Wait, I'm in Jujutsu Kaisen?

When Akutagawa Shang woke up, the ceiling was white.

"An unfamiliar ceiling."

He stared at that expanse of white for a long while, his mind completely blank.

Akutagawa Shang lay motionless in bed, his right leg tightly wrapped in thick layers of gauze. He tried moving it, and the tearing pain from the wound that had yet to fully heal made him bare his teeth.

But that very burst of pain cleared his scattered, muddled mind.

"I'm still alive?"

He slowly turned his head and surveyed his surroundings. The room was small. The bed was white, the walls were white, and even the curtains were white. A few machines he couldn't name blinked quietly in the corner. Dawn was already breaking outside, and gray-blue light spilled in through the blinds.

Was he in a hospital? Who had brought him here?

Suddenly, footsteps sounded at the door, and someone pushed it open.

It was a woman in a white coat, with long hair and pronounced dark circles beneath otherwise quite attractive features-yes, they looked about on par with his own. She held a cup of something steaming that smelled like coffee.

"You're awake?" She walked to the bedside, casually set her cup on the nightstand, and lifted his eyelids to check his pupils without asking. Then she poked the gauze on his right leg and felt around his body.

"The wound's been treated, and the residual cursed energy's been cleared out. Mm, nothing too serious. Stay in bed for a couple of days, and you'll be fine."

"Thank you... and you are?" Akutagawa Shang's throat was as dry as sandpaper.

"Shoko Ieiri," she said flatly. "Just an ordinary school doctor at Jujutsu High. You almost lost that leg. You're lucky to be alive."

"Shoko Ieiri? Wait... isn't that...?"

The stunned Akutagawa Shang hadn't yet had time to process the enormous amount of information that name carried.

The poor door was kicked open again.

"Yo, you're awake?"

The voice arrived before its owner did.

A tall man with white broom-like hair slowly sauntered through the doorway. He carried a paper bag printed with the name "Kikusuian." Without asking, he pulled a chair up beside the bed, leaned back, crossed his legs, and took an edamame-paste-and-fresh-cream daifuku out of the bag. He bit into it, a satisfied expression appearing on his face, and mumbled, "Kikusuian's daifuku really are amazing."

Akutagawa Shang stared at him for several seconds. White broom-like hair, a slouching posture, something resembling bandages wrapped around his face, and sweets in his hand.

There was no mistaking that lackadaisical air.

"You're... Satoru Gojo?"

"All I did was post a comment saying Satoru Gojo was more badass than Sukuna, and I actually got transported here?!!!" Akutagawa Shang felt like crying, but no tears would come. He would rather go back and take the CET-6 exam.

Satoru Gojo tilted his head, as though he had spotted something interesting.

Satoru Gojo leaned in, bringing his face very close as he kept scrutinizing him.

"You know me?"

Akutagawa Shang fell silent. Of course he knew him, but how was he supposed to explain that? Say, "I've seen you in an anime"? How was that any different from outright saying, "I'm Akutagawa Shang, and there's something wrong with my brain!"?

His mind began frantically brainstorming.

Oh! Right, being transported to another world!

Memories of last night began flooding back-the convenience store, unfamiliar streets, Japanese billboards, the dark alley, that monster, blood, the tentacle piercing his right leg, the punch he had thrown...

And finally, that flash of white.

"Were you the one who saved me?" Akutagawa asked.

Satoru Gojo stuffed the last bite of daifuku into his mouth and brushed the crumbs off his hands. "Last night, I was planning to time it just right so I could be first in line for Kikusuian's edamame-and-fresh-cream daifuku, but then I heard an innocent citizen screaming. I went in to take a look, and a cursed spirit was about to have an extra meal. How could an upstanding citizen like Satoru Gojo stand by and let someone die? So, just like that-bam! I saved you!"

As he spoke, Satoru Gojo crossed his arms in an exaggerated Specium Ray pose, seemingly trying to reenact the scene.

He paused, then added with a smile, "But you're pretty interesting. You were practically done for, yet you still managed to awaken cursed energy. Though that little bit wasn't even enough to tickle it. Anyway, what's your name?"

"Akutagawa Shang."

Akutagawa Shang lowered his head and looked at his hands. A trace of last night's searing sensation remained in his palms. He distinctly remembered something seeming to surge out from deep within his body before retreating again.

"Cursed energy?"

He knew what it was, and he knew how to fight using cursed energy. But all of that was limited to anime. In the real world, he was just an ordinary college student who hadn't even passed the CET-6.

"Let me think-" Satoru Gojo leaned against the chair back and tilted his head at him, his tone as casual as if they were gossiping. "An ordinary person appears on a street haunted by cursed spirits in the middle of the night. He has no registration as a jujutsu sorcerer, and we can't even find any identification records, yet he unleashes cursed energy when he's about to die. Where did you come from?"

