"Sorry, Mom. I... I want to go to Jujutsu High."
Jujutsu High was naturally renowned among people in the hidden world, but to ordinary people, it was just some dubious high school in the middle of nowhere.
Junpei Yoshino wanted to become stronger and protect the people important to him. To do that, he needed systematic instruction and training at Jujutsu High, but that was probably difficult for an ordinary person to understand.
He hadn't even dared mention that his upperclassman attended that school, afraid his mother would get the wrong idea about him.
He had brought it up while Kaze was there not to have him persuade his mother, but simply to have another person who could vouch for the school.
After all, the information he had gathered online about Jujutsu High was extremely sparse. There wasn't even a single photograph, making it easy to mistake for a scam.
Junpei's Mother looked at her son in surprise, but there was none of the disappointment or anger Junpei Yoshino had imagined.
"Why are you apologizing? You haven't done anything wrong."
She nodded quite naturally and gave him an easygoing smile.
"I trust your choice. Nobody ever said there was only one path you had to take in life. Life isn't a one-way street. As long as you're happy, that's enough."
The way she said it, Junpei Yoshino might have been planning to attend a perfectly ordinary school, rather than some remote religious school with no bright prospects.
"Mom..."
Junpei Yoshino suddenly felt his nose sting and struggled to hold back his tears.
His mother had always been so gentle and understanding, always supporting him. That was what had allowed him to keep going despite all the bad things he had experienced.
Watching their conversation from the side, Aikawa Kaze couldn't