"What a weird feeling..."
Kaede felt his field of vision suddenly expand, almost like switching into creative mode. Other than sight and hearing, there were no restraints on him at all.
His whole body felt like a bird set free, maybe even lighter than that.
"So what about pulling myself back together again?"
Moonlight poured down like frost across the winding river. At one stretch of the shallow bank, the rushing water began gathering in a deeply unnatural way.
Countless glimmering droplets defied gravity and drew toward a single point, as if some invisible hand in the darkness were molding a fragile piece of porcelain.
First came slender fingers, then a pale back, almost translucent, then the curve of narrow shoulders... the water wove and rebuilt itself under the moonlight.
The figure ended up on one knee in the shallows, the water reaching high over his thighs. Because he had burned through too much cursed energy during that clash with Mahito, the body he managed to rebuild was only the size of a slight adolescent.
Kaede's wet black hair clung to the back of his neck, droplets sliding down the line of his back as it rose and fell with his ragged breathing before melting into the cold river below.
"This is... kind of hard to get used to. It's like swimming..."
Kaede gulped down air in heavy breaths. Even his underwear was gone now, though thankfully there was no one else around.
That impossible lightness of having become a natural phenomenon was fading fast, replaced by the heavy, undeniable sensation of real flesh and blood.
His bare knees pressed into the smooth pebbles of the riverbed. The cold traveled up through his nerves and into his brain, carrying the dull ache that comes after surviving something you were sure would kill you.
And just as that bone-deep exhaustion from narrowly escaping death began to wash over him completely, the air above the calm river suddenly gave a faint, trembling hum.
Without any warning, a force of cursed energy descended over the riverbank, clear and lofty, carrying a kind of absolute dominance, like a glacier falling from miles above.
It was nothing like Mahito's malice. This power was so enormous it almost felt unreal, and yet so undeniably present that every inch of his skin shuddered under the sensation of being observed by it.
At the center of that power, a figure floated silently a few inches above the river's surface.
"So this is where the ritual's happening? A localized rainstorm on this scale... and that cursed energy wavelength is something I've never seen before. Interesting."
The newcomer wore a black high-collared uniform, and his short silver-white hair shone against the night like scattered starlight.
He was not wearing the trademark black blindfold. Instead, a pair of dark sunglasses rested casually on his face, and one long finger absently nudged the frame upward.
Behind those lenses, the pale blue eyes of the Six Eyes were studying the figure in the shallows the way someone might examine a once-in-a-lifetime treasure, dissecting every detail of the soaked, diminished body kneeling there.
Gojo Satoru tilted his head slightly, his gaze passing over the boy's shoulder toward the distant direction where a thread of cold, lingering curse residue still remained.
"There's definitely a pretty interesting little pest causing trouble out there... but compared to that, a body made out of 'water' is a lot harder to ignore."
As though he had sensed something, the corner of his mouth lifted into a faintly amused smile. His toe touched the river lightly, and in the next instant he had crossed the distance like a teleport, stopping no more than ten feet from the shallows.
"So which family's been secretly raising a 'singularity' like you?
Or maybe... what are you, some little god who wandered out of nowhere and still hasn't learned how to get dressed?"
The nearly divine pressure pouring off him eased a little because of that flippant line.
But the presence of Limitless still enveloped him, and the river water around him instinctively parted to either side, forming a dry arc of empty space.
"You are...?" Kaede froze for a second.
It was not that he did not know who Gojo Satoru was. He was startled because he had run into him here.
Of course, even if he recognized him, there was no way he could admit that. That would be way too suspicious.
The silver-haired man's figure looked almost unreal in the moonlight. He did not descend when challenged. If anything, he took it a step further and crossed his legs in midair.
The tips of his shoes skimmed over the rushing water without picking up the slightest trace of moisture.
Behind the dark lenses, those pale blue eyes flickered rapidly, tracking every thread of cursed energy moving through the surroundings.
Just moments ago, the residue deep within the sanatorium, cold and disgusting like a lump of raw flesh, had reacted the instant it sensed the arrival of the Six Eyes.
Like a cockroach caught in the light, it had severed every connection with startling decisiveness and vanished completely into the darkness of the mountain woods.
Gojo did not go after it.
It was already too far. Even if he gave chase immediately, there was no guarantee he would make it in time.
And right now, he had a bigger problem to deal with.
His long fingers touched his chin as his attention returned to the figure in the shallows, shrunken down dramatically and now looking momentarily at a loss from sheer surprise.
Black hair dripped steadily downward, and under the moonlight his pale skin looked almost like marble, cold and smooth and hard at once.
"Who am I?"
Gojo let out a light laugh from his throat, as if he had just heard something genuinely funny.
Then his left hand came out of his pocket, and with casual ease he nudged his sunglasses up with one finger, revealing the corner of an eye as clear and cold as glacial ice.
"I'm Gojo Satoru. Current job title: teacher at Tokyo Jujutsu High."
He bent forward slightly. The black high-collared uniform did not move in the night wind, and the sense of a god gazing down on the mortal world was softened only by the playful smile on his face.
"I'd love to compliment how creative your whole 'becoming one with nature out in the wild' training method is, but seeing as you just escaped from a nasty little curse like that...
even if you look like you're still a scrawny kid, I can't exactly let a 'singularity' with a technique like yours run around Tokyo unsupervised."
Gojo's gaze swept across the riverbank.
There, the withered grass that had been scorched black during the earlier domain battle still remained.
And yet, in the few short minutes since Kaede had rebuilt his body, the ground washed by that rainfall had already started giving off a strange cursed-energy pulse full of life.
Gojo suddenly lifted a finger and traced a small circle in the air.
"So then, little water god. Are you going to find something to wear and come with me on your own?
Or do I need to use 'violence' and stuff you in a sack and haul you back to the school? For the record, my sack is premium grade. Five-star service."