Chapter 90 : Sukuna and Itadori, A Certain Possibility
Uraume stood in place, confusion passing through his heart, unable to quite understand the relationship between Sukuna-sama and the black-haired youth with mist on his face.
The attitude when the two met just now didn't seem like enemies, nor friends from what he could see, and didn't resemble benefit-exchanging collaborators either. They seemed both familiar and strange to each other.
But regardless, he heard that though Sukuna-sama used a question, he actually didn't mean for him to answer or do much. Therefore, Uraume just looked over as directed, standing respectfully in place.
However, the black-haired youth in front seemed to deliberately pause for two or three seconds before blinking and saying: "I'm a bit forgetful of important people, speaking of which, who are you again?"
A light yet somewhat mocking tone.
Uraume felt the large hand on his shoulder suddenly tighten, the air freezing in an instant!
Ryomen Sukuna's palm was very large, seeming capable of crushing shoulder bones when clenched.
The loyal subordinate Uraume naturally wouldn't show any pain, maintaining a calm expression while silently preparing to activate reverse cursed technique.
Icy killing intent swept across the earth, those crimson eyes staring at the black-haired youth not far away.
That guy couldn't really have forgotten Sukuna-sama, right... Was he deliberately ignoring him? Uraume thought. Sukuna-sama was very angry; he could sense it.
The black-haired youth's face shed the puzzled attitude from before, showing a faint smile as he snapped his book shut with a flourish, nodding calmly:
"How unexpected. After all these years, you still remember me as your elder brother, truly touching brotherly love."
Uraume: ???
The voice was clear to his ears, but Uraume seemed unable to understand it. He was stunned for a moment, eyes widening slightly.
Wait, elder brother... brothers? Seriously? Or did he dare joke like this with Sukuna-sama?
He felt Sukuna-sama's palm move away from his shoulder, a low voice with slightly rising intonation coming from above:
"...All these years, you still know how to disgust me, though it's still the same old routine."
The icy killing intent seemed to withdraw slightly, but the next second, enormous cursed energy fluctuations suddenly erupted in the air!
Crisscrossing powerful cursed blades struck forth raising dust waves, the navy-blue figure slightly raised his arm, invisible spatial barriers blocking the successive cursed blades in front...
The shattered and broken cursed blades flew in all directions, the longest one flying toward a distant mountain peak, thunderously slicing off that pointed summit!
Cursed energy shockwaves violently spread in all directions, bushes and grass bent down flat against the ground, tree trunks making fragile creaking sounds, several less sturdy small trees even snapping with cracks.
The air filled with dusty smoke from cursed blades and spatial barriers colliding and grinding, the oscillating cursed energy only gradually settling after a moment.
The clean right cheek of the black-haired youth suddenly had a shallow wound, a thread of crimson blood slowly seeping out.
Ryomen Sukuna pulled up his lip corners showing an exaggerated villainous expression, laughing heartily: "Looks like you couldn't block it all!!"
Then he quickly calmed his expression, just staring at the person in front of him, speaking in a low, ambiguously mocking tone: "You've gotten weaker."
The howling mountain wind blew past, making rustling sounds through the tree groves.
Jiang Lai calmly raised his hand to wipe away that thread of blood from his cheek, leaving a faint red mark, and spoke:
"Unfortunately, in a certain sense, you probably haven't improved much. Both the distant past and now only left a shallow mark."
The air between the two condensed, the atmosphere becoming tense again.
What broke this silence was the crackling sound of ice crystals shattering. Uraume had quickly used ice techniques to protect the boiling large pot before the cursed energy shockwave arrived.
However, after this ordeal, the fire under the pot had long been extinguished, and the ice crystals used for surrounding support finally broke under the strain.
"My apologies, Sukuna-sama." Uraume first bowed and spoke, then quickly manipulated ice crystals to reinforce the large pot's support. "Do you need me to light the fire again?"
"......" Ryomen Sukuna's gaze swept over, saying flatly, "It's already done, isn't it? Then put the pot down."
"Yes, Sukuna-sama." Uraume placed the large pot containing wild boar meat on the ground, then took out cooking utensils from a bundle nearby.
Jiang Lai stepped forward a few paces, casually saying: "This youth is your cook?"
"That's right." Ryomen Sukuna half-narrowed his eyes, speaking leisurely in his villain tone, "His cooking level satisfies me greatly... Now that I've found a suitable cook, you as an ingredient have come at just the right time."
This sentence spanned over ten years, responding to the threat Ryomen Sukuna had once made to Jiang Lai: [Once I find a suitable cook, I'll make you into a nice big meal.]
"Oh, really?" Jiang Lai's expression remained calm, not nervous.
After the brief exchange just now, he had sensed that although his strength had somewhat weakened, he was still very strong and wouldn't be dominated by the King of Curses Ryomen Sukuna.
Moreover, except for the very beginning when Jiang Lai asked "who are you" in an ignoring manner and Ryomen Sukuna showed some real killing intent, when the cursed blades later crisscrossed toward him, there actually wasn't very strong intent to fight to the death.
Because of this, Jiang Lai continued to stay here, even stepping forward a few paces and asking naturally.
Ryomen Sukuna's equally crimson secondary eyes glanced over, his voice slightly drawling: "Really calm... annoying."
"You don't currently have thoughts of cooking me as an ingredient." Jiang Lai smiled. "Setting aside the question of who would win if we really fought,"
He pointed toward the perfectly cooked wild boar meat in that large pot, "Just for now, you don't want to waste this, right?"
"Just too lazy to wait for the next meal." Ryomen Sukuna contemptuously indicated he had no concept of [waste], sitting cross-legged. "As for you, keep you as backup ingredient for now. After collecting more auxiliary seasonings, it won't be too late to make a big meal."
