Professional brawlers

A tremendous explosion rang out at Jujutsu High's entrance. The gray torii swayed feebly a few times and began to crack.

Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue erupted beneath Miwa Chisei and Suguru Geto's feet. Geto released cursed spirits to block it, while Chisei bit her finger and cranked her speed up to its maximum.

Her fist shot toward Satoru Gojo without hesitation, only to stop a few centimeters in front of him. No matter what she did, she couldn't push it any farther.

"Pretty damn impressive, aren't I? And I've only finished half of it."

Gojo chuckled and kicked hard at Chisei. She tensed and sprang backward, flipped halfway around in midair, then swung her fist at Geto.

"Isn't Miwa a little too vicious?"

Geto dodged sideways, watching the girl casually tear apart his Grade 1 Cursed Spirit.

"I take back what I said when we first met. You're no good either-so how about paying me for that free fortune-telling session?"

A laugh escaped Geto's lips. He extended a hand, filling the space in front of Gojo with cursed spirits to block his view, then launched another sneak attack.

"We're all friends here. Don't take it so personally."

Gojo grabbed the long-necked cursed spirit ambushing him and crushed it without hesitation, grumbling indignantly as he did.

"Who wants to be friends with her?!"

The entrance was the face of Tokyo Metropolis Jujutsu High, so it was also the part they took the greatest care to maintain.

Masamichi Yaga, who had already been informed that he would become Tokyo Metropolis Jujutsu High's next principal, heard another earthshaking commotion.

Furious, he arrived with his cursed corpses. The stately, old-fashioned entrance plaza had nearly been reduced to rubble. He leaped into the fray and punched each of the three on the head.

Wait, three?

Once he calmed down, Yaga looked at the first-year newcomer clutching her head in front of him and felt a headache coming on.

At least she was still a good kid who hadn't fought back against her teacher. Should I praise her?

Gojo stood with both hands in his pockets, pouting in irritation with a huge bump on his head.

Geto also had a huge bump on his head, but still wore a polite smile.

Yaga took a deep breath and snapped at them.

"Why were you fighting? And with a first-year newcomer this time!"

All three showed remarkable coordination, raising both hands to point at the other two.

A 2-2-2 tie. Yay!

Would Yaga settle it that way? Absolutely not.

"All of you, go to my office and write an apology!"

Yaga gazed at the entrance in anguish. Repairing it would cost another small fortune. The school's funds had already plummeted since those two enrolled.

And now there was another one?

Right when I was taking over as principal, too. They were all sent here to be the death of me, weren't they?

Though they were usually thoroughly unreliable students, they did occasionally listen to Yaga a little.

After all, he was a good teacher who deserved respect.

So the three obediently headed for the teachers' office. Along the way, Geto couldn't help laughing.

"Miwa, that wasn't actually why you asked Satoru that question, was it?"

Geto was a perceptive person, at least compared with Gojo.

Chisei habitually tucked her hands into her sleeves. She did it no matter what she wore; it gave her a sense of security.

Since someone had asked, she answered without hiding anything.

"It's nothing. I just thought I should tell Gojo about it."

Although trouble had followed one thing after another since she met him, Chisei felt that she didn't need to keep everything hidden when dealing with Gojo.

In a sense, Gojo was someone who could accept all her nonsense.

Perhaps that was because he had no limits himself.

Chisei didn't like people preaching at her, because it was ridiculous.

Gojo also hated "proper arguments," because they were all bullshit.

"Oh, I see. Sounds like you really trust Satoru, Miwa."

Geto was quite skilled at fanning the flames and stirring things up. After all, wasn't it fun?

Chisei looked baffled.

"He's just a trash can for listening to nonsense."

The trash can himself refused to back down.

"Yeah, and you're the useless idiot producing all that garbage."

Chisei fell silent. She decided she had better stop talking. This was the sort of thing where she dealt a thousand points of damage to the enemy and took eight hundred herself.

The three soon reached Yaga's office. With practiced ease, Gojo and Geto pulled a few sheets of blank paper from Yaga's desk and handed some to Chisei.

They looked like habitual offenders.

Chisei had written plenty of apologies in middle school, too. She was always getting into fights; she didn't like people pointing at her eyes and calling them disgusting.

There was nothing disgusting about them. She liked the color of her eyes.

While she was still considering how to begin, Gojo tossed his pen aside.

"Done. Geto, you're so slow."

That fast?

A little surprised, Chisei leaned over to see what he had written.

There were only a few large, scrawled words on the blank sheet.

[I was wrong. I don't know why.]

Chisei: ???

At that moment, Geto also put down his pen and praised him with a smile.

"You're getting better and better at this, Satoru."

That didn't sound like praise. Sure enough, Geto had a naturally devious streak.

Chisei took a curious look at his paper, too. His handwriting was much neater than Gojo's, but there was still only a single line.

[I won't fight again next time.]

An apology with zero credibility. Chisei felt as though her common sense had been turned upside down.

Gojo frowned impatiently and urged her on.

"Hurry up and write. Are you an idiot? You can't even do this?"

Although Chisei was no stranger to brawling, she still wrote her apologies properly. They generally amounted to knowing she was wrong but being willing to do it again anyway.

Ignoring her uneasy conscience, the girl swept her pen across the blank paper and left a single sentence of her own.

[Sorry, Mr. Yaga. Fighting is wrong, and I won't do it again.]

Unlike the other two, she also signed and dated it.

Then Geto gathered up the apologies with practiced ease and placed them on Yaga's desk. He patted the other two on their shoulders and smiled.

"Shall we find Shoko and get something to eat together?"

Gojo nodded, adding a complaint.

"As long as she hasn't been dissecting anything. Otherwise, she'll stink of corpses. It's awful."

Chisei was led away in a daze, an arm draped over her shoulders. She even glanced back at the apologies in confusion.

That was enough?

That really was enough. When Yaga returned to his office and saw the apology bearing a signature and date, a trace of warmth stirred in his battered heart.

She hadn't been completely corrupted. There was still hope for this newcomer.

Sorry, Mr. Yaga. Hopefully, you would still feel this optimistic three months later.