Grade assessment test

She unexpectedly saw Mei Mei at the assessment the next day.

Mei Mei raised a hand in greeting, a hint of amusement in her eyes.

"Hello, little Qianxing."

Miwa Chisei was a little surprised and asked curiously,

"Mei Mei, are you one of the sorcerers evaluating me today?"

Mei Mei swung the enormous axe in her hand. It was her cursed tool.

It was hard to imagine such a tall, beautiful woman wielding such a brutal, vicious cursed tool.

"Well, I do collect a salary. I have to fulfill my duties as a sorcerer."

If it was for money, that made sense.

The other sorcerer, a man she didn't recognize, looked between them curiously.

"Do you know this student, Miss Mei?"

Mei Mei nodded, her gaze brushing almost imperceptibly over the male sorcerer.

"I won't go easy on her, so don't worry."

The male sorcerer smiled awkwardly and scratched his head in embarrassment.

"That's not what I meant, Miss Mei."

Two sorcerers would test her separately and report on her abilities, and the jujutsu higher-ups would evaluate her based on their reports.

The male sorcerer extended a hand to Miwa Chisei.

"Hello, I'm Fujiwara Sorato, a grade 1 sorcerer. If you have no questions, shall we begin?"

Miwa Chisei shook his hand and nodded.

Fujiwara Sorato was responsible for testing her jujutsu, while Mei Mei would test her hand-to-hand combat skills.

Fujiwara Sorato soon took a number of wooden flying objects from the backpack behind him. Under the control of his cursed energy, they circled Miwa Chisei.

He checked his watch and nodded gently.

"No physical attacks. Destroy them with jujutsu or cursed energy. You have three minutes."

The flying objects quickly began moving at high speed, and Miwa Chisei couldn't help thinking that when Gojo Satoru had taken this test, he had probably blasted the whole area clear in a second with Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue.

Miwa Chisei wasn't capable of that. Even if she could use jujutsu to enhance projectile techniques, she couldn't reach Gojo Satoru's level.

She took off her sunglasses, her scarlet eyes utterly focused. Extending a hand, she locked onto the flying objects. Red cursed energy formed arrows in her palm, which shot toward the moving weapons and shattered them!

The flying objects had been reinforced with cursed energy, so destroying them required sufficient power. Within three minutes, all thirty flying objects, darting about like a swarm of bees, had been destroyed.

It was clear to the naked eye that Miwa Chisei was destroying them faster as time passed.

"She must be the best student in this year's class, right?"

Fujiwara Sorato spoke to Mei Mei beside him, but she merely smiled with her lips pressed together and gave no answer.

It wasn't that Mei Mei didn't want to talk to him. Fujiwara Sorato was simply acting a little strangely today.

There should have been twenty flying objects, but he had increased the number to thirty today. After seeing Miwa Chisei destroy them all, his eyes had gleamed with excitement.

Mei Mei was quite curious about what he would write in his report.

Next came hand-to-hand combat.

Mei Mei's enormous axe looked intimidating. Miwa Chisei could imagine how much it would hurt if it struck her.

"You can reinforce your body with jujutsu, right? You aren't allowed to use that."

Mei Mei gave her a gentle reminder.

In fact, many students only began training in hand-to-hand combat after entering Jujutsu High. Only a small number of sorcerers from established families trained from childhood.

As a result, their hand-to-hand combat scores were generally abysmal.

With her first swing of the axe, Mei Mei could tell that Miwa Chisei had trained in hand-to-hand combat since childhood.

"You're a good girl, little Qianxing."

Rather embarrassingly, her father's original intention in having her learn all this had been to let her protect herself.

Mei Mei was in excellent physical shape, as was obvious from her ability to lift such a massive axe.

Her attacks gradually grew fiercer, but Miwa Chisei dodged them with ease, even striking back whenever an opening appeared.

Of course, Mei Mei wouldn't get serious with her adorable business partner. It was only a test, after all.

But she had gotten carried away before, when testing Gojo Satoru last year. Perhaps his provocative remarks had amused her.

That time, Mei Mei had pushed her physical combat abilities almost to their limit, leaving Gojo Satoru with a lasting impression of her strength.

His way of addressing her had changed to "Miss Mei" as a result. Utahime Iori, who had entered the profession alongside Mei Mei, received no such treatment.

In her memory, the silver-haired high school boy would flash her fellow sorcerer an arrogant grin, then ask that insulting question.

"Utahime, are you crying?"

Then Geto Suguru would admonish him with a seemingly gentle air.

"Satoru, it's not nice to pick on the weak."

Geto Suguru was naturally wicked-the sort who didn't even realize how offensive his words were.

Her fellow sorcerer Utahime Iori had always despised those two. She planned to take a position at Kyoto Prefecture Jujutsu High just to get away from them.

"That's enough, little Qianxing."

Mei Mei stopped attacking and pulled her axe back.

Miwa Chisei steadied her stance as well, then addressed the two politely.

"Thank you for your time."

Though she wasn't particularly expressive, she was at least a student who could speak politely. Mei Mei was quite pleased.

After the test ended, Fujiwara Sorato was still talking enthusiastically about it.

"She's a very strong girl, isn't she, Miss Mei?"

Miss Mei gave nothing away, merely smiling without answering.

Fujiwara Sorato masked his embarrassment with a smile, but a shadow flickered through his eyes.

In the stillness of late night, a figure slipped silently into the Kamo Main House.

An amber lamp burned in the quiet tatami room, bathing the papers in the young man's hand in warm light. The Kamo family's guards had not stopped this uninvited visitor.

Kamo Tetsuya looked at Fujiwara Sorato, who stood before him in a dark uniform, and nodded.

"How did it go?"

"Just as you expected, sir. That girl is very strong."

It was the answer he had anticipated, so Kamo Tetsuya wasn't surprised. Though rumors abounded, he had still wanted an opportunity to obtain more reliable information.

"There's quite a gap between her and Riona in terms of cursed energy, isn't there?"

Fujiwara Sorato nodded.

"She even has considerably more than the average sorcerer."

Kamo Tetsuya's deep eyes seemed to blend into the pitch-black midnight. His fingers tapped lightly against his knee, as though he were thinking something over.

"You did well. Continue working undercover at Jujutsu High."

Fujiwara Sorato respectfully answered in the affirmative. Facing this young man of only eighteen, he felt an inexplicable fear.

Still, he added,

"Mei Mei seems to have some suspicions about my identity. Lately, she has barely answered any of my questions."

Mei Mei wasn't among Kamo Tetsuya's targets, so he offered a warning.

"Stay away from that woman. She's very perceptive."

"Yes, sir."

Watching Fujiwara Sorato leave, Kamo Tetsuya couldn't help reflecting that he wasn't particularly clever either, actually trying to pry information out of Mei Mei. Everyone in the profession knew she was tight-lipped. After all, she calculated the intelligence value of every word she spoke.

Still, she probably wasn't the sort to meddle in other people's business. He would leave her be.