Chapter 5: Saeko Busujima

The Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu High School was located on the western side of Tokyo, nestled within a sparsely urbanized area of forest and hills.

From an aerial view, it hardly resembles a "school" at all. It looks more like an ancient temple that has stood the test of centuries.

At 7:25 AM, the warm spring sunlight cast its glow on the wooden railings of the second-floor outer corridor of the Hachiman-style Buddhist Temple. A tall girl with dark purple hair stood there in her school uniform, gazing at the distant scenery within the campus. She exhaled softly and lowered her phone.

Behind her, the sound of footsteps approached.

Though she could identify the person merely by the sound of their steps, the instincts of a kendo practitioner prompted her to turn and confirm.

Emerging from the building was a black-haired boy with spiky hair, also wearing the school's uniform. Following him was another student, whose hair seemed to be dyed—a mix of wine red at the top and natural black at the bottom. The second boy had faint markings under his eyes that resembled a pair of closed additional eyes.

Their gazes met momentarily before the spiky-haired boy raised his hand in greeting.

"Good morning, Busujima-senpai."

"It's Fushiguro," Saeko Busujima nodded lightly, then shifted her focus to the boy behind him.

"Oh, good morning, Senpai! I'm Yuji Itadori, Fushiguro's classmate," the athletic-looking boy said, rubbing the back of his head with a cheerful grin.

"Hello." Saeko responded with a polite smile.

She recalled him. After all, he was the one Gojo Satoru had brought to the school just two days ago. It was said that he was the first person to ever consume one of Sukuna's fingers, survive, and still maintain his sense of self.

Though remarkable, it didn't particularly concern her.

Unlike other groups of three-person teams formed within the college, Saeko had always been a lone operative, completing missions solo without assistance. Building new connections wouldn't bring her any benefits, and she wasn't interested in unnecessary relationships.

The brief conversation ended, and silence returned to the corridor.

After a few seconds, Fushiguro broke the quiet. "Senpai, you looked like you had something on your mind earlier. Did something happen?"

"...You could say that." Saeko sighed and unlocked her phone, switching to the forum page she had been browsing.

"Do you remember the post from last night about someone finding one of Sukuna's fingers while night fishing?" she asked.

"Yeah, I remember. You contacted the person immediately, right? Have you managed to retrieve it yet?" Fushiguro asked.

"Unfortunately… no." Saeko shook her head again.

Just as she was about to show her chat log, Yuji Itadori leaned in, curious.

"Sukuna's finger? Isn't that the thing I ate?" he asked.

"That's correct." Saeko glanced at him calmly.

"Gojo-sensei should have mentioned this—there are 20 of Sukuna's fingers in total. Six are secured by the Jujutsu Society. The one you ate is just one of them."

"Yeah, I know…" Itadori nodded, but Fushiguro cut him off with a push, his tone carrying a hint of urgency.

"So what's going on now?!"

After all, a single finger of Sukuna was classified as a Special Grade Cursed Object. Once unsealed, it would attract countless cursed spirits from several kilometers away, all scrambling to claim it—just like the day he met Itadori.

That chaos had unfolded within less than half an hour of the seal breaking, and the entire school had been overrun by cursed spirits.

Now, Busujima-senpai was saying the retrieval still hadn't been completed. That post had been made last night. From the photos in the post, it was clear the seal was already broken. If an entire night had passed without any jujutsu sorcerer intervening...

Fushiguro didn't want to think about it.

Even without considering how powerful the cursed spirits drawn to the finger might have become after a night of fighting, the person who had posted it was likely...

"They replied to me, just before you two came out," Saeko said nonchalantly.

Her words snapped Fushiguro back to reality.

Wait, the person replied? That means they're still alive?

...

"Look."

The kendo girl opened the private message page, displaying the chat content to the two juniors in front of her.

Fushiguro Megumi leaned in, holding his breath, and saw seven bold characters:

"Hello, I am Qin Shi Huang."

"...What the heck?" The spiky-haired boy twitched at the corners of his eyes.

Judging by the reply's timing and content, the other party was clearly alive and seemingly okay. But it was equally obvious that they didn't take the message they sent seriously!

"And now it's quite troublesome." Saeko Busujima sighed softly. "In situations like this, no matter what we send afterward, the other party won't believe us. So, I plan to report this directly to the principal later..."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait~ What are you guys talking about? Did I just hear something about reporting to the principal?"

Before the conversation could continue, a playful male voice rang out from not far away.

Turning toward the source of the sound, they saw a tall, slender young man with white hair and sunglasses, waving as he walked casually along the corridor toward them.

"Gojo-sensei?"

Itadori Yuji was slightly surprised, but he quickly reacted, pointing to the kendo girl's phone.

"Ah, here's the thing. It seems like someone posted on the school forum yesterday, claiming they found a finger of Sukuna..."

"Huh?"

Hearing this, Gojo Satoru, who had been strolling leisurely, suddenly quickened his pace as if he'd switched to 3x fast-forward mode, striding over to them in no time. He snatched the phone and skimmed through the chat log before letting out a soft "Ah."

"So, judging by this, the person is indeed alive. They just don't believe the message you sent. However, for people like this, we actually left a backdoor when the forum was created."

"Backdoor?"

"Remember the real-name verification step during forum registration? Everyone goes through it, but for Jujutsu High's internal staff and students like you, there's an extra authentication step. That step allows you to gain temporary admin privileges under reasonable circumstances, letting you access the real-name information of others."

"Hold on, doesn't that mean..."

"Well, if you put it bluntly, yes, it does sound kind of shady. But honestly, it's fascinating—someone managed to hang onto a Sukuna finger all night without anything happening?"

As he muttered, Gojo Satoru worked deftly on the phone, his hands moving quickly while he continued to talk.

Soon, with the temporary admin privileges successfully granted, some previously hidden information appeared when he clicked on the person's profile through the chatbox avatar.

Gojo scanned the lines of text. His gaze stopped abruptly at the real-name section.

After a long pause, he clicked his tongue lightly.

"Ah..."

"What is it? What is it?"

Itadori Yuji leaned in curiously, only to be pushed back by Gojo's hand.

Gojo returned the phone to Saeko Busujima with a relaxed smile. "Alright, alright. I got the person's info for you. It seems they're a student at Kuoh Academy. Saeko, make some time after school to visit them and talk this through."

"...Understood."

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Saeko Busujima - Highschool of the Dead

Qin Shi Huang - Emperor from China