*Beep beep, beep beep—!*
The moment Megumi Fushiguro opened his eyes, the notification sound of a Kogane rang in his ears. The shikigami was hovering right beside him.
"Master, Master! Two new messages! Two new messages!" The Kogane flapped its wings, flipping its body up and down dramatically. "One is a private message, the other is a public announcement."
Megumi's first instinct was to spend 100 points to transfer between colonies. He knew he was currently in the Tokyo No. 2 Colony, while his sister, Tsumiki, was in Tokyo No. 1. He wanted to rush to her side immediately. However, it wasn't until he fully logged in that he realized, with a start, that he only had about 1,500 points.
Irritated by the Kogane's noise, Megumi snapped, "Open the private message first."
"'Stay in your original colony. Do not go to Tokyo No. 1,'" the Kogane recited. "Sent by: Satoru Gojo."
Megumi clicked his tongue. Bullseye.
He could only admit that Satoru Gojo lived up to his reputation; when he was serious, students couldn't hide anything from him. No, wait—even without being serious, just seeing Megumi's behavior in the meeting would be enough for anyone to guess what he planned to do next.
Megumi knew himself; this wasn't the time to be willful. Although Tsumiki's personality had shifted drastically from the sister he knew due to the awakening of an ancient soul, Tsumiki was still Tsumiki. Looking at the results, Mahito, who had awakened her from her coma, was technically his benefactor.
But logic was logic, and emotion was emotion. No matter what, Megumi wanted to return to the life he originally had with his sister. He wanted to protect her with his own two hands, not settle for this ambiguous state. He wanted to be by her side.
Megumi felt a rising tide of irritability but didn't know how to vent it, so he just suppressed it all deep inside. He asked in a muffled voice, "What's the second message?"
"Hiromi Higuruma. He is a Special Grade. The Key is with me," the Kogane recited.
*Key?* Megumi's head was still a mess, but he quickly latched onto the key point.
He spoke in disbelief. "The Dream Migration hasn't even been open for a day, has it? The Key has already changed hands? Is the Key Keeper under the King of Curses that weak? ...Wait, no. What does 'Special Grade' mean? Is there a modern Jujutsu Sorcerer named Hiromi Higuruma?"
"Does Master wish to inquire about knowledge regarding Special Grades? This knowledge can be answered for a point cost," the Kogane said in its cheerful AI voice.
"Your search function is broken. I'm asking if there is actually a Special Grade named Hiromi Higuruma in the modern era? Incidentally, according to my knowledge, no such person exists."
Megumi sneered. "Daring to call himself Special Grade, and defeating the intelligent Cursed Spirit dispatched by the King of Curses... looks like someone with a death wish is trying every method possible to farm points. To assume the title of Special Grade—he's got some nerve."
Who were the modern Special Grades?
[Star Rage] Yuki Tsukumo, [Copy Technique] Yuta Okkotsu, and [Six Eyes & Limitless] Satoru Gojo. Even if you expanded the scope to the entire history of the jujutsu world, these three Special Grades were heavyweights. The fact that these three heavyweights appeared in the same era undoubtedly made this the strongest era in jujutsu history.
And now, at this very moment, someone dared to claim the title of Special Grade and place themselves on equal footing with those three? In Megumi's eyes, that was a textbook example of seeking death.
However, this was perfect.
Megumi was angry, and he was genuinely interested in this guy calling himself a Special Grade. When these two factors combined, the idea of testing this 'Special Grade' was born. No, not a test—a death match! In this Dream Migration where death was not the end, a death match was the best way to say hello.
Since this self-proclaimed Special Grade dared to announce himself to the world, it meant he harbored the same mindset as Megumi. He was inviting challengers from all under heaven!
Why? Megumi thought about it and landed on one conclusion:
He needed a massive amount of points. The quantity required was so large that it forced him to broadcast his location to everyone. He hoped to gain points through ceaseless death matches to achieve his goal.
A Grade 1 Sorcerer could earn about 2,000 points from a standard battle. If it was a death match, 5,000 and up. So, what about a Special Grade?
In Megumi's estimation, at least 20 million. At minimum! Because he was very clear on the gap between Grade 1 and Special Grade.
If this self-proclaimed Special Grade's output efficiency reached the baseline of a Special Grade, he could earn 20 million in a single fight. Broadcasting his location would lead to a gauntlet of battles, and in a short time, his points could reach the hundreds of millions! Holding so many points... what did he want to do?
Megumi suddenly remembered the wish list he had proposed during the meeting: [To maintain peace in a city for one year requires approximately 3 billion points and up]. Was his wish something massive like that?
