"Yuta, you’re up."
Satoru Gojo gestured for Yuta Okkotsu to step in. Panda, who had dragged Kaito Kamishiro back to the sidelines, loudly cheered him on. "Go, Yuta! Take down Gojo-sensei!"
Yuta gripped his wooden sword nervously. Hearing Panda’s shout, he gave an awkward smile. He had watched all of the previous fights. He was still working on mastering Rika’s curse, and after seeing that dazzling, overwhelming battle just now, if he relied only on his current strength...
But all he had to do was give it everything he had.
Thinking that, Yuta tightened his grip around the wooden sword. His nerves seemed to ease, and scenes from his everyday training surfaced in his mind...
Surging Cursed Energy erupted from Yuta’s body before gradually drawing back around him under his control. Gojo raised an eyebrow. That was an unusually massive amount of Cursed Energy. Perhaps... Yuta’s theory was right. Maybe it was not Rika who had cursed him—maybe he had unconsciously cursed Rika instead...
Once he was ready, Yuta exhaled heavily. With Cursed Energy coating his body, he shot forward at astonishing speed, leaving only a faint afterimage in the air as the edge of his wooden sword slashed toward Gojo’s face.
But in an instant, Gojo vanished again.
"Here it comes! Gojo-sensei’s teleportation!"
Yuta reacted quickly, immediately spinning and sweeping his wooden sword in a full circle. Sure enough, Gojo had appeared behind him—and obligingly slipped past the blade.
"You’ve improved fast. You look a lot more spirited than before, too. Just what I’d expect from my dear student."
Gojo casually dodged Yuta’s attacks, then tripped him when he was not looking. Yuta swiftly rolled twice across the ground to break his fall, then settled into a crouch.
After a brief moment of gathering force at his waist, the wooden sword tore through the air again. Yet Gojo abruptly caught the fierce strike between his palms.
"I told you to treat me like an enemy. You’re still hesitating, Yuta. There’s not enough force behind it either. That’ll come back to bite you someday."
Yuta froze for a moment and was sent flying by Gojo’s soaring kick. While airborne, he felt as if his body were about to fall apart.
Yuta quickly got back to his feet and saw Gojo beckoning at him. "Again!"
...
For an entire afternoon, Gojo moved like a machine that had no concept of fatigue. One-on-one sparring, group battles—eventually, it became a trial where everyone pushed beyond their limits.
They pushed their physical limits and squeezed every last bit out of their Cursed Energy and techniques. Even Shoko Ieiri, who had come to watch, could not help complaining to Gojo. She had already treated the students several times.
"The situation is getting worse. Curses are showing signs of spreading again across the country. Grade 2 and Grade 1 Cursed Spirits have increased considerably, and we’ve even found traces of some Special Grade Cursed Spirits..."
Gojo calmly laid out the increasingly turbulent situation. Thinking of the confirmed signs of a Special Grade Cursed Spirit in one location, he could not help feeling concerned.
It was not that he was worried about how to deal with a Special Grade Cursed Spirit. He was worried that this was merely a sign of the storm to come.
Shoko’s expression darkened with concern as well. Gojo rose and clapped his hands, calling over the students who were taking a short break. As he walked toward them, he left them with a few words.
"That’s why... the burden on young people is getting heavier. While we can still protect them, I hope they grow fast enough to stand beside us."
A new round of Gojo’s "loving instruction" soon began. Kaito took the opportunity to practice many more applications of his Cursed Technique, while Gojo’s Six Eyes gave him immediate, direct feedback.
Kaito also discovered that when he used his technique to "reverse" himself, his Cursed Energy and all his other conditions returned to the moment he had selected. In a sense, it was another kind of "refresh."
"So it’s a reload, huh!"
Yet there was one thing that could not be "refreshed." Just as his consciousness retained everything from before the refresh and returned to that moment, rather than recreating his former self.
For now, Kaito called it mental energy. After repeatedly using his Cursed Technique Reversal in succession, he began to experience dizziness, weakness, headaches, and mental fog. The more continuously he used it, the stronger those symptoms became.
