Just as the two were about to leave, Asou Akiya noticed the swimming coach watching them from the side.
The person who had thrown him the life ring had been that coach as well.
"Thanks!"
Asou Akiya waved brightly at him. Consider it volunteer work—he had cleaned every curse out of the swimming pool facility.
Seeing that Asou Akiya hadn't recognized him, the coach watched the black-haired boy depart with a trace of regret.
"He knows you?" Zen'in Naoya immediately picked up on it.
"Maybe."
Asou Akiya vaguely remembered deliberately trying to recreate the sensation of drowning at that pool and being rescued. Back then, the coach hadn't known he was doing it on purpose and had nearly given him CPR.
"As long as you break away from the ordinary and stand out from the crowd, there will always be countless people in this world who want to know you."
At fourteen, he had possessed a delicate, fragile appearance—a palm-sized face, pale and aloof, exquisitely beautiful like a doll. There had also been a faint sense of gloom and suppressed brokenness about him. It was exactly the sort of look many Japanese people found irresistible, and he had never lacked attention.
The negative emotions he had carried over from his previous life had made him different from his peers, setting him apart from everyone around him.
What had truly brought him back to life from numbness was his relentless pursuit of the limits of cursed energy.
The light that had burned in his eyes back then was terrifying—cold, detached, and equally contemptuous of all living beings.
"If you're not a little crazy when you're young, you've wasted your youth."
Asou Akiya shrugged off the embarrassing chuunibyou behavior of two years ago, then glanced at Zen'in Naoya's phone.
"Is your phone broken? I'll buy you a new one later. Put it on next month's bill."
The hazy filter in Zen'in Naoya's mind shattered instantly.
Stamping his foot in frustration, he protested, "Can you be a little more generous with me?"
Imitating Gojo Satoru's tone, Asou Akiya replied, "Nope, I don't want to~."
The fourth stop on their trip down memory lane was Shibuya Station.
From Basement Level 1 to Basement Level 5, Zen'in Naoya spent the entire time acting as unpaid labor, exorcising curses.
Meanwhile, Asou Akiya bought himself an ice cream cone and leisurely ate it as they walked. He strolled through the station at an unhurried pace, observing his surroundings, making himself appear less conspicuous among the crowds.
"This mission is way too troublesome," Zen'in Naoya complained. "Tokyo Jujutsu High absolutely has to double the reward for this one!"
Asou Akiya said very little. His expression remained calm and composed, as though he weren't the one exploiting Zen'in Naoya for free labor.
"Weren't the cursed letters sent to rich people and politicians?" Zen'in Naoya shook out his aching arm. One hand strike took out one curse at a time, making the process painfully inefficient. "Why would people like that even come to a subway station?"
Asou Akiya licked his matcha-flavored ice cream. It was delicious.
The curses in the subway station had been brought in by passengers. Most of them would follow their hosts when they left. Along the way, Asou Akiya heard countless mutterings.
"I don't want to go to work."
"I don't want overtime."
"I hate riding the subway."
The curses that lingered behind tended to repeat things like:
"The air conditioning in this station is terrible."
"I hate crowded places."
In short, they were highly characteristic of the location.
The foot traffic at Shibuya Station was simply overwhelming.
On Basement Level 5, Asou Akiya stopped at the very place where he had once completely lost control. He carefully surveyed the surroundings.
"Akiya-kun, I can barely breathe anymore. Let's get out of here already," Zen'in Naoya said.
Passengers kept bumping into him from all directions. Unlike Gojo Satoru, he didn't possess the Limitless technique to keep people away. His expression had grown increasingly unpleasant. A jujutsu sorcerer's heightened senses only made things worse—he could smell sweat, perfume, and food all blending together into an unbearable assault on his nose.
Asou Akiya chuckled softly.
"This is where the dream began."
Zen'in Naoya blinked. "What dream?"
"A daydream."
"..."
People who spoke in riddles deserved to be dragged outside and beaten!
Asou Akiya wasn't merely making a random joke.
He was gradually severing the connection between himself and this place.
On the level of cursed energy.
On the level of the heart.
And on certain deeper layers of cause and effect that could not be spoken of openly.
Let go of your obsession, and set yourself free.
Those words were easy for anyone to say, but unimaginably difficult to put into practice.
