The girl named Rice Shower sat with a wooden expression, her heart reduced to dead ashes.
She looked up at the infirmary doctor with a desolate gaze, begging in a low whisper, "Tell me, Doctor... tell me this isn't real."
Shoko Ieiri, the resident physician of Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College.
Rumor had it she was a top-tier doctor, perhaps the best in all of Japan. She was a stunningly beautiful woman with chestnut hair falling to her shoulders, her eyes of the same color gazing languidly at the girl before her. She wore a white lab coat over a blue button-down, making no effort to hide her naturally curved figure.
The only slight imperfection was the dark circles under her eyes, too deep for any makeup to conceal, which somewhat marred her pretty face.
She glanced at the girl and sighed. "It's your period."
"NOOOOOOO—!!!!"
Rice Shower's soul finally shattered.
Standing by the doorway, Satoru Gojo instantly erupted into thunderous, ear-splitting laughter.
"Ahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHA! What the hell, what the hell is this?! You even get a period! Your gender-bend is absolutely flawless, Rice Shower-chan! You could probably even pop out a baby!"
That's right. She was Junpei Yoshino.
She had now spent two weeks at Jujutsu High. During this time, she had accepted her new identity as a Jujutsu Sorcerer, throwing herself into studying every scrap of Jujutsu knowledge available. Up until this point, things had been relatively normal.
What *wasn't* normal was what happened when she went home for the first weekend, and Satoru Gojo met her mother.
Her mother looked at her own child and uttered the one sentence that should never, ever be spoken: "Junpei, do you want a new dad?"
It was as if she had been bewitched. Her own child had been taken away for a week and had literally transformed from male to female, yet her mother barely gave her a second glance, spending the entire time hovering around Satoru Gojo. If she had possessed any less basic restraint, she probably would have tried to hold his hand!
Junpei Yoshino had never realized her mother was *that* kind of person!
Due to Japanese bureaucratic policies, the entity known as Junpei Yoshino was now legally a missing person. Unless she could restore her male body, as long as she remained biologically female, Junpei Yoshino had to stay missing. As a precaution, she couldn't even keep her surname.
She was forced to become an unregistered citizen—a "ghost."
Consequently, she needed a new identity.
Mama Yoshino pondered for a moment and bestowed upon Junpei her new name: Rice Shower.
The meaning of 'Rice Shower' was derived from the Western wedding custom of throwing rice, symbolizing a blessing to bring happiness to those around them.
No surname, just Rice Shower. From now on, although she could still visit her mother, legally and socially, she had absolutely zero connection to the Yoshino family.
Only the blessing embedded in the new name offered Junpei any shred of comfort. Otherwise, she genuinely would have suspected that her mother had completely erased her existence from her mind the exact second she laid eyes on Satoru Gojo.
As a side note, when a thoroughly despondent Rice Shower was dragged back to Jujutsu High by Gojo, he had looked at her meaningfully and said:
"Your mother is very smart. And she loves you very much."
Rice Shower's internal response was: *Bullshit.*
Regardless, she absolutely refused to go back home now. She was better off staying at Jujutsu High to study. Wasn't studying great? *I love studying! What is a home? Home is a cesspool!*
And so, she studied frantically for two weeks, desperately hoping to find a way to reverse Mr. Mahito's transfiguration. She was going to return to her male body; she absolutely had to! She had to! She refused to become a Shrine Maiden, absolutely not!
But all that effort was vaporized the moment her period arrived.
Shoko Ieiri felt a twinge of pity, but nevertheless handed down the final verdict:
"I'm sorry, Rice Shower, but you might need to prepare yourself to live the rest of your life as a girl. Your transfiguration is perfect. If this was merely a Jujutsu-based illusion or structural shift, there might be hope. But your condition is not a simple Jujutsu ailment. Your body has been physically, materially inverted. Biologically speaking, you are a complete, functioning female. As harsh as Gojo's words are, the reality is exactly as he said—"
She sighed and lowered her voice. "...You could even give birth normally."
It was 2018. Gender confirmation surgeries in Thailand were old news, but even the most cutting-edge procedures left post-operative side effects. Having a child was biologically impossible, as a trans female lacked a uterus, ovaries, and the necessary reproductive organs.
But Rice Shower's situation was fundamentally different.
Her transition was flawless. Her skeletal structure, musculature, circulatory system, internal organs, and even her brain—a territory still considered a black box by modern medicine—had been permanently converted into female biology.
