"Little Megumi-chan, hello there!" Satoru Gojo rubbed Megumi Fushiguro's spiky hair with chaotic energy.
Under the gaze of the Six Eyes, the surging cursed energy and immense talent within Megumi were laid bare. The Ten Shadows Technique: a legendary inherited power of the Zenin clan said to rival the Limitless. If those old fogies found out that the Ten Shadows they dreamed of had become a student of the Gojo clan's Six Eyes, their expressions would be priceless.
"Ehehehe..." Satoru let out a goofy laugh.
Megumi looked up at the laughing Satoru, his face twisted in disgust as he turned toward Toji Fushiguro. "Is this the teacher you found through your connections? He's just as unreliable as you are."
"I guess an unemployed guy who gets beaten black and blue before slinking back home wouldn't have very good connections to begin with," Megumi added flatly.
"..."
Toji pressed his palm to his temple, feeling a sudden wave of regret about handing Megumi over to Satoru. The Six Eyes twins of the Gojo clan seemed to be equally eccentric. However, since his son was a genius who awakened the Ten Shadows, Toji naturally wanted the best teacher possible.
The other two Special Grades were out of the question. Yuki Tsukumo was constantly flying abroad and already had Riko Amanai. Suguru Geto had become a super-dad to three foster children. That left only Satoru. At the very least, compared to Souma, Satoru seemed relatively normal.
"By the way, where is Souma? I haven't seen him lately," Toji asked.
"Brother? Oh, he said he found a 'great seedling' and planned to take on a disciple too," Satoru replied, continuing to mess up Megumi's hair until the spikes looked like a sea urchin.
"Too bad for him. Megumi is a Ten Shadows user. No matter who Brother finds, they won't be as talented as my student. Megumi-chan, you carry my hopes: you have to trample Souma's disciple under your feet! Ehehehe!"
Megumi's face darkened with frustration.
...
The streets of Tokyo.
A suspicious man in black clothes peeked cautiously around a corner, watching two small figures in the distance.
"A-choo!"
"Dammit! Satoru must be talking bad about me again. I'll have to fix him up when I get back!"
Ignoring the looks from pedestrians who clearly thought he was a lunatic, Souma Gojo began to follow the children like a stalker trailing an idol. The elementary schoolers walking side by side were his targets: Yuta Okkotsu and Rika Orimoto.
They were childhood sweethearts who had already promised to marry each other, even securing engagement rings at such a young age. It was ridiculous. Even for "Pure Love," the speed and efficiency of these two was staggering compared to the rest of the anime world.
Watching them hold hands and laugh, Souma felt like he was being force-fed a giant bucket of "dog food" romance. Between his two lives, he had lived for forty years and had never even held a girl's hand.
He recalled the original plot to calm himself down. While Yuta and Rika were the icons of pure love, their ending in the original timeline was tragic. It was as if the author had a twisted obsession with preventing happy endings. According to the original script, Rika would die in a car accident at age eleven, leading Yuta to accidentally curse her soul into becoming the "Queen of Curses."
Yuta was a distant relative of the Gojo clan, a descendant of Michizane Sugawara with terrifying potential. Even without Rika, he would become a Special Grade in just three months.
"I wonder if stepping in early will break the timeline," Souma hesitated. He didn't want to wait several years for the accident to happen, but he feared that changing Rika's school or path might just cause a different, unpredictable accident.
As he was thinking, the crowd suddenly erupted in screams.
"AAAAHHH!"
Souma froze. A massive truck had lost control on the other side of the road, crashing through the barriers and hurtling toward the crowd with murderous momentum. Yuta and Rika were right in its path. Specifically, Rika was standing directly in the truck's trajectory while Yuta was being shoved aside by the panicked crowd.
The truck's "precision" felt almost supernatural. Souma realized his presence might have accelerated the timeline: the death meant for years later was happening now.
SCREECH!
Tires smoked as they left long black streaks on the pavement. The grill of the truck was inches from Rika. In her final moment of terror, she looked at Yuta, who was desperately reaching out for her as the crowd pulled him away.
BOOM!
The truck slammed into a utility pole. Smoke billowed and sparks showered the area. For a moment, time seemed to stop for Yuta Okkotsu. Despair flooded his heart, and a bone-chilling cold radiated from his body. The massive cursed energy latent within him began to leak out like an untamed beast.
"RIKA!!!"
Yuta let out a scream and shoved through the crowd, running toward the wreckage with superhuman strength. A tall man tried to grab him to keep him safe, but the boy's power was so immense that he couldn't be held back.
Just as Yuta was about to plunge into the smoke, someone grabbed him firmly.
"Let go of me! Rika is—"
"Hey, kid. Is this the Rika you're looking for?"
Yuta spun around, his eyes wide. Souma Gojo stood there with a calm smile, holding a stunned but completely unharmed Rika in his arms.
Souma glanced at the accident. Other pedestrians were only slightly injured, and the driver was saved by an airbag. It was clear the entire incident had been a targeted strike of fate specifically aimed at Rika.