The summer of 2006 began unlike any other.
Summer's opening "surprise" that year came in the form of devastating typhoons and tsunamis that struck across Japan, leaving disaster in their wake.
Panic spread among the populace, cursed spirits erupted in unprecedented numbers, and with them came hellish overtime for the entire jujutsu world.
"Emergency mission! Exorcise a Grade 2 cursed spirit!"
"Emergency evacuation! A new supernatural hotspot has appeared in Tokyo! Sixteen people have already gone missing!"
"Urgent notice! The threat assessment for the typhoon-related cursed spirit in Hokkaido was incorrect! It is suspected to be a Semi-Grade 1 cursed spirit!"
"Emergency request for reinforcements! A Grade 1 sorcerer has gone missing during a mission in Osaka! A distress signal was received before contact was lost!"
"Kyoto has activated a large-scale barrier! In the Tokyo region, using Tokyo Jujutsu High and the Imperial Palace as central points, expand outward and eliminate all cursed spirits! Protect the Imperial Family! Protect the Tombs of the Star Corridor! Protect the Cursed Vault! All active jujutsu sorcerers in Japan are to report to Jujutsu Headquarters immediately! We are critically short on manpower!"
"All members of the Windows are prohibited from taking leave. All assistant managers will have their days off canceled. Rotating shifts are now in effect for everyone."
"All students of the Tokyo and Kyoto campuses are to remain on standby. Jujutsu students may not refuse missions appropriate to their grade! Heat hazard pay, transportation allowances, and meal stipends will all be doubled for this summer!"
Cursed spirits erupted across the country.
Low-grade cursed spirits multiplied like maggots, endlessly spawning one after another. From among them, mid- and high-grade cursed spirits emerged. The high-grade ones rarely strayed far from where they were born, but once they appeared, they became disasters capable of terrorizing entire regions.
The cursed energy fluctuations detected by the Windows were overwhelming.
Under normal circumstances, Jujutsu Headquarters was perpetually understaffed, but never to the point of mobilizing the entire jujutsu world and canceling everyone's days off. Even the Higher-Ups had no desire to provoke every sorcerer and support staff member in the country.
This time, however, things were different.
The Higher-Ups intended to suppress the darkness engulfing all of Japanese society.
Every screw was tightened.
Every gear was forced into frantic motion.
There was no lubricant to keep the machinery running—only blood.
Everywhere, ordinary people cried out in despair, their pleas for help echoing without end.
To prevent cursed spirits from spilling over into ordinary society, even Jujutsu Headquarters' notoriously bloated bureaucracy became startlingly efficient. Without the slightest hesitation, it drove every sorcerer like a beast of burden. The stronger a sorcerer was, the heavier their workload became.
The Japanese government was equally overwhelmed. As reports of the jujutsu world's deteriorating situation reached them, they struggled to coordinate disaster relief while urgently approving emergency funding. They understood all too well that cursed spirits and jujutsu sorcerers could never be exposed to the general public. The consequences would be unimaginable.
Aside from the curse users lurking in the shadows, no one in the jujutsu world could remain uninvolved.
Not even the Three Great Clans.
Under pressure from the higher-ups, Yaga Masamichi, the soon-to-be principal of Tokyo Jujutsu High, no longer showed his students the leniency he once had when assigning missions.
The "strongest" working together as a duo?
Not anymore.
The "strongest" taking classmates along to exorcise cursed spirits, gain experience, and treat missions like sightseeing trips?
Even less so.
Jujutsu Headquarters understood their abilities perfectly well. The fastest way for the two of them to complete missions was to split them up.
As Japan's only active Special Grade and Semi-Special Grade sorcerers, Getou Suguru and Gojo Satoru would accept an assignment, rush nonstop to the scene, exorcise the cursed spirit, then immediately head for the next location, repeating the cycle over and over again. Whether the mission involved exorcising cursed spirits or rescuing civilians depended entirely on Tokyo Jujutsu High's assignments.
