Jujutsu Kaisen — Chapter 74 - Lofty Mountains, Flowing Waters — A Kindred Spirit Hard to Find

7:00 AM. Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu High School, training grounds.

Yuta Okkotsu drew a slow breath of cool morning air.

A full month. He'd barely slept a complete night in all of it, living on the razor's edge between total exhaustion and snapped bones.

But Rika's Cursed Energy could now hold steady along the blade. No more rampages. No more blowing the roof off the school building over nothing.

Today was the Sister-School Exchange Event.

He tightened his grip on the hilt. His palm was already sweating.

Megumi Fushiguro and the rest of the students had been waiting for a while.

"Yo. Morning, everyone."

The voice floated down from the top of the steps, drawn-out and unhurried. Satoru Gojo came ambling down in his blindfold, pulling an enormous yawn.

Suguru Geto checked his watch.

"Ten minutes late. Satoru, you're the homeroom teacher. At least make a show of it."

"Can't be helped." Satoru Gojo rubbed the back of his neck. "Just got off a barrage of desperate calls from the old men at Jujutsu Headquarters. They're dumping a Special Grade mission on us from Aomori."

Suguru Geto's brow furrowed. Pulling Tokyo's lead teacher away on the day of the Exchange Event? What were these old fossils cooking up now?

"They were wailing on the phone, though. Crying that only the greatest, yours truly, can sort out the disaster. Apparently if I take too long, Aomori gets wiped off the map of Japan."

Satoru Gojo turned his head and peered at Yuta through the blindfold, grinning.

"Yuta, give it everything. Don't embarrass your teacher. Anyone who gets in your way — just beat them down."

"Yes! Gojo-sensei!"

"Alright, Suguru, I'm leaving things here to you and that big gorilla—"

BANG!

The storage shed door beside the training grounds blew apart into splinters.

Wood chips still flying, an enormous man came striding out with a 3-meter-tall, blazing red banner on his shoulder.

The flag cracked and snapped in the wind. Painted across it in gold, four characters screaming arrogance.

[TOKYO YOUTH TEAM WILL WIN]

"OHHHHH! THE TRAIN TO THE BATTLEFIELD OF YOUTH IS ABOUT TO DEPART! SEEDLINGS! USE YOUR BOILING BLOOD TO SET THE KYOTO SKY ON FIRE!"

Toji Fushiguro came roaring out, his fluorescent green spandex catching the morning sun and throwing off light that could burn your retinas, his white teeth flashing a blinding starburst.

Total silence.

Megumi Fushiguro turned away and pressed both hands over his face.

If he could manage it, he would leave for Aomori with Gojo-sensei right now to go fight that Special Grade.

Suguru Geto pressed two fingers against his twitching temple. When he spoke, his voice had no feeling in it at all. "Leave it to him? I'm afraid Kyoto Jujutsu High gets demolished to a parking lot today."

......

3 hours later. The main gate of Kyoto Prefectural Jujutsu High School.

Before the antique redwood gate, Kyoto Principal Yoshinobu Gakuganji stood with his cane, his aged face dark enough to wring water from.

Behind him, a row of students in deep-colored traditional uniforms.

Yoshinobu Gakuganji stared at the man across from him, the one shouldering the red banner, wearing the green spandex, roaring laughter at the open sky, and his hand on the cane shook.

"Toji Fushiguro. This is a sacred Exchange Event. That outfit of yours — is this your way of humiliating Kyoto Jujutsu High?"

"Outdated rules only strangle the life out of the young!" Toji drove the flagpole down into the bluestone slab beneath his feet. It shattered with a crack like a gunshot.

"This is battle attire! If you can't understand what youth is worth, then shut your mouth, you rotting old man!"

Yoshinobu Gakuganji's face went the color of raw liver. Furious. Not quite daring to push back.

From the Kyoto side, a girl with twin pigtails let out a sharp, mocking laugh.

"What is this, did Tokyo spend the year training at a circus? Their team leader is some moron with zero Cursed Energy."

Maki slammed the butt of her spear against the ground. "Nishimiya. If you're itching for it, just say so. I'll loosen your bones for you on the field."

The air went electric.

Both sides had their hands on their weapons.

Right at the moment it was about to go off.

"Everyone. Move aside."

A rough voice, from the back of the Kyoto formation.

A boy built like a brown bear shoved through the crowd and stepped out.

Long knife scar down the left side of his face. His uniform stretched taut over muscle.

Aoi Todo.

Kyoto, third-year. The only Grade 1 sorcerer on their roster.

He ignored everyone. He ignored Yoshinobu Gakuganji's iron-gray face. He walked straight through the gap between the two groups and stopped in front of Toji.

Nearly 2 meters of him. Standing in front of Toji, who had every inch on him matched.

Two iron towers, face to face.

Yuta's instincts pulled him half a step forward, his hand going to the hilt.

Aoi Todo stared at Toji, unblinking.

