Chapter 229 IF Route - First Playthrough (Part 2) (Unlockable with 80% subscription): What if the first playthrough wasn't completed?
Kazuma Hatori did not respond to Satoru Gojo's words immediately.
He's like a cat owner who sees his cat greet him as soon as he walks in the door. He doesn't even have time to put down his backpack before picking up the cat and giving it a thorough grooming session.
As for the clean clothes, the skin without dried blood scabs, and the fresh, soft hair... we'll talk about those later.
When that hand rubbed him for the first time, Gojo Satoru was thinking, "Well, he barely escaped death, so he should be a little lenient and let the head of the Kamo family have his fill."
Just as he was laughing and letting Kazuma Hatori move around for a while, thinking he would let go—the latter started touching him a second time.
His dark eyes were still sparkling, subtly revealing a sense of contentment that he had no regrets about dying.
Gojo Satoru was speechless for a moment, but still indulged the kid to start rubbing his hair again, making the slightly curled white hair that had been removed from his blindfold into a mess, like dandelions blown by a tornado.
This time you should be satisfied, right?
Just as Gojo Satoru was about to change his position from lying on Hagoromo Kazuma's chest to sitting on the edge of the bed, he felt a downward force coming from the top of his head.
He was pushed back down again, and that hand showed no sign of leaving, moving it a third time...!
Gojo Satoru: "..."
Gojo Satoru began to feign struggle: "Haven't you touched me enough yet?"
He was certain that if he didn't protest, the kid would probably be groping his way from dusk till dawn.
Kazuma Hatori pursed his lips, his dark eyes still shining as he looked at Satoru Gojo.
“That’s great,” he finally spoke, his voice a little hoarse. “I thought I would never see you again.”
When he realized he was poisoned, he chose "No" with the intention of dying together with his opponent. Even if it cost him all his health, he would drag the mastermind who tried to scheme against him into hell.
But the result was a hundred times better than he had expected.
Upon hearing this, Gojo Satoru stopped moving, only slightly lowering his frosty white eyelids, seemingly unwilling to imagine that even more painful ending.
However, this expression did not last long, and he looked up at Kazuma Hatori again.
As if after a brief period of gloom when the sky was covered by clouds, the haze quickly dissipated, and her beautiful misty blue eyes remained cheerful and bright, with a carefree smile curving her lips as she looked at him.
"Megumi told me everything! You single-handedly fought that unknown super boss, barely won, and then went back to save them, successfully eliminating the special-grade cursed spirit with the Sukuna Finger! Wow, this time Kamo-sensei really stole the show, leaving no room for Spicy Gojo-sensei to even appear—"
"By the time my injuries heal, the assessment for the Special Grade Spellcaster should be coming down, right? Damn it, I've been overtaken by the younger generation so quickly—"
Gojo Satoru draws out the last syllable of his name in a long, soft voice, rising lightly like a balloon. This is a common habit he uses when trying to liven up the atmosphere or boost morale.
Although the students may not accept this, he will still choose to do so, so as not to add any additional mental burden to them.
Of course, with Kazuma Hatori, who always listened to him, Satoru Gojo imagined that the other party would respond happily, or say something in denial, or even praise him in return... In short, everything was exactly as he expected!
But in reality, Kazuma Hatori simply withdrew his hand abruptly, watching him sit up straight—
He then sat up from the examination bed.
Immediately afterwards, he reached out and hugged the person, kissing them without the slightest hesitation.
Their lips were soft and warm, their breaths mingling intimately as they whispered sweet nothings, and they couldn't help but want more.
"Very good……"
When Gojo Satoru heard Hatori Kazuma speak, his voice was low and hoarse, as pitiful as a puppy soaked by the rain.
"I can still touch you."
They can still hug and kiss each other, feeling the real, warm beating heart beneath their chests.
Slowly, Gojo Satoru reached out and hugged Hatori Kazuma back, closed his eyes, and hummed a soft, sweet nasal sound.
It's as if it's replying, "What are you talking about, kid? I stopped using [no limits] to guard against you a long time ago. You can touch me as long as you want."
"This is terrible," he thought. The ever-reliable Gojo-sensei, who was always so good at cheering people up, had suffered his first major career setback—
But it's really great.
When he rushed back, he was not greeted by their cold bodies and reports, but by a tender embrace.
"Five of you—"
The next second, Shoko Ieiri, who was sucking on a lollipop, flung open the door with a clatter.
“…”
The next second, she slammed the door shut again with a loud bang.
Those two guys, don't they even consider the occasion...? Ieiri Shoko gazes sadly at the sky.
This is even worse than last time.
Shouldn't she emphasize that office romances are prohibited—specifically, romances are prohibited in her office?
…………
After a long while, the office door was finally opened.
Before Shoko Ieiri appeared two radiant faces that seemed to be blinding her with their dazzling displays.
"Oh, Shoko, you've come back at the worst possible time!"
One of them was even saying some really annoying things in a gleeful way.
Shoko Ieiri raised an eyebrow, pulled another lollipop from her pocket, and slowly peeled off the wrapper. "You didn't have this expression yesterday. You were asking me eight hundred times a day when he would wake up..."
"Haha, did I? I don't remember ever doing that!"
With his hands behind his back, Gojo Satoru tilted his head, topped with pure white, messy hair, towards Ieiri Shoko, and smiled innocently yet confidently.
What anxiety, what worry, what trepidation? Hmph, if you don't admit it, then you don't have it.
He's the super cool and stylish guy who calmly waits for his lover to wake up!
Kazuma Hatori, who was standing next to him, nodded in agreement, "I was fine to begin with."
Then Gojo Satoru reached out from behind and lightly patted the back of his head with his right hand.
He has no right to say that!