The shelves Asou Akiya had prepared for the summer were packed from top to bottom with travel necessities and instant food.
He had done everything he could to stock supplies they might need throughout the season, making life far easier for Gojo and Getou as they raced from one mission to the next.
Getou had assumed the mint candies were simply snacks Akiya had bought for Ieiri Shoko.
He wasn't entirely wrong.
But he wasn't entirely right, either.
Swallowing cursed spirit orbs was nearly unbearable. During his constant business trips, his appetite disappeared and his throat ached so badly that, in the end, the cool sting of mint candies became the only thing keeping him going.
Compared to Getou Suguru, who was known during missions for his gentle demeanor, meticulous care, and overwhelmingly positive reputation, Gojo Satoru represented the opposite extreme.
The moment he left his friends' sight, it was as though he reverted to something almost divine.
He was calm, cold, and impeccably efficient.
He pushed his speed to the absolute limit, completing missions at a breathtaking pace.
More often than not, even when ordinary civilians were trapped or had suffered minor injuries, he wouldn't spare them a glance. He would dispel the Curtain, leave the scene immediately, and head straight for the next mission.
In Gojo Satoru's eyes, those people could call the police or an ambulance for help.
He understood that only he alone possessed the strength to deal with cursed spirits of every level. The longer he lingered in one place, the more likely it was that another disaster would erupt somewhere else.
After a month of relentless, high-intensity missions, a single belief gradually took root in his heart.
Nothing was more important than the mission.
He slaughtered cursed spirits as effortlessly as mowing down grass. No cursed spirit's innate technique could shake him, and not a single one was capable of inflicting so much as a scratch upon him. He walked through every area the Windows deemed dangerous, immaculate as ever—not a speck of dust on his clothes, not a drop of sweat on his brow. Compared to the sorcerers struggling through desperate battles, he seemed less like one of their peers than an entirely different species that merely happened to share the same profession.
Such inhuman rationality and overwhelming strength were beyond the comprehension of everyone else in the jujutsu world.
Rumors about Gojo Satoru's increasingly unsettling behavior had yet to spread.
Not because no one had noticed, everyone was simply too busy to gossip.
Meanwhile, Asou Akiya had spent the past month partnering with Zen'in Naoya. They were still getting used to fighting together, so their teamwork in battle was only average. Oddly enough, though, they worked together exceptionally well when it came to staying alive.
At the moment, they were driving to a mission to exorcise a Grade 2 cursed spirit.
Since Asou Akiya could drive, Tokyo Jujutsu High had temporarily issued him a valid driver's license.
To avoid having to watch what they said, Asou Akiya hadn't brought an Assistant Manager along.
During missions, he simply filled that role himself, collecting two salaries and two expense reimbursements in the process. At the same time, he forced Naoya to learn how to drive so they could take turns behind the wheel and make sure neither of them became dangerously exhausted.
Taking Naoya's combat ability into account, Yaga Masamichi only assigned the pair missions ranging from Grade 3 cursed spirits up to Semi-Grade 1 at most.
However, cursed spirits were inherently unpredictable supernatural beings.
Neither the Windows nor Yaga could guarantee that every threat assessment was accurate. Encountering cursed spirits that exceeded their expected grade was simply a fact of life for jujutsu sorcerers.
During missions, it was inevitable that sorcerers would occasionally run into members of the Three Great Clans.
Zen'in Naoya's understanding of the outside world came almost entirely from the Zen'in clan. Having heard stories about Gojo Satoru from the clan's sorcerers, he relayed them to Akiya.
"Satoru-kun has gotten even stronger. He took down a high-grade cursed spirit in Shinjuku all by himself!"
Asou Akiya frowned, "Gojo's handling that many missions on his own?"
With poorly concealed malice, Zen'in Naoya asked, "Akiya, you nearly killed someone that powerful once. Do you regret it now...?"
