Enrollment

The room settled into a stillness bordering on deathly silence.

Feng remained in his half-crouch. His right arm, wrapped in a highly concentrated film of water, clamped around Kawamaru's neck like an iron vise.

Water silently swirled and flowed over the boy's arm, refracting the faint light. Through his hanging black hair, his dark red eyes calmly watched the two men before him.

The danger may be over for now, but once I stop using amplification to neutralize the cursed technique, that puppet will definitely attack me again.

With that thought, Feng chose not to let go, continuing to sustain his Domain Amplification.

There was no unnecessary movement, nor any sound. Amid the wreckage strewn across the tatami, this body constructed from cursed energy displayed an inhuman stillness.

Satoru Gojo strode straight up to Feng on his long legs.

Unconcerned by the scattered stuffing and debris, the tall man bent one knee and crouched down.

He pulled the sunglasses on his nose down a fraction.

His Six Eyes, which seemed to reflect the boundless sky, openly mirrored the deep blue film of water on Feng's right arm.

"What a beautiful, dangerous structure."

Gojo's voice held pure curiosity. He extended a long index finger, letting it hover just millimeters from the water film.

He did not touch it. His Six Eyes were rapidly analyzing the paths along which that power flowed.

"You stripped away the Innate Domain's sure-hit effect, leaving only its neutralizing and repelling properties, then fitted it over your body like a thin film.

"Now you're not just a fragile glass bottle. You're a hedgehog covered in spikes that hurt anyone who attacks you."

Masamichi Yaga stood a short distance away.

As he watched the boy quietly awaiting his verdict, the hard lines of his face finally softened almost imperceptibly.

The weathered educator slowly relaxed his right hand, which held a sewing needle.

With that movement, Kawamaru, still gripped in Feng's hand, lost the last trace of the cursed technique sustaining him and sagged limply like a heap of actual rags.

"Put your power away."

Yaga spoke in a low voice. He walked around the debris littering the floor and moved behind the broad desk, looking down at Feng.

"Faced with a lethal threat, you neither panicked blindly nor lost yourself completely to madness. With reason and instinct, you delivered an answer far beyond a passing grade."

Yaga pulled out his chair with a dull scrape and sat back down, clasping his hands beneath his chin.

Though his gaze behind his sunglasses remained stern, the hostility of his probing scrutiny had faded.

"But don't think this means you can rest easy.

"With a constitution that will kill you the moment your cursed energy runs out, you're destined to be unable to fight prolonged battles like other jujutsu sorcerers."

Yaga's voice echoed through the spacious room with unquestionable authority.

"Welcome to the Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu Technical School. I'll have someone arrange a room for you.

"Now get out of here and rest."

Gojo stood up, pushed his sunglasses back into place, and broke into a radiant smile.

He looked down at Feng, who was still crouching on the floor, and spoke lightly.

"Congratulations on passing, new kid. If there's anything you don't understand, you can always ask me, your strongest teacher.

"But for now, shouldn't you let go of the principal's precious doll first?"

"All right," Feng said softly, then released his tight grip on Kawamaru.

With a heavy thud, Kawamaru, deprived of the power supporting him, hit the cracked tatami and collapsed completely into a heap of ruined green stuffing and fabric.

The oppressive, cold pressure generated by the concentrated water film finally began to dissipate, leaving only a fine layer of droplets on the shoji door's paper.

Gojo turned around and slipped his hands into the pockets of his dark school uniform, his long legs easily stepping over the wreckage on the floor.

He did not look back, but with Limitless operating, his azure Six Eyes clearly tracked the subtle movement of moisture through the air behind him, along with the footsteps steadily following.

"Well, the first stop for our new student will be a check-in at the infirmary."

Gojo paused briefly at the damaged threshold and turned his face halfway back.

"Shoko's Reverse Cursed Technique probably won't do much to heal a 'water body' made entirely of cursed energy like yours.

"But as a responsible homeroom teacher, I should at least have the school doctor check just how close to the danger threshold you are, you fragile thing that could evaporate at any moment."

Yaga remained seated upright behind the broad desk like a black iron tower.

Through the dim light, he watched the tall, white-haired figure beyond the threshold. His rough knuckles slowly curled inward as he wound the severed, invisible threads of cursed energy back into his palm, inch by inch.

"Satoru."

Yaga's deep voice pierced the night, carrying the unmistakable, commanding warning of an elder.

"Don't put him in an ordinary student dorm tonight. Until he learns to perfectly control that liquefying constitution of his, which could run wild at any moment, find him a side room with its own protective barrier.

"If he runs out of cursed energy in his sleep and turns into a puddle that seeps through the floor, I won't be able to submit such an absurd death report to Jujutsu Headquarters."

"Yeah, yeah-the principal really does love to worry."

Gojo drew out the words without even turning his head, merely waving a casual hand behind him as though he had taken none of that stern instruction to heart.

He started walking again, his leather shoes striking the old wooden corridor with crisp, rhythmic taps.

"Keep up, okay? The barriers inside Jujutsu High are pretty sensitive to unregistered, unusual cursed energy."

The man's tone was as cheerful as if he were discussing tomorrow's dessert, but his tall figure cast a long, narrow shadow in the moonlight.

"If you get lost and the barriers mistake you for an unknown invading cursed spirit and slice you into thousands of tiny water droplets, that'll be a real headache for your teacher."

Deep within the corridor, the night breeze swept through the old wooden walkways.

The unfathomable cursed residue of "the strongest" spread unhurriedly through the dark passage ahead, like some invisible guide.