Knock. Knock.
With his heart in his throat, Zen'in Naoya knocked on the door of a dorm room.
"...Why are you here?"
The person who answered the door was Getou Suguru. He looked at his kouhai in confusion, instinctively searching for Asou Akiya behind him, only to find that he was nowhere in sight.
"Akiya-kun asked me to take his place for the game," Zen'in Naoya replied politely. His manners were impeccable in front of a Special Grade sorcerer. "He said Shoko-senpai needed him for something, so he happened to be going out."
Getou Suguru hesitated for a moment before stepping aside. Out of consideration for Asou Akiya, he decided to let him in.
"Come in."
Three people sat in front of the television, each holding a controller. Getou Suguru sat between the heirs of two Great Clans, naturally serving as a buffer against the cold air radiating from Gojo Satoru.
"Naoya-kouhai," Getou Suguru said, "if you'd like something to eat or drink, just help yourself to the snacks on the coffee table."
Zen'in Naoya tactfully shook his head.
"No, thank you. I'm only here to play."
Getou Suguru then pointed at the insulated pitcher and the stack of disposable paper cups on the coffee table.
"Akiya made some milk tea."
Zen'in Naoya's resolve immediately wavered.
Before he could say anything, Gojo Satoru interrupted.
"Suguru, letting a rotten orange into our dorm is already the limit of what I can tolerate!"
Getou Suguru frowned.
"Call him 'kouhai.'"
Having long since grown accustomed to being called a "rotten orange," Zen'in Naoya took the insult in stride.
"Suguru-kun," he said calmly, "Satoru-kun always calls us that."
Getou Suguru: "..."
Deciding not to play the peacemaker any longer, Getou Suguru wisely let the game do the talking between senpai and kouhai.
Today's game was a brand-new release. Gojo Satoru had picked it up while tailing his friend. As the three of them settled into a co-op session, Zen'in Naoya's skills turned out to be far better than anyone had expected. Not only did he avoid being a burden, but his reflexes were sharp, and he seemed remarkably familiar with the game's hidden mechanisms. Once again, Getou Suguru found his impression of the "isolated young master of one of the Three Great Clans" completely overturned.
"My family has always had internet," Zen'in Naoya said, stealing a glance at Gojo Satoru to make sure he wasn't offended.
"My father loves video games. He taught me how to play when I was little, saying that the future would be an age of entertainment for everyone. As for this game..." Zen'in Naoya paused thoughtfully. "If I remember correctly, it showed up in my father's game room over a month ago."
The more Zen'in Naoya spoke, the prouder he became.
Because of his personal interests, the head of the Zen'in Clan had invested in the anime, gaming, and film industries.
Compared to that, the Gojo Clan's traditions were far more conservative and old-fashioned.
Gojo Satoru: "...."
Silently, Gojo Satoru cursed the head of the Gojo Clan all over again. Just look at the Zen'in Clan—they even had something like this to brag about right in front of him!
Gojo Satoru tossed his controller aside.
Seeing that, Getou Suguru decisively swapped out the game cartridge.
"Satoru, let's play a fighting game instead."
Although Getou Suguru had been courteous to Zen'in Naoya, when it came to cheering up his best friend, he had no qualms about playing dirty.
The fighting game began with Getou Suguru and Gojo Satoru on one team, facing off against Zen'in Naoya and an AI partner.
Gojo Satoru's grin immediately returned.
Zen'in Naoya gripped his controller so tightly that it creaked in protest as he frantically struggled against the relentless onslaught from the two of them.
Round after round, Zen'in Naoya refused to give up, stubbornly persevering with his unyielding competitive spirit.
I'm good at games— I definitely have a chance to win!
"Shoko, since Yaga-sensei is about to become the principal, it'd be best to give him something he can wear every day. That way, he can actually use it."
Asou Akiya had gone to see Ieiri Shoko to discuss next month's Teacher's Day gift. Along the way, he shared some basic knowledge about men's accessories and had her treat the soreness in his arm, claiming he had accidentally strained it.
By the time Asou Akiya returned to his two friends, Zen'in Naoya had already left, looking utterly defeated.
"...Did you two bully him?" Asou Akiya asked, glancing at the victory screen still displayed on the television.
"We won every match!" Gojo Satoru was no longer sulking. He bounced excitedly on the sofa, all smiles again. "That guy's actually pretty good at games."
"Yeah," Getou Suguru agreed, wiping a bead of cold sweat from his forehead. "As the senpai, Satoru and I had to make it look easy. We couldn't let Naoya-kouhai realize we'd gotten a little rusty lately."
"I wasn't rusty at all!" Gojo Satoru immediately protested. "It was Suguru! Suguru's the one who hasn't played in forever!"
"Alright, alright. It was me," Getou Suguru admitted without arguing.
"Nicely done." Asou Akiya praised them with a smile before adding shamelessly, "You couldn't let him win even once."
