Ms. Gojo thought she was dating an ordinary person's boyfriend.

Tokyo, inside an apartment.

The rain outside the window had stopped sometime ago, and the city's neon lights reflected colorful yet cold, hard light spots on the flooded road.

Sumi Kichikawa stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, holding a cup of black tea that had stopped steaming.

Although his gaze was fixed on the night view outside the window, countless thoughts were churning in his deep eyes.

After returning from the Yingji Juvenile Home, his mind never stopped thinking.

First, let's talk about that top-tier cursed spirit.

To be fair, monsters of that caliber were as fragile as a piece of paper that could be easily punctured in Sumire's eyes, not even worthy of his serious attention.

However, if the standard of judgment were changed to those three freshmen who had just entered the school, this would definitely be a dead end with no chance of survival.

Throwing three half-grown children into the domain of a fully hatched, top-tier cursed spirit with absolute suppressive power is definitely not some kind of "training" or "accident".

This was a one-sided massacre with no suspense whatsoever. It was a meticulously planned murder.

But why?

Kikawa Sumi lowered her eyes slightly, her slender fingers gently caressing the rim of the porcelain cup.

Why would the higher-ups in the sorcery world forcibly assign such a deadly mission, which was clearly beyond their capabilities, to a few teenagers?

Has that massive supervisory department, which controls the entire Japanese sorcery world, reached the point where it is so short-lived that it can't even send out a single adult sorcerer capable of handling top-level cases?

Sumi Kichikawa's gaze gradually turned cold.

A memory from the past suddenly flashed through my mind.

During his soul's long journey across countless worlds, he once stopped in a port city.

In the darkness of that city, he met the friend who taught him interrogation techniques.

Sumi Kichikawa clearly remembers that rainy night.

The lights in the underground bar were so dim they looked like they were about to go out.

The ice cubes at the bottom of the glass made a soft clinking sound. The boy, who was leaning on the bar, listened to his question and then chuckled slowly, as if he had heard some trivial joke.

"Cheng".

"You don't actually think the organization would call something like 'murder' murder, do you?"

He gently touched the rim of the glass with his fingertips, speaking softly.

"No way. That would be too ugly and inefficient. They'd say, 'Go get the mission done, you're the most suitable person, we trust your abilities.' Then they'd assign the most dangerous, absurd, and least likely survival missions to the person who shouldn't even be alive."

"And then, when that person dies, everyone will have a regretful expression on their face."

"What a pity."

"He's such an outstanding child."

"If only the information were a little more accurate."

As he said this, he suddenly lowered his head and chuckled softly.

Sumi Kichikawa did not say anything at the time.

The boy, however, seemed to have seen through his silence. He turned his head and, in a languid yet chillingly clear tone, said to him:

"It's so boring, isn't it?"

"If death is all like this, then it's truly disappointing."

The recollection ends abruptly here.

Sumi Kichikawa lowered her eyelids slightly.

Prior to this, through Gojo Satoru's occasional complaints and casual conversations, Kikkawa Sumi had always believed that these first-year students, as fresh blood in the world of jutsu and as "seedlings of the new era" on whom Gojo Satoru placed high hopes, should be expected and closely protected by the entire jutsu world.

Even if there is experience to be gained, it should be done step by step.

But today's visit to the juvenile detention center completely shattered this assumption.

Those high and mighty "old folks" don't care about the lives or deaths of these children at all.

Or rather, they were deliberately causing this death.

The corrupt organization even uses the same boring methods to eliminate dissidents.

So, is it because of factional infighting? Or because of class divisions?

Who is their real target this time?

Who was the real target of this brutal killing scheme?

Is it aimed at Itadori Yuujin, who has been identified as an unstable factor due to the strange parasitic power that has appeared in his body?

Human beings' first reaction to powerful forces beyond their control is always fear, followed by destruction.

Sumi Kichikawa does not deny this point.

Perhaps the higher-ups were afraid that the unknown power within Itadori Yujin would go out of control, so they wanted to take advantage of the fact that Itadori Yujin had not yet fully mastered that power and thus wanted to eliminate him.

But if it's just to kill one vessel, is it necessary to sacrifice two other innocent and outstanding students as well?

Currently, it seems that Gojo Satoru is the one with the closest relationship to the three children.

So... what they ultimately wanted to target was actually Satoru himself?

Thinking of this, Kikawa Sumi's fingers tightened slightly as she held the teacup, her knuckles turning pale.

As her thoughts raced, Kikawa Sumi recalled the images that had suddenly flashed through her mind earlier that day at the juvenile academy when she was preparing to completely annihilate that top-tier cursed spirit.

He was certain that he would not have hallucinations for no reason.

Those fragments, filled with despair, coldness, and a strong smell of blood, did not seem to have been created out of nowhere.

So what exactly are those images?

Is it a predetermined future? Or a branch of the world created by changes in cause and effect?

In that scene, Hisahito Itadori's face was covered with eerie black markings, and he stood atop a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood, laughing wickedly and cruelly.

The reason he became like that was most likely because the thing inside him went out of control.

But why does that wicked smile reappear on Fushiguro Megumi's usually aloof face when the scene suddenly changes?

Is it a scheme?

Could it be that the parasite's real target not is Itadori Yuuji, but rather, one day in the future, to seize Fushiguro Megumi's body?

Clumps of confusion swirled in Kikawa Sumi's mind, the threads of cause and effect intricately intertwined.

But what he couldn't let go of the most was that fleeting glimpse of azure light at the very end of all the scenes.

Those are the eyes of enlightenment.

Sumi Kawakawa would never admit to being wrong.

But why?

Those beautiful eyes that he loved most were usually filled with an arrogant pride, swagger, and a smile.

But in that broken scene, why did he feel that the emotion conveyed in those eyes was so sad?

Just recalling that look in her eyes, Sumi Kichikawa felt as if an invisible hand was gripping her heart tightly, causing her to feel so much pain that even her breathing became difficult.

"Enlightenment..."

As Sumi Kichikawa murmured the name, the coldness in her eyes instantly transformed into a gentle tenderness and heartache.

He put down his teacup and took his phone out of his pocket.

The screen lights up, and the wallpaper is a photo of the two of them taken at the beach.

In the photo, a white-haired young man is tightly embracing a black-haired young man who is about to fall, and he is smiling brightly.

Kikawa Sumi opened the chat window, tapped the screen lightly with her fingertips, and sent a message:

Are you back?

The message was sent successfully.

One second, two seconds, three seconds... No reply message appeared on the screen.

Sumire Kikkawa sighed softly.

Perhaps Wu is still dealing with the mess left by the higher-ups, perhaps he's still comforting the students, or perhaps...

"Click".

Just then, the sound of a door lock turning came from the entrance hall.

Kikawa Sumi paused, then abruptly raised her head, her gaze sweeping across the living room towards the entryway.

The next second, the door was pushed open.

The dim light from the corridor streamed in through the crack in the door, and with it came a tall, elegant figure, and that familiar voice that Kikkawa Sumi had recited countless times in her heart, a voice she had longed for—

"I'm back."

Gojo Satoru stood at the entrance, casually removing the black eye mask from his face, revealing a pair of clear blue eyes that seemed to reflect the entire sky.

He looked at Sumi Kichikawa standing under the living room light, a big, unguarded, bright smile spreading across his face.