It wasn't abrupt. Megumi had proposed that wish list himself, so it was natural for him to wonder if someone else had thought of the same problem and submitted a similar wish.
"Very well. Decided." Megumi clenched his fist. "Let me go meet this Special Grade... Kogane!"
"Yes!" The Kogane flew in front of Megumi's face. "Please give your orders, Master."
"That self-proclaimed Special Grade, Hiromi Higuruma. Where is he?"
The answer was inside a screening room within a supermarket complex.
Because Hiromi Higuruma had broadcasted his presence via public announcement, everyone in Tokyo No. 2 Colony should have heard the news. One only needed to ask their Kogane to search for the name Hiromi Higuruma to locate him immediately. Considering his claim of Special Grade status and his achievement of defeating the Key Keeper, people looking to farm massive points through death matches should have been swarming the place.
But there was no one.
Not a single soul.
When Megumi pushed open the doors to the screening room, he saw a bathtub placed on the stage in front of the massive screen. The tub was filled with water, and a person was lying inside. However, he wasn't naked for a bath; he was wearing a full suit and leather shoes, lying face up, soaking wet, with water spilling over the edges of the tub.
The sound of Megumi pushing the door didn't make the man flinch. He continued to lie there, staring at the ceiling.
The man suddenly spoke. "About twenty minutes after I used the announcement, you are the first to arrive. I learned through the Kogane that jujutsu sorcerers are a bunch of lunatics with twisted souls, and this place is a gathering ground for all the lunatics in Japan. So, I assumed that after I sent the announcement, I would face an endless gauntlet of battles until I collected enough points... It seems my prediction was wrong. I was wrong again. Human nature is truly full of incomprehensible unknowns. How interesting."
In an instant, Megumi felt a sense of unease. He felt like a rabbit crouching in the grass, looking up to see a giant eagle soaring in the sky. He wanted to hide, but to the eagle's eyes, his concealment was blatantly obvious.
*Target locked.* Megumi had that intuition.
Megumi's heart rate began to accelerate, his instincts screaming. The man before him—this self-proclaimed Special Grade—hadn't even released his Cursed Energy restrictions to project outward. Yet, just by coming into contact with the unconscious Cursed Energy residuals he was emitting, Megumi felt as if a colossal organism was glaring at him.
*This man is strong.* Megumi realized this with clarity.
But his steps remained composed. He walked toward the man, his footsteps making crisp sounds in the empty space. Being a screening room, the acoustic design caused echoes, making his footsteps sound like the breathing of some beast.
"Hiromi Higuruma?" Megumi asked.
"That is me." The man—Hiromi Higuruma—remained in his supine position in the bathtub.
"Although I want to start fighting right away..." Megumi walked up to the side of the tub, his footsteps echoing, and looked down at him with a frown. "What exactly are you doing?"
"I was wondering when you'd ask that." Higuruma's face was expressionless, his eyes fixed on the ceiling. "Have you ever tried taking a bath with your clothes on?"
"No."
"It is... more spiritually refreshing than one might imagine," Higuruma said.
*This guy is crazy,* Megumi thought.
"Recently, I've stopped caring about a lot of things. So, I'm letting myself go, challenging things I once thought were absolutely impermissible." Higuruma finally lowered his gaze from the ceiling to look at his body submerged in the tub. He lifted one foot; he was still wearing black dress socks and black leather shoes. "I'm over thirty-five and going astray. Isn't it hilarious?"
"No, not funny at all," Megumi said deadpan. "It actually gives me the creeps."
Megumi wasn't lying. Any sorcerer sensitive to Cursed Energy residuals would feel the same as Megumi right now. The moment they saw this man, any professionally trained sorcerer could conclude:
This man was not an ancient sorcerer reincarnated via soul revival. He was not a modern jujutsu sorcerer. He wasn't even a Curse User. He was a *total novice* to the jujutsu world.
A naturally powerful total novice!
In the original timeline, Satoru Gojo once said that for a jujutsu sorcerer's strength, talent accounts for eighty percent, while effort only takes up twenty percent. And now, Megumi could clearly confirm that the man before him, over thirty-five years old, was a genuine 'Eighty Percent Talent' monster! Megumi even had an illusion—he seemed to be seeing the moment Satoru Gojo first stepped into the jujutsu world. The young Gojo of that time was the Higuruma of today.
This was a man with talent comparable to Satoru Gojo.
What made Megumi's flesh crawl wasn't Higuruma's words, but the sheer possibility this man represented.
"I'll get straight to the point," Megumi said in a low voice. "The reason you publicized your identity and location is to fight other sorcerers to the death and gain massive points, right? What do you plan to do with those points?"
The man finally looked directly at Megumi.
