Jujutsu Kaisen: Nozomi no Sora

Xuan Yi's blood seemed to freeze in that instant.

The eyeball embedded in the center of the mass of flesh was staring at him motionlessly through the gap in the sutures.

In an instant, Xuan Yi felt a profound sense of powerlessness.

The so-called harvesting and sealing are nothing more than a game of chess that can be turned around at will in front of Lu Suo Mian.

"How is this possible..." Xuan Yi's throat tightened. "Wasn't that guy sealed away in Tokyo?!"

Lu Su frowned slightly, his expression like that of a teacher facing a student who could not solve a simple problem.

"You really don't understand anything."

He chuckled softly, his fingertips gently stroking the surface of the fleshy mass, as if soothing a docile pet.

"Tengen's barrier is interconnected between the Tokyo and Kyoto campuses. The purpose of this barrier isn't just to help the college hide valuables; the most important thing is—"

It was to hide himself.

In that case, wouldn't it be safer to connect the two campuses and leverage the combined strength of Tokyo and Kyoto to protect ourselves?

As he spoke, he held the lump of flesh in his hand, smiling gently, a smile that looked particularly eerie under the streetlights.

"But it's all thanks to that old fox's thoughtful planning that I was able to rescue the real person."

"But why..." Xuan Yi gritted his teeth, which were bleeding, "to drag all those unrelated ordinary people into this?!"

"Innocent?" Lu Suo raised an eyebrow, following Xuan Yi's gaze to look at the crowd of people muttering prayers and looking blankly at the end of the street. A knowing smile appeared on his face. "Oh, you mean those people? They can't exactly be considered innocent, can they?"

He tilted his head, his tone relaxed.

"The curse originates from people's negative emotions."

And those ordinary people you mentioned, Xuan Yijun, aren't they the culprits behind the creation of cursed spirits?

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"If that's the case, if I could kill them all at once, wouldn't the curses and all that disappear?"

Upon hearing this, everyone present seemed to hold their breath for a moment.

The songstress's pupils contracted sharply, Kamo Noriyuki's face turned deathly pale, and even the usually carefree Toudou Aoi wore an expression of disbelief. The chill was even more biting than Rime's frost, shooting straight from the soles of everyone's feet to the top of their heads.

What is this guy... saying?

Lu Suo seemed quite satisfied with everyone's reaction, and the smile on his lips widened further.

He took a step forward, his gaze refocusing on Xuan Yi. In Xia Youjie's eyes, there gleamed a nauseating malice that seemed to see through everything.

"Xuan Yi Jun, I always thought we should be able to understand each other." His voice was lowered, with a seductive magnetism. "You are different from those guys. On your scales, the life and death of ordinary people should not be of much importance, right?"

You only protect those you are willing to protect. Or rather, whether it's Urajong, Sunpyeong, or Singgi, you are willing to save them because you think they are valuable, right?

So if an ordinary person died in front of you, you probably wouldn't feel a ripple of emotion at all, right?

Lu Su's lips parted in a grin, revealing his gleaming white teeth.

"Your code of conduct is so easy to understand!"

"What nonsense are you talking about..." Xuan Yi squeezed out these words through gritted teeth, his heart pounding wildly in his chest.

He tried his best to deny it all, but a deeper, deliberately buried sense of guilt was brutally brought out by Lu Suo's words.

Seeing Xuan Yi's slightly wavering gaze, Lu Suo felt as if he had finally tasted a long-awaited delicacy. He tilted his head slightly and uttered that fatal name:

Do you remember Yohei Ishida?

Xuan Yi's breathing suddenly stopped.

That name was like a rusty key, suddenly thrusting into the lock he least wanted to touch deep in his memory.

Yohei Ishida—the senior who lived with Gen Nishio in a cheap apartment before entering high school; the upperclassman who always covered for him at the coffee shop, always smiling and saying, "Young people should rest more"; the kind-hearted guy who could work three jobs at the same time to support his four adopted sisters and still enjoy it.

"That good-natured guy who works at the coffee shop and claims to be supporting his four adopted sisters," Lu Suo added slowly, each word like a slow, agonizing torture, "slipped away from Lou Hu just like you, but he wasn't as lucky as you!"

