The difficult road to enrollment

March 15, 2005.

Yan Si's road to enrollment had been rather winding.

The reason was simple. Yan Si possessed Reverse Cursed Technique, and his technique could affect not only himself, but other people as well.

That made him a rarity throughout Jujutsu Society. So rare, in fact, that the people capable of applying Reverse Cursed Technique to others in Tokyo Jujutsu High's existing records could be counted on one hand. Shoko Ieiri was one of them, and so was Yan Si.

That should have been a good thing.

The problem, however, was that his constitution was far too unusual.

So unusual that it made people wonder whether heaven had accidentally checked an extra option when designing him-attract cursed spirits.

Yes, attract cursed spirits. Yan Si was the light that a swarm of moths spotted in the night (or perhaps a flame, haha, with the moths flying straight to their deaths).

Any cursed spirits near him would be drawn over against their will.

On his very first day there, he had lured out all the cursed spirits from almost half of Hachioji City.

Four of them.

One grade 4 cursed spirit, two grade 3 cursed spirits, and one grade 1 cursed spirit.

For a prospective Jujutsu High student who had yet to officially enroll, that was certainly an intimidating record to mention.

But while it intimidated people, it also frightened the Jujutsu Higher-Ups.

It wasn't that they feared a freshman who could fight. All right, those bastards actually did fear freshmen who could fight.

Cursed energy reserves and abilities like Suguru Geto's were exceedingly rare, but however rare they were, they still fell within the realm of the comprehensible.

Yan Si did not. A constitution that automatically attracted cursed spirits, and a talented individual capable of applying Reverse Cursed Technique to others-put those two things together on the Jujutsu Higher-Ups' scales, and the needle sprang straight to "threat."

So certain voices began making themselves heard among the higher-ups.

Someone proposed defusing this potentially explosive bomb before he became familiar with Japan's Jujutsu Society or established relationships with his future fellow jujutsu sorcerers.

Execute him in secret, quick and clean, then brush it off with whatever excuse they liked afterward. He was a foreigner with no family or connections here, anyway. Nobody would pursue the matter.

The order came down, and an operative was dispatched. A seasoned grade 2 jujutsu sorcerer skilled in stealth and assassination was assigned to handle it.

But he couldn't make his move.

The reason was equally simple.

Suguru Geto stayed in the hotel room with Yan Si, never leaving his side.

That most promising freshman whom the higher-ups favored, that Suguru Geto whose immense cursed energy made people frown, seemed to have naturally attached himself to Yan Si after eating his tempura on the rooftop that day.

The two holed up in the hotel room, with Yan Si lounging on the bed, his long black hair spread across it, shooting the breeze with Suguru Geto.

He went from whether cursed spirits could be eaten dipped in mustard to why Japanese convenience stores didn't sell soy milk, and threw in a few questions about what Geto thought of the taste of cursed spirits. His chatter was relentless, rapid-fire, and all over the place.

Suguru Geto sat in the chair beside him like an old man tormented by his overly talkative grandchildren, listening with a polite smile that gradually grew stiff.

Sometimes he offered a couple of replies. Sometimes he didn't bother replying at all. But he simply wouldn't leave.

The grade 2 jujutsu sorcerer staked out the hotel for several days.

He didn't dare make a move, because Yan Si wasn't the only person in the room.

Never mind Suguru Geto's suffocatingly terrifying cursed energy reserves.

The sheer amount of cursed energy he possessed exerted a pressure that could be felt just by standing nearby.

Yan Si's own cursed energy wasn't weak, either.

He wasn't confident about fighting two against one. More importantly, Suguru Geto had been designated a priority for cultivation by the higher-ups. If he accidentally injured Geto during the operation, nobody could shoulder that responsibility. Haha, or perhaps he wouldn't get the chance to injure him at all and would simply be beaten to death by Geto instead.

So all he could do was wait. Wait for Suguru Geto to leave, wait for Yan Si to be alone.

But Suguru Geto simply wouldn't leave. They went to the convenience store together for meals, with Yan Si picking things up while Geto checked the price tags beside him.

At night, Suguru Geto slept in the hotel room next to Yan Si's.

When they got up in the morning, they could still spend ten minutes spouting nonsense over the question of "why don't we have steamed buns and fried dough sticks for breakfast?"

Yan Si had noticed, of course.

Someone was watching him. That grade 2 jujutsu sorcerer hid himself quite well, possibly because his cursed technique had something to do with concealment.

