Goodwill Event

Just as Shoko was about to step out of the office, Masamichi Yaga suddenly called her back without even turning his head.

"Shoko, where are you taking my cursed corpse?"

"Oh, come on, sir. I'd completely forgotten until you reminded me. Good thing you said something." As she spoke, she reluctantly took the teddy bear cursed corpse out of her left pocket.

She had been caught red-handed before she even had time to frame Satoru Gojo.

She reluctantly put the teddy bear in a corner piled with cursed corpses. Every corner was already full of them, ready to be used at any time with an infusion of cursed energy.

Only after leaving Masamichi Yaga's office did she let out a long sigh of relief.

Sukuna had little interest in Kyoto Jujutsu High's first-year students. He didn't know who any of them were anyway.

But since he had nothing better to do, he followed the three of them back to the classroom.

Over the past three months, he had spent nearly two whole months sleeping in bed, only occasionally showing up for class.

Most notably, when Sukuna had missed class once, a Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer who taught specialized knowledge about cursed spirits had stormed into his dorm to find him, only to nearly get dismembered on the spot.

Ever since then, all the teachers had found the problem student Satoru Gojo considerably more tolerable. At least Satoru Gojo wouldn't actually try to kill them.

But this newcomer, Sukuna, seemed to have no such reservations. Even complaining to the principal was useless, since the principal always brushed them off by saying he was about to retire.

They pulled a few desks together at random, and the four of them sat around them with unopened kraft-paper envelopes in their hands.

"Those higher-ups really are stubborn fossils. They could've just sent the files to our computers, but no, they had to seal them in kraft-paper envelopes. What a waste of paper."

Satoru Gojo curled his lip. He had no patience for the so-called Jujutsu Higher-Ups, mainly because they were far too stubborn and knew nothing about reform. All these years had passed, yet Jujutsu Society remained unchanged.

In his view, all of this was caused by the inaction of those so-called higher-ups.

Of course, Satoru Gojo didn't feel particularly strongly about any of this yet. Mostly, everyone around him had been like that since he was little.

He had come to enroll at Jujutsu High on his own precisely to get away from the old fossils at home.

"All right, all right, Satoru, stop complaining. Let's take a look at our opponents' profiles."

Suguru Geto smiled as he tore open the kraft-paper envelope, revealing a thin stack of papers inside.

The very first sheet prominently bore the name Naoya Zenin.

Naoya Zenin: The youngest son of Naobito Zenin, head of the Zenin Clan. He inherited [Projection Sorcery], one of the Zenin Clan's ancestral cursed techniques, and was currently the clan's sole prodigy. Great hopes had been placed on him since childhood, and this year he had been sent to study at Kyoto Jujutsu High.

Kino Noriko: A Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer whom Kyoto Jujutsu High had chanced upon at an orphanage. Her cursed technique, [Flame Wheel Technique], used a cursed tool as a medium to produce powerful flames. Without a medium, she could not use her technique.

Yamagami Kuro: A Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer with the cursed technique [Immovable]. By pressing his palms together, he could increase his teammates' cursed energy output while reducing his own cursed energy presence.

After reading the general profiles of the three students, all four fell a little silent. Unsurprisingly, Shoko wouldn't need to participate in this Goodwill Event, since the other side only had three people, and four against three would be unfair.

Instead, Shoko would serve as off-field medical support, ready to treat anyone who was injured.

Meanwhile, all three remaining members of their side were Special Grade Sorcerers. Any one of them could single-handedly wipe the floor with all three opponents.

Even Satoru Gojo thought it felt a little like bullying.

"A fight like this is completely pointless. Maybe I just won't use [Cursed Spirit Manipulation]. Otherwise, it'll be even more pointless."

Suguru Geto belittled their opponents with a smile. Even using only hand-to-hand combat, he could wipe the floor with them.

A fight like this was no different from adults bullying kindergarteners-dull and uninteresting.

"You two can handle this fight. I don't want to kill these Kyoto Jujutsu High students for no reason."

Sukuna put down the profiles in his hand. There had originally appeared to be quite a few sheets.

It turned out they had deliberately printed three copies of each of the three profiles, making nine in total, just to make their numbers look bigger. He had no idea what the point was.

"You can't sit this out. If you don't participate, I'll have to."

With a lollipop in her mouth, Shoko looked pleadingly at Sukuna. She really didn't want to take part in this sort of Goodwill Event.

There was no other reason for it. She simply had no fighting ability whatsoever. Anyone with even a little hand-to-hand training could knock her flat.

Sukuna glanced at Shoko, hesitated briefly, and said, "Then I'll participate. As long as you don't make me seek them out, they probably won't lose any limbs."

