"It truly is a pity... That a family once so influential has been forgotten in a gathering of such relevance."
The doors of the great hall closed slowly, silencing the echo of the light that dissipated with the entrance of a new presence. The murmur of those present grew, laden with judgment and contempt, as if the mere appearance of the newcomer were an affront.
Ryan sighed heavily and lowered his shoulders, his voice laced with sarcasm. "Ah... Why am I not even a little surprised? Gensei..."
Among the indignant murmurs, a deep, cutting voice rose above the others, heavy with contained contempt. "What are you doing here, Gensei Suou? Your family no longer belongs in matters such as this."
Gensei laughed softly, a sound that seemed rehearsed, almost theatrical. His steps resonated on the floor, slow and calculated, as if each movement were part of a carefully planned performance. His voice, impregnated with mockery, flowed through the room like distilled poison.
"Indeed, the Suou family no longer holds the prestige of yesteryear," he said, letting the words spread like flames over dry twigs. "We have fallen from the highest peak to an irrelevant position in the Jujutsu world..."
Ryan watched the scene with his arms crossed, his lazy expression not hiding the attentive gleam in his eyes. His grandfather hadn't announced his arrival, but Ryan had already expected it. Something told him that Gensei wouldn't make a dramatic entrance without an ace up his sleeve.
Gensei approached him, the aura of unshakable confidence emanating from his posture. He raised the palm of his hand, the gesture loaded with meaning, and declared in a firm voice:
"It has been years of injury against my blood... They took from us what was rightfully ours. The reason? Repugnant."
Ryan didn't respond immediately, but his eyes narrowed slightly. His thoughts raced as he analyzed Gensei's every word.
"Ah, Grandpa..." he reflected, his mind drawing a clear scenario. "You are very sure of your plans... But I know you want to use me as a triumph, a piece on the board to restore the family name. Well, luckily, I also see an advantage in this. Having power in my own hands is something that interests me... Whether it's to become a God myself, or to shape the Jujutsu world according to my will. That way, I can protect what must be protected."
On the outside, Gensei continued his speech, his sharp eyes piercing the condescending gazes around him.
"The Suou family has been fading away... The descendants did not excel... For three generations we have not produced a special grade..."
He paused, and the momentary silence was broken by a look that gleamed with wounded pride.
"My daughter produced a non-sorcerer, and my grandson chose to distance himself from the family's foundations... You thought the Suou name was buried in the mud!"
His words echoed through the hall, received with disdain by many. A low, sarcastic laugh came from one of the elders, his voice laden with veiled hostility.
"Gensei... Just like your father, can you not bear the humiliation of the harsh reality? Instead, you choose, of your own free will, to further tarnish what little prestige you have left?"
Another elder joined in the mockery. "Withdraw, Gensei. Return to your duties and be content with forging the cursed weapons that are still your due."
Gensei smiled politely, but his eyes sparkled with contained fire. Still pointing at Ryan, he spoke with an intensity that burned in the air around him.
"I haven't finished speaking yet. This one here, Ryan Gosting, as you call him, is, in reality, my grandson. Kuze Masachika... And future patriarch of the Suou family as Suou Masachika!"
The hall erupted in murmurs. Some doubted, others mocked, but the surprise was universal.
Ryan felt a gentle tug on his shirt. Riko looked at him with eyes shining with curiosity. "Hey, Ryan..."
Before she could continue, he took her hand and pulled her close. "Relax, Riko. I'll explain everything when this boring stuff is over."
She hesitated for a moment, but nodded, biting her lip slightly, absorbing the information.
Beside them, Gojo smiled as if he were watching a theatrical comedy, completely unconcerned. The chaos around him didn't seem to affect him.
Ryan leaned slightly in his direction, his voice low but sharp. "Your face looks like you already know the end of this story... Come on, you spiky-haired albino, you already knew, didn't you?"
Gojo took off his glasses with a cynical smirk. "Yuki Suou, your sister. You mentioned her yourself before almost collapsing on the floor... From there it was just a matter of connecting the dots."
Ryan clicked his tongue, mockingly. "Huh. Clever of you... Maybe you're not as much of an idiot as I thought."
Gojo raised an eyebrow. "Wait, what?"
Meanwhile, one of the elders, his voice full of arrogance, intervened. "If what the Six Eyes say is true, then congratulations, Gensei. You have a grandson who stands out... But know that there will be consequences for his foolish acts."
Gensei raised his gaze, his tone icy. "Very presumptuous words from you, for one who is merely the right-hand man of a clan... Ogi Zenin... Could this be the bitterness of envy, for having also produced descendants below the standard of your own clan?"
