Chapter 36

"Huh?" Yuji Itadori blinked. "What's this...?"

He opened the file and saw several names with the surname Kamiki.

"Shinoki Fukashi, Shinoki Ryū, Shinoki Enme?"

Yuji Itadori looked at the names. "Are these the people you're looking for, Gojo-sensei?"

He continued turning the pages and found detailed descriptions of the three. Since Satoru Gojo had brought the file out of the higher-ups' Special Archives, it contained some very harsh words that made Yuji Itadori frown.

The three were survivors of the Kamiki Clan. There were no signs on their bodies of attacks by Cursed Spirits, and they were suspected to have escaped the destruction of the Kamiki Clan. However, none of them had any memory of the clan's destruction. Since the three survivors' Cursed Techniques were weak and they were all Grade 4 Sorcerers, their surnames were changed and they were sent off to different places.

Even Yuji Itadori could sense the recorder's indifference from the records.

They had even been ordered to continue exorcising Cursed Spirits after their clan was destroyed and their surnames changed, without being given a moment to catch their breath.

After such a devastating blow, two of the three survivors died while exorcising Cursed Spirits. The third retired after suffering serious injuries and losing the sight in both eyes.

"That's horrible."

Yuji Itadori looked at the date in the file and found that it had happened thirty years ago, in 1988.

Chapter 36

This was not the first time Kamiki Yūhaku had seen his Recognition fall. Leaving aside the previous world, he had long since grown used to it dropping a point or two from time to time in this one.

Actually, it had not been like that at first. His Recognition had kept climbing, much more smoothly than in the previous world.

Thirty years ago, when he became a Special Grade Cursed Spirit after his death, his Recognition had reached its peak, even surpassing 90%.

It had seemed that if he just tried a little harder and moved a little closer to being "inhuman," he could achieve a perfect clear.

Like other Cursed Spirits, he would be full of malice and hostility toward humans. As an entity formed from the accumulation of negative emotions, he would have to take revenge on humanity, then die in a spectacular final battle against the Jujutsu Sorcerers who hunted him down, making his former identity as a Jujutsu Sorcerer the ultimate irony.

It had seemed that was all it would take to bring it to an end.

But Kamiki Yūhaku had found such an ending utterly meaningless.

He had lived in this world as a human for over a decade, spending his days in the Kamiki Clan in near captivity. He had finally managed to escape into the outside world, only to die an unnatural death after a mere half year, and then he would take humanity down with him like a child broken by despair.

Didn't that sound a little too lame?

He couldn't accept it.

Kamiki Yūhaku was unwilling to let it pass like that. Why should his Recognition end like that, with his life reduced to a joke?

So after becoming a Special Grade Cursed Spirit, Kamiki Yūhaku did not attack humans. He began trying to do things, giving himself reasons to stay rational and persevere.

He lived in a different time from the people around him, and the confusion caused by his foresight meant he was never able to judge the time correctly.

But that was all right. He wanted to see the future, to see the world he had foretold.

Thirty years later, would the person who had nearly destroyed Shibuya in his Prophecy really appear?

And so he slowly passed the time, living that repetitive life for over thirty years.

Kamiki Yūhaku still remembered that before coming to this world, he had once asked the system a question.

He had asked: Why did my Recognition grow so quickly after that period? It had even dropped before then.

The system had said it was because of his heart.

The most tragic circumstances did not necessarily make someone the most compelling person, nor did suffering a tragic fate make someone a "beautiful, powerful, tragic" character. It depended on a person's heart. Not everyone in this world was happy, but not everyone in pain would get back up, either.

"Your unwillingness to accept it is the key to what you become."

"The ruthlessness with which you force yourself to get back up is necessary to become it."

"The ruthlessness of forcing myself to get back up?" Kamiki Yūhaku looked at the red apple in his hand, his dark green eyes empty. "But it can't be helped. When you can't accept something, you can't just give up because you want to. That's why someone like me had better never suffer hardship."

"If only I hadn't been in that car accident."

Kamiki Yūhaku let go, and gravity sent the apple plunging straight to the ground. It fell from such a height that it shattered on impact, leaving a patch of white with only its red skin standing out.

He stood up on the overpass, then jumped lightly down.

"Anyway, I'll go take a look first. Jogo really doesn't understand the situation at all if he's picking a fight with Gojo."

By the time Kamiki Yūhaku followed the Cursed Energy's Cursed Residue to the spot, the battle was already over. Jogo had been rescued, and only Satoru Gojo and Yuji Itadori, whom Gojo had dragged along to watch, remained.

His dark green eyes watched Satoru Gojo. A moment later, he touched his chin, blinked, and stood up.

The sudden movement made the branch creak, and Satoru Gojo and Yuji Itadori, who were preparing to leave, spotted him at once.

