The hot water feels so good, but it did quite a mediocre job of actually waking him up.
Kazuki stood under the spray, letting the steam fill the bathroom. He yawned, before dipping his head to wash his hair. It had been about three weeks since his brain decided to download a lifetime of someone else's memories before deciding fuck that He is Kazuki, first and foremost, and two and a half weeks since he realized the ugly things that no one seem to notice other than him, hanging around the city were real, not a twisted hallucination and two weeks since realizing it forms from this weird small smoke leaking from people, just a tiny amount, as it joins with the other smoke leaked from a whole lot of people, literally every person he ever seen and one and a half week when it attacked him and one week when he realises where he is and the fact he has superpowers.
He stepped out, dried off, and threw on his Satozakura High uniform. Breakfast was amazing, one of the things he started being grateful about even since getting another life's memory: two slices of toast thick with peanut butter and a banana, eaten slowly while sitting on the couch and watching news on the TV like a generic anime office worker.
You might wonder, who actually watches news on TV, I would get reasonably defensive when accused and would argue I have a great reason, as in the Tv, a mildly attractive woman heavy with makeup talks about people disappearing, near the Yasohachi Bridge and a mysterious arsonist causing fires in a hospital leading to all large loss of life and the deforestation process for the Tokyo Olympics Infrastructure were paused for some reason, due to workers and labour going missing.
His phone buzzed on the coffee table.
Alive? — Aunt.
Nope. You? — Kazuki typed back with one hand, taking a bite of toast.
Nope, she replied a second later. If I appear on TV after committing a few murders, just know it was completely justified and I didn't regret a single moment of it.
Kazuki snorted and finish up quickly and tossed the plate in the sink, quickly rinsing it and turn of the tv.
He grabbed his bag, locked the door after turning the fan off, and headed down the stairs before pausing.
He closed his eyes, searching for the warm buzzing sensation and found it in a few seconds. The energy inside him felt like warm water that buzzes.
The trick was keeping it from leaking out of him like all the people he ever seen here does, it's what creating those grotesque things, Kazuki saw one ridiculously big spider being created when he was eating in the cafeteria, a spider being 2 foot was so horrifying he never quite recovered his apatite for that whole day.
Since people have so little of it, yet when it join with other's, Kazuki dares not imagine what would happen if he leaked the Cursed Energy like them, especially when he has four times there's. It required the exact same mental restraint as walking with a scraped toe—a constant, nagging conscious effort to hold it slightly elevated from the floor. He pushed the bulk of the warm current down into his legs, kept a shallow layer wrapped tightly inside his torso, and let a little filter up to his head to clear the morning fog.
He leaned forward and started his jog.
With the energy pooled in his leg muscles, he practically glided over the concrete. The wind rushed to his face, blowing his hair back as a grin split his face.
As the gates of Satozakura High came into view, Kazuki dialed it back. He pulled the water out of his legs, letting it settle heavily in his center, slowly circle it, foot, knee, hips, other foot, repeat and then torso, to hands and head ,repeat , it is slow but not as slow as last week's time of twenty seconds, that's how much it took for a full circle over his body and he slowed to a lazy walk just as he merged with the crowd of students.
By the front gate, a disciplinary teacher was yelling at a group of students who had forgotten their ID cards. Kazuki didn't care about them, but he did care about the watermelon-sized, multi-eyed thing chewing on teacher's shoe.
Without breaking his stride, Kazuki casually swung his foot, catching the creature squarely with a lightly reinforced kick. To anyone else, it just looked like Kazuki had kicked a pebble.
The thing gave a wet squeak, tumbled near the bushes, and dissolved.
A few steps later, a smaller, worm-like one tried to slither toward the gate. Kazuki just brought his heel down hard, stomping it flat against the pavement.
Twenty-three. Twenty-four.
That was his count so far, Thankfully all of them except a very few actually hurts him. Two in the park during that first messy fight, a few in the corners of the gaming cafe, but mostly just these bottom-feeders curses hanging around the school.
Kazuki walked into the building and swapped his shoes, slamming his metal locker shut. Walking slowly to the class humming and enter and found his seat
"You look way too awake for a Monday," a voice groaned next to him.
It was Sho, leaning against the lockers like his spine had melted. Behind him, Kenji and Daiki looked just as dead.
"I had coffee," Kazuki lied smoothly. He didn't mention the warm energy sitting in his head doing a much better job than caffeine.
"Lucky," Daiki muttered, rubbing his eyes. "I was up till 3 AM trying to raise to diamond rank. What about you?"
