After all, I hadn't lost in a very long time; no one had ever matched me, and I know that might sound arrogant, but it wasn't. It was simply a fact and a promise I had made countless times over the course of my more than four hundred years of existence—one that, despite the crushing weight of time, I had always made sure to keep ever since I had earned the title of the strongest.
The flames around us continued their macabre dance, devouring the remains of the city like hungry beasts that were never sated. However, after the annihilation of Heracles and the elimination of that annoying red archer in the distance, an unnatural silence had taken hold of our area. It was as if the city itself was holding its breath, evaluating the new anomaly that had just erased its most lethal monster. The waters, so to speak, were calm. There were no reanimated skeletons marching toward us, no deformed shadows crawling over the melted asphalt. It was just the five of us in the middle of the apocalypse.
I let my senses expand, a thin layer of Cursed Energy spreading like an invisible net through the ruins. Nothing. We were alone within a radius of at least a couple of kilometers. I relaxed my shoulders a little, feeling how the adrenaline from the battle was slowly dissipating from my system, leaving behind that familiar and ancient calm.
Olga Marie Animusphere was the first to break the lethargy that had settled over the group. The Director, who just minutes ago was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, seemed to pull herself together. She smoothed out the invisible wrinkles on her soot-stained uniform and cleared her throat, adopting that rigid posture of authority that, by now, I found almost endearing.
"Alright," Olga began, her voice sounding a bit higher than normal before stabilizing. "I appreciate your confidence, Itadori, and you've certainly shown you have the power to back up your words. But arrogance kills more mages than curses themselves. Before we continue our march toward Mount Enzou to fix this damn Singularity, we must act logically."
"I'm all ears, Director," I replied calmly, shoving my hands into the pockets of my white jacket.
"The waters are calm for now," she observed, glancing sideways at the decapitated skyscrapers surrounding us. "This is a tactical window we can't waste. Going blindly toward the enemy's center of power, where a corrupted Saber guards a Dark Grail, is tactical suicide, even with you on our side."
I refrained from mocking her, only because she still didn't understand the magnitude of my power. Not why I was nicknamed the strongest "of all time."
Gudako, who had been dusting off her knees, looked up. "What do you suggest we do then, Director?"
Olga pulled out that strange communication device from her pocket again. The runes along the metal edges flickered faintly. "We'll use this pause to contact Romani. We need to assess Chaldea's options. If we can stabilize the summoning link, we might try to summon an additional Servant. With one more Servant supporting us, we'd be much safer going into that final battle."
Mash, who was still holding her enormous shield in a semi-relaxed defensive position, nodded silently, clearly agreeing with the idea of having more reinforcements.
"That sounds reasonable," I said, leaning my back against the wreckage of an overturned car. "It never hurts to have an extra pair of hands when you're about to storm the final boss's castle." Of course, it wasn't necessary since they had me, but if they wanted more muscle, I wasn't going to say anything. After all, I shouldn't do all the work for them—otherwise, they'd start depending on me, and that wouldn't help them learn on their own.
Caster, leaning lazily on his wooden staff a few meters away, let out a snort of amusement. "A castle full of rabid dogs, you mean. But the white-haired girl is right. If your little organization can throw another Heroic Spirit into this bonfire, it would be a great help."
Olga ignored him and began manipulating the interface of her device.
"Did you hear that, Romani?" Olga cut off, getting straight to the point.
Romani's blue hologram was still listening to the conversation, but now he looked nervous and kept rubbing his hands. "I heard, but..."
Romani couldn't finish what he was going to say because Olga interrupted him. "Listen, we don't have much time, just a short, limited window and a clear objective: Mount Enzou. But we need reinforcements. Are the waters calm enough on your end for us to summon a Servant from Chaldea's host for us?"
The hope on Olga's face was evident, even though she tried to hide it behind her commander's mask. However, any hope we had crashed against the expression of absolute misery that crossed Romani's face. The doctor sighed deeply, rubbing his eyes under his glasses.
"Director... I wish I could give you good news, but that's impossible," Romani said, his voice laden with palpable helplessness. "The damage to the facilities was too extensive. You know the central command room was the epicenter of the sabotage. The FATE summoning system isn't just disconnected; it's physically destroyed in several of its main prana conduits. We barely have enough energy to keep CHALDEAS running at a minimum and maintain this communication link with you."
