Will Save Them
After arriving in Antarctica, Toyama Akira’s fear level slowly fell to zero. When he regained consciousness, he found himself sitting atop an Antarctic glacier, inside a floating spatial safe house that had been set up at some point.
The temperature here was low enough to strip flesh from bone, but dense cursed energy surged through the safe house like an ocean, solving the problem of the cold like a heater.
The air was so thin at this altitude that his throat felt constricted and his chest could barely rise, yet when he reached out, he found an oxygen tank. Feeling around again, he also found a blanket, a pillow, compressed biscuits, insecticide, and cockroach poison.
Toyama Akira: ……
Why would Antarctica need insecticide and cockroach poison…
Though he thought this, his fingers still unconsciously rubbed the half-full bottle of insecticide, which he was exceptionally familiar with, and a smile crept onto his lips.
His unconscious self had been a little too considerate.
Toyama Akira wasn’t surprised that he had made it all the way to Antarctica this time. Last time, his fear level had only been half as high as it was now. He had regained consciousness halfway there, aboard a research vessel, and the moment he woke up, he had been too frightened to take care of himself. Once he got scared, all he could do was flee, and then flee back again.
This time, however, Toyama Akira had been frightened enough that from his perspective, it had been as simple as closing his eyes…
Before closing them, he had thought, [Even if I die, I’m going to Antarctica.]
When he opened them again, his fear level had dissipated. Not only had he made it to Antarctica this time, he had even checked into a [five-star hotel].
His unconscious self had also arranged all his [luggage] inside the safe house.
A pile of instant food, water, medicine, fuel, and so on…
Toyama Akira could wrap inanimate objects in his space and use it like a pocket dimension. Since he could choose whether his space was [hidden] or [revealed] at will, as long as he didn’t want it to appear, the items stored inside wouldn’t have to follow him around and take up space.
It seemed that storing ninety-nine kinds of doomsday survival supplies in his space ahead of time had been useful.
Opportunity favored the prepared!
Because he could store things in his space at any time, Toyama Akira hadn’t stored too much water or food, since those things expired easily. Nor had he prepared for hardship by storing nothing but Russian canned food that was difficult to swallow.
Looking at the pile of snacks he had taken out, the row of cans of soda, and the snack cabinet he had somehow carried off from Gojo-sensei’s office.
Toyama Akira nodded in satisfaction.
Not bad.
He had developed less than one percent of his cursed technique.
After Toyama Akira finished arranging the Antarctic safe house he had dreamed of, cleaned the blood off himself, and ate his fill in comfort, he finally had enough time to think about what had happened before.
About Gojo Satoru.
Toyama Akira wasn’t thinking about what plans the man he had encountered might have had against Gojo Satoru.
He was thinking about Gojo Satoru himself.
If he wanted to, he should have been able to investigate that plan easily enough. But on the one hand, investigating it would inevitably lead him into all kinds of frightening situations. On the other hand, was there really any need to investigate it? Was there any need to start a solo storyline in this world that looked like a horror movie, go exploring, and then get killed off by the plot in some solitary horror arc?
Toyama Akira had already experienced one opening-door kill. He was merely a doomed cannon-fodder character. He shouldn’t have been given this kind of plot treatment.
So Toyama Akira obediently decided that, unless absolutely necessary, he would continue avoiding anything that clearly looked like the disastrous main plot of a horror movie.
That was why Toyama Akira was only thinking about Gojo Satoru in the simplest sense.
Gojo Satoru was strong. After Gojo Satoru and everyone at Jujutsu High had drilled that concept into him, Toyama Akira had gradually developed the same impression.
But the person he had encountered today was also very strong. Not only was his cursed technique powerful, his intelligence and planning seemed formidable as well. He had found the one moment when he could touch Toyama, set a killing trap based on his weakness, his cowardly nature, and then, after Toyama broke the trap, immediately changed his plan, negotiated with him naturally, and ultimately established a binding vow. Whatever the result, it had still benefited that man.
That stitched-up man seemed even more frightening. Stronger?
After all, Toyama Akira had never had his fear level rise so high while facing Gojo Satoru.
Looking back now, it would have been nice if he could have killed that stitched-up man on the spot.
But although Toyama Akira sighed, he more or less knew he hadn’t been capable of it. Simply facing that stitched-up man had sent his fear level soaring to the point where he could no longer control his reason. If he had continued facing him, would he have been able to remain conscious until he killed the man?
Once he finished pondering that question, Toyama Akira’s thoughts returned to Gojo Satoru.
The strongest…
In a world like this, just as Gojo Satoru had said, only [the strongest] could make him feel at ease.
Only if [the strongest] was also [the person least likely to hurt him]…
But he still wasn’t sure whether Gojo Satoru was [the strongest], or [the person least likely to hurt him]. It seemed he wouldn’t be able to relax until he confirmed that…
Relax and do what?
