The events of the morning finally came to an end.
At noon, Asou Akiya had a children's fever patch stuck to his face to reduce the swelling and ease the pain. Its effects were even better than using an ice pack.
Whenever he had free time, he would prepare lunch for two and bring it to Gojo Satoru's dormitory. During the lunch break, the white-haired teenager had changed into a high-collared casual outfit. Holding chopsticks in his right hand and a spoon in his left, he ate with gusto, the rich aroma of meat lingering around him. Ever since mastering the Reversed Cursed Technique, his appetite had increased dramatically. His body's demand for nutritional intake had risen to an entirely new level, to the point where simple rice bowls with toppings were no longer enough to satisfy him.
Asou Akiya had even taught himself the coursework of a nutritionist. He refused to let Gojo Satoru go hungry and resort to stuffing himself with sweets again.
Although Gojo Satoru's enthusiastic way of eating made others hungry just by watching him and tempted people to sit down and share the meal, Asou Akiya rarely ate together with him. He deliberately separated the care he offered as a friend from his own personal life, pursuing a form of affection that was pure and free of ulterior motives.
He understood that persistent drops of water could wear through stone.
Yet Gojo Satoru possessed the heart of a diamond.
He also understood that his desire to take care of Gojo Satoru stemmed from the regret and admiration he had carried over from his previous life. He had never expected any reward in return for doing such things.
Rather than merely standing by and watching Gojo Satoru's live "mukbang", Asou Akiya busied himself tidying up the dormitory.
When he discovered that the other party had carelessly tossed the bedding set onto the bed, Asou Akiya fetched the laundry basket, gathered everything up, and prepared to wash it.
"Just throw it away or burn it."
Carrying his bowl, Gojo Satoru ran over and began directing Asou Akiya with vigorous gestures.
"All right."
Lowering his head, Asou Akiya carefully considered which day this particular bedding set had been used and arrived at the answer: it had been the one used on the occasion when a girl had slept there.
By the same reasoning, he deduced that Gojo Satoru had a degree of cleanliness-related fussiness regarding his own bedding.
Asou Akiya committed those likes and dislikes to memory before seeking his opinion again.
"If Getou Suguru lay on your bed, would it need to be disposed of too?"
Gojo Satoru thought about it for a moment before answering, "Nope. Just wash it normally."
Asou Akiya nodded and opened the wardrobe, pulling out the dirty clothes Gojo Satoru had hidden inside.
He shook out a tattered, bloodstained school uniform.
[Gojo Satoru (16): Battle-Damaged Edition Set] +1
Asou Akiya studied the torn and ruined portions for a long while. Although a fleeting urge to preserve it as a keepsake surfaced in his mind, he ultimately decided that it still had to be destroyed.
There was simply too much blood on it.
Neither his dormitory nor Gojo's had ever been suitable places to safeguard such things.
It was not only the uniform. Even the pool of blood Gojo Satoru had left at the school entrance had been entrusted by Asou Akiya to Ieiri Shoko and Iori Utahime for disposal. Gojo Satoru's blood could not be allowed to fall into the hands of the Higher-Ups or curse users.
Afterward, Asou Akiya removed Gojo Satoru's old school uniforms from the previous year from the wardrobe and wiped away the dust that had gathered inside.
"I'll take care of disposing of the old uniforms for you."
Right in front of Gojo Satoru, Asou Akiya found a pair of scissors and spread the uniforms he no longer needed flat across the floor. He removed the metal zippers one by one, then carefully detached the single golden spiral button that adorned each uniform jacket.
Cursed energy transformed into flames at his fingertips, swiftly reducing the fabric to ashes as a faint scent of scorching drifted through the air.
He cradled the heavy buttons in his palm, while the zippers were tossed into the trash bin.
Asou Akiya pushed open the window to let fresh air circulate through the dormitory before turning back and asking, "Do you want to keep these buttons as mementos?"
Gojo Satoru blinked in confusion.
"What would there even be to remember about something like that?"
"To me," Asou Akiya said, picking up one of the buttons and holding it toward the light so that the brass reflected a luster resembling gold, "each button represents your youth and your growth."
"The buttons on Tokyo Jujutsu High's uniforms have a distinctive characteristic—their position rests directly over the heart."
On the battlefield, a button worn over the heart carried a special meaning.
"There's another school tradition in Japan. At graduation, if a girl hopes to receive the second button from a boy's school uniform, it's considered a confession of love. If the boy agrees to remove the second button and give it to her, it carries the meaning of a mutual pledge of affection."
