Chapter 7

"What does this mean?" Masamichi Yaga shot to his feet. "Jujutsu, cursed energy..." They were actually something this inhuman?!

Goosebumps rose all over Kasumi Miwa. The thought that jujutsu and cursed energy did not belong to humanity, but were the influence of some unknown creatures, filled her with profound fear.

Everyone else erupted into an uproar as well. Principal Gakuganji struck his cane against the floor. "Utter nonsense!" Yet his twitching eyelids betrayed his unease.

Maki Zenin clicked her tongue. "Jujutsu really is disgusting."

"Bonito flakes..." Could you please stop attacking all of us? Toge Inumaki felt helpless.

Ranpo lifted his eyes to glance at them. "You don't have to get so worked up. This is only how things developed in a parallel world. But don't you know yourselves what this so-called cursed energy and jujutsu actually are?"

The Jujutsu Kaisen group felt awkward. They really had never thought about it.

Yuki Tsukumo murmured to herself, "As I thought, eliminating all cursed energy is the right answer."

The Bungo Stray Dogs group fell into thought. They were really no better; they had never considered where their abilities came from either.

Was it a miracle of the "Book," or something else?

"Relax. Things aren't that bad yet." An Xinyi chuckled, his voice gentle and clear. "As long as 'God' never has a nightmare, the Jujutsu Society won't spiral out of control."

"Even an artificial intelligence knows we can't entrust the future to that unknown 'God,' surely." DD sounded exasperated.

"Of course." An Xinyi waved a hand. "'God' is 'God,' beyond humanity, utterly incapable of understanding life forms beneath Him. So, strictly speaking, He has never deliberately targeted humans."

"Doesn't that make it even more hopeless?" DD could not hear anything good about that.

"And 'God' has a different sense of time from humans. Perhaps even by the time humanity is destroyed, He still won't have dreamed or awakened."

"But your wish is for humanity to live forever, sir."

An Xinyi smiled. "So this is merely an enemy I must face."

"What if, sir? What if 'God' suddenly has a nightmare?"

An Xinyi closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they were unfathomably dark. "Then the most terrifying fairy tale will play out in reality."

He would have no choice but to attempt-

To kill a god.

"Kill a god..." What a terrifying man. As much as Ryunosuke Akutagawa loathed An Xinyi for deceiving Osamu Dazai, he could not help admiring him at this moment. His words alone made it clear how horrifying that "God" was. Before Him, humans were not even insects.

"Kill a god..." Chūya Nakahara's feelings were even more complicated. After all, he was the safety mechanism for the being called Arahabaki, even if he had always considered himself human.

"A god." The demon Fyodor curled his lips. Could an omniscient, omnipotent god be killed too?

"He's not bad." Satoru Gojo grinned. "I'm starting to like him."

Satoru Gojo was not someone who accepted his fate. Even if this so-called jujutsu truly was a god's dream, he would still raise a blade against that supposed god.

If you didn't try killing it, how would you know whether it could die? Right?

A mouth suddenly split open on Yuji Itadori's face, and Ryomen Sukuna spoke for the first time here. "Try killing it, and you'll find out whether it's a god."

His arrogance was remarkably similar to Satoru Gojo's. No wonder the two could not stand each other.

"Fairy tales?" DD was puzzled.

"Perhaps because fairy tales are the most widely circulated stories. The 'nightmare bubble' is influenced by humanity's subconscious, so 'bubble calamities' take the form of fairy tales."

Horrific fairy tales, of course.

"Then, sir, are you paying so much attention to Satoru Gojo because his 'bubble calamity' would give rise to an extremely terrifying disaster?"

Hearing that name gave An Xinyi a slight headache. "No. Satoru Gojo is far stronger than you imagine. Unless things reach the absolute worst-case scenario, he won't let a 'bubble calamity' control him."

He was the strongest in the Jujutsu Society, after all. Satoru Gojo's strength lay not only in his power, but also in his heart.

"The real danger is the Six Eyes. Satoru Gojo can use them to look at anything in this world, but he must absolutely never attempt to peer at 'God.'"

"When that happens, it won't matter how strong he is. He will inevitably awaken 'God,' and cursed energy will become a natural disaster like a 'god's nightmare.'"

Everyone turned their eyes toward Satoru Gojo.

Satoru Gojo feigned bashfulness, holding up a hand with his little finger extended. "What's this? Staring at Satoru-chan like that will make him blush~"

Ugh-

Nobara Kugisaki could not take it. "I can't stand this! That's disgusting!"

Maki Zenin rolled her eyes and looked away.

"Satoru." Masamichi Yaga's expression was grave. "Perhaps you really should rein yourself in a little. Not everything is safe to look at with the Six Eyes." Even if that was not their world, there might still be things in this one that must not be glimpsed.

"Don't worry, Mr. Yaga." Satoru Gojo waved a hand. "I'm the strongest, after all."

