In short, the higher-ups were betting on two things. Satoru Gojo would not actually kill them, and rotten rules were still rules.
"Good thing you are not one of them." Even Satoru Gojo showed his teeth in irritation.
"I think I get it now." Panda, the second strategist, finally caught up. "Not counting the record is suppression against you, Gojo. Paying the reward is them saying the rules belong to us. As long as you leave Gojo and come to our side, we guarantee you wealth and status, with a Gold Ticket to sweeten the deal."
"Dream on." Akira blurted out.
"Relax, I am not even angry." Satoru Gojo waved a hand. "Why are you?"
After a brief silence, Akira spoke again. "If they had just given me what I deserved without obstruction, I might have respected them more and thought maybe you were too extreme. But now, all I see is people obsessed with their own authority and ignoring the development of the Jujutsu World. You were right, teacher. They are a bunch of useless old corpses."
"If that is the case, as long as you are my students, this kind of thing will keep happening." Satoru Gojo smiled lightly. "Scared? You can still quit now."
It was obvious that Satoru Gojo was skilled at showing off, but provocation was not his strong suit. Not a single person took the bait.
Maki Zenin said, "What nonsense are you talking about, idiot teacher. Without you backing me, I would have even less chance to stand out. I am already prepared to stay at Grade Four forever. A Grade Four beating a Grade One would embarrass certain people even more."
Panda said, "I am Panda. Human rankings do not really matter to me."
Yuta Okkotsu said, "I…"
"Do not bother, Special Grade." Maki Zenin cut him off mercilessly.
Some people were born at the top, even more unfair than Satoru Gojo. At least Satoru Gojo climbed step by step and only reached Special Grade near graduation.
"Mayonnaise." Cursed Speech, watch me.
He held up his phone, a line of text displayed on the screen. His rice-ball filling speech habit allowed only short phrases, so longer thoughts had to be typed.
"I will work hard to reach Grade One, then recommend you all together with Yuta."
Under Jujutsu Society's rules, Grade One was a massive dividing line from the lower ranks.
Promotion to Grade One required three conditions.
First, simultaneous recommendations from two Grade One Jujutsu Sorcerer. Second, carrying out several missions together with a current Grade One Jujutsu Sorcerer and being judged suitable, which granted provisional Grade One status and the right to be assigned solo Grade One missions. Finally, the results of those missions would determine whether the candidate could officially become a Grade One Jujutsu Sorcerer.
This rule had the highest priority and was absolute.
Without two Grade One recommendations, no matter how strong you were, you could not reach Grade One. Once you had two recommendations, no matter how unwilling the higher-ups were, they had to begin the review process.
There were also additional clauses.
The first was that the recommended person could not team up with the recommenders, to prevent favoritism. The second was that teachers could not recommend their own students, and this applied to all ranks, not just Grade One, which meant Satoru Gojo and Masamichi Yaga could only watch from the sidelines.
As for Toge Inumaki, with his family backing him, his promotion path would not face much resistance.
"Me, can I really do it?" Among them, Yuta Okkotsu had the weakest sense of his own Jujutsu Sorcerer level.
"Right now, you still lack a bit of persuasion." Satoru Gojo patted his shoulder. "So keep working hard, Yuta. When you grow strong enough to match me, those old guys will have no choice but to shut up."
"That still sounds way too exaggerated." Even if Rika Orimoto obeyed him completely, Yuta Okkotsu lacked confidence.
Unfortunately, Tokyo Jujutsu High had long been influenced by Satoru Gojo in this regard.
"We are counting on you, Yuta." Panda slapped him once.
"We are counting on you, Bone Guy." Akira slapped him once.
"We are counting on you, Boss Yuta." Maki Zenin slapped him once.
"Wan." Pancham joined in as well.
Each hit was harder than the last, especially from the heavy-handed Pancham, whose slap sent the skinny Boy flying.
And then—
"Do not bully Yuta!!!"
A former Special Grade curse, Rika Orimoto, appeared.
"There was no bullying, really."
Yuta Okkotsu hurried to stop her. He looked a bit messy, but his way of calming Rika Orimoto was clearly much more practiced than before. His hand rested lightly as he spoke, keeping his voice steady.
"They were just messing around with me. Akira is back too, and Miss Gardevoir is here."
"Oh, Little Sha is back. Welcome back."
With her best friend returned, Rika Orimoto quickly forgot the discomfort from earlier. She waved happily at Gardevoir, who was following behind Akira.
"Sha sha." Gardevoir floated over as well, leaning in close to Rika Orimoto in an affectionate way.
This had already become part of daily life at Tokyo Jujutsu High. It was as ordinary as Panda and his brothers roughhousing, or Akira and Yuta Okkotsu letting their Familiar clash in friendly matches. Everyone was used to it.
Yet this familiar scene made Darkrai's body tremble slightly. It had stayed silent before, like a shadow watching without interfering.
"What is it?"
As the master, Akira noticed at once. Darkrai let out a low sound, and Akira frowned without realizing it.
It still could not communicate as freely as Gardevoir, but Darkrai had been hatched by Akira himself as a Pokémon. He could sense its attitude clearly through their bond.
Rika Orimoto was drawing Darkrai's attention. Darkrai was interested in her.
If it were any other Cursed Spirit, he would have just caught it and let Darkrai use it as a toy. But Rika Orimoto was different, not to mention that even catching her was unrealistic, and more importantly, she was Yuta Okkotsu's girlfriend.
As a devoted believer in pure love, Akira would not do NTR, and he certainly would not do that to the girlfriend of the Champion of Pure Love.
Then another thought crossed his mind. Darkrai was drawn to nightmares, so could it be that—
"Did you smell the scent of nightmares on her?"
"Mm!"
Darkrai shook its head and then nodded, its pitch-black arms gesturing up and down. The meaning felt conflicted.
"It is nightmares, but not just nightmares. Something more than that."
Akira's thoughts raced. He recalled Darkrai's traits and Rika Orimoto's origin, then the idea of memes and the System Hint tied to them.
Pancham was born from Panda's meme, so the Nightmare God should be born from the meme of nightmares. To gather enough meme power at once for a Nightmare God to form, Rika Orimoto's purity could not be lower than Panda's.
There was only one answer.
"Rika Orimoto no, Special Grade Vengeful Cursed Spirit itself is a nightmare. Rika Orimoto is a nightmare made real."
From a human perspective, even a Cursed Spirit could be seen as humanity's nightmare. By that logic, Rika Orimoto was undoubtedly the God of Nightmares.
Satoru Gojo let out a short laugh and pushed down his Sunglasses. His sky-like eyes peered through the gap, one eye locking onto them.
"That idea is interesting. Your new Pokemon is very similar to Rika Orimoto. The same goes for Pancham and Panda. You create corresponding Pokemon through curses, am I right?"
"More or less."