Jujutsu Kaisen: Summer of Ashes, Autumn of Dust by Gege Akutami Ballad Kitaguni

Author:Gege Akutami, Ballad Kitaguni
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: VIZ Media
Published: 2022-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

The tunnel became Mahito’s temporary nest.

He brought in a hammock he’d found and hung it from the tunnel’s pipes, lounged in it, and passed the time engaged in activities like reading. He’d gotten the idea from a movie he’d once seen about a castaway on a desert island. The castaway had reclaimed a measure of ease by erecting a hammock. It looked comfortable, so Mahito tried it and found he liked it.

The city’s noise didn’t quite reach the interior of the tunnel, leaving only a vague susurration that Mahito rather enjoyed. The tunnel was a good environment for peace and quiet.

As Mahito relaxed and acquired knowledge from the books he read, he would sometimes stare at the ceiling or look down at the old man sitting in the corner, whose position and expression rarely seemed to change.

“How do you survive?” Mahito asked. “I don’t get it.”

Mahito had decided not to kill the old man. The old man didn’t get in his way. He was quieter than a stray cat and only ever sat there, cooling his heels. If his presence or absence made no difference, then why bother getting rid of him?

Mahito had once heard the expression “Man is the thinking reed.” He liked the humorous way it expressed human frailty through a comparison to weeds, as well as the way it turned the human soul’s captivity to reason into a point of pride.

But the old man was a reed that didn’t think. Actually, he was so silent and motionless that he was more like moss. The old man was just there, never speaking.

Sometimes Mahito would notice that the old man had gone missing from his spot; then, just as abruptly, he would back again, asleep in his corner. The man must have been eating somewhere, but he didn’t appear to gain weight. If the typical body weight starts at 100 percent, when the man’s dropped to 80 percent, he likely went somewhere to consume just enough to bump it back up to 100.

That manner of existence was incredibly instinctual, more like a natural phenomenon than a life.

“Maybe that’s why you can see me,” Mahito speculated absentmindedly.

He hadn’t really been addressing the man, but when he spoke those words to himself, it sounded like he was. When he noticed that his words didn’t cause the slightest ruffle in the old man’s soul, he decided to address him directly.

“How long have you been here?”

“Well, I suppose I’ve passed a few winters here, but I’m not certain,” the old man answered with a quiet mutter.

Mahito felt that occasional conversation was only natural when two living things were sharing company, both with souls and aware of each other.

“Don’t you get bored?”

Mahito spoke casually, and the old man responded in kind.

“I forgot how to be bored.”

Mahito continued to question the man. “What do you do all the time?”

“Nothing. I just listen to the sounds.”

“Sounds?”

“The sound of the flowing water,” the man responded.

“Is that fun?”

“No. But I’ve forgotten how to have fun, so it doesn’t bother me.

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