Toyama Akira wasn’t entirely sure. He was like a vicious dog holding a lead between its teeth, anxiously searching for someone to whom it could entrust the other end.
The anxiety came from being trapped in another world that was like a battle-royale horror movie, from worrying about the unknown dangers surrounding him, and from countless unclear, restless particles.
Rationally speaking, he should cast a wide net and catch as many fish as possible, searching for someone reliable.
But now, it seemed he was investigating and scrutinizing Gojo Satoru alone, because…
[I won’t be your door, Toyama.]
[I’ll be the one who leads you out through the door.]
“Bang!”
As some shock wave tore through the air with a sharp, shrill roar, Toyama Akira abruptly came to his senses and looked up at the bright-blue beam of cursed energy shooting straight toward his face.
Toyama Akira: ……
“That knocking sound is a little terrifying…”
While Gojo Satoru followed an electronic map toward Antarctica, Toyama Akira was meditating in Antarctica.
While Gojo Satoru raced across the Pacific, cutting through the fierce, damp, freezing wind, Toyama Akira was making his bed inside the safe house with the heat turned all the way up. He patted the dry, warm bedding, then slowly wriggled himself inside and let out a comfortable sigh.
While a killer whale suddenly burst from the sea and leaped at Gojo Satoru, splashing him from head to toe, though Limitless kept the water away, Toyama Akira was curled up in bed opening a can of dried fish. Because he was so clumsy while pulling it open, oil splattered all over his face.
By the time Gojo Satoru finally reached Antarctica, even he was breathing slightly hard after traveling such a long distance across hemispheres. His chest rose and fell, and pale breath escaped between his opening and closing lips. Frost even clung to his uniform. With the bone-deep cold, his white hair and lashes, and the white mountains behind him, he looked as though he had merged with the frigid world itself.
Then he looked up and saw a warm springtime scene.
Heaters, a space heater, hand warmers, potato chips, soda, and a bowl of snacks.
And…
A boy with crumbs of chips at the corner of his mouth and sesame oil still smeared across his face, tucked snugly beneath a blanket and holding up his phone to take a picture for his social feed.
Gojo Satoru: ……
When Gojo Satoru finally saw the boy, the corners of his still-slightly-heaving lips instinctively lifted by two pixels. Then, once his mind caught up, he hurriedly suppressed the curve of his smile. He merely brought his hands together, clapped once to draw the boy’s attention, and then spread them apart again.
Maximum cursed energy output…
[Blue]
“So don’t eat in bed!”
Toyama Akira, who had just faced [Blue] head-on as it sheared away the mountain behind him: ……
It was obvious that Gojo Satoru was very strong.
He just didn’t know why Gojo was always angry.
“It’s not like I got Gojo-sensei’s bed dirty…”
Why was he angry…
Er, he looked even angrier now.
So why…
“Don’t grab killer whales to scare me!”
Toyama Akira got beaten up.
Although he had kindly and enthusiastically invited his teacher to tour his safe house and watch the aurora, he ended up being beaten until he fled across Antarctica as another aurora.
It wasn’t as if he was afraid. After all, Gojo Satoru didn’t always use cursed-spirit killer whales and things to frighten him. It was just…
He was a student. It was normal for a student to be afraid of his teacher, right…
Still, Toyama Akira had noticed that no matter how frightening Gojo Satoru looked, and no matter how sincerely he swallowed and twisted his fingers behind his back whenever Gojo pressed down the corners of his mouth, his fear level had never once given that kind of warning while Gojo was chasing him.
There had only been one occasion when Gojo Satoru had brought a killer whale over. Somehow, he had made it open its mouth, and that enormous maw, large enough to swallow ten Toyama Akiras whole, had been lowered over his head.
Toyama Akira: ……
Toyama Akira dropped to his knees with a crisp thump, and at last, he heard the familiar notification sound in his mind.
[Fear level 1%]
Was it because he wasn’t afraid of Gojo Satoru?
Why?
Was it because he believed Gojo Satoru wouldn’t hurt him?
Whenever Toyama Akira thought that, he would turn around and see the white-haired man rubbing his chin, considering what he could grab next to scare him.
Toyama Akira: ……
“So don’t abuse animals…”
“Cursed spirits, cursed spirits are even worse, so don’t abuse me either!”
……
Gojo Satoru had come this time to drag the boy back. He had already given the old oranges a thorough beating, and he had reinforced Jujutsu High’s barrier. At least for now, Jujutsu High was fairly safe for the boy.
After beating the boy up, Gojo Satoru skillfully grabbed him by the back of his collar and flew back with him, all the while coldly muttering things like, “So, how does it feel to find your one true love?”
“Once we get back, I’m putting a GPS on you to see whether a certain problem student dares skip class again…”
“So you really think Antarctica is safer than Jujutsu High? Jujutsu High has a barrier that Gojo-sensei personally helped build, you know?”
Toyama Akira searched for an opening in Gojo Satoru’s stream of speech for a long time. He waited a full half hour before finally managing to cut in.
