Aliens

The arrival of Yū Shinji and the others also brought bad news.

Namely...

It had been confirmed that Fumihiko Takaba had become an incarnated vessel, turning into Tachibana Mio.

At the news...

Kaneki remained impassive.

Fumihiko Takaba had already become an incarnated vessel. There was no saving him now.

It no longer mattered.

"Um..."

Looking bashful, Okkotsu asked shyly, "Will... aliens really appear in the future?"

The moment he said that...

Kaneki understood why he was embarrassed.

Not far away, a blush also crept over Maki Zenin's striking, spirited face.

Beside her, Mai Zenin's expression was unreadable.

"Yes."

Kaneki nodded. "In sixty-eight years."

"Your granddaughter, Oyu Okkotsu, will be chosen to represent humanity and fight the strongest alien."

"Huh?"

Okkotsu and Maki both froze.

Then Okkotsu snapped out of it and pressed, "Will I already be dead by then?"

"That's right."

Upon hearing that Okkotsu would die...

Rika emerged from the black mist, seething with fury. "Yuta-"

"It's all right, Rika."

Okkotsu soothed Rika.

His emotions were tangled. Someone had just told him in advance that he would marry Maki.

And...

They even had a granddaughter.

"Oyu Okkotsu won't be very old, will she?" Nanami asked after thinking it over.

"Sixteen."

"That young?"

Everyone exclaimed in shock.

Maki soon recovered and said angrily, "Isn't that just sending her to her death?"

With that...

She squeezed the chair hard, crushing it with a crack.

She remembered perfectly well.

Kaneki's notebook clearly stated that the future would be an age of dwindling cursed energy.

It was obvious enough. How strong could a sixteen-year-old girl possibly be in an age when cursed energy was waning?

Okkotsu looked worried too.

A trace of indignation showed on his face.

"Calm down."

Naobito Zenin stroked his downward-sloping mustache and said, "However foolish people in the future might be, they wouldn't send someone who couldn't stand up to an alien."

As he spoke...

He looked at Kaneki. "That girl awakened the Ten Shadows Technique, didn't she?"

"That's right."

Kaneki nodded.

Then he continued, "I saw her summon Mahoraga to fight, then hide in the shadows while Mahoraga faced the strongest alien."

"Another thing."

"Even if she refuses to fight, she'll die of brain cancer before long."

"What?"

This time, even Naobito Zenin stood up.

A sorcerer with the Ten Shadows Technique had finally appeared, only to develop brain cancer.

She would die before long.

That meant her brain cancer was at least at an intermediate stage, and most likely terminal!

Kaneki had crossed over too early.

The sequel hadn't even finished updating.

He had only seen Mahoraga fighting the strongest alien and beginning to adapt to the alien's cursed technique. That was where it ended.

"What's the alien's cursed technique?"

Okkotsu asked.

As for the cursed technique...

Kaneki hadn't written it in the notebook, but he had indirectly hinted at it to Yuji Itadori before.

Once Itadori saw the alien...

He would understand what his cursed technique was.

"He has two. One of them is unknown."

Kaneki said, "You can think of the other as a jujutsu version of Kizaru."

"He can emit [light]."

In this world...

The manga One Piece existed.

If Kaneki hadn't acted quickly, Tokyo Ghoul probably would have been drawn by its original creator too.

"Then can he turn into his element?"

Kugisaki asked the crucial question.

At that...

Kaneki fell silent for a moment, then said hesitantly, "He probably... can't turn into his element."

As for what happened afterward...

He had crossed over before he could read it.

Naturally, he didn't know whether the alien could turn into his element. He couldn't even remember his name.

Afterward...

Under detailed questioning from that ancient relic, Tengen...

And after her analysis...

Everyone agreed that even an alien most likely couldn't turn into his element.

They had all but ruled out the possibility.

Kaneki went on to talk about Shinken Okkotsu.

