'What the hell is taking them so long?' Masamichi wondered while regretting the fact that he had let Saturo take Kiniro out ot the city, 'The Higher-Ups and clan executives are already breathing down my neck about bringing Saturo to Kiniro that ungrateful bastard! I stick my neck out for him, and this is how he chooses to repay me.'
"Hey, Senesi, it's that one dull guy from the dungeon!"
Masamichi's jaw clenched, and he looked over to see Saturo and Kiniro walking down the hallway with no apparent sense of urgency. "What did you say about me, brat?"
"Kiniro, this is Masamichi, principal of Tokyo Jujutsu High." Saturo chided while waving his finger back and forth, "Treat him with respect, alright."
Kiniro nodded and gave Saturo a thumbs-up before turning to Masamichi and giving him a slight bow. "Sorry for my rudeness."
Masamichi clicked his tongue but didn't pay the matter any more attention, "Come on, everyone is waiting, I can't believe you stayed in the city overnight."
Saturo grinned and rubbed the back of his head, "I'll take responsibility for that. I let time get away from me."
Masamichi let out an unimpressed grunt before turning and walking down the hallway, "I'm sure."
Kiniro and Saturo followed behind Masamichi, who nearly reached the end of the hallway before opening one of the sliding doors and stepping inside, "Come on in and introduce yourself to the rest of the first years."
Saturo paused for a second, letting Kiniro step forward first and enter the room.
Instantly, three sets of eyes landed on him, and Kiniro quickly gave each of them a once-over. The first thing to catch his eye was the giant panda, sitting upright at a desk, as if it were just a normal person. The strange thing, however, was that the panda had cursed energy flowing through its body, concentrated around several points.
'Sensei never mentioned the fact that animals could have cursed energy…could it just be a person in a fur suit?' Kiniro filed the question away to ask later as he moved to the next set of eyes.
They belonged to a boy with spikey blonde hair; his eyes appeared rather flat, but that might have been because most of his lower face was covered by the extended neck of his sweater.
Moving on to the last of his classmates, Kiniro found a pair of glaring eyes boring into him. Which was unfortunate, because Kiniro found their owner rather pretty, a girl with an athletic build, glasses, dark green hair tied up in a bun, and small brown eyes.
Though what Kiniro noticed most of all was the fact that she had almost no cursed energy, 'Those glasses she's wearing have more energy imbued into them than she does, I wonder what they do…maybe increase her perception…or even allow her to see cursed spirits in the first place.'
"Hey! Are you just gonna stare at us or actually introduce yourself? And what the hell are you wearing? I can't tell if you're a boy or a girl."
Kiniro blinked as the glaring girl shouted at him with a disapproving click of her tongue. As for his clothes, Kiniro was wearing a cropped black tank top, a loose but heavy wool shawl that left his shoulders exposed, and a pair of jean shorts that cut off at his mid-thigh.
'These are girls' clothes? I guess that would explain why all the mannequins in that section of the store had breasts.'
Grinning at his own cluelessness, Kiniro laughed, "I'm a boy, and my name is Kiniro. It's nice to meet you all."
"Toge Inumaki," the boy with his face covered, responded with what Kiniro hoped was his name, raising a hand in greeting.
"Nice to meet you, Kiniro, glad you could join us! You can call me Panda!"
Kiniro stared at the massive bear speaking in complete sentences, "Are you a guy in a costume or an actual panda?"
Panda grinned, revealing massive teeth, "I'm not a person or a panda."
"That really doesn't answer my question," Kiniro replied with a helpless look before glancing at his final classmate, who was still glaring at him.
"Maki Zenin, but if you call me Zenin, I'll kick your ass."
Masamichi then stepped forward before Kiniro could respond, keeping the conversation on track, "Alright, introductions are over, Kiniro, go take a seat. We've been delayed enough already. "
Kiniro shrugged and purposefully took the seat next to Maki, and shot her teasing grin, which certainly didn't help Maki's already negative view of Kiniro.
"As all of you hopefully know, you're here for one reason and one reason only, to become Jujutsu Sorcerers," Masamichi prefaced as he began his speech, "And a Jujutsu Sorcerer only has one purpose, to excorise cursed spirits. For the next three years, you will be trained in this sacred art. But make no mistake."
