Then Suguru Geto steered the conversation toward a more familiar subject. "Yaga-sensei, those old fossils at Jujutsu Headquarters... have they done anything especially 'inhuman' lately?"
"Well... that..." Masamichi Yaga hesitated, his gaze instinctively slipping behind his sunglasses toward Yuta Okkotsu in the corner. He found it difficult to say.
"I'll explain."
Satoru Gojo took over, his voice carrying his usual disdain and mockery for the higher-ups.
"Jujutsu Headquarters' latest 'masterpiece'?
Without a doubt, it has to be the verdict on Yuta Okkotsu!
Those old geezers decided that if the Special Grade Vengeful Cursed Spirit attached to Yuta-Rika Orimoto-ever went completely out of control, her destructive power would be enough to wipe a town of several hundred thousand people off the map.
So, ignoring every other possibility, they insisted on keeping his 'secret execution' sentence in place-if anything goes wrong, they execute Yuta to eliminate the threat for good!"
"That classic verdict..." Suguru Geto's eyes turned cold, a sarcastic smile curling his lips. "So Okkotsu is still living under the shadow of a 'secret execution'?"
"Yes, but I'm on Yuta's side." Satoru Gojo nodded, his voice utterly certain. "As long as I'm here, all they dare to do is grumble in the shadows. They'd never dare actually lay a hand on him."
"But that only treats the symptom, not the cause!"
Suguru Geto's voice rang through the meeting room, clear and forceful.
"I believe that a Jujutsu Society led by us would never again forcibly rob any young person of their youth.
It would never again weigh down wings that have yet to fully grow with shackles called 'responsibility' or 'sin,' all in the name of the so-called 'greater good' or 'safety.'"
He paused, swept his gaze over everyone, and put forward a startling proposal:
"So I intend to launch a classic overthrow of our superiors! I'm going to reset this garbage heap of a Jujutsu Society!"
"Huh?!" The young sorcerers present, especially Yuta Okkotsu himself, let out startled gasps in unison.
Such a blunt, downright insubordinate goal clearly went beyond anything they ordinarily imagined.
"Ah, just as I thought..." Shoko Ieiri seemed to have expected it. She smiled and twirled the unlit cigarette in her hand. "Your ideas are as wild as ever."
"What's there to be afraid of? Aren't those guys at the top the very heart of everything rotten in Jujutsu Society?!
Idiots who only care about saving their own skins and guarding the scraps in their bowls, hereditary idiots living off their ancestors while waiting to die, arrogant idiots who think they're above everyone else and look down their noses at them, and... idiots who are simply too stupid to think!
It's like a 'buy one, get ten free' clearance sale on oranges rotten to the core!"
Satoru Gojo immediately gave him a thumbs-up, rattling off his complaints with a grin so excited it bordered on sheer delight.
"I've wanted to do this for ages! Flip that lousy table and sweep every rotten higher-up sitting on it into history's trash can!
The only problem was that once I flipped the whole table, we'd be so short-handed that I'd end up doing all the dirty work myself. Where's the fun in that?
That's why I've been slowly training reliable new blood.
But now that we have all you powerhouses joining us..."
He leaned forward slightly as well, his azure eyes "sweeping" over Suguru Geto and Dio through the blindfold he had put back on. His voice brimmed with wild eagerness:
"Being short-handed is no longer a concern! It's time to clean some old garbage off this planet!"
"Hell yeah!" Kinji Hakari broke into an unabashed, hearty grin.
He had always disliked the conservatives. Hearing such a direct and powerful declaration swept away all his pent-up frustration and filled him with fighting spirit.
"This battle will completely reshape Japan's Jujutsu Society." Suguru Geto abruptly changed tack with another startling statement. "But I want Mr. Dio to be our central leader going forward-sounds a little hard to believe, doesn't it?"
He looked at Satoru Gojo with a gentle sort of disdain. "Satoru, you're still too 'lost.' You're strong, strong enough to ignore the rules, but you... don't understand people."
"The question of leadership certainly warrants further discussion." Dio nodded calmly without declining, as though they were discussing something perfectly natural.
"As far as I know..." Satoru Gojo leaned back deliberately, his Six Eyes locking precisely onto Dio.
"Offering a huge reward up front is often a way to lure someone into a losing deal. So this is where that little setup was leading.
We've only just met. I've been wondering this whole time what made you willing to go this far for Geto-and for us.
Is this 'leadership' your real objective?"
Dio met his "gaze" with a brief, straightforward answer. "Nothing more than a desire to save the world."
"I have a savior complex. Is that not allowed?" Dio asked, as casually as though remarking on the pleasant weather. "What exactly makes you uneasy about pledging your allegiance to me?"
"Being uneasy or not doesn't really matter."
Satoru Gojo spread his hands, his smile taking on a more complicated, self-mocking edge.
"Humans are creatures that can only survive by destroying other things.
And my power is more brutal than anything else in this world.
I could use it to kill all of humanity, yet I couldn't bring back a dear friend who was already gone...
What a shame. No matter how great my power is, those who leave won't come back."
"Satoru is asking you in a roundabout way-'What exactly makes you so strong?'"
Suguru Geto unraveled the riddle.
"He doesn't believe pure ideals can change people's hearts, so he wants to know what's so special about the 'power' supporting yours."
"Hey, Geto, don't give me away." Satoru Gojo pursed his lips, but did not deny it.
"If you've paid a fortune for a sharp blade, why get hung up on what brand it originally was?"
Larue smiled from the side, smoothing things over.
"Lord Dio, at this point, any talk of ideals would sound hollow.
To show Mr. Gojo here, and everyone else with doubts, that your words aren't empty-why not demonstrate a trick or two and truly convince everyone present?"
"Exactly, Mr. Dio."
Satoru Gojo's lips spread into a grin filled with wild fighting spirit. His cursed energy boiled, and the air around him began to distort slightly.
"If you could beat Geto, you must be Special Grade too.
But even among Special Grades, there are differences!
So which of us is stronger?
I really do... kind of want to fight you!"
Just as two peerless swords would eventually meet and ring against one another, the moment of measuring each other's mettle and affirming their respective paths and places was ultimately unavoidable.
This was not hostility, nor was it necessarily the prelude to a conflict.
It was more like the purest, most solemn mutual acknowledgment of "limits" and "possibilities" between those who stood at the summit.
Even with Dio's cursed energy reined in almost perfectly, even with Satoru Gojo himself universally recognized as "the strongest of the modern age," an invisible, crushing pressure still spread unmistakably from where Dio stood.
Or rather, precisely because he was "the strongest," possessing the "heaven-sent eyes" known as the Six Eyes that could perceive the very nature of cursed energy, his awareness was sharper, more direct, and more inescapable than anyone else's.
It did not feel like facing an oncoming tsunami or a world-shattering meteor. It was more like... standing before an enormous active volcano that had lain silent for millions of years, while the magma within had already boiled to its breaking point.
Its slopes might still be covered in tranquil forests and snow, with birds singing, flowers blooming, and life passing peacefully.
Everyone else might still be enjoying that surface peace without a care.
Only he-Satoru Gojo-could "see" through those thick layers of rock to the torrent of energy building beneath: viscous, searing, and unimaginably vast!
It was a terrifying power capable of changing the world and rewriting every rule!
He understood better than anyone that once this "volcano" decided to stop holding itself back, once it truly erupted...
What emerged would no longer be mere destruction, but a "wave" that swept over everything, reshaped understanding, and could not be measured by any existing standard.
Dio's answer was brief and direct. "If you want to fight, clench your fists. If not, be good and hand over the leadership!"
"Then let's go! Now, right now, this instant!"
The two went to a broad clearing in the woods outside the school.
The others set up a barrier, a "Curtain," three hundred meters away and watched from afar along its edge.
Before you continue