Everything was fine

Seeing that Yan Si genuinely seemed to regret it, Satoru Gojo threw his head back and laughed, nearly spraying chips from his mouth. He slapped the windowsill, laughing so hard he couldn't straighten up.

Suguru Geto closed his book and glanced up at Satoru Gojo, who had inexplicably started laughing like a lunatic beside him.

Satoru Gojo winked at Suguru Geto through his laughter.

Suguru Geto looked at Yan Si.

Yan Si noticed his gaze immediately and looked over.

They held each other's gaze across half the corridor for less than a second.

Yan Si smiled at him, a faint but sunny smile with a distinctly shit-eating edge.

Suguru Geto saw it.

He lowered his head and went back to his book.

The curve of his lips grew just a little wider.

With a bunch of absolute characters like these for classmates, keeping a straight face really was hard.

Their second class was basic cursed energy control.

This class was much more interesting than the first, because it finally wasn't all theory.

Masamichi Yaga took them to a specialized classroom beside the training grounds.

The room was three times the size of an ordinary classroom. Its walls were covered in a pale gray coating that gave off faint cursed energy fluctuations, clearly a form of reinforcement.

Several testing devices stood in the corner. The largest occupied half a wall, its circular panel engraved with precise markings. Its scale theoretically covered everything from an ordinary person to a Special Grade Sorcerer. Several sets of basic training equipment stood beside it.

Cursed energy conduction balls, barrier-generating stakes, and a few things that looked like exercise equipment but were completely unfamiliar.

"We're only doing basic tests today." Masamichi Yaga stood beside the testing device with a clipboard in hand. "Each of you will place a hand on the device and release cursed energy. I'll assess the quality of your output and the precision of your control."

(I made this up. I've read the manga and watched the anime, but I've never understood how they judge total cursed energy beyond intuition. There seems to be some kind of device for measuring cursed energy, though, so I ran with that and made a few things up.)

Satoru Gojo went first.

He placed his hand on the circular panel, his palm against the cold metal, as casually as if he were merely resting it there.

His eyes weren't even fully open behind his sunglasses.

He released his cursed energy.

The device's needle shot upward, slammed straight into the top of the dial, and let out a piercing beep.

The sound was so shrill that Shoko frowned and took half a step back. The needle trembled wildly at the top, stuck there, while the entire device vibrated slightly.

Masamichi Yaga looked at the reading and fell silent.

The silence lasted a full two seconds.

"Pull it back."

Satoru Gojo withdrew his hand and hopped down from the testing platform, grinning, his movements as light as a cat that had just finished wrecking the house. "Teach, pretty scary numbers, huh?"

"Your numbers are indeed scary." Masamichi Yaga lowered his head to record them, expressionless. "Control your output next time. You exceeded this device's upper limit."

"Doesn't that just mean I'm strong?"

"It means the device is weak."

Shoko went second.

She stepped forward and placed her hand on the panel, her movements quiet and unobtrusive.

The moment she released her cursed energy, the needle began rising steadily, neither fast nor slow, before coming to a firm stop slightly above the middle of the dial.

A very good reading, with cursed energy reserves on par with a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer.

Once the needle stopped, it didn't budge. It was almost steady enough to serve as a calibration standard.

Masamichi Yaga looked at the reading and nodded.

"Excellent control precision."

Shoko withdrew her hand, gave an expressionless hum of acknowledgment, and returned to her spot.

Suguru Geto went third.

When he placed his hand on the panel, his expression was focused, with a slight crease between his brows.

His cursed energy began flowing out, and the needle began rising.

It wasn't fast, but once it started, it didn't stop.

It climbed steadily without a single fluctuation, like water rising from the bottom of a well, quiet and deep, much like him.

Eventually, the needle stopped at a very high reading.

Not far off Satoru Gojo's.

But Masamichi Yaga noticed that the reading was still trembling slightly. It wasn't the device shaking; Suguru Geto's cursed energy was leaving minute fluctuations on the panel.

"Good," Masamichi Yaga said. "But your cursed energy is fluctuating. Pay attention to your control."

Suguru Geto nodded. "Yes. I've been practicing."

His tone was calm, but as he withdrew his hand, his fingers clenched briefly at his side.

Yan Si was last.

He approached the testing platform at his usual lazy pace, his soles scraping softly against the floor.

He placed his hand on the panel and tilted his head, looking as casual as someone weighing himself on a scale outside a supermarket.

Then he released his cursed energy.

The needle jumped.

Masamichi Yaga frowned.

Yan Si's readings were strange.

