"We're here."
Shoko opened her eyes and offered the reminder in a flat voice.
Her voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly enough inside the enclosed car. At least, Satoru Gojo heard her perfectly.
The car slowly stopped at the end of the mountain road leading to Tokyo Jujutsu High.
The brakes gave a faint scrape, the tires rolled over gravel, and the car finally came to a steady stop directly before a wooden torii gate.
The engine stayed running, its low vibrations traveling up through the seats.
Outside the window, the wooden torii stood silently before the stone steps.
Its pillars were made of aged cedar. Years of wind and rain had faded the vermilion paint to a dull brown, as though someone had died there and nobody had cleaned up properly.
A thin layer of moss covered the wood near the base. It probably felt cool and damp to the touch.
The early April wind blew through the woods, carrying a faint scent of damp vegetation along with an indescribable chill that belonged to deep, ancient forests.
The distant campus lay hidden in the wooded mountains. Only a few gray tiled roofs poked through the overlapping treetops. It looked less like a school than some temple or shrine left over from a bygone era. Seriously old.
Quiet.
Remote.
Even the air seemed distinctly unwelcoming to ordinary people.
Shoko pushed open the car door and got out.
Her soles crunched softly against the gravel. The mountain breeze stirred her short hair, sending a few loose strands slipping from behind her ear. She tucked them back with a casual, practiced motion.
She looked up at the long flight of stone steps. Time had worn their edges smooth, and the middle of each step dipped slightly beneath the tread of countless feet. Cedars towered skyward on either side, their crowns interlacing overhead into a natural arcade. Sunlight slipped through the gaps between the leaves and scattered broken gold across the ground.
Then she glanced at the person beside her.
Satoru Gojo had already "sprung" out of the other side of the car.
He was some kind of large feline finally released after several hours trapped on a long drive. The moment his feet touched the ground, he began stretching, raising both long arms over his head.
He hummed a tune he had picked up somewhere. He was outrageously off-key, but utterly unapologetic about it-just like he was about everything else he did.
His sunglasses sat properly on the bridge of his nose, hiding his sky-blue eyes, but they did nothing to contain his enthusiasm. It practically spilled out of him from his hair to his toes.
With a stride of his long legs, he rounded the hood and came up beside Shoko. Planting one foot on the first stone step, he looked deeper into Jujutsu High.
"Wow~"
He drew out the word, its final note echoing softly through the forest.
"It's even more remote than I imagined~"
Shoko slipped her hands into the pockets of her white jacket and stood loosely. Her gaze swept over the seemingly endless steps beyond the torii, then the dense cedar woods on either side. "Perfect for burying bodies."
The Assistant Supervisor leading the way visibly faltered.
His foot hovered above the first step for half a second before coming down.
Satoru Gojo laughed so hard his shoulders shook, draping a hand over Shoko's shoulder.
Shoko promptly shrugged it off without ceremony and slapped him for good measure.
He didn't mind. He tucked his hand back into his own pocket and grinned, showing a row of white teeth. "Shoko, saying stuff like that on your first day? You'll make the teachers and principal cry."
"Then talk less from now on." Shoko started up the steps, her pace unhurried but steady, and spoke without looking back. "They might live a few years longer."
"Hey!" Satoru Gojo hurried after her. His long legs brought him alongside her in two or three strides. "How can you say that about me? I'm going to be the most popular new student."
Shoko didn't even glance at him, keeping her eyes ahead.
The steps stretched so far she couldn't see the top. She had already begun mentally counting how many were left. "According to who?"
"Me." Satoru Gojo lifted his chin proudly, sunlight flashing across his sunglasses.
"Never mind, then." Shoko nodded, her tone as calm as if she had said, "The weather really is nice today."
The Assistant Supervisor walked silently ahead, a little faster than before, doing his best to look like someone who couldn't hear.
His job today was simply to bring two new students from Kyoto to Tokyo and escort them to their classroom. In theory, it should have been a very easy assignment.
Pick them up, get in, get out, lead the way, report completion.
A standard procedure, clear and straightforward. Yet somehow, ever since picking up Satoru Gojo, he had felt as though he had already burned through the next year's entire workload.
