New classmates

"Yeah, how did these guys get so smart?"

Itadori voiced the same sentiment.

After all, if the curses they faced from now on always carried C4 explosives, only a freak like Satoru Gojo would dare take them head-on.

He certainly didn't think he could withstand the force of a C4 blast.

"All right, let's stop worrying about that for now and hurry over to check on the students!"

At that thought, Nanami's expression grew grave as well.

The C4 blast had covered such a large area, and the Gymnasium where the students were gathered wasn't far from the explosion. They must have been caught in it.

He could only hope their injuries weren't too serious, or the consequences would be unthinkable.

"Oh, right!"

Nanami's reminder immediately snapped Itadori back to his senses, and he stopped dwelling on the issue.

He sprinted toward the Gymnasium, which was now battered and partially ruined.

Once inside, he saw that the explosion had woken them all up. They were injured, but no one had died, and Itadori finally breathed a sigh of relief!

"This is all his fault!"

The upperclassman who had always bullied Junpei viciously accused him, shifting all the blame onto him.

Junpei was furious at the sight, but he didn't attack him.

He was no longer alone and helpless. With Itadori and his mother supporting and caring for him, he didn't want to do anything extreme that might ruin it all.

"You bastard, what did you just say?!"

Hearing that, Itadori clenched his fists and glared furiously at the despicable guy.

He might have seemed a little dim most of the time, but he wasn't actually stupid.

When he saw Mahito goading Junpei into killing this upperclassman, Itadori had guessed the guy must have done some awful things to Junpei. Otherwise, Junpei wouldn't have developed such extreme thoughts.

Itadori despised people like that from the bottom of his heart.

"Gulp!"

Feeling the terrifying aura pouring off Itadori, the guy swallowed hard in fear, at a loss for how to respond.

"That's enough. Bring him along, and let's go!"

Just then, Yuanfang, dressed in a brand-new staff uniform, spoke up in time to stop Itadori from throwing a punch.

"Yes, sir!"

Itadori had great respect for his senior. Since Yuanfang had spoken, he couldn't very well keep trying to hit the guy. He nodded, then turned to Junpei and said sincerely:

"Come with me. You'll make plenty of good friends there!"

"Yeah, okay!"

Junpei had long since come to loathe this place. The place Itadori described filled him with longing, so he agreed without a second thought.

Three days later.

Yuanfang returned to his daily routine of training with Maki and the others, though he was deeply reluctant to waste his precious time on it.

Unfortunately, there were hardly any stronger cursed spirits in the area, and even going out to search for them proved fruitless.

After all, he now needed to absorb an enormous amount of cursed energy to grow stronger. Those weak cursed spirits were practically useless to him unless there were a great many of them.

"Everyone, take a break. I'd like to introduce two new classmates!"

Just then, Satoru Gojo suddenly appeared, interrupting their training.

Maki, Kugisaki, and the others were curious and eager to see what their new classmates looked like.

Yuanfang, however, remained unusually calm, as though he already knew who was coming.

"Hey, everyone! Long time no see!"

As Satoru Gojo finished speaking, Itadori excitedly leaped out from behind a flower bed.

He could barely contain his excitement, eagerly anticipating how Megumi Fushiguro and the others would react to seeing him alive and well.

Unfortunately, he was disappointed. Apart from shock, neither Megumi Fushiguro nor Kugisaki showed any of the excitement he had expected upon seeing him.

Maki and the others were even calmer by comparison, as if they didn't particularly care.

"All right, next up is our new classmate, Junpei Yoshino!"

At his words, Junpei emerged rather bashfully from another patch of bushes.

"Hello, everyone. My name is Junpei Yoshino!"

Junpei had now officially joined Jujutsu High, and his strength had improved by leaps and bounds, nearly reaching the level he had attained in the original story.

Kugisaki, however, only gave Junpei a cursory once-over before getting a general sense of his type, so she wasn't particularly interested in him.

"He looks pretty ordinary. Yuanfang's still a lot more impressive!"

After that casual remark, her gaze couldn't help drifting toward Yuanfang, and she thought to herself:

If I could become his wife, I'm sure I'd have a happy life.

"Tch!"

Maki clicked her tongue softly in displeasure.

Junpei's face fell a little. Between his looks and the personality he had displayed, Yuanfang was arguably the most outstanding person there.

By comparison, Junpei felt he couldn't compete at all.

"Welcome, junior!"

Panda waved a paw in enthusiastic greeting.

Junpei was astonished, since he had never seen a talking panda before.

"Salmon!"

Toge Inumaki also offered his new junior a friendly greeting.

Megumi Fushiguro remained calm and said nothing.

All at once, everyone left Itadori off to the side, completely ignoring him!

At that moment, Itadori felt as though his heart had taken hundreds of millions of blows, and he crumbled on the spot.

Fortunately, before long, after giving him an earful, Megumi Fushiguro and Kugisaki finally showed their joy at being reunited with him.

Only then did Itadori return to being his sunny, cheerful, energetic self.

"Now that you've all more or less gotten acquainted, I have an important announcement to make!"

Just then, Satoru Gojo's booming voice rang out, drawing everyone's gaze toward him.

"I need to go overseas on business, so I'll have to ask Yuanfang to keep covering my classes. Thanks for the hard work!"

At those words, everyone except Itadori and Junpei looked at him with disdain.

They didn't believe for a second that this slippery fellow was actually going on a business trip. He was surely just looking for another excuse to go have fun and dump his work on Yuanfang.

Yet the disdain on Kugisaki's face instantly turned into a sly smile, and she silently prayed that Satoru Gojo would stay overseas a little longer.

After all, Yuanfang was practically her teacher now. Wouldn't that make a relationship between them a teacher-student romance?

At the thought, Kugisaki's heart fluttered wildly, and she couldn't hide the excitement on her face.