Chapter 34

"Of course I'd get angry when a bunch of trash keeps disgusting me over and over." Satoru Gojo sat on the sofa. "And this time, they managed to disgust me twice at once. Maybe I should just go and kill the whole lot of them."

Shoko Ieiri looked a little surprised. "Is the matter with that Special Grade Cursed Spirit that troublesome too?"

"It's a huge problem." Gojo looked at Yuji Itadori's corpse. "Jujutsu Society sealed this Special Grade Cursed Spirit away a long time ago. Everyone always knew he was classified as Special Grade because of his unique Cursed Technique. Even when he took revenge, he relied solely on his Prophecy to manipulate people."

"But now, all of a sudden, we've detected that he actually has an enormous amount of Cursed Energy, even more than an ordinary Special Grade Cursed Spirit."

Gojo clenched his fist. "That raises two questions."

"First, how did he fool the Six Eyes? Second, if he could escape so easily, why did he willingly let Jujutsu Society imprison him for so long?"

"Whether it's Yuji or Kamiki Yūhaku, both of these matters are infuriating."

Shoko shook her head helplessly. She pulled back the white sheet and put on her gloves. "Let's deal with his body first. I'm going to start the autopsy now."

"Are you going to sit there and watch?"

Gojo and Kiyotaka Ijichi looked at Shoko. Just then, the boy on the operating table suddenly sat up. He looked at his body and let out a "Whoa." Shoko looked at him, then regretted that she couldn't continue the autopsy.

"Haha, welcome back, Yuji." Gojo walked over with a smile and high-fived Yuji.

He didn't know why Yuji had come back to life, but it was a good thing that he had. He loved seeing the twisted smiles freeze on the higher-ups' faces. Of course, things weren't over yet.

Now that Yuji's situation was resolved, he had to investigate why Kamiki Yūhaku had concealed his Cursed Energy and hidden in Jujutsu Society for so long.

He certainly didn't think this Special Grade Cursed Spirit who loved lying had deliberately allowed himself to be imprisoned there because he liked Jujutsu Society.

"Anyway, let's keep the fact that he's alive a secret and investigate the Kamiki Clan first." After settling Yuji in, Gojo returned to the Gojo Clan for a while.

Gojo was the head of the Gojo Clan, and the clan operated with him at its center. But the previous head remained in the clan after stepping down. With one hand in his pocket, Gojo had just entered the clan residence when he saw the former head sitting in the courtyard.

He was Gojo's father.

He was blind in one eye, and his body bore many scars.

Most Jujutsu Sorcerers weren't in particularly good physical condition, because years of fighting Cursed Spirits took a heavy toll on their bodies. In one battle against a Cursed Spirit, the former clan head lost an eye and an arm. He lost most of his fighting strength and could hardly fight Cursed Spirits anymore. It was then that Gojo formally succeeded him as head of the Gojo Clan.

"What brings you home today?" The man looked at him. "Did something happen?"

"You could say that." Gojo sat down beside him. "I came back to ask you something. Do you know about the Kamiki Clan?"

His father looked a little surprised. After a moment, he looked away. "Why? Does what happened this time have something to do with the Kamiki Clan?"

"So you do know about them," Gojo said. "In other words, the Kamiki Clan really did exist?"

"Of course." His father spoke. "Like the Gojo Clan, the Kamiki Clan was a family with a thousand years of history. But unlike us, who passed our legacy down openly, the Kamiki Clan always kept a low profile, because the Cursed Technique they inherited was considered heretical, just like the Inumaki Clan's."

Gojo rubbed his chin. "Cursed Speech Users are considered heretics because of Cursed Speech. At its highest level, whatever they say becomes reality, so people fear them. What about the Kamiki Clan? What was special about their Cursed Technique?"

"Reset," his father said. "Although it wasn't a true reset, the Kamiki Clan did possess a similar Cursed Technique. They had a chance to make a second choice."

"For example, if one of them fought a Cursed Spirit that was incredibly powerful and used an attack he could hardly defend against, he could use his Cursed Technique to forcibly rewind the Cursed Spirit to before it unleashed the attack. That way, he would have more options for dealing with it."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"No, this kind of reset was an unreasonable attack. Although it gave them more options, it also healed the Cursed Spirit's injuries. That's why, like the Inumaki Clan, the Kamiki Clan didn't like to appear in public. Most of those who did come out were children who hadn't inherited the family's Cursed Technique."

Gojo thought about it. A moment later, he asked, "Where is the Kamiki Clan now?"

"They've been gone for a long time."

"Did their line die out?"

"They were wiped out." His father sat in his chair, basking in the sun, his eyes devoid of emotion. "Nobody knows what happened. The entire Kamiki Clan died overnight, with only a few young children escaping. The people who went to investigate found traces of Cursed Energy inside and ultimately concluded that Special Grade Cursed Spirits had gathered and killed them."

