Chapter 23: The Second Day (Patreon)

Chapter 23: The Second Day

...

"Mahito, Dagon, Jogo... what do you all think?"

The tall cursed spirit, looking like some inanimate spirit crossed with a statue, asked its companions after the office lady had left.

The other party had said she'd switched into this body in order to bring back her son, then send him to a special educational institution for a year of training.

Then, once Advanced Nurturing's admissions opened next year, she'd use a slot exchanged for political chips to get her own son into Advanced Nurturing.

But the tall cursed spirit still found it deeply suspicious... yet it couldn't make heads or tails of it.

"In that curse user's words, for the age of curses to truly arrive, Satoru Gojo has to be brought down, and that newly-born god has to be reclaimed."

"That guy's a huge liar," the stitched young man said with a wicked grin.

"Still, for now we're on the same side, so no need to show him hostility."

"Hmph." The one-eyed cursed spirit let out a sharp, cold snort.

That counted as agreeing not to pull any secret schemes.

It was even more annoyed by the way the other party looked at it, as if it were just some roadside trash cursed spirit.

It was a Special Grade Cursed Spirit!

No — it stood among the elite even within Special Grade cursed spirits.

The one-eyed cursed spirit believed the "above Special Grade" tier Satoru Gojo had coined was practically invented just for it.

A mere curse user!

"If he dares betray us, I'll kill him."

"Whoosh~ As expected of Jogo, so cool!"

"Mahito, you bastard!" The one-eyed cursed spirit felt like it was being mocked, and hurled a fireball over in annoyance.

"Hahaha, don't be mad, Jogo. By the way, how did the detection go with you and Hanami? What's the deal with that god, anyway?"

The stitched young man dodged with a laugh, and the fireball he avoided burned straight through the wall, exposing the fact that they'd been hiding in a warehouse.

"I don't know."

The relatively quiet Hanami said.

"Yeah, no clue." Jogo's answer was much the same.

The strange entity called "Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School" left them completely stumped.

"Then, as long as we don't mean any harm, can we get close?" the stitched young man asked curiously.

"Heh heh heh... as if we could ever not mean any harm."

Jogo shot a look of contempt at the childish stitched young man.

Cursed spirits were formed from cursed energy, invisible to ordinary people, and cursed energy itself stemmed from negative emotion.

Negative emotions directed at a specific target could form a corresponding cursed spirit; things like a financial crisis, frequent exams, or companies grinding down employees long-term all caused cursed spirits to appear more often.

'Can you see me... can you see me?'

'I can see you... can you see me?'

'C-can you s-see... me? Can you see me?'

Jogo looked at the ghost practically pressing itself against his face and let out a derisive laugh.

"Ha, of course I can see you scraps."

"Aaaaaaah—!!"

The ghost that had pressed close let out a sudden scream, then was swallowed by karmic flame.

The lesser ghosts nearby fled in fright, but one after another they were turned into torches.

There was no doubt about it — the human world had grown more dangerous.

The age of curses was drawing near.

—

On the second day of school — the first actual day of classes — most of the lessons were just explanations of learning policies and the like.

Even the jujutsu specialty class, just as Satoru Anjouin had expected, was basic education on cursed energy, curses, cursed spirits, and jujutsu sorcerers.

There was also stuff about career planning for jujutsu sorcerers.

Of course, the main focus of the education was information on the Three Great Families — public information that could be explained openly.

After all, the more famous a jujutsu sorcerer was, the more famous their technique and personal abilities became, and the easier it was for others to target them.

If you compared a technique to your ahole, that's the kind of private thing you definitely don't expose to just anyone.

Precisely because of that, voluntarily disclosing one's own technique information — a kind of self-imposed constraint — actually had the effect of strengthening the technique.

As for families like the Three Great Families, who had inherited techniques so famous they were basically household names, they'd essentially been flashing their ahole to everyone for centuries.

Even if they wanted to play the "technique disclosure" game, it wouldn't do them any good.

Still, since the Three Great Families' techniques were already exposed, that fact could conversely be used for intimidation and deception.

If a sorcerer encountering a member of the Three Great Families ran into technique abilities that differed from the known intelligence, they could easily be caught off guard.

The Grade 1 sorcerer serving as Class A's instructor was apparently from the Gojo family.

He hyped up Limitless as the number one technique in the jujutsu world, while only briefly mentioning Blood Manipulation and the Ten Shadows Technique in passing.

The reason the Three Great Families' inherited techniques came up at all was that a third-year and a second-year had each already awakened one of the Three Great Families' techniques, so everyone naturally suspected a first-year would awaken the remaining one.

Namely, the Zenin family's inherited technique — the Ten Shadows Technique.

The moment this class ended, Class A's students couldn't help but crowd around Satoru Anjouin's desk.

It had been roughly the same during every break between classes before this, too.

"...I really think you all should rest instead. Break time isn't that long."

Satoru Anjouin looked at the bloodshot eyes around him — plenty of people clearly hadn't slept at all last night, and they all looked a bit worn out this early in the morning.

"What's wrong with that, Anjouin?" a punkish-looking blond boy said.

"Everyone's already held out through a few classes now."

"Lunch break's almost here anyway."

"Exactly~" Not far off, the little imp Sakayanagi covered her mouth, stifling a laugh.