"You didn't attack immediately, but instead asked for my reason for collecting points? are all sorcerers as concerned with reasons as you are?"
"I guess I'm special." Megumi was self-aware. Looking at the people around him, it seemed that everyone else really was a muscle-brain who just wanted to throw hands. Of course, Megumi was somewhat like that too before Tsumiki Fushiguro corrected him, but ever since Tsumiki fell into her slumber, he wasn't anymore.
"Special, huh." Higuruma sighed. "I thought the Kogane lied to me. It seems not."
"What did the Kogane tell you?" Megumi asked.
"The Kogane said that sorcerers are a group of people whose souls have been twisted since birth. Because their souls are twisted, they are more prone to extremes and more likely to come into contact with things like Cursed Energy," Higuruma said indifferently. "Judging by my own experience, the Kogane doesn't seem to be wrong. I seem to have unknowingly walked toward an extreme, falling so low as to run here seeking a reason."
Megumi's mouth twitched. *Sorcerers are people with twisted souls? What the hell is that? That has to be the Lord of Cursed Spirits' bias, right? Definitely! That is 100% the Lord of Cursed Spirits injecting his own agenda!*
"What reason?" Megumi asked, going with the flow.
"I am a lawyer. A lawyer who believes in justice." Higuruma stated his identity first, then continued, "Because of this, I have deeply felt that the law is sometimes powerless. No matter how much evidence I collect, no matter how much I study the law, I am defeated by the monster known as reality. I am looking for a new possibility. And this possibility lies within the Dream Migration."
*What kind of lawyer says they believe in justice like that?* Megumi thought this while listening to Higuruma's explanation.
The man lay in the bathtub and sat up slightly, but didn't fully get out. He maintained a sitting posture and continued:
"Since the law is sometimes powerless, what about the wish list of the Dream Migration?" He put his hand to his chin, contemplating. "If the Cursed Techniques I obtained are genuine, then the wish list set in the Dream Migration must be real too, right?"
"If there is no need for litigation, no need for prosecution..."
"No need to spend manpower and resources arguing over truth and falsehood. If everyone who violates the law is punished, just as all things must follow the laws of physics... how wonderful would that be!"
Megumi quietly listened to Higuruma's wish, then revealed a cold smile. "You're crazy."
"Half-crazy, perhaps," Higuruma said, not denying Megumi's scorn, his voice flat. "Because I clearly know how extreme and bizarre my idea is. But theoretically, it is not impossible to achieve... For example, taking the grand barrier of the Dream Migration and flipping it onto the real world, then using that barrier to inscribe rules for living within it. That way, everyone would be forced to follow the rules. Theoretically, this holds up."
"The reason laws must be determined by humans, and why lawyers must exist, is that only humans can understand how rules should actually operate," Megumi said coldly. "A smart abuser will use methods not prohibited by the rules to hurt others. A Good Samaritan sees this and wants to stop it, choosing to use their fists, because the Good Samaritan knows clearly that words alone cannot stop the abuser's behavior. If it were a fair law, it would naturally side with the Good Samaritan. But if it's a barrier that only knows how to follow rules, what do you think will happen?"
"It will punish that Good Samaritan," Higuruma said gloomily.
Despite being mocked for naivety, Higuruma showed no anger at the case study. He simply spoke in his usual calm voice, "That sounds like some kind of personal experience. Judging by your age, was it some form of school bullying? Were you the Good Samaritan?"
"No, I was a delinquent," Megumi recalled the past, speaking flatly. "When I got home, I was scolded severely by my sister."
"You have a good sister," Higuruma said.
"You don't need to tell me that," Megumi replied.
*Splash.*
Higuruma held the edge of the tub and slowly stood up. The soaking wet suit should have been extremely uncomfortable, yet Higuruma showed no wavering in his expression. Even in this drenched state, he naturally reached up to straighten his tie.
"I know there are many details that need to be scrutinized, but as I just said, the theory exists. Since the theory exists, the difficulties encountered during implementation can be resolved through various bylaws. Perhaps it is a desperate, massive undertaking, but since the possibility exists, I cannot help but hold onto hope."
Higuruma adjusted his wet clothes, and a black shikigami materialized behind him. He said, "For this, first I must secure a massive amount of points... to engage in trial and error."
Megumi thoroughly understood the reason this man needed so many points, and at the same time, felt the man's madness from the bottom of his heart. Megumi took a deep breath and formed hand signs:
"Tokyo Jujutsu High, Second Year, Megumi Fushiguro. Let's do this!"
Higuruma, expressionless, stepped out of the bathtub, the black shikigami floating behind him. He said:
"Lawyer, Hiromi Higuruma."
"—Let's do this!"
***