Chapter 54 : I'm Counting on You
Gojo Satoru had arrived.
Jiang Lai exhaled in relief, his tense body relaxing somewhat. He leaned against the wall, overcoming the waves of blackness and pain before his eyes, trying his best to stand steady.
Not far beside him, Geto Suguru, having broken free from his marionette-like state, instinctively wanted to step forward, but after taking half a step, he stopped and no longer approached Jiang Lai.
At this moment, Jiang Lai was still struggling with waves of dizziness and couldn't see the expression on the young man's face clearly.
The aftermath of the explosion dissipated in an instant, leaving a large crater in the ground still filled with smoke and dust.
The tall, white-haired young man landed from the air, taking a few steps forward to support Jiang Lai. When he noticed blood flowing from between the fingers covering the other's neck, his movements paused slightly.
"..." Geto Suguru's arms hung naturally at his sides. He remained silent throughout, offering no explanations.
On the other side of the alley, the purple three-handed cursed spirit that Jiang Lai had flung away earlier now stood motionless without cursed spirit manipulation commands. Blood from its blade-hands dripped onto the ground, splashing into tiny blood flowers.
The alley filled with the smell of blood, along with this oppressive atmosphere and cursed energy swaying on the edge of boiling.
Jiang Lai caught his breath and spoke first: "...It wasn't Geto, cough cough... I'm fine."
Because of his neck injury, his words carried rasping noise, but his tone remained steady.
Communication to clear up misunderstandings, Jiang Lai decided his first sentence must explain clearly! And he had to deny first then add the name, lest his words weren't fully spoken and cause all sorts of misunderstandings.
And he really wasn't in any serious trouble, except for the pain that made his vision go black and the cursed energy consumption.
As an [Existence], he wouldn't die from severe wounds or excessive blood loss. This was what Jiang Lai deduced from his current reality.
He guessed this was likely related to the concept of [Existence]: the human body was an anthropomorphized form, but that didn't mean his structure was human. Human fatal points weren't his fatal points.
He would be weak and in pain, but wouldn't die from it.
However, logically speaking, he shouldn't be immortal either. Jiang Lai thought. He just wasn't clear where [Existence]'s weakness lay.
Currently, Jiang Lai covered his throat with one hand. Beyond the pain, he could sense the terrible wound on his neck was recovering at a slow pace.
Not as fast as reverse cursed technique, but his body was indeed performing self-repair, using cursed energy for mending.
Getting injured once and learning more about himself was probably a blessing in disguise. Jiang Lai pursed his lips, thinking relatively optimistically.
Gojo Satoru's Six Eyes could see the slow recovery of the wound. His hand gripping Jiang Lai's shoulder loosened:
"Oh my, didn't expect that even after being a thousand-year-old demon, your reverse cursed technique is still so unskilled~ Lai." His tone carried its usual teasing, as if there hadn't been ten years of separation.
"Cough cough... this is called self-repair..." Jiang Lai tried to breathe steadily, preventing his throat from sounding like a broken bellows.
"Alright, just don't talk for now." Gojo Satoru handed over a clean handkerchief from nearby, forcefully stuffing it into Jiang Lai's hand, indicating he should temporarily use this to press the wound, "I'll ask Geto about the rest."
The jujutsu world's strongest hands were cold. It wasn't clear if this was his natural temperature or because of the current situation.
Before Gojo Satoru could ask anything, Geto Suguru beside them suddenly spoke: "I was the one who attacked."
"?!" Hearing this, Jiang Lai quickly looked up,
"I know." Gojo Satoru nodded, turning his face with a steady voice, "I saw it."
His sky-blue eyes gazed at Geto Suguru: "I saw it. The residue from Six Eyes also points to you, which is why I'm asking you, who did it?"
Geto Suguru was slightly stunned: "What?"
"Who did it." At this moment, the white-haired young man's cursed energy fluctuated violently like a tsunami around him, his cold aura like an iceberg pressing down, heavy and silent.
Whether familiar with him or not, everyone could sense that the jujutsu world's strongest was angry.
"Who controlled you." Gojo Satoru's voice was exceptionally calm, but beneath this calm lay cold, dark anger that couldn't be easily extinguished.
Geto Suguru paused, moving his fingers to manipulate the purple three-handed cursed spirit at the alley entrance back to his side: "What if I actually did it?" He smiled, "Don't think so well of me, Satoru. I'm a curse user now."
"You have your own principles and wouldn't attack Lai." Gojo Satoru's expression remained calm, "I trust you on this point."
"Trust..." Geto Suguru's eyelids lowered as he chuckled softly, "I still have trust in your heart."
He recalled the purple three-handed cursed spirit beside him, his gaze falling on the drops of blood splattered at his feet. He stared at those bloodstains:
"Actually, this Night Parade of a Hundred Demons was targeting Lai from the start. I'm a person in the know and one of the executors."
So the target really was himself? Jiang Lai's expression sharpened. Unlike the forum's speculation, the Geto Suguru here apparently had no intention of looking for Rika at all.
"But you also didn't truly attack Lai, right." Although Gojo Satoru wasn't at the scene, he seemed able to guess everything, because he knew and understood his former friend so completely.