Ogi gritted his teeth, clenching his fists. The tension was palpable. At any moment, this could turn into war.
Meanwhile, Ryan, standing beside Gensei, displayed a sarcastic smile before dropping a taunt: "Goddamn it! You brought out the old man for nothing!" However, as soon as the words escaped his mouth, a sharp thought struck him. "Wait a minute... Did he just badmouth Yuki!?"
Gensei, however, continued his speech with the same imposing posture, his voice laden with solemnity and purpose. "I will borrow this judgment... To present the one who will truly unbalance the Jujutsu world, creating a new era..."
The silence that followed was tense, filled with looks of disdain and contempt. Gensei, however, showed no sign of being shaken. He fixed his eyes on Ryan, a look that seemed to say. "It's now... Masachika, show them!"
Ryan let out a long sigh, rolling his eyes with boredom, while mentally responding to his grandfather with his usual sarcasm. "Look, Grandpa, you need to stop thinking that I'm going to dance to your tune every time you want... But, lucky for you, today I really need these NPCs to have some respect for me... To ensure Riko stays safe."
Then, without warning, Ryan's body glowed with a dense golden energy, a celestial glow that seemed almost palpable. Riko, still holding his hand, was enveloped by the same light, her eyes widening in surprise.
"W-wow!" She exclaimed, feeling the energy course through every fiber of her being.
The elders watching the spectacle swallowed hard, straightening up in their seats, unable to look away.
Ryan, with an amused smile, kept his gaze on Riko. She shimmered, bathed in the energy that flowed from him to her.
"I-I... I feel so light..." Riko murmured, perplexed by the overwhelming sensation that dominated her. Her body seemed to be taken over by a force that transcended everything she knew.
Suddenly, her feet began to lift off the ground. The energy around her made her levitate gently. "W-wow!" Her laughter was pure and spontaneous, like that of a child who had just discovered magic for the first time.
The hall remained immersed in a sepulchral silence. Words seemed to have been ripped from the tongues of the elders, who just watched, dumbfounded.
Ryan then pulled her back to the ground, and Riko, with a radiant glow in her eyes, exclaimed: "Ryan, I feel so strong now! I think I could take down that Toji guy all by myself!"
Excitement overflowed in her voice. She began to punch the air, her movements quick and precise, generating small currents of wind with each blow. It was impressive. Her body, which had never been trained for combat, now displayed a brute strength that rivaled that of experienced warriors.
"Ha! Kya! Zaaaa!" Riko reveled, completely immersed in that new sensation.
The whispers among the elders began to grow in intensity.
"This... How is it possible?" murmured one of them, unable to believe his own eyes.
"The energy... It's so condensed..." another stammered, disbelief tinging every syllable.
Then, Ogi Zenin, hesitantly, let slip: "Is that... Purified energy?"
Ryan almost laughed out loud, but kept his provocation in his thoughts. "Damn, what a shitty thought! And what a crappy name, my lord!"
Gojo, who was watching the scene with a disdainful smile, pointed at Ryan and grumbled: "Come on, Ryan, weren't you supposed to be resting? How the hell did you make your energy even more refined?"
Ryan shrugged, answering without a hint of seriousness: "Mommy gave me food in my mouth, so I recovered and even got rejuvenated..." At the same time, in his mind, he sighed with a touch of nostalgia. "Ahh, Yuno... I already want it again..."
Riko, still excited by her own power, kicked the air, but upon hearing the word "mommy", stopped abruptly and raised an eyebrow. "Mommy?"
Ryan, putting his hands in his pockets, deflected. "Don't worry about it now, keep punching him."
Riko frowned. "Worry about it now? And punching who?"
Fortunately for Ryan, Gensei once again took the reins of attention in the hall.
"This, gentlemen... Is the apex of the Jujutsu world!" he declared with pride.
The verbal chaos that followed was immediate. The elders broke into a frenzied buzz, their voices overlapping in a disjointed euphoria. But then, Ogi Zenin's imposing voice broke through the din.
"It's truly impressive what this young man can do. His energy is different, that's for sure... But how can we ignore the fact of the judgment!? Tengen-sama still needs to make his assimilation! And that's why we are present here."
The elders, initially scattered, began to reorganize, their heavy gazes exchanging silent signals. The atmosphere was charged, each breath impregnated with judgment and ulterior motives. One of them cleared his throat, taking the floor with a surgical seriousness:
"Ogi is right. Tengen-sama's assimilation is our absolute priority. We cannot be distracted by the unknown energy that your grandson, Gensei, has manifested."
