The lake at Karuizawa stretched out like a mirror, reflecting the cloudless summer sky. Shien floated on his back in the water, eyes closed, letting the gentle current carry him.
For the first time in months, he wasn't thinking about cursed techniques or domain expansions or the next mission. The wind was brisk, keeping him cool as he basked in the summer sun.
He was just... floating and being at peace.
"Shien-chan!" Mai's voice cut through his peace. "Maki's trying to swim to the island again!"
Shien sighed and opened his eyes. Sure enough, Maki was already five hundred meters out, arms cutting through the water with determined strokes.
"Let her go," Shien called back. "She'll give up halfway and come back."
"She made it last time!"
"That was different. The water was calmer. Look at how windy it is."
As if to prove his point, Maki stopped swimming and started treading water, clearly reconsidering her life choices.
Shien dove underwater and swam toward her with lazy strokes. When he surfaced next to her, Maki was scowling.
"Don't say it," she warned.
"I wasn't going to say anything," Shien lied.
"You were going to say, 'I told you so.'"
"Was I?" Shien grinned. "Climb on. I'll tow you back."
Maki's scowl deepened, but she grabbed onto his shoulders. "I could've made it."
"Sure you could've."
"I hate you."
"It's okay, Maki. We love you despite your stupidity." Shien cut through the water with easy, crisp strokes, unbothered by the currents.
When they made it to shore, Mai had finished building an elaborate sandcastle. She sat behind it like a general surveying her domain.
"You gave up," she said to Maki.
"I didn't give up! I was just... resting."
"Sure you were." Mai looked at Shien. "Want to help me build a moat?"
"A moat?" Shien asked.
"Every good fortress needs a moat."
Shien considered this. "That's actually fair."
They spent the next hour digging trenches in the sand while Maki sulked nearby, pretending not to be interested but occasionally making "suggestions" about moat depth and structural integrity.
From beneath her umbrella further up the beach, Sayo watched them with a soft smile. Her book lay forgotten in her lap.
That evening, Shien sat on the resort balcony with medical textbooks spread before him. The sun had set, and the lake had turned dark and still.
One year. One full year of missions, and he'd only managed to land Black Flash twice more. Four times total. The phenomenon remained frustratingly elusive.
He'd exorcised dozens of curses—Grade Threes, Grade Twos, even a few Grade Ones. Each mission pushed him further, forced him to adapt and improve. Naobito was preparing to reveal him to the jujutsu world soon, to present him to the higher-ups for his eventual Special Grade ranking. He would have to be evaluated by independent sorcerers from outside the family. This would be unprecedented in jujutsu society, as Shien would be the youngest sorcerer to attain the rarest rank in all of jujutsu.
But jujutsu society was not large, and no matter how much the Zenin tried, rumors had already spread—whispers of the Zenin prodigy with immense cursed energy. The specifics remained secret. While Naobito was an easygoing drunk when it came to most things, inter-clan politics turned him from a lazy degenerate into a Machiavellian schemer.
Shien turned his attention back to the medical texts. Reverse Cursed Technique. The ability that still eluded him after a year of study.
The last RCT user in the Zenin clan had died twenty years ago. Now they had Takemi Zenin, whose technique could accelerate natural healing but was limited by his modest cursed energy reserves. Takemi was valuable enough that the clan forbade him from missions entirely.
Shien had wanted to meet Shoko Ieiri, the famous healer at Jujutsu High. But she was under Gojo's protection, and approaching her would reveal too much.
So he studied alone, trying to understand the theory.
RCT was like writing everything backward with your non-dominant hand. It completely threw off sorcerers who had been training a certain way to use their cursed energy. And performing it on others? That was doing the same thing while trying to mimic their handwriting. The healer had to match the cursed energy flow of their target and imbue their RCT in a manner that matched their unique flow. The efficiency of healing was dependent on that, and for most people this was out of reach.
No wonder so few mastered it. Even fewer could use it on others.
Shien closed the book and stared out at the dark lake.
His domain was close—he could feel it forming at the edges of his consciousness, a space uniquely his. But RCT remained out of reach, although Shien was confident that if he saw and experienced the move in person, he could enhance his understanding and try to replicate it.
One problem at a time, he thought.
Behind him, he heard the sliding door open. Mai peeked out.
"Shien-chan? Aunt Sayo says you should sleep."
"I will soon."
"You always say that." Mai stepped onto the balcony. "Those books look so big... what are they about?"
"Healing. This book is for medical school students who want to become doctors."
She sat down next to him, swinging her legs. "Wow... I thought you were going to be a sorcerer?"
"Yeah, I am," Shien agreed. "I am trying to learn how to heal people with RCT. If I have a deeper understanding of the human body, maybe it will be easier. Or so I hope."
Mai nodded.
"Today was a lot of fun! We should do this more often. You were so busy all year, and you don't spend time with us like you used to."
Shien looked at her—really looked at her. Nine years old, still small for her age, her soul fractured and incomplete. Shien had made progress on making a weapon out of Sukuna's finger. The research on the soul was pitifully sparse in the Zenin archives. The Soul Split Katana, which once was in the Zenin arsenal, was no longer there. The members of the Hei would not say why or where it had gone. The katana, however, could only be used by someone who could perceive the souls of inanimate objects. This was way beyond Shien's understanding.
