webnovelfull Chapter 276 The Road Home
Chapter 276 The Road Home
Note: Today is also two chapters combined into one, so there is only one update~ (some friends may find it abusive... uh, this this... ah ha ha ha...)
"Jie..." After gasping for breath, I leaned against the tree trunk, barely maintaining my standing with the help of its straight and strong trunk.
I was only ten steps away from him.
I watched the gray mist cover his coat, chest, neck, cheeks... and finally the pair of eyes that were looking at me tenderly until the very end.
Now, the thing seemed to have found a new target and was moving slowly towards me, crawling like a poisonous snake lurking in the grass, waiting for its prey.
I let go of my hand in a daze, staring at it without dodging, and walked over mechanically, but was suddenly tripped by a tree root exposed on the ground, and fell face down into the snow pile.
A cold wind blew in from all directions, and the bone-chilling temperature lingered on the cheeks. The stones remaining in the snow scratched the skin sharply, and blood dripped, blooming into bright red blood flowers.
The constant stinging pain, the stiff body, and the bruised forehead were all making me tremble.
But that's a good thing.
At least it proves that I'm not crazy yet, haha.
I picked up the branch that was across my feet, stood up, and staggered forward two steps.
"Kiri-chan!" Gojo Satoru's voice interrupted my thoughts.
He appeared at the entrance of the clearing, walked over, and put his left hand firmly around my shoulders from behind: "Don't go over there yet."
"Don't stop me." I pulled his shoulders, my eyes dull and I said in a trance, "I have to go..."
"What's the point of you going there now?"
Not only did he not listen to me, he also grabbed my waist and moved me back ten meters, out of the range of the white fog.
"It's useless to go there now." His expression remained calm, but he just frowned slightly and said to me as if he was stating a fact, "On the contrary, you will get yourself into trouble."
"But......"
"No buts." Gojo Satoru said firmly, "If Jie is still sane now, he definitely wouldn't want you to go over and accompany him."
"......." I lowered my head in silence, stammered twice, pursed my lips and said softly, "You are right...you are right."
But I was just sad.
"I've counted the crowd, and there's no sign of Yuhito." He waved his hand to clear away the piles of snow that were on the stairs and seemed to be in the way and cumbersome. Many branches rolled out with the force.
"Logically, he should be with Nanami," he explained, "but I only saw Nanami... and Ryomen Sukuna was attached to him, so there's a chance that Hisahito is still alive."
As he said this, Gojo Satoru exuded a tense and cold aura, and his face did not look very good.
Yes, mentor, close friend, seniors, juniors, valued students...almost everyone he knows in the world...how could his situation be any better than mine?
"Let's go." I lowered my eyes and took the initiative to reach out and grab the corner of his clothes, "Let's go find him now."
…It’s really cold.
I fell so hard that I had a limp when I walked. I guess my right leg was injured.
At this critical moment, I didn't want to go back to the prison gate. However, the reversal technique didn't work anymore, and Gojo Satoru simply went around my legs and picked me up and walked down the mountain.
His steps were quick and steady, and he soon reached the foot of the mountain.
"If it's Hisahito..." I closed my eyes and thought calmly, "Where would he be?"
A more optimistic guess is that although he is jokingly called a strong passerby, Yuji is still the protagonist after all.
Perhaps his halo as the protagonist played a role and protected him from being frozen into ice by the sudden white fog.
What might be worse is that Sukuna wakes up from his body, runs off somewhere with Itadori, and even starts killing people... The person holding me suddenly stops.
Gojo Satoru looked straight ahead, with no emotion visible on his face.
"What's wrong?" He half opened his eyes and choked up halfway through asking the question, which then dissipated into the air.
Something happened that I could never imagine.
"How...how could this happen......"
In the past, I had only heard of this kind of thing in science fiction novels, the so-called dimensionality reduction attack, where the three-dimensional world fell into two dimensions.
Spread out, flatten, squash, the z-axis no longer exists.
It actually appeared in front of me so realistically.
In the middle of the road, people stopped.
Those I know and those I don’t.
The familiar, the unfamiliar, the liked, the disgusted, the loved, the hated...all turned into thin slices, spreading their flesh and blood on the scroll.
The color, the reality, and the soul have faded, leaving only barren black and white gestures, leaving a brief life on the rough paper.
Stop moving, stop living, and... stop existing.
I stand here, feeling as out of place as a color character suddenly breaking into a black and white movie.
Terror accompanied by unspeakable panic flowed through my veins, roamed throughout my body, and then struck my soul over and over again.
I subconsciously shrank back, pressing my back against Gojo Satoru's chest, and shivered with fear.
I have traveled back and forth so many times and stayed for so long that I even forgot that, in the very beginning, this place was just a comic book in my world and they were all two-dimensional characters.
Only me... I don't belong here, I'm an intruder with no fixed place to stay.
But they are clearly human beings with flesh and blood.
He has the same eyes, nose and mouth as me.
They drink water, inhale air, and exhale carbon dioxide. Their blood is red, and they feel pain when they are hurt. They have human memories and emotions. They are human beings!
I made an ending that's even worse than the original, I think.
"Satoru." I grabbed the clothes on Gojo Satoru's shoulders and squeezed them tightly, "Put me down."
"......." He asked, "Where are you going?"
I have to find a way to put an end to this. I can't let this get any worse.
"Jie has something else to say to me." At that moment, it suddenly occurred to me that there was more than just one sentence that Jie wanted to say to me.
His expression clearly showed that he was trying to give me a lot of clues.
I struggled to jump down, pointed in the direction of the back mountain and said, "Did you see it? He has something to say to me."