She was so flawlessly reconstructed that she could be used as an anatomical standard for the female sex.
It was too perfect. So perfect it made Shoko Ieiri's skin crawl.
Normally, Rice Shower would have screamed and thrown a tantrum. The rage would have caused her suppressing grip on her massive Cursed Energy to slip, leading to a widespread miasma of curses. But the current Rice Shower was dead inside. She wept silently, tears streaming down her face like an abandoned puppy. Even her Cursed Energy lay dormant, the ambient negative energy bleeding off her feeling utterly sorrowful.
Even this pathetic, miserable crying evoked a specifically feminine urge to protect her.
Shoko sighed again and shot a glare at Satoru Gojo, who was literally vibrating as he violently suppressed another fit of laughter.
Other people might revere or fear Satoru Gojo because of his status or god-like power, but Shoko Ieiri absolutely did not. She slapped him hard on the back, her face a mask of exasperation.
"Hey, read the damn room," she scolded.
"My bad, my bad..." Gojo took several deep breaths, finally wrestling his face back into its usual aloof expression. "So, did you find anything?"
Shoko glanced at Rice Shower, who was still quietly sobbing on the edge of the bed, and murmured to Gojo, "Let's talk outside."
Gojo shrugged. He initially thought Shoko just wanted to spare Rice Shower's feelings by speaking outside. They were going to discuss the anatomical anomaly of Rice Shower's body; after two weeks of observation and physicals, Shoko must have reached a preliminary conclusion. Normally, discussing it in front of Rice Shower wouldn't be an issue, but since the girl was currently experiencing a total psychological meltdown, talking about her biology right in front of her would be crossing a line.
Once they were out in the hallway, Gojo waited until he was certain Rice Shower couldn't hear them before speaking.
"What's the actual situation? Aside from the gender-bend?" Gojo's attitude remained flippant. He didn't think the situation was all that dire. Even though the geezers up top were screaming for the girl's execution, as long as he was alive, the higher-ups couldn't openly move against her.
Gojo had told the girl he had some authority in the Jujutsu world. He hadn't lied. It was far more than 'some' authority. Gojo wasn't bound by rigid dogma; as the undisputed strongest Sorcerer on the planet, he could shatter fundamental rules with total impunity if he chose to.
The only reason he hadn't slaughtered the entire conservative faction was because he hadn't yet found suitable replacements for them. If he found those replacements, an armed coup d'état would take him a day. No, half a day. In half a day, he could upend the entire modern Jujutsu society.
He wasn't stingy when it came to killing. He had already killed his fair share of people.
The higher-ups naturally knew exactly what Gojo was thinking. Yet Gojo was still alive and kicking. Was it because the higher-ups didn't *want* to kill him?
No, it was because they *couldn't*!
And precisely because they couldn't, Gojo treated them with such overwhelming contempt. That was the confidence of the modern era's strongest.
Shoko knew Gojo's mindset intimately. They had been inseparable comrades in their youth. She knew his stance on the higher-ups, and she knew the only reason he willingly anchored himself to this school was to cultivate Sorcerers capable of replacing that rotten brass.
Gojo had told her more than once: he was going to tear down the decaying foundation of the current Jujutsu world, and to do that, he needed to raise students who could keep up with his footsteps.
*So... is Rice Shower one of those students you're raising?*
Shoko pulled her wandering thoughts back to the present. She fished a pack of cigarettes from her lab coat, expertly tapped one out, and lit it, placing it between her lips.
"Where should I start?" Shoko pondered for a moment, then asked, "Gojo, how much do you know about the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings?"
"Just give me the conclusion," Gojo said confidently. "I'll keep up."
Shoko gave him a sidelong glance and said flatly, "Rice Shower is a Half-Cursed Spirit."
Gojo's face grew serious. He took a slow, deep breath.
"I apologize for my arrogance. Please start from the beginning, Shoko-san."
*He had absolutely no idea what she meant!* Since when did Jujutsu academia have a category called 'Half-Cursed Spirit'?! The classifications were 'Jujutsu Sorcerer,' 'Cursed Spirit,' and 'Cursed Object.' When did a half-breed enter the mix? Had Shoko literally invented a new term just for Rice Shower?
"It's fine if you don't understand," Shoko said dryly. "'Half-Cursed Spirit' is a term I literally just coined to explain her biology."
*She did just invent it!*
"Back to the original question," Shoko said. "Gojo, what do you know about the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings?"
