The Killing Stone

"How exciting. My name is Bayer, the strongest member of Q."

A man in military clothing appeared at the street corner. He wore a savage smile, and cursed energy crackled around his hand like thunder.

"I heard you are strong. Let me see how powerful brats from an ivory tower really are."

"Oh?"

Gojo pushed up the sunglasses that had slipped down his nose and looked at Bayer with obvious amusement.

"Kid, if you lose, do not cry."

"If you want to fight, I will play with you," Gojo said. "But let us set a rule first."

"A rule?"

Gojo rested one hand under his chin, looking thoughtful.

"I do not want that teacher scolding me for going too far again. So if you cry and surrender, I will spare your life. How about that?"

"You brat!"

Bayer's forehead bulged with veins. His feet crushed the ground, and he charged toward Gojo like a shell.

Gojo had clearly learned a lesson from Yaga's scolding that morning. Limitless burst around him, and he shot into the distance instead of fighting near the civilians.

Ren looked toward the direction where Geto and Gojo had vanished.

Then he looked down at the unconscious girl.

He suddenly felt as if he had been tricked.

"Those two did that on purpose, didn't they?"

Black lines almost appeared over his head. He lifted the girl again and sighed.

Ren had terrifying combat strength, but he had no healing technique. When Hands of Dual Perfection was unlocked, he would be able to grasp the soul with one hand and reshape the body with the other. Injuries of flesh and spirit would both be easy to repair.

And that thought made him remember a name.

Mahito.

In his previous life, that cute little thing had annoyed him badly enough in the manga. If Idle Transfiguration met Hands of Dual Perfection, what kind of scene would that become?

Mahito was quite cute.

His only flaw was being alive.

Ren's mouth curved with faint mockery. Then he carried the girl toward the street corner.

His gaze passed briefly over the distant high-rise.

"Do not bore me," he murmured. "It is rare for me to come out on a mission."

Elsewhere, Kokun's voice had nearly collapsed.

"Please! After this, I will go back to the countryside and farm. I will never return to Tokyo. I will even leave Q."

"Please make it stay away from me!"

His leg was trapped by layers of worm-like cursed spirits. The spirits spoke in old, shrill voices.

"Give us a kiss. Kiss us."

They pushed their disgusting heads closer and closer to him.

Geto stood nearby as if watching a show. He held his phone in one hand and seemed bored. Kokun's pleading did not move him at all.

"What did you say the strongest person in your organization is called?"

Kokun's eyes lit up as if he had found a lifeline.

"Bayer. It is Bayer. He is the strongest in our organization. He went to trouble your partner. Bayer is really strong. If you go now, maybe..."

His voice stopped.

He stared at Geto's phone.

On the screen was a photo of Bayer lying on the ground as if his mind had collapsed. Beside him, Gojo wore a ridiculous expression and flashed a peace sign, looking as if he were taking a commemorative photo with a clown.

"What a pitiful person."

Geto put the phone away without looking at Kokun again. He stepped onto the back of a cursed spirit and drifted away.

Gurgling sounds rose behind him.

Kokun's eyes were swallowed by despair.

Weren't students from Jujutsu High supposed to avoid killing people?

Why?

Before he could scream, darkness swallowed everything.

The wind moved through Geto's hair. His usual gentle smile was gone. A layer of gloom covered his face.

In his hand, he gripped a black stone tightly.

The stone was pitch black, but a strange luster moved through it. Cursed energy fluctuations returned to Geto's body again and again.

"It really can transfer cursed energy."

His gaze became complicated.

This was the first time Geto had killed a person.

Sorcerers and curse users were fundamentally both humans with cursed energy. The difference lay in position. But whether sorcerer or curse user, when such people died, large amounts of cursed energy could erupt and birth terrifying curses.

Because of that, the jujutsu world generally confined such people instead of killing them, avoiding the birth of stronger curses.

Geto had always respected that rule.

He had never killed a curse user before.

Everything changed after he picked up this stone.

It had appeared before him after his desire to become stronger grew beyond restraint.

There was an old legend. When a powerful person's desire for strength broke past all limits, it could call forth a companion gift from the depths of hell, an evil buried by history and covered by the sand of time.

A special-grade cursed tool.

Only existences capable of changing the fate of the world could evolve or refine such a thing.

