Chapter 170 : It has nothing to do with me
"Because I am the strongest cursed user."
Though these words weren't loud, they struck the ear like an unsheathed sword.
In Jiang Lai's mind, the seemingly contradictory thoughts of "is this real or fake" and "as expected" surged simultaneously, intertwining together and leaving him momentarily speechless.
Gojo Satoru's expression remained the same casual manner as before. Having finished his small cake, he stood up cleanly and efficiently, looking ready to leave this place.
"......Wait, Satoru." Jiang Lai unconsciously called out to stop him.
Gojo Satoru paused slightly in his steps. Standing in place, he tilted his head and said: "Haven't satisfied your curiosity yet? Or do you have some other mission to complete?"
His tone was light, but beneath this lightness lurked a certain sharpness. The latter half even carried some coldness.
All along, Gojo Satoru's patience was basically only allocated to specific people: students, friends.
Facing other characters, his patience was very limited.
At this moment, probably due to his subconscious, Gojo Satoru had given Jiang Lai, who counted as a stranger, quite a bit of tolerance, but this tolerance wasn't absolute either.
Although Gojo Satoru had stayed for Jiang Lai's sake and hadn't just walked away, he also had no intention of staying longer.
The white-haired man's curved lips perfectly concealed his true emotions, while his lightly swaying fingertips revealed his lack of patience.
Jiang Lai had many questions he wanted to ask. He wanted to know why the other had become a cursed user, when he became a cursed user, and what would happen to his former friends, juniors, and students after becoming a cursed user.
Question after question overlapped. Jiang Lai exhaled and finally asked:
"Since you're already the strongest cursed user, why do those rotten oranges still exist?"
Logically speaking, if Gojo Satoru had become an opposing cursed user, completely unbound by rules, he could kill freely and boldly change reform into revolution.
Given Gojo Satoru's level of disgust toward those rotten oranges, his actions would definitely be swift and decisive, without any need to consider consequences. Those corrupt higher-ups in the jujutsu world wouldn't be able to escape!
But Gojo Satoru's earlier words revealed that in this world of Zhuangzi's dawn dream, the corrupt higher-ups of the jujutsu world still existed.
These rotten oranges were too tenacious! They could actually survive from cursed user Gojo Satoru's hands? Jiang Lai was momentarily speechless.
Hearing this question, Gojo Satoru clicked his tongue lightly, his aura rising with undisguised disgust and irritation: "......Those old geezers can't die. Kill them and they come back, endlessly."
"Can't die?" Jiang Lai blinked, having some vague guesses in his heart.
"The Supervisory Committee. This thing isn't as good as it appears on the surface. It's been doing plenty of shady deals behind the scenes, yet it's like cockroaches in the corner that keep dying and reviving."
Gojo Satoru's words were somewhat heavy, mixed with storm-like killing intent sweeping across the ground.
As expected! Jiang Lai confirmed his earlier guess.
No wonder this world still had rotten oranges: according to this world's logic, they were in cahoots with the Supervisory Committee, sharing life through the Sun Totem contract, thus achieving immortality.
During Jiang Lai's silence, Gojo Satoru tilted his head slightly and smiled again: "Of course, you might not believe what I'm saying. After all, I'm a cursed user~~"
A carefree tone, acting like he couldn't care less.
"I believe you." Jiang Lai answered seriously, his brown eyes calm. "I know the Supervisory Committee is a wolf in sheep's clothing."
From beginning to end, Jiang Lai maintained a calm and trusting tone in his responses. This was his attitude when getting along with Gojo Satoru in the past, and he hadn't changed.
But the current Gojo Satoru with incomplete memories was different from the past. He had no memories about Jiang Lai.
The Six Eyes could help him distinguish truth from lies, but couldn't help him understand the other person. Gojo Satoru didn't understand why this suddenly appearing fellow would hold such an attitude toward him.
The white-haired man tilted his head slightly. After a few seconds of silence, he smiled: "Really so strange. A special-grade player from the jujutsu world I've never heard of suddenly appears, acting like he's very familiar with me."
"Could it be that you're some secret weapon cultivated by those rotten oranges, or has this world finally gone crazy and created some parallel dimension fusion?"
The last half sentence was obviously a joke, but Jiang Lai caught onto this point in the other's words.
Jiang Lai paused for a moment, briefly hesitating whether to speak the truth directly. The current Gojo Satoru had memories about himself and reality blocked, but still had his subconscious.
If he directly stated the truth and past events, could he awaken the other's blocked memories, thereby cleanly breaking through this illusory world of Zhuangzi's dawn dream?
Jiang Lai's fingers, hidden under his wide sleeves, curled slightly. He calmed himself internally and finally decided to speak directly.
He began to say slowly: "Indeed... it's somewhat similar to your last guess."
"But it's not parallel dimension fusion, but rather the interweaving of real and false worlds. You came alone to handle a mission, but accidentally fell into a trap and entered this illusory world. Everything before your eyes is a mirage from the crossroads."
"We know each other, have known each other for a long time." Jiang Lai said. "If we trace back to the past, it can be counted back to an incredibly long thousand years ago. Now we share the modern world a thousand years later, working together to resolve the Supervisory Committee matter."
Once the conversation started, it flowed like water. Jiang Lai continued.
"In the real world, you're a teacher at Jujutsu High. You're someone with a somewhat nasty personality, but absolutely reliable at crucial moments. You're the strongest benchmark. Friends and students all trust you."
"I trust you. We're very good friends. In this era, we've known each other since your childhood. We're old friends."
"But speaking of past events, I'm somewhat sorry." Jiang Lai's eyelids lowered gently. "......Due to various reasons back then, I couldn't leave specific times to meet again, always making you wait for a long time."
