At the second half of August when the autumn heat was still showing its prowess.
Itadori had collapsed on the sofa.
"Ah——-...."
Yet, he did not feel hot. The air conditioning was on after all and the space he was in was relatively cool.
This was expected as currently, Itadori was not in that simple underground audio-visual room that Gojou set up for him.
This was a certain apartment of a certain condominium somewhere in Tokyo.
To make it clear, it was where Ichiji lived.
–I need to go on a business trip for something. Because it's somewhere pretty far away, it might take a few days this time. Also, logically speaking, it would be quite troublesome for you to hide in the same place, so for these few days, you can go stay with Ichiji, it should be interesting—"
Gojou had said to Itadori.
So Itadori went to Ichiji's house to impose on him for a few days.
Even though the situation was like this—It was only the first day and itadori was bored already,
Boredom was a toxin that could kill off a person's soul. But before that, Itadori's body already contained a lethal poison.
"....Hm."
Lately, Itadori did not even have the time to feel bored.
After he enrolled at Jujutsu Technical College, he was busy grouping with Fushiguro and Kugisaki, busy exorcising curses and experienced many life and death situations. In the end, he really died.
After reviving after many twist and turns, he went into hiding. Other than happily watching the movies Gojou gave him, he also underwent training as a Jujutsu sorcerer. In these few months, it was like riding a roller coaster ride with no tracks.
And now, he had to suddenly get off that roller coaster, living a new kind of life at Ichiji's home.
Yet the days here were so uneventful that it was frightening.
However….Ichiji seemed to spend almost all his time after returning home in front of the computer.
"What are you doing? Are you reading a blog or something?"
Itadori took a peek with a grin on his face only to realise that what was displayed on the screen was a form that was so full of words they were like the compound eyes of an insect and the top was listed full of numbers making him quickly rein in that happy and cheerful attitude of his.
On the screen, he could see forms about management of petty cash, the standard scale for monthly salary, fixed assets, plans to renovate the school grounds, flow of cash, also something about taxes, legal affairs, gifts and monsters….
In any case, even Itadori could tell that Ichiji was handling some difficult work.
If he was too noisy, he would disturb Ichiji's work, so Itadori decided to kill time on his own—
"Ichiji-san, can I go read something?"
"Sure, you can get some books from the bookshelf over there.
"…This [Leviathan], is it some kind of sci-fi novel?"
"No, it's a book often mentioned by the teachers during social sciences class."
(T/N: Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes.)
"Ichiji-san, don't you have manga or something in your house….?"
"I left those that I bought at my parents' home."
"I see."
So there was no manga here.
With some difficulty, in the end, Itadori found a book in the shelf that seemed like a novel but after flipping through a few pages, he found the content not to his liking so he gave up on reading it.
Having no other choice, he turned on the television at a low volume.
However, at this time, it was between the period of noon time variety shows and the prime-time slots at night so there was nothing interesting to watch.
After flipping through the channels quickly for a round, he realised that all the television stations were airing either about celebrities going on a leisure trip and tasting delicacies in a travelling and food programme or the news. Itadori chose the travel and food programme based on elimination.
"Ah, I suddenly feel that it's a refreshing feeling to watch television at this time."
"Because usually you're in school at this kind of time."
Itadori did not expect that Ichiji would tag onto the conversation. He thought as long as he did not disturb Ichiji's work, perhaps it would be fine to talk so he decided to start a topic.
"You're usually working at this time as well, right, Ichiji-san?"
"I am working. However, as long as we are able settle our work, it's alright to work from home. This is the part where this job is more flexible than other typical jobs."
"Oh—I see."
Until now, even though Itadori encountered quite a few adults who were Jujutsu sorcerers, as a student, he still did not understand what an adult "doing the job of the working class" was like.
He tilted his head and returned his gaze back to the television.
"Oh, the guest is Takada."
"Is that person very popular?"
Itadori only mumbled to himself but he never thought that Ichiji would react to it.
He felt that this was a chance he should grasp and felt that if Ichiji had just a bit of interest, perhaps he could take this as an opportunity to have a talk so Itadori excitedly started to explain.
"You could say that lately her exposure is pretty high. She has a pretty fresh personality. Even though she's trying to go down the cute path, because she's real tall, so a lot of the audience seem to like that kind of contrast."
"I see. So these kinds of celebrities are the ones that are popular these days."
