Jujutsu Kaisen: Nozomi no Sora

The headache continues.

The man in front of me tilted his head slightly, revealing a prominent suture line around his forehead. He rested his chin on his hand, still wearing a peaceful smile, his already small eyes almost squinting into slits.

"How are you?"

The voice of the man beside the bed pulled him back to reality.

Xuan Yi didn't answer. He looked down at his pale and tender hands, then at Xia Youjie in front of him—no, it should be Lu Suo.

The first thing I saw after transmigrating was this guy.

Putting aside the issue of friend or foe, the very nature of Lu Suo's character made him feel a profound sense of mockery from fate.

Two souls, each possessing another's body and posing as the original owner, are staring at each other in the same space-time. What are they doing, exchanging ideas?

He found it inexplicably funny.

However, unlike Lu Suo's brain swap and body possession, his own soul transmigrating was genuinely that of Nishio Genichi. After all, this world originally did not have a person named "Xu An".

"Nishio-kun"

"exist!"

When I came to my senses, my body had already responded reflexively.

"Hmm, you look much better now." Lu Suo looked at Xuan Yi with a slightly teasing gaze. "Although I'm not good at reversal spells, and Butterfly Dew's healing effect isn't as fast as a reversal spell, it seems there haven't been any lasting side effects!"

A red butterfly shikigami slowly emerged from his raised finger.

"What... technique? Healing?" Xuan Yi was stunned for a moment.

"You can see it, can't you!"

A red butterfly fluttered slowly at Lu Suo's fingertips, the patterns on its wings emitting a dark red glow.

Xuan Yi frowned. After experiencing a series of events that defied common sense, he had become much calmer.

"Spirit Manipulation Technique".

This was Xia Youjie's technique, capable of subduing and controlling countless cursed spirits for his own use. He knew that the red butterfly before him was no ordinary shikigami—it was itself a curse, and if it possessed some special power, it would be similar to a monster from a legend, a kind of imaginary cursed spirit.

In the original owner's memory, on July 17, 2018, which is today, at 7 pm, he had already met the man in front of him once before at the coffee shop where he always worked.

The only difference was that back then, following Lu Suo were three monsters that ordinary people couldn't even see—

A one-eyed monster with a volcano on its head.

A tall, strange man with tree branches growing from his head.

A red octopus with a worm-like lower body.

At the time, Xuan Yi didn't know what those things were, but ever since he could remember, he had been able to see things that others couldn't.

Sometimes it's just a blurry figure standing motionless at the intersection.

Sometimes it appears as a distorted mass of black mist, slowly crawling along the wall.

Sometimes... it's just some indescribable feeling that can send chills down his spine.

When he was a child, if he pointed to thin air and said, "There's someone there," he would be scolded by his parents for saying things like, "Don't say such unlucky things." Later, after his parents died, he lived with his grandmother. Occasionally, when he brought up such things, his grandmother would just look at him with her cloudy eyes and mutter, "Xuanyi, don't talk nonsense."

Later, he grew up.

I've learned to shut up.

I've learned to pretend I don't see it.

I've learned to tell myself it's just an illusion.

I've learned to suppress all my fears.

And today—

The oppressive aura emanating from those three monsters was far more terrifying than anything he had ever encountered before. He was the only one in the entire coffee shop who could see them, and he didn't know what to do. That fear was instinctive, ingrained in his bones, and allowed no hiding whatsoever!

So he fled, long before Louhu went on his killing spree.

At that moment, he was standing on the opposite street and saw people screaming and trying to escape from the store, but the flames seemed to burn directly from their bodies, giving them no chance to survive!

He saw the receptionist who had always looked after them struggle to crawl to the sensor door, but she only managed to shout "Help!" from afar before being completely engulfed by flames...

He squatted on the side of the street, holding his head in his hands, trembling all over.

fear.

Guilt.

despair.