"Fine, but during class later, at least put on a good act for me. I shouldn't have to teach you how to be a good student, right?"

"Of course, of course!"

"Quick, hurry up!!"

Satoru Anjouin could also feel someone poking his back with a finger.

He knew perfectly well it was Ai Morishita's little antics, but he didn't mind much.

"Got it."

With that, he raised his right hand and slowly closed it into a fist.

Many jujutsu sorcerers trained themselves to distill cursed energy from the faintest of emotions, and Satoru Anjouin's information system came with a bonus set of techniques for exactly that, making it easier for him to gather cursed energy.

Before long, a faint layer of negative-polarity energy coated his right fist.

Many of those who had awakened their cursed energy last night could now faintly sense the fluctuations gathering around that fist.

"So this is cursed energy." The blond boy couldn't help but let out an admiring sigh.

A bald classmate with his arms crossed over his chest gave a quiet nod.

"Katsuragi, this is amazing!" one of the underlings beside Katsuragi called out loudly.

"Quiet down, Totsuka. Don't embarrass yourself."

"Ohh!" Yahiko Totsuka, who had a weak presence and unremarkable looks, couldn't help letting out a reply.

The pale blue cursed energy flickered like a small flame atop Satoru Anjouin's right hand.

Since there was no malice behind it, and no intent to strike with the cursed energy, the energy coating Satoru Anjouin's hand seemed so gentle.

Even with all the explanations given in the jujutsu specialty class, no amount of words could compare to the intuitiveness of actually feeling it like this.

ヾ(Ő∀Ő๑)ﾉ

Ai Morishita ran up from the back row and, out of curiosity, grabbed his hand with both of hers.

"Hey, be careful."

Startled, Satoru Anjouin couldn't help but warn her.

If he hadn't been completely without malice, just simply condensing cursed energy, Ai Morishita's move would've been about as smart as grabbing a lit firecracker.

"Mm."

Picking up on the sternness in Satoru Anjouin's voice, Ai Morishita instinctively shrank her neck down.

But unlike a certain stubborn little brat, she didn't dig in — instead, she said earnestly:

"I'm sorry."

"I didn't mean to scold you on purpose, but casually touching cursed energy is genuinely dangerous."

Satoru Anjouin said gently.

"Oh, it does feel kind of tingly and numb."

Ai Morishita nodded obediently.

The cursed energy Satoru Anjouin had condensed was very small anyway, meant only to help his classmates understand — of course it wouldn't actually cause harm.

Thanks to Ai Morishita's "demonstration," the other students grew curious too.

Arisu Sakayanagi, leaning on her cane, came over as well and took hold of Satoru Anjouin's right hand.

"What an interesting feeling."

Then a girl with long golden hair clasped the hand in both of hers, sighing softly and delicately.

"So this is cursed energy? It feels amazing. I wonder when I'll get to awaken mine~"

...

Watching Asuka Shiraishi act like this was her first time ever feeling cursed energy, Satoru Anjouin could only marvel at what a born actress the girl was.

Asuka Shiraishi's admiring remark drew responses from the other students too.

"Yeah, it feels really special, a little numb-ish."

"Just like Morishita said."

"So this is cursed energy. I finally feel like I've actually gained a supernatural power!"

"Aren't we supposed to awaken cursed energy and a technique within seven days of enrolling?"

"Right, right, no need to rush."

By the end of that class's break, Satoru Anjouin's clenched right fist had been touched by all thirty-nine of his classmates.

Satoru Anjouin felt like his hand had practically been polished shiny.

Standing among the students, Asuka Shiraishi wore a faint smile at the corners of her mouth, her slender, delicate figure set off by a deep red suit, as if this were her first time ever being close to a boy, carrying a girlish shyness about her.

Her pale neck was long and graceful, swan-like, carrying a quiet, pitiable charm all its own, and beneath her skirt hem her lovely legs were wrapped in mid-length black stockings.

"Gluttony, the gluttonous forest witch..."

Ai Morishita's hushed voice came from behind him.

"Forest witch?"

"A man-eating flower kind of like a Venus flytrap, that lures in human males — its bait is the appearance of a cute girl."

"That's called a Traptrix."

Satoru Anjouin found himself curious about the world inside Ai Morishita's head.

Sure, it was a little chuunibyou, but he knew Ai Morishita's powers of observation weren't bad at all.

She was quite proactive too — and precisely because she'd seen through part of him, she clearly understood he was harmless.

"Traptrix?"

(っﾟДﾟ)っ!!

Clearly not a card-game otaku, Ai Morishita didn't catch Satoru Anjouin's reference.

The two of them laughed and joked around for a bit, and soon another class wrapped up — it was lunchtime.

"Want to go eat in the cafeteria?"

"Ah, I brought a bento."

"Anjouin, want me to run an errand for you?"

"Yeah, yeah, just stay in the classroom, Anjouin."

When lunch break came, most students either headed to the cafeteria in small groups or made bentos with ingredients they'd bought the day before.

Even though the cafeteria's free set meals had increased, plenty of people still preferred cooking for themselves.

But Class A's students would much rather have Satoru Anjouin stay in the classroom, telling them more about the jujutsu world or letting them feel cursed energy a bit more.

Who knew — maybe it would even speed up their awakening.