But that was no match for Yan Si's wider-than-normal perception range.

He knew someone was trying to kill him, and he knew why that person hadn't made a move.

He personally didn't care.

It was only getting injured, after all. As long as he wasn't killed instantly, he could recover with Reverse Cursed Technique. Each recovery earned him a few more points, and the more beatings he took, the stronger he became.

After doing the math, he actually found himself a little curious about what being assassinated felt like.

But Suguru Geto was there, getting in the way.

Several times, Yan Si had given Suguru Geto very subtle hints. He didn't say outright, "Someone wants to kill me, so hurry up and leave." He did it his own way.

For instance, he would suddenly say, "Geto, why don't you go back to your own home?" Or, "Do you not have any other friends to hang out with?" Sometimes he went straight for, "Hahaha, I think you could use some fresh air. Would you kindly get the hell out, classmate Geto?"

When he said "get the hell out" in his Kansai dialect, the rising lilt at the end made it sound less like an insult and more like a joke.

Besides, Suguru Geto had seen Yan Si talking to other people. His whole approach to language left people speechless, with rude remarks tumbling out one after another.

Suguru Geto just looked at him and gave him a gentle smile.

That smile was steady, so steady that he looked as though he hadn't understood a thing.

He lowered his head and turned a page of a magazine he had picked up at some point, saying evenly, "It looks like it's going to rain today."

Yan Si stared at him for two seconds, then flopped onto the bed, covered his face with a pillow, and pulled the blanket over himself.

"I'm dead. Do whatever the hell you want, Geto."

As Yan Si saw it:

Protect the weak.

That was the doctrine lodged in Suguru Geto's head.

Yan Si didn't know whether he counted as "weak" in Suguru Geto's eyes.

Or perhaps protecting other people was as natural as breathing to Suguru Geto. He didn't need them to admit they were weak, nor did he need their gratitude. He simply felt it was something he ought to do, so he did it.

Yan Si summed it up like this: Suguru Geto was a good person, a good person with a god complex.

And people like that were troublesome. They usually were.

Satoru Gojo had a god complex, and so did Suguru Geto.

One believed that the stronger you were, the greater your responsibility to act as a "god."

The other was a "god" who held to the righteous principle that "the strong protect the weak."

Yan Si closed his eyes and went to sleep, ignoring both Suguru Geto and that idiot grade 2 jujutsu sorcerer.

He could already fight grade 1 cursed spirits, yet this genius dared accept an assassination job as a grade 2. If he wasn't a dumbass, who was?

As for Yan Si's belief that Suguru Geto was protecting him because Geto considered him weak, that wasn't true.

In reality, Suguru Geto had never considered him weak at all.

Someone who took down four cursed spirits in a matter of minutes? Geto would have to be insane to consider him weak.

He considered him a companion. A companion who said interesting things, was a jujutsu sorcerer like himself, and was far from weak.

Suguru Geto rarely met people his own age who were also jujutsu sorcerers.

With assassination getting them nowhere, the Jujutsu Higher-Ups changed their approach-bring him into the fold.

If they couldn't kill him, they would recruit him and keep him under their noses. That was better than letting him run around outside.

Yoshinobu Gakuganji over in Kyoto did show some inclination to take him in.

Yan Si's ability to apply Reverse Cursed Technique to others was a valuable strategic resource for any jujutsu organization. Gakuganji had lived long enough to recognize that much.

However, the main households of the Gojo Clan, the Zenin Clan, and the Kamo Clan-the "Three Great Families"-were all located in Kyoto, Japan.

Kyoto was a thousand-year-old capital, full of shrines and temples, old rules and ancient families. Those old fossils who had lived for who knew how many years had spent their entire lives in ancient estates, their heads stuffed with words like "bloodline," "inheritance," and "orthodoxy."

They didn't want a freshman who automatically "pulled aggro."

Imagine it: wherever Yan Si went, cursed spirits followed. If he accidentally let a little of his presence leak out in downtown Kyoto, the resulting scene hardly bore imagining.

If word got out that cursed spirits had surrounded the Three Great Families' front gates, how would they save face?

Besides, a foreigner of unknown origins, with a bizarre constitution and looks that drew far too much attention, hardly seemed a suitable addition to Kyoto's deep, stagnant waters.

So the current principal over in Tokyo, Hatoyama Jushō, made a decision.

He called Suguru Geto and requested a meeting with Yan Si.