I Was Kidnapped by a Book and Ended Up Saving the World - Chapter 22

Suguru Geto looked at Yuki. He wasn’t afraid of revealing himself; Satoru Gojo couldn’t see him and didn’t believe in the existence of souls. Even if he was suspicious, the most he would do was check the corpse in the coffin.

His body was now lying in the coffin, completely silent in death. When buried, the corpse had already been properly prepared—his clothes were free of dust, his body free of bl00d.

The wind howled outside. Geto lowered his gaze, recalling his own corpse; it had been a month, and there were likely already signs of decay.

But outside the classroom, the wind grew stronger, icy snowflakes slicing against the skin, giving a fleeting sting. Yuki had originally been moving in sync with Gojo’s gaze, but the corner of his eye caught sight of Geto at that moment.

The tall man’s hair flew about, his robes fluttering gracefully yet slightly messy. He had been like this since a while ago, but as the wind picked up, his heels lifted off the ground, and it seemed as if the gale could carry him away.

Silently, Yuki moved to a new position, standing in front of Geto. The wind hitting him lessened slightly, but it wasn’t much.

He lowered his head, exhaling warm breath into his hands, then looked up at Gojo and asked, “Teacher, can we go inside the classroom? The wind outside is too strong.”

Geto smiled silently. Of course, he had seen through Yuki’s intention. In a low voice, he said, “Don’t worry about me. Even if I drift away, I can come back.”

Yuki remained silent and stepped first into the warm, bright classroom, changing the location for their next conversation.

Gojo, shaken by that faint trace of cursed energy, was lost in thought, considering various possibilities. Seeing Yuki enter, he instinctively followed.

The familiar cursed energy made Gojo’s usually racing mind pause for the first time in a long while. His expression was almost blank, vacantly staring.

The three of them—a bewildered man, a boy, and a ghost—stood silently in the warm classroom.

Gojo’s class had already ended. With the terrible weather, the first-year students had already gone back to their dorms while they were talking.

Now the empty classroom only held them.

Gojo’s blindfold was already in his pocket. His soft white hair fell along the edges of his face. Beneath white lashes, his bright blue eyes made him appear like a young college student. Just standing there, it seemed as if the classroom light itself was drawn to him.

Rubbing his face, he bent slightly toward Yuki’s chest, so his Six Eyes could get a better view. After careful observation, he finally confirmed that faint trace of familiar cursed energy was not a hallucination.

“It’s a binding,” Gojo stated decisively. He leaned closer, his voice almost urgent, asking, “Did he make any sort of pact with you when he came to see you before?”

Yuki shook his head, confused. That was what was strange—there was no pact. How could he suddenly be bound to Geto? Even stranger, neither he nor Geto seemed to understand the details of the binding.

Gojo circled Yuki once, then twice, his blue eyes full of contemplation. On the third circle, he stopped in front of him.

Yuki saw him leaning closer, so close that he could make out the texture of Gojo’s sclera. In that endless blue, there were frosty-white flecks.

“Listen, Yuki,” Gojo said.

Placing his hand on Yuki’s shoulder, his grip was strong enough to keep Yuki from moving, forcing him to maintain eye contact.

“The current situation isn’t right. There’s Geto’s cursed energy in your body, but it’s faint. Right now, I can only think of two possibilities—” Gojo’s words were rapid; Yuki had never seen him so emotionally exposed.

Although he seemed to know the answer, he maintained his usual composure. He raised his head and asked, puzzled, “Teacher, who is ‘Geto’?”

Gojo’s hand remained on his shoulder. He gave a vague explanation: “He’s your Uncle Gojo’s other name.”

A faint objection came from Geto behind him, but Yuki couldn’t turn back to see it.

He looked at Gojo, waiting for an answer.

“First, a binding might have been made between you and Geto without your full awareness.” Gojo looked into his eyes. “And the second possibility?”

Gojo suddenly released Yuki’s shoulder. His expression was odd. After pacing several steps with that same strange expression, he said, “The second possibility is that you unconsciously cursed him through some intense emotion.”

Yuki furrowed his brows, more confused. Geto, clearly knowing what Gojo was about to say, held his forehead and said through gritted teeth, “Gojo, what nonsense are you talking about?”

