That evening, Gojo Satoru had reserved a table at an upscale Japanese restaurant near Tokyo's Imperial Palace. According to its online reputation, the restaurant had served the Emperor, the Prime Minister, and heads of state from various countries during their visits.
Inside their private dining room, everyone ate to their heart's content, with no fear of leaving hungry. Even Ieiri Shoko, who was usually the most restrained when it came to food, made no exception, having completely forgotten about the prices.
Yaga Masamichi quietly nibbled on the side dishes, somehow managing to make the place feel as casual and lively as a neighborhood izakaya.
As he listened, he heard his four students start playing the Yamanote Line Game after dinner. The game had been proposed by Asou Akiya, and the rules were simple; each person had to take turns naming one of Yaga-sensei's good qualities, answering within five seconds each time.
Ladies went first, so Ieiri Shoko was the first to speak. After her, the order followed their seating arrangement: Asou Akiya, Getou Suguru, and finally Gojo Satoru.
Who wouldn't love a game like this?
What teacher wouldn't want to hear their students sing their praises?
Yaga Masamichi did his best to maintain a stern expression, using his sunglasses to conceal his solemn gaze. The crowning moment of his teaching career was finally upon him!
"Adorable enthusiast!" (Ieiri Shoko)
"Knitting expert!" (Asou Akiya)
"Veteran felt-toy enthusiast!" (Getou Suguru)
"Girl's heart in an old man's face!" (Gojo Satoru)
In the first round, everyone's descriptions had followed a remarkably consistent theme, leaving Yaga Masamichi so overwhelmed with pride that the surge of heroic emotion in his chest nearly choked him.
Asou Akiya decisively shot Ieiri Shoko and Getou Suguru a meaningful glance. Both understood the signal and silently acknowledged it.
"King of Punctuality!" (Ieiri Shoko)
"Protector!" (Asou Akiya)
"A Kind Soul!" (Getou Suguru)
"...A Good Guy Who Looks Like a Villain!" (Gojo Satoru)
In the second round, Ieiri Shoko thought of Yaga Masamichi's admirable habit of never arriving late, while Asou Akiya respected Yaga's philosophy of protecting his students. For Getou Suguru and Gojo Satoru, the answer was even simpler. Having personally experienced the entire Star Plasma Vessel mission from beginning to end, they knew firsthand how Yaga had struggled with his reluctance and compassion toward Amanai Riko.
What Getou Suguru valued was Yaga's kindness. What Gojo Satoru appreciated was the amusing contradiction between Yaga's outward appearance and his true nature.
Hearing these four new compliments, Yaga Masamichi felt as though someone had given his heart a gentle squeeze.
They really were praising him!
Those two little brats had finally been led astray by a good classmate and taught to say something nice.
"Cool Uncle!" (Ieiri Shoko)
"Taijutsu Master!" (Asou Akiya)
"Boxing Enthusiast!" (Getou Suguru)
"A Grade One Jujutsu Sorcerer Who Dares to Physically Discipline Me!" (Gojo Satoru)
Just as expected, Gojo Satoru had only granted Yaga Masamichi a single round of genuine praise before his compliments took a turn for the worse.
By the fourth round, Gojo Satoru had begun doing everything in his power to lead the others astray.
Whenever Getou Suguru considered joining Gojo in stirring up trouble, all it took was a single pointed look from Asou Akiya to make the back of his neck go cold. He would promptly abandon any plans to tease his friend's adoptive father.
Although Yaga-sensei's head is full of muscles and practically empty of brains, he now has a cheat-code brain on his side!
The words on the tip of Getou Suguru's tongue took a sharp turn before he could utter them, and he decided to back down.
Besides, letting Gojo commit all the crimes on his own isn't such a bad idea.
Getou congratulated himself on his own cleverness.
The supposedly Strongest Duo had effectively become Gojo Satoru's solo performance, with him spending the rest of the evening inventing increasingly outrageous ways to provoke Yaga Masamichi.
One moment, Yaga's grin stretched practically from ear to ear, the next, he is glaring daggers at Gojo. His emotions rose and fell like a roller coaster, and by the end of it, he could barely remember any of the compliments he'd received. Gojo's insults, on the other hand, were firmly etched into his memory.
Things like "The Brave but Weak", "The Roaring Correctionist", "The Secretive King of Tangerine Theft", and "The Married, Not-Yet-Bald Middle-Aged Jujutsu Sorcerer…"
Gojo cheerfully drew on all sorts of gaming terminology to come up with his creative titles.
When the day's gathering finally came to an end, Gojo Satoru received a thoroughly deserved punch from Yaga Masamichi. The blow transformed his usual smug expression into a comically aggrieved, chibi-style pout.
"The three of you can figure out how to get home yourselves."
With that, Yaga declared victory in his own way. He hadn't taken any leftover food home, but he had bundled up Asou Akiya and taken him along instead.
"Bye-bye! You three be nice to each other, okay? See you in class tomorrow!"
Asou Akiya climbed into Yaga Masamichi's business-class van and waved goodbye to the others.
Gojo Satoru, Getou Suguru, and Ieiri Shoko stood side by side at the roadside, arranged in descending order of height. An unmistakable aura of abandonment hung over them, as though their class representative and homeroom teacher had both decided to leave them behind.
The car's exhaust swept straight into their faces. Only Gojo managed to block it with his Limitless technique.
Taking advantage of their homeroom teacher's absence, Ieiri Shoko lit a cigarette and remarked with malicious delight, "So, what do you think? Starting today, is Asou going to go home with Yaga-sensei every single night?"
