In the end, I successfully followed Masamichi Yaga into Jujutsu High, largely thanks to his compassion.
And I wouldn't deny that both Osamu Dazai and I had taken advantage of this seemingly fierce, stern middle-aged man. In truth, he was a passionate educator.
Osamu Dazai's brain told me that Masamichi Yaga would soften. Nullification was too unusual.
There was at least a ninety percent chance that I would be kept in the Jujutsu Society. In that case, being taught by him personally was far better than being exploited by someone else.
That was what Masamichi Yaga was thinking. I was certain of it. I even felt a little guilty about it, but under Osamu Dazai's influence, that trace of guilt soon vanished.
Religious schools were probably all much the same: wooden buildings tucked deep in the mountains, thoroughly old-fashioned.
I rarely visited temples, and I wasn't Japanese, either.
Occasionally, these scenes of such antiquated simplicity still amazed me. Unfortunately, Osamu Dazai had seen the world, and his eyes remained calm and unruffled.
As a result, I couldn't produce even the slightest change in expression.
Looking at the crooked trees surrounding Jujutsu High, I couldn't help falling into sync with Osamu Dazai's thinking. I could hang myself from a different tree every day.
Wait, why would I hang myself?
I blinked in bewilderment, trying to clear those ridiculous thoughts out of my head. Unfortunately, the distracting thoughts brought on by the pain kept me from succeeding.
I simply continued walking with Masamichi Yaga. He didn't notice anything wrong with me.
Of course. With Osamu Dazai's acting skills, it would have been downright bizarre if anyone had noticed.
After all, he was reputed to be someone even Ranpo Edogawa couldn't see through.
A gentle, warm breeze brushed the hem of my clothes, then sent my lightweight red scarf fluttering. I raised my head slightly and looked straight into the dazzling sunlight.
Glancing aside gave me a faint sense of reality. My transmigration had come without warning, and I felt lost, too. But that uncertainty wasn't something I could let anyone else see.
Neither I nor Osamu Dazai could.
We soon arrived at Masamichi Yaga's office. All around it were piles of cursed corpse dolls, along with what looked like a collection of sunglasses and cute objects.
This was probably that legendary charm of unexpected contrasts.
Masamichi Yaga invited me to sit, then naturally took a seat opposite me. It rather felt like an interrogation.
"Mr. Yaga, are you planning to assess me?"
I spoke with feigned cheer, my wide eyes fixed directly on Masamichi Yaga. Combined with Osamu Dazai's undeniably handsome face, it actually made his body stiffen slightly.
Unfortunately, that stiffness lasted only a fraction of a second. An ordinary person certainly wouldn't have noticed, but Osamu Dazai wasn't ordinary, and neither was I anymore, now that I had his body.
"How do you know my name?" Masamichi Yaga gave me a somewhat puzzled look, then settled calmly back into his seat.
Was he waiting for me to give him an answer?
"Well, you're the leading authority on jujutsu puppet arts. It's hardly strange that I'd know you."
I answered with a grin, tilting my head at Masamichi Yaga as though I were thoroughly delighted.
"...All right, understood. Please answer my next questions honestly."
Masamichi Yaga hadn't expected that explanation, but he couldn't think where to begin disputing it, so he simply didn't argue any further.
"Okay!" I nodded eagerly, lowering my head slightly and nervously kneading my scarf. I looked perfectly well-behaved.
"Name."
"Osamu Dazai."
"Age."
"Eighteen."
"Home address."
The first questions were straightforward checks of basic information, until Masamichi Yaga finally reached the main event.
"What did you come here for?"
Masamichi Yaga stared at me with such gravity that it seemed he intended to bore a hole through me. Now he really did look imposing.
If I hadn't remembered the plot of Jujutsu Kaisen, the sight might genuinely have frightened me. Assuming, of course, that I wasn't in Osamu Dazai's body.
Still, I paused briefly in thought before answering with a faint smile.
"To find a reason to live."
"You came to the Jujutsu Society to find a reason to live?" Masamichi Yaga's gaze swept straight toward me, while I maintained that gentle smile and nodded at him.
"This isn't a place where you can find meaning in life. No jujutsu sorcerer dies without regrets, and fewer than half survive to graduation."
Masamichi Yaga's words were heavy, carrying a strong warning. Unfortunately, both Osamu Dazai and I continued nodding as though we hadn't heard a word.
"To borrow a certain gentleman's words, I suppose I'd say that people live to seek their own salvation. Perhaps they understand that when they're about to die!"
