Chapter 173: [Gaia]
Could such a situation actually occur?
A Seance practitioner, having summoned a soul back to reality, is killed before they can issue a command. As a result, the summoned soul is liberated from its shackles and completes its resurrection in another form?
...That sounds completely illogical!
While techniques driven by Cursed Energy can manifest all sorts of miraculous effects, those effects require Cursed Energy to be maintained. Take Gojo Satoru's implementation of Zeno's Paradox through the [Limitless].
(A paradox suggesting motion is impossible because an object must first travel half the distance to its goal, ad infinitum, challenging the nature of limits.)
As long as Gojo's Cursed Energy is gone—or if someone cancels or seals it—the [Limitless], that invincible defense based on Zeno's Tortoise, can be forcibly deactivated.
But now, Fushiguro Toji, summoned by Granny Ogami, defied common sense. He didn't vanish with the deactivation of the technique or the depletion of the caster's energy. On the contrary, he directly seized the body and completed his resurrection!?
Was this even possible?
"It is possible."
As if reading the question marks flashing through the minds of Okkotsu Yuta and the others, Emiya Shirou spoke up. "Fushiguro Toji was the previous possessor of [Heavenly Restriction], or more accurately, the strongest 'Heavenly Restricted' individual.
Even Gojo almost died and lost during his first encounter with Fushiguro Toji.
In other words, if you simply replace the person doing this 'illogical' thing with Gojo Satoru, doesn't it suddenly feel much more reasonable?"
Hearing Shirou's explanation, Okkotsu Yuta and the group fell silent. It wasn't that Shirou's explanation was poor; it was that it was too good. It left them with nothing to refute.
Even if their logic and the knowledge of sorcery and Seance techniques they learned at Jujutsu High told them this was impossible, the moment they thought of Fushiguro Toji as "another Gojo Satoru," even their logic conceded that it might not be impossible.
"Furthermore, a major characteristic of [Heavenly Restriction] is that those with this special constitution are either born with physical defects or born with zero Cursed Energy," Shirou continued.
"In other words, Fushiguro Toji, who naturally has no Cursed Energy and does not consume it, doesn't need to worry about the energy cost of the Seance technique..."
This was the explanation Emiya Shirou had retrieved from his past-life memories of the original Jujutsu Kaisen. But as he explained it, he himself suddenly fell silent.
'No, something is wrong. Something is very wrong.'
Shirou, who was originally preparing to explain things to the shocked students, found that the more he scrutinized his memories, the more nonsensical the original explanation felt. He thought to himself much like Yuta had:
'Fushiguro Toji is 'Heavenly Restricted,' so it's fine that he doesn't consume energy to move. But that only means that as a fighter who doesn't use Cursed Energy, he doesn't need it to act.
"Does the process of maintaining the Seance technique itself—the process of keeping Toji's information overlaid on another person's body—not require Cursed Energy to sustain it?
This explanation, which only considers Toji and the Heavenly Restriction while ignoring the Seance technique that actually brought him down here, is as ridiculous as saying Zeno's Paradox can actually be achieved.'
Shirou complained inwardly. After all, the paradox of Achilles never catching the tortoise was solved as early as the last century.
Whether mathematically, through Newton's invention of calculus, or physically, through quantum science and the discovery of the Planck constant—proving that space and time are not infinitely divisible but have a non-divisible unit—Zeno's Tortoise had long been proven impossible.
Yet, this phenomenon, which is impossible in both mathematical theory and physical reality, actually exists here. Under the influence of the [Limitless] and Cursed Energy, space can be continuously cut, ultimately manifesting the concept of the infinitesimal in reality.
Is that logical?
'I see... no wonder I could never understand what Cursed Energy was or see Curses at first.
Even though Kiritsugu didn't teach me much about magecraft, once I extracted Mato Zouken's soul through [Atum], my theoretical knowledge should have been sufficient, even if my practical application lagged.
At first, I thought it was because Zouken wasn't good at Gandr or because he was a Western magus unfamiliar with Eastern 'Jujutsu'.
But after I successfully projected Gojo Satoru and studied the projected Jujutsu knowledge, I finally understood...'
Looking at the summoned Fushiguro Toji, Shirou immediately swapped his projection from [Pseudo-The World] to [Pseudo-Atum]. Through the soul-vision provided by [Atum], he could clearly observe details he had missed initially.
He confirmed something in his heart:
'...I was wrong. Entirely wrong!
Cursed Energy isn't a supernatural energy similar to Magecraft at all.
Like my Projection Magecraft, it is a sub-species of Marble Phantasm (Fantasy Realization).'
Yes—this act of directly rewriting the laws of reality, of manifesting Zeno's Tortoise (which exists only in a world of fantasy) into the physical world. In the Type-Moon world, such things have a common name—[Reality Marble]!
'I should have realized it sooner. Cursed Energy stems from human negative emotions, and Curses are born from the accumulation of those emotions.
Just as Iskandar, who is not a magus, can use the Reality Marble [Ionioi Hetairoi] and even omit the incantation to let his mental landscape erode reality.
It's because that Reality Marble isn't just Iskandar's own mental landscape. It is the heart-world shared by his army—everyone who identified with his dream and embarked on the path of conquest with him."
Shirou recalled the description of Iskandar from his memories.
'How similar is the formation of a Curse to Iskandar's unique Reality Marble.
Perhaps a Curse is exactly that—a Reality Marble born from the gathered negative emotions of humanity toward a certain thing, which has begun to sprout its own ego. It is the will of the world... [Gaia]?'
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