The moment Ieiri Shoko made that remark, both teenage boys erupted in vehement protest.
"Impossible!"
"You're reading way too much into it, Shoko!"
Ieiri Shoko took a drag of her cigarette. "What are you two getting so worked up about?"
Getou Suguru held Gojo Satoru back with one hand and smiled. "Now, now, Satoru, let's all stay calm. Shoko's just messing with us, she's a girl after all. She can't possibly understand the bond between us guys."
Gojo immediately slung an arm around Getou in return. "Exactly, exactly! Me, Suguru, and Akiya love hanging out together in the dorms more than anything!"
The two teenage boys put on a painfully contrived display of cheerfulness as they headed toward the school, looking for all the world like the best of brothers who never fought and inseparable twins who couldn't bear to be apart. For the time being, they had no intention of taking a taxi.
Behind them, Ieiri Shoko, whose gender had just been used against her, trailed along at a leisurely pace. She had no intention of letting Getou Suguru off the hook.
"Getou, is this what you call staying calm? Do me a favor and hail a taxi. We need to catch the Shinkansen."
Shoko had left the school without her wallet, and all of Gojo's loose change was sitting in the dormitory coin jar.
Getou Suguru, the only person present who had brought cash, smiled pleasantly. "Oh, come on, Shoko. We're energetic jujutsu sorcerers in the prime of our lives, why don't we all enjoy a nice walk back to school together?"
Shoko was momentarily stunned by the sheer audacity of his suggestion.
We're in one of Tokyo's busiest districts! Who knows how far we are from Tokyo Jujutsu High? Could you please try acting like a decent human being for once?
Seizing the opportunity, Gojo Satoru raised his voice like a loudspeaker. "This guy once walked all the way back to school on his hands with Akiya, sweating buckets the entire time! You've never seen that, have you, Shoko?"
Shoko was utterly appalled. "What the hell is wrong with you guys? You boys are unbelievable..."
Getou grabbed Gojo by the ear. "Have you been spying on us again? In the middle of the night, no less? Don't you ever sleep?"
"I'm innocent!" Gojo protested. "I just happened to look outside and saw the road covered in traces of residual cursed energy from your palms as you went along!"
"I don't believe you!" Getou retorted. "Akiya and I stopped our punishment exercises as soon as we entered the school grounds."
"Oh? Punishment exercises?" Gojo immediately dropped his theatrically wounded expression, replacing it with a roguish smirk. "And here I was, thinking you two were playing some kind of passionate, youth-filled game."
Getou Suguru was exhausted. Had this guy watched so much anime that he'd started confusing the fictional world with reality?
After finishing her cigarette, Ieiri Shoko decided she'd had enough of the two of them. She flagged down a taxi at the roadside.
"So, are you two really planning to walk all the way back? In that case, I'll be going on ahead."
The only healer in the jujutsu world capable of saving lives had just abandoned them.
If anything happened to Ieiri Shoko outside school—if she tripped, got hurt, or even so much as bumped into something—Asou Akiya would tear the two of them to shreds.
Gojo Satoru and Getou Suguru came to an abrupt halt, then immediately broke into frantic motion, flailing their limbs as they raced after the taxi.
"Don't leave us! Princess Shoko! We're your knights!"
Inside the taxi, the driver glanced at the rearview mirror. Faced with two humanoid runners who seemed to defy the laws of common sense, he slammed his foot down on the accelerator in sheer terror.
Ieiri Shoko fastened her seat belt and calmly endured the force pressing her back into the seat.
"Don't mind them, they're just ordinary high school boys of the modern era."
She'd seen Gojo Satoru, who was practically being raised by his male classmates; she'd seen Getou Suguru, who was raising a middle-school girl as his adopted daughter; and she'd seen Asou Akiya, who was raising a three-year-old child.
She felt as though she'd exhausted her entire lifetime's capacity for surprise on her classmates alone.
Other jujutsu sorcerers worked themselves to the bone, counting down the hours until they could clock out each day, but these high school boys seemed to possess an inexhaustible supply of energy.
Why is it that you guys are the only ones who seem to belong in an entirely different genre?
Ieiri Shoko looked down at her hands, confirming that she could indeed use the Reverse Cursed Technique, but that didn't mean she could replenish the energy she'd spent dealing with these idiots!
On the road, Yaga Masamichi, seated behind the wheel, glanced toward the black-haired boy in the back seat.
"Akiya, with Suguru and Satoru not here, where would you like me to take you?"
Asou Akiya had already contacted Yaga in advance to ask him to take him away for the evening.
Now, sitting in the back seat, Akiya couldn't help feeling a little shy, his heart stirred with a mixture of nervousness and excitement. For once, he wasn't looking at the man before him as his teacher. Instead, he was facing someone who felt like the head of a family, asking him where he wanted to go.
"I'd like to take you to see... someone. Their address isn't too far from Tokyo Jujutsu High."
"Who?"
"Your grandson, my adopted son."
"..."
Yaga Masamichi, the current principal of Tokyo Jujutsu High and the jujutsu world's foremost practitioner of Cursed Corpse Manipulation, nearly slammed his head into the steering wheel.
He steadied the wheel and whipped his head around to stare at the black-haired boy in the back seat within a hundredth of a second. His brown-tinted sunglasses could do nothing to conceal the volcanic eruption of emotions threatening to explode behind them.
Asou Akiya, say that again! He must have misheard! There's no way he heard that right!!!
...
At sixteen, a boy was like the wind and a blazing fire, daring to dream of anything and bold enough to do it all.