Chapter 118 : Suguru and Encounters and Non-Encounters
Geto Suguru had never imagined that when he next heard news of Lai, it would be from his Supervisory Committee colleague Mahito, where he was currently undercover.
Initially, he didn't think the newly appeared cursed spirit Mahito mentioned was the familiar figure he knew.
That time, Mahito had failed in his mission to retrieve the energy fragments (as the Supervisory Committee internally called them) from Satozakura School, so naturally the chips promised between the special-grade cursed spirit group and the Supervisory Committee weren't delivered.
Despite this, Mahito's expression didn't look particularly resentful.
The blue-haired, triple-braided cursed spirit lounged in a reclining chair, lazily drawling: "The fragment was taken by that Sukuna guy. Can't help it, I can't beat Sukuna, so I have to accept it for now."
Ryomen Sukuna... meaning Satoru's student Itadori Yuji was present at the scene? Geto Suguru thought.
Unfortunately, in his current state of being suspected by the Supervisory Committee, his phone had been implanted with cursed energy surveillance, so he couldn't tell Satoru about this through email.
Probably because he had been too aggressive recently, secretly passing too much intelligence, causing the Supervisory Committee's "Mother" to turn her scrutinizing gaze on him. Geto Suguru felt heavy-hearted. Until suspicions were cleared, he probably couldn't contact Satoru's side.
But then he thought again, feeling that such matters didn't need his additional notification. Itadori Yuji would definitely tell his teacher himself, or mention it when submitting mission reports.
Thinking this, Geto Suguru's mind relaxed slightly. He heard Mahito continue.
"Even if I accepted the fragment being taken by Sukuna, my temper isn't good enough to go easy on human jujutsu sorcerer meddlers." Mahito's mismatched eyes focused with condensed malice, "That blonde guy with glasses, called Nanami? And Ryomen Sukuna's vessel, Itadori Yuji."
He chewed on these two names like a spider wrapping prey and injecting venom with cold malice.
At this point, Mahito turned to Geto Suguru, laughing with a strange tone: "Oh, I almost forgot, both these guys have connections to your past. One is your former junior, one is your classmate's student... you won't stop my revenge, will you?"
Hearing the names of his junior and Satoru's student, Geto Suguru's expression remained unchanged.
Facing Mahito's deliberate words, he glanced over with his narrow fox eyes smiling: "When I committed to this great righteous path, the past lost its meaning. I naturally won't meddle unnecessarily."
He replied lightly, not revealing the slightest bit of his true feelings.
"Just don't delay the main business."
"The main business is still far off. Besides, next time's retrieval is our cooperation, so there definitely won't be accidents." Mahito leisurely rose from the reclining chair, then as if suddenly remembering something, said with great interest: "Oh, speaking of which, I encountered a new colleague during this Satozakura School mission."
"A new colleague?" Geto Suguru raised an eyebrow slightly, his deep purple eyes glancing over, "A newly born special-grade cursed spirit?"
"Should be newly born, right? That guy was quite strange, seemed to have memory problems too." The blue-haired, triple-braided special-grade cursed spirit's lips curved up, the crisscrossing stitched lines on his face being pulled along, "But felt very powerful. If there's a chance to recruit him as a companion, that would be nice."
There were already enough special-grade cursed spirits, and now another one had appeared. Geto Suguru thought, casually asking: "What are his characteristics? I'll keep an eye out if I encounter him next time."
"A humanoid cursed spirit similar to me, but more human-like." Mahito recalled, smiling as he put his hands behind his head, "A youth with short black hair, brown eyes, dressed in black. Seemed to be wearing a necklace too, though I didn't look closely."
It sounded somewhat familiar...
Hearing Mahito's description, Geto Suguru's heart suddenly skipped. He still remembered Lai's appearance during that brief glimpse in the alley.
Maybe it was coincidence. Geto Suguru's lowered fingers curled slightly.
On December 25th, Satoru had sent a message telling him about Lai's situation. Though Lai's condition didn't sound particularly good, no matter what, his state definitely wasn't that of a cursed spirit.
That night, he was recalled by the increasingly suspicious Supervisory Committee. Before his electronic devices were implanted with cursed energy surveillance, having sensed something, he sent a message telling Satoru not to contact him recently.
Because of this, he couldn't learn more subsequent information... but with Satoru there, Lai surely wouldn't be in trouble, right?
Thoughts flowed through his mind, but Geto Suguru didn't expose his concern. He just lowered his eyes, smiling as usual: "This description is too common among crowds, but since he's a special-grade cursed spirit, he should be relatively easy to find."
"Indeed, but that guy seemed very cautious. Of course, being fellow cursed spirits, he also had some trust in me." Mahito's mismatched eyes blinked as he said casually, "In any case, for the sake of being the same kind, let's try recruiting him first."
