He Is a Genius
In the end, Toyama Akira and Gojo Satoru each backed down a step.
Gojo Satoru proposed that, as long as Toyama Akira could beat him, he would not have to go on missions.
Toyama Akira was forced to nod and agree that he would not have to fight cursed spirits until he had beaten Gojo Satoru.
What? I have to fight Gojo Satoru? Is this for real?
In the boy’s mind, the image of his white-haired teacher, unmistakably human, flickered back and forth with the images of all kinds of cursed spirits that made him nauseous and sent him shaking.
After agonizing over it for a long time…
After agonizing for one second, the boy raised his head and spoke to his white-haired teacher.
“I’ll work hard and beat Gojo-sensei!”
Once those words were out, everything that followed came much more smoothly. Toyama Akira clenched his fist and raised his head with determination.
“After all, Gojo-sensei isn’t as scary as cursed spirits.”
Fushiguro Megumi, listening from the side: ……
Gojo Satoru, who had originally only planned to take the boy on missions to exorcise cursed spirits around the level of grade 2: ……
Since the boy was starting by aiming to defeat a special grade sorcerer…
Then it was perfectly normal for his exorcism assignments to start at special grade too!
Gojo Satoru did not reveal his sinister plans for later. He merely smiled even more broadly and grabbed the boy by the shoulders. “Since Akira just learned about his cursed technique, I’ll give him a month to study. If Akira can beat me after one month, I’ll never make him go exorcise cursed spirits again. There won’t even be any cursed spirits during training, oh~”
Hearing the first half, Toyama Akira: ……
Was he some sort of overpowered web-novel protagonist? Chapter One, “Awakening.” Chapter Two, “The Strongest.” “After only one month, this boy’s growth is terrifying indeed…” That kind?
Hearing the second half, Toyama Akira: ……
It wasn’t as if he was particularly tempted by the offer. It was just that his teacher had already conceded this much, and refusing to accept would probably be a little too tactless.
Gojo Satoru looked at the pale boy, who was doing his best to remain calm even as the corners of his mouth nearly reached his cheekbones.
Gojo Satoru: ……
What a cute little guy.
Still, Toyama Akira had agreed to Gojo Satoru’s challenge mostly because he really had taken Gojo’s threat to heart.
[Even after death, your soul will still have to face terror].
Although he had acted as though he had been scared half to death and completely believed it at the time, Toyama Akira had gone to the library afterward to check the records and make sure. The jujutsu world really did have techniques related to souls, which meant…
There really was a possibility that after death, he would become a [soul].
He could not afford to die carelessly anymore. In that case, he really had to stay alive.
But how to survive, no, how to live, was another question.
Although he wanted to flee to Antarctica, build an igloo, and live in isolation from the world, it really would be better to make himself stronger first.
So Gojo Satoru was gratified to see the boy begin running to the training grounds as well.
And then…
So what was with all those Antarctica tour-group brochures that kept arriving at Jujutsu High without end?!
Jujutsu High’s education currently relied mainly on assistant supervisors for basic knowledge and general education. Instruction in cursed techniques and physical combat came primarily from Gojo Satoru. However, Gojo himself was a special grade sorcerer, so he did not have much time to personally teach his students. As a result, another major way Jujutsu High students learned was by having the older students teach the newer ones.
Although Fushiguro Megumi was technically the junior, he had been exposed to cursed techniques and exorcising cursed spirits much earlier than Toyama Akira. That was one reason Gojo Satoru had called Fushiguro Megumi back after completing his mission. Although Gojo joked that Toyama Akira counted as the senior, when it came to the path of jujutsu, Megumi was the true senpai. Gojo had asked him to help Toyama Akira understand how to use his cursed technique while Gojo was away on a mission. As for physical combat, Toyama Akira could ask Zen’in Maki and the others for help. Once Gojo returned from his mission, he would be able to teach the boy more advanced details.
Giving the boy one month did not mean he actually expected the boy to grow strong enough to defeat Gojo Satoru within a month.
That was ridiculous. Gojo Satoru had never once considered the possibility that he might lose.
He had simply given the boy a reason to train hard for the month, so that afterward he could go with Gojo to exorcise special grade cursed spirits.