Before the debate could drag on, a voice interrupted the discussion abruptly, but laden with excessive confidence.
"So, about that..." Gojo raised his hand like an insolent student about to deliver a sassy answer. "I already said we're going to solve it, didn't I?"
The elders turned to him as if they were observing someone they wanted to, but couldn't, put in their place. One of them didn't waste time in reinforcing the gravity of the situation.
"Satoru... As it was said before, you are also a defendant in this situation. Your levity only worsens the position you are in."
Gojo smiled in a carefree manner, his gaze sparkling with an annoying confidence. "Calm down, calm down. Let me finish speaking first..." He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out something small.
"Since Tengen-sama is so important, nothing better than arguments. But not just any argument... Demonstration."
He raised his hand, revealing a severed and dried-up finger. A slightly rusty and nauseating smell spread through the air. Ogi was the first to react, his voice trembling with a poorly disguised incredulity.
"T-that is a finger of—"
Before he could finish, Gojo turned to Ryan with a smile of someone who was having fun at everyone's expense.
"Hey, Ryan, see if you can hit this!"
Ryan raised an eyebrow, watching Gojo throw the finger up in the air as if it were a toy. His gaze oscillated between the macabre object and the sorcerer's smug expression.
"What the hell is this?" He thought, arching the corner of his lips for a brief moment. "Why does this lunatic walk around with a severed finger in his pocket?"
Despite the confusion, he understood the implicit challenge. He sighed, taking his hand out of his pocket, as if it were a monumental waste of time.
"Whatever..."
With a simple movement, he raised his hand, concentrating his energy. The shot was instantaneous, a snap cutting through the air before a wave of energy erupted from his fingers. The golden projectile hit the finger in mid-air and, in the blink of an eye, carbonized it completely. The explosion of energy generated a massive shockwave that traveled through the entire room, as if a bomb had detonated a few meters away.
The elders were overcome by a suffocating pressure. The air vibrated, heavy, as their bodies tried to process what had just happened. It was as if an invisible force had hit them head-on. But Ryan remained standing, impassive, as if it were a minor inconvenience.
The silence that followed was overwhelming, tense as a razor's edge. Until Gensei, still trying to maintain a facade of serenity, let out a low chuckle.
"Hah... I didn't imagine it would come to this..." His voice impregnated with a contained satisfaction. "One more reason to consider him the next step in the evolution of Jujutsu."
Inside, however, his mind screamed:
"MY GRANDSON SIMPLY ANNIHILATED SUKUNA'S FINGER AS IF IT WERE DUST! THIS IS INSANE! I WON THE LOTTERYAAAA!"
But on the outside? Completely calm, as if he had already expected it.
One of the elders, still recovering from the shock, broke the silence with a hoarse and hesitant voice:
"Satoru Gojo... Was that really a finger of Ryomen Sukuna?"
Gojo took a deep breath, his arms crossed as he hid a sigh of relief, thinking. "Man... I'm glad that worked. If this had gone wrong, I would have been in a lot of trouble."
The buzz took over the room, the elders discussing in urgent whispers, unable to ignore what they had just witnessed. Meanwhile, Ryan approached Gojo, his expression loaded with exasperation.
"Why the hell did you have a finger with you? And why all this commotion just because I destroyed it? Tell me you didn't get me into another mess, you lunatic."
Gojo smiled, his tone surprisingly calm. "You have no idea how much it bothers me to say this, but... you just destroyed something that neither I, nor any other sorcerer, has been able to do in a thousand years."
Ryan raised an eyebrow. "And how the hell did you know I could do it, you imbecile?"
Gojo shrugged, crossing his hands behind his neck. "Your energy seems to purify cursed energy. It's much more complex, it has nuances that not even my eyes can fully capture."
Ryan sighed, running his hand over his face. "Okay. But that could have gone very wrong. Lucky for you, my energy really can pulverize this crap."
Gojo turned to the elders, his voice laden with amusement. "So, now do you believe that we can solve any problem?"
The silence was almost tangible, sharp as a blade. Until Ryan, with a sarcastic smile, broke the tension.
"Hey, Gojo... I'm no expert in Jujutsu, but... According to my grandpa Gensei, condensed cursed energy creates these so-called cursed spirits. And I just destroyed this weird finger, throwing a ton of cursed energy into the air... Isn't that going to make creatures appear?"
Gojo looked over his shoulder, without losing his pose. "Relax... We'll handle it."
Ryan narrowed his eyes. "Is that all you know how to say, idiot?"
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