When Ieiri Shoko arrived at the school gates, Asou Akiya was already there, seeing the two DKs off.
He had bought the cola that Gojo Satoru wanted to drink in advance and kept it chilled—two cans waiting in a cooler. As for Getou Suguru, who was busy considering the most efficient means of travel, there was little Asou Akiya could do to help in that regard. He did not know the exact location where Amanai Riko was staying, but under the authority of an assistant supervisor, he had already sent Getou Suguru the address of the school Amanai Riko attended—Renchoku Girls' Junior High—along with a map of the campus, its layout, and her class schedule.
Amanai Riko was a fourteen-year-old middle school student.
She normally lived in an upscale Tokyo apartment and attended school on weekdays. Her classmates knew nothing about her true identity. To them, she was merely a wealthy young lady whose parents were absent and who was looked after by servants.
Amanai Riko knew that the day of Assimilation was drawing near.
Just as she had in the original story, she would undoubtedly insist on going to school.
People standing on the brink of death were often irrational.
They became reckless.
And the two DKs would undoubtedly indulge the wishes of a little girl out of kindness.
A hug.
A farewell.
To Amanai Riko, such experiences would become precious memories.
The only thing she did not know—
Was the danger lurking behind it all.
Asou Akiya turned to Getou Suguru and said, "Suguru, you should depart aboard Rainbow Dragon. Don't waste any time. News has already spread across the underground network that the Time Vessel Association is offering an enormous bounty for the Star Plasma Vessel. Dead or alive."
The relaxed expression on Getou Suguru's face immediately stiffened.
"Will that kind of money attract curse users?"
"Of course it will," Asou Akiya replied. "For them, killing an ordinary person is easy work. They'll be tripping over themselves to take the job."
Because the matter involved their faith, the Time Vessel Association had spared no expense or effort in its attempt to prevent Tengen's Assimilation.
Getou Suguru questioned him further.
"Does the Star Plasma Vessel not possess the talent to become a sorcerer?"
Asou Akiya was no longer an ignorant outsider to the jujutsu world. He had learned how to extract useful information from the countless truths and falsehoods floating around.
"I've asked quite a few people. There's a rumor that Tsukumo Yuki was once one of the Star Plasma Vessels as well. That's supposedly why she spends most of her time overseas."
The moment he heard that, Getou Suguru's pupils contracted sharply.
Special Grade sorcerer Tsukumo Yuki had once been a Star Plasma Vessel?
That revelation was startling.
Getou Suguru immediately turned to look at Gojo Satoru.
Only to discover that the man in question wore a completely baffled expression.
"Really?" Gojo Satoru said. "I didn't know that."
Getou Suguru took a deep breath.
"Gojo, when you get home, please spend some time studying."
Gojo Satoru ignored him completely. After finishing an entire bottle of cola, he shamelessly mooched a mint-flavored lollipop from Ieiri Shoko. The sharp, refreshing taste exploded across his tongue.
As for the source of Asou Akiya's information, Gojo Satoru never questioned it for a second. The Gojo Clan possessed channels, connections, and vast networks of intelligence. What it lacked was someone capable of gathering and organizing all that information with exceptional efficiency.
Asou Akiya happened to be exactly that kind of rare talent.
Ieiri Shoko rolled her eyes and complained, "Are you two leaving or not?"
Chewing on the mint lollipop, Gojo Satoru replied, "Shoko, why are you rushing us? Are you annoyed because I'm eating your candy?"
Shoko immediately poured cold water on his enthusiasm.
"Not really. I'm just worried that if you wait any longer, the mission target will be assassinated before you even get there."
Gojo Satoru radiated confidence.
"There is absolutely no possibility of failure on our mission record."
He grabbed Getou Suguru and used him as supporting evidence.
"This year, I'm one hundred percent becoming a Special Grade sorcerer. I'm not letting Suguru keep showing off ahead of me!"
Getou Suguru merely snorted.
"Hmph."
Asou Akiya raised his phone and snapped a candid photo.
"Let's preserve this moment."
Getou Suguru rolled his eyes. He was never fond of having his picture taken, but beneath his perfunctory attitude was a youthful pride that he could not entirely conceal.
"You've taken so many photos of us, yet you've never once used either of us as your phone wallpaper."
With a wave of his hand, Cursed Spirit Manipulation activated.
A massive white dragon emerged from a black vortex.
