Jujutsu Kaisen: Aspiring to Become an Immortal God

She had originally been such a bold, easygoing big sister, yet whenever Satoru Gojo was involved, she always became irritable! Gojo had been pretty cute before, so how had he turned out like this? Yuki Tsukumo sighed from the bottom of her heart.

Well, Satoru Gojo had never been reliable before either. It was just that Yuki Tsukumo had barely met him a few times. This was her first formal collaboration with Gojo; everything before had been her own filter, and now that filter had finally shattered.

"Ah, you got here so early!" someone suddenly said.

Outside the torii gate, someone vigorously waved a hand. With short white hair and eyes covered by a blindfold, Satoru Gojo came openly up the torii steps carrying a plastic bag. Behind him were four students wearing Jujutsu High uniforms.

Chest out and head held high, he looked at the people before him with a smiling face, both hands spread in an exaggerated introducing gesture. "Look, look! These are the promising talents I personally unearthed. I'm confident that once they grow up, they'll kick out those useless old men up top."

"You can't just say something like that so openly!" Nobara Kugisaki retorted.

Nobara Kugisaki was a schoolgirl with a strong delinquent vibe. She had dyed her short black hair brown, one side covering her ear while the other was tucked behind it. She wore the girls' Jujutsu High uniform, with a hammer and nails hanging from her waist and brown leather shoes on her feet.

"I used to give the higher-ups some face, you know." Satoru Gojo's smile remained unchanged, but his tone gradually turned cold without anyone noticing. "But now... I've been seriously considering how much longer to let them live."

Everyone fell silent for two or three seconds. Yuki Tsukumo was the first to react. She looked over the students behind Satoru Gojo and broke into a bright smile. "You've had it rough being Gojo's students! I'm Yuki Tsukumo, a special grade jujutsu sorcerer. I was invited here to train you."

"Yes! This is Yuji Itadori! Please take care of me!" Yuji Itadori abruptly bowed deeply.

Yuji Itadori was the kind of boy who looked slim in clothes. He had short pink hair that was anything but smooth; despite his best efforts to groom it, every strand still stuck up, as if he had a head full of thorns. Though polite, he had triangular eyes, and when his brows rose, he naturally looked fierce. Yet he smiled like a complete goofball.

Yuki Tsukumo looked thoughtful. "You're Ryomen Sukuna's vessel."

"Yes." Yuji Itadori did not seem bothered at all and answered naturally.

Yuki Tsukumo laughed. "What a good attitude!"

Then she sighed again. "Still, you've been lucky. Normally, a vessel like you would be considered a thorn in the higher-ups' side. But recent events have urgently shifted their attention elsewhere. Under Gojo's protection, you've actually become safer."

"That isn't necessarily a good thing," Megumi Fushiguro said with a deep frown.

"At least someone got a Big Three Families clan for free," Yuki Tsukumo teased.

Megumi Fushiguro's face darkened. "Whoever wants it can have it."

"I want it!" Satoru Gojo shouted. "Anyway, Megumi! Hold on! Hold on until those old fossils change your name to Megumi Zenin!"

Megumi Fushiguro finally became irritated. "I said I'm not changing my name! Compared to some random Zenin, I care more about Fushiguro!"

As soon as he said that, he realized something and immediately apologized. "Sorry, Maki-senpai. I didn't mean to offend you."

Maki Zenin said indifferently, "No need to apologize. I went to the Zenin Clan once. I'll be blunt: everyone who died in the Zenin Clan, including that bastard clan head, was trash. I feel nothing about it."

Megumi Fushiguro glanced at Satoru Gojo and could not help saying, "If Maki-senpai wants it, I'm willing to put you forward as clan head."

"Don't say that again!" Maki Zenin suddenly raised her voice. "If I wanted to become clan head... I would fight for it myself."

One of the most important reasons Maki Zenin had come under Satoru Gojo was that she hoped to receive enough training to one day personally seize the Zenin Clan head's position. She could no longer endure the atmosphere of the Zenin Clan and wanted to rewrite everything with her own hands.

But now, she no longer needed to.

Because the old fossils who could make decisions for the Zenin Clan and uphold its traditions... were all dead.