But Shoko’s treatment greatly relieved those symptoms, which meant Kaito’s earlier idea had just fallen apart.
He had wanted to use his technique’s reversal to pull off all kinds of bug-level tricks. For example, he could keep "refreshing" himself in battle. Not only would he never get injured, but his Cursed Energy could be effectively infinite, right?
Unfortunately, it did not work that way... He could only treat it as a recovery method with a cooldown. Looks like he really needed Reverse Cursed Technique after all! Perhaps if he could further master Reverse Cursed Technique and combine it with his own Cursed Technique Reversal, he could use it with almost no side effects?
The thought seemed to make sense. Kaito’s heart raced at the prospect, but this was not the time to dwell on it, so he tucked the idea away for later.
Gojo’s special training did not last long. The next day, he had to cut it short after only half a day because something else required his attention. Before leaving, Gojo pretended to wipe away a tear.
"I know my dear students will miss me terribly. Don’t worry! When I get back, I’ll bring you even better special training!"
"No!"
Ignoring everyone’s cries of despair, Gojo left with a cheerful grin. There was no question that Gojo was overwhelmingly strong. He knew everything there was to know about jujutsu. But when it came to teaching others, he was somewhat lacking.
In Gojo’s own words: "Isn’t this really simple? Didn’t I explain it clearly?" In reality, everyone listening was utterly lost. Though Kaito’s Cursed Technique Reversal had indeed come with Gojo’s guidance, the time and suffering it had taken to learn it were hard to put into words.
That was why Gojo preferred practical teaching. If their brains could not learn it, then their bodies would learn it first! That was what Gojo said, thumbs raised.
Although they complained about Gojo’s training, they had undeniably improved a great deal. After all, being able to face an exceptionally powerful enemy without facing a genuine threat to their lives was invaluable experience.
Several days passed in the blink of an eye. During that time, Kaito met two second-year upperclassmen who had briefly returned while passing through. Yes, upperclassmen! But one was a man and the other a woman, and they seemed to be in a relationship.
The man, Kinji Hakari, was tall and powerfully built, with thick hair swept up and back. At a glance, he looked like a... broccoli? His square face bore a bit of stubble, and both eyebrows had two shaved slits. He did not look like a student at all—more like a delinquent middle-aged man.
The other upperclassman was Kirara Hoshi. Judging from her appearance alone, she was a woman. Her outfit was extremely fashionable: blunt bangs, medium-length hair, decorative studs beneath her lips and along her chin, and a crop top that revealed her slender waist. Her eyes were the most peculiar part. Her pupils were shaped like five-pointed stars, with stitch-like decorative markings around her eyes.
There was not much conversation between them. Hakari seemed vaguely displeased with the Goodwill Event—or perhaps something else. After saying a few casual words, he waved his hand and left.
The day before the Goodwill Event, the principal and students from Kyoto Jujutsu High arrived. Every year, the Inter-School Goodwill Event was hosted by the school that had won the previous year. In other words, Tokyo Jujutsu High had won last time.
Both schools’ principals, teachers, and students gathered in a large room normally used for meetings. Kyoto Jujutsu High’s principal was an elderly man leaning on a cane. He wore traditional white robes and loose trousers. His head was bald, with only snow-white eyebrows and a beard remaining.
Both were exceptionally strange. His beard hung all the way to his chest, but his eyebrows were the most eye-catching feature. Those dense white brows drooped down as far as the length of his face. Kaito had never seen eyebrows like that on a real person before.
Tokyo Jujutsu High’s supervising teacher was Gojo, while Kyoto Jujutsu High’s was a woman wearing shrine maiden robes. Her originally beautiful face was marred by a scar running from her right cheek to above the bridge of her nose.
The woman, Utahime Iori, had been Gojo’s upperclassman during their Jujutsu High days, and the two appeared quite familiar with one another. The moment Gojo arrived, he grinned and sidled up to say something to her. The disgust on Utahime’s face at seeing him only turned into even greater anger.
Ignoring whatever those two were bickering about, Kaito’s attention was drawn to a female Kyoto student with black hair cut in a bowl cut. Her hairstyle was different, but she looked... a lot like Maki.