"No." Asou Akiya answered without hesitation.
"You can handle today's mission yourself. I have something I need to take care of."
He pulled the van over to the side of the road and unceremoniously kicked Naoya out.
Zen'in Naoya exploded. "The mission site's only one kilometer away! At least drive me there before you run off, you bastard!"
The van shot away in a cloud of dust.
Far ahead, the driver's-side window rolled down, and a hand waved lazily at him in farewell.
Then Asou Akiya immediately called in a favor through his Assistant Manager contacts and drove straight toward Gojo Satoru's current mission site.
Fortunately, it wasn't very far away.
But he had underestimated Gojo Satoru's efficiency.
He missed him at two mission sites in a row, never even catching a glimpse of his back.
Refusing to give up, Asou Akiya finally intercepted Gojo Satoru at the airport just as he was waiting to board his flight. Gojo Satoru was rummaging through his backpack, pulling out a power bank to charge his phone.
"Akiya?"
The tall white-haired high schooler sat in the VIP lounge wearing sunglasses over his sharp nose bridge. Chewing on a mint candy, he looked like an odd blend of school uniform and business traveler, attracting plenty of attention.
An Assistant Manager slumped exhausted in the seat beside him. "Akiya-kun."
"Do you still have enough candy?" Akiya asked. "You've been eating it pretty often, haven't you?"
After exchanging a brief nod with the Assistant Manager, Asou Akiya focused entirely on Gojo Satoru. He took every piece of candy he had on him and stuffed it into Gojo's hands.
Gojo Satoru accepted them with a guilty expression.
The person whose sugar intake Akiya had always strictly controlled while they were at school had been consuming far too much of it lately.
Asou Akiya took Gojo Satoru by the arm. "Let's talk outside."
The moment Gojo Satoru left, the Assistant Manager visibly relaxed, silently thanking Asou Akiya for rescuing him from the pressure, if only for a little while.
Haneda Airport in Tokyo was a familiar place to students of Tokyo Jujutsu High.
Asou Akiya could remember every visit he'd ever made there.
But none of those memories had ever been as devoid of laughter as this one.
There was nothing left except the endless repetition of missions.
"You don't have a mission to do?" Gojo Satoru was the first to break the heavy silence between them.
"Naoya's there. I can afford to slack off for a little while."
Asou Akiya didn't think there was anything wrong with that.
"That Zen'in guy's strength—"
Gojo Satoru paused for a moment before his thoughts finally caught up with something else.
"Since when did you start calling that rotten orange by his name?"
"He's my partner now. If I keep calling him 'Zen'in,' it's too easy to mix him up with the others." Asou Akiya answered without missing a beat. "You know how often we run into members of the Three Great Clans during missions."
Before Gojo Satoru could steer the conversation elsewhere, Asou Akiya deliberately sighed in disappointment. "You don't send me any photos anymore."
Gojo Satoru immediately pulled out his phone, still connected to the power bank. "I thought you, Suguru, and Shoko were all too busy to look at them."
Click. Click. Click.
In just a few seconds, Gojo Satoru had already snapped several selfies of the two of them together in the airport.
In the frozen image, Asou Akiya wore a completely expressionless face, making Gojo Satoru's obvious delight at seeing his friend stand out all the more.
Gojo Satoru blinked. "...Huh?"
He enlarged the photo. "Akiya... are you unhappy?"
Asou Akiya lowered his voice. "You've been running high-intensity missions nonstop for an entire month. How could I possibly be happy?"
It genuinely frightened him.
Without saying a word, Gojo Satoru had quietly taken on even more missions than Getou Suguru. Anyone who didn't know better would think Getou was the Semi-Special Grade sorcerer instead.
The twenty-eight-year-old Gojo Satoru knew how to slack off on business trips, stall when appropriate, balance work with rest, and somehow make even a 24/7 schedule enjoyable.