The old, weak people left behind were almost all without opinions of their own. Whoever sat in the clan head's seat would become a ruler with absolute power.

Maki Zenin understood Megumi Fushiguro very well. She knew that if Megumi Fushiguro truly sat in the clan head's position, he would certainly reform the current Zenin Clan. Her wish had already been fulfilled, and she no longer clung to it.

All that remained was—

"The King of Curses," she said softly. "That is the only one I will settle things with personally."

Satoru Gojo showed his student no mercy at all. "If you fought the King of Curses, they'd probably blow once and you'd be gone, right? Ahahaha!"

"Gojo, you really can't read the room," Yuki Tsukumo said, covering her forehead in speechless frustration.

Maki Zenin was expressionless.

Yuki Tsukumo changed the subject at the right moment and smiled. "Then the remaining two must be Nobara Kugisaki, the holder of Resonance, and the half-cursed spirit Miyoku?"

Nobara Kugisaki bowed somewhat nervously. "Yes, I'm Nobara Kugisaki."

Miyoku hunched her shoulders and said timidly, "I-I'm Miyoku. Um, please take care of me, Special Grade Sorcerer."

Special grade sorcerer.

Although Satoru Gojo had thoroughly shattered their fantasy of special grades, their impression of the other special grades had not broken yet. After all, special grade sorcerers held extremely high status in Jujutsu Society, and their strength was undeniably overwhelming. Rumor had it that if special grades wished, they could cleanse all of Jujutsu Society by themselves at any time.

Unlike Satoru Gojo, Yuki Tsukumo did not have that unreliable aura around her. On the contrary, she was bright and approachable, and she was also a great beauty. She perfectly matched the special grade image held by young people who had just entered Jujutsu Society. Even Nobara Kugisaki, who was not the type to get stage fright, felt a trace of nervousness and pressure. As for Miyoku, her eyes had already begun to glaze over, and she looked ready to faint at any moment.

With no sense of timing whatsoever, Satoru Gojo raised his wrist to check the time and immediately shouted, "It's almost time! I gathered all my adorable students here, so why hasn't he arrived yet—"

He loudly called out that name. "—Hakari."

As though to slap Satoru Gojo in the face, a hurricane suddenly swept through. Everyone instinctively looked up at the sky.

A quiet pressure silently engulfed the entire school. It was clearly midday, with the sun hanging high overhead, yet a patch of black covered it. It was a dragon wing—a pair of enormous dragon wings large enough to cover the sun. Their shadow fell beneath the sunlight, obscuring everyone's faces.

A giant dragon was slowly descending.

Satoru Gojo whistled, the sound crisp and clear, but everyone except him was stunned. None of them had expected a legendary giant dragon to descend here. The Great Barrier issued no warning, which meant this person was recorded in its system and was not an enemy. The dragon's pressure bore down from all directions. Everyone felt as though a massive boulder had slammed into their hearts, and fear spilled out uncontrollably.

The giant dragon lowered its head. Its horns coiled like serpents, and between them, someone sat cross-legged. While the dragon was still in midair, that person leaped directly from its head.

Yuki Tsukumo instinctively raised a hand. She sensed a fatal threat, as though what was falling was not a human but a meteor descending from beyond the heavens. It was only an illusion, because a human's weight could not compare to a meteorite. Yet it was not an illusion either, because as that person fell, some tremendous pressure truly descended from the sky. Vast cursed energy had formed wind around him, making him seem like a solid mass weighing hundreds of tons crashing downward.

Satoru Gojo suddenly grabbed Yuki Tsukumo's hand. "Don't be nervous." Boom!

The man falling from the sky finally hit the ground. In an instant, everyone felt the earth shake. The Great Barrier finally sounded its alarm. Tremors spread outward without restraint, shaking the torii gate. The Great Barrier had automatically identified it as an earthquake and issued a false alarm. Along with the shaking came massive clouds of dust, sweeping across the world like a sandstorm.

The dust gradually settled, and someone walked out from within it.

"Long time no see, Gojo-sensei." Kinji Hakari's voice was high and spirited. "It's good to see you still so energetic. It reminds me of my student days. The person beside you must be Special Grade Sorcerer Yuki Tsukumo-senpai? No need to be nervous... for now, I have no plans to destroy the school's barrier."