However…
Thinking of the boy’s extraordinary cursed technique and the astonishing intuition he occasionally displayed, Gojo Satoru could not help rubbing his chin again.
“Will he win…?”
It was unclear whether the subject was himself or the boy.
Gojo Satoru simply had a feeling that the boy was different from the many geniuses he had met and the countless students he had taught.
The boy was the one Gojo genuinely felt might be able to catch up to him.
Even…
Could that [even] possibly become a reality?
“So your cursed technique is teleportation and spatial manipulation on a [conceptual] level?”
Fushiguro Megumi did not possess the Six Eyes. He had only listened to the boy repeat what Gojo Satoru had once told him about his cursed technique, and the explanation still remained somewhat unclear.
“What does teleportation on a [conceptual] level mean?”
“Um…”
“Uh…”
“What does teleportation on a [conceptual] level mean?” the boy mused. “That’s a good question. It means teleportation on a [conceptual] level. It’s a type of teleportation. What type of teleportation is it? Teleportation on a [conceptual] level. What [concept] is it? It’s the [concept] that lets me teleport on a [conceptual] level, so…”
Fushiguro Megumi quickly covered the boy’s mouth before he could fall asleep listening. He shot him a cold glance. “Keep it short, Toyama-senpai.”
Toyama Akira fell silent for a moment.
“I don’t know.”
Fushiguro Megumi: ……
Toyama Akira tried to explain his cursed technique in concrete terms. “I’m here, and then after a moment I’m over there. In between, a stretch of space opens up that I can use to pass through anything.”
The boy spread his arms as he tried to make the explanation more vivid.
But to Fushiguro Megumi, it seemed somewhat abstract. The spiky-haired boy stared at Toyama Akira’s flailing arms for a long while before speaking. “…Ramen?”
Toyama Akira: ……
He was never trying to explain things with gestures again.
Because other people just assumed he was doing something abstract.
In the end, the two of them reached an agreement. Fushiguro Megumi would summon a shikigami, and Toyama Akira would use his cursed technique to attack.
At first, Toyama Akira was very worried that Fushiguro Megumi would summon something terrifying, like a cursed spirit.
Then, with a “Bang,” he was so startled that he immediately squeezed his eyes shut and darted away. When he opened them again, he discovered that the speechless boy had merely gained a cute white rabbit in his hands.
Toyama Akira: ……
After this incident, Fushiguro Megumi saw the boy teleport to the corner and pretend to be a mushroom, and gained a vague understanding of the [teleportation] aspect of his cursed technique. Toyama Akira, meanwhile, roughly understood that the shikigami summoned by Fushiguro Megumi’s cursed technique all resembled animals.
There was really…
Nothing scary about them.
From ten meters away, Toyama Akira waved at Fushiguro Megumi with a smile. “Fushiguro-kun, switch to another shikigami. I’m afraid I won’t be able to bring myself to attack something this cute.”
Fushiguro Megumi: ……
Who was the one who had been scared by this [cute] cursed spirit in his hands and darted ten meters away just now?
If he wasn’t afraid, then come back.
Fushiguro Megumi tugged at the corner of his mouth but said nothing. He merely formed a hand seal.
[Nue]
Hm?
A shadow?
……Hm.
What a huge shadow.
It was fine. He could see wings and feathers. It was a familiar species!
It was a bird, right?
Even if it was a little bigger, it was still a bird…!
It was something familiar. It was a bird, not a cursed spirit.
Don’t be afraid.
Toyama Akira discovered that he had really overestimated himself. When he was not facing anything terrifying, he always felt as though he could summon endless courage from nowhere. It was like how people who had never seen a cockroach could always claim at first that they were not afraid of them.
Still, this probably could not be compared to a cockroach. Toyama Akira thought he was not so pathetic that he would be afraid of a bird. It was just… just a little bigger. It was still a bird.
Toyama Akira stared fixedly at the shikigami slowly emerging from the shadow.
Bird feathers.
Bird wings.
Bird head.
The bird turned its head.
Whaaaat, it has a human face!!!
Toyama Akira disappeared.
