Three days after Nobara and Junpei confessed their feelings to each other.
They decided not to announce that they were dating.
It was obvious Gojo would be a pain about it, and the kids had probably already figured it out anyway.
“So when that idiot teacher’s around, call me Kugisaki.”
“Fair enough, but... Gojo-sensei is weirdly sharp when it comes to pointless things.”
“I’m just saying we shouldn’t make it obvious. You get me?”
“Yeah.”
Of course, it didn’t take Gojo very long to catch on.
No matter how hard they tried to hide it, there was now an unmistakable air around them that hadn’t been there when they were just flirting.
Like when they poured water for each other first at meals.
Or when a box of mouthwash was delivered to Junpei’s room.
Or when Nobara suddenly bought a huge amount of perfume she never used to wear.
Or when the two of them would vanish somewhere together right after a mission.
At that point, only an idiot wouldn’t notice.
“So that’s what this is?”
“That’s right.”
Megumi and Yuji, who spent more than half the day with them, had already figured it out. They just hadn’t said anything out of consideration for them.
But Gojo was different.
“Oh, you little brats...”
Two hundred percent pure malice, with no regard for anyone else’s feelings.
A man whose only life principle was his own amusement.
“I heard there are some bold little troublemakers disturbing the morals of Jujutsu High lately. If you think that’s you, raise your hand!”
The moment he opened the classroom door that morning, Gojo started spouting nonsense.
His eyes were covered by a blindfold, so you couldn’t see them, but there was no doubt they were full of mischief.
“So this day has come...!”
“What a load of crap.”
Nobara and Junpei’s expressions both soured.
The more they suffered, the more Gojo’s enthusiasm blazed.
“Nobara, Junpei.”
“What?”
“Huh?”
“How far have you two gone?”
That lecherous question from Gojo was the final straw, and the two of them exploded.
“You insane bastard! What the hell are you talking about?”
“[Moonlit Wave].”
Nobara hurled her hammer.
Junpei summoned his shikigami and sent an attack packed with very personal feelings straight at Gojo.
Gojo bounced every incoming attack away with [Limitless], snickering obnoxiously, and in an instant the classroom turned into chaos.
Crash! Bang!
“Should I go get popcorn?”
“Stop talking nonsense and let’s get out of here. This doesn’t look like it’ll end anytime soon.”
While the commotion raged, Yuji and Megumi slipped out of the classroom.
With flying objects and explosions behind them, they were both thinking the same thing.
Gojo really was the source of all evil.
“Sensei really does have a terrible personality sometimes.”
“You just figured that out?”
“I wanted to ask too, but to do it so openly in front of everyone...”
“I doubt Yoshino would tell you, but Kugisaki definitely wouldn’t.”
“Watching that makes me feel lonely. You got a girl you like?”
“No.”
---------------------------
Anyway, once the uproar passed, Junpei went back to training.
He still visited Nobara whenever he had the chance, but otherwise his daily life hadn’t changed much.
Only one more resolve had been carved into his heart.
“I’m going to get strong enough to protect everyone.”
It was almost a month now since he had entered Jujutsu High.
After crossing the line between life and death together again and again, the others had become precious to Junpei.
Itadori Yuji, who had saved his life.
Reliable ally and rival, Fushiguro Megumi.
And Nobara Kugisaki, his most precious lover.
His goal was to grow strong enough to protect all of them.
His enemies were formidable.
If Nanami hadn’t arrived in time when he fought Mahito, both Yuji and he would have died right there.
Hanami had only been beaten because she had been worn down by fighting multiple opponents in succession and then awakened a new ability at the last second. In a straight fight, she was several levels above him.
If she hadn’t had another objective, if she had used her [Domain Expansion] from the start, they would have been defeated before they could even react.
And from what he’d heard, that wasn’t all.
There was still the volcano that had once attacked Gojo.
A special-grade vengeful spirit born from fear of the earth.
If what Mahito had said was true, that guy was probably the strongest of the four.
He had no intention of getting cursed again.
Not himself, and not the people precious to him.
And the one he chose as his guideline was Gojo.
The undisputed strongest, the man who maintained the balance of the world simply by existing.
Sometimes he seemed so ridiculous Junpei couldn’t help thinking, “That’s the strongest?” But the power he possessed was the real thing.
That was why Junpei asked Gojo to teach him.
He would benchmark himself against him, steal what could be stolen, and get advice on the parts he had to develop on his own.
Slowly, but steadily, one step at a time.
“This one’s out. This one... might be decent.”
He compared the shikigami candidates he’d organized one by one, deciding what kind of motif he should use to inherit their abilities.
“Why are there so many different kinds?”
He built up chemical knowledge for the many different uses of poison.
Whenever he hit a wall, he went to Ieiri Shoko for help.
“That’s enough! I think that should do it.”
“You getting the hang of it?”
