"Excuse me…"
On the training grounds of Jujutsu High, Miwa Kasumi trotted over in short quick steps to where Maki, Nobara, and Yuji were standing. She gave a small bow. "Could I ask you all something?"
Because she had just been attacked by the blue-haired Cursed Spirit, and still needed a psychological evaluation and assessment, Miwa had been arranged to stay on the Jujutsu High campus.
There were dedicated student dormitories — perfectly safe.
That morning she had woken up, stepped outside, and gone for a walk. One thing led to another, and the walk brought her here to the training grounds.
"Of course, what did you want to ask, Miwa-senpai?" Maki said.
The three of them had just finished their morning training.
Miwa was a second-year, so "senpai" was the natural form of address.
"It's just… is Gojo-sensei around school lately?" Miwa asked.
Gojo?
Nobara thought for a moment. "That guy's been out lately, I think. Something came up — he'll probably be back for the exchange event."
"He's been gone that long?"
"That's just how he is."
Anyone could say Satoru Gojo was irresponsible — and they'd be wrong. You could call him scatterbrained, sure, but never irresponsible.
Satoru Gojo was a genuine workaholic.
He was the single busiest person in the entire jujutsu world. He was everyone's last line of defense. He was writing lesson plans for his handful of high-maintenance students. He was cleaning up messes for the Gojo clan. He was single-handedly safeguarding the security of all Japan.
With a schedule like that, him going on a business trip at any given moment wasn't the least bit surprising.
"What did senpai want him for?" Maki asked.
Miwa looked a little deflated, but smiled and waved it off. "Oh, nothing important, really. I just wanted to ask Gojo-sensei for his autograph."
She was his number-one fan.
Just then, Miwa's gaze landed on the wounds on Maki's body, and she blinked. "Maki-san, did you get those injuries just now?"
Maki touched the cut on her arm and gave a small nod. "Yeah, from training just now."
Glancing to the side, Yuji and Nobara were similarly covered in dust and scrapes. They had clearly been putting in some serious work.
Miwa felt a small jolt of anxiety in her chest.
Were the students at Jujutsu High really this dedicated? They seemed to be working so much harder than the students back at Kyoto. Were they training specifically to prepare for the exchange event?
She was starting to feel unsettled just standing here.
When a person who hasn't been putting in the effort suddenly sees everyone around them grinding, anxiety has a way of igniting all on its own.
But Miwa had guessed wrong. The reason Yuji and the others were training so fiercely wasn't actually to prepare for the exchange event.
They were… more than anything, being driven by what Mahiko had done to them.
Ever since that day — the day the raid on Mahiko failed, the day she had reshaped Inumaki's body — the smiles had all but vanished from the faces of every student at Jujutsu High.
The blue-haired Cursed Spirit's laughter. Her absolute, brazen impunity. It was fast becoming a recurring nightmare lodged in each of their minds.
Every one of them had felt it — felt how weak they still were, felt how utterly powerless they had been. And so they were burning to get stronger.
Some of them had even developed a stress response to the color blue. Any person with blue hair was enough to set them on edge.
Just yesterday — when Miwa had first been brought back — Maki had caught a glimpse of that retreating figure with blue hair and had very nearly gone straight into fight mode on pure reflex.
At night, when the nightmares came, they dreamed of being ground under Mahiko's heel.
"By the way, Miwa-senpai — you were attacked by that blue-haired Cursed Spirit too, right?" Yuji asked.
"Ah… ah, yes, yes, I was." Miwa wasn't particularly eager to revisit that memory. It had been… terrifying. The tentacles had been terrifying. Just recalling the sensation made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.
Miwa could no longer look directly at the pure, innocent smiles of children.
Whenever she saw that kind of guileless, wholehearted smile, her mind would involuntarily drag up the image — that brilliant, wicked grin the blue-haired girl in the library had turned on her.
And then the anxiety would flood in.
Mahiko had, with perfect impartiality, left every single person she encountered with their own unique brand of psychological scarring.
"Gojo-sensei will be back for the exchange event…" Miwa murmured, repeating it to herself. Then she gave herself a little mental pep talk and pumped her fist. "Then I absolutely have to get that autograph when he's back!"
For reasons she couldn't quite explain, Miwa felt a particularly strong pull toward seeing Satoru Gojo.
Maybe it was just because she had actually made it to Jujutsu High for the first time.
"Speaking of which, now that senpai's here too," Nobara clapped her hands together, "should we all go out for sushi at lunch?"
"It's still morning," Yuji pointed out.
"Then we can wander around in the meantime." Nobara shrugged. "Things have been so grim lately — going out to clear our heads might do us some good?"
That was actually a fair point.
All three of them agreed.
