"How boring."
On the newly renovated playground of Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School, four teenagers lay in a row on the green grass.
The weather was scorching hot, and they were all hot-blooded youths; standing under the sun for even a single second felt like torture.
"The jujutsu grading is tomorrow, isn't it?" Shoko Ieiri spoke up.
"Is grading starting already?" Mu Sanlu sat up.
"Yeah." Suguru Geto was too baked by the sun to care about talking.
"Satoru." Seeing that Suguru Geto really didn't want to open his mouth, Mu Sanlu crawled over his head and began to harass the other classmate.
"Why aren't you saying anything?" Mu Sanlu stretched out a finger and poked Satoru Gojo's cheek.
Mmm... puffy, it felt really nice.
"Satoru." Mu Sanlu poked him again.
Satoru Gojo rolled over and slapped Mu Sanlu's hand away.
Mu Sanlu poked him again.
"Satoru—" Mu Sanlu cupped his hands around his mouth like a megaphone.
"So annoying, Lu."
Before Satoru Gojo could be annoyed enough by Mu Sanlu to get up, Suguru Geto lost his temper first.
Mu Sanlu glanced at Suguru Geto, his eyes rolling. He leaned over Satoru Gojo's exposed ear, and to prevent his whispering from being overheard, Mu Sanlu even set up a "curtain".
"Satoru, Geto is still lying on the ground..." Before Mu Sanlu could finish, Satoru Gojo's eyes snapped open. His eyes darted, and he sat up, locking eyes with Mu Sanlu.
Mu Sanlu: Geto still hasn't gotten up~
Satoru Gojo: Got it!
With their brainwaves synchronized, Mu Sanlu gave a wave of his hand and dropped the "curtain".
Shoko Ieiri hadn't closed her eyes. Hearing the commotion, she turned her head and glanced over.
Up to no good.
She sighed and slowly stood up.
They're going to start fighting now, right?
Shoko Ieiri: *Nigerundayo* (time to bolt).
"Hehehehe~" This was the instigator of the plan, Mu Sanlu.
"Hehehehehe~" This was the executor of the plan, Satoru Gojo.
"Suguru—" Mu Sanlu used his hands as a megaphone again.
"Shut up, Lu." Suguru Geto rolled over and reached out to cover his exposed ear.
It wasn't that he was afraid of a little noise; it was just that his two classmates had a criminal record.
Just a few days ago, the exact same spot, the exact same voice, the exact same people...
Wait?
Suguru Geto's eyes widened. He quickly withdrew his hand, intending to stand up, but was intercepted by a pair of malicious hands.
Taking advantage of the gap when he pulled his hand back from covering his ear, Satoru Gojo grabbed his arm, flipped over, and pinned Suguru Geto to the grass.
Suguru Geto tried to struggle, but suffered a crushing defeat.
Pinned firmly by Satoru Gojo, he could only watch helplessly as the bully Mu Sanlu stretched out evil hands toward him.
"Hahahaha... You, hahaha... You guys, hahahahahaha, let me go!" Suguru Geto was laughing so hard he couldn't catch his breath. He struggled left and right, trying to escape the clutches of the Great Demon King Gojo, but the more he laughed, the weaker he got.
"Fine, hahahahaha... So disgusting, hahahahahaha... You guys..." Suguru Geto cursed in exasperation.
"Lu! Take pictures, hurry up and take pictures!" Seeing Suguru Geto's "miserable state," Satoru Gojo laughed uproariously. He originally meant to urge Mu Sanlu to quickly replicate a cursed spirit to record this wonderful moment for Suguru Geto, but who could have expected that just this momentary lapse in attention would give Suguru Geto his chance.
"Ha... Cursed Spirit Manipulation!"
A warning bell went off in his brain, and Satoru Gojo leaped away instantly, while Mu Sanlu bolted the second he heard Suguru Geto's voice.
"You two..." Suguru Geto rolled up his sleeves and waved his hand, summoning the majority of his cursed spirits.
During this period, although the higher-ups refrained from assigning them missions because they were still first-years, the three of them often found themselves bored and went out to look for cursed spirits to play with—no, to exorcise.
And by the way, to find some "fast food" for Suguru Geto.
Along the way, someone—nobody knew who—had raised the question: could the cursed spirits replicated by Mu Sanlu's cursed technique be absorbed by Suguru Geto? They had even tried it out, but unfortunately, the answer was a resounding no.
If that were possible, where would that leave them? Who would ever be able to beat Suguru Geto after that?
Even so, Satoru Gojo and Mu Sanlu still hadn't missed a chance to hunt down cursed spirits for Suguru Geto during this time.
Satoru Gojo and Mu Sanlu: Your takeout has arrived, please sign for it.
...
Therefore, the number of cursed spirits Suguru Geto had just released was terrifyingly large.
Satoru Gojo and Mu Sanlu were very familiar with this routine, and each chose their own preferred method.
Satoru Gojo: Be brave, my friend!
Yes, that's right. He chose to stubbornly fight a furious Suguru Geto head-on.
Compared to Satoru Gojo that stubborn blockhead, Mu Sanlu's method was much more relaxed.
He chose to run amok all over the school.
Literally running amok.
Mu Sanlu: It's fine~ Once Satoru and Geto finish fighting, he'll basically have vented his anger. At that point, if I present him with a fragrant bowl of soba noodles...
Geto will definitely calm down completely.
Mu Sanlu had tested this method personally, and it worked.
………………
The next day, the three of them were fully equipped, each getting into the car of an assistant manager.
"Goodbye, Shoko." Mu Sanlu rolled down the car window and waved at Shoko Ieiri.
"Yeah, bye." Shoko still had a lollipop in her mouth and gave a lazy wave.
"I'll bring you back some snacks," Mu Sanlu said with a smile.
"We're about to leave, Mr. Mu," the assistant manager driving the car reminded him.
"Got it." Mu Sanlu nodded, sitting back up and buckling his seatbelt.
The assistant manager in the driver's seat was seeing this kind of jujutsu sorcerer for the very first time.
Do jujutsu sorcerers actually wear seatbelts when riding in cars?
He thought in a daze.
"Hahahahahaha! I'm heading out first, Lu!"
You didn't even need to look to know whose voice that was.
Mu Sanlu lowered his eyes and smiled helplessly.
Satoru Gojo seemed to have an endless supply of energy that he could never use up; every single day he was full of vitality... and exasperating.
"I'm leaving too, Lu."
Mu Sanlu raised his head and met a pair of gentle eyes.
"Satoru said we're going to the arcade together after exorcising the cursed spirit. I'll come pick you up later," Suguru Geto instructed softly.
"Got it, Mama Geto." Mu Sanlu nodded earnestly.
"You..." Suguru Geto was amused into laughter by him.
The car carrying him started up.
"Don't learn everything from Satoru..."
Suguru Geto's voice faded away bit by bit, finally vanishing in the wind.
*Good thing a jujutsu sorcerer's hearing is excellent.* Mu Sanlu sighed, reaching out to pat the assistant manager's shoulder. "Mr. Yamaguchi, let's head out too."
"Yes! Mr. Mu!"
Watching the cars carrying his three classmates all drive away, Shoko Ieiri said goodbye to Masamichi Yaga and turned to head back inside the school grounds.
Her technique was Reverse Cursed Technique. Her Reverse Cursed Technique could not only heal the damage she suffered from cursed energy, but it could also heal others.
Because of this specialty, she had become a jujutsu sorcerer who had lost her freedom, confined forever within the barrier of Jujutsu High.
How many more times would she have to watch a scene like today's?
She didn't know.
Pushing open the door to the infirmary, Shoko