After school, Getou Suguru pulled Gojo Satoru aside and dragged him off for remedial study in a secretive, conspiratorial manner.
Seeing that they clearly did not want to embarrass themselves in front of him, Asou Akiya was just about to head back on his own when Ieiri Shoko reached out and grabbed his sleeve.
Ieiri Shoko hugged her schoolbag to her chest. "I think I need tutoring too."
Asou Akiya smiled faintly. "The make-up exam isn't that difficult."
Ieiri Shoko handed her history exam paper to him and said slowly, word by word, "Out of the three of us, I scored the lowest."
Scoring fifty-three points on the history exam had dealt a serious blow to Ieiri Shoko's confidence. When she went drinking, she told Iori Utahime about it, only to be laughed at for how "not very capable" the first-year underclassmen were.
Asou Akiya closed the classroom door, returned to his seat, and began explaining the problems from the exam to Ieiri Shoko on the spot.
"Shoko, the fact that you didn't completely copy Getou means you do have your own ability to judge things. But while it's fine to answer questions correctly on your own, you ended up getting some questions wrong that you could have copied correctly. That's one of your issues."
"In the first multiple-choice question, I deliberately laid a trap by using vague historical information about the so-called 'peak figures of barrier techniques among men and women.' I didn't expect all three of you to fall for it. That, in itself, is a misfortune of the jujutsu world."
"That question was testing Tengen-sama's gender. As the only modern female jujutsu sorcerer capable of healing others, you surpass countless male sorcerers—so why were you unwilling to bet on Tengen-sama being 'female'? Is it the same as Getou, a reluctance to believe that a female sorcerer could reach such an exalted position?"
"As for the issue of reverse cursed technique applied to corpses and cursed tools, my intention was to sound an alarm for you—to protect you."
"The potential of the reversed cursed technique is limitless. The positive energy created by 'negative multiplied by negative' is not only used for healing; it is also the power cursed spirits fear the most. Come, look at Question Eight. The user of the 'Ten Shadows Technique' who perished together with the 'Six Eyes' possessed the ability to summon Mahoraga. In Mahoraga's hands is a demon-slaying sword condensed entirely from positive energy—its blade pure white. Any cursed spirit wounded by it loses the ability to regenerate and is left at the mercy of others."
"Mahoraga is the Zenin clan's treasure, their absolute trump card—and you are the treasure of Tokyo Jujutsu High."
"Now look again at Question Six. You selected one fewer option than Gojo and Getou. If that choice came from caution, aiming to secure partial points on a multiple-choice question, that's understandable. But if you were answering half-heartedly for fun, then I suggest selecting everything. In truth, the higher-ups are a group even more capricious than you—anyone can be sentenced to death."
"As for Question Nine, regarding technique burnout… everything that needed to be said was already explained to you by Teacher Yaga in class."
"I noticed that you didn't really take it to heart, Shoko!"
Asou Akiya deliberately raised his voice, startling Ieiri Shoko—who had been listening intently—into a visible flinch.
Ieiri Shoko let out a sigh. "That's knowledge required of high-level sorcerers. Just like you, I'll never be able to learn Domain Expansion."
Asou Akiya looked straight into her unfocused brown eyes. "Do you really think that what I'm about to tell you isn't important?"
Ieiri Shoko raised both hands in surrender. "Go on, Assistant Asou—Class Rep Asou."
Asou Akiya sighed helplessly and continued with the lesson. "Let's use technique burnout as an example. Suppose you suddenly encounter a situation where reversed cursed technique can't be used. The patient is hemorrhaging badly and on the verge of death. What do you do?"
Ieiri Shoko made a slicing gesture with her hand. "Take a risk and cut a little more."
Asou Akiya pressed the point. "And what if that person is me? I'm waiting for you to save me, and you decide to casually slice the wound open further—worsening my injuries—while slowly searching for a treatment method?"
Ieiri Shoko slumped in defeat. "Gojo's 'Six Eyes' can help me locate the problem."
Asou Akiya ground his teeth. "…And if Gojo isn't there, Getou isn't there, Teacher Yaga isn't there, and not a single person we can rely on is present—if the only one who can save me at the scene is you?"
Ieiri Shoko fell into troubled silence. With eyes that clearly spelled this is such a hassle, she finally said, "Then I can ask you, right?"
Asou Akiya blinked. "Huh?"
Ieiri Shoko continued calmly, "As long as you're still conscious, I'll ask you how to treat you. If you agree, I'll try. If the attempt fails, I'll take care of your remains, find you a nice place to be buried, and bring flowers to your grave every year."
Asou Akiya clutched his chest as if suffering a myocardial infarction. "You really are something else. I suppose that does count as a method."
Ieiri Shoko replied innocently, "What else am I supposed to say? That the treatment failed and I'll repay your life with mine? Don't joke around, I can't do that. Even if Geto and Gojo grilled me about why I couldn't save you, I still wouldn't think I'd done anything wrong."
"Because I already did everything I could."
"What a doctor needs most is composure. As for the rest—leave it to fate."
She leaned back against the chair, the light, unhurried motion concealing an ultimate indifference born from witnessing life and death too many times.
"..."
Asou Akiya suddenly realized, with a chill down his spine, that Shoko had psychological issues as well.
This was the mindset a top-tier physician should possess, but it was not something a fifteen-year-old girl in the prime of her youth should have.
He and she were friends.
She believed that when it came to saving a friend, doing one's utmost was enough—no despair, no regret, and at the same time, letting herself drift along with it all.
Asou Akiya asked softly, "Shoko, after joining the jujutsu world, have you ever cried?"
Ieiri Shoko smiled. "No."