Its scales shimmered brilliantly beneath the sunlight. Unlike most cursed spirits, there was nothing grotesque or hideous about it. Instead, it possessed the cold majesty and oppressive presence of a being that transcended humanity.
Among Getou Suguru's classmates, Rainbow Dragon was universally acknowledged as the coolest means of transportation imaginable.
"Gojo, get on," Getou Suguru called.
Gojo Satoru leaped onto the dragon's head. As he searched for a comfortable place to sit, he casually called back, "Akiya, Suguru and I will be back in no time."
In no time?
Asou Akiya caught a subtle implication hidden within those words—something different from the original story.
After more than three hundred days of acquaintance, after all the carefully crafted questions and deliberate guidance, had he finally managed to influence Gojo Satoru?
Gojo Satoru now understood why Master Tengen had remained within the Tombs of the Star Corridor for a thousand years.
He understood the karmic connection between the Gojo Clan and Master Tengen.
He understood the price the jujutsu world was demanding from Amanai Riko's life.
For fourteen years, she had lived in Tokyo, isolated from curses, surrounded by comfort and privilege. Members of the Kuroi family had served as her caretakers, raising her like a treasured young lady while shielding her from the darkness of the world.
And now, all of that was meant to end.
If no outsider intervened, Amanai Riko's only path to escaping the fate of a Star Plasma Vessel would be to stand on her own feet and become strong enough to defy it—to become a Special Grade sorcerer. Yet in this era, there would only ever be one Tsukumo Yuki: free, powerful, and unbound by the fate imposed upon her.
Gojo Satoru's rationality would compel him to weigh the situation carefully.
Gojo Satoru's kindness would compel him to ask Amanai Riko what she wanted.
Rationality and kindness.
What a precious combination.
And it existed within a Six Eyes user who had spent his entire life witnessing humanity's malice.
A faint mist gathered in Asou Akiya's eyes.
The emotions that had accumulated in his heart over countless days suddenly surged forth, and he could not stop himself from shouting before it was too late.
"Gojo! Just follow your heart!"
Don't be influenced by me.
Don't let me interfere with your choice.
The transparent and flawless heart possessed by Gojo Satoru was worth far more than Asou Akiya's so-called optimal solution.
At that moment, Asou Akiya acknowledged his own mediocrity.
He acknowledged his own coldness.
Every action he had taken, every word he had spoken, pointed toward the same answer.
The answer he wanted most was for Amanai Riko to die.
Not for Gojo Satoru and Getou Suguru to save her.
He did not want Gojo Satoru to know his answer.
He did not want Gojo Satoru to change his answer for the sake of a friend.
Rainbow Dragon soared into the distant sky.
Asou Akiya lowered his voice and murmured to himself,
"No matter what choice you make... I'll support it."
So—
All you need to do is act openly and honestly, without shame or regret.
Slowly, Asou Akiya lowered the hand he had raised to call out after them and turned to look at Ieiri Shoko.
With a strangely complicated expression, he said, "Sometimes people do things that make absolutely no sense. They earnestly make mistakes. They diligently commit wrongdoing. They hurriedly change their answers at the last minute. And through all of it... they could have simply done nothing at all. They could have remained silent and watched from the sidelines."
If Asou Akiya had truly chosen to remain a bystander, there would have been no need for him to make any plans regarding the Star Plasma Vessel mission.
The genuine bystander—Ieiri Shoko—answered him calmly.
"I don't particularly care whether the Star Plasma Vessel lives or dies. But you care. Gojo and Getou noticed that you care, too. The things you've said to them have had an effect."
Her gaze drifted toward the sky where Rainbow Dragon had already disappeared.
"Whether you admit it or not, you've already influenced them."
Asou Akiya did not leave immediately. Instead, he remained where he was, gazing quietly at the stretch of lawn beyond the school gates.
"Actually..." he said after a long pause, "I don't really care that much either."
Ieiri Shoko laughed. "Now that sounds like the Asou I know. So what changed you?"
Unable to meet the teasing look in her eyes, Asou Akiya turned his head away.
"Shoko, saying what's truly in your heart is embarrassing."
"That just makes me want to hear it even more."
"..."
"Go on," she urged. "It's only the two of us here. I promise I won't tell them."
Asou Akiya fell silent for a while. When he finally spoke, his voice had become unusually soft.
"...I want them to see a broader future. I don't want them to walk the path I would choose. I want them to walk the paths they choose for themselves. I can be the one who carries the lantern, but I can never be the one who extinguishes the light."
