Merry Christmas, everyone!! And Happy holiday!! There will be double updates for today... ;>
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The holiday ended, and life at Tokyo Jujutsu High slipped back into its familiar rhythm. Yet some ways of being together had quietly shifted.
Toward the end of August the mission load lightened a little, but Gojo Satoru still carried the constant weight of Limitless. The strain on his brain was beginning to tell. He never complained to anyone. He simply ate more sweets in silence and slipped out more often to buy desserts.
The balance on his dessert-shop loyalty cards drained away like water. He burned through several cards in no time.
Asou Akiya noticed and dragged him straight to the infirmary so Ieiri Shoko could heal his brain with Reverse Cursed Technique.
In the original story, had Gojo ever asked Shoko to treat his brain?
Asou doubted it. That guy was too proud. He saw Geto as his one true equal and treated Shoko like a fragile female classmate who also happened to be their support medic. He managed to act gentlemanly toward her — barely.
Back in their high-school days Gojo had been certain he would master Reverse Cursed Technique sooner or later. He never worried about brain repair. He played around with Shoko easily enough, but he would never expose a vulnerability to her technique.
Gojo dug in his heels, face set in clear unwillingness, refusing treatment outright.
Inside the infirmary, under Shoko's amused gaze, Asou felt the situation turning tricky. Gentle persuasion failed. He apologised to Shoko first, then turned to Gojo. "I'll go back and make you milk tea. Extra sugar."
Gojo finally spoke. "Shoko, are you actually good enough yet?"
Shoko twirled a scalpel between her fingers and smiled sweetly. "Let me try and you'll find out."
Gojo's cheeks puffed out. Wasn't that basically volunteering to be her lab rat?
Asou smoothed things over quickly. "I already asked her. During July there were plenty of sorcerers who overtaxed themselves or took head injuries. She's repaired brains several times now."
He laid a reassuring hand on Gojo's arm. "Shoko doesn't make promises she can't keep. She's the best healer Jujutsu High has — now and in the future. You can trust her."
Gojo Satoru's instincts as a sorcerer would never allow an outsider to touch his brain with Reverse Cursed Technique.
The brain was the most delicate organ of all.
He simply did not trust Ieiri Shoko's healing skills nor did he trust the technique itself.
In the end Gojo bolted from the infirmary, leaving Asou Akiya to puzzle over how to resolve the issue while Shoko glanced at him once and returned to her multitasking study of the nearby cadaver. "Can't you just let him eat sweets?"
Asou replied, "Normal people get sick if they eat too much sugar."
Shoko gave a wry smile. "In our class, besides me, is there anyone normal?"
"Shoko, you can't think like that. This world is wonderful precisely because it is filled with different kinds of selves. Everyone is unique, weaving together extraordinary destinies." Asou spoke with quiet conviction. "As long as there's the slightest hope, I don't want Gojo pushing his brain to the absolute limit."
Afraid of being misunderstood, he added quickly, "It's the same for Gojo as it is for Geto and you."
Shoko shrugged. "Then good luck."
After a pause Asou murmured, almost to himself, "Trust is built by seeing, hearing, understanding someone from every angle."
He paced the small room, sketching out plan after plan in his head: group meals, joint training sessions, late-night barbecue runs — anything to raise the injury rate during the high-incidence summer curse season in a controlled way. "Shoko, would you mind if I let Gojo watch you work with his Six Eyes?"
Shoko considered it. "If it were anyone else I'd say no, but Gojo… fine. Let him watch. Just don't let the Gojo family find out he's paying attention to me. I have zero interest in ending up on some Three Great Families matchmaking list."
Asou stared, incredulous. "You've already been approached for arranged marriage?"
Shoko's smile turned wry. "Not yet, but I've caught the hints. That's just how those big shots operate."
Asou closed the door carefully before answering in a low, steady voice. "Trust us. Give us a little time. Neither I, nor Gojo, nor Geto will ever let you end up in that position."
Shoko gazed at the black-haired boy with the look one reserves for someone whose future stretches limitless before him.
"Fine."
A few days later, Gojo Satoru used the Six Eyes to observe a surgery from afar. Shoko, with flawless Reverse Cursed Technique, pulled a sorcerer back from the brink of death. The price was her own exhaustion; she sat motionless for a long while afterward.
As one of their classmates, Asou Akiya made sure to warn Geto Suguru about the dangers of excessive sugar. Geto immediately pictured Gojo in his prime years succumbing to cavities, diabetes, premature ageing, then layered his own experience of taste distortion from swallowing cursed spirit orbs on top. The shared misery hit him hard — one animal mourning the death of another.
Geto decided Shoko was decent and skilled enough. He joined the campaign to convince Gojo.
Asou and Geto praised Shoko subtly every day and dragged her into their activities. Even when the boys played basketball, they made her cheerleader. Constant dripping wears away stone — how much more swiftly against the simple-hearted Gojo Satoru.
It took a little time, but Gojo confirmed Shoko's reliability for himself.
The higher-ups' personal healer, neutral to a fault, laid-back in her rescues: save who she could, shrug off who she couldn't, no emotional baggage.
Shoko's aura meshed better with Asou than with him or Geto.
Gojo glanced at Asou several times. The boy carried the Gojo family blessing cord everywhere while researching it. Occasionally the Six Eyes caught him slipping it onto his own wrist.
Rather than trusting Shoko directly, Gojo's heart chose to trust Asou's judgment.
