April 1, spring 2017.
Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu High held its opening ceremony.
"Today marks the start of a new school year at Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu High School. I hope all our new and returning students will abide by the Jujutsu Sorcerer Code and diligently study how to use curses to exorcise cursed spirits, restoring peace and stability to society."
"As for our school's policies going forward..."
Masamichi Yaga, the principal of Jujutsu High, was delivering an impassioned speech onstage.
"Even counting the second- and third-years, there are only a handful of students. What's there to give a speech about? My precious sleeping time..."
"Yaga's always liked doing this."
Panda knew Masamichi Yaga well. Once he started lecturing, they were in for a long wait.
Panda, Inumaki, and Maki stood together listening to the principal's speech, while Dai Li was still fighting sleep on his feet. Two days of catching up on sleep couldn't make up for his long-standing irregular sleep schedule.
"Isn't that your own fault? Panda said you've been staying up all night playing games. I have no idea what you even enrolled here for."
Maki Zenin had never liked half-assed people, especially on an important occasion like the first day of school.
"Say whatever you want. I'm going to take a nap."
Over the past two days, Dai Li had more or less learned how to deal with someone as overbearing as Maki Zenin: stop trying and pay her as little attention as possible.
"Next, let's welcome our first-year representative, Toge Inumaki, to the stage to say a few words."
Satoru Gojo had been waiting onstage for Masamichi Yaga to finish his speech.
All the students could tell that Satoru Gojo was even more impatient than they were.
Upon hearing Satoru Gojo call his name, Toge Inumaki walked up to the front of the stage. Gojo had chosen him as the first-year representative, giving Masamichi Yaga the following reasons:
Maki Zenin had no cursed energy, Panda was a cursed corpse, and Dai Li's involvement in a previous special grade incident made his circumstances unusual. That left Toge Inumaki, the last descendant of the Cursed Speech Users, as the best choice for first-year representative, since the Cursed Speech User Family had once been well known in Jujutsu Society.
But Dai Li, Panda, and Maki all knew the real reason he had chosen Toge Inumaki as the first-year representative.
"Kelp."
"Raw salmon roe."
"Tuna mayo."
Toge Inumaki delivered his "remarks" onstage. Beside him, Satoru Gojo had already covered his mouth and was barely holding back his laughter.
"Pfft, hahaha!"
"And that concludes our first-year representative Toge Inumaki's moving speech. Let's give him a round of applause."
What a childish idiot...
That was the unanimous thought of the students below the stage as they watched Satoru Gojo.
Once the farce of an opening ceremony ended, the students from each year went their separate ways.
Satoru Gojo led the four first-years-Dai Li, Inumaki, Panda, and Maki-straight to the school's sports field, which also served as a training ground.
"Although this isn't my first time meeting any of you, allow me to introduce myself anyway."
"My name is Satoru Gojo. I'll be your homeroom teacher for the next few years. I'm the strongest jujutsu sorcerer of the modern age, and a handsome guy to boot."
"Who calls himself handsome? That's so stupid."
Maki Zenin snarked. She still found it hard to believe that this flippant man standing before her was the strongest jujutsu sorcerer.
"If you make all the wisecracks, what am I supposed to say?"
Dai Li was a little disgruntled at having his niche stolen. He was supposed to be the one making snarky comments. At this rate, his role as the protagonist would gradually get pushed to the sidelines until he became a complete nobody.
"Who cares about you, idiot number two?"
Maki Zenin considered the guy beside her an idiot too. Judging by the past two days, he was a little unhinged as well, constantly spouting things no one could understand.
"So that makes me idiot number one? Your teacher is very hurt. Anyway, our first task today is to test your abilities as jujutsu sorcerers."
"Give me a hundred times your usual energy and strength!"
Satoru Gojo bent his knees, crossed his hands, and struck several bizarre poses. He thought they looked hot-blooded.
"Salmon roe?"