Miwa was genuinely surprised — and delighted — that they were inviting her along.
The group made their decision and started walking toward the gate in the distance.
They walked and chatted as they went.
And then, the next instant——
BOOM!!
A tremendous crash erupted.
They watched in disbelief as the front gate of Jujutsu High — the actual gate — went flying through the air, spinning end over end several times before arcing down and slamming into the lawn, throwing up a massive cloud of dust.
The ground shook.
Every bird in every tree took to the sky at once.
All four of them stood there, completely dumbstruck.
The gate… flew off?
They stared in unison toward where the gate used to be.
The dust hadn't even begun to settle before two figures stepped through the gap.
One was a slender silhouette in a Kyoto school uniform.
The other was a man of extraordinary, almost monstrous build — solid as a wall.
"Hey!" the man bellowed, his voice booming across the entire training ground like a thunderclap. "Are you the first-years they're sending in to replace Yuta and the third-years at the exchange event?!"
The sheer pressure of his voice alone was enough to make you feel like you were being physically pushed back.
Miwa's mouth fell open. She recognized him.
And immediately felt her heart sink — and a splitting headache begin to build.
Todo Aoi had arrived.
——Todo Aoi.
A second-year student at Kyoto Prefectural Jujutsu High. Grade 1 sorcerer.
Regarded by most of his peers as an absolute eccentric.
A man who lived entirely by his own rules and answered to no one.
"Who is that? What's happening?" Nobara stared at the scene in front of her, expression blank, brain apparently not quite keeping up.
Maki's face subtly became more serious. "That's Todo Aoi. Second-year at Kyoto school."
"A senpai's a senpai," Nobara said, glancing at Maki. "But why did he just kick the gate into orbit?"
Miwa's expression crumpled with exhaustion. "Because that's just… the kind of person Todo is…"
She didn't get to finish.
Todo was already right in front of them.
"So you're the first-years filling in for Yuta and the third-years?!" Todo crossed his arms and swept his gaze over the three of them. "Nobara Kugisaki, Yuji Itadori, and… hm? No Megumi Fushiguro?"
Standing beside Todo was Zen'in Mai, also a second-year at Kyoto — and the twin sister of Maki Zenin. She blinked at Todo's question and tilted her head. "You didn't know?"
"Didn't know what?" Todo turned to look at her.
But he didn't wait for her answer. He swung his gaze back to the group in front of him and locked onto Yuji.
"Then I'll ask you instead — Yuji Itadori. I have one question for you. Consider it a test to determine whether or not you're a boring person." Todo grinned, eyes fixed on Yuji with burning intensity. "If you are a boring person — I won't hesitate to send you flying."
Send him flying??
Yuji and Nobara stared.
…What?
He'd just walked in and already wanted to start throwing people?
Fail his test and get launched across the yard?
Was this man operating under bandit logic?
Meanwhile, Miwa had already covered her face with both hands and turned away. She was very close to refusing to acknowledge that she and Todo were in the same year at the same school.
"So — here's my question! Yuji Itadori!"
Todo paused. He dropped into a fighting stance — knees slightly bent, muscles coiled, ready to throw a punch at any moment. Then he broke into a wide, blazing grin, eyes alight.
"What's your type?!"
…What?
The training grounds went silent for approximately three seconds.
The wind blew through. A few dead leaves tumbled past.
Miwa had buried her face entirely in both hands.
Someone save me. This is so embarrassing.
"Hey, Cursed Spirit."
"Mm?"
Over at Junpei's high school, Mahiko was perched on the rooftop of some building outside, legs dangling idly off the edge, swinging back and forth. Through the window below, she had a clear line of sight to the classroom where Yoshino Junpei sat.
A voice came through her earring — Mechamaru's.
"The students and teachers from Kyoto have started arriving in Tokyo. Be careful. Don't get caught."
"Understood. Thanks for the heads-up."
"While I'm at it — if the sorcerers end up launching a raid against you, I'll fight you in earnest to avoid exposing our connection. I'll still share intelligence with you as we arranged. But…"
But he'd have to make it look convincing. Can't be too obvious — it would blow his cover.
Mahiko understood.
"Also — I don't know if you still need this, but regarding the incident at my factory where people died — I've collected the remains of the deceased and had them smuggled into Tokyo through back channels. I'll send you the address. Take them if you want, leave them if you don't."
"Oh."
She didn't really need to go pick them up.
That Transfigured Human had already been killed by Mahiko.
Mahiko's attention stayed fixed on the school building below.
Two seconds of silence passed.
"One more thing…" Mechamaru's tone shifted slightly. "I genuinely didn't think you were capable of something like this."
"What?"