And then there are those things that have always been buried deep in his heart—the memories of being called a "monster" when he was a child, the images of his parents looking at him with strange eyes time and time again, the countless days and nights when he was isolated, bullied, and treated as an outsider at school, the curses, the sighs, and the so-called "hallucinations" that he can never explain to anyone!

Everything, at that moment, pressed down on his chest, choked his heart, shut down his senses, and plunged him into nothingness, toward the abyss of destruction...

The original owner must have died in a car accident.

Xuan Yi thought to himself silently.

Lu Suo was still looking at him with a half-smile. He knew that the mastermind behind this scheme, which had been plotting for a thousand years and had stirred up the entire world of sorcery, was definitely not some kind-hearted person who couldn't bear to see others suffer.

It's a test, isn't it?

Xuan Yi quickly got the answer.

In the original story, the Shibuya Incident occurred on October 31, 2018. Prior to this, Ryouso had already made ample preparations to seal away Gojo Satoru, the strongest sorcerer of his time. The details of sealing Gojo Satoru were discussed this afternoon at the coffee shop with Ruko and the others. At such a crucial juncture, the cautious Ryouso would absolutely not allow any factor that could potentially leak information to exist!

And now, he is that uncertain factor.

So if you don't answer this question well, someone could die.

Xuan Yi pondered quietly, realizing that his options were limited, consisting of nothing more than "visible" and "invisible".

If he chose the first option and forced a denial, it would be difficult to explain why he ran out of the coffee shop beforehand. Besides, since Lu Suo was able to find him, it meant that the other party had already noticed him at that time. What could an ordinary shop assistant possibly have that would be worth the attention of a curse master who had lived for thousands of years?

What attracted his attention was probably a certain physical constitution, or to go even further, it was the cursed power existing in his body!

Just like the older generation says, if you see something unclean, don't look at it directly; pretend you don't see it, otherwise it will notice you too. Similarly, the original owner's magical energy fluctuations should have already been detected by Lu Suo.

This effectively shuts down the first option, as anyone with cursed power within their body can definitely see cursed spirits.

The key is how to let Lu Suo know that although he is not a non-sorcerer, he poses no threat to their plans. Perhaps he should say he believes he didn't hear their conversation—of course, in reality, the original owner truly didn't hear any conspiracy.

However, if you directly say you didn't hear anything, it would seem like you're trying to cover something up. You'd probably still get killed in that situation.

The other party has to deduce the conclusion themselves.

With that in mind, he had already prepared his next words. Compared to the original owner, a bright and innocent high school student of sixteen or seventeen who hadn't yet been hardened by society, he himself was a salesman over thirty-five before he transmigrated!

"Actually... I've always been able to see it."

Xuan Yi's expression darkened. His gaze swept past Lu Suo's cold, open eyes before settling back on Lu Suo's fingertips. "I've seen that black mist many times before."

After he finished speaking, a brief silence fell over the ward.

Lu Suo's expression didn't change much, but his eyes narrowed slightly again, as if he were re-examining the boy in front of him.

Xuan Yi met that gaze, his heart pounding a little faster, but he managed to maintain a calm expression.

All he can do now is gamble.

"Black fog," he thought was a fitting description.

It wasn't a "cursed spirit," nor a "curse," but rather "black mist"—the most natural reaction of someone completely ignorant of the world of sorcery upon first encountering such a thing. Ambiguous, yet undeniably real.

More importantly, he said he had "seen it many times".

This explains why he ran away today.

This also explains why he was able to sense the level of danger posed by those three monsters.

Because he could always see it.

I just don't know what it is.

"...When did it start?"

Lu Suo spoke, his tone still gentle, revealing no emotion.

"It must have been last year, when I first came to Tokyo."

Xuan Yi's voice was very soft, with a hint of deliberate bewilderment.

"The first time was on my way home from school. I saw a dark shadow floating on a street lamp, not moving at all. Later it was a vending machine that had been kicked and broken, and then it was on a big truck... These kinds of things happened more and more often, so I stopped mentioning them..."