Masamichi paused as his serious gaze glanced between the four students, "The next three years will be the most dangerous period of your lives. You're all young and inexperienced, meaning you're guaranteed to make errors, and when dealing with cursed spirits, every error can be fatal."
Masamichi paused again to let his words sink in, "We will train you to the best of our ability and only give you missions with an acceptable level of risk, but nothing is ever certain, so when you're training, remember that the effort you put in may be the difference between life and death."
"Our dear principal is right of course," Saturo chimed in as he stepped up, "But don't forget that most Jujutsu Sorcerers are dispatched in teams, meaning that it's not just your life that's at risk, but the lives of your teammates. So don't be the one who lets everyone else down."
"Thank you, Saturo," Masamichi nodded, pleasantly surprised that his old student had given such solid advice. "All of this is to say that the four of you have chosen a hard path, but you've already made one of the toughest decisions, which was enrolling in this school."
'I wasn't really given much of a choice,' Kiniro couldn't help but think, though that didn't amount to much, 'Probably would have joined this school regardless, all this talk is getting me excited.'
"Your daily schedule will begin at nine thirty in the morning, reporting to the training field for a three-hour physical conditioning session. From there, you will have an hour lunch break, followed by two one-hour classes, the first being Theory of Cursed Energy and the second being History of Jututsu Society. This schedule will repeat itself Monday through Saturday, while on Sunday, you will only have one session of physical conditioning in the morning."
'Fuck me,' Kiniro frowned as he heard the busy schedule.
"There is also a curfew in place; all students must be in the dormitory building no later than 11:30. Also, leaving the school grounds requires permission from a qualifying staff member."
'Fuck me again.'
"And you can only leave campus on the days you have no classes."
'Whyyy?!' Kiniro dispaired as he deflated in his seat, 'I wanted to visit the city again…I barely got to try any of the food! This is like the cult all over again!'
Kiniro's inner wailing was interrupted when his desk was kicked, making it shake violently and nearly slam into his leg, "Hey, fix your face, you damn brat! No one wants to see your moping."
Kiniro looked over at Maki, who was glaring at him af if he had just spat on her food.
"Hey, why are you being so mean to me?" Kiniro pouted as he stared back at Maki, "Sensei just said we need to get along as classmates."
"No he said as teammates, and there's no way I would ever have you on my team," Maki spat.
"Really?" Kiniro blinked as he looked Maki up and down, "But you have so little cursed energy, wouldn't you want someone strong looking after y-"
Kiniro didn't get to finish his sentence as, in the blink of an eye, Maki's hand struck out and slapped Kiniro across the face, making his head snap back.
'W-what just happened?' Kiniro thought as he felt the tingling, numbing sensation spreading across his face, and he stared up at the ceiling, 'Did she just slap me?'
"What was that about you being strong?" Maki asked tauntingly, crossing her legs and grinning at Kiniro, who slowly lowered his head to stare back at her with wide, startled eyes.
'No one has ever hit me before, or touched me for that matter,' Kiniro thought as he felt a warmth follow the numbing sting of the slap, 'But I know a slap isn't supposed to hurt this much! Why is she so strong?'
Kiniro felt his heart beat speed up as his lips turned up into a smile that was riddled with depravity, 'And why do I feel so good right now!?'
With an echoing beat of his heart, Kiniro's cursed energy was aroused, spreading throughout his body before rolling off of him like a thick smog.
Being the closest, Maki faced the full brunt of Kiniro's presence and felt her entire body stiffen as she recoiled, 'What the hell is with this guy? Where is all of this cursed energy coming from?!'
Watching Maki's expression, Kiniro drank in her emotions, sensing the burgeoning fear inside of her, 'There it is, the fear, the guilt, the terror! The dread of retribution! The trademark of a guilty soul. Inflicting your wrath upon another to soothe your own wounded pride, what a delicious sin!'
Kiniro's pink eyes flashed with a magenta light, bringing his revelation into focus as a link formed between their souls, 'Now, bear your mark as a Sinner and beg for absolution!'