So many things had happened, yet it had all taken place within a single morning.
By noon, Asou Akiya had completely lost his appetite. After making lunch for Gojo Satoru and Getou Suguru, he chose to take a nap alone. The calories in one cup of milk tea were equivalent to a bowl of rice; a whole bucket of milk tea was more than enough to leave his stomach feeling full even after he had thrown it all up.
In the afternoon class, he spoke far less than usual, and Ieiri Shoko noticed something was off.
Ieiri Shoko said, unfazed as ever, "Did Gojo make you angry again?"
Ieiri Shoko added, "It's rare to see you this upset."
With the other two present, Asou Akiya naturally refused to admit it. "No. I was the one who did something wrong."
Ieiri Shoko replied, "And you think I'd believe that?"
Thinking of the particular awkwardness that came with adolescent boys, Ieiri Shoko suggested that he go out more. "If you're unhappy, go out and have fun by yourself. Don't bind yourself to one fixed place. Your life is yours to decide."
Asou Akiya took her advice to heart. Before Gojo Satoru and Getou Suguru became special-grade jujutsu sorcerers, Kenjaku would not suddenly act with hostility, so for now he could still move about freely. Once he reached his third year, however, he would have to be cautious about every single outing.
[Tokyo Jujutsu High DK Trio]
[Asou Akiya: I'm going shopping after school. Gojo, want me to pick up some manga for you?]
[Gojo Satoru: OK.]
[Asou Akiya: Getou, do you need anything?]
[Getou Suguru: Go enjoy yourself properly. Don't worry about us. I'll make sure Gojo learns some cooking skills.]
[Gojo Satoru: ? ? ? ]
[Gojo Satoru: Getou, you're going to teach me how to cook? I'm not learning how to boil noodles, you know!]
[Getou Suguru: Ahem, soba noodles are actually very good...]
[Gojo Satoru: Akiya! The soba-noodle maniac is here!]
The corners of Asou Akiya's mouth lifted into a faint smile.
From the neighboring seat, Getou Suguru saw it and did not regret bringing up the topic of cooking; after all, he could not let the other party keep cooking forever.
After school, Asou Akiya returned to the dormitory to change his clothes and hung up his uniform. As winter approached, the temperature continued to drop, and he realized he lacked a turtleneck sweater for the change of seasons; inside his wardrobe were only the down jackets he had brought with him from the orphanage.
"Besides the manga, I should buy a few pieces of clothing, and while I'm out, check the greenery near the school gate."
Asou Akiya habitually began to make a plan.
In truth, he was not someone who lived every detail of his life according to a plan, and he could not help but feel a flicker of disdain toward the habit he had developed.
"Forget planning it."
He kept to his usual outfit of a white shirt and black trousers—it's timeless, versatile, and free of any need to worry about matching. Acting on a sudden impulse, he set off without a destination, boarded a bus on a whim, dropped in the fare, and noticed that it was being driven by a different driver.
After riding the bus for over an hour, he got off at a place that simply looked pleasing to him.
Afterward, he checked the lingering traces of cursed energy in the surroundings, ensuring it was safe and that no one was following him, before slipping into the crowd and beginning to wander aimlessly.
In an arcade filled with teenagers, Asou Akiya played a round of games. The sounds of the machines were loud and frenetic; he chose the classic The King of Fighters, fighting against the computer. His hands felt unfamiliar at first, but little by little, the sense of control began to return.
After becoming a jujutsu sorcerer, he realized that his reaction speed had improved tremendously, and the negative side effect was—
"—that my standards for enjoyment have gotten much higher."
Asou Akiya lost several rounds, and only after he had fully recovered his touch did he finally win one match.
In that instant, the joy he remembered from childhood vanished without a trace.
Ignoring the looks cast at him by the middle school students nearby, Asou Akiya went to a pharmacy and bought a dust mask. The white mask covered the lower half of his face, lowering how recognizable his features were, but it also made people suspect he had caught a cold, causing passersby to instinctively keep their distance.
He switched to another store.
In 2005, anime merchandise was not yet a booming market; it was still in its early stages of rising popularity.
