Tsukumo Yuki looked at Zoro with unfamiliar eyes.
The upper echelons and other sorcerers, even Tengen himself, had never seriously listened to her words. They gave half-pitying, half-dismissive responses as if her wish was, "I want to pick stars from the sky"—looking at Tsukumo as one would look at a child saying such a thing.
Because Zoro took her ideal seriously, Tsukumo decided to give him a bit of a lesson.
"Cursed spirits are born when people feel negative emotions, and the cursed energy that flows out clumps together to form a shape."
"..."
"However, unlike non-sorcerers, sorcerers circulate cursed energy within their bodies instead of emitting it externally. That's why sorcerers don't create cursed spirits. ...Of course, excluding cases where a sorcerer is killed by an attack not imbued with cursed energy and transforms into a cursed spirit posthumously."
"..."
"So, there are two ways to create a world where cursed spirits aren't born."
"...Zzz..."
"...Are you sleeping?"
"Huh!"
Zoro, who had been nodding off, was startled awake by Tsukumo's nudge.
"Yawn."
He didn't even try to hide that he had fallen asleep. Shameless. Instead of scolding him, she continued.
"Anyway, originally I thought of two ways to create a world without cursed spirits. First, remove cursed energy from all of humanity. Second, make all of humanity able to control cursed energy."
Neither path is easy. Yet, she had a prime example right before her.
"The most promising clue is your father."
"Huh?"
"Your father obtained superhuman physical abilities in exchange for being a curseless entity with zero cursed energy. Since he has no cursed energy at all, he can't create cursed spirits while alive."
Despite searching the entire world, the only person like that, both in the current era and throughout history, was Zenin Toji.
"If all humans become like your father with zero cursed energy, the first scenario becomes possible."
However, the major problem was that there's practically no way to transform non-sorcerers or sorcerers into curseless entities with zero cursed energy, and it's unknown under what conditions a curseless entity with zero cursed energy is born. None of Toji's sons are curseless entities with zero cursed energy, after all.
"My original goal was the second one."
Making all of humanity able to control cursed energy.
"And recently, I discovered an unexpected third possibility."
"What's that?"
"You."
Tsukumo pointed straight at Zoro with her finger.
"Zenin-kun, you're still young and, most importantly, a non-sorcerer, yet you're incredibly strong."
The rumor that a 5-year-old non-sorcerer single-handedly defeated a special grade cursed spirit was hard for even Tsukumo to believe, but seeing it with her own eyes, she couldn't deny it. Zenin Zoro possessed that level of skill. He didn't seem to use techniques or cursed energy, but his sense as a special grade sorcerer was on a completely different dimension from other sorcerers.
"You've already gotten rid of far more cursed spirits than you could ever produce in your lifetime."
"If all non-sorcerers could become like you, what do you think would happen?" Tsukumo asked, her eyes sparkling, before answering her own question.
"The rate at which cursed spirits disappear would far exceed the rate at which they are born."
It wouldn't be a world where cursed spirits never arise, but it could be a splendid alternative.
In that sense, Zoro, like Toji, was a subject of her research.
Of course, researching Toji was one thing, but knowing Toji would become hostile, even seeing it as a threat if she suggested researching Zoro, she didn't mention it to Toji.
Zoro frowned. He had a lot to say, but he asked the first question that came to mind.
"How are you going to do that?"
"...That's the problem."
All three options were currently unrealistic.
"How about asking your dad to make another sibling?"
"That's absurd..."
"It's a joke."
Tsukumo chuckled, then clasped her hands behind her head.
The joke wasn't entirely a joke, though. Tsukumo was fascinated not only by Zenin Toji's curseless physique but also by his genetic relations.
'Ironically, Zenin Toji, a man with absolutely no cursed energy, was born into the Zenin family, one of the three great sorcerer families in Japan. And all his children were born as beings capable of eradicating cursed spirits.'
