Defeat, repel, or kill—each target could only trigger a reward once.
However, if An Xora remembered correctly, in the original story Ryomen Sukuna had mentioned that even if the consciousness within a finger fused with Itadori Yuji died together with him, it wouldn't affect the resurrection of Sukuna's consciousness fragments sealed in the other fingers.
So was there a possibility—just maybe—that each of Sukuna's fingers counted as an independent target, allowing An Xora to trigger rewards multiple times?
If that were the case…
In the original story, Ryomen Sukuna had a total of twenty fingers. One finger was worth 2,500 points. Triggering rewards twenty times would mean 50,000 points.
Good grief—so this was where the greatest treasure in the jujutsu world was hidden!
Immediately, the way An Xora looked at Itadori Yuji—or rather, at Ryomen Sukuna—changed.
Noticing the shift in An Xora's gaze, Gojo Satoru, who was currently carrying the unconscious Itadori Yuji over his shoulder, glanced over with some confusion.
For some reason, he felt that the way An Xora was looking at the boy on his shoulder was exactly like how an ordinary person would look upon seeing banknotes fluttering all over the street.
The problem was, aside from having fused with Sukuna's finger and being able to suppress Sukuna's consciousness at will, Itadori Yuji really didn't seem to have anything else particularly special about him.
Could it be that An Xora was interested in Ryomen Sukuna? That wasn't entirely unreasonable—after all, he was known as the King of Curses.
But at least for now, Gojo's evaluation of Ryomen Sukuna was…
Not even worth one finger compared to the curse residing within Miss Seele.
The strongest King of Curses from a thousand years ago? To be honest, after personally experiencing the terrifying cursed power of Dark Seele—power that had stripped him of all resistance with a single blow—Gojo felt that such a title was, frankly speaking, kind of BS.
"Well then, we'll be taking our leave. What happened here still needs to be reported to the Higher-Ups."
"Ugh, having to see those annoying old geezers again. Just thinking about it gives me a headache."
With Itadori Yuji slung over one shoulder and Fushiguro Megumi grabbed in one hand, Gojo waved to An Xora and Seele before taking off.
"We should leave too. There's nothing else worth seeing here."
Although he was eyeing Ryomen Sukuna as a super point-filled gift package, An Xora knew this wasn't something to rush. Besides, if things followed the plot, he would soon have a chance to verify his hypothesis anyway.
There was no need to hurry—he could just relax and enjoy the moment.
...
And so, since An Xora did not excessively interfere with the course of events, Itadori Yuji was still sentenced to death by the jujutsu higher-ups, just like in the original story. However, under Gojo Satoru's strong insistence, the sentence was changed to a suspended execution, on the grounds that Yuji would serve as a vessel to collect Sukuna's fingers.
An Xora understood Gojo's thinking perfectly.
First, use a justification to temporarily keep Itadori Yuji alive. Collecting Sukuna's fingers was a long-term task—under normal circumstances, it would take several years at the very least.
By then, Itadori Yuji would have already grown under Gojo's guidance. The younger generation would also be capable of shouldering responsibility. At that point, Gojo—who had long been dissatisfied with the higher-ups and harbored thoughts of reform—could confidently wipe out the corrupt higher-ups of the jujutsu world and let the younger generation take over. When that happened, Itadori Yuji's death sentence would naturally become meaningless.
From Gojo's perspective, this was undoubtedly a perfect plan with an extremely high chance of success. As the strongest, he had the confidence to see it through—
He just hadn't anticipated the series of events that would unfold later in the original story.
...
Just like that, two weeks passed.
With An Xora refraining from interfering in subsequent events, everything progressed exactly as it had in the original plot.
Itadori Yuji joined Tokyo Jujutsu High as a first-year student, just as before. Together with Fushiguro Megumi and the later-arriving Kugisaki Nobara, they formed the classic three-person team of two boys and one girl. They spent half a month exorcising curses, deepening their bonds, and then—
The Special Grade Cursed Womb Incident at the juvenile detention center finally began.
Dark clouds filled the sky, and fine rain fell steadily from above.
Following the trail of cursed energy, An Xora and Seele appeared on the street outside the Eishu Juvenile Detention Center.
"West Tokyo's Eishu Juvenile Detention Center—this is the place."
Sensing the restless cursed energy in the air, An Xora confirmed they hadn't come to the wrong location.
"Do you want Seele to go in now?"
Seele asked An Xora beside her.
"Let's speak to the person in charge first. We're not rude people, after all."
Although the juvenile detention center incident in the original plot was extremely dangerous, with Seele's strength, she could resolve it at any moment.
Thus, An Xora wasn't in any rush. Together with Seele, he calmly entered the detention center and met the supervisor in charge of the scene—Ijichi.
"Y-You are… Miss Seele, the Special Grade sorcerer who was newly promoted half a month ago?"
Since Seele had officially passed the Special Grade assessment half a month earlier, the Higher-Ups had announced the birth of the fifth Special Grade sorcerer to the entire jujutsu world. Having already seen her photo, Supervisor Ijichi immediately recognized her.
"I can't believe you'd appear here—this is wonderful!"
Bowing deeply to both Seele and An Xora, Ijichi quickly explained the situation to them.
"Due to the appearance of a Special Grade cursed womb, the jujutsu world was unable to find a suitable sorcerer to handle it in time. As a result, we could only dispatch three first-year students from Tokyo Jujutsu High to enter the detention center and rescue any potential survivors."
"Now that a Special Grade sorcerer is on site, we humbly request that you exorcise the cursed womb inside and resolve this crisis."
Seele didn't answer immediately. Instead, she turned to look at An Xora beside her.
"How long ago did those three first-year students enter?"
An Xora asked.
"Uh… about four minutes ago."
Compared to Seele, An Xora's reputation was far lower. After all, he hadn't taken the Grade 1 sorcerer assessment, and there had been no official announcement from the Higher-Ups. Ijichi didn't recognize him at all.
Even so, anyone who could accompany a newly promoted Special Grade was clearly no ordinary individual, so Ijichi answered respectfully.
"Four minutes? Then there's still time."
After receiving Ijichi's answer, An Xora gestured lightly to Seele.
"In that case, An Xora-ge will wait here. Seele will be back very soon."
Raising her hand, Seele summoned her scythe. With a light tap of her foot, her figure instantly vanished into the Curtain—the barrier erected ahead to block ordinary people's view.
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