Even if he did have a weapon to split the soul, how would he heal the twins after injuring them? Healing soul damage was harder than healing your body. And healing someone else's soul was a tall ask. That was all dependent on the fact that such a weapon could truly split the souls of the twins. Right now they were the soul equivalent of Siamese twins. Shien gave Mai a small smile as he calmed his thoughts.
"Yeah," he said quietly. "We will. I will try harder to make more time to play."
Mai smiled, then stood and headed back inside. "Goodnight, Shien-chan."
"Goodnight, Mai."
Shien returned to his textbooks, but his mind was elsewhere.
Soon, he promised himself. I'll figure out how to help them soon.
Three days later, their vacation ended.
The SUV pulled through the gates of the Zenin compound just as the sun began to set, painting the sky in shades of orange and gold. Shien stepped out, stretching after the long drive, while Sayo helped the twins gather their bags.
"Home sweet home," Maki muttered sarcastically.
"It was a lot of fun," Mai said.
"Yeah, there is some dirt there if you want to continue to dig around."
Shien ignored their bickering and headed toward the main compound—then stopped.
A man stood near the entrance, tall and lean, wearing a blindfold and grinning, looking very proud of himself. The half-Hei were standing nearby, glowering at him, yet the tall man seemed to pay them no mind, leaving himself completely open to attack. He must be either really strong or really stupid, Shien thought.
Naobito stood next to the man with his arms crossed, expression thunderous, looking like he was three seconds away from a stroke.
The man in the blindfold turned toward Shien, and suddenly his hands went up to the fabric.
"Oh, this I gotta see properly," he said cheerfully.
He pulled the blindfold down.
Shien found himself staring into the most unnaturally blue eyes he'd ever seen—brilliant, luminous, almost glowing in the evening light. They fixed on him with an intensity that made his skin prickle.
And then the man's grin widened into something absolutely delighted.
"Holy shit," he said, laughing. "Look at that cursed energy! You must be the prodigy everyone's been whispering about!" He looked at Naobito. "You've been hiding this kid? That is so selfish of you, Naobito!"
Shien's mind raced. Gojo Satoru.
It had to be. The Six Eyes. The white hair.
This was the man his father spoke about with barely concealed hatred. The strongest sorcerer alive. The one who single-handedly upset the balance of power between the Three Great Clans.
Shien had expected... well, he wasn't sure what he'd expected. Someone more serious, maybe. More dignified. More befitting the title of "strongest."
Not this goofy, cheerful man who looked like he was having the time of his life.
His father and the clan were clearly biased against Gojo, but still—this was not what Shien had imagined.
Shien activated his own perception, studying Gojo carefully.
The cursed energy was there—substantial, powerful, flowing through Gojo in perfect smooth lines. But in terms of raw quantity, it was nowhere near Shien's own reserves.
The control, however, was what made Shien's breath hitch. The difference between Shien's cursed energy control and Gojo's was like comparing 240p video to 8K resolution. Every single particle of Gojo's cursed energy moved with perfect precision, not a single drop wasted, every flow optimized to the point of artistry. It was beautiful and terrifying in equal measure.
That was what the Six Eyes gave him. Perfect, absolute control.
Then Shien caught it—just for a moment. A flash in those impossibly blue eyes. Something that looked almost like pity.
It was gone so quickly Shien almost thought he'd imagined it.
"You're huge for your age," Gojo said, tilting his head. "What are you, twelve, thirteen?"
"Nine," Shien replied carefully. "Nearly ten."
"Damn! What are they feeding you? You're already packing that much cursed energy. Wild." Gojo grinned. "Bet the clan's got big plans for you, huh?"
"I have big plans for myself," Shien said.
Gojo laughed—genuinely laughed, head thrown back. "Oh, I like that! Confidence! That's good. You'll need it in this world."
"Gojo-san," Naobito said tersely, "you've seen enough. Leave."
"So hostile!" Gojo looked at Naobito with mock hurt. "I just wanted to meet the kid. Can't blame me for being curious about someone with this much potential."
"You've satisfied your curiosity," Naobito said flatly. "Get off my property."
"Wow, rude." Gojo looked back at Shien. "Is your father always this rude to his guests?"
Shien couldn't help it. "Old men are always grumpy. Don't take offense, Gojo-san."
Naobito's glare intensified.
Gojo chuckled. "See? The kid gets it. You're too uptight, Naobito. You should relax more."
"I'll relax when you leave," Naobito growled.
"Ouch." Gojo clutched his chest dramatically. "You wound me." He turned his attention back to Shien. "Don't you want an autograph? It's okay, you don't have to be shy!"
"Why would I want that?" Shien asked. Naoya would love one, though—he is your biggest fangirl, Shien thought.
"Are you sure?" Gojo said cheerfully. "I am the strongest, after all."
"For now," Shien replied.
Gojo's eyebrows shot up, and then he laughed again. He looked at Naobito. "Are you sure this one's from your clan? He's way better than you stuck-up old men!"
"Gojo—"
"Alright, alright, I'm going." Gojo put his blindfold back on, still grinning. "But before I do..." He looked at Shien one more time, and even through the blindfold, Shien could feel those impossibly blue eyes fixed on him.
"Hey, kid," Gojo said, voice light but carrying an edge of genuine interest. "You want to spar?"