Subconsciously unwilling to be a freak, she turned the question back on him. "Aren't you the same?"
Asou Akiya said, "No. I have cried—once, and only once."
The muscles in Ieiri Shoko's face twitched slightly. Before her expression could slip out of control, she turned her head to the side, pretending to look at the scenery outside the window.
She tried hard to recall the medical cases she had encountered after entering the jujutsu world. In those pale memories, only the noisy, lively days at Tokyo Jujutsu High remained vivid; everything else was drained to black and white by death.
"If I really have to mention crying, my eyes did redden once—when you all celebrated my birthday."
"Can you cry for me once?"
"Asou, that's a pretty unreasonable request."
"What I mean is this: in this suffocating world, both of our hearts are sealed shut. I can occasionally vent, but you can't. So… I'm asking you, just for me, to use your reversed cursed technique to create tears once."
"..."
Ieiri Shoko said nothing. She activated her reversed cursed technique, stimulating her tear glands and forcibly creating the conditions for tears to fall.
She trusted Asou Akiya—trusted him in a way that was strange, almost inexplicable.
"Is this enough?" Ieiri Shoko asked. The easy, carefree air of girlhood had vanished from her. Tears streamed down her face purely as a physiological response, her expression utterly blank, resembling nothing so much as a corpse. "Asou, you're the first person in history to make a female classmate cry during remedial lessons."
Asou Akiya gazed at her as though contemplating a difficult problem, a trace of pity seeping into his eyes.
Ieiri Shoko found that look irritating.
"I might feel like hitting you."
"Then hit me."
Asou Akiya leaned his face toward her, then quickly sat back before she could act. "Shoko's problem is rather serious. You're numb to death, and simply being alive no longer causes much emotional fluctuation."
Ieiri Shoko stopped crying after a brief moment, pulled out a tissue, and wiped her face. "No, it feels pretty nice, actually."
Asou Akiya replied, "I, on the other hand, find it a little frightening."
He averted his gaze, deliberately giving the other person time to compose her expression.
He thought of Jujutsu Kaisen Volume 0, of Getou Suguru's death, of Gojo Satoru as the one who carried out the execution—and wondered whether Ieiri Shoko would cry when she learned of it. As he considered the question before him, he arrived at the answer: she would not. Ieiri Shoko was too numb, too cold, too rational. She had long since prepared herself for the certainty that everyone would die someday.
Even if Gojo Satoru were to die, Ieiri Shoko would not cry. She truly was medical staff who were "stable to the extreme."
"Although all jujutsu sorcerers are crazy," he said, "I hope you go crazy in the right places."
"Not… like this."
Walking on, one by one, through tragedy as if nothing had happened.
Before leaving the classroom, Asou Akiya gave Ieiri Shoko a brief hug, abandoned any further probing, and walked out the door.
"Ah, it's just me left?" The emptiness of the classroom made Ieiri Shoko feel oddly uncomfortable.
Outside, the sun was sinking into the horizon. The length of their conversation had far exceeded her sense of time. After school, she was usually the first to leave, or she would depart alongside the assisting supervisor in charge of the class.
No one had ever stayed behind for her—more precisely… Asou would never leave her alone.
Ieiri Shoko looked at the three empty desks and murmured to herself, "Going crazy in the right places? What place do you think counts as 'right'? Where is there no death? You, who said those words—aren't you lost as well?"
As long as cursed spirits did not disappear, jujutsu sorcerers would be injured and die, and then Ieiri Shoko would have to stay busy.
A sudden flash of self-loathing welled up inside her. How detestable, she thought, this self that can't even cry.
The next second, she returned to normal.
She lived within her own comfort zone and refused to step outside it—unless Asou Akiya reached out and pulled her along. Only then would she be willing to gasp for a single breath in the hell beyond that comfort zone, before shrinking back inside again, to remain that medical professional who never made mistakes.
…
November 28, Asou Akiya silently counted down the days until winter break.
Three classmates were taking a make-up exam. The old test papers had been destroyed, but the questions of life themselves remained etched in their memories.
Gojo Satoru's eyes flew open. "The questions… are easy? Is this a trap?!"
Getou Suguru skimmed the paper at lightning speed, identifying the examiner's style at a glance. "This feels like Yaga-sensei's handiwork—it's not Akiya's questions! Did Akiya finally decide to let us pass?"
Ieiri Shoko relaxed. "How sly. No wonder he said, 'It's not that hard'…"
Still uneasy, Getou Suguru asked, "Satoru, take a look—what's Akiya doing right now? Is he secretly laughing somewhere?"
If their classmate was laughing outside, then they would truly be safe.
Gojo Satoru activated the Six Eyes, searching for Asou Akiya's presence—and found him… reading?
The black-haired boy was sitting alone in the dormitory, a red cord tied around his wrist, deeply absorbed in a book titled Modern Cold-Weapon Assassination Techniques. As he read, his arm occasionally moved, unconsciously mimicking the grip of a weapon. Beside him lay several other books waiting to be read: 101 Techniques for Repairing Family Conflicts, A Female Doctor's Psychological Confession, and more.
"Getou, Akiya's not laughing at all. Wow—he's incredibly focused."
"What exactly is he doing?"
"Reading alone in the dorm. Planning to kill someone? Become a relationship counselor? Or train to be a psychologist?"
"..."
Getou Suguru fell into deep thought. There might be something wrong with the exam paper, but there absolutely could not be something wrong with the person!
The moment Gojo mentioned "psychologist," a chill ran down Ieiri Shoko's spine. From the bottom of her heart, she said, "That's terrifying."
Asou—Tokyo Jujutsu High really owes you a hefty allowance!