Yuan Shanxiao thought to himself that he must have transmigrated.

The evidence was very clear.

When he woke up, the first thing he saw was an eyeball hanging from the ceiling, staring down at him.

The deep black pupil was contracted into a thin line, while a viscous liquid dripped slowly from the bloodshot surface of the eyeball, stretching into a slimy thread that dangled downward—

It was only a few centimeters away from touching his eyelashes.

The pungent, cold, damp atmosphere filled his nostrils. The sensation sent a chill running through his body causing all his hair to stand on end.

Yuan Shanxiao’s breath caught.

In the face of such imminent suffocation, he calmly thought, I must have transmigrated.

Because there was no way he could be living in a world where such horrifying things existed.

Because, if it were him…

The moment his body finally broke free from the paralysis of fear, Yuan Shanxiao instantly sprang up from the bed.

It’s worth marveling at how the human body can unleash unlimited potential when faced with extreme terror. Yuan Shanxiao would never have thought he could summon the core strength to spring up from the bed like that, crouching low to dodge that slimy, slime-like monster just in time, then—

Like a cannonball, he shot toward the balcony.

No one tried to stop him.

In such a terrifying world…

Without the slightest hesitation, Yuan Shanxiao continued his escape route, leaping onto the balcony. He was so light on his feet in that moment that even he didn’t realize he had swiftly vaulted over the railing.

If I die, I die.

Honestly, when compared to facing the monster behind him, he felt like dying would actually be preferable.

So, in that split second of free fall, there was even a fleeting smile of relief and happiness on Yuan Shanxiao’s face—before—

In the rushing wind of his descent, Yuan Shanxiao suddenly saw the same eyeball monster chasing after him, its tentacles writhing just as fast as he was falling.

Yuan Shanxiao: ……

WOC!!!!

Still need to escape—

————

“So, this is the reason I’m clinging to your thigh.”

Yuan Shanxiao looked up.

Even though he was still wearing his dusty and wrinkled pajamas from rolling around on the ground and the person whose thigh he was clinging to was dressed in spotless and expensive-looking suit pants. Yuan Shanxiao was only mildly concerned about dirtying the other person’s clothes and possibly getting sued. Yet, despite that, he still didn’t let go of the other’s leg.

He looked up sincerely and calmly. “It’s not that I don’t want to let go of you. It’s just that my body is still frozen in fear, and my hands are completely stiff. I’ve lost control of them.”

The way he phrased that… it was like even his tongue had lost control.

Gojo Satoru: ……

Isn’t this just being so scared you can’t move at all!?

Gojo had seen people who could see cursed spirits get scared stiff before. He’d also seen those who had just awakened their techniques and reacted in astonishing ways when they first encountered a cursed spirit.

But he had never met anyone like the boy in front of him—so terrified, and awakening his technique at the same time. With an incredible level of control over his technique and body, he had instantly teleported to Gojo’s feet and grabbed onto his—thigh—before Gojo could even react.

The boy merely looked up earnestly and explained, “My legs gave out; I really couldn’t stand up.”

Gojo, who had been planning to recruit the boy into Jujutsu High after seeing his technique: ……

————

The boy’s technique was quite remarkable.

Gojo had taken him to a nearby café. Resting his chin on his hand, ready to start explaining the jujutsu world.

The boy, still in his pajamas, now had Gojo’s coat draped over his shoulders. He was holding a cup of hot coffee, head lowered. Although he looked calm and composed—Gojo vividly remembered the boy’s equally calm expression when he had gripped his thigh like a claw. His face was still as pale as ever, clearly terrified!

Noticing Gojo’s gaze, the boy looked up and gave a grateful smile.

It was the kind of smile where the lips moved but the eyes didn’t. His mouth was even trembling.

Gojo: ……

“Maybe… don’t smile.”

The boy quickly dropped the corners of his mouth and sighed in relief. “Okay.”

Gojo: ……

“What you encountered this morning is called a ‘cursed spirit.’ The ability that allowed you to teleport to my… feet is what we call a ‘technique.’ There’s another world beyond that of ordinary people, which we refer to as the ‘jujutsu world’—”

“I think I’ve transmigrated.”

“Huh—what???”

Gojo’s calm explanation was suddenly interrupted by the boy’s peaceful tone. His brain went blank. “Huh???”

The boy looked up, his expression serious and calm.

With an air of certainty, as if everything made perfect sense, he spoke in a tone of relief.

“I must have transmigrated.”

Gojo: ……

Gojo picked up the hot milk in front of him, taking a tactical sip to calm his nerves. “What makes you say that?”

“I have no memories of my past. I only remember my name.”

“In fact, when I think about it, I seem to only have memories from the moment I woke up today. I can’t even remember why I was living in that building.”

Huh.

Now this was getting interesting.

Gojo slowly set down the milk, casually wiping away the white trace left on his lips. “It could be some kind of memory disorder. There are people who can only retain their memories for a single day.”

“Impossible,” the boy refuted with conviction, his expression calm and serious. “In a world with terrifying creatures like these ‘cursed spirits’ you mentioned, there’s no way I could survive.”

“I would just die.”

The boy spoke with unwavering certainty.

Gojo: ……

Gojo wanted to say that was a bit dramatic, but recalling how tightly his thigh had been gripped, the words got stuck in his throat.

Fine,

Fine, fine.

————

Luckily, even though the boy was convinced he had transmigrated. He was still quite composed.

Yuan Shanxiao smiled, face pale. “I’ll find a safe place to die for a bit. If I succeed, I should be able to return.”

Gojo took another tactical sip of his milk. “What if you fail?”

