Junpei Yoshino's world had been completely turned upside down after that night.
His originally gloomy, depressed view of life, seen through a frosted glass, was shattered by Yuji Itadori's fist wrapped in black lightning and the ominous black finger. Then an even stranger and more horrifying "reality" poured in like a flood breaking through a dam.
He could "see."
The awkward, gloomy gazes he had only occasionally felt, the eerie black shadows in the corners of walls, the vague whispers in his ears late at night... now had clear, concrete, often ugly, forms.
They were "cursed spirits"—monsters born from the negative emotions of humans, hidden from ordinary people but capable of causing real harm. And he, due to the intense stimulation of that night, the "qualifications" accumulated through long-term exposure to a negative environment (bullying, suppression), and the catalysis of the cursed energy radiating from Sukuna's finger up close, had unexpectedly awakened cursed energy and subsequently gained the ability to "see" them.
This wasn't a gift, but rather the opening of another door to hell. Fear, confusion, and disgust towards his own "anomaly" nearly overwhelmed him.
It was Yuji Itadori—a peer who always seemed full of energy and sunshine—who patiently accompanied him, explained the meaning of the jujutsu world in simple terms, told him how to distinguish the strength of cursed spirits, and, most importantly, told him he was not alone, not a monster.
Then, the official, the bespectacled, perpetually nervous assistant supervisor, Kiyotaka Ijichi, arrived.
After confirming that Junpei had indeed awakened cursed energy and was a potential witness to a major recent cursed spirit incident, Ijichi, on behalf of the Tokyo Jujutsu High, extended an olive branch to Junpei and his mother. The invitation was straightforward: enroll in the Tokyo Jujutsu High, receive a systematic sorcerer education and training, learn to control his power, protect himself, and be able to protect others.
Ijichi did not hide the dangers of the sorcerer profession, but also honestly explained the benefits: the college provided full scholarships, room and board, and living allowances. After graduation, depending on his rank, he would be treated as a special national public servant, with a generous salary and a comprehensive pension and family protection system.
For Junpei, this invitation was almost a tailor-made exit. He had no nostalgia for his original school, only painful memories. Becoming a sorcerer would certainly mean facing terrifying cursed spirits, but at least it would allow him to understand and control this sudden, frightening power, rather than passively enduring it. Besides, there was Itadori, a friend who had treated him sincerely and saved his mother.
After the initial shock and worry, Junpei's mother, Nagi Yoshino, looked at the light gradually kindling in her son's eyes, which were no longer completely gloomy and dead, and at the reliability shown by Itadori and Ijichi (at least on the surface). After a few days of consideration and numerous communications with the school, she finally nodded in agreement, her eyes reddened.
Thus, Junpei Yoshino, the gloomy teenager who once silently endured bullying in the corners of the campus, witnessed the horror in the cinema's darkness, and experienced a life-or-death moment at his own dining table, walked through the gates of the Tokyo Jujutsu High with a complex, indescribable feeling, becoming another first-year student.
---
In the rest area next to the college's training ground, Itadori had just finished a round of solo training and was wiping sweat with a towel. The setting sun stretched his shadow long.
At some point, a tall figure in a five-stripe robe appeared beside him.
"Itadori, training hard," Suguru Geto's face held his usual gentle smile, his voice unhurried.
"Geto-san!" Itadori quickly straightened up.
He maintained respect for Gojo-sensei's best friend and the legendary special-grade sorcerer, although he always felt that behind the overly perfect gentleness of the other party, there was something elusive.
"No need to be formal," Geto waved his hand, his gaze falling on Itadori, and he asked casually, as if it were nothing. "I heard that a few days ago, you took down a cursed spirit that attacked your new classmate Junpei's house and found... 'something'?"
Itadori immediately understood what the other party was referring to. He nodded and carefully took out from his waist a long strip, tightly wrapped in layers of cursed technique seals, about as thick as a finger. Even through the enchantment, one could still feel a hint of an extremely subtle, but instinctively repulsive, ominous aura seeping out.