Yuki Tsukumo smiled. "You make it sound... as if you could easily tear apart the school's barrier whenever you wanted."

"Oh? Wasn't I clear enough?"

Kinji Hakari raised a hand. A tiny dragon the size of a kitten descended from the air at some point. It landed lightly in Kinji Hakari's hand, tilting its head toward Yuki Tsukumo. The corner of its mouth actually formed the same smile as Kinji Hakari's.

"That is exactly what I mean," Kinji Hakari said.

As one of the few talent-training centers in Jujutsu Society, the jujutsu schools in Tokyo and Kyoto both had barriers personally established by Tengen. Their sturdiness was beyond question. In all of Jujutsu Society, fewer than ten people could guarantee they could break them through brute force.

In other words, being able to break this barrier by force meant Kinji Hakari had firmly entered the top ten. Yuki Tsukumo thought, What arrogance—and what excellence!

Yet such an exceptional young man had been forced into the cursed spirits' camp by those old men.

Satoru Gojo spread his arms and smiled broadly. "Long time no see, Hakari! Looks like you've been doing well lately."

The little dragon in Kinji Hakari's palm consciously flew onto his shoulder. Its head lifted high, its eyes filled with humanlike delight—the exact same emotion reflected in Kinji Hakari's eyes.

Kinji Hakari looked around and sighed. "I remember that before I left, the only first-year here was Megumi Fushiguro. Now there are suddenly three more people. If I remember correctly, this is the foundation of Gojo-sensei's determination to reform Jujutsu Society, right? In other words, everyone here is someone Gojo-sensei recognizes?"

That struck right at Satoru Gojo's heart. He immediately lifted his chin proudly. "Ha, you get it, Hakari! That's right, all of them are outstanding students I recognize. In the future, they will surely become the force behind my reform of Jujutsu Society."

"Come on, get acquainted. This is Yuji Itadori, this is Nobara Kugisaki, and this is Miyoku."

For every name Satoru Gojo said, he patted a student on the head. The students, who had still been blankly processing the giant dragon, were thoroughly awakened now. Satoru Gojo continued meaningfully, "And you too, Hakari. You are also my student."

Kinji Hakari sighed. As expected, Gojo-sensei had really come to win him back.

"Cool," someone suddenly said quietly.

Everyone immediately looked at the speaker. Yuji Itadori froze for a moment, then awkwardly put a hand behind his head and began scratching it unconsciously.

"I mean, that giant dragon Hakari-senpai rode just now... that was your shikigami, right? It was seriously cool," Yuji Itadori said with a grin.

Kinji Hakari thought for a moment and recognized who the boy before him was. "Gojo-sensei introduced you just now. Yuji Itadori... you're Ryomen Sukuna's vessel?"

Yuji Itadori pointed at himself. "Am I really that famous?"

Kinji Hakari laughed loudly. "You're more than famous! The storm around you has only just begun. After all—if Mahito cannot deal with Gojo-sensei, then the Ryomen Sukuna inside you will be the next blade aimed at Gojo-sensei."

Those words stunned everyone, including Satoru Gojo. "You really are blunt, Hakari," Satoru Gojo said blankly.

"Because I don't want you to be hurt, Gojo-sensei." Kinji Hakari looked at Satoru Gojo and sighed. "You were the one who personally led me into Jujutsu Society. You trained me without holding anything back, opened the path to the highest levels of jujutsu power for me, and supported me in developing a new Domain Expansion, even at the cost of offending Jujutsu Headquarters."

"During the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, you were the only one who spoke up for me... Gojo-sensei, my respect for you comes from the bottom of my heart. There is not the slightest falsehood in it."

Satoru Gojo's expression softened for an instant, but then goosebumps broke out all over him. He rubbed his arms hard and gave an awkward laugh. "Hakari, you've actually learned how to say cheesy things."

"This isn't mere flattery." Kinji Hakari took a deep breath and suddenly turned his gaze toward Yuki Tsukumo. "I already know why Jujutsu Headquarters lifted my wanted notice... Yuki-senpai, shall we fight?"

Satoru Gojo frowned. "I brought my students to welcome you. I think you should wait a while."

