Boom—!!
The arrogant roar of a heavy motorcycle engine, like a beast's growl, echoed through the silent Jujutsu High.
The jarring sound completely shattered the peace Suguru Geto had just managed to regain.
He sat up from the grass, frowning as he looked toward the mountain path.
"Who's driving like that at the school? Did Gojo buy a new toy again?"
Yoru watched the dust rising in the distance, a cold glint flashing imperceptibly in his deep eyes.
He knew exactly who was coming.
The woman who, in the original story, had personally handed Suguru Geto the devil's fruit and knocked over the first domino.
One of the four Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerers, Yuki Tsukumo.
"I'm going to the vending machine for some ice-cold cola. Rest here for a bit," Yoru said casually, patting Suguru on the shoulder.
"Don't you need me to come along?"
"No need. You look like you'd fall over if someone poked you right now, so save your strength."
Yoru waved and turned away, walking in the opposite direction of the mountain path.
He didn't choose to immediately stop the meeting between Yuki Tsukumo and Suguru Geto.
He knew that although he had forcibly pulled the thorn from Suguru's heart, the wound remained.
If Suguru didn't face that extreme theory head-on, he would never truly emerge from his cocoon.
True redemption wasn't about protecting him in a greenhouse forever; it was about severing the wrong chain at the very last moment before he fell into the abyss.
Shortly after Yoru left.
Light footsteps on the gravel at the edge of the training grounds drew near.
Suguru instinctively turned his head.
A tall woman with long blonde hair, dressed casually in a leather jacket and jeans, stood with one hand on her hip, looking at him with interest.
She didn't intentionally release any cursed energy.
Yet just standing there, she gave Suguru an immense sense of pressure, as if he were facing an abyss.
It was a feeling he had only experienced with Satoru Gojo and Yoru.
'Special Grade...'
The woman tossed her helmet to the ground, brushed back her blonde hair, and let a playful smirk tug at her lips.
Without any introduction, she threw out the signature question that could make anyone's brain stall:
"Hey there, boy."
"What's your type? What kind of women are you into?"
Suguru froze.
He had imagined many ways the higher-ups might send someone to start trouble, but he never expected a pickup line this ridiculous.
"Huh?"
"I'm asking you what type of women you like. This is the key question that determines whether I want to keep talking to you."
The woman strode up to him, looking down with a scrutinizing gaze.
Suguru was speechless at the sudden question, but he maintained a polite facade.
"...If I had to say, probably someone... gentle, who doesn't make people feel pressured."
After all, he had been under enough pressure lately.
"Boring. What a generic answer."
The woman curled her lip, appearing quite disappointed.
She plopped down on the grass next to Suguru and popped a lollipop from her pocket into her mouth.
"Let me introduce myself. I'm Yuki Tsukumo. One of those Special Grade sorcerers who you lot say takes a paycheck without doing any work."
Yuki Tsukumo!
Suguru was startled. He had certainly heard that name.
She was the only Special Grade in the jujutsu world who refused to be managed by the higher-ups and spent her years wandering overseas.
"Senior Yuki... what brings you to Jujutsu High?" Suguru asked warily.
"Don't be so tense. I'm not here to cause trouble. I just heard there were some interesting juniors here and decided to stop by."
Yuki bit through her lollipop, her eyes suddenly turning sharp.
"And I wanted to find someone to talk to about my research."
"Research?"
"That's right."
Yuki turned, looking Suguru straight in the eye.
"Suguru, what do you think a jujutsu sorcerer's job is?"
Suguru fell silent for a moment, the words Yoru had said at the food stall the previous night flashing through his mind.
"...Exorcising cursed spirits and protecting those who cannot protect themselves."
"Right. That's the symptomatic therapy those rotten oranges at the top always talk about."
Yuki scoffed, her tone full of disdain.
"A cursed spirit appears, so they send a sorcerer to exorcise it. When the old one is gone, a new one is born. It's endless, a cycle that never stops."
"It's like trying to plug a leaking dam with a piece of rag."
"I grew tired of such superficial, useless work long ago."
Suguru's breath hitched.
Yuki's words were like a sharp scalpel, precisely piercing his most sensitive nerve.
Wasn't this the root of the despair and exhaustion he had been feeling?
Endless exorcisms, endless cursed spirit orbs, endless malice...
"Then... what do you mean?"
Suguru's voice lowered unconsciously.
Yuki stood up and spread her arms wide, as if trying to embrace the whole world.
"What I want to do is find the root cause—root cause therapy!"
"I'm going to fundamentally cut off the source of where cursed spirits are born!"
She looked down at him and threw out her insane theory.
"Suguru, you know how cursed spirits are born, right?"
"They're monsters born from the accumulation and sedimentation of trace amounts of cursed energy leaked by non-sorcerers."
"On the other hand, jujutsu sorcerers rarely produce cursed spirits because they can control their own energy."
Yuki held up two fingers.
"So, there are only two ways to achieve root cause therapy and eliminate cursed spirits entirely."
"First: strip all of humanity of their cursed energy. Like that man, Toji Fushiguro—become complete Heavenly Restrictions. But that's too difficult, almost impossible."
Yuki paused, her gaze becoming fervent.
"Second: make all of humanity into sorcerers!"
"If everyone learns to control their cursed energy, there will be no more leakage, and no more new cursed spirits will be born!"
Boom!
Make all of humanity sorcerers!
The concept exploded in Suguru's mind like a bolt from the blue.
The negative emotions that Yoru had suppressed with special training seemed to find a perfect outlet at this moment, surging back with a vengeance!
If everyone in the world were sorcerers...
Then there would be no 'weak' people to protect.
There would be no monkeys who constantly created cursed spirits out of ignorance and fear.
He wouldn't have to swallow those nauseating cursed spirit orbs, and Riko wouldn't have died for nothing!
Suguru stared intensely at the ground, his eyes becoming bloodshot before he knew it.
The ugly faces of the Star Religious Group cultists, the pungent stench of the sewers, and the image of Riko lying in a pool of blood intertwined and overlapped in his mind.
A terrifying thought, yet one that fit perfectly with Yuki Tsukumo's logic, began to sprout in his heart like a venomous snake.
He slowly looked up at Yuki.
In those eyes that were once clear, a heart-pounding darkness and madness were now churning.
"Senior Yuki..."
Suguru's voice was frighteningly raspy, like a whisper from the depths of hell.
"Since making everyone into sorcerers would solve the problem..."
""
He swallowed hard, throwing out the fruit that every jujutsu sorcerer considered taboo.
"...Wouldn't it be easier just to... kill every non-sorcerer?"
If you kill all non-sorcerers, then everyone left would naturally be a sorcerer.
It was an extremely radical yet perfectly logical version of root cause therapy.
The air seemed to freeze completely.
The wind died down, and the sound of cicadas vanished.
Yuki's playful expression stiffened. Her amber eyes widened as she stared at the boy who had just proposed a plan for genocide.
She clearly hadn't expected her casual theory to give birth to such a terrifying monster.
Just as this crossroads of destiny was about to lead straight into the abyss...
*Crack!*
From the shadows of the nearby trees came the distinct sound of a soda can tab being snapped open.
Now that the lethal root cause therapy had been proposed, how would Yuki Tsukumo react to Suguru's nearly demonic suggestion?
And how would Yoru, hidden in the dark and ready to draw his blade, violently put an end to this dangerous brainwashing?