Knock, knock—
Asou Akiya rapped lightly on the door, balancing a tray in his hands. Today's breakfast was a cooling, throat-soothing mung bean porridge.
The voice from the other side of the door sounded muffled, as though its owner was sulking. "Just leave the breakfast at the door."
Asou Akiya replied softly, "Alright."
He set the tray down and turned to leave, but then he heard the person inside add, "Help me call in sick for the day."
Akiya's steps halted.
Huh? Is he ill? Did he catch a chill yesterday?
A trace of worry naturally creased his brow. He knocked again, quietly asking for permission to enter.
When no answer came — only strange, chaotic noises from within — he reached as if to pull out the spare key.
"Don't come in!"
Gojo Satoru was frantically destroying the evidence, already regretting that he had ever given the other boy a spare key.
Inside the dorm room, the white-haired teenager yanked the sheets off the bed in a rush, remade it hastily, changed his pants, and shoved the soiled clothes and bedding into the washing machine in one desperate heap.
Fearing the machine's rumble would be too loud, he braced himself against it, deploying his Limitless technique to shield the washer and muffle every vibration. He watched the door warily for any sign from the little tangerine outside — only to realize, with a start, that the footsteps had receded on their own.
Huh? Shouldn't little tangerine show a bit more concern?
Gojo Satoru tensed, muscles coiled like springs, silently vowing that if the door opened even a crack, he would blast the washing machine to pieces with a single burst of Blue.
His phone buzzed. A new message had appeared in the first-year class group chat.
[Asou Akiya: Yaga-sensei, Gojo is taking a day off.]
[Yaga Masamichi: Received. How is he doing? Has he finished writing the self-reflection letter for yesterday's fight?]
[Asou Akiya: He stayed up late writing the reflection and is now resting in the dormitory.][Yaga Masamichi: …Fine, then.]
The leave request was approved. Gojo Satoru quietly waited until Geto Suguru and Asou Akiya had left, then furtively cracked open his door just wide enough to snatch the bowl of mung bean porridge waiting outside. He slipped back inside and, alone in his room, began devouring the breakfast little tangerine had prepared for him with great, unhurried spoonfuls.
The mung bean porridge was exactly to Gojo Satoru's taste — lightly sweetened with a modest amount of rock sugar, the sweetness perfectly balanced, cool and refreshing on the tongue.
Utterly unburdened by conscience, Gojo Satoru sent a message to Asou Akiya.
[Jujutsu High Gourmet Duo]
[Gojo Satoru: Little tangerine, the mung bean porridge is seriously delicious too!]
[Asou Akiya: Has your mood recovered?]
[Gojo Satoru: I was never down to begin with — just sleepy. Once I've had enough rest, I'll come find you both in the classroom.]
[Asou Akiya: After finishing breakfast, make sure to move around a bit to aid digestion.]
[Gojo Satoru: Got it.]
Gojo Satoru was no stranger to the principles of health preservation — after all, his household was filled with a whole crowd of old tangerines who rose early, retired early, and pursued wellness with unwavering devotion.
Ten minutes later, with all traces of drowsiness banished, Gojo Satoru lay wide-eyed and restless.
He had fallen into a rare state of having absolutely nothing to occupy himself; drawing his knees up, he sat cross-legged on the bed and pondered for a single second whether he ought to inform the Gojo family about this development — only for cold rationality to deliver an immediate verdict of "absolutely not." Those old tangerines cared far too intensely about his adolescence.
"It's kind of gross," Gojo Satoru muttered as his rebellious streak flared up. "There's no way I'm letting a swarm of maids descend on me the moment I go home."
The Zen'in family traditions served as the perfect cautionary tale.
The moment the direct heir reached a certain age, the Zen'in clan wasted no time in stuffing women into his quarters.
Gojo Satoru figured he could still keep fooling those old tangerines, pretending complete ignorance. According to the ancestral records of the Gojo family, any bearer of the Six Eyes who had lived to his age showed zero interest in marriage or producing heirs — their brains were constantly scorched by the demands of their technique. At this stage, his greatest ambition was to master the reverse cursed technique on his own, without needing to rely on Ieiri Shoko for assistance.
Several hours later, Gojo Satoru gathered the freshly dried clothes and bedsheets, folding them with careful imitation of little tangerine's precise method before stowing them away in the wardrobe. He discovered that housework itself was not difficult — the true challenge lay in maintaining the discipline to keep doing it alone over the long term.