"Also, she also played a minor character in one of those Getsuku dramas that ended recently."
(T/N: Getsuku or 月9 refers to dramas that are aired by Fuji television station on 9pm on Mondays (月曜日) )
"Really, she acts as well?"
"Ichiji-san, are you the type that doesn't watch drama series?"
"I mean it's true I'm not too familiar with them….but I don't hate to watch them. I just feel that the drama series of late are not my cup of tea. I used to watch dramas like "Pure Vacation"."
(T/N: A parody of the 1996 drama series Long Vacation)
"Hm? When did that air?"
"More than a decade ago. Speaking of which, Matoko was also very tall."
(T/N: The actress of the female lead of Long Vacation is called Tomako.)
"Matoko is...?"
"A very popular actress at that time…but after she got married, she completely left the acting circle. Kids these days should not know her, I suppose? But that's pretty normal…."
"I, I see. Then , did you watch any variety show recently."
"I don't watch variety shows either. Because I haven't been watching drama series so I don't really know those celebrities who appear on variety shows."
"People like athletes and such appear on variety shows too."
"I don't watch sports matches either. I was never good at sports in the first place so I'm not that interested…."
"….Ah, don't tell me that rather than those prime time shows, you prefer those late night shows instead? I really like that show that airs at midnight, they will bring in lots of celebrities who just started out. Even though I know I'll be tired the next day, I can't help but stay up."
"Ah, no, I don't really like those shows either.
"….Then what do you usually watch, Ichiji-san?"
"The news…and, and I quite like Rakugo!"
"Rakugo~"
Even though Itadori was a television kid*, Rakugo programmes usually aired mostly on Sunday evenings, during this time, students were basically out playing so even he never encountered this programme. Furthermore, he felt that Ichiji might be trying to soften the atmosphere so after replying that he only watched the news, he intentionally added Rakugo to the list of things he watched.
(T/N: In Japanese, this just means a child who likes watching television broadcasts and watches television for a long time. In other languages, it carries a more negative connotation of children who are "babysat" by their television because their parents are too busy. So don't assume that Itadori got neglected!)
Itadori was considered a chatty person but he gradually felt that both of them had a gap in their interests so he slowly spoke less and less.
After throwing a glance at Ichiji, he noticed that when Ichiji was talking to him, the latter continued to type on his keyboard. If Itadori kept trying to force a conversation, even he would feel sorry for Ichiji.
Right now, the television was showing their regular host and the guest Takada. They were giving all kinds of reviews to the food in Nagoya.
But the lackluster content did not display the advantage that should come from inviting a guest on the show. Anyway, the rating they had for food was only the word "Delicious".
–Since they already invited Takada onto the show, they should be able to talk about more interesting things. Seemed like the problem laid in the script. The main point of this show was not the food ratings but to let celebrities endorse the dishes so rather than the food, logically speaking, the audience looked forward more to any interesting conversations—
Itadori liked to watch television in the first place.
In addition, lately he was forced to watch many movies so that increased his ability to appreciate video works by quite a fair bit. To put it from another point of view, he could more or less understand the intention behind how a certain program was made.
In other words, in his eyes, shows with boring content became even more dull.
If this programme was the only available programme other than the news, it was too hard to watch.
But there was no other show on other television stations.
Itatdori wished within his heart that the show would become interesting while enduring and continuing to watch the show. However the comfortable room temperature and softness of the sofa made his urge to sleep grow.
"—Itadori, I have to go out for a but to handle something, do you want to come along?"
"Uwohhhhhh Metal Tamori!"
"Metal Tamori?!"
"Sorry, sorry, I had a snooze and had a seriously weird dream."
"What in the world did you dream about?"
"I have no idea what I dreamt about either. Besides, you're going out?"
"Ye, yes I am….If you still want to sleep, you can go back to sleep. I'm fine with heading out by myself."
"I want to go out! I want to photosynthesise!"
"I understand, it's just that a human's body composition does not allow them to photosynthesise."
"….Ah, but if someone realizes that I'm still alive, wouldn't we be in trouble…."
"About that, you can just disguise yourself simply. Even though I can't let you freely wander around by yourself outside, I can ferry you around in the car so it should not be an issue. Gojou-sensei also said that it's about time to let you breathe the air outside."
"Gojou-sensei did….I see."
