A Record of an Ordinary Life in Yokohama

[Main story complete]

When I was eight.

Akutagawa: "What's the point of living like a stray dog?"

I was determined to tell Akutagawa, "There is meaning in surviving. I'll prove it to you, Akutagawa-kun."

"If you need a reason to live, we can look for one together."

When I was eighteen.

I looked helplessly at the hands clasped tightly together. "Why do we have to date? What's the point?"

He said, "To search for the meaning of love."

*

As an utterly ordinary member of society, I have always led a mundane life, so dull it was almost unbearable.

Sometimes I wondered if it would be nice to have some fantastical, novel-like twist in my life.

But I certainly didn't want to transmigrate, especially not from the start as a helpless child, dropped into a slum with an extremely low survival rate.

To survive, I latched onto a young boy in the slums, a droopy-eared bunny, and we left the slums together to search for the meaning of survival.

I thought we would live happily and peacefully like that forever.

But Yokohama really does have a rough reputation for a reason. I fell to the ground, blood seeping out of me without end.

*

It is no secret that Akutagawa of the Port Mafia came from the slums. Quite a few people know that he once lost his companions, but few have ever learned about the children who protected one another alongside him.

Even fewer know how the girl who first taught him what emotions were left his arms.

The words that had once remained only on the lips and in the mud were finally understood by the clumsy student: hatred, anger, grief...

And the feeling he only recognized long after losing it: love.

*

I came to a new world again.

I lived well in the new world, too, and became a better person. Later, I saw a familiar yet unfamiliar Akutagawa-kun in a certain cafe.

But were some of the details different from how I remembered them? I began to question my entire existence.

Why did I keep running into so many Akutagawa-kuns across these worlds?

Black coat, white trench coat, red scarf, red cape...

There were just too many.

After many years, I finally found a way to go home. It had been my lifelong wish.

But why was I hesitating?

My lover and I silently looked at one another.

★ Pairing: Akutagawa. Mainly Bungo Stray Dogs, with other series mixed in.

[Notes]

1. The female protagonist is an ordinary person, neither especially good nor especially bad.

Her ability is called "Namesakes' Beneficiary." When she is near a literary figure, she can use an ability derived from their famous works.

2. The story is mainly told from the female protagonist's first-person perspective, with some other characters' perspectives as well.

3. At least three stages/forms of Akutagawa will appear, and they may exist at the same time. However, the mutual romance will only be between the adult black-clad Akutagawa in the main storyline and the protagonist.

4. The versions I've already decided to include are young Akutagawa, white Akutagawa, black Akutagawa, and Boss Akutagawa...

(Akutagawa from Bungo and Alchemist, Shadow Akutagawa, Doppelganger Akutagawa, and others are under consideration.)

[Pre-release]

There are two high-stakes bets on the curse users' dark web.

One: Who can kill the strongest Six-Eyed Divine Son in the jujutsu world? Two: Who can marry the Black Widow of the Zenin family and stay alive?

The two bets originally had nothing to do with each other. The first has already made curse users tremble in fear, while the woman in the second has worn mourning clothes to see off husband after husband.

Until the two families announce that the head of the Gojo family and the acting head of the Zenin family will be married soon.

Another bet is put on the table: Are the Six Eyes strong enough, or is Zenin Airi tough enough to survive?

The strongest sorcerer hates Zenin Airi.

Very much.

He hates her false smile, her ambiguous tone, her use of everything around her, her manipulation of people's hearts, and the way she kneels like a doll at the jujutsu headquarters' meetings and says,

"That doesn't comply with the regulations, Gojo-sama."

What the hell? The head of the Gojo family storms off and blows the shoji screen to pieces. Now he can't even stand to hear her name?

From the veranda, he can still hear the hollow reassurances of the old higher-ups, those old mandarins. "Gojo is getting more and more outrageous... but you should be used to it by now."

Who exactly is being outrageous here? And who exactly should be receiving comfort?

Airi inherited the Limitless technique from her father's bloodline and was born into a noble position. But Limitless without the Six Eyes is a bomb with no countdown, and that noble position means she is destined to give her life for it.

Meanwhile, some people can sit high above the clouds without sacrificing anything, looking down on others as if they were ants and dust.

She doesn't want to die.

She would rather accept an arranged marriage than die.

She would rather be the Zenin family's most loyal dog if that's what it takes to stay alive.

She will face the person who was born with everything. She will turn the old world into ruins and establish a new order of her own.

Airi thinks about it day and night.

Why couldn't the Six Eyes be mine?

Why couldn't the Six Eyes be mine?

Zenin Airi will get everything she wants.

Everyone knows that the Three Great Families are the embodiment of feudal decay in the jujutsu world, so arranged marriages shouldn't come as a surprise. It would be perfectly normal for the heads of the Three Great Families to lead the way in arranging marriages.

[But it's not normal when one of them is the strongest sorcerer, is it? Who would have thought that the unconventional head of the Gojo family would obediently marry a woman from his sworn enemy, the Zenin family, and even seem to do whatever she says?]

5t5: What's abnormal about that? Listening to your wife is perfectly normal.

Airi: The jujutsu revolution is over, so why are old-fashioned people still asking this kind of question? Was the purge not thorough enough?

A possible reading guide:

① The female protagonist is not a virgin, while all the male characters are. She's a true widow of the Three Great Families. As for who her deceased husbands are, they're all in the story.

② The female protagonist is self-centered and has a twisted gravity-based ability. Airi is a wicked woman who manipulates people and politics. Her priorities are roughly: herself ≈ Satoru >>>...

Core theme: Love never fails