The extended conversation about the Satozakura School incident ended there. They parted ways.
After some more time passed, Geto Suguru received a message and returned to the Supervisory Committee again.
Geto Suguru didn't know the true core location of the Supervisory Committee. Each time he was arranged to meet in various small rooms, then transported by spatial transfer arrays to where he needed to go.
This time he was summoned back supposedly because they lacked some "feed," but it was urgently needed, so they needed to extract some from Geto Suguru's cursed spirits.
A strange cursed tool stood before him, inscribed with someone's technique for power conversion.
Geto Suguru knew internally that this operation was because the Supervisory Committee currently suspected his position, so they planned to knock him down a peg first, temporarily weakening some of his power.
He knew he couldn't refuse the Supervisory Committee's orders, but still symbolically resisted on the surface.
Finally, under the Supervisory Committee "Mother's" comfort and persuasion about "realizing the ultimate righteous path," he temporarily agreed to provide some power.
Geto Suguru had long known the Supervisory Committee would temporarily weaken his power, but hadn't expected them to directly sacrifice several of his commonly used special-grade cursed spirits!
His deep purple eyes narrowed, cold fury rising.
Though he couldn't shake the Supervisory Committee's orders, he could certainly show his temper. He had never been a soft persimmon that could be squeezed at will with good humor.
The Supervisory Committee "Mother" still smiled gently, soothing: "Sorry about that, Suguru. It's fine, when you return from this fragment search mission, I'll compensate you, okay?"
Geto Suguru was too lazy to reply. He turned and stepped into the spatial array to leave.
As an undercover agent who had been lurking for a long time, he knew when he could leverage situations. Giving them a cold shoulder now wouldn't result in difficulty. Actually, it would reassure them.
If he kept yielding again and again, it would raise suspicions about his motives.
The Supervisory Committee had taken away his cursed spirits, but to his fellow special-grade cursed spirit colleagues, Geto Suguru didn't speak so directly. Instead, he said calmly: "I was a bit careless during previous mission execution. Cursed spirits... lost a few."
It was now evening. He had just arrived in Kawasaki City, finding Mahito who he was to cooperate with on this mission, preparing to complete the fragment search together.
The blue-haired, triple-braided cursed spirit in front of him didn't look good, visibly disheveled.
Hearing Geto Suguru's words, he laughed with a sneer: "Oh my, there are missions that can make you lose special-grade cursed spirits?"
Geto Suguru didn't follow up on this topic. He built up an arrogant shell, his eyes scanning over Mahito as he chuckled: "Aren't there also missions that can leave you so disheveled? With your condition this time, don't drag us down."
The man-bunned youth's tone mixed with some carelessness, the black little fox on his shoulder letting out a small yawn.
As if triggered by some memory from Geto Suguru's words, Mahito's face darkened for a moment, then quickly adjusted to show a strange smile:
"Oh, speaking of which, since you're missing several cursed spirits, perfect timing, I can recommend one to replenish them."
Geto Suguru was somewhat surprised by this statement, but followed up with: "What?"
"Remember that newly born special-grade cursed spirit I mentioned to you before?" Mahito showed what seemed like a sincere smile, "During the previous Satozakura School incident, I saw his technique. It seemed to be spatial manipulation type, a very useful skill."
Spatial manipulation? Catching the key word, Geto Suguru's mind shook. Such a technique combined with the previous appearance description inevitably directed his speculation again toward the familiar figure in his memory!
But why would it be a cursed spirit?!
"I can go with you to attack him together. You subdue him and add a cursed spirit to your collection, while I only need to take the Ryomen Sukuna finger he carries."
Mahito's voice was very light, his smile pulling at the stitched lines on his face.
Geto Suguru's narrow fox eyes stared intently at the blue-haired, triple-braided youth before him. He paused for several seconds, then smiled with curved eyes, saying lightly:
"Help me? I'm afraid this is more for yourself, right? You lost a Ryomen Sukuna finger, so you decided to think of a way to take it back, while also getting revenge on that... special-grade cursed spirit who stole the finger."
Having his true purpose exposed by Geto Suguru, Mahito showed no shame or annoyance, spreading his hands with the same expression: "Win-win cooperation, each with our own purposes and gains, isn't that right?"
"......" Logically this was indeed the case, but Geto Suguru didn't want to attack a new cursed spirit that might be a good friend.
However, in his current position, he had no suitable excuse to directly refuse.
Therefore, Geto Suguru narrowed his eyes, seeming somewhat interested yet not particularly concerned: "Priority to the mission first. If there's extra time, we can consider it."
