When a curse takes your memories, you don't forget. You just stop being the person who remembered."
---
Tokyo Jujutsu High — Two Days Later
The sky over campus was clear for once.
Students wandered the outer courtyard. Some sparred under the cherry blossom trees. Others napped on the stairs or argued over meal rations. It was calm.
Almost too calm.
---
Sora sat alone under a stone archway, his back to the wall, knees bent, fingers tapping against his thigh.
He hadn't slept since the shrine.
Every time he closed his eyes, that place returned—the dolls, the whispers, the masked figure offering memory like a gift wrapped in teeth.
The mark still burned in his mind.
> 空滅 — Void Erasure
Who gave him that name? And why did it feel like his?
---
"Hey."
The voice barely registered before a soft thump landed beside him. A can of melon soda rolled across the stone toward his foot.
The girl plopped down beside him. Same blindfold, same gum, same complete disregard for personal space.
"I stole this from Panda. You're welcome."
Sora gave a slight nod. "Thanks."
Rei Tamakiri leaned her head back against the wall, watching the clouds—somehow—through a blindfold.
"So, we gonna talk about the shrine? Or just pretend it didn't almost eat your brain?"
Sora didn't respond immediately.
Then: "It showed me something. Something from before."
"Before what?"
"I don't know."
He looked down at his fingers.
"They felt like mine."
---
She didn't push. That surprised him.
Instead, she cracked open her own soda and whispered, "That thing in the shrine… it recognized you. Like it worshiped you."
Sora nodded.
Rei stared into the sky.
"…We're not dealing with regular curses anymore."
---
Elsewhere — Inside Jujutsu High's Archives
The school's library was more like a tomb of paper than a resource center. Scrolls and documents dating back centuries sat sealed in black binding, protected by cursed seals and reinforced barriers.
Only authorized personnel were allowed into the Deep Stack.
But someone was already inside.
A figure stood at the center of a sealed aisle, barefoot, robes slightly torn, hands smeared with ink—and not just from writing.
He flipped a page from an ancient registry.
On it:
> Subject 00 – Eclipse-Born (Kazehaya, Sora)
Classified Threat Level: Unknown
Known Attributes: Null-type Curse Technique
History: Sealed Record
Recommended Action: Immediate erasure if unstable
The figure's face twisted into something between a smile and a snarl.
He reached into his sleeve and pulled out a charm—black wax stamped with a crescent.
Then he whispered:
> "We remember you, Kazehaya.
And tonight, you'll remember us."
---
That Night — Dormitories
Sora sat at his desk, a candle burning low beside him. He was sketching in his notebook, though he didn't know what. Shapes. Fragments. Moons without light. Eyes without faces.
He blinked.
Something was wrong.
Too quiet again.
He stood slowly, the silence pressing in.
His shadow moved before he did.
---
He opened the door to his dorm room—and saw her.
She was standing at the end of the hallway.
Uniform. Pale hair. Eyes he didn't recognize. No cursed energy.
Not a student.
Not a teacher.
Just… wrong.
Her lips moved, but no sound came out.
Then her face melted away—no gore, just erasure. Like someone dragged a paintbrush through her head and smeared her into nothing.
Sora stepped back.
And the world flipped.
---
Suddenly he was in the courtyard, lying on his back.
Cold.
Confused.
Hands trembling.
Someone was shaking him. Voices. Loud ones.
> "What happened?!"
"He just collapsed!"
"Rei, get Gojo—now!"
Rei's face appeared above him, angry and scared all at once.
> "Sora! Say something!"
He tried to speak.
He didn't remember how.
---
Elsewhere — Near the Dorms
A cloaked figure stood just outside the school barrier.
He held a charm in one hand—still warm from the curse just cast.
> "Test successful," he whispered.
Then vanished into the shadows.
---
Later That Night
Sora lay in the infirmary, still silent.
Shoko Ieiri stood at the end of his bed, arms folded.
> "No cursed wounds. No physical damage. But his memory has holes. It's like someone plucked specific thoughts out of him."
Gojo leaned against the wall, blindfold pushed up on his forehead, eyes tired for once.
> "Memory-eating technique," he muttered. "That's old. Ancient stuff."
Shoko nodded.
> "Not just memory. Identity. It's targeting who he is."
Rei sat beside the bed, hands clenched.
> "He's still in there," she said softly.
Gojo didn't smile.
For once, even he looked afraid.
---
Inside Sora's Mind
A dark ocean.
A moonless sky.
And someone else walking toward him—wearing his face, but without eyes.
> "You're not real," Sora whispered.
The other him smiled.
> "No.
But soon...
You won't be either."
---