Kamiki Yūhaku: ...Ah.

"You again?" Satoru Gojo watched him. "What are you doing here?"

"No, I was actually just passing by." Kamiki Yūhaku gave him an innocent look. "I saw you looking this way, so I thought you'd spotted me and got ready to run. But it turned out that was another vision of ten minutes from now, and it only made you find me sooner. So, not being able to tell the present from the future really is a nuisance."

Yuji Itadori grabbed his hair. "What present and future? I don't get it."

"You don't need to." Satoru Gojo stepped in front of Yuji Itadori. "Now that we've met again, I'm not letting you get away."

"How about we make a deal and you pretend you never saw me?" Kamiki Yūhaku was unafraid. He held on to the trunk and sat down, his whole body hanging from the tree. Someone who didn't know him might have gotten a fright on seeing him.

It wasn't because his pose was particularly frightening, but mainly because he was far too pale.

Only ghosts in horror movies were that deathly pale.

"I don't think there's any deal I could make with you."

"Don't be so hasty." Kamiki Yūhaku smiled. "It's about the people at the top."

Satoru Gojo stopped in his tracks and looked up at Kamiki Yūhaku. "Huh?"

"After all, I spent thirty years in there. I came into contact with far more higher-ups than you might think, Gojo." Kamiki Yūhaku watched him, the red streaks in his dark green eyes seeming to glow. "You've been looking for ways to reform things, Gojo, and trying to find a reliable way to deal with them, haven't you?"

"And I have incriminating information on almost everyone at the top. As long as that information is made public, no one will sympathize with them even if you kill every last one of them."

Kamiki Yūhaku's voice was soft, but his gaze was exceptionally focused.

In that emotionless yet enticing voice, he said, "Gojo, do you want to make a deal?"

"That's a tempting offer." Satoru Gojo touched his chin. "If I were still in high school, I'd have been thrilled to hear an offer like that, and I'd probably have gone straight off to take out the whole lot of them. Too bad. I wouldn't do that now."

"That's why people shouldn't grow up. Once they do, they don't dare do the things they would have done as kids." Kamiki Yūhaku sighed. "You've become an adult too, Gojo."

"This has nothing to do with whether I'm an adult." Satoru Gojo turned and left with Yuji Itadori. "I'll pretend I didn't see you this time. If I want to make a deal with you, I'll come find you."

Kamiki Yūhaku watched Satoru Gojo's retreating figure, a smile in his eyes.

"I'm looking forward to it."

Once they were in the car back to Jujutsu High, Yuji Itadori looked at the scenery outside before finally speaking.

"Gojo-sensei, why didn't you agree?"

"Because I couldn't."

Yuji Itadori didn't quite understand. "But it felt like you wavered when he made the offer, Gojo-sensei. Doesn't that mean you thought it was a good idea too?"

"I'd say it's an extremely good idea." Satoru Gojo leaned back against the rear seat. "Kamiki Yūhaku disguised himself and lay low among the higher-ups for thirty years. You could even say he was a tool the higher-ups used to pursue their own interests. Under those circumstances, Kamiki Yūhaku, whom they regarded as completely harmless, knows more than anyone. If he revealed just a few things, the major factions at the top would start fighting among themselves."

"It's the best way to eliminate the higher-ups without spilling a drop of blood."

Kiyotaka Ijichi, who was driving in front, gave a twitch of his hand. Fortunately, he was strong-willed enough not to drive the car into a ditch.

Satoru Gojo clearly noticed his little tremor, but he paid Kiyotaka Ijichi no attention and simply continued.

"But Kamiki Yūhaku is a Special Grade Cursed Spirit. He'd be hard to control, and it's hard to say whether he'd muddy the waters along the way. Besides, although those stupid, arrogant bastards make up the majority of the higher-ups, not every one of them has to die. Some have had no choice but to go along with the crowd. We can't treat them all the same."

"Only if things reach a point beyond recovery can we try to make use of Kamiki Yūhaku's power."

Kiyotaka Ijichi's fingers trembled on the wheel. Then he spoke. "Um, in that case, the people at the top will send someone to hunt down that Cursed Spirit, won't they?"

"After all, just as you said, he has something on nearly every higher-up."

"The more they do that, the more it shows how afraid they are." Satoru Gojo looked at Yuji Itadori. "Did you find anything in the files I asked you to look through?"

If he wanted to cooperate with someone, he first had to know them well enough.

"Ah, yes!" Yuji Itadori hurriedly pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket. "Look, sensei, I brought it with me when I left."

Satoru Gojo: *...*

Although it had started out as an ordinary sheet of paper, it should have been very hard to tear after being reinforced with Cursed Energy for protection. It was pretty impressive that Yuji Itadori had managed to tear it straight out.