Itadori stood up from the sofa. It was better to accept deferentially than to decline courteously.
Anyway, he was truly bored here so if he could go out, he could ask for nothing more.
"Then, please wear this."
"That's so sick—this get-up looks like part of the Men in Black!"
Ichiji held out a pair of sunglasses that seemed to have especially large lenses and after Itadori took it, he casually held the lens towards the sun light.
"Are these sunglasses yours?"
"That is my personal belonging."
"Don't tell me, you actually dress pretty flashy for private affairs, Ichiji-san?"
"N, no no no, it's not what you think. Because curses are quite sensitive to people watching them and I have to take care of investigative work pretty often so I have to hide my gaze!"
"Ah—I see. No wonder Gojou-sensei also wears a blindfold."
"Uh, there's other reasons as to why he wears a blindfold."
"I wonder which place sells that kind of blindfold that he's wearing? If I wear the same kind of blindfold, would I look like the real deal?"
"Uh, I don't think that's something he bought from somewhere."
After Ichiji put on the sunglasses, he took turns with Ichiji to look at himself in the full-length mirror then placed his hand under his chin to strike a cool pose.
"Ichiji-san, what do you think of this? Do I look like a special agent?"
"Umm—"
More like a thug—but because he was an adult, Ichiji did not express his thoughts out as words.
*
Actually Itadori had very few chances to sit in a car to look at Tokyo.
Itadori watched the buildings go by continuously outside the window and his expression was clearly happy. Even though he liked to watch television, compared to those food programmes at locations that one could only see but not be able to go to, the scene in front of his eyes was more worth watching.
"Amazing—this is the first time I went up on the highway in Tokyo in a car."
"Because at this time, the other roads would be a bit crowded. Is going on the highway that interesting?"
"Because it feels like I would be able to see people drag racing."
"I thought that was something of the past. How did you know about this?"
"The arcade."
"So it's the arcade, racing car games huh….I played that last time."
"Eh, don't tell me you bought this expensive looking car because you played those games?"
"This car isn't mine, it belongs to the technical college so I'm always careful not to get it scratched….and I will try my best to avoid those narrow roads which might scratch the car."
"Oh—This point seems to show the toughness of the real world."
Itadori realised that in the adult world, issues about cars were more complex than he had thought.
On the way, Ichiji was more enthusiastic about talking about all sorts of things as compared to when they were at home and when they left the highway, they even deftly weaved through a road with heavy traffic. Itadori, who was in the back seat, had just finished listening to what Ichiji said about cars so once they were near another car, he got worried if their car would get scratched.
The car drove on for a while and it took them around thirty minutes to reach their destination.
The place before their eyes was a gray building that looked like boxes stacked upon each other.
"Is this the district office?"
"Yes, I'm going to hand up some forms."
Ichiji took out nicely arranged documents from his briefcase.
Itadori looked from the back seat and saw that the briefcase was still full of various other kinds of documents but they were clearly sorted out with folders of binders.
"That's really thick, does it really need that many pages?"
"If I gather all the documents that have to be submitted to public agencies, they tend to accumulate."
"Wouldn't it be more convenient to just submit it as an email or some data file?"
"The methods you speak of are definitely very convenient….but Itadori, when you play video games, have the thought that it's annoying to have many different game consoles?"
"Ah—yeah, yeah."
"An electronic file would be something like that. On the contrary, hardcopy documents can be read by anyone especially for government agencies like here, they still prefer hardcopies….this is probably why fax machines still exist.
"Oh, so it's like that…..Doesn't that mean you have to print every single one of those pages?"
"It is indeed troublesome but all in all, you can have everything in black and white for hard copies and they can also be destroyed."
"Oh right—"
Itadori looked towards space, feeling that he seemed to understand what Ichiji was saying but yet not at all.
However, he also became aware that Ichiji was "meticulous" in such matters so rather than enjoying his leisure moments, he was an adult who did things carefully.
"Can I just ask as well? What sort of documents are those?"
"Proof of usage of certain facilities when getting rid of curses, application to seal roads due to transport of large equipment, application for road works, proof of insurance for on-site workers….mostly these kinds."
"Road works?"
Itadori tilted his head his head.
Whether as a Jujutsu Sorcerer or whether he was in school, it felt like he did not have the chance to hear such a term. Ichiji also thought that "People who heard this would be very puzzled about its purpose" so he explained.