The silence that followed his words was heavy. Gudako lowered her gaze, biting her lower lip, and Mash tightened her grip on her shield. The reality of our situation hit us again: we were alone.
"Can't we even risk a single Servant?" pressed Olga, refusing to accept defeat so quickly. "Isn't there a way to divert energy from secondary life support?"
"Even if we could," Romani continued in a grave tone, "there's a much bigger problem, Director. And it involves Ritsuka."
The mention of her name made Gudako jump a little in her place, looking at the hologram nervously. "W-with me? What's wrong, Doctor?"
Romani looked at her with a mixture of pity and professional concern. "Ritsuka, you were recruited as Master number 48 almost at the last minute. I know you come from a magical family, but you're practically a civilian. During your brief intake, we didn't have the time to properly measure the nature or capacity of your Magic Circuits. Your aptitude is, for all intents and purposes, a complete mystery to us."
I frowned under my hood, pulling my arms out of my pockets and crossing them. "I don't see the problem. If it's a mystery, doesn't that just mean you don't know how strong she is? She could be very good at this."
"Or she could have poor aptitude and run a risk," Romani retorted, giving me a serious look. "Sorcery doesn't work on hope, Itadori-san. If Ritsuka summons a very strong Servant, or if she tries to form a contract with one that demands massive amounts of magical energy to exist and fight, and her circuits aren't prepared to handle that flow..."
Romani paused, audibly swallowing through the communication.
"What would happen?" I asked, my protective instinct kicking in.
"It would be fatal," Olga stated, her voice losing all its strength, looking at Gudako with genuine sadness. "A Master's contract is an anchor. If the Servant demands more energy than the circuits can safely provide, the system will try to compensate by consuming the Master's own life force. Their circuits would burn out. They would be consumed from the inside out, an agonizing process that would end in necrosis and death within minutes."
Gudako visibly paled, her knees seeming to lose some strength. Mash instinctively moved closer to her, placing a protective hand on her back.
I listened to all of this with a mixture of confusion and growing frustration. I ran a hand through my pink hair, ruffling it a little. I was used to structured power systems, to the flow of Cursed Energy, to Innate Techniques and Domain Expansions. But these terms... they were a completely different language.
"Hey," I interjected, raising a hand to stop the conversation. "I'm going to be completely honest with you. I have very little information about what you're talking about. Magic Circuits? Mana? Contracts that burn you alive?"
Olga turned to me, blinking in disbelief. "What are you talking about? How can you not know any of this if you have the power to split Heracles in half?"
I shrugged, showing an apologetic smile. "I told you before that 'Alaya' who brought me here, wasn't as informative as I hoped. Basically, she threw me into this burning city, gave me a headache with fuzzy information about this Singularity and a few other things, and told me 'Take care of it.' All this technical magus language is new to me. If I'm going to work with you and make sure I can understand you, I need someone to translate all this into a language a normal human can understand."
Gudako said nothing, but nodded subtly.
Olga Marie let out a long, long sigh of exasperation, bringing a hand to her forehead. She seemed to be torn between screaming at me for my ignorance or thanking the heavens that at least I was on her side.
"By the Root..." the Director murmured. "Fine. I suppose I can't blame you if you're a wild card sent as a Deterrent Force. But pay attention, Itadori, because I'm going to explain the basics quickly. I don't have time to give you a three-year seminar from the Clock Tower."
I nodded with a gentle smile and leaned more comfortably against the overturned car. "I'm all ears, Professor."
Olga straightened up, immediately adopting an academic posture. Her earlier fear seemed to evaporate, replaced by the confidence of someone who masters theory perfectly.
"Magecraft," Olga began, using her hands to emphasize her words, "is the act of artificially reproducing miracles using magical energy. This energy comes from two main sources: 'Mana,' which is the planet's own life energy that saturates the environment, and 'Od,' which is the life energy produced by living beings, like humans."
I nodded slowly. "I understand. Od is internal, Mana is external." Mentally, I compared it to Cursed Energy, which was born purely from internal human emotions.
