"Riko-chan?"
"I don't have anywhere to stay... School's on break, and even students living in the dorms are being required to return home."
Having just gone through the ordeal of being thoroughly scolded, Getou Suguru was immediately dragged back into the material world of financial concerns by a single phone call.
"Gojo, let's head out. I'll come over to your place in a bit." After thoroughly inspecting Getou Suguru's room, Asou Akiya concluded that it was exactly what it appeared to be—a clean and refreshing boys' dormitory room. He found nothing suspicious inside.
Gojo Satoru was pushed out the door by Akiya, a hand pressed firmly against his back.
Bang.
The door slammed shut behind them, cutting off the sound of the phone conversation.
Not long afterward, Getou Suguru hurriedly left Tokyo Jujutsu High without wasting a second.
Standing by the window, Asou Akiya watched the pink bat-shaped cursed spirit carrying him into the sky. He then drew the curtains closed and headed toward the washroom.
With practiced ease, he pressed against the back of his throat and vomited up the cursed spirit that had been hidden inside his stomach.
After carefully washing the cursed spirit clean, he held it in his hand and headed for Gojo Satoru's dormitory.
He needed to identify the various cursed tools as quickly as possible.
Ordinary people would have to test them one by one through experimentation.
He didn't need to go through that much trouble.
Because he possessed the "Six Eyes Identification Technique."
The ugly cursed spirit coiled itself on the floor, looking pitifully timid. It did not dare approach the terrifying presence that was Gojo Satoru.
Spread across the carpet where Gojo usually piled up snacks, DVDs, and game cartridges was a collection of special cold weapons.
Every single one was a high-grade cursed tool that Fushiguro Toji had either purchased with the money he earned by selling himself, bought with his blood and sweat, or seized through force during his lifetime.
The first cursed tool.
Asou Akiya and Gojo Satoru sat casually on the floor. Akiya picked up a long blade decorated with rough, fur-like edging and handed it over.
"Gojo, what grade is this sword? What technique does it possess?"
Gojo only needed a glance.
He had seen it during battle before.
"Special Grade Cursed Tool. Its technique ignores hardness and attacks the soul directly."
Asou Akiya immediately found the corresponding information in his memory. The soul-attacking property caught his attention in particular.
He wrote down the technique on a sticky note and attached it to the blade, labeling it:
[Special Grade Cursed Tool: Split Soul Katana]
The second cursed tool.
Asou Akiya handed over a three-section staff worth more than five hundred million yen.
"What about this one?"
This time, Gojo Satoru observed it for a little longer.
After all, Fushiguro Toji had never used this Special Grade Cursed Tool against him.
"No innate technique."
From the perspective of the Six Eyes' observation of cursed energy, the three-section staff possessed cursed energy, but no cursed technique whatsoever.
Gojo Satoru felt it could not be that simple.
Grabbing one end of the weapon, he swung it through the air.
Asou Akiya immediately stepped aside to avoid it.
People who played with nunchaku tended to injure themselves.
People who played with a three-section staff tended to get everyone else killed along with them.
Gojo experimented with two different methods—one while infusing it with cursed energy and one without.
The process effortlessly reduced a sofa to pieces.
Afterward, he reached a conclusion.
"Special Grade Cursed Tool. Its power is directly tied to the user's physical strength. It's best suited for someone who specializes in close-quarters combat."
Asou Akiya attached a sticky note to it and labeled it:
[Special Grade Cursed Tool: Playful Cloud]
Gojo Satoru glanced at the note.
"You know it?"
Asou Akiya explained,
"There aren't many high-grade cursed tools. Most of them have names that have been passed down through history. I've only heard vague information about some of them, and it's not always accurate. I still have to rely on you to determine their grade and abilities."
The third cursed tool.
Asou Akiya picked up a metallic chain.
The moment Gojo Satoru saw it, he was filled with disgust.
He jumped to his feet and stomped on it several times.
"This thing was used together with that damn knife!"
The "damn knife" was not the Split Soul Katana.
It was the Inverted Spear of Heaven—the weapon Gojo had personally destroyed before finally feeling at ease.
"Grade 1 Cursed Tool. Its technique is that it can extend infinitely as long as you can't see its end! It's specialized for aerial combat!"
Back then, Fushiguro Toji had combined the chain with the ugly cursed spirit's storage ability. One end had been attached to the dagger capable of forcibly nullifying the Limitless technique, specifically to counter a flying Gojo Satoru.
As a result, ever since returning from his godlike state, Gojo had held a grudge against it.