There would be countless roads waiting for them in the future.
Whenever his desire for control surfaced, he would find himself wanting to close off some of those possibilities, wanting to eliminate certain paths before they could ever be taken.
That was wrong.
It was selfish.
And, more importantly, it would be profoundly harmful to the growth of those two DKs.
Asou Akiya was not making excuses for himself. Instead, he was calmly dissecting his own flaws.
"My expectations toward the Star Plasma Vessel have always been too harsh and too unrealistic. I've always hoped that every Star Plasma Vessel would be like Tsukumo Yuki, capable of breaking free from her cage through her own strength instead of relying on someone else to save her."
Ieiri Shoko considered his words for a moment before replying, "But everyone has times when they're powerless, don't they? Times when they wish someone would reach out and pull them up."
The answer she received came so suddenly that it caught her completely off guard.
"Then they should kill themselves."
Ieiri Shoko froze in surprise.
Asou Akiya's expression remained calm as he spoke about life with a startling degree of detachment.
"People can't choose how they're born, but they can choose how they die."
His gaze remained fixed on the distance.
"If I were a Star Plasma Vessel, and if I couldn't reach the heights Tsukumo Yuki reached, then I would use death to escape my fate. At the most crucial moment, the most meaningful moment, the most hopeless moment, I would overturn the entire table."
His tone was neither emotional nor dramatic. It was as though he were merely stating a fact he had long accepted.
"As long as someone is willing to go mad enough, there will always be a measure of freedom left to them. No matter what fate has been imposed upon them, no matter how tightly the cage has been locked, being human means possessing at least one free soul."
The wind brushed past the school grounds.
Asou Akiya lowered his eyes slightly.
"My mistake was projecting my own way of thinking onto other people."
For the first time, there was a trace of self-mockery in his voice.
"I assumed everyone should make the same choice I would make. I assumed everyone should be able to bear the same things I can bear. Without realizing it, I turned that assumption into a standard for judging others."
He paused briefly before arriving at the conclusion he had been avoiding.
"That was cruelty."
"Cruelty that I committed without even realizing it."
For the Star Plasma Vessel mission, Asou Akiya's thoughts were not what mattered.
What truly mattered were the choices made by Gojo Satoru and Getou Suguru.
High above the clouds, Rainbow Dragon cut through the sky as it carried its two riders toward their destination.
Partway through the journey, Getou Suguru suddenly heard Gojo Satoru mutter under his breath,
"Thank goodness Little Tangerine isn't a Star Plasma Vessel."
Getou Suguru shot him a sidelong glance.
"Little Tangerine?"
Gojo Satoru waved his right hand as though sketching the shape of a fruit in the air.
"A little tangerine growing on a citrus tree. Orange-yellow in color, sweet and sour when you bite into it, not rotten, carrying the fresh fragrance of fruit. It's the perfect thing to enjoy during autumn and winter."
A smile tugged at the corner of Getou Suguru's lips, adding a touch of amusement to his expression.
"Akiya?"
"Yeah."
The white eyelashes peeking out beneath the edge of Gojo Satoru's sunglasses flickered in and out of view as he spoke.
"He fits the image of a little tangerine perfectly."
Getou Suguru rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"You know, I've wanted to tell you this for a long time. Are you sure you've mistaken him for the wrong kind of orange?"
Gojo Satoru, who was sitting cross-legged atop the dragon's head, immediately turned toward him.
"Hah?!"
Patiently, Getou Suguru explained,
"Akiya personally told me that he isn't a member of one of the Three Great Sorcerer Clans. He doesn't have any vested interests tied to your family either."
Gojo Satoru's convictions were not so easily shaken.
He immediately presented what he considered ironclad evidence.
"Suguru, Akiya has been taking care of me since the day we enrolled. Back then, I never even gave him a pleasant expression. And a lot of the information he knows comes from the Gojo Clan."
Getou Suguru frowned.
"But he told me that information came from his own sources..."
Gojo Satoru snorted dismissively.
"No way."
Then he pointed at himself with complete confidence.
"I'm the Six Eyes, you know. There's absolutely no way I'd see something like that wrong."
After spending time living as a jujutsu sorcerer student, Gojo Satoru had come to understand many things with startling clarity.
Apart from the Gojo Clan, nobody treated him as a source of light.
Nobody was willing to place him on a pedestal simply for the sake of making him happy.