It was Sukuna's finger, found on the Yoshino family's dining table.
"Here it is," Itadori handed the finger to Geto and added, "Mr. Ijichi sealed it with a special barrier technique. He said it could isolate its presence as much as possible and avoid... being directly sensed or 'eaten' by Sukuna." When he said "eaten," his expression was a bit strange. He deeply understood the desire of the "landlord" in his body for such things.
Geto took the sealed finger and walked slowly. He didn't immediately open the seal, just held it in his palm. He closed his eyes, as if quietly sensing. After a few seconds, he opened them again, and in the depths of those always half-squinted, smiling eyes, a barely perceptible light flickered.
(Just as I thought...) Geto whispered in his heart.
As the possessor of "Cursed Spirit Manipulation," he had a keen perception of cursed spirits and cursed objects, almost instinctively surpassing that of ordinary people. At this moment, even though the finger was wrapped in layers of Ijichi's exquisite sealing technique, isolating most of its presence, he still caught a faint residue belonging to "another cursed spirit"—extremely weak and completely different in attribute from the finger's own "Sukuna's curse." This wisp of contamination was very faint, mixed in with the overbearing, majestic curse of Sukuna's finger, almost negligible, and would be difficult to detect without the special perception of an expert like him.
This confirmed one of his suspicions.
Sukuna's fingers are special-grade cursed objects, dangerous and precious. They are either tightly sealed in the cursed repositories of the Jujutsu Headquarters or some ancient family, or hidden by powerful curse users or cursed spirits. The taboo repository is a confidential facility used by the Jujutsu world to store dangerous cursed techniques and special-grade cursed objects. It is usually located in the most heavily fortified part of the barrier, managed by a special "repository keeper," with extremely strict access procedures and sealing measures.
A finger could never appear on an ordinary high school student's dining table "for no reason." The only explanation is that someone or some cursed spirit deliberately placed it there.
Combined with the information he had just received from Nanami and Ieiri about the special-grade cursed spirit "Mahito," capable of "soul transformation," and Mahito's mad nature, which loved to "experiment" and "play"...
(That Mahito... I'm afraid it's not just random evil. His interest in the taboo repository...) Geto's thoughts raced. (This finger came from the repository with some probability, meaning he has ideas about the repository.)
Whatever Mahito's specific goal, it meant a dangerous special-grade cursed spirit with special abilities had set its sights on one of the key facilities in the jujutsu world for storing dangerous objects. But for him, this was not bad news.
After all, a Mahito who was lured out was easier to catch.
Suguru Geto slowly looked up, that gentle, compassionate smile returning to his face. He returned the sealed finger to Itadori.
"Keep it safe, Itadori. This thing is very dangerous, even sealed, don't carry it on you for long," he advised, his tone as reliable as ever.
"Yes, I understand!" Itadori took it and carefully put it back in his pocket.
However, just as Geto turned and was about to leave, perhaps due to a subconscious change in expression during his thoughts, or because of the angle of the setting sun, Itadori seemed to notice that Geto's always smiling, slightly squinted eyes had narrowed even more at a certain moment. In those narrow eye slits, an extremely deep, cold, and sharp light, completely different from his usual gentle appearance, flickered and vanished in an instant.
Inexplicably, a slight chill ran down Itadori's spine, an unexplainable shiver. He scratched his head, thinking he might have been mistaken, or that it was an illusion from training fatigue.
But the impression of that moment was like a pebble thrown into a mental lake, leaving a faint, indelible ripple.
(Squinting his eyes... that Geto-san really has a lot on his mind.) Itadori couldn't help muttering to himself. He shook his head, put aside this inexplicable feeling, and continued training.
And Suguru Geto's departing back stretched a long shadow in the sunset, inconsistent with the noise of the surrounding training ground. The gentle smile on his face had long returned to normal, but in the depths of his eyes, dark calculations grew deeper and deeper.