Gojo organized his thoughts and spoke slowly.
"It's the stain on the Kamo clan's history."
"Around the Meiji era, a woman appeared who was capable of giving birth to Cursed Spirits. Noritoshi Kamo, known as the most evil Sorcerer in history, subjected this woman to horrific experiments, mixing his own blood into the process. She experienced nine pregnancies and nine forced abortions, delivering nine dead fetuses."
"Ultimately, those nine fetuses became Cursed Objects. Those are what we know as the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings."
Shoko nodded slightly.
"That is the widely accepted history. But because of my specific profession, I've had the privilege of examining the Death Paintings... Numbers 1 through 3 did not die. They were sealed as living Cursed Wombs. Did you know that?"
Gojo was genuinely surprised this time.
"That I didn't know. Are you saying Cursed Wombs 1 through 3 could theoretically continue to grow? As in, develop into normal infants?"
"I don't know. Honestly, I'm just extrapolating based on my medical expertise. All I can say is that 1 through 3 have the capacity to grow. Whether that growth would culminate in a functional lifeform is something I can't guarantee," Shoko exhaled a plume of smoke. "No one is going to voluntarily unseal a Special Grade Cursed Object. And even if they did, they are still fundamentally Cursed Objects. No one knows if they could actually become normal living beings."
Gojo nodded thoughtfully. "I think I see what you're getting at. Rice Shower-chan's current state is similar to that, isn't it? The difference is that the Cursed Wombs were forced to become Objects before they could finish developing, whereas she... is a finished product."
*Therefore, a Half-Cursed Spirit.* Gojo completely grasped the implication. *The term 'Half-Cursed Spirit' really is simple to understand, and terrifyingly accurate.*
Shoko praised him, "Even though you're a terribly selfish bastard, your brain really does spin fast."
"Hey!" Gojo complained loudly, but Shoko completely ignored him. She paused before continuing slowly.
"Although she is undeniably female on a biological level, the nature of her Cursed Energy is closer to that of a Cursed Spirit than a human Sorcerer."
"When you brought her to me, you hypothesized that the reason she possessed such a colossal reserve of Cursed Energy was due to a 'Binding Vow'—that she sacrificed her entire original biological structure in exchange for raw power."
"But now, I have to completely overturn your conclusion—"
She pulled the cigarette from her lips, staring down at the burning cherry, her gaze sharp as a hawk's.
"She didn't gain that massive Cursed Energy from a Binding Vow. She gained it because she has already been forged into the 'avatar' of a specific Cursed Spirit."
The flippancy vanished from Gojo's face. Behind his blindfold, the Six Eyes dilated sharply.
"She... is a Curse's avatar?"
"It might be even more horrific than that," Shoko said, her eyes returning to their languid state as she put the cigarette back in her mouth. "The Cursed Spirit laid a curse upon her, forcibly altering her flesh to perfectly synchronize with the frequency of that Curse's energy."
She thought about how to phrase it in layman's terms.
"Right, let's use a concept you deal with. She has been surgically modified into a perfect *vessel* for Incarnation. If that Curse so chooses, it could hijack Rice Shower's physical body at any given moment, with absolute, flawless compatibility."
Cursed Spirits didn't need vessels because they didn't need to Incarnate. Only Cursed Objects required Incarnation, as they couldn't act independently in spirit form; they needed a flesh-and-blood host.
Even though Shoko's analogy technically blurred the lines of Sorcery theory, Gojo understood exactly what she meant.
Normal Cursed Objects didn't have "custom-built" vessels. If a random person swallowed a Cursed Object, the object would forcefully overwrite the host's body, suppressing their ego and hijacking the flesh.
But some extremely unique Cursed Objects required specifically prepared vessels; without a tailored host, the body would collapse under the sheer toxicity of the curse. Rice Shower's current state was exactly that—she had been custom-tailored to someday perfectly accommodate a specific Cursed Spirit's soul.
Though he had just complimented her mentally, Gojo couldn't help but marvel again at Shoko's unparalleled expertise. With just a few sentences, she made a semi-layman like him perfectly understand Rice Shower's dire physiological state.
This also explained why the Curse had let Rice Shower live. It wasn't mercy; it was because the Curse had *already claimed her*.