In a quieter voice, he added,
"Even you don't prepare three meals a day for me, Suguru."
Getou Suguru raised a hand as though he were about to smack him.
"Are you a child? Your hands aren't broken. Cook for yourself!"
Gojo Satoru paid no attention to the threat.
His words flowed as freely as ever, and even the slight sheen on his lips somehow lent him a bright, carefree charm.
"See? That's exactly how you treat me~."
In this world, friendship existed. Friends could fool around together, cause trouble together, and enjoy each other's company. But there was no such thing as unconditional, one-sided devotion without a reason.
"Gojo," Getou Suguru said, "I've put up with that arrogant way you refer to yourself for a long time now. Have you always called yourself ore-sama since you were a kid?"
By now, Getou Suguru no longer viewed Gojo Satoru as someone ignorant of the world. Time and again, Gojo Satoru had proven through countless details that he possessed a way of thinking that was difficult for ordinary people to understand. The mindset of a sorcerer had long since been woven into his very bones.
"Of course not," Gojo Satoru replied immediately. "Back then, I was super well-behaved. I got perfect scores in etiquette classes, and everywhere I went, people praised me."
He stated an obvious truth that sounded so unbelievable that nobody would willingly believe it.
"Later, I realized that if you're too obedient, people start trying to control you."
Getou Suguru considered that for a moment before offering a suggestion.
"Have you ever thought about changing it? It would definitely improve people's first impression of you."
"Nope."
Gojo Satoru rejected the idea without hesitation.
"Not changing it."
Then he added matter-of-factly,
"Don't live according to other people's expectations, Suguru."
Immediately afterward, he turned the conversation around.
"Suguru, if you and Akiya ever become happier than I am, then I'll consider changing it."
Getou Suguru responded with a polite smile that looked utterly fake.
"I'm already pretty happy right now."
Gojo Satoru stared curiously at the smile on his face.
The more he looked, the more unnatural it seemed.
Stretching out a hand, he covered the lower half of Getou Suguru's face.
"Suguru, your eyes aren't smiling at all."
His hand was promptly slapped away.
Gojo Satoru didn't take offense. Leaning back lazily against Rainbow Dragon, he continued in a relaxed tone.
"Yaga-sensei wants to save the Star Plasma Vessel. That's why he used the word erase. It means he thinks Assimilation is too cruel."
His voice remained casual.
"Akiya doesn't want to save the Star Plasma Vessel. He dug up a mountain of ancient records and arguments to support his position."
Then Gojo Satoru stated his own conclusion.
"As for me, I'll ask the Star Plasma Vessel what she wants when we get there. I'll give her one chance to choose."
Getou Suguru looked genuinely surprised.
"I thought you'd already decided not to save her. You nearly scared me."
Gojo Satoru shrugged.
"The part where I want to finish this quickly and go home isn't a lie either. Why would I want to stay out here for so long?"
Back at Tokyo Jujutsu High, there was iced milk tea waiting for them.
There were handmade desserts.
There were all kinds of arcade and video games.
Compared to all of that, spending days wandering around outside on a mission was far less appealing.
Gojo Satoru had never told anyone the true extent of what his eyes could perceive.
Just as Getou Suguru rarely mentioned how many cursed spirits he had already absorbed and tamed, both of them carried secrets unique to sorcerers.
Some things simply belonged to themselves alone.
After seeing Asou Akiya's true feelings, the perpetual chill hidden in Gojo Satoru's eyes softened ever so slightly, giving way to a faint smile.
"Suguru, you want to save her too, don't you?" he said. "Then let's give it a shot."
The prerequisite, however, was simple—
The fourteen-year-old girl named Amanai Riko, whose information sat in their phones, had to possess the determination to escape her fate and leave Japan behind.
Thinking of the woman he had never met, Tsukumo Yuki, Gojo Satoru found himself developing a trace of goodwill toward the Special Grade sorcerer rumored to have once possessed the Star Plasma Vessel constitution. Powerful, free from the curse of her destiny, rebellious to the core—she was every bit as defiant as he was.
In the end, he decided to follow his heart.
He would save those who wanted to live.
He would not save those who wished to die.
Meanwhile, in Tokyo—
The curse users had already made their move.
An explosion erupted at Amanai Riko's residence.
The glass windows of the luxury high-rise apartment shattered into countless fragments. Amid the shower of debris, the young girl's unconscious body plummeted from the broken window. The sudden attack had frightened her into passing out.
