Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu Technical High School was situated on the western side of Tokyo, nestled within a mountainous forest area with minimal urbanization.
Viewed from above, it couldn't even be called a "school"; it looked more like some grand temple with centuries of history.
It was 7:25 AM. Bright spring sunlight warmed the wooden railing of the second-floor outer corridor of a Hachiman-style building. A tall kendo girl with long, dark purple hair, dressed in the school uniform, gazed at the distant campus scenery below. She lowered her phone and let out a soft sigh.
At the same time, footsteps approached from behind her.
Although she could identify the newcomer by sound alone, the instincts honed by her kendo training made the girl glance back anyway.
Emerging from inside were two boys, also in Jujutsu High uniforms. One had spiky black hair, and following behind him was a sporty-looking student whose hair seemed dyed, the top half wine-red and the bottom half normal black. Notably, the latter had two faint lines beneath his eye sockets, making it look at first glance as if he had another pair of eyes that were simply closed.
Their gazes met mid-air. The spiky-haired boy raised his hand first in greeting.
"Good morning, Busujima-senpai."
"Ah, Fushiguro. And..."
Saeko Busujima nodded slightly, her gaze settling on the dyed-hair student behind him.
"Ah, morning, Senpai! I'm Itadori Yuji. Fushiguro and I are classmates now."
The sporty student introduced himself cheerfully, scratching his head.
"Hello."
Saeko Busujima offered a polite smile.
She remembered him. He was the one Gojo Satoru had brought back just two days ago – supposedly the only person so far who had swallowed one of Ryomen Sukuna's fingers, survived, and even retained his own consciousness.
It was incredible, certainly, but... it didn't really have much to do with her.
Unlike the other classes at Jujutsu High where students operated in three-person teams, she had always been a one-person team since enrolling. She completed all missions alone, requiring no outside help.
Getting to know another underclassman would only add pointless interpersonal relationships without any benefit, so there was no need to get too close.
The conversation halted there, and the air on the corridor fell silent.
After two or three seconds, Fushiguro Megumi broke the silence.
"Senpai, you looked like something was on your mind just now. Did something happen?"
"...Something like that."
Since her junior had initiated the conversation, Saeko Busujima could only shake her head, picking up her phone again, unlocking the screen, and switching to the forum page.
"Do you remember the post from last night on the forum? Someone found one of Sukuna's fingers while night fishing?"
"Yeah, I remember. Didn't you contact them right away, Senpai? Have you successfully retrieved it?" Fushiguro asked promptly.
"Unfortunately, no..."
Saeko Busujima shook her head again.
However, just as she was about to show them the chat log on her phone, Itadori Yuji leaned in curiously and interjected.
"Sukuna's finger? Isn't that the thing I ate?"
"Correct."
Saeko Busujima gave him a calm glance.
"Gojo-sensei should have mentioned it to you. There are twenty of Sukuna's fingers in total. Six are contained under the Jujutsu Association. The one you ate, Itadori-kun, was just one of the twenty."
"Ah, I know about that..."
Itadori Yuji was still nodding when Fushiguro suddenly pushed him aside, his voice tinged with urgency.
"So, what's the situation now?!"
That was one of Ryomen Sukuna's fingers they were talking about. Any single one was potent enough to be classified as a Special Grade Cursed Object. Once unsealed, it could attract Curses from kilometers around, all swarming to claim it.
Just like the first day he and Itadori Yuji met.
But that was merely half an hour after the seal broke, and the entire school was already overrun with various Curses.
And now Busujima-senpai was saying they still hadn't managed to retrieve it.
That post was from last night! And judging by the photo in the post, the Cursed Object was clearly already unsealed. If no sorcerer went to deal with it for an entire night...
Fushiguro didn't dare to think further.
Never mind what kind of monstrosity the Curses drawn by the unsealed Sukuna finger might have become after a night of fighting and devouring each other, the person who made the post was likely already...
"They replied to me. Just before you two came out."
Saeko Busujima's nonchalant statement brought Fushiguro's awareness crashing back to reality.
Wait, the person replied? Meaning they're still alive?
"Look."
The kendo girl opened the private message page, showing the chat content to her two juniors.
Fushiguro held his breath and leaned in. Seven large characters met his eyes.
—Hello, I am Qin Shi Huang.
"...What the heck." The corner of the spiky-haired boy's eye twitched.
Although the reply's content and timing suggested the person was alive and hadn't encountered major problems, it was obvious they weren't taking the message sent to them seriously at all!
"So now it's quite troublesome." Saeko Busujima sighed softly. "In situations like this, usually, no matter what else you send, the other party won't believe it. So, I was planning to report this directly to the principal later..."
"Wait, wait, wait, wait~ What are you guys talking about? Did I hear something about reporting to the principal?"
Before she could finish, a rather flippant male voice suddenly came from nearby.
Looking in the direction of the sound, the speaker was a fairly slender young man with white hair, wearing sunglasses. He was waving as he walked towards them along the corridor.
"Gojo-sensei?"
Itadori Yuji sounded surprised, but he quickly reacted, pointing at the phone in the kendo girl's hand.
"Ah, it's like this. Apparently, someone posted on the school forum yesterday saying they found one of Ryomen Sukuna's fingers..."
"Huh?"
Hearing this description, Gojo Satoru, who had been strolling casually just a second ago, instantly accelerated. As if on fast-forward at triple speed, he closed the distance in a blur, arriving beside the three. He took the phone, scanned the chat log, and let out a soft "ah."
"So, looks like the person is still alive, alright, just doesn't believe our message. But for people like this, we actually left a backdoor when the forum was first established."
"A backdoor?"
"Remember the real-name authentication step during forum registration? While everyone has that, internal Jujutsu High personnel, including you students, have an extra verification step. That verification allows you to obtain administrator privileges for the forum under reasonable circumstances, meaning you can freely view the other party's real-name authentication information."
"Hold on, isn't that basically..." Fushiguro started, sounding uncomfortable.
"Well, objectively speaking, you could see it that way. Still, this is novel. Someone actually managed to survive a whole night with one of Ryomen Sukuna's fingers without anything happening?"
Gojo Satoru started tapping away at the phone, muttering as he worked.
Soon, the request for temporary administrator privileges was approved. When he clicked on the user's profile picture via the chat window again, information that should have been hidden was finally displayed.
Gojo Satoru's gaze swept over the lines of text. When he saw the name in the real-name information section, he suddenly paused.
After a long moment, he clicked his tongue softly.
"Ah..."
"What is it? What's wrong?"
Itadori Yuji tried to lean in curiously, but Gojo blocked him with a palm.
Then, he handed the phone back to Saeko Busujima, his usual flippant smile returning as he waved his hand dismissively.
"Alright, alright, I've helped get the person's info. Seems they're a student at Kuoh Academy. Busujima-kun, just find some time after school today to go and communicate with them."
"...Understood."
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