"Well hey there, kids~"
Gojo Satoru, one hand tucked in his pocket, raised the other in a casual greeting before plopping down without a shred of ceremony in the seat Kasumi Miwa had vacated next to Amber.
His eyes, hidden behind sunglasses, studied Seele intently.
Being stared at so openly made Amber feel distinctly uncomfortable.
Luckily, Gojo didn't keep it up for long. After just three or four seconds, he looked away and let out a light laugh. "Scary, scary~"
Todo Aoi, who'd been waiting for Gojo's reaction, was taken aback.
Scary? An evaluation like that from a special grade jujutsu sorcerer, the Strongest of the Modern Era?
Had Sukuna managed to incarnate? But that was impossible, wasn't it? Not only were those fingers clearly not something anyone could accidentally swallow, but the physical vessel itself... no one could withstand the incarnation of the King of Curses.
An ordinary human would be annihilated in an instant, and even a powerful sorcerer would likely die from the sheer toxicity.
Then again, no one had ever actually tried it, so Todo couldn't be entirely sure his assumption was correct.
"That curse residing within you... it lives here, right?" Gojo pointed a finger towards Amber's chest, right at the location of her Stigmata. While Dark Amber didn't strictly need a vessel, since they'd both become Seele, she'd settled obediently within the Stigmata.
"She's not a curse..." Amber pressed her lips together but refuted nonetheless.
"Ah, my apologies. It's the 'other you,' isn't it?"
His words were an apology, but his tone remained airy and light, completely devoid of any real remorse, earning him a somewhat displeased look from the girl.
Gojo felt a little helpless. He'd genuinely never met someone who held such affection for a curse, especially one that had taken over their own body.
Here he was, being disrespectful towards the curse, and it was the little girl who got angry.
"You should really have a bit more sense of danger, you know? Curses aren't as tame as you might think." He explained, "The curse inside you is immense. So vast it's on a scale I've never seen before. And a curse's magnitude is largely determined by its volume of cursed energy."
"So, Todo-kun~ where does cursed energy come from~?" Gojo suddenly quizzed.
Todo, already accustomed to his antics, replied flatly, "From the negative emotions of humans."
"Bingo~!"
Gojo gave a thumbs-up and continued, "Born from human negativity, they're inherently incapable of being friendly towards humans. Human negative emotions are like food to them. That's why they kill."
As he spoke, he pointed again at the Stigmata on Amber's chest. "With this much cursed energy, it's not some entity that enjoys playing house. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
Of course Amber understood. The problem was, Dark Amber was nothing like that...
Okay, she couldn't deny that Dark Amber, having components of a Lahmu, was practically bursting with negative emotions. But she also genuinely wasn't as dangerous as Gojo claimed, nor did she harbor any intent to kill humans.
Put simply, a Lahmu's bloodlust wasn't specifically targeted at humans, but at all living things. In other words, Lahmu disliked all life equally.
Since Dark Amber could suppress this instinct, she naturally wouldn't engage in any dangerous behavior.
One of the hallmarks of sentient life is the ability to act against instinct, and Dark Amber was no exception.
But these were things she couldn't explain. So, Amber could only defend her other self: "The other me isn't a dangerous being like that... She just wants to protect Seele..."
Hearing this, Kasumi Miwa and Todo Aoi looked at Amber with complicated expressions, convinced that her judgment was being clouded by the curse inhabiting her. It wasn't strange for a curse to lie to ensure its survival; the stronger the curse, the more intelligent it tended to be.
But Gojo sensed something else at play.
His Six Eyes granted him perception far beyond ordinary people, and with his entire focus currently on observing Amber, he could tell she wasn't speaking hesitantly. This wasn't a baseless defense; it seemed more like she had some surefire confidence backing her words.
"In that case, I'll choose to believe it for now~"
"For real?" Todo frowned at Gojo. Even though he trusted everything about Gojo except his personality, he couldn't help but voice his doubt now.
Gojo, his smile unwavering, nodded. "Well, it's the earnest plea of my future student, so I'll tentatively trust this curse. But..."
Having unilaterally made this decision without giving Amber a chance to speak, he immediately pivoted to the next topic. "Even I can't vouch for something I know nothing about. Seele-chan, since you say this 'other you' can communicate, let's put it to the test."
"Put it to the test?"
Gojo changed subjects quickly, but fortunately, Amber wasn't a slow girl. "Mr. Gojo, do you want to fight the other me...?"
Her expression was resistant.
The three weren't surprised by her attitude.
Anyone could tell from her demeanor and way of speaking that this girl was clearly the well-behaved type who lived in a warm, gentle environment. It was perfectly normal for her to dislike fighting and hurting others.
What they didn't know was that Amber's resistance at this moment wasn't due to a dislike of fighting, but rather... she was afraid Dark Amber would end up killing Gojo Satoru.
After the demonstration Dark Amber had given her, Amber had gained some understanding of what this 'Quantumization' technique meant.
[A/N: Just take this quantumization stuff as a bit of fun, folks. Yours truly here is an arts student; my science knowledge has exactly nine holes punched through it—meaning I know nothing.]
She could trigger quantum entanglement phenomena through Quantumization. Quantum entanglement was independent of time and space, and involved no hidden variables.
This meant that traditional physics, like Gojo's Infinity, simply didn't apply to her. Combined with the unobservable nature of quanta, it could be considered a superior version of Obito's Kamui from Naruto—the ultimate double standard. 'I can hit you, but you can't hit me.'
Because whether or not she was observed wasn't determined by her enemy, but by herself.
Amber found it downright ridiculous. The real Seele wasn't even this overpowered.
She didn't understand quantum mechanics, but she felt this wasn't Quantumization at all—it was 'double-standard-ization.'
But soon enough, Dark Amber poured cold water on her enthusiasm.
Dark Amber could play these games because she hadn't wasted her years. The Lahmu's superhuman learning and adaptation abilities had allowed her to absorb vast knowledge; she could become a renowned professor overnight if she wished.
With Amber's brain... she'd be doing well just to grasp the concept of a basic attack carrying true damage.
This reality frustrated Amber somewhat, and she felt an even stronger desire for the Herrscher of Life and Death's core.
She didn't want some ability that required complex mental gymnastics; she wanted something simple and brutal that produced immediate results. If she could just draw that core, she could say her technique wasn't quantization, but Creation and Destruction.
Too bad she couldn't just buy for it.
With everyone lost in their own thoughts, Amber still ended up following Gojo. The two found a remote, deserted mountain where Gojo intended to figure out the techniques and true strength of the curse residing within Amber.
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.