“Kelp?!”
A voice echoed from below. Ieiri Yuuki lowered his head to look it was Toge Inumaki.
Toge’s physical combat skills were exceptional, and although the terrain was rather steep, with a few agile bounds, he arrived right in front of Ieiri Yuuki.
“Kelp?”
“I’m fine.” Ieiri Yuuki saw the worry in Toge’s eyes, as well as the furrowed brow as he stared at the Special Grade Curse resting upon him.
“Apologies, Muzan was just messing around with me. It’s just that his way of playing is a bit rough, causing Senior to worry.”
Toge Inumaki: “…” Playing?
Ieiri, please stop wearing such thick rose-tinted glasses for your Curse!
Ieiri Yuuki: “As compensation, how about I treat Senior to a grand feast tomorrow?”
Toge’s eyes lit up: “Cod roe!”
Awesome!
Ieiri Yuuki pulled his other hand out of his pocket, gripping his phone as he said, “The reason we can’t do it today is because ”
As the blonde youth pulled it out, the screen was still lit, allowing the viewers to clearly see—it was a recording interface.
“There is extremely important news that needs to be reported to Teacher Gojo first.”
Ieiri Yuuki stopped the recording and saved the file.
Then… he sent it to Gojo Satoru.
The content of this audio recording was precisely the conversation between Ieiri Yuuki and the curse user named “Matsuo Masaki.”
[?!]
[Damn?!]
[There’s even this move?! Now I declare—the intellectual ceiling of Jujutsu Kaisen is none other than this person!]
[Yuuki!!!!!!!!]
[So awesome!!]
[Geto’s voice actor hasn’t changed, which means Gojo will definitely recognize it]
[I’m so excited I want to scream at the top of my lungs. That scheming old fox Kenjaku is finally going to be exposed?!]
[But then Gojo is going to find out that his best friend didn’t even get to rest in peace after death……]
[……]
[Is the person above a demon?!]
The white-haired teacher was most likely busy and did not reply immediately.
By the time they rendezvoused with Ijichi and got in the car heading toward the Gojo estate, the white-haired teacher finally replied with a single question mark: “?”
“An audio file? Did Yuuki send it to the wrong person? Since the time limit to recall a message has already passed, then Teacher is definitely going to eavesdrop on it!”
[……]
[Ahhh!]
[My feelings are infinitely complex]
Ten seconds later.
Buzz—
Ieiri Yuuki’s phone vibrated. For some reason, the ringtone sounded particularly grating within the quiet interior of the car.
When he answered the call, the voice of the person on the other end came through, pressed low, cold, and heavy.
“Where are you?”
A small fraction of the person’s voice leaked from the earpiece, raspy and hoarse.
It sounded as though it were grinding against rough gravel before being forcefully squeezed out.
Ijichi’s heart skipped a beat.
He had never heard Gojo Satoru sound so out of control—
In his impression, the other had always been the strongest who stood supreme ever since a decade ago.
With a trembling voice, Ijichi named the highway they were currently on.
Gojo Satoru: “Ijichi, pull over.”
“Beep—”
The call hung up.
As the sound poured into his cochlea, Ijichi Kiyotaka couldn’t help tightening his scalp as he hurriedly pulled over to the side of the road.
Midway, he even fumbled frantically, nearly forgetting to pull the handbrake.
Merely three breaths later.
Being sorcerers, they could perceive the distortion of cursed energy in the air.
A sound of tearing through the air rang out, and a tall, slender figure materialized in midair.
It was Gojo Satoru!
Gojo Satoru was still wearing that black blindfold, blocking the upper half of his face, his lips pressed into a flat line.
Ijichi could sense his fury.
Like an active volcano concealed beneath a surface of cold ice, ready to be ignited by the slightest spark at any moment.
He stood frozen in mute terror.
Gojo Satoru said nothing.
He appeared directly beside Ieiri Yuuki, placing a palm upon his student’s shoulder.
Then he activated the teleportation technique extended from the Cursed Technique Lapse: “Blue.”
The two vanished instantly.
The livestream camera shifted, transporting them to a tranquil, verdant garden.
[A cemetery… huh]
Judging from the characters inscribed on the tombstone in front of them, this was the place where… Geto Suguru was laid to rest.
“The person resting inside is my best friend. It’s been a long time since we last met, but I certainly wouldn’t mistake his voice,” Gojo Satoru spoke up.
Me (Laozi—a proud, informal first-person pronoun).
Ieiri Yuuki took note of his choice of self-reference.
As the white-haired teacher spoke, he reached up and unhitched the blindfold wrapped around his face.
That pair of brilliant, limpid azure eyes was revealed, storms of turbulent emotion swirling in the depths of his pupils.