So why had the sixteen-year-old Gojo Satoru, once left to handle missions on his own, turned himself into nothing more than a machine for completing assignments?
Gojo Satoru was caught completely off guard by Asou Akiya's subdued mood.
Thinking back over the past month, he couldn't recall making any mistakes.
"Akiya, I just wanted to finish the missions sooner so you guys wouldn't have to deal with high-grade cursed spirits."
"You and Naoya have a hard enough time against Grade 1 cursed spirits as it is. Whether you survive depends partly on luck."
"As long as I'm around, it'll be fine."
Gojo Satoru had switched from calling him "that Zen'in" to simply "Naoya," indirectly acknowledging that Zen'in Naoya was helping protect Akiya.
"There's no such thing as earning all the money in the world," Asou Akiya said. "Missions are the same."
Gojo Satoru immediately argued back. "There are only so many high-grade cursed spirits. If Suguru and I keep taking every exorcism mission involving Semi-Grade 1 and above, sooner or later we'll wipe them all out."
Asou Akiya patiently reasoned with him. "You still haven't mastered long-distance teleportation and for long trips, you're dependent on ordinary transportation. Most of your time is spent traveling to mission sites, so what if you can reduce a battle that takes an ordinary sorcerer an hour to a single second? Your advantage only reaches its fullest potential over short distances. Once you're forced into one long-distance mission after another, you're no different from any other sorcerer."
Gojo Satoru stared blankly for a moment. "...Huh?"
Excellent at math as he was, Gojo Satoru instinctively began calculating his own efficiency.
Reluctantly, he had to admit Asou Akiya was right.
He should stop taking long-distance missions.
Gojo Satoru clicked his tongue in frustration.
"Yaga keeps assigning me rescue missions. He keeps sending me all over the place to pull people out. It's not like I can avoid traveling long distances even if I want to."
"I understand," Asou Akiya replied. "But that's a separate issue."
Asou Akiya spoke again.
"Can you promise me one thing? Whenever you exorcise a cursed spirit, set aside an extra ten minutes from each mission to help the people there."
Gojo Satoru answered without hesitation. "No way."
Then he said frankly, "So you think I'm too cold too? I don't want to waste time rescuing ordinary people who aren't hurt or who only have minor injuries."
He complained, genuinely unable to understand. "Come on. Half of them are just scared out of their minds. They're hiding in a corner because their legs gave out!"
Asou Akiya silently met Gojo Satoru's defiant gaze.
Gradually, Gojo Satoru's voice fell quiet.
Only after he had stopped speaking did Asou Akiya continue. His hand never loosened its grip around Gojo Satoru's wrist. "I used to be one of those ordinary people whose legs gave out from fear. My parents were killed by a cursed spirit. The sorcerer who exorcised it and saved me never looked at me even once."
Asou Akiya: "I didn't know what he looked like, I didn't know how strong he was, what grade of sorcerer he was, or how many years he'd worked in this profession. When I was just under fourteen years old, all he left me with was the sight of his back as he walked away. Everything after that was left to the police."
Asou Akiya: "I don't think a true hero should look like that."
Asou Akiya: "He shouldn't have ignored my tears, shouldn't have turned away from my parents' horrific deaths. He should have... Even just patting my head would have been enough."
Asou Akiya: "If someone had done that for me when I was at my most terrified... I would have been grateful to them for the rest of my life."
He gently lifted Gojo Satoru's right hand and placed it atop his own head.
"Do you remember what I was like when I first enrolled? I was so thin and I was even shorter than I am now. During hand-to-hand combat class, even a single hit hurt so much I could barely stand it. And yet someone like me still chose to follow in the footsteps of jujutsu sorcerers. I still chose to enter the jujutsu world and fight cursed spirits."
"I remember..." Gojo Satoru murmured.
"So from now on, whenever you meet someone like I used to be, or a child even younger than I was... Could you stay with them for just a little longer?"
