Chapter 129 : Memories and Communication from a Thousand Years Ago
Little Sheep Jiang Lai ultimately didn't choose that room, since it was registered with the administrator as a shared "storage room" belonging to Gojo, Geto, and Ieiri.
His current Little Sheep identity had no strong reason to insist on moving in. The spoiled willfulness of his youthful shell wasn't suitable to use here.
Therefore, he nodded obediently: "Alright, then I'll switch to another one."
Jiang Lai didn't show more interest in that room, concealing his emotions well.
Only when leaving did he let his gaze fall on that door for an instant from afar.
The dormitory doors at the high school were uniformly manufactured and installed, essentially no different from each other, but Jiang Lai noticed that beside the door handle of his room, there was a very small round cake sticker.
After years had passed, the sticker had yellowed and whitened, its edges slightly curling up.
But it seemed someone had deliberately smoothed it down, using transparent tape to stubbornly stick it there again, not letting the drafts carry it away.
Seeing this detail, Jiang Lai was slightly stunned.
After searching through his memories, he recalled a scene from the past related to that cake sticker.
Back during their high school days, Gojo Satoru, the ultimate sweet tooth enthusiast, had bought an exquisite little cake that came with a page of childish-style small stickers.
After finishing the little cake, Gojo Satoru picked up that page of stickers, grinning as he peeled off those childish cake stickers and stuck them beside his friends' door handles.
Gojo Satoru claimed he was enthusiastically helping his friends decorate their doors, then got teased by Geto Suguru who said it was "more like marking territory in preparation for midnight assassination."
At the time, Jiang Lai had smiled with curved eyes, thinking Gojo Satoru definitely wouldn't come to assassinate anyone, but he might sneak over to pull pranks.
No one had cared about these small details back then, but after the past had drifted away like smoke, all the insignificant little things, like pebbles, had been polished to a brilliant shine by the river of time.
Jiang Lai finally took one last distant look at that little cake sticker, then withdrew his gaze and caught up with Nanami Kento's pace.
Nanami Kento, who cared silently, didn't say anything but actually kept Little Sheep Jiang Lai's words in mind. He ultimately led Jiang Lai to find another room with similar structure and scenery to that "storage room," letting Little Sheep Jiang Lai move in.
Coincidentally, this room was right next to Itadori Yuji and the others. Their dormitories were close together, making it convenient for them to visit each other.
"You'll live here during this time. After putting down your personal items, I'll take you to the classroom."
Nanami Kento lowered his eyes, his gaze calm but mixed with adult gentleness, "If you have any problems, you can find me, though I may not always be at school. During other times, you can find the students around you, teachers, or management staff."
"Don't worry, I'm already a big kid!" Jiang Lai, wearing his middle school first-year shell, confidently patted his chest and said, "Besides the homework left by school, nothing can trouble me."
Nanami Kento: "You must do your homework properly too."
He pushed his nose bridge glasses, ruthlessly pointing out the facts, "Actually, besides your school homework, studying at Jujutsu High will also have various tests and exercises. Please make sure to complete them seriously."
As if able to see his future mountain of homework, Little Sheep Jiang Lai drooped his shoulders like frost-beaten eggplant and pouted: "...Yes, definitely."
"However," Nanami Kento added, "besides basic rules, you're quite free here. Please feel free to do whatever you want to do, since it's still vacation time after all."
"Oh, hooray!"
Thus, Little Sheep Jiang Lai settled down at Tokyo Jujutsu High.
During the day, he would go to the classroom with Itadori Yuji and the others to study, listening to the responsible theoretical course teachers lecture on various liberal arts and sciences knowledge that high schoolers should learn, as well as jujutsu-related content.
Most of the high school liberal arts and sciences knowledge was the same as outside high schools, except for history class.
The history studied at Tokyo Jujutsu High was jujutsu world history.
Little Sheep Jiang Lai flipped through the history book in his hands, his gaze focusing on the history from the Heian-kyo a thousand years ago.
The textbook didn't describe every detail of any particular era from beginning to end, probably because it was impossible to describe everything anyway.
Each era was just a brief glimpse. The textbook excerpted a few famous major events to represent those long years.
The renowned Heian-kyo when jujutsu flourished was only a few pages of content in the history textbook.
Little Sheep Jiang Lai looked over this section several times. Most of the content consisted of very general summary statements, plus various noble jujutsu sorcerer policies from that time that he didn't understand.
It mentioned the Big Three Families, mentioned the King of Curses Ryomen Sukuna, and the miraculous meteor shower in the prosperous Heian capital a thousand years ago.
The traces he had left from wandering the human world and burning his divine status a thousand years ago were recorded in the history book as just a few lines of text.
History was both sentimental and ruthless. While eternally recording humanity's forward steps, it also condensed countless magnificent lives into brief words.
That miraculous meteor shower in Heian capital wasn't specifically attributed to anyone in the history book. It only said a black-haired figure had stood there, with mist seeming to cover their face.
Jiang Lai wasn't surprised by this. He knew that a thousand years ago, except for those who knew and befriended him, others had only heard fragments.
The Kenjaku of the Heian-kyo had never truly seen him, not even having an impression of his figure, so by modern times, he still couldn't find him.
Of course, another reason he couldn't be found was that the Supervisory Committee believed that meteor shower had exhausted his power, so he had already become some kind of derivative item, the [Clock].
After the second playthrough restart, he no longer appeared beside Gojo Satoru at every key moment like in the first playthrough.
So the Supervisory Committee currently probably wouldn't lock onto him as quickly as in the first playthrough.
However, hiding and dodging wasn't a permanent solution. Jiang Lai thought. After preparing sufficiently and when the timing was right, he would need to take the initiative and explore further.
When learning about the Heian section, Fushiguro Megumi's expression looked somewhat dazed. Beside him, Kugisaki Nobara also held her book, not turning the page for a long time.
Itadori Yuji had no specific memories from a thousand years ago, but inexplicable sixth sense intuition made his mood also slightly drop. The pen spinning in his hand stopped and fell on the book page, spreading a stain.
Next, the few students who were spacing out were startled by the teacher's loud "bang" on the desk!
There were only the four of them in the classroom, so their spacing out was extremely obvious. The teacher giving them history class immediately noticed.
The teacher at the podium coughed and frowned: "Everyone, although you might think learning jujutsu world history is useless, please continue listening attentively and respect my teaching."
"Ah, no, we don't think it's useless." Itadori Yuji instinctively shook his head in response, then felt this sudden statement had interrupted the teacher, so he didn't continue explaining and hastily added a closing line, "It's just... reading this section of history felt somewhat sad, so I spaced out a bit."
"Sad?" The teacher of jujutsu world history raised his eyebrows and smiled. His face was kindly, "It seems you have good empathy and compassion. But why would you be sad? The Heian-kyo was our golden age."
"Not quite sure why," Itadori Yuji scratched the back of his head, following his instincts, "It seemed like I felt sad when seeing the falling stars mentioned in the book. My grandpa once told me that falling stars are the sky's tears mourning someone. I think with so many stars falling, someone must have been very heartbroken."
These words were simple and sincere. The history teacher's wrinkles showed some smile: "Itadori's perspective is quite unique."
He treated the student's words as youthful fantasies typical of this age, so he quickly moved past this topic, tapping the blackboard: "Alright, chitchat ends here. Let's continue class."
When this class ended and it was dismissal time, Fushiguro Megumi didn't get up immediately. He sat in his seat with hands crossed, thinking for a moment, then turned to Itadori Yuji and Kugisaki Nobara:
"Wait a moment."
Little Sheep Jiang Lai, who was packing his backpack, also instinctively stopped and looked over with his dark eyes.
Fushiguro Megumi faced the brown-haired boy, his expression showing some hesitation, then after a pause, he said:
"Please have Watanabe stay too, but you can leave if you want, because what we're about to discuss... might be somewhat dangerous, and your age isn't quite suitable."
Hearing the word "dangerous," Little Sheep Jiang Lai perked up.
He certainly couldn't leave just like that, especially since he had promised the overseas Gojo Satoru to help look after the students when he had time.
Now that the few of them seemed to be planning something secretively, he had to keep watch just in case.
So he stuffed his backpack back into his desk and sat back down after just getting up, showing starry eyes:
"I'm ready! Don't hide this kind of thing from me, I want to participate too~ Don't worry, I've always been very lucky and play jujutsu quite well. I won't get hurt and can definitely protect myself."
He made good use of his current shell's advantages, showing trustworthy youthful spirit while acting slightly spoiled.
Fushiguro Megumi paused, then finally sighed: "Alright, let's do it together then. Actually, we might indeed need your help."
Seeing Fushiguro Megumi's rare stance, Itadori Yuji and Kugisaki Nobara looked over seriously, preparing to hear what their classmate would say next.
However, Fushiguro Megumi wasn't in a hurry to speak. He first summoned his Divine Dogs to briefly survey the surroundings, and only after confirming only the few of them were there did he speak:
"Actually, regarding finding the real enemy that we mentioned before, we need to explore together. But before that, I have something else I want to say."
Fushiguro Megumi crossed his hands together, his words heavy. His blue-green eyes glanced at Itadori Yuji and Little Sheep Jiang Lai, "I have fairly clear memories from a thousand years ago."
Hearing Fushiguro Megumi's words, Itadori Yuji hadn't reacted yet. He widened his eyes: "...Huh? Eh! What thousand years ago??"
Little Sheep Jiang Lai already knew about this, but still cooperatively showed surprised expression on his face.
"I mean, reincarnation and such. I now remember things from a thousand years ago." Beside them, Kugisaki Nobara propped her elbow on the desk with one arm, sitting casually, "This young lady has them too."
"Really?!" Itadori Yuji leaned back tactically, pausing for a moment before words spilled out, "This is, this is... this is so cool!"
His eyes sparkled with sincere excitement and curiosity. Itadori Yuji didn't feel afraid or repulsed by this, but instead leaned toward his friends with great interest, waiting for their next words.
Fushiguro Megumi continued: "The key point I want to make is this. Just a few days ago, my memories became clearer. I remembered that when I was head of the Zenin family a thousand years ago, I received a cursed tool called [Split and Merge]."
"[Split and Merge]?"
"This cursed tool's function is to [separate] or [combine] all things, but I seem to only have half of this cursed tool." Fushiguro Megumi said, "Regardless, this item is very important... I think it might allow you and Sukuna to separate in the future, Itadori."
Itadori Yuji's expression froze. He hesitated: "But if that happens, wouldn't Sukuna come out to kill people again? Better keep him locked in my body."
"Finding a way to separate is good. We can deal with other matters then. There will always be solutions! Why must you two be bound together and die together in the future?"
Kugisaki Nobara raised her eyebrows high as she spoke, then turned to Fushiguro Megumi, "So where is this item now?"
"The Zenin family." Fushiguro Megumi said, "When I was family head, I sealed half of this cursed tool in the Zenin family head's private compartment. Actually, unless someone uses the unsealing charm I set up or the current family head's inherited token, no one else can open the compartment."
"So to get this, we need to find a way to get to the Zenin family, or have someone there?"
Kugisaki Nobara placed one hand on her chin, starting to think, "How about taking a mission there... But their family seems to have always been very closed off. Without connections, we can't get in, and I don't know anyone there either."
Hearing this, Little Sheep Jiang Lai understood what Fushiguro Megumi meant earlier by "might need to trouble you too."
He blinked and said: "Oh, I know someone. My internet friend is Zenin Naoya, son of the Zenin family head, right?"
Raising pigs for a thousand days, slaughtering pigs in one moment (not really)!
It was time to deploy Little Sheep's deception techniques (?)