At that moment, Takimiko's sincere, almost pleading voice rang across the entire battlefield and reached everyone's ears.
No one knew what was going on, much less what had happened.
Even Kyoko looked utterly bewildered, yet she instinctively sensed that a choice capable of determining the future was being made right before her eyes.
"Shuukai..."
Kyoko unconsciously turned toward Luo Zhen.
Under Kyoko's gaze, Luo Zhen's expression remained unchanged from beginning to end.
He looked as though he had already guessed the content and direction of everything Takimiko had said.
And so...
"I have to say, I truly admire you." Luo Zhen looked at Takimiko as though he were genuinely impressed. "Things have already reached this point, yet you still want to invite me at all costs—and you're trying to persuade me, too. If that can be called persistence and kindness, then I suppose it is persistence and kindness."
At the very least, it was certain that Takimiko truly harbored no hostility toward Luo Zhen.
More than that, Takimiko had an extremely favorable impression of him. In another setting, or from another position, Luo Zhen and Takimiko might genuinely have become friends and comrades.
Unlike Kurahashi Genji and Yakishimaru, who had swallowed all the darkness of the jujutsu world, Takimiko was innocent, pure, and untainted.
That was probably why the Soma Family had deliberately raised her that way—to preserve the spirituality and purity of a shrine maiden, right?
Unfortunately, Takimiko had already been brainwashed by the Soma Family and regarded her mission as everything.
Thus, Takimiko's innocence and purity were both twisted.
Despite how enthusiastic and close Takimiko was toward Luo Zhen now, he was certain that if completing her mission required her to sacrifice herself, she might feel grief or sorrow, but she absolutely would not resist.
Because in the