"Akiya..."
"Pat them on the head. Or give them a hug."
"..."
"You can think of them as countless weaker versions of me, countless versions of me who might one day awaken cursed energy. I lost the chance to meet the hero who saved me, but they still have a chance to see a hero's face. A chance to receive comfort after escaping death and danger."
Asou Akiya's words were like medicine wrapped in honey. Even so, Gojo Satoru wasn't the type to swallow everything whole. He was far too picky for that.
"They'll never become another Asou Akiya," Gojo Satoru said. "Ninety percent of people still can't see cursed spirits even when they're on the verge of death. Their hearts are fragile and they instinctively reject strangers getting close to them. From their perspective, everything I do is bizarre. In their eyes, I'm just waving at empty air so I rarely get thanked. So I've never understood why the jujutsu world is so strict about using Curtains, they can't even see cursed spirits."
Asou Akiya's fingers tightened around his wrist before slowly relaxing again.
He looked at Gojo Satoru with complete seriousness.
"Gojo, do you agree that the human heart is fragile?"
Gojo Satoru hesitated. He glanced cautiously at Asou Akiya's expression. "...Yeah."
"Then, for the sake of protecting those fragile hearts," Asou Akiya said, "stay an extra ten minutes. Just treat it as a ten-minute break between missions. Can you do that?"
Gojo Satoru protested immediately. "You're using a fallacy! I don't get tired that easily!"
Asou Akiya stepped forward and wrapped his arms around him.
Ignoring Gojo Satoru's displeased expression, he raised his voice in the sparsely populated corner of the airport.
"I am usilng a fallacy! I do think you'll get tired! What, are you determined to argue with me over this? Why can't you use those ten minutes to take some photos or videos? Let me see what you look like when you're saving people. Let me see the smiles on the faces of the people you rescued! I refuse to believe you're so busy that you can't spare even ten minutes!"
Gojo Satoru was completely stunned by Asou Akiya's unreasonable outburst.
For a fleeting moment, it felt as though he had encountered something even more terrifying than a cursed spirit.
...Akiya was being unreasonable?
...Akiya had actually admitted he was using a fallacy of semantics?
The shock was on par with watching Ash Ketchum punch Pikachu to the ground with one fist before catching a Thunderbolt with his bare hands.
Asou Akiya softened his tone while refusing to back down.
"Gojo, you're not a machine. If I die because you spent those extra few minutes helping someone else... Then that would simply mean I wasn't capable enough. I'm a jujutsu sorcerer, I'm not afraid of the risks that come with exorcising cursed spirits. And you're a jujutsu sorcerer too, so you should understand something that even ordinary people know. Everyone is the first person responsible for their own life."
Gojo Satoru felt uncomfortable all over.
He hurriedly broke free of the embrace, retreated to the wall, and eyed Asou Akiya with caution, wary of yet another sugar-coated barrage. "I get it already! You don't have to explain it to me like I'm some little kid!"
"So? Are you going to promise me?"
Gojo Satoru shot back with a question of his own.
"Have you said all this to Suguru too? Would Suguru even agree to it?"
Asou Akiya let out a quiet scoff.
"You have Reverse Cursed Technique, so you can keep pushing yourself far longer than he can. He doesn't have that advantage, and he's the type who always compares himself to you. So of course I'm going to talk you into it first. Once I have a good example to point to, I'll deal with that Special Grade workaholic of the jujutsu world."
For a brief instant, the sharp edge hidden beneath Asou Akiya's gentle demeanor surfaced before disappearing just as quickly.
He looked at Gojo Satoru with sorrowful eyes.
"Gojo."
Gojo Satoru didn't avert his gaze.
Wherever Asou Akiya was, the Six Eyes automatically gathered every detail about him.
He looked directly at Asou Akiya's face.
This man is gentle and refined, with wisdom shining in both of his eyes. A sheen of sweat still lingered on his forehead from the long journey he'd rushed through just to get here.
