Chapter 104 : The Fushiguro-Itadori-Kugisaki Group
"......"
The air was quiet for a moment. The winter-spring wind was slightly cool, becoming warm under the sun's baking, gently brushing across their cheeks.
Gojo Satoru first froze imperceptibly for half a second, then smiled as he released the hand that had been gripping Little Sheep Jiang Lai's shoulder: "Eh? How cunning, that's completely against the rules."
His beautiful blue eyes curved slightly, pure white lashes trembling and fluttering as he smiled.
Unlike the earlier smile that only had an arc without warmth, this time revealed genuine bright emotions.
Like a proud and noble white cat, seemingly pretending to complain while actually quite satisfied, slightly raising its head and lightly swishing its fluffy tail.
"Honest answers don't count as breaking rules," Jiang Lai curved his lips in response. He rubbed one side of his shoulder with one hand, casually complaining, "Speaking of which, Satoru, your grip is too strong. Pay attention to that."
"This was to test whether your bones have grown properly. Growing teenagers can't get rickets~"
"......Spouting nonsense with a straight face, that's so like you."
"Thanks for the compliment!" Gojo Satoru very readily gave a thumbs up, straightened up, and stylishly put his blindfold back on.
He returned to his usual carefree appearance, lightly pushing Jiang Lai forward, "Let's go, let's go back to find Nanami and Yuji."
The two returned together to Nanami Kento's house, this time entering through the front door.
The two people in the house had already finished breakfast. Nanami Kento had put the dishes into the dishwasher and was reading newspapers on the sofa. The one who came to open the door was the energetic Itadori Yuji.
"Oh, so many desserts, thank you Gojo-sensei and Watanabe-kun!" Itadori Yuji received the dessert bag from Little Sheep Jiang Lai with starry eyes, thanking them sincerely. His words also mentioned his classmates' names, "When I return to school, I'll also share some with Fushiguro and Kugisaki."
Little Sheep Jiang Lai changed his shoes in the entryway and noticed that Gojo Satoru behind him had no intention of entering the house.
He turned back somewhat puzzled, only to see Gojo Satoru leaning against the doorframe with a grin:
"I won't go in. I have to leave again soon, I need to rush to arrange some domestic matters first since I have an overseas mission in a couple of days."
"Eh, you're so busy, Gojo-sensei, you've really worked hard!" Itadori Yuji exclaimed with concern.
"Yes, so hard..." Gojo Satoru went along with his student's words, pretending to wipe tears through his blindfold, "If only there were some kind-hearted junior with blonde hair, clip-on glasses, wearing a suit and tie, currently reading newspapers, who would be willing to lend a helping hand."
These descriptors were too obvious. Everyone's gaze instantly focused on Nanami Kento sitting on the sofa. The reliable blonde adult silently looked up.
He really didn't want to speak, but knowing Gojo Satoru's personality all too well, he knew that if he didn't say anything now, the other would definitely say something even more annoying later.
Therefore, he directly stated calmly: "I'm very busy. Please find someone else."
"Eh, I haven't even said what I wanted you to help with yet." Gojo Satoru dragged out his tone, laughing cheerfully.
Under Nanami Kento's expressionless gaze, the white-haired man slightly restrained his previously cheerful expression, his voice becoming somewhat more serious:
"During the time I'm away, I'm leaving the first-year students to you and Haibara. This overseas trip will take some time."
His words didn't explicitly state anything, but for adults who had spent many years navigating society, sometimes meaning could be conveyed without precise explanation.
Nanami Kento's brow furrowed slightly as he heard what lay behind Gojo Satoru's words. At this moment, he also keenly sensed the delicate timing of this overseas mission.
The jujutsu world's higher-ups and Gojo Satoru had always been engaged in covert power struggles, which also involved traces of the Supervisory Committee. Nanami Kento lingered on the periphery but had also keenly detected many insider details.
He wasn't the type to meddle in affairs, but in this situation, as an adult, he still had a responsibility to protect those children.
Nanami Kento was silent for a moment, then put down the newspaper in his hand, rubbed his temples, and replied calmly:
"If there really is something... Haibara and I aren't sure how long we can hold out. If possible, please return as soon as possible."
"Mm, I will." Gojo Satoru nodded in agreement, "Once I finish the overseas business, I'll hurry back."
Itadori Yuji blinked, sensing the atmosphere had become somewhat heavy. After a moment, he raised his hand: "Um... excuse me, what's happening?"
"Very perceptive, Yuji~" Gojo Satoru smiled in response, waving his finger, "Simply put, someone might take advantage of my absence to harm you guys."
"Eh? Why??" Itadori Yuji was greatly shocked, "That's so sudden!"
"That's why I told you not to eat random things." Gojo Satoru patted Itadori Yuji's back near the door, deliberately using a tone for scaring children, "You'll be taken away for dissection."