Asou Akiya first went to a manga shop and bought a copy of Tomie. Tomie was a manga composed of short stories, not very long in total, and reasonably priced. After that, he walked into the neighboring anime goods store and found that the prices of the merchandise were generally quite high; the yen amounts—with an extra zero compared to renminbi—were intimidating. He could not bring himself to buy a figure he liked for himself, yet when he paid for a Tomie figure of the female protagonist for Gojo Satoru, he did so without hesitation.
He thought that perhaps he possessed a kind of psychological compensation mechanism.
The way he treated his classmates was also the way he hoped they would treat him—equal, and kind.
No one should haggle over benefits or losses.
The cashier was a part-time high school girl. As she issued the receipt, she noticed the customer seemed slightly distracted; perhaps because of the mask, his brows and eyes were all the more strikingly handsome, yet they also carried a faint hint of melancholy.
She said warmly, "We also have other Tomie merchandise here. Would you like to take a look?"
Asou Akiya was reminded once again of the Halloween incident. "Sure."
Among the three Tomie items on display, he spotted the familiar black eyeball—and a red-lips coin purse he had never seen before.
Just as his hand reached out, he suddenly caught sight of the price… hiss.
It was terrifyingly expensive.
Asou Akiya's tone turned strange. "The eyeball costs six hundred and sixty thousand yen?"
The young clerk gave an awkward smile. "You look like someone who doesn't lack money, sir."
Asou Akiya, currently two hundred million yen in debt: "..."
Sorry, but what on earth gave you such a brilliant misconception?
Asou Akiya disliked the finger-shaped Tomie badge and asked instead, "How much is the red-lips coin purse?"
The clerk answered without hesitation. "One hundred and ten thousand yen."
Asou Akiya had never been clear about Getou Suguru's exact income, but now he understood—truly capable people were always low-key.
Among his two classmates, the one who relied on meal replacements was Getou Suguru, not Gojo Satoru.
If Getou Suguru had bought Gojo Satoru the Tomie eyeball, then there was no way he would have passed up the red-lips coin purse.
The possibility that Getou Suguru had secretly bought the red-lips coin purse was, in fact, extremely high.
Through Tomie's human-body-themed merchandise, Asou Akiya learned about the artist Doooo—a Japanese man obsessed with the human form. His main profession was DJ, while his side passion was handicrafts. He loved creating vividly lifelike human figurines, and there were even examples of artist Doooo turning parts of his own facial features into silicone products.
Asou Akiya grew a little intrigued. Once outside, he walked while searching for the artist's social media on his phone.
As expected, artist Doooo's social feeds were filled with all kinds of delightfully macabre enthusiasts.
Asou Akiya viciously complained to himself, After the Prison Realm seals Gojo Satoru in the original story, it shrinks into a palm-sized cube, with an eyeball on each of its six faces. If I made a faux-human-skin die with 'Six Eyes' on all six sides and gave it to Gojo as a birthday present next month, that would absolutely be a top-tier underworld joke, wouldn't it?
As an adult, Asou Akiya could not help thinking of even more entertaining toys.
If I took my own facial features apart and reproduced them as individual organs, wouldn't that be kind of cute?
Blinking eyeballs, lips that move, a nose with a bridge you can pinch.
Just like Tomie…
Those thoughts flashed by and were quickly abandoned by Asou Akiya. He did not want to corrupt the innocent hearts of the DKs.
Although… it seemed that one of those DKs was already far from innocent.
Tsk… Getou.
Suddenly, Asou Akiya, shopping bags in hand, headed across the street. "Found a sweater shop."
In a store specializing in ready-made knitwear, Asou Akiya selected four identical high-neck wool sweaters in different sizes, then bought a lightweight cashmere scarf for his female classmate as well, preparing in advance for the cold weather.
After settling the bill, he ended up carrying seven shopping bags in total, and through the refraction of the glass display cases, he caught sight of his own reflection.
—Like a high school student buying gifts for his family.
Asou Akiya guessed that beneath the mask, there might have been a warm smile spreading across his face.
Unwilling to head back to the school so soon, he found a place to store his shopping bags, then slipped into a cat café. He spent a while teasing both the big cats and the kittens there, ordered a cup of hot coffee at the table, yet did not take a single sip.