Shoko exhaled slowly, the smoke rings drifting in the breeze. "Gojo, I'll give it to you straight. If it weren't for you, I'd side with the geezers on this one. If you can't hunt down that Cursed Spirit and kill it immediately, we should dispose of Rice Shower right now. She is too dangerous. Not because of what she is, but because she is a ticking time bomb waiting for a Special Grade Curse to Incarnate inside the school."
Gojo didn't even hesitate. "I refuse."
Shoko shrugged, completely unsurprised.
"Then you need to stay sharp. You know exactly what I mean." Shoko turned to Gojo, locking her brown eyes onto his.
"An unprecedentedly intelligent Cursed Spirit is cooperating with Curse Users. I don't even have to guess what their endgame is—it's the absolute destruction of the modern Jujutsu world. And you are the single biggest obstacle in their path. They are absolutely plotting against you."
"And right at this exact moment, a girl who could be hijacked as a vessel at any second conveniently falls right into your lap, looking at you with pathetic, pleading eyes. You get soft, and you take her in."
"So, I'm asking you a hypothetical," Shoko said softly.
"If there comes a day when the girl is Incarnated, and the Cursed Spirit steals her body, standing right in front of you..."
"...Gojo, what are you going to do?"
*Kill her.* Gojo wanted to open his mouth and spit the words out.
But he couldn't. Gojo Satoru had hesitated.
He simply smiled and said, "I won't let that happen."
Shoko looked at him deeply and didn't press the issue further.
"Just be careful. Don't die right before the dawn breaks, Gojo. Otherwise, the students you're working so hard to raise will be butchered by the higher-ups the second you're gone. You know that."
Perhaps even Shoko herself didn't realize that her voice trembled slightly as she said it.
Before this, she couldn't even conceptualize a scenario where Satoru Gojo lost. In fact, eleven years ago, when she heard that Gojo and Geto had actually failed a mission, she thought she was dreaming. She knew exactly how strong Gojo and Geto were; the idea of the two of them failing together made her question reality.
And after that, Gojo had entered an explosive period of growth. Even now, he was still optimizing techniques and evolving.
But now, an unprecedented crisis was brewing, and its crosshairs were aimed directly at this invincible man. Shoko didn't want to entertain the thought, but with the precedent set eleven years ago, she couldn't stop her mind from drifting to that dark place—
—The very real possibility of Satoru Gojo's defeat and death.
Gojo sensed Shoko's anxiety. He offered a dismissive smirk, adopting his usual arrogant swagger, and stated the absolute truth: "Who the hell do you think I am?"
Shoko waved a hand dismissively. "Alright, enough with the heavy talk. Let's pivot to something lighter. You asked me to check if she had an Innate Technique? I have the results."
Gojo forcibly shoved the gloomy atmosphere away. "Oh? And the verdict?"
"Congratulations. She does," Shoko smirked.
Gojo's smile widened into a triumphant grin. "Hahahaha! I knew it! That kid definitely has what it takes! Pair an Innate Technique with her monstrous Cursed Energy reserves, and as long as she trains properly, hitting Special Grade is practically guaranteed! Without a doubt, she's going to be a major player in the Jujutsu world."
Shoko dropped the other shoe: "Her Innate Technique... is Poison."
Gojo's expression blanked for a fraction of a second. He immediately realized that Rice Shower's very existence was already highly controversial; saddling her with such a 'taboo' Innate Technique would severely complicate her future.
After all, an Innate Technique based on 'Poison' was inherently despised by the 'righteous' orthodox factions.
But he swiftly recovered his arrogant facade. "So what? She's my student."
Shoko gave him a long, measuring look, and repeated what she had said earlier: "Gojo. Don't die."
Gojo repeated his own answer with absolute certainty: "Who do you think I am?"
Suddenly, Gojo's phone buzzed. He pulled it from his pocket, glanced at the screen, and clicked his tongue.
Shoko asked casually, "What's up? Another mission?"
"Megumi's back with a job," Gojo said, sounding thoroughly unbothered. "Sounds like some school got cursed by a Cursed Object. Wants me to tag along and handle it."
Shoko deadpanned, "Aren't you Megumi's superior? You're supposed to be giving *him* orders. Why is he giving *you* a mission briefing? Did you arbitrarily block the higher-ups' dispatches again, forcing Megumi to play secretary?"
"Hehe."
"...Please take your job seriously for once." Shoko sighed deeply. "So? If it requires you to step in, it must be at least a Special Grade Cursed Object. What is it?"
Gojo slipped the phone back into his pocket and said lazily, "Looks like... one of Ryomen Sukuna's fingers."