Teacher Yaga was right. Jujutsu High had never considered giving up on me.
According to the information I had gathered, Teacher Yaga, the principal, and the other teachers were all fighting hard against the pressure from the Jujutsu Higher-Ups.
They refused to hand me over. But after all the trouble I had stirred up, and with the Zenin Clan's higher-ups too busy dealing with their own problems, they had unexpectedly found a measure of peace and balance.
And how could I tell there was a balance?
Probably because I was running into Teacher Yaga and the first-years more often.
Take today, for example. I was happily drowning myself, drifting merrily down the river and feeling that I had discovered a truly wonderful way to commit suicide, when I finally managed to surface-and saw Teacher Yaga.
Then Teacher Yaga promptly fished me out of the river and, looking thoroughly displeased, hauled me back to the dorm by the scruff of my neck.
Yaga gave me no chance to resist, and I couldn't quite understand why Teacher Yaga could lift all six feet of me with one hand.
The kitty was silent. The kitty was confused.
Wow, Teacher Yaga really was still bullying me! Aaaah!
Still, whatever else happened, I ultimately flopped onto my dorm bed in utter surrender and watched Teacher Yaga tuck a thermometer against my body and lay a damp towel over my forehead.
"Winter's almost here. Stop jumping into rivers all the time."
"Shoko's Reverse Cursed Technique doesn't work on you, Dazai. If you get sick, we can only use modern medicine. If something goes wrong, there's no undoing it."
Teacher Yaga stood beside my bed, sighing nonstop. But seeing that my fever had already reached forty degrees Celsius, he couldn't bring himself to leave me there unattended.
"But Teacher Yaga won't let me hang myself-"
I drew out the last word, gazing pitifully at Teacher Yaga as his headache visibly worsened. In the end, Yaga flicked my forehead in "humiliated anger"-actually, heartache-though he still couldn't bring himself to do it hard.
"Can't you just stop trying to kill yourself?"
Teacher Yaga fell silent for a moment, touched the water on the bedside table to check its temperature, and handed me both the fever medicine and the water. Only after watching me slowly swallow them did he ask again.
"That's-not happening."
After taking the medicine, I lay flat on my back again, casually adjusting the towel on my forehead, which had grown a little warm.
"..."
Teacher Yaga fell silent. After a while, he seemed to come to another decision.
"Choose another way to kill yourself."
"Huh? Teacher Yaga's finally stopped telling me to keep living! You've finally come around!"
I looked delighted, my brown eyes wide and my smile positively beaming.
"I've been trying to persuade you for three years, Dazai. I don't know what happened to you before, but if you truly can't let go of suicide, no matter what, call me before you do it. I'll come get you."
Teacher Yaga answered with a soft sigh.
"..."
"Teacher Yaga, you're OOC! You've been possessed! Aaaah!"
I scrambled up in bed, making a huge fuss. Something seemed about to spill from my eyes, but it only kept swirling there without falling.
Teacher Yaga finally lost his patience and gave me a punch. Ah, rest in peace.
"Teacher Yaga, you're back."
Muttering that, I settled myself onto the bed again and squeezed my eyes shut, as though I really had fallen asleep.
Only after a long while did Teacher Yaga, still standing beside my bed, sigh, pull up my blanket, and turn to leave my room.
As for me, of course I couldn't possibly have fallen asleep. The instant Teacher Yaga left, I opened my eyes and climbed out of bed.
I swiftly put on my shoes, got off the bed, and wrapped myself in bandages again.
Since my dip in the river had soaked my bandages and clothes, Teacher Yaga had forcibly unwrapped every last bandage.
The bandages were my true form, you know!
Without my bandages, how was I any different from being stark naked?
Teacher Yaga really had gone too far...
Too far.
I muttered angrily under my breath, idly cradling a bundle of bandages. Then I picked up the towel from my bed-the one that had quickly warmed from the heat of my forehead but had cooled a little by now-and fell silent.
Ah, well. Taking it easy and getting some proper rest today wouldn't be so bad.
With that thought, I put the towel on my forehead and crawled beneath the blanket again, wrapping myself up snugly.
Good night. Maybe I'd have a nice dream tonight.
That was what I thought...
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