Tengen led them to the uppermost level of the Star Palace.
As Tengen and Zoro entered the room, Toji stood motionless at the entrance. Zoro turned back.
"Aren't you coming in?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"It's your story."
"...? I don't mind."
There was no past that he couldn't share with Toji.
'Besides, with this door's thickness, unless he purposely controls his senses, Toji would hear everything anyway.'
Toji would likely keep using his Observation Haki to stay aware if anything happened to Zoro, but that also meant he'd have to adjust his hearing not to listen to the conversation. It was a needless struggle, doing things the hard way.
"Why don't you just come in?"
"No. You can tell me later."
"You're so picky."
"You're just too dense. I'll be right outside. Call me if you need anything."
Toji patted Zoro's head, then let him enter and closed the door. Zoro shook his head and sat on the cushion opposite Tengen.
Tengen watched him and then spoke.
"Your father is considerate of you."
"Well, that's part of it... but he's just scared."
He's a fearful person, Zoro mumbled.
"Of you?"
"Not a chance."
Toji had never been afraid of Zoro. What he feared was himself.
'I don't know what happened to make him distrust himself so much.'
It was beyond comprehension. Zoro shook his head again.
"So, can I hear your original name?"
Zoro looked into Tengen's dark eyes and remained silent. After a moment, he spoke clearly.
"Roronoa Zoro."
The name, spoken after such a long time, felt strangely unfamiliar on Zoro's tongue.
Tengen made an intrigued sound.
"'Roronoa' is a surname, then?"
"Yes."
"So, your real name and the name you use now only differ by the surname."
Zoro chuckled.
"'Zenin Zoro' is also my real name."
He received the surname from his father and the given name from his mother. It might not be his original name, but he had never thought of it as fake.
Tengen looked at Zoro for a moment, then stepped back, saying, "I apologize."
"But isn't it strange? Having the same name in both your past and present lives."
Zoro looked straight at Tengen, lifting the corner of his mouth in a crooked smile, and asked a question.
"Is it really a coincidence?"
Tengen smiled bitterly.
"It must be. Even the one who brought you into this world didn't know your name."
"Kannon."
"Yes."
Various questions arose in Zoro's mind. Among them, he asked the most important and curious one.
"Why did he bring me into this world?"
Tengen looked into the dark green tea. Her reflection was visible in the opaque tea.
...In the distant past, when Kannon and Tengen were allies, they used to share this tea together.
After gazing at the tea for a moment, she downed it in one gulp. Then, she calmly stated Kannon's purpose.
"To break the curse."
He wanted to change the fate of this world, which was cursed and cursed others.
...
Kannon named himself Kannon Bodhisattva, but he was not a true Buddha.
"Tengen!"
He was merely a sorcerer born in the Nara period.
Unlike Tengen, who stayed at home studying barriers and preaching the Buddhist law, Kannon mingled with both sorcerers and non-sorcerers, teaching Buddhism, sorcery, and the mindset of a sorcerer.
Whenever he had time, he would suddenly visit Tengen's house, his long hair flowing, pestering Tengen.
"Tengen, let's teach disciples together."
"No."
"Come on, isn't it hard to maintain and repair that huge barrier all by yourself every day? If you teach others your excellent barrier techniques, you might have colleagues or successors in the future."
"Does everyone you teach reversal techniques to use them like you do? Nonsense."
"Oh, come on. There are some who can use reversal techniques, even if not as well as I can."
Unlike Tengen, who had special talent in barrier techniques, Kannon had a great talent for reversal techniques.
He was so skilled that he could freely use divine techniques to prevent physical aging with reversal techniques. That's why he could become friends with Tengen, who had the technique of immortality.
"My new disciple is very talented. He used the Black Rope Technique within a year of becoming a sorcerer."
"Are his parents sorcerers?"
"No, he was originally a non-sorcerer. I made him a sorcerer using my technique."
Kannon's technique was 'transfer of cursed energy.' Literally, he could transfer one person's cursed energy to another entity.