—So don't let anyone trick you into giving away your buttons so easily.
"Gojo, do you want to find a box to keep them in? They could become memories worth looking back on someday."
"Sure!"
Gojo Satoru enthusiastically went off to find a metal tin he normally used to store collectible cards.
He stuffed all of his buttons into the box.
For some reason, the simple act of collecting them brought him the same sort of joy as completing a card collection. Holding the tin beside his ear, he gave it a shake and listened to the clinking sounds inside.
"So these are my youth, huh?" he asked.
The smile on Asou Akiya's face tugged at the bruised area of his cheek, sending a sharp ache through the nerves along his jaw.
He had brought this pain upon himself, but he remained in good spirits as he picked up the laundry basket filled with clothes waiting to be washed.
"After you've finished eating, get some proper rest. I need to take care of a few trivial matters. I'll come back later to collect the dishes from your table."
Listening to the sound of Asou Akiya's footsteps fading into the distance, Gojo Satoru found his appetite diminishing slightly as he returned to his chair at the dining table.
Then, he heard footsteps approaching once more.
Gojo Satoru hurriedly picked up the pace of his eating.
"Mmph, mmph—" I'm not done eating yet!
Outside, Asou Akiya passed by Gojo Satoru's dormitory and continued deeper down the corridor. He had not returned to collect the dishes. Stopping in front of the final dormitory room at the end of the hall, he used a key he had duplicated long ago to unlock Zen'in Naoya's dormitory.
There were a few small matters that Asou Akiya needed to deal with.
For example, the counterfeit buttons that had been tampered with and sewn onto Zen'in Naoya's school uniform.
After spending some time working with needle and thread, Asou Akiya removed the fake buttons and replaced them with the genuine ones.
"That should take care of it."
Asou Akiya confirmed that every trace of the tampering had been erased.
Not a single fake button concealing its hidden trick had ended up in Zen'in Naoya's possession.
After leaving the room, Asou Akiya returned to his own dormitory, burned the counterfeit buttons, ate his lunch, washed the dishes clean, and only then leisurely made his way back to Gojo Satoru's room. He moved as quietly and carefully as possible so as not to disturb Gojo Satoru's midday nap while he tidied away the used dishes.
"Huh? Gojo didn't finish eating?"
When Asou Akiya noticed that there was still food left in the bowl, he froze for a moment in surprise.
"..."
Unable to understand why, Asou Akiya glanced toward the bedroom. The door had been left open, allowing him to see the figure inside sleeping soundly with his head buried in the covers.
These past few days should have been the happiest period after Gojo Satoru's newfound growth in strength. Ever since learning the Reversed Cursed Technique, he had been showing it off to his classmates at every opportunity. Asou Akiya never considered the possibility that Gojo Satoru might simply be in a bad mood. Gently, he closed the bedroom door to shut out the noise from outside before carrying away the dishes for the second time. He chose not to dwell on such minor matters.
The current Gojo Satoru was exceptionally safe. There was no need for him to worry constantly. Every now and then, he, too, needed to empty his mind and rest.
Back in his own dormitory, Asou Akiya had originally intended to climb into bed for a nap. However, remembering Gojo Satoru's attitude toward bedding, he silently climbed back down again. He destroyed the bedding set that Gojo Satoru had slept on and remade the bed with a brand-new set of sheets and covers.
"Don't indulge in unnecessary fantasies," Asou Akiya murmured to himself.
Holding Mii-chan in his arms, he lay down beneath the soft cotton quilt.
"Let's call this a new beginning."
In the hazy depths of his afternoon nap, he vaguely dreamed of another little white cat cursing him out with astonishing ferocity. Its tail stood rigid and puffed up, lashing back and forth so forcefully that it cracked through the air. The content of its scolding was... strange. It kept demanding to know why he was planning to raise a dog. But he was a genuine cat lover through and through. He had never intended to keep a dog.
That afternoon, Asou Akiya asked Ieiri Shoko for some sleeping pills. Assuming that he had been having trouble sleeping, Ieiri Shoko stuffed an entire bottle into his hands.
"Take them in moderation. If you overuse them, you'll develop a resistance. Do you want me to treat you while I'm at it?"
Blinking innocently, Asou Akiya replied, "They're not for me. I'm preparing them for someone else."
"Who?" Ieiri Shoko asked.
Instead of answering directly, Asou Akiya teased her with a question of his own.
"Who do you think is the most likely person in our class to lie awake at night overthinking things until they can't sleep?"
