Chapter 51 : Unable to Form Connections and Bonds
Jiang Lai started reading from the incident where he and Geto Suguru went to the village together.
Since this was something he had personally experienced, he read quickly, only pausing at the parts describing Geto Suguru's psychological state, using those inner monologue boxes to further understand Geto's mental struggles at the time.
After the village incident concluded, Geto Suguru walked alone into the night, distancing himself from the mundane human world.
The [Existence] in dark blue kimono did the exact opposite, blending into the crowd and walking toward Mimiko and Nanako.
The scene suddenly shifted, with the manga's color tone dropping considerably, the overall pages presenting in gray-black.
The background was an unremarkable interior of a house, with clean, tidy walls.
The center of the frame focused on a wooden chair in the room, with a woman in a long dress sitting on it. But only her lips were shown, the upper half of her face wasn't drawn.
Geto Suguru stood not far from the wooden chair. His expression was incredibly complex, and after opening his mouth, he still called out:
"...Mother."
Mother?! Seeing this, Jiang Lai's hand trembled instinctively, his pupils shaking.
Wait, weren't Geto Suguru's parents both missing?! If his mother was still alive, why didn't they meet regularly??
And this expression didn't look like a scene of friendly mother and son reuniting.
He quickly flipped the page to continue reading.
In the frame, this woman was knitting something in her hands. At this moment, she stopped her actions, tilted her head slightly, her red lips curving into a perfect arc:
"Suguru is back? Did you have fun playing outside."
"..." Geto Suguru didn't respond, he only said, "I agree that useless people should pave the way for useful people."
"You've finally figured it out, good child?" The woman said this, the corner of her lips visible in the frame still smiling, "Yuikawa said when he came back last time that you still seemed quite stubborn. Speaking of which, he was severely damaged."
"I didn't know he was from the Supervisory Committee before." Then Geto Suguru's face darkened, "He killed my sorcerer junior. He deserved to die."
"Everyone is part of the same body, don't say such things." The woman spoke gently, "He's still in the process of being [nurtured] again. When he comes out, you two should make up."
"My philosophy differs from his." Geto Suguru's fox-like squinting expression held only coldness.
The woman was quiet for a panel, then spoke again: "It seems Suguru's understanding of 'useless people' hasn't reached the ultimate depth yet."
Geto Suguru remained unmoved.
The woman didn't continue, her words suddenly shifting: "Why did you spare the people in that village?"
Geto Suguru was stunned for a second, then showed some anger: "You promised not to monitor me."
"Just some concern for my child." The woman sighed softly, "This can't be called monitoring. I don't interfere with your daily life, I just want to understand what missions you take on and the situation after completing them, that's all."
"You've worked hard, good child." The woman placed her knitting on the table beside her, slightly extending her arms, saying gently, "Do you want to come to mother? Rest well."
Geto Suguru didn't move: "No need." He said, "Let's start work directly. I've already figured out how to practice [righteousness]."
"If Suguru joins, everyone would naturally welcome it. We've had our eye on you for a long time." The woman's smile remained unchanged, her words suddenly returning: "Why did you spare the people in that village?"
"...It was no longer necessary." Geto Suguru answered.
The woman folded her hands together, asking lightly: "Isn't it because of that person who went on the mission with Suguru?"
Geto Suguru's fingers moved slightly, he paused for a few seconds, answering vaguely: "A little. I didn't want to affect him."
"Didn't want to affect him..." The woman seemed to ponder for a while, then smiled, her pale fingers gently stroking, suddenly asking: "Would Suguru be willing to tell mother what he is?"
"?" Geto Suguru's eyebrows furrowed slightly. In the inner monologue box behind him appeared his thoughts: [Why ask this suddenly... could she also know about 'Existence'?]
The woman maintained her unchanging smile, patiently waiting for the young man's answer.
Geto Suguru's face showed his usual expression as he answered normally: "He's Satoru's friend. I know him too."
The inner dialogue box read: [Lai said he couldn't form too many connections with that identity, better keep it secret.]
The woman didn't reply immediately, several panels focused on her light finger tapping, then she picked up her knitting again: "Hmm, good."
The topic returned, the next step went back to the original subject, "In that case, go back and finish what wasn't done at the village, or should mother help you handle it?"
The scene ended here, the next panel was pure black.
Jiang Lai gripped his phone tightly, his emotions shaken.
Who exactly was this woman who suddenly appeared?! Was the village incident something she instigated or did personally??
This person should also be an internal member of the Supervisory Committee, because she said "join" and "everyone welcomes you," and after Geto Suguru left, he went to find the Supervisory Committee that had previously managed him.
But this "mother"... logically, with Geto Suguru's parents both missing (most likely dead), this should be a code name commonly used in daily life.
Jiang Lai: Wait, so sinister yet motherly, it couldn't be you, brain flower...!!
