Jujutsu Kaisen: Tragedy Life Simulator-Chapter 93 - All you needed was time [bonus]
[The giant pelican cursed spirit beat its wings and hauled the mangled Suguru Geto up into the sky, vanishing toward the horizon in a storm of wind and feathers.
Then the backlash hit you all at once.
Rapidly cloning and swapping between multiple top-tier cursed techniques. Pushing Reverse Cursed Technique way past what it should have been able to handle while your cursed energy bled out like water from a cracked tank. A right arm that was basically hanging on by sheer spite.]
Every bill came due at once.
Vertigo crashed into your skull so hard it almost dropped you on the spot. Nausea twisted your stomach. Your vision doubled, then blacked out for a split second.
You drove the cleaver into the muddy ground and leaned your weight against it, barely managing to stay upright.]
[Satoru Gojo looked at the state of you. His hand lifted like he was about to catch you, then stopped halfway. A second later, he let it fall.]
[The fight had moved too fast. So fast it didn’t even feel real.]
[To everyone else, all they’d seen was power smashing into power, your Projection Sorcery burst, the flash of reversed Red, and the final crack of black lightning ripping through the battlefield. It had been too fast, too violent, for even veteran Grade 1 sorcerers to follow the actual exchange underneath it.]
[Only after the dust settled, after the leftover shockwaves of cursed energy died down and the swarm of cursed spirits Geto had summoned finally pulled back, did Masamichi Yaga snap out of it and sprint your way.]
["Touma!"]
[The moment he got close enough to see your injuries clearly, even Yaga froze. His pupils tightened.]
[Your right arm looked the worst by far. Whole sections of muscle had been torn open, white bone exposed to the air. You’d lost enough blood that just standing there looked like work.]
[Yaga twisted around and shouted over his shoulder, voice cracking with rage and panic.]
["Shoko! Now! Get over here and heal..."]
[Before he could finish, you raised your left hand and waved him off.]
[The dizziness was awful. The nausea was worse. But when you spoke, your voice came out calm and level.]
["It’s fine, Principal Yaga. I can handle this myself. Save Shoko’s energy for the others. This isn’t over yet. Don’t worry about me."]
[Everyone there knew you could use Reverse Cursed Technique. They all knew you were good at it. But looking at your face, not one of them could make those words line up with what they were seeing.]
[You had just killed a powerful curse user by yourself, then pushed yourself to the absolute edge to cripple Suguru Geto, a Special Grade sorcerer at the peak of the jujutsu world, badly enough that he had to cut off his own arm to live.]
[That kind of record wasn’t just impressive. It was the sort of thing that got written into history.]
[And the person who’d done it, pale, broken, half-bled out, did not look like someone who "didn’t need help."]
[Kento Nanami quietly stepped up beside you. He nudged his slightly crooked goggles back into place and looked at the faint tremor running through your body. His mouth opened, like he wanted to say something, but nothing came out.]
[The gap between you had gotten too wide. He didn’t even know where to start.]
[You didn’t seem to notice. You just reached back and held the cleaver out to him.]
["Thanks. That helped a lot."]
[You said it softly.]
[Nanami took the weapon without a word. His eyes moved from your face, drained of all the killing intent that had been there moments ago, down to the blade in his hands, still wet with a Special Grade’s blood. A bitter little smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.] 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢
[More than anything, he wished that when it really mattered, he’d been able to do more than lend you a weapon.]
[A rough caw cut through the air.]
[A crow, dropped from the sky with Asakirimaru dangling from its beak, the sword you’d used to take Larue’s head.]
[It landed neatly on your shoulder. You took the blade from its beak and gave Mei Mei a small nod. She stood a short distance away, watching you with open interest and not much attempt to hide it.]
["Appreciate it, Ms. Mei."]
[After sheathing the sword, you turned back toward Yaga’s grim face and took a slow breath, forcing the dizziness back down.]
["I’ll sit out the next part. I need a little rest. Once the operation starts, I’ll be there on time."]
[Yaga stared at you, at a body that looked one good breeze away from collapsing. Every instinct he had screamed at him to shut you down right there. Tell you to stop. Tell you to get on a stretcher and stay there. Tell you the rest of them could handle it.]
[But he’d known you too long, and what was coming next weighed too heavily.]
[So the words stayed behind his teeth.]
[Because what you’d shown in that fight had left every Grade 1 sorcerer there in the dust. Even Yaga, your own teacher, could only stand back and watch from a distance he could never cross.]
[In the eyes of Yaga, Nanami, Mei Mei, and every first-year student on that field, it no longer mattered that the higher-ups hadn’t officially named you Special Grade.]
[You already were one.]
[More than that, you’d become what Satoru Gojo had always been, the ceiling. The benchmark. The point where everyone else had to stop and admit, Yeah, that’s the limit.]
[Yaga had a thousand things he wanted to say, and none of them made it out. In the end, he let out one long breath and forced out a single word.]
["...Alright."]
[They watched in silence as you dragged yourself away, step by heavy step, alone, heading for your office.]
[By that point, both your body and your mind were at the end of their rope.]
[Still, with Ultimate Energy-Saving Mode active and Tryhard stacked on top of it, four solid hours of real sleep should, in theory, be enough to drag your wrecked body back into fighting shape before the actual battle started.]
[All you needed was time. And there wasn’t much of that left.]