Gojo Satoru pointed ahead.
"...Is that our target?"
Cold sweat instantly broke out on Getou Suguru's back.
Without wasting another second, he urgently directed Rainbow Dragon into a steep dive. The massive cursed spirit shot forward through the air and, at an angle that was nearly vertical, reached Amanai Riko just in time.
Getou Suguru caught the falling girl in his arms.
Disaster was narrowly avoided.
"Gojo!" he shouted. "Keep watch around the area and find the curse users responsible!"
Gojo Satoru rolled his shoulders and stretched his limbs.
"No need to make things that complicated."
The effect was almost like instantaneous movement.
"I'll just go deal with them myself."
He needed achievements.
Achievements worthy of a Special Grade promotion.
The moment Gojo Satoru appeared on the battlefield, his distinctive white hair immediately gave away his identity.
Among the members of the curse user Group Q, one of them—Kokun—recognized him at once.
This was a legendary figure on the underground networks.
A child whose bounty had exceeded one hundred million from the moment he was born.
A target whose life no one had successfully claimed to this day.
Kokun could not help but curse inwardly.
[A brat with a bounty worth over a hundred million dollars is protecting another little girl?]
Wasn't the amount of money attached to this mission a little absurd?
No—
This was beyond absurd. It was downright ridiculous.
What Kokun didn't know was that something even more ridiculous was waiting ahead.
Somewhere out there was a man who, for a mere thirty-million-yen down payment, was willing to take on both Gojo Satoru and Getou Suguru by himself, pushing the title of "Sorcerer Killer" to unprecedented heights in terms of cost-effectiveness.
Ten minutes later, the curse user organization Group Q had been completely annihilated.
Gojo Satoru had uprooted the entire group by himself.
On the dark web, he already had a nickname:
The Bane of Curse Users.
After defeating his opponents, Gojo Satoru naturally proceeded to take selfies. He experimented with several different angles, the camera flash going off repeatedly. After carefully selecting the most satisfying photo of his victory, he uploaded it to the group chat titled [Tokyo Jujutsu High Same-Year Quartet].
[Getou Suguru: Take a look at mine. (Photo.jpg)]
Meanwhile, Getou Suguru was sitting inside the wrecked apartment, leisurely brewing black tea as though nothing unusual had happened. He uploaded a photo of his own victory.
Although cursed spirits couldn't be captured in photographs, the image perfectly showcased his defeated opponent's twisted expression of agony. There were even suspicious kiss marks visible on the victim's face.
The culprit was obvious.
A cursed spirit had wrapped itself around the enemy and relentlessly demanded kisses.
"Kiss me~"
[Gojo Satoru: Ugh!]
Among all the cursed spirits Gojo Satoru hated, the pink kissing cursed spirit from the Valentine's Day special ranked firmly at number one.
Without equal.
[Getou Suguru: Jealous?]
Getou Suguru became completely absorbed in chatting on his phone, to the point of ignoring the enemy's surrender.
[Asou Akiya: Finished showing off yet? Have either of you actually met the mission target?]
[Gojo Satoru: Just a little girl. She's with Suguru.]
[Getou Suguru: I'll take a picture and show you.]
Rising from his seat, Getou Suguru walked over to the sofa opposite him.
The girl remained unconscious.
Without giving the matter much thought, he aimed the camera directly at her face and took a close-up shot.
Whether the picture looked good or not never crossed his mind.
Getou Suguru immediately uploaded it.
The result earned an instant expression of disgust from Ieiri Shoko.
[Ieiri Shoko: Tch. That's a fatal-angle photo.]
[Ieiri Shoko: She's unconscious? Is she injured? Do you need me to come over?]
[Getou Suguru: Shoko, her residence isn't that far from the school. I'll send you the address right now.]
[Asou Akiya: Pinch the philtrum. That should wake her up.]
[Asou Akiya: Utahime and I are staying with Shoko. We don't have time to come over.]
[Getou Suguru: ...]
Getou Suguru fell into thought.
After thinking for a while and failing to reach any deeper conclusion, he ultimately attributed Akiya's indifference to the way he treated outsiders.
Then another message arrived.
[Asou Akiya: The curse users outside won't stop moving. I'm not comfortable with Shoko going out alone.]
[Getou Suguru: Understood.]
After contacting the higher-ups to clean up the aftermath of the attack, Gojo Satoru finally arrived and reunited with Getou Suguru at the apartment that had just been blown apart by the explosion.