"...You really aren't guilty at all."
Shoko Ieiri had never been able to handle Satoru Gojo, so she waved her hand and started to shoo them away, saying, "Now that Kamo is alright, you should hurry back and continue your lovey-dovey time."
"Wait a minute, I have something to show you."
Kazuma Hatori recalled the corpse lying in his inventory, "I killed the mastermind behind it all."
Actually, it was mainly for Wu to see, but he didn't want to find a corpse in the apartment or dormitory, feeling that the whole house would become unclean.
It's better to have Iori Glass's office; it's basically a morgue.
Gojo Satoru exclaimed, "No wonder I didn't find any corpses on the ground when I went there. I thought they were cursed spirits or something... Turns out you put them away."
He already knew that Kazuma Hatori had the ability to hide things in unknown places, so he wasn't particularly surprised.
"Because its condition... is very strange. I'm sure this person is dead, but is being controlled by that thing in his skull."
Kazuma Hatori took out Natsuyuki's body and Ryosaku's brain, and placed them on the morgue.
Unlike Kazuma Hato, who had Gojo Satoru help clean his body, Natsuyu Jie and Ryosaku, who were put into the inventory, were not so lucky and were still covered in sticky blood.
The face of the corpse was also covered in dark blood, and the upper part of its skull was open, empty inside.
But his clothes were so easy to recognize that Shoko Iri and Satoru Gojo's expressions simultaneously turned extremely astonished, never expecting that their former classmate would be lying here!
"This is... Xia You...!?"
Shoko Ieiri reacted quickly, suddenly looking at Satoru Gojo, "You disposed of his body; you didn't hand it over to me at the time."
Gojo Satoru took a deep breath. "I buried him."
This deep-seated reluctance led him to choose not to hand over his former friend's body to the college for safekeeping, but instead to take it away on his own when he killed him with his own hands and faced the latter's corpse.
But it appeared before him in a way he absolutely did not want to see.
It was just one step away from taking the life of someone important.
Gojo Satoru's expression was unusually solemn, almost bordering on annoyance.
Sensing that something was wrong with him, Kazuma Hatori reached out and interlocked his fingers with Satoru Gojo's.
He's still here, don't worry, the enemy has been dealt with.
"………call."
Gojo Satoru slowly exhaled the pent-up frustration in his chest, quickly regaining his usual composure.
"I'm fine."
He first gave Hatake Kazuma a reassuring smile before continuing, "This is a long story..."
Wu Tiao Wu begins by talking about Xia Youjie's identity, then goes on to talk about his defection during his time at the vocational high school, then about his later role as the founder of the Panxing Sect, and finally the confrontation and death.
“I don’t regret killing him. I would do it again no matter how many times I had to. Jae killed too many innocent people, far exceeding the line that cannot be crossed,” Gojo Satoru said in a low voice.
“He believes that everything he does is for the greater good, and that I am strong enough to meet his expectations, but I have always had my own principles. I absolutely do not agree with his idea that as long as you have power, you can do anything.”
"In the matter of the Star Magma, I once... wavered. I failed to save Tian Lizi and was almost killed by Fu Heishen. In the critical moment, I broke through my own limits and fell into a state of... clarity."
“At that time, my state of mind allowed me to kill anyone. Everything in the world made me feel so good. The world reflected in my eyes was like watching flowers bloom and wither in my palm. I felt neither sad nor happy. Everything happened naturally. In short, I realized that my state of mind was not right and left the decision of whether or not to kill those people from the Panxing Cult to Jay.”
"At that time, he still held onto the principle that sorcerers needed to protect the weak and insisted on the so-called [meaning]... Well, that's probably one of the reasons why he went astray later."
Gojo Satoru raised his head, seemingly lost in memories of the past—he rarely did this, always resolutely moving forward.
“I’m so grateful to him for pulling me back then, preventing me from making a bad decision at that moment. But later on, it was him who fell into paranoia and extremism. I couldn’t pull him back, because he didn’t, and didn’t intend to, ask anyone for help.”
"Later, he did too many wrong things, and I had to kill him; there was no room for leniency."
"And I've decided that I want to cultivate more of the next generation who can stay true to their original aspirations without having to ask others for help. I want companions who can change this world of sorcery with me."
"If there are more and more companions like this, this rotten and rigid world of sorcery will surely be better than it is now. That's what I think."
This was the first time Gojo Satoru had spoken so much from his heart, even dissecting his past near-mistakes to Hagoromo Kazuma.
He revealed all his thoughts, his core personality, all his beliefs and true feelings without reservation.
Perhaps it was because he knew that Kazuma Hatake would always listen attentively and remember every word he said.
If one anticipates that speaking the truth will result in a bucket of cold water that drains their enthusiasm, no one would be willing to utter those deepest secrets of themselves.
But Gojo understood Kazuma Hatori's reaction—just as he was seeing it now, Kazuma Hatori always stood beside him, their hands clasped together, never letting go, and even his expression of comfort was unwavering as he spoke to him—
"It's alright, you'll soon be the head of the director's office."
Gojo Satoru: "...Wait, something's not right."
How could that sentence just pop out of my mouth?!
Come to think of it, he had completely forgotten about this...!
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Content from the formula book:
Q: When facing the Panxing Cult members, his mental state was so high that he could say, "Should we kill these guys? I shouldn't have any psychological burden now." Is the reason he doesn't have that feeling now because he has matured?
A: Rather than growth, it should be said that the Five Principles at that time used Xia You's judgment as a guide to good and evil.
The key point is "at that time," meaning during a period when Gojo Satoru was in a special mental state, he asked this question and accepted Natsume Yuuki's answer "at that time."
It's not that "Gojo always used Natsume's judgment as a guide to good and evil"; it's really important to understand this.
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