Chapter 78: Activity Report (Patreon)

Chapter 78: Activity Report

…

At lunch break, Satoru Anjouin headed to the Student Council to submit his club's activity report.

He'd asked the meal crew to bring him two free set meals. His appetite had grown to three people's worth, but since he had a specialized class that afternoon, he didn't plan to eat too much.

The first people he saw in the Student Council were Student Council President Manabu Horikita, who showed up the moment noon hit every day, and his secretary.

"President, Senior, good afternoon."

Naturally, General Affairs Nagumo Miyabi wasn't there.

He was still in his own Class 2-A.

That left Satoru Anjouin feeling a little let down, and a little relieved. He hadn't even found time to deal with the idol vengeful spirit, and once he finished studying the 'Lie' cursed technique, he hoped Senior Nagumo would cooperate.

(Nagumo Miyabi: Why is it me again?!)

"You're back?"

"Yeah. Early this morning."

"Here to submit the club activity report?"

Horikita seemed a little interested. Even he hadn't left the school, so he knew nothing about what had really been happening outside.

But as he looked over the report Anjouin handed him, Horikita's stern face creased into a frown.

"President, what's wrong?" the secretary at his side asked with real concern.

Horikita took off his glasses, wiped them, and went over the activity sheet again.

It even carried the signature of Satoru Gojo, soon to be the school's principal.

Horikita was a third-year now. Before Advanced Nurturing High School turned into Jujutsu High, this school for raising elite workhorses had added a good number of workplace courses in the third year.

He'd gotten a lucky glimpse of them back in his second year, too.

He also knew that unless you were a parachuted-in executive, most people who started at the bottom couldn't avoid going through some grinding first.

It was a custom of age and seniority unique to the island nation.

Being a year older didn't mean you were strong, but a senior was a senior, and a junior had to be polite.

Horikita knew Anjouin's position was special. Even so, during his internship he had solo-exorcised a Grade 3 cursed spirit and multiple Grade 4 cursed spirits, then joined Maki Zenin and the other jujutsu sorcerers to exorcise a Grade 1 cursed spirit, multiple Grade 2 cursed spirits, multiple Grade 3 cursed spirits…

And in the end, he'd fallen into the domain of a ■■-grade cursed spirit and somehow survived.

If Satoru Gojo hadn't left his signature, along with that of Kento Nanami, the lecturer for Class 3-A, Horikita would have taken it for a nasty joke.

A cursed spirit whose grade was blacked out, plus the keyword 'domain'? No way that was an ordinary Special Grade Cursed Spirit, right?

"You… you really… had quite the weekend."

It took Horikita a long moment to get the words out, and he said them with some helplessness.

He figured that if the students in his own class, who had awakened barely a month ago, ran through the same course, ninety-eight percent of them would die.

Even if a few could just barely reach Grade 3.

Fighting in a group or taking on a Grade 3 cursed spirit alone, it didn't matter. Whether they could fight and whether they dared to were the first problems those students would face.

Horikita signed quickly, then put the activity report away in a cabinet.

"All right. Anything else?"

Horikita's tone was flat, but Anjouin still caught a trace of disdain in it.

Not that he could blame him.

Horikita had meant to borrow ideas from his internship experience, but with an experience that colorful, what was there to borrow?

"Nothing else."

"Remember to hit the gym tonight. Let me see what kind of progress you've made."

Horikita didn't forget to remind him.

With that, Anjouin left the Student Council.

He didn't go straight back to Class 1-A, though. He headed for the director's office instead.

Knock, knock.

"Come in."

The voice from inside was kindly, in answer to his light knocks.

"Sorry to disturb you, Sakayanagi."

"Oh, it's you, Anjouin."

As the old man who had almost become Satoru Anjouin's father-in-law, Sakayanagi thought highly of him.

"What can I do for you?"

"I'd like to go to the core of Advanced Nurturing High School and meet 'Him.'"

"…"

Emotions kept shifting across Sakayanagi's face: shock, confusion, fear, and a touch of worry.

"Anjouin, you're…"

Before he could finish, Anjouin produced a slip of paper.

"This is a request from Mr. Gojo."

Anjouin wasn't exactly lying.

Before today's intel refresh, he hadn't known how closely Gojo was tied to Advanced Nurturing High School. That made the note Gojo had left him valuable after all.

Well, it was just an ordinary signed slip of paper. Apart from Satoru Gojo's signature, there was nothing else on it.

But for Sakayanagi, a note with Gojo's signature was enough.

As for why it had been signed, Sakayanagi didn't care much.

Even with some sizable doubts, Sakayanagi didn't press him. He nodded, since he figured Anjouin still had a very good chance of becoming family one day.

"In that case, I'll take you there."

"Thank you for the trouble."

When it came down to it, he had confirmed that Advanced Nurturing High School had a sapience of its own.

Anjouin wanted to forge a Binding Vow with It.

If he wanted to grow fast, he needed more points. And the authority to issue points at Advanced Nurturing High School had now fallen into the school's own hands.

So rather than squeezing his classmates, relying on Class Points, or even taking part in club activities, the best way to get points was to negotiate directly with the school 'itself.'

He was already preparing to mortgage his whole 'future' on the Double Helix Growth Binding Vow. After going that far, asking the school for a 'loan' of points wasn't strange, was it?