"If I can truly attain that salvation, then even death is nothing to fear. And if I see someone unwaveringly determined to survive, might I catch a glimpse of what it means to live?"
I couldn't quite remember what Osamu Dazai ought to say at a time like this.
Then inspiration struck, and I remembered Mr. Natsume's words. I decided to answer two questions at once.
1. If I died in the Jujutsu Society, perhaps I would find salvation.
2. If I didn't die in the Jujutsu Society and witnessed someone desperately struggling to survive, could I find a reason to live?
Masamichi Yaga was clearly stunned by what I'd just said. He already knew I wasn't psychologically normal, but he probably hadn't imagined it could be this bad.
For the record, that wasn't my fault. He was the one who asked, and if Osamu Dazai himself had answered, he probably would have said something even harsher.
"What if, even after witnessing all that, you still can't find a reason to live?"
Masamichi Yaga frowned, but asked anyway.
"Then let me awaken from the dream of this rotten world!"
I smiled faintly, as though recalling something, my gaze gentle yet resolute. Even if ninety-nine percent of this performance was an act, I was certain Masamichi Yaga would believe it.
And everything went just as I'd imagined. Masamichi Yaga seemed to remember the scene from when he'd first met me.
Hanging myself. Treating hanging myself as a hobby. If I really feared death, how could I have done that?
"Is it worth it, just to find something so intangible?"
Masamichi Yaga still hadn't given up, and asked with firm conviction.
"Without those intangible things, I would probably keep pursuing death until the day I truly reached the Sanzu River."
My smile was gentle, yet I couldn't help confronting Masamichi Yaga with a resolve he had never seen from me before.
"All right... You pass that part."
Masamichi Yaga looked at me and fell silent for a while before nodding in acknowledgment. Then he asked another question, though his manner was much more casual now.
"You're eighteen this year?"
"Yes." I nodded obediently, instantly reining in my presence.
"At your age, putting you in the first year wouldn't be appropriate." Hearing my age, Masamichi Yaga frowned again. Most first-year students entered Jujutsu High at around sixteen. Those who started earlier were around fifteen, or even fourteen.
Osamu Dazai was clearly a little too old. Besides, someone who could address him by name probably wasn't completely ignorant of the Jujutsu Society.
"So could I skip a year? Third year would be fine. Please, please?"
I pressed my palms together, fixing my one visible Heterochromic Brown eye on Masamichi Yaga, and deliberately made myself look a little cuter.
"Third year? But you have no experience whatsoever. Wouldn't third year be... Besides, could you keep up?"
Masamichi Yaga had originally intended to put me in the second year. I knew that, but I refused. If skipping straight to the fourth or fifth year weren't something he'd never approve, I would have wanted to jump straight into the fifth year, then become a teacher once those troublemakers arrived.
"I can. I just need to memorize everything about the Jujutsu Society, the textbooks, cursed spirits, and all that, right?"
I gazed at Masamichi Yaga with wide, expectant eyes until an utterly flabbergasted expression appeared on his face.
"Memorize... all of it?"
Okay, judging by the shock in Masamichi Yaga's eyes, I could guarantee he'd never expected me to say anything like that. So, quite happily, I decided to drive another knife into his heart.
"Yes, yes! Just give me two days. Give me everything I need to learn, and you can test me two days from now."
I spoke with complete ease. Masamichi Yaga looked utterly bewildered.
But as he stared at my face, which seemed to say this was perfectly normal, he couldn't quite tell whether I was joking.
"You're serious?"
"Of course. At most, it'd be as thick as seven or eight dictionaries, right? Two days should be about enough."
I nodded earnestly and delivered that conclusion to Masamichi Yaga without so much as furrowing my brow.
Then Masamichi Yaga fell silent again.
Seven or eight... dictionaries?
At that moment, he probably had only one thought: I'm going to fight these geniuses. What normal person can memorize seven or eight dictionaries in two days?
A photographic memory, huh?
Masamichi Yaga tried very hard to find even the slightest hint of a joke on my face.
Unfortunately, he found nothing. All he found was my matter-of-fact expression and a puzzled tilt of my head.
"Is there more than that? If I put in some effort, I could actually manage around ten in two days."
With absolutely no tact, I kept stabbing knives into Masamichi Yaga. Every single one hit its mark, successfully battering him into a daze.
Educator Masamichi Yaga vs. human sludge Osamu Dazai.
Masamichi Yaga launched a basic attack at Osamu Dazai. Osamu Dazai's HP -10.
Osamu Dazai unleashed his ultimate on Masamichi Yaga. Masamichi Yaga's HP -5000. Osamu Dazai followed up with another attack. Masamichi Yaga's HP -9999. Masamichi Yaga KO.
