Chapter 122: I’m Truly Defeated by Your Naivety

"That's good."

After hearing that Nobara was alive, Yuji finally let out the breath he had been holding.

Megumi glanced at him, then turned back toward the detention center. His face remained as cold as ever, but the tension in his shoulders had loosened slightly.

"Help me clean up the mess inside first."

"Wait for me, Fushiguro!"

Yuji hurried after him.

The two returned to the ruined facility. The Innate Domain had already collapsed, but traces of the battle still remained. Broken walls, torn flooring, bloodstains, scattered debris, and the lingering stench of Cursed Energy all mixed together in the damp air.

By the time they finished a basic cleanup and left the detention center, Ijichi Kiyotaka had just returned.

He was alone.

There were no reinforcements.

Not one.

Megumi had already expected it, but expectation and seeing it with his own eyes were different things. His gaze sank at once.

So this was how it was.

A mission involving a potential Special Grade. Three first-year students thrown in. No backup. No proper support. No contingency plan.

It was not an accident.

It had never been an accident.

Yuji, on the other hand, still had no idea what was wrong with the situation. He only looked at Ijichi, then at Megumi, faintly confused by the stiff atmosphere.

Ijichi's expression changed the instant he saw them alive. His tense face loosened, and he let out a long, shaky breath.

"Thank goodness... You're both safe."

Megumi did not answer his concern gently.

"The Special Grade Cursed Spirit has been exorcised," he said, voice low and cold. "All five personnel inside were already dead. I'll report every detail of this mission to Gojo-sensei exactly as it happened."

Ijichi froze.

Of course he understood what Megumi meant.

He knew there were things hidden behind this mission. He also knew who had arranged it and why. But he was only an assistant supervisor caught between monsters wearing human skin and monsters that did not bother pretending.

His lips moved, but in the end, he could only sigh.

"Get in the car. I'll take you back to Jujutsu High first."

"I call front seat!"

Yuji raised his hand and rushed forward with far too much enthusiasm for someone who had nearly died less than an hour ago.

Megumi looked at him.

Ijichi looked at him.

Even Sukuna, inside Yuji, fell silent for a second.

There were some people whose brains seemed to have been blessed by sunlight and abandoned by common sense.

The group returned to Jujutsu High that night.

The next day, Satoru Gojo finally rushed back.

The moment he returned, he went straight to the classroom and found Megumi and the others. At first, he still wore his usual careless smile, the kind of expression that made it impossible to tell whether he was taking anything seriously.

Then Megumi told him everything.

The smile vanished.

The air in the room changed.

It was only a faint trace, but killing intent leaked from Gojo Satoru.

For a moment, the space around him seemed to grow colder.

"A Special Grade," Gojo said softly. "A mission to confirm and rescue five people whose chances of survival were uncertain, and they sent three first-years."

His voice was calm.

Too calm.

"That's ridiculous even by their standards."

Yuji looked from Gojo to Megumi, then to Nobara, who had already returned after treatment. Her injuries were not serious, but her face was grim.

Gojo leaned back slightly, one hand in his pocket.

"Because I changed Yuji's execution into a suspended sentence, the higher-ups couldn't do anything to me directly. So while I was away, they used a Special Grade Cursed Spirit to try and kill Itadori under the name of a proper mission."

His smile returned, but it did not reach his voice.

"And dragging the other two into it was a provocation aimed at me."

Megumi had already realized as much.

Nobara had pieced it together afterward.

Only Yuji's eyes slowly widened.

"So... someone used that Special Grade Cursed Spirit to try to kill all three of us?"

The room fell silent.

Nobara stared at him.

Megumi closed his eyes.

Gojo tilted his head.

Even the mood, heavy as it was, seemed to stumble.

A mouth opened on Yuji's cheek, and Sukuna's voice came out with pure disgust.

"Being trapped inside your body is an insult."

Inside the sword, Asuramaru also fell into a rare silence.

Yuji Itadori really was too naive.

No, naive was too light a word.

Airheaded. Slow. Dangerously simple.

I'm truly defeated by your naivety.

Asuramaru watched him from within, almost speechless.

It seems this child still needs to be beaten down by society.

And when it came to teaching cruelty, despair, and the malice of the world...

Mahito seemed like an excellent candidate.

In the classroom, Gojo sat on top of the desk and looked out the window.

For a few seconds, no one spoke.

Then he suddenly said, almost casually, "Honestly, finding out exactly who arranged this is such a pain."

He turned his head slightly.

"How about I just kill everyone at the top?"

There was no laughter in the room.

No one mistook it for a joke.

The killing intent in his voice was real.

Yuji's expression stiffened. Nobara frowned. Megumi remained quiet, but his eyes sharpened.

Gojo's gaze drifted toward Yuji.

After a moment, the sharpness in the air faded.