"......Gojo-sensei, stop scaring people! Speaking of which, is it because of yesterday's weird fragment? I knew that bastard Sukuna always causes trouble."
Itadori Yuji's eyes focused as he clenched his fist, couldn't help but recall being brutally killed in the innate domain last night, deepening his displeasure with Sukuna.
Student Itadori had a very good personality and basically never held grudges, except against certain anti-human bastards.
"Of course, you don't need to be too nervous, it's just speculation." Gojo Satoru said cheerfully, "Actually, having you follow Nanami and Haibara is mainly to let you learn cursed energy usage and mission handling methods."
"Anyway, consider it a practical activity! The supervising teachers for this session are the excellent child-care specialists Nanami and Haibara~"
Nanami Kento said expressionlessly: "I know you won't listen, but I still have to say, please don't randomly assign people strange titles."
"Taking care of one is taking care, taking care of a group is also taking care." Gojo Satoru curved his lips, pointing to Little Sheep Jiang Lai beside him, "Perfect, he can also follow his not-much-older brothers and sisters to learn jujutsu."
The meaning of this sentence was actually to have Little Sheep Jiang Lai act together with Itadori Yuji and the others.
Nominally for training Little Sheep Watanabe Mirai, but actually, this was asking Jiang Lai to secretly watch over the students, which was what they had previously discussed.
"Looking forward to it!" Little Sheep Jiang Lai, wearing his sheep persona, naturally understood this meaning, so he cooperatively raised his hand, blinking his dark eyes with a smile as bright as the sun, "I also want to play games with everyone, have pajama parties, and pillow fights."
"Ooh ooh pajama party! I love it!" Itadori Yuji excitedly responded. Boys this age all enjoyed this kind of lively interactive games with friends.
Gojo Satoru took advantage of this enthusiastic atmosphere to clap: "Perfect, perfect, then it's happily decided~"
The atmosphere around them became lively, only Nanami Kento on the sofa maintained his extremely calm posture, completely out of place with the three people fooling around.
He picked up his newspaper again, feeling that the upcoming days would probably be incredibly chaotic.
Sure enough... being a jujutsu sorcerer is shit!
Nanami Kento once again voiced his earth-shattering famous saying in his heart.
On one side, the brown-haired little boy suddenly bounced to his side, that slightly baby-faced face turning toward him, holding a bag of bread in his hand, smiling as he said:
"This is for you, Nanami-san! I remember seeing you buy this style before, you like it, right?"
Itadori Yuji also stepped forward with a few quick steps, scratching his cheek with his index finger: "Um, we'll be troubling Nanami-san to lead us for a while. If there's anything we can help with, Nanami-san can feel free to ask. Oh, I can make meatball hot pot! Would Nanami-san like to try it?"
Nanami Kento paused for a moment, first reaching out to accept the bread Little Sheep Jiang Lai handed him: "Thank you, I do indeed like this type of bread very much."
Then he answered Itadori Yuji's words: "I can handle cooking, but if you want to cook personally, feel free to do so. I don't often eat meatball hot pot, but I'm looking forward to Itadori-kun's cooking."
Nanami Kento replied to the children with his consistently calm tone. Faced with the boys' smiling faces, his heart felt peaceful, silently thinking:
Perhaps the jujutsu world had always been shit. But probably precisely because there were still these people worth protecting, he would continue to persist in his position as a jujutsu sorcerer.
…
Gojo Satoru left to prepare for his overseas trip. Itadori Yuji took the auxiliary supervisor's car back to the technical college to have Shoko check his physical condition, handle follow-up procedures there, then join Fushiguro and the others to go to Kawasaki City where Nanami Kento and Haibara Yu were currently located.
Little Sheep Jiang Lai shouldered his backpack and returned to Satozakura School, where the incident had been resolved, to attend classes. As he became more familiar with everyone, he had made quite a few friends in his class.
Although his real age wasn't that of a middle schooler, Jiang Lai could still integrate well into the group, playing around with the energetic teenagers.
Yoshino Junpei seemed to have quite a talent for hacking techniques. After reading the materials Little Sheep Jiang Lai sent him and practicing several times, he quickly mastered the basic skills and became increasingly proficient afterward.
After using his electronic skills to get back at those who had bullied him at school in a different way, Yoshino Junpei shouldered his backpack as if he had cast off something heavy.
He walked out of this school that only brought him painful memories and never returned.
Yoshino Junpei's mother, Yoshino Nagi, was a very open-minded mother. When she heard that Yoshino Junpei didn't want to go to school anymore, she didn't force him to return. Instead, she smoked a cigarette and smiled:
"School is just a small fish tank. There are oceans in the world, and other fish tanks too. Just choose the one you like."
Yoshino Junpei began to focus on studying information technology, which he had quite a talent for, at home. During this time, he maintained constant online contact with Little Sheep Jiang Lai.
He would ask about technical problems he didn't understand, and besides that, would also share some creative homemade small games or other interesting things with Little Sheep Jiang Lai.
