章 88: Culling Games XI
Inside a dark room, two teenagers walked outside. One was the newly added special grade sorcerer, Okkotsu Yuta, and the other was Inumaki Toge, who was missing an arm after losing it in Shibuya. The door behind them disappeared on its own.
"It's done."
"Salmon," Inumaki said before closing the door behind him.
The pair walked down a dimly lit hallway adorned with candles along the walls. With each step, the candle flames ceased to burn.
Yuta closed his eyes as he thought about what Shoko had just told him. She told him something that he would never want to happen but taking into account possibilities was important to the grand scheme of things.
It left a bad taste in his mouth.
As they arrived back at their headquarters, they were about to report what they had done to everyone but found Arai standing in front of a door. Strangely, he didn't move and had his hands on the handle.
"Bonito flakes," Inumaki commented.
Yuta nodded. "Yeah, this is Mai's room."
"Mustard leaf."
"That's what it would do to you. Guilt is a poison to the human mind."
"Caviar."
"Hm, it's best not to interfere like you said."
The two left Arai alone, not wanting to bother him, but they didn't realize he had heard everything they said.
"Kids don't stop gossiping, but thanks for the wake-up call."
Yuta was not the only person able to understand the cursed speech.
Arai was hesitating on opening the door, not debating whether he should enter but what he should say. Should he apologize first, or does that come after they reunite? He found this more difficult than fighting special-grade cursed spirits.
'Let fate take you for your ride.'
Arai smiled as he opened the door revealing a stairway.
He walked down the steps leading to the basement and reminisced about what he had here. It was where Mechamaru had stayed throughout his life. In a dark, humid basement with no fresh air, Mai had taken it over after finding out he was a traitor. She wanted to use the existing knowledge that he had left behind.
With this, she even managed to replicate the Simple Domain that he had used against Mahito.
The thing about this place is that its only entry point is the door that leads above ground. So if desired, one could simply block this entrance, and no one would be able to enter, which was exactly what Mai had chosen to do.
"Mai? She locked herself up after being healed. Have no idea why, she said something about storing it."
Malenia's words were remembered by him and rooted deep inside his mind.
Why?
Because he was the one who told her to do so.
Opening the heavy metal doors, Arai entered a room where he found numerous screens displaying data and numbers of sorts. The whole room was dimly lit with red lights, similar to those of the army.
"I thought I told you that air circulation is important to be healthy, Mai."
Arai said as he looked at Mai, who was strapped to a surgical chair with tubes lodged in her skin. Inside them was cursed energy that flowed out of her body and into glass containers bigger than him. A metallic headwear was on her head with wires connected to the computer.
"You went above and beyond." He smiled sadly, seeing the state she was in.
He walked up to her and grabbed her hand. His eyes shone green as he looked at the newfound pact that she had made.
[Sacrifice all senses, movement, and consciousness until the individual 'Isao Arai' comes back. Exchange: Production of Cursed Energy increased tenfold.]
"So you bet everything on me coming back, even though you thought I was dead. How much faith and trust you must have in me to do that?"
Mai had made this pact since the day she recovered from her wounds. She had immediately come here and started stocking up cursed energy using Mechamaru's technology. Using the restriction of her senses and movement, she could improve the production of cursed energy, but what made this pact strong was that it required him to come back.
To be alive.
Something she could not be certain about. The risk alone increased her cursed energy fivefold.
Arai created a clay chair to sit beside her. He tightened the grip on her hand before closing his eyes.
What greeted him was a beautiful world, the bright blue sky and the grassy field filled with exotic flowers of different kinds were shown to him. He looked to where he stood and found himself just above a cliff where below there was a raging storm of waves crashing against the cliff.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?"
He heard a high-pitched voice and turned around. His eyes softened when he saw a little girl with green hair in a yukata who sat on the ground cross-legged. On her head was a garland made out of the surrounding flowers.
Arai smiled and sat down beside her in the same position.
"Norway has sights even more beautiful than this," Arai said.
"You mean the aurora borealis. They sure are nice to look at, though I've never seen a real one. How about we go there after this is all over?"
"That sounds like a good time."
Arai looked at the little girl that was Mai and patted her head. "Did you have a hard time?"
"I'm sure you looked at me from the outside. I'm not in the greatest state now, am I?"
Arai looked at her apologetically. "I'm sorry."
"Don't blame yourself. I chose to do this. Gather as much cursed energy as I possibly could, just like you told me, but you never told me what it will be used for."
For a moment, she could see a glimpse of sadness or regret in his eyes before it was gone. "I have a plan, but I want your opinion on this."
She waved off his concerns. "I'll trust you, Dad, so trust me. No matter what, family sticks together, right?"
Seeing someone trust him this deeply, Arai felt a sense of guilt.
This feeling was always in the back of his mind, and he never wanted to bring it to the light, but now it was eating him from the inside.
"Mai."
"Yeah."
"Don't you hate me?"
"..."
"I adopted you two only because I wanted to use you. I only saw you and Maki as objects to further my own goals. I brought you two not as my daughters but as weapons. I took you in and forced you to become sorcerers, getting Maki killed. I am the reason she died and why you're suffering. I am the bad in your life, and for—"
He was interrupted by a slap, sending his face back. He looked back in shock and saw Mai looking at him with tears in her eyes.
"Don't make this about yourself. We chose this path, not you. We decided to fight against curses not because you forced us to but because we wanted to make a difference in this shitty world. The Zen'in, Kamo, Gojo, and the higher-ups, are all pieces of shit. The jujutsu world is full of people who are selfish and arrogant, and changing that was and is still our goal. So don't ever think we are incapable of handling it. We're stubborn and inflexible. After all, daughters take after their father."
Having a family was something he never imagined he would get after becoming a sorcerer. He only saw his daughters as tools when he adopted them, but now he regrets thinking like that. They are the most important people in his life.
And now one was gone.
"So don't ever say that again. Got it!"
Because of his mistake, one of them died.
Arai patted her head reassuringly. "Got it. I shouldn't have said that."
"Hmph! As long as you learn from your mistakes."
He wanted to tell Mai that he accepted it wasn't because of him, but he couldn't.
If he were strong and responsive, then his parents wouldn't have died. If he acted and didn't just freeze when the cursed spirit exploded, then Haibara would have lived, not saving him. If he had held Sukuna down and kept his attention away, then thousands of people wouldn't have died, and he could have gone to exorcise the remaining cursed spirits.
"You've grown, Mai."
"Hm, you say that when I'm a child."
'You've grown as a person, but I haven't. You've accepted Maki's death, not wanting to dwell in the past but face the present, but I can't.'
Arai chuckled, laughing at himself.
Isao Arai was not someone who could grow as a person. Limited by the same mindset he imposed on himself from the start of his journey in Jujutsu, he desired the same thing.
'I want more power.'
Though now it wasn't to stand at the top to satiate his inferiority complex but to protect his one and only daughter remaining.
A far cry from what he was when he started his journey.
And yet, he can't deny that he was stronger now.
What did he desire above all else now?
To make a world where she can go outside with no worries.
Not needing to think about whether she could die or not.
Not needing to see her classmates, teachers, and sisters die before her.
He needed to bring order to the world.
And give it the peace it deserves.
Arai will protect the world, even if it doesn't want him to.
Not because he is a hero, nor to appease his moral compass.
He was going to do it for one reason and one reason only.
That is because it is where his daughter lives.
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