Getou Suguru reached over to pull Asou Akiya down onto the sofa, urging him to sit. Instead, Asou Akiya asked him to wait a moment. He fetched a freshly wrung-out damp towel and carefully wiped down the cushion before sitting, deliberately avoiding the spot that still retained Zen'in Naoya's warmth.
Only then did the three of them begin another round.
"You're playing a fighting game? Suguru, let's team up against Gojo."
"Sounds good, Akiya!"
"Heh, watch me wipe the floor with both of you!"
Gojo Satoru had no objections to the teams. Tilting his chin arrogantly into the air, he looked down on their little scheme without the slightest concern.
Asou Akiya deliberately picked a support character whose specialty was sealing an opponent's ultimate skill. Paired with the offense-oriented Getou Suguru, the two spent the first two rounds getting used to each other's playstyles. By the third round, they had found their rhythm and began completely suppressing Gojo Satoru.
Every time Gojo Satoru tried to unleash his ultimate, Asou Akiya would seal it away a split second beforehand, driving him absolutely mad.
Meanwhile, Getou Suguru relentlessly pummeled Gojo Satoru's character with punches and kicks.
In the real world, Gojo Satoru let out a dramatic wail.
"I want a one-on-one! Quit ganging up on me two against one! Damn useless teammate!"
Asou Akiya chuckled.
"You'll have to get used to having teammates who drag you down."
Thinking of the state of the jujutsu world, Getou Suguru nodded in agreement. "Satoru, don't be so arrogant. One day your teammates might get you killed."
Gojo Satoru merely wore the same carefree, disdainful expression, his eyes fixed on the screen. To him, a game was a game; reality was reality, and the two should never be confused.
Asou Akiya occasionally glanced at Gojo Satoru, but the person occupying his thoughts was Fushiguro Megumi.
After spending some time with him, Asou Akiya had come to realize that Megumi was a child with tremendous potential to be shaped. He disliked doing housework, but that could be taught. He lacked proper respect for his teachers, but that, too, could be corrected over time until he understood the effort they put in.
Even so, Asou Akiya couldn't ignore one undeniable fact.
Megumi was sensitive and delicate by nature. Around strangers, he was reserved and withdrawn, in some ways resembling Asou Akiya himself. The crucial difference, however, was that Megumi lacked the ambition to push himself forward.
Ambition was, in a sense, another form of possessiveness—a competitive drive, an unyielding will that refused to bow before others.
Logically speaking, a child who had grown up poor and deprived of a warm family should have cherished money and longed for the companionship of loved ones.
Yet Megumi was the complete opposite.
He was far too independent.
Independent enough that he could quietly bear the weight of loneliness all by himself.
A Fushiguro Megumi like this was mature beyond his years and easy to care for, but he was also too moderate, too restrained. He had yet to awaken a truly powerful sense of self.
His talent far surpassed the strength of his character.
And once the Ten Shadows Technique awakened, that overwhelming gift would become nothing less than a catastrophic disaster for Fushiguro Megumi.
If Makora wasn't sealed away, Fushiguro Megumi would inevitably attract Ryomen Sukuna's attention. Sukuna had countless ways to shatter Megumi's will. For example, within their shared mental world, he could subject Megumi to endless torture with Malevolent Shrine, carving him apart thousands upon thousands of times. There was no way Megumi's spirit could withstand that.
Nor would Fushiguro Megumi ever willingly become the dead weight who handed over both his body and his technique to the enemy.
The tragedy was that he simply lacked the strength to protect himself.
His cries for help would be nothing more than the helpless lament of the weak, something that villains like Ryomen Sukuna, Kenjaku, and Uraume would only mock.
Asou Akiya hoped that, by taking away part of Fushiguro Megumi's overwhelming talent, he could repay him with a peaceful and ordinary life.
But with the Ten Shadows Technique coveted by the entire jujutsu world, how could Megumi possibly avoid being swept into those storms?
Judging from the way Kenjaku could freely change bodies without being affected by Binding Vows, Asou Akiya concluded that the vows made by sorcerers primarily bound the body and had little to no influence over the soul.
Then there was Okkotsu Yuta's method of circumventing a Binding Vow.
Okkotsu Yuta had entered into a Binding Vow with Jujutsu Headquarters to kill Itadori Yuji. After receiving Yuji's location from Headquarters, he rushed to the battlefield, stabbed straight through Yuji's heart, causing him to die in the conventional sense, and then immediately revived him with Reverse Cursed Technique. In doing so, he had technically fulfilled the vow while still saving Yuji's life.
From that, it was clear that a mutual Binding Vow was not without loopholes.
When it came to deceiving one another, humans had always excelled at underhanded tricks.
More importantly, Asou Akiya didn't dare establish a mutual Binding Vow with Fushiguro Megumi in the first place.
To be more precise, aside from Gojo Satoru, if anyone in the jujutsu world made Fushiguro Megumi swear to never use Makora, they might as well wait for the villains to track them down and kill them.
Murder was the most effective way to dissolve a Binding Vow between two people.
There was no better method.