Ieiri Shoko let out an amused snort before casting him a sidelong glance.
"Then why are you refusing treatment?"
Asou Akiya answered, "I want Gojo to remember that even when close friends or family make mistakes, he can't simply keep forgiving them unconditionally. An attitude like that diminishes his authority and undermines his ability to command those under him."
Ieiri Shoko looked utterly perplexed.
"What exactly did you do wrong to warrant such severe self-punishment?"
Ieiri Shoko knew that this question touched upon Asou Akiya's privacy. He had never spoken about it, and Gojo Satoru had not made it public either, but she and Getou Suguru had both been frightened into breaking out in cold sweats by the incident with the slap that morning.
"Gojo genuinely doesn't seem to mind," Ieiri Shoko said. "I can tell."
Then, all of a sudden, she stopped speaking. After a moment's hesitation, she asked, "Was it because of that line—'Don't worry about Gojo. Save Naoya first'?"
After thinking it over from every angle, she felt that was the "worst" thing he had said at the time.
"To provoke his will to survive, I said a lot of other things too..." Asou Akiya replied tactfully. "Things that were extremely unpleasant to hear—words severe enough that he could practically regard me as an enemy. Sorry, but I don't want to repeat them."
Ieiri Shoko was dying of curiosity. Just how awful had they been?
Unfortunately, the moment Asou Akiya got the medicine, he slipped away.
Back at the Zen'in household in Kyoto, Zen'in Naobito, who had been dragged into the fallout of the Star Plasma Vessel mission, sat there cheerfully binge-watching television dramas.
Zen'in Naoya, meanwhile, had been forced to sit beside him for several hours straight.
The black-haired, green-eyed heir of the Zen'in clan maintained a proper posture, yet his gaze was steeped in sorrow and his entire demeanor was listless. He looked as though Fushiguro Toji's death had drained all vitality from his body. For two consecutive days, he had neither eaten nor drunk anything, remaining beside Fushiguro Toji's corpse until the cremation was complete before personally scattering the ashes into the sea. Afterward, he had shut himself away in isolation and withdrawn into himself, even bringing his daily training routine to a complete halt.
"You should really stop looking so pathetic," Zen'in Naobito remarked.
"Yes," Zen'in Naoya answered weakly.
Zen'in Naobito was thoroughly unaccustomed to seeing his youngest son transform from an arrogant, overbearing brat into someone so subdued and aggrieved.
"How are your injuries?" he asked.
Zen'in Naoya recited the physician's diagnosis word for word.
"After my heart finishes healing, I'll still need another week of recuperation. During this period, I should reduce my training, avoid overthinking and emotional strain, and, in the future, there shouldn't be any lasting complications."
"Those injuries were no joke," Zen'in Naobito commented.
Then he let out a mocking laugh.
"I never would've thought you'd survive after getting stabbed by Toji."
Zen'in Naoya acted as though he hadn't heard him at all. His spirits remained low as he stared fixedly at the tatami beneath him. The truth was that it had never been a wound inflicted by Toji. He had merely obeyed the master-servant Binding, forcing himself to pin the blame for the incident onto Toji's head.
However, Zen'in Naobito misunderstood the situation, assuming that Naoya had been unable to escape the shadow cast by Fushiguro Toji's death at Gojo Satoru's hands.
"Naoya, after taking a walk along the boundary between life and death, have you come to any realizations?"
"...Gamblers deserve to die miserable deaths."
"...???"
"Toji was incredible. Gojo-kun is even more incredible. I tried to comprehend the Reversed Cursed Technique and failed. Later, I received treatment from Ieiri Shoko, who can use the Reversed Cursed Technique, and even then I still couldn't take another step forward."
Zen'in Naoya answered his father perfunctorily, loathing gambling with every fiber of his being while also feeling grateful that he had managed to survive.
"Do you still admire Toji?" Zen'in Naobito asked cautiously.
"I do." Zen'in Naoya visibly regained some spirit when it came to this question. "Toji was the king of hand-to-hand combat, while Gojo-kun is the king of cursed techniques! The two don't conflict with each other. Only narrow-minded fools would deny the greatness of either one!"
Zen'in Naobito had heard enough of this rhetoric for his ears to grow calluses. He could not deny that, after Toji died in battle, he had suspected that Naoya would simply "transfer his affections" and become infatuated with Gojo Satoru instead. He had never expected Naoya to remain this "steadfast and faithful," preserving the image of his idol with unwavering devotion. Faintly, it even gave him the impression that Naoya had broken free from the Zen'in clan's tradition of being cold-blooded and emotionally detached.
