Chapter 172 : Will we spend Christmas together
After having a plan, Jiang Lai's action strategy became much clearer.
He wasn't in a hurry to go to Tokyo Jujutsu High, but planned to first connect with Ryomen Sukuna's innate domain at night to gather more intelligence, then make contact with the people from the Crossroads Tower's high school.
Based on landmarks, Jiang Lai recognized that the shopping center he was in was one in Tokyo's central district. He turned out of this evacuated area, casually scanning his surroundings.
Most storefronts had iris flower emblems embedded at their entrances, and the iris flowers at the top of distant skyscrapers were particularly conspicuous.
Jiang Lai's gaze swept over, and he keenly sensed that the Supervisory Committee in the Crossroads Tower world seemed to occupy more resources.
Satoru really had a hard time here... Jiang Lai could now understand the reason for Gojo Satoru's attitude toward him earlier.
In this world filled with lies and absurdity, trust was an incredibly precious and scarce thing. Gojo Satoru wouldn't entrust it easily.
Jiang Lai walked out of the shopping center after the chaotic aftermath and silently blended into the crowd.
The connecting ability given by the great elder [Origin] required dream connection. Although the Crossroads Tower itself was a dream, dreams within dreams were still feasible.
The current Ryomen Sukuna was in Itadori Yuji's body, equivalent to always slumbering in the innate domain. So now Jiang Lai just needed to fall asleep himself while connecting to the other.
This Crossroads Tower had no information about him, and Jiang Lai didn't spend extra effort using hacking techniques to forge documentation.
He simply went to the forest not far from Tokyo Jujutsu High School, picked a large tree with lush branches and leaves, and used spatial techniques to weave a hammock.
Let's take a light nap here. Jiang Lai thought. Just like a thousand years ago, sleeping in nature was very comfortable.
Anyway, he had spatial techniques, so he didn't need to worry about wild beasts and mosquitoes. He could fall asleep easily.
Overlapping green leaves blocked the sunlight, shadows swaying on his cheek. Jiang Lai closed his eyes, calmed his breathing and heartbeat, and gradually entered light sleep.
......
The sound of dripping echoed in his ears. Jiang Lai opened his eyes to see a vast sea of blood. Grim cattle bones floated up and down in the sea of blood.
A familiar pink-haired man sat atop a mountain of cattle bones in the distance, propping his head with one hand in a lazy manner. Catching sight of the unwelcome guest in the innate domain, he narrowed his eyes slightly, clicked his tongue, and spoke:
"Why is it you again?"
Uh, [again]? Jiang Lai's expression froze as he realized things weren't simple.
"Have we met?" Jiang Lai blurted out unconsciously.
Ryomen Sukuna atop the cattle bone mountain looked displeased and snorted with laughter: "Playing that game of not recognizing people again? Last time I more or less believed you really had amnesia and didn't remember things from a thousand years ago. But you surely wouldn't forget our recent meeting."
This string of words made Jiang Lai's heart skip a beat. His thoughts raced rapidly, then he quickly reacted.
The Ryomen Sukuna he had linked to was the real-world Ryomen Sukuna!
The real-world Ryomen Sukuna's impression of Jiang Lai still remained on amnesia. Because when Jiang Lai entered the innate domain back then, for the sake of concealment, he had performed very well in pretending to have amnesia in front of both Ryomen Sukuna and Itadori Yuji.
At that time, Ryomen Sukuna had also tried to sow discord between Itadori and Jiang Lai, but in the end Itadori made a direct statement that made Sukuna very displeased and cut him out of the domain.
Before leaving, Jiang Lai had used the excuse of a health check-in for 10,000 steps to search for fragment traces in Ryomen Sukuna's innate domain.
He just hadn't found any. Jiang Lai guessed that Sukuna had placed it in a more concealed location.
At this moment, facing the unexpectedly linked real-world Ryomen Sukuna, Jiang Lai fell into brief silence.
......How could this be! Could it be that because everything inside the Crossroads Tower was illusory, [Origin]'s ability only pointed toward real family members?
Jiang Lai hadn't intended to find the real-world Ryomen Sukuna at this time. What he wanted to obtain now was information from the Crossroads Tower.
The Ryomen Sukuna on the cattle bone mountain before him had a casual attitude. He looked too lazy to even come down and fight with Jiang Lai. His crimson eyes glanced at Jiang Lai on the ground and casually said:
"What are you doing in my place again?"
Jiang Lai couldn't directly say he had connected to the wrong place, as that would be too embarrassing. And last time his answer had been that he didn't know, so continuing to maintain an indifferent appearance now wasn't impossible.
So he said calmly: "Not clear. But since I'm here, I'll sit for a while."
Jiang Lai mobilized spatial techniques, pulled out several cattle bones from the sea of blood to form a simple chair, spread a thin layer of cursed energy coding, then simply flicked his sleeve and sat down to rest.
Watching the black-haired youth's comfortable manner, Ryomen Sukuna's lips curved slightly, revealing his canine teeth: "You're this familiar? How rude on someone else's territory."
Overly familiar, why was it this descriptor again? Being hit by this term once more, Jiang Lai's mood paused slightly as he raised his eyes:
"You say this is your territory, so it's your territory? How do you prove your territory is your territory? How do you prove you are you?" Jiang Lai fired back in rapid succession, responding sharply, "Inexplicably striking up conversation with me, you're the one who seems overly familiar."
