Looking Forward to Another World Chapter 898: An Unexpected Variable

On what appeared to be an uninhabited place resembling a beach in some tropical summer land, with beautiful scenery stretching out before one’s eyes, the sound of waves rolled in from the sea, one after another, as wave after wave surged toward the beach.

On the beach, there was a shaded spot beneath a parasol where people could escape the heat.

A man dressed like a monk slowly walked along the beach, a smile of unfathomable meaning hanging on his face. Yet behind that smile lay an endless darkness, one that could faintly be sensed by anyone who looked closely.

He walked straight toward the parasol, and the moment he saw the several figures beneath it, he immediately raised a hand and called out to them.

"You guys really are here. Good thing you didn’t run off."

Hearing the monk’s voice, the figures beneath the parasol all turned their heads toward him. Upon closer inspection, they were actually three extraordinarily bizarre-looking non-human beings.

"Geto?"

Among them, the first to speak was a creature with an aged voice and the appearance of a short old man. He had bluish-gray skin and wore a spotted yellow half-robe, while his head resembled a volcano, with a vent shaped like a volcanic crater on top. Instead of two eyes, his face had only one enormous eye and a mouth filled with yellow teeth.

At a glance, it was obvious that he was a cursed spirit.

However, if a jujutsu sorcerer had been here and witnessed this cursed spirit, they would undoubtedly have been shocked.

It was only natural.

Although cursed spirits possessed intelligence, it was generally not very high. Even the special grade cursed spirit born from a fear of a juvenile detention center had possessed little more than a desire to kill, along with basic thought and reasoning. It absolutely should not have been capable of speaking like a human being, as this cursed spirit did.

Needless to say, this was clearly a sign of extremely high intelligence, probably no less intelligent than that of a human, and might even have surpassed it.

"What about Mahito? How come I don’t see him?"

Seeing the talking cursed spirit, the monk called Geto did not seem surprised in the slightest and simply walked over while casually asking the question.

"Mahito ran off," the volcano-headed cursed spirit replied listlessly. "He probably went out to experiment with his technique and add to his collection, right?"

As he spoke, the volcano-headed cursed spirit glanced at Geto.

"What do you want? Haven’t we already worked out the subsequent plan? It’s not time to put it into action yet, is it?"

Right after saying that, the cursed spirit grinned.

"Don’t tell me you’re planning to make a move against Satoru Gojo?"

When it came to Satoru, the cursed spirit’s interest seemed to pique.

"What? You still haven’t given up on Satoru Gojo?" Geto said with an indifferent smile. "I’ve already told you, haven’t I? If you go after him, you’ll definitely die. For us, the best way to deal with him should be to seal him, not confront him head-on."

Hearing that, the volcano-headed cursed spirit scoffed.

"Hmph, you’re pretty cautious. I don’t believe it. How could a mere human possibly be as strong as you claim?"

"He’s just some brat who hasn’t even lived for thirty years, yet you actually put him in the same category as someone like Ryomen Sukuna, the strongest in history. You think our plan can only succeed if we seal Satoru Gojo or bring Sukuna over to our side?"

"Ridiculous! Sukuna aside, I don’t think a brat like Satoru Gojo deserves to be treated with such caution by us."

Hearing the volcano-headed cursed spirit’s words, Geto was not angered and maintained that unfathomable smile.

"I’m just telling you how it is. If you still want to cause trouble for Satoru Gojo, I won’t stop you," Geto said casually before suddenly changing his tone. "But that’s not why I came here this time. I didn’t come to talk about him. Do you remember that special grade cursed spirit from last time?"

At that question, the volcano-headed cursed spirit frowned.

"You mean the one you created by wasting one finger?" the volcano-headed cursed spirit asked doubtfully. "Didn’t you say you were going to use it to draw out Sukuna from inside the vessel and test his current strength?"

"That’s right," Geto replied with a nod. "Well, the plan went smoothly at first, but something went wrong halfway through. A mysterious human who wasn’t part of the plan suddenly appeared inside the incomplete domain of the cursed spirit and exorcised it with ease. It was an unexpected variable, and more importantly, his appearance made me uneasy, so I want to test his abilities."

Recalling the young man who had suddenly appeared inside the cursed spirit’s incomplete domain without any warning, Geto narrowed his eyes.

Just like Satoru, he had easily seen that the young man possessed no cursed energy.

He clearly had no cursed energy, and without using jujutsu, physical attacks should have been ineffective against a cursed spirit, yet he had killed a special grade cursed spirit with just a single slash.

It was impossible not to find that strange.

Various thoughts flashed through Geto’s mind, but none yielded a satisfactory conclusion, since there was still far too little information.

And that was precisely why he needed to test that young man.

A mysterious individual possessing that kind of power had now come into contact with the personnel of jujutsu high school because of Satoru. According to the information from his the other party had apparently even enrolled in the school and begun learning jujutsu.

Given that, he believed that this young man already possessed the ability to interfere with his plans, so he could not simply ignore him.