His thoughts raced, he exhaled softly, refocusing his mind on the key point: this person seemed to be paying attention to him.
Jiang Lai remained silent, his gaze falling on the screen as he quickly finished reading the rest.
Later, Gojo Satoru found Geto Suguru, following a similar trajectory as in the original work.
The two confronted each other, Satoru confused and angry, Suguru tired and indifferent, finally going their separate ways.
After returning to school, Yaga Masamichi gave the black sesame cookies to Gojo Satoru.
In the frame, the white-haired boy clutched the small snack bag in his hand, head lowered, expression unclear, finally saying: "...He left too?"
Principal Yaga informed Gojo Satoru of that brief message "see you next time."
The white-haired boy stood silent for a long while, in the next panel, he raised his face again, still showing that arrogant, unrestrained attitude, his beautiful blue eyes sharp in the light:
"Everyone's leaving! From now on, don't expect me to treat anyone to meals, I'll only invite Shoko when I eat out!!"
He strode away with large steps, like a whirlwind, directly going to the infirmary to find Ieiri Shoko.
The following panels were roughly drawn, showing Gojo Satoru and Ieiri Shoko in a restaurant, the table full of elaborate dishes, with clinking wine glasses set aside.
"..." Jiang Lai paused here. He remembered the setting mentioned that Gojo Satoru wasn't good at drinking (or rather, completely couldn't drink).
The facts proved this was correct. In the frame, Ieiri Shoko swirled the wine glass in her hand, saying: "Stop it, you can't drink anyway. If you fall asleep, I can't carry you back."
From the wine bottles and glasses beside him, the white-haired boy seemed to have had a few drinks.
He wasn't drunk or asleep. He just sat unusually quietly in his chair, different from usual, his glass-bead-like sky-blue eyes staring at the table surface, his inner monologue box showing a series of ellipses.
No one knew what he was thinking.
After a panel of pure white space, it continued to the scene of Gojo Satoru bringing Nanako and Mimiko back to Jujutsu High.
He seemed to have quickly returned to his usual mental state, stylish and arrogant, living carefree each day.
Next were panels spanning a large time period, depicting events from 2007 to 2017 in brief scenes.
Just like in the original work, Nanami Kento left the jujutsu world then returned, Tsumiki was cursed with an unknown spell and fell into slumber, Okkotsu Yuta was sentenced to death for the Special Grade vengeful cursed spirit Rika and came to Jujutsu High...
Since the plot was similar to the original work, these transitions were just brief panels highlighting key points, indicating their occurrence, nothing more.
In the manga, Gojo Satoru, who had become a Jujutsu High teacher, had long shed his teenage need to save face, constantly joking around with students without shame, easily able to say all kinds of intimate or embarrassing words.
His personality was extremely flamboyant, white bandages more completely covering his eyes than his former sunglasses. He was usually casual and carefree, but his true emotions seemed rarely revealed.
This daily life continued until they received a "Night Parade of a Hundred Demons" notice, signed with the name [Geto Suguru].
The update stopped there abruptly.
Jiang Lai pondered for a few seconds, then opened the discussion thread for the latest chapter of the new series on the forum.
【Wuwu!! I'm crying to death, those unspoken inner thoughts, secrets never shared with you, turbulent waves beneath calm surfaces, are partings always inevitable? My [Lai and Oil Stick] combination just debuted and completely disbanded…】
【Grass, laughing to death, I was teary-eyed originally, but the atmosphere was completely ruined at the end!! What kind of weird trio name is this, why not call it [Oil Stick Lai], [Lai's Five Pancakes]? (dog)】
【Ahhhh the information in these chapters is too shocking!! Are there any analysis experts to break it down?!】
【Let me throw out some initial thoughts. About Yuikawa Kurisu, from the dialogue in the manga, he indeed didn't die. Or rather, he died but can be revived.
The word [nurturing] is very interesting. Not sure if Yuikawa is growing again in someone's belly, or being born from some kind of cultivation vessel and then receiving flesh.
However, this situation should have nothing to do with Yuikawa's personal technique, but rather with their organization, the Supervisory Committee.
Combined with the sun totem forehead marks drawn in previous manga chapters, it's very likely this is a common characteristic of core members with complete forehead marks: they won't truly die.】
【Uwah! So angry! That bad dog is still going to live!! If core members can't truly die, this Supervisory Committee is too hard to deal with!】
【Yes, unfortunately, the bad dog will still live (sigh), but it's okay, it's equivalent to having another chance to scatter his ashes hahaha! Whoever it is, quickly scatter this bad thing's ashes again! (going crazy)】
【Cough, speaking of which, from their dialogue, I think there's another very important point: about the definition of [useless people].
