Chapter 65 : Jiang Lai - ...Do I know Sukuna
That sentence from Jiang Lai seemed like a joke, but actually contained a few parts seriousness.
After all, he planned to approach from both human and cursed spirit sides, and on the human side, money would inevitably be a key necessity in the process of making connections.
Gojo Satoru himself was very wealthy, but Jiang Lai planned to earn it himself if he could, not troubling his good friend too much.
On one hand, Jiang Lai himself wasn't the type to ask for handouts and preferred to solve his own problems himself.
On the other hand, it was because when Gojo Satoru swiped cards to spend money, whether it was his own or the Gojo family's, there was a chance the Gojo family would know about some of it. This kind of money flow always carried some small risks.
As for later, whether to actually scam money from the Zenin family's rainbow pig... Jiang Lai rubbed his chin.
Honestly, he had no moral burden about swindling money from the feudal Zenin family, especially from that scumbag Naoya.
But he hadn't thought of the specifics yet. He'd see when the time came!
Nanami Kento seemed to take Little Sheep Jiang Lai's comment as a joke, focusing his attention on another aspect: "You've had contact with the Zenin family?"
"While playing games, I got matched with an unfriendly teammate." Little Sheep Jiang Lai winked playfully. "I wanted to see who was on the other side, so I used a little technical skill to check their location and found they were at the Zenin family in Kyoto. Through that arrogant tone, I blindly guessed it was a spoiled heir."
The Zenin family's location wasn't a secret. Hearing this, Nanami Kento nodded to show he understood.
He didn't interfere with Little Sheep Jiang Lai's friendships, only giving a light reminder: "Not everyone in the Big Three Families are good people."
Regarding the "little technical skill" mentioned in the brown-haired boy's words, he didn't express any doubt.
Because during this time, Jiang Lai had intentionally and unintentionally shown that he was studying this technology in daily life and making rapid progress, having already laid the groundwork.
Little Sheep Jiang Lai blinked his eyes and nodded in reply: "Don't worry, I won't let anyone bully me."
This statement was interesting. Nanami Kento raised his eyes slightly to glance over. It wasn't "won't provoke anyone" but "won't be bullied by anyone."
From this point, it did have some shadow of Gojo Satoru's usual casual and carefree attitude.
It couldn't be the influence of Gojo Satoru taking Watanabe around those first few days, could it? Sure enough, exemplary education for adolescent boys was very important. Nanami Kento thought expressionlessly.
Beside them, Itadori Yuji was still interacting enthusiastically with Hiroki Kyubey. He had a lively and friendly personality and got along well with both people and animals.
Nanami Kento simply organized his things and said to Itadori Yuji: "Let's go take a look at the scene."
"Okay!" Itadori Yuji stopped his interaction and bounced up energetically.
Little Sheep Jiang Lai raised his hand: "I want to go too!"
"You can't go." Nanami Kento replied calmly. "Awakening a technique doesn't mean you can use it skillfully. You still have a very wide space for learning."
"Actually, I'm the talented type. Although I awakened late, once I awakened, I became very skilled~"
"Investigating the scene is also a risky matter. If there's an accident, we won't have time to protect you." Nanami Kento said. "Please don't give us another task to worry about."
"Actually, you don't need to protect me..." The brown-haired boy pouted, but still nodded. "Okay then, you guys go. I'll stay home and do homework."
After the two left the house, Jiang Lai hugged Hiroki Kyubey and organized his thoughts.
Actually, he wasn't surprised by this result. Even if he had awakened a technique, Nanami Kento wouldn't rashly bring along a middle school kid to a dangerous scene.
Briefly recalling the recent events, thoughts crossed Jiang Lai's mind.
Those cursed spirits didn't seem like they were born locally at Satozakura High School, but rather seemed to be attracted there. If so, there must be something unusual inside Satozakura School.
Speculation one: Sukuna's finger.
This special grade cursed object in the original work was indeed something that attracted large numbers of cursed spirits. However, if it really was Sukuna's finger, then who had recently placed it at Satozakura High School, and what was their purpose?
An ordinary middle school shouldn't be worth such a big fuss to place a finger there.
There was another possibility: this finger was originally there but had been sealed. Recently the seal had loosened, thus attracting cursed spirits.
Jiang Lai rubbed his chin, feeling this speculation had some possibility.
Besides that, speculation two was that there were other things there that weren't fingers or other special grade cursed objects.
Apart from special grade cursed objects attracting cursed spirits, in the new series, things related to damaged [Existence] also seemed to attract cursed spirits. Jiang Lai pondered. Could it be because of himself?
No. He immediately denied this thought. Phone-kun's disguise switching was very complete, the Little Sheep disguise was a genuine ordinary young jujutsu sorcerer.
