Satoru Gojo's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Gojo stood on the steps of the old academy and counted the empty seats in the open gazebo. Six candidates this morning. Six benches, six folded jackets, six pairs of nervous hands. He needed one of them to inherit his role before the curses outpaced him. He called the first forward. The course waited past the courtyard: a fenced run where a small, sharp-toothed imp circled, yellow eyes bright. No candidate had reached the far gate. Gojo had built it that way on purpose. One by one, they tried. One by one, they came back limping, or didn't come back at all and had to be carried. By dusk the gazebo was empty. Gojo stood at the fence and watched the imp lick its claws, untouched. He walked back to the dark-tiled halls and sat on the steps. None of them. Not one. Time he didn't have was already gone. He pulled out his phone and started a new list, blank except for a single line: find someone who has already survived something worse.