Jujutsu Kaisen: Tragedy Life Simulator-Chapter 104 - Interlude: Gojo [bonus]

[Note: The following contains information the protagonist had no way of knowing.]

[Sunlight poured through the windows of the bullet train racing from Kyoto back to Tokyo, warming the quiet cabin as it glided along the tracks.]

[Jujutsu High had reserved the whole car. The only people inside were the first-years coming back from the Exchange Event, plus the teacher escorting them, Satoru Gojo.]

[Gojo was sprawled in his seat with his long legs crossed, lazily fiddling with a Kyoto souvenir he’d bought on the way out. Then his phone buzzed in his pocket.]

[He pulled it out, glanced at the screen, and saw the caller ID. Masamichi Yaga.]

[He answered without thinking twice. A smug little grin tugged at his mouth, his tone light and easy.]

["What’s this, a post-victory check-in? Obviously we won. Who do you think was coaching them? Yuta crushed their whole side. Even Yuki’s favorite student, Aoi Todo, couldn’t do much of anything~"]

["..."]

[But Yaga didn’t answer with his usual tired sigh or one of those fed-up lectures.]

[There was only silence.]

[A few long seconds passed before Yaga finally spoke, and when he did, his voice was so low it sounded scraped raw.]

["I... didn’t call about the Exchange Event."]

[That alone made Gojo’s grin slip.]

[He sat up straighter, a faint crease forming between his brows beneath the blindfold. Something ugly and uneasy twisted in his chest. The joking tone vanished.]

["Then why are you calling? What happened?"]

[Yaga went quiet again. It sounded like he was trying to figure out how to say it. Or maybe there just wasn’t any good way to say it at all.]

["It’s about... it’s... hell, how am I supposed to explain this..."]

[Yaga was not the type to hem and haw. He was blunt. Hearing him stumble like this lit a fast, sour irritation in Gojo’s chest.]

[His voice sharpened immediately.]

["Spit it out. Stop circling it."]

[Yaga drew in a deep breath. Like he was bracing himself to say something that couldn’t be taken back, he spoke with painful care.]

["Touma... seems to have gone missing."]

["Huh?"]

[Gojo blinked, frowning harder.]

[Before leaving for Kyoto with the first-years, he’d seen Touma Hayase at Jujutsu High with his own eyes. That had barely been more than a day ago. "Missing" didn’t even sound real. A normal person disappearing for a day usually wouldn’t amount to anything yet. And this wasn’t some normal person. This was Touma Hayase.]

[Almost automatically, Gojo reached for the most reasonable answer. There was resistance in his voice before he even noticed it himself.]

["Come on. You probably just can’t contact him. It’s been one day. That workaholic probably took some classified mission, got dragged into some remote Innate Domain, and lost signal. That’s all."]

["..."]

[Yaga answered with silence again, heavier this time.]

[Even while Gojo kept talking, kept trying to pin the situation down to something ordinary, the part of him under the blindfold already knew better. If this were just a temporary loss of contact, Masamichi Yaga would never have made this call. He definitely wouldn’t sound like this over something so minor.]

[A worst-case thought flashed across Gojo’s mind.]

[His instincts rejected it on the spot.]

[Something hot and ugly burst to life in his gut, and the cursed energy resting quietly inside him started to shake.]

[He shot upright in his seat and snarled into the phone, fury already leaking through.]

["What happened?! Talk to me...!"]

[The bark of his voice ripped through the stillness of the cabin and made every head snap his way.]

[Yuta Okkotsu, Maki, Toge Inumaki, and Panda all froze where they sat, staring toward the front of the car in alarm.]

[Even from where they were, they could tell something was very, very wrong.]

[The teacher who usually treated every disaster like an inconvenience barely worth getting up for now felt like a live bomb with the casing already splitting.]

[One more push and the whole place might blow apart.]

["Gojo-sensei... what’s wrong?"]

[Yuta swallowed and muttered the question to the others. Since entering Jujutsu High, he had never once seen Gojo lose his composure like this.]