"Fight," Yuki Tsukumo interrupted Satoru Gojo.

She raised a smile, but unlike her usual bold and carefree one, this smile carried a feverish air—a craving for battle.

She said, "I'm ready anytime... are you?"

Kinji Hakari wore the same smile. "So am I."

I Want to Make a Big Bet

The location shifted to the school plaza. Since this was a school specifically built to train jujutsu sorcerers, its plaza was even larger than an ordinary school's. Combined with the Great Barrier covering the entire campus, its durability far surpassed anything outsiders could imagine.

Kinji Hakari and Yuki Tsukumo stood roughly fifty meters apart. Neither attacked immediately. Instead, they began warming up.

The other students ran to sit on the large outer steps, preparing to watch this top-level clash in Jujutsu Society. Satoru Gojo had once introduced Kinji Hakari, personally saying that if Kinji Hakari was in peak condition, even special grade sorcerers would be no match for him. Meanwhile, Yuki Tsukumo was a special grade sorcerer recognized by Jujutsu Society. This was unquestionably a battle between special grades.

Before this, they had gained a general understanding of what special grades meant because of Satoru Gojo, but this was their first time witnessing such a direct battle.

Satoru Gojo stood beside Kinji Hakari as he warmed up and smiled. "Your juniors are all watching, so don't embarrass me. It's only Yuki Tsukumo—beat her up hard!"

Kinji Hakari could not take it anymore. "Gojo-sensei, do you even know what you're saying? I'm on the King of Curses' side! You're cheering for the enemy, you know?"

Satoru Gojo suddenly said, "Kinji, you will definitely become a sorcerer who stands beside me in the future. I've never doubted that."

The change in topic was abrupt, but Kinji Hakari understood Satoru Gojo's meaning in an instant.

He fell silent. He recalled the time he had spent with Satoru Gojo. Satoru Gojo was not a good teacher, but he was definitely a good friend, because he was not influenced by worldly standards. He would support you unconditionally, even if you violated society's mainstream values.

He would stand up for you, protect your freedom, and bear the pressures you could not see. Before you, he was always smiling, as though even if the sky fell, he could support it with a smile and make light of it.

Kinji Hakari respected Satoru Gojo more than anyone. There was not the slightest falsehood in that.

If it had been before, he would surely have answered Satoru Gojo firmly. He would have said: I feel the same, Gojo-sensei. Please let me become your strength!

But now, he could never say those words. He pressed down on his leg and said softly:

"Gojo-sensei, I can't lie to you... it isn't because of a Binding Vow. I saw light—light guided by Mahito. I should have been struggling in the deepest darkness. Even the faintest starlight would have been enough to comfort me, but now a vast beam of light shines upon me... I can't go back."

"What light and darkness? Hakari, are you still in your edgy phase?" Satoru Gojo said with a laugh.

"Let's say I am." Kinji Hakari began doing chest stretches. His voice was slightly distorted from the exertion as he said, "Jujutsu Society has long since decayed. Even Gojo-sensei acknowledges that reality. In the future, Gojo-sensei will lead your juniors in changing all of this. I firmly believe that too. But even so, it cannot last forever. After Gojo-sensei dies, how long can the future you lead truly endure? I cannot help being pessimistic about that future."

"I remember you being a very optimistic kid," Satoru Gojo said.

"Reality forced me to change." Kinji Hakari said calmly, "Just as I believed Gojo-sensei would bring me fairness back then, I did not resist immediately when Jujutsu Society came after me. When I hid in that abandoned parking lot, I also believed my wanted notice would soon be withdrawn. But until Mahito came to find me, until I formally joined Mahito's camp, the fairness Jujutsu Society should have given me still never came."

Kinji Hakari did not mean to blame Satoru Gojo. On the contrary, the more he encountered Jujutsu Society and understood the mainstream's rejection of him, the more he felt Satoru Gojo's care for him, and the more he cherished Satoru Gojo's kindness.

Satoru Gojo was already among the tiny number of people standing at the pinnacle of Jujutsu Society, yet he could not protect the student he favored and allowed Kinji Hakari to bear an unjust wanted notice.

Of course, since Kinji Hakari was not easy to deal with, and because of Satoru Gojo's pressure, that wanted notice was practically meaningless.