"Correct," Olga nodded. "But you can't just grab that energy and throw it. To process Od or absorb Mana and turn it into a spell, a mage needs a physical infrastructure in their body and soul. We call this Magic Circuits. Think of them as a secondary nervous system that exists solely to channel and shape magical energy. They are pseudo-organs a mage is born with; you can't train to have more, you can only train to use them better."
"A nervous system for magic," I repeated, assimilating the information. In my case, Cursed Energy flowed from within me, coursing through my body at will, but it didn't require special organs, only the brain's and soul's ability to control it.
"Exactly," Olga continued, pointing at Caster with her gaze. "Now, about Servants. A Heroic Spirit is a superior existence, a ghost from the past. For them to exist continuously on this physical plane and use their legendary abilities, they need to be anchored to the world. The Master provides that anchor through a magical contract, using their Magic Circuits to supply a constant flow of energy to the Servant."
"Like an umbilical cord," I deduced.
"A crude analogy, but accurate," Olga conceded. "If the Servant demands too much energy during combat, the flow through the 'cord' will be too massive. If the Master's circuits are weak, they will overheat and eventually be destroyed, taking the Master's life with them. That's why Romani says Ritsuka is in danger if she makes a contract blindly."
"Understood," I said, finally processing the rules of the game. It was a system of equivalent exchange, but brutally rigid.
Just as I was finishing assimilating the information, a dull sound resonated on the pavement. Caster had struck the base of his staff against the melted asphalt, drawing everyone's attention. His lazy posture had disappeared, replaced by a feline tension.
"Now that we're in the middle of story time and magic lessons," Caster intervened, his deep voice cutting through the atmosphere, "there's something the little Director forgot to mention about Servants and contracts. And it's something that concerns me directly."
We all turned to him. Cu Chulainn's red eyes shone with a mixture of weariness and dark determination.
"That doctor from Chaldea is right to say the girl shouldn't risk a contract if her circuits aren't tested," Caster continued, taking a few steps toward us. "But the harsh reality is that it's not like we have many options, and besides, I need to make a contract with one of you, and we need it soon."
"A contract with you?" Olga asked, raising an eyebrow skeptically. "Now that you mention it, how are you still existing? From what you say, the Moderator of this war is dead, so you should have run out of mana already, but you said you've been playing cat and mouse with the corrupted Servants for a while."
Caster let out a bitter, humorless laugh. The expression on his face twisted into a sneer of pure contempt, revealing his sharp canines.
"That would be because of my bastard former Master. As the war's moderator, he had all the unused Command Seals from previous wars, and since he was the last Master to die in this one, he also got all the remaining Command Seals from this war," Caster growled, and for the first time, I noticed the true magnitude of the exhaustion in his aura. "The only reason I've survived so long in this hell is because of a curse imposed by the most despicable man I've ever had the misfortune to know."
He leaned heavily on his staff, his gaze lost for a moment in the city's flames.
"Let me tell you why I'm here dressed as a mage instead of carrying my spear," Caster began. "When I was summoned in this war, I had a decent Master. My Master was a strong woman, an exceptional and noble mage. But we were betrayed almost immediately. That bastard Kirei Kotomine, he was the supposed Grail supervisor sent by the Church, ambushed her."
The name didn't seem to ring a bell for Olga; a look of confusion crossed her face as she tried to find some sort of familiarity or connection, but she couldn't. "Kotomine? That name doesn't ring a bell at all."
"He's a dangerous and despicable man," Caster spat with venom. "After killing her, Kotomine stole me. He used dirty tricks and the authority of his Command Spells to force a contract with me. He made me his personal attack dog."
I listened to his story in silence, recognizing the resentment in his voice. It was the grudge of a warrior who had been denied an honorable battle, turned into a tool for another's dark whims.
"But the war didn't go as he planned," Caster continued, a grim smile appearing on his lips. Cu's fingers began to tap rhythmically on his staff. "I think he knew that whatever plan he had for this war had gone to hell from the moment Saber opened a trench in the city. He kept his head down, but Saber went looking for him specifically, almost as if she knew him or something; I don't even think she knew he was a Master when she did it. At the climax of the battle, Saber managed to mortally wound the bastard. His chest was torn open, he was bleeding profusely, and his heart began to fail."
Caster closed his eyes for a second, the anger evident in the tension of his jaw.
