Chapter 27

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When Satoru Gojo discovered this secret technique, he found three warnings.

[Rule One: The world is constructed from memories.]

[Rule Two: Only when the logic is sufficiently convincing will the dreamer accept it as reality.]

[Rule Three: The dreamer's consciousness will exert an uncontrollable influence on the technique's effects.]

***

Damn it.

During the days without the system, Sei Takizawa endured one day after another, checking every place where he thought there might be a flaw, yet he found nothing at all. Had the system abandoned him? Had it finally starved to death because it had run out of points?

“What are you looking for, Sei...?” Satoru Gojo clung to his back and, with a flourish worthy of a magician, produced several tickets. “Let's go to a hot spring!”

Sei had no reason to refuse. He walked toward Satoru, but before he could say anything, Satoru slipped an arm around his neck. A faintly sweet breath brushed against the side of his neck.

“Have those rotten oranges been bothering you lately?”

“You know how they are. They keep repeating the same few things.” Sei imitated the solemn tone of the Gojo clan elders. “Remember, the life of the Six Eyes is of the utmost importance. It matters more than your own life. The jujutsu world cannot do without him.”

Satoru grew irritated just hearing it.

“Why not ignore them altogether? If they come looking for you, just pretend you don't see them.”

“Don't worry. It goes in one ear and out the other. I don't pay them any mind.” Sei smiled. “But I still have to meet with them.”

The young master of the Gojo family dragged out his reply in dissatisfaction. “Why~?”

Because I have to take care of everything for you.

Sei gazed deeply at him.

He had to investigate where power truly lay, map the distribution of influence, secure the first source of intelligence, and cut away as many of the thorns surrounding Satoru's position as head of the Gojo family as possible.

Although that was what he thought—and what he was doing—Sei felt that, at present, he was nothing more than a useful brick.

“Is there anything you want to do?”

“Why are you suddenly asking that?”

“Geto told me. He said you seem to live solely for my sake. If even he sees you that way, then how little sense of self must you appear to have in other people's eyes?” Satoru frowned slightly. “But you're clearly not like that.”

What attracted Satoru most about Sei was that pair of clear, lucid eyes.

Even when others treated him with contempt, he never belittled himself. Even when trapped in a storm of rumors and gossip, he never forgot what he wanted.

When Satoru was ten, he had once asked Sei, “Do you want to leave?”

“No.”

Sei had answered at once. It was not thoughtless flattery, but the calm answer of someone who had long since considered where he wanted to go.

“I rather like you, Satoru, so there isn't anything wrong with staying here.”

“Is that the only reason?”

“You're asking a strange question.” The boy narrowed his eyes. “People are creatures who need companionship.”

“Companionship?”

Sei glanced to either side. A maid was arranging flowers and decorations nearby. He leaned toward Satoru, close enough to be faintly improper.

“I'm going to tell you a secret. I have a tremendously grand ambition!”

Satoru looked at him with leisurely interest.

A cold, inorganic light surfaced in his eyes.

“What is it?”

A finger pressed against his chest. The boy's eyes shone with warmth as he laughed.

“I want to become the person the Six Eyes' divine child trusts most, and turn your side into my home.”

The words seemed to echo, lingering in the air for a long time. Satoru even stopped breathing.

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From the moment he was born, he had realized it—

I am different.

Though he looked just like the people around him, he was like a monster, utterly out of place in this world.

Reverence, prejudice, speculation—he was a being constantly scrutinized, like an exquisite work of art displayed high above the world.

And yet people worshiped him, worshiped a child whose age did not even amount to a fraction of their own.

The one who accompanied Satoru Gojo—

was loneliness.

The Six Eyes' divine child stared wide-eyed.

“...Home?”

Sei opened his arms. Sunlight from the first thaw of winter settled over his shoulders, warming even him.

“The world outside is vast. Although I'm trapped here now, there will surely come a day when I can go wherever I want. But I want somewhere to set down my feet. Didn't you say I was like a down-and-out bird, locked in a cage with broken wings? If that cage shields me from the wind and rain and protects me from my natural enemies, then I can stay there in peace—until my wings heal, until the old cage is shattered by a new force. Then I can fly—!”

Then he could fly.

***

Satoru had an arm around Sei's neck. The sudden closeness made the young man smile with narrowed eyes.

Satoru asked, “Besides wanting to fly, what else do you want to do?”

“Become a jujutsu sorcerer,” Sei said. “Because you're a jujutsu sorcerer. The work is dangerous, but generally speaking, it doesn't require sitting through dull office hours. The irregular schedule actually suits me... Don't look at me like that. I've seriously analyzed my prospects for the future. Ordinary people in normal society do little more than go to school, get a job, and marry. If you set aside the special nature of jujutsu sorcerers and judge it by a rational, even ruthless standard, it's actually a well-paid profession. I might as well do something I'm familiar with and good at.”

He nudged Satoru in the chest with his elbow.

“Besides, wherever you are, that's where I'll be. You want to reform the jujutsu world, don't you? I'll do it with you.”

A strange color passed through Satoru's blue eyes.

