[If you dare go to sleep and never wake up, I'll spend every last bit of money you've hidden in that pink cloth pouch in your underwear drawer!]
Someone's shouting seemed to reach her ears, and Miwa Chisei's eyes snapped open.
Those were the savings she had scraped together over the year since her father died. She absolutely couldn't let that jerk squander them!
Her vision focused. The ceiling wasn't the one she knew, but it looked like she was still alive.
"Yo, you're awake."
Satoru Gojo's casual voice reached her. Miwa Chisei turned her head and saw the boy sitting backward on a chair, leaning over its back.
"Satoru Gojo, where's my money?"
Hearing the very first thing Miwa Chisei said after waking up, Satoru Gojo truly wondered how her brain was wired.
"You think I'd want your money?"
Satoru Gojo looked thoroughly annoyed, but his answer put Miwa Chisei at ease.
True, the Scourge of the Gojo Clan might be short on sense, but never on money.
He had probably said those last words before she passed out because he was genuinely afraid her consciousness would slip away, deliberately trying to provoke her.
Miwa Chisei believed in repaying kindness, so she spoke sincerely.
"Thank you."
Unfortunately, her bloodless face showed little expression, making it seem more like a mission report than an expression of gratitude.
So Satoru Gojo started mocking her.
"That's pretty pathetic, isn't it? Getting beaten that badly by someone without any cursed energy?"
Miwa Chisei closed her eyes from exhaustion, but still shot back.
"Are you an idiot? That was a heavenly restriction. If I'm not mistaken, he's from the Zenin Clan, because he knew a lot about the Miwa Family Technique."
Satoru Gojo paused, then looked up at the ceiling in thought.
That explains why he felt so familiar. When I was little, plenty of people came to 'join the fun' and get a look at the Six Eyes. One of them was different-a man without any cursed energy.
Anyone who could injure Miwa Chisei this badly definitely wasn't some small fry.
But someone without cursed energy was treated like an ant in the Zenin Clan. He must have left because he couldn't stand the humiliation.
He's a dangerous one.
Meanwhile, Miwa Chisei was puzzled that the person she had called an idiot hadn't argued back, so she turned her head to look at Satoru Gojo again.
"Is this a hospital?"
Satoru Gojo lowered his head and looked at Miwa Chisei.
"This is Jujutsu High. You were practically dead when I brought you here. Doctors at a hospital probably couldn't have done anything."
Miwa Chisei had heard of Reverse Cursed Technique, but this was her first time seeing it. A jujutsu technique that could heal even someone on the brink of death felt strangely reassuring.
With a doctor like that around, dying suddenly seemed a little less easy.
As Miwa Chisei woke up, her senses slowly returned as well. She caught a faint, fresh fragrance from the bedding, as though she were on an island out at sea. It felt very soothing.
Apparently, this was Satoru Gojo's room.
She blinked, unable to resist asking.
"How did you know I was there? Didn't you stay behind?"
Satoru Gojo yawned. Looking a little sleepy, he answered listlessly.
"I wanted to tell you something, so I went to your apartment. Then there was that huge hole downstairs, and the cursed residue couldn't have been more obvious."
If he hadn't come looking for her, would she already be dead? Even if she weren't, that man would probably have captured her alive.
Maybe meeting him hadn't been entirely bad luck?
"What did you want to tell me?"
"Forgot-you're awake now, so get up. I want to sleep."
Miwa Chisei paused. It looked like he hadn't slept all night. Had he been sitting by the bed watching over her the whole time?
She felt a little touched, but his attempt to immediately kick a patient out of bed nearly erased that tiny bit of warmth.
"Oh."
Miwa Chisei tried to sit up, but struggled. She had no strength at all, and she hadn't eaten anything since that bowl of ramen.
She was too hungry to muster any energy.
"Could you give me a hand, then?"
Miwa Chisei suggested it.
Satoru Gojo looked like he wanted to punch someone. Then he stood up, grumbling.
"Stay there. I'm going to Geto's."
Miwa Chisei didn't push herself either, quietly lying back down.
Looking at that pale little face, Satoru Gojo found he no longer had the heart to quibble.
After all, she had come so close to dying.
So he went out, turned right, and knocked on the door of Suguru Geto's room next door.
Suguru Geto seemed to have just returned from a mission. His hair was still wet, and he looked a little surprised to see Satoru Gojo.
"What's wrong? You look half-dead. Failed to convince Miss Miwa to come to Jujutsu High again?"
Satoru Gojo walked into Suguru Geto's room without the slightest hesitation, took off his sunglasses, and lay down on his bed.
"She's at Jujutsu High right now."
Suguru Geto looked as though he had seen a ghost. After thinking it over, he asked a question.
"Did you kidnap her?"
Satoru Gojo sat straight up, displeasure flickering in his brilliant azure eyes.
"I saved her life, okay? She was almost beaten to death."
Suguru Geto paused in the middle of drying his hair with a towel.
"Isn't Miss Miwa pretty strong? An ordinary person couldn't beat her, could they?"
Satoru Gojo lay back down and even closed his eyes.
"A guy with a heavenly restriction. Really strong-probably after that two-hundred-million bounty."
Suguru Geto hadn't expected something like this to happen just because he had taken a last-minute mission away yesterday. Miwa Chisei probably hadn't expected to encounter such a powerful assassin either.
"Is Miss Miwa resting in the infirmary?"
"No, next door."
"..." Suguru Geto looked at his sleepy face, truly unable to fathom what was going through his head. "She's in your room?"
"Yeah, yeah-which means I haven't slept all night, because that damn brat took my bed."
Suguru Geto thought his best friend's brain wasn't working. If he wanted to use Jujutsu High's infirmary, who would dare tell Satoru Gojo no?
He's worried, isn't he? Afraid Miwa Chisei won't wake up?
Although the two bickered, their relationship wasn't nearly as bad as he had imagined.
"You can only borrow it until one in the afternoon. I need my nap."
Suguru Geto's foxlike eyes curved into a smile as he still did what he could to "look after" his best friend.
"You're really inhuman."
"Right back at you."
Indeed, when they really started causing trouble, the two would definitely be shoulder to shoulder.
Looking at Satoru Gojo's exhausted face, Suguru Geto said nothing more and turned to leave the dorm room.
He was about to head to the teachers' office to report his mission to Yaga when he encountered an unfamiliar face in a Jujutsu High uniform in the hallway.
"Are you Suguru Geto, my upperclassman?"
The girl with pink hair and pink eyes spoke gently, so Suguru Geto nodded amiably.
"Yes. And you are?"
Miwa Riona gave a faint smile, looking gentle and sweet.
"I'm a first-year who enrolled yesterday."
"My name is Miwa Riona."
Suguru Geto paused briefly. Had someone else from the Miwa family enrolled too? He hadn't heard anything about that, but he returned her smile politely.
"I heard Qianxing would be enrolling too, but why haven't I seen her yet?"
Faced with the girl's puzzlement, Suguru Geto simply shook his head.
"I don't know either. Sorry, but I need to go report my mission."
Watching Suguru Geto walk away, Miwa Riona bit her lip.
Damn that Miwa Chisei. Had she actually managed to enroll?
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