He opened his eyes again.
Gu Yanzhi looked down over his body-a stand-collar school uniform, black trousers, brown leather school shoes, and a pair of black-framed glasses perched on his nose.
Could this actually be a good start?
He took off the glasses and put them in their case.
While strengthening his body, the system had also corrected its original owner's nearsightedness. He no longer needed them.
Gu Yanzhi followed the people around him who wore the same uniform.
The physical capabilities of six or seven people were packed into this high schooler's body. Every step felt as though he were walking on springs. He clenched his fists; his knuckles felt powerful, and his core was rock solid.
Unfortunately, his body had yet to finish developing. The Seven-Person Share was its current limit.
Memories flooded in just then.
The system delivered them more smoothly than the previous two times. He absorbed everything with only a slight frown.
A name surfaced in those memories-Junpei Yoshino.
He was the high schooler Mahito had targeted in Jujutsu Kaisen. His mother had been killed by a cursed spirit drawn to Sukuna's Finger, and Mahito had deceived him before finally turning him into a transfigured human. All in all, a pretty tragic character.
He was now Junpei's classmate, but Junpei had already taken leave from school.
His memories made the reason perfectly clear: a girl in their class named Tsubasa had tearfully claimed Junpei had peeped on her while she was changing. Several boys had used that as an excuse to corner him every day. No one had helped him, from beginning to end, until he stopped coming to school.
It was 2018, around the time Junpei took leave.
This was when Mahito had been active, using his theories about souls and killing to slowly draw Junpei over to his side.
In other words, Mahito was very likely somewhere in this city.
Gu Yanzhi perked up.
His good buddy Mahito's last round of modifications had taken his physical capabilities straight from two or three people's worth to six or seven, saving him who knew how many reincarnations.
If he ran into him again, he could stack them even higher.
For this life, he would follow the original story for now, then see whether he could find another chance to meet his good buddy Mahito.
Gu Yanzhi barely listened in class all morning. He propped his chin on his hand and gazed out the window, occasionally drawing a few lines in his notebook.
Between classes, he noticed the group sitting against the wall at the back—Blondie and his two lackeys spent the entire morning on their phones, occasionally letting out coarse laughter. They behaved themselves for a few seconds when a teacher passed, then went right back to it once the teacher was gone.
Tsubasa huddled with several girls, chatting about variety shows and laughing brightly. When she passed a certain empty seat on her way to the restroom, her gaze never lingered, as though she were passing a pillar.
As soon as the lunch bell rang, Gu Yanzhi took out his lunch box and surveyed the classroom while he ate.
Blondie leaned against the wall with his uniform hanging open and his legs propped up, chewing bread as he bragged to the person beside him about his gaming exploits. Tsubasa and several girls ate their lunches in the front row. Every so often, she glanced back toward the rear seats. Brownie waved his bread at her; she rolled her eyes and turned away, prompting a round of teasing from the girls around her.
Gu Yanzhi finished his last bite, closed his lunch box, and went to wash it at the sink.
Once it was clean, he turned off the tap and shook the water droplets off the box.
When he turned around, two boys stood in his way, one with a buzz cut and one with brown hair. Both were classmates who usually followed the blond around without drawing much attention.
"Tanaka? Come with us."
Gu Yanzhi set his lunch box beside the sink and dried his hands with a paper towel. "What's up, classmates?"
"Cut the crap."
"Sure, sure, sure." He followed them with his hands in his pockets.
They rounded the corner by the stairs, where Blondie was leaning with his arms crossed and a smile on his lips.
The girl named Tsubasa was there too, checking her bangs in a little mirror.
They led Gu Yanzhi behind the classroom building. When he turned around, the exit was already blocked.
"Know why we brought you here?" Blondie asked.
Gu Yanzhi leaned against the wall with one hand supporting his chin, looking even more relaxed than the blond. "No idea. Am I so handsome you feel threatened?"
Blondie let out a baffled sound and tilted his head. "What did you say? Tsubasa said you were looking at her funny today. She's scared. You need to apologize."
"Apologize?" Gu Yanzhi blinked. "How was I looking at her?"
Tsubasa closed her mirror and lifted her head, a cold smile on her lips. "It wasn't just once. He kept staring at me from this morning right through lunch. I'm so scared he might do something to me."
She toyed with the ends of her hair, her tone casual. "What do you think I should do?"
Blondie stepped forward and reached out to pat Gu Yanzhi's face. Gu Yanzhi leaned back slightly, making him miss.
Blondie's hand froze in midair, and his smile cracked.
