The multiple-choice questions had produced results as baffling as a riddle, but the fill-in-the-blank section clawed back a considerable number of points.
Ieiri Shoko muttered thoughtfully, "Akiya, whether you end up being hung up and pushed on a swing depends on the next few questions."
[4]In the late Taishō period, a child born to the principal wife of the Kamo family overheard a conversation between their parents. The father lifted his head and glanced at the night sky—there were no stars, yet the bright moon hung high. He softly recited a widely circulated line: [...]. The mother blushed crimson and repeated the words in a low voice. The two then grew especially affectionate, and not long after, they gave the child a younger sister.
Gojo Satoru: "???"
Gojo Satoru nearly flipped the desk. "Then what was the point of me memorizing all those historical facts?!"
This was absolutely not something written in any jujutsu world history textbook.
Unlike Gojo Satoru's outrage, Ieiri Shoko and Getou Suguru arrived at the answer almost simultaneously—their "ordinary person" side decisively overpowering their sorcerer instincts.
Ieiri Shoko: "Getou!"
Getou Suguru instantly understood. "Shoko!"
As if possessed by the spirit of melodrama, Ieiri Shoko and Getou Suguru suddenly gazed at each other with deep affection.
In perfect unison, they declared, "The moon is beautiful, isn't it?"
At the podium, the assistant supervisor glanced at the male and female student facing each other dramatically, then looked back at Gojo Satoru's utterly baffled expression.
Gojo, are you living in the old society or something?
"First, analyze the question," Getou Suguru said, launching into an impromptu explanation for Gojo Satoru, his tone unconsciously smug. "It specifies the late Taishō period, and the Taishō era spans from 1912 to 1926. Natsume Souseki is one of the representative figures of that time."
Gojo Satoru asked blankly, "Who's Natsume Souseki?"
Getou Suguru didn't look down on him for his ignorance. "Japan universally acknowledges him as a great literary master. He's even featured on the 1,000-yen banknote."
Getou Suguru continued, "The answer to this question comes from a famous anecdote. When Natsume Sōseki was teaching English, he believed that translating the English phrase 'I love you' directly into Japanese as 'I love you' was inappropriate. Japanese people don't express love so bluntly—they're not as open as Westerners—so he proposed a more indirect, euphemistic expression that carries the same meaning of confession."
Ieiri Shoko took the opportunity to add another stroke to Gojo Satoru's completely blank romantic experience, saying in an amused, gentle voice, "Gojo, if you ever want to confess to someone you like, you can try saying this on a moonlit night: 'The moon is beautiful, isn't it?'"
The answer to the fourth fill-in-the-blank question was [The moon is beautiful, isn't it?]. Under the impromptu literary lesson from his two classmates, Gojo Satoru finally experienced a moment of sudden enlightenment.
He wrote down the answer, quietly savoring the phrase's subtle elegance, then nodded to himself.
It really does sound nice.
Akiya, your literary foundation is pretty solid.
[5]Five hundred years after the Heian period, time advances into the Sengoku era—the last age of glory for the jujutsu world. Lord Tengen encounters one [...] and one [...]. Was it destiny? Or were they inextricably linked?
The three of them fell into a silence heavier than gold.
They couldn't understand it. Truly, completely couldn't understand the question anymore.
Getou Suguru spoke with difficulty, "Let's look at the timeline. The Sengoku period runs from 1467 to 1573."
"Ah… I've looked… ah… what do we do…" Ieiri Shoko's mind was utterly empty; even casting Reverse Cursed Technique on herself wouldn't be enough to revive her dead brain cells.
Gojo Satoru, with a bold flourish of his pen, wrote down: [jujutsu sorcerer], [jujutsu sorcerer].
Getou Suguru felt drained. It seemed they could only brute-force their way through this. He wrote instead: [someone familiar], [someone familiar].
Ieiri Shoko, on the other hand, instinctively thought of her strikingly beautiful classmates and confidently filled in: [great beauty], [lesser beauty].
In the Tombs of the Star Corridor, Tengen—who had been watching for a long time—laughed out loud for the first time in ages.
Judging from her own lived experience, both Gojo Satoru and Getou Suguru had each guessed half wrong, while only Ieiri Shoko had gotten everything completely right.
Tengen said, "Ieiri Shoko, you truly are a fascinating person."