Gojo committed the information to memory. A moment later, he asked, "Then, Father, do you know Kamiki Yūhaku?"

"Who's that? A member of the Kamiki Clan? But as far as I know, the children who escaped the Kamiki Clan all changed their surnames and went off to live ordinary lives. Most likely, they'll never set foot in Jujutsu Society again. Still, now that I think about it, thirty years have passed. Their children should be about old enough to go to school."

"He was a student at Jujutsu High thirty years ago."

"Impossible." His father's voice was certain. "The Kamiki Clan would never let its members enter Jujutsu High."

But it had really happened.

Kamiki Yūhaku had entered Jujutsu High thirty years ago. Although he had only stayed for half a year, there was a record of him, and Masamichi Yaga had been a senior there at the same time. All of that was enough to prove that Kamiki Yūhaku had existed. In other words... Kamiki Yūhaku hadn't been on good terms with the Kamiki Clan.

Only if he hadn't been on good terms with the Kamiki Clan would Kamiki Yūhaku have left it and entered Jujutsu High.

"Where is the Kamiki Clan's former residence?" Gojo asked.

He thought, I might know where Kamiki Yūhaku is now.

The Inumaki Clan was considered heretical in Jujutsu Society, so it had always pursued a policy of ending its line of Jujutsu Sorcerers. Toge Inumaki was currently the only Cursed Speech User in the clan. The Kamiki Clan had also been considered heretical back then, but it had merely tried to avoid contact with the outside world and remained a prominent family in Jujutsu Society.

As a result, the Kamiki Clan's residence wasn't in a bustling area. It was extremely remote.

Gojo descended from the sky and landed on the ground. A dilapidated courtyard stood conspicuously amid a sea of weeds, looking every bit like a haunted house from a ghost story. Its terrifying appearance might even frighten passersby enough to give birth to a Cursed Spirit or two.

A Cursed Spirit born in the remains of a Jujutsu Sorcerer family's residence would be something new.

Gojo stepped into the weeds with his hands in his pockets. He hadn't gone far when he spotted the familiar Cursed Spirit.

The young man's pale pink hair looked almost translucent in the sunlight. He stood beneath a large tree, looking at some glass marbles scattered on the ground. There was a hint of ineffable tenderness in his dark green eyes.

"Yo," Gojo greeted him. "We meet again."

Kamiki Yūhaku turned to look at him. "Good morning, Gojo."

"It's already afternoon." Gojo leaned against a wall that wasn't very sturdy. "Is this where you died?"

"Sometimes you shouldn't be so blunt. People will dislike you for it." Kamiki Yūhaku sighed. "Gojo, learn how to talk to people properly."

"Want me to apologize?" Gojo spoke casually.

Gojo had never been polite to Cursed Spirits. The only reason he could chat calmly with Kamiki Yūhaku was that he wanted to know why he had concealed his Cursed Energy and hidden in Jujutsu Society.

He simply couldn't understand why Kamiki Yūhaku had been willing to stay imprisoned for as long as thirty years.

Hearing Gojo's words, Kamiki Yūhaku smiled. "Gojo, as the strongest, have you ever encountered something you were powerless to do anything about?"

"Most things in life don't go your way. Just because I'm the strongest doesn't mean I can handle everything." Gojo's expression turned disdainful. "Especially those rotten oranges in the higher-ups. They piss me off every time. It's irritating."

Kamiki Yūhaku leaned against the tree, a hint of helplessness in his dark green eyes.

He said, "I have encountered things I was powerless to do anything about."

"For a Prophet like you, who can see the future, are there still things you can't avoid?"

"My Prophecy doesn't show me every possible future. It's an ability I can't control. I can only foresee what will happen to a person ten minutes from now—ten minutes measured from the present." Kamiki Yūhaku's voice was soft, light as falling snow. "A Prophecy can prevent casualties if there's enough time to act, but how can you prevent a death that's only ten minutes away?"

"So I see them die in the future," Kamiki Yūhaku said with a smile, though it looked sadder than crying. "Then I watch them die again in the present."

Sometimes Kamiki Yūhaku wondered why both humans and Cursed Spirits marveled at and envied his ability to prophesy.

When he was powerless to do anything but watch others die, the ability was nothing but sorrow.

Chapter 34

"It seems you like the Kamiki Clan," Gojo said.

Kamiki Yūhaku looked at Gojo in surprise. "I like the Kamiki Clan? Are you joking?"

"It's just that you still come here after all this time. If you really hated it, you shouldn't have come back." Gojo leaned against the crumbling wall.

Kamiki Yūhaku smiled. "Perhaps you're right. If someone truly hated a place, they wouldn't come back."

"I once thought I'd never come back after leaving the Kamiki Clan, either."

Gojo listened to Kamiki Yūhaku's reflection. After a moment, he said, "Let's get back to the point. Why did you stay in Jujutsu Society for so long? And why did you pretend you weren't a threat? What was it all for?"