Saving You (ItaFushi)

Chapter 8

Gojo felt like his mind was going to explode.

It'd been an hour since he got back to his room, and he had been staring at Yuji's notebook ever since.

He wondered if this is how it felt like to experience the Unlimited Void - his head spinning, and his brain overloaded with information. It was like he was trying to understand a puzzle without knowing any of the pieces.

Yuji had drawn his family tree. That, in itself, was not particularly strange. Many people have a family tree, and it would not have been unreasonable for him to draw his. However, most people don't have a family tree that includes a mother with stitches on her forehead, with a note scribbled beside her that says "Kenjaku", or 9 half-brothers who are special-grade cursed objects.

This was seriously messed up.

He tried to wrap his mind around what he had just learned, but it was impossible. Yuji had been so casual about it. It was like the whole thing was no big deal, which only made it all the more unsettling. Although, considering some of the other things the boy had written in his notes, it was somewhat understandable that he would not have reacted more strongly to this.

Gojo was angry at himself for not looking into Yuji's family sooner. He had done it in Yuta's case, but, for some reason, he had never considered it in Yuji's case. Maybe, it was because he was so completely sure that Yuji was just a normal, regular human, who was at the wrong place at the wrong time. A regular human, who, by chance, was capable of becoming a vessel to the King of Curses.

And, of course, there were his superhuman physical abilities. Yuji's stamina, and strength, and speed were far beyond what should be possible for a regular person. But, that wasn't enough for Gojo to really start digging into the boy's past.

Gojo was feeling very, very stupid.

Kenjaku was smarter than he gave him credit for. It seemed like everything the sorcerer did for centuries had been planned and calculated. Everything was leading up to this point. And, it was all for the purpose of creating the Great Merger.

But, that still didn't answer the question: why did Kenjaku need a vessel for Sukuna so desperately? Why was his ability to host the King of Curses such a crucial part of his plan?

There was also the question of what the Great Merger was, exactly. After all, on his own timeline, Yuji had died before the merger was activated, so, it wasn't like he could ask him about it.

Gojo sighed. His head was throbbing, and he felt like his brain was about to implode. This was too much information to process.

Yuji had also asked him to allow certain things to happen the same way they did in his original timeline. But he never imagined that those things would involve his first-year students going up against special-grade curses on their own. Well, he was proud of them for being able to pull it off, but, seriously, that wasn't something first years should be doing.

Letting the death paintings get stolen was also something he wasn't thrilled about, but Yuji's pleading eyes had been so genuine, and, well, it wouldn't hurt to gain some further allies.

Gojo looked back down at the notebook. There were almost ten pages describing the Shibuya Incident, and he could read about five pages before he felt sick to his stomach. The descriptions of the deaths were graphic and disturbing, and even he felt a little traumatized after reading it. No wonder the boy was having nightmares.

It was hard to believe that all of this happened in a night. Some parts were less detailed - he figured that these were the events that Yuji didn't get to witness first-hand, only hearing about it from others. Other parts were so vivid, like the boy was reliving the moments again.