He let out a light sigh.

"Not yet."

If he killed them now, the rotten structure would not disappear. Another group of old fools would simply crawl into the empty seats and continue the same game. The world of Jujutsu would keep rotting from the inside.

That was why he had chosen to teach.

That was why he had gathered students with potential.

The new generation had to grow strong enough to change everything.

Only then could the old world be torn down properly.

Not by replacing one tyrant with another, but by making sure no one like them could rule again.

For now, Gojo swallowed his anger.

But only for now.

At the same time.

Shinjuku, Tokyo.

The city was crowded as always. Office workers hurried past with umbrellas. Couples crossed the street shoulder to shoulder. Cars rolled through the rain-slick roads, their headlights flashing over the wet asphalt.

At a traffic light, among the stream of ordinary people, four figures stood out.

Three were powerful Special Grade Cursed Spirits.

The one leading them was Kenjaku, a brain that had hidden in the shadows for a thousand years.

At the moment, he wore the body of Suguru Geto.

Black hair. Calm face. A gentle smile that made him look harmless if one ignored the stitches across his forehead.

Beside him stood Jogo, a short Cursed Spirit with a single large eye and a volcano-shaped head. He leaned on a cane, his temper visibly simmering.

Behind them was a huge red Cursed Spirit with an octopus-like body, its tentacles shifting wetly as it moved.

Dagon.

Next to Dagon stood Hanami, tall and strange, one arm wrapped in white cloth. Where eyes should have been, two pale branches extended upward from Hanami's face.

They waited for the light to change like ordinary pedestrians.

Jogo was the first to speak.

"Hey." His single eye narrowed. "What exactly is going on? That sword in the brat's hand isn't Sukuna's Cursed Technique. And the name Asuramaru... Could it be..."

Before he could finish, Kenjaku turned his head slightly and smiled.

"You've heard the legend, haven't you? The legend of the strongest existence across all eras."

Dagon's tentacles trembled.

"Doo... doo doo..."

Hanami also made a low, strange sound that seeped directly into the mind rather than passing through the ears.

Jogo's volcano head nearly erupted.

"You two, stop talking! I don't understand a single word, and somehow it still gets into my brain. It's annoying!"

The light changed.

Green spilled across the crossing.

The four walked with the crowd.

No one around them noticed anything strange. Ordinary people passed by laughing, talking, hurrying home, never realizing that disasters in human shape were walking beside them.

Jogo continued, his voice lower now.

"The divine sword from legend. The one said to house a deity. Its name is Asuramaru, and whoever obtains it is destined to become the strongest in history."

"Correct," Kenjaku replied. "However, no one has ever seen Asuramaru's true form. No one knows the exact nature of its Cursed Technique either. At this stage, we are still speculating."

That was what he said.

But in truth, Kenjaku was almost certain.

Sukuna's reaction alone was enough to prove that the sword was not ordinary. The brief glimpse of its power inside the juvenile detention center only strengthened that conclusion.

It was most likely Asuramaru.

The divine sword from legend.

The only real uncertainty was this.

Had Asuramaru already acknowledged Yuji Itadori?

Or had it acknowledged Ryomen Sukuna?

Kenjaku personally leaned toward neither.

If Asuramaru had truly acknowledged one of them, the situation should have been far more dramatic. The power shown so far felt incomplete, borrowed, limited.

Which meant there was still room to intervene.

There was still room to plan.

And more than anything, Kenjaku wanted to know the truth behind Asuramaru's Cursed Technique.

A plan he had spent a thousand years preparing was still important, of course.

But the appearance of Asuramaru was interesting.

Far too interesting.

For a creature like Kenjaku, that alone was enough to temporarily shift priorities.

Jogo was not stupid either.

He had his own judgment.

But neither side said everything aloud.

After crossing the street, Jogo tapped his cane against the ground and said, "Enough about that for now. Our goal is simple. How do we defeat the Jujutsu Sorcerers?"

Kenjaku raised two fingers.

"Before the war begins, two conditions must be met."

His smile remained gentle.

"First, Satoru Gojo must be sealed."

Jogo's eye narrowed.

"And second?"

"We bring Yuji Itadori to our side."

Jogo paused.

"Satoru Gojo..." he muttered. "Even if all of us work together, can we really not kill him?"

"No."

Kenjaku answered without hesitation.

"He can escape too easily. Worse, he may exorcise all of you instead. Killing him is not realistic. We need to seal him using the Prison Realm."

Jogo's eye widened.

"The Prison Realm? That treasure is actually in your hands?"

His excitement flared instantly. Heat rolled from the volcano on his head, making the rain hiss into steam.

"Give it to me for my collection. In exchange, I'll kill Satoru Gojo myself."

His confidence was absolute.

Ridiculous, but absolute.

Kenjaku only smiled.

He said nothing.

.....

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