Chapter 890: Responsibility and Reason
"Yeah, I’ve already talked it over with him. I’ll have him join the school as a first-grade freshman and enter the jujutsu world."
Outside the corridor of a karaoke box, Satoru, who had been leaning against the wall, picked up his cell phone again and told the person on the other end everything that had just happened.
"Just tell those old guys that I helped them recruit a special-grade jujutsu sorcerer. What do you think? Aren’t they excited?"
Satoru’s frivolous tone seemed to make the person on the other end pull out a handkerchief and repeatedly wipe away his sweat.
[Is... is this really okay?]
At Satoru’s decision, the man on the other end of the call asked nervously.
[We haven’t even finished investigating the identity and background of this special grade curse user. Even if he didn’t possess cursed energy before and showed no signs of being able to use a cursed technique, that’s still highly suspicious.]
[We haven’t completely ruled out the possibility that he’s a curse user. If we just recruit him into Tokyo Jujutsu High like this, the higher-ups probably won’t agree.]
[So... shouldn’t we think this over more carefully?]
Hearing the man’s nervous words, Satoru gave a derisive laugh.
"What do they wanna do then? Treat him the same way they treated Yuji and Yuta? Sentence him to death on the spot?"
"Give me a break. Yuji is Sukuna’s vessel, and Yuta hurt people because he was cursed at the time. According to the rules of the jujutsu world, even if I don’t like it, secretly sentencing them to death could still be justified."
"But what about Riezel? What did he do? Just because he’s suspicious, they wanna push away someone who can be classified as a special-grade? If they’re really that stupid, then I’d actually be thrilled!"
Satoru’s blunt remarks about the higher-ups of the jujutsu world made the person on the other end sweat even more profusely.
"All right, all right. Just pass my message along. I’ll take care of everything else. I’ll take responsibility for him. Just like I was supposed to keep an eye on Yuji and Yuta before him, I’ll keep an eye on Riezel."
Satoru spoke as if the matter had already been settled.
[...But whenever Okkotsu or Itadori got into trouble, weren’t you absent?]
At Satoru’s claim, the man on the other end muttered under his breath.
"Huh? What’d you say?"
Satoru pursed his lips and glared fiercely.
[N-Nothing!]
Flustered, the man on the other end gave an awkward laugh before hurriedly changing the subject.
[Mr. Gojo, can I know why you are doing this?]
He was genuinely puzzled.
Everything about the special grade curse user was far too mysterious. No matter how thick-skinned or carefree Satoru usually was, he should not have lowered his guard completely around someone so mysterious.
Just as he had said, the boy was ultimately very suspicious, and there was still a possibility that he was a curse user. Recruiting him directly into Tokyo Jujutsu High really was somewhat reckless.
Even if Satoru was confident in his own strength and knew that Riezel was capable of casually defeating a special grade cursed spirit, wasn’t he worried that Riezel might cause trouble inside the school?
After all, unlike the higher-ups whom Satoru disliked, Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School, usually referred to as Tokyo Jujutsu High, was Satoru’s alma mater and, at the same time, his stronghold, where there were quite a few people whom he cared about.
For that reason, risking their safety was not something Satoru would normally do.
As the man thought about it, however, he had forgotten Satoru’s true nature.
"Whether it was Yuji or Yuta before him, both of them had power that was way too dangerous. But precisely because of that, their futures aren’t necessarily gonna be bad for us."
Satoru seemed to have thought of something, and the corners of his lips curved upward slightly.
"Yuta’s already proven that, hasn’t he? He’s on our side. If that weren’t the case, we wouldn’t have four special grade jujutsu sorcerers right now."
"Yuji’s still hard to say, but I think there are some things inside him that Sukuna can’t control. In the future, whether he’ll revive Sukuna as his vessel or Sukuna will end up helping us raise a powerful jujutsu sorcerer, that’s still impossible to say."
"As for Riezel, if you had the same eyes as me, you’d understand after seeing him just once that he’s the person least likely to become a curse user. Even being a jujutsu sorcerer seems a little too filthy in his presence."
At this point, Satoru’s smile faded, and his voice became somewhat heavier.
"You know, the jujutsu world has already been twisted by a bunch of unbelievably stupid old farts. Everything’s filthy and rotten, and just looking at it makes me sick."
"I could get rid of them easily enough, but that’d only mean putting another group of people who’d probably be worse than them in their place. In the end, the corruption would still remain, just like stains on a wall that refuse to come off no matter how much you scrub."
"And if I just cleansed all the evil from this jujutsu world myself, then the jujutsu world would probably cease to exist in anything but name."
"For that, I need powerful people who share my ideals to fight alongside me."
"With just me alone, even if I become the strongest, I still won’t be able to change anything."
Satoru’s words left the man on the other end of the phone silent.
A few moments later, Satoru’s tone became cheerful again.
"Of course, I also wanna recruit a powerful student for Tokyo Jujutsu High so we can prepare for the Goodwill Event in two months."
"Our strongest fighters won’t be able to participate this time. Neither Yuta, who’s a second-year student, nor Kinji, who’s a third-year student, can take part."
"Meanwhile, Aoi’s already been confirmed as a participant from Kyoto Jujutsu High, but our current second-year and first-year students can’t handle him, so I need to prepare a surprise for him."