"As his Servant, my energy supply was cut off. I started to fade. I was ready to return to the Throne of Heroes," he recounted. "But when... that damn priest was about to die. He forced his last breath, he used every single Command Seal he had to give me one order with his blood staining the floor and an empty smile on his face, he said: 'Survive.'"
Mash let out a small gasp. "An order to force you to live? But... without a Master to supply you energy?"
"The bastard didn't do it out of altruism or anything like that, nor out of affection for me. It was pure malice against Saber," Caster confirmed, opening his eyes, which now burned with red fire, then he sighed heavily. "At least I can respect that a little, even if I still hate him. But ever since then, I've been living off the power of those seals; I've been scraping by on environmental Mana crumbs for weeks, using my astral form as much as possible, consuming leftover food I've found from all these wandering souls, surviving like a parasite just to obey a dead man."
The revelation fell on us like a concrete slab. I understood then why Caster looked so tired despite his boastful attitude. He was fighting a constant war against his own disappearance.
"But it's getting harder and harder to get environmental Mana from Fuyuki, so the power of the Command Spells was running out," Caster concluded with a grimace, his tone becoming urgent. "My reserves are in the critical red, and my Mana is about to run out completely. If I run dry, I'll disappear and return to the throne, so I won't be able to help you or guide you. Therefore, I need a contract. I need it to last much longer and to be able to use my real power against Saber when we get to that temple."
Caster looked directly at Gudako. The young Master shrank under the weight of his gaze, understanding perfectly what he was asking, and simultaneously remembering the fatal warning Romani had just given her.
But before Gudako could offer herself in an act of heroism, Caster diverted his gaze. His feline eyes fixed on me.
"But," Caster said, raising an eyebrow and pointing at me with his staff, "I don't think the girl should be the first option if we have alternatives. And you, boy in the white jacket, are the biggest alternative I've seen in my life."
I pointed at myself with my thumb. "Me?"
"Yes, you, Yuji," Caster affirmed, walking a few steps toward me. "You say you use that 'Cursed Energy' and know nothing about Magecraft. But your life force... It's absurd. When I saw you destroy Heracles, the amount of raw energy you radiated was enough to power three high-level Servants at the same time."
Caster stopped in front of me, his scrutinizing gaze analyzing every inch of my being. "I have a theory. If you have that monstrous amount of cursed energy saturating your body, it's very possible that foreign energy has suppressed your normal magical functions. Maybe you do have Magic Circuits, but they're simply dormant or blocked by your own power. If so, and we can use them, you could be my Master. You wouldn't feel a scratch supplying me energy."
Olga blinked, surprised by Caster's theory. "That... from a thaumaturgical point of view, is highly improbable, but in the presence of such a strange force as yours, I can't completely rule it out. Massive energy anomalies can conceal the presence of circuits."
I tilted my head, thoughtful. It was an interesting theory. Four hundred years ago, I didn't have magic circuits; I was a jujutsu sorcerer, period. But my current body was a Special Grade Cursed Object that "Alaya" had somehow reconstructed in an incomprehensible way. Was it possible that the world had provided me with the necessary hardware to function under its rules without my knowing it?
"Dormant circuits, huh?" I murmured, scratching my chin. "I don't feel any 'secondary nervous system' in me, but I suppose I lose nothing by checking."
I looked at Gudako, who was about three meters away, next to Mash. If she had active circuits, as they claimed, perhaps by making contact with her, I could understand what I was supposed to be looking for inside myself. A simple energy reading through physical contact. Something I used to do to analyze the flow of my students.
I flexed my knees. Not even a millimeter. I barely tensed the muscles in my legs, channeling an invisible thread of Cursed Energy to reinforce my tendons beyond biological limits.
There was no warning stance. No dramatic flex. I simply moved.
To the eyes of Olga, Gudako, and Mash, I disappeared from my position by the overturned car and materialized exactly half a meter from Gudako. I moved silently like a ninja, without making a single sound; I had perfected the art of stealth long ago. After all, when you're very famous, sometimes you have to hide.
Gudako let out a stifled scream, startled violently. She stumbled backward, falling sitting on the asphalt, her eyes wide open, unable to process how I had crossed that distance in literally zero seconds. Mash raised her shield by pure instinct, even though she sensed no hostility from me, her face pale from the disbelief at my speed. Olga's mouth hung open, rubbing her eyes.
