Chapter 99

Blink, blink.

Unable to trust his eyes for a moment, Geto froze on the spot. As soon as he regained his senses, he moved close to the wooden bars.

"Uh...!"

Thinking he was going to harm them, the two girls squeezed their eyes shut and cowered. Seeing their small hands trembling, Geto bit his lip and stepped back.

Crunch!

Zoro broke the wooden bars of the jail with his hands. Geto took off his school uniform jacket, leaving him in a white shirt.

Flap.

Zoro wrapped the two sisters in Geto's school uniform jacket. The sisters looked up at Zoro with stunned expressions, silently observing his cold, indifferent face.

"It's okay."

"Who are you?"

"I'm Zoro. Zenin Zoro. That's Geto Suguru."

Three villagers appeared along the passage. Geto looked at them coldly and asked.

"What is this?"

"What do you mean? These two are the cause of the incidents in the village, aren't they?"

Deep furrows formed on Geto's forehead.

"These two children are the cause?"

"Yes! These two are not right in the head. They keep saying the sacred area feels bad, or that they've seen monsters there, making ominous remarks."

The first villager, a young woman, spoke vehemently, spitting as she talked. Geto's eyes narrowed.

'These children, are they sorcerers?'

Without taking his eyes off the villagers, Geto sent a small curse, shaped like a serpent, through the bars and placed it in front of the sisters.

"Uh...?"

The two girls, who were looking at Zoro, turned their gaze to where the serpent curse was. They were indeed sorcerers. Both of them.

A middle-aged man spat in front of the jail.

"Their parents were the same kind of monsters. Talking to thin air, saying you shouldn't call the sacred area by its name. Isn't it because of those two that such ominous events keep occurring in the sacred area?"

"—That's not true."

According to the records reviewed in the car, disappearances and deaths had been occurring since 1998. It seemed unlikely that these two children were born before 1998.

The village chief clenched his teeth.

"You just don't understand. These two are monsters. Just yesterday, because of these monsters, my only granddaughter got injured!"

"That's because she—!"

"Shut up, you damn monsters! Are you trying to ruin our village by wearing a child's skin? No matter what you say, I won't be fooled and will protect the village!"

Fwoosh.

One of the two candles in front of Geto flickered violently, as if struck by a strong wind, though both were similarly half-melted.

"—Be quiet."

Woooooosh—!

A mighty, formless energy radiated from Zoro, spreading outwards. Geto felt a crushing pressure momentarily suffocate him.

Thump, rolling!

The two candles in front of Geto, shaken by the vibration, fell to the ground and went out.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

As Zoro's intense aura reached the three villagers, they simultaneously rolled their eyes back and collapsed unconscious on the floor. The two girls who had been holding each other also fell unable to escape Zoro's energy.

"This is bad."

Zoro caught the two falling children.

The energy did not stop with just knocking out the two children and three villagers; it continued to spread throughout the entire village.

Rumble rumble rumble!

Like a very mild earthquake, the floorboards vibrated.

Crack, crack!

The surface of the wooden bars of the jail slowly crumbled, and fragments fell off. Like windows shaking in a typhoon, the bars faintly vibrated.

As the oppressive atmosphere dissipated and the vibrations ceased, Geto fixed his gaze on Zoro.

"Zoro, you."

What did you just do?

"...?"

Zoro furrowed his brow in confusion at Geto's question. Then, looking back and forth between the unconscious villagers and the sisters behind Geto, he realized what had happened.

"Did it manifest?"

Conqueror's Haki.

A type of Haki that can render people overwhelmingly weaker than the user unconscious, known as Conqueror's Haki.

Typically, only those with the qualities of a king possess Conqueror's Haki, which unlike the other two types of Haki, cannot be acquired; it must be innate. Those born with it are about one in several million.

Even among those born with it, not everyone can use it. The manifestation of Conqueror's Haki depends on the strength of mind and body, so even a person possessing it might never manifest it and could die without ever doing so.

When someone uses Conqueror's Haki for the first time, even the person who manifested it may not know they've used it. It's impossible to control who it affects or when, and often people who had no intention of harming others get involved.

Just like now.

'I'll have to apologize later.'

Zoro carefully laid the two girls down comfortably. Geto pressed Zoro for answers.

"Tell me straight. Did you do all this?"

