[Valley of Screams]
Standing on a cliff, Yoruichi watched the scenery that seemed to stretch infinitely. Next to her was the serious-looking Soi Fon and fidgeting Nemu.
"What do you think he will do?"
"I don't know."
Yoruichi asked Nemu, but all she received was a terse answer.
"Watch your tone!"
"Hahaha. You are still too high-strung. Forget it, Soi Fon. It's clear she didn't mean disrespect."
Laughing out loud, Yoruichi calmed the outraged Soi Fon and once again focused her gaze far away.
"I don't understand. To think that his Reiatsu would once again grow so much just after setting foot in here."
This was something she could not wrap her head around. The growth of a normal shinigami was never really stable until it reached its limit. Sometimes, just one epiphany was enough for their power to jump on many levels all at once.
Of course, there were other ways to accelerate their growth.
Kisuke's machine that allowed to reach Bankai in just three days was one such example.
There was also the training available high up in the territory of the division 0.
By taking those shortcuts, it was indeed not impossible for a shinigami to reach his full potential in just a few years.
But, from what Soi Fon told her, since the moment Gojo entered the Soul Society to now, he had apparently never taken any sort of shortcut.
Even if the recent event where he entered Dangai was not counted, he had already reached the level of a captain. Even more so, if Limitless was added, he could proudly say to be one of the strongest captains in history.
She was supposed to accept that such a startling growth had happened in the short span of five years?
Worse, he still had even more room for growth?
'What a monster.'
This was all she could say about this and this was why.
'I am really curious.'
She was becoming more and more intrigued about the man known as Satoru Gojo.
Just how far could he grow?
What heights could he reach?
How could he change the face of the world?
She felt as if she was standing in the front row to witness history being made.
"Yoruichi-sama, should we follow him?"
"Hum?" Yoruichi was startled out of her thoughts at the sudden question, but it didn't take long for her to understand and answer, "Well, our help isn't really necessary. If he decides to spare them, you won't be able to stop him anyway so might as well watch."
"But…"
"I understand what you mean. The Ryodoji clan is really dangerous. At the very least their intentions are. They failed to take power thousand of years ago and thus were exiled. Who would have thought that they would try to destroy the world now?"
As the previous princess of her clan, Yoruichi's knowledge about history was quite vast and this was why she felt no compassion for them.
They tried to steal power and thus brought a large number of deaths because of the civil war that ensued. Their goal had been to take down the four clans and they failed miserably.
Furthermore, from what Kisuke had explained to her, with the power of the Shinenju and the Blanks, it was possible to break down the balance between the spiritual and physical world and make them collide.
The result of such a collision was pretty evident — utter and total destruction of the two worlds.
This went beyond the scope of simple vengeance and was nothing more than a totally psychopathic decision
Even so, if they managed to secure the Shinenju, the fallen clan would pose no great threat.
"The decision is his. Will he kill them? or will he let them go? I am really curious."
Soi Fon bit her lips but in the end, did not refute Yoruichi.
Like this, the three of them stayed up and looked at the horizon.
The answer they had been waiting for was delivered faster than they initially thought. Because, a few minutes after the end of their discussion,
"Well, it looks like he is more ruthless than I thought."
Yoruichi showed a bitter smile since she realized that she had once again underestimated Gojo.
They could feel it. Out of the five foreign Reiatsu, only one was remaining and that one was flickering, like a candle that was about to be snuffed out.
"Let's go see what happened."
----
"I...curse...you."
"Heh, I am a specialist in dealing with curses, so no big deal."
The cave that initially felt a little crowded was now awfully empty.
After dealing with Jai, the situation had deteriorated fast. All of the others had lunged at him, with the wish to take him down.
Sadly, the difference in power between the two sides was simply too wide.
What happened couldn't even be called a fight. It was nothing more than a pure and simple massacre.
No matter what they did, no matter how they moved, they could not hurt him, not even touch him.
Meanwhile, each of his hits were fatal, each of his attacks were of a magnitude so high that it was laughable.
His sword showed no hesitation as he cleaved each of them and brought them a swift death.
Ganryu could do nothing as he watched the last of his companions die. He couldn't even flee because he was being chained down by chains made out of Reishi.
"Dog of the Central 46."
"Haha, believe it or not, but I initially didn't want to kill you guys. If possible, I would have simply captured you and brought you on my side."
Gojo wasn't lying. Since he had decided to one day leave the soul society, he thought that fallen nobles should be powerful enough to help him create a new organization.
Unfortunately for them...
"I don't deal with people ready to operate a genocide on a universal scale."
Billions of life existed on earth and the number of souls in soul society was even multiple times that number. From what Gojo remembered, on earth, there were 15 dead people for every person living.
In short, those people had been ready to destroy two worlds alongside more than a hundred billion beings, without counting animals, just to satiate their revenge.
Compared to them, even Sukuna was an angel.
"Either way, you are going to die now. So, let's hope you will be a kind person in your next life."
Saying so, three spears of light appeared above him before swiftly piercing through Ganryu's body.
Like a criminal being executed, Ganryu could do nothing as he saw death coming to him. All he could do was gaze at the beautiful light that was nearing him like the scythe of a death god.
Weirdly, at the moment of death, what he felt was neither hatred nor resentment, but only freedom.
'Dying like this might not be bad after all.'
It had been a thousand years. Thousand years of pain and suffering.
Many people thought that by not killing them, the Central had been merciful. But, what people forgot was that there were many things worse than death in this world.
Death was a sweet release for his weary soul.
Like this, Ganryu Ryodoji, leader of the Ryodoji clan, passed away with a smile on his face.
(AN: In the movie, most of the members of the clan were killed so easily it was pathetic and that was them after decades of strengthening themselves with the power of the Blanks. Currently, they aren't even half as powerful as they were in the movie, so I honestly had no interest in making a fight chapter with them. Now then, this volume is coming close to the end. Let's see what happens.)