In the thirty seconds before Yuan Shanxiao lost consciousness, what was he thinking?

Was he worried about losing control due to excessive fear and hurting Fushiguro Megumi?

Or was he terrified of “If I accidentally injure an ally, wouldn’t I be the next one to face the Cursed Spirits alone?”

Of course—

It was both!

The first concern quickly fueled the second, intensifying his growing fear.

Yuan Shanxiao had always known that extreme fear could sometimes make him lose his sanity. But this state of mental detachment was also a sort of self-defense mechanism. The human body tends to avoid overwhelming emotions like sadness, ecstasy, or fear. So, for Yuan Shanxiao, detaching from fear when it became too intense was a natural physiological response.

Yuan Shanxiao didn’t fully understand the voice inside his head. Was it some sort of system? A second personality? Or maybe just a mechanism?

All he knew was that when his fear reached a certain threshold, that voice would echo in his mind. And whenever he heard the phrase “Fear Value has reached…”, it meant he had no choice—he had to release that fear somehow.

It was like a dam reaching its breaking point, needing to release the floodwaters. And that flood of fear, once unleashed, would destroy everything in its path, without discrimination.

When Zen’in Maki had attacked him shortly after he entered Tokyo Jujutsu High, that voice had echoed in his mind, but his Fear Value wasn’t too high. He still had some rationality left, and throwing the cursed tool back at her was enough to drain his fear.

And the time Gojo Satoru forced him to exorcise the cockroach Cursed Spirits—well, after tearing through all the Cursed Spirits, his Fear Value had pretty much been exhausted.

But this time—Yuan Shanxiao clearly heard the voice in his head and knew that Fushiguro Megumi’s Shikigami had been destroyed by him. The only source of terror left near him that could be attacked—

Was that spiky-haired boy.

So, the tiny bit of reason left in Yuan Shanxiao’s mind was like a weak owner trying desperately to pull back a runaway husky, screaming—

“You can’t attack Fushiguro-kun!!!”

If Gojo Satoru had been there, he might’ve felt proud of the budding friendship Yuan Shanxiao had developed in such a short time. But a minute later, he would’ve realized, this is Yuan Shanxiao—not a normal person—and dismissed his thoughts, because you couldn’t treat this guy like an ordinary kid!

But indeed, as Gojo would have predicted, Yuan Shanxiao was desperately trying to rein in his fear-driven impulses. The reason was simple—

“Fushiguro-kun is a human!!!”

“And clearly a responsible one, the kind of person who would say, ‘You step back, I’ll handle this,’ when facing a terrifying enemy. How could I attack someone like that? It’s like the horror movie characters who always start killing each other and end up dying even faster—what’s the difference?”

So, Yuan Shanxiao was desperately pulling on the reins of his rationality, not wanting to let fear completely take over his mind and unleash a wave of chaos. He knew that once that fear was unleashed, it wouldn’t differentiate between friend or foe.

The more he tried to stay calm, the more—

“Ahh, I’m really going to hurt Fushiguro-kun, aren’t I? What am I going to do without him? Who else can shield me?”

“In horror movies, when all the companions die, the main character’s turn comes next! I have to make sure my companions survive! But… waaaahh…”

“Stay calm! Don’t be afraid! Don’t let your fear get worse just because you’re thinking about it! Hold it in… Ugh… Can’t hold it in anymore…”

…Terror.

So even though his rational mind was telling him to stay calm, to not be afraid, to keep his distance from Fushiguro, and not unintentionally hurt him, it was like someone trying to cautiously lift their foot off a landmine.

Slowly,

Carefully,

Calmly—

Yuan Shanxiao teleported to Antarctica.

————

In the moments when he lost all rationality, Yuan Shanxiao’s only remaining instinct was—escape.

Escape to a safe place.

At that moment, with his brain clouded by fear, the only thing that floated to the surface was his long-cherished White Moonlight—

Sorry, even though Gojo-sensei had been trying to brainwash him into believing that he was the strongest, attempting to become Yuan Shanxiao’s safe haven—

Yuan Shanxiao still didn’t believe Gojo was the strongest.

Yuan Shanxiao: …A guy who can’t dodge me clinging to his leg nine times out of ten is supposed to be the strongest? Even someone like me can grab hold of him and not get shaken off—.

The black-haired boy quietly muttered to himself, his gray-green eyes filled with disdain. “…Pathetic.”

“Just like me…”

Fortunately, Gojo didn’t know what Yuan Shanxiao had been thinking back then. Even if he did, it wouldn’t matter, because these days, Gojo could still only avoid being clung to two times out of ten.

So, Yuan Shanxiao’s safe haven, his White Moonlight, was just one place—

Antarctica…

His beloved Antarctica…

Sure, space might have been great too. But Yuan Shanxiao, who believed in horror movies, was also the kind of guy who believed in the Mayan prophecies and that there were weird-looking aliens lurking out there in space.

So, Antarctica was the best choice. The Arctic was too close; Antarctica was farther away, less populated, and offered the bonus of possibly freezing to death, maybe even freezing his soul too.

Thus, even though Yuan Shanxiao was overwhelmed by fear, with only his subconscious left in control, he still remembered to grab the brochure and head straight for the Antarctic research ship dock he had already mapped out in his mind—

He boarded the ship in a flash, stowed away in a flash, crossed borders in a flash, got caught in a flash, and fled back in a flash.

All of this took less than four hours.

What could have been the thrilling material for a new adventure novel, “Yuan Shanxiao’s Voyage,” was over in under four hours.

And he came back with some souvenirs.

A mop string hanging from his shoulder, a shirt torn by a crab’s pincer, a squid dangling from his head (which he thought was seaweed and hadn’t even started being afraid of), and real seaweed in his hand.

