~ Seiji Fujiwara POV ~
It's been a week since the weird app known as the Multiversal Group Chat downloaded itself onto my phone and today will be the day where the universe I will have to do a mission will be revealed.
So here I was sitting on the couch with my phone in hand, with Masachika to my right, Ai sitting beside me to my left, Yuki's face on a laptop since she had to go home, and my mom behind me massaging my shoulder to either calm her nerves or mine, it could be both.
Renako couldn't make it due to a sudden invitation from one of her friends from school. At first she thought about declining, insisting that she wanted to be there for me, but I along with my mom forced her to go saying outside of me she can have other friends.
In the end she decided to go but would come back to check in on me immediately after…seriously sometimes she can be such a mom.
"Alright, now it's time to see what universe my mission is in." It would be a bold face lie to say I wasn't nervous, hell everyone was nervous, but for good reason.
Even if I did die on one of these missions, I could still very much feel the pain of dying and would no doubt come back traumatized by it.
My mom sensing my nervousness switched from massaging my shoulder to running her fingers through my hair, and it did work a bit as whenever she did this it would send pleasant tingles around my body.
I thought back to the time I told her about the app, and it was just as I expected, I couldn't hide anything from her, especially not my new physical changes from evolving into a high human.
~ Flashback ~
"Uhhh…" I looked to Masachika and Yuki for help only to find the space the two of them occupied were empty.
I had been completely right, after the whole scene with mom returning and being as clingy if not more clingy than usual, mom had immediately noticed my physical change.
I couldn't hide anything from her, while she was clumsy at times and a bit of a ditz, as people would say, she was not stupid especially when it came to me. So she interrogated me.
"Well???" She said gently, and a small part of me felt guilty even thinking of hiding this from her, even now when I hesitated and debated on whether to outright tell her or not she had not once shown a hint of impatience.
"So…a day ago, some weird app downloaded itself onto my phone." I began, but before I could continue I was bombarded by a round of questions by my worried mother.
"Hold on mom! Please let me finish before you… ask your question." I said, interrupting her.
She nodded and sat down in front of me, and out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the two siblings poking their heads from the corner of the stairs, my eyebrow twitched but I ignored them.
"So like I said, this app downloaded itself onto my phone yesterday night, and…" I proceeded to explain the whole situation from when I discovered the app, to when I called Masachika and Yuki, to the phone call when Ai possessed my body, to the moment she arrived.
After I finished explaining everything to her, mom was silent for a while. "…Why?" She asked quietly to no one in particular.
I was immediately concerned by the tone of her voice so I moved over to her side to comfort her, "Mom?"
She looked at me with watery eyes "Why you?!?! Why out of 8 billion people in this world, it had to be you!!!!" She exclaimed angrily, not at me but perhaps at whoever was responsible for giving me the app.
She started breaking down crying, she kept repeating the questions of 'Why did it have to be her son?' And kept blaming herself for some reason, but I shut those thoughts down immediately.
"It's not your fault, mom. It's never your fault. You're the most amazing, most loving, most caring mother anybody could ask for. You took me in when you didn't have to, learned to cook so that you could make me breakfast, lunch, and dinner when you could've easily asked a servant to."
"You raised me when you could have easily ordered a servant to do so, or have a branch member raise me. And I'm thankful to whoever left me at your doorstep because if I had not met you, mom, I wouldn't be able to imagine how my life would be, nor do I want to imagine how my life would be without you." I said and somewhere between my speech I guess I started shedding a few tears as well.
After that mom hugged me and I hugged back, we sat there for a few minutes just comforting each other before we finally pulled apart.
"You two can come out now." I called out, wiping the remainder of my tears. From the bottom of the stairs, Masachika and Yuki stepped out from where they had been hiding and waiting.
Before I could even get another word out Yuki dove at mom and stuck to her like a koala and mom just let it happen in fact she looked giddy at the opportunity to hug Yuki.
Masachika stopped next to me smiling serenely at the scene and so did I. It was at moments like these where me reincarnating in this world would completely slip my mind, I would feel like I always and truly belonged here and my other life was but a dream.
"Hmmm…" At the top of the stairs was Ai Hoshino looking at the scene with a look of longing, and that reminded me that I would at some point need to discuss her situation to find her regret and get her to move on…
~ End Flashback ~
After that it was a difficult conversation where mom was forced to acknowledge that there was absolutely nothing she could do about the app but be there beside me everytime I came back from missions.
Now here we were all sitting in the living room waiting for the time to run out to know the destination of my first mission.
_
First Mission has been assigned!
_
"It's here!" I say, seeing the notification popping up on the top of my screen, I stared at the notification as it disappeared and I could feel the grip on my hair grow tighter, not roughly but enough for me to notice.
I swallowed the lump in my throat looking around the room, at Masachika, then at Yuki, then to Ai, before my eyes finally landed on my mom. She nodded and that was all the confrontation I needed before I clicked on the app.
