[High school life moved a lot faster than you'd expected. By the time you realized it, the years had already blurred together.]
[Hakari had entered Jujutsu High looking exactly like the punk he was. He argued with Principal Yaga about gambling like it was a matter of faith, and at one point he even tried to set up an underground casino on campus. Strip away the attitude, though, and he was exactly the guy the Simulator had shown you. Loyal to the bone, full of fire, and weirdly sincere once you got past the swagger. A hotheaded idiot, basically, but the good kind.]
[With Kirara partnered up with him on missions, there really wasn't much to worry about. At this stage, Love Rendezvous still didn't hit especially hard, but as a defensive and control-type technique, it was already nasty to deal with. As for Hakari, there was barely any need to say it. That reckless Idle Death Gamble style of his, once it had some time to grow, was going to be a complete headache for anything unlucky enough to fight him.]
[Time kept moving. Before long, the calendar rolled over to 2017.]
[Another year, another familiar chime from the system.]
[Draw complete]
[Absolute Center of Gravity [N]: Your cerebellar vestibular system is abnormally developed. Whether standing on ice slicked with lubricant, clinging to the outside wall of a skyscraper tilted past ninety degrees, or perching on top of a vehicle moving at the speed of sound, you can lock your center of gravity in place instantly, like you have suction cups. Physical motion and vibration will never make you lose your balance.]
[Other than Hakari and Kirara smoothly moving up to second-year, Jujutsu High's new first-year class welcomed three pretty unusual freshmen.]
[First, Maki Zenin's enrollment paperwork finally made it through.]
[Some people in the Zenin Clan were still busy playing games behind the scenes. Using their internal connections, they forced her official evaluation all the way down to the bottom: Grade Four Jujutsu Sorcerer. A cheap, deliberate insult. They wanted the family's blemish to get fed up and quit on her own.]
Maki didn't care.
[A few cold words on a ranking sheet weren't enough to define her.]
[Her Heavenly Restriction gave her senses sharp enough to vaguely pick up the presence of Cursed Spirits, but that only went so far. Fighting something you couldn't properly see was never a long-term answer. Grade One missions weren't common, but they weren't rare enough to ignore either, and at that level, being unable to read a curse's technique in the middle of a fight would get her killed.]
[So you had a special pair of cursed-tool glasses made for her.]
[The second Maki put them on, the curse-infested world finally came into focus.]
[That was also the moment she truly stepped onto the road of rebellion.]
[Panda was the next one. He'd already completed the transition into a fully mature body and had spent the last year getting used to it. Yaga officially enrolled him as a Jujutsu Sorcerer student.]
[The higher-ups naturally assumed that had happened because of you. They still suspected you were hiding the truth behind Panda's creation, but suspicion wasn't proof. In the end, after the usual round of bureaucratic nonsense, Panda entered as the first-year class's second student without much trouble.]
[The third was Toge Inumaki, admitted through a family recommendation.]
[As the last surviving heir to the Cursed Speech bloodline, he had inherited the clan's signature technique. His words carried compulsive force through the special cursed markings on his body, turning speech itself into commands people couldn't resist. The results were brutal. The backlash was just as bad, ripping through the user's body every time he invoked it.]
[Maybe that was why Inumaki couldn't speak casually in daily life. One careless sentence could injure anyone close enough to hear it. So for safety, he limited his everyday vocabulary to rice ball ingredients.]
["Salmon." "Bonito flakes."]
[It took some getting used to, sure, but the kid wasn't hard to deal with. There was no malice in him. And with Panda and Maki already close to you, taking over basic instruction for all three freshmen happened without any pushback.]
[Everything was moving along nicely.]
[Hakari and Kirara were steadily improving under Kusakabe's guidance as second-years. Then one day, Gojo called you to Yaga's office.]
[That alone was unusual.]
[The atmosphere inside was heavy from the start. Gojo skipped the small talk and looked at you and Yaga.]
