"Right, the cursed energy trace is still here, but the cursed spirit already ran.
Yeah. Could've been some rogue jujutsu user... or a curse user."
...
He lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling.
And there was still all that "knowledge."
He knew far too much.
So much it felt like cheating.
"My technique..."
Heroic Spirit Summoning Technique - Echoes of Causality.
Because his soul was singular.
Still, that only counted as an awakening of innate wisdom, not a true summoning.
A real summoning needed a catalyst.
He opened his eyes.
But right now, for someone who could barely defend himself, going out to hunt for some holy relic would be no different from asking to get killed.
Because in the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, so-called holy relics were called cursed objects.
And every last one of them belonged to someone.
Touch one carelessly, and he might die from the curse on it before he ever laid eyes on a Heroic Spirit.
So first, he needed to learn how to use cursed energy.
Over the next week, Hayashi Akira lived a thoroughly split life.
By day, he went to school, spent time with his sister, and played the part of an ordinary high school student.
By night, he studied his technique, studied cursed energy, and dug through all the "spoilers" in his head.
Akira's progress was obvious.
After one week, he could steadily coat his entire body in cursed energy, and a punch from him could crack a brick apart.
But that was it.
Fight a cursed spirit?
That was still wishful thinking.
"Don't rush it. What I'm missing isn't time. It's a catalyst."
That was how Akira tried to reassure himself.
That afternoon, during the weekend, his sister dragged him out shopping, and around noon they stopped at a bakery.
The second he stepped inside, Akira's eyes were drawn to one of the girls behind the counter.
Not for that reason.
It was because he saw something ordinary people couldn't.
More precisely, perched on her shoulder was a tiny cursed spirit, insect-like in shape.
A curse so weak it barely qualified for a grade at all. Too small to matter, not even worth placing among Grade 4s. It fed on negative emotion and was basically harmless to people, at most leaving them drained or a little out of luck.
But its presence meant something else.
Akira still found it hard to believe. The scene in front of him felt familiar, but the evidence still wasn't enough.
Ding.
"You look tired too."
"You can tell?"
...
With his hearing sharpened by cursed energy, Akira caught that familiar exchange and shot his head up at once.
Blond hair. Suit. Office-worker build.
The most reliable adult in the series.
Nanami Kento.
"Would you mind stepping forward for a moment?"
With a casual wave of Nanami's hand, the tiny cursed spirit shattered and vanished.
Nanami offered a few brief words of concern, then took his sandwich and left the bakery.
Before walking out, he swept a glance around the room, and his eyes met Akira's.
Akira didn't look away.
He knew looking away would only make him seem more suspicious.
Nanami studied him for a second.
Then he withdrew his gaze, pushed open the door, and left.
Akira slowly let out a breath.
"Oh." Ori had no interest in overworked salarymen and went right back to eating her bread.
Akira lowered his head and took a bite.
His mind was racing.
Nanami had noticed him.
Was that good or bad?
Good, because it proved Akira's cursed energy perception was working, and Nanami really was a Grade 1 sorcerer with the instincts to match.
Bad, because Akira still wasn't ready to expose himself.
He glanced out the window.
Nanami's back had already disappeared into the crowd.
An ordinary person suddenly possessing cursed energy was definitely worth a second look.
But only that.
Unless they met again later.
At least that was reassuring.
There was still time.
What Akira meant was that there was still a long way to go before the Culling Game and the final battle with Sukuna.
But there also wasn't enough time, because he suddenly remembered everything else. Shibuya. The Night Parade of a Hundred Demons. One disaster after another.
"I still can't afford to get complacent. I need more power. More power, right."
Akira felt that it was time to seriously raise his strength, and for that, he would have to rely on the technique he possessed:
Heroic Spirit Summoning Technique - Echoes of Causality.
After several days of testing, Akira had more or less figured out that his technique worked a lot like the Heroic Spirit summoning system from a certain game.
He had never had any connection to the jujutsu world before. No family lineage. No inherited ties.
So where am I supposed to find a catalyst now? Akira thought. It's not like I can go steal one of Sukuna's fingers. Touch that thing and I'm dead.
"But..."
Akira sat down.
Suddenly, he thought of a candidate who fit almost perfectly.
Fortunately, he had transmigrated late enough to have seen the sequel. 68 years of growth. Itadori Yuji, tempered by time. The debut of the Tiger Sovereign.
And the younger Itadori Yuji?
He was here.
Right now.
At this very moment, he still hadn't stepped into the jujutsu world. He was still just Itadori Yuji, the kind of kid who looked like he belonged in some urban high school action story.
If he used Yuji as the catalyst, then maybe he could summon the future Tiger Sovereign.
Of course, he would be limited by his cursed energy reserves. There was no way the summon could display anything close to its full strength.
But even if it could only use one percent of that power, even if it was only a projection, even if it could only stay for a few minutes -
Even then...
The power of that knowledge alone would already be enough.