An ordinary heart

[Xia Xia was killed, his carotid artery slit. The killer was Xia Xia.]

[Dropped 591 platinum, 60 gold, 15 silver, and 3 copper.]

[Conditions completed: 1]

[Rewards pending calculation.]

[Revival countdown...]

[Calculation complete.]

[Character killed: Choso (Death Painting Wombs incarnated vessel). World influence: moderate.]

[Reward count: 1]

[Obtained: Choso (Cursed Womb: Death Paintings) Treasure Bag]

"Open it."

[Used: Choso Treasure Bag]

[Obtained: "Normal Reward"]

[Obtained: "Cursed Womb Affinity." You will more easily gain the trust of cursed spirits in their cursed womb state, with a chance of gaining control over them, if that is truly your intention.]

The reward was neither good nor bad. He hadn't gotten Blood Manipulation, but if he could be a human, why insist on becoming a blood freak? The power of a blood freak wasn't something mortals ought to covet.

With Cursed Womb Affinity, perhaps one day he could follow Kenjaku's example and play around with little genetics experiments. Like Mendel, the legendary shiny hunter, he could find out whether cursed spirits had dominant and recessive genes, whether they came in wrinkled and smooth varieties.

Unfortunately, he still hadn't managed to kill Yuji Itadori.

More precisely, he hadn't beaten Sukuna.

Sukuna had taken over the account too quickly.

Without the cursed technique Akashic Records, beating Yuji Itadori while Sukuna possessed him was still pretty much impossible. He might have to wait a long time before he could repeat the miracle of destroying a finger at their very first meeting.

But so what? I came here to fight Sukuna. I'm not afraid of taking the long way around. The longest detour is the greatest shortcut. Taking the long way around is my shortcut.

As long as he could completely shake off Yuji Itadori's influence, a little thing like this was only a matter of time.

After this simulation, Xia Xia felt much lighter again. He no longer hated Yuji Itadori, nor did he feel anything special toward him. To him now, Yuji Itadori was simply Yuji Itadori, an ordinary game character.

There was no murderous intent or hatred, nor any of that inexplicable love or familial affection. This was good. This way, when he finally had the power to take his head, he wouldn't hesitate.

How strange...

In reality, murder was a grave crime. Whatever the reason, under normal circumstances, killing someone was an extremely serious matter in society. It was unforgivable.

Yet in the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, the value of a life amounted to nothing more than a paltry number of points. Curse users didn't treat human lives as lives. Cursed spirits didn't either. Even jujutsu sorcerers didn't take human lives seriously. They merely maintained the "mercy of the strong" on certain occasions, arrogantly granting ordinary people their pity.

In their eyes, killing was a game.

For characters in a game, life and death were merely parameters determined by the player's mood, optional and disposable. Whether they lived or died depended on a passing thought. It meant nothing.

In the simulations, Xia Xia had been killed many times and had killed many people himself. He had long since understood that in power-scaling debates, the value of life and human feelings had never existed to begin with.

Who needed humanitarianism in virtual cricket fights?

Xia Xia wouldn't kill people.

Curse users were deranged. They were no longer human.

Cursed spirits were alien monsters from the outset, not human.

Jujutsu sorcerers had joined the power-scaling arena. They had already given him reason to kill them.

The ordinary people in simulations didn't count as humans either.

Looked at that way, he had never killed anyone at all.

There were countless different people in this world. Joy, anger, sorrow, pleasure, and hatred were all human nature. But when the time came to decide, one had to be clearheaded and rational enough to make the right choice. Morality had nothing to do with it. Neither did personal feelings.

There was only one path for him.

"Immortality."

He didn't know why he wanted immortality, nor what he would need to do once he attained it. He only knew that he feared death-the true death and disappearance that lay beyond his Softcore Player passive.

To reach his goal, he had to become the strongest.

He had to defeat Sukuna, defeat Satoru Gojo, defeat Yuji Itadori, defeat Alien Dabura. Only then could he survive.

Human emotions were the price he had to give up.

That was fine, too.

The road stretched endlessly ahead. Naturally, it was like rowing upstream: if he didn't advance, he would fall behind. If he remained trapped within this tiny circle of worldly relationships, how much effort would it take to make that transcendent step?

The human heart was born weak, longing for warmth and peace. Yet that clearly wasn't enough to sustain it through the long years. Even though Yuji Itadori possessed tremendous strength sixty-eight years later, after everything he had weathered, all that remained in his heart was emptiness and memories. As ever, he willingly faded into the crowd.

Attitude was the heart's mask, but a true heart needed no wrapping. Only by viewing all things as one and all people as worthless grass could one truly embark on a path devoid of feeling or loyalty.

That path wasn't meant for humans.