"Before, it was always you finding me. This time I've come to find you." Jiang Lai raised his eyes, saying sincerely, "Let's leave this Crossroads Tower together? There are still many things outside waiting for us to do."
"......"
The air was quiet for a moment. Gojo Satoru's pure black eye mask covered half his face, making it impossible to see his expression.
Before the result was revealed, everything was nerve-wracking. Jiang Lai's heart couldn't help but tense slightly.
After a few seconds, the white-haired man suddenly showed a rather exaggerated expression of realization, tapping his right palm with his left hand: "Ah, now that you put it that way, I know!"
He knows? This exaggerated manner didn't look like he had remembered anything.
Jiang Lai didn't speak.
"So you're not overly familiar," Gojo Satoru said with curved lips and a cheerful tone, "you just have delusions."
"......" As expected! It wasn't like he had remembered anything at all.
Jiang Lai sighed lightly in his heart. It seemed this straightforward revelation wasn't a shortcut and couldn't awaken Gojo Satoru's memories.
Although he was prepared, after baring his heart and seeing the other's completely unmoved response, he still felt somewhat dejected.
Like speaking heartfelt words to a stone.
"I was wondering how someone could be so strange. Turns out it's delusions." Gojo Satoru laughed cheerfully, waving his hand. "Too bad I have no intention of playing along with you. Honestly, the time I've spent chatting with you today has been long enough, right? It's rare for this cursed user to have the leisure to keep someone company like this."
"Whether you really have delusions or have been brainwashed with something, in any case, it has nothing to do with me."
The smile never left the white-haired man's face, and his perfectly beautiful face always provided visual pleasure.
But his words carried distant coldness, especially when the final tone dropped, it was as piercing as an ice spear.
"......" Jiang Lai remained silent.
He quickly collected his excess emotions and calmly conducted rational analysis.
If past events couldn't awaken the other's consciousness, then what should he do to pull him out of this if-world? Should he break the situation from this world itself?
This world was the effect of the [Crossroads] Tower, another possibility for the other person. Even if the tower itself meant to amplify one of the other's tendencies, it was fundamentally still Gojo Satoru's possible inner choice.
After all, this was "crossroads," not "wrong path." Becoming a cursed user didn't mean he had taken the wrong road, just another choice of his, for some purpose or due to some reason.
Speaking of which, what would Geto Suguru's situation be in this world? Could it be that now he had become the one teaching at Jujutsu High?
But if that were the case, this world would seem to be just ordinary faction reversal, rather than Gojo Satoru's alternative choice.
Thoughts surged in his mind. Before the other left, Jiang Lai still asked:
"......What about Suguru? And Shoko? Aren't you with them?"
This question made Gojo Satoru stop again. But at the same time, the smile on his face gradually faded.
The white-haired man stood firmly in place, one hand in his trouser pocket, turning half his body, his expression becoming somewhat cold, and his previously restrained cursed energy pressed out again!
Facing the suddenly heightened sense of danger, Jiang Lai instinctively mobilized the cursed energy around him, surrounding himself.
"......I said I only came to eat desserts today, with no intention of fighting." Gojo Satoru's thin lips curved into an arc, showing an expression that wasn't quite a smile, as if sighing helplessly, "Must you break this point?"
Jiang Lai keenly sensed the sharpness the other displayed. He knew his earlier question seemed to have touched the other's sensitive spot... but why?
The air was compressed by the Six Eyes' powerful cursed energy, instantly becoming heavy and making breathing somewhat difficult.
Jiang Lai waved his hand to support a spatial barrier, resisting the iceberg-like cold and heavy pressure. He didn't want to fight Gojo Satoru, but if a battle was unavoidable, he couldn't just surrender.
Because if he lost, he might not die, but if he was ejected from this world, he wouldn't be able to bring Gojo Satoru out of the [Crossroads] Tower.
Jiang Lai pressed his lips into a straight line, his brown eyes deep, watching the other.
The figure standing before him was still his friend. Jiang Lai couldn't summon strong fighting spirit, so he stood there like a lonely, silent pillar.
The store was quiet again for a moment.
The next moment, Gojo Satoru broke this static scene, but not by attacking. Instead, he withdrew his tide-like coldness.
"?" Jiang Lai was slightly stunned, somewhat surprised.
According to Gojo Satoru's personality, once someone touched his sore spot, he absolutely wouldn't let them off so easily. No matter how good his mood, he would still throw a few blasts.
But now, the white-haired man ultimately didn't attack him.
Gojo Satoru turned back around, no longer facing Jiang Lai, just throwing out a sentence by himself: "......Forget it."
Facing the other who had suddenly withdrawn his cursed energy, Jiang Lai also dismissed his spatial barrier and opened his mouth.
But before he could say anything, the white-haired man before him walked straight out of the dessert shop, then expanded his cursed energy, not for attack, but for teleportation!
Jiang Lai instinctively moved forward, but the other's speed was naturally faster than his. In just the blink of an eye, he had disappeared.
At the empty entrance of the dessert shop, only the light breeze stirring the wind chimes made tinkling sounds.
"......" Jiang Lai stood in place, sunlight shining on the corners of his navy blue kimono.
Chasing was impossible. If the strongest intended to leave, he couldn't track him down. Jiang Lai wasn't particularly skilled at pursuit.
He collected his thoughts and thought calmly.
Since chasing was useless, it would be better to use this time to gather information and understand this world's situation.
Only by knowing the specific background here could he figure out the breakthrough point and find a way to leave with the other.
With this thought, Jiang Lai set Tokyo Jujutsu High as his next destination.
No matter what, this important location still needed to be visited.