just a classic case of adolescent syndrome.
He didn't really understand either of them.
And he wasn't going to waste energy trying to convince them.
He wasn't that arrogant.
It wasn't about right or wrong.
If Sōjun believed something was right, he'd keep doing it.
Maybe these two were just in that kind of phase now.
...
(40 Chapters Ahead)
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