Chapter 157 [Birth] and Riko

Jiang Lai doesn't know if he can meet [Born] again in his dreams, but he hopes that even if they can't meet, they can still have a slight connection.

The branches in front of him drooped, giving Jiang Lai a soft embrace.

Then, He slowly retracted those extended vines, and slowly transformed into a dormant ancient tree again.

Jiang Lai silently hugged back the ancient tree that no longer had any power fluctuations, knowing that he had to walk the future path on his own.

Finally, the sober Tianyuan sent them off as they left Hongxing Palace. The old man's voice carried the elders' blessing: "The outside world is yours, and miracles will also be yours."

Miracle...? Jiang Lai thought. Maybe, but they never relied on miracles bestowed by fate, but miracles created by themselves.

They stepped out of the underground palace and returned to the sky. Today was a bright sunny day with no clouds in the sky. The remaining chill in the air was slightly warmed by the sunlight - spring had come.

The black-haired boy with the sword bag on his back turned his head and looked at the little sheep Jiang Lai: "Are you going to set off, senior?"

"Let's go." Jiang Lai nodded and took the first step forward.

one-

Because the most famous place near the location of [Position Exchange] shown on the map is Mount Fuji, this is where Jiang Lai and Otkotsu Yuta first went to search.

There is a special bus from Tokyo to Mount Fuji. They bought tickets for the day and took the bus to Mount Fuji after lunch.

Okkotsu Yuta's sword bag was disguised as an ordinary luggage bag. Just in case, he did not put it in the trunk on the side of the bus, but in the storage rack above the seat.

Jiang Lai didn't bring anything special with him this time. He just carried his small backpack out of habit, which contained a water bottle and a few homework books.

——Yes, Jiang Lai brought his homework book with him because he was not sure how long he would explore near Mount Fuji. After all, the school term was about to start in April.

Although this identity is just a disguise to integrate into the society in a low-key manner, Jiang Lai is also seriously being a good student and not causing trouble for his teacher and nominal guardian Nanami Kento.

It takes several hours to drive from Tokyo to Mount Fuji. After lunch, Jiang Lai gradually felt sleepy, so he put his backpack in front of him, hugged it and began to doze off.

He yawned a little and gave up trying to stay awake, planning to take a short nap before reaching his destination.

One always feels particularly sleepy in a swaying car. Jiang Lai closed his eyes and slowly fell into a dream.

…

Jiang Lai's eyelashes trembled slightly. He opened his eyes and saw darkness in front of him.

He subconsciously raised his guard, and then noticed that his body had turned back into his original form.

Jiang Lai was slightly startled, then realized that this was not the real world.

Is it the same as the last time when he entered Ryomen Sukuna's realm? However, this time, it's not Sukuna who is connected, but someone else.

He knew that after [Source] passed the power to him, he had the ability to connect with his family in a conceptual sense.

There is no blood and bones here, it is not the birthplace of Sukuna. And Yuji Itadori's inner world should overlap with Sukuna. So, this should be...

[Birth]. This name popped into Jiang Lai's mind.

Everything happened too suddenly. Although Jiang Lai had guessed it, he never thought that he could be connected to [birth] during this short nap.

There was a thick darkness before his eyes, and Jiang Lai took a tentative step forward.

The surroundings were empty, and footsteps made no sound. Endless darkness enveloped the entire space.

Jiang Lai released a little of his cursed power, but he did not feel the familiar aura of power.

He couldn't help but wonder: Is this the inner world of the [Rebirth]? But why is it like this? And it seems that he can't sense the original body.

Jiang Lai's mood was complicated. He stood there silently for a moment, then took a step forward and continued walking forward.

1. There is no point in staying where you are. Maybe if you explore around, you can find something.

After walking a distance based on his intuition, Jiang Lai noticed a beam of light shining far ahead.

It was a warm light, not particularly clear. When I got a little closer, I could see that the source of the light was a desk lamp.

In the darkness, there was an ordinary desk with a bright desk lamp on it.

Sitting at the table was a girl wearing a traditional Japanese sailor suit. She had her hair tied in a pigtail and a white scarf on her head. At the moment, she was holding a pen and writing and drawing something on the table.

When Jiang Lai saw the person in front of him clearly, the first name that came to his mind was Tenuchi Riko!

He was the person that Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru were escorting during their planetary slurry mission, and was also the character who disappeared in Jiner's words and was taken away by the regulatory council to be used as a container.

...Why is Riko here? In other words, my previous guess was correct, and Amanouchi Riko is the vessel of [birth]! ?

Many thoughts flashed through Jiang Lai's mind in an instant, and he connected the previous clues together.

The power given by [Source] only connects him to his family in a conceptual sense. If he sees other people, it means that they share an inner world.

When Jiang Lai noticed the girl, she happened to look up and saw him.

Tenuchi Riko looked surprised: "Who are you?"

More than a decade has passed since the asteroid incident in 2006, and Tenuchi Riko should have become an adult by now.