While his younger sister fought a life-or-death battle against the strongest alien, her older brother wasn't sitting idle either. He was dueling the "strongest" of the aliens' younger generation!

"What's his cursed technique?"

Naobito Zenin asked curiously, referring to Shinken Okkotsu, of course.

"He doesn't have a cursed technique."

Kaneki said, "He inherited Maki Zenin's [heavenly restriction]."

At that...

Everyone froze.

They hadn't expected both children to inherit the Zenin Clan's gifts.

"His opponent's cursed technique is a little complicated."

Kaneki continued, "It involves concepts and has a broad range of abilities. It can be used in combat, and even the spaceship that can travel through space and support fifty thousand people is a creation of his technique."

"That includes their ability to converse in Japanese. That's thanks to his technique too."

"What?!"

Everyone was stunned.

The technique sounded incredibly versatile.

"And..."

Kaneki slowly revealed the real point. "He can also use his cursed technique together with his brother."

That...

Was what really mattered!

"Are they twins?" Mai Zenin asked urgently.

"They probably are."

Kaneki answered, "They look exactly alike."

After all, in today's Jujutsu Society, twins meant a curse.

They were also considered an ill omen.

Maki and Mai, right before them, were the perfect example.

In Jujutsu Society, identical twins were considered a single individual split in two, rather than two independent beings.

In accordance with the world's fundamental principle of "equivalent exchange"...

The cursed energy originally meant for one person was divided into two portions.

As long as the other remained alive, neither could reach the peak of their original strength.

This limitation...

Was also known as the twin curse.

Without Tachibana Mio's cursed technique, Maki and Mai would have had no choice but to follow the original story, with one of them dying.

That was why everyone was so shocked.

It completely defied their understanding.

In the original story, aside from Sukuna, who had absorbed his twin brother in the womb to avoid the twin curse...

Only these alien brothers had managed to evade it completely.

"As for exactly why," Kaneki said, "I don't know either."

"But..."

At that point...

Kaneki looked at Tengen, a smile appearing on his face. "The aliens' diplomatic representative looks a lot like you do now."

Tengen looked thoughtful. "It seems he's lived a very long time too..."

As she spoke...

A faint smile appeared on her face. "After all, they're a species capable of interstellar travel. A long lifespan is perfectly normal."

After saying that...

She found herself wanting to live another sixty-eight years and see the aliens with her own eyes.

"I think..."

Kaneki rubbed his chin. "They really are a long-lived species."

"Oh, right."

"Their planet also has a god. I think his name is Karian. He's a special kind of life-form, somewhat like a cursed spirit, but he leaves a corpse after he dies."

At that...

Everyone looked toward Tengen.

After all...

After evolving, her true body had taken on a form similar to a cursed spirit.

Tengen was a little surprised too.

But...

She had only heard about it, not witnessed it herself.

She couldn't judge either. Aliens were already beyond the scope of her understanding.

Now...

She wanted to see the aliens with her own eyes even more.

"In the future..."

Kaneki continued, "It was also cursed spirits that sparked the series of battles."

Afterward...

He explained in detail how everything had begun.

Once they had heard him out...

They had initially assumed these aliens had come with ill intentions, but now it seemed that wasn't the case.

The fighting had resulted from several different triggers.

The aliens...

Seemed open to negotiation.

"What's their reason for coming to Earth?" Yuki Tsukumo asked.

He had said so much, yet still hadn't explained their purpose.

Kaneki replied, "Their main goal is to secure a piece of land on Earth and rebuild their civilization."

"Rebuild?"

Everyone gasped.

The word "rebuild" was particularly interesting.

"Yes." Kaneki began explaining the aliens' situation. "Strictly speaking, they're refugees."

He then explained how the aliens had become refugees.

Once he finished.

He moved on to their factions. "They..."

"Are roughly divided into two factions. One is friendly and wants to coexist peacefully with the people of Earth. The other is an invasion faction that wants to seize control of humanity by force."