The first thing Gojo noticed when he opened his eyes… was the cold.
Not air-conditioning cold. Not hospital-floor cold.
But dirt cold dry, dusty, hard ground. He was lying on it like someone who just got kicked out of a restaurant for not paying the bill.
He moved his fingers. His body. His neck.
Light. Small.
"…Okay. That's weird."
His own voice sounded younger. Not the voice of a grown man who'd spent years yelling at students and laughing at curses. No this was a kid's voice. Ten? Twelve? Something like that.
Gojo sat up, brushing off the dust from his ragged clothes. The fabric was rough, old-fashioned definitely not from modern Japan. Honestly, it looked older than the Edo period. Everyone around him wore the same kind of stuff… and they all looked like beggars.
No buildings. No electricity. No paved roads. No modern anything.
Just crooked wooden houses, dirty alleys, and dirt paths.
And most importantly no cursed energy in the air.
Not even a trace.
"…yep. This ain't earth anymore."
He slapped his own cheek. Not a dream. No fancy afterlife glow like religions or heaven ads promised.
His last memory: getting sliced open by Sukuna. Dead. Defeated. End of story.
Except… "end" somehow turned into "new episode."
Gojo stood up, dusted himself off, and sighed.
"So I got isekai'd. Great. Let's just hope there's no pop-up status window."
No pop-up appeared. Good.
He tried feeling the energy around him.
Instinctively, he reached for cursed energy but nothing. Like trying to breathe in a vacuum.
Still, something else was there. Energy, but different. Lighter. Cleaner. More uniform in structure like spiritual energy in some fantasy stories.
Six Eyes kicked in automatically. Data, flow, patterns all mapped in an instant.
This energy wasn't cursed.
It was… something else.
"…Reishi?" he muttered, though he didn't even know how he knew that word.
His new body reacted to the energy, but his technique system didn't. Infinity was still there, but it felt like running an old app on a new OS.
Gojo raised his hand, trying to form a barrier.
Result?
Zrrt.
The air in front of his finger shimmered slightly… then vanished. Unstable. Like a bad Wi-Fi signal.
"Ah. So this is what a server downgrade feels like."
He tried again. This time with focus. Instead of working automatically, he had to tune the frequency like syncing languages between himself and the world's energy.
Third try. Finally worked.
A thin layer formed between him and the air. Infinity running at 40% capacity. Not perfect, but good enough.
"…Still works. Nice."
Gojo didn't panic. He'd already died once. Coming back as a kid in another world? Eh, just another Tuesday for him.
More importantly: was he hungry? Thirsty? Weak?
Nope, nope, and nope.
This body… wasn't human.
"Soul form, huh? Afterlife? Like being a ghost but still able to kick rocks. Interesting."
He kicked a rock. Solid.
"Okay, still physical. Good."
Before he could keep testing, a voice called out.
"Hey! You new here? You look clean. You must have some food, right?"
Gojo turned. Three teenage street punks stood there, arms crossed, rocking that "tutorial thug" vibe.
Oh. So this is like a "Welcome to Rukongai" moment?
Gojo smiled politely. "Sorry, bro. I just respawned. Haven't gotten my starter pack yet."
They didn't understand a word. Perfect. Modern humor still OP even in stone age times.
"Don't play dumb. You look strong. Hand something over or—"
The kid froze mid-sentence. His face went pale.
Gojo didn't move. He just leaked a tiny bit of his reishi pressure barely a drop.
Enough to make normal people shut up.
No fainting. No blood vomit. Just pure panic.
Perfect control.
"Bad idea," Gojo said calmly. "But I appreciate the effort."
They ran. No further dialogue needed.
Gojo shrugged, sat back down on a broken crate that served as a street bench.
"If this is a new world… I need a map. And coffee. Or tea. Or something to sip."
He leaned back, looking up at the sky. No pollution, no skyscrapers, no modern skyline just heavy air. Heavy with souls that had nowhere to go.
"Rukongai, huh? The afterlife's trash dump. Low-budget heaven."
Gojo didn't know whether to laugh or pity the place.
One thing's for sure
This was gonna be fun.
And he hadn't even started yet.