Throughout history, every white-haired bearer of the "Six Eyes," even without possessing the "Limitless" technique, was a born jujutsu sorcerer—let alone the unparalleled genius from five hundred years ago who possessed both the "Six Eyes" and the "Limitless" technique at once.
That individual had been a great beauty hidden deep within the Gojo clan, in no way inferior to Gojo Satoru himself.
Five hundred years ago, Kenjaku sabotaged the Star Plasma Vessel assimilation plan and declared it a failure, suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of the "Six Eyes."
Tengen reminisced, "Five hundred years have passed since the Sengoku era, and now we arrive at the Heisei period—an age of decline for the jujutsu world. Next year, I will encounter a young boy and a young girl. Is it destiny? Or are we inextricably bound?"
"After five hundred years, we meet again—'Six Eyes.'"
One of the Three Great Families, the Gojo clan, had long ago forged a pact with Tengen, their fortunes intertwined, sharing both glory and disgrace.
Gojo Satoru did not know this, but Tengen did.
The reason the Japanese jujutsu world gives birth to a wielder of both the "Six Eyes" and the "Limitless" only once every five hundred years was herself. She was the origin of it all—the unseverable knot of fate binding her to a young boy and a young girl.
This once-in-five-hundred-years meeting was not a reunion of old friends, but the inevitable pull of destiny. The Japanese jujutsu world needed her.
Yet after guarding this burden for a thousand long years, Tengen's spirit was finally nearing the point where it could no longer bear such responsibility.
She laughed as she spoke, but the laughter was laced with profound exhaustion.
She had entrusted her own future to others, and the first person to shoulder that crushing weight turned out to be Asou Akiya. He did not betray that trust—by the end of this year, he had already leaked fragments of what would happen in the coming year.
[6]In the age when gods and Buddhas were interwoven, the doctrines of Japanese Shinto and Buddhism merged into one, and the jujutsu world was deeply influenced as a result, passing down many gāthās and hand seals related to Buddhism. During the Heian period, Ryoumen Sukuna once declared to the jujutsu world, "Throughout heaven and earth, I alone am the Honored One." This sentence originates from [...]—the words spoken at the Buddha's birth. It is said that when the Buddha was born, he took seven steps in the four directions, raised his right hand, and chanted the gāthā: "Throughout heaven and earth, I alone am the Honored One; my endless cycle of rebirth has now come to an end." That is to say, "I am the supreme one in this world." However, the "I" spoken of by the Buddha is not the self; rather, it refers to the Buddha-nature of all beings—"neither born nor extinguished, neither defiled nor pure, neither increased nor diminished." Please interpret Ryomen Sukuna's state of mind from your own perspective: [...]
Getou Suguru felt as though this exam was making his hair fall out by the handful.
These were historical monstrosities that neither ordinary Japanese high school students nor typical jujutsu students would ever encounter—yet he had run into every single one of them! He was a student at a private religious technical college, not a graduate researcher at a Buddhist institute!
Ieiri Shoko: "Ababa…"
Ieiri Shoko: "I think the entrance exams for the University of Tokyo's medical faculty would suit me better."
At last, she resigned herself to the truth. Her talent lay in medicine; she simply could not sit the same exam as her classmates.
Gojo Satoru looked at the two utterly broken figures with puzzlement. "This question is really simple, though."
Getou Suguru stared at him in disbelief. "You know the answer? You understand Buddhism?!"
Gojo Satoru replied matter-of-factly, "Yeah. We often read Buddhist anecdotes at home. 'Throughout heaven and earth, I alone am the Honored One' was spoken by Shakyamuni."
After giving the answer to the first blank, Gojo Satoru casually pointed at his own eyes. "The 'Six Eyes' throughout history have always had an affinity with Buddhism. The 'Six Eyes' are similar to Buddhism's 'Five Eyes'—the physical eye, the heavenly eye, the wisdom eye, the Dharma eye, and the Buddha eye. The 'Six Eyes' simply possess one additional ability beyond the 'Five Eyes': the power to see through cursed energy."
Gojo Satoru thought to himself that even the Domain Expansion he would master in the future would employ Buddhist hand seals.
The Gojo family's "Six Eyes" had always shared an inseparable bond with Buddhism.
Ieiri Shoko could not help but ask, "Then how are we supposed to fill in Ryomen Sukuna's state of mind?"