Therefore, it couldn't be his current self's damaged divine nature leaking and attracting cursed spirits.
Then, was it fragments of other [Existence]'s damaged divine nature? Jiang Lai speculated through deduction.
But this returned to the original question: why was it only recently sensed by cursed spirits, when it had been calm before?
With thoughts flowing through his mind, Jiang Lai temporarily kept this question in his heart, planning to conduct further deduction after gathering more intelligence.
At this moment, he refocused his attention on the newly awakened technique and Kyubey Hiroki.
Hiroki was a thoughtful person. He had just noticed that Jiang Lai was thinking, so he didn't interrupt, quietly lying on Jiang Lai's lap, warm like a small furnace.
Now, when Jiang Lai emerged from his contemplation, he raised a smile, his pointed ears twitching: "Jiang Lai, I really didn't expect to meet like this."
Hiroki could naturally observe that this wasn't his world, but another world.
"Yes, I was surprised too. But just call me Mirai now." Jiang Lai said. "Your current situation is..."
"Over there, it's the same as when you left. I'm now traversing through the vast networks, especially free, and I've made quite a few online friends." Kyubey Hiroki looked very happy, his fluffy tail swaying lightly. "The charity foundation we set up together is also proceeding in an orderly manner."
Hearing this news, Jiang Lai was also very happy. His eyes crinkled with smiles.
Then, Kyubey Hiroki continued: "Just now, I was playing this game when I suddenly sensed some kind of summoning. Because I found it novel, I responded, and then I came to your side."
This sprite adventure game also existed in the Detective Conan world. After the organization's destruction, Jiang Lai had even played a few rounds with his friends.
Because of this, after coming to the jujutsu world and discovering this game existed here too, he enthusiastically downloaded it.
Speaking of which, since Hiroki could come here, other Detective Conan friends wouldn't also be able to appear in summoned beast mode, would they? Jiang Lai thought jokingly in his mind. Or, if Detective Conan friends could provide remote assistance, that would be good too.
Kyubey Hiroki blinked his vertically oval eyes, tilting his head slightly: "Can you still contact our side now?"
"Yes, I can." Jiang Lai nodded. "I've been in constant contact with Matsuda and the others."
Mentioning this, Jiang Lai took out his phone again, planning to tell his Detective Conan friends about his current technique situation.
Just then, he noticed a new email from Morofushi Hiromitsu.
Jiang Lai focused his gaze and saw the information about Furuya Rei's return mentioned inside.
Furuya Rei had indeed been on a secret mission during that period. He had recently completed it successfully and returned. After submitting his materials, he had a small gathering with Matsuda and Hiromitsu. At the time, Hagiwara Kenji happened to be visiting his sister in his hometown, so he wasn't in Tokyo.
At the gathering, Morofushi Hiromitsu told Furuya Rei about Jiang Lai's transmigration to the jujutsu world.
This matter had manga and chat records as evidence, so it was clearly not a joke.
Furuya Rei was first somewhat surprised, then he raised a smile. After caring about Jiang Lai's current situation, he also brought up Little Sheep.
He said he had recently happened to see a manga cover at a convenience store and felt that brown-haired boy looked somewhat familiar. Now it seemed that if transmigration through time and space really existed, perhaps that person had also been reincarnated in another world.
Bringing this up, Matsuda Jinpei rubbed the rim of his cup with his fingertip, coughed, and said:
"Cough cough, Furuya, well, since you believe in transmigration through time and space, do you believe in resurrection from the dead and creation from nothing?"
Furuya Rei: "?"
Matsuda Jinpei and Morofushi Hiromitsu both knew about Little Sheep being Jiang Lai's disguise.
It's just that this layer of disguise wasn't convenient to explain, so they had always helped keep it secret. Including in the family group that Hagiwara had joined, they didn't mention this and only chatted with Jiang Lai privately.
Because at the time, the world consciousness had created many criminal records out of nothing for Little Sheep's disguise to complete the organization undercover setting. These weren't things Jiang Lai himself had done, but this kind of creation from nothing was impossible to explain.
If they wanted to reveal someone's disguise to others, that person would first have to truly believe in the existence of these unscientific events. That's why Matsuda Jinpei asked this.
Hearing Matsuda Jinpei's question, Furuya Rei was stunned for a moment, then smiled again:
"This question isn't about whether I would believe it, but whether I can believe it. My answer is, I cannot believe it."
This statement had some deep meaning, and Matsuda Jinpei didn't react immediately.
Morofushi Hiromitsu beside him raised his blue eyes, able to vaguely understand his childhood friend's meaning.