["Do either of you know Yuta Okkotsu?"]
[Yaga frowned, turning the name over in his head like he was digging through old paperwork.]
["Okkotsu... Yuta?"]
[You recognized it immediately. Sorting through the information you had, you answered first.]
["He's the one from that case, isn't he? The boy who nearly beat four classmates to death. Confirmed to be carrying a Special Grade Vengeful Cursed Spirit. The first person in years to be labeled Special Grade the moment he was discovered."]
[Recognition hit Yaga a second later.]
["So it's him..." He looked at Gojo. "Why bring him up now?"]
[Gojo lifted a finger and gave it a casual wag before turning to you.]
["That's him, yeah. But Hayase, one correction. Those four students stuffed into the lockers didn't die. They were severely injured. They survived."]
[Your face went cold. Your eyes sharpened.]
["Severely injured?" you said. "Are you downplaying it on purpose, or do you really think that changes anything? Every bone in their bodies was broken. Their organs were ruptured. For ordinary people, injuries like that mean spending the rest of their lives flat on a hospital bed. Tell me how that's meaningfully different from death."]
[Yaga felt the air in the room drop and cut in before it got worse.]
["Enough. Both of you. Gojo, whatever you're here to say, say it."]
[Gojo watched you quietly.]
[He understood where your anger was coming from. Ordinary people had their lives destroyed, and you were furious on their behalf. But as far as he was concerned, he had only stated the facts. Emotionally, he hadn't moved an inch.]
[The raised voices carried through the office door. Outside, the first-year trio had apparently been eavesdropping, and now they were all but glued to the crack in the door, peeking inside with anxious faces.]
[Panda stared at you and muttered under his breath.]
["This is bad... I've known Hayase for years, and I've never seen him look like that. He doesn't even raise his voice."]
[Maki and Inumaki hadn't known you nearly as long, but they had never seen this side of you either. The man in that room looked nothing like the teacher they knew, the one who always wore a faint smile and patiently walked them through training.]
[And the person you were staring down was Satoru Gojo, the strongest.]
[There wasn't a trace of fear in your eyes.]
[Maki adjusted her glasses, surprise slipping into her whisper.]
["No kidding... he's squaring up with a Special Grade."]
["Salmon..."]
[Inumaki shrank deeper into his collar, worry written all over his face.]
[Inside the office, Gojo ignored your question entirely.]
["I'm planning to bring him to Jujutsu High," he said evenly. "Let him learn to control that power, or maybe break the curse altogether."]
[Yaga's jaw dropped so hard his sunglasses almost slid off.]
["What?!" he blurted. "Enroll him? He's a Special Grade Cursed Human!"]
[You let out a cold laugh.]
["So that's what it comes down to," you said. "If someone's strong enough, being dangerous doesn't matter. If they've ruined people's lives, it still doesn't matter. As long as they're useful, the door stays open."]
[Gojo corrected you in that same maddeningly calm tone.]
["It wasn't murder. Attempted murder at most. And those four students were bullying Okkotsu first. They shoved him into a locker. The curse he can't control reacted on its own and injured them. Okkotsu himself never wanted to hurt anybody. He even tried to kill himself out of guilt. Strictly speaking, none of it was intentional."]
[That didn't move you in the slightest.
Your voice dropped, low and tight with anger.]
["So what? That makes it fine to ruin four people's lives? Say 'it was out of his control' once, say 'passive self-defense' once, and suddenly all the consequences disappear? Is he exempt because the jujutsu world says he's a sorcerer? Because somebody stamped Special Grade on his file? Is that really how this works? If you're talented enough, you never have to answer for the damage you cause?"]
[Gojo didn't answer right away.
He held your stare for a long moment, then turned and pulled the office door open. On his way out, he left one sentence behind.]
["If that's how you see it, then come with me, Hayase. See the boy for yourself. Decide with your own eyes whether he's a monster, or just someone worth pitying."]