The stone in Geto's hand was one of those things.

The Killing Stone.

It could make people sink into endless desire and absorb power through slaughter.

Kill all beings.

Destroy all things.

Only killing remained.

Geto looked at the stone, and his expression grew complicated.

He wanted to become stronger. He wanted power enough to stand beside Satoru Gojo and Ren Zenin. He wanted to become the strongest Gojo spoke of.

He was Suguru Geto.

The youngest Special Grade sorcerer, a user of Cursed Spirit Manipulation.

He should have had the right to stand at the top.

But everything changed because Ren appeared.

Stimulated by Ren, the normally careless Gojo began growing at terrifying speed. The gap between Geto and the center of this era had begun to widen without limit.

Even if he did not say it, it pained him.

The Killing Stone's appearance was an accident, but it was also an opportunity.

It could convert all curses produced by killing living beings into pure cursed energy and absorb that energy into Geto's body. With that power, even killing curse users and sorcerers would no longer risk birthing powerful curses.

Ordinary exorcism was like sweeping dust with a broom. Dust flew, scattered, and eventually settled elsewhere.

Anything killed by the holder of the Killing Stone was more like dust swallowed by a vacuum, and even that filth could become fuel.

Until today, Geto had not found a proper time to use this power.

Facing Kokun from Q, he had finally shown it for the first time.

The feeling was strange.

He had only ordered a cursed spirit to kill Kokun. He had not controlled the Killing Stone. Yet Kokun's cursed energy had flowed into his body without losing a trace.

"They are scum anyway," Geto murmured. "Even if they are all killed, it should not matter."

He put the Killing Stone away.

If this continued, he might be able to catch up to those two.

Gojo.

Ren carried the unconscious girl toward a cafe where he and Gojo occasionally met. A faint trace of cursed energy moved from him, acting as a signal for Gojo and Geto.

"She looks only fifteen or sixteen. A pity she is going to become that person's body."

Thinking that a lively young girl would merge with a being who had lived for hundreds or thousands of years filled Ren with disgust.

The girl's eyelashes trembled.

Then her clear eyes opened.

Ren's nearly perfect face reflected in them.

"So handsome."

The girl's hand, raised by instinct to strike, immediately stopped and covered her mouth instead. Her face turned red like an apple.

"If you are awake, walk by yourself."

Ren opened his hands and let go.

For him, carrying a girl through the street had been more troublesome than exorcising a cursed spirit. Since she was awake, he had no reason to keep holding her.

"Huh?"

Under the girl's disbelieving gaze, her body began to fall.

Before she could scream, a black figure flashed past and caught her.

"Be gentler with girls," Gojo said, holding her like an expert in romance. "Otherwise you will never find a wife."

He ignored Ren's eye roll completely.

Then a fragrant wind moved.

Slap.

The girl's palm struck Gojo's face.

With Gojo's physique, the slap could not injure him. But for someone used to girls screaming over his looks, it left him stunned.

"Pervert! Creep! How dare you touch me without permission?"

She pointed at him, voice loud but fear hidden deep in her eyes.

"Lowly people, did you think you could kill me? Do you know my greatness? I am Riko Amanai. I am the immortal one."

"Wait," Gojo said. "You were not like this when Ren was holding you."

The point he cared about was always strange.

Geto landed from the air and smiled gently.

"Riko, do not be nervous. Obviously, we are not the same group that attacked you earlier."

"Liar. You look like a scammer, and your bangs are weird."

Geto's smile stiffened.

Then he and Gojo each grabbed one of Riko's limbs and pulled in opposite directions.

"No! How dare you treat me like this? This is disrespectful!"

Riko struggled and looked toward Ren for help.

"If you pay me one hundred thousand yen, I can help you get down," Ren said, making a payment gesture.

"Who would pay one hundred thousand yen for that, you bastard?"

A vein rose on Ren's forehead.

He appeared beside her and looked seriously at Gojo and Geto.

"How about we cut her in half? I can keep her alive, put her in a suitcase, and deliver her tomorrow."

His tone was gentle, as if discussing where to eat tomorrow.

To Riko, that was far more terrifying than the two gloomy boys pulling her apart.

"Please do not say things like that with such a kind face and such a handsome voice."

Silent tears slid down her cheeks.

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