“Your cursed technique… is truly powerful.”
Hajime Kashimo nodded as he bit into the meat patty in his hand.
“…But, I have a question.”
“If it’s something like ‘why didn’t you kill me,’ please spare me. Everyone I let go asks me that.” Kinoshita tossed another homemade meat patty to Kashimo, sitting inside the room that had a massive hole blown through it, looking out at the devastated battlefield.
“…It’s because of Kenjaku, right?”
“You could say that.”
Kashimo caught the patty and didn’t press the issue further.
Instead, he pondered the sensation he had experienced within Chaos, where even time itself had become a twisted mess.
“That technique… what’s the maximum amount of time it can last?”
“A hundred years, probably.”
“How long did I experience?”
“Three months.”
Kashimo sighed.
If that was the case, had he taken the full brunt of Chaos, he likely would have been paralyzed by the aftereffects for a very long time after escaping.
“What a terrifying move. I never want to get hit by that again in this lifetime.”
Kashimo tossed the crumpled wrapper into a nearby trash can, grabbed his Nyoi Staff, and looked at Kinoshita.
“You have more to your cursed technique than just that, don’t you? If you had continuously carpet-bombed me with those techniques, I probably wouldn’t have lasted even a single second.”
“Don’t say that.” Kinoshita waved his hand.
“With your amount of cursed energy, you’d probably be fine, right?”
“Maybe not.”
Kashimo turned around wordlessly, grabbed the edge of the bed, and lay down.
“Besides, I haven’t used that move in a long time. What’s wrong with testing it out…”
Kashimo remained silent.
After a while, he suddenly turned over, propped his head up, and looked at Kinoshita.
“…I have a question. Different from the one before.”
Kinoshita nodded, gesturing for Kashimo to speak.
“Were you born the strongest, or did you become the strongest later on?”
“What kind of question is that? No matter how strong someone is, if you kill them while they’re still a baby, they’ll still die.”
“…Then, as someone who became the strongest later on, how do you interact with people?”
A look of “anticipation” appeared on Kashimo’s normally unfazed face.
Correspondingly, Kinoshita answered openly and without complaint.
“I interact with them normally.”
“…Even with those ordinary people who would turn to dust if you just lightly squeezed them, who would vanish completely if you just blew on them… you interact with them normally?”
“You seem to have fallen into a misunderstanding… We are humans first, and jujutsu sorcerers second. If you lose your humanity just because you’re too strong, then what difference is there between you and a curse?” This chapter was copied from novelping.com without permission.
“…” Kashimo fell silent.
“Even if you treat the people around you as talking flowers, or as the earth responding to your voice, you are still living among people. Are you really not going to treat yourself as the same species as them just because you could kill them with a wave of your hand?”
“Maybe… that’s exactly it.”
Kashimo turned his back, no longer looking at Kinoshita.
Kinoshita continued speaking as he leaned in closer.
“You’re lonely, aren’t you? I can smell it. You reek of a savage who hasn’t socialized with people in ages. These questions, and your technique… you prepared them all for Sukuna, didn’t you?”
Kashimo opened his mouth, thought for a moment, and then closed it without saying a word.
“Give it a rest. Sukuna is someone who literally lived his life as a curse. Haven’t you read the books about him? Do you really think a guy who finds joy in eating people is going to answer these questions for you?”
“Aren’t the strong… destined to be lonely?” Kashimo finally asked.
“Why must they be lonely?”
…Why?
Kashimo lowered his head, his thoughts drifting back to that afternoon.
If he had just lightly knocked on the door back then, could he have shared a drink and laughed with his friend again?
…Perhaps.
Kashimo told himself that.
Then, he picked up his staff.
“Leaving?” Kinoshita, lying on his side on the bed, watched Kashimo carry his staff toward the hole in the wall.
“Hey, Kashimo. Make more friends, kill fewer people.”
“…Yeah.”
Kashimo still looked heavily burdened by his thoughts, but it didn’t matter.
Of course, Kinoshita knew he was the king of specious arguments, and he didn’t expect Kashimo to genuinely take much of it to heart anyway.
Kashimo leaped up and departed through the breach in the wall.
A shadow flew from Kinoshita’s palm.
Nue flapped its wings and looked at him.
“What are you going to do now?”
“Ah… right now is the time to do absolutely nothing.” Kinoshita took a bite of his homemade meat patty.
“And then?”
Nue folded its wings, its eyes beneath the mask watching the lightning dancing in the air.
“Right now… right now, I guess I should probably exit the Culling Game first?”
Watching Nue bob its head, Kinoshita thought for a moment, then nodded.
“Also, I need to get the Deer back. Without the Deer, the output of my Reverse Cursed Technique isn’t quite enough…”
“You barely even used the Divine Dogs in that fight just now. Those two dogs were barking up a storm inside your shadow for ages.”
“If I used them, the fight would’ve ended in an instant… Controlling my strength is hard. If I killed him by accident, how was I supposed to test my Hollow Technique?”
Nue flapped its wings and kicked Kinoshita hard twice with its talons.
“Those two dogs and that tiger are driving your granddaddy bird here absolutely deaf with all that noise! And that Hollow Technique thing, why the hell are you even researching that stuff?”
“It’s fun.”
“Fuck, it’s rotten.”
Sigh, makes sense when you think about it.
It had been three days.
Fruits not put in the fridge were mostly bound to start rotting.
Kinoshita looked at the bowl of rotten fruit, disgustedly swished some cursed energy around his mouth like mouthwash, and violently spat again.
“So you’re not going to use your granddaddy bird’s technique either?”
“What do you mean? Haven’t I been using it this whole time?”
“You just used it for defense?! Gah gah! You bring me nothing but shame!”
Nue flapped around wildly on Kinoshita like a rabid pheasant.
Kinoshita’s hands danced around, deflecting Nue’s talon strikes.
“Alright, alright, I won’t hold back next time, okay?”
Kinoshita stood up and walked over to the hole in the wall, looking outside.
I’ll leave this colony to Hajime Kashimo…
He’ll probably manage to hook some people from Jujutsu High when the time comes.
Should I go find Hiromi Higuruma?
Wouldn’t the average strength in the Tokyo No.
1 Colony be a bit too weak…?
But I’d probably run into Megumi Fushiguro there.
Kinoshita rubbed his chin, pondering what to do next.
I helped the main cast by adding the rule for inter-colony travel…
Then, there’s the promise with Kenjaku.
Sigh—I still have to maintain the continuous operation of the Culling Game, so I can’t just go all out.
So troublesome, so troublesome!
Thinking this, Kinoshita immediately flapped his wings.
He launched into the air, tearing aggressively toward the colony’s boundary.
Round Deer, Piercing Ox…
and then I can just unlock Mahoraga right after, right?
Without Mahoraga, my strength really isn’t as overwhelmingly dominant…
If I had to face Sukuna right now…
Kinoshita pondered—combining the strength Sukuna displayed in the memories of his past life with his own current state and the intel he had gathered on Sukuna here.
…It’s really hard to calculate.
Well, like Satoru Gojo said…
I’d win, probably.