"You actually turned an ordinary person into a jujutsu sorcerer." Mechamaru paused. "What exactly is there that you can't do?"
He was talking about Yoshino Junpei.
Mahiko rubbed the tip of her nose. "He just had the talent for it himself."
Mahiko could carve a Jujutsu Technique into herself with ease — but doing it for someone else was a completely different matter. The underlying principle was roughly the same, but the practical difficulty was worlds apart, because every person's soul was different.
Creating a sorcerer from scratch was an enormous undertaking.
Back when she had modified the bodies of Jogo and Hanami, she had spent a full day on each of them, largely due to inexperience.
Junpei had taken one night — shorter than she had expected — and that was because Junpei already had the framework of a Technique inside his brain. His issue was simply that the shape of his brain didn't match a sorcerer's, leaving him unable to channel Cursed Energy. All Mahiko had needed to do was give him access to Cursed Energy, and the rest followed.
Junpei was a special case.
So even though Mahiko had the ability to turn people into sorcerers, she had never done what so many villains before her had done — consciously mass-converting bystanders into sorcerers to build an army — because the return on effort was simply too low.
"Hey, Cursed Spirit."
"What?"
"You're helping him get out of the bullying situation, aren't you."
"Mm?"
"Why? I looked into him — he's just an ordinary person," Mechamaru said. "Why are you going out of your way to help someone who has nothing to do with you? You're a Cursed Spirit. Why would you get involved in something like this?"
Mahiko blinked. "Because I feel like it. What's it to you?"
Mechamaru was quiet for a moment. "I can't be bothered to care… I just want to give you a word of advice."
"What advice?"
"In the world of sorcerers and Cursed Spirits, good people die the fastest, and bad people die the most miserably," Mechamaru said. "And the ones who are good at heart but are playing the villain — they die both fast and miserably."
"Oh, put a lid on it." Mahiko clicked her tongue. "You'll cringe at yourself for saying that once you're past your edgy phase."
The girl's gaze drifted down to the school building.
About two minutes ago.
It was morning, before classes had started. The classroom was buzzing with noise. Over by the window seats, a boy was surrounded by a small crowd.
"Itou — didn't your family just buy a new car?"
"Heyyy, um — Itou-kun, are you free this afternoon? We should all go to karaoke together~"
Itou was reasonably good-looking, and his clothes were a cut above the rest of the students around him. He sat at the center of it all like a king with his court, smiling and answering questions as they came.
From his expression, he enjoyed every moment of it.
Itou was the true ringleader behind the bullying of Yoshino Junpei.
They chatted and laughed. The morning sunlight came through the window just right. The classroom was the same as it always was — nothing out of the ordinary.
And then a short, slightly chubby boy with his head down shuffled past them, carefully, wearing glasses — the kind of kid who at a single glance read as a complete homebody.
But he accidentally bumped his elbow into one of the people gathered around Itou.
The person he bumped spun around instantly, grabbed him by the collar.
"Hey! You looking for trouble?!"
He shoved the shorter boy to the ground.
The classroom went quiet for a beat, and then every pair of eyes turned to look at the boy on the floor. Not a single person stepped forward.
A ticket slipped free from the boy's fingers in the fall and fluttered down to the floor.
The one who had shoved him raised an eyebrow, picked it up, and looked.
"Takada-kun?" He let out an exaggerated laugh, waving the ticket in the air. "Isn't this that idol? Ha — so a guy who looks like you actually wants to go see an idol? That's disgusting…"
A few of the kids nearby started laughing and jeering along.
Itou sat in his seat and said nothing — just raised an eyebrow and smiled. Like a team leader maintaining his image, he gave his approval through silence.
The shorter boy didn't dare fight back. He kept his head down and pleaded quietly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bump into you… could you please give the ticket back?"
But backing down only ever gave bullies more ground to take.
He shook the ticket.
"You know what — that idol would probably only be grossed out if she saw this guy anyway. For her sake — why don't we just get rid of these two tickets?"
"Ohhhh, good point, good point."
"That's true, ha, hahaha——"
The crowd egged each other on and the laughter grew louder and louder.
The slightly chubby boy sat on the floor, curled into himself, not saying a word.
"Give his stuff back."
All the laughter stopped dead. The classroom went completely silent.
Every single gaze swung toward the thin, dark-haired boy standing nearby.
It was Yoshino Junpei.
Same as always, on the surface.
But… somehow, looking into the boy's eyes in this moment, the kid holding the ticket felt an inexplicable chill run down his spine.
Those eyes… he felt as though he'd been fixed in the sights of a venomous snake.
____
👻🔥Seek: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: JJK: Naoya Zenin Reborn as a Woman
Let's hit these goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = 1 extra chapter for the public!