Jiang Lai recovered his breath and added: "Geto advised me to leave at the time."
"...This world isn't one that can make me truly smile, but I haven't come to hate the people from Jujutsu High along with it." Geto Suguru narrated slowly, "They've been wanting to find you, Lai. They said you could help us, accelerate the completion of our great cause."
They? Should refer to the Supervisory Committee. Jiang Lai recalled. So this was the reason behind what Geto Suguru said to him "originally wanted to ask for your help"?
But today with both Prison Realm and neck-stabbing, it didn't seem like an attitude of asking for help.
Gojo Satoru said nothing. He seemed to have guessed the mastermind behind it all, the cold intent condensing in his eyes revealing his attitude.
"You haven't appeared for so long. I originally thought you wouldn't come this time either, Lai. Using this pretext to utilize the organization's power to clear the path would be fine too."
Pausing here, Geto Suguru continued to Jiang Lai: "I never told them you were [Existence]. I remember you mentioned not being able to form too many connections with that identity."
"Seeing you, I actually wavered for quite a while." Geto Suguru's slender eyes curved, showing more fatigue than amusement, "Later I thought, you are free. Forget it then."
Free... Behind these words, was it about his own lack of freedom? Jiang Lai keenly sensed some hidden emotion the other had mixed in.
"I didn't expect them to directly try to kill you." Geto Suguru's hands under his sleeves curled slightly, the scene from earlier reappearing before his eyes, "It's my fault."
"...So who was controlling you?" Gojo Satoru spoke again, his blue eyes carrying some high-position pressure, piercing toward the hidden group behind everything.
"It's no use, Satoru." Geto Suguru shook his head, his lips still slightly curved, but that wasn't an expression that could be described as a smile, "It's a binding."
When he had just entered middle school not long after elementary school, he was actually still a child and didn't understand much about the jujutsu world.
When he had just lost his parents, he was bewildered, panicked, and at a loss. The Supervisory Committee people gave him timely aid and warmth, taking over his life.
The woman in the long dress had a very gentle voice. She ruffled Geto Suguru's hair and said: "We'll raise you up. Geto must be a good child, okay?"
Little Geto Suguru said quietly: "Okay."
"Then when Geto is disobedient, we'll help your body make decisions, is that good?"
Little Geto Suguru thought he was very obedient and sensible, but he blinked and still habitually nodded: "...Okay."
The woman in the long dress moved gently, taking little Geto Suguru's small hand and continuing: "We'll make a contract binding. Is it decided then?"
Little Geto Suguru looked up at the long-haired woman before him. He didn't understand the meaning behind these questions, only politely and compliantly replied: "Okay."
From then on, an inescapable binding wrapped around his body.
The young man with the bun hairstyle slowly narrated the past, his gaze moving from the bloodstains on the ground back to the two people before him.
"I originally thought I was just occasionally carried forward at certain moments." Geto Suguru smiled, "Looking at it now, I'm forever a marionette in someone else's hands."
"Now I can't even tell if the [righteousness] I've held onto all these years is my own thinking or theirs."
Gojo Satoru clenched his fists: "Where are their bases."
"I'm sure you've found quite a few over these years. They weren't very useful, were they?" Geto Suguru smiled with his squinting fox-like expression, "They often mention you, mention the trouble you bring."
"But they can't be killed. Without finding the real reason behind it all, there's no way to truly kill the core members." Geto Suguru exhaled, pulling off the bandages on his forehead,
The complex sun totem pattern on it was nearly complete, missing only a small part in the upper right corner.
"Once this truly forms, they can't be killed." Geto Suguru said, "As long as there's a continuous supply of feed, there will be continued nurturing and rebirth."
"Honestly, going around in circles for so long, I think this path... probably really can't be walked this way."
Geto Suguru wore a smile mask on his face.
"The current me is no longer the real me. Rather than endlessly being someone else's marionette, it's better to end things early while the totem on my forehead hasn't fully formed."
Jiang Lai steadied himself, something stirring vaguely in his heart. He seemed to have guessed what lay behind Geto Suguru's words.
Gojo Satoru stared at him.
Geto Suguru's voice was as gentle as always: "I've never really had much chance to choose before."
He paused here, "Your technique can achieve complete cleanliness. For the sake of our former friendship... I'm counting on you this time, Satoru."
"Let me have one chance to truly choose for myself." His eyebrows curved, "Sorry. And thank you."
He didn't specify what, but both had already understood the meaning behind it.
Geto Suguru raised his eyes, smiling brightly. That tired little boy with the bun hairstyle who had always been hidden in the depths of his eyes was now standing on tiptoe looking outward. He wanted to climb over the window to escape the iron house, even if outside the window was a ten-thousand-foot cliff, that was still the free sky.
Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru looked at each other, sky-blue eyes deeply gazing at his closest friend, as if crossing years and mountains and rivers, returning once more to those leisurely past days.
Back then, the teenagers knew no troubles, freely thinking the whole world moved with their moods.
Ten years was both long and short. Short was the passage of time, long was remembering the past.
At this moment, Geto Suguru's squinting smile looked somewhat like his Jujutsu High days, gentle yet carrying youthful spirit.
After a brief silence, Gojo Satoru said: "Alright."