What happened that night, part one

Seeing Tan Man's surprised expression, Naobito Zenin had his answer. It seemed Tan Man had not been responsible for this.

If Tan Man had done it, there would have been no need to hide it from him at this point, given how candid they had already been with each other.

Naobito Zenin explained to Tan Man, "According to the information Jujutsu High released, Tokyo Jujutsu High sent Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto to investigate the strange explosion at the Time Vessel Association's headquarters last night."

"They sent Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto?"

Tan Man repeated the words with a frown, turning them over in his mind.

It seemed they had arrived after he left, but he did not know exactly how much later, or what had happened to make Suguru Geto disappear.

Naobito Zenin continued, "They found three injured civilians in the Time Vessel Association's ruins. Satoru Gojo took them to the nearest hospital for treatment first. According to him, Suguru Geto stayed behind to keep searching the ruins for survivors, but by the time Satoru Gojo returned, Suguru Geto had disappeared."

Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto had split up. That description alone gave Tan Man a sense of danger.

Tan Man took a deep breath to keep himself calm, then asked Naobito Zenin for confirmation.

"Are you sure he only disappeared, rather than being killed or something?"

Naobito Zenin answered his question, and just as Tan Man had suspected, things were not that simple.

"The report doesn't give any further details, but according to Satoru Gojo's account recorded there, he had indeed vanished completely. When Satoru Gojo returned, Cursed Spirits also went on an uncontrolled rampage at the site, though he eliminated them all."

Tan Man knew perfectly well that Cursed Spirit Manipulation could not simply result in Cursed Spirits going on an uncontrolled rampage. That would only happen after Suguru Geto, the user of the technique, died.

Tan Man had already reached his conclusion. The only uncertainty now was who had killed Suguru Geto.

Kenjaku was the most likely culprit, since he was the only one coveting Cursed Spirit Manipulation, but other people could not be ruled out entirely. The only thing he could be reasonably certain of was that Suguru Geto was most likely dead.

Tan Man pinched the bridge of his nose, murmuring inwardly.

It looks like I pushed Kenjaku too hard. I never expected Masamichi Yaga to send Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto to investigate the Time Vessel Association's headquarters together.

Although neither Satoru Gojo nor Suguru Geto had reached his full potential yet, the difference between Limitless and Cursed Spirit Manipulation was plain to see.

If Kenjaku brought out his domain, even Tan Man would have to retreat for the moment, let alone Suguru Geto.

But if Kenjaku acquired Cursed Spirit Manipulation this early, everything would change.

Many things would shift in subtle ways, including the role Tan Man played.

If Tengen realized Kenjaku's intentions ahead of time, he might well set aside his reservations and willingly embrace assimilation to prevent a disastrous outcome.

Thwarting the plan to have Tengen assimilate a hundred million people would lead Kenjaku to choose his backup plan of having Sukuna carry out a slaughter.

And Itadori was still too young. Tan Man worried that Kenjaku might give Sukuna's power to someone else, creating even more troublesome consequences.

For example, Kenjaku himself, who might have taken over Suguru Geto's body.

Cursed Spirit Manipulation combined with Kenjaku and Sukuna-Tan Man could hardly imagine how difficult such an opponent would be. Without a doubt, he would become an even more troublesome presence than the current Satoru Gojo.

Moreover, the course of events would stray far from what Tan Man knew, introducing a major unpredictable factor.

Tan Man frowned. "Things might get troublesome from here on."

Hearing that, Naobito Zenin immediately pressed him.

"Troublesome in what way?"

"In every way..."

Time turned back to the moment Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto discovered the horrifying scene beneath the ruins.

Suguru Geto stared grimly at the carnage. He could tell that all the dead were ordinary people.

He immediately noticed something strange. Why had the perpetrator used such a powerful Cursed Technique? What reason or motive could there have been?

Only one person's dense Cursed Residue lingered here. Had they really gone this far just to kill these ordinary people?

Satoru Gojo, meanwhile, looked toward the nearby road-the direction in which Toji had driven away with Tan Man.

"A small amount of Cursed Residue leads that way. So he left after he was done?"

Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto also found some survivors among the ruins.

The Time Vessel Association's headquarters had been a multistory building.

The prayer room where Kenjaku had activated Womb Profusion was on the first floor. Thus, even though the entire building had collapsed, the members on the second and third floors at the time had suffered relatively minor injuries and had not been crushed to death by the debris as the building broke apart.

Transporting the injured with Cursed Spirits would be quite troublesome if anyone witnessed it along the way.

There would also be complications when bringing them into the hospital.

So Suguru Geto chose to have Satoru Gojo take the injured to the hospital as quickly as possible.

After all, however one looked at it, Satoru Gojo would seem much more normal than having Cursed Spirits carry the injured through the air to the hospital.

Seeing Satoru Gojo prepare to unleash Blue and remove the rubble above them outright, Suguru Geto immediately stopped him.

"Stop! If there are any survivors, doing that could injure them again!"

Satoru Gojo did not particularly care whether these ordinary people lived or died. He merely said,

"Our top priority right now is finding the Star Plasma Vessel, isn't it? This is just wasting time. We can make a call and leave it to the police. Besides, even if we take them to the hospital, they might not be saved, right? Rather than being so cautious, shouldn't sacrificing a few to save the majority be the right choice?"

Suguru Geto was clearly deeply displeased with Satoru Gojo's rather cold-blooded attitude.

"How can you say that! Listen, Satoru. Jujutsu exists to protect non-sorcerers!"

Satoru Gojo clicked his tongue and pulled a disgusted face.

"Spare me all that self-satisfied preaching. You want to save people, but you also put on this hypocritical act of hiding your Cursed Technique so nobody notices. Ugh-"

Suguru Geto's expression darkened, and he glared at Satoru Gojo.

"Should I take that to mean you're picking a fight, Satoru? I don't have time to humor you right now. If those three die because of your selfishness, I won't forgive you!"

In the end, Satoru Gojo did as Suguru Geto asked, using his Cursed Technique to lift the three injured people and move rapidly toward the nearest hospital.

Suguru Geto figured that summoning more Cursed Spirits to work simultaneously would speed up the rescue. To guard against ordinary people witnessing them, he began reciting the incantation to cast a Curtain.

"Emerge from darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify all that is impure."

As the Curtain rose, the figure hidden beneath the ruins was rapidly closing in on Suguru Geto.