Asou Akiya fell into thought.
"Infinite extension... that's a fairly conceptual ability. I wonder how durable it is..."
If its durability was high enough, it could practically cosplay Enkidu.
He quickly finished writing another label.
[Grade 1 Cursed Tool: Thousand-Miles Chain]
Just as Asou Akiya was about to attach the note, Gojo Satoru mischievously tied the chain into several knots.
Any jujutsu sorcerer witnessing such treatment of a valuable cursed tool would already be furious.
Yet Asou Akiya showed no negative reaction whatsoever.
After attaching the label, he simply pushed the tangled pile of chains in front of Gojo.
"Do whatever you want with it."
Gojo lowered his head and continued playing with the cursed tool.
At the same time, from the unique perspective granted by the Six Eyes, he secretly observed Asou Akiya.
The black-haired teenager's cursed energy remained steady.
His expression was calm and indifferent.
[Not angry?]
[Is it because it isn't valuable enough?]
Gojo Satoru reached over and grabbed the Split Soul Katana, whose effect ignored hardness.
Pretending to test something, he raised it as though he were about to slash the Playful Cloud a couple of times.
The corner of Asou Akiya's mouth twitched slightly, yet he ruthlessly ignored Gojo Satoru's antics.
"Playful Cloud is a gift I'm preparing for Suguru."
Gojo Satoru immediately tossed aside the now-useless Split Soul Katana and hung Playful Cloud around his neck. Wearing an aggrieved expression, he complained:
"You've never given me a gift!"
Asou Akiya lined up the various cursed tools side by side. Among Toji's collection, the largest category was blades and swords.
"Take whatever you like. It's all yours if you want it."
"I don't want anything that belonged to that gigolo!"
"Fushiguro Toji wasn't a gigolo. Gigolos have to show up for work and clock in every day. He couldn't have done that job. He was simply a textbook unemployed drifter. The photo I showed you last time was just a joke."
"But he used to live off women and let them support him with money. That's pathetic."
"...Did the Gojo Clan investigate him?"
"Yep. I had them look into Fushiguro Toji's background. It took a little time."
Gojo Satoru lost interest in the dazzling assortment of cursed tools and shifted his attention to the person diligently organizing them.
"See? You really did know."
Lying on the carpet, he lazily flicked the neatly sorted cursed tools with his fingers.
"You're ridiculously invested in your idol. You even know all about his private life. If that's the case, why didn't you stop him from taking the mission?"
Asou Akiya couldn't help but laugh.
"You're giving me far too much credit."
"To him, I was just an annoying jujutsu sorcerer."
"And I'd only met him once, at the Naha Airport. At the time, he seemed to be inspecting everyone passing through the airport. He recognized me as a student from Tokyo Jujutsu High and developed killing intent toward me. I almost died there. Fortunately, I managed to call Zen'in Naoya in time, and Toji knew he wanted nothing to do with anyone connected to the Zen'in Clan..."
Gojo Satoru stopped fooling around.
He had never imagined that Fushiguro Toji had once intended to kill Asou Akiya.
"Akiya, why didn't you call me?"
Asou Akiya answered with something that seemed entirely unrelated.
"There are rumors that the strongest Heavenly Restriction can break the causality and fate of the jujutsu world. They are an anomaly among anomalies—a person cursed by the heavens themselves. If such a person were to intervene in this incident, there was a chance he could sever the entanglement between Tengen, the Six Eyes, and the Star Plasma Vessel, bringing an end to the tragic cycle of Assimilation that has persisted for centuries."
Rather than answering directly, Asou Akiya used another perspective to convey his true meaning.
I was prepared for the possibility that you and Suguru would abandon the mission.
I was preparing a way out for you in places you could not see.
A trace of regret suddenly surfaced in Gojo Satoru's heart.
On the journey to meet the Star Plasma Vessel, he had asked for Getou Suguru's opinion.
Yet he had never asked for Asou Akiya's.
And the person he had overlooked had quietly handed the choice to him from the very beginning.
Gojo Satoru asked:
"So the reason you wouldn't let Suguru take pictures of me was because you guessed I'd lower my guard?"
"That's right."
To Asou Akiya, who seemed to possess a built-in filter whenever it came to the endlessly curious Gojo Satoru, everything about him was adorable.
"I understand Fushiguro Toji, so naturally I understand you as well."
His fingertip lightly pressed against Gojo Satoru's forehead, at the spot where the scar had once been.
Now, there was no trace of it left.
