We Are Not Supermen

Life rarely went the way one wished—eight or nine times out of ten.

Though that saying was a bit exaggerated, there were always people and things in this world that left one helpless. No matter how strong or perfect one was, there would be times when one lost composure upon encountering them.

For example, Akesato when it came to Akemi; Satoru Gojo when it came to Kento Nanami.

"You should've told me about something like this sooner!"

Kento Nanami gripped his phone and complained to the person on the other end.

"Sorry, sorry. I solved it so easily that it slipped my mind. Good thing you reminded me. Here, I'll send you something nice to look at—cheer up."

Satoru Gojo's voice was as airy as ever, without the slightest hint of remorse.

Still, he did send over the promised eye candy immediately: a photograph.

The first thing that caught his eye was a huge face. The signature white hair and highly opaque sunglasses made it obvious at a glance that it was a selfie of a certain man named Gojo.

Behind Satoru Gojo, someone had been tightly bound.

Their long hair hung over their shoulders, obscuring their gender. Their clothes were identical to those worn by the Q Organization members sprawled all over the ground nearby.

The so-called "eye candy" was probably the tortoiseshell-style bondage, with a line of text photoshopped over certain crucial areas—"It's small..."

Anyone could tell whose handiwork it was. Getting bullied like this, that Q Organization member was seriously unlucky.

Akesato took a close look at Satoru Gojo's face. He looked far more youthful than he did now.

"Is this from when you wiped out the Q Organization ten years ago?"

"Actually, it wasn't just me—it was us... But we only dealt with everyone who came looking for trouble. Later, I heard that the organization fell apart because we wiped out all their Jujutsu Sorcerers."

"So, Teacher Gojo crippled Q's elite combat force back then, causing the organization to collapse, but the rest of the organization wasn't affected much?"

Akesato sighed. At last, he understood why Kento Nanami had lost his composure.

"It's even possible that the organization's collapse was only a smokescreen."

"The people at the top give orders, but the ones actually doing the work are the wage slaves below." Kento Nanami once again entered his impassioned work-is-shit state.

Akesato did not mind and continued, "And the ones with the money and control over key resources are all at the top. They could simply declare the organization disbanded, then rebrand themselves once things blew over. Those so-called elite fighters were merely slightly more senior wage slaves."

"Indeed. Even an industry-famous 'king of wage slaves' is still, fundamentally, a wage slave as long as the word remains there."

Kento Nanami had once been a wage slave, and Akesato had been one as well. They had no trouble communicating on that subject.

"I suddenly admire Teacher Gojo a little."

"Heh heh heh." Being admired by his most dependable student, Satoru Gojo's smugness practically overflowed through the signal.

Kento Nanami decisively hung up before Satoru Gojo's tail could rise into the sky.

Of course, when it came time for a fair assessment, the adult man did not mince words, displaying just how dependable he was.

"This is also one of the reasons I was willing to return to the Jujutsu world. Here, individual strength is amplified. Capital is not necessarily absolute, and the two sides can restrain each other to a certain extent. However, I still do not approve of some of that man's methods. Order must always come first; on this point, I share the same view as the higher-ups."

Akesato knew Kento Nanami's principles well and wisely stopped there.

He would not say that order was not immutable, that human history had seen many cycles of breaking down an old order and rebuilding a new one.

Nor would he voice some of his inner suspicions. That Q Organization was very likely a dog raised by the higher-ups to do dirty work and take the blame.

They brought it out to draw attention when needed, dissolved it when it was not, then rebuilt it later. The fact that an anti-government organization could exist for so long within the highly authoritarian Jujutsu world was itself telling.

A certain beacon of freedom was best at this sort of thing. As a little East Asian beacon, Akesato did not believe the people here were unfamiliar with such tactics.

Perhaps Satoru Gojo had handed the matter to Kento Nanami and Akesato precisely to keep the higher-ups from noticing and acting first.

After all, too many eyes were fixed on Satoru Gojo, whereas Kento Nanami and Akesato did not have that problem. Their strength was nothing to worry about, either.

One was the strongest Jujutsu Sorcerer in the conventional sense, a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer.

The other was nominally Grade 4, but had in reality already set foot on the threshold of Special Grade.

"Special Grade" among Jujutsu Sorcerers meant exceeding the bounds of the ordinary, which was why there were only four of them.

"Let's put Teacher Gojo aside for now. The problem is how to deal with this Q Organization that has risen from the ashes. They're dead, so we can't follow the clues any further."

If they had not died, Akesato could have had Gardevoir try to trace things back to their source with Psychic Power. Since that path was blocked, they could only use conventional methods—

"Have the police run big-data comparisons to identify these people first, then investigate those around them. We also need to obtain nearby surveillance footage to see whether there were any suspicious individuals. But the Japanese police's efficiency is worrying... I wonder whether Teacher Gojo can put pressure on them and have them—"

"Classmate Akesato." Kento Nanami's calm voice interrupted Akesato's thoughts. "This is not something you should be considering. We are Jujutsu Sorcerers, not police officers, forensic examiners, or investigators.

"If we had to do everything ourselves, we would have died of exhaustion long ago. Let professionals handle professional matters. We only need to fight as Jujutsu Sorcerers. That, too, is a kind of order."

Akesato's heart jolted.

Ever since his transmigration, he had been in a state of "isolation." Whether people were around him or not, there were many things he could not speak of and could only plan for by himself.

How to escape the Kamo family's terrible circumstances, how to fight for a better future—despite moving to the countryside of Shikoku, he still hid quite a few things from Akemi.

Over time, he had grown accustomed to thinking through everything alone and trying to account for every possibility.

That was naturally a good thing. Satoru Gojo and Kento Nanami considered him dependable; his classmates relied on him and treated him as half a teacher; even Masamichi Yaga had joked that ever since Akesato arrived, he had much more time to drink tea and make dolls.

But there were drawbacks as well. Living like that was not only exhausting, but could also lead him to take on everything unconsciously and overstep his role. That, too, was a major workplace taboo.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Nanami. I was overthinking things. I won't do it again. If I do, please make sure to point it out."

"Of course I'll point it out. If you want to overthink things, that's your business. Don't drag me into it. I'll only do what's within my duties; everything else has nothing to do with me. The higher-ups won't pay me a single cent more."

As a working man, Kento Nanami only wanted to live a peaceful life.

"To put it bluntly, I don't care what happens to you!"

Akesato pretended not to hear that last sentence, automatically replacing it with a tsundere "urusai." "Mr. Nanami, what should we do next?"

"Wait. Wait for the professionals to handle the aftermath, wait for the professionals to investigate. Until we receive further instructions, focus on practicing 'Black Flash.' Remember: no matter how powerful we become, we are still human in the end, not supermen."

Now this was what you called a People's Teacher! Leans back tactically!

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