This man had not a trace of Cursed Energy. But the raw physical pressure coming off him, the weight of an absolute powerhouse, still came rolling out from under that ridiculous spandex like magma.

A master.

A supreme master.

Aoi Todo grabbed his collar and ripped it open. He pointed straight at Toji's face, his voice booming like a struck bell.

"Hey. Tokyo gorilla. What's your type of woman?"

The wind stopped.

Yoshinobu Gakuganji's jaw nearly left his face.

The smile on Suguru Geto's face locked up solid.

Megumi Fushiguro's dead-fish eyes blew wide open.

Yuta felt like he'd been struck by lightning directly through the skull.

In the middle of a standoff like this, what the hell are you asking?!

Toji went still for a moment.

No hostility there. Just something pure and searching, a starving hunger to find a kindred soul.

The corner of Toji's mouth pulled slowly into a grin.

Every trace of violence drained away.

"Now THAT is a question, boy!" He threw his head back and laughed, hands on his hips, and somewhere above them leaves shook loose and rained down.

"Since you've asked with such sincerity, your old man will be generous enough to answer!"

He drove his thumb into the air. His teeth flashed bright enough to leave spots.

"A woman who'll run with me into the sunset with tears on her face, burn our youth side by side, and pour out every drop of hot blood and sweat she has!"

Dead silence. Even the cicadas in the trees went quiet.

Megumi Fushiguro buried his face in both hands. His shoulders were shaking.

Just let it all burn down.

But Aoi Todo did not laugh.

He stood frozen like lightning had passed through him, eyes blown open to their limit.

In his mind, memories that should not exist rose like a tsunami.

A dusk, 10 years ago.

Orange-red sunset, spilling across the running track.

He was hauling forward with a 100-kilogram sandbag on his back, every step a fight, sweat burning his eyes blind.

A tall man in a green spandex suit came running up beside him, clapped him on the back, and raised a thumb.

"Don't stop! Aoi! Your youth has only just begun! Run! Let your sweat wash your soul!"

Back in the present.

2 streams of tears burst from Aoi Todo's eyes and hit the ground.

"UWAAAAAHHH—!"

He spread both arms wide and launched himself at Toji like a runaway steamroller.

"MY BEST FRIEND!"

Toji's eyes went red too.

This kid got it. He understood, he actually understood the whole truth of youth.

BOOM!

Two massive, solid men, under the horrified, blank, despairing stares of every teacher and student from both schools, crashed together and held on.

"Best friend! You get me! You're the only one who's ever gotten my hot blood!"

Aoi Todo wept without restraint, snot and tears running free, his iron fists hammering Toji's back with dull thuds like steel striking steel.

"Good kid! The energy packed into your muscles is like a volcano going off!" Toji howled at the sky.

The spear dropped out of Maki's hand and hit the ground with a CLANG.

She had never seen anything this painful to look at in her entire life.

Suguru Geto turned around, face blank, and took out his phone.

"Hey, Satoru. You still need backup on that Special Grade? Can I make it to Aomori in time?"

Yu Haibara was the only one watching with genuine envy. Ah... he really, really wanted to throw his arms around them and cry too.

The Kyoto side had it worse.

Yoshinobu Gakuganji clutched at his chest, hauling in ragged breaths.

He wasn't going to be angered to death today, he realized. He was going to have a brain hemorrhage from the sheer ugliness of this scene.

"Todo! Get back here this instant!" Yoshinobu Gakuganji swung his cane and roared.

Todo heard nothing.

He was already deep in a debate with Toji about squat technique and power transfer. The two of them had begun an impromptu competition to see whose pectoral muscles could bounce faster.

Yoshinobu Gakuganji slammed his cane into the ground and drove Cursed Energy through it.

BOOM. A shockwave of compressed sound tore outward, and barely, barely, dragged those 2 muscle-brained idiots back to earth.

"Enough!" Yoshinobu Gakuganji ground the word out through his teeth.

He had to kill this farce right now, or Kyoto Jujutsu High's reputation would not survive the day.

He pulled in a long breath. His gaze passed over Toji and swept cold across the Tokyo formation.

"Toji Fushiguro. Enough grandstanding. This year, don't expect your Tokyo school to walk away clean."

He paused. The corner of his mouth hooked into something cold and thin.

"We have a special transfer student with us today."

The Kyoto student formation split apart from the middle.

Wooden sandals on bluestone. CLACK. CLACK.

A 15-year-old boy walked out at an unhurried pace.

Brownish-yellow hair combed without a strand out of place. An immaculate traditional Zenin family kimono. Eyes narrow and long as a fox's.

Toji went still.

Maki and Mai's expressions dropped at the same moment.

The boy paid no attention to anyone else. Those eyes cut through the crowd and pinned themselves on Toji.

Not hostility. Not hatred.

Something almost pathological, a thick, dense, suffocating obsession that had nowhere to go.

Naoya Zenin licked his lips. His voice came out unsteady.

"Toji-sama. It's been a long time."

➤ Next: The Match Begins — Megumi’s Awakening Battle