Especially with this young master of the Gojo Clan, who had chattered all the way from Kyoto to Tokyo. He had gone from desserts to the Three Great Families' "old fossils," from Tokyo's cursed spirit density to whether Jujutsu High's principal might sew a doll so ugly it had character. Along the way, he had even tried to persuade Shoko to bet on whether Tokyo Jujutsu High's cafeteria served strawberry daifuku.
Shoko hadn't agreed.
She had only said, "Keep talking and I'll feed you some sleeping pills."
Satoru Gojo's verdict had been, "Shoko has such a great sense of humor."
Shoko had bitten her second lollipop to pieces on the spot.
She hadn't let it dissolve. She had crunched it apart, the sharp crack especially clear inside the quiet car.
The Assistant Supervisor had seen her expression in the rearview mirror and decided to leave that detail out of today's mission report.
Shoko really wanted to punch that scumbag a few times.
Now that they had reached Jujutsu High, Satoru Gojo had finally quieted down a little. But only a little.
He looked everywhere as he made his way inside.
Behind his sunglasses, his Six Eyes peered through the dark lenses and saw the school more clearly than anyone else could.
Traces of cursed energy lingered in the woods, and several layers lined the edges of the barrier, stacked with exquisite care.
The tiny cursed techniques attached to the buildings, even the residual cursed energy fluctuations from the distant training grounds, were all dissected and laid out before his eyes.
That was just how powerful the Six Eyes were~
Ordinary people saw an old campus shaded by green trees, birdsong filling the mountain stillness.
He saw an enormous nest wrapped in layer upon layer of jujutsu, every corner concealing something worth taking apart for a closer look.
Interesting.
Much more interesting than where those old fossils in Kyoto live. What's Kyoto got? Old houses that haven't changed in a thousand years, spotless corridors, clanspeople who talk at a snail's pace, and family rules covered in "don't," "mustn't," and "forbidden."
This place was different. The air was alive, the barriers were alive, and even every grain in the wooden corridor floors bore the traces of repeated soaking in "freedom."
Satoru Gojo promptly ran off to amuse himself. There was still some time before class, so he bought a few things and lay down in a nice spot to bask in the sun.
Shoko picked a random spot and ate her lollipop.
It was almost time.
The Assistant Supervisor led Shoko Ieiri through the courtyard and around a stretch of wooden corridor.
The corridor floor had been wiped clean and creaked faintly underfoot. Open courtyards lay on either side, their grounds covered in white sand, with a few rocks scattered artfully among them. Pruned pines twisted their branches into seasoned, stately shapes.
Shoko Ieiri turned a corner at the end of the corridor, walked a little farther, and finally stopped outside a classroom.
The door was an old-fashioned wooden sliding door. A small sign hanging on the frame read "First-year classroom." The Assistant Supervisor raised his hand and knocked, and Masamichi Yaga's deep voice came from within.
"Come in."
The door slid open.
Shoko was about to enter when Satoru Gojo came pounding over.
"Hey~ Almost late~"
Satoru Gojo poked his head in before Shoko could. One foot was still outside, but his entire upper body had already leaned into the classroom. His white hair bobbed beside the frame, and his sunglasses nearly knocked against it.
Then he saw two people.
One sat very properly.
Black hair, tied in a half bun at the back, with a strange lock of bangs hanging over his forehead. His posture was textbook-perfect, the kind only someone raised to "stand like a pine and sit like a bell" could have.
His back was straight, his shoulders relaxed, and one hand rested on the desk. Beside it lay a book with "Basic Jujutsu Theory" printed on the cover.
His features were gentle, but not with a weak sort of gentleness. It was assured and composed.
Through his sunglasses, Satoru Gojo's Six Eyes saw the cursed energy coiling around him.
Hmm. Strong.
So strong that it looked like a mass of water in his field of vision, slowly surging beneath that gentle exterior. Quiet, but anything except weak.
Suguru Geto.
Satoru Gojo knew at first glance. The serious guy from the file with the absurd cursed energy reserves.
He certainly looked serious. Almost comically so.
He showed up early on the first day and even brought a book, with a bookmark tucked between the pages. Is he here to attend school or make a pilgrimage?