"Currently cursed spirits have appeared on a mountain road where many traffic accidents have happened so we applied for this so we can cordon off the scene easily."
"If it's about cordoning off the scene, wouldn't it be fine to just put up that "curtain" or something?"
The experience he had at the youth detention centre went past his mind.
He vaguely recalled Fushiguro explaining to him that the curtain was a barrier that was set up to prevent normal people from getting close.
"It's true that normal people can't approach the scene once the "curtain" is down. But…to people in a regular society, we still have not explained properly why "the road can't be used", right?"
"Oh, you're right about that."
Itadori knocked his hand with his fist with a "thump".
Then as though replying to the rhythm of Itadori's action, Ichiji forcefully pushed his spectacles up.
"If the time taken to get rid of a cursed spirit drags on, people will start to think that something is off. At this kind of time, if we don't prepare a reasonable excuse beforehand, the human society would get a sense of incongruity."
"But all these matters related to exorcising cursed spirits….aren't they carried out with some kind of "understanding"? Besides, I heard before that Jujutsu technical college is being run by the nation or by Tokyo."
"Even so, the technical college still portrays itself as an independent school….so if there are matters that cannot be settled with documents that had to do with an independent school, then we need appropriate evidence to create a reason that can be used in a normal society without anyone finding it strange. If we are telling external parties that we are doing "works to clear fallen rocks" then we need various supporting information as a file."
"Wow—it's more work than I thought."
"Of course, when carrying out the mission, there are times when we have no choice but to release some information."
Itadori suddenly realised something.
He had completely assumed that "the existence of cursed spirits" was something completely natural.
But after hearing what Ichiji had said, he recalled that last time, before his life got involved with Jujutsu sorcerers, he did not know that cursed spirits existed in this world at all.
Itadori watched as Ichiji left the car and at the same time, he was deep in thought.
Fighting with cursed spirits, exorcising cursed spirits.
These actions really protected people's lives and protected everyone's normal lives.
It was also the most direct method to solve the problem.
However, curses actually come from the fear of humans so if the uneasiness inducing truth "there are curses in the world" spread, that would be the most dangerous problem.
Curses were born from people's hearts.
And the root of the issue was that in order to protect the hearts of people, the most important thing should be to not let the hearts of humans contain fear.
Itadori was not sure if he was able to transform his thoughts into a few concrete statements. He could only vaguely recognise this matter anew—
Securing the peace of peoples' daily lives was perhaps far more difficult than what he had imagined.
"Thanks for waiting, Itadori."
"Oh, you're done?"
Itadori subconsciously straightened up to welcome Ichiji who had left the district office.
*
The next place that Ichiji visited was a small building and the sign that hung high on it had frequently seen beverages printed on it.
"Is this a company that sells soda or something?"
"It's a contractor that has affiliations with drink companies. Their main job is setting up facilities and replenishing vending machines."
"Oh—why are we here? Don't tell me some curse that had to do with vending machines appeared?"
"Nope. Since we happened to be passing by, I'm just dropping in to say hi. Because we requested this company to manage the installation and maintenance of the vending machines inside Jujutsu technical college."
"Oh. I see."
During the time when Itadori was still in the technical college, he had seen some middle-aged men in overalls going in and out of the school grounds once in a while.
That time he did not pay much attention to them but now when he thought back, those men did not really look like people of the Jujutsu world.
"But to think you actually go out of your way to greet them."
"Because to the outside world, the Jujutsu technical college is an independent religious school. As the school management want to keep all the internal affairs to ourselves as far as possible, for contractors like these, once we start working with them, we pretty much won't change to other contractors. Itadori, it's actually pretty important to greet those companies we have a long working relationship with."
"Oh—..."
"Ah, right. Itadori, what kind of drinks do you like?"
"Me? Um- isotonic drinks I suppose…and those that are not that sweet."
"Then I'll see if can do a gentle negotiation with them. In any case, our school has very few students so it should be easier for them to do their job. When you return to school, perhaps the vending machines will have the drinks that you want to drink."
"Seriously? That's great, thank you!"
Itadori bowed as he watched as Ichiji go into the office.
A few minutes later, Ichiji came back and behind him was a man who was wearing overalls. He seemed like a nice person. He should be seeing his guest all the way out.
After Itadori watch the man give a polite bow and Ichiji return one, he started to think if he should get out of the car to greet the man as well.
