"Now... this is the type of party I was expecting. So, what are my distinguished guests' names?"
After being escorted into a traditional room within the inn, Yoichi finally faced the trio.
The sliding doors clicked shut, sealing out the muffled sounds of the other students.
Utahime stood stiffly near the center, while Gakuganji took a seat with the gravity of a judge. Gojo remained leaning against the wall, a tinge of helplessness appearing through his face as if he were watching a train wreck he had personally helped put on the tracks.
Gakuganji couldn't help but feel irritated by the boy's nonchalant decorum.
The sight of Yoichi sitting there with such effortless poise reminded him vividly of a young Satoru Gojo.
Cocky yet very... confident.
The air in the room grew heavy, the scent of tatami mats mixing with the lingering, sharp scent of the "primal" energy Yoichi hadn't fully scrubbed from his skin.
"I am Gakuganji Yoshinobu, Principal of the Kyoto Jujutsu High," the old man began, his voice a low, threatening rumble.
"Beside me is Utahime Iori, a supervisor. And I believe you are already familiar with the man lounging by the wall."
An amused eyebrow was raised by Yoichi as he shifted his gaze toward the man leaning against the wall.
"Him? I don't know him," a casual remark was offered, accompanied by a thoughtful tilt of his head. "He looks like a handsome man, much like myself... but I don't know him at all. Maybe you are mistaken."
Upon hearing this, Gakuganji's eyes narrowed into slits.
A scrutinizing gaze was fixed on the boy's face, searching for the slightest twitch or a shift in heart rate that would betray a lie.
To his irritation, he found nothing.
On the other hand, Gojo merely laughed inwardly in protest. 'Handsome like him, huh?'
"Don't play games with us, brat," A frown deepened through Gakuganji's face as he leaned forward, the pressure in the room spiking. "This man arrived first. You're telling me you both just happened to be in the same scorched patch of forest, and not a single word was exchanged?"
"I was very busy cooking," Yoichi replied.
"A chef shouldn't be distracted by passersby, even the flashy ones."
Utahime sighed, a hand reaching up to rub her temple. "Hey, say something. Your silence is making this ten times more suspicious."
"What? I'm offended!" Gojo chimed in, holding his hands up. "I'm just a witness to great art. But the Principal is right about one thing, Yoichi-kun. That 'cooking' you did... it left a very loud signature."
Soon enough, those golden eyes settled upon Satoru.
A silent question hung, a momentary pause where the weight of the room seemed to shift.
In response, Satoru merely nodded.
The gesture was subtle, yet it carried an absolute assurance that everything was fine, regardless of whether the Kyoto faculty uncovered the truth of their connection.
"Fine, fine. If the cat is out of the bag, I might as well stop being so modest," a light chuckle escaped from Yoichi's mouth.
"Satoru-san and I have a bit... of a history."
Gakuganji's grip on his chair tightened. "So you've been hiding a Special-Grade anomaly under our noses this entire time. Do you have any idea what kind of precedent this sets?!"
"Yes, and what about it?" Satoru merely replied. "We have a task at hand, right? So, what if we began focusing on that instead of criticizing me?"
A sharp click of the tongue escaped from Utahime's mouth. She looked away, her hands trembling slightly from the sheer audacity of his dismissal.
Beside her, Gakuganji remained silent, though a vein throbbed, threatening to come out at his forehead.
But what Satoru has been saying is right.
Along with the presence of a mythological creature like an Oni, a mountain of queries piled up in his mind.
"Tell me the truth, boy..."
A suffocating pressure emanated from Gakuganji's figure, intended to crush the defiance out of the teenager sitting before him.
"You are no human, and you are no Curse. What are you?"
A slow, deliberate blink was the only immediate response given by Yoichi.
"I don't really know," A calm reply finally drifted from his lips. "I woke up with this blood in my veins. The 'what' doesn't matter as much as the 'how well I use it', right?"
A look of cold finality appeared through Gakuganji's face. "Very well! Your existence is a variable we cannot afford to leave unchecked. You are under arrest, Yoichi Murakami. You will be transported to the higher-ups immediately for a final verdict on your execution."
The guards outside the room shifted, their hands moving toward their weapons.
However, before a single finger could touch the sliding door, Yoichi moved.
In a blur of red sparks, Yoichi vanished from his seat and reappeared at the far end of the room, standing tall.
A mocking, golden glint appeared in his eyes as he looked down at the old man.
