While Ronova focused on growing stronger in peace.
Her existence sent shock waves through all of Jujutsu Society.
Especially after word spread of the casualties from the battle to exorcise her.
The entire Jujutsu Society was in an uproar.
More than a hundred Grade 1 and Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerers were dead, and Special Grade Sorcerer Yuki Tsukumo was gravely wounded.
Those numbers. That outcome.
It was, without question, the worst loss Jujutsu Society had suffered in nearly a century.
Worse, Ronova, the target of the exorcism, had not only survived but had barely been injured.
It was staggering.
Yet an even more shocking piece of news followed.
Ronova was, by nature, the Death Curse Spirit!
Everyone in Jujutsu Society knew where Cursed Spirits came from.
They knew each one embodied a corresponding collective human fear.
To some extent, the fear a Cursed Spirit embodied was a good measure of its strength.
Jogo, for instance, embodied humanity's collective fear of volcanoes.
And in Japan, an island nation where volcanoes erupted from time to time.
People's fear of volcanoes was fairly strong.
That was why Jogo had reached the level of a Special-Grade Curse.
But Ronova embodied the collective fear of death.
That was on another level entirely.
Death was surely the purest, most universal, and most enduring fear in human history.
It was the ultimate source of every other human fear.
Why were people afraid of volcanic eruptions?
Because they could die.
Why were they afraid of tsunamis?
Because they could die.
Why, for that matter, were humans afraid of the unknown?
Because the unknown might hold dangers that could kill them!
Death was the ultimate source of all fear.
Every fear humans felt on the surface ultimately led to one thing.
The fear of death.
Of course, some people genuinely did not fear dying.
But they were a minority.
The vast majority of humanity still feared death.
With so many people feeling that fear for so long.
The Cursed Spirit born from it.
One could imagine how impossible she would be to deal with.
From then on, a shadow hung over the heart of every Jujutsu Sorcerer.
A shadow called "death."
No one could be sure that one day.
Ronova, the Cursed Spirit who wielded "death," would not suddenly appear before them.
At that moment, everyone in Jujutsu Society reached the same conclusion.
Ronova would be the greatest threat to all Jujutsu Sorcerers.
Unless Ronova was exorcised, Jujutsu Sorcerers could be wiped out at any time.
Given that, it was easy to imagine how badly Satoru Gojo's reputation had suffered.
After all, Satoru Gojo had had a chance to eliminate the threat Ronova posed.
But he had not taken it.
Instead, he had sheltered her.
In the eyes of Jujutsu Sorcerers, that was the gravest betrayal.
Even Satoru Gojo, the strongest modern Jujutsu Sorcerer, had only so much goodwill to draw on.
Now, even that could not protect him.
He was being cursed out left and right.
The only way to change that was for Satoru Gojo to make amends by killing Ronova in two months.
Otherwise, Satoru Gojo would be lumped in with her.
He would become someone everyone in Jujutsu Society wanted to take down.
That was simply how the world worked.
Those Jujutsu Sorcerers would not try to learn what Ronova was like.
They would only remember that she was a terrifying threat.
To them, that was enough.
She was not one of them, so they could never trust her.
Especially when she was a Cursed Spirit, born from hatred of humanity.
Honestly, it was hard to say who was right or wrong.
Was Ronova in the wrong?
The girl just wanted to live. She had not done anything bad.
Of course she was not.
Was Satoru Gojo in the wrong?
Not really.
Reckless as he was, Satoru Gojo simply had not wanted to kill a newly born life that had done nothing wrong just because it bore the label "Cursed Spirit."
Some might say Ronova had killed Satoru Gojo's "killing intent and wariness."
But she could only have killed those things because he had not felt much killing intent or wariness toward her in the first place.
Otherwise, Satoru Gojo would certainly have noticed something was wrong.
Besides, Ronova had only used that trick once, at the very beginning.
She had never used it again.
And even afterward, Satoru Gojo had not wanted to kill her outright.
As for the Jujutsu Sorcerers, from their perspective, they were not wrong either.
Cursed Spirits and Jujutsu Sorcerers were opposed by nature.
They were born enemies.
Under those circumstances, the Jujutsu Sorcerers could hardly be called wrong for wanting Ronova dead.
If anything was to blame, it was the world itself.
The entire world was wrong.
Fear gave birth to Cursed Spirits, and Cursed Spirits created more fear.
The cycle was, by its very nature, a downward spiral.
For now, it could still just barely sustain itself.
But if Jujutsu Society ever underwent a massive upheaval.
The cycle would collapse outright.
No one knew what the world would look like then.
And perhaps that was why Ronova had been born.
At that moment, all eyes in Jujutsu Society were fixed on what would happen in two months.
The earth-shaking battle between Ronova and Satoru Gojo.
Yet one of the people at the center of it all.
Satoru Gojo had quietly returned to Jujutsu High Headquarters.
At the infirmary, he found Yuki Tsukumo lying in a hospital bed, recovering from her injuries.
Yuki Tsukumo had been chatting and laughing with Mei Mei.
But the moment she saw Satoru Gojo, her face fell.
"You've got some nerve showing up here."
"I'm lying in this bed because of you!"
Yuki Tsukumo glared at Satoru Gojo.
If she had not been wrapped in bandages, she would have leaped up and punched him.
All Satoru Gojo could do was scratch his head awkwardly.
He felt guilty, especially after hearing that Ronova had gravely wounded Yuki Tsukumo with a Black Flash.
After all, he was the one who had taught Ronova Black Flash.
Satoru Gojo had never expected Ronova to learn it so soon.
But somehow, she had.
And she wielded it with alarming ease.
If Yuki Tsukumo found that out, she would never let it slide.
Even half-dead, she would probably drag herself over to punch Satoru Gojo.
Look what you taught her!
As the silence grew awkward, Mei Mei spoke up. "Can you tell me about that child?"
Yuki Tsukumo gave Mei Mei a strange look.
Seriously, girl? You're calling a Special-Grade Curse a child?
Honestly, though, she was curious too.
Ronova had not behaved at all like the Cursed Spirits Yuki Tsukumo was used to.
More precisely, Ronova had seemed remarkably human to her.
If not for her terrifying strength.
No one would have found it strange to call Ronova human.
Before you continue