“It’s not a voice similar to Suguru’s, nor is it an audio splice or synthesis…”
“I’m certain that was Suguru. But he was buried by my own hands.”
“Then who is ‘he’—?!”
[Crying]
[Gojo’s presence is so overwhelmingly strong……]
[Never seen him this angry before]
[How could he not be angry?!]
[His only best friend, the best friend he killed with his own hands, and the best friend he buried with his own hands, had his grave dug up by Kenjaku while he wasn’t looking]
[And the mastermind is still strutting around outside wearing his best friend’s body, scheming against him and locking him away in the Prison Realm]
[When he finally gets out of the Prison Realm, he’ll be told his teacher, junior, and students are already either dead or maimed]
[Wuwuwu!]
[If it were me, I’d genuinely go crazy]
Ieiri Yuuki lowered his gaze slightly and said, “Teacher, that curse user has phoenix eyes and thin, slender eyebrows. He also has a black ear tunnel in his earlobe.”
This was the specific detail he had observed.
“Do you… have an impression of him?”
Gojo Satoru’s chest heaved.
He was breathing.
“Of course I do.” He finally spoke.
“Sounds like, aside from lack of that bizarre bang, he’s practically identical to that guy!”
The white-haired teacher extended his hand, pointing toward the tombstone standing before them.
…
A brief silence.
Ieiri Yuuki raised his eyes, looking toward the white-haired teacher whose eyes were tempered with burning fury.
“Teacher, if I may be so bold, I propose—opening the coffin again.”
Hearing this, Muzan, who had remained silent the entire journey, also poked his head out from the shikigami master’s collar, casting a glance at the tombstone.
“Teacher, there is no such thing as resurrection from the dead in this world,” Ieiri Yuuki said softly.
“I suspect someone has usurped your best friend’s body.”
Gojo Satoru paused abruptly. He turned his head sharply to look at his student.
Ieiri Yuuki met his gaze, his voice steady as he uttered: “Body seizure (Possession/Brain-swapping)!”
“…”
Gojo Satoru pressed his lips into a tight line.
He hadn’t investigated this student’s background; the boy was exceedingly mysterious, as though someone had intentionally wiped his records clean.
Yet the fact that the boy could recognize the characters on the cursed talismans indicated he had grown up within a family with deep foundations.
Ieiri Yuuki had put forward this possibility, and combined with everything in reality.
In Gojo Satoru’s heart, it already carried a five-part plausibility.
To Gojo Satoru, the Six Eyes could see through the trajectory of all cursed energy, but the exact moment Geto Suguru stopped breathing, the cursed energy had dissipated from his body.
The Six Eyes could no longer see him.
He could only confirm it with his own eyes.
Or rather, he had to confirm it.
Without too much hesitation, Gojo Satoru made his decision. Over weighing any other considerations, he wanted to know whether his best friend’s body remained undisturbed, and he wanted the truth.
Gojo Satoru spoke in a low voice: “Step back.”
Once his student had retreated to a safe zone, Gojo Satoru extended his hand.
The powerful suction vortex belonging to Cursed Technique Lapse: “Blue” rapidly coalesced before him.
The wind whipped the ends of his hair. He paused for only a split second before tightening his five fingers!
Under the control of the Six Eyes, precise suction gradually caused the coffin buried beneath the earth to emerge into view.
At least from the surface, there appeared to be nothing out of the ordinary, but Gojo Satoru flashed forward, appearing directly beside the coffin.
Accompanied by a burst of powerful attractive force, the sealed coffin lid was instantly ripped open by him—
Lying inside was a person.
Yet it wasn’t the one Gojo recognized.
Instead, it was a black-haired woman of indistinguishable age, dressed in an exquisite kimono.
A woman whose skull had been neatly sliced horizontally across, the inside of her cranium completely hollowed out, as though someone had stolen her brain!
…
Thud!
The coffin lid crashed heavily onto the ground.
[!!]
[Though it was expected, but……]
[This is my first time seeing a body swapped out by Kenjaku. Terrifying, but also within expectations]
[This is honestly a bit cruel to Gojo, witnessing with his own eyes that his best friend’s corpse was stolen while he was completely unaware]
[And the culprit is still running amok outside wearing Suguru’s body]
[Ahhhhh, I’m so pissed off]
[Kenjaku! Go die!]
“…”
Gojo Satoru said nothing, but his teeth were clenched hard, veins bulging at his temples.
Cursed energy erupted out of thin air around his body, clearly demonstrating he had reached the absolute peak of fury.
His already high-load brain teetered even closer to the brink of losing control under the influence of such extreme emotions.
