Jujutsu Kaisen: Tragedy Life Simulator-Chapter 92 - I Am a Person First, and a Sorcerer Second [bonus]
[From the far side of the field, Nanako and Mimiko screamed.]
["Lord Geto!"]
["Lord Geto... your hand...?!"]
[As the cursed spirits receded like a filthy tide pulling back, everyone finally saw what state Suguru Geto was in.]
[His left arm was gone below the forearm, severed cleanly. Blood dripped from the stump in a steady line.]
[A deep slash had torn across the chest of his monk robe, carving through the fabric and the flesh beneath it. Dark blood spread through the deep blue cloth until it looked almost black.]
[Gojo’s eyes moved from you to the man across the field, both of you standing there ruined in different ways.]
[Something in that sight caught him off guard.]
[All the blood on the ground overlapped in his mind with that night in the remote village, the night you and Geto had broken apart for good, even though he hadn’t been there to see it happen.]
[A strange sense of dislocation washed over him.]
[He couldn’t even tell when it had started. Once, the three of you had walked these same grounds side by side. Now you’d ended up here, weapons out, one step away from killing each other. How the hell had it gotten this far?]
[He had always wanted to ask.]
[Before everything became irreversible, why hadn’t either of you turned around and talked to him?]
[Why was the so-called strongest always stuck on the outside of this kind of fate, forced to watch from the edge while everything slid into the abyss again and again, and unable to stop it?]
[But Gojo knew better than to cling to that now. He was an adult. In the adult world, there were no what-ifs.
He took a long breath.]
[Across the field, Geto had already summoned a long serpent-like cursed spirit and wrapped it tight around the stump of his arm to slow the bleeding. When Gojo spoke, his voice came out dry and rough.]
["What did you come here for, Suguru?"]
[Geto didn’t look at him.]
[His gaze went past the empty space between them and settled on you instead, cold meeting cold.]
[For one ridiculous moment, a strange illusion caught him.]
[Looking at the person who had maimed him, Geto almost felt like your eyes were asking him a question. Why couldn’t you wait a little longer? Why couldn’t you give me more time to change all of this?]
[A faint smile touched his mouth. It was too thin to really be called a smile, and there was nothing in it but bitterness.]
[If the one standing in front of me back in that village had been the you of today... you probably would’ve beaten that stubborn idiot version of me senseless with the blade in your hand. Maybe that would’ve been enough.]
[Gojo’s question was still hanging there.]
[Geto drew a deep breath and shoved the storm inside him back under the surface. When he lifted his head again, the face drained pale by blood loss had already put the mask back on.]
[That arrogant, empty smile of a cult leader returned to his lips.]
["I’m here to deliver a declaration of war."]
[Gojo answered without a hint of feeling.]
["Is that supposed to be funny?"
"You want me to laugh?"]
[Geto gave a soft, self-mocking chuckle like he hadn’t just been nearly cut in half.
Then he straightened his battered body and raised his voice until it rang across the entire field.]
["Everyone here, listen carefully!"]
["I am here to issue a formal challenge! On December twenty-fourth, at sundown, we will begin the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons!"]
[His remaining arm swept outward, grand and theatrical, like a fanatic preaching the end of the world.]
["The battlegrounds will be this cursed capital, Tokyo, Shinjuku, and the holy land of jujutsu, Kyoto!"]
["We will release more than a thousand cursed spirits across both cities, and they will be given one simple order. Kill every breathing thing in sight!"]
[His eyes moved over the assembled sorcerers. Madness glittered underneath the smile.] 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶
["If you don’t want to watch the world turn into a living hell, then come stop us with everything you have. Let’s kill each other to our hearts’ content in this grand festival of curses!"]
[Gojo barely lifted his chin.]
["You think I’m letting you walk away from here?"]
[Geto smiled, wiped the blood at the corner of his mouth with his thumb, and answered like none of this bothered him in the slightest.]
["I may look a little rough right now, but I can still use Cursed Spirit Manipulation. Save your energy, Satoru. Don’t forget, your precious students are still well within my range."]
[He didn’t wait for a reply.]
[He turned, and Nanako and Mimiko hurried to his sides, taking his weight as he made his way toward the massive pelican cursed spirit one labored step at a time.]
[At the edge of its huge open beak, he stopped.]
[His gaze dropped to Larue’s headless body lying nearby in the dirt.]
[Those perpetually narrowed eyes opened a little wider, and something real finally showed through.]
[His lips moved soundlessly, shaping one last goodbye.]
[Then he stepped into the pelican’s mouth with the two girls, and the cursed spirit rose into the air.]
[Standing on its back high above the field, he lifted a hand in a lazy wave.]
["Well then, everyone. See you on the battlefield..."]
[Your grip tightened on the hilt until your knuckles whitened. The tip of the blade followed Geto’s ascent, and a low growl scraped up from your ruined throat.]
["Next time we meet, I will kill you with my own hands."]
[Geto turned at the sound of your voice.]
[He let out a quiet sigh, and the look he gave you, standing there in that lake of blood, was too complicated to fit into any neat label.]
["I don’t understand," he said softly, almost like he was genuinely asking. "Touma Hayase. You’ve already reached power on the level of a Special Grade. So why are you still so desperate to protect those stupid monkeys? Why do you even care?"]
[You tipped your head back and met his eyes without wavering.]
[Your answer came out cold, steady, and simple.]
["Because I am a person first, and a Jujutsu Sorcerer second."]