"The two of you were destined to fight. A contest to determine who is the strongest."
Gojo Satoru answered without the slightest hesitation:
"You bet on me to win."
Asou Akiya smiled naturally, genuine happiness appearing in his expression.
"Yes. The stakes were so high that I even considered the consequences of failure."
["I said it before."]
["There will never be a second pair of Six Eyes in this lifetime."]
Gojo Satoru understood immediately.
The "consequences" referred to making every culprit pay with their lives.
To accomplish that goal, Asou Akiya had even been prepared to let the Six Eyes—the very pride of the Gojo Clan—vanish from the world forever.
A fierce battle and a magnificent finale.
The old conservatives back home would never know how close they had come to losing the Gojo Clan's position among the Three Great Clans.
Fushiguro Toji could sever the chains of causality surrounding Master Tengen.
Either win or lose—
How exhilarating!
Gojo Satoru felt proud of his victory.
He delighted in his irreplaceable status.
He even laughed at the thought of a future where the Gojo Clan would no longer dominate the jujutsu world.
He looked every bit like a rebellious heir with no sense of filial duty whatsoever.
"Akiya, even though you promised that I wouldn't die alone, I don't agree with that."
"As if it's your decision to make."
"Damn it! A one-vote veto?!"
"It has nothing to do with voting."
Over the years, Asou Akiya had taught Gojo Satoru many things he had never cared about before.
"In this world, only death is truly free. For the weak, who lack freedom in every other aspect of life, death is the one outcome they can still choose according to their own will."
"If a day ever comes when even death is no longer a choice, then that would be the true hell in my eyes."
"Gojo, I won't allow you to drag me into hell."
This little tangerine really had too many demands.
Not only could no villains be allowed near him—
He also wasn't allowed to let Akiya fall into hell?
Resting his chin on one hand, Gojo Satoru accompanied Asou Akiya in sorting the cursed tools, finding the entire conversation unexpectedly entertaining.
The Six Eyes faithfully recorded every cursed technique it observed.
Then, as always, it relayed the information exactly as it was.
Meanwhile, his brain automatically simulated methods of fighting against each cursed tool and countering their abilities.
A fresh mountain breeze drifted through the dormitory window.
The gauze curtains swayed gently.
Fluttering alongside them was a peaceful stretch of life, serene and carefree.
Suddenly, Gojo Satoru spoke.
"Akiya, do you want to learn the Three Great Clans' secret anti-domain technique?"
"I don't."
"But, I'm your greatest Gojo-sensei!"
"I'll learn it through my own methods. If I can't learn it, then it simply means I'm not fated to have it."
"...are you going to the Zen'in again?"
"I didn't say anything. Stop making wild guesses."
"There are only three Great Clans, aren't there? The only people from the Three Great Clans at this school are me and Zen'in Naoya. You still think you can fool me? I've already evolved! Reverse Cursed Technique can continuously refresh my brain cells!"
Gojo Satoru knocked on his own head to prove that he was no longer the person who could be led around in circles so easily.
"Pfft."
Faced with an energetic Gojo Satoru who looked ready to tear the house apart, Asou Akiya needed only a single sentence to deal with him.
"A Gojo will always be a Gojo. It won't change. Later, let's go pick out a new sofa and carpet together."
Gojo Satoru immediately stuffed all the cursed tools with sticky notes attached into the ugly cursed spirit's mouth.
"Then let's hurry up and go!"
Without the slightest urgency, Asou Akiya continued organizing his assets.
"Alright."
His assets: +1 +1 +1 +1…
The ugly cursed spirit heard that they were going out and instinctively climbed onto Asou Akiya. It wrapped itself around him and rubbed against his chest and abdomen, trying to find the same broad chest its former owner had possessed.
Disappointed.jpg
After seeing this, Gojo Satoru exaggeratedly exclaimed: "Akiya, it's taking advantage of you!"
Asou Akiya glanced at Gojo Satoru.
The latter still had the build of a teenager—slim waist, slender legs, and when he lay on his stomach, his backside looked completely flat.
Unmoved, Asou Akiya replied, "It's fine. The next time we go out, I'll have Suguru take care of it for a while. It'll probably like Suguru's chest more."
After all, this was his precious eldest son.
A portable weapons vault worth several billion yen!
...
Late that night, after returning to rest, Getou Suguru had the distinct feeling that someone outside was calling him "mommy".
The voice sounded especially pitiful.
He jolted upright in bed like a corpse suddenly springing back to life.
"...must be my imagination."