Gojo Satoru switched on his gaming console, played for a short while, and quickly lost interest in battling solo.
This won't do — time to switch to anime!
Anime turned out to be utterly boring.
He might as well read manga... but there was simply too much of it.
Having found various excuses to dismiss all his former hobbies, he slapped the dust from his trousers, changed into his school uniform, and set off: time for class!
At midday, Gojo Satoru joined his classmates for lunch; the four of them ventured off-campus to a chain burger restaurant.
Gojo Satoru had completely banished the morning's incident from his mind, ordering six burgers of different varieties in one enthusiastic burst — an appetite so robust that it left Asou Akiya and Geto Suguru exchanging bewildered glances, relieved that their earlier worries about him falling ill had been needless.
Ieiri Shoko spoke up: "Gojo, any lingering side effects from yesterday's treatment?"
A fragment of the dream flickered unbidden across Gojo Satoru's mind, and he fell into an oddly uncharacteristic silence.
Asou Akiya remarked with dry humor, "Would refusing to get out of bed count as a side effect?"
Geto Suguru added, "I think the real side effect is that the boys' dormitory is down yet another door."
He had witnessed Gojo Satoru's attempts to make amends, though he hardly approved of the constant cycle of breaking and repairing doors. "Leave some doors for the underclassmen who come after us — if this keeps up, Yaga-sensei is going to suspect we've been eating the dormitory doors for breakfast."
Gojo Satoru focused intently on devouring his burgers, gulping down cola in great swallows. Once he was fully sated, the four of them strolled toward the bus stop, and along the way Gojo Satoru began eagerly sharing his insights on the forward and reversal applications of cursed techniques with his classmates.
Geto Suguru listened as though it were all arcane scripture: "Ah..."
Ieiri Shoko nodded along as if she understood every word, though it was impossible to tell whether her comprehension was genuine or merely polite.
Asou Akiya gave up after the first few sentences — anything related to techniques and their intricacies held no relevance for him, no connection at all.
Geto Suguru sought an ally in confusion: "Asou, did you follow any of that?"
"I couldn't care less," Asou Akiya replied flatly, making it clear they were not on the same path — their tracks in the world of sorcery did not even run on the same field.
Gojo Satoru randomly selected one fortunate classmate for a pointed jab: "Little tangerine doesn't even have a technique — understanding it wouldn't do him any good anyway."
Asou Akiya cast a cool, dismissive glance at the one whose mouth always begged for trouble.
Gojo Satoru abruptly fell silent, leaving Geto Suguru momentarily surprised — did this guy actually possess a shred of emotional intelligence? He did, but only a tiny sliver.
Unsure what to say and unwilling to let Gojo Satoru dominate the entire conversation, Geto Suguru cleared his throat and recited a summary of the reverse cursed technique insights Asou Akiya had once shared, hoping Ieiri Shoko might offer some additions.
Geto Suguru asked, "Shoko, what do you think of the experience Gojo mentioned before?"
Ieiri Shoko's gaze brimmed with clear, unclouded wisdom as she replied, "I think it's quite simple — not nearly as complicated as you make it out to be."
Both Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru felt their hearts sink in unison.
Once again, Gojo Satoru found himself convinced that he had not read nearly enough books in his life — and that Shoko simply had no talent whatsoever for teaching others.
Gojo Satoru explained, "The closest I've ever come to mastering the reverse cursed technique was during the moment Shoko healed my brain. Back then, I hadn't yet heard any of these insights from weird bangs, but I vaguely sensed that something crucial was missing. Now I think I understand — what was lacking might have been an extreme, primal desire to survive. At that time, I didn't truly believe I was going to die."
Gojo Satoru put forward a hypothesis: "If Shoko and I were to add one more condition to our binding vow — that I would die if I failed to learn the reverse cursed technique — perhaps in the midst of that process, I really could master it."
Geto Suguru would never treat Gojo Satoru's words as a mere joke; he considered the possibility with grave seriousness — mad enough to be plausible. He glanced toward Asou Akiya: [You're not objecting?]
Asou Akiya merely shrugged.
Noticing that little tangerine appeared to endorse his idea, Gojo Satoru burst into triumphant laughter: "Little tangerine really has excellent judgment!"
"My situation is special," Gojo Satoru continued while they waited for the bus. "My brain has never known a single moment of true relaxation, so the sensations I experienced during Shoko's treatment were the most acute. It feels like a skin that has never been touched before suddenly starting to itch."