Gojo, not hearing Geto’s voice, further explained to Yuki. His gaze shifted elsewhere, and his tone slowed: “When faced with extreme stimulus, if you desperately wanted him to survive, your strongest emotions could have become the source of the curse.”

Geto’s face darkened completely. Yuki had no doubt that if Geto had a physical body right now, he would have immediately fought Gojo.

Gojo paused, apparently realizing that the latter possibility was unlikely. His gaze wandered as he continued, “Your senior experienced something like this, but you might not fully match the situation…”

Gojo’s voice gradually softened. He started examining Yuki more carefully. If Yuki had been treated like a monster, confined, subjected to countless insults and pain in darkness, and if Geto reached out to him in this moment…

Given these circumstances, combined with Yuki’s innate powerful cursed energy…

The wind howled outside, glass faintly creaking. Gojo lowered his head and said, “But young people’s hearts are always hard to predict. At your age, I also had many reckless thoughts.”

Suddenly, he sounded almost poetic. Yuki suppressed a sarcastic remark and looked at Gojo, who earnestly said, “Teacher, just speak plainly. I don’t quite understand what you mean.”

“Do you love Geto so much that you can’t bear to see him die?”

Yuki’s lips slowly parted. His pink eyes stared at Gojo in an unexplainable way. Beside him, Geto slowly and completely covered his face.

“Teacher, Mr. Gojo is like a father to me,” Yuki finally said, his voice dry.

Gojo chuckled dryly twice, then quietly and sincerely apologized, “I shouldn’t have said that.”

Yuki wiped his face and said, “It’s fine, teacher. You’re just exploring all possibilities.”

Gojo’s next words made Yuki’s eyes widen slightly: “You know about his death.” Sitting on a stool, balancing his body with one leg, Gojo spun and looked at Yuki: “When I mentioned Geto just now, you didn’t react at all.”

When death and love appear in the same sentence, one’s attention naturally focuses on those words.

What truly confirmed it was Yuki’s expression.

The teenager’s face, now slightly fuller, had a straight mouth. His usual soft smile was gone, leaving pink eyes that seemed frozen like bl00d in ice.

Yuki softly said, “It’s been so long. I knew already.”

He rubbed his hand, speaking in a tone that was calm yet filled with sorrow: “My foster father also left without a word. I’ve been through it before.”

Looking at Gojo with soft, moist pink eyes, Yuki tried silently to signal him not to pursue the matter further.

The next second, darkness enveloped his vision. Gojo covered Yuki’s fragile eyes with his warm palm. In the darkness, Yuki heard him shout, “Don’t look at me with those eyes, that’s cheating!”

Gojo withdrew his hand. Tears on Yuki’s eyelashes stained Gojo’s palm, slipping onto the floor.

Feeling guilty, Gojo withdrew his hand. Bullying children came easily to him, but this was the first time he had done so to a child left behind by Geto.

Clearing his throat, Gojo said, “Let’s get back to the main topic.”

He tapped Yuki’s chest with his knuckles, saying, “The cursed energy in your little heart is very dangerous.”

Pointing to his own eyes, he said, “I can see clearly, whether it’s a binding or a curse, that cursed energy is slowly draining your life force.”

That’s why he had spoken almost absurdly. Gojo felt challenged for the first time, saying, “Binding cursed energy should be equal on both sides. Your current situation is extremely unusual.”

His stool creaked. Under the bright light, he asked, “You know he’s dead, don’t you?”

The classroom seemed filled with dazzling brightness. Gojo lifted his head. Two bright spots reflected in his blue eyes. Before Yuki could answer, he suddenly smiled, his bright teeth unnervingly stark in the silent night.

“But you still want him to live.”

Gojo pinched Yuki’s soft cheek hard. “Don’t deny it. Whatever the case, this life is willingly supplied by you.”

“…No,” Yuki exhaled through the pinched mouth but still resolutely expressed his thoughts.

“Not yet.” Gojo pinched the other cheek. Laughing as if amused, he said, “If I’d discovered this a little later, a Special-Grade Cursed Spirit would have emerged from your body.”