"Akiya," Gojo Satoru said quietly, "me becoming stronger triggered this new wave of cursed spirit outbreaks."
"Exorcising cursed spirits is my responsibility."
"As for saving people… That's really just something I do along the way."
"My priority is exorcising cursed spirits."
Those were the honest thoughts buried deep within the heart of this generation's Six Eyes.
"I don't believe you."
Asou Akiya rejected them without a moment's hesitation, swiftly and decisively, like a student who had already seen the answer to the exam.
"If you had no compassion, why would you try to save the world?"
"If you had no desire to save people, why would you rush from one mission to the next?"
"Ordinary people are people and Jujutsu sorcerers are still people too. Every second of every day, people die in this world in countless different ways. Gojo, you're not just fulfilling the responsibility that the jujutsu world has forced onto your shoulders. You're working desperately to save people."
"And there's one belief that was drilled into you after the fact… one belief that I intend to correct."
[Correct my way of thinking?]
Gojo Satoru's furrowed brows slowly relaxed. The irritation he'd been feeling began to fade under Asou Akiya's words.
"You were born with the Six Eyes. To you, ordinary people, jujutsu sorcerers, and cursed spirits all began on equal footing."
"I don't believe you hate cursed spirits because they're ugly."
[...That actually sounds about right.]
Gojo Satoru instinctively searched for a flaw in Asou Akiya's reasoning.
Unfortunately, Asou Akiya's logic was one step ahead of his.
"You've never cared whether something is beautiful or ugly."
[That's true. Some cursed spirits are really ugly, but they're still pretty interesting.]
"What you hate is their twisted nature."
"You hate the malice they harbor toward humanity from the moment they're born."
[Now that I think about it... that's exactly what I hate.]
"You're human."
[That's right. I've said that myself.]
"You simply want to do your part for humanity. You want to save people."
[...Do I?]
Asou Akiya clenched his fist, pressing his thumb lightly against his own chest as he calmly and resolutely declared,
"And as one of those humans… I'm asking you to slow down when you're saving people. Look back at the people you've rescued. Shakyamuni was a leader, a guide, he opened the way for others. He wasn't someone who charged ahead alone just to look impressive."
[Shakyamuni again?! You're pulling this stunt on me again!]
"I don't want you to end up becoming someone like Ksitigarbha, forever standing guard over a single place."
[Huh? Wait... Didn't Ksitigarbha vowed not to attain Buddhahood until hell was empty. Is Akiya comparing the human world to hell?]
"The mistakes you've accumulated over this past month can still be corrected."
[That's nonsense! I haven't done anything wrong!]
In this summer, when the jujutsu world was working its sorcerers like beasts of burden, Asou Akiya gripped tightly onto the switch that separated good intentions from disaster, refusing to let it be flipped.
Even though it was difficult, Asou Akiya was determined to salvage Gojo Satoru's increasingly precarious reputation. He refused to let him become a monster in the eyes of his fellow sorcerers.
"Gojo Satoru, can't you tell whether I'm doing this for your sake or not?"
"Of course you're doing it for my sake."
Gojo Satoru answered instantly, not a fraction of a second slower than Asou Akiya had been in rejecting his way of thinking.
As long as they focused on the issue itself and spoke honestly, their conversations never devolved into a clash of stubbornness.
A smile spread across Asou Akiya's face.
"I'm telling you, my approach will let you save more people, earn more trust, and get proper rest. I'll also help you filter your missions and coordinate with the assistant managers, so your strength is used where it matters most."
Gojo Satoru quietly looked at him.
The whole arrangement sounded troublesome.
But all the most troublesome parts would be handled by someone else.
[He's helping me.]
[I can leave the small things to Akiya's judgment... But this is a big matter, isn't it? Should I listen to him? Wouldn't that mean abandoning my principles?]
