Chapter 38: The Old Principal's Killing Intent
"Useless trash."
The hoarse voice cut through the air like a rusted blade.
The Kyoto students, still unsettled from the earlier confrontation, stiffened almost at once.
Leaning on his grotesquely shaped wooden staff, Principal Yoshinobu Gakuganji slowly came into view. His aged face was drawn tight with displeasure, every wrinkle seeming to hold a shadow of malice.
His gaze first landed on Mai Zenin, who still sat slumped on the ground, the fear in her eyes not yet fully gone.
Then it shifted to Aoi Todo, who stood nearby casually dusting himself off, as if nothing significant had happened.
A sharp chill flashed through Gakuganji's cloudy eyes.
"To lose your nerve before the battle has even begun," he said coldly, "is this what passes for Zenin talent?"
Mai's shoulders trembled.
She bit her lip hard and lowered her head, not daring to argue.
That brief instant, the instant Yami had looked at her, had terrified her more thoroughly than any Grade 1 curse ever had.
"Enough already, old man."
Todo picked his ear with one finger, his tone overflowing with impatience.
"That guy is strong. Of course Mai got scared."
He grinned, and a dangerous gleam lit up his eyes.
"Even I almost couldn't stop myself from fighting him right then and there."
At the mention of Yami, the excitement in Todo's face became almost feverish.
"Yami... my best friend."
He clenched his fists, practically vibrating with battle lust.
"I really want to clash with him soul to soul."
"Silence, Todo."
Gakuganji's rebuke came down like a hammer.
"At a time like this, your personal feelings are worthless."
By then, the rest of Kyoto's students had already gathered: Noritoshi Kamo, Momo Nishimiya, Mechamaru, and Kasumi Miwa.
Gakuganji swept his gaze across all of them.
When he spoke again, his voice was even colder.
"Listen carefully. There has been a change to tomorrow's exchange event."
The mood in the room tightened.
"In the team battle, your objective is not merely to collect points by exorcising curses."
He paused.
"You have another priority."
His grip on the staff tightened.
"Kill Yuji Itadori of Tokyo Jujutsu High."
A beat of silence followed.
Then his voice lowered further, each word more venomous than the last.
"And kill that first year named Yami."
The room went still.
Even the air seemed to lock in place.
Kasumi Miwa's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Kill... them?"
Her voice shook.
"Principal, this is only an exchange event..."
"Itadori Yuji is Ryomen Sukuna's vessel. As long as he lives, he remains a threat to the jujutsu world."
Gakuganji spoke as if he were stating a self evident truth.
"As for Yami..."
A deep wariness flickered in his old eyes.
"That boy is even more dangerous in some ways."
"He has no cursed energy, and yet he wields that abnormal power."
"If he cannot be controlled, then he must be destroyed before he fully matures."
His voice sank lower.
"This is the will of the higher ups."
"And it is for the future of the jujutsu world."
Miwa instinctively opened her mouth again, but Momo quickly tugged at her sleeve.
This was not something they were allowed to question.
Not openly.
"Hah? The future of the jujutsu world?"
A mocking laugh shattered the heavy silence.
Todo snorted, then burst out laughing like he had just heard the greatest joke of his life.
"How boring."
"Utterly boring."
He turned away and waved a dismissive hand with his back to Gakuganji.
"You can play your dull assassination game without me."
"My only interest is a good fight."
"If any of you try to interfere with my reunion with my best friend, I'll beat you all down myself."
And with that, Todo walked off without another glance.
"Todo!"
Gakuganji's beard quivered with anger, but he said no more.
He knew forcing Todo was pointless.
After a moment, he turned toward the others, his gaze settling on the black haired young man standing calmly among them.
"Kamo."
His tone sharpened.
"You are the heir to the Kamo clan. You understand what is at stake here, don't you?"
Noritoshi Kamo slowly opened his eyes.
His expression remained calm, unreadable.
"If this is the will of headquarters," he said evenly, "then the Kamo clan will comply."
"Good."
At last, Gakuganji seemed somewhat satisfied.
As long as Kamo cooperated, and the others followed, eliminating two first years in the chaos of the exchange event would not be difficult.
"To ensure success, I have prepared something."
From within his robes, he withdrew two items.
The first was an ancient looking longbow radiating dense cursed energy.
A special grade cursed tool.
Cloud Piercer.
The second was a short dagger wrapped in black runic markings, its presence ominous and cold.
"Kamo."
Gakuganji handed him the bow.
"You may use Cloud Piercer. Its range and penetrating force are more than enough to take a life from over a kilometer away."
Then he turned to Mai and extended the dagger.
"This blade is coated in cursed poison."
His voice grew almost sinister.
"A shallow cut is enough. Even Reverse Cursed Technique will struggle to save the victim."
Mai stared at the dagger.
Her fingers trembled, but in the end, she still took it.
"Yes... Principal."
Her voice was quiet.
Watching this scene from the corner of the room, Mechamaru said nothing.
Inside that mechanical shell sat Kokichi Muta, and his emotions were anything but calm.
Kill Yami?
The very person who had, even if unknowingly, stirred hope inside him again?
The one whose existence had made him start believing that even impossible things might one day be broken through?
Yami did not know his identity.
He did not know what that small flicker of hope had meant.
But Kokichi remembered.
And because he remembered, his chest felt tight.
"I'm sorry, Yami," he thought silently.
"The wish I'm chasing still matters more."
"But at the very least... you cannot die to something this cheap."
Inside Mechamaru's artificial frame, a tiny mechanism detached from the shell.
A mosquito like machine, smaller than a fingernail.
It slipped silently into the dark, leaving the Kyoto quarters under cover of night and darting toward the Tokyo side.
...
At that very moment, inside the Tokyo lounge, Yami sat cross legged on the tatami with his eyes closed.
He looked like he was resting.
But the slightest twitch of his ear said otherwise.
A faint buzzing sound had entered his range of hearing.
The next instant, his eyes snapped open.
His hand flashed out.
Two fingers caught the tiny mechanical mosquito just before it could land on his shoulder.
"This is..."
Yami raised a brow and examined the struggling machine between his fingers.
A faint projection suddenly flickered to life from its abdomen, casting a line of tiny words over the back of his hand.
[Tomorrow's team battle. Kyoto's hidden objective: kill Itadori and you. Be wary of Kamo and Mai. M]
Yami read the message in silence.
Then, slowly, a faintly amused smile touched the corners of his mouth.
"M?"
Mechamaru.
So the iron wrapped coward still had a conscience after all.
"Kill me, huh..."
His fingers closed slightly.
The mosquito crumpled into a useless lump of scrap.
Yami looked out the window into the dark night beyond.
The gleam in his golden red eyes turned cold.
"That old man Gakuganji really thinks highly of me."
For a moment, he stood there in stillness.
Then his hand came to rest lightly on the hilt of Shiranui at his waist.
"But hunter and prey..."
His voice was soft.
"Their positions can change at any moment."
A colder smile surfaced on his face.
"If you want to play, then I'll play with you."
"I just hope Kyoto can survive the surprise."
Outside, the night wind stirred the trees, carrying dead leaves into the dark.
In that darkness, a conspiracy had already bared its fangs, waiting to ambush Yami and Yuji.
What the conspirators did not understand was simple.
They were not setting a trap for lambs.
They were walking willingly into the den of a beast.
TL: Check out my newly released fanfic:
Transmigrated into The Legendary Mechanic
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