That girl was studying Maki too, her expression unreadable. Kaito leaned toward Panda and whispered, "Hey, Panda, do you see that? That girl over there looks a lot like Maki..."
Panda had naturally noticed too. Maki saw the two whispering to each other and repeatedly glancing her way, and a vein immediately bulged on her forehead.
"She’s my twin sister, Mai Zen’in. Could you two stop acting so damn sneaky?"
"Ohhh!"
Kaito and Panda both let out low exclamations. Maki looked even more like she wanted to beat the two of them up right then and there. At that moment, Yuta quietly spoke up beside them.
"Kaito, Panda... shouldn’t we be paying more attention to that... robot? Also, that guy over there looks pretty scary. He’s been staring at us the whole time too."
Kaito followed his gaze. Kyoto had six students total: two boys, three girls, and one robot!
That robot was not the futuristic metal man Kaito had imagined. It looked more like a puppet mixed with distinctly jujutsu-like features, and it wore the Kyoto school uniform as well.
Of the other two boys, the one standing farther away was a traditionally handsome man whose eyes seemed perpetually half-closed. In Kaito’s judgment, unlike modern handsome guys like Gojo-sensei and himself, this guy’s traditional clothes and bearing made him seem more like the heir of an old, prestigious clan.
The other bulky man was much easier to read. His thick, explosive physique could not be concealed even by his school uniform. A scar ran from the left side of his forehead past his left eye, and the hair atop his head was simply tied up to stand straight skyward. He looked like someone no one should mess with.
The three female students looked much more harmonious. Aside from Maki’s sister, who seemed to have some friction with Maki, the other two at least looked quite friendly. The girl who returned Kaito’s look with a smile had long blue hair and slightly side-swept bangs.
The final student was very petite, with blonde hair tied into two thick pigtails that stuck straight upward. Her face was cute and pleasing to the eye, and she appeared to be mixed-race. She wore distinctive earrings, and a broom rested beside her. Was she cosplaying a witch?
Kyoto’s principal and Masamichi Yaga finished their conversation. Yaga stood and spoke.
"Principal Gakuganji and I have decided on the contents of this Goodwill Event. It will be largely the same as before. Now, you may get to know each other. From now on, you are comrades fighting on the same side."
The blue-haired girl had just greeted Kaito, so she was the first to stand and bow.
"Hello, everyone. My name is Kasumi Miwa, a first-year at Kyoto Jujutsu High. It’s a pleasure to meet you!"
"Momo Nishimiya. Second-year."
That was the petite blonde girl.
"Mechamaru. First-year."
That was, of course, the mechanical puppet.
"Mai Zen’in, first-year. Huh? What’s this? Has my sister never mentioned me to any of you? That’s a little hurtful!"
Though she said that, Maki’s twin sister Mai did not look hurt at all. Instead, she wore a teasing smile.
"Noritoshi Kamo, second-year. It’s a pleasure to meet you."
That was the handsome half-lidded man. Kaito raised an eyebrow at the introduction. The Kamo Clan, huh! One of the Three Great Clans alongside the Gojo and Zen’in Clans. Interesting.
Tokyo Jujutsu High then introduced themselves in turn. Yuta and Maki spoke first, followed by Panda, who also briefly introduced Toge Inumaki, who normally spoke only in rice ball ingredients.
Panda naturally drew the most attention, especially from Kasumi Miwa and Momo Nishimiya. Their eyes practically sparkled.
Then it was Kaito’s turn. Having had no time to fix his hair these past few days, he had simply tied his slightly overgrown hair behind his head. It gave him a carefree, unrestrained air. Kasumi Miwa looked calm on the outside, but her thoughts were racing.
Another handsome guy! Though Gojo is still a little more handsome. I need to figure out a way to get a photo with him...
"My name is Kaito Kamishiro, a first-year. It’s a pleasure to meet you all!"
Finally, it was the bulky man’s turn. No emotion could be seen on his stern face. After a brief, somewhat awkward silence, he finally spoke.
"Aoi Todo. Second-year."
"Say... are all of you first-years? Are you... looking down on us?"
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