The other one was completely different.
He sprawled lazily over his desk, half his face pillowed on an arm, slumped as though someone had pulled out all his bones. His long black hair wasn't tied securely and hung loose. Some slid across the desktop like a small swath of ink-dark silk, while the rest draped over his shoulders, its ends curling slightly upward.
Only when he heard the door did he slowly lift his eyes. Purple eyes-not purple so dark it looked black, but a deep violet.
A red mark sat between his brows. Admittedly, he was beautiful.
His skin was unnaturally pale.
The corners of his lips naturally curved into something like a half smile. He hadn't said anything, yet he already looked as though he were holding back some wicked idea.
That face was excessively beautiful. Not good-looking in the ordinary sense, but almost unreal.
Like a doll, or a monster.
Yet when he smiled, it was dazzling.
Bright, relaxed, utterly unguarded-and somehow still enough to make anyone certain he was no "good student."
Satoru Gojo's Six Eyes lingered on him for a moment.
Then his interest deepened.
So this is Yan Si. The Chinese guy who attracts cursed spirits.
Through the Six Eyes, the flow of cursed energy within Yan Si looked strange.
It wasn't simply powerful.
His reserves weren't outrageous, nowhere near Suguru Geto's overwhelming volume.
Nor was it simply chaotic.
Tiny ripples formed along the edges of his cursed energy, spreading faintly outward.
Ordinary people couldn't detect those fluctuations, but cursed spirits would be hooked by that aura, like stray dogs scenting blood or moths diving into flame. Even knowing the danger, they couldn't resist drawing closer.
Troublesome.
And very interesting.
The corners of Satoru Gojo's mouth slowly lifted.
Paired with Suguru Geto's Cursed Spirit Manipulation, this ability was practically an all-you-can-eat buffet with takeout bags. One lured the cursed spirits in, and the other collected them. His mind was already automatically generating all kinds of combination moves, and the more he thought, the funnier it became.
Dogs, buns, and wooden sticks even entered the picture.
Yan Si was the "meat bun" attracting cursed spirits. The cursed spirits were the "dogs," which Suguru Geto, the "wooden stick," would beat senseless.
Yan Si was watching him too.
White hair, black sunglasses, and a head taller than his peers. Just standing in the doorway, he blocked most of it. His swagger practically begged for "I'm number one" to be written across his forehead.
He was only fifteen. His shoulders weren't broad enough yet, and his chin still had the clean lines of youth, but he already carried himself as though nobody else mattered.
When he entered the classroom, he didn't even look at Masamichi Yaga first.
There was a whole living person standing at the lectern, and he simply skipped right over him.
Instead, he swept his gaze over everyone in the classroom, straight-up cosplaying a king surveying his new territory, first checking who occupied his domain.
Yan Si blinked.
Oh.
Fifteen-year-old Gojo-sensei~
Six Eyes, Limitless, the future strongest, the pinnacle of Jujutsu Society. A string of labels automatically flashed through his mind, then stacked up one by one to form the living person before him.
Fifteen-year-old Gojo-sensei was a very expensive white cat who badly needed a smack.
The kind of white cat that would tread on you at four in the morning to wake you up, push your cup off the table, then look at you with perfect innocence.
Purebred, beautiful coat, staggering price tag-but still begging for a smack.
The two stared at each other across half the classroom for three seconds.
For those three seconds, the air fell silent, as though someone had pressed mute.
Don't misunderstand. It wasn't love at first sight, or even two unlikely people finding each other attractive.
These two chaos lovers had found kindred spirits amid low hills and foul waters.
The Assistant Supervisor stood in the doorway, his hand still on the frame, unsure whether he should enter.
Watching the scene, Suguru Geto suddenly felt an ominous premonition.
It came quickly.
Accurately.
And for absolutely no rational reason.
As though someone had struck a bell inside his head with pinpoint precision, leaving its echoes humming.
The next second, Satoru Gojo smiled.
"So you're the meat bun that lures cursed spirits?"
Yan Si smiled too, brilliantly.
"Haha, so you're the white-haired cat produced by the Three Great Families?"
Fifteen-year-old Gojo-sensei is so much fun.