As he reached the latter half of the sentence, Gojo Satoru felt a measure of discomfort, yet he chose to voice the complete thought with unflinching honesty.
Gojo Satoru went on, "Drawing inspiration from absolute nothingness is undeniably difficult, but once it is obtained, the results can be profoundly transformative."
Asou Akiya felt a subtle stirring within him, falling into thoughtful contemplation as he applied the idea to his own circumstances.
The full process of awakening his own cursed energy had mirrored Gojo Satoru's journey toward comprehending the reverse cursed technique — arduous beyond measure.
Yet because he possessed that faint spark of inspiration granted by the original owner's memories, once he resolved to pursue it, the effect of that inspiration would amplify without limit.
"Just give me a little more time — I'll master the technique reversal Red before the year is out."
"Once I learn Red, the next step is the full reverse cursed technique!"
Gojo Satoru's bold declaration, delivered with resounding arrogance, jolted Asou Akiya's thoughts back to the line of reasoning he had pursued the day before.
The joy of that moment remained vivid in his memory, and Asou Akiya could not help but contemplate the far-reaching consequences that followed — this meant that during next year's Star Plasma Vessel mission, Gojo Satoru would be able to prolong the confrontation even longer, granting Geto Suguru and Amanai Riko far more precious time to escape with their lives!
At the same time, the pivotal events of the Hidden Inventory arc would undergo subtle yet critical shifts.
In the original story, sixteen-year-old Gojo Satoru had commanded only a single offensive ability — Blue — relying in moments of dire crisis upon the defensive prowess of the Limitless technique.
If Gojo Satoru's arsenal of offensive skills expanded and his overall threat level rose dramatically, would Fushiguro Toji respond with even greater brutality in combat — perhaps even severing Gojo Satoru's head outright? The butterfly effect now loomed as the greatest hidden danger.
A sudden pang of alarm gripped Asou Akiya's heart.
Even armed with knowledge of both Blue and Red, Gojo Satoru would still be unable to defeat the vastly experienced Fushiguro Toji.
The true decider of victory or defeat lay in the ultimate offensive technique — Purple.
The prerequisite for Purple demanded that Gojo Satoru first master the reverse cursed technique, grasp the very core of cursed energy manipulation, achieve stable output, and successfully fuse the power of forward technique with that of reversal technique.
In his previous life, a certain science-minded enthusiast had meticulously calculated the destructive force of a no-incantation Purple. A single Purple was roughly equivalent to a directionally focused nuclear detonation.
Relying on someone else's fortune in such an unstable gamble felt utterly deplorable.
Yet Asou Akiya swiftly reconsidered. Fushiguro Toji's luck had always been wretched beyond endurance — even the heavens themselves refused to lend him aid — which paradoxically meant that forcing Gojo Satoru into a life-or-death showdown hinging on luck might actually represent the theoretically optimal choice.
Asou Akiya turned to the next pressing question: was it possible to guide Gojo Satoru toward mastering the reverse cursed technique while still in his first year?
To learn it, one had to wager one's very life.
He could not afford that gamble — he dared not take it. The moment when Gojo Satoru's chances of success would peak... was next year, in the instant of defeat.
The white-haired youth before him, brimming with exuberant cheer, drew a faint curve to the corners of Asou Akiya's mouth as he fielded his classmates' casual chatter — yet a chilling frost surged repeatedly through his heart.
Because without the coercion of a formidable enemy, Gojo Satoru's latent potential could not erupt in an instant. After all, the Six Eyes stood as the emblem of invincibility; steady growth into strength came naturally with smooth maturation, leaving him devoid of any burning obsession for battle, for victory, for life itself, or for the desperate tenacity to cling stubbornly to existence in this world.
On this matter, Asou Akiya possessed more than enough insight born of experience.
If one wished for "death" to curse you with every ounce of its malice, thereby propelling you toward greater strength, the prerequisite conditions were these —
[Have you truly seen your enemy clearly?]
[Have you ever tasted genuine fear?]
[Do you understand that there are people in this world stronger than you — more treacherous than you, more cautious than you, hungrier than you for the glory of being the strongest?]
[Have you discovered a reason to survive at any cost — a compulsion to claw your way back from hell itself just to land one punishing blow?]
[Gojo Satoru, everything has come too easily for you before the age of sixteen. Fushiguro Toji will be your finest teacher — paying the ultimate price himself, even delivering his own son as collateral, to instruct you personally, hand by merciless hand, in how to become truly strong.]