Chapter 20: The Long First Night (6) (Patreon)

Chapter 20: The Long First Night (VI)

...

You really do just keep coming, one after another.

Anjouin grumbled to himself.

Staring at the blurry figure in the copse of trees, Anjouin pulled out his phone and dialed a girl's number directly.

A moment later, a ringtone sounded from within the trees.

He didn't even need to pull up a map to check her GPS location.

"Shiraishi, you really are a mischievous one."

Anjouin needled her.

In the grove, gradually emerging under the faint light, was a slender, beautiful girl.

She carried an air different from her daytime gentleness now, touched with a hint of mystery. Her soft golden hair shone bright under the light, and her deep purple eyes held emotions impossible to read.

A teardrop mole graced the corner of her left eye, lending her an extra touch of allure.

"You're the one who steered Nishikawa into investigating the school's total area..."

"No, at a time like this, I should ask it differently."

"Asuka Shiraishi... you're a jujutsu sorcerer, aren't you."

Anjouin stood with his hands in his pockets, his tone firm, his expression not wavering in the slightest.

Facing his accusation, the mysterious long-haired girl laughed softly.

"I am indeed a jujutsu sorcerer."

＃！@＃！@＃

Anjouin muttered a string of nonsense to himself.

Even though he'd put on a confident front, he was really only about fifty percent sure.

Anjouin remembered that, in the original story, she was suspected of being backed by some third-party faction... and had enrolled at Advanced Nurturing High School to keep watch on Kiyotaka Ayanokouji.

If the 'White Room' had already started cultivating jujutsu sorcerers, then it stood to reason that Ayanokouji's original watcher could well have become one too.

Not to mention she'd steered Nishikawa into calculating the school's total area.

"Impressive. I didn't expect to be found out."

Seeing how certain Anjouin's tone had been, Shiraishi knew that whatever she said now would be pointless.

"So this is how a real jujutsu sorcerer thinks?"

"Right now, the Anjouin family is just an ordinary household, and you haven't gone out of your way to hide anything either."

"Even so, it's still genuinely impressive. You're probably the one who adapted to this school's rules fastest."

Shiraishi said softly.

"You give me too much credit. I'm not the only one who adapted to this school's rules right away."

If anything, the way Class A's students were behaving lately actually surprised him.

Call it elite mentality: since the school's rules had been announced in advance, Class A's students already knew they were the best of the best.

Ordinarily that would've bred arrogance, but now they didn't seem to see it as a good thing.

The more exceptional someone was, the more responsibility they had to shoulder.

The so-called 'with great power comes great responsibility.'

Though in his eyes, it had always been: greater ability meant greater power, and greater power was what actually brought greater responsibility.

Class A students graduated easily and would inevitably become the finest jujutsu sorcerers, so naturally they'd be the ones taking on the most dangerous work.

That was a duty the elite could never escape.

Precisely because of that, they understood Anjouin's earlier warning all the more.

And Class A students outclassed the other classes in judgment, initiative, and even comprehension.

Shiraishi nodded despite herself.

"A lot of Class A students have started adapting to this school's rules now."

"And all of that has a lot to do with your warning, Anjouin."

In fact, in the class group chat, plenty of students felt lucky to have Anjouin in their class. Without his warning, even knowing this school was out of the ordinary, they probably wouldn't have managed to set their mindset straight.

After all, the school administration had worked hard to satisfy nearly every material need.

Many of the girls had spotted celebrity-endorsed cosmetics that used to be far out of their price range, but here at this school, the same products cost half as much, sometimes even less.

If this had happened before—

even Class A students would've found some excuse to buy them.

But after Anjouin revealed in class that Private Points were tied to a jujutsu sorcerer's growth... faced with a choice between their own lives and some luxury item, Class A students with enough judgment naturally knew what to pick.

Some students even thought that everyone still holding thirty thousand Private Points each was too much, and that half should be pooled as class funds in case of emergencies.

"Say whatever you like—yeah, I'm great," Anjouin said, accepting Shiraishi's praise without a hint of modesty.

"Heh."

Shiraishi kept her gentle smile.

"You should get to the real business now. I don't mind a midnight rendezvous with a beautiful girl, but I'd rather not get dragged into whatever power struggle is going on behind you."

Judging purely by appearance, Shiraishi was striking enough in her own right. Her figure wasn't the most dramatic, but it was well-proportioned, and Anjouin found himself drawn to those eyes that seemed almost able to speak.

Still, the thought of the third party possibly standing behind her gave him a headache.

Seriously, whose school story comes packaged with an inhumane institution, factional power struggles, and voice recorders, violence, and backstabbing as the reigning philosophy?

At least there were plenty of beautiful girls, each with her own distinct charm.

"Is that so? Honestly, I was looking forward to this secret meeting with you, Anjouin~"

A faint blush colored the girl's cheeks. She clasped her hands together and leaned slightly forward.

From her expression to the look in her eyes to every subtle gesture, everything seemed to speak of a girl's shyness and affection.

An ordinary guy would've been completely played by that routine.