The first child was a non-sorcerer with combat abilities to defeat cursed spirits, and the second child was a sorcerer.
'The Zenin family, among the Gojo family, is famous for possessing a variety of inherited techniques.'
To secure and preserve inherited techniques, the Zenin family has been marrying sorcerers with various techniques into the family and intermarrying within the family to ensure their children inherit these techniques.
'Maybe being a curseless entity with zero cursed energy is a mutant trait that emerged from the continuous interbreeding of sorcerers with techniques.'
Of course, it was just a hypothesis. Since Zenin Toji was the only known curseless entity with zero cursed energy throughout global history, there were limits to verification.
"Zenin-kun, do you know the basic principle of sorcery... no, of this world?"
"...?"
"It's equivalent exchange."
As the number of non-sorcerers increases, so does the number of cursed spirits.
When powerful sorcerers are born, powerful cursed spirits emerge as well. The same goes for constraints. The more you restrict, the more you gain.
"But you, you haven't lost much compared to what you have."
Despite claims of abandoning duties or whatever, being a Special Grade Sorcerer, it's undeniable. This child, although not a non-sorcerer or possessing zero cursed energy like a curseless vessel, has physical abilities comparable to those of zero cursed energy.
Although Zoro's physical abilities are currently less than Toji's... Well, will that still be the case once he becomes an adult?
Becoming stronger as a non-sorcerer doesn't mean the cursed spirits will become stronger.
Like Zenin Toji or other curseless vessels, he wasn't born with the constraints essential to life from the start.
Yet, he has the potential to become even stronger than them.
Thinking about it in terms of equivalent exchange, that was a very strange occurrence.
"You and your father are beings that escape the causality and laws of this world," Tsukumo Yuki defined them that way.
Toji was born without the cursed energy inherent in all humans, not confined by the yoke of cursed energy from the start.
Zoro, although born within the yoke of cursed energy, was breaking and ignoring the fate that should have left him a significantly weak existence as a non-sorcerer, growing fearsomely instead.
"..."
Zoro quietly pondered. Tsukumo stood up, realizing it was about time to leave.
"Anyway, it was nice meeting you. Let's meet again in a few years, not now, as fellow sorcerers."
"I'm not a sorcerer, though."
"Well, who knows."
To her, Zoro seemed destined to remain within the sorcery world, an irregular capable of defeating Special Grade cursed spirits at a young age despite being a non-sorcerer.
'Because you were born that way.'
Tsukumo smiled wistfully and turned away.
"See you again someday, Zenin-kun."
As the woman's figure receded, Zoro, watching her golden-haired back, gently stroked the back of Tsumiki, who was tossing and turning as if dreaming.
"But you, you haven't lost much compared to what you have."
Tsukumo's words kept echoing in Zoro's head.
'Really?'
Have I really not lost anything?
Reincarnation. The ability to use cursed energy even after the world has changed. A body that can grow infinitely stronger with training and rapidly develop despite not being a curseless vessel with zero cursed energy.
All of that, obtained without any cost?
Something didn't add up. It was strange.
'If I have paid a price for all this,'
What did I pay?
Suddenly, a dream that Zoro no longer dreamed about flashed through his mind.
More precisely, the red thread seen in that dream.
When dreaming of the red thread and heart, although the thread was tied to Zoro's hand...
'It seemed like it could unravel or break at any moment.'
Loose, thin, fragile.
Yet, also beautiful and precious.
Something he wanted to hold onto by any means.
...If it hadn't been for the gradually slowing heartbeat, perhaps he would have.
Holding onto the thread might have caused the already fragile thread to snap.
Zoro let go of the slowly unraveling red thread from his hand and watched as it disappeared towards where he had left.
"..."
Towards a place scented with the sea and illuminated by the sun.
Whether it was a dream or a memory was unclear.
'If that was not merely a dream but a memory, was the red thread the price I paid?'
What exactly was that thread?
...What did I give up?
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