"You'll be sparring with each other so I can observe your strengths and weaknesses."
Satoru Gojo laid out a very straightforward testing plan.
"So we're supposed to fight each other to the death as jujutsu sorcerers?"
"I'm pretty sure we're just supposed to stop short of hurting each other. Fighting to the death is a bit much."
Panda felt that Dai Li's thinking was a little too extreme.
"Panda's right. These are sparring matches, so don't take things too far. Time to draw lots!"
Satoru Gojo produced a Japanese-style lot-drawing cylinder. Inside were what looked like used popsicle sticks, four of them bearing the first-years' names.
"I'll turn the ends with your names downward and draw two at random. Those two will face off in a one-on-one match."
"First up, Dai Li versus... Maki!"
"I won't bother drawing for the second match, since there are only four of you."
Satoru Gojo announced it outright.
"The second match will be Panda versus Inumaki!"
After finishing the draw, Satoru Gojo casually tossed the four sticks aside and walked over to a grassy patch, intending to watch the students spar from somewhere with a good view.
Panda and Inumaki, whose match was second, followed him over, worried that staying where they were would interfere with the other two's fight.
"Let's have our first pair enter the ring. Good luck, Dai Li! Don't lose, Maki!"
Neither Dai Li nor Maki dawdled. They immediately walked to the center of the field.
"What an idiot. Blindfolded moron."
"Still, I didn't expect to be fighting a half-assed guy like you. I'll teach you a proper lesson."
Maki Zenin stood tall and straight, her toned, athletic figure clearly the result of years of training. With a swish of her long, dark green ponytail, she drew a long-bladed cursed tool from her bag and took a fighting stance.
Her gaze was exceptionally sharp behind her white-rimmed round glasses. In sheer presence alone, she already had Dai Li beaten.
"We're classmates on equal footing. Technically, 'teach me a lesson' isn't an appropriate choice of words."
"Besides, I'm three years older than you, but I'm not planning to make you all treat me like a big brother, so as peers-"
"Begin!"
"Isn't it about time you got serious, slacker?"
Maki Zenin lowered her body and charged at Dai Li with her sword, using the momentum of her sprint. She moved so fast that her high ponytail streamed straight out behind her in the wind.
Satoru Gojo had announced the start while Dai Li was still planning to run his mouth a little longer. It was hard not to think he had done it on purpose.
A cold glint flashed, followed by the sweeping blade. Dai Li immediately raised his arm to block, cursed energy rapidly spreading along its outer edge.
"That's quite a lot of cursed energy."
"So you can do it after all. You're a man; you should take things more seriously."
After her first attack failed, Maki immediately retreated to prevent Dai Li from counterattacking, leaving him no opening.
"Haven't you heard? Serious men are boring."
"It's better to go with the flow. No need to go out of your way to maintain a persona. Those serious types do one little thing that's out of character, and suddenly everyone wonders if they've secretly been wild all along."
"Looks like the stupid things you say piss me off even more than your attitude."
Maki Zenin wasted no more words and attacked with her sword again. Without any cursed energy, her physical speed alone was enough to match Dai Li's cursed-energy-enhanced movements.
Her long blade wheeled into a sweeping slash, its sharp gleam cutting off Dai Li's retreat.
Dai Li twisted out of the way, and cursed energy burst forward through his fist as it struck Maki in the abdomen.
Maki Zenin winced in pain, but she didn't stop swinging her sword, continuing to slash at Dai Li.
This strike will win it!
Dai Li clearly hadn't expected Maki Zenin's physical prowess to be so formidable. Although he hadn't put much cursed energy into the blow, it had landed squarely, yet her center of gravity hadn't shifted in the slightest.
Too late to dodge. Get my cursed energy up to defend, now.
Dai Li made his decision immediately, but with his current skill at manipulating cursed energy, he couldn't bring it up to defend all that quickly. Could he get his guard in place before Maki's blade struck?
Before you continue