Gojo Satoru, looking at the boy in front of him, who was in a worse state than a beggar returning from the streets: …

Fushiguro Megumi, who had almost fallen for Gojo’s nonsense and started doubting his sanity: …

The two of them silently stared at each other, maintaining a subtle, awkward, and utterly perplexed atmosphere.

The only one who wasn’t awkward at all was Yuan Shanxiao himself. By the time he had crawled over and started puzzlingly trying to piece together the broken fragments of his desk, Gojo finally spoke. He cleared his throat, awkwardly turning his head away so he wouldn’t have to look at the boy still trying to fix his only desk.

“…So, what exactly happened?”

————

“This is a long story—”

“So make it short—”

On the way to the public bathhouse, Gojo Satoru was leading the way, holding Yuan Shanxiao’s tattered collar with a look of distaste. Fushiguro, having taken one last complex and wordless look at them, had already left, leaving behind an atmosphere so awkward that it sent chills down everyone’s spine. Meanwhile, after using his technique excessively—mostly from teleporting from the Sea of Japan to the Pacific while chasing after the research ship—Yuan Shanxiao had exhausted his Fear Value, so now he was in a rare state of mental balance and calmness.

It was similar to the feeling someone has after pulling an all-nighter, sleeping hard, and waking up refreshed, thinking they can do anything and that staying up late is no big deal.

So Yuan Shanxiao even dared to smile cheekily when Gojo demanded a brief explanation. “What I’m doing is giving you a graceful way out, subtly hinting that I don’t want to talk, Sensei.”

Gojo: …

Subtle, huh.

The urge to punch someone.

Upon reaching the bathhouse, Gojo released his grip, letting Yuan Shanxiao fall into the water with a splash.

Before the boy had time to panic about the sudden dunk, he first saw the squid float up from his head. Screaming, he teleported around the bathhouse thirty times. Three minutes later, he was back in the water, black hair drenched, sitting slumped beside the pool. “…I was wrong.”

Gojo, who had initially just wanted to scare the boy a bit and stop him from getting too cocky, but almost ended up watching him amputate his own arm to get rid of the squid: …

Fine.

————

No matter how completely wrong the process had been, at least Gojo-sensei had managed to achieve the right result—Yuan Shanxiao had calmed down—though he was still scrubbing his arms repeatedly, trying to get rid of the slimy feeling left by the squid’s soft, sticky tentacles.

The boy looked up, eyes still wet, pure and innocent. “Maybe I really should amputate my arm.”

Gojo, who had long since been trained to feel neither joy nor sorrow, smiled serenely, “Then let me summon a squid Cursed Spirit to help you with that.”

“So about earlier, I’ll keep it brief for you, Sensei.”

Seeing the boy’s expression change instantly, and him bow his head obediently again, Gojo Satoru: …

Cute.

————

Yuan Shanxiao recounted his earlier battle with Fushiguro Megumi, though he summarized the part about the Fear Value voice as him being too terrified to control his technique, resulting in an accidental teleportation.

He found the whole Fear Value situation too complicated, something he hadn’t fully figured out yet. If he tried to explain, he definitely wouldn’t be able to make it brief. But if he didn’t, Gojo might threaten to summon a squid Cursed Spirit to help him amputate his arm. So, he decided to keep quiet.

Gojo Satoru: …

Even without knowing all the details, the idea of someone’s technique going haywire because they were too scared was… something else.

But Gojo wasn’t the same Gojo he had been months ago. He was now Gojo Satoru, Yuan Shanxiao edition, pro.plus.

So, he just nodded solemnly and calmly, “Continue.”

He didn’t catch the boy muttering under his breath, “So easy to fool. And he claims to be the strongest. Antarctica is definitely still the strongest…”

As for what happened afterward—long story short, Yuan Shanxiao was caught stowing away on the research ship and got kicked off.

As mentioned earlier, his technique required him to memorize the route ahead of time, pre-mapping the path in his mind. So while he had been able to scout and memorize the path to sneak onto the ship, he had never been to Antarctica. He could only stay on the ship and follow along.

By the time he got on board, most of his fear had been burned off. To put it nicely, he had calmed down. To put it bluntly—well, without the fear, his technique wasn’t working as smoothly.

Still, Yuan Shanxiao had good instincts!

The moment he saw the cleaning lady raise her hand, he knew she was about to grab the mop and hit him! So he teleported to snatch the mop first, only to slip on the freshly mopped floor and crash onto the mop head.

The cleaning lady, watching all of this: …

But Yuan Shanxiao still had sharp instincts and knew the cleaning lady would seize the chance to call security and have him, the stowaway, caught and thrown off the ship!

He wasn’t stupid. He knew what would happen. He’d seen plenty of conspiracy articles online. This was international waters! So many people had died there! If he got caught, he’d be thrown into the sea to feed the sharks—every mob boss in crime movies said so.

Gojo Satoru, listening to the story at this point: …

Wasn’t this supposed to be a horror movie? Why are we suddenly in a crime movie—wait, do you get scared by crime movies too—oh, sorry, I shouldn’t be surprised.

So, Yuan Shanxiao quickly teleported again, evading capture. He teleported into the kitchen and fell into a seafood tank, teleported into a room and got his clothes snagged on the doorknob, almost getting stuck hanging there. Eventually, a tourist saw him and offered him a tissue to wipe off the water. Yuan Shanxiao: …

I know it! He must have some deadly ability that kills people with a single touch!

Gojo Satoru: … This is a world of Jujutsu Sorcery, stop mixing genres already!

And do you have some kind of persecution complex?! How does stowing away on a ship make you this paranoid?!

You’re a Jujutsu Sorcerer, so—

“I never expected that a research ship full of ordinary people could be so terrifying.”

Gojo Satoru: …have a little more courage.