Only Caster seemed to have followed the movement. I turned my head slightly to look at him. The Celtic warrior had his eyes wide and let out a low, long whistle. Only he had been able to see the blurry flash of my body crossing the space, the demonstration of pure physical agility that put many high-class Servants to shame.
"Sorry for startling you," I said softly to Gudako, offering her a reassuring smile as I offered her a hand to help her up.
She timidly accepted, blushing from the embarrassment of having tripped.
With extreme delicacy, I gently lifted her, but despite that, she bumped into my chest, turning beet red. I ignored her for a moment to look for what I came to investigate.
I closed my eyes, sharpening my perception to the maximum. I ignored the girl's nervousness and the accelerated beat of her heart. I delved deeper, looking for that energy signature Olga had described. And there it was. It was faint, almost fragile compared to the tempestuous ocean of my Cursed Energy, but it was clearly structured. It was like feeling a network of fiber optic cables vibrating with electric light under her skin. Those were her Magic Circuits. I wasn't sure if they were of good quality or not, but one thing I was sure of was that this girl was not fragile.
Knowing what to look for, I turned my perception inward. I searched in my soul, in my reconstructed flesh, in every nerve and muscle fiber. I searched for that structure of optic cables. I searched for that electric hum.
Nothing.
There was only the deep void of my soul and the dull, constant roar of my Cursed Energy, flowing through my veins like boiling tar. It was a body made for jujutsu, a fortress of pure strength, but it completely lacked the subtle circuitry required by this world's sorcery.
I gently pushed Gudako away and opened my eyes. I let out a short sigh.
"Well, it was worth a try," I said, lowering my shoulders and shaking my head. I looked at Caster. "Sorry, friend. I just confirmed it. I don't have the Magic Circuits she has. My body is fundamentally different inside. There's nothing dormant we can wake up. So I don't think I can make contracts in that conventional way with you."
Disappointment was almost palpable in the air. Gudako looked at me with a mixture of awe at my speed and sadness at my inability to help in that regard. Olga pinched the bridge of her nose, murmuring about the complications of anomalies.
Caster, for his part, shrugged, his expression returning to that mask of stoic indifference, though the weariness was still there. He rested his chin on his free hand. "Too bad. I guess my luck is still as rotten as usual. Well, I tried. I suppose I'll have to make a contract with one of you," Cu said, looking at Gudako or Olga.
Olga sighed, understanding where he was going. "Unfortunately for you, that's not possible. I have no Master aptitude; that's why I wouldn't have been in the field if this operation had gone according to plan. So the only alternative left is for Fujimaru to make that contract."
I should have let them form a contract; I didn't want to hinder the novices' improvement by overprotecting them, but I had an instinct that these magic circuits could be very useful later on, like a premonition.
I looked at my hands. I didn't have circuits. But it seemed that magic, like jujutsu, shared a fundamental rule I had learned after centuries of being alive and experimenting: the body and soul are connected, and human will, when pushed beyond madness, can mold both.
I had survived ingesting Sukuna's fingers, the deadliest poison in history, because my body forcibly adapted to become a vessel. I had survived ingesting the Cursed Wombs: Death Paintings (Kusoazu), specifically of my enumerated brothers 4 through 9. I had delayed some other cursed objects and finally forged my own soul into an indestructible Cursed Object. If the problem was the lack of a magical "nervous system"... who dictated that I couldn't simply force my body to develop one?
An idea, bold, dangerous, and for most, an absolutely suicidal move by the standards of any jujutsu sorcerer, magus, or spellcaster, germinated in my mind.
"Wait a moment," I interrupted, my voice taking on a tone of authority and sudden concentration that silenced the group's mental laments.
Everyone turned back to me.
"I said I don't have the circuits now," I continued, clenching my right fist, remembering the sensation of Sukuna's slashes and how the flesh reconstructed itself. "But an idea occurs to me. There's a very high possibility that I can obtain them."
Sharing this meant revealing something about my past, but honestly, if I wanted to work effectively with these people, it would be best to explain some of my skill sets. I didn't need to go into every detail, but I needed to provide enough information for them to get the point.
Besides, I didn't mind talking about certain parts of my past, although, of course, I wasn't the kind of person who could easily express my regrets—maybe I used to be, but time changes people.