The classroom fell silent for a moment. Their eyes shone as they looked at each other, like two cats discovering one another in the same patch of grass.
Haha, they really had found kindred spirits amid low hills and foul waters.
Masamichi Yaga stood before the lectern, still holding the materials he had been about to hand out.
Suddenly, the papers felt a little heavy.
As though someone named "the future" had swung a fist and landed a vicious blow on him.
Trying to kill him.
Shoko stood outside the door. She hadn't even had time to cross the threshold.
Looking over Satoru Gojo's shoulder, she caught the matching smiles on his and Yan Si's faces.
She stopped mid-step.
Suguru Geto said nothing.
His smile remained, but it was a social instinct activated for self-preservation, no longer bearing any relation to his actual feelings.
The Assistant Supervisor silently retreated half a step, trying to make himself less noticeable.
He really had only come to show them the way today.
Satoru Gojo seemed to have heard something particularly hilarious and burst out laughing.
As he laughed, he reached up and tugged his sunglasses down a little, revealing the sky-blue eyes beneath.
Those eyes were so pale, so bright, set in a face that was far too striking.
The very existence of the Six Eyes was a visual shock.
The information reflected in those eyes went far beyond what ordinary people could perceive. Every flow of cursed energy, every trace of a cursed technique, every pattern in a barrier appeared in the finest detail. But at that moment, those eyes were simply watching Yan Si, their pupils reflecting a dark-haired figure lounging lazily over his desk.
"White-Haired Cat?"
He repeated it without a hint of anger, sounding utterly delighted instead, brimming with interest like a cat that had acquired a ball of yarn.
"That's a great nickname~ Much more interesting than them calling me Young Master Gojo."
"You like it?" Yan Si propped up his chin and watched him lazily, shifting his elbow on the desk. "Then that's what I'll call you from now on~"
"Sure, Meat Bun."
"White-Haired Cat."
"Bun."
"Cat."
The two went back and forth.
One drew out the ends of his words in a Kansai dialect, while the other lilted in a Kyoto dialect. The two accents bounced off each other, neither willing to stop first.
What they had in common was how outrageously carefree they both sounded.
Suguru Geto slowly raised a hand and pressed it between his brows.
He rubbed the spot twice with his fingertips, easing nothing, and only felt a dull pressure beginning to build in his temples.
Before meeting Yan Si, he had thought there was an upper limit to how much of a headache a person could be.
After meeting Yan Si, he had thought Yan Si himself was that limit. Now he knew.
Apparently, the world didn't just produce Yan Si. It also produced Satoru Gojo, then shamelessly put them in the same year, in the same classroom, facing the same teacher's desk.
He suddenly wanted a cigarette.
But he didn't smoke.
Nice guys really did get walked all over.
May the world treat him a little better.
May April treat him a little better.
Shoko stood in the doorway, watching the two people in the classroom who had already started giving each other nicknames.
One was sprawled over his desk, and the other leaned against the doorframe. Each grinned more happily and ran his mouth more smoothly than the other. One look was enough to tell they were two trash-talking scumbags.
She held her still-unopened third lollipop.
The lollipop wasn't sweet.
She had already bitten the second one to pieces and eaten it.
Shoko fell silent for two seconds, then turned to Masamichi Yaga, her tone so serious that she seemed to be genuinely asking about a viable option. "Sir, is it too late to transfer schools?"
Masamichi Yaga remained expressionless, the lines of his face even stiffer than usual. "Too late."
Shoko nodded, as though she had expected that answer.
She accepted fate's "gift."
She tore open the lollipop's wrapper, pulled out the stick, and popped it into her mouth before adding, "Then I need the Single Dorm Room I applied for to be a little farther away from those two."
At Jujutsu High, boys and girls shared a dorm building, with one person to a room.
Satoru Gojo heard her and immediately turned around. It took only a fraction of a second for his expression to switch from "found a new toy" to "abandoned little animal." "Shoko, that's really hurtful~"
Shoko said, "I'm saving myself."
Her sanity and her ears were both very precious!
Yan Si glanced at her when he heard that and raised a hand in greeting with a smile, lifting his fingers off the desk to give her a little wave.
