Nishida Kagetatsu took the shadow sword and assumed an iai stance, closing his eyes and carefully sensing the attacks within his domain, listening to the voices from the world.
After Locke fully immersed himself in the role, memories belonging to Nishida Kagetatsu surfaced in his mind.
From childhood, he had discovered a talent for the Yin-Yang Eye. After practicing his family's swordsmanship, he decided to travel the world to destroy demons and evil spirits, mastering spiritual power and sealing techniques and integrating them with his own.
Along the way, he continued to fight and grow stronger—a three-headed dragon, a vengeful martyr ghost, a true dragon, a black dragon, and Sukuna. Even he himself did not know how many demons and monsters he had defeated.
He couldn't remember clearly, just as he couldn't recall how many pairs of straw sandals he had worn out on his journey.
What he remembered most was his final experience in the White Fox Forest, where he fell in love with a married woman—or perhaps a fox spirit.
He could not free her, as the fox maiden wished, so he could only leave behind a hairpin imbued with his spiritual power to assist in defeating the most powerful enemy of his life—the demon head, Kijuro.
He won, and the demon head Kijuro committed suicide in anger, cursing him because his plot had been foiled. Kagetatsu continued his journey to defeat and seal demons.
However, he never knew why: he could never find the road home, could never return to the forest that haunted him, to see the woman he had longed for his entire life.
A warrior is lonely because he cannot afford to lose. By defeating inhuman beings, he becomes another inhuman being, and thus becomes extremely lonely.
This loneliness gave Locke deep understanding, just as he knew that he had never truly belonged to this place. No one could understand him. Like a time traveler, he was destined to be alone.
Fortunately, he was not alone now. He had other "selves." No matter what happened in the future, they would accompany him and help him escape the predicament of loneliness.
He understood Kagetatsu's loneliness, but there was a fundamental difference between himself and Kagetatsu, who traveled the world destroying demons. Because Kagetatsu's natural mission was to do so.
And what about Locke?
Did he have some mission to accomplish? No. He was essentially half a fun-loving person and half a drifter. His greatest desire was to do whatever he wanted and, incidentally, have a good time.
But what the black-robed Locke had experienced had made them all hide a hidden rage in their hearts. Their original mindset—to survive—had changed. They wanted power.
They wanted to prevent any of them from being hurt, as the black-robed Locke had been. So they wanted to become stronger, strong enough to control the fate of all Lockes, strong enough to have absolute freedom to say "no" to anything.
Therefore, he wanted to become Nishida Kojūrō Kagetatsu and obtain the best power of all—a power unique to himself, unmatched in heaven and earth.
"So this is your wish? Wanderer."
Locke suddenly woke up. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in a dream, surrounded by the forest from Kagetatsu's memories—the White Fox Forest.
And sitting across from him was Nishida Kagetatsu.
"And you?"
"Don't be surprised, wanderer. We are merely judgment modules formed by the power of the system, not the true body of that power."
Before Locke could react, Kagetatsu began to brew tea for him and continued to explain:
"The so-called system is a power that carries the depths of your soul. But when you transmigrated, your powerful soul could not pass through the valve of the lower world, so it had to be torn into countless pieces and descend into these vast thousands of worlds."
"And in this process, part of the system merged with you, which also led to our birth. So in a sense, we are also you, but living a completely different life on the other end."
Locke quickly calmed down, then suddenly understood that seeing Garou in the black-robed world was not an illusion, but something he truly saw.
"So the purpose of your existence is to determine whether we are suitable for this power?"
"No. From the moment you chose this power, you are qualified. All we can judge is whether you can manifest it early or surpass it."
"What do you mean? Be clear."
"You say you are not Nishida Kojūrō Kagetatsu. You think you cannot do what he did, giving everything wholeheartedly to the innocent people of the world. But in my opinion, as Nishida Kojūrō Kagetatsu, that doesn't matter at all."
"The main thing is that you can use this power correctly to protect those who need protection. So why worry?"
"Even for Nishida Kojūrō Kagetatsu, there are things that cannot be done. But as long as you walk the right path—no matter how distasteful the means, no matter how selfish the goal—as long as you are on that right path, I, Nishida Kojūrō Kagetatsu, will recognize you."