But having a wanted notice and not having one were two completely different things. Satoru Gojo had failed in his duty.

"I once promised that I would purge every injustice you encountered." Satoru Gojo's smile disappeared. He said seriously, "I have not changed that promise even now, as long as you return to my side."

Those words were sincere, and Kinji Hakari could tell. But he did not turn back. He merely said calmly:

"The United States was wonderful before the Soviet Union collapsed—so wonderful that no modern person could imagine it. A blue-collar worker only needed to work in a factory to support a family of six. They had comprehensive medical coverage, and no one worried about their future. Their union system was free of corruption. Everyone united their strength and spoke for their own groups, as though the world would remain wonderful forever."

Kinji Hakari moved into the next warm-up exercise, but his voice did not stop. As he stretched, he continued:

"But after the Soviet Union collapsed, everything changed. The United States formally became the world's hegemon. It waged wars, wantonly humiliated other countries, made promises only to tear up agreements the next month. Its complete union system became a rotten business overnight, and everyone who joined a union suffered bitterly. It was like a greedy giant dragon, wantonly spewing floodwaters and drowning the world, saints included."

Kinji Hakari straightened his arms and stretched his spine.

"I believe that if I were truly won back by you, Jujutsu Society would be overjoyed. They would agree to any promise, and I even believe they would come before me themselves, kneel on the ground, and beg for my forgiveness... But if Mahito were destroyed, I also believe they would immediately turn against me. They would repay every humiliation they suffered a hundredfold, as though I were a chamber pot used at night—reeking and disposable."

Satoru Gojo could not refute him, because even he believed what Kinji Hakari described was the future bound to happen. Satoru Gojo sighed. "Then what exactly did the King of Curses promise you?"

"He promised me nothing." Kinji Hakari smiled. "Nothing at all."

"He promised you nothing?"

"Yes, nothing at all."

"He promised you nothing, yet you're this loyal to him?" Satoru Gojo asked in disbelief. "I never knew something was wrong with your head too."

"Mahito is a good person," Kinji Hakari said slowly.

"A good person? He's a cursed spirit!" Satoru Gojo emphasized. "I know the King of Curses has more humanity than jujutsu sorcerers. Since he appeared, I have never heard anyone say he actively went out to harm people. Though he has allied with curse users, the curse users allied with him have actually stopped harming people as well. It seems the only cursed spirits left are those that have just been born. It is peaceful and beautiful. I do not doubt at all that he is a good person."

After a pause, Satoru Gojo said solemnly, "But he is ultimately not human! No matter how wonderful he is, as a cursed spirit, he cannot become humanity's king. Human society can only be ruled by humans. That is the bottom line, and the King of Curses... has crossed it."

This was the true reason Satoru Gojo had always shown hostility toward the King of Curses. He knew perfectly well that this was not a matter of good versus evil, but of racial position. As a human, he could never accept cursed spirits becoming their king.

Humans, as the only intelligent species on this planet, had grown accustomed to being its masters. How could they possibly welcome another intelligent species to enslave them? Satoru Gojo could not imagine such a future at all.

If there was even the slightest possibility of it—the King of Curses had to die!

This had nothing to do with whether Mahito was a good person. Good or bad, humanity should utterly kill him, prevent anything like this from ever happening again, remain vigilant forever, and never relax!

"Are humans really suited to rule humans?" Kinji Hakari suddenly asked.

Satoru Gojo frowned. "Do you know what you're saying, Hakari?"

"Gojo-sensei, do you know how many people die in Tokyo every year?" Kinji Hakari asked. But he did not wait for Satoru Gojo's answer before answering himself. "Excluding the missing, the confirmed number exceeds 110,000. On average, more than 300 people die every day, and it rises year after year. According to data analysis, Japan's death toll will peak in 2039, climbing to 1.67 million deaths per year."

Satoru Gojo said nothing.

Kinji Hakari slowly said, "For everyone attending a jujutsu technical school, the first piece of knowledge they remember is the number of people killed by cursed spirits every year... Was it ten thousand a year? Or fifty thousand? Those people are counted among the missing, which means they are not included among those confirmed deaths."

Kinji Hakari's voice sank: