Chapter 201: The Sword of Red Stitch
Ren walked back to his dorm room, his steps slow but steady. The day had been long—longer than usual. The weight of Gojo's warning from that morning still lingered in the back of his mind like a shadow he couldn't shake off. Every corner he turned, he found himself glancing behind him, checking the hallways and doorways more times than he could count. Four times, to be exact—each time convincing himself it was just paranoia.
Training had been normal. Panda cracking jokes, Inumaki throwing in random "Salmon" and "Bonito Flakes," and Maki, as usual, brutal and focused, taking every spar way too seriously. To anyone else, it was an ordinary day. But for Ren, even the ordinary felt strange now. Every familiar moment had a weight to it. He couldn't stop thinking about Gojo's words, that casual tone masking a threat he couldn't quite define.
Still, the unease didn't drown his excitement. As soon as Ren entered his dorm, a wide grin appeared on his face. He dropped his bag, stretched his arms, and spoke to himself with unrestrained energy.
"I am hyped! Tonight is the night! I will finally complete the sword part of Red Stitch, and then all that will be left is to do everything!"
He let out a small laugh and shook his hands loose before pulling a brand-new notebook from his desk drawer. He flipped it open to a clean page, the crisp sound echoing in the quiet room. His handwriting filled the page quickly—notes, sketches, and fragmented theories written in sharp, messy lines.
"Ugh," Ren muttered, "the number of books I've sacrificed while theorizing is actually insane. I could build a house with these notebooks."
He tapped the pen on the paper, his eyes narrowing in focus. "Back to the topic… what should the sword be? It needs to be the polar opposite of a spider—pure offense. A weapon that embodies destruction."
Ren leaned forward, his hair falling slightly over his eyes. "Ok, let's be simple. What about an actual sword? Yeah, what if Red Stitch turns into a different shape, turning into a sword? Hmm, it would be like controlling flying swords, which sounds fun but not practical…"
He wrote fast, jotting ideas and striking them through one after another.
"What if I turned the Red Stitch into something that absorbs heat?" he murmured as his pen scratched across the page. "Then I can just wrap the stitch around someone fast, and their body temperature will drop to dangerous levels. Before they even know it, their blood freezes solid…" He stopped mid-thought, staring at the page before shaking his head. "Good idea, but it's too complicated to do this with Red Stitch."
He scribbled in the margin—Good idea, but not for Red Stitch.
Ren turned the page and kept going. The candlelight flickered on his desk as the pile of papers grew. Each idea was a step closer to something he couldn't quite grasp yet.
"What if I could use my own blood to link up with Red Stitch, making a blood weapon or anything with my blood?" Ren muttered. "Hmm… Blood Stitch… that's possible. Plus, I have the understanding of blood manipulation. I could make this optimal. It'd be fast and strong." He paused, leaning back slightly, his tone turning low. "The only problem or setback being it'll need my own blood… Ugh, no, can't be playing with my life so easily. Still, a good idea."
He drew a clean line through the words, but he didn't erase them. They might come in handy later.
Hours passed like minutes. The night deepened, stars visible through the narrow dorm window. Ren's desk was covered in scattered notes and pages. Empty coffee mugs stood beside him like exhausted soldiers. His hands were still moving, his pen scratching rhythmically against the paper.
"Ugh, no," Ren muttered again, tossing his pen down and rubbing his eyes. "All of these ideas are good, but none are perfect or as strong as I want. I want something that'll truly make my Red Stitch dangerous. Something different and unique…"
A faint sound made him stop mid-thought.
From the shadow beneath his desk, a small ripple of cursed energy appeared, and from it, Kai 2 floated out—his round, fishlike body bobbing lazily in the air.
Ren sighed instantly. "Oi, freak, I told you not to come out of my shadow, right? We're in Jujutsu High, you know? This is literally a place where curses like you are destroyed. Ugh…"
Kai 2 blinked with its small, beady eyes and wagged its fin-like tail. Then it floated up and nuzzled against Ren's hand like a dog seeking attention.
Ren rolled his eyes, but a small smile broke through his exhaustion. He picked up the small fish carcass with both hands, holding it up to eye level. Kai blinked, confused but happy.
"You were safe in my shadow because no one can sense you in there," Ren explained, his tone half-annoyed, half-amused. "You were basically invisible… invisible to everyone. Huh… curses normally are invisible—that's why it's so hard for humans to deal with them."
He froze mid-sentence. His smile slowly widened.
"Wait a second… How could I not have thought about this before?" His tone shifted, eyes lighting up with realization. "Ha, looks like I have to go back to the person I based my Red Stitch improvement on in the first place."
Ren threw Kai 2 on the bed, the fish curse casually floating. "Thank you, freak. You gave me a good idea. Now float away."
Kai 2 tilted its head as if proud, wagging its tail once before curling into a small ball and settling beside the pillow.
Ren, meanwhile, was already flipping to a new page. His pen moved like a blade as he wrote two words in bold across the paper—Ryomen Sukuna.
He leaned back in his chair, a smirk spreading across his face. "Yup. Sukuna is how I'm improving my Red Stitch. Splitting my cursed technique into two—it's the same idea I got from him. His cursed technique also has two parts… That's it. That's the key!"
Ren tapped the pen on the table and muttered under his breath. "Gojo's Limitless has two aspects too… I've been trying to imitate their cursed techniques, obviously, since those two are the strongest… But well, it's hard to imitate them. But my whole thing isn't imitation, is it?"
Ren had a smile on his face as he spoke...
"My whole thing is copying. So why don't I just copy how Sukuna's cursed technique works?"
Ren's laughter echoed through the empty dorm as he finally felt the rush of clarity hit him like lightning.
He leaned back, hand over his mouth, eyes wild with thought and excitement.
"I got it," he whispered. "Finally… I got it."