Olga looked at me as if I had suddenly grown horns. "Obtain them? Itadori, didn't you hear anything I said? You're born with them! You can't just go to a store and buy circuits! Modifying the human body to graft artificial circuits is a lost art that requires years of mystical surgery, and the mortality rate is ninety-nine percent. And forcing your own life force to create pathways that don't exist biologically... the agony would be unimaginable! It would destroy your central nervous system!"
"The Director is absolutely right, Itadori-san!" Romani interjected from the hologram, bringing his face so close to the camera that his nose looked enormous. "Medically and magically speaking, what you're suggesting is suicide. The human body will reject any attempt to force a Magic Circuit structure from scratch. It would be like trying to wire an old building while injecting thousands of volts of electricity into it!"
I let them both finish their technical rant. I remained completely impassive, hands in my pockets, listening to their concerns, which, for a normal mage or average human, would be absolute laws. But I had stopped being normal over four centuries ago.
I raised a hand, palm open, in a calm gesture that demanded silence.
"Both of you calm down," I said, my voice soft but with a weight that brooked no reply. "I understand your concerns. In your books, in your Clock Tower laws, or whatever it's called, what I say is impossible. But you're forgetting one small, crucial detail."
Olga crossed her arms, glaring at me, though curiosity was already starting to win over indignation. "And what would that enlightening detail be, genius?"
"That I'm not a normal human," I replied simply. "I'm not even sure I fit into the category of 'human' at this point."
Olga raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. Mash and Gudako exchanged glances, and Caster snorted with amusement.
I ran a hand over the back of my neck, rubbing the tension from my muscles. "I was born differently. From the moment I was conceived, my biology was altered. It was all because of a bastard named Kenjaku. A parasitic brain that stole bodies and had a sick obsession with the evolution of Cursed Energy. He manipulated my birth. From childhood, I was always different from others. Faster, stronger, more resilient. My body was a blank canvas designed to withstand things anyone else couldn't even bear."
Gudako looked at me with wide eyes, her breath held. The idea that my own existence was the result of a macabre experiment seemed to horrify her. Mash lowered her shield a little, her expression of empathy shining behind her eyes.
Olga, Romani, and Caster listened in silence. They were used to people acting unethically. Even so, I could see traces of compassion on Olga and Romani's faces.
"Only a few years after growing up, I discovered what I was really created for," I continued, my gaze lost for a moment in the red flames consuming Fuyuki. "I was created to be the perfect vessel. My main purpose was to house the soul and power of Ryomen Sukuna, the King of Curses. A being of pure malice."
"A vessel?" Romani murmured, typing something quickly on his console. "Like... a homunculus designed for spiritual possession?"
"Something like that, Doc," I nodded even without fully knowing what that meant. "But Kenjaku's twisted genius didn't stop there. I wasn't designed just to contain Sukuna. I was designed to be a vessel for anything. At least I haven't found a limit."
I took a step toward the center of the group, ensuring everyone heard me clearly.
"And here's the important part, Director," I said, looking Olga straight in the eye. "My body isn't just a cage. I don't absorb things just to keep them locked up, or so they can control me by possessing me. My body adapts. That is my true nature. Whatever I consume, my body assimilates it, breaks it down, learns its structure, and makes it its own. If I consume an object (remnants) that contained a specific technique, eventually my body will imprint that technique onto my own muscles and into my soul."
Of course, for the object to work, it had to contain some remnant of the soul—whether from the person who consumed it, the curse, or whatever else—otherwise it wouldn't work.
Caster let out a low, raspy whistle. He had stopped leaning on his staff and was now looking at me with devouring intensity. Like a legendary warrior, he understood exactly where I was going.
"So..." Gudako whispered, her voice trembling slightly. "What are you trying to tell us, Itadori-san?"
I smiled. A small smile, but one devoid of humor. It was the smile of someone about to propose something absolutely insane.
"You say that Servants are constructs of magical energy, anchored to the world, with their own equivalents of high-quality Magic Circuits, right?" I asked, looking at Romani.
"Th-that's correct," Romani stammered, turning pale in his hologram. His scientific mind was connecting the dots at a terrifying speed, and the conclusion was leaving him both stunned and horrified. "A Servant's body is Materialized Ether... it possesses spiritual nuclei and spiritual circuits to process Mana."