For one of the rare times in his life, Gojo Satoru's softer, more emotional side overpowered his rational mind.
"But you'll get exhausted too, Akiya. Processing that much information is incredibly tiring. I've experienced something similar myself. You don't know Reverse Cursed Technique either. You still have your own missions to handle and that guy Naoya probably isn't making your life any easier."
Asou Akiya replied without hesitation,
"For your Star Plasma Vessel mission, I was prepared to stay awake for three days and three nights. Do you really think this scares me?"
Gojo Satoru choked on his words. "...Akiya, you'll work yourself to death."
Asou Akiya responded with the deadpan humor he was so good at. "Before I drop dead from overwork, I'll stab a candlestick into my abdomen. Who knows? Maybe that'll awaken Reverse Cursed Technique."
Gojo Satoru burst into laughter. "Hahaha! That's so like you!"
After laughing for quite a while, he finally gave in to Asou Akiya's stubborn persistence.
"Fine. If I run into anyone under fourteen, I'll stay an extra ten minutes. I'll save them, be their hero, and if I have the time, I'll take pictures too. I won't let you miss seeing me in all my heroic glory when I'm saving people."
"Good job, Gojo. See you later."
Asou Akiya returned to his usual way of encouraging Gojo Satoru.
Gojo Satoru blinked, slipped one hand into his pocket, and flashed him an "OK" sign.
His composed stride lasted only a few moments before it unconsciously gave way to a light, almost bouncy gait.
The expectations of the Gojo Clan.
The casualties suffered by the jujutsu world.
The responsibilities resting on Gojo Satoru's shoulders.
It was as though part of that weight had finally been lifted.
It was a strange feeling.
Responsibility and duty had found harmony.
Protecting the weak was no longer something he did merely because rules and regulations demanded it.
For the first time, Gojo Satoru truly understood a little of what Getou Suguru was always talking about.
Under Asou Akiya's guidance, he had finally discovered within himself a trace of compassion and acceptance toward humanity.
—I'm a living, breathing human being.
...
No matter what, saving people should be something I choose because it's what I truly want—not just something that happens as a byproduct of exorcising cursed spirits.
Since I don't feel any resistance or aversion, I'll just keep doing what I've always done.
After all, you'll only know the outcome once you've actually done it, right?
———
TL Note:
Ahem. Sorry for disappearing for a few weeks... Depression hit me like a truck again. I'm doing fine now, though!
I'm also back to looking for a job again, so there's that. Updates will probably be slow for a while.
Also, I'm getting into Baccano! now because I read this one fanfic that was pretty damn good, and it really piqued my interest in the series.
The fic is "黑历史太多被找上门怎么办?"(What Do I Do When My Dark History Comes Back to Haunt Me?). It's a massive crossover featuring Fate, Bungou Stray Dogs, Baccano!, Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure... Oh, and The Prince of Tennis is there too, I guess.
And while we're on the topic of other fics, here are a few recommendations I've enjoyed, just in case anyone's interested:
1. "Cos魏尔伦的我穿越了"(Cosplayed as Verlaine and Transmigrated) — Written by the same author who wrote this fic. The real-life Arthur Rimbaud transmigrates into Bungou Stray Dogs and becomes Verlaine. Multiple pairings.
2. "我变成魏尔伦了怎么办"(What Do I Do Now That I've Become Verlaine?)— A guy from Hunter × Hunter transmigrates into Bungou Stray Dogs and becomes Verlaine. Verlaine/Rimbaud.
3. "cos真人也要悬壶济世[综英美]"(Even as Mahito, I Still Have to Save Lives [Marvel/DC]) — A guy becomes Mahito and ends up in the Marvel/DC universe. Mahito/Superman.
4. "cos上弦之贰,穿到咒术界"(Cosplayed as Upper Rank Two and Got Transported to the Jujutsu World) — Doma in Jujutsu Kaisen. Doma/Geto.