While trading barbs with Satoru Gojo earlier, he had still been sprawled over the desk. Now he sat a little straighter, at least lifting his back away from the chair.
Even so, it was still the kind of posture that would make a mother scold him for never sitting or standing properly.
His tone was cheerful as he introduced himself. "Hi, Ieiri. I'm Yan Si, from China. My hobbies are eating, sleeping, and beating up cursed spirits. I hate rude people and rude cursed spirits. Oh, and by the way, your hair is a lovely color. The style really suits you~"
Shoko looked at him, her gaze lingering for a second on a face so beautiful it hardly seemed real.
Purple eyes, the red mark between his brows, the curve of his smile.
He really was good-looking. She could acknowledge that objectively.
Then her gaze shifted down a little, sweeping over the faint red mark just visible beneath his cuff. It was very pale and had only recently healed, its edges still tinged with a light pink.
Very faint.
But she could tell. She used Reverse Cursed Technique herself and was thoroughly familiar with marks like that.
Ordinary wounds needed time to heal. Reverse Cursed Technique compressed that time into a few seconds, but even that accelerated healing process left temporary red marks on the skin that would soon disappear.
She didn't know how Yan Si had gotten that wound, but she knew he might use Reverse Cursed Technique no less often than she did.
She didn't ask any further questions, simply replying in an even tone, "Shoko Ieiri. My hobby is peace and quiet. I hate noisy people."
Satoru Gojo immediately shot up a hand. "So do you hate me?"
"Yes."
"Shoko! How could you? So blunt!"
"Thanks for the compliment."
Shoko walked around him into the classroom and dragged a desk over to the window.
Outside the window stood an old camphor tree, its lush branches conveniently blocking April's glaring sunlight.
She hung her schoolbag over the back of her chair, moving unhurriedly and completely ignoring Satoru Gojo's exaggerated look of having been abandoned by the entire world.
Beside her, Yan Si laughed so hard his shoulders shook, as though he had found a new source of entertainment.
His purple eyes curved into two crescents, and even the red dot between his brows seemed to lift slightly with his smile.
His fondness for Shoko instantly rose a notch.
Shoko shut people down with such a mild tone and composed expression that he almost wanted to applaud.
Satoru Gojo, however, wasn't discouraged in the slightest. His "abandoned" expression lasted less than three seconds before automatically uninstalling itself, replaced by even greater curiosity.
He swaggered into the classroom and picked a seat at random.
It happened to be the desk right in front of Yan Si's.
Then, barely seated and before he had even settled his legs, he stood up again as though something had occurred to him, walked around to Yan Si's desk, and looked down at him. His eyes studied Yan Si through his sunglasses. In the Six Eyes' field of vision, the ripples of cursed energy spreading outward from Yan Si were still slowly undulating.
"Hey, Meat Bun."
His voice carried a childlike excitement and greed-not for material things, but for anything interesting. "Do you really attract cursed spirits?"
"I do." Yan Si rested his cheek on his hand, sounding relaxed. "Works pretty well, too. Wherever I go, monsters deliver themselves right to my door. Saves me looking. You know those online games? I'm pretty much like a player who draws aggro."
Satoru Gojo's eyes shone even brighter, so bright that his sunglasses couldn't hide his enthusiasm. His imagination was already running wild.
No need to look for cursed spirits on missions. They would come to him, saving time and effort.
Double the efficiency-a walking, talking cursed spirit lure. He clapped his hands. "Then taking you along on missions would basically be like carrying a Cursed Spirit Radar around!"
"There's no such thing as a Cursed Spirit Radar, you know," Yan Si reminded him. After giving it some serious thought, he raised a finger. "I charge."
"How much?"
"Depends on my mood." Yan Si answered quickly and with absolute conviction.
In truth, he wasn't short of money at all.
"Your pricing system is very unscientific." Satoru Gojo frowned, folding his arms with a serious expression.
"You're talking science with me? Isn't this a world of 'superpowers'?" Yan Si said matter-of-factly, leaning back with a faint creak from his chair and even laughing as he spoke.
Satoru Gojo stared at him for a second, then slapped the desk, jolting a pencil into rolling half a turn. "You've got potential! I like you!"
Before you continue