章 22: Hidden Inventory V

In the battlefield, Arai who just finished his fight touched his nose. Looking down at his hand, fresh blood came pouring out of his nose.

"Less blood than I thought, guess I'm getting better and better." He fell down exhaustingly but thankfully his shikigami caught him putting it on its back.

"I didn't even command you to do that. Did you register that I was in danger so you moved to help me?" He patted its head making it hum. It oddly had a feminine voice despite it looking like a nightmare monster that could eat you.

Soon enough, Nanami arrived with sweat on his face as he panted a little. Both were far away from each and with his fight, it was no surprise that he was a bit tired.

Looking at Arai's sleeping figure, it raised his eyebrow. "Isao... are you sleeping on an alligator?"

"One that has fresh blood in its mouth and pretty sure just ate a girls head."

Nanami turned his attention to it and indeed found blood flowing through its mouth. Despite knowing that, he didn't so much as flinch and kept his professionalism.

"You didn't keep her alive?"

"Didn't you capture yours alive?"

"We did but it's better if we have two captives. Interrogating them might give us more information."

Getting up Arai stretched, hearing the bones crack. "Gojo and Geto have been capturing sorcerers left and right. They haven't given us anything yet so why would they now. Even now, those girls aren't even the strongest which most likely means they don't have that much importance. All we have to do is help Gojo and Geto bring that vessel to Tengen and all is done."

"Just say that you couldn't capture her alive. I don't need an explanation."

"Well I like to, speaking of being talkative. Where's Haibara?" Arai saw no sign of him being and here. Normally Haibara would be the first to be here since he's so energetic.

"Well he's been injured so he'll take a rest. He also has to fix this mess. His technique is good for this type of thing. Other sorcerers wouldn't deal with this type of thing. They're all busy, I'm keeping up the veil so that no civilians will be here. After all, having them know of our existence will only bring severe consequences."

Hearing this reminded Arai of Geto and Gojo's conversation a couple days ago when they were arguing about their views on non-sorcerers. "Nanami, what do you think of protecting non-sorcerers?"

Hearing this question, Nanami pondered. "Hm... well I don't have a grudge against them. I certainly agree with Geto's view that we should protect them from curse spirits."

"Oh, now that's surprising. I didn't expect a hero's speech from you." Arai said sarcastically.

"I'm no hero, none of us are Isao. We're Jujutsu Sorcerers, not heroes. We do our job of exorcising curses and that's it. Nothing more, nothing less. Like society, we trust someone and they'll trust us back. We give money and they give us back."

"Nanami, despite being such a gloomy man you're really optimistic. The world doesn't work that way."

"I know Isao. But doing so is beneficial, to help someone can be of help to you. Just having them say thank you with their graciousness is what I do this for. To keep that happiness and not let it be corrupted by curse spirits."

"So you unconditionally help people so that you can just get a 'thank you'. What a load of bullsh*t." Arai wasn't angry but was unhappy knowing how his friend saw the world. He experienced both worlds and knew that they should isolate them, the human and jujutsu world should never be together.

And their job as sorcerers was to isolate that world and not interrupt in the lives of humans. Don't kill them not because you're good but because it's not beneficial.

There is no benefit in them knowing of our existences.

Still Nanami disagreed with his point of view. "You can't understand it, Isao. Your technique defines who you are very well. In exchange for giving something, you want to receive something. You always think of equal treaty, and you never want to lose even a penny in exchange. But that doesn't include emotions, you just think logically. With no emotional weight to it and it's not necessarily a good thing."

"That's just who I am Nanami. Now I understand why Gojo was so irritated with Geto. Frankly helping non-sorcerers isn't that important, just having them live their lives without knowing us is what's important to me. None of that hero talk for me."

Looking down at his hand, he channeled curse energy making his hand surrounded by this blue glow.

"Curse energy is what makes a sorcerer powerful Nanami. And guess where it comes from, resentment, fear, anger. All these negative emotion are what gives birth to powerful sorcerers. One can even say that the more you suffer, the stronger you can be. Negative emotions are what makes us strong. Not being a goodie two shoes."

"True but you're omitting one fact."

"And that is?"

"Positive curse energy. What's stronger than curse energy? It's positive one. It's highly effective against it and it can even heal wounds."

Nanami sat down next to Arai. "Do you know why positive curse energy heal wounds? It's because no matter how much pain you endure. You can recover if you find something positive to do or simply receiving that positivity.

Do you know why positive curse energy is the exponent of curse energy? It's because no matter how much pain and suffering one receives, having someone do the equivalent of same deed in a positive way can wash away the negative energy."