"Man I can't even reach platinum," Kazuki said, slinging his bag over his shoulder.
"Hey," Kenji chimed in as they started down the crowded hallway toward homeroom. "Did you finish the English assignment? Let me copy it. I'll buy you a cream bun at lunch."
"Two cream bun, Kazuki countered without looking at him.
"Extortion," Kenji hissed, but nodded anyway. "Fine. Two."
Kazuki reached into his bag and handed over the paper. As he did, a tiny, fly-like thing buzzed near Sho's ear. Kazuki casually swatted at the air, crushing the invisible bug between his fingers with a tiny spark of silver-grey energy, then wiped his hand on his pants.
Sho blinked. "Mosquito?"
"Something like that," Kazuki muttered.
Time passes quickly when you can actually understand what the teachers are saying.
I don't know why people don't use their past life's education, Kazuki muses as he finds classes to be an absolute breeze now, he is quite confident he can score high in the final exam but nothing's wrong with some extra cramming when his life's literally at stake.
By the time the lunch bell rang, Kazuki was in high spirits. He unwrapped the two cream buns he bought in the cafeteria from the money he had extorted—negotiated—from Kenji, casually split them into four roughly equal pieces, and slid them across the clustered desks to the rest of the group.
"My treat," Kazuki said with a smug grin.
Sho and Daiki cracked up, happily taking their shares, while Kenji just stared flatly at his own aggressively re-gifted pastry.
"You're a menace to society," Kenji muttered, though he ate it anyway.
As they ate, the conversation naturally shifted to their upcoming plans. Specifically, cram schools. Because yeah, this is Japan. Even if all four of them spent their entire evenings screaming in gaming lobbies, the Asian blood in their veins meant they were still going to study.
Kazuki snorted loudly at the thought, earning a weird look from Sho. Kazuki just waved him off, leaning back in his chair and resting his hands behind his head as Daiki made his case.
"So, my older sister went to this one prep school a couple of districts over," Daiki explained, using his mechanical pencil as a pointer. "The passing rates are solid, the tutors actually care, and they have a good lounge area."
"A couple of districts over?" Kenji groaned, resting his forehead against the cool wood of his desk. "That means taking the train. Probably during rush hour. Hard pass."
"Yeah, way too much effort," Sho agreed, wiping his mouth. "There's a perfectly mediocre one near the station here. Let's just do that."
Kazuki nodded in agreement. A long train commute sounded like a massive drain on his time—time he'd much rather spend playing games, watching shows, or actually practicing his freaking superpower.
"Wait, hold on," Daiki said, holding up a hand to stall them. He looked left, then right, before leaning in over the desks like he was sharing highly classified state secrets. "I haven't gotten to the most important pro. According to my sister... the student ratio there is exactly three girls to every one boy."
Silence fell over the four desks.
Kenji slowly lifted his head. Sho stopped chewing. Kazuki blinked.
"The train ride," Kenji said, his voice entirely serious, "is actually a great way to catch up on flashcards."
"Builds character, too," Sho nodded sagely. "I think expanding our horizons outside of this district is essential for our personal growth."
"I suddenly feel a deep, burning passion for higher education," Kazuki added deadpan, before snorting as he took another bite of the cream bun he didn't pay for.
Daiki leaned back in his chair. A smug grin plastered across his face, he spread his arms wide, soaking in the imaginary ovation like a triumphant king and for once, we let him have it.
After the final bell rang, Kazuki parted ways with his friends at the school gates. His apartment was in a different direction than the others, which meant his afternoon commute was usually a solitary one.
He didn't mind. Humming quietly to himself with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, he took his time strolling down the busy pavement.
He should be completely used to these streets. He had lived here most of his life. Yet, ever since those memories had anchored themselves in his brain, the everyday scenery had taken on a strange, glossy coat of novelty.
I am in freaking Japan, his brain still marveled.
Sure, it wasn't Tokyo, but it was still Japan. Even the name of the place he grew up—Kawasaki City—sounded undeniably cool to his past life. Everything looks vibrant, so freaking clean and the food is so good. It was a weird but nice feeling, to be a tourist in your own hometown, but he couldn't deny that it made the usually boring walk a lot more entertaining.
Taking a slight detour, he stopped by a small shop near the crossing. He ordered a brown sugar boba tea, gave a happy nod and a "thank you" to the barista, and stepped back out.
He popped the thick straw through the plastic seal and took a long sip, happily chewing on the tapioca pearls as he continued his walk home. The silver-grey energy in his chest hummed a slow, steady rhythm, matching his relaxed pace as the sunset began to paint the world orange.
