Several leisurely days passed in the blink of an eye, and the temperature continued to rise, especially under the sun.
Whenever Gojo Satoru returned from fieldwork, he loved tugging at his collar, wanting to dissipate heat, yet refusing to take off his jacket. Getou Suguru remarked, "Satoru, are you and Zen'in planning to become two sheltered young ladies?"
Thereafter, Gojo Satoru resolutely and decisively removed his jacket, wearing only his white dress shirt to prove that he had cast off his feudal upbringing.
On the basketball court, the three of them practiced shooting hoops. Getou Suguru reminded him, "There's still an undershirt underneath. Take that off too."
Asou Akiya smiled and said, "That's his final bottom line. He won't take it off."
Gojo Satoru, in a fit of pique, ended up being angry over nothing at all.
He wouldn't take it off!
He absolutely wouldn't take off the undershirt, no matter what!
Gojo Satoru picked up the basketball that had bounced in front of him, jumped in place, and effortlessly shot the ball. "It's already much cooler."
"Super cool." Asou Akiya praised him, habitually pulling out his phone to capture the shooting motion.
Gojo Satoru struck a pose. The electric fan in the indoor basketball court blew against his shirt, youth running wild and free. The black undershirt peeked out from his chest and where the shirt hem lifted, giving his whole person an added touch of delicate refinement.
"Am I not handsome too, Akiya?" Getou Suguru picked up the basketball, and when he bent over, his collar inevitably gaped open wide. His waist was narrow, his shirt tucked into high-waisted pants, allowing his friends to openly see his full, well-developed pectoral muscles.
Gojo Satoru thought to himself: The Six Eyes can look at other people all day, but letting other people get a look at himself? Absolutely not!
"You're like a cool, low-key kind of handsome—seems all subtle and muted at first glance, but there's a lot more intensity going on beneath the surface." Asou Akiya offered an objective critique.
"Then what are you and Satoru?" Getou Suguru teased. "The cute type?"
Asou Akiya was not ashamed in the slightest. Being called cute was wonderful. "Why not? What do high school boys need with sexiness? Pure and adorable high school boys are in vogue right now. They're the absolute favorite of women over twenty."
Getou Suguru stole a glance at Gojo Satoru, who was doing stretching exercises, and did not say it out loud.
[Akiya, you're the only pure-hearted one. That guy certainly isn't.]
[A truly pure-hearted high school boy wouldn't love watching adult films!]
Getou Suguru's inner voice thundered.
After playing basketball for half an hour, Getou Suguru felt refreshed and invigorated. He forcibly dragged Asou Akiya off to buy water, leaving Gojo Satoru to wait at the basketball court. Heaven only knew why buying water required two people.
Gojo Satoru complained about their behavior, when his sunglasses were suddenly snatched away by Ieiri Shoko, who had wandered over to watch the spectacle.
"Shoko?" Gojo Satoru was completely unfazed by her actions, blinking his long eyelashes.
"I really can't see anything outside." Ieiri Shoko put on the sunglasses, satisfying a curiosity she had harbored for a long time.
"Right?" Gojo Satoru explained. "These are specially made sunglasses from the Gojo Clan, used to reduce the amount of information I receive."
Once Gojo Satoru's eyes were exposed to the air, they became extremely fatigued, constantly reading information from all directions until it became unbearably annoying. He would only remove his sunglasses occasionally when there were non-cursed energy objects blocking his field of vision on all sides, or when there were very few people around.
"Shoko" Gojo Satoru leaned his white-haired head toward her, polite yet not entirely polite.
He was hinting that she should give him a nice, comfortable head treatment.
Ieiri Shoko pretended to be blind. "Huh? Satoru, where are you?" As she spoke, she drifted toward the exit.
Gojo Satoru: "..."
Gojo Satoru: "...There's such a huge handsome guy standing right in front of you, and you can't even see him?"
Shoko, you blind woman! Your aesthetic sense is failing!
Ieiri Shoko stopped in her tracks and said with great interest, "If someone is willing to establish a binding vow and promise to say to Asou, 'I will never mock your strength again,' I can keep treating you for free."
Gojo Satoru's thought process was thoroughly that of a jujutsu sorcerer: "Not a short-term binding vow, but a lifelong one?"
Gojo Satoru immediately replied, "No way."
