"Headmaster Yaga, do you still have no intention of talking?"
"I already told you, making Panda was pure coincidence."
"Hmm. Well... fine. You’ll end up opening your mouth eventually anyway."
The guard left behind those ominous words and walked away.
Once he confirmed that no listening ears remained, the middle-aged man, Yaga Masamichi, let out a sigh and lay back on the bed inside the bars.
"Satoru, and this is what happens the moment you disappear."
Before the aftermath of the Shibuya Incident had even settled, the higher-ups had already begun cleaning house.
They were drafting sorcerers from the clans to prepare for the terrorist attack that was coming, while also carrying out punishments that had been put off.
It was truly impressive efficiency, and if he were in the mood, Yaga almost wanted to praise them. If only their spearhead hadn’t been aimed at the old school.
"The Gojo clan won’t have any power left... so Kamo and Zenin?"
Two clans that had long maintained close ties with the higher-ups.
They had probably joined in on the calculation that, with Satoru gone, they could help push the Gojo clan’s influence aside.
He had been thoroughly played by the schemes of old men who had no intention of stepping out from behind the screen, yet somehow excelled only at politics.
Itadori Yuji and Yoshino Junpei.
Now that Okkotsu had become the executioner, there was no way for either of them to survive.
Given Okkotsu’s nature, one might have hoped for a chance, but the higher-ups weren’t stupid enough to fail to account for that.
'With that brilliant brain of theirs, why did they act like that in Shibuya...?'
As Yaga clicked his tongue, one possibility flashed through his mind.
'Wait. Could it be...?'
Just before the Shibuya Incident, one of the Kyoto students had gone missing.
He hadn’t said anything to Yaga, but before that happened, Utahime and Satoru had been meeting in secret more often than usual.
From what he had heard, that student possessed a kind of puppet manipulation similar to his own, while also being a Heavenly Restriction with a missing body part.
Kenjaku, a sorcerer from the Heian era planning an unprecedented act of terrorism.
A ragged curse spirit with a technique that could knead human souls and swap bodies.
Gojo, who had entered Shibuya alone under the higher-ups’ orders, only to be sealed.
All of that information connected into one line, and Yaga reached a single conclusion.
'What if the spy feeding information to Kenjaku wasn’t just one person?'
Maybe the higher-ups had already been completely swallowed up by Kenjaku.
If this wasn’t merely an attempt to weaken Gojo’s faction by sealing him. If there was someone else behind it, pulling the strings.
Brrr
Goosebumps rose on Yaga’s skin, and he immediately began planning an escape.
At this rate, he would end up spilling everything anyway.
And if the guard’s words from earlier were true, they would probably prepare a hostage. The target would be...
'Panda.'
One hundred percent, his son.
It would be fine if he himself died or got hurt. He had already prepared for that. But if they held a knife to Panda’s throat and threatened him, he wouldn’t be able to hold out and would tell them everything.
And then all the cursed corpses he had created would become Kenjaku’s puppets and be used for some vile purpose.
That, he could not allow.
'They’ll have formed a pursuit team. Okkotsu Yuta alone would be too risky.'
Their attention would be relatively light on him, the fish already caught.
The elite among the black ops had probably gone after Itadori and Yoshino.
Now, with surveillance loosened, this was his chance.
BANG!
Even if combat wasn’t his main field, a first-grade sorcerer didn’t earn that rank for show. In the first place, as Panda’s martial arts teacher, Yaga also knew a thing or two about physical training.
He had simply allowed himself to be captured because he didn’t want to waste his strength, but he could have smashed those iron bars and walked out whenever he wanted.
Stretching his body out slowly, Yaga walked toward the corridor where the guard came and went.
"Aaaagh!!!"
"Hm?"
The instant he opened the door, a scream reached his ears, and Yaga reflexively took a fighting stance.
Soon he realized that it was the voice of the guard who had just left the cell block earlier, and he let out a relieved laugh.
The presence that had taken down the guard was rapidly approaching his position.
