When Kinji Hakari and Kirara Hoshi woke up again, they found themselves back at Jujutsu High, lying in the infirmary.
"You're awake. Congratulations—you're Grade 2 Sorcerers now."
Shoko Ieiri, wearing a white lab coat, greeted them when she saw they were awake.
"Teacher Shoko, is this Jujutsu High? Where's Teacher Zenin?"
Kinji Hakari pushed himself up, still a little dazed. He only remembered holding out until Teacher Zenin arrived. He couldn't recall what happened after that.
"He was taken away by Satoru Gojo."
At Jujutsu High, Shinsuke Zenin and Satoru Gojo were chatting.
"You ran into Geto? Why didn't you bring him back?"
Satoru Gojo asked a question that left Shinsuke Zenin speechless.
"Are you serious? He's a Special Grade Sorcerer. Besides, you couldn't bring yourself to go after your good friend either, could you?"
"Don't think I don't know what you're thinking."
Shinsuke Zenin looked at Satoru Gojo as if he were a sly fox.
"Ah, let's drop this topic. We should talk about those two boys instead.
"As their teacher, you let your students get so badly hurt. That's pretty irresponsible. You might even get your pay docked."
A faint smile played on Satoru Gojo's face.
He'd swindled so much money out of him. He couldn't just take the cash without doing any work, could he?
"First, they didn't die. Second, that kid Kinji Hakari mastered Domain Expansion during this mission."
With such a huge improvement, shouldn't the student get a bonus?
"Domain Expansion? Are you sure?"
Satoru Gojo became a little more serious. He knew Kinji Hakari's Cursed Technique had a gambler's streak and incorporated modern science. It was exactly the sort of technique the conservative higher-ups hated most.
Still, he rather liked these strange and unusual techniques.
"Is this guy really that talented?"
A sorcerer capable of Domain Expansion could reach Grade 1 at the very least—and be an exceptionally powerful one at that.
"It's only a prototype. Make time to give him some proper guidance. Stop obsessing over your good friend all day. You should be able to see him before long."
"What do you mean?" Satoru Gojo looked at Shinsuke Zenin, his gaze serious.
"Exactly what I said."
Shinsuke Zenin smiled but didn't give Satoru Gojo any more spoilers.
"I'm off. I should head home for dinner."
Ignoring Satoru Gojo, who had fallen into thought, he turned and left.
Satoru Gojo watched him go, frowning slightly. "That guy is seriously annoying."
He hated people who spoke in riddles and those who never finished what they were saying.
In the blink of an eye, six months passed, and Kinji Hakari and Kirara Hoshi successfully advanced to their second year.
After several missions and some guidance from Satoru Gojo, Kinji Hakari gradually mastered Domain Expansion. With recommendations from Shinsuke Zenin and Riko Amanai, both Grade 1 Sorcerers, he became a Grade 1 Sorcerer himself.
Kirara Hoshi lagged a little behind, but reaching Quasi-Grade 1 before graduation wouldn't be a problem.
During those six months, the Pure Love Warrior, Yuta Okkotsu, came to the attention of the higher-ups after being bullied at school.
The Jujutsu World's higher-ups saw Queen of Curses Rika as an unpredictable threat and issued an order to sentence Yuta Okkotsu to death.
The mission to carry out the execution fell to Shinsuke Zenin.
As for why it fell to him, that had to do with his attitude toward Cursed Spirits over the years.
The higher-ups had two people who gave them the most headaches. One was Satoru Gojo, who was completely unreasonable, incredibly powerful, and ostentatious in everything he did—not someone the higher-ups liked in the least.
The other was Shinsuke Zenin. If Satoru Gojo was unreasonable, Shinsuke Zenin simply did whatever he pleased. He ignored the higher-ups' orders about anything that had nothing to do with Cursed Spirits.
But after the higher-ups somehow got word that Shinsuke Zenin and Yuki Tsukumo were involved, their opinion of him improved a little.
If that was what his girlfriend was like, then by comparison, Shinsuke Zenin merely refusing to take orders seemed trivial.
The mission had been assigned to him entirely because the higher-ups knew of his particular fondness for Cursed Spirits.
They trusted him to carry out the extermination even if the target was a Special Grade Vengeful Spirit.
They questioned Shinsuke Zenin's attitude, personality, and even character, but they had never doubted his strength. He absolutely had the power to exorcise a Special Grade Cursed Spirit.
If he weren't limited to hand-to-hand combat and lacked large-scale attack techniques, the higher-ups would even be considering promoting him to Special Grade.
The criteria for Special Grade weren't just the ability to exorcise a Special Grade curse. More importantly, a sorcerer had to be capable of destroying a country.
At the school entrance, Shinsuke Zenin leaned against the wall, waiting for his target to appear.
He hadn't expected the higher-ups to send him to kill Yuta Okkotsu. So this was the so-called butterfly effect.
The final bell rang, and students poured out of the school like a flood.
It had been several days since Yuta Okkotsu had fought back against the bullies. The school was running as usual, and probably few people besides the teachers and students knew what had happened.
Yuta Okkotsu appeared in Shinsuke Zenin's sight, looking dejected and timid. Just from his appearance, it was clear he was often bullied.
The students around him kept at least three meters away, as if they were afraid of him.
After all, the people who regularly picked on him had all gotten into trouble. No one dared lay a hand on him now.
"Kid, come with me. Someone's paid to have you killed."
Shinsuke Zenin stepped in front of Yuta Okkotsu and looked down at him.
When the students nearby saw Shinsuke Zenin, they moved even farther away, afraid of provoking the delinquent-looking older man.
Yuta stopped and looked up at him in confusion. His eyes showed no fear. "Is this because of what happened to them?"
"Of course. Murder has to be paid for with your life."
A faint smile appeared on Shinsuke Zenin's face.
"Yuta... No one can hurt Yuta!"
An immensely terrifying surge of Cursed Energy welled up behind Yuta. Rika tore open a rift with both hands, trying to crawl out and rip Shinsuke Zenin to pieces.
"Rika, don't lose your temper!"
Yuta hurriedly soothed Rika. He didn't want to kill any more people.
"Goodness, what a powerful Cursed Spirit."
Feeling the aura Rika gave off, Shinsuke Zenin couldn't help but marvel.
No wonder even Satoru Gojo thought Rika was troublesome, and Geto Suguru had fallen to this Cursed Spirit as well.
It seemed the curse of love really was extraordinary.
"Don't get so worked up. Murder has to be paid for with your life, but killing a beast doesn't. Come with me."
Shinsuke Zenin stopped teasing Yuta. If he kept it up, Rika would probably go berserk.
Yuta said nothing and simply followed behind Shinsuke Zenin.
He didn't know what awaited him, but what had happened to him had to be dealt with somehow.
As they walked, Shinsuke Zenin observed the future Special Grade Sorcerer and clicked his tongue inwardly.
Talent really could be demoralizing.
Just because he was descended from one of the Three Great Vengeful Spirits, and just because he was related to Satoru Gojo, he could get himself a Queen of Curses by casually cursing someone without even trying.
With just a little effort, he could become a Special Grade Sorcerer without a doubt.
Meanwhile, the Maki and Maki sisters worked themselves to the bone, and the best they could ever hope to reach was Grade 1—not even as high as Yuta Okkotsu's starting point.
Thinking this, Shinsuke Zenin decided to train Maki properly. At the very least, she needed to become strong enough to exorcise Special Grade Cursed Spirits.
As for Maki... she could just take it easy. She hadn't wanted to become all that strong anyway.
Before you continue