Masamichi Yaga remained silent for a long time, down for the count, but still forced himself to rally and handed me the entire stack of books behind him.
By now, I could read his thoughts perfectly through his body language. For instance, as he fetched the books, he also handed over everything I would need for the next two years, along with some supplementary reading I didn't need to study at all.
But was any of this a big problem for Osamu Dazai's brain?
No.
Who was Osamu Dazai? Was memorizing this stuff difficult for him?
Still, I nodded obediently and held the thick stack of books, letting a little relief and a trace of an odd emotion show in my eyes for Masamichi Yaga to see.
Roughly translated, it meant: That's all?
I nearly made the already-fallen Masamichi Yaga crawl out of his grave and beat me to death.
"...I'll arrange a room for you. I'll tell the principal about your situation. As for the student dorms... Never mind, let's head over first."
Though I'd already infuriated Masamichi Yaga, he still dutifully showed me the way.
Along the way, he also explained the campus layout and its buildings.
Meanwhile, I held the books absentmindedly and listened to Masamichi Yaga ramble.
You really are a good person, Teacher Yaga.
He dared to bring someone back without knowing their true circumstances, without knowing whether they were dangerous.
For nothing more than a faint hope, a slim possibility, he wanted to save someone. No, perhaps it was more accurate to say he wanted to fulfill his responsibility as an adult.
I didn't know how to judge someone like Masamichi Yaga. He was a good person, undeniably, but I didn't know what else to say.
Ah, why can't I act out of character in Osamu Dazai's body? I probably haven't left Teacher Yaga with a particularly lovely first impression.
With those thoughts, I soon arrived at the student dorms. Osamu Dazai's brain let me do three things at once: observe the school, listen to Teacher Yaga speak, and mull over my thoughts.
This was the first time I'd felt so directly how terrifying Osamu Dazai was. No, Osamu Dazai had always been terrifying.
The dorm room was a single, and it looked quite nice, though it was a far cry from the presidential suite I'd stayed in yesterday.
Still, there were probably very few schools willing to provide student dorms like this.
I still remembered my old school dorm, a standard eight-person room. Climbing in and out of the bunk beds had been inconvenient, but I'd gotten used to it over time.
"Get settled in, then. I'll go tell the principal about your situation."
Those were Masamichi Yaga's final words before leaving, and I still nodded obediently in response.
Then, once Masamichi Yaga had left, I performed some rather strange actions based on this body's muscle memory.
I searched for listening devices and miniature cameras, surveyed the entire room, and inspected the surrounding escape routes.
To make sure I could evacuate quickly if I suddenly came under gunfire or attack?
Wait, Osamu Dazai, what on earth has your body been doing?
I fell silent. For a moment, I couldn't even tell whether I was moving or the body was moving on its own as I finished all this.
I stretched, then was judged out of character and froze...
Cue the swearing.
So I picked up a book from the stack in my arms and buried myself in the bed.
In truth, my stomach still hurt. It hadn't improved in the slightest.
Yet after enduring the pain for an entire morning, I'd actually begun to feel a little accustomed to it.
Was enduring pain really that difficult?
Not necessarily, I suppose. Wasn't I enduring it right now?
I idly turned the pages of the book before me. Memorizing this material was easy-or rather, it was extremely easy for Osamu Dazai's brain.
As for me, well, I definitely had Osamu Dazai's brain, so that more or less made it my brain. Which meant I could memorize it extremely easily, too.
Thinking that, I couldn't help letting out a soft laugh.
If this is all there is, Osamu Dazai should be able to memorize it quickly. One full night tonight would be enough. Then, when I'm tested in two days, I can demonstrate by reciting the books on the spot.
Or perhaps I could recite this book backward?
With that thought, I took out my phone and began browsing information about this world, quietly considering what it meant.
Having just arrived in a new world, information was essential. I'd actually read quite a lot last night. Today was merely about filling in the gaps.
Still, on the Jujutsu Society's dark web, I found something interesting: an urgent search for a jujutsu sorcerer who possessed the Reverse Cursed Technique.
Who could it be?
Toji Fushiguro?
Interesting. Let me see just how far you're willing to go for your wife.
At some point, without my realizing it, I'd begun to resemble Osamu Dazai a little.
That realization startled even me. I looked at what I had become, somewhat bewildered. Was this me?
I didn't know. Perhaps not. After all, I'd never had such a twisted sense of amusement before... Yet, strangely, a small part of me wanted to accept it.
Before you continue