Getting up, both saw Haibara waving at them with a wide smile on him. He had finished repairing the damages and now came to them.

He sighed when hearing Nanami's argument. It wasn't exactly wrong but it didn't work to him. As a sorcerer, he had felt more alive than just being a regular human. He had never fit in with them so why try to?

It's true that positive energy is good but have any regular human managed to do that. Even most sorcerers would never see positive curse energy. It was that rare so even if the argument could be said to be correct.

Curse energy would always dominant the jujutsu world.

"I guess we both have different views, Haibara probably wants to help as many people as he can too. That and his sister, last time we went to his house he was weirdly really overprotective of her. It's not like I'm interested in a kid. What does he have to worry about? It was odd."

"It certainly was."

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Soon the time came, Gojo and Geto had successfully brought the vessel to the Mount Mushiro where Tengen was located. It had been 4 hours since the bounty on her head was lifted and now within Tengen's barrier.

Their mission had been completed.

Arai and Nanami were going up the mountain and were going to reunite with their upperclassmen. Haibara had been injured so he went back to Ieiri to get treatment. Though his injuries weren't too bad so he would be back to top shape in a day or two.

The way they had to walk was through an immense amount of stairs. It probably numbered in the thousands and to reduce the need to walk, he is riding on his shikigami with Nanami on its back as well.

"Geez this shouldn't even lasted that long. We had to fight for sorcerers for an entire day and worse was the fact that Gojo could of done this without that extra day. I bet he just messed around."

"You know him Isao, he'll always do whatever he wants."

The mission had been completed all Gojo and Geto had to do was bring the vessel to Tengen for merging. Arai and Nanami stayed behind them to watch things out in case another sorcerer would arrive. Thankfully they spotted no one and were now going to the barrier to meet up with them.

"Hm?" The curse spirit stopped walking up the stairs. Because Arai had a connection to it, he could understand what was going on.

"Blood." Arai frowned.

Tengen's barrier blocks the outside world but doesn't block the inside from the outside.

'Something's wrong. Why would there be blood inside the barrier? I can understand outside since Gojo or Geto could of killed a sorcerer there. But inside it? Tengen's barrier should of blocked anyone else outside.'

"Nanami! Let's go quick!"

"What's going on?"

"I don't know but prepare for combat."

They quickly ran up the stairs and arrived. Arai lifted up his hand and had no resistance.

'Tengen isn't blocking my entry. He normally would never do that as this place is where he resides. Letting in a stranger like me be here means that there's something wrong. I still feel the barrier being active so it isn't Tengen that is in danger.'

Arai's eyes widened as he realized what was going on. 'The Star Platinum Vessel! Someone trespassed here and the vessel is in danger. But Gojo and Geto are here, there's no way that they would let that happen.'

Both Nanami and Arai came to the same conclusion. Both nodded their heads to confirm, they entered the barrier ready to fight.

But what they saw sent shivers and shock to them. It was an absolute disaster, the temple which was supposed to have been taken care of by Tengen was destroyed.

The shrines were completely destroyed, the trees were blown apart and the ground they were walking on were shattered with craters in them. And worse was the fact that there were countless curse spirits running around.

They were all fly-heads who are so weak that they aren't categorized in the rankings. But there were at least a thousand of them here.

"Just what happened here? I can't imagine Gojo having such a hard time beating someone to have caused this much damage." Though Arai said this sarcastically, he was actually nervous as if someone or something really did fight Gojo and caused this much destruction, he would stand no chance against them.

Looking around, all Arai could see were curse spirits going around. 'Tch. So many curse spirits, how did they even get here? Tengen's barrier should block anything or anyone. The perpetrator must be the cause of this.'

"Isao..." Hearing his name be called, he turned around to see a shocked Nanami. His eyes were wide open and his fingers shook.

Arai had never seen Nanami be like this, he was shaking. But why was he?

"Hm... Nanami? What's wrong?" Arai asked but no response.

Following where Nanami was looking, Arai saw a sight that he would of never thought could be possible. An impossible outcome had come to fruition.

Gojo Satoru was there on the ground bleeding. There were cuts and wounds all over him, the most noticeable ones were on his leg, neck and head. A brutal battle must have caused this much injuries.

No movement could be seen from him and it seemed as if he wasn't breathing.

"Gojo... there's no way."

Gojo and Geto were the most powerful sorcerers and Arai had always seen them as an unstoppable force. Instead of caring about them, he should look out for himself. After all, they were the strongest. There was no way that they would ever lose.

An invincible force of nature.

Yet at this moment, all of these thoughts disappeared from his head.

For the first time in Jujutsu history, a God shed blood.