Little Tangerine's discernment was frighteningly sharp.
When it came to matters concerning him, Little Tangerine never acted rashly. He investigated thoroughly first, then helped.
Gojo sought Shoko out alone, certain the girl would refuse his unilateral demand. "I can't trust the higher-ups. If you and I make a binding vow it's fine. You can say no."
"No problem," Shoko agreed readily, then revealed the reason with a sly smile. "Asou will make it up to me."
Gojo Satoru's expression went blank for a full second.
"Why him again," Gojo Satoru muttered under his breath. He extended his hand and formed the binding vow with Ieiri Shoko: during treatment she would give her absolute best, harbour no malice, and do nothing that could harm his body in any way.
Shoko spoke up fairly on Asou's behalf. "You should be grateful. Otherwise you'd be eating sweets until you go bald."
Gojo's attention veered off course. "I'm not going bald. My metabolism is perfectly normal."
Shoko pulled on gloves out of habit, choosing the same soft cotton pair she had used when treating Asou.
"May I touch your head?"
"Anywhere except the eyes and temples."
Gojo looked innocent and uncomplicated on the surface, yet at critical moments his rationality carried a ruthless edge. He remained braced for attack.
Even a binding vow offered no absolute safety. The world was full of people willing to die for their goal: sacrificing one Reverse Cursed Technique user to kill the Six Eyes at point-blank range, for instance.
The treatment stretched long.
Shoko swore to herself she had done everything humanly possible for the white-haired classmate. To heal Gojo she pushed her cursed-energy manipulation to its very limit, concentration sharper than it had ever been, pouring Reverse Cursed Technique into repairing his brain.
Gojo Satoru had been born with the Six Eyes, a passive ability that could never be turned off.
This generation of the Gojo family had no one who could wield Reverse Cursed Technique. Gojo had grown up without a truly skilled healer. He had suffered high fevers as a child; his brain had endured constant strain. The moment he was awake the world flooded him with information.
To function at all he had to process that torrent single-mindedly, sharpening his computational speed to keep his mind from crashing.
Shoko repaired the hidden damage in Gojo Satoru's brain, restoring him to a peak condition he had never experienced before.
For a moment his mind blazed with unprecedented clarity.
He gained a deeper grasp of the "negative plus negative" principle behind cursed energy and tried desperately to memorise the far more advanced "negative times negative" he glimpsed in reality.
Sweat beaded on Ieiri Shoko's forehead. "Gojo, don't put extra pressure on me."
The idiot was burning through brainpower on purpose!
Brain damaged, then healed. Brain overloaded, then healed again…
Excitement gradually overtook the cool indifference on Gojo's face. He plunged recklessly into exploring the realm of Reverse Cursed Technique, heedless of everything else.
From distrust to trust, then from passive healing to deliberately straining his brain just to prolong the session, Gojo made his choice in a single heartbeat. He would seize this once-in-a-lifetime chance — the first time anyone had ever healed his brain — to achieve his goal.
Shoko could not disobey the binding vow, so she would definitely keep healing him!
Suddenly the infirmary door was shoved open from the outside. The lock shattered under the assault of a low-grade cursed spirit.
Gojo's body snapped into combat readiness.
Asou Akiya's gentle voice drifted in like a soothing breeze. "You've worked hard, Shoko. Next time remember to tell us in advance if you're going to be alone with Gojo. Geto and I were both a little worried."
Shoko finally relaxed and handed the damned white-haired troublemaker over to the others.
Gojo opened his eyes, then closed them again, unable to suppress a low, involuntary groan. "Shoko, that felt so good."
Asou Akiya: "…"
Geto Suguru pulled out his phone and tapped record. "Someone's being a pervert."
Shoko's teeth itched with irritation. She ruffled Gojo Satoru's white hair with vicious affection until it stuck out in every direction like an exploded dandelion.
"Thanks, Shoko," Gojo said, beaming as he bounced up from the chair.
"You're welcome," Shoko replied on reflex.
"And don't forget the overtime fee," she added, refusing to let him off that easily. A faint chill lingered from moments ago. That lunatic had actually gambled his chance to learn Reverse Cursed Technique on her skills alone.
She sneered inwardly. Good thing he failed. If he had succeeded she might have died of sheer fury.
"No problem," Gojo answered, clearly satisfied with whatever scraps he had gained. He did not mind her attitude in the least.
"Wait a second," Shoko said, realisation dawning. "That was the first time you ever thanked me, wasn't it?"
Gojo blinked his Six Eyes rapidly.
"Want to hear it again?"
"Thank you so much, Shoko. You're a super amazing person!"
He issued the good-person card with triumphant glee, having discovered a way to ease the burden on his brain without stuffing himself with sweets.
Gojo launched himself forward in a flying tackle, aiming to drape his entire weight over Shoko's slender shoulders.
Asou Akiya and Geto Suguru moved like lightning. One on each side they seized Gojo's arms and hauled the one-metre-eighty-five walking infirmary disaster away, shielding their precious female classmate.
A scandal would be disastrous!
The Gojo family would never let a prime marriage candidate like Shoko slip through their fingers!
Shoko lit a cigarette, exhaustion etched in every line, and waved a tired hand. "Take him away. I'm done."
She lifted her eyelids just enough to fix Gojo with a steely glare. "Next time you try this, you're finished."
The girl had already hatched a ruthless plan in her mind.
Next time she would demand the binding vow herself, and she would change the terms every single session until he never dared break one again!