Chapter 85: You Are the Grade 1 Sorcerer Emiya Shirou, Right!
If given another chance, Emiya would still choose to exorcise the fake "Mountain God" Cursed Spirit in the shrine.
It was not just for Miko's safety, but also for every person who had been harmed before, and every person who might be harmed afterward.
Not to mention, he had just learned from Gojo Satoru that the true identity of that monster was not a pure evil spirit formed by negative emotions and curses, but the soul of a young girl imprisoned by special means, along with hundreds of unnamed sacrificial victims.
Every single one of these things was reason enough for Emiya to deal with the "Mountain God."
Of course, as the price for rashly exorcising the "Mountain God," Emiya would find a way to resolve and rescue those affected, whether it was the potential natural disaster or the sorcerers who fell into unknown danger because of it.
This was not a mandatory constraint, but a duty that ought to be fulfilled.
Therefore, Emiya unhesitatingly accepted the request from Gojo Satoru to investigate and resolve the volcano problem, and immediately set off from Jujutsu High.
It was indeed getting close to evening now, and the optimal choice would be to attempt the investigation during the day. However, Emiya himself could wait, but the sorcerer who had lost contact within the mountains could not wait too long... Only by acting quickly enough would the possibility of that sorcerer still being alive be greater.
Before departing, Emiya also didn't forget to get information about the missing sorcerer from Gojo Satoru—Aoi Todo, a third-year student at Kyoto Metropolitan Jujutsu High School, a Grade 1 Sorcerer.
Kyoto School and Tokyo School are the only two Jujutsu High Schools in Japan. Tokyo School is generally aligned with reformists like Gojo Satoru and Masamichi Yaga, while Kyoto School mostly consists of members from various Jujutsu families.
According to Gojo Satoru, the principal of the Kyoto School, Yoshinobu Gakuganji, is an out-and-out conservative and one of the higher-ups most strongly advocating for the elimination of the "Vessel of Sukuna."
However, the grudges of the older generation have not yet spread to the students, so Gojo Satoru also told Emiya not to worry about Aoi Todo's stance at all; he should just perform his rescue duty diligently according to his own conscience.
Gojo Satoru also informed Emiya of the Grade 1 Sorcerer's strength.
During the 'Night Parade of a Hundred Demons' incident a year ago, Aoi Todo, who came to provide support, single-handedly defeated five Grade 1 and one Special Grade Curses.
His strength is considered formidable among Grade 1 Sorcerers.
Therefore, a mission that could leave him in distress or completely out of contact would be, at the very least, a particularly troublesome Special Grade.
"Well, if it's you, Emiya-kun, you'll definitely bring back good news by tomorrow morning at the latest, right?
I'll save some space in my stomach and prepare for a delicious breakfast."
—Those were Gojo Satoru's exact words, entirely carefree.
However, in a way, this also counted as considerable trust.
After leaving Jujutsu High, Emiya took less than an hour to return to the ruins of the shrine. By this time, the sky had almost completely darkened.
Only a sliver of the setting sun remained at the far end of the mountains, faintly illuminating the shrine ruins before Emiya.
The people from Jujutsu High must have tidied up the situation here after Emiya left yesterday.
It now looked only like a shrine that had completely fallen into ruin due to the passage of time, with no traces left behind by the Nine Lives on the ground.
Even if a traveler were to pass by this place, they would probably just assume it was a remnant from the past, abandoned by the era. After all, this shrine wasn't lavish; only a small main hall was barely intact, and no one would be foolish enough to travel here for adventure.
The history of the past would also be completely buried with the demise of the "Mountain God," leaving behind only scattered mentions in the Jujutsu High archives.
The girl whose tragic fate was sealed from birth, and the people who lost their lives because of it, could not even leave their names behind, and no one would remember them.
The irony is that the most famous person in this story is probably the "Strongest" Sorcerer of that era, who arranged everything.
Whether his reputation is good or bad, his name and deeds will likely be recorded in the books and documents of the Jujutsu world until another five hundred years have passed.
This is very unfair, isn't it?
But that's the reality of the world.
"Rest in peace. At least things like this won't happen again in the afterlife."
Emiya did not rush to leave the ruins of the shrine. He quietly walked to the front of the main hall, then Projected a long sword and gently plunged it into the ground.
This was a tombstone erected for the girl he had never met and the countless people buried here because of her.
Does the world of Jujutsu have an afterlife? Emiya didn't know.
But Emiya thought it was better if such a thing didn't exist—the so-called next life is too distant. Rather than fostering an unwarranted hope for it, it is better for death to be the end of everything, allowing one to rest peacefully in the earth forever.
Emiya had not taken the skull from the main hall when he left, but it was not here now. It must have been taken by the Jujutsu High cleanup crew later on.
It was easy to imagine what kind of decomposition and research this five-hundred-year-old ritual medium would undergo once it fell into the hands of certain people.
If possible, Emiya would try to retrieve it and allow it to be properly buried.
Because he still had other tasks on his shoulders, Emiya simply finished all this and then turned to leave. The blade plunged into the ground was, after all, just an ordinary product of Projection Magecraft; it would likely dissipate by the time the sun rose tomorrow morning. It was just an ordinary sword.
Perhaps for convenience, the shrine was only built on the hillside of the first, shorter mountain in the range.
