First meeting with the class

"This is the first-year classroom! Let your handsome Gojo Sensei introduce you!"

Satoru Gojo led Aikawa Kaze and Yuta Okkotsu to a classroom.

After their heart-to-heart in the principal's office, Aikawa Kaze had finally won Principal Yaga's approval and permission to enroll.

Then he had been assigned a dorm room, complete with its own bathroom and toilet.

He had spent a day cleaning, organizing, and buying necessities. The next day, Gojo brought him and another transfer student to the classroom door.

After Gojo went inside, Aikawa Kaze first took a moment to size up his fellow student.

He looked much as Aikawa Kaze remembered: heavy dark circles, head lowered, back slightly hunched, giving off a gloomy, timid air.

At this point, Yuta Okkotsu had low self-esteem and little confidence. Although he longed for friends and a normal life, being "cursed" by Rika made him instinctively keep his distance from others.

Just like now. As fellow transfer students, they could have taken the opportunity to chat and get acquainted, but Okkotsu's instinctive reaction was to step away from him.

If Aikawa Kaze hadn't already known the reason, he probably would have felt rather offended.

Listening to Gojo's faintly audible antics inside and the students' chilly responses, Aikawa Kaze wasn't surprised.

"It sounds pretty frosty in there! Looks like fitting into school life will take some work."

"Huh? Ah... y-yes, it will."

Yuta Okkotsu jumped. He had just been thinking the same thing, and when he heard the other boy say it, he instinctively wondered if he had accidentally spoken his thoughts aloud.

So we both felt the same way?

"Hello, I'm Aikawa Kaze. I was an ordinary person before this, so sorry in advance for any trouble. I hope you'll look out for me."

"I'm Yuta Okkotsu. I'm just an ordinary person too... I should be the one asking you to look out for me."

Yuta Okkotsu, who usually went unnoticed because he worked so hard to make himself inconspicuous, answered with a hint of anticipation.

He still longed for a normal life.

Hearing that this fellow transfer student had also been an "ordinary person," he couldn't help feeling a little kinship with the boy named Aikawa Kaze.

Of course, their actual circumstances were very different.

"All right! Come on in!"

Gojo Sensei's voice came from inside, and Aikawa Kaze glanced at Yuta Okkotsu.

"Would you like to go first, Okkotsu, or should I?"

"I..."

Yuta Okkotsu hesitated.

Being highly sensitive, he could clearly feel the chilly atmosphere coming from the classroom, which made him somewhat reluctant.

Still, the first step was always the hardest. If he didn't go in, Aikawa Kaze would have to. He might as well go first and take the hit!

Gentle soul that he was, Yuta Okkotsu took a breath and worked up his courage.

"I-I'll go first!"

"Sure! Good luck, Okkotsu!"

Aikawa Kaze nodded with a smile.

From their very first meeting, he had felt the intense pressure surrounding Okkotsu. A special grade vengeful cursed spirit truly was terrifying, nothing like the grade 2 cursed spirit he had encountered before, whose grade had been forcibly raised.

Still, he knew perfectly well that as long as he didn't hurt Yuta Okkotsu, he was quite safe as a boy.

After all, Rika would get jealous and attack girls, but boys didn't have that problem.

As Yuta Okkotsu walked into the classroom, he decisively retreated several steps.

If he remembered correctly, the newly arrived Okkotsu would get into a "fight" with Toge Inumaki, Maki Zenin, and Panda because he was "cursed," causing Rika to erupt. Aikawa Kaze had no desire to get caught in the crossfire.

His retreat was perfectly timed. Once he reached a safe spot, an explosion rang out from the classroom, just as expected. Then the wall collapsed, the windows shattered, and the door went flying.

Having wisely withdrawn to the other end of the hallway, Aikawa Kaze congratulated himself on his foresight.

"That was pretty mean, Hefeng. Letting Yuta come in alone? Where's your love for your classmates?"

Gojo's voice came from behind the collapsed wall.

"I don't want to explain the same thing twice-good thing the wall came down. You heard about Okkotsu and Rika too, right, Hefeng?"

"No need to repeat yourself. The school's soundproofing isn't very good. I could hear you."

Aikawa Kaze nodded.

Yuta Okkotsu's story was simple: Rika, his childhood sweetheart, with whom he had promised to get married, had died and then become a curse that followed him.

Aikawa Kaze looked at Yuta Okkotsu apologetically.

"Sorry. Given Teacher Satoru Gojo's personality, I figured he wouldn't explain anything about Jujutsu Society to you beforehand, or give my future classmates any advance warning."

"Huh?"

Yuta Okkotsu was baffled, completely unable to understand why Aikawa Kaze was apologizing.

Of course, he couldn't have known that Aikawa Kaze's actions had been intended to avoid taking a beating for nothing.

A back-and-forth battle that helped him grow would have been one thing. But getting dragged into a pointless beating for some absurd reason, with nothing to gain? No, thank you.

Aikawa Kaze surveyed the classroom, which looked as though a hurricane had swept through it, then glanced at the three original Jujutsu High first-years, battered and sporting lumps and bandages on their heads. His judgment had clearly been correct.

Right now, he was still a fragile, ordinary person. He might not survive an attack from Rika, so naturally, he had to keep his distance.