Before he finished speaking, Kagetatsu had already lightly placed the brewed hot tea before Locke and raised his hand in a gesture inviting him to drink.
He quietly watched Locke drink the tea. In the next second, a fine crack suddenly appeared in his body, and the crack transformed into a delicate cherry blossom petal, carried away by the wind.
"Go. Take my name, my power, my story, and everything that belongs to me! Become Nishida Kagetatsu! Become a warrior! Hahahahahaha!"
Heroic laughter echoed through the dream, and Kagetatsu's body gradually shattered with the laughter, finally turning into cherry blossoms blooming across the sky.
These cherry blossoms were wrapped in an invisible force, layer upon layer enveloping Locke, cocooning him entirely. At the moment the petals slowly dissolved, they emitted a dazzling light, gradually soothing the scars on his soul and sending all their power into his body.
[Character Compatibility +63%]
[Current Compatibility: 100%]
[Character Breakthrough Reached Phase 2]
[Popularity Gain Efficiency +20%]
[Popularity Points +5000]
[Character Breakthrough Reached Phase 3]
[Popularity Gain Efficiency +60%]
[Popularity Points +10000]
[Final Stage Character Card Upgrade Unlocked]
[Chronicles of the Pacified Demon Realm: Demon-Slaying Swordsman - Nishida Kojūrō Kagetatsu (Red Steel)]
[Forced Character Card Upgrade...]
[Nishida Kojūrō Kagetatsu Youth (10%) → Nishida Kojūrō Kagetatsu Rising Fame (50%)]
[You may spend Popularity Points to continue upgrading]
[Next Stage]
[Nishida Kojūrō Kagetatsu Rising Fame (100%)]
After Sukuna finished chanting all the incantations and added the binding vow-enhanced [Cleave], he watched with his own eyes as Nishida Kagetatsu closed his eyes and prepared to use Iai.
Just as he was intently observing his opponent, wondering what he would do next, a familiar feeling rose from the depths of his bone marrow, making him unconsciously recall the entire process of being sealed by Kagetatsu.
A thousand years ago, after having his limbs severed in 0.001 seconds, he had assumed such a stance, pierced through the heart, and sealed him.
At the moment of recollection, Kagetatsu's aura suddenly became more than ten times stronger, and even his soul trembled.
"Nameless Sword, Draw."
As the words began, Kagetatsu used his iai draw to simultaneously deflect all the slashes within the domain, easily breaking the strikes of the same power from Sukuna in his prime. He raised his sword and charged at Sukuna.
And this scene was exactly the same as the memory from a thousand years ago. The only difference was that this time, he did not pierce the heart but stopped at the last moment.
"How much longer will you remain under his control, Yuji Itadori?"
——————————————————————————————————————————————
At the same time, the Window, responsible for monitoring the movements of cursed spirits throughout Japan, was in the midst of the second large-scale chaos since the collective strengthening of cursed spirits three months ago.
"Report! The cursed energy of detected cursed spirits across all of Hokkaido has doubled out of nowhere! No, it's still rising!"
The Window staff tightly gripped their landline phones and roared, their voices full of panic. The ringing of landline phones and exclamations intertwined, creating chaos.
"More than that! Tokyo, Kanto, Kyushu... This is all of Japan! Cursed spirits all across Japan are raging and growing stronger! What the hell is happening?!"
As the person in charge of the Window and a pawn of the new Yin-Yang stream in the world of jujutsu, Ryusuke Ikeda's forehead was covered in cold sweat. He stared at the constantly flashing markers on the screen—icons representing first-grade and even special-grade cursed spirits sprouting like mushrooms after rain, densely covering the monitor.
As a middle-aged man, he had experienced the strengthening of cursed spirits across Japan after Gojo Satoru's birth. But now, only three months later, they were facing two consecutive cursed strengthenings, far more intense than back then, so terrifying it was suffocating.
Ryusuke Ikeda's Adam's apple bobbed, and he unconsciously muttered:
"A strengthening of cursed spirits of this level... Could it be that a Buddha has come into this world?!"