As usual, Gojo Satoru had absolutely no concept of personal space.
The moment he entered, he ran straight over and slung an arm around Getou Suguru's shoulders from behind.
"Suguru, what are you doing?"
Getou Suguru continued observing the unconscious girl on the sofa.
"I think she's drooling. She looks like she's sleeping pretty comfortably."
"Seriously?"
Gojo Satoru leaned forward to take a closer look.
"She really is. Her nerves are incredible."
The two of them stared at Amanai Riko as though they had discovered an unusually adorable species of hamster they had never seen before.
"Did you try pinching her philtrum?" Gojo Satoru asked.
"No."
Getou Suguru shook his head.
His physical strength was considerable. He was genuinely worried that instead of waking her up, he might accidentally knock her out even harder.
"Since Shoko isn't coming, should we take her to another doctor?"
Gojo Satoru immediately chose the fastest solution possible.
"Why make things so complicated? Let's just bring her back to school. Tokyo Jujutsu High is my territory. As long as I refuse to hand her over, who's going to force me to?"
Getou Suguru raised a thumbs-up.
"At critical moments, you're surprisingly reliable."
Gojo Satoru walked over and picked up Amanai Riko.
His treatment of the Star Plasma Vessel was exceptionally considerate.
Not only did he carry her in a princess carry, but he also deliberately held down the hem of her skirt to prevent the short skirt of her junior high school uniform from exposing anything.
"Let's go, Suguru."
Getou Suguru glanced at him in surprise before smiling.
"Looks like you've finally learned how to be considerate toward girls. Not bad, Gojo."
Getou Suguru had no objections. In fact, he was more than happy to see Gojo Satoru helping other people.
The two of them had barely taken a few steps when Gojo Satoru sensed movement in his arms.
The girl seemed to be waking up.
After several hundred years, the Six Eyes and the Star Plasma Vessel were meeting once again.
Amanai Riko slowly opened her eyes.
Those large blue eyes, still hazy with confusion, reflected the figure of a white-haired man wearing dark sunglasses.
Then—
A loud slap rang out.
...
Back at Tokyo Jujutsu High, Asou Akiya stepped out of the infirmary while maintaining contact with people outside.
"Follow my instructions exactly. Don't do anything unnecessary. Once the job is finished, leave immediately. And on the way out, don't look at anyone for even a second longer than necessary."
On the first day of the Star Plasma Vessel mission, after observing Gojo Satoru's battle, Fushiguro Toji accepted the assassination contract offered by the Time Vessel Association.
Afterward, he headed to a boat-racing venue along the Nakagawa River several kilometers away. There, he leisurely placed a bet on Boat No. 3 and relaxed as though he were merely enjoying a day off.
Toji was extraordinarily sensitive to the gaze of strangers.
Having calculated the timing precisely, Asou Akiya sent a client to investigate on his behalf.
After conducting a discreet inquiry, the client discovered that among the boats participating in that day's race, there was a "Yamazaki" but no "Hatano."
As a result, Asou Akiya placed his entire wager on Boat No. 2, Yamazaki.
This gamble allowed only one outcome.
Victory.
The entire forty-five million yen he had successfully cleaned was riding on that single bet.
Suddenly, a faint palpitation stirred within his chest.
An inexplicable sense of unease washed over him.
It felt as though the person he had sworn to protect had encountered something unpleasant outside the school.
Almost instinctively, Asou Akiya raised his hand.
His fingers brushed through empty air, reaching toward somewhere far away, toward someone standing higher than himself.
"Does it hurt?"
The unspoken question lingered silently in his heart.
Slowly, his fingers curled inward until they formed a fist.
In the Hidden Inventory arc, Gojo Satoru and Getou Suguru were the undisputed protagonists.
Amanai Riko was the heroine.
Everyone else—
Were supporting characters.
Minor players.
Passersby.
Or cannon fodder.
["I don't want to stop you from carrying a girl in your arms. You have a healthy and complete personality, and it's not my place to point fingers at your choices. Amanai Riko is one of the regrets that you and Getou Suguru carry from your DK years. Whatever choice you make, I will support it unconditionally."]
["I'm only sad that I can't take that slap for you."]
["In this youth of yours—"]
["I am merely a supporting character as well."]
...
Inside the apartment, Getou Suguru stopped Gojo Satoru before his temper could fully explode.