[Panda tilted his head, eyes fixed on Gojo for a long second before he answered in an unusually serious voice.]

["No clue. But the atmosphere in here just dropped off a cliff. Something’s wrong."]

[Maki’s fingers tightened around the staff resting across her legs. Her thoughts went to another teacher at Jujutsu High, one who’d changed recently. Her brows drew together.]

["When a teacher reacts like that, it’s never good news."]

[While the students traded uneasy looks, Yaga finally let out a long, tired breath on the other end of the line. He couldn’t hide the exhaustion or the grief in his voice anymore.]

["Satoru. Right now, I can’t tell you exactly what happened. But Touma’s disappearance is a confirmed fact. And based on the investigation at the scene... there’s a very high chance he’s already..."]

["Huh?!"]

[Gojo reacted like he’d just heard the world’s worst joke.]

[A sharp, humorless laugh slipped out of him. He cut Yaga off before he could finish, words coming fast and hot.]

["What the hell are you talking about? You’re saying somebody killed Touma? Touma Hayase? The guy who wrecked Special Grade Suguru Geto in seconds in a one-on-one? The monster who carved through Geto’s whole crew of curse users like they were nothing during the Night Parade? Tell me, who the hell in this world can kill him? The Zenin Clan, after he nearly wiped them out? Yuki Tsukumo suddenly decide she’s suicidal enough to pick a fight?!"]

["..."]

[Yaga didn’t interrupt.]

[He just listened with endless patience while Gojo burned through what barely counted as questions anymore and was much closer to denial detonating in real time. He understood. When the first emergency report from the Assistant Managers had reached his desk, he’d reacted the exact same way.]

[Anyone who had met Touma Hayase, anyone who had seen that overwhelming combat power up close, would hear this and think it had to be a bad joke.]

[Yaga waited until Gojo’s fury slowed, then spoke again. His tone was more solemn than Gojo had ever heard from him.]

["Satoru, listen carefully. What I’m about to say is going to sound insane. Like some stupid ghost story. But I swear to you, I am not joking. I don’t have it in me to joke about this."]

[He paused.]

[Then his voice dropped even lower.]

["At the confirmed site of Touma Hayase’s last battle... the Residual Cursed Energy team found... Suguru’s cursed energy signature."]

[The words hit Gojo like a lightning bolt straight through the spine.]

[The instant Yaga finished speaking, Gojo was on his feet.]

[BOOM.]

[Pale blue cursed energy exploded out of him in a dense wave, rage forcing itself into the open. The air inside the cabin seemed to get ripped away. The pressure slammed into the first-years so hard it stole the breath from their lungs.]

[And then he roared into the phone, every word razor-sharp with fury.]

["Have you lost your damn mind, Yaga?! I killed Suguru myself! I watched him die! And now you’re telling me some dead man got up and walked around?!"]

[Yaga didn’t flinch.]

["I told you. I’m not joking."]

[Gojo’s chest rose and fell hard. He ground his teeth so hard it felt like he might crack them, forcing that storm of cursed energy back under control through sheer will alone. His face had gone dark enough to make the air around him feel wrong. Behind the blindfold, killing intent twisted like something alive.]

[When he spoke again, it was only one word.]

["Where."]

[Yaga answered just as briefly.]

["Suguru’s grave."]

[The moment those words registered, Gojo clenched his fist so hard his knuckles cracked one after another.]

[He stayed perfectly still for a full ten seconds, dragging in slow breaths and hauling himself back from the edge by brute force.]

[Then he ended the call.]

[He turned around and faced the back rows, where Yuta, Maki, Inumaki, and Panda sat frozen in place, bits and pieces of the conversation still written all over their stunned faces. None of them looked like they knew what to do with what they’d heard.]

[When Gojo spoke, his voice was perfectly calm.]

[And cold enough to freeze the air in their lungs.]

["Something came up. I need to go ahead."]

[Still rattled by the pressure pouring off him, they answered on reflex.]

["Oh... okay, sensei."]