Chapter 29 (continued)

Even now, Satoru Gojo remembered Kamiki Yūhaku's answer.

He had said, "Don't treat me like a god. It's not as if I know everything."

"How many of the prophecies I made before do you suppose were just meant to comfort them?"

At that moment, Satoru Gojo understood the nature of the Cursed Spirit Kamiki Yūhaku.

Even a Special Grade Cursed Speech User paid a price for using powerful Cursed Speech. How could this Special Grade Cursed Spirit see everyone's future without restraint? Even for a Cursed Spirit, that ability was too terrifying. So although he could see everyone's future, there had to be a time limit.

For instance, he had no idea who Suguru Geto was, so he couldn't see any trace of Suguru Geto in Satoru Gojo's future.

The reason Kamiki Yūhaku could stay here all this time wasn't how much he had seen, but that the people here firmly believed he could see further and further ahead.

"Can I ask how far into a person's future you can see?" Satoru Gojo looked at him.

Kamiki Yūhaku looked back, his emerald-green eyes full of amusement. "That's a secret."

"So there is a time limit." Satoru Gojo leaned back in his chair. "Then what are the conditions? Do you have to see an object? When you see a certain object or person, you automatically foresee their future for a certain period of time. Is that it?"

"You really are clever." Kamiki Yūhaku nodded. "You're right. My foresight has limits, but my prophecies don't."

Satoru Gojo neither agreed nor disagreed. He knew what Kamiki Yūhaku meant by prophecies.

Three years ago, Kamiki Yūhaku had successfully predicted the birth of a certain Special Grade imaginary Cursed Spirit. The higher-ups had immediately sent people to deal with it, eliminating the Cursed Womb as soon as it appeared. It was the first time Jujutsu Society had eliminated a Cursed Womb and its chain reactions at minimal cost.

As a result, even the higher-ups who opposed Kamiki Yūhaku's existence no longer voiced their opposition openly.

But those who distrusted him still distrusted him.

"Things haven't been going well lately. The people upstairs were afraid other Special Grade Cursed Spirits would snatch you away, so they put you with me. I am the strongest, after all," Satoru Gojo said. "Could you not cause me any trouble?"

Kamiki Yūhaku smiled. "Of course."

"Good."

Satoru Gojo snapped his fingers and stood up. "You can't leave through the school gate, but you can move around inside the school. Principal Yaga will arrange a nominal teaching position for you. This is the safest place, so don't try to run off, okay?"

"No reason to refuse. After all, it's much better than before, isn't it?" Kamiki Yūhaku agreed quite casually.

"Oh, by the way, here's a bit of information for you." Kamiki Yūhaku suddenly raised a finger. "Don't leave Tokyo for the time being, little Satoru."

Satoru Gojo stopped and turned to face Kamiki Yūhaku. "What have you predicted this time?"

"Nishitokyo City, Eishu Juvenile Detention Center." Kamiki Yūhaku's deep green eyes were full of amusement. "Cursed Womb Must Die."

"Will you believe me this time?"

Satoru Gojo gave Kamiki Yūhaku a long look, though to Kamiki Yūhaku, the young man was merely facing him with a blindfold on.

They faced each other like that for three seconds before Satoru Gojo turned and left. The door clicked shut.

"Even though you can avoid most of the harm just by not believing me, can you really resist?" Kamiki Yūhaku lowered his head and murmured, "Whether you hear about a terrible disaster or a future different from the one you expected, as long as it makes you anxious, you can't help but care."

"Isn't that the very purpose of a 'prophecy'?"

Kamiki Yūhaku didn't know how long it had been since he had last seen the sun. He sat on the steps, gazing at the sky and breathing the fresh air. Though he wasn't human, he could still feel that he was in a good mood.

Just then, Kamiki Yūhaku heard footsteps behind him. He didn't turn around.

"I didn't expect we'd meet again," Kamiki Yūhaku said softly. "Senior."

Masamichi Yaga stood behind Kamiki Yūhaku. "You haven't changed either. Even when someone's standing behind you, you can tell who it is without turning around."

"I can see the future, after all." Kamiki Yūhaku turned, his deep green eyes fixed on Masamichi Yaga. "It's been so many years, and now you've become the principal of Jujutsu High. Congratulations."

"It's been so many years, and I never expected that the Special Grade Cursed Spirit the higher-ups had been keeping locked up all this time was you, Kamiki Yūhaku."

"But when I think about it, it makes sense." Masamichi Yaga sat down beside Kamiki Yūhaku. "A Special Grade Cursed Spirit with the power of prophecy—there couldn't be anyone else but you."

"I always thought you had already..."

Before Masamichi Yaga could finish, Kamiki Yūhaku suddenly interrupted him. "As things stand now, I am indeed dead."

Masamichi Yaga frowned slightly. "You did it again..."