"My admiration for Gojo Satoru began here," Asou Akiya said.
He finished his ice cream and crunched through the crispy cone, eating it as well.
"If there hadn't been Shibuya Station, there wouldn't be the person I am today."
Zen'in Naoya's train of thought was completely derailed.
Staring at him in disbelief, he blurted out, "Who wants to hear about your love life?"
Asou Akiya looked puzzled.
"Love life? Does that count?"
He had merely met thin air.
Zen'in Naoya had guessed the process wrong, yet somehow landed uncannily close to an answer Asou Akiya had no intention of revealing.
Smugly, he declared, "It's obvious. You definitely fell in love with Satoru-kun at first sight."
"You guessed wrong."
"I don't believe you! What's so hard about admitting it? Satoru-kun is the most beautiful person I've ever seen."
"Appreciating someone's appearance is the most superficial form of admiration."
"Heh."
Zen'in Naoya gave him a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
How hypocritical.
Was he really claiming that Gojo Satoru's looks hadn't caught his attention at first glance?
Then why don't you stop climbing out of his bed?
"This isn't ancient times," Zen'in Naoya said bluntly. "Only a bunch of stubborn old fossils insist on heterosexuality nowadays. Besides, without an attractive appearance, who would be willing to dig deeper and understand what's inside a person?"
Though Zen'in Naoya was younger than both Gojo Satoru and Asou Akiya, he had considerably more experience when it came to romance.
His words struck straight at the heart of the matter.
"Akiya-kun, Satoru-kun is the sum of his appearance, personality, strength, family background, and life experiences. Every one of those things is essential. It takes centuries for someone like him to be born. Take away his family background and his looks, and he loses that innate aura of perfection. Take away his strength and experiences, and he could never be so infuriatingly arrogant that people want to punch him in the face."
Asou Akiya had always stubbornly believed that the person he loved was the twenty-eight-year-old Gojo Satoru.
What if the person he loved... was actually the complete Gojo Satoru—the one shaped by every aspect of himself, including everything he had experienced during the Shibuya Incident?
"I've learned something today."
Asou Akiya only half understood, but he put aside his pride and accepted Zen'in Naoya's advice born from experience.
Seeing this, a strange emotion welled up inside Zen'in Naoya.
"Don't tell me you only realized you liked Satoru-kun after sleeping with him?"
Asou Akiya immediately realized he had misunderstood.
Resting a hand against his chin, he said, "No."
Then he explained, "Your thoughts are way too dirty. I have principles, I don't fall in love with minors. Gojo and I are just classmates. Nothing has happened between us."
Zen'in Naoya sucked in a sharp breath.
Akiya-kun and Satoru-kun slept together, yet nothing happened?
Wasn't that even more terrifying?
Someone who slept with Satoru-kun was a beast.
Someone who shared a bed with Satoru-kun and still didn't sleep with him—
That was worse than a beast!
Realizing that the little rainbow pig's thought process was hopelessly filthy, Asou Akiya raised a middle finger at him and strode off, unwilling to continue the conversation.
"Hey! Wait for me!"
Zen'in Naoya broke into a jog, unwilling to let the crowd separate them.
The final stop on their trip down memory lane was a dessert shop in Tokyo.
When he was fourteen, Asou Akiya had once sat here dreaming about the future. After spending the last of his money, he had picked up a pen and written an utterly outrageous story with a premise that shot straight through the heavens:
[Love Triangle That Began at Jujutsu High: Gojo Satoru's White Moonlight and Cinnabar Mole]
"Hello, I'd like to add credit, please."
Standing at the counter, Asou Akiya casually pulled a card from his wallet. He was about to recharge the dessert membership card whose balance had long since reached zero.
The young woman behind the register glanced at the card. It looked familiar.
Its surface was noticeably worn, evidence that it had been used many times.
Unable to help herself, she asked, "Wasn't the owner of this dessert card a white-haired boy?"
Asou Akiya smiled.
"You can check the phone number on the account. I'm the one who originally registered the card."
While Asou Akiya was once again recharging Gojo Satoru's dessert card, Zen'in Naoya sat in a corner seat, looking around curiously.
"There are traces of cursed energy here, but I don't see any curses."
A short while later, Asou Akiya returned carrying not only an entire table full of desserts, but also several sheets of scrap paper and a pen he had borrowed.
