[You extracted Flowing Corridor from the Semi-Grade 1 Cursed Spirit.]
[Flowing Corridor: Consumes Cursed Energy to generate a looping barrier within enclosed spaces such as caves, tunnels, or rooms.]
[The number of spaces it could connect, its resistance to internal destruction, and any distortion of time flow within the barrier all scaled with your proficiency and Cursed Energy reserves.]
[On the Jujutsu High basketball court, Gojo sank an effortless shot and turned to you, the one person who hadn't bothered guarding him.]
["Come to think of it, Touma, what's with you and Curtains? You're so obsessed with putting them up I can't tell if you're a student or an Assistant Manager anymore."]
[You answered with a sigh.]
["Maybe because a certain someone keeps ditching the Assistant Managers, so they never get the chance to raise a Curtain before that certain someone obliterates a Cursed Spirit in the most dramatic way possible?"]
["Who cares? Even if regular people see it, what's the big deal? They can't see curses or Cursed Spirits anyway."]
["Of course it's a big deal."]
[Geto stole the ball from you, dribbling as he picked up the argument.]
["The most effective way to suppress the birth of Cursed Spirits is keeping people's hearts at peace. That means hiding the threat even from those who can't see it. And not only that..."]
[Gojo cut him off. He'd never had patience for sermons.]
["Yeah, yeah, I get it. Babysitting the weak is exhausting. Give it a rest."]
[He swiped the ball clean from Geto's hands and drained a three-pointer.]
[Geto's expression hardened.]
["The weak survive. That's how society is supposed to work. The strong protect the powerless. Listen, Satoru. Jujutsu Sorcerers exist to protect non-sorcerers."]
[Gojo snorted.]
["Ah, the morally righteous argument. My favorite. I hate that crap more than anything."]
["...What did you say?"]
["Slapping your reasons and responsibilities onto someone else's strength? That's what the weak do. Quit standing around jerking yourself off about how noble sorcerers are. It makes me..." He mimed a theatrical dry heave.]
[Shoko had already read the room. She slipped out of the gymnasium without a word.]
[But you stayed. Watching them argue, you murmured under your breath, dredging up memories you'd rather have left buried.]
["Jujutsu Sorcerers exist to protect non-sorcerers..."]
[You thought of Sato. You thought of Naoya. And you found Geto's words every bit as laughable as Gojo did.]
["Slapping your reasons and responsibilities onto someone else's strength... that's what the weak do..."]
[You repeated Gojo's words quietly. But his stance wasn't much better than Sato's or Naoya's in your eyes. That same towering arrogance, gazing down from on high. It triggered something instinctive in you. Revulsion.]
[And you couldn't rally behind Geto either. Your last simulation had already shown you exactly where his noble talk of protecting the weak ended up. How it curdled.]
[Geto's face went stone-serious. He activated Cursed Spirit Manipulation, a spirit materializing at his side, and locked eyes with Gojo.]
["Let's take this outside, Satoru."]
["What, you that lonely? Go by yourself."]
[You watched the tension coil between them with cold detachment. Not a shred of desire to intervene.]
[You knew how this went. They clashed on certain issues, sure, but it never threatened what they had. At worst, they'd throw hands and be fine by dinner.]
[Normally you'd have tossed in a token word or two, even knowing it was pointless. A gesture.]
[Not today. Because unlike them, you had been the very thing they were arguing about. The weak. And even now, as a sorcerer, you still hadn't reached their level. Their debate was about people like you, and neither of them had thought to notice.]
[You refused to remain weak. And you refused to beg for the kind of protection that was really condescension wearing a prettier name. The resolve crystallized: one day, you would stand at the very top.]
[Geto noticed you then. Something flickered across your face that he'd almost never seen there before. Anger.... It caught him off guard.]
[In his memory, nothing had ever made you angry.]
[He assumed, wrongly, that Gojo's callous words had provoked you. So he called over.]
["Hey, Touma. You think what Satoru said was out of line too, right? What's your take?"]
["I..."]
[Gojo spoke before you could.]
["Why are you dragging Touma into this? If you want to argue back, think of something yourself. Don't shove a problem that isn't his onto him."]
[His intention was probably to keep you out of it. But that reflexive impulse to exclude you, to treat you as someone the conversation didn't concern, left a bitter taste all the same.]
[Right as the tension threatened to boil over into an actual fight inside the gymnasium, the door slid open. Yaga walked in.]
[He took one look at the two of them, faces close enough to headbutt, and barked.]
["How long are you two going to mess around? Where's Shoko?"]
[The moment they registered Yaga's presence, Gojo and Geto broke apart. The charged atmosphere evaporated like it had never existed. Both pivoted seamlessly into warm-up stretches, as if the last few minutes had been nothing.]
["No idea."]
["Bathroom, maybe?"]
["Forget it. I've got a mission for you two."]
[At the word "mission," both of them deflated in perfect unison. Every trace of that just-about-to-brawl energy vanished, replaced by identical expressions of reluctance.]
["What's with those faces?"]
["Nothing."]
[They answered together.]
[Yaga's gaze drifted to you, standing off to the side. He considered for a moment, something like concern crossing his features, then spoke.]
["Touma, you come along too."]