"She's perfectly healthy," Gojo Satoru said through gritted teeth. "Let's go back to school."
"No," Getou Suguru replied after glancing at the vivid handprint on Gojo Satoru's face. "We can't go back to Tokyo Jujutsu High yet."
"Why not?" Gojo Satoru's tone was noticeably aggressive.
Getou Suguru fell silent for a moment before speaking with complete sincerity. "Because I'm afraid she'll lose even the opportunity to choose."
Then he voiced the concern that weighed most heavily on his mind.
"I genuinely can't imagine the scene where Akiya sees the handprint on your face and asks me what happened. I don't want to end up taking the blame for this."
There were only two possible outcomes.
Either Getou Suguru would be the unlucky one.
Or Amanai Riko would be.
A chill ran down Getou Suguru's spine.
Given Akiya's methods, sending a girl like Amanai Riko to her death would be an effortless task.
"Gojo, let me explain who we are first. Calm down for a bit. We'll ask her some questions and then decide what to do."
Getou Suguru was equally unhappy that Gojo Satoru had been injured, but considering the culprit was a young girl, he forced himself to suppress his irritation. Turning around, he put on a gentle smile and addressed the visibly nervous Amanai Riko.
"Riko-chan, we're students from Tokyo Jujutsu High. We've been assigned to escort you to meet Master Tengen. However, we're not the kind of people who disregard human feelings, so before the Assimilation takes place, we'd like to formally ask you something."
His expression became more serious.
"Do you want to give up the Assimilation?"
"I don't know either of you!" Amanai Riko immediately shot back. Then, as though she had heard the most ridiculous thing imaginable, she burst into laughter. "Give it up? Why would I give it up? My mission is to become one with Master Tengen! Master Tengen is me, and I am Master Tengen!"
Straightening her back proudly, she declared her belief without the slightest hesitation.
"You have no right to insult me! And especially you—White-Hair!"
Her finger pointed directly at Gojo Satoru.
The room fell silent for a beat.
Gojo Satoru's eye twitched.
The slap had already been bad enough.
Now this little brat was openly provoking him.
For a brief moment, he seriously considered whether carrying her back to Tokyo Jujutsu High over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes might be the better option.
Amanai Riko's chuunibyou tendencies flared up at full force as she struck the pose of a lofty and exalted figure.
Getou Suguru fell silent.
Gojo Satoru fell silent as well.
The playful mood vanished from Gojo Satoru almost instantly.
He had originally intended to tease the Star Plasma Vessel a little, but his expression suddenly turned cold.
"I'm serious."
The more he learned about the jujutsu world and about Tengen, the more he understood that the weights placed on either side of the scale were fundamentally unequal.
On one side stood Master Tengen, who had borne the burden of the jujutsu world for a thousand years.
On the other side stood the life of an innocent girl.
"I'm giving you a chance to live," Gojo Satoru said. "Are you really going to throw it away?"
Amanai Riko immediately pushed back.
"Like I'd believe you people!"
Getou Suguru frowned, finding the situation troublesome. The girl before them was, at the end of the day, an immature middle school student.
"Gojo," he said, trying to smooth things over, "everything she's saying right now is out of anger."
"Oh, I can tell," Gojo Satoru replied. "I used to love arguing with my family too."
A cold smile appeared on his face.
The veins on his forehead twitched.
Then, with a sharp motion, he removed his sunglasses.
The brilliant, cloudless sky reflected in those eyes, yet the breathtaking sight received no appreciation from the people around him.
"Riko-chan~," he drawled, his voice carrying a dangerous edge, "let me tell you something."
His gaze locked onto her.
"A little bean sprout like you isn't even my type."
Then his smile widened slightly.
"Refuse me one more time, and you're done for."
The air froze.
Amanai Riko instantly lost her voice.
The confidence she had displayed moments earlier vanished without a trace as she stood there stammering helplessly.
For the first time, she truly felt what kind of monster was standing before her.
Fortunately, before the awkward silence could continue any longer, Kuroi Misato appeared.
"Miss!"
The familiar voice was like salvation descending from heaven.
Amanai Riko immediately threw herself into her personal attendant's arms without the slightest hesitation.
"That scared me to death! I almost died!"
She clung tightly to Kuroi Misato while her heart pounded wildly in her chest.
That white-haired guy's eyes...
They had given her a sense of impending death far more terrifying than falling from a high-rise building.
For a brief moment, she had genuinely believed she was about to die.