After a long moment, Gojo Satoru drew a deep breath.
Suppressing his emotions, forcing himself to calm down, he analyzed in a cold voice: “Judging from this corpse, he possesses a brain-swapping technique capable of achieving body seizure. And the seizure is not restricted by gender.”
“Not many people know that Suguru is buried in this cemetery; it would only be people from my family.”
“That shameless, despicable thief must have swapped bodies to sneak into the Gojo estate, obtained the specific information, and only then came to usurp Suguru’s body.”
Gojo Satoru grew frighteningly calm after his extreme rage: “He didn’t need to stay in the Gojo estate for long because all he needed to secure was the cemetery’s location.” Afterward, he just had to seize a body and slip away.
Gojo Satoru: “We just need to check the clan members who died or went missing during that period, and we can lock down who it was.”
Following that thread, they would undoubtedly find clues.
As for today, that person used Suguru’s body to leak information from the Headquarters, using it as a chip to rope in his student.
“Any underhanded actions by the Headquarters behind the scenes usually escape my notice, yet he knew about them,”
Gojo Satoru said, “…meaning, he has also infiltrated the Headquarters.”
Combined with the Headquarters’ past black history, the probability of them proactively and covertly collaborating with that person like thieves in the night was exceedingly high.
Those clueless old oranges…
Gojo Satoru’s gaze turned chillingly dark.
Killing people at the Headquarters was easy.
What Gojo Satoru had in mind, however, was Cutting weeds and eliminating the roots!
Unearth that brain-seizer, reduce him to ashes, and let his best friend finally attain true peace.
Gojo Satoru already had a plan
His student had a bounty placed on him; as a teacher, could he possibly refrain from standing up for his student?
He understood the old geezers at the Headquarters.
They banded together yet remained fragmented, placing their own interests above all else. If they learned that the “secret of the bounty” had been leaked, they would only suspect those closest to them.
Gojo Satoru’s lips curved into a pull, “Let them bite each other first and tear into one another. They’ll eventually cough up useful information.”
Once he squeezed them completely dry of anything useful, he would let them close their eyes forever.
[Wuhu]
[Awesome!]
[No screaming or throwing tantrums; his tone remained completely calm the whole way, but you can tell Gojo is furious beyond belief. Old oranges, just rest assured and go to hell!]
Ieiri Yuuki: “Teacher, do you need any help?”
“Hm?”
Ieiri Yuuki: “The Headquarters already placed a bounty on me; naturally, I’m going to strike back—”
Before he could even finish, his mouth was blocked by the white-haired teacher.
Gojo Satoru: “!”
“An eye for an eye, that’s great.”
He added, “But leave that kind of stuff to the adults to handle! You go back, and act like you’ve never been here, understand?”
Killing was akin to crossing a boundary, especially when students’ worldviews were not yet fully formed. Guiding them prudently was his responsibility as a teacher.
Words of wisdom from the reliable Teacher Gojo.
Ieiri Yuuki: “…”
After a brief moment, he nodded under the teacher’s scrutiny.
Gojo Satoru lowered his hand.
The youth spoke up once more: “Teacher, it’s fine really, actually I can just defect, and then I’ll have a legitimate excuse to kill mhn.”
Before he could finish, he was muffled again.
Gojo Satoru glared at him once more.
“…”
“…”
The teacher and student stared at each other.
Gojo Satoru allowed zero room for refusal: “You have amnesia, I’m sending you back.”
“Remember not to give away any hints in front of others; keep it hidden even from the people at Jujutsu High, understand?”
“Got it.”
Returning to the Gojo estate.
Ieiri Yuuki didn’t speak of that matter to a single soul. He sat alone on the wooden veranda.
Listening to the sound of wind rustling the courtyard leaves, feeling the gentle breeze caress his face, he narrowed his eyes.
“Muzan,” he called out.
“I was wondering, if I were ever usurped by someone else’s body seizure, would even you end up becoming someone else’s possession?”
The ink snake resting atop the youth’s collar closed its eyes in feigned sleep.
“…”
“Muzan? Muzan? Mu—zan——?”
Bothered several times over, the ink snake opened its eyes and thought: Who on earth could possibly seize your body?
Humans were truly fickle. Clearly just moments before, he had been sweet-talking him with honeyed words, claiming “death is no longer the end,” yet here he was imagining things that could never possibly happen.
“Just treating it as a hypothesis, you know?”
The blonde youth smiled.
“A hypothesis?” Muzan sneered coldly, his voice soft and freezing: “If your body is ever seized…”
“I will devour you directly.”
From skin to flesh, down to bone, everything would be dissolved away inside his stomach, melting away, over and over again.
Until, you become a part of me.