Patting his stomach, Zen'in Naoya said with affected restraint, "Good timing. I was just getting hungry."
Most Japanese people had a fondness for sweets, and Zen'in Naoya was no exception. He didn't dislike desserts at all. He ate with refined, measured movements, chewing slowly and elegantly, yet the uninterrupted pace of his eating made it obvious that he possessed an enormous appetite.
Taking a bite, he commented, "I'm used to the desserts at home, but it's nice to try something from outside once in a while."
Without even looking up, Asou Akiya replied, "When I open a dessert shop in the future, you'll have to provide a few secret recipes from the Zen'in household."
"Sure. That's nothing."
To outsiders, those closely guarded recipes would be priceless treasures. But to him, they were merely a casual favor.
A dessert shop? Where was he planning to open it?
Curious, Zen'in Naoya leaned forward to see what Asou Akiya was writing.
He thought he understood Akiya-kun's personality well enough by now. Surely he was drafting some kind of business proposal.
Instead—
After a moment's hesitation, Asou Akiya put pen to paper and wrote a single line.
Novel: [The Unrequited Love That Began After Graduation: Zen'in Naoya's White Moonlight and Cinnabar Mole.]
"What kind of garbage title is that?!"
Zen'in Naoya's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
Seated in the same spot as years ago, Asou Akiya held the same kind of stationery and pen he had used back then, recreating the scene in which he had once written that "cursed letter."
Time had passed.
The fourteen-year-old boy had become sixteen.
And now, he turned that blade forged from words toward another black-haired boy across from him—a fifteen-year-old this time.
A lively yet merciless smile curved Asou Akiya's lips as he blocked Zen'in Naoya's attempt to snatch away the paper.
"I'm cursing you, Naoya."
The words fell.
The moment those words left his mouth—
A chilling aura of cursed energy spread through the corner of the dessert shop.
Asou Akiya had actually managed to write a cursed letter.
Zen'in Naoya watched in utter despair as Asou Akiya personally wrote a short story about him.
The contents were far too embarrassing.
Far beyond what Zen'in Naoya could endure.
To put it simply, the story depicted Zen'in Naoya after graduating from Tokyo Jujutsu High. He entered into a political marriage arranged by his family, yet two men occupied his heart.
His white moonlight was Zen'in Toji.
His cinnabar mole was Kamo Akiya.
Consumed by bitterness over Kamo Akiya's ruthless rejection and departure, Zen'in Naoya tried desperately to make him stay, only to fail. He drowned his sorrows in alcohol for an entire year, growing haggard and despondent. After returning to the Zen'in clan, he obsessively searched for Kamo Akiya's whereabouts and, out of spite, married the legitimate daughter of the Kamo family, one of the Three Great Clans.
He gave her the position of principal wife.
But he never gave her the fidelity she deserved.
In the end, he met a tragic death when she stabbed him in the back.
The logic was airtight.
Zen'in Naoya truly was that much of a scumbag.
The instant Asou Akiya finished the curse, Zen'in Naoya switched from grief-stricken outrage back to the cold focus of a jujutsu sorcerer.
Both of them turned toward the same direction.
Toward the curse.
The source of the cursed letter was a pitch-black curse shaped like a cat.
It crouched within the shadows, its limbs grotesquely twisted, staring fixedly at Asou Akiya and Zen'in Naoya.
Sensitive to death and malice, the low-grade curse suddenly sprang forward. It landed on the table and merged into the newly completed short story.
The nature of its technique was unknown.
From that moment on, the letter would remain attached to Zen'in Naoya, relentlessly cursing him with malicious intent until the curse was lifted.
Asou Akiya calmly asked the well-educated Zen'in Naoya, whose clan was renowned for its deep knowledge:
"How do you remove a curse like this?"
Zen'in Naoya became the second victim of the curse.
He was profoundly grateful that Asou Akiya had taught him such a meaningful lesson today—one that made him understand that appearances were deceiving and that the world was a far more dangerous place than he had imagined.
"You bastard! Fuck you and your cinnabar mole!"
"You lunatic who attracts curses wherever you go!!"
"There is absolutely no chance I'll ever fall in love with you in this lifetime!!!"
At last, he understood.
The person who had originally been cursed today was Asou Akiya.
And in order to break the curse, Asou Akiya had dragged him down into it as well!