"Then what would Satoru Gojo's 'bubble calamity' look like? A fairy tale..." DD felt unable to work it out.

"It has to do with the impression Satoru Gojo gives people. Take a guess?" An Xinyi said mischievously.

DD thought for a moment. "An arrogant dumbass, like the emperor in 'The Emperor's New Clothes,' I suppose."

An Xinyi: ...

"Hahaha!" Nobara Kugisaki could not help applauding. "Well said!"

Satoru Gojo was deeply wounded. "Is that really how you see your handsome, charming, powerful, invincible teacher?"

Who described themselves like that?!

Maki Zenin sneered. "Isn't it a perfect fit?"

Satoru Gojo -1000 HP

"Sorry, but that really is the impression you give, Satoru," Panda chimed in.

Satoru Gojo -2000 HP

"Salmon, salmon." Toge Inumaki nodded.

Satoru Gojo -3000 HP

"Hmph. Exactly." Megumi Fushiguro remained expressionless.

Satoru Gojo -10000 HP

Satoru Gojo collapsed and did not get up.

"No, that's not it." An Xinyi did not know whether to laugh or cry. "It's Kintarō."

It was a story long passed down in Japan, about a child born with incredible strength who, with help from his animal friends and guidance from a warrior, defeated monsters and became a warrior admired by all.

DD considered what Satoru Gojo was like. "With all due respect, sir, Satoru Gojo is nothing like Kintarō."

There was absolutely no resemblance!

An Xinyi laughed. "How could Satoru Gojo be Kintarō? He's Minamoto no Yorimitsu, who took Kintarō away and led him onto the path of a samurai."

But what if Minamoto no Yorimitsu, who took Kintarō away and guided him, failed to protect the child he had taken with him?

What if the child died not fighting monsters, but simply because of his negligence, falling victim to human schemes?

DD looked through the intelligence. "Is Kintarō Yuji Itadori?"

"Yes. Kintarō is Yuji Itadori, and Yuta Okkotsu too."

Two exceptionally gifted students whom Satoru Gojo had found, both sentenced to death.

Of course, Yuji Itadori was purely Kintarō, while Yuta Okkotsu was also Watanabe no Tsuna, a member of Minamoto no Yorimitsu's clan.

If they did not die, that would be fine. But if they did... could Satoru Gojo still hold back? Could he suppress the urge to kill everyone?

A "bubble calamity" would manifest what its latent host feared most, and Satoru Gojo's greatest fear was none other than-

"Everyone he cared about dying."

Because the matters involving the Star Plasma Vessel and Suguru Geto had already taught him that even as the strongest, he could not protect everyone.

That was Satoru Gojo's unspoken fear.

"Hahaha..." Satoru Gojo could not help laughing. He covered the twisted smile on his face with his palm. "He really does understand me." His voice was ice-cold.

"Satoru..." Masamichi Yaga hesitated. He knew the Star Plasma Vessel Incident had left a scar on both Suguru Geto and Satoru Gojo. And what was more-Satoru Gojo had killed Suguru Geto with his own hands.

Just like Shuten-dōji, whom Minamoto no Yorimitsu had slain. Rumor had it that Shuten-dōji had not originally been a monster, but a monk from a temple who later became a demon... the lord of the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.

Shoko Ieiri opened her mouth, but did not know what to say.

"In other words, Satoru Gojo's 'bubble calamity' would affect his students?"

An Xinyi spread his hands. "Unless you kill the host at the very beginning, there's no such thing as a 'bubble calamity' that doesn't drag other people into it."

"And a fairy-tale 'bubble calamity' automatically assigns roles. Someone like Yuji Itadori, assigned an important role like Kintarō, would be relatively safe. At least nothing would happen to him before the ending. But if someone were assigned the role of a tree Kintarō pushed over, or a minor monster he casually killed, they would die very quickly and horribly."

"Besides, Kintarō's friends are all animals, so... his friends would have a terrible time."

An Xinyi could not help picturing the scene.

Black fur grew all over Aoi Todo's body. After tearing off his own fur, he fell into a hibernation from which he would never awaken-he had been assigned the role of the bear.

Nobara Kugisaki devoured grass and leaves in an uncontrollable frenzy, tearing off her elongated ears with her hands-she had been assigned the role of the rabbit.

Megumi Fushiguro vomited clumps of golden fur and crushed his own throat with his mutated hands-he had been assigned the role of the monkey.

And there was the bird that gouged out its own eyes and ate them, the tree whose entire body turned to bark before being chopped in half at the waist, the dog that ate its own lower body...

Not one survived.

"Becoming a heretic is irreversible. There is no saving them."

An Xinyi delivered his verdict.

"A so-called 'god's nightmare' means everyone dies a horrible death."

What the hell was that-

That cost way too much sanity!!