"Exactly," I affirmed. "So my idea is simple. If my body learns and assimilates what I consume... if we manage to hunt down that Lancer Servant Caster mentioned... and I eat one of her fingers. Or any part of her."
The silence that followed my words was absolute, heavy, and suffocating. It was as if the very fire of Fuyuki had stopped crackling to listen to the barbarity that had just come out of my mouth.
"There's a possibility, a very high one I'd say," I continued, unperturbed by the horror painted on their faces, "that my body will decompose that Materialized Ether, analyze Lancer's spiritual circuits, and my own anatomy will adapt to forge my own Magic Circuits based on that model. If it works, I'll have the infrastructure necessary to make the contract with Caster."
Gudako covered her mouth with both hands and took a step back. A small gagging sound escaped her throat. She felt a little queasy. For a normal girl in the modern era, the idea of cannibalism—even toward a "heroic ghost"—was something that turned her stomach in the most violent way possible.
Olga Marie was frozen. Her eyes were so wide they seemed about to pop out of their sockets. Her skin had lost any trace of color, becoming as pale as a ghost.
"What...?" Olga managed to stammer, her voice nothing more than a trembling whisper. "E-eat... a Servant? Chew and swallow the Spiritual Ether of a Hero of the Past to... steal their circuits?" she repeated, as if she couldn't believe the incredible idea she was suggesting. She hoped I was just joking. Because doing something like that would be impossible under "their rules."
I snorted. They probably thought I was crazy. Not that I cared. In the Jujutsu world, you have to be crazy in the head to survive.
"That's absolute madness!" Romani shouted, his hologram distorting from how much he was waving his arms. "It's desecration! It's thaumaturgical heresy! Spiritual Ether is poisonous to the human body in large quantities! And the idea of consuming it that way is... grotesque, Itadori-san! Even if your body is special, the chances of it working are unknown!"
I snorted, "Not to me, Doc." Romaní could only sigh, rubbing his head as if he had a migraine.
Mash, for her part, gripped her shield so tightly the metal groaned. She looked at me as if I were an incomprehensible entity. There was no hostility in her gaze, but there was deep, sincere dismay. "Itadori-san... would you really do something like that?"
I shrugged, keeping my expression relaxed. "I lose nothing by trying. If I fail, well, I'll spit up some blood, and we'll have to think of Plan B. If it works, Caster gets his unlimited battery and she..." I pointed to Gudako. "Can concentrate her mana just on you, and we don't risk not knowing the quality of her circuits. So to me, that seems like a fair deal."
For me, it wasn't taboo. I had eaten Sukuna's rotten, mummified fingers, pieces of wax, and dead flesh that tasted of ash and death. I had swallowed the Death Paintings, my own "brothers," preserved cursed wombs. Consuming external energy was the basis of my growth. The world of jujutsu had stripped me of those moral qualms centuries ago. If chewing on a corrupted Servant's finger gave us victory and saved my companions, I'd eat their whole arm if necessary.
Olga, Romani. They didn't seem to object to me trying it; they just looked skeptical that something like that could work. Nor did I see as much horror in their eyes as I did in Gudako's. I figured the Magi had more experience with the dark side. Mash looked sad, and understanding, and Caster seemed to have a morbid curiosity about what I planned to do, with a smile that kept getting wider.
Of course, I can do it. Since I didn't necessarily need them right now, I was sure I could win even without the magical circuits. The energy I sensed from Saber was enormous, but mine was far greater than hers; at my peak, I had three times the cursed energy that Sukuna had in Shinjuku.
While the Chaldea side was mired in reflection, disbelief, disgust, and scientific curiosity, a deep, raspy, rumbling laugh broke the stalemate.
Caster was laughing. It wasn't a nervous or ironic laugh. It was a full-throated guffaw, from the bottom of his lungs, striking the asphalt with the base of his staff as he leaned back.
"Ha, ha, ha, ha! Oh, by the gods, this is too good!" Cu Chulainn roared, wiping a tear of amusement from his red eye.
The girls and Romani looked at him as if he, too, had lost his mind.
Caster stopped laughing, but a wild, almost bestial smile remained on his face. He pointed at me with his wooden staff, his eyes shining with fierce, primitive respect.
