After learning Black Flash, Asou Akiya fell unconscious.
Gojo Satoru had never carried anyone before—man or woman, young or old. He had always maintained a detached, coldly observant stance toward the world.
There was no one worth bending down to help.
The Gojo family would not dare; others could not, and even if they could, they lacked the courage to ask.
When he went out on missions from Tokyo Jujutsu High, many assignments inevitably involved ordinary people. He never understood why, when rescue jujutsu sorcerers arrived on the scene, these weaklings did not immediately flee, but instead stayed rooted in place, putting on faces that screamed I'm so scared.
Protecting the weak was troublesome; teaching the weak to become strong was even more time-consuming and exhausting. For ten consecutive days, Gojo Satoru gave up his lunch breaks, abandoned the comfort of the dormitory, and went out daily in search of Grade 2 or higher cursed spirits, guiding Asou Akiya hand by hand. Only just before the promised deadline did he manage to teach him how to use Black Flash.
Through this, he gained a deeper understanding of how he himself regarded the weak.
He did not resent weakness that moved in the right direction—especially when accompanied by an all-out struggle. Even the light of a firefly could be dazzling. His Six Eyes would unconsciously analyze the other person's emotions, physical condition, and the feasibility of their efforts.
But as for the weak who stood still and refused to move—
Gojo Satoru felt an irritation that rose from the depths of his heart. It was like playing a high-difficulty game of "push-the-box," on a semi-hidden map: he controlled his character, panting as he shoved the box forward, only to realize he had been tricked—the path ahead was a dead end. From beginning to end, the box never resisted, never took initiative, until it was Game Over.
Asou Akiya was a "box," but one equipped with wheels and semi-automatic intelligent control.
Pushing him was effortless, and after clearing the stage, the sense of achievement was immense.
"When we get back, I'll have to let Yaga know," Gojo Satoru muttered. "My teaching skills are clearly better than his."
He needed to send the unconscious Akiya to Shoko for treatment as soon as possible—the issue with his arms had to be dealt with early, or lingering complications would be troublesome. However, the only way of carrying someone he had ever seen was the princess carry in anime. It looked fun, but seemed ill-suited for a man. Fortunately, he dredged up a memory from the manga Naruto. Akiya had called him a companion on the bus, protected his privacy, and ensured his safety. In that case, he was willing to treat him as a companion in return.
Gojo Satoru mentally mapped out the sequence of movements, then crouched down. He draped the black-haired boy's arms over his shoulders, lifted him by the waist and leaned him against his back, and finally supported his thighs, hoisting him fully onto his back.
Oh yeah!
The classic rescue scene from a shōnen manga was reenacted once more!
Gojo Satoru let out a cheer in his heart—successful imitation. He, too, now had a Naruto-style companion.
Having skipped his lunch break and failed to eat properly, Gojo Satoru had to be mindful of low blood sugar. After several short-range teleports, he arrived at a familiar bus stop. When he climbed the steps, he had no choice but to bend forward, carefully carrying the person on his back onto the bus.
The driver said nothing, only stared wide-eyed. Gojo Satoru laid Akiya down in the back row, then jogged to the front of the bus to pay the fare.
Only then did he realize he had no loose change on him.
Learning from experience, Gojo Satoru ran back again and pulled out the wallet from Akiya's trouser pocket.
When he opened it, it was stuffed full of small bills and coins. He counted out the coins and dropped them into the fare box.
"We're going to the terminal."
Leaving those words behind, Gojo Satoru returned to the back row. He rested a hand on Asou Akiya's shoulder as the Limitless technique activated, enveloping both of them and isolating their bodies from the jolts of the seats, preventing any accidents along the way.
In ancient Japan, "roku" commonly referred to dwellings at the foot of a mountain.
Tokyo Jujutsu High was built deep within forested mountains, and so the bus company adopted [Enzanroku] as the station name.
Gojo Satoru carried Asou Akiya off the bus.
The ordinary staff of Tokyo Jujutsu High noticed the scene and once again thought to themselves: being a jujutsu sorcerer truly was a dangerous profession.
There were no ambulances here. Injured sorcerers were often brought back covered in blood by companions or assistant supervisors. To avoid frightening outsiders, Tokyo Jujutsu High even had its own car wash—used to scrub away bloodstains.
"Shoko! Geto! Hurry!"
The person had yet to arrive, but the voice reached them first—there was only one classmate who announced himself like that: Gojo Satoru.
"Wait—did Gojo call my name first?"
Ieiri Shoko snapped back to her senses and bolted outside, with Geto Suguru right behind her, easily matching her pace.
"Quick, lay him flat right here." In the open space in front of the classroom building, Ieiri Shoko directed Gojo Satoru to set Asou Akiya down, insisting that he be laid fully flat. Then she cradled Asou Akiya's right hand in both of hers and entered a state of absolute focus.