"Ah, sorry. Did I answer a question you hadn't asked yet?" Kamiki Yūhaku apologized helplessly. "I still haven't gotten used to it after all these years. It still happens occasionally. Keeping this world and the future world separate really is quite difficult."

Masamichi Yaga looked at him. "Never mind. That's just how you are, after all."

"You always have been."

Masamichi Yaga had always known that the higher-ups had imprisoned a harmless Special Grade Cursed Spirit. Satoru Gojo would occasionally tell him that the corrupt higher-ups' refusal to let go of that Cursed Spirit would only lead to trouble in the end. But he had never imagined that the Special Grade Cursed Spirit was Kamiki Yūhaku.

When Masamichi Yaga was young and studying at Jujutsu High, a special student had once come to Tokyo Jujutsu High.

His name was Kamiki Yūhaku. He had transferred into the second year and was a Jujutsu Sorcerer of a special type.

His Cursed Technique had no offensive power, and he couldn't even properly enter a battlefield against Cursed Spirits. His Cursed Technique was prophecy: he could foresee a person's next actions and, under special circumstances, predict what would happen next.

It was said that a special Cursed Technique like his had not appeared for a thousand years. If Cursed Speech Users were taboo in Jujutsu Society, then Prophets were the taboo among taboos.

Masamichi Yaga had once gone on a mission with Kamiki Yūhaku during their school days. At the time, his feelings toward the Prophet were particularly complicated.

Kamiki Yūhaku would occasionally give people answers before they asked their questions, then look at them innocently. At first, Masamichi Yaga thought it was arrogance. Only later did he learn that Kamiki Yūhaku sometimes couldn't distinguish the present from the future he had foreseen, making him think that questions people would ask a few minutes in the future were being asked now.

And so his polite answers became an incomprehensible form of "arrogance."

But after that mission, Masamichi Yaga never saw him again, not even at Jujutsu High. He asked the teachers there at the time and received an answer.

The teacher said, "He's already dead."

The Cursed Technique of prophecy was too terrifying, and he was feared at all times. After his prophetic ability dealt a blow to the Cursed Spirit forces, those Special Grade Cursed Spirits gathered and ambushed him. The Jujutsu Sorcerers around him were tied down by Cursed Spirits sent after them and couldn't break free. Dealing with a Prophet who had no protection at his side was no trouble at all.

Kamiki Yūhaku died in that ambush set for him.

"Yo, here you are."

Just then, Satoru Gojo came over from nearby. "Teacher, having a good chat with him?"

The moment Satoru Gojo finished speaking, Kamiki Yūhaku turned his head. He looked at the empty space to the left of the stairs, his deep green eyes fixed on the air, and said something.

"Next month."

His voice was soft and light, and there was no one where he was looking. Yet he gazed at the air as though looking at a person, and his words just now hadn't sounded like something he said at random. They were more like an answer to someone's question.

"Hm?" Satoru Gojo frowned slightly.

As the bearer of the Six Eyes, Satoru Gojo could see the distribution of all Cursed Energy. Even with a blindfold covering his eyes, he was certain there was nothing where Kamiki Yūhaku was looking, nothing but empty air. Besides, Kamiki Yūhaku himself was a Cursed Spirit.

And Satoru Gojo had come over to ask Kamiki Yūhaku about his earlier prophecy.

He wanted to know the exact time of "Cursed Womb Must Die."

"Surprised?" Masamichi Yaga asked.

For once, Masamichi Yaga had no doll with him today. Perhaps he thought bringing one might make Kamiki Yūhaku uncomfortable. Satoru Gojo shrugged and sat down beside Masamichi Yaga.

"So what's going on?"

"You know his Cursed Technique is prophecy, and that he can remain in a state of foresight at all times, right?" Masamichi Yaga sighed. "But he actually can't distinguish very well between the present and the future he foresees."

"Oh? Is that so?"

Masamichi Yaga pointed to where Kamiki Yūhaku was looking. "In the future he foresaw, you were probably standing there, asking him when something would happen. He saw it, so he answered."

"But I haven't actually asked yet."

"Right, that's how it is." Masamichi Yaga lowered his hand. "Satoru, don't you think he's lonely?"

Satoru Gojo rubbed his chin. "Lonely?"

"His soul lives alone in the future, but his mind has no choice but to remain in the present."

"But how do you know that, Teacher Yaga?" Satoru Gojo was a little puzzled. "Don't tell me you're treating him like some kind of trump card, just like those bastards upstairs? If that's the case... Ah, I'm a teacher now too, so don't lecture me at a time like this."

Masamichi Yaga withdrew the hand he had swung at Satoru Gojo, though it hadn't touched him at all because of Limitless, and sat calmly where he was.

"Because he's Kamiki Yūhaku."

"Kamiki Yūhaku is his name?"

"If you went through the school archives and looked at the records from more than thirty years ago, you'd find that Jujutsu High once had a student named Kamiki Yūhaku."

Satoru Gojo's head shot up. "A student record from more than thirty years ago? You mean he was once human?"