"This way?"
"I’m not sure either. I only came here once."
"Doesn’t matter. We can just keep looking around until we find him."
Among the approaching intruders, there was also a familiar voice.
At the far end of the opposite corridor, they appeared and, upon spotting Yaga, waved casually.
"Oh, found him."
"Headmaster. What are you doing there?"
"Huh..."
Satoru.
How the hell did you raise these kids?
----------------------------------
"Headmaster, are you all right?"
"........"
Kusakabe approached Gakuganji, who was sitting on the Shibuya street, and held out a coffee.
The pursuit team that had been with them had all gone back, so only the two of them remained.
"I prefer tea."
"Ah, yes..."
Just take what you’re given, you picky old man.
Muttering under his breath, Kusakabe slurped his coffee and stood beside Gakuganji.
"Are you all right yourself?"
"I’m fine. That kid was surprising."
The blood of Choso, a hybrid of curse spirit and human, acts as a deadly poison to humans.
It wasn’t a fatal injury, but if Nobara hadn’t been there, he would have had to stay in bed for a while.
Waving his fully healed arm around, Kusakabe glanced at Gakuganji.
"You mean Yoshino?"
He had meant Nobara, but Gakuganji seemed to have taken it differently.
Well, that was surprising in a different way too.
Kusakabe, who knew enough not to embarrass a superior for no reason, naturally went along with it.
"From what I was told, it wasn’t supposed to be that much."
"Yes. He was designated special-grade, but he’s a case similar to Yaga’s. Because of that property of his—his ‘poison.’ His actual combat power was judged to be around the upper end of first grade."
"But he wasn’t, was he."
Yoshino Junpei, as seen before his eyes, was no mere first-grade sorcerer.
Even Okkotsu Yuta, appointed as the executioner, couldn’t have been certain of victory.
He was even comparable to that Gojo Satoru...
"Damn it."
"....."
"I don’t even know what any of this is anymore."
Even if Gojo Satoru was gone, his successor remained.
Touching his faction in a situation like this was madness.
'Go back.'
'You’re not going to kill them?'
'In a situation where hands are this scarce, there’s no reason not to. Old man, I’m sure you understand what I mean.'
With dozens of sorcerers kneeling before a single seventeen-year-old student, there was nothing he could do.
The most humiliating part was the last thing he had said.
Was it really right to start infighting at a time like this, when the center of Tokyo was in ruins and a massive conspiracy was looming?
Of course, Sukuna’s vessel was still a bomb waiting to go off, but with that monster right beside him, there was at least some room to breathe.
"You felt it too, didn’t you? The current higher-ups aren’t normal."
"Uh... yes...?"
"Stop dodging the question like an eel. I knew your face had been sour ever since Yaga was arrested."
"Tch."
Kusakabe felt the same way.
While his colleagues were fighting desperately in the Shibuya Incident, he had been outside goofing off with Panda.
While his colleagues were throwing themselves at special-grade curse spirits, he had spent his time outside beating up only low-grade trash curses that weren’t even second grade.
And once Sukuna appeared, he had run for his life.
'Damn it, who could’ve known it was going to be that huge of a deal?'
Even now, he thought it was a relief that he hadn’t gone into the station back then. His motto had always been to live long and thin, no matter what.
But he was also a man with a conscience.
It wasn’t entirely his fault, but he at least understood that some of the responsibility rested on him.
"To be honest, I didn’t really want to follow those orders. I’m not even sure I’m in any position to stop those kids."
"So you finally say it outright."
"That’s the trouble with middle managers like us, isn’t it."
"Don’t try to put yourself on my level so casually. I’m the headmaster, and you’re only a second-year homeroom teacher."
"........"
------------------------------------
The place the old school headed to after rescuing Yaga was his secret base.
When they opened the small hole-sized door that barely fit one person and stepped inside, living dolls greeted them.
"Masamichi?"
"Masamichi, long time no see~"
"Whoa! What are these things?"
"Are you friends with Masamichi?"