"Since you already know my true identity, Anjouin, I won't hide it anymore. I came to Advanced Nurturing High School because I took on a mission~"

"I won't tell you what the mission is, though~"

"Who would've thought Advanced Nurturing would go through such a strange shift, turning what should've been a normal school life into... this."

The beautiful girl sighed.

She'd actually been looking forward to a sweet high school romance.

Especially toward her surveillance target, whom she'd been quite curious about.

"What are you planning to do?"

"Well, for now, I'll just live by this school's rules~ It's already bad enough, but I don't want to spend the next three years in an even worse environment."

In response to Anjouin's question, Shiraishi answered honestly.

Anjouin understood that feeling deeply.

After all, wasn't the whole reason he'd been dashing around all night just to build himself a comfortable environment?

"In that case, I can promise you this: I won't interfere with your mission, and if necessary, I can even cover for you."

"But over the next three years, I hope you'll work hard as a member of the class."

Anjouin laid out his terms.

Naturally, Shiraishi had no reason to refuse.

"Of course. I really do like this class~"

"...Good, as long as you agree."

The two of them had reached an understanding.

Still, in the course of talking with Shiraishi, Anjouin had picked up plenty of useful information.

For instance, although she was a jujutsu sorcerer, she wasn't part of the jujutsu world.

As for the faction tied to the Cabinet Secretariat, counting her and Ayanokouji, that already made two people — which showed the Cabinet Secretariat really did possess something like mass-production technology for jujutsu sorcerers.

Or perhaps they were cooperating with some shadowy power behind the scenes.

Of course, since he had no idea how exactly this world had been stitched together, he didn't know how many hidden powers there were, and he wasn't about to guess wildly.

"But you really are mean-spirited, you know—volunteering that much information to Ayanokouji."

"And having him use ordinary people from Class A, B, and C as models to imitate~"

Shiraishi laughed softly.

That caught Anjouin off guard — he hadn't expected her to know the contents of his conversation with Ayanokouji.

"Didn't he want 'freedom' and 'normalcy'? So I gave him freedom and normalcy."

"Though someone like him could never actually chase after freedom and normalcy."

Anjouin curled his lip.

After crossing paths with Ayanokouji, he had genuinely felt a flicker of pity, but he also knew that a personality shaped over more than a decade ran far too deep to change.

In a certain sense, Ayanokouji was no different from Satoru Gojo or Ryomen Sukuna — all of them were the same breed of absolute strongman.

Shaped by the 'White Room's' upbringing, he was destined never to be truly normal, and he'd never really be swayed by emotion.

"So it seems you never actually believed what Ayanokouji told you, Anjouin."

A note of wonder crept into Shiraishi's voice.

"Knowing full well he was lying to you, and still feeding Ayanokouji nothing but accurate information—what exactly are you after?"

"My goal? Who knows."

Anjouin gave a small smile.

"Fair enough. Since you don't intend to pry into my secrets, Anjouin, I won't pry into yours either."

Shiraishi rested a hand against her cheek, tilted her head, and offered a gentle smile.

"You must be hoping to restore the Anjouin family, aren't you."

"Would you be interested in working with the faction behind me?"

In response to her invitation, Anjouin simply gave her a look that said 'you know how it is.'

"My apologies~"

Shiraishi pinched the hem of her skirt and dropped an elegant curtsy.

Doing a curtsy in Advanced Nurturing High School's pleated skirt admittedly looked a little odd, but even that slight lift of the hem, revealing pale thighs against black fabric, was enough to make one's mouth water.

"After all, forming a connection with Sakayanagi and a Grade 1 sorcerer within a single day — even on your own, that's more than enough to revive the Anjouin family."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"No, I mean it. I never expected to find someone this interesting outside of my surveillance target."

Shiraishi felt genuinely grateful she'd taken this surveillance mission — otherwise she never would have met Anjouin.

"Let's call it a night for this secret meeting."

Anjouin moved to wrap up the conversation.

"Well then, good night, Anjouin."

"Good night, Shiraishi."

"I hope you have sweet dreams, Anjouin. If we happen to meet in your dreams, I'd be delighted."

With the glow of a lovestruck girl on her face, Shiraishi laced her fingers together and spoke words dripping with suggestive charm.

Then Shiraishi's figure slowly dissolved into the darkness, and Anjouin, no longer in the mood to linger in the sea breeze, headed back toward the dorm.

He really didn't want to run into anyone else — this first night had already thrown more than enough surprises his way.

He'd originally just been waiting for Shiraishi, but instead he'd stumbled into the Horikita siblings' little farce, then gotten tailed by Ayanokouji, and even Sakayanagi had come trailing along out of curiosity when her two points of interest happened to collide.

Still, tonight's haul had been substantial.

Just as Shiraishi had said, he'd deliberately fed Ayanokouji accurate information.

Ayanokouji was clearly lacking a certain grasp of common sense — having him model himself after ordinary, normal people just might help restore some of his humanity.

Though mostly, Anjouin just hoped Ayanokouji wouldn't go and do anything unnecessary.

That whole self-scripted routine of driving someone to the brink and then swooping in to save them — it genuinely turned his stomach.

A school story should just be a school story — wouldn't it be nice to simply celebrate youth for what it is?