"Arrest me? Are you even worthy?"
A standoff instantly formed.
Utahime's breath hitched as she stepped forward, her hands raised in a desperate attempt to de-escalate. "Wait! Everyone, calm down! We're in the middle of a student inn!"
A chuckle rippled from Satoru's throat as he watched the chaos unfold from his spot by the wall.
"Come on, Principal," Satoru chirped, waving a hand dismissively. "The child still has the merit of saving your sorcerers, no? If he hadn't stepped in, you'd be counting body bags instead of complaints."
"Merit doesn't matter," Gakuganji barked, his Cursed Energy beginning to flare like a dark sun. "Rules and order are what keep our society from collapsing. An anomaly remains an anomaly, regardless of his 'good deeds'."
Yoichi's expression hardened, the atmosphere around him turning frigid.
"Then... does that mean your subordinates' lives are like pile of grass?" Yoichi asked.
"Waiting to be harvested while you sit here debating the 'rules' of their survival?"
A heavy silence fell over the room.
Even the sorcerers stationed at the perimeter lowered their gaze, their grip on their weapons faltering.
The weight of Yoichi's words hit home; he had saved their colleagues from certain death, and the thought of arresting their savior felt like a betrayal.
Gakuganji, however, felt incensed.
"Insolent brat!"
The brimming Cursed Energy between the two intermingled, creating a physical pressure that made the wooden walls of the inn groan. Their confrontation became intense as they bared teeth to each other, Yoichi smiling outwardly while Gakuganji's blood pressure spiked in a dangerous light.
In a second, Satoru interrupted them.
"Hai hai, that's enough."
"How about this? I'll escort Yoichi-kun back to the headquarters for a meeting with the ones at the top. We'll let this field trip finish in a few days, and then we'll head to Tokyo for a briefing. Is that a good compromise?"
A frustrated sigh escaped from Utahime's mouth as she stepped toward the Principal.
A look of pleading urgency appeared on her face. "He's right, Principal. This must be handled with caution instead of force. If we fight him here, we risk the students and the city. Depending on the decision of the higher-ups, this child might be a potential ally."
Gakuganji's eyes remained fixed on Yoichi, his breathing heavy. After weighing the pros and cons, Gakuganji finally relented.
"Fine... But he stays under constant surveillance until he leaves this city!"
A sharp, confident hum escaped from Yoichi's throat as he stood up. Adjusting the cuffs of his uniform, he moved with a leisurely grace that mirrored the legendary son of Sparda.
"Don't worry about the surveillance, Principal," a mocking tone carried through the room. "But keep your eyes peeled. If you stare too hard at the abyss, the abyss might just decide to bite back. And I promise you... I have a very expensive appetite."
A sudden flare of Demonic Energy erupted from Yoichi's physique. The mood turned heavy, even stagnant with a scarlet pressure that made the shadows wailing.
Utahime and Gakuganji felt their breath hitch, their hearts racing against the sheer suffocating weight of an otherworldly intensity.
The display lasted a second.
Yoichi retracted the energy as quickly as it had appeared, leaving the high-ranking sorcerers standing in a stunned, frigid silence.
"Well, I'm off. The dinner here is actually decent, and I'd hate for it to get cold," A casual farewell was offered by Yoichi.
Like a nonchalant boss, Yoichi strode forward. The sorcerers stationed in the hallway instinctively stepped back, their eyes wide with a mix of fear and primal respect as the "anomaly" moved past them without a care in the world.
Satoru watched Yoichi's back, a complicated expression hidden behind his glasses.
"Utahime, take care of the old man, will you? He looks like he's about to have a heart attack," Satoru instructed, already beginning to trail after his student.
He caught up to Yoichi in the moonlit courtyard of the inn. The night was quiet, the only sound being the crunch of gravel under their feet.
"How was that for a performance? Pretty good, you say?" Yoichi asked, casting a side-long glance.
A weary shake of the head was given.
"You're such a headache, Yoichi-kun," Satoru muttered. "But... I suppose a 9 out of 10 is fair for the effort."
________
Sorry if the things started going slow, I just wanted to show you guys how narrow-minded the conservative higher-ups and Yoichi's defiance against this system right now.
As you can see, there's still a lot to go for but I'll definitely reveal the Devil Trigger when he was in front of the higher-ups for a much more intense show-off.
It's like a hydrogen-bomb versus a coughing baby situation.