"Kiri-chan..." Gojo Satoru disagreed, "Didn't I just tell you that if you go there now, you will only..."
"But I have nothing to lose." I coughed twice, holding my chest. The cold air I breathed into my lungs was uncomfortable. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I raised my head and repeated to him, "I have nothing to lose."
"Parents, family, friends..." I shook my head dejectedly, "There is nothing left."
Not alive, everyone is moving away from me.
"Jie is in front of the woods, he must be looking for something." I grabbed my hair and thought almost frantically, "Maybe if I go in and find that clue, then everyone still has hope of survival..."
"I'll go with you."
"No, you can't go." I said without hesitation, "You stay here."
"So, you're going to leave me here alone." He smiled and asked me calmly, "Really?"
“.......” I was stunned and did not answer.
"Are you going to just leave me and run in like this?" He moved closer, hugged me, rested his chin on my shoulder, and asked me in a low voice, "And leave me here alone?"
"You are the only one left for me."
"You considered Jie, Nishiko, and Yujin. You thought of everyone. Why don't you consider me?"
"......I did think about you."
I paused, turned around and hugged him tightly. I could hear his heart beating in his chest just next to my ear.
It was beating heavily, slowly, and stagnantly...it was slowly slowing down its operation.
"Why didn't I think of you?" I stared blankly at the moon in the distance that never changed.
Just after the full moon, the moon in the sky was no longer full. Instead, darkness slowly swallowed up the silver, like a pearl sinking in a swamp.
“How could I not consider you?” I choked up and said sadly, “It’s just…you’re right, I might as well have never shown up.”
If time could go back to the starting point, I would be willing to give everything to achieve that result.
"Who said that?" he said. "Who would say that?"
“.......” I blinked and did not answer his question, letting the tears slide down to the ground.
"Is it...I said it?" He seemed to suddenly understand, "No wonder..."
No wonder what? No wonder I don't like you? No wonder I always want to beat you up?
"So, it was me who said that." Gojo Satoru held my face in his hands, his gaze fixed on my eyes, and he spoke softly as if he was talking to a small animal, "It was what I said to you in that memory that was erased by the world, right?"
"Does it matter who said it?" I turned away and stared at my palm unnaturally. "What matters is that this sentence is true..."
"That's not true." He interrupted me without hesitation. "The guy who said that is an idiot."
I frowned and looked at him hesitantly.
"Yes, that person is me." He nodded and said clearly, "So I am a fool, a fool, a fool, a fool who can't be any stupider."
.......This is the first time I have seen someone in the world who scolds himself so harshly.
"Wu-chan." He paused, as if he was organizing his words. After thinking for a while, he said firmly, "From the first time I met you until now, from beginning to end, I have never had the thought that it would be better if you had never appeared."
"Not once," he said. "I swear to it."
"......"
“I know myself,” he said. “If that guy said something like that, he didn’t mean it.”
"In the past, I said one thing and meant another, I was hypocritical, I was terribly immature." He remained calm, as if he was spitting at another person, "I deserved to be severely criticized."
"You are still the same now." I sniffed and said unhappily, "very childish, like a kid, you really deserve a beating."
"Well... at least you are growing up." He gathered my long hair behind my shoulders, took out a handkerchief and gently wiped the blood that kept oozing from my face, and whispered, "At least now I can tell clearly that there are some things I can say and some I can't."
"No way." I glared at him complainingly, "You are still talking nonsense now."
"Really?"
"You said you would curse me before."
"Oh my, you really hold a grudge." He sighed softly and said to me in a helpless tone, "It seems that you really care about what I said about the curse."
That's for sure!
Even though Jay is your best friend, and we are not "one and only" friends, at least we have been beaten together, fought side by side, and are friends you can trust with your life and death!
Aren't we friends? You want me to curse you as soon as you open your mouth, and I want you to accept it happily. Is this possible?
Seeing that I was still angry, Gojo Satoru explained again: "Although it won't take effect, but cursing you to live a long and long life, isn't this a blessing?"
"Of course not." I said calmly, "It's not a blessing."
His expression paused.
"It's either a blessing or a curse." I said stubbornly, "Living forever or something like that... I don't need it."
It's scary to live like an old antique.
More importantly...
"If I can bring everyone back to me, I wouldn't mind dying tomorrow."
"Don't say such things!" He pressed his handkerchief directly on my mouth. "Who on earth would want you to do this? I've already told you that you're an important person!"
"Important people also said they would curse me." I muttered quietly.
Gojo Satoru: “….”
"It's so lonely living alone in the world..." I said to him with a sigh, "Really, I hate that feeling."
"I'm still here."
"......and you?" I looked at him bitterly and asked, "Is it really you?"
I reached out and pulled out his right hand, which had been behind his back. I held his palm and looked into his eyes. The icy cold temperature was transmitted to me without reservation along the piece of skin that was touching.
I pulled the corners of my mouth, even with a hint of self-deprecating smile, and asked him in a dry voice: "Are you really still here?"
Gojo Satoru's body was gradually getting colder and stiffer, emitting a chill and a cold light.
"Is it true that I can't keep you?" I was so sad that even my tears had dried up. I said, "How long do I have left?"
"Mist-chan..."
"Call me Lily." I interrupted him, "You know, my real name is Suzuki Lily."
".....Okay." He chuckled and said, "You are Lily, Suzuki Lily."
As soon as the words fell, the blue eyes on the wrist suddenly lit up with dazzling colors and projected in front of me.
The colorful lights converged into a force of energy, twisting strangely in the air and transforming into an illusory door.
The path home is open.