Gojo Satoru assessed the pros and cons: "I'll master Reverse Cursed Technique sooner or later. These terms are disadvantageous for me."
To prove the validity of his words, Gojo Satoru offered yet another reason to emphasize his point: "Shoko is a classmate, not a friend. Only friends can make lifelong promises with each other. Shoko can go make a promise with Utahime."
Ieiri Shoko was floored. Truly, utterly floored.
"Are you sure what you're describing is friendship?"
"That's exactly the kind of bond Akiya and Suguru have. There's also that kind of lifelong friendship in Naruto."
Gojo Satoru couldn't figure out which aspect of this was making Shoko angry.
"You think I haven't watched Naruto?" Ieiri Shoko walked back, returned the sunglasses to his face, and gave that white-haired head of his—which was sometimes clever and sometimes completely dense—a light smack. He was cute, sure, but he was also genuinely infuriating.
Ieiri Shoko said, "Sasuke and Naruto even kissed at the very beginning. I don't see you going and learning from them."
Gojo Satoru declared with utmost confidence, "That's completely different."
Gojo Satoru added, "They did that on graduation day. I've only been enrolled for a year."
Ieiri Shoko was rendered speechless. Such a refreshingly bizarre angle of argument—no normal person had ever heard anything like it.
"Suguru! Akiya! Get over here quick! Shoko is asking me why I don't kiss my friends!"
"I never said that! Satoru, stop spouting nonsense!!!"
Ieiri Shoko's hair stood on end in horror.
Outside the basketball court, the two who had been chatting as they walked came to an abrupt halt, took a step back step back, and distanced themselves from such a strange question.
"Akiya, Satoru probably isn't thirsty." Getou Suguru put on a face as though he had not heard Gojo Satoru's remark and said calmly, "Let's continue discussing how an ordinary sorcerer can be promoted to Grade One."
"You're right. Let's find somewhere else." Asou Akiya carried the water and detoured around the area. "My ears are in danger of getting dirty."
Gojo Satoru: "???"
He watched with his own eyes as the two fled as though avoiding something they feared more than anything.
Ieiri Shoko laughed in exasperation. "World-class at playing dumb and absolutely no sense of boundaries—that's you, Satoru!"
Gojo Satoru pouted. "Shoko, you're the one being excessive, using Sasuke and Naruto to describe my friendship."
Ieiri Shoko: "So you weren't putting yourself in their shoes?!"
Good heavens, someone as self-important as Gojo Satoru wasn't putting himself in the protagonists' shoes, but rather in a supporting character's?
Gojo Satoru: "Kakashi!"
Gojo Satoru: "White hair, wearing a mask, having two friends—Hatake Kakashi!"
Gojo Satoru: "But he's so lame, he can't compare to me. All my friends are alive. All his friends are dead."
The white-haired youth made a silly face, stopped playing dumb, and slipped away with the soles of his feet greased with oil, chasing after his two fleeing friends.
"Akiya, Suguru, wait for me!"
Outside.
The two had not walked very far, as though they knew that certain someone would not honestly stay put.
"Generally speaking, there is no hope." Asou Akiya stuck one hand in his pocket and spoke of hopelessness with ease. "Even if I wielded a Special Grade cursed tool, I could not possibly defeat any Special Grade cursed spirit."
"A Special Grade cursed spirit can suppress me into immobility with cursed energy alone. That bone-deep malice toward humanity is not a kind of spiritual damage that I can endure continuously." Asou Akiya described it thus: "The gap is too vast. It is like a cat and a mouse. The only thing I can do is perceive the presence of a Special Grade cursed spirit and flee the battlefield at the first possible moment, preserving my life."
Getou Suguru could not comprehend his high standards and demanding requirements for becoming a Grade One sorcerer: "Although in the traditions of the jujutsu world, a Grade One sorcerer is meant to match a Special Grade cursed spirit, not every Grade One sorcerer is that powerful."
Asou Akiya smiled. "The modern jujutsu world has declined, but the future will not remain unchanged forever."
"Please, go on." Getou Suguru adopted the attitude of an eager learner, listening to his classmate's opinion.
Asou Akiya thought for a moment, then pulled out his phone, only to remember that he and Getou Suguru did not have a private group chat.