"Yes."

"Then why these two kids…"

"I didn't mean to knock them out too."

It was just that he couldn't control it because it had been triggered unconsciously.

Zoro looked at the fallen villagers and twisted his mouth.

'Scum, but they got lucky.'

If they hadn't been knocked out, he certainly would have drawn his sword and cut them all down.

'Some would have lost limbs.'

Or perhaps only a few would still have their limbs attached.

Zoro averted his gaze. No matter how despicable, slicing up and killing those who are unconscious leaves a bad taste.

Even though he felt like ignoring the aftertaste and just slicing them up right now… Zoro kept his head cool.

'I shouldn't kill them.'

If Zoro killed all the villagers now, even if the truth came out later, people would say that the punishment was too harsh compared to the crime committed.

'I can't let them be treated that way.'

They had to live and pay fully for their sins. Thoroughly.

To do that, he first needed to deal with this village. Resolved, Zoro spoke to Geto.

"Let's call the police, Suguru."

Such a village should not exist.

...

A man with a scar stitched across his forehead was observing several police cars parked at a crossroads through binoculars. The police appeared to be sleepily gathering the dazed villagers and loading them into the police cars one by one.

Approaching the village would have involved several risks, so he was assessing the situation from here. Nevertheless, he had a good enough grasp of what was going on.

He stroked his chin and hummed.

"Calling the police."

It was an unexpectedly straightforward approach.

If they had gone on a rampage killing all the sorcerers, Zoro would have been designated a death penalty target in the sorcery community, and Geto Suguru, who would have shielded Zoro, would have been marked the same and eliminated.

'It would have been fine if Geto Suguru had rampaged.'

Becoming a fugitive, even a first-class sorcerer wouldn't last many years before being hunted down and killed by other sorcerers, and the curse technique he used was quite powerful. It was worth considering.

Either way, that scenario was now dissolved. He shrugged his shoulders and cleanly erased the plan from his mind. He wasn't particularly disappointed. If he had been disheartened by every failure, he wouldn't have made it this far.

Over a thousand years, he had continuously planned, acted, and failed.

"Anyway, more gentle than expected."

Given that he was lenient towards a criminal father, he had thought perhaps Zoro couldn't recognize evil as evil. He had even prepared for the possibility that Zoro might ignore the abuse of children he hadn't met before. But that didn't seem to be the case.

'Is this an extension of the familial affection he shows his sister?'

Or perhaps it was sympathy for the weak? An inability to tolerate injustice?

Either way, having such vulnerabilities wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The more gaps he had, the easier it was to exploit them.

'But it's a fine line to tread.'

Considering he cared for his killer father, he wasn't someone for whom justice or goodness was an absolute standard.

He keeps defying predictions. He smirked.

"Really, what is it?"

So strong at such a young age. Not a vessel of Sukuna, nor a Descendant of the Heavenly Restriction with zero talent, nor born with a technique comparable to the Six Eyes or anything similar.

A power absolutely forbidden to a non-sorcerer in this world's laws.

'Is he a curse mimicking a human?'

No, if that were the case, Satoru Gojo, who had faced him numerous times, would have noticed. If it were a curse, it couldn't have restrained its nature for six years. Once it had the power, it would have killed everyone, family or not.

'Even if it were a new type of entity, Satoru Gojo would have known.'

While he was abroad, he had diligently searched for similar entities, but to no avail.

'Is it because he's the child of the Descendant of the Heavenly Restriction?'

The Descendant of the Heavenly Restriction is one who escapes the causal forces of talent.

'Ah, yes.'

Suddenly, he thought of someone entangled in the powerful causal forces of talent—a girl with black hair braided into a single braid whom he had casually met once.

He quickly drafted a series of plans in his mind, seriously reviewing them.

It wasn't highly likely. But if he had been obsessed with likelihoods, he wouldn't have pursued such goals in the first place.

"Shall we try to make use of him?"

Since the Descendant of the Heavenly Restriction escapes causality, and this guy also possesses an absurdly powerful force beyond the causality of talent, it might just be possible.

To prevent the assimilation of a growing entity.

"Well then, shall we write a scenario where the prince saves the princess?"

He lightly loosened the thread on his forehead and moved forward with a spring in his step. It was quite enjoyable.

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