"I'm still thinking about it," Igarashi Amaha said. He still had his reservations. Once he entered Jujutsu High, he would truly be under the noses of those higher-ups, and he would have to watch everything he did.
But only at Jujutsu High could he truly learn all the hidden information about this world. It would also offer him some measure of safety while he was still weak. What a dilemma.
"I never imagined you used to be at Jujutsu High. Come to think of it, I barely know anything about you," Igarashi Amaha said.
"What's there to know about me?" Aoki said indifferently.
"But I'm curious. You don't look like an idiot no matter how I look at you, so why did you get locked up by a bunch of monkeys?" Sitting on Blood Claw, Igarashi raised an eyebrow and asked with interest.
"You got caught too. Are you saying you're an idiot?" Aoki asked with a laugh.
"How about you take a good look at how fucking old I am?"
"Ah, sorry. I forgot you were a little brat," Aoki said.
Igarashi Amaha asked, "You've been here so long. Haven't your family and friends looked for you? And since you were with Jujutsu High, wouldn't they have searched for you when you suddenly disappeared for no reason?"
Aoki's expression changed at the question. He rolled over, turning his back to him, and slowly said, "I lost all those things long ago. As for Jujutsu High, they probably think I've been dead for years."
Igarashi Amaha fell rather silent at that.
Aoki continued, "I thought I'd die alone in this basement. I never imagined I'd meet an interesting kid like you."
"Cursed Techniques, curses, Jujutsu Sorcerers-it's all bullshit. You probably can't imagine it, but someone like me was once the boy genius all the neighbors talked about. They called me a future star student at the University of Tokyo."
He gave a self-mocking laugh as he spoke, then continued as though the floodgates had opened. "I was an orphan, but a lucky one. Heaven gave me a nimble mind and an enviable ability to learn. That was how I stood out among all the children at the orphanage, and my reputation kept growing."
"'The aloof genius'-that cringeworthy title was the orphanage's gift to me. Sure enough, I was adopted the following year. The people who adopted me were Aoki Kenjo and his wife, Aoki Shion. They were an ordinary salaried household. They weren't wealthy, but they treated me very well, and I gradually became more outgoing. Just like that, we entered each other's lives and changed each other's destinies."
"Three years after that, when I was ten, they unexpectedly got pregnant and gave me a little brother named Aoki Tokikawa. He was adorable, always following behind me calling, 'Big brother! Big brother!'" At the mention of Tokikawa, the corners of Aoki's mouth unconsciously lifted into a very gentle smile.
A moment later, his expression twisted in pain. "Life stayed warm and happy like that. I grew up in a happy family and began devoting myself to my studies without any distractions. In a few years, I'd completed the entire high school curriculum on my own, cementing my reputation as a genius."
"May 19, 1987. That was the day I awakened my Cursed Technique. I realized I was different. I didn't understand what a Cursed Technique was, so... I started using it without holding anything back..."
Igarashi Amaha's eyes widened. "N-no way..." he said incredulously.
"Yeah, that's right. I killed my mom, my dad, and my little brother with my own hands. Filth Attraction had only just awakened, but its attraction to curses was already no weaker than a Special Grade Cursed Object's. They swarmed in and crushed Mom and Dad's heads right in front of me. Their splattered brains landed on my face, hotter than boiling water."
"As for Tokikawa... that idiot. That idiot saw me standing there frozen, and he actually... actually used himself as bait... to lure that curse away..." Aoki's voice choked up, his body trembling.
"He succeeded. He saved me, the one responsible. People from Jujutsu High rescued me... After that, hatred took control of me. Relying on my ability to learn, I kept studying all over the world, frantically improving my strength."
"Finally, seven years ago, I became a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer. Once again, I was called a genius!"
"It was like a curse. After becoming a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer, I accepted my first commission: exorcising a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit. I thought it would be an easy mission, so I brought along a junior who was still a Grade 3 Jujutsu Sorcerer."
Aoki sat up and lifted his shirt, revealing a gruesome wound on his chest. His mouth stretched into an utterly ugly smile. "That's right. I got someone killed again."
Igarashi Amaha asked in confusion, "How is that possible? If you'd already been rated a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer, how could you fail to handle a Grade 2 curse?"
Grade 1 and Grade 2 were worlds apart. Did something unexpected happen? Igarashi Amaha wondered.
Aoki didn't answer his question. Instead, he asked another one. "Do you know about the King of Curses?"
Igarashi Amaha froze. "What do you mean?"
"The King of Curses, Ryomen Sukuna! The most powerful curse a thousand years ago, born with two faces and four arms! Before he died, he split his soul into twenty pieces and stored them in his fingers, presumably so he could one day revive. Those fingers became a special kind of Special Grade Cursed Object."
"Over these thousand years, the fingers have long since spread everywhere. Twenty of them, each capable of forcing an ordinary Cursed Spirit into the ranks of Special Grade."
"And unlucky bastard that I was, I ran into one of them. That thing had even learned the ultimate expression of a Cursed Technique, Domain Expansion. Haha, someone saved me again... I chose to run. Hahaha! This genius abandoned his junior and fled in terror. Hahahaha! Hahahahaha!"
Aoki laughed like a madman, snot and tears streaming down his face.
"After that, I never went back to Jujutsu High. I just kept running aimlessly until I was utterly exhausted and passed out in this village. When I woke up again, I was here. I've stayed like this for seven whole years, and I still don't have the courage to face reality. I'm afraid to die. I'm afraid I'll meet my mom and dad in hell, my little brother, my junior. I'm afraid of them..."
"That's the life of this genius. Laughable, isn't it... Hehe."
"It feels so good to finally say it..." With that, Aoki fell into a deep sleep, seemingly exhausted from crying.
Igarashi Amaha looked at the skeletal Aoki lying on the floor and let out a deep sigh. So it wasn't Kitano Village that held him captive. It was human nature.
Please support me in any way you can. I'd be endlessly grateful.