The most troublesome part was that Fushiguro Megumi could never guarantee the secrecy of such a vow. Once the King of Curses incarnated within him, Megumi's memories and the information contained within his body could very well be shared with Ryomen Sukuna, handing every one of their secrets to the enemy without reservation.
The safest option, therefore, was a one-sided Binding Vow.
The kind Nanami Kento used—a vow made solely between a sorcerer and their own body and mind.
Ryomen Sukuna would have no way to break a Binding Vow that was bound exclusively to Fushiguro Megumi himself. Even if Sukuna succeeded in taking over Megumi's body, once Makora had been permanently sealed away, his only remaining option would be to abandon that body altogether.
Without Makora, the Ten Shadows Technique would no longer be nearly as tempting.
For the Ten Shadows Technique to willingly discard its greatest trump card—such a thing had never happened in history. Yet it was also the most ruthless way to protect oneself, cutting the problem off at its source.
Asou Akiya made up his mind.
Megumi, if you're going to blame someone, then blame this world. Blame me... I'll do whatever it takes.
The black-haired youth relaxed as he continued playing games with his two friends. The fighting game before him felt like the embodiment of competition itself. Within the game, he would defeat Gojo Satoru, and outside the game… He would weaken both the Ten Shadows Technique and the King of Curses.
The following day, at Hanaboshi Kindergarten.
Summer vacation had already ended at the beginning of September. Today was Monday, September 11—a perfectly ordinary school day.
As evening approached, Fushiguro Megumi sat quietly inside the classroom, watching as one classmate after another was picked up by their parents.
He wasn't particularly envious.
Even if his biological father were still alive, he wouldn't have come to pick him up.
Having my uncles is enough.
Fushiguro Megumi gazed out at the evening sky, remembering that Naoya-ojisan and Akiya-ojichan were students too, just like him.
The weather in Tokyo had finally improved.
During the height of summer's extreme weather, Fushiguro Megumi had often watched evenings swallowed by torrential rain and flashing lightning. Streets would flood, traffic would grind to a standstill, and parents would find themselves trapped on the roads, unable to arrive on time.
Yet no matter how heavily the rain poured, Akiya-ojichan always kept his promise.
Even drenched from head to toe, he would arrive at the agreed time without fail, wrap Megumi tightly in a raincoat, and carry him home.
Their home was close by, barely two hundred meters away.
But Akiya-ojichan's workplace was much farther, requiring a long commute by train and an even longer walk.
From him, Fushiguro Megumi had learned a simple lesson:
If you make a promise, you keep it.
There was still some time before pickup, so Fushiguro Megumi amused himself by practicing the hand signs his teacher had shown the class, using them to shape the shadows on the wall into little animals.
Akiya-ojichan had once told him that his shadows might be living things.
He should play with them more often, one day, they might even play with him in return.
"Megumi, time to go home."
A voice called to Fushiguro Megumi from outside the building.
"Coming!"
Fushiguro Megumi immediately stopped playing. Slinging his school bag over his shoulder, he hurried outside. His stomach was already growling with hunger.
Asou Akiya treated him so well that, in Megumi's eyes, Akiya-ojichan felt more like a real uncle than Zen'in Naoya, who was always teasing him.
But the moment Asou Akiya took his hand, Fushiguro Megumi changed his mind again.
Someone this kind couldn't possibly be related to him by blood.
It was like Tsumiki-oneechan from his stepmother's side of the family.
Tsumiki-oneechan... she'll be able to live happily with her mother, won't she?
Fushiguro Megumi looked up and asked, "Akiya-ojichan, will Tsumiki-oneechan be happy?"
He had only recently learned the word happy at kindergarten.
Asou Akiya seemed to possess a special talent for answering children's seemingly random questions.
"She will. I'll make sure she has a happy life, just like in a fairy tale."
For Fushiguro Megumi's sake, Asou Akiya would never allow Fushiguro Tsumiki to be abandoned by her biological mother.
If Mrs. Fushiguro chose to remain single, he would secretly help her find stable work. If she decided to remarry, he would personally vet every prospective husband.
And if none of them were suitable...
He would simply have Zen'in Naoya arrange for a man eager to curry favor with the heir of the Zen'in Clan. The only conditions would be absolute discretion and that he properly care for the mother and daughter. At worst, outsiders would merely wonder what kind of relationship Zen'in Naoya had with the pair.
In short, if this man wouldn't do, then onto the next.
They could keep changing candidates until Mrs. Fushiguro finally found one she was satisfied with.
As for the troubles Fushiguro Toji had left behind after his death...
If Zen'in Naoya wanted to firmly secure his position as the heir of the Zen'in Clan, then as Toji's devoted admirer, he had the ability, the obligation, and the responsibility to deal with every last one of them.
"That's great."
A smile unconsciously spread across Fushiguro Megumi's face.
He wanted to get home as soon as possible.
And if tonight's dinner happened to be stir-fried pork with pickled ginger, that would make it even better.