To be precise, Anjouin was preparing to drum up a sponsor.

He might not have thought of it before, but after learning of His situation, Anjouin felt his idea had a pretty good chance of working.

After all, since He wanted to raise jujutsu sorcerers who could fight cursed spirits, He surely wanted them to be strong, right?

And He surely didn't want the students here to turn into wrecks from ridiculous infighting.

—

Led by Sakayanagi, Anjouin arrived at the core area of Advanced Nurturing High School.

Facing the crystal stele that towered in the middle of the room, he sensed something at once.

"…I'm Satoru Anjouin."

Anjouin introduced himself to Him.

"One of the representatives of Class 1-A, a green rookie jujutsu sorcerer in the jujutsu world, someone trying to restore the Anjouin clan… and someone who escaped a domain from 'beyond Special Grade.'"

His other identities didn't interest Him.

But the last one, escaping a domain from beyond Special Grade, did draw His attention.

Never mind how much of his escape was coincidence, or whether he'd depended on Satoru Gojo's rescue. The mere fact that he had lived to the end was already a unique case.

So far, apart from Satoru Gojo, who could come and go from Beyond-Special-Grade domains, no jujutsu sorcerer who had entered one had ever come back out.

The record for the longest survival belonged to a detective jujutsu sorcerer who had gone into Beika Town twenty years ago.

His day job was jujutsu sorcerer, his hobby was detective work, so he went into Beika Town.

And then there was no 'and then.'

That was also the earliest record of a jujutsu sorcerer entering a Beyond-Special-Grade domain.

"I'm willing to provide intel on the Beyond-Special-Grade 'Regret.'"

That was one of his bargaining chips.

"My cursed technique is called Binding Vow."

"It can strengthen a sorcerer's cursed technique, and even change how a jujutsu sorcerer fights."

"I'll also collect intel on the other Beyond-Special-Grade ones for you."

He raised the stakes bit by bit.

Unfortunately, it drew no further reaction from Him.

But a new text message did arrive on his phone: he would be given a bonus corresponding to the intel he provided.

"Looks like this is as far as I can go for now."

Anjouin was naturally a little disappointed.

He'd wanted to try a bit of intimidation, but in the end he gave up on it.

When all was said and done, Advanced Nurturing High School was his big backer.

And because of the rule that points are everything, if he had enough points to buy out Advanced Nurturing High School, it would become his shikigami.

Too bad nobody pays attention to the words of the weak.

After that, Anjouin typed the intel into his phone. At the same time, through a Binding Vow, he threw his own past feelings straight at Him.

"This counts as first-person intel. Personally, I'd like your sponsorship."

"After all, a promising jujutsu sorcerer is more worth nurturing, isn't that right?"

Anjouin's expression was calm and open.

'He' had agreed to that Binding Vow, so naturally He received those first-person feelings.

Right away, Anjouin's phone began chiming nonstop with notices of points arriving.

1,000,000 points transferred in by ××××.

1,000,000 points transferred in by ××××.

1,000,000 points transferred in by ××××.

Before long, more than 6,000,000 points had come in.

There were also some scattered small transfers, probably in amounts of 500 points and 5,000 points.

Evidently Advanced Nurturing High School had reviewed the club activity sheet he'd submitted.

To cope with the club's exorcism activities, Anjouin had spent a lot of points earlier on healing medicine and combat medicine. With the new points in, he was back to nearly 10,000,000.

"Looks like I'm one step closer to Black Flash."

Originally, Anjouin hadn't planned to scheme for Black Flash this early.

But who could blame him, when the weekend internship had been so practical, so useful, and so quick to pay off?

He'd planned to wait until the end of the month, when points were reissued in early May, and then pull them straight out of the class fund.

Now he could take back the 1,000,000 points early.

When Anjouin left the 'core' room, Sakayanagi, who had waited outside the door, asked with concern, "Anjouin, are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Director. Thank you."

The Director was gentle by nature, so Anjouin naturally didn't dislike him.

After thanking him, Anjouin went back to Class 1-A for lunch, then spent the afternoon in class with Class B.

Of course, Class B had been targeted by Class C these past few days. They hadn't even been able to relax properly on Sunday, and all of them still looked preoccupied.

Seeing Anjouin, they greeted him warmly.

The afternoon's specialized class was still about low-grade cursed spirits, since many of them closely resembled the ghosts and yokai of films and novels.

Most of the time they lacked the power to hurt anyone, but through pranks they could leave their victims with frayed nerves.

If some cursed spirit sang to you every night while you slept, telling you to get up and party… after a dozen or so days, the victim would either be packing to move or, thanks to nervous exhaustion, getting into some accident.

Anjouin's expression turned a little odd.

Low-grade cursed spirits like these were a one-punch job even for a Grade 3 jujutsu sorcerer.

He really did feel like he'd sneaked back to the first half of the Grand Line from the second half.

Wow, what kind of paradise was this?

No Haki to worry about?

Not even a Devil Fruit that might be a Mythical Zoan? An Ancient Zoan?

And no Awakening of fruits, either?

Awesome.

But awesome as it was, in a comfortable place like this, a person's will would probably wear down even faster.