"Kamo Noritoshi?"
The woman froze for a moment at the mention of the name, before a faint, bittersweet smile played on her lips.
"Ah. Yes."
"Actually, I only chose that name to spite the Kamo family."
Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto exchanged a bewildered look.
"Eh? Just for that?" Satoru asked.
The woman rested her chin in her hand, her gaze drifting. "Yes. You're sorcerers, so you must know, right? The name 'Kamo Noritoshi' is a taboo, a curse within the Kamo clan and the rest of the Big Three."
Beside them, Yuta Okkotsu blinked. "That... makes Noritoshi seem a bit pitiful, doesn't it?"
"Sigh... I was just so incredibly angry back then," the woman said, running a hand through her hair. "In a fit of rage, I gave him that name and filed the birth certificate. At the time, I didn't truly know what was best for him. But..."
She turned toward the window. Under the bright, golden sunlight, a butterfly fluttered past, its delicate shadow dancing across the sill.
"I truly hope he can leave that wretched family soon and come back to me."
A small child across the table looked up from his breakfast, tilting his head curiously. "What are you talking about, Mommy?"
The woman smiled softly. "I'm talking about your older brother."
"Brother?" The boy pouted slightly.
"What's wrong? You don't like the idea?"
"Mmm..." The boy shoveled a spoonful of cereal into his mouth, mumbling through his food. "It's not that I don't like him. I just don't know if he's a nice person."
"He is very gentle," she said, her voice trailing off into a fond memory. "After all, he is my son."
Jujutsu High Council Hall
"Oka Kamo!"
Hiroki Kamo stared at the face appearing on the giant screen, his voice cracking as he shouted the name.
Deep within the Kamo clan's underground laboratory, Oka Kamo had seized control of Kokichi's miniature Mechamaru. Using his own genius for technical manipulation, he had successfully back-hacked the council room's cameras and audio.
Through the screen, Oka stared at Takanobu Kamo and let out a harsh, mocking laugh.
"What a pathetic sight, Lord Head!"
"A head of the Big Three, beaten into the dirt like a common dog by the Gojo. Tsk, tsk, tsk."
"If the rest of the clan could see you in such a wretched state, I imagine your 'majesty' would vanish into thin air, wouldn't it?"
"Shut your mouth, Oka!" Hiroki roared at the screen. "You are a lowly branch member! To dare insult the Clan Head—have you lost your mind? Do you want to die?"
Years of ingrained subservience flickered across Oka's face for a split second; he reflexively winced, a fawning expression almost touching his features. But it vanished as quickly as it came, replaced by a look of pure, venomous spite.
"Yes! I am a 'lowly' branch member!"
"You! All of you! You are the 'noble' main house! The true elite!"
"You were born into the light, holding the power of life and death over 'trash' like us!" Oka's voice rose to a manic, self-deprecating shriek. "For the sake of a few empty promises, I crawled in the dirt. I became a dog for the main house!"
"My wife left me because of it! She looked at me with such disgust that she preferred to divorce me and start a family with a commoner!"
"And my son, Noritoshi! Everyone said I was a failure who only got a seat at the table because of his talent!"
"And then there's you! All of you!" Oka's eyes bulged. "Whether it's Takanobu, Hiroki, the Elders... even the children like Hikaru... none of you ever saw me as a human being!"
"Hahahaha!"
Oka laughed until he began to choke, the sound echoing through the cold laboratory.
Hiroki sneered. "So, you did all of this just to throw a tantrum? Truly, the desperate flailing of a loser."
Souma Gojo, watching from his seat, rolled his eyes. The Zenin lost their minds, and it looks like the Kamo aren't far behind. And you, Hiroki... you're literally on trial for human trafficking, yet you're still acting like a high-and-mighty aristocrat? What planet are you on?
Oka stopped laughing. His expression went dead.
"I didn't do this just to vent."
He pulled a glass syringe from his white lab coat.
"I didn't hand over all the data and materials to the clan. I kept one thing back!"
"The Resonance Agent! All the research into 'Cursed Blood' originated from the samples I took from my son, the one with the natural Blood Manipulation. And I kept the original, undiluted strain for myself!"
"I heard the news of the Zenin clan being slaughtered by one of their own," Oka grinned like a demon. "It gave me such a wonderful, poetic inspiration!"
"Tell me... wouldn't it be beautiful? If the 'noble' Kamo main house were wiped out by a 'lowly' branch member like me?"
Without hesitation, he jammed the needle into his own jugular.
Crimson veins erupted across his skin, pulsating like living worms. Oka's body began to warp, his muscles bulging and twisting into an unnatural, grotesque shape.
"Blood Manipulation: Lineage Resonance!"
In an instant, every "donor" in the blood vats began to convulse.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The glass incubation tubes shattered. The bodies inside were torn apart by the sudden, violent surge of their own blood, which bypassed the tubes and began to flow toward Oka like a crimson river.
A sea of blood flooded the lab. It wasn't an exaggeration; the screen was filled with the terrifying sight of a man standing at the center of a literal whirlpool of gore.
"Takanobu Kamo! Hiroki Kamo! Prepare to collect the corpses of your precious main family!"
The thing that used to be Oka Kamo let out a monstrous roar and charged out of the lab. The slaughter was about to begin.
Static—
The screen went black.
Takanobu, Hiroki, and every Kamo representative in the room slumped to the floor, their faces drained of color.
Even Souma Gojo blinked. He hadn't expected it to go quite this far... but then again, it was the Big Three. Disaster was their default setting.
"Lord Gojo! Lord Gojo!"
Takanobu Kamo dragged his battered body across the floor, reaching out toward Souma with trembling hands.
"As a fellow member of the Three Families... please! Save the Kamo clan!"
The Gojo's Limitless technique possessed the ability to warp space across vast distances. At this moment, Souma was the only one who could stop the massacre in time. Takanobu didn't care about his kin, but he couldn't bear to see the Kamo empire crumble.
"Pffft—"
Souma suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, his face turning pale as he slumped back in his chair. Choso immediately stepped forward to support him.
"I'm sorry, Lord Kamo!" Souma wheezed, looking incredibly frail. "My... my old injuries haven't fully healed. Using my technique just now caused a relapse!"
"Cough!"
Shoko Ieiri rushed over, performing a mock diagnosis with a very grave expression. "This is serious! We need to get him to the infirmary immediately!"
Shoko and Choso quickly hoisted Souma onto a stretcher.
"Wait... cough... my bag of melon seeds on the chair!" Souma pointed weakly.
Choso grabbed the seeds, and the three of them sprinted out of the council room with the speed of an Olympic relay team. The entire sequence was so fluid and synchronized it looked like they had been rehearsing it for weeks.
The Gojo elders looked at each other, took the hint, and immediately began their own performance.
"Oh no! The Head is in danger!"
"Quick! Follow them!"
"Lord Souma, you must hold on!"
The Gojo clan vanished from the hall in a blur of robes. Takanobu Kamo watched them go, his body shaking with a mixture of fury and despair.
"Pfft—"
Between his heavy injuries and pure, unadulterated rage, Takanobu sprayed a fountain of blood from his mouth and collapsed into a dead faint.
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