Geto's thinking is similar to the original work, considering ordinary people worthless. But from that woman's response, you can tell she has no problem with Yuikawa killing Haibara, even subtly mocking that Geto Suguru's understanding isn't deep enough.
From this, you can see that their definition of [useless people] includes not only ordinary people but also sorcerers. Just not sure what their specific evaluation criteria are.】
【Uh, forcibly implementing some kind of survival of the fittest elimination system? Speaking of which, who is that woman? It couldn't be the brain flower, could it…】
【Thumbs up for the analysis expert above. Since the analysis expert above already analyzed dog Yuikawa, I'll briefly talk about the newly appeared woman.
Geto Suguru calls her "mother." But Geto Suguru's real parents should already be dead.
So this "mother" could be a term for an adoptive mother (referring to the person from the Supervisory Committee who raised him), or a code name (but why this code name needs more clues to analyze).
Geto's relationship with her isn't very good, but not very bad either. It's a very delicate balance.
Honestly, with this sinister mother art style, my first reaction was also brain flower... Brain flower wasn't mentioned in the new series before, but appearing now would be reasonable.
And this kind of testing, elimination, evolution system seems to overlap with its original work philosophy.】
【Wait, if we reason this way...
Known: Brain flower was Itadori's mother, Geto calls brain flower mother, so Itadori and Geto Suguru are brothers?? Hahahaha sorry but it's really absurdly sinister and funny!!】
【Hmm... I think the focus of this chapter isn't whether this woman is brain flower or not, but that they mentioned God Lai in their conversation.
From their conversation, you can tell the woman has been paying attention to Geto Suguru, naturally noticing God Lai's appearances. Even Principal Yaga could sense God Lai's difference, the Supervisory Committee probably could too.
So this woman asked why Geto didn't act, guiding the topic toward God Lai.
Although Geto Suguru didn't directly reveal God Lai's identity, I think this woman already glimpsed something from Geto Suguru's response about "not wanting to affect."
Combined with the previous unclear prophecy about finding something near Gojo Satoru, I think it probably refers to God Lai. And the Supervisory Committee has also discovered who their target is.】
Seeing this, Jiang Lai's eyes sharpened!
...Looking for himself?
【Ah?? Looking for God Lai, what do they want God Lai for!!】
【Because of [Clock]? Although I don't know what this term means, it should be for this reason... The Supervisory Committee is so sinister, I'm so scared wuwuwu!!】
【I think the analyses above all make sense... If this is the case, this Night Parade of a Hundred Demons incident might have different reasons from the original work.
After all, the Geto Suguru here no longer forms his own team like in the original, but has the Supervisory Committee as backing. He doesn't need to obtain Special Grade cursed spirit Rika.
Of course, maybe Geto and the Supervisory Committee still disagree, so he plans to go solo, then having one more Rika means one more layer of strength hhh】
【Hiss... Family members, I suddenly have a bad guess.
That is, if the Supervisory Committee thinks God Lai is the "thing" they're looking for, their next target will definitely be aimed at God Lai, whether observing, capturing, or killing.
But God Lai left not long after returning to Jujutsu High, and couldn't be found during the long period.
Known that God Lai's previous appearances were related to Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru, is it possible that to lure him out, the Supervisory Committee deliberately set up this situation...
After all, the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons is so massive, the wandering God Lai might also hear about this event related to both Gojo and Geto, then come to this place.
Whatever the Supervisory Committee wants God Lai for, I think, according to Geto Suguru's personality, he wouldn't really do something to harm his former good friend.
So he very likely doesn't know the truth behind it, just planning the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons to seize cursed spirit Rika according to his own righteousness.
But actually, this event is promoted and permitted by the Supervisory Committee, Geto is one of the baits released by the Supervisory Committee.】
【?? Ahhhh no!! Too sinister QAQ!! What does the Supervisory Committee want God Lai for?! How can they use friends as bait!】
【Suddenly scared, this is too tragic, is this why "unable to form connections"? You'll be bound by worldly ties…】
Seeing this, Jiang Lai's mood grew heavy.
He thought: ...So what exactly is the content of that prophecy?
Why does the Supervisory Committee want to find him? Is it to use him, or destroy him?
Just then, Jiang Lai sensed that the code alarm he had set earlier was triggered.
He quickly put away his phone, letting the book-like appearance float beside him, becoming alert and keenly looking up...
Leaping onto the roof of a nearby low building was a figure with black hair in a half-up bun, the wind lifting his black and gold kasaya.
Geto Suguru?! Jiang Lai was somewhat shocked at this moment.
Wait, logically, if his target was Rika, shouldn't he be at Jujutsu High looking for Okkotsu Yuta right now? Why would he appear here?
The moment Jiang Lai looked up, the figure in black and gold kasaya on the roof seemed to sense something too, looking down.
Across a moderate distance, their gazes met in the air.