"Then we’re friends too!"
"They’re fully autonomous cursed corpses. Something like Panda."
"Cu...cute..."
"Headmaster, I didn’t expect you to like cute things."
Yaga patted each and every one of the cursed corpses that clung to him, making sure to give them attention, then led the others to the workshop in the center of the forest.
It was the hut where he usually stayed when he had nothing else to do, making cursed corpses or passing the time.
"This place is protected by Tengen’s barrier, so anyone I haven’t permitted can’t come in carelessly. There are no listening ears here, and no watching eyes either."
Yaga turned his head, and his eyes landed on Junpei, who stood at the center of the group.
"Now tell me, Yoshino. What are you going to do from here on out?"
"Uh, well."
"I’m not trying to blame you. I’ve wanted to get rid of those bastards for a long time. I just never had the justification."
But now the situation was different.
Satoru was gone, but you were here, and most of the higher-ups were almost certainly already in Kenjaku’s hands.
What to do now was up to you.
Everyone’s attention focused on him.
Junpei seemed to think for a moment, then smiled faintly and spoke.
"Why don’t we just tear the whole thing down? I’m confident."
The jujutsu world would stagger once it lost its head. It would take a long time to recover to its original state.
That was probably why Gojo-sensei hadn’t recklessly eliminated the higher-ups either.
But Junpei was confident.
"They showed their teeth first. I don’t think we have any reason to hold back."
The world was already a total mess, so what meaning would it have to act as a deterrent now?
He had long thought that the rotten tangerines needed to be cut out.
Gojo-sensei would have definitely given the same answer if he were here.
"Heh."
At that sight, Yaga remembered Gojo from his school days.
'You really did raise a kid just like yourself.'
With an easy laugh, Yaga shook his head and said, "Fine. Do whatever you want. I’ll do my best to clean up the mess afterward."
No one has the right to steal youth from the young.
What an adult should do is stand behind them and help those kids move forward.
'I don’t know if it’ll work... but I should try to persuade Headmaster Gakuganji too.'
If the higher-ups disappeared, there would be more work to do.
He hoped that stubborn old man would listen to him this time.
------------------------------------
"That’s how it happened."
The long explanation came to an end.
After hearing everything that had happened over the past week, Okkotsu’s mouth fell open.
"If you had some plan in mind, I’m sorry. I thought this would be the better way."
"Uh... no. But did you come alone, by any chance?"
"Yes. Yuji and Choso headed to the Kamo clan, and Fushiguro, Todo, and Nobara went to the Zenin clan."
If that was the case, there was nothing left to worry about.
Yaga had been rescued, and the pursuit team would be picked off one by one.
Probably, only Yoshino had come to headquarters, taking himself into account.
"I see..."
"Headmaster Yaga told me. He said that when he was on a business trip to Africa, he met Gojo-sensei."
Okkotsu had probably been bound by a [binding vow] to obey the headquarters’ orders.
All so he could gain the trust of headquarters and carry out Gojo’s request.
"Oh, Okkotsu..."
"The weakness of a [binding vow] is that if a third party interferes, it loses its effect."
Crunch!
The way to break the [binding vow] between Okkotsu and the higher-ups was simple.
All Junpei had to do was intervene as an outsider to the contract and kill every one of the higher-ups.
By the time the third person died, Okkotsu could feel the curse that had bound him scattering away.
"Oh..."
"Is it undone, senpai?"
"Yeah."
Realizing that they had lost their last leash, the higher-ups all began to struggle and beg.
"P-please, wait!!!"
"S-spare us! Spare us, and we’ll give you honor, money, everything!"
"Too late."
Crunch!
Ignoring the ugly pleas, Junpei used the tentacles of mapari to crush the higher-up members one by one.
Blood sprayed across the entire conference room, painting the walls red.
Wiping the bloodstains from his body, Junpei made his declaration before the last old man standing.
"Now I’ll stand at the top of the heavens."
Even without Gojo Satoru, it was fine.
Because I’ll take his place.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register