However, he was " a person who is currently dead". Once he thought that the other party could be considered a person who had dealings with the technical college, he could only hold onto his anxious feelings and give up on such a thought.
"Thanks for waiting, Itadori. Let's go."
"Yeah, ok."
After Ichiji started the car, Itadori looked out from the back seat through the tinted glass windows.
The man who was wearing overalls still bowed with sincerity even though the other party was a car. Itadori, who had good eyesight could see that the man's hands had prominent joints and they were rough.
He was probably someone in a supervisor's position but still did laborious work with his own hands.
Itadori thought back to their visit to the district office just now.
Logically speaking, normal people should not have any connections with curses. However for the people from this company who go in and out of Jujutsu technical college, they have come extremely close to an "abnormal" place.
Once he thought to this point, Itadori felt a twinge of pain in his chest.
Through the glass, he watched as that man's figure became smaller.
Itadori faced that man's figure while in the car and returned the bow.
*
Ichiji suddenly pulled the car over at a road shoulder.
"Ichiji-san, what's wrong?"
"Sorry, wait a bit."
Itadori saw Ichiji take out his vibrating mobile phone from his breast pocket so he knew that a call had come in. Just as he was thinking who called—
"Yes. This is Ichiji. Thanks for you hard work, Gojou-sensei, is something the matter?"
"It's Gojou-sensei?"
Speaking of which, Itadori only knew that Gojou went on a business trip somewhere far away but he was not sure of the details so subconsciously, he eavesdropped on the conversation.
"...You want to detour to someplace else? Why do that all of a sudden…ah, I see, so something like that happened. Please wait for while, I will return your call after I finished investigating."
Ichiji hung up the call first.
Then while checking against the small notebook in his brief case, he went through the contact list on his phone.
"Ichiji-san, what happened to Gojou-sensei?"
"He originally wanted to look for someone but on the way to his destination, he said he wanted to make a detour to the other scenes so he asked me to check if there are ways to contact the "windows" who are around the scene."
"Window? I seemed to have heard that term before."
"They are individuals who are affiliated with the technical college. Even though they are not Jujutsu sorceres, they can see curses. So they help to provide witness accounts and residues about curses….they also help to trace residues left by curses and help to coordinate some matters."
"Ah—I remember now, I heard of this as well at the youth detention centre."
Suddenly Ichiji's shoulders tensed up and the hand that was flipping through the notebook also became motionless.
"Ichiji-san?"
"It's nothing."
"By the way, why are you checking your notebook and phone at the same time?"
"About that, because my contact list is arranged according to the alphabet but it's really difficult to be sure who lives at what district so I had to compare it with the addresses on my notebook."
"Wait, when you say districts, don't tell me it's not just Tokyo but you have information about "windows" around the whole of Japan?"
"Usually I don't need to know the information for the whole nation but Gojou-sensei pretty much only asks for the information from me…."
"Ah, I get it."
"Besides, no matter how good that guy's brain or memory is, he just refuses to memorise troublesome things. Other than information about windows, he actually asks me about the kinds of desserts sold in supermarkets as well as the train timings."
"That really is tiring."
Itadori really had to take his hat off to Ichiji. He could clearly imagine the kind of shadow left on Ichiji from facing Gojou who gave all kinds of troubling requests.
During which, Ichiji should have found all the information he needed and he made a call.
"Ah, hello, Gojou-sensei, if it's around that area…wait, you can't say that, I done it pretty fast already, didn't I?! No, I mean I did return the call within one minute before….your ice cream melted while you were waiting for my call? That has nothing to do with me, right? Wait wait, why should I have to be punished by you when you get back! Note it down?! Are you asking me to make a memo about you punishing me?! I don't want to do that, why do I have do specially put down you punishing me for no reason into my schedule! Please forget all about this!"
"Wow."
Within the cramped car, Itadori could clearly hear what kind of cruel treatment Ichiji received. Even Itadori who was only listening from the side could only feel helpless at Gojou's pushiness.
"Eh? Yes, you took the principal's cursed corpse to train Itadori before…what about the cursed corpse…..what?! How can you take that thing out without permission?! If you want me to help you return it then where is it…. What? You left it in the basement?! That's not good...ah, yes, yes, I understand, anyway, I will go get it from the basement….eh? You purchased the movies in that room? You can't get reimbursed for that. You can't. No way means no way. Yes, ah, if it's like that, I'll try my best to check…."