Fushiguro Megumi did not understand how he had vanished.
Just as he did not understand why anyone could possibly be afraid of his Nue.
Where Fushiguro Megumi could not see him, Toyama Akira had simply hidden inside his own [heterogeneous space].
He actually understood his cursed technique very well. He simply did not know how to describe it. To him, his technique was as simple as walking through a door. When he pushed open a door, he entered another dimension. When he pushed open the door to leave that space, he first had to set the door’s destination in advance, and then he could exit. The heterogeneous space between those two doors could appear in the real world at his will, becoming a weapon he could use.
It could also be chosen…
To become his refuge.
As long as Toyama Akira kept opening doors and walking through them, teleporting over and over, he could remain in the heterogeneous space indefinitely. It was like how a person could stay on a treadmill forever by continuing to run.
Of course, ordinary people did not keep running on treadmills forever.
Nor would any normal person circle around the shikigami Nue, teleporting and flashing through the heterogeneous space again and again, like a hamster frantically running on its wheel.
The hamster did it for exercise. The cowardly human did it to escape.
Toyama Akira’s rational mind told him: Don’t embarrass yourself. Quickly set a route and pass through that thing, that human-faced bird…!
Toyama Akira’s emotions told him: If you don’t want to be embarrassed, then be dead instead. This is no different from telling someone who is afraid of cockroaches, “It’s so tiny, what’s there to be afraid of? Just step on it and kill it.”
Did he not know that he could kill a cockroach?
Damn it, did he not know that he had that ability?
Did he not know how precious that ability was?
He simply…
“Whoosh…”
Fushiguro Megumi abruptly turned his head, but all he saw was the boy suddenly appearing beside him, with shattered streams of cursed energy glittering behind him. The boy swayed once and then collapsed. It all happened in an instant. From Fushiguro Megumi’s perspective, the boy had suddenly appeared at his side, like a drop of ink suddenly falling onto a canvas, and then… Fushiguro Megumi stiffly shifted his gaze backward.
He had no idea when it had happened, but the canvas had been torn apart. He had no idea when the shikigami had been shredded.
When Fushiguro Megumi looked over, all he could see were the cross-sections of his shikigami, one piece after another, as though some kind of coils had suddenly burst out and tightened around it, tearing it apart. Wait, why had he said [burst out]…?
Without a sound, without any sign… when had it happened?
“I’m just…”
Really, really terrified…
Toyama Akira now felt as though he had encountered a cockroach alone in his room, only for the door to lock itself shut, with no adult like Gojo Satoru around to kill the bug for him. Oh, sorry, he had forgotten that Gojo Satoru was the one who released the bugs. He could only run countless circles around the walls before finally being forced to stretch out his foot and step on the cockroach.
It seemed so simple. It was just facing his fear. It was just stepping on a cockroach. Even though he had not touched the human-faced bird at all when he tore through its body with space, why was he still shaking and feeling sick all over?
Sure enough, every terrifying thing could defeat him with ease…
“That was amazing…”
……
Toyama Akira’s knees were about to give way and hit the floor, but when he heard Fushiguro Megumi’s involuntary admiration, they suddenly locked in place and struggled. At the moment when both knees were about to strike the ground, he somehow managed to turn the situation around and ended up kneeling on one knee.
Toyama Akira: ……
Toyama Akira pretended that this had been intentional, straightened his back before it could slump, and struck a handsome pose on one knee.
“I thought Toyama-san was going to use his cursed technique to escape…”
Toyama Akira, who had genuinely planned to escape and had spent ages circling around in agony, wavering over whether he should run: ……
“So you were using your cursed technique to prepare something like that.”
“……Yeah.”
Toyama Akira heard the thick nasal tone in his own voice and quickly turned his head away, leaving Fushiguro Megumi with only the handsome, enigmatic back of his head.
“Using space… If that space can be broken through so easily even when cursed energy is present, then could it break through a domain directly too…?”
Toyama Akira did not hear a word of what Fushiguro Megumi was saying.
He merely let the tears brought on by his body’s reaction roll down his face without pause.
And then…
“Sniff… I can’t believe you understood it so quickly… sob…”
Fushiguro Megumi: ……