“Yeah. As long as more than a quarter is left, it seems to regenerate within a minute. But the more damage it takes, the slower it gets.”
“So you don’t need to bring out Hanami anymore?”
“It’s already fast enough. The important thing is whether I can keep up with that speed. Lately I’ve been focusing on strengthening my cursed energy.”
He discussed possible applications for his shikigami with Megumi.
Eat, sleep, train.
He gathered data on what was possible and what wasn’t.
When he went out on missions, he tested tactics he hadn’t tried before.
“So [Black Flash] can be applied to other people too.”
“It does use a lot more cursed energy, though. Unless you’ve got plenty to spare, it’s better to save it. It could be your trump card.”
When there were no missions, he took care of his mind and body.
And when he felt lonely, he went to Nobara and spent time with her.
“Another video?”
“No. This time there’s something good on Netflix.”
“Ohhh, nice.”
They were still too shy to do more than hold hands, but that alone was enough to give him the courage to keep living.
The warmth of her hand in his, the soft scent drifting from the nape of her neck as her hair swayed—everything about her was so lovely that by the time the movie ended, he’d already half forgotten the latter half of the plot.
Every time, he made the same vow.
“I’ll protect you.”
But if he said that out loud, the fierce, stubborn girl would probably bristle and snap at him for acting like he needed to protect her. So he kept it to himself.
Besides, it was embarrassing.
The movie ended and the credits rolled.
Nobara, who’d spent the whole thing wearing an annoyed expression, kicked her feet irritably.
“You said it was fun! What even was that story?”
“You didn’t like it?”
“It was fun, but it was incomprehensible. I didn’t understand a single thing! Why does he get on a boat and leave by himself again at the end? Why can’t the two of them just live happily together?”
At the end of the film, the protagonist shakes off the heroine’s hand as she tries to hold him back and sets off on a new adventure.
He wavers for a moment at the sound of her voice calling him through tears, but the ending closes with him gathering his resolve while watching the sunset sink beyond the horizon.
To Junpei, it was a fairly satisfying ending, but apparently not to Nobara.
“Because that’s what drives him. The protagonist’s actions are always rooted in the desire to ‘see a new world.’ He meets the heroine halfway through and starts dreaming of settling down, but soon realizes that would become a shackle binding his life, so he leaves. It might be a sad ending for us, but for the protagonist, it’s closer to a happy ending with an open conclusion.”
Maybe the director who made the film had wanted to convey that kind of meaning too.
Junpei’s analysis was based entirely on mise-en-scène and story structure, but Nobara wasn’t having it.
“That’s all just pretty-sounding bullshit. In the end, it’s just people living however they want. That’s the problem with media these days. They act like they’re breaking clichés, but all they do is obsess over ridiculous twists and bad endings. From the consumer’s point of view, I just want a happy ending!”
“Haha... I guess that’s one way to look at it.”
“Think about it. There’s a rice bowl place you go to a lot. You always order katsudon there. It’s ordinary, sure, but it’s reliably tasty and easy to eat without any fuss. Then suddenly the owner decides to try something new, throws out the katsudon, and serves you some ridiculous mala rosé shrimp bowl instead. How would you feel?”
“As long as it tastes good, wouldn’t that be fine?”
“Ugh... that’s exactly the problem!”
“But movies are different. There were plenty of hints leading up to the ending.”
Still baffled, Junpei was met with a snort from Nobara before she launched into her rebuttal.
“Isn’t a movie open to interpretation? No matter what intention the creator had, it’s up to the audience to judge the result. And I’ve decided. Whether there were hints or not, the moment it betrayed my expectations, that movie became trash.”
“That’s a harsh review.”
“The ending was harsh!”
At Nobara’s sulky expression, a clear laugh burst out of Junpei.
“You really hated it that much?”
“Yeah. Happiness is the best!”
“Well, fair enough. As long as there’s a certain amount of plausibility, a happy ending is the best option.”
Without meaning to, he found himself thinking that life was the same.
In this world where impossible things happened all the time, happiness was what mattered most.
No matter which path you took, if the end was happy, if I could be satisfied with it.
That was enough.
“It’s late. I should get going.”
“Want me to walk you back to the girls’ dorm?”
“No need. We see each other every day anyway, so there’s no point.”
Nobara grinned, opened the door, and stepped out.
Watching her back, the words Junpei couldn’t say lingered on the tip of his tongue.
“Nobara.”
“Yeah?”
“I love you. Good night.”
The way she turned back with a slightly flushed face was unbearably cute.
“I-I love you too...”
After seeing her off, he stayed by the door for a long while, unable to tear his eyes away until her footsteps could no longer be heard.
Lately, days like this had become his routine.
It was hard, and there were plenty of times he wanted to quit.
But for a happy ending, he could endure this much.
Until he avenged his mother, saved as many people as he could, lived happily, and grew old and died.
The movie isn’t over.
“All right, let’s do it again.”
Junpei opened his book again today.
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