His height of over two meters plus four arms made Ryomen Sukuna's body appear particularly strong and imposing. Even sitting on the ground, he still emanated a trembling aura.
Of course, Jiang Lai wasn't among those who would be awed.
He didn't plan to continue this meaningless conversation with Ryomen Sukuna, so he simply sat down gracefully with a sleeve flourish. His active techniques separated a small space from the ground, so he didn't need to worry about getting dust on his clothes.
Uraume, who was preparing to serve food nearby, immediately looked up alertly at Jiang Lai with very wary eyes.
But after Uraume remained quiet for a moment and saw that the cross-legged Ryomen Sukuna had no particular reaction or instructions, he hesitated and remained silent, withdrawing his gaze to continue doing his own work.
"It should have been a long time since we last met. Didn't expect you to grow this tall." Jiang Lai's topic was quite casual.
"You're using such a boring opening?" Ryomen Sukuna responded disdainfully, slightly baring his sharp teeth. "But unlike back then, now the one whose freedom is restrained... isn't me anymore."
After understanding Ryomen Sukuna's words, Jiang Lai raised an eyebrow, chuckling: "So confident? You think you can beat me?"
"I said you're backup ingredient." Ryomen Sukuna's gaze swept over, slightly narrowing his eyes and smiling without any emotion. "Oh right, our current location is quite close to Heian-kyo."
Heian-kyo? Jiang Lai thought for a second about why the other mentioned this place, then realized he might mean the Heian-kyo contained his friends Six Eyes and the black-haired child Shuuki from back then.
But...
"Then shouldn't you be the one who's nervous?" Jiang Lai said. "The people in Heian-kyo are all your enemies, right?"
"Oh... that's not necessarily true." Ryomen Sukuna replied ambiguously, laughing. "I'm quite looking forward to witnessing a good show."
What? Jiang Lai raised an eyebrow internally, not understanding what the [good show] mentioned in the other's words meant.
And the next moment, the other quickly added a new sentence, his voice casual with an ambiguously mocking tone:
"In any case, you can't let loose and really fight on a large scale, after all, around here there are quite a few gathering places of weak humans you care about."
Ryomen Sukuna squeezed out a low laugh from his throat: "Sooner or later you'll pay a painful price for your excessive kindness."
Jiang Lai's expression didn't change, his brown eyes meeting the gaze frankly: "You'll also eventually face the judgment you deserve for the sins and karma you've committed."
The morning wind suddenly rose, and in the silence, rustling sounds densely filled their ears.
Uraume served a bowl of meat soup, standing beside them. He pressed his lips together, not speaking to break the quiet.
Ryomen Sukuna made a disdainful snort from his nose. He first withdrew his gaze, landing on Uraume, casually reaching out to take the bowl of meat soup.
Jiang Lai also withdrew his gaze. He let his book float beside him, simply adjusting his sleeves. He hadn't forgotten the most important reason for coming to find Ryomen Sukuna.
Because of this, he suddenly spoke again the next second: "Speaking of humans, didn't you also stupidly sign an agreement with someone else?"
This sentence was actually a bluff, since Jiang Lai wasn't clear whether Ryomen Sukuna had contacted Kenjaku (Brain-kun).
Ryomen Sukuna chewed and swallowed the rotten wild boar meat in his mouth, eyebrows slightly raising: "Oh? What, did that person also approach you?"
Jiang Lai smiled calmly, appearing very much like a riddler.
He thought silently: Actually managed to get something out of him. It looks like Ryomen Sukuna should have contacted someone, most likely the Kenjaku (Brain-kun) he was concerned about.
Ryomen Sukuna's gaze fell on Jiang Lai for two or three seconds, then he suddenly smiled: "But you probably don't know the details."
"Really? You're that certain?" Jiang Lai asked back.
"If you knew the specific details..." Ryomen Sukuna meaningfully drew out his tone, "you wouldn't be this calm."
"......" Jiang Lai imperceptibly narrowed his eyes, weighing things in his heart.
This meant that Brain-kun and Sukuna's agreement didn't just involve the two of them, but also involved himself or things he cared about?
But asking the other directly, he definitely wouldn't tell. Jiang Lai knew this, so he didn't waste effort here.
Ryomen Sukuna was the embodiment of extreme evil, an existence that extremely pursued freedom and self, not caring about anything else. His evil was practically carved into his bones.
Thinking this, Jiang Lai's thoughts suddenly paused.
...Wait, logically [Death]'s birth shouldn't be extreme evil.
Death, in a certain sense, had an [evil] side but also a [good] side. Combined together, it was an objectively existing thing in the world that was equal.
What did [Birth] mean back then when they said [Death] was already messed up? Why would [Death] be messed up? Because something was missing?
The current [Death] seemed to only have [evil] without [good]. Where did the latter go?
Thoughts raced through his mind at lightning speed. In a certain moment, combined with previous speculation about reincarnation, Jiang Lai had a somewhat incredible yet bubbling guess that occupied his mind like soda water.
Itadori Yuji, the so-called vessel of Ryomen Sukuna a thousand years later, was almost the complete opposite of Ryomen Sukuna himself.
If one was [true good] and the other was [true evil].
If that was the case, could they have been twins a thousand years ago? In the Jujutsu world, twins were an unspoken curse.
Could it be that [Death] was different from individuals like them, actually being a special [Existence] that was split in two?
Where was the existence that was the good side of [Death] now? Had something happened, which is why it had never appeared?
With surging thoughts, Jiang Lai's brown eyes fell on the ground in front of him. He was silent for a long while before speaking, already having changed topics:
"I say... let me ask a question. Back then, were you an only child or a twin?"