"You're a crazy bastard, you know that?" Caster said, his voice dripping with genuine admiration. "Eating your enemies to absorb their strength! Sounds like something someone would try in the Age of the Gods. That's what mythical beasts and true monsters of legend did! None of these modern desk magi would have the balls to even suggest something like that."
"Caster! You can't possibly be supporting this madness!" Olga scolded him, completely outraged; she felt a headache coming on.
"Madness? Girl, we're in a war at the end of the world," Caster snapped, his tone turning cynical, but then he immediately relaxed and gave a playful, mocking smile. "If the kid here has the biological capacity to do it, and he's willing to get his hands dirty for us, it would be stupid to tell him no."
Caster looked at me again, nodding slowly. "You say your body adapts. And after seeing the absurd regeneration of your arm and the way you disintegrated Heracles, I have no choice but to believe you. Never in my life did I think the day would come when someone would tell me they could chew off a Servant's arm and turn it into Magic Circuits, but if I have to bet... then I say let's try it since you seem very confident about this, boy."
Caster's approval partly silenced the complaints from Olga and Romani. The local Servant, someone who probably had experience in ancient magic, was validating the tactical viability of my plan, no matter how twisted.
However, despite the warrior's approval, I knew the final and moral decision rested with the person who, by right, should be the center of this expedition.
I walked slowly toward Gudako. She tensed, still processing the disturbing nature of my existence and my plan. I stopped at a respectful distance, making sure not to invade her space, and crouched down to be at eye level with her.
Her orange eyes trembled slightly, but she didn't look away. Luckily, there was no fear, only nervousness, though mostly hidden by that unshakable spark of will. Honestly, I almost thought she wasn't just a rookie, but then I remembered my first action, and I was sure I felt almost the same as her.
"Hey, kid," I called softly, my voice devoid of any authoritarian tone. I gave her a smile to calm her down and tell her there was no pressure with the decision. I would accept whatever she chose.
"I know this sounds disgusting. I know that to you, it's probably the most horrible thing you've ever heard," I told her in an empathetic tone, honestly thinking they would accept it more easily, but if eating Sukuna's finger had disconcerted even Gojo, I supposed it wasn't easy for a girl who, until recently, was mostly a civilian. "Does it bother you if I try? I'm asking your permission because you're the Master here. It's your mission. If my method seems too repulsive to you, or if it goes against everything you believe in, I won't do it."
I looked deeply into her eyes, making sure to convey absolute sincerity.
"If that's the case, if you tell me no," I continued, "you can try to form the contract with Caster. If so, I can promise you that even though we don't know the quality of your magic circuits, I promise to stabilize and heal you if things get out of control. I'm a good healer, even if I don't look like it, so I promise that at least I won't let you die. But that risk will always be there. So, the decision is yours. Do you let me try my madness, or do you take the risk yourself?"
Gudako remained silent, her eyes fixed on mine. The weight of the decision fell on her small shoulders. I could see the gears of her mind turning. I saw the terror of being burned alive, fighting against the moral repulsion of my proposal.
She looked at Caster, who desperately needed Mana. She looked at Mash, her loyal protector. She looked at Olga, her director, who, although scandalized, wasn't forbidding her from accepting.
Gudako swallowed with difficulty. She closed her eyes for a couple of seconds, taking a deep, trembling breath that filled her lungs with Fuyuki's warm air. When she opened her eyes again, the fear was still there, but the doubt had vanished.
"Itadori-san..." Gudako began, her voice sounding small but firm. She rubbed her sweaty hands on her skirt. "It's... It's disgusting. Very disgusting. But... You saved us, and you did it in a way that seemed very easy, so I guess... If you say you can do it and you'll be okay..."
She paused, forcing herself to maintain eye contact with me.
"It's no problem," Gudako finally declared, nodding her head, her nervousness evident but dominated by her resolve. "I'll trust you. So please, try. Do what you have to do to help us."
The girl's honesty and raw courage moved me. For a civilian, overcoming such an immense moral barrier in a matter of minutes for the sake of her companions showed that whoever had chosen her as Master hadn't been entirely wrong. She had the makings of a leader.
"Understood," I said. I nodded calmly, standing up in a fluid motion.
As I gazed at the horizon, then...
...Everything was decided now.
.
.
.
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