"I am public security." Furuya Rei's smile remained unchanged as he replied softly.
As someone who crawled and rolled in darkness, he could accept beautiful fantasies about other worlds, but couldn't truly believe that [resurrection from the dead] and [creation from nothing] existed in the world.
Otherwise, when facing criminal organizations next time, he would be unconsciously interfered with by these things in his judgment.
Therefore, he couldn't believe it.
Then, Furuya Rei said again: "Watanabe is a good boy and contributed to repelling the organization's subsequent advances. But undeniably, in the official materials about him, there are indeed gray and black transactions."
"If he hadn't sacrificed himself, I would have looked after him in the future, but wouldn't have covered for him. Merit and fault would both be handled according to procedure."
The table was quiet for a few seconds.
Then, Furuya Rei raised his cup: "But these hypotheticals don't have much meaning anymore. The dead cannot be resurrected. Watanabe-kun is a good child. If he can go to school in another world, that can be considered fulfilling his dream. This is already a very good ending."
He smiled with curved lips.
Yes, this was already a very good ending.
Matsuda Jinpei and Morofushi Hiromitsu also raised their cups. They toasted and drank together, all putting this matter to rest.
There was no need to reveal all the truth completely, and no need to know whether it was really a disguise or not. As long as there was a beautiful ending, that was enough.
The current ending was one where everyone was happy. There was no need to dig deeper into anything.
Furuya Rei's attention to Little Sheep was partly due to their past friendship, and another part was that the other person was also a shadow of the countless sacrificers during his undercover journey.
Placing beautiful hopes on Little Sheep was also silently commemorating those sacrificers, hoping that those people could similarly have a new future of reincarnation in another world.
The tombstones on their bodies were too heavy. They always needed some hope and some sustenance to continue moving forward.
Seeing this, Jiang Lai's brow also relaxed.
The Little Sheep disguise ultimately didn't fall through, and it seemed it didn't need to fall through either. The ending was beautiful and the hope was vast, so there was no need to investigate the details deeply.
At the end of the email, Morofushi Hiromitsu wrote with apparent laughter in his words:
[Zero also asked me to help keep an eye out for Little Sheep related merchandise. It looks like he's also joined the otaku circle. Matsuda says he wants to compete with Zero in a single-character fan contest. Hmm, I'll bet on Zero for this competition first.]
Laughter bloomed in Jiang Lai's eyes. He tapped the keyboard, replying to inform them of his current situation, especially about the game technique.
Morofushi Hiromitsu's next email reply came quickly:
[So it's this one? No wonder this game said before that it would collaborate with the official Jujutsu Kaisen manga later. I thought this game was going to have character skins from Jujutsu Kaisen, but it turns out the Jujutsu Kaisen manga drew this game into it.]
[#Morofushi Hiromitsu#: We have this game on both our side and the Jujutsu Kaisen world, but logically the accounts on both sides shouldn't be interconnected, right? However, we could also try in our spare time to see if we can log in across worlds.]
Mentioning this, Jiang Lai thought of Hiroki who had been transmitted over. He didn't know if his Detective Conan friends could also connect with the Jujutsu Kaisen side through the game.
It was worth a try.
After chatting briefly with Morofushi Hiromitsu for another sentence or two, Jiang Lai exited his phone's email and saw a manga update notification.
He quickly clicked in.
After rapidly flipping through the pages, Jiang Lai's gaze deeply focused on the last scene of the new manga chapter.
The final plot was placed on Itadori Yuji and Nanami Kento, who had recently gone to investigate the scene.
In the manga, neither Nanami Kento nor Itadori Yuji found traces of fingers. Obviously, their initial speculation was also that there was a Sukuna finger there. They just didn't gain anything.
After the two searched, Sukuna opened his eyes on Itadori Yuji's cheek and said: "Foolish brat, you can't sense it and won't find anything. You might as well let me have the body..."
Itadori Yuji didn't fall for Sukuna's trick at all. Having spent so much time together, he naturally knew what kind of character Sukuna was.
His expression was cold: "I'd ask anyone before asking you."
Sukuna laughed loudly, and after a few seconds, he spoke again leisurely: "Then you can continue wandering around like headless flies, or... you could look for that guy you encountered long ago."
"Who?" Itadori Yuji was somewhat surprised by this sentence from Sukuna, who almost never mentioned other people.
And he didn't believe Sukuna would really give kind reminders.
"The guy who helped you up last winter." Sukuna laughed loudly again, meaning unclear. "A bleeding heart, isn't he?"
Seeing this, Jiang Lai frowned slightly. He knew the other person was probably referring to his original self, but wasn't clear why the other person would bring himself up.
...Did they know each other?