"How about it, Jogo?" Geto asked with a faint smile. "Before making contact with Satoru Gojo, why don’t you try making contact with that human first? He’s currently at Tokyo Jujutsu High, and it seems he’s training under Satoru Gojo. You should be interested in him, right?"

Geto’s words indeed attracted the attention of the volcano-headed cursed spirit called Jogo.

"Training under Satoru Gojo? Is the human his disciple?" Jogo revealed a mouthful of large yellow teeth and grinned viciously. "Fine. Let this old man test the mettle of Satoru Gojo’s disciple first. If I kill him, Satoru Gojo should lose his temper, right? When that happens, I’ll be able to finish him off while I’m at it."

Jogo clearly had considerable confidence in his own strength.

Knowing that, Geto did not care, nor did he intend to persuade the cursed spirit any further. He merely explained the arrangements.

"I’ll work with Mahito to create several incidents outside and draw the attention of the school, forcing them to send Satoru Gojo out."

"Once we’ve lured him away, Hanami will take you into the school. Otherwise, you won’t be able to pass through the school’s barrier and get inside to find that special grade curse user."

"Yuta Okkotsu isn’t at the school right now either. Once Satoru Gojo is drawn away, there shouldn’t be anyone inside the school capable of posing a threat to you."

Needless to say, the implication was that Jogo would be free to act however he pleased at that time.

"Actually, leaving Satoru Gojo alive would be fine, too."

Jogo muttered this in a low voice.

"No..." Geto denied it, actually opposing the idea this time. "That place is ultimately a jujutsu high school, an important location in the jujutsu world. I doubt you’d feel comfortable fighting him in a place like that, would you? Besides, the barrier and traps are secondary. If the other people from the school come running over and interfere with your fight, you’d be annoyed too, wouldn’t you?"

Even though Jogo clicked his tongue at Geto’s reasoning, he did not raise any further objections, since even he did not believe he could take on the entire school, including Satoru. As stubborn as he was, he knew that doing so would not be confidence but blind arrogance.

"Hanami won’t have a problem with this either, right?"

Asking that, Geto turned toward one of the two figures beside Jogo, who was also a cursed spirit.

Hanami possessed a sturdy physique resembling that of a fighter, with clearly defined muscles and grayish-white skin covered in black, root-like patterns. Branches resembling horns grew from the area where their eyes should have been, while their left arm was wrapped in cloth, making them appear almost as though the limb had been severed.

When everyone’s attention turned toward them, the cursed spirit that gave off the impression of a tree spirit made a sound.

".ekac fo eceip a s’tI .melborp oN."

It was a language that no one could understand, yet although the language itself was incomprehensible, the minds of everyone present seemed to play back a translation of that sound, forcing them to understand the meaning behind the words.

If it were to be described, the sensation was extremely unpleasant, as the process of having their brains forcibly interpret the meaning while their ears forcibly received the sound made them particularly uncomfortable.

Both Jogo and Geto wore expressions as though they had something difficult to say, but in the end, they still understood what Hanami meant.

Hanami was basically saying,

"It would be nice if you could just speak normally, Hanami."

Geto smiled bitterly.

"Speaking of which..." Jogo suddenly remembered something and asked, "What’s Satoru Gojo’s disciple’s name?"

Hearing the question, Geto paused for a moment before telling Jogo.

"Riezel Brynhart."

===

"Going out on a mission?"

When Satoru suddenly informed Riezel of that, the movement of his hands paused slightly. He turned his head and looked at Satoru.

"Yeah, unfortunately."

Satoru had wrapped his eyepatch back around his eyes and scratched his head, looking as though he had no choice in the matter.

At this moment, they were at a clearing in the forest on the outskirts of Tokyo Jujutsu High, the same place where Riezel and Satoru had been training recently. Both of them had continued their training here as usual, but Satoru had suddenly made that announcement, causing them to temporarily stop.

"It’s because of the mission, right?"

Riezel was not sweating and did not look like he had undergone any training at all. He casually asked Satoru the question.

"Yeah. Apparently, it’s a case that only I can handle."

Satoru still looked as though he found the whole thing troublesome.

"Well, this jujutsu world is short on manpower, and there are only four special grade jujutsu sorcerers—no, five now, but obviously, you don’t count yet. As for the other three, either they have their own stuff to deal with, or... Ugh, forget it."

"Anyway, this incident has already been deemed something only a special grade jujutsu sorcerer can handle. Sending a grade 1 jujutsu sorcerer would be too risky, and I’m not exactly in a state where I can’t go on missions right now, so naturally, it fell to me."

"Fortunately, I’ve already taught you almost everything you need to know. Even without me, you should be able to keep training on your own."

"It’s fine." Riezel nodded. "Just go. I can train by myself."

"I’ll hurry back as soon as I can." Satoru waved his hand. "I’m gonna give you a random test when I get back. If you fail, your teacher will punish you with my famous finishing move."

"What famous finishing move?"

"...One Thousand Years of Death?"

"...I’m gonna beat you up, okay?"

"Don’t!"

Just like that, the two bickered for a while before finally parting ways.

As Riezel watched Satoru leave, he fell into deep thought.