To truly reach the interior of the mountains, where the highest peak was located, Emiya still had tens of kilometers of mountain path to cover.
In a place where communication signals could completely disappear, a brief loss of contact with the outside world would be understandable—however, six hours had passed since the Grade 1 Sorcerer lost contact.
This situation clearly couldn't be caused by a lack of signal, because a physically powerful sorcerer wouldn't even need an hour to traverse the entire mountain range.
Naturally, the Jujutsu world would not be completely without measures to deal with this kind of situation. As long as Emiya followed the markings deliberately left by the sorcerer, it wouldn't take long to find a clue about their whereabouts.
The mountain forest at night was quite dark, and any markings might be missed. Fortunately, this posed little trouble for Emiya, who could use his magic power to reinforce his eyes.
Ordinary people might have the misconception that monsters are more likely to appear in remote places like mountain forests.
However, this notion does not apply to Cursed Spirits.
They are cursed life forms born from human negative emotions. In a place where humans barely tread, how could these Cursed Spirits be generated?
Unless there is a specific object here that is imbued with a large amount of negative feelings, like a tool that has killed many people.
The birth of Cursed Spirits is related to the quantity and intensity of human negative emotions; the more densely populated an area is, the more numerous and stronger the Cursed Spirits born there will be.
This is why Jujutsu High Schools were only established in Tokyo and Kyoto; these most densely populated cities are high-risk zones for Cursed Spirit outbreaks. Not just in Japan, but in other countries as well.
Cursed Spirits born in remote areas will be much fewer in number, and their strength and intelligence will be significantly lower than those in densely populated areas.
However, this does not mean that powerful Cursed Spirits cannot be born in certain remote, isolated villages.
In some extreme circumstances, even in sparsely populated villages, intensely murderous Cursed Spirits can be generated due to powerful negative emotions. As for what follows... that's when the Headquarters has to figure out how to cover up such a terrible incident.
"Strange, has the temperature risen a bit?"
Following the markings deeper into the mountains, the keenly perceptive Emiya suddenly frowned.
As the night deepened, the temperature should be getting lower and lower; this wasn't a special terrain.
He tried to look up and survey his surroundings but couldn't find any anomaly in the narrow field of view of the forest, even when climbing to the top of a tree.
Even if the volcano did erupt once five hundred years ago, five centuries would be enough time for vegetation to cover the area again. Emiya had no way to determine where the center point of the eruption was.
Not all craters are regular, mountaintop holes like in movies and TV shows. After a long period of cooling and change, it could even be an ordinary-looking lake in a corner.
Maintaining a cautious mindset, Emiya continued to move quickly through the forest following the markings.
The unexpected happened when his foot stepped past a certain inconspicuous tree trunk—
Snap—!
Though it was just one step away, Emiya distinctly felt the temperature around him increase by more than ten degrees.
"Is this a Curtain? No... it should be a Barrier with multiple layers of Binding Vows added, otherwise, the outside wouldn't be completely unaware."
Although he still wasn't very skilled with Barrier Techniques himself, Emiya was no longer the Jujutsu novice he once was.
For instance, Jujutsu High School itself is covered by more than one special Barrier. It is because of them that the location of the school can remain hidden from start to finish, not easily discovered by malicious Curse Users, and not infiltrated by Cursed Spirits.
"Setting up a Barrier of such a large scale definitely means someone intends to do something major... But, the markings also disappear here?"
Emiya was trying to guess what kind of situation the first sorcerer had encountered here when a deafening roar suddenly came from the distance—
"Boom!!!!!!!"
A hundred-meter-high blaze shot up into the sky a few kilometers away, and like a volcanic eruption, it rained down lava, setting large sections of the forest ablaze.
If it weren't for the Barrier covering the area, this commotion would have likely been seen by everyone in the city, leading them to believe the volcano was genuinely erupting and the end of the world was at hand.
"It's not a natural phenomenon, the Cursed Energy fluctuation is intense... is the battle still going on?!"
Hadn't the time of lost contact already exceeded six hours?
With that conspicuous activity as an anchor point, Emiya immediately jumped onto the tree trunks and rushed in that direction, taking only a few minutes to successfully arrive at the scene.
As for the true appearance of that scene? "Inferno" is likely the right word to describe it.
A raging forest fire was burning among the trees, reaching a point that existing human means could no longer suppress. An ordinary person would probably lose their life just by standing there for a few minutes.
And right in the center of this sea of fire stood a Cursed Spirit, somewhat short in stature but with terrifyingly immense Cursed Energy. Not far in front of it lay a person, several times more robust than the spirit, but unmoving.
Without a doubt, that was Emiya's rescue target this time, Aoi Todo.
As a sorcerer, he had fought the Cursed Spirit to the very last moment with all his might. Unfortunately, he lay there covered in wounds, while the Cursed Spirit appeared to be largely unharmed.
It was at this moment that the Cursed Spirit noticed Emiya's arrival.
The instant it saw the long-faced man, the spirit—whose dull eyes had previously conveyed boredom and whose gaze was quite lifeless—immediately displayed an expression of extreme excitement.
Its mouth stretched into a wide grin reaching its ears, and the single eye dominating the upper half of its face was widened to an astonishing degree.
"You are the Grade 1 Sorcerer Emiya Shirou, right!"
Read ahead (60 chapters) by supporting me on buymeacoffee com/varietl or ko-fi edwriting