"Most importantly, I wanna see Principal Gakuganji cry. Heh, that old man definitely had a hand in Yuji and the others’ mission this time. I’m gonna make sure he regrets it."
Hearing that, the man on the other end was left somewhat speechless, though he was also a little surprised.
[Has this year’s Goodwill Event already been confirmed to include first-year freshmen?]
"Yep, yep, it’s already confirmed."
Satoru answered cheerfully.
"That’s why I gotta make sure the first-years and second-years meet and train together before then. Especially Riezel and Yuji. Once they learn how to fight using cursed energy, they’ll definitely shock everyone."
"All right, that’s about it. I’ll leave the report to you—oh, right!"
As if he had suddenly remembered something, Satoru took something out.
It was a finger, a completely red finger.
"I also got one of Ryomen Sukuna’s fingers! Our new supernova, Riezel Brynhart, generously handed it over as a friendly contribution from one student to another!"
Satoru tossed the red finger around in his hand as he spoke.
"According to him, this cursed object showed up after the special grade cursed spirit at the detention center was taken out. It was probably absorbed by that cursed spirit, right? That’s why it was classified as special grade?"
Cursed tools and cursed objects were two types of items that were similar in nature but fundamentally different.
Cursed tools referred to weapons that inherently possessed curses and cursed energy. They could harm cursed spirits without needing to be infused with cursed energy, and some especially powerful cursed tools even possessed strange abilities that could produce extraordinary effects.
Cursed objects, on the other hand, were objects that contained cursed energy. Some had evolved from ordinary items, while others had developed from the remains of jujutsu sorcerers.
Unlike cursed tools, cursed objects were generally harmful.
Some cursed objects even contained the soul of the deceased master who had possessed them during life. Under the right conditions, the deceased master could potentially use the cursed object as a means to resurrect themselves.
As for the Ryomen Sukuna whom Satoru had mentioned, he was an existence who had been active during the golden age of jujutsu a thousand years ago, bringing endless terror to the jujutsu world of that era.
After his death, the fingers of his corpse evolved into cursed objects. Each individual finger was classified as a special grade cursed object, making them some of the most dangerous cursed objects in the jujutsu world.
As for why the special grade cursed spirit at the detention center had already been classified as special grade the moment it hatched, it was precisely because it had absorbed one of Sukuna’s fingers.
After killing that cursed spirit with a single slash, Riezel had obtained the finger as well, only to casually throw it to Satoru.
Frankly, there was no other reason for it besides the fact that the finger was simply too disgusting. It was so filthy that Riezel had even found it too dirty to throw into the storage space of the Dimensional Magic Cube.
Upon hearing that Satoru had obtained one of Sukuna’s fingers, the man on the other end immediately became vigilant.
[You’re not planning to give the finger to Itadori to swallow, are you?]
He asked rather hurriedly.
[Please don’t do that. We still haven’t figured out exactly how many fingers Itadori’s vessel can contain while allowing him to maintain his sense of self. We can’t just give him a finger and have him swallow it.]
[If Sukuna really does resurrect, the more fingers he consumes, the stronger he’ll become.]
[Although you’re very strong, he was an existence who was regarded as the strongest a thousand years ago. No one has dared to claim that they’ve surpassed him in the past thousand years. If you—]
Before the man on the other end could finish, Satoru impatiently interrupted him.
"All right, all right. For now, I won’t give the finger to Yuji."
Satoru sounded somewhat bored.
"Although I really want him to swallow it, the Goodwill Event is coming up, and Yuji needs to learn how to use cursed energy. Powering up Sukuna before then might mess with Yuji’s training plan."
"So, at least until the event is over, I won’t let Yuji swallow the finger."
"But after that, I can’t guarantee anything."
Hearing that, the man on the other end somehow felt even more uneasy!
It seemed necessary for him to remind the people at the school to retrieve the finger from Satoru.
Just as the man on the other end made up his mind, Satoru put the finger away.
"OK, that’s all. I’m hanging up."
"Please try to get those old guys to be a little more reasonable."
"Bye-bye~"
After leaving behind those completely carefree words that made the other person want to curse at him, Satoru hung up the phone. He leaned against the wall with his arms folded, and a smile once again appeared on his face.
"Things are getting more and more interesting. I really hope Yuta comes back soon. If he, Riezel, and Yuji all end up together, wouldn’t that be even more interesting?"
"Well, no time to waste. Let’s get started."
"First, I’ll contact the second-years!"
With that, Satoru dialed another number and began making a call again.
===
At the same time, Riezel, Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara were still sitting inside the karaoke box, their faces twisted into expressions of pure agony.
"YEE-HAW! I’M A BIG, BIG, BIIIG STARRR—!!!"
Nobara had become the undisputed microphone hog of the room as she shouted at the top of her lungs and sang horribly off-key, causing Riezel, Yuji, and Megumi’s faces to twist in pain.
’...I’m starting to regret this.’
Thinking about how he would have to become classmates with this group of youngsters afterward, Riezel felt that his future looked hopeless.
’Well, whatever... What’s done is done...’
He would just have to endure it.
At least these things called cursed techniques were far too interesting for him to ignore.
===
[A bonus Chapter for reaching 400 Power Stones]
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