"I'm going to pin that future head of the Zenin Clan to the ground and beat him up, then hang him from a tree."

Satoru Gojo hadn't been particularly interested at first, but for some reason, his interest had suddenly returned, and he even looked eager.

It wasn't hard to imagine how miserable the future head of the Zenin Clan's fate would be.

"Leave the other two small fry to me. Sukuna probably won't go looking for them, right?"

Suguru Geto tucked his bangs behind his ear. He seemed to have grown a little thinner recently.

Over these three months, everyone else had been having a wild time. Only Suguru Geto, whenever he exorcised cursed spirits, always picked out those with unusual abilities or greater strength to swallow.

He still wore the same smile he had when they first met, but perhaps only he knew how much pain lay beneath it.

The carefree Satoru Gojo hadn't noticed the change in him.

Especially the last time Suguru Geto had swallowed the Imaginary Cursed Spirit, the Slit-Mouthed Woman, Satoru Gojo had even adopted the air of an elder and praised him for growing stronger again.

In three whole months, apart from exorcising a cursed spirit on his first day of enrollment, Sukuna hadn't stepped outside the gates of Jujutsu High even once.

"Oh, right. The teacher said we're hosting the Goodwill Event this time. The teachers from Kyoto Jujutsu High will arrive in three days, so we should learn some manners beforehand."

After saying that, Shoko instinctively looked at the three in front of her. There was no other reason; these three had simply never learned any manners.

No, that wasn't right. Satoru Gojo had definitely been taught manners, but it must have been when he was very young. Otherwise, he couldn't possibly have grown into such a problem teenager.

As for the other two, Suguru Geto said grace before meals, while Sukuna ate whatever he liked at every meal and never prayed.

As for herself... forget it. No need to learn.

"Seriously? We have to wait three whole days for them?"

Satoru Gojo complained bitterly, "Don't they know how to take the Shinkansen?"

"Satoru, don't say that. Maybe they enjoy exercise and are walking here. We should respect other people's hobbies."

Suguru Geto's remark was masterfully delivered. Anyone who didn't know better might have thought he genuinely respected them.

"So that means I can sleep in the dorm for another three days, right?"

"Right! Why didn't I think of that? Let's eat at the cafeteria first, then head straight back to the dorm and laze around. We'll tell the academic teachers we need to prepare for the Goodwill Event and take three days off."

Shoko's eyes lit up. Although no one was coming to let her practice dissection on them, Jujutsu High still had other small animals, such as rabbits.

And to avoid waste, every time she finished dissecting a rabbit, she cleaned it thoroughly and gave it to Sukuna to roast and eat, under the noble pretext of wasting nothing.

This had brought her and Sukuna closer together. Although this place was remote, there were no wild rabbits on the mountain, and Sukuna had spent several days looking for game without finding any.

Then Shoko had brought him rabbits to eat. They weren't wild, but they were still delicious.

Even more conveniently, she had recently learned a painless dissection method that kept rabbits from feeling pain without any anesthetic.

She had spent several days studying before mastering this method. All she had to do was first insert a scalpel into the rabbit's carotid artery, wait a minute or two, and the rabbit would no longer feel pain.

That saved her a great deal of anesthetic. She secretly sold all the anesthetic she saved to private hospitals and used the money to buy plenty of good liquor.

At the thought, Shoko burst into another cackling laugh. Only when the other three looked at her like she was an idiot did she snap out of it.

"Shoko, you..."

Suguru Geto looked at Shoko, who had suddenly started laughing for no apparent reason. He hesitated and left the rest unsaid, but Satoru Gojo, who had no such concerns, immediately finished for him.

"Did Shoko take the wrong medicine today?"

"You idiot, Satoru Gojo! Looks like you're itching for a beating."

A flash of embarrassment crossed Shoko's face, immediately followed by a punch to Satoru Gojo's face.

Satoru Gojo covered his face with one hand while pawing at Shoko's head with the other, shouting, "Shoko hasn't washed her hair in so long, she's got lice!"

He was so loud that even several cursed corpses came over to watch the commotion. The most eye-catching among them was a little panda.

"You idiot, Satoru Gojo! I'm going to tear your mouth apart! Aaaah!!"

Furious, Shoko chased Satoru Gojo around the classroom in frantic circles. Unfortunately, at 160 centimeters tall, her legs couldn't match those of the 190-centimeter Satoru Gojo, and he even mocked her for having stubby little legs.

"All right, stop messing around, you two. The teacher will come over himself in a minute."

The moment he saw the two roughhousing, Suguru Geto stepped forward to smooth things over. His movements were frighteningly practiced.

Sukuna remained seated quietly, making no move at all. Only his eyes lingered on each of the three.

"Who knows what he's thinking."