He unconsciously rose onto his tiptoes and quietly revealed the truth to Getou Suguru:
"The stronger Gojo Satoru becomes, the stronger the sorcerers' side becomes as a whole. In turn, the upper limit of cursed spirits will continue to rise year after year. That theory everyone has been speculating about may actually be true. If you ever get the chance to meet Master Tengen in person, you might want to ask her. After all, there is no one more knowledgeable or well-traveled than Master Tengen."
Getou Suguru's breathing caught for a moment.
Asou Akiya tempted him further:
"Tell me, do you think the future might become a paradise for a Cursed Spirit Manipulator?"
There's a Jujutsu Kaisen dark joke: Once the main story begins, Japan becomes a hell for ordinary people—and a paradise for a Cursed Spirit Manipulator.
Getou Suguru died too early. Had he lived even one year longer, things would have been completely different.
Which of the "Four Disaster Curses" would dare act arrogantly?
However, Getou Suguru, after coming to his senses, did not see it that way. His expression showed resistance, and he implicitly and unhappily accused Akiya: "I would rather my strength stagnate than face a future where cursed spirits run rampant."
Asou Akiya shrugged. "With or without you, the future will only grow more dangerous."
Getou Suguru suddenly furrowed his brows tightly, placing his trust in Gojo Satoru's strength: "Don't we have Satoru? Would he simply stand by and do nothing?"
Asou Akiya: "One, he does not possess a shadow clone technique. Two, he is fundamentally a lazy person. Three, would you be willing to let him suffer through overtime work while we sit back and reap the benefits from the rear?"
Getou Suguru very much wanted to jokingly say he would be delighted, but what appeared before his eyes was the "twenty-six-year-old Gojo Satoru" from the birthday banquet.
That Satoru... inexplicably made him feel a little heartache.
Asou Akiya suddenly remembered something: "Getou, you really do need to meet Master Tengen at least once."
Getou Suguru was puzzled: "Why?"
Asou Akiya glanced at the fellow who loved to conceal the details of his technique: "Cursed Spirit Manipulation. Master Tengen may have met the previous possessor of this technique. Through Master Tengen's experience and knowledge, you can avoid some unnecessary detours."
[Getou, you are really embarrassing yourself.]
[Kenjaku's level with Cursed Spirit Manipulation after only one year already far surpasses yours by a wide margin.]
Asou Akiya spoke decisively:
"In any case, this world is far too dangerous. Whatever level of power a person possesses, they must shoulder a matching level of risk. If I cannot exorcise a Special Grade Cursed Spirit, then I absolutely will not take shortcuts to advance to Grade 1 Sorcerer."
What was the point of becoming a fraud?
In the future, anyone incapable of facing a Special Grade Cursed Spirit head-on would be nothing more than cannon fodder.
"Akiya! I can just go home and help Suguru dig through the clan archives. There's no need to look for some Master Tengen."
Asou Akiya suddenly felt a weight settle around his neck as Gojo Satoru hooked an arm around his shoulders. His long arm draped across him, forcibly pressing him down by nearly half a head.
Seeing this, Getou Suguru said: "Satoru, it's not good to keep troubling you all the time. I'll go meet Master Tengen myself."
Gojo Satoru lifted his gaze. The slight displeasure in his eyes was hidden behind his sunglasses.
Was Suguru learning from Akiya and deliberately making things difficult for himself? Would he rather seek help from a stranger than ask a friend for assistance?
Gojo lowered his voice and whispered into Akiya's ear:
"Akiya, next time come home with me and help me look through the archives. The final history exam should be about Cursed Spirit Manipulation. I want to see the Cursed Spirit Manipulator standing right in front of me fail the test!"
Getou Suguru's expression immediately changed.
"Hey! Are you abusing your authority to settle a personal grudge? Akiya, you absolutely can't do that!"
Asou Akiya setting the exam questions, only for a Cursed Spirit Manipulator to fail the section on Cursed Spirit Manipulation?
If that happened, the entire jujutsu world would probably laugh itself to tears.
The tip of Asou Akiya's ear tingled. His breathing was surrounded by the other boy's fresh, faintly sweet scent, causing him to completely ignore Getou Suguru's protests.
He smiled happily and said:
"I'm bringing the archives to the dormitory for me to read works too."
Make Suguru fail?
That sounded genuinely entertaining.
It was almost as though he were taking the place of the future Kenjaku, setting an exam specifically for Getou Suguru.
A hellish examination, indeed.
—They had made a promise.
They would definitely survive long enough to make it to the final exams.