Whenever he was alone outside, he did not dare to casually eat or drink anything; he had long since developed a keen sense of caution.
This was a Jujutsu world where cursed spirits devoured humans, curse users devoured humans, and humans devoured humans as well.
At 8:30 p.m., Asou Akiya boarded the Yamanote Line to take in Tokyo's night scenery.
The train he rode had the classic green-backed seats, strikingly similar to the scene in Jujutsu Kaisen's first season opening where Itadori Yuji falls asleep—except there would be no water flowing beneath his feet here, nor would Ryoumen Sukuna be staring back at him. His gaze lingered outside the window as he prepared to head toward the landmark Tokyo Skytree, to revisit another moment from the first-season opening: the image of twenty-eight-year-old Gojo Satoru standing atop the Skytree, wearing a black blindfold, smiling as he looked down upon the city lights.
Asou Akiya got ready to disembark; to reach Sumida Ward, he would need to transfer from the Yamanote Line to the Ginza Line.
When the subway doors opened, those entering and those exiting passed one another like parallel lines.
Out of habit, he observed the surrounding passengers.
A thirteen-year-old girl stepped onto the Yamanote Line, a white headband resting atop her head, her long black hair tied into a single ponytail. As soon as she boarded the train, she turned back with a bright smile and reached out to take another woman's hand.
Laughing and chatting, the two of them found empty seats and sat down. Her gaze swept across the passengers who still had not gotten off the train—and paused on a black-haired boy wearing a mask, standing quietly and looking in their direction.
It was as if he knew her, and yet also as if they had met in a previous life, carrying an inexplicable, innate familiarity. He blinked lightly.
Those dark eyes, shaped like peach blossoms, held a trace of sorrow that defied description.
In this late-autumn season, that expression felt unbearably desolate.
Soon after, the black-haired boy stepped off the train and disappeared into the crowd, becoming a stranger once more, a parallel line drifting away.
Yet Amanai Riko was struck by that complicated gaze. She grasped the curved handrail beside her and instinctively tried to stand, when the maid responsible for her care, Kuroi Misato, spoke up, "Come back to yourself, miss. You've been staring for far too long."
Amanai Riko flushed crimson all at once. "W-Who was staring off into space?!"
Kuroi Misato smiled. "You're still young, miss, and you attend an all-girls school year-round. It's perfectly normal to be drawn to the opposite sex."
Shaking off the strange intuition from moments ago, Amanai Riko let out a flustered cry and lunged into her maid's arms. "I didn't! I was just thinking it's a pity he was wearing a mask—what if he's actually ugly? I don't want to like an ugly guy!"
Kuroi Misato coaxed her gently. "It's impolite to describe strangers that way."
Amanai Riko replied shyly, "Mm… I was wrong."
Then she asked, "Does Kuroi know him? He looked like he knew us."
On the surface, Kuroi Misato shook her head, though inwardly she thought, Knew us? Perhaps someone from the jujutsu world.
The Kuroi family had served successive Star Plasma Vessels for generations, exclusive attendants to the Star Plasma Vessel, half a foot already within the jujutsu world. Seeing that Kuroi Misato did not mention the black-haired boy again, Amanai Riko quickly cast the encounter aside and began chattering away about everything she had seen and heard that day at Renchoku Girls' Junior High, delighted simply to be out together with Kuroi Misato.
Tokyo was neither especially large nor especially small.
Those who are destined to meet will always cross paths at least once, while those without such fate may pass through an entire lifetime without ever encountering one another.
Late at night, Asou Akiya, carrying a faint trace of dew and cold in his clothes, made his way toward Asakusa Station on the Ginza Line.
The Ginza Line ran until the early hours of the next morning.
He bought a ticket and boarded the train, letting his mind go blank as he sat in his seat, staring at the Ginza Line route map. In the vast, empty carriage where he was the only passenger left, a long-forgotten loneliness wrapped itself around him, as deep and quiet as the night itself.
He breathed onto the subway window, fogging the glass, and traced a single Chinese character on its surface.
—Blue.