Cursed energy following the principle of "negative multiplied by negative" converted into positive energy, releasing a soft white glow. Without hesitation, she cast the Reversed Cursed Technique on her severely injured friend, repairing the aged skin, muscles, nerves, blood vessels, and bones one by one…
Geto Suguru did not dare disturb Ieiri Shoko. Instead, he signaled to Gojo Satoru with his eyes, gesturing for him to step aside and explain.
Gojo Satoru looked puzzled. "Geto, are your eyes twitching or something?"
Geto Suguru: "..."
Geto Suguru forcibly dragged Gojo Satoru away to a corner and demanded in a low voice, "Akiya's injuries are obviously the result of a technique. Did you take him to fight a quasi–Grade 1 Cursed Spirit? Or did you run into a curse user on the way?"
Gojo Satoru replied, "No, he fought a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit."
Geto Suguru's eyes widened. "He's a Grade 3 sorcerer—at most, he should be exorcising Grade 2 Cursed Spirits! And you let him face a Grade 1?!"
Gojo Satoru said casually, "I was watching the whole time. I wasn't going to let him die."
Then he added, brightly, "And it worked!"
Geto Suguru was overjoyed. "Black Flash?!"
Gojo Satoru replied smugly, "That's right—two consecutive Black Flashes!"
After revealing the good news, Gojo Satoru immediately held out his hand to Geto Suguru for food. Without a word, Geto Suguru rummaged through his pocket and pulled out a handful of candy, saying as he did, "Akiya knew you'd need to replenish your sugar, so he told Shoko and me a long time ago to always carry sweets with us. Shoko prefers lemon drops and mint candy, but what I brought for you are milk candies and fruit candies."
"Mmmph!" Gojo Satoru tore open the wrappers and swallowed the candy after barely chewing twice.
"What are you saying?" Geto Suguru leaned in, trying to catch his words.
"Bring more next time," Gojo Satoru said after reviving on the sugar. "I like all kinds of flavors."
"Aren't you a strict sweets-only type?" Geto Suguru asked, puzzled.
"Akiya told me to try more different flavors and figure out which ones I actually like." Gojo Satoru shoved a handful of empty wrappers back into Geto Suguru's hand. "Don't let your technique twist your sense of taste."
Hearing this, Geto Suguru murmured under his breath, "Don't let your technique twist…"
His thoughts drifted to his own Cursed Spirit Manipulation.
In order to grow stronger, the cursed spirit orbs had already warped his sense of taste, leaving him nauseous and retching far too often.
Someone like him… would he still be able, in the future, to find a flavor he truly liked?
About half an hour later, Ieiri Shoko wiped the sweat from her brow and concluded the treatment. "Take him to rest. After three days of recuperation, he should be fine by Halloween."
Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru stepped forward together and lifted Asou Akiya.
Gojo Satoru took hold of his arms.
Geto Suguru supported his legs.
The two DKs exchanged a glance, then started to sway him back and forth like a swing, feeling the slender build and weight of their unconscious classmate.
"Geto, Akiya is so light~."
"His muscle mass has increased; Asou is noticeably heavier than before."
"How can you tell?"
"I once hoisted him up before—back then he was as light as an empty sack."
Ieiri Shoko lowered her head to send a message to Principal Yaga, and when she noticed the two of them messing around with Asou Akiya, she looked up and said, "…You idiots, stop playing around and hurry up and let him rest!"
Not long after, Yaga Masamichi, who had rushed over upon hearing the news, saw Asou Akiya in the boys' dormitory.
He was sleeping soundly, a faint flush blooming on his cheeks.
The truant Gojo Satoru was rummaging through the drawers of Asou Akiya's desk, whispering conspiratorially with Geto Suguru. After a moment of hesitation, Geto Suguru released a Grade 4 cursed spirit, and the two of them were immediately met with a crushing punch from Yaga Masamichi.
"What exactly do you think you're doing to your classmate's desk?!"
"..."
"..."
Geto Suguru's fox-like eyes brimmed with tears, yet even a display of genuine emotion failed to help him this time.
Gojo Satoru rubbed his head with a blank expression. "That hurts."
Gojo Satoru explained, "Yaga, Geto and I wanted to see the will Akiya wrote. The will is locked in that drawer."
Yaga Masamichi shot him down mercilessly. "Then all the more reason I can't let you open it!"
Gojo Satoru pointed at Asou Akiya lying on the bed. "What if he gives permission?"
Yaga Masamichi replied, "Only if he says it himself."
Geto Suguru added tactfully, "We've never written a will before, so we thought we could use a classmate's as reference."
Yaga Masamichi was no longer fooled by Geto Suguru. Knowing full well that Gojo and Geto were birds of a feather, he glared at him and said, "If you want to learn how to write a will, next time I'll have an assistant supervisor teach you."
Geto Suguru replied, "Then forget it."
He shrugged and added, "The way assistant supervisors think is fundamentally different from the way jujutsu sorcerers do."