The needle bobbed up and down. The swings weren't large, but they were frequent, with an irregular jump every few seconds, followed by a brief period of stability before it jumped again.

The entire output waveform was erratic and irregular, in stark contrast to the stable, clean curves of the three before him.

"Your cursed energy isn't very stable," Masamichi Yaga said.

"Yeah, I know." Yan Si withdrew his hand and slipped it into his trouser pocket, his tone as casual as if he were commenting on the nice weather. "It's my constitution."

He didn't know shit. He was making it all up.

When in doubt, ask the system. Hey, what's going on?

[Oh, that? It's because you're not a local. You're a transmigrator~]

[You don't have any cursed energy of your own at all. Your cursed energy is purchased with points and generated by the system, not produced by you. A little quirkiness is inevitable.]

The system patiently explained.

[But it's all right, host. You can blame all these issues on your constitution~ The constitution that draws cursed spirits' hostility really is connected to your body.]

[Feel free to keep lying, host~]

Yan Si accepted the system's explanation and suggestion, pondering how to pull off the con.

"What constitution?" Yaga asked.

It was a responsible teacher's concern for his student.

"The one that attracts cursed spirits." He traced a circle in the air with his free hand, making it sound convincing. "For unknown reasons, the edges of my cursed energy constantly emit faint fluctuations. Like giving off a scent. It spreads pretty badly. Uses up energy all the time."

Masamichi Yaga watched him thoughtfully. He jotted a few things down on his clipboard, then looked up again. "Can you control it?"

"I can suppress it, but not completely." Yan Si thought for a moment and offered a precise analogy. "It's like breathing. You can hold your breath, but not forever."

Tsk, what a vivid analogy. Just what you'd expect from me.

Satoru Gojo, who had listened to the whole exchange from the side, suddenly spoke up. "So cursed spirits follow you wherever you go because your cursed energy keeps sending out signals?"

"Pretty much." Yan Si smiled, a smile with some self-mockery but not a trace of self-pity. "It's like being surrounded by dogs while carrying a bag of meat buns, holding buns in both hands, and occasionally tossing them out to hit the dogs right in the face."

Satoru Gojo's eyes lit up.

At that moment, everyone present saw a sparkling idea-a light bulb-appear over Satoru Gojo's head.

Satoru Gojo began imagining a wonderful possibility. "Then if you stood on Tokyo Tower and blasted all your cursed energy out..."

"No." Three voices rang out at once.

Suguru Geto, Shoko, and Masamichi Yaga.

Their tones were entirely different.

Suguru Geto sounded calmly resigned, Shoko's refusal was cool, and Masamichi Yaga's was a firm command.

But all three reacted at exactly the same speed, almost as if they'd rehearsed it.

Satoru Gojo protested, "I hadn't even finished!"

"You don't need to," Suguru Geto said evenly.

Shoko added, "You want downtown Tokyo flooded with cursed spirits."

It was a statement, not a question.

In an even deeper voice, Masamichi Yaga delivered the final verdict. "This is not up for discussion."

Yan Si shrugged and spread his hands toward Satoru Gojo, his expression innocent and delighted. "See, White-Haired Cat? Your brilliant ideas always get shot down."

Satoru Gojo had made a good suggestion.

Yan Si himself was actually quite interested in it.

I'll try it if I become a Curse User someday.

Unwilling to give up, Satoru Gojo settled for the next best thing. "Then standing on the mountaintop at Jujutsu High and releasing cursed energy should be fine, right? Just us."

"Also no," Masamichi Yaga said.

"Why?"

"Because Jujutsu High has a barrier. The cursed spirits you attract from the mountaintop will crack it, and the repair costs will come out of your allowance."

Silence descended.

Satoru Gojo's mouth opened, closed, and opened again.

"Is Jujutsu High really that broke?"

"You're just too expensive," Shoko said dryly.

Yan Si laughed until his shoulders shook, bracing one hand on the edge of the testing platform as he doubled over.

"Hahahaha! Satoru Gojo is one expensive white cat~"

His laughter wasn't loud, but it bounced around the reinforced classroom.

For once, Suguru Geto didn't sigh.

He didn't even frown.

He leaned against the classroom wall, watching Yan Si double over laughing, watching Satoru Gojo argue indignantly with Shoko about whether the repair costs were really that high, watching the April sunlight stream through the reinforced windows and fall over everyone.

He felt that, so far, everything today was still reasonably under control.

It even felt...

Good.

Everything was fine.

The jokes, the laughter, the complaints shared with others like him.

All of it was good.

That thought lasted until lunch.