"You actually dare dodge?" He grabbed Gu Yanzhi's collar and shoved him against the wall with a dull thud. "Think dodging will help? If you know what's good for you, get on your knees and apologize. Say, 'I'm sorry, Lady Tsubasa,' and we'll leave it at that today."
Gu Yanzhi glanced down at his seized collar, then looked up, still smiling. "Now that's asking a bit much. You want me to call this utterly average, ridiculously conceited girl 'my lady'? Can she handle that?"
Blondie's gaze turned cold.
He released the collar and stepped back, jerking his head at the two boys by the alley entrance. Buzz Cut and Brownie closed in from either side, trapping Gu Yanzhi at the far end.
"I'll ask one last time. Are you kneeling or not?"
Gu Yanzhi sighed.
"Seriously, I suggest you reconsider. I'm in a good mood today, and lunch was pretty tasty. I wasn't planning on getting physical."
"How about this? Run a hundred meters in under 9.58 seconds right now, and I'll pretend nothing happened. We can all go home. Sound good?"
Blondie threw a punch.
Gu Yanzhi tilted his head aside. The fist brushed past his ear and slammed into the wall.
He glanced down at Blondie's knuckles against the brickwork—the skin had split, and blood was seeping out—and clicked his tongue.
"I told you to reconsider. Hurts, doesn't it?"
He caught Blondie's wrist while it was still pressed against the wall and gave it a gentle twist.
Blondie spun halfway around, his arm pinned behind his back, and grunted as his face pressed against the rough brick wall.
Gu Yanzhi leaned close to his ear and lowered his voice. "Actually, I'm pretty familiar with your old routine. First, you get a girl to say someone peeped on her. Then you step in to defend her."
"You don't care whether the guy you cornered actually did it. You just want an excuse to beat someone up. Am I right?"
Blondie's pupils contracted slightly.
Before he could reply, Gu Yanzhi slapped him with the back of his hand.
Blondie spun halfway around and crashed into the wall, then slid down it. The left side of his face swelled until his eye was reduced to a slit.
Buzz Cut reacted first-he charged in from the side, clutching a brick, raised it overhead, and brought it crashing down.
Gu Yanzhi didn't dodge. The brick struck his body and shattered on impact.
Buzz Cut stared at the half brick left in his hand, then at the completely unharmed Gu Yanzhi before him.
"C-classmate, can we settle this peacefully?"
"What I hate most is an apology after the fact."
Gu Yanzhi slapped him outright. Buzz Cut spun halfway around and fell to his knees, clutching his face as he began to cry.
The other lackey pulled a utility knife from his pocket. The click of its extending blade sounded especially piercing in the narrow alley. His knife hand trembled, the point aimed at Gu Yanzhi.
Gu Yanzhi stepped forward. The lackey instinctively backed away, only realizing he had nowhere left to go when his back hit the wall.
Gu Yanzhi caught his wrist and tightened his fingers. There was a sharp crack, and the utility knife fell to the ground.
Gu Yanzhi lunged forward, grabbed the back of his collar, and slammed him into the wall. His forehead hit the bricks with a dull thud.
He let go, and Brownie slid down the wall, a purplish lump rising on his forehead.
A movie ticket slipped from his trouser pocket and fell to the ground.
Printed on the slip was a screening for that afternoon-Earthworm Man.
Gu Yanzhi froze.
So it was this afternoon. This was the moment. In the original story, these guys skipped class to see a movie, ran into Junpei and Mahito at the theater, and got wiped out by Mahito.
He slowly folded the ticket again, crouched down, and tucked it back into the lackey's trouser pocket.
Gu Yanzhi stood up, his smile even brighter than it had been in the corridor. He surveyed the boys sprawled on the ground and clapped his hands.
"All right, all right, get up. I went a little too hard just now. I apologize."
"We're all good buddies, really. A little roughhousing is perfectly normal. We're still friends after a fight."
Not one of them dared move.
Blondie stared at him in terror. Why hadn't he called them good buddies when he slapped him into the wall? Hadn't he said what he hated most was an apology after the fact?
"Don't look at me like that." Gu Yanzhi bent down and helped Blondie up. "I'm serious. A fight's a great way to get acquainted. To show my sincerity—you guys are going to see Earthworm Man this afternoon, right?"
"My treat. Let's all go together."
Gu Yanzhi then turned to Tsubasa. She was leaning against the wall at the alley entrance, her little mirror already put away, watching him with a complicated expression.
Gu Yanzhi smiled at her.
"You're coming too."
Before you continue