The sedan cruised smoothly through Tokyo's bustling streets. Warm air rushed from the vents, heating the spacious interior.
A faint dampness gradually spread between the leather seats.
"Gojo-sensei, I still don't have an official sorcerer rank. Isn't that inconvenient?" Feng asked curiously from his seat.
Satoru Gojo turned around in the front passenger seat, draping an arm casually over the center console.
He hooked his long fingers under his black blindfold and tugged it down, exposing one azure eye as he looked through the gap between the front seats.
"A rank? Ah, that annoying system."
"Jujutsu Society's rankings are basically just a ruler those half-dead old higher-ups use to measure how useful their 'tools' are.
If you can exorcise a grade 2 cursed spirit alone, you're a grade 2 sorcerer. If you can handle grade 1, you're grade 1."
Megumi: "Right."
Satoru Gojo raised an index finger and wagged it gently in the air, his lips curling into an openly mischievous grin.
"But your situation is a little different. With Domain Expansion, your destructive power alone puts you at grade 1 at the very least.
But what those old guys at the top value most is 'stability.'
A cursed technique that shrinks you down to the size of a figurine after exorcising a single grade 3 cursed spirit? In their eyes, that's a pretty serious failing."
Leaning against the window, Megumi Fushiguro turned his head. Daylight filtered through the dark security film on the glass, casting a shadow across half his pale cheek.
"Having no rank means you can't accept missions alone, or freely access assistant supervisors and Jujutsu High's resources."
Megumi Fushiguro's voice mingled with the low drone of the air vents, as calm as ever.
He paused, his gaze sweeping over the absurdly oversized dark blue uniform opposite him.
"But within a team, that's actually a good thing. A gap in their intel is the best trump card."
Yuji Itadori leaned forward from the middle of the back seat, gripping the driver's seat back with both hands. His bright eyes darted between Satoru Gojo and the rear seats.
"Huh? So rankings don't actually matter right now?
I thought it'd be like a game, where you start in the beginner village and level up one step at a time!"
Nobara Kugisaki was combing her fingers through her half-dry orange bob. At that, she mercilessly elbowed Itadori in the ribs.
"Idiot. This job puts your life on the line. Who wants to slowly grind levels somewhere you could die at any moment?"
Satoru Gojo pulled his blindfold back into place and settled against the passenger seat, leaving the students with nothing but the fluffy white hair on the back of his head.
"Nobara's right. And inconvenient? Not at all. As long as your teacher's here, you can go wherever you want and do whatever you want.
Keeping you outside the official ranking system will give those higher-ups one hell of a shock when it's time to overturn the whole setup."
Kiyotaka Ijichi abruptly hit the brakes, bringing the sedan to a stop at a red light.
The assistant supervisor stared fixedly at the crosswalk ahead, a bead of cold sweat forming at his temple. He didn't dare offer any opinion on Satoru Gojo's outrageous talk of "overturning the whole setup."
"Is that so? Still, wouldn't it be better to have a rank on paper? That would save us a lot of trouble, wouldn't it?" Feng asked.
His damp black hair clung to his slightly pale neck. With nothing to hold it up, his collar had slipped to one side, exposing a thin collarbone.
Feng tilted his delicate but tired face up slightly, looking toward the front seats.
At that, Satoru Gojo simply unbuckled his seat belt and turned most of his body around.
He rested his chin on the edge of the seat back, looking through his black blindfold at the boy in the rear seat, who seemed liable to disappear beneath his oversized clothes at any moment.
"Trouble, huh... You've got a point. After all, even the limited-edition drinks in Jujutsu High's vending machines require a student ID with a rank on it."
Satoru Gojo drew out his words, then suddenly reached over and patted Kiyotaka Ijichi's shoulder while he was driving, nearly sending the smoothly moving sedan into an S-shaped swerve.
"If there's no record of you at all, those logistics guys will definitely come bother me every day.
Right, Ijichi? You're exactly the sort who hates complications, after all."
Kiyotaka Ijichi clutched the steering wheel, his back stiffening. The sweat on his forehead glistened in the cool air blowing from the vents.
"Y-yes! Mr. Gojo!
Without a ranking file, Feng won't even have basic access clearance. We wouldn't even be able to enter his monthly Jujutsu High stipend into the system for payment... Procedurally, that would draw the attention of Jujutsu Headquarters' review division."
Megumi Fushiguro folded his arms across his chest, drawing his gaze from the streets sliding past outside to his fellow first-year buried in his clothes.
He quickly sorted through Jujutsu Society's rules in his head, then offered a thoroughly practical assessment.
"If it's just to satisfy the paperwork, put him down as the lowest rank, grade 4.
Jujutsu Headquarters treats grade 4 sorcerers as expendable. Aside from assigning them low-level exorcisms and odd jobs, no one will bother checking the exact limits of a grade 4 sorcerer's abilities."
Nobara Kugisaki leaned against the opposite window, pressing the back of her hand to the glass to feel the temperature outside. She clicked her tongue in irritation.
"What the hell? Someone who can take out a monster like that in one hit only gets listed as grade 4?
Are those old men sitting in their offices blind? Whatever. As long as it doesn't stop us from teaming up for missions later."
Yuji Itadori scratched his spiky pink hair. Apparently, hiding one's strength like this reminded him of the secretly powerful old sweepers in manga, and his eyes lit up.
"Oh! So Feng's a weak little grade 4 on paper, but he's actually a super-powerful master hiding his abilities? That's such a cool setup!"
Satoru Gojo snapped his fingers, breaking into a bright grin full of wicked amusement.
"Then it's happily settled. Ijichi, remember to enter Feng's file when we get back.
Put 'grade 4' for his rank. As for the cursed technique description... write 'capable of controlling minute amounts of water, extremely poor hand-to-hand combat skills, requires long-term observation.'
Keeping a kid who can deploy a domain right under their noses while treating him like a dud... Just imagining those old higher-ups' faces when they learn the truth makes me want to pop some champagne."
"Grade 4, huh..."
Feng leaned against the window and gazed outside.
"Sounds... pretty good?"
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