"Dad, stop asking already. The reason I helped Gojo-kun take the Star Plasma Vessel away was because Gojo-kun had asked all of the underclassmen for help. I wasn't the only one who stepped forward. By helping Gojo-kun, I was also building a good relationship with the future head of the Gojo clan in advance."
Zen'in Naoya turned black into white and white into black, thoroughly washing himself clean by painting his actions as thoughtful and far-sighted.
"You think I'd actually believe that?"
Zen'in Naobito shot back with a laugh and a curse, secretly astonished that Naoya had not developed any resentment toward Gojo Satoru.
Father and son continued chatting for a while, mixing serious matters into their conversation.
"Do you still want to go back to school?" Zen'in Naobito asked curiously.
For a split second, Zen'in Naoya lost control of his expression. Covering the heart that had once suffered a fatal wound, he ground out through clenched teeth, "I'll go back after I've recovered from my injuries."
As for exactly when that would be...
Zen'in Naoya thought to himself: I'm an injured patient recuperating at home, far away from Tokyo Jujutsu High. The longer I can drag this out, the better!
That night, in the corridor of the boys' dormitory, Asou Akiya stopped Getou Suguru and handed him something.
"I got this from Shoko," he said. "It's for you."
Getou Suguru glanced at it.
Sleeping pills.
Unable to save face, Getou Suguru replied, "Thanks, but I won't need them."
Asou Akiya said, "I don't care what you think. What matters is what I think. You're definitely going to need them tonight."
Getou Suguru's mouth twitched as he found himself forcibly handed a bottle of sleeping pills by his friend.
Sure enough, Getou Suguru fell victim to Asou Akiya's terrifying "curse." In the latter half of the night, he tossed and turned, completely unable to sleep. His mind repeatedly replayed the psychological intervention session from earlier that day. Eventually, he had no choice but to sit up, swallow two pills in accordance with the recommended dosage, and lie back down, hoping to coax his brain into drowsiness.
Getou Suguru's physical constitution was far superior to that of an ordinary person. On top of that, he had previously been subdued through medication administered by Ieiri Shoko.
The medicine no longer worked on him.
Lying awake in the grip of insomnia, he managed to untangle some of the knots in his heart. The dead were gone, and he no longer needed to place so much importance on the connection between Miss Kuroi and Riko. It was enough to respect Miss Kuroi's work. After all, not everyone in the jujutsu world possessed the courage to stand against Master Tengen.
Then he turned on his new phone and, almost as an act of self-torment, looked through the photograph stored inside it—the instant when Fushiguro Toji's blade pierced Gojo Satoru's chest.
Getou Suguru was consumed by guilt and unease.
He thought of Gojo Satoru's pain, Gojo Satoru's despair, Gojo Satoru's desperate struggle at death's door...
[Satoru was only a step away from breathing his last, and I was unconscious in the Tombs of the Star Corridor, unable to help. In the end, it was all thanks to Zen'in-kouhai that he was saved.]
[I really deserve to die!]
Getou Suguru had never imagined that such unbearable memories would one day be associated with Gojo Satoru. Satoru was one of the strong, and yet even the strong had to overcome death through their own efforts, one step at a time. The reason he himself had failed to awaken the Reversed Cursed Technique might simply have been because he had never been pushed into as desperate and tragic a situation as Satoru had.
As a result, in the dead of night, a Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer completely lost his mind.
With his hair disheveled, he ran to Gojo Satoru's room and began pounding on the door.
Bang! Bang!
Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Gojo Satoru shuffled over and opened the door, only to be hit full in the face by the overwhelming wave of negative emotions pouring off the person standing outside.
"Suguru?"
"Satoru! I did something wrong! I need to apologize!"
Without another word, Getou Suguru slapped himself across the face, bowed deeply in apology, and then immediately turned on his heel and fled, abandoning Gojo Satoru to stand there in utter bewilderment as the night breeze swept past him.
...
Gojo Satoru: My friends... are getting more and more unhinged.
***
[Mini Theater]
Day Three, Jujutsu High Classroom.
Gojo Satoru staring at Ieiri Shoko: "..."
Ieiri Shoko: "???"
Gojo Satoru: "It's your turn today."
Gojo Satoru: "I've already prepared myself. So when are you going to do it?"
Ieiri Shoko: "What the hell is wrong with you?"
Gojo Satoru: "All of us have already taken a slap to the face. You're the only one left, Shoko~."