"...."
No matter how big or small, for the whole day today, Ichiji completed various tasks.
Therefore, Itadori was able to show an expression that expressed "Ichiji-san, your work is really tough" the most today.
*
During the time when they were racing all around Tokyo, the sun outside the car window almost completely sunk into the west.
The setting sun had already sunk behind the buildings so the lights that switched on throughout the city looked especially dazzling instead.
"We went to a lot of places today."
"We spend more time than I had imagined….It should have been smooth if we went according to our schedule."
"It's Gojou-sensei's fault, isn't it?"
"Well, yes…."
"Even though he's really reliable, in the eyes of the other adults, he's a tough one to handle."
"Actually he is truly a dependable person. He has strong abilities and he excels in various aspects. But on the contrary, he tends to hold other people up to the same standard, thinking something like "I'm sure you can do such a thing if you just worked harder.""
"Yeah—teachers tend to be like that."
"He's only nice to his students."
"So you don't really hate him?"
"Of course I don't hate him. Even though I don't really want to say these, he is a skilled and charismatic individual. Gojou Satoru is idolised by plenty of Jujutsu sorcerers even though I really don't want to say these things."
"You just said the same thing twice."
In any case, perhaps it was thanks to the atmosphere built up by these two taking a car ride together, Itadori and Ichiji got along more harmoniously as compared to when they were at home.
Perhaps when they were in a more relaxed environment, they were able to have a chat without putting defenses up.
Then, Itadori suddenly said:
"I always feel that you are a super busy person, Ichiji-san."
"Do I really look that busy?"
Ichiji smiled, somewhat troubled, and replied.
"Because I see that you have to compute a whole bunch of things, prepare documents, greet others and you're even the errand boy to Gojou-sensei…."
"You don't have to add the words errand boy."
"Sorry. But even though you're this busy, it looks you're doing work that has nothing to do with being a Jujutsu sorcerer."
"Hahaha, my job is really unremarkable, isn't it?"
"Hm…honestly, that's what it is."
"Actually that's a good thing. I mean, I'm an amateur when it comes to fighting."
"But, on the other hand, Gojou-sensei and the rest pushed a lot of work onto you…."
"Well. You're right about that."
Through the mirror, Itadori could see that Ichiji's eyes became dull for an instant.
Itadori thought that this issue should be something that touched a nerve so he looked away.
"I mean, even with that said, I still think that this job is pretty good. I mean if it were the Jujutsu sorcerers who are at the front line, they would easily think that Jujutsu sorcerers and the Jujutsu technical college are existences that are separate from the society."
"Uh huh, that was the kind of thought that I was having earlier today."
"But in actual fact, as long as we exist in this society, we need to seriously and properly handle these trivial and unremarkable matters."
"Yes, I understand that now too."
Itadori looked at the glow of the streetlights that passed by in a steam and nodded his head.
As the colour of the night sky descended upon them, the lights that appeared in the city also increased in number.
This scene was like a starry sky on earth, hundreds and thousands, countless lights lit up. However, each and every light came from the hands of humans and the lights spread across the whole of Japan and even the world.
In the end, the Jujutsu technical college was a place that faced the darkness but they still belonged in the light that was lit by people –Itadori felt it with his own heart and finally understood this matter.
"Thank you, Ichiji-san."
"What? Why are you thanking me all of a sudden?"
"Your job really is unremarkable."
"Well, that is true but no one would say such a thing another time, right?"
"But I feel that all thanks to this unremarkable and tough job, the Jujutsu sorcerers are not detached from this world entirely. So I feel that I really want to say thank you to you."
"….Thank me?"
Ichiji's voice seemed to have become smaller. Even though it was difficult to see what his eyes were like under his glasses due to the reflection of the headlights from oncoming cars, from the expression reflected on the rear-view mirror, it did not look like it was one that could be considered happy.
Then for a short period of time after that, the only sounds within the car were the rubbing of the wheels against the tarmac while driving as well as broadcasted music coming through the car's speakers.
Only the chorus of the song that was playing right now had been heard countless times.
The melody of a popular song that was full of rhythm continued as such after the lyrics have come to an end before it fell to complete silence. At the same time, the air within the car seemed to change.
This time Ichiji seemed to treat the end of the music as a signal and started to talk.