It was the bottom of a well from which monsters-those who had truly lost their emotions and become empty shells-could peer up at the sky.

Xia Xia considered himself a nobody.

But what could a nobody do to forge his own path, overcome countless dangers, and reach his goal?

Only remain ordinary.

Nothing remained in his heart but ordinariness.

Still water rippled faintly, then became mirror-smooth once more.

This heart held neither sorrow nor joy. Like a breeze, like grass, like a beast, like a mortal, like a vengeful ghost, like the everyday.

All that remained was the ordinary.

I can't stand high above everyone, toying with all living beings like a god. Nor can I turn a blind eye to feelings and memories like a tree or a blade of grass.

I once sank deep into emptiness and despair, gradually suffering for the sins I had committed. I once struggled with confusion. Little by little, I stopped crying.

What remains in my heart is myself.

After leaping across countless mountains and rivers, I, a nobody, finally gained an ordinary heart after losing my emotions.

As for Choso and the others...

No one would feel the urge to kill irrelevant NPCs who offered no first-kill rewards. He could leave them there. Simple fellows like those didn't matter.

Then dessert time was over.

Now that he had adjusted his mindset, what came next was a feast. He still had two whole special simulations.

One was Choso's.

One was Yorozu's.

Even without thinking, he knew Yorozu's simulation would be worth more. The Heian Era a thousand years ago-if he played his cards right, he could even throw elbows at Sukuna in his original form and square off against high-level opponents like Yorozu, Uraume, Uro, Kenjaku, and Tengen.

Without a few tricks up their sleeves, those veterans really couldn't have survived.

As the saying went:

"The Heian Era had plenty of freaks; Hidden Inventory's freaks were god-tier."

Such were the great veterans.

Come to think of it, Sukuna was apparently worshipped as a god back then. So could Sukuna in his original form be called...

Stop right there. This episode is divine.

Where's the divine part?

Right after "original."

No wonder Sukuna entered his second phase after Hajime Kashimo blasted his Megumi skin apart with a Peashooter. Was this the legendary "Original God, launch"? How sweet.

What a shame. One look at Hajime Kashimo's electric big bro and you could tell he hadn't spent any money. Otherwise, with Plant Food, he really could have electrocuted old man Sukuna half to death just like in Plants vs. Zombies 2-electric big bro heard you'd been mistreated in Jujutsu Kaisen and got so angry he decided to bring the garden's lawnmowers along...

Xia Xia let his thoughts wander as he made his preparations.

He began to consider what local specialties the Heian Era of a thousand years ago had to offer. If he remembered correctly, Sukuna was from that period. Setting Jujutsu Kaisen's history aside, in reality, weren't the legendary great onmyoji Abe no Seimei and Ashiya Doman also from around that time?

They hadn't appeared in the original story, but if the simulation sent him back and dropped him straight into an onmyoji storyline, that would be pretty interesting.

"Seimei's live!"

"Holy shit, seriously?!"

Log in and claim your shadow shikigami. All right, kid, go practice throwing elbows with your starter Pokémon, Mahoraga.

Yorozu, you fascinating madwoman.

I have no intention of competing with Sukuna for his place in your heart, but perhaps I can make you realize that the so-called King of Curses is merely a powerful human?

And every human is destined to die an ugly death.

"Come on. I'm ready."

[Selected special simulation core character: Yorozu]

[Remaining simulation attempts: 1]

[Loading Cause-and-Effect Reversal...]

[Timeline and core character anchored.]

[As the interference anchor has been destroyed, the following target has been removed from this simulation: Yuji Itadori. Special cursed technique interference status: "The Gaze from 68 Years in the Future." This simulation will follow normal rules and will not be subject to mental interference.]

[Cause-and-Effect Reversal complete.]

[Background: In the Heian Era a thousand years ago, demons ran rampant and gods rose in droves. With the overwhelming might of a demonic god, Ryomen Sukuna ascended the throne of the mortal world. Within this jujutsu society, no one in Japan could defy him. There were only followers and food.]

[The demon king who fed on humans used this method to prove that he was different, superior to others. He loved killing and fighting, using these undeniably brutal acts to brand the world with traces of his existence. In this era, some hated his tyranny, some yearned for his strength, and some... plotted whether they could claim a share of the spoils alongside these madmen in this chaotic age.]

[This era had neither morality nor order. The strong stood above everything, and power was the greatest wealth. If you could surpass all rivals, attaining godhood might not be impossible.]

[If...]

[If you had the chance to do it all again, one chance to start over, what would someone at the end of his road like you, someone the world called utterly irredeemable, choose to do in the final moment of his life?]

[Heh. Does something that dull even need thinking about?]

[Even if this demon perished, his heart would know no regret...]

[In his next life, he would still choose to become an asura.]