"What's going on here?"
In the infirmary at Jujutsu High, Satoru Gojo stared at the people sprawled all over the hallway, utterly baffled.
Hadn't Itadori lost a hand, with Shoko unable to help?
Had he been guzzling pig feed? How had his new hand grown back so fast?
Why did Fushiguro and Kugisaki look more seriously injured than Itadori now?
And another thing...
"Shoko, why are you lying here?"
Besides the three bruised and battered students, even Shoko was slumped in a corner against the wall, panting.
Satoru Gojo rubbed his chin with one hand and tapped his toe against the floor. A moment later, realization dawned on him. "Unless I'm mistaken, this was a good, old-fashioned hospital brawl!"
First they'd run into a doctor cosplaying Black Jack, and now a white-haired guy playing detective!
"Tch!"
Looking thoroughly displeased, Shoko braced herself against the wall and stood up. She glared at the white-haired Satoru Gojo, then turned and left. "Idiot!"
Watching Shoko walk away, Satoru Gojo shrugged and asked quietly, "What's her deal? Early menopause?"
Fushiguro stood up, wiping away his nosebleed, and explained, "This happened, then that happened."
"I see."
Satoru Gojo nodded. "So you're saying Jiahao used two cursed techniques to heal Itadori, and then the three of you repaid his kindness by ganging up on him and getting beaten up?"
"And before Jiahao left, he said Shoko's healing skills were mediocre, so she got mad, went after him, and got beaten up too?"
"Hmm... that certainly sounds like Jiahao."
Why was this white-haired guy being so sarcastic too, talking just like Jiahao?
The three first-years glared at Satoru Gojo, then turned to leave.
"Now, now, don't be mad!"
"The important thing is that Itadori's fine. Isn't that a happy ending for everyone?"
"To celebrate Itadori getting his arm back, your teacher's treating you to a feast tonight!"
Kugisaki stopped first, followed by Itadori.
Their teacher wasn't exactly normal either, but he was rich and generous enough to make up for it.
Midsummer, Jujutsu High.
The breeze carried a faint warmth, and cicadas chirped in waves.
The three first-years limped out of the infirmary, immediately spotting Black Jack Jiahao standing in the middle of the field.
Jiahao stood there alone, his lips moving nonstop as though he were conversing with the empty air before him.
Yet none of the three found this apparent psychotic episode strange in the slightest.
After all, this was Jiahao...
Just as they were about to invite Jiahao to join them for the free feast, footsteps sounded behind them.
"What happened, Megumi?"
"You look like a mess. Did the new student bully you?"
Maki approached with a spear resting on her shoulder, her high ponytail swaying behind her.
Her bearing matched her gaze, both radiating a sharp, no-nonsense fierceness.
Behind Maki came the hulking Panda and Inumaki, whose high collar covered his mouth and nose.
Seeing the sorry state of the three first-years, Panda smiled and waved. "Looks like this year's new students are getting along nicely."
Inumaki nodded. "Salmon roe."
"Maki, Panda, Inumaki! You're back from your mission?"
Before Fushiguro could introduce everyone, Itadori and Kugisaki had already rushed up to Panda, their eyes shining.
"A fluffy, talking panda!"
"His fur's so soft and warm! He smells like sunshine!"
Watching them pet Panda all over, Maki grinned. "This year's new students sure are enthusiastic. I hope they're just as eager during close-combat training."
Once everyone had introduced themselves, Maki looked toward the person talking to himself in the center of the training field. "A new student?"
"Is there something wrong with his head?"
Without a moment's hesitation, Fushiguro and the other two nodded in unison. "Yeah."
Jiahao's strength was undeniable, but his mental instability was directly proportional to it.
"That must be Wang Jiahao."
With an arm around Itadori's shoulders, Panda narrowed his eyes in recollection. "Wang Jiahao. A pretty strong, unaffiliated sorcerer."
"A little overconfident, but he shouldn't have any symptoms of mental illness."
"He looks like he's talking to thin air, but maybe there's a cursed spirit or shikigami standing in front of him that we can't see."
Maki glanced at Panda. "Did you overhear all that in the principal's office again?"
Panda was a fully autonomous, mutated cursed corpse created by Masamichi Yaga, and he normally lived with the principal.
He often disguised himself as an ordinary, unawakened doll, blending into piles of cursed corpses to eavesdrop on gossip.
Panda's words also reminded Maki and Inumaki of Okkotsu and Rika.
When Okkotsu first enrolled, he had occasionally talked to himself too. In truth, he had simply been talking to Rika.
"Maybe. He might be another unlucky guy stuck with a special curse."
With that, Maki led the way toward the center of the field. "Come on. We'll find out if we ask him."
Wait, where did he go?!
"Yeah, I really am cursed."
The quiet voice exploded beside her ear like thunder. Maki's expression changed sharply, and she instantly leaped away.
Inumaki reflexively tugged down his collar, fixing his gaze on Panda.
Jiahao, who had been over a hundred meters away just a moment ago, had appeared beside Panda in the blink of an eye and was busy running his hands over him.
As a citizen of the Dragon Nation in his previous life, he'd never had a chance to pet their national treasure up close. In this life, he could pet one as much as he liked.
"Overall, pretty nice to the touch."
His little heart pounding, Panda quietly lowered his raised fists.
Scared the fur off me. I nearly threw a Panda Punch.
Itadori and the other two barely reacted. After all, they had just been beaten up like this in a pitch-black hallway.
Remembering Jiahao's earlier answer, Itadori, now reunited with his arm, asked with concern, "Jiahao, you're not actually cursed, are you?"
Still petting Panda with one hand, Jiahao nodded. "Yes. I've been cursed by the most terrifying Hao spirit in the world."
"To be precise, it isn't a cursed spirit. It's a spirit that even jujutsu sorcerers can't see. Or you can call him the Hao demon."
"The reason I now say and do such outrageous things is because of him. Otherwise, the Hao demon inside me will devour me completely."
"Ah, I don't want to be this way either, but alas... my Hao fate cannot be defied."
Panda struggled to keep a straight face. "A spirit? A Hao demon? What the heck is all that?"
Jiahao stopped petting Panda and looked at the bewildered group with a soft sigh. "You don't understand."
Turning his back on them, Jiahao clasped his hands behind him and gazed up at the sky. "There's no curse in this world more twisted than Hao."
The system said, "Who's forcing you? What the fuck are you even talking about?"
"Just because I wouldn't give you a discount on skills when you were haggling earlier, you're calling me a demon, one of those inferior creatures?"
Jiahao said, "Give me seventy percent off domain skills, and I'll even call you Daddy."
The system said, "Not happening."
Jiahao said, "Fifty percent off the Rinnegan would work too!"
The system said, "Dream on."
Pickled chicken feet was already at three stars. Honestly, Jiahao was still a little nervous.
Because the worlds had different fundamental laws, using the Sharingan here carried no risk of blindness or nearsightedness for Jiahao, but activating Kamui consumed an enormous amount of cursed energy.
He might have seemed to dispatch three-finger Sukuna effortlessly, but he had actually come close to tearfully taking out a loan from the system to buy supplies.
Seeing Jiahao start talking to thin air again, Itadori and the others felt an inexplicable chill.
Even the thick-skinned Panda felt it, and the usually assertive Maki had quietly retreated behind everyone else.
Kugisaki poked her head out from behind Itadori and asked softly, "Jiahao, is there really..."
"Shh. Don't speak."
"The spirit is whispering to me again."
Maki: "..."
Panda: "..."
Inumaki: "..."
Itadori and the other two were already used to it.
Already numb.
Before you continue