Dying in battle and being worked to death in a logistics department were two entirely different things.
Yes—if it came to that, he would rather choose a future of dying in combat.
He believed that it wasn't just him; Gojo and Asou were the same kind of people. They were the ones truly fit to be called companions.
After a while, Yaga Masamichi learned that Asou Akiya had mastered "Black Flash" and left in high spirits, helping to inform Ieiri Shoko, who was still unaware. Soon after, the two DKs gathered in the dormitory received a series of beeping notifications from their group chat.
[Jujutsu High Same-Year Quartet]
[Ieiri Shoko: The teacher told me that Asou learned "Black Flash."]
[Ieiri Shoko: Gojo, Geto, honestly, it's so like you two—forgetting about me again at the critical moment.]
[Ieiri Shoko: Asou won the bet. Do you have your cross-dressing outfits ready?]
[Ieiri Shoko: Utahime and Mei Mei-senpai are getting ready to watch what the three of you look like on Halloween with me.]
Gojo Satoru said dryly, "Geto, are you ready?"
Geto Suguru answered in despair, "No. I really can't bring myself to buy women's clothes."
Gojo Satoru fell into an uncanny silence, then opened his mouth and immediately set a trap. "Actually, there's no need to worry—I've already bought everything for you."
Geto Suguru looked at him with newfound respect. "What are you, some kind of pervert who enjoys watching classmates wear women's clothes?"
Gojo protested, "I'll buy whatever I want! The real super-pervert is Shoko—she even helped give advice on outfit selection and said Akiya would be more suitable dressed up as Tokyo Jujutsu High's school beauty!"
After hearing Gojo embellish the story so enthusiastically, Geto gained a deep appreciation for how terrifying female classmates could be.
"But our faces and our builds…"
"I contacted professionals," Gojo said confidently. "Guaranteed, no problem."
"Is it just my imagination," Geto said slowly, "or are you the one who's actually excited about this?"
"Geto, we're DKs of Tokyo Jujutsu High."
"Huh?"
"Even if we're crossdressing, we still have to outshine those JKs! We can't let the JKs look better than us!"
"…That actually makes a weird amount of sense."
Geto was led astray by the logic and rubbed his chin. He still hadn't gotten revenge for Shoko calling him secretly lewd last time.
They were just highschool girls—if they put in the effort, appearance wouldn't be a problem at all!
"What about Akiya?" Geto turned around, facing the person on the bed whom Shoko herself had certified as having school-beauty potential.
"We can't let him off," Gojo Satoru said with firm conviction. "Good things like this have to be done together."
Geto Suguru considered it. "What if Akiya isn't willing? We wouldn't be able to stop him—he has Yaga-sensei backing him up."
Yaga Masamichi was an old-fashioned, rigid middle-aged man; there was no way he would agree to let them mess around like this.
Unwilling to let Geto Suguru hesitate any longer, Gojo Satoru spoke with absolute confidence, laying out his plan. "I'll take care of this. Akiya definitely won't be able to refuse my request."
Geto Suguru was skeptical but intrigued. "You're sure? If you can really pull that off, I'll be more than happy to go along with it."
Having found someone to play along with him, Gojo Satoru was delighted. He pounced onto the bed and pinched Asou Akiya's cheeks. "Akiya, wake up! Can you hear me? I've already booked professionals—we're celebrating Halloween together this year!"
It was Geto Suguru's first time spending Halloween like this as well. Smiling, he said, "Stop shouting. Let him keep sleeping."
Then Geto Suguru asked, "Gojo, do you think Akiya can be promoted to a Grade 2 jujutsu sorcerer by the end of the year?"
Gojo Satoru gave his assessment with precision. "Semi–Grade 2, at best."
Jujutsu sorcerer rank certification depended on both ability and recommendation. If one's strength was insufficient, promotion was impossible—forcing it would only lead to a miserable death. A well-rounded Grade 2 sorcerer was capable of exorcising a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit alone.
For now, Asou Akiya could not.
In that battle, he had been under Gojo Satoru's protection, and the Grade 1 Cursed Spirit they chose was relatively weaker.
"If you add a Grade 1 cursed tool," Gojo Satoru continued, "he's not that far off from an ordinary Grade 2 sorcerer."
As they chatted, Gojo Satoru's hand came to rest on Asou Akiya's chest, his palm pressed lightly against the steady beat of his heart. Hearing his own evaluation, Asou Akiya resolutely pretended to stay asleep, refusing to wake up and face Gojo Satoru in his current state of high spirits.
[Crossdressing and all that… let's talk about it tomorrow.]
With his eyes closed, Asou Akiya thought about how he had shattered the fixed ceiling of his own strength, and he pressed down hard on the corners of his mouth to keep them from curling upward.
[So it turns out that what truly limits ordinary people isn't their background after all.]
—
Author's Note:
Quanquan realized this chapter wouldn't reach Halloween yet, so please wait for the next chapter tonight.