"There should be time. The mission has no clear deadline anyway." Mahito stood steady, his blue and gray mismatched eyes curving slightly, "Besides, doing this is to strengthen our power to better complete the mission."
"No need to worry about it being too troublesome. I mentioned before, didn't I? That guy has memory problems and some recognition and trust for fellow special-grade cursed spirits." Mahito raised one finger, saying: "Set a small trap, and we can both win."
Geto Suguru's heart grew heavier, his face still maintaining the smiling fox expression mask.
His exterior and interior seemed split in two.
With the conversation reaching this point, if he continued to decline, it would make Mahito suspicious. The other didn't trust his position much to begin with.
So Geto Suguru nodded slightly, agreeing with a pleasant demeanor: "Not bad. If we encounter him, let's cooperate for a win-win."
He thought: He had to ensure they wouldn't encounter each other.
Geto Suguru deduced from Mahito's dishevelment that the battle had just ended not long ago, meaning that special-grade cursed spirit who was very likely his friend was still in the area.
Therefore, he used the excuse of night patrol and scouting to wander this area under the moonlight.
If there had been some lucky hope before, then the moment he glimpsed the black-haired youth, that sliver of luck in Geto Suguru's heart was completely shattered.
It really was Lai. And really was a cursed spirit.
But... why??
His hands clenched into fists under his wide sleeves. Geto Suguru had never been so desperate to know what had happened.
Satoru. Geto Suguru silently called his best friend's name in his heart.
He consoled himself that with Satoru openly present, Lai shouldn't have had an accident. Maybe there was some disguise plan he had missed.
But the genuine aura belonging to a special-grade cursed spirit made him inevitably fall into confusion.
He was a cursed spirit manipulator, naturally more sensitive to cursed spirits than others. No disguise could fool him. The current Lai seemed to have truly become a cursed spirit.
Could this be the price of the time reversal from back then?
On December 25th, when Satoru saw Lai, he was still a human maintaining partial clarity, but perhaps, as time passed, eventually Lai couldn't prevent himself from becoming a cursed spirit with confused memories.
Sacrifice and rebirth were always thus in mythology.
If it was karmic consequence, then it was content that even Satoru, being the strongest, couldn't interfere with.
Geto Suguru's eyelids trembled slightly. He tried to maintain steady posture, turning past the street corner and leaving the liquid fox behind.
In the current scene, just in case, he couldn't directly stay and communicate with Lai. He could only let the usually free-roaming liquid fox stay behind to warn him.
No matter what had happened recently, now he had to make Lai leave first, not fall into known traps.
Geto Suguru glimpsed the suspicion storm he might face after having the liquid fox warn Lai. But he still did it.
After one restart, he didn't want to raise his blade against those around him again.
In the midst of crisis and confusion, even if he couldn't pull Lai along, at least he couldn't push him.
The night patrol wasn't over when Geto Suguru encountered Mahito midway, who had originally agreed to rest in place tonight without going out.
Geto Suguru's expression remained unchanged, his heart sinking: As expected, the other still suspected him.
"Weren't you going to rest in place? I can scout the path alone." Geto Suguru lightly gathered his sleeves, the black-gold monk robes swaying in the night wind.
He pretended not to see Mahito's deliberate suspicious probing, saying this.
"I felt there might be gains tonight, so I came out for a walk." Mahito smiled cheerfully, waving his hand as his gaze flowed over Geto Suguru's shoulder, "Where's your fox?"
"That guy ran off by itself again, no idea where it went to play. That's its nature. It'll come back later." Geto Suguru made a half-helpless, half-indulgent gesture, replying casually.
Mahito's mismatched eyes narrowed slightly. He still smiled, but his words carried some thoughtfulness as he slowly repeated: "Oh, is that so? Went out to play by itself?"
Geto Suguru's deep purple eyes swept over, his expression unchanged but his aura slightly surging: "What do you mean by that?"
Faced with Geto Suguru's rising aura, Mahito changed his attitude like a slippery snake, raising his hand: "Hey, don't get excited. I didn't mean anything else."
Geto Suguru showed weariness with this conversation, slightly flicking his sleeve, planning to direct the topic to the mission and stop the other from focusing on Lai.
Before he could speak, Mahito's gaze looked past him toward the distance.
After a flash of surprise in those mismatched eyes, Mahito's face bloomed with a smile as he drawled: "Oh, I understand now. So you couldn't wait and planned to advance the schedule? Rather than you going personally, that fox who's also a cursed spirit is indeed a good lure."
This statement left Geto Suguru feeling inexplicably confused, while his heart drummed like a small drum.
The man-bunned youth immediately turned around, facing the direction Mahito was looking. Before Geto Suguru's sight could reach, he sensed familiar cursed energy.
He raised his eyes. In his field of vision crashed a familiar black-haired figure.