The boy’s face remained calm, almost blissful. “For someone living in this world, an early death would be God’s mercy.”

Gojo, who lived in this world and hadn’t received God’s mercy, accidentally spilled most of his milk. His expression remained calm as if nothing had happened, while he discreetly wiped the table with a napkin and calmly changed the topic. “Listen, your technique is quite impressive.”

“If you refine it, becoming a Special Grade sorcerer would be within your grasp.”

The boy looked up at Gojo after hearing that. All he knew was that the white-haired young man in front of him was a teacher at some jujutsu school, someone named Gojo Satoru, but he didn’t fully grasp the weight of the name “Gojo Satoru” in the jujutsu world. Besides, right now, he probably believed more in the Grim Reaper than in jujutsu sorcerers.

So the boy merely smiled lightly. “I don’t need to kill you, I just need to kill myself.”

Gojo: ……

Great, just great…

Gojo set down his milk and finished wiping the table. He sighed and snapped his fingers.

Then suddenly—

The world went dark.

Yuan Shanxiao looked up in confusion. He realized that the waitstaff in the hallway, the customers at the next table, the people outside the window—

Everyone had disappeared.

In fact, it was as if their entire table was the only thing left, floating in a living, pulsating sea of dark blue.

“See? Jujutsu can do this.”

“And cursed spirits—”

As Gojo’s voice stretched, a grotesque cursed spirit, dragged from who-knows-where, appeared before them.

“Boom.”

Gojo glanced across the table. The boy had fallen off his chair again.

Gojo: ……

Gojo snapped his fingers again. The cursed spirit disintegrated into ash.

“It’s that easy to exorcise.”

“And you—”

The young man leaned over, looking at the pale-faced boy who had scrambled under the table, his eyes wide in shock.

“Your technique is the strongest.”

————

Gojo said that his technique was teleportation.

But it wasn’t the usual kind of teleportation.

“The space you use to teleport can be weaponized. It’s a space even I don’t understand. It seems to be a conceptual technique. Basically, if you wanted to, you could teleport behind me right now and my Infinity couldn’t stop you. Your space would sever me at the waist.”

“Do you understand what that means?”

Gojo’s sunglasses slipped down slightly, his blue eyes dark and heavy.

“That’s pretty amazing…”

The boy, still under the table murmured in awe.

Gojo felt that he should be right, but somehow, since it was this boy saying it, something felt off.

The boy slowly raised his head.

“This means I can escape to Antarctica—”

“Huh???”

The boy’s expression grew even more resolute as he continued. “I’m leaving right now. Goodbye—”

“Wait.”

“Wait—hold on—”

Gojo reached out hastily, but the boy had already stood up, and then—“Bam.”

“I didn’t teleport, Mr. Gojo…” The boy clutched his head, confused.

He had bumped into something.

Gojo: ……

Gojo was now gripping the coat he had draped over the boy’s shoulders. He took a deep breath, exhaled, and told himself not to scare this death-obsessed boy genius. He tried not to think about the fact that he, Gojo Satoru, was now sitting under a table discussing teleportation to Antarctica with a boy who thought he had transmigrated.

Gojo succeeded.

Gojo held it in.

Gojo used the gentlest, least scary tone of his life to speak calmly.

“Listen when people are talking, kid. You can only teleport to places you can imagine the teleportation path to. If you keep trying to run, I’ll tie you up and hang you in the Cursed Spirit Pit, with ‘The Shining’ playing on loop.”

Yuan Shanxiao: ……

Yuan Shanxiao’s pupils trembled. Tears welled up, but he managed to hold them back.

“Okay.”

——

“So.”

Gojo snapped his fingers.

The barrier dissipated. The people around them resumed their flow, the noise of conversations filling the air again. “How much of what I said just now did you actually absorb?”

The boy crawled out from under the table, still shaking. His trembling fingers made Gojo think he could probably play “Anxiety” on the piano with ease.

The boy hesitated, then said cautiously, “…Escape to Antarctica?”

“The Cursed Spirit Pit.”

“You said my technique works by imagining the teleportation path and copying it to reach the destination, and that the space I use to teleport is a conceptual abnormal space that can be weaponized and is the strongest technique.”

Gojo: ……

So he did understand!!

Gojo felt like the boy was a snail that had been scared into retreat. It looked dead, but if you scared it enough, it would come back to life.

“So, would you like to be my student?”

“No.”

Gojo snapped his fingers again, still restraining his temper. “With proper training, becoming Special Grade would only take a blink of an eye.”

“No.”

“At that point, you could easily exorcise any cursed spirit. There would be nothing left to fear—oh~”

Gojo’s “oh” was drawn out, filled with a mix of exasperation and gritted teeth.

However, Yuan Shanxiao was still lost in the thought of “Huh? Me fight cursed spirits? For real?”

Just looking at a cursed spirit made him want to teleport to Antarctica and commit seppuku. Speaking of which, he really should visit Antarctica sometime. Without having seen it, he couldn’t imagine the teleportation path. There’s no way he could—

Yuan Shanxiao’s thoughts were abruptly cut off as a hand pressed down on his head. The young man’s hand gripped his hair tightly, and all Yuan Shanxiao could see through the gaps between his fingers was the blindingly handsome face of Gojo, who was smiling down at him with terrifyingly intense energy.

“Did you think I was negotiating with you?”

Yuan Shanxiao: ……

So scary.

“Alright,”

After thinking it over, Yuan Shanxiao couldn’t help but pause. He pried Gojo’s hand off his head and spoke sincerely.

“If you had said it like this from the start, I would’ve agreed right away.”

Gojo: …