Yoshino Junpei's daily personality remained relatively introverted, rarely expressing emotions directly, but he would very carefully remember details from his recent chats with Little Sheep Jiang Lai and give back some shy care.
It had been a week since Itadori Yuji returned to school. Counting the days, they should be coming soon? The manga also had previews of their upcoming departure.
At this moment, Little Sheep Jiang Lai, who had already finished school, was looking at his phone on the sofa.
The recent updates of the new Jujutsu Kaisen manga series focused on Gojo Satoru going abroad and Itadori Yuji returning to school.
Because the manga's previous fragmented descriptions hadn't revealed that Jiang Lai had his memories or about the Little Sheep persona, this update related to Gojo Satoru was also misunderstanding-oriented fragments.
It didn't show the complete conversation between Little Sheep and Gojo Satoru, only releasing one scene:
Gojo Satoru leaning back in his dessert shop chair, his black blindfold perfectly concealing half his face's expression. He tilted his head slightly, appearing somewhat wordlessly forlorn in the light and shadow, with white text floating beside him:
[I... seem to have had a very long, hazy dream.]
Naturally, after this scene was updated, the effect in the forums was quite explosive. In the Chinese forum section Jiang Lai was reading, netizens began wailing and crying:
【Ahhhhh how can this be! I'm devastated, I really wuwu, no, I can't stand this kind of plot where they're both still alive but it's like separation】
【The knife is coming, the knife is coming! I knew it wuwu, past and present life memories are meant to kill me QAQ】
【Gojo kitty finally vaguely remembers something, but the person he could communicate with is no longer there... Reincarnation flowing for a thousand years, separated again by coincidental mishaps under the starry sky】
【I'm coughing up blood qaq!! Can't they have a happy ending? Is this Jujutsu Kaisen tradition wuwu, jjxx please give us some normal content】
【Speaking of which, might Gojo Satoru think that God Lai got acquainted with him because of their past connection?
Although Gojo Satoru isn't the brooding type, with the strongest mentality, even if his soul remained unchanged through a thousand years, he might still have competitive thoughts about friendship, right?
Unfortunately, even if he wanted to ask for clarity, the current person can't give any answer (sad)】
They guessed quite accurately. Jiang Lai thought cheerfully. But in fact, Gojo Satoru had already asked him, and he had given the honest answer that was also the best response.
He rubbed his phone, his ears keenly catching movement at the door—someone seemed to be coming.
The next second, the doorbell rang, accompanied by a familiar young voice. Itadori Yuji said from outside: "Excuse the intrusion, I'm Itadori. Also Fushiguro and Kugisaki~"
Itadori Yuji and the others came in an auxiliary supervisor's car.
However, Nanami Kento and Haibara Yu, who were supposed to coordinate the meeting, happened to have a temporary mission today and probably wouldn't return until evening.
But since Little Sheep Jiang Lai was still at home, they could come directly to Nanami Kento's house.
"Coming!" Little Sheep Jiang Lai bounced up from the sofa, pattering over in slippers to open the door.
At the door were a pink-haired boy, a sea urchin-haired boy, and an orange-haired girl, the three of them grouped together.
Itadori Yuji was first to greet: "Hello, Watanabe! We meet again—these are my classmates, this is Fushiguro Megumi, and this is Kugisaki Nobara."
"Hello everyone." Little Sheep Jiang Lai smiled brightly, "Come in quickly! There are snacks inside~"
"Hello." Kugisaki Nobara responded first, her expression bright and her manner straightforward. She patted her chest: "We'll be imposing for this period. If you have any questions about jujutsu, feel free to ask us seniors! Right, Fushiguro?"
"......"
There was no immediate response from the side. Kugisaki Nobara raised her elbow to poke the sea urchin-haired boy: "Hey hey, your turn!"
"Fushiguro?" Itadori Yuji also opened his eyes slightly, looking at his friend.
"......Hmm? Sorry, I was accidentally distracted just now." Fushiguro Megumi finally came back to his senses. His expression was his usual indifferent look, with a slightly apologetic tone: "I'm Fushiguro Megumi, nice to meet you. If you have questions later, you can also ask me."
"What's wrong with you? You've been absent-minded all day." Kugisaki Nobara couldn't help but ask another question, curiously and concernedly: "Your mental state isn't good. Are you alright?"
"......I'm fine." Fushiguro Megumi answered.
After hesitating for half a second, he continued: "It's just that last night—I seemed to have had a rather long dream. So after waking up, I've been a bit hazy."
Hearing the key words, Little Sheep Jiang Lai's heart skipped a beat. He imperceptibly lifted his eyes to glance at Fushiguro Megumi, silently thinking:
A very long dream... is it about the story from a thousand years ago? Just not sure how much he remembers.
If there's an opportunity for the main body to appear during this period, maybe I can use the main body's appearance before them to simply gauge how much he's remembered.