Dealing with it

Satoru Gojo looked at the man still smiling before him. He looked exactly the same, so why did he feel so unfamiliar?

Suguru Geto's body. He was not at all surprised that Gojo had personally executed his former friend. All he could think about now was... how to destroy Geto's remains.

"Gojo, why aren't you saying anything?" Kamo Xu asked his friend with a smile, but the name he used stabbed at Satoru Gojo's nerves again.

Kamo Xu had called him "Gojo," not "Satoru"!

"Asahi, you're under a curse right now. Something's wrong with you. What happened? Who's cursing you?"

Kamo Xu grew impatient with the questions and stepped around the man who would not stop talking.

If he won't tell me, I'll find it myself. Jujutsu High isn't that big. I can find it.

"Hey! Are you even listening to me?" Satoru Gojo gripped Kamo Xu's shoulder, trying to turn him around and keep questioning him.

But the moment his palm touched that shoulder...

It was cursed energy... vast and shadowy as an abyss, black and thick as ink.

Like a venomous snake baring its fangs, it surged toward Satoru Gojo along the hand on his shoulder, carrying overwhelming malice.

Satoru Gojo froze. How had Kamo Xu's cursed energy suddenly become like this? What on earth had happened?

Without even looking back, Kamo Xu took a step forward and pulled his shoulder out of the strongest sorcerer's grasp.

"You managed to steel yourself today. I hope you can do it again in the future."

His hard boot soles clicked against the concrete, leaving Satoru Gojo standing alone in the darkness, his hand raised uselessly as he watched him leave.

Kamo Xu followed the cursed residue, tracing it bit by bit until he reached a secluded spot.

The last of Suguru Geto's cursed energy had dissipated here. Unless something unexpected had happened, this was where Satoru Gojo had executed the gravely wounded Suguru Geto.

Kamo Xu walked on, then stopped as he passed a corner.

He looked to the side. All that remained there was a corpse growing cold.

His neck had been pierced through, his hair hung loose...

Yet his eyes were closed, and a smile lingered on his face...

Suguru Geto...

You died after all.

All three of us were played by the same person.

He'd anticipated everything that might happen, planning three moves ahead with every step like a master strategist.

Kenjaku, a sorcerer from ancient times.

A complete lunatic...

To obtain Cursed Spirit Manipulation, he very likely deliberately worked human wickedness into Suguru Geto's missions.

To obtain Suguru Geto's body, he ordered Mahito to ambush my mother.

And once he obtained Suguru Geto's body, he could even use it to seal Satoru Gojo...

What a fine scheme.

Kamo Xu crouched before the cooling corpse and reached out.

He rested his hand on Suguru Geto's shoulder as he always had. It was cold beneath his palm, without any of its old warmth.

"I still owe you a meal. You said you'd live to a hundred, too. How could you leave first?"

Cursed energy flowed into Suguru Geto's body, claiming control over the blood within his corpse.

Just as he was about to unleash his cursed energy fully and let the blood shred Suguru Geto...

"Could I ask you to wait a moment?"

Kamo Xu's hand paused. He actually stopped.

He slowly turned his head. An eye gleaming scarlet emerged first in the darkness, fixing a relentless stare on the man who had appeared behind him...

"I thought a rat would know to hide in the sewers and rot there. I never imagined you'd actually dare. To. Show. Your. Face. Before. Me!"

Elsewhere, Yuta Okkotsu, fresh from the great battle, was preparing to fulfill his promise and enter the Yellow Springs together with Rika.

A certain girl from the Zenin Clan exploded on the spot, angrily calling him an idiot.

The other boy and bear were equally upset. Did this idiot have any idea what price he would pay for making such an unexpected choice?

Okkotsu was embarrassed, too. He scratched his cheek, not daring to meet his friends' eyes.

And Rika... now she could truly be called Rika.

Her hideous exterior fell away little by little, like burned-out ash. All the curses dissipated, and the obsession ceased to exist.

All that remained was the soul that had been imprisoned and restrained, a pitiful little girl.

Everyone was astonished by the sudden change, except Maki Zenin, whose glasses Suguru Geto had smashed.

"That's right. Okkotsu's obsession is gone, so Rika is naturally no longer cursed." A round of applause drew everyone's attention. It was Satoru Gojo.

As unreliable as ever, he wore a goofy grin.

"In other words, Rika can pass on now. Congratulations, congratulations!"

Yuta Okkotsu: !

Toge Inumaki: !

Panda: !

Maki Zenin without her glasses: What are you babbling about? No, seriously, what are you all seeing?

"Well, to put it simply, Okkotsu and I are super, super, suuuuper distant relatives~"

"Your cursed energy was naturally higher than that of normal children, so it wasn't Rika who cursed you..."

It wasn't Rika who cursed him...

Then didn't that mean...

Everyone turned toward the boy, that idiot with the face of a hopelessly nice guy.

Yuta Okkotsu... so he was the one... who cursed that girl?

It was... me?

All these years, I thought I was living in torment. I kept grieving over Rika hurting other people. I kept struggling with Rika's curse.

But in the end, I was the one who forced her to stay with me. I was the one who stained Rika's hands with blood.

I turned her into that monster, made her hurt people with her own hands, and even made her a target for Suguru Geto, nearly getting Maki Zenin, Toge Inumaki, and Panda killed!

It was me. It was me. It was all because of me!

Because of me, the people around me kept...

Yuta Okkotsu broke down. The sudden realization that he had caused everything left the boy utterly unable to control his emotions.

He dropped to his knees, clutched his head with both hands, and sobbed.

"It was all because of me. It was all my fault!"

Satoru Gojo was startled. Yuta Okkotsu's condition was rapidly worsening, even beginning to resemble Kamo Xu's.

He was just about to step forward and stop him when someone moved faster.

"Yuta... thank you. Thank you for giving me a little more time with you..."

"I've been very happy these past six years."

The girl gently held the boy's head, cradling him in her arms as though soothing her own child.

Yuta Okkotsu could no longer speak. The remorse that had filled his heart gave way to nothing but the pain of parting.

But he understood that, without knowing it, he had already forced this poor girl to remain by his side for so long.

He could not keep her bound any longer.

So he dared do nothing but cry.

"I have to go now. Be happy, Yuta."

"Don't come to join me too soon."

Okkotsu nodded through his tears, then watched the girl he loved most dissolve into motes of light and, in her final happiness... pass on.

Maki Zenin: "So what the hell did you bastards see?"