Rei Furuya had never imagined that, when his replacements arrived, Suguru Geto would skip even the most basic introductions and handover, leaving only a curt "They have full authority to handle everything from here" before hurrying off.
Of course, he had also never imagined that the so-called "new negotiators for Jujutsu Society" would turn out to be three familiar faces.
Rei Furuya: ...
Kenji Hagiwara & Jinpei Matsuda & Hiromitsu Morofushi: ...
Even Kenji Hagiwara, the most eloquent and silver-tongued of them all, could not help falling silent.
This should have been a happy occasion, so why were they all filled with shock and speechless disbelief instead?
Once the initial surprise passed, they confirmed one another's identities. Since they were all friends who trusted each other, they quickly exchanged information without wasting a moment and pieced together what had happened.
As for the supposed negotiations over cooperation and communication...
Representing their respective sides, they tacitly agreed to make concessions and work out terms that were as fair as possible, with neither side losing out. After all, that was the only way both parties could report back satisfactorily.
With the time they had left, they found a restaurant where they could eat and chat, and could hardly have been happier.
Actually, if their current identities had allowed it, they would have loved to call their class president over for a karaoke reunion. It had been so long since they had all seen each other.
Even so, they stretched that single meal out for an extraordinarily long time. Those watching from a distance, unable to learn what was happening inside the private dining room, thought... everyone was working very hard.
They had dragged lunch into afternoon tea, then afternoon tea into dinner. Clearly, this was a long and difficult battle of wills.