"Akira-sensei, you're back?!"
"Akira... sensei, welcome back."
"Welcome back!"
"As expected of you, Akira-san..."
"Sensei, has your body fully recovered?"
Unlike the others, when Noritoshi Kamo saw Akira Zenin as he was now, he first smiled and let out a breath of relief. The backbone of Kyoto Jujutsu High was back.
Then he rubbed his brow, tense and already getting a headache. If Sensei found out his project still had not made any progress, that would be bad...
Akira Zenin first nodded to everyone's warm welcome, then glanced at Noritoshi Kamo. Those narrowed eyes were truly a great weapon for hiding emotion, but unfortunately, as the person who had raised him from childhood, Akira Zenin could read his thoughts with ease.
Still, Akira Zenin had no intention of checking the homework he had assigned him the moment he came back.
"Mm, I'm very awake right now..."
More precisely, this body of Akira Zenin's had been "shaped" in the [Shadow Realm] using shadows together with a Reverse Cursed Technique, then controlled through his main consciousness. Even the Jujutsu system he was using was a recreation of the [Ten Shadows Technique] based on his memories, and the Shikigami he summoned were also ones he had "shaped" out of his own shadows.
"Alright, alright, kids, settle down..."
The classroom quieted at Akira Zenin's voice. Everyone looked at him, waiting for his next "instruction."
Akira Zenin clapped his hands.
"Then class is over. Go take a break first~~"
"Yay!" ×3
The three girls instantly rushed out of the classroom. After giving Akira Zenin a nod, Noritoshi Kamo also slowly left to work on his own assignment. Only Aoi Todo remained in his seat, squinting as if deep in thought.
Kokichi Muta looked at the lesson plan in his hands, the corner of his eye twitching. More than twenty pages, and he had only just finished the introduction... Now that Akira-sensei was back, fine, maybe he would not lecture. But did he really have to interrupt someone else's lecture too... Sigh...
He suddenly remembered what Akira Zenin had been when he was a child, before he became this sleepy... It was over... Things were definitely about to get troublesome...
Akira Zenin looked at Aoi Todo, who was still sitting there.
"Todo, you're not leaving? Good, come here for a moment..."
Hearing that, Aoi Todo stood up, walked past the frozen Kokichi Muta and Akira Zenin, and left the classroom.
"Akira-san sent everyone away the moment he got back... I knew there was something going on. It's about Kokichi Muta, right? Since I had to sort out the lecture materials, I came out a little later than the others..."
Akira Zenin turned his head and gave Aoi Todo a sideways glance.
"I can only say, as expected of you..."
Rubbing his chin, Akira Zenin said,
"Because Cursed Energy itself represents negative emotions, and being a Jujutsu Sorcerer is dangerous work on top of that. The truth is, Jujutsu Sorcerers always keep a certain distance from one another, no matter what. If this keeps going, it's going to cause psychological problems for everyone...
Over in Tokyo, Haibara and Itadori help keep the atmosphere light, and Satoru Gojo is the type who is usually carefree and scatterbrained anyway...
Over here, I'm not worried about you. Noritoshi has his own things to handle, and the girls will find their own ways to have fun...
The main issue is Kokichi... His [Heavenly Restriction] was only just lifted, so right now he still cannot really blend in with everyone. Without even realizing it, he interacts with them from the perspective of a 'lecturer'..."
"Stop making excuses. You just want to ship Kokichi Muta and Kasumi Miwa, don't you?"
"Ahem..."
Aoi Todo said with complete confidence,
"You came to the right person. For someone who promotes his own 'girlfriend' as an idol, this kind of thing is child's play..."
"Oh? Let's hear it."
Aoi Todo said, "In a bit, go pass a message to Momo Nishimiya. She'll definitely cooperate with you.
After that... like this, then this..."
...
About ten minutes later, Kokichi Muta finished organizing all the books and lesson materials. He went over the flow of the class one more time, then picked up the lesson plan and headed outside.
He had always interacted with everyone as "Mechamaru," so now that he was suddenly no longer a robot, he could not help feeling strangely distant from them. It was like those old jokes, like asking whether he preferred AA batteries or AAA batteries, would never come up again...
He wanted to fit in, but he did not know how to do it. So without thinking, he threw himself into doing his job as well as possible, hoping that with time, the "Mechamaru" in everyone's minds would gradually be replaced by "Kokichi Muta"...
But just as Kokichi Muta was walking with his head lowered in thought, he suddenly saw Aoi Todo leaning his upper body against the wall by the doorway in the hall.
"Todo? Why are you still here?"
Without changing his posture, Aoi Todo lowered his voice and put on a deliberately mysterious tone.
"I just remembered there's one question I haven't asked you yet."
"Is it about that class just now?"
Aoi Todo straightened up, turned his head, and stared directly into Kokichi Muta's eyes.
"Mechamaru, no, Kokichi Muta... what kind of woman do you like!"
"Huh?"
Kokichi Muta's face turned bright red in an instant. He reflexively glanced around a few times, then let out a breath when he did not see the person he had imagined.
As if he had made up his mind, he lifted his head and looked Aoi Todo straight in the eye.
"I, I like someone grounded, cheerful, lively, and gentle."
As he spoke, Kokichi Muta began sinking into his memories, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously started to lift.
"And what about her figure?"
"Ah, um... slimmer, not too curvy..."
"Preferably blue hair?"
"Mm... Ah?"
Kokichi Muta had practically shouted all of that with every ounce of strength in his body, as if he were finally letting out emotions he had bottled up for years.
Before he could even process it, he instinctively answered the question Aoi Todo had cut in with.
"Oh~"
Aoi Todo did not comment on it. Although what Kokichi Muta described was completely outside his own tastes, and even the personality traits sounded a little too ordinary and dull.
But the target was far too obvious. With the 530,000 IQ he prided himself on, Aoi Todo naturally understood that saying such things about his classmate would not be very nice. And besides...
"Kokichi Muta."
"Huh?"
"Do you know? What you just described is not your type. It's the flutter of youth!"
Aoi Todo clapped his hands and activated [Boogie Woogie]. The burly man in front of Kokichi Muta was suddenly replaced by a slender blue-haired figure.
"!"
Kasumi Miwa's face was bright red, her eyes shut, as though she were answering someone's question.
"That person... preferably someone a little introverted, a little knowledgeable, someone who would not think I'm too ordinary..."
"Absolutely not!"
"Huh???"
Kasumi Miwa suddenly opened her eyes, completely confused by the situation. Her brain seemed unable to process all the information at once, and she just stood there looking dazed.
Akira Zenin strolled out from the side and pulled a tape recorder out of the shadows.
The instant he saw the recorder, Kokichi Muta's already flushed face turned completely red with blood rushing to it, and his brain short-circuited on the spot. He reached out at once, trying to stop him.
"Don't..."
As if he had not heard a thing, Akira Zenin pressed play.
"I, I like someone grounded, cheerful, lively, and gentle."
"And what about her figure?"
"Ah, um... slimmer, not too curvy, preferably..."
"Preferably blue hair?"
"Mm..."