CHAPTER 22: PATH YOU CHOSE

The battlefield fell into silence.

Cinders floated through the air like ash-colored snow.

The sky was a canvas of gray, smudged by the smoke of a city that had nearly crumbled under the weight of a war waged in shadows.

Suguru Geto knelt, broken and bleeding, his long hair drenched in crimson. His body twitched from pain. His breathing was shallow, labored.

Gojo stood in front of him, arms lowered, the afterglow of Infinity Blue still humming in his fingertips.

"…It's over."

But Geto… chuckled.

A hoarse, strained laugh.

"You want to know why, Gojo?" he murmured.

"Why I turned away… why I chose this path…?"

Gojo didn't answer.

Geto raised his face, blood leaking from his mouth, but his eyes… they burned.

"I saw too many die, Satoru. Too many innocent people. Too many sorcerers… thrown to the wolves for the sake of non-sorcerers who never even knew our names."

He coughed hard—spattering the ground red.

"You always believed in protecting them. I couldn't. Not anymore. I believed in protecting us."

"Even if it meant becoming a monster?"

Geto gave a bitter smile.

"I already was one."

Gojo looked down at him—his oldest friend, his greatest regret.

"I really respected you, you know," Gojo said softly.

"You were my best friend."

"…Then why are you going to kill me?"

"Because I have to."

Gojo raised his hand.

Cursed energy surged. Space twisted. Blue Infinity gathered.

"…Goodbye, Suguru."

With one last whisper of cursed technique—

Ryoiki Tenkai: Infinity Blue

shattered the space around Geto—

A flash of energy—

A soundless collapse—

And then—

Geto was gone.

His body didn't bleed.

Didn't break.

It simply… vanished.

As though taken by the very void itself.

The sky cleared.

The city began to quiet.

The war was over.

In the wreckage below, Utahime sat, slumped against a pile of rubble. Her staff lay broken beside her. Her breaths were thin, but steady.

Gojo landed beside her.

He held out a hand.

"…Need a hand?"

She looked at him with her usual annoyed stare.

"Go die."

But as she tried to rise, her legs gave out.

"Tch."

Without another word, Gojo gently took her arm, wrapping it around his shoulder. She didn't protest again.

High above, Yuta watched them silently.

Panda, Maki, and Inumaki stood behind him, each battered, bruised—but alive.

"…Is it over?" Panda asked.

Yuta didn't answer right away.

He clenched his fist, feeling Rika's presence by his side.

"…For now."

They turned to walk away, their shadows long in the rising sun.