"I'm Aikawa Kaze. I was an ordinary person before this, so there's still a lot I don't understand. Sorry for any trouble, and I hope you'll all look out for me."

As he spoke, Aikawa Kaze took a small pouch from his pocket. These were the gifts he had decided to use to build a rapport with everyone.

Every one of his classmates was talented!

"I prepared a little introductory gift for everyone. Please accept it."

"Are these... gemstones?"

"Rune Stones."

He had drawn a set of Rune Stones earlier, and the pouch happened to contain five gems. He figured he could divide them up nicely.

One for himself and one for each of his classmates worked out perfectly.

"Mm-hmm, these are good. They increase mental resistance. If you get caught by something, you can crush one to break free of its control."

Gojo pulled down the bandages covering his eyes, then wrapped them back up.

"Since Hefeng brought these as a gesture of goodwill, go ahead and accept them."

Seeing that the students were reluctant to accept something that looked so expensive, Gojo analyzed the Rune Stones and decisively told everyone to take them.

Their investigation had shown that Aikawa Kaze's maternal family was quite wealthy anyway. Why turn down something good?

This was his first time seeing such an item, too. At least, he had never seen one in this country. It must have come from that other country with its deep-rooted heritage.

"But there's nothing for Gojo Sensei? How heartbreaking."

"The invincible Gojo Sensei doesn't need a Rune Stone." Smiling, Aikawa Kaze took out another small package. "So I kept my promise and brought you my favorite treasured special-edition Mapo Tofu."

"..." I told you, there's no need for that stuff!

As someone with a sweet tooth, Gojo simply couldn't stomach a spice lover's tastes. He ignored the Mapo Tofu and pointed at Yuta Okkotsu and Aikawa Kaze.

"Anyway, this is Yuta Okkotsu. If you bully him, watch out for Rika! That one's Aikawa Kaze. You can bully him as much as you like."

"What are you saying, you lousy teacher?!"

"Exactly! Why would we bully a classmate for no reason?"

"Salmon, salmon!"

The three who had just instinctively accepted the gifts, along with Yuta Okkotsu, who had received one too, all gave their shameless teacher reproachful looks.

The warning about Yuta Okkotsu was one thing, but what was with that last remark, as though he was hoping they would "bully" Aikawa Kaze?

"Hey, new kid! What's with that look? Grow a backbone!"

The only girl in the class looked at Aikawa Kaze's calm expression with exasperation.

Why was this guy so spineless? Sometimes you had to give that lousy teacher a piece of your mind!

"I'd already heard a few things, so I suppose I was mentally prepared."

"Oh? Is Gojo Sensei the strongest and most handsome man in heaven, on earth, and in the entire universe?"

"Satoru Gojo is a man who's perfect in every way except his personality, and nothing he does would surprise anyone."

"..."

The classroom fell silent. After a while, Panda nodded.

"That's surprisingly accurate!"

"Ahem! All right, all right. They're still in their rebellious phase, so I'll introduce them! This is Panda."

"He's actually thick-skinned enough to pretend he didn't hear that and change the subject without batting an eye!"

"The girl making that comment is Maki Zenin, a Cursed Tool User. She's skilled at exorcising cursed spirits with various Cursed Tools."

"And finally, the white-haired one is Toge Inumaki, a Cursed Speech User. He always speaks in rice ball language to avoid accidentally hurting anyone, so you'll have to put in some effort to communicate with him."

"That's about it."

Once the introductions were over, Aikawa Kaze and Yuta Okkotsu both involuntarily turned toward Panda, who interested them most.

Despite the presence of a spirited girl and a cool, handsome boy, both of them were still most interested in that great big ball of fluff.

Yuta Okkotsu: He barely explained the one thing I wanted to know most... So what's the deal with that panda? Is he an animal that mutated into a jujutsu sorcerer?

Aikawa Kaze: A panda! A live panda! A national treasure! I want to hug him! Once I get him to like me enough, can I pet him?

"All right, that's the gist of it. Make sure you all get along from now on~~"

Gojo gave them an encouraging gesture and cheerfully announced the afternoon's lesson.

"For this afternoon's jujutsu practical, Toge and Panda will be a team, and Maki and Yuta will be a team. As for Hefeng... hmm, can't be helped. With an odd number, someone gets left out. Want to try working solo?"

"I don't see why not."

"Ahahaha~ Just kidding! You're so weak, you'd die on your own, wouldn't you? Never mind, go with Yuta and Maki! Having the two newcomers look out for each other could be good."

"Understood."

"Tch, fine. I'll keep an eye on them both."

Maki Zenin pursed her lips but agreed.

She didn't really like Yuta Okkotsu, who looked so easy to pick on. As for Aikawa Kaze... he struck her as a well-behaved model student. She couldn't say she disliked him, only that they probably wouldn't click.

But she had just accepted his gift, and they were classmates, after all. As their "senior," she naturally had to look after the newcomers.

-What a pain!

What Maki Zenin didn't know was that Gojo also found things a little troublesome. After all...

Yuta Okkotsu wasn't the only one the higher-ups had their eyes on now. Aikawa Kaze was on their list of people to eliminate, too!