“Anything more specific?”

“You've been acting strange lately.” Sei looked puzzled. “Have you suddenly grown a brain? Geto said he wanted to become a jujutsu sorcerer too, but you never questioned him any further.”

He bent down and scooped up Soba, who happened to be passing by, stroking the animal's soft fur.

“If you insist... perhaps a teacher?”

“A teacher?”

Sei's lips curved into a slightly smug smile.

“Have you not noticed how much Haibara and Nanami like me?”

Satoru protested loudly, “They like me a lot too!”

“I have a way with people,” Sei said. “I suppose I'm the kind of person people naturally like, someone who makes it especially easy for them to lower their guard!”

...He was right.

That was exactly how it was.

There was very little negativity about Sei. Even if Geto claimed that spending so much time with Satoru had rubbed off some strange qualities on him, at heart Sei was an exceptionally considerate and sincere person.

Shoko had once discussed it with Geto right in front of them.

“Don't you think Sei is incredibly practiced at taking care of people?”

Geto had felt the same way.

“I always feel as though I'm benefiting by association... Is it because I've gotten used to being around Satoru?”

“Not at all!” Satoru had objected indignantly. “I'm not some troublesome little brat who can't take care of himself. How could Sei possibly have had the chance to practice looking after people on me?”

The outstanding holder of the Excellent Human Tool for Accompanying His Partner Badge, Sei Takizawa, silently closed his mouth.

***

That evening, the group slipped out of Tokyo Jujutsu High and checked in at a newly opened hot-spring inn.

Sei poked at the bubbles in the spring and sighed inwardly. If this world was false, created by some kind of technique, and techniques were usually connected to the brain, then how had its creator managed to reproduce details of this caliber?

Beside him, Satoru took hold of his other hand.

“What is this?”

A red cord was wrapped several times around Sei's wrist, suspending something that looked like a protective charm obtained from a temple.

“Old Man Fengzhi gave it to me.”

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Satoru's expression turned exceedingly unpleasant.

“Why are you still wearing something that rotten orange gave you? You only needed to put on an act in front of him. The moment you leave, you should throw it away.”

As he spoke, he reached out and tugged at it.

Sei did not dodge. Even if Satoru threw it away, he would simply pick it up again.

Suguru Geto watched their interaction speechlessly.

“Do the two of you have to cling to each other even here?”

“That! That thing, Geto—listen to me!” Satoru, having made the cord vanish into ash, suddenly grew animated. “When Sei came crashing into my heart, it was when he swore we'd stay together for the rest of our lives!”

Ah...

Sei had still been thinking about the cursed object that had just been reduced to ash. Hearing that, he belatedly felt embarrassed and covered his face.

“Satoru, could you not bring that up? It's not something you need to brag about to Geto.”

Geto's expression went blank.

“Yes, I've heard it many times. I completely understand your relationship now.”

Then he calmly dropped a bombshell.

“You two are practically on your way to the altar.”

“Cough, cough, cough...”

Sei choked on his own saliva.

What? The altar?

He was just about to say something when a strange sound slipped into his ears.

Almost simultaneously, the three of them leaped from the hot spring and raced into the open space.

Bang!

The spring erupted in a spray of water. A curtain of it rose up, blocking Sei's view. He instinctively dodged to the side, and something struck his shoulder, sending him spinning.

“Ugh.”

He swallowed the cry of pain. As Sei raised his eyes, a current of wind swept across his corneas.

Slanting wooden flooring. Cracked mountain stone. Water droplets glittering brilliantly in the reflected light. A massive Rainbow Dragon surging forward. And the blinding Hollow Purple, twisting and tearing the very space around it.

They had been ambushed.

It was somewhat humiliating that Sei was the only one who had been injured.

Sei rubbed his nose, gritted his teeth, and used his hand to pull the pellet from his shoulder. Blood fizzed from the wound, and he could smell flesh burning.

“This thing doesn't look like an ordinary cursed tool...” Sei handed it to Satoru, whose white-haired face had turned grim.

They were sitting in the lounge. Shoko, who had heard the commotion from the women's bath, had come over and was now skillfully treating Sei with reverse cursed technique.

A cursed spirit captured by Geto stood silently in the corner of the room. Several people were embedded in its viscous body, with only portions of their limbs and faces exposed. Its eyes were dark and murky as it asked, “Who are these people?”

“People from A, I suppose.” Satoru wiped Sei's blood from the pellet with one finger. “They haven't attacked me in a long time.”

“What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said. They used to do this kind of thing all the time.”

A faint anger colored Geto's voice. Sei knew it was because he had been injured, so he explained.

“For Satoru, this is a routine assassination attempt. You already knew that. When they say I'm Satoru's second life, this is essentially what they mean. I was chosen to be his bodyguard.”

“You and Satoru... have you always lived like this?”

“Yes.”

Sei moved his healed shoulder, then raised his brows at the strongest healer.

“Thanks, Shoko! I feel fantastic now!”

Then, in an even voice, he said, “Before I met Satoru, attacks like this had happened countless times.”

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