"Don't look at me like you were wrong about me. That woman was a curse user. Killing her shouldn't count as slaughtering innocents, right?"
Igarashi Amaha spoke when he noticed the looks Satoru Gojo and the other two were giving him.
Hearing that, the three finally felt their hearts settle back into place and let out a breath together.
If that woman had been an ordinary person, killed just for touching Igarashi Amaha, the three would have done everything they could to take down that murderous maniac, and they would also have lost a good friend.
His mood brightening, Satoru Gojo returned to his usual self. He looked at Igarashi Amaha and drawled a pointless question. "Is that true?"
Igarashi Amaha rolled his eyes. "If you don't believe me, investigate it. With your Gojo Clan's resources, finding out who that woman was shouldn't be difficult."
"Oh, come on. If there's anyone I'd trust, it's my own brother."
"Exactly, exactly." Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto walked over and draped their arms around Igarashi Amaha's shoulders, one on each side.
"Heh." Igarashi Amaha scoffed, looking at Satoru Gojo's face and then Suguru Geto's. "Now we're brothers? That wasn't your attitude when you attacked me."
Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto scratched their heads awkwardly. "It was just too much of a shock at the time."
"So, can you tell us why you did it now?" Their expressions grew serious as they looked at Igarashi Amaha and asked solemnly.
"Oh? Didn't you investigate?" Igarashi Amaha asked, surprised.
He had thought the two had uncovered something, which was why they were treating him this way. Now it seemed they still knew nothing but had chosen to believe him. Apparently, they had great faith in their own judgment of people.
As long as his reasons for killing ordinary people were reasonable, the two wouldn't mind at all. After all, they didn't care that much about ordinary people's lives. Given sufficient reason, they would have acted without hesitation themselves.
Satoru Gojo had always been indifferent toward life; he was born that way. As for Suguru Geto? Hadn't his choice in the original story already provided the answer?
"We did investigate, but the three of us haven't looked at the results. Everything was sent to Mr. Yaga. If you really... had no other choice, I believe Mr. Yaga will apologize to you."
Igarashi Amaha shook his head. "It doesn't matter. I don't care about any of that. What you think of me is your business."
He had come here for the Star Plasma Vessel Incident. He couldn't care less what Masamichi Yaga and the others thought of him.
Then Shoko walked up beside Igarashi Amaha as well. Her eyes were clear as she looked straight at him. "I don't really care what kind of person you are. Stabbing you that day was my fault. Your track record was just so damn insane that it scared me, a support worker with no combat ability. Fear took over. Now I'm paying you back."
With that, she pulled out a scalpel and stabbed it toward her own heart.
Shlk!
It went exceptionally smoothly. There was no scene where Igarashi Amaha couldn't bear it, stopped the blade, and generously forgave her.
Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto clenched their fists tightly, but neither chose to stop her. This was Shoko's own decision. If that stabbing were simply brushed aside, the rift between Shoko and Amaha would remain forever. A friendship like that wouldn't be pure.
"I thought you'd go easy on a woman." Shoko pulled out the scalpel, tossed it to the ground, and sat between Igarashi Amaha and Suguru Geto, hurriedly using Reverse Cursed Technique to heal her wound.
Igarashi Amaha spread his hands. "Do I look like some righteous protagonist? Isn't stopping the heroine, taking the opportunity to spout a bunch of sweet nothings, and then forgiving her without letting her get hurt the male lead's job? What's that got to do with me? After all, if I hadn't been strong enough, I might well have croaked."
Shoko elbowed him and gave Igarashi Amaha a resentful look. "Please don't twist the facts. At first, I only pierced the surface of your skin. I didn't touch any organs. Even an ordinary person would have recovered after a few days of rest. You're the one who insisted on showing off and pushing it into your heart. You can't blame me."
"Really?" Igarashi Amaha asked, looking at Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto.
"Shoko's right."
Igarashi Amaha nodded. "So that's how it was. I really am quite the show-off, then. And I pulled it off, too. Hahaha!"
Igarashi Amaha's hearty laughter earned him eye rolls from all three.
"Can you tell us now? Why you killed so many people in all those different ways."
The three looked at Igarashi Amaha.
"Well, looks like I have to tell you. I might as well milk it for a little sympathy." He leaned against the wall behind him and calmly began recounting his bullshit life.
"I was born in a remote little mountain village near Shibuya. I was an orphan, adopted by a bunch of monkeys with ulterior motives. Although I had to deal with those idiots every day, things were at least fairly normal. Then I awakened my cursed energy, and they decided to capture me... The thing is, I fucking failed to escape..."
"I see..." Satoru Gojo rubbed between his eyebrows, then continued, "You were pretty stupid, then, getting caught by a bunch of people without cursed energy."
Smack!
"I was only ten that year, and I didn't have a cursed technique yet. You think everyone's like you, born with one?" Igarashi Amaha slapped the back of Satoru Gojo's head.
"Satoru, stop interrupting. Let Amaha finish."
"Yeah, yeah."
"As for those ordinary people you said I killed, they were either human-trafficking scum or utterly vile drug dealers. And those reporters who vanished, the ones supposedly standing for justice, were their people too. They just wanted to use public opinion to make me stop, so I wiped them out. I'm no good person, but I still have limits when it comes to certain things."
"So that's how it was..."
They fell silent, feeling a trace of relief. They hadn't misjudged him after all. Amaha really wasn't someone who slaughtered innocents.
Shoko tightened her fists when she heard this. Looking at Igarashi Amaha, she asked in bewilderment, "Then why didn't you defend yourself that day?"
"I'm not marrying you people. Why explain so much? Do you check criminal records when you make friends?"
Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto nodded in agreement.
"Amaha's right. We took things out of context. We apologize. We shouldn't have acted like that that day."
"Forget it. Don't make this awkward."
They smiled sheepishly at that.
"What happened after that was after I got to Spain. As you know, it's easy to get a little power in Southern Europe. You're either incredibly strong or incredibly rich, and I just happened to meet both requirements. Add in the utterly villainous image outsiders have had of me all these years, and that whole King of Southern Europe title came about."
"Do the Jujutsu Higher-Ups in Southern Europe think so too?" Suguru Geto asked in confusion.
"Of course not. Who still does that sort of thing in this day and age? They haven't acknowledged it, but they don't dare order me around either. At most, when I cause some major destruction, they ask me for a little money."
"At the end of the day, I'm still too gentle. Otherwise, those higher-ups with nothing but their titles... Heh." Igarashi Amaha gave a contemptuous scoff and said no more.
Taking down the Jujutsu Higher-Ups was easy. The difficult part was controlling Jujutsu Society after losing them. Satoru Gojo had long since realized this in the original story, which was why he had let those higher-ups live for so long.
Satoru Gojo had chosen not to kill them out of consideration for Jujutsu Society's future. As for Igarashi Amaha, he was simply lazy and unwilling to make work for himself. He wasn't some protagonist, nor did he have any so-called greater cause. Whatever direction this world's future took had nothing to do with him. From beginning to end, all he wanted was to live his whole life throwing his weight around, like a spoiled rich brat who never provoked the protagonist.
As for Sukuna in the future? After all these years, who would one-shot whom when the time came was still up in the air.
Please send any support you can. I'd be endlessly grateful!!