"...…Um, Itadori, rather than being thanked by you, actually I feel that I need to apologise to you instead."
"Huh? Why?"
Itadori blinked his eyes a few times when he heard the topic of the conversation turn to himself.
If Itadori completely never expected Ichiji to apologise to him, then most likely he had absolutely no clue right now. Itadori widened his eyes with an innocent look – he should be completely at a loss.
Ichiji saw how Itadori was acting and frowned then abruptly continued.
"It was me who sent you to your death a while ago."
"Oh, that incident…."
Itadori could not help but let out a light sound. At the same time, he recalled the series of battles he had with the special grade spirit.
That was truly a painful experience but he had never resented Ichiji because of that so he did not have an agitated reaction.
However, Ichiji's voice sounded ever graver.
"I told all of you that it was just a rescue mission and even told all of you to avoid fighting. I admit I persisted on just supervising from the side. Even so, that was expectedly a place that year one students should not be allowed to enter. In the end, you sacrificed your life.
"Um…but I'm alive and kicking now."
"But I definitely caused you to die once."
Ichiji's voice was shaking.
Itadori had intended to gloss over the matter with a light smile but after hearing the other say as such, he went silent again.
Currently, Itadori had experienced someone close to him die. He had also experienced his own death.
But he was still unable to figure out how much agony could be caused by "someone dying because of me".
However, Ichiji's feelings of remorse grief tightly clung onto Itadori's heart.
"Even though I said earlier that I feel that this job is pretty good…in the end, I am a Jujutsu sorcerer who is unable to fight. The only job that an adult like me can do is to send students who are younger than I am to carry out dangerous missions. Even if you died and resurrected, the one who sent you to the battlefield…is still me."
The sound of Ichiji swallowing his saliva was mixed with the sounds of the car engine.
"So as an adult, at the very least, while all of you are fighting, I will try everything I can to provide the perfect support. I will work even harder from now on."
"...Ichiji-san."
Perhaps he was apologising or perhaps he was disputing with himself.
Perhaps today, Ichiji's action of letting Itadori see what he was like while doing his job was a part of his atonement and he wanted to use this to prove his resolution.
"I will do my job properly."
His trembling voice reverberated. It felt like he was deeply apologetic. It also felt like he was close to collapsing.
Ichiji's voice did not let people feel secure like Gojou's did, it was also not as awe-inspiring like the principals. But from there, one could continuously feel that he was more distressed and sincere than anyone else.
Ichji, who was unable to battle, would surely not say "I will not let you die another time".
Even so, he still had to send Itadori to carry out his missions.
For an adult, this was an excruciating decision—even though Itadori was not able to understand.
But what Itadori understood was that to Ichiji, these were sincere words from the bottom of his heart and also the words he wanted to say the most.
So he accepted Ichiji's apology and held it close to his heart then he smiled.
"I still have to thank you after all, Ichiji-san."
Itadori muttered, looking at his own face that was reflected in the window glass."
"I might do many kinds of shocking things from now on and I'll make you worry…but this is still a decision I made on my own so I can't back down anymore."
"Yes, your personality is like that.
"So Ichiji-san, after this, I'm going to get so strong that you don't have to worry anymore. Also, if I encounter something that I don't know or don't understand or something that can't be resolved through fighting, you have to help me out, okay?"
"...Alright."
Ichiji's hands that were holding the steering wheel trembled slightly.
Even though Itadori saw it clearly, he felt that adults also have a side that they did not want children to see and right now Ichiji was one of those adults so he decided to pretend that he did not see anything.
Because of that, Itadori used a lighthearted tone and changed the topic.
"Ichiji-san, are we going back home after this?"
"Yeah…but I'm getting hungry and since you even made the effort to disguise yourself, let's eat outside before we go back."
"Can we?"
"You managed to have the rare chance to get out, wouldn't it be too boring to only let you observe me working?"
"Hahaha, sweet, you're a reasonable person, Ichiji-san."
"Itadori, is there anything you would like to eat?"
"Meat!"
"That's easy to understand, excellent. Which do you prefer, steak or Yakiniku?"
"It's hard to choose between the two…wait, let me consider for twenty minutes."
"Isn't that too long?"
"Hehehe", the sound of laughter rang out in the car.
The taillights of the car flashed through the roads at night as though to sweep away the tears.