Kannon used his cursed energy to create cursed tools, cursed objects, and sorcerers by transferring his cursed energy to inanimate objects or people with little cursed energy, or by increasing the cursed energy of sorcerers to enhance their power.
However, the amount of cursed energy that could be transferred to each person or object was limited.
Kannon could even absorb cursed energy from other beings. However, taking another person's cursed energy required their consent. While it was possible to forcibly take someone's cursed energy without their consent, it required killing them.
Of course, Kannon was born with an enormous amount of cursed energy, so he didn't need to steal it from others. He simply transferred his own cursed energy to others to train sorcerers.
"I don't have enough cursed energy to use my technique. Could you help me?"
Someone born with insufficient cursed energy to become a fully-fledged sorcerer despite having the potential.
"Ahh? A, a monster! Oh my God, my hand is glowing! Magic! I'm performing magic!"
Someone with techniques but not enough cursed energy to be more than a non-sorcerer.
"The damned curse killed my daughter. No matter what happens later, I must kill the one who cursed her with my own hands."
Someone seeking vengeance against a curse spirit or curse user who took a loved one.
"I've heard that curses can only be countered with curses. To protect our family in case something happens, shouldn't at least one member learn sorcery?"
Someone volunteering to become a sorcerer to protect their people from unseen threats.
There was no end to people seeking Kannon's cursed energy.
To such people, Kannon willingly transferred his cursed energy, taught them Buddhism, sorcery, and the mindset of a sorcerer, making them into sorcerers.
Like Kannon Bodhisattva, who hears the voices of sentient beings and saves them from suffering and hardship, Kannon warmly embraced and guided his disciples.
"Sorcerers must exist to protect non-sorcerers."
"Did you eat something bad?"
"I'm not joking. Even if I transfer my cursed energy to create sorcerers, the number of sorcerers is extremely small compared to non-sorcerers."
Kannon continued seriously.
"Even when sorcerers marry other sorcerers, it doesn't guarantee that their offspring will be sorcerers. In the future, non-sorcerers will increase while sorcerers decrease. And curse spirits are born from the cursed energy of non-sorcerers. One day, the power of sorcerers alone won't be enough to exterminate all the curse spirits."
"Are you saying the world will come to an end?"
"Oh, come on now."
Kannon playfully slapped Tengen's back.
"When that time comes, non-sorcerers will devise a way to kill curse spirits."
"How will non-sorcerers who can't even see curses do that?"
"Right now, non-sorcerers can't do much against sorcerers, but after hundreds of years, things will be different. An overwhelming number means overwhelming potential. In a few hundred or thousand years, non-sorcerers might become as strong as sorcerers. When that day comes, it won't just be sorcerers fighting."
The moment non-sorcerers are no longer simply protected by sorcerers but become comrades in arms.
"We protect non-sorcerers for that day."
Kannon said with a hearty laugh.
...
After Tengen had finished recounting the story, she took a moment to rest her voice and fiddled with her teacup.
'That ideology still remains.'
Sorcerers exist to protect non-sorcerers. This principle, stubbornly adhered to by the upper echelons, was first uttered by none other than Kannon.
Although the name and intention of the person who first proposed it have faded and been erased, leaving only the shell behind.
Zoro, half-closed his eyes and nodded off as if dozing.
"...."
"…Are you listening?"
"The introduction was too long. I almost fell asleep."
Listening to a long story is a chore. Zoro yawned widely.
"But what you said is different from what I heard. I was under the impression that the person who spread and taught Buddhism and sorcery in Nara-era Japan was you, Tengen."
"When informing later generations, I attributed it to myself. In reality, it was Kannon's work."
Zoro frowned. Altering history was something his archaeologist friend despised the most.
"Did you have a reason to mislead the truth?"
"There was. Times changed, and before long, so did Kannon."
"What… Ah."
"If you're part of the jujutsu world, you wouldn't be unaware."
What era followed the Nara period. And who lived then.
The Heian period, known as the golden age of sorcery.
During that time, the king of curses also descended upon this land.
"When Ryomen Sukuna was born, everything was overturned."
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