Back at the apartment, dinner was a steaming bowl of delivery tonkotsu ramen.
Kazuki relished every rich, salty bite while slumped on the couch, watching an episode of One Piece. He would have loved to watch Demon Slayer, but unfortunately, the first season hadn't even aired yet in this timeline. Hell, even the Tournament of Power and Goku breaking the internet hadn't occurred yet.
That was one of the few real downsides to his whole situation: the anime, stories, and movies he had kept track of and eagerly waited for just got kicked back nearly ten years. That, and the sudden, creeping dread of realizing he was going to have to live through the entire COVID pandemic all over again in a few years. He shuddered at the thought, aggressively slurping a mouthful of noodles to distract himself from the looming global lockdown—which, given the universe he was currently in, somehow wasn't even the biggest issue.
After tossing the empty takeout containers, he walked over to his desk and booted up his computer. A wide, gleeful grin spread across his face as he opened his digital wallet and stared at his Bitcoin balance.
Kazuki was, by all reasonable metrics, incredibly secure. His late parents had left behind a trust fund, though it currently only paid out a fixed monthly stipend. He used that stipend strictly to cover his daily food, electricity, and water bills. It wasn't that his aunt couldn't afford to pay for everything—she absolutely could—but she insisted he manage half of his own basic living expenses after he turned fifteen to learn responsibility. Of course, her strictness had limits; she still paid his high school tuition in full and always made sure a fat emergency fund sat untouched in his bank account just in case.
When the memories of his past life had first downloaded into his brain, securing some easy future wealth had been priority number two. He had texted his aunt, asking for some money to invest in cryptocurrency.
She had called him in freaking four in the morning, delivering a stern, thirty-minute lecture about the extreme volatility of digital currency, the risks of falling for lies that everybody can get rich, while he was rubbing his knuckled in his eyes, wondering should he hang up or not. Then, she expertly dodged his pointed question about what exactly she did for a living if she can call him in that ungodly hour. She simply stated she worked with "A rare collection of highly aggressive, exceptionally rare specimens who would get themselves killed in five minutes if I wasn't constantly babysitting their dumb asses."
Kazuki assumed she was some kind of scientist or biologist working for a massive pharmaceutical company. She was hella weird, though. Kazuki had no doubt she was probably referring to some microscopic organisms or poor animals as "dumb," but he certainly wasn't going to say that to her face.
Once she was satisfied she had done her parental duty, she casually transferred 500,000 yen into his account. She had even sounded a little impressed, mentioning she had bought a chunk of Bitcoin herself few years back just to see what the fuss was about and did not regret it.
Kazuki rubbed his hands together like a cartoon villain, staring at the monitor. He remembered this perfectly. Back in early 2017, the exchange rate meant his 500,000 yen was roughly around $5,000 US dollars. Right now, Bitcoin was sitting around $1,000 a coin. By the end of this year, it was going to violently jump to nearly $20,000 and just keep growing.
To a normal high schooler, 500,000 yen was a massive, terrifying gamble. But Kazuki had thought it through and decided it was more than worth the risk. His aunt's monthly income, combined with her own investments, easily cleared over 4 million yen a month—a fact he still found utterly baffling. He distantly remembered handing her a disconnected controller and telling her they were playing multiplayer when she kept bugging him mid match, a lie she completely believed while he just played a solo drop in freaking Fortnite. Kazuki genuinely didn't understand how she earned so much money when all he really knew about her was that she had a doctorate, was hella dum—no, don't call your sugar-auntie stupid, Kazuki—oblivious, had ridiculously busy work hours, and chain-smoked.
He leaned back in his desk chair, his silver-grey Cursed Energy humming happily in his chest as he circulated it swiftly as he can. He lives in great apartment, his guardian is rich, he now has a way to get rich himself, and superpowers.
Life was pretty good, just as long as he stayed the fuck away from Shibuya before Halloween and didn't come back until the following New Year's Eve.
It was a shame, though. He couldn't remember much about the rest of the Jujutsu Kaisen cast. He obviously remembered Gojo, Yuji, Sukuna, and Potential Man. Then there was that amazingly well-done Sakura equivalent whom he had genuinely adored before she got unceremoniously off-screened, which was the point where he had gradually started losing interest in the series.
He knew the second-years had a Panda, and the third-years had some guy Kazuki just called "Hunca Dunca" since that was literally all his blurry memories could come up with. And... that was pretty much it. Oh, right, there was also that funny guy who could manipulate reality if he thought a joke was hilarious. But beyond that? Nope.