The missions channel was lit up.
_
World: [Jujutsu Kaisen]
Assignment(s):
Prevent the sealing of Gojo Satoru.
Prevent Megumi from summoning Mahoraga.
Prevent the destruction of Shibuya.
Defeat the Disaster Curses Jogo, Hanami, Dogan, and Mahito.
Defeat Kenjaku.
Prevent the death of Gojo Satoru.
Defeat the King of Curses Sukuna.
Participants:
(Admin) Seiji Fujiwara
Supporting Items:
Cursed Technique
Immense Cursed Energy
Special Grade Cursed Tool: Rivers of Blood Katana
Vengeful Spirit: Ai Hoshino
Identification and Background History
Failure Conditions:
Death.
Rewards upon completion:
All supporting Items will be permanently available to participants upon completion of the mission.
1000 Guaranteed Shop points, However more can be acquired due to the grade of the overall mission.
10 Gacha Tickets, the rarity of these Gacha Tickets will be solely based on Grade of Overall Mission.
Grade: N/A, Mission not complete.
Time until sent on Mission: 23 Hrs, 57 mins, 43 secs
_
After reading all that the room went silent for a moment before Masachika spoke up. "Alright Seiji, you have exactly 23 hours until you're sent on the mission, meaning in those 23 hours you're gonna have to break your no manga rule."
I sighed, if I wanted the advantage I needed knowledge of that world's future, no matter what I can't afford to be picky about what type of media I choose to consume, whether it be anime, manga, light novel, or webnovels.
So I nodded, however there was a problem, "Where am I supposed to read it?" I asked as I didn't own any of the JJK volumes seeing as I just got into anime not too long ago and I was against reading manga.
"I can take care of that, since I can't be there, I'll have Ayano drop off all the volumes of JJK to you." Yuki said from the computer screen.
I nodded thanking her.
"Well at least they won't be sending you in there without anything to protect yourself." Masachika said, looking on the brighter side. And I did have to agree with him, I won't be going in there completely helpless.
"More importantly you won't be going in there alone." Mom chimed in, still hugging me from behind, and she was right, I looked at Ai who had yet to say anything about the fact that she was now included on these adventures…if you call them that.
"Ai?" I called out to her, snapped her out of her thinking.
"Huh?"
"You good? You've been spacing out a lot lately…" I pointed out, ever since that night where she witnessed the scene between me and mom she had been oddly quiet, sometimes I would catch her looking at nothing with a far away look.
"…I'm fine, so I'm gonna be going with you, huh?" She said putting on that bright smile she always seemed to have.
I knew it was fake and what gave it away were her eyes, much like Renako Ai's eyes were really expressive, always giving off what she was actually feeling rather than what she wanted others to think she was feeling. Though I will admit she is much better at hiding it better than Renako.
I needed to talk to her about her situation fast, but that would have to wait after the mission as right now this took precedence at the moment.
"Yeah, you're with me. So I hope you can take care of me when we're there, yeah?" I said jokingly.
"Me take care of you? Aren't you the one with Superman's strength?"
"It's not super- never mind arguing with you will be a waste of my brain power."
"What's that mean!"
I just laughed at her, causing her to pout. At this moment, at least for right now the mission kinda faded into the background as I continued joking around with my friends and mom.
~ Narrator POV ~
It's been about 4 hours since the mission notification, and 2 hours since Ayano dropped off all the volumes of JJK, now Seiji sat in his room reading all of JJK. He was just now getting into the shibuya arc.
He was interrupted by a knock at his room door before it opened, he stopped to see Renako, his best friend and neighbor.
"Hey, how are you holding up?" She walked up to him before she sat next to him on the bed. "And where is everyone?"
Seiji looked at her weirdly, "You know you've been acting like a mom recently, it's kinda weird especially since you don't give off the mommy vibes. As for the matter of how I'm holding up though… it's frustrating and kinda fun, the fun part being reading manga it's actually really relaxing. You can already tell what's the frustrating part though." He said.
"As for the other matter of where everyone is…Masachika went back home to get more clothes, Yuki had to leave due to her family, mom went out with your mom to get dinner. But that's enough about me, what about you? How was your outing with your friends?" He said, pausing his reading to look at Renako giving her his full attention.
"Oh, it was fun!" Renako spent the next 15 and a half minutes telling Seiji about her friends, Mai Ōzuka, Sena Ajisai, Koto Satsuki, and Koyanagi Kaho. "You know it was kind of a funny story about how I became close friends with them." She said, smiling fondly at the memory.
"Oh? And how was that?"
"Well it was a week ago when we started high school, I was still upset that we wouldn't be going to school together, so during lunch I went to the roof to try and cool my thoughts. Mai, Sena, Satsuki, and Kaho thought something was wrong with me and sent Mai up to check on me."