“Gojo-sensei…”
“Hmm?” The man holding him by the back of his collar hummed. “I know something’s wrong the moment Toyama calls me [teacher] like that.”
Toyama Akira: ……
“Gojo Satoru…”
“Smack.”
“I’m sorry, Gojo-sensei.” The boy calmly covered the head he had just been hit on. “I have a question I’d like to ask you…”
“Go ahead.”
Gojo Satoru moved incredibly fast. Even while carrying someone, he practically streaked through the air like a beam of light. At that speed, it should have been impossible to breathe, let alone speak.
But Toyama Akira had constructed a spherical shell of space around the two of them.
Although it was very useful, the boy, having already visited Antarctica once, could easily have preset a teleportation route and teleported them directly back to Jujutsu High. It was just that…
The boy didn’t mention it, and Gojo Satoru didn’t mention that the two of them could use spatial teleportation to return.
Toyama Akira was somewhat grateful for that, though not very much. He was still taking advantage of the situation.
“You know I’m easily frightened, right? Although being scared often makes me stronger.”
“But if I get too frightened, I might lose my reason. I can feel that sometimes I’m right on the verge of losing consciousness.”
Hearing this, Gojo Satoru raised his free hand to his lips and mused, “Hmm… The day Toyama suddenly hugged my leg, it was pretty obvious that your mental state wasn’t quite right.”
But since the boy’s mental state was usually abnormal anyway, Gojo Satoru had merely suspected something was wrong. He hadn’t looked too deeply into just how abnormal the boy’s mental state might be.
“Is that so…” The young man drew out the final syllable, stretching one arm back to roll his shoulder. His tone was relaxed and carried a smile. “So is it something like this? If you get frightened enough, you might undergo a species change. Turn from a human into a cursed spirit or something…”
Toyama Akira had originally wanted to ask, [If I lose consciousness and become your enemy, what would you do?] But after hearing the young man compare it to [turning from a human into a cursed spirit], the words that were about to leave his mouth swiftly changed course. The boy said quickly, “If I turn into a cursed spirit, kill me immediately, no matter what. That disgusting kind of thing, even if it’s me… No, with my soul added in, it would only be more disgusting. If I turn into a cursed spirit, kill me right away, sensei.”
Gojo Satoru, who had only been making a joke to lighten his student’s mood: ……
“Don’t change the subject when you’re the one asking the question, brat!”
Toyama Akira swung back and forth, reaching out to cover the head Gojo Satoru was about to hit again. But the young man’s fingers merely made a deft turn, and then…
“I’ll save you.”
The knuckle of his curled finger gently tapped the boy’s exposed forehead, almost as though it had simply been pressed against it.
“……”
The boy’s hand, still resting on his head, froze for a moment. Then his eyes slowly lowered. He pressed his lips together and heard Gojo continue:
“Although you’re timid, afraid of everything, always sneaking the ice cream I just put in my snack cabinet, and constantly causing trouble that makes me cross an entire hemisphere to catch a truant student… No matter how useless you are, you’re still my student, Gojo Satoru’s student. So I’ll save you.”
Toyama Akira: ……
That preamble was a little too long.
Besides, he was the one who had put the ice cream in the snack cabinet!
The boy lowered his hand in a huff. After the young man’s fingers moved away from his forehead, his bangs fell again, hanging long over his brow and casting an even deeper shadow across his already indistinct, downcast eyes.
“I’ll save Gojo-sensei too.”
“…Huh?”
“No matter what happens…” As he spoke, the boy seemed to think of something. The corners of his lips lifted, and his voice rose lazily.
“Because we’ve already made a promise.”
[If I save Gojo Satoru at the moment when you people try to do something to him, then I will…]
Die without entering the cycle of rebirth, my soul completely obliterated.
That was what Toyama Akira had wanted to tell Gojo Satoru after fleeing back and hugging his leg.
But he had been interrupted at the time. Now that he had regained his reason, he remembered that Gojo Satoru had never seemed very supportive of his desire to have his soul obliterated so he could return to his original world.
So he couldn’t say that now.
All he could say was:
“I will definitely save you, Gojo-sensei.”
The fingers clutching the back of the boy’s white shirt suddenly tightened unconsciously, veins bulging and extending down into the young man’s forearm. Gojo Satoru seemed to press his lower lip together before turning his face away.
“Whether at the ends of the earth or the edge of the sea, above the blue sky or beneath the…”* The boy’s voice abruptly cut off as he recited the embarrassingly melodramatic line he had remembered from a novel.
Because Gojo Satoru’s clenched fingers slowly relaxed with his breathing. Then…
He gave the boy, who had stopped protecting his head, a sharp knock on the crown.
“Don’t think I don’t know that you’re the one who secretly stuffed those novels Rika reads in there.”
Toyama Akira: ……
…He even knows that?
Could it be that Gojo-sensei also read Romance in the Rain?