But the girl in front of him still looked like the junior high school student who had experienced the astral body incident, and even her dress had not changed at all.

Will the girl's age not change after becoming the vessel of [birth]?

Or is it that after being taken away, Riko Amauchi lost her normal life, and her inner world has always remained at her previous age?

Jiang Lai couldn't be sure. His eyes fell on the desk and he caught a glimpse of Tenuchi Riko painting.

——She doesn’t seem to have a talent for painting. I don’t know whether to describe the picture she drew with colored pencils as wild and imaginative or messy, but it can be seen that she is drawing a person.

Jiang Lai naturally withdrew his gaze, and weighed the words between his lips and teeth, trying to come up with a relatively appropriate opening statement.

However, the expression of the braided girl in front of him suddenly changed. Her eyes stared at Jiang Lai, looking a little cold in the darkness: "I don't know you, get out."

Suddenly, a strong force came from the space, and Jiang Lai was pushed out of that area unexpectedly.

"!" The little sheep Jiang Lai shuddered and woke up suddenly.

He opened his eyes and saw the blue seats inside the bus in front of him. The vehicle was still swaying gently as it moved forward.

On the side, Yuta Otsutsuki noticed Jiang Lai's movements. He turned his head and asked with concern, "What's wrong?"

"..." Jiang Lai took a deep breath and pulled his mind back from the inner world he had just connected. He sat up straight and then noticed a black coat sliding off his body - it belonged to Yuta Otsutsukoshi.

Perhaps because he was too worried about catching a cold when sleeping, Okkotsu took off his coat and covered the little sheep Jiang Lai with it.

Jiang Lai clutched his coat, and after regaining his composure, he smiled and said, "It's nothing, I just had a nightmare."

These dreams and [existence] matters can only be figured out by oneself. Telling Otsutsuki about them would not make much sense, and would only make him more worried. So Jiang Lai did not say much.

He paused for two seconds and returned the coat to Yuta Otsutsukoshi, "Here, thank you for the coat."

"You're welcome. I'm glad you're okay." Yuta Otsutsu didn't ask any more questions. He smiled softly and took back his coat. "It just so happens that you woke up at the right time, Weilai - we're almost there."

When there are other people around, Okkotsu Yuta will not call Jiang Lai "senior", but call him by his name normally.

"Are we almost there? It seems I slept for quite a while." Jiang Lai looked out the window. In the distance, he could already see the snow-white peak of Mount Fuji under the sky.

His eyes were fixed on the window, but his mind was still thinking about what had just happened.

I don't know why I didn't see the real one, maybe it's because he was sleeping, or maybe he was in a deeper inner world. Jiang Lai thought. So the one he saw in his dream was Amauchi Riko.

But Tenuchi Riko quickly pushed herself out of her inner world. She didn't seem to trust herself - because she didn't know her.

Jiang Lai did not mean to blame Riko. He knew that Tennai Riko's vigilance was actually a form of self-protection.

The mischievous girl failed to spend her best years and fell into the boundless darkness, becoming a materialized vessel to be exploited.

Perhaps because of this, there is still a desk and a desk lamp in Tenuchi Riko's world, as if she could return to her school days.

The smears of colored pencil on the paintings are probably also a reflection of some of his inner thoughts.

Those unclear little people above may be classmates, friends, teachers, the owner of the convenience store on the way to school, and the security guard who greets you when you go home after school.

Time makes the past blurry, but memories make it clear. The trivial daily life becomes extremely precious in the repetitive time.

——To deprive a person of his youth is extremely cruel.

Jiang Lai folded his hands together and lowered his eyelids.

Compared with the two previous territories of Sukuna's birth, Sukuna cannot push Jiang Lai out because the owner of the body is essentially Yuji.

The fact that Riko Amauchi can do this further proves that she is the vessel of [birth] and the master of the body.

He knew clearly that if he wanted to see [Birth] in the dream world, or to collect some information about the headquarters of the Supervisory Commission, he would probably need to get past Tenuchi Riko first.

While he was thinking, Otsukino Yuta next to him said, "Come to think of it, Nanami-senpai's mission seems to be around here as well."

"Qi Hai Hai?" Jiang Lai retracted his thoughts and was a little surprised.

"I vaguely remember Nanami-senpai mentioned the mission location. After thinking about it, it should be around here." Otsukotsu Yuta said, "If it's a coincidence, maybe we will meet."

"..." Jiang Lai hoped that the two parties would not meet - after all, the four-party tower defense mission was dangerous. If they met, it would mean that Nanami Kento would also face danger at close range.

His gaze fell on Mount Fuji outside, and some things from the original novel suddenly came to his mind.

In the original novel, Nanami Kento died at the hands of the real person in the Shibuya Incident, but before that, he was seriously injured by the volcano-head cursed spirit Rokuha, and half of his body was almost burned.

Jiang Lai shifted his gaze away from Mount Fuji. He didn't want to think about the cruel scenes in the original work.