"When I heard the door opening and heard Mai's voice yelling 'Renako don't do it!' I got a little startled and slipped from the ledge of the roof." Before she could continue, Seiji interrupted her.
"What?! Why were you even that close to the ledge on the roof anyway, no- why were you even on the roof anyway?!" Before he continued, Renako literally grabbed his lips to keep him from questioning her further.
"I survived with no injuries thanks to Mai, she fell and jumped with me and her only hope was that she was lucky so we won't get hurt or die from it, and wouldn't you know it we were fine, her luck may even be more insane than your Seiji." She continued still holding his lips shut.
Seiji seeing how fondly she was talking about the memory relaxed, if she wasn't hurt nor traumatized then there was really nothing to worry about he dropped it not wanting. Though he did make a mental note to scold and thank this Mai Ōzuka girl.
Seiji tried to talk but his lips were still clamped down by Renako, and when she saw this she finally let go.
"It's good that you have friends outside of me, I want to meet them someday. But I've taken enough of a break so I gotta get back to reading, so unless you wanna stay and sit in absolute silence…" he let the offer hang in the air.
Renako didn't say anything and just let her head fall on Seiji's shoulder, "I'll read with you, so what part are you on?" She asked.
"Yuji just put bta on the grasshopper curse…" Seiji has began to explain the what has happened so far in the manga.
~ Seiji Fujiwara POV ~
It was exhausting mentally, but I managed. 271, I read all 271 chapters of Jujutsu Kaisen in just about 15 hours, of course I had breaks but It was mentally exhausting, but I was ready.
I had about 3 hours or so left, and instead of spending them preparing for the mission I spent it with my mom and Masachika who had come back with 2 large suitcases full of clothes.
"It's like you're planning to live here." I say jokingly after seeing the luggage he carried.
"Well, if he wants he can, Masachika knows he's welcome anytime." Mom said sitting beside me, we were watching season one of JJK, since mom wanted to know what type of world I'd be taken to.
"Thank you Aunt Sakura, and no I'm not moving in, maybe I should though…" He said seemingly in thought. Then he looked up at me "Shouldn't you be preparing?" He asked.
"Preparing?" I said confused.
"Yeah, since you and Ai are about to set off in a non-forgiving world like JJK. You two should be preparing, speaking of Ai, is she here?" He said, looking around but then forgetting that he can't see her.
"There's nothing to prepare, I read the manga and now all I can do is wait until it's time to go. And Ai…she's upstairs trying to prove to me that Ghost can sleep." I explained.
"Oh, and also Renako, Haruna, and Aunt Haruka are coming over for dinner, so don't embarrass me."
Masachika rolled his eyes, "Oh shut up." He said before taking all of his clothes upstairs.
~
It's time… the time was down to mere seconds now, and everyone was in my room looking at me with worried eyes. Ai was by my side. She looked completely fine, that smile still plastered onto her lips.
But her eyes showed a different story, she was just as, if not even more nervous than I was.
"Remember Seiji, before everything put yourself first, alright?" Masachika said, his hand gripping my shoulder harder than usual.
"I won't let you down sensei!" I said jokingly that it earned me a light punch to the shoulder.
Yuki came up next, her face looked deadly serious, "Seiji when you get there…" she paused for dramatic effect. "Grab Maki's boobs!" She was immediately grabbed by Renako and pulled back.
I sweat dropped but I could see what she was doing, she was trying to lighten the mood which I'm grateful for since the mood was now lighter.
Renako stepped up next, she didn't say anything, she didn't need to, her eyes said everything she wanted to convey.
"I'll be careful." I said smiling at her, she nodded and hugged me tight.
"Come back to me." She whispered softly in my ear.
"Always."
I heard a small "tch" coming from Yuki which caused me to sweatdrop but I ignored it and focused on the last person who knew about this and the most important person in my life.
Mom stepped up next, "I just want you to know that I love you, and no matter what happens in that world, no matter how much you change, I will always and forever continue to love you." She said and her eyes were tearing up again.
I nodded, afraid to say anything lest I cry.
She hugged me tightly, tighter than Renako, "I'm so proud of you, my beautiful boy. And Ai, please take care of my son and of yourself, okay?" I don't know how, but she looked directly at Ai.
Was this what they called motherly intuition?
"Don't worry, mama! I'll take real good care of Seiji for you~!' That's what she said." I repeated the words of Ai.
"It's scary how good you are at imitating me." Ai said beside me. Soon the world turned grey and everything paused.
I began to glow quite brightly making me close my eyes, and the next time I opened them, I found myself in a room filled with lanterns, candles, and two thick ropes beside me, and the most notable thing, talisman filled the room all over, so much so that you could no longer see the wall.
I recognized this room as the room Yuji Itadori was in when he was kidnapped by Gojo.
"Yo, you're up!" A voice came from in front of me and there stood none other than the strongest sorcerer of the modern era, Satoru Gojo!
~
Chapter End.