I Don’t Want to Be a Heroic Spirit

"Geto—!"

Gojo's eyes widened in shock, but with Geto's life in her hands, he couldn't make a move.

Even Riko's maid and Riko Amanai herself had frozen in place, legs trembling as the lingering brush of death held them rooted to the spot. Watching Geto so helplessly caught in the woman's grip, they were unsure of what to do.

Baobhan held Geto up by his neck, casually observing the reactions of those around her.

Gojo's expression was particularly fierce. So, he could make that face after all…

Or perhaps… was this person somehow special to him?

Baobhan turned her gaze back to the man in her grasp, studying him up close.

Not bad-looking, but why the strange bangs?

In her past life, she remembered Jujutsu Kaisen's author mentioning that Geto had even higher popularity than Gojo—people found him kinder, gentler, compared to Gojo's brazen arrogance and wild antics.

Gentle people, it seemed, were often popular.

And yet, they rarely received happy endings.

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His vision… was starting to blur.

His thoughts… were growing sluggish.

Geto's face had turned a sickly shade of blue as he struggled for air, a painful, searing sense of helplessness burning inside him.

Am I… just a burden again?

Is this where it ends?

Then at the very least… let my death buy Satoru a chance.

Geto's Cursed Spirit Manipulation allowed him to absorb curses into his body, releasing them in desperate moments.

To prevent his spirits from going rogue, he typically limited how many he released at a time.

Now, though, he was ready to unleash them all at once.

But just as he steeled himself to act, Baobhan abruptly flung him aside as if discarding trash, disappearing in an instant.

It wasn't teleportation—she'd moved so fast it defied the limits of sight.

Only one person saw her clearly.

"Riko—look out!"

Baobhan lunged toward Riko Amanai, but a blade of pure energy beat her there.

A transparent slash sliced through the air, intercepting a bizarre short blade.

The strange scene that followed was surreal: the slash hit the blade and tore through it like paper, though the blade's wielder momentarily faltered.

In that brief moment, Baobhan closed in on the figure holding the odd dagger, her fist crashing toward his face with unrestrained force.

Boom!

"Wah—!"

The air exploded around them, the shockwave knocking Riko Amanai several meters away. Dazed, she only became aware of her surroundings again a few seconds later.

The bulky man in black hadn't taken Baobhan's punch directly—he'd managed to shield himself with his arm. Yet even with the force deflected, he was unable to hold his ground, skidding back on the stone floor, his boots carving deep grooves into the ground.

"Well… I suppose that was a failure."

A faint smile remained on his face, as if he'd already expected his ambush to fail.

Baobhan recognized him immediately—the formidable "Sorcerer Killer," Toji Fushiguro.

In the anime, he was the one who had performed a cranial surgery on Gojo, grievously wounded Geto, and killed Riko Amanai before delivering her corpse to the Star Religious Group for his reward.

"If I could've killed you in one strike, it would've saved a lot of trouble. Were you watching out for me the entire time?" Toji grinned, his face twisted. "Does a 'monkey' like me with no cursed energy even register as a threat to a genius like you?"

"That's a dreadful way to put it. I actually consider you more dangerous than those two," Baobhan said with a wicked smile. "Like comparing maggots to ants."

"Oh, that's even worse than my insults."

Across the way, Gojo helped the gasping Geto back to his feet, both of them retreating to Riko's side.

"Geto, are you all right?"

Behind his sunglasses, Gojo's eyes held an uncharacteristic softness.

"I'm fine, Satoru… although," Geto forced a pained smile as he glanced at their two opponents, "the enemy's strength is beyond anything we've faced."

"Yeah… she's a real monster."

Baobhan hadn't lied—she truly found Toji more dangerous than Gojo or Geto.

Geto's strengths lay in mass battles and crowd control, but he struggled against powerful single opponents.

While Gojo's untouchable nature was problematic, his attacks could do little to Baobhan, who possessed EX-ranked Magic Resistance. Unless he could master Reversal Red or the stronger Hollow Purple technique, he was no real threat.

To Baobhan, who held an EX-level resistance to all magic-based attacks, Toji's raw physical power posed the greater danger, and he wielded the cursed tool "Inverted Spear of Heaven," capable of nullifying any technique.

Very well, she'd made her decision.

"Ripping you apart one by one would be tedious. Let's end this in one go!"

With a cheerful smile, Baobhan delivered words that sent an icy dread through them all.

She didn't plan to waste any more time. Immediately, she unleashed her Noble Phantasm.

The chilling fear gripped all three of them, urging them to bring out their trump cards.

Toji vanished in a blur, the Inverted Spear of Heaven slicing through the air.

Geto summoned his special-grade curse, ordering it to unleash a domain to trap Baobhan.

Gojo poured every ounce of power into Cursed Technique: Blue, drawing in the stone tiles from the ground and the surrounding structures in a whirlpool of destruction.

In that instant, they threw everything they had.

…But the struggle remained futile.

"Pain Phantom Aria!"

Overflow, overflow, overflow.

Lament, lament, lament.

Bloom upon the shores of death, o flower of evil, of sin, of blood, of death.

Weep despair, o flower of evil, of sin, of blood, of death.

Torn apart, as though he were no more than a tattered rag, Geto collapsed into a pool of his own blood.

He could feel his life slipping away.

He could feel his consciousness fading.

"Satoru… Satoru…"

He kept calling his friend's name.

Gojo lay beside him, close enough that he felt he could reach him if he just lifted his hand.

"Riko… Riko…"

He kept calling the name of the one he had sworn to protect.

She hung limp, stained with blood, held in the clutches of that devilish girl.

"I'm off to turn in my mission. Today was fun."

"Let's play again next time."

With a cruel smile, the girl spoke words laced with demonic mockery.

So… all our efforts, our desperate struggle to the death… was nothing but a game to her?

Ah… in the end, we truly were…

Too weak, weren't we?

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T/N: Brooooooooo even worse that what Toji put them throughhh just pure helplessness