"What a strange feeling..."
Feng felt his field of vision expand abruptly. It was like switching to creative mode-apart from hearing and sight, nothing constrained him.
His whole body felt like a bird free of all restraints, perhaps even lighter than that.
"So what happens if I pull myself together again?"
Frostlike moonlight spilled over the winding river. At one stretch of shallows, the once-rushing current began gathering unnaturally.
Countless crystalline droplets defied gravity as they converged toward the center, as though a pair of enormous, invisible hands were molding some fragile piece of porcelain in the darkness.
First came slender finger joints, then a back so pale it was nearly translucent, rounded shoulders... beneath the moonlight, the water wove itself together and reformed.
The figure knelt on one knee in the shallows, the water rising past his thighs. Having expended too much cursed energy in his earlier struggle with Mahito, Feng could only form a body the size of a twelve- or thirteen-year-old boy.
Feng's soaked black hair clung to the back of his neck. Droplets slid down his back as it rose and fell with his rapid breathing, merging into the cold river water below.
"This takes some getting used to. It's like swimming..."
Feng gasped for breath. His underwear was gone, but fortunately, there were no passersby nearby.
The weightless sensation of having become a natural phenomenon was rapidly fading, replaced by the heavy, tangible feel of flesh and blood.
His bare knee pressed against the smooth pebbles of the riverbed. The chill traveled through his nerve endings to his brain, bringing a dull ache that reminded him he had survived.
Just as the exhaustion of his narrow escape washed over his entire body, the air above the previously calm river suddenly gave a faint hum.
Without warning, a clear, lofty surge of cursed energy, carrying an air of absolute dominance, enveloped the riverbank like a glacier plummeting from ten thousand meters above.
That power was completely unlike Mahito's malice. It was so vast it almost felt like nothing at all, yet so real that he could not ignore the shiver of every inch of his skin being "observed."
At the center of that power, a figure hovered silently a few centimeters above the river.
"Holding a 'baptism' out here? Localized rainfall on this scale... and what an interesting cursed energy wavelength. I've never seen anything like it."
The newcomer wore a jet-black, high-collared uniform. His short, silvery-white hair shone like stardust in the night.
He was not wearing his signature black blindfold. Instead, a pair of dark sunglasses rested casually on his face, and his long fingers idly nudged the frames upward.
Hidden behind those lenses, his azure eyes-the "Six Eyes"-scrutinized the small, naked figure in the shallows as though examining a rare treasure, laying him completely bare.
Satoru Gojo tilted his head slightly, his gaze passing over the boy's shoulder toward the distant traces of cold, sinister cursed residue.
"Seems like an interesting little brat is making trouble over there, but... this body that looks like it's made of 'water' is much more intriguing."
As though he had sensed something, an intrigued smile curled his lips. He lightly tapped the water with his toe and closed the distance as if teleporting, stopping just three meters from the riverbank.
"Which family secretly raised a 'singularity' like you?
Or... are you some little god who ran away from somewhere before learning how to wear clothes?"
The flippant remark slightly softened the divine, almost godlike pressure he radiated.
Yet the aura of "Limitless" surrounding him still made the river water instinctively part to either side, forming an empty semicircle.
"Who are you?" Feng paused in surprise.
He was not actually wondering who Satoru Gojo was. He simply had not expected to encounter him.
Of course, even if he recognized him, he could not admit it. That would be far too suspicious.
The silver-haired man's figure looked almost unreal beneath the moonlight. Rather than descend in response to that wary question, he went a step further and crossed his legs in midair.
The tips of his leather shoes skimmed the rushing water without picking up a trace of moisture.
Behind his dark sunglasses, azure light flickered rapidly, tracking every thread of cursed energy flowing around him.
Only moments earlier, that cold, revolting cursed residue, like a lump of flesh, had been lurking deep within the sanatorium.
The instant it sensed the arrival of the "Six Eyes," it severed every connection with remarkable speed and decisiveness, like a cockroach exposed to light, and vanished completely into the darkness deep in the wooded hills.
Satoru Gojo did not pursue it.
It was too far away. Even if he gave chase immediately, he might not make it in time.
Besides, there was a bigger problem right in front of him.
He rested his long fingers against his chin, his gaze lingering on the boy in the shallows, who had shrunk considerably and now looked somewhat bewildered as he stood there in a daze.
Water kept dripping from the boy's black hair. Outlined by moonlight, his pale skin had a cold, hard quality reminiscent of marble.
"Who am I?"
Satoru Gojo gave a light chuckle, as though he had heard an amusing joke.
Then he withdrew his left hand from his pocket and casually pushed his sunglasses upward with a fingertip, revealing a sliver of an eye as clear as glacial ice.
"I'm Satoru Gojo. Currently, I'm a teacher at Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu High School."
He leaned forward slightly, his black, high-collared uniform remaining perfectly still in the night breeze. The pressure of a god looking down upon mortals was softened by a roguish smile.
"As much as I'd like to praise your creativity in practicing 'unity of heaven and humanity' out in the wilderness, you did just escape from that dangerous little brat.
Even if you look like a kid who hasn't been weaned yet, I can't just let a 'singularity' with a cursed technique like yours run loose in Tokyo."
Satoru Gojo's gaze swept across the riverbank.
Some scorched, withered grass had remained there after the earlier domain battle.
Yet in the few short minutes since Feng had re-formed his body, the ground washed by the "rainfall" had begun emitting strange fluctuations of cursed energy, brimming with vitality.
He suddenly extended a finger and traced a small circle in the air.
"So, little god. Are you going to put on some clothes and come with me?
Or would you rather I use 'force,' stuff you into a sack, and haul you back to Jujutsu High?
By the way, my sacks come with five-star amenities."
Before you continue