You... what the hell are you apologizing for?!

[This time, your severe injuries did not kill you.]

[Boundless darkness, suffocating water pressure, and bone-chilling cold surrounded you. Your consciousness seemed to have fallen into a bottomless sea.]

[Gravity had lost its meaning here, and the surroundings were so silent that even the sound of your heartbeat was swallowed.]

[Only at the very top of your vision, on the distant, almost unreachable surface, was there a faint glimmer of light. That was the way out, the exit that meant "life."]

[You instinctively moved your limbs, trying to swim toward that light, but something suddenly changed in the deathly darkness.]

[A blurred shadow silently emerged from the abyss beneath you. Then an icy, rigid hand clamped around your ankle.]

[A tremendous force suddenly pulled at you, trying to drag you back into the bottomless abyss.]

[You looked down. In the dark water, a hideous face, twisted with pain and resentment, stared fixedly at you. It was Sato, who should have died long ago.]

[At the same time, a sudden cold sensation touched your right palm. Your short blade, Asagirimaru, stained with countless people's blood, was already clenched in your hand, though you did not know when it had appeared.]

[The blade glimmered with an alluring cold light in the dark water, as though whispering frantically inside your mind.]

[**Cut him! Swing your blade! Just sever that hand, just kill him, and you can cast off this burden! You won't keep getting dragged into the abyss!**]

[It was an immensely tempting suggestion, a shortcut that traded "slaughter" for "release."]

[But you only looked coldly down at Sato's struggling face. Your sword hand was steady as a rock, never swinging down even a fraction.]

[Ignoring the excruciating pain in your ankle, as though your bones were being crushed, you gritted your teeth and used both hands to push through the icy water. Dragging Sato's weight, you stubbornly continued swimming toward the light above.]

[Yet the abyss seemed deeply displeased by your obstinacy, and the water began to churn violently.]

[Although this was a deep sea of consciousness where sound could not travel, an arrogant voice rang out with utter clarity beside your ears, one so familiar and repulsive that it made you physically sick.]

["Oh? My dog... where do you think you're running off to?"]

[You glanced down out of the corner of your eye. Beneath Sato, another figure emerged. Naoya Zenin, his hair dyed blond and wearing that expensive kimono, had a hand wrapped around Sato's shoulder.]

[His face still bore that mocking, cruel smile that treated you as worthless, as though he were looking at a pile of garbage.]

[Humiliating memories writhed through your mind like venomous snakes, but you still ignored him. You did not even spare him a proper glance, only silently swimming upward with even greater effort.]

[But this was merely the beginning. The abyss seemed thoroughly enraged. More and more figures surged madly from the endless darkness below like a school of piranhas scenting blood. They hung from your body layer upon layer, tugging relentlessly at your limbs.]

[There were elite members of the Zenin Clan's Hei, enforcers from the Kukuru Unit, and even many Zenin Clan servants you had met only once, who had watched your humiliation with indifferent eyes.]

[They became tangible "curses," clinging to you in overlapping layers. Their hollow eyes were all waiting: waiting for hatred to consume you, waiting for you to swing Asagirimaru at them, waiting for you to become a monster like them, one who knew only how to crush the weak with violence.]

[Because the moment you swung your blade here, your soul would fall completely into the same path of Asura as theirs.]

[Your upward progress had almost completely stopped. The unimaginable, terrifying weight made you feel as if your very soul were tearing apart.]

[But you still gripped the hilt tightly without making that cut. You tilted your head toward the distant light, your expression utterly resolute, and silently murmured to yourself as you released a stream of bubbles.]

["No..."]

["You're not what I mean to kill... you scraps swept along by the gears of the world don't deserve to die by my hand..."]

[The will of the abyss roared, and the numbers kept mounting.]

[The Curse Users you had once defeated and the remnants of Q wound themselves around you like festering sores clinging to bone.]

[Then a terrifying pressure that made your skin crawl suddenly rose from the very bottom. It was pure violence, like a tyrant descending: Toji Fushiguro.]

[The tall, powerfully built specter sprang up, his movements so fast that even the seawater could not stop him.]

[**"Shhk-!"**]

[Just like that hopeless scene during the Star Plasma Vessel escort mission, the Samurai Sword and the eerily glowing Inverted Spear of Heaven in Toji's hands pierced your throat and head simultaneously, without the slightest resistance!]

[Phantom agony powerful enough to shatter a person's mind exploded through you, but your gaze did not waver at all. You did not even reach for the blade lodged in your throat.]

[With an almost inhuman indifference, you merely looked past those countless hideous faces and down at Toji's phantom, forcing a cold verdict from your pierced throat.]

["Neither... do you!"]

[You meant to shatter the root of this entire rotten world. Your blade would never swing for mere personal vengeance or an outlet for your feelings.]

[Because if it did, there would be no difference between you and these people who let themselves sink into depravity.]

[You would never accept such an outcome. Your fury was not something so cheap.]

[The abyss fell silent.]

[As though realizing that this fear and hatred from below could not destroy your will, the surrounding water suddenly became eerily still.]

[This time, the disturbance no longer came from below.]

[Instead, a figure slowly descended from the light you had kept looking up at, kept desperately swimming toward.]

[It was someone you knew all too well: Suguru Geto.]

[But unlike you, he was not desperately struggling to survive in the darkness. His eyes were closed, his face bearing a heartbreaking serenity and release, as though he had willingly abandoned all resistance and allowed his heavy body to sink slowly, irreversibly, into the endless abyss.]

[The moment he passed you, time seemed to stand still.]

[Looking at Suguru Geto slowly sinking before you now was like looking into a mirror called "fate."]

[In him, you clearly saw the version of yourself who might go to the opposite extreme if crushed by the Greater Good and consumed by despair.]

[Without the slightest hesitation, you suddenly released Asagirimaru, that symbol of slaughter you had held so tightly all this time. You reached out with your now-empty hand and seized Suguru Geto's wrist!]

[But the instant you caught him, a terrifying, utterly irresistible weight slammed into you through his arm.]

[It was not his weight alone. To your horror, you saw hundreds of hands covered in mud and blood reaching out beneath Suguru Geto, from deep within the abyss!]

[They were the venomous filth formed from the 112 villagers he had slaughtered in the old village. They clutched Suguru Geto's legs and waist, wailing and cursing, determined to drag this fallen god who had taken their lives into hell with them.]

[These were the sins he had chosen to bear, and a weight you were destined to be unable to lift alone.]

[Your finger bones groaned on the verge of breaking under the strain. You gave everything you had, even burning your soul, yet you still could not stop Suguru Geto's descent. Even you were being pulled by him, inch by inch, away from the light above.]

[Just then, Suguru Geto slowly opened his eyes.]

[He looked at your face, twisted by extreme exertion and nearly collapsing with grief. In the icy water, you clearly heard his murmur, filled with endless gentleness and a sigh.]

["I'm the one who chose to fall... so why do you look so sad, Shunchen?"]

[Those words were the final straw that broke you. You had finally reached your limit. Under your despairing gaze, your clasped hands slipped apart, little by little.]

[You could only watch helplessly as his face, bearing a faint, desolate smile, disappeared completely among those blackened, filthy hands.]

[Then the endless abyss swallowed him whole.]

[After an unknown amount of time, the pressure of the bone-chilling deep sea finally began to recede.]

[An intensely strong, pungent smell of disinfectant filled your nose. Beyond your heavy eyelids, pale light from the real world faintly filtered through.]

[At the same time, the restrained, heated, even faintly trembling voices arguing outside in the corridor gradually awakened your dulled hearing.]

["...Huh?"]

[It was Satoru Gojo's voice, stripped of its usual effortless flippancy. His question now carried an exceedingly rare, almost comical dazed bewilderment.]

[Standing opposite him, Masamichi Yaga seemed to have aged ten years in an instant. He pinched the bridge of his nose in anguish and let out an exceptionally heavy sigh.]

["How many times do you want me to repeat myself, Satoru? Geto severely injured Li Shunchen and killed all 112 villagers in the old village. His whereabouts are currently unknown."]

[Satoru Gojo's Eyes of the Sky contracted sharply behind his sunglasses. His eyes widened in disbelief, and his voice suddenly rose.]

["Of course I heard you! That's why I'm asking what the fuck you're talking about!"]

[He clawed irritably at his white hair, as though he had just heard the most absurd joke in the world.]

[Masamichi Yaga's Adam's apple shifted with difficulty. He averted his gaze and continued with an almost cruel calm.]

["And... Geto's home is completely empty now."]

["The higher-ups sent people to investigate. Based on the distribution of the bloodstains and an analysis of the Cursed Residue left at the scene... they believe he has already killed his parents with his own hands."]

[Those words slammed into Satoru Gojo's chest like a thousand-ton hammer.]

[The strongest, who already stood at the pinnacle of Jujutsu Society, now froze in place like a lost child. His lips trembled as he forced out a few words with extreme difficulty.]

["How... is that possible..."]

["I'd like to know why, too!"]

[Masamichi Yaga covered his head in anguish, exhaustion and despair showing between his fingers.]

["I... I don't understand either. What happened to him? What the hell is that bastard thinking..."]

[Just then, an extremely faint rustle of fabric came from the hospital bed. Your eyelashes fluttered, and you slowly opened your eyes, looking toward the two men arguing by the door.]

[Hearing the movement, Masamichi Yaga and Satoru Gojo both stopped speaking. Almost instantly, they rushed to your bedside.]

["Shunchen! You're awake? How do you feel?!"]

[Masamichi Yaga bent over you with concern, looking at your paper-white face.]

[Satoru Gojo was even more direct. He grabbed your shoulders and propped your upper body up.]

[When he saw your abdomen, tightly wrapped in thick bandages that still bore traces of blood, suppressed anger and urgency flared in his azure eyes.]

["What the hell happened between you two?! Who hurt you this badly? Was it really that bastard Geto?!"]

[You did not raise your head to meet Satoru Gojo's urgent eyes. You merely lowered your gaze slightly, looking at your battered body, which had failed to salvage anything despite giving everything it had. The final image of Suguru Geto falling through the deep sea of your consciousness stabbed at your nerves again.]

[Your cracked lips parted slightly, and in a voice as hoarse as scraping sandpaper, you murmured as though to yourself.]

["I'm sorry... it was all because I..."]

[The instant you spoke, Satoru Gojo once again saw that expression on your face that irritated him so intensely.]

[It was that almost suffocating pain and self-reproach you had shown during the Star Plasma Vessel Incident, when he had been critically wounded by Toji Fushiguro and lay dying, and you, covered in blood, had done everything you could to save him with Reverse Cursed Technique.]

[A surge of nameless fury instantly burned through Satoru Gojo's reason. He had no way of knowing what that madman Suguru Geto had been thinking while slaughtering the village, but he, Satoru Gojo, knew exactly what kind of person you were.]

[Why should someone who would rather be covered in wounds than leave others in hell have to bear this guilt?!]

[**"You... what the hell are you apologizing for?!"**]

[Satoru Gojo could not bear it anymore. Both hands suddenly tightened on your shoulders, almost hard enough to crush your bones, and he interrupted your self-reproach in a rough, almost roaring voice.]

[**"That bastard beat you into this goddamn state! You almost died! Why the hell are you the one apologizing?! What have you done to wrong him?!"**]

[**"Satoru! What the hell are you doing?!"**]

[Horrified at the sight, Masamichi Yaga immediately rushed forward, locked an arm tightly around Satoru Gojo's neck from behind, and dragged him backward as he roared.]

[**"Shunchen is seriously injured! Calm down! Let him finish!"**]

[Satoru Gojo kept struggling violently in Masamichi Yaga's chokehold, while you remained with your head lowered and your eyes empty, merely finishing the words that had been interrupted.]

["I'm sorry... it was all because I couldn't stop Geto..."]

[But when he heard the rest of your sentence, Satoru Gojo suddenly stopped struggling in Masamichi Yaga's "chokehold."]

[He turned his head and pointed at your face. With an exaggerated, almost comical expression of "See? I knew he'd say that," he shouted at Masamichi Yaga, whose head was braced over his shoulder as he restrained him:]

[**"Yaga! Listen to the nonsense this kid's spouting!"**]

[With that booming voice of his, Satoru Gojo mercilessly tore into your self-reproach.]

[**"Tell me, since when could a mere 'Grade 2 Sorcerer' easily stop a full-fledged 'Special Grade Sorcerer' who's gone insane?! Does this kid think he's the savior?! Are you hearing how arrogant Shunchen sounds right now?!"**]

["..."]

[Hearing this, Masamichi Yaga also fell silent.]

[Although Satoru Gojo's tone was extremely harsh and his words were even somewhat hurtful, Masamichi Yaga knew perfectly well that Satoru was using this most cutting approach to lay a raw, bloody truth before you: you were not at fault. You had already done well enough.]

[As a Grade 2 Sorcerer whose Grade 1 assessment had not been completed, escaping with your life from the rampaging Special Grade Sorcerer Suguru Geto, and even trying to stop him, was already a miracle in itself.]

[Masamichi Yaga released his hold on Satoru Gojo's neck. Then, the instant Satoru Gojo let his guard down-]

[**Bang!**]

[For the first time in a long while, Masamichi Yaga's fist, as big as a clay pot, landed squarely on Satoru Gojo's head.]

["Ow! Why'd you hit me?! I was telling the truth!"]

[Satoru Gojo complained, clutching his head.]

[Masamichi Yaga spoke through gritted teeth, his face dark.]

[**"Even if it's the truth, you don't scream at someone who's seriously injured! Show the patient some respect, you idiot!"**]