Mimiko hung his body in her house for three days and no one found it!

"I'm telling you, Xuan Yi Jun, you've never really cared about this kind of thing, have you?"

Lu Suo's words echoed in his ears, as if a heavy hammer had struck Xuan Yi's temple.

The world before my eyes began to spin, and the sounds outside became distant and indistinct.

Why?

Is it because there are just too many incidents coming one after another, and it's impossible to manage them all?

Is it because I am trying my best to avoid the occurrence of those "major tragedies" that I can only ignore some individual, insignificant tragedies?

Or……

Did he actually never truly identify with the identity of "Genichi Nishio"?

Although deeply involved in the fate of this world, I still maintain the detached reader's mindset when facing everything.

Is this just treating this game like a game where you can reload and start over, only saving the "important characters" while ignoring the so-called "NPCs"?

The senior who would cook him instant noodles late at night, the senior who covered his shift at the coffee shop, the senior who offered him warmth when he was at his most desperate...

Was his death less important to Xu An than a single line from Gojo Satoru?

"Looks like I was right." Lu Suo smiled slyly, the smile magnifying in Xuan Yi's distorted vision. "So I chose these ordinary people who have nothing to do with you. You shouldn't feel awkward about that, right?"

"Hey! I don't care if you're the real deal or an imposter!" The songstress couldn't take it anymore. She tried to break free of her frozen legs, her voice trembling with extreme anger. "You think the sorcery world will just stand by and do nothing about dragging so many innocent people into this?!"

Lu Suo waved his hand unmoved, his gaze never leaving Xuan Yi's eyes, which were gradually losing focus.

"Do whatever you want, as long as you still have time to come find me."

After he finished speaking, he lightly snapped his fingers.

Click.

As if some switch had been flipped, the zombie-like crowd stopped in their tracks.

They stiffly raised their heads, their empty eyes staring at the night sky. Then, trembling, they slowly put the ominous cursed objects they had been clutching in their hands into their mouths, bit by bit.

Xuan Yi's fingernails dug deeply into his palm, and blood dripped from between his fingers.

Should we continue... as bystanders?

He stared at the ordinary people who were about to swallow the cursed objects, but his mind was blank—did he really care? Or was he just unwilling to admit to Lu Suo that he was that cold-blooded, selfish bastard?

Perhaps Lu Suo is right; he is a ghost who has taken over other people's bodies, a reader who picks roles from a script.

Yohei Ishida died without him even blinking; he couldn't even remember the names of the charred corpses in the coffee shop.

He saved Huzhang, Shunping, and Xinji only because they were "valuable," because saving them made him feel like a hero!

And what about these ordinary people? These "background characters" who don't even deserve to have names in the story, why should he, Genichi Nishio, risk his life for them?

But if we just stand there and watch them die, and then comfort ourselves afterwards by saying "I was powerless" or "This was a necessary sacrifice"...

What is this?

Are they too lazy to even pretend anymore?

Even if it's just for show!

Even if it's just to prove Ryosaku wrong, even if it's just to avoid dreaming about Ishida Yohei's hanged face tonight, even if it's just the most hypocritical and self-deceiving performance!

As long as I can move now, as long as I can still pretend that "Genichi Nishio" is a real person, not just an empty shell!

He has no choice but to keep "acting"!

"Stop it—!!"

The moment that roar tore through his throat, Xuan Yi himself couldn't tell whether it was genuine anger or just a way to cover up the voice in his heart that kept mocking him.

Let's ignore it for now!

A violent surge of curse power erupted suddenly from Xuan Yi's center, the pitch-black curse power soaring into the sky as if it were a tangible substance.

The frost binding him crumbled instantly before this tyrannical will. His skin shattered along with the broken ice crystals, and blood stained the frost and snow. His eyes were filled with pure anger and pity.

"What's going on with this cursed power that's completely different from before?!" For the first time, Lu Suo's smile froze.

He saw Xuan Yi's hand gesture gradually rising.

Lu Suo's expression finally changed, and without any hesitation, he formed a hand seal at the same time.

Two voices, one murky and one bright, exploded simultaneously in the center of the battlefield—

"Domain Expansion—"

"The Land of Nothingness!"

VS

"The wombs are everywhere!"