In Japanese, the word for "blue" is a homophone of "love."
In the opening theme of the Hidden Inventory arc from Jujutsu Kaisen Season Two, there was a line in the lyrics: "In a season of endless blue, there is nothing to block the front of my eyes."
Asou Akiya softly hummed his own altered version of the line.
"In a season of endless love, there is nothing that can block the future in which we laugh together."
Who were their enemies?
Fushiguro Toji, Kenjaku, Ryomen Sukuna, Uraume, Jogo, Hanami, Dagon, Mahito.
And… every hostile faction within the jujutsu world itself.
At the gates of Tokyo Jujutsu High, Asou Akiya climbed the long flight of steps—sometimes lightly hopping up seven steps at a time, sometimes walking backward with his back to the school, surrounded by low shrubs within a twenty-meter radius where no one could possibly hide.
For the first trial to come—Fushiguro Toji's future ambush on Gojo Satoru—he had quietly raised the difficulty.
Not the slightest margin for error was allowed.
Beneath a sky of stars that he would never again see in the same way, Asou Akiya lifted his palm toward the position of an enemy that existed only in the future, his gaze threading through the gaps between his fingers. "Like grains of stars in an infinitely expanding galaxy, spilling through the gaps between my fingers."
From beginning to end.
The final line of the Hidden Inventory opening theme came to a close in his quiet recitation.
Asou Akiya aimed a finger-gun at an enemy that was not there and fired his declaration of war with a soft "bang."
Then, with long, decisive strides, he ran back toward the school that was his home.
…
November 21st, Monday—the history exam for first-year students at Tokyo Jujutsu High.
Two DKs and one JK, having crammed desperately for history, wore ashen expressions the moment they saw the first multiple-choice question on the exam paper.
As the one who had designed the test, Asou Akiya did not take part in this examination.
[1] In the long history of the jujutsu world, there once existed a special category of individuals who, shortly after birth, had certain precious things taken from them by heaven itself. The jujutsu community defined such people as those bearing a "Heavenly Restriction." Based on your historical knowledge, select the characteristics that have appeared among individuals with "Heavenly Restriction." (This question allows multiple answers.)
A. Rare
B. Zero cursed energy
C. Exceptional luck
D. Enormous potential
"A has to be one of the correct options in a multiple-choice question," Getou Suguru thought as he tightened his grip on his fountain pen, the nib trembling slightly while he used the method of elimination, unwilling to fall at the very first question. "After all, I've never even heard of 'Heavenly Restriction,' which means it isn't common in the jujutsu world—only someone like Akiya would deliberately look up such obscure knowledge."
Getou Suguru continued his analysis. "B and D seem to contradict each other. The question says 'heaven took away something precious'—so it might mean that all cursed energy was stripped away at birth…"
Getou Suguru felt his heart pound with unease.
"Is C a trap," he thought nervously, "or is it a hint? If C is among the correct answers, then that means D must also be right."
People blessed with good fortune were usually born with immense potential.
Only those cursed with terrible luck would come into the jujutsu world bearing zero cursed energy.
Getou Suguru agonized over the multiple-choice question, when his left foot was kicked several times by the person seated next to him. Gojo Satoru was waiting to cheat, barely containing his impatience.
"Getou, Getou—hurry up and write the answer."
Getou Suguru: "..."
Ieiri Shoko cast him a look filled with quiet expectation.
Getou Suguru had a peculiar obsession with scoring perfect marks, yet the two teammates beside him were far from reassuring: Ieiri Shoko had never liked reading history textbooks, and Gojo Satoru's grasp of history was shaky at best—his frantic last-minute cramming had only managed to drag him up to a barely average level.
Was he really supposed to expect Gojo Satoru to know about something like Heavenly Restriction?
Impossible. Absolutely impossible.
Asou Akiya.
The very first history question had already gone beyond the syllabus—aaahhh!!!
—
Author's Note:
Everyone is welcome to continue tackling exam questions together with Gojo Satoru, Getou Suguru, and Ieiri Shoko!
Let Quanquan take a look—tomorrow, which little cuties will end up failing their Jujutsu Kaisen history exam?