Gojo Satoru replied lazily, "Just write something. It's not like Akiya can make Ryomen Sukuna jump out and give us the correct answer."
Gojo Satoru wrote down: [Shakyamuni], [I'm number one under heaven, the strongest in the Heian era!].
He felt satisfied with his exam paper for a full second.
As expected of me!
Just looking at it, it feels like I'll pass!
Twenty-five multiple-choice questions, worth fifty points in total. Six fill-in-the-blank questions, worth thirty points. That left the final question—the last major problem, worth twenty points.
The three of them held their breath, steadied their minds, and only then turned to face the final, decisive question.
[Major History Question]Please use your own historical knowledge and reason from perspectives such as human medicine to provide a reasonable explanation: why did the historically real Ryoumen Sukuna possess two mouths, four eyes, four arms, and twenty fingers?
Gojo Satoru said irritably, "How freakishly he looked has nothing to do with me."
Getou Suguru completely lost his composure. "You can't say that! Right now, he determines whether we pass or fail this exam, whether we flunk outright—this question is worth twenty points, ahhhhh!"
Ieiri Shoko fell into deep thought, then suddenly noticed the two DKs staring at her with extreme tension.
Wait a second—can a medical perspective even explain a historical mystery from a thousand years ago?
"…Twin absorption in the womb?"
"Huh?"
"Huh?"
The two DKs immediately switched into earnest, studious mode on the spot, gripping their pens tightly as they looked to her for an answer.
Ieiri Shoko: "..."
Fine. Since you two have at least been somewhat useful.
Ieiri Shoko said, "I can't do this with just my part alone. Remember to help me add a little more afterward."
Ieiri Shoko began to write:
[Modern medicine has observed a rare phenomenon known as 'twin absorption in utero,' in which a pregnancy that originally involved twins becomes a single fetus, and one child seems to vanish without a trace. Subsequent examinations reveal the truth: when two fetuses coexist, the stronger one seizes the nutrients from the mother and gradually absorbs the weaker one, so that after birth, some newborns may possess two sets of organs within their bodies…]
Gojo Satoru excitedly raised his hand. "There's a theory of twin curses in the jujutsu world!"
Ieiri Shoko replied, "Go on."
Gojo Satoru explained, "From the jujutsu world's perspective, identical twins are an ominous sign. After twins are born, their fates are regarded as one and the same, and their strength is split between them. If I were born with a weaker identical twin brother, chances are he would've been executed. So Ryoumen Sukuna might very well be the 'winner' of the twin absorption phenomenon you wrote about!"
Getou Suguru muttered, "Your family really hasn't changed at all—still as cruel as ever."
Gojo Satoru said indifferently, "I'm just giving an example. A brother who drags you down would be useless anyway."
Ieiri Shoko continued writing:
[Ryoumen Sukuna's condition fits the characteristics of twins extremely well: two mouths, four eyes, four arms, and twenty fingers—almost as if two fetuses fused into one within the mother's womb. In the jujutsu world, twins are an ominous sign, regarded as a 'community of shared fate,' and those who manage to overcome the rules of this 'shared destiny' may receive a gift from fate itself—possessing the strength of two people combined.]
As understanding dawned on Ieiri Shoko, a chill crept through her, as though she could see Ryoumen Sukuna's cruel smile from history itself.
The struggle had begun even before birth—fighting, slaughter, devouring.
This was no small matter at all.
Unbelievable.
[He seized the nutrients, absorbed his twin brother, and gained part of his twin's organs.]
[And so, after his birth, he became the Ryoumen Sukuna feared by all.]
The exam was finally over.
The three of them collapsed limply in their seats, utterly drained, each drawing a weak, exhausted breath.
…
Tengen blurted out in shock, "Twins?"
From the vantage point of history, Tengen saw far more of the truth now and was on the verge of being convinced by Ieiri Shoko's reasoning. After all, Ryoumen Sukuna did not merely possess multiple organs capable of producing a synergistic effect where one plus one was greater than two—he also wielded the exceedingly rare phenomenon of dual cursed techniques.
A slashing-type technique and a flame-type technique!
Could a historical riddle of the jujutsu world from a thousand years ago truly be explained through modern medicine?
—
Author's Note:
Don't just sit back and enjoy the spectacle—everyone is welcome to try solving the questions too~.