Ryomen Sukuna's expression darkened. He wasn't someone with a good temper. His sharp black-purple nails instantly slashed through the air, and blood sea waves surged before him!
Jiang Lai had already detected the cursed energy fluctuations in the air. He flicked his sleeve to deploy a spatial wall, blocking the pattering blood water, incredibly hard cattle bones, and that more hostile cursed blade that rushed toward him.
Ryomen Sukuna leaped down from the cattle bone mountain.
Jiang Lai stood in place, retracting his sleeve while smoothing down his robe, but his words suddenly changed direction: "Although I have no impression of you, perhaps we have common enemies."
This suddenly shifted topic made Ryomen Sukuna stop his attacking posture, his eyebrows rising high: "Oh?"
"Just some discoveries from exploration." Jiang Lai said. "We'll meet again, and we can discuss this topic in detail then."
Lightly dropping this line, Jiang Lai awakened his consciousness and instantly left Sukuna's innate domain.
It wasn't that he was intentionally being cryptic, but he was still dealing with Satoru's matter and hadn't yet thought through how to cooperate with Ryomen Sukuna, so he simply made a preview and left with suspense.
But probably Ryomen Sukuna would be very displeased. As the King of Curses, he had always been the one skillfully manipulating others. When had he ever been fished like this by someone else?
Anger wouldn't disappear, only accumulate. Jiang Lai silently sent a wooden fish emoji in his heart.
No matter, anyway he and Ryomen Sukuna had always been frenemies.
At this moment, Jiang Lai withdrew from the domain and returned to the Crossroads Tower world.
Unable to use the connection ability to gather intelligence, Jiang Lai could only choose another option: reading manga.
He wondered if there had been updates. Logically, the official source should have more intelligence.
With this thought, Jiang Lai opened his phone and logged onto the manga official website.
What made him quite happy was that there had indeed been an update, posted just ten minutes ago, perfectly timed.
Jiang Lai directly clicked on the latest update.
Most of the content was similar to what Jiang Lai had experienced, so he flipped through this part of the plot quickly. What he was looking for was content from a god's-eye view.
After separating at the dessert shop, the manga lens depicted Jiang Lai's retreating figure leaving this commercial district, then suddenly turned in the next panel, switching back to Gojo Satoru's side.
What was somewhat unexpected was that the teleporting Gojo Satoru hadn't gone far. He stood on the rooftop of the tallest shopping center building, looking down from above.
The manga depicted Gojo Satoru's perspective. Looking down from such a high altitude, everything below appeared incredibly humble and small, as if everything could be destroyed with a wave of the hand.
The high-altitude wind blew through Gojo Satoru's white hair. He had no expression, just standing at the edge of the rooftop.
At this time, a voice came from behind him.
"......Sensei."
A black-haired youth carrying a sword bag and wearing a high school uniform stood there, his dark circles somewhat thick as he called out quietly.
It was Okkotsu Yuta from the Crossroads Tower world!
Jiang Lai recognized the other. In this world where Gojo Satoru had become a cursed user, Okkotsu indeed hadn't stayed abroad but had returned to Japan.
In the manga, Gojo Satoru didn't turn around. He still faced forward and spoke: "Did the rotten oranges send you?"
"No." Okkotsu Yuta shook his head. "I saw the news and guessed sensei would probably be around here, so I presumptuously came to find you."
"Ah, why does Yuta still call me sensei? Addressing a cursed user this way, be careful you might get in trouble~"
Gojo Satoru's tone was light, as if he were chatting with a smile, but from the image it could be seen that he had no emotional fluctuation.
"Sensei is sensei." Okkotsu Yuta was quite insistent in certain areas. He said, "You taught me back then, and also saved my life, helping me break the curse with Rika. I will always regard you as my teacher. Maki and the others think so too."
"Even though some things happened later, sensei did some things we couldn't understand, but... you are still our teacher."
Gojo Satoru was silent for a second, then said in a half-joking tone: "Sounds like I'm quite popular after all? How unexpected, when my lovely students never gave me Christmas presents~"
"We always prepared them... it's just that sensei never spent Christmas with us."
"Haha, I don't know why, but on Christmas day, I inexplicably want to be alone more~"
Okkotsu Yuta paused and said: "Gojo-sensei, will you spend Christmas with us this year? There will also be newly enrolled first-year students then, it will be livelier."
This invitation actually contained the hidden meaning of wanting Gojo Satoru to return to the high school.
At this point, Gojo Satoru finally curved his lips slightly. He half-turned his face, but what he spoke wasn't the words the other wished to hear: "That won't work, Yuta."
He said calmly, "I have already chosen another path, and there's no other road I can take. I must create an ending."
Okkotsu Yuta remained silent. The manga showed his dialogue box as a string of ellipses.
Gojo Satoru turned sideways, his black eye mask covering his eyes, yet the manga seemed to draw the direction he was gazing toward in the distance.
As if casually chatting with a former student, he mentioned nonchalantly: "Oh, today I also encountered a strange delusional patient. In his words, it seemed like I don't only have a one-way road... sounds quite interesting."