Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu High Technical College is located on the western side of Tokyo, situated in a highly underdeveloped, forested mountainous area.
If viewed from the air, it couldn't even be called a "school." Instead, it looked more like a large temple or monastery with centuries of heritage.
The time was 7:25 a.m. The bright, warm spring sun shone upon the wooden railing of the external corridor on the second floor of the Hachiman-style temple. A tall Kendo girl with long, dark purple hair, dressed in her school uniform, put down her phone and gently exhaled, looking at the distant campus scenery below.
Just then, footsteps came from behind the Kendo girl.
Although she could identify the person just by the sound of their steps, the girl turned back as an instinct of a Kendo practitioner.
Stepping out from indoors was a black-haired, spiky-headed boy also wearing the Jujutsu High uniform. Following closely behind him was an athletic-looking boy whose hair seemed to be dyed—red wine on top and normal black underneath.
The latter, in particular, had two faint markings beneath his eye sockets, making it look at first glance as if he had two other eyes that were simply closed.
Their gazes met in mid-air, and the black, spiky-headed boy raised his hand first to greet her.
"Good morning, Busujima-senpai."
"Ah, Fushiguro. And..."
Saeko Busujima nodded slightly, then her gaze lingered on the dyed-hair athlete behind him.
"Ah, good morning, Senpai. I'm Yuji Itadori. I'm Fushiguro's classmate now."
The athlete scratched his head and introduced himself cheerfully.
"Hello."
Saeko Busujima smiled politely.
She remembered him. After all, he was brought back just two days ago by Satoru Gojō. He was said to be the only person so far who had swallowed a finger of Ryomen Sukuna and survived, even retaining his own self-awareness.
Though incredible... it didn't have much to do with her.
Unlike the other classes at Jujutsu High, which formed three-person teams for missions, she had maintained a single-person team status since enrollment. All her tasks were completed independently without the need for any external assistance.
Getting to know another junior wouldn't benefit her in any way besides adding unnecessary social connections, so there was no need to get too close.
The conversation stopped there, and the air in the corridor suddenly grew quiet.
After about two or three seconds, Megumi Fushiguro was the first to break the silence.
"Senpai looked preoccupied just now. So, did something happen?"
"...Sort of."
With the junior initiating the conversation, Saeko Busujima could only shake her head, picking up her phone again, unlocking the screen, and switching to the forum page.
"Do you remember the post last night about someone 'night fishing' and finding Sukuna's finger on the forum?"
"Yes, I remember. Didn't you contact the person immediately, Senpai? Has it been successfully retrieved yet?" Fushiguro asked.
"Unfortunately, no..."
Saeko Busujima shook her head again.
However, just as she was about to pick up her phone to show the chat logs, Yuji Itadori next to her leaned in curiously and interjected.
"Sukuna's finger? Isn't that the one I ate?"
"That's right."
Saeko Busujima gave him a calm glance.
"Gojō-sensei must have mentioned that there are twenty of Sukuna's fingers in total. Six of them are currently contained under the Jujutsu Association. The one you ate, Itadori-kun, is only one of the twenty."
"Ah, I know that..."
Yuji Itadori was still nodding, but he was suddenly shoved away by Megumi Fushiguro, whose tone carried a hint of anxiety.
"So, what is the current situation now!"
It was Ryomen Sukuna's finger, after all. Any single one of them was enough to be rated as a Special Grade Cursed Object. Once the seal was broken, it could attract Cursed Spirits from several kilometers around to flock and fight over it.
Just like on the first day he and Yuji Itadori met.
But that was barely half an hour after the seal was broken, and the entire school had already been overrun by various Cursed Spirits.
And now, Busujima-senpai was saying they hadn't been able to successfully retrieve it yet.
That post was from last night, and judging by the photo on the post, the Cursed Object was clearly in an unsealed state. If no Curse User went to deal with it all night long...
Megumi Fushiguro dared not imagine the consequences.
Not to mention what the Cursed Spirits attracted by the unsealed Sukuna's finger had bred into after a night of slaughter and struggle, the person who made the post was likely already...
"The person replied to me, just before you two came out."
Saeko Busujima's understated comment instantly brought Fushiguro's consciousness back to reality.
Wait, the person replied? That means they're still alive?
"Take a look."
The Kendo girl said, opening the private message page and showing the chat content to her two juniors.
Megumi Fushiguro held his breath and craned his neck to look. What greeted his eyes were seven large characters.
—Hello, I am Qin Shi Huang.
"...What the heck." The spiky-haired boy's eye twitched.
Although the content and timing of the reply suggested the person was alive and mostly unharmed, it was clear that they hadn't taken the message they sent seriously at all!
"So, this is very troublesome now," Saeko Busujima sighed softly. "In a situation like this, no matter what we send next, the person won't believe it. So, I plan to report it directly to the Principal later..."
"Wait, wait, wait, wait~ What are you guys talking about? I think I heard something about reporting it to the Principal?"
Before the words could fall, a rather flippant male voice suddenly came from not far away.
Following the direction of the voice, the speaker was a tall, slender young man with white hair and sunglasses. He was waving his hand, walking along the corridor towards them.
"Gojō-sensei?"
Yuji Itadori was a little surprised, but he quickly reacted, pointing at the Kendo girl's phone.
"Ah, it's like this, apparently someone posted on the school forum last night saying they found a finger of Ryomen Sukuna..."
"Huh?"
Hearing this description, Satoru Gojō, who had been strolling leisurely the second before, instantly accelerated his pace. Like he was on fast-forward, he covered the distance in two long strides and arrived next to the trio. He took the phone, quickly scanned the chat logs, and let out a soft "Ah."
"So, judging by this, the person is indeed alive, but they don't believe the message we sent. However, for people like this, we actually left a back door when the forum was first established."
"A back door?"
"Do you remember the real-name authentication step when registering for the forum? While everyone has that, internal staff members of Jujutsu High, including you students, have an extra step of authentication. That authentication allows you to gain administrator privileges for the forum under reasonable circumstances, meaning you can freely view the other party's real-name authentication information."
"Wait a minute, doesn't that mean, to put it harshly..."
"Well, you could see it that way from an objective standpoint. But this is certainly novel. Someone managed to go an entire night with Ryomen Sukuna's finger and didn't suffer any harm?"
Satoru Gojō performed a sequence of actions on the phone, all while muttering to himself.
Soon, as the temporary administrator permission was successfully granted, a part of the content that should have been hidden finally displayed when he clicked on the other party's personal profile through the chat window avatar.
Satoru Gojō's eyes scanned the lines of text. When he saw the name in the real-name information, he suddenly paused.
After a long moment, he lightly clicked his tongue.
"Ah..."
"What is it? What is it?"
Yuji Itadori tried to peer over curiously, but Satoru Gojō blocked him with a hand.
Immediately, he returned the phone to Saeko Busujima, his face reverting to his usual flippant smile as he waved his hand.
"Alright, alright. I've successfully obtained the other person's information. It seems they are a student at Kuoh Academy. Busujima-san, you should make time to go and communicate with them after school today."
"...Understood."