[When Suguru Geto returned from a mission with the second-year students, stepping onto Jujutsu High's fallen-leaf-strewn bluestone path, a barely perceptible weariness hung about him.]
[Behind him followed the second-years, still full of fighting spirit after a fierce battle: Yuta Okkotsu, carrying a Samurai Sword wrapped in layers of cloth, his eyes no longer timid; Maki Zenin, a Naginata over her shoulder, her features spirited and valiant, as unwilling to admit defeat as ever; Toge Inumaki, the lower half of his face hidden by his high collar, walking quietly at the edge of the group; and Panda, the cursed corpse who stood only fifty centimeters tall, as small as a plush toy in a shop window, yet shouldered half a teacher's duties within the group.]
[At Tokyo Jujutsu High these days, responsibility for the second- and third-years' exorcism missions and routine supervision largely fell to Suguru Geto, whose temperament was steadier and whose sense of responsibility was exceptionally strong.]
[As for the new prospective first-years, blank slates who had only just entered this cruel world, they were being "put through their paces" by Satoru Gojo, a teacher in name who was actually more willful and reckless than his students.]
[For the moment, however, Gojo's so-called "first-years" consisted of Megumi Fushiguro alone, who had been raised as a prospective jujutsu sorcerer since long before this year-since childhood, in fact.]
[Of course, that situation of having "only one" had changed a few days earlier, on that night filled with bloodshed and unexpected developments. An ordinary high school student named Yuji Itadori, previously entirely outside Jujutsu Society's notice, had been forcibly added to Gojo's roster.]
[Thus, after settling his students in and pushing open the door to the office that was always piled with expensive sweets and discarded reports, Geto immediately heard the