Akutagawa Shang met his gaze. Although he couldn't see the eyes concealed beneath those bandages, he felt as though he was being seen right through.

"...You probably won't believe me."

"That's fine. Let's hear it first."

"If I tell you, will you believe me?"

"If you don't tell me, how will you know whether I believe you?"

Akutagawa Shang sighed, then began telling Satoru Gojo how he had gone downstairs to buy a late-night snack and ended up in this world. As he spoke, Satoru Gojo's expression grew increasingly strange.

"You're saying you were just buying a late-night snack at the convenience store downstairs, and then you somehow ended up here?"

"More or less. Look, this is the rice ball I bought last night."

Akutagawa rummaged in his pocket and showed Satoru Gojo the rice ball wrapper inside.

"Hmm? That certainly doesn't look like Japanese writing."

Satoru Gojo didn't speak immediately. He stared at Akutagawa for a few seconds, then said, "Oh."

"Could convenience stores really be anchor points for traveling to other worlds...?"

"Interesting." He brushed the remaining powdered sugar off his hands. "Your situation really is unusual. A curtain should have been lowered over that place. In theory, someone without cursed energy couldn't possibly enter that area, but you happened to come in at that very moment. That means you already had an aptitude for cursed energy. It just hadn't been triggered before."

Akutagawa froze. "You mean I already... had cursed energy?"

"How else do you think you threw that punch last night?" Satoru Gojo spread his hands, his tone matter-of-fact. "An ordinary person in a cursed spirit's grip would be crushed in three seconds. You even managed to punch it-sure, it was pathetically weak, but at least it bought you some time, didn't it?"

He said it very casually, but Akutagawa heard the implication-without that sudden appearance of cursed energy, he would have died last night.

"So what does that make me now?" Akutagawa asked. "A jujutsu sorcerer?"

"An unfinished product with potential." Satoru Gojo stood and patted his shoulder hard enough to knock his whole body sideways. "You were lucky you ran into an upstanding citizen like me. Otherwise, you'd have been stuck there waiting for someone from Window to collect your corpse."

"Window?"

"An organization responsible for monitoring cursed spirit activity. You wouldn't understand even if I explained it." Satoru Gojo sat down again, interlacing his fingers over his knees, his tone a little less joking. "Listen carefully-you have cursed energy, no identification records, and nowhere to go. From what you've told me, you can't get back to that 'original world' of yours anymore, can you?"

Akutagawa opened his mouth to argue, only to find that he couldn't. He didn't even know how he had gotten here, so how could he get back?

"Then how about coming to Jujutsu High?" Satoru Gojo tilted his head at him. "Room and board included, plus personal instruction from Great Teacher Gojo. Well? Pretty tempting, right?"

Akutagawa looked at him, then out the window. Dawn was already breaking, and gray-blue morning light spilled down as the outline of the unfamiliar city gradually became clear.

He lowered his head and looked at his hands.

"...Then what about the CET-6?"

"What?"

"The CET-6." Akutagawa raised his head, his expression somewhat complicated. "The College English Test, Band Six. I already paid the registration fee. The exam's next month."

The room fell silent.

One second passed.

Two seconds passed.

Three seconds passed.

Shoko Ieiri's hand paused around her coffee cup. She glanced at him, then at Satoru Gojo, seemingly struggling to keep a straight face.

Satoru Gojo was silent for a moment, then snorted with laughter too.

"...You nearly got eaten by a cursed spirit, and the first thing you worry about after waking up is an English exam?"

"...The registration fee was pretty expensive."

Satoru Gojo laughed even louder. Shoko Ieiri couldn't hold it in either and lifted her coffee for a sip to cover it up.

"All right." Satoru Gojo stood and patted his head. "Focus on recovering first. Once you're better, I'll take you to Jujutsu High. A novice like you has a lot of catching up to do. You can't even use cursed energy freely yet, can you? That'll keep you busy for a while."

He walked to the doorway, then glanced back at Akutagawa, his expression unreadable.

"Oh, right. That 'CET-6' of yours?"

"Yeah?"

"Taking it now probably wouldn't do you any good. Uh, but you can if you want. Jujutsu High won't stop you."

The door closed. Only the soft ticking of the machines and birdsong from outside remained in the room.

As Shoko Ieiri tidied the things on the nightstand, she remarked casually, "He's always this unreliable. You'll get used to it."

"'Kay."

Akutagawa lay back on his pillow and stared at the ceiling.

He thought of last night's rice ball, fallen to the ground with its plastic bag lying open. The last time he had seen it, it had still been sitting perfectly fine in the convenience store's heated display, and the next second, it was already in this world.

His life had veered off course at that convenience store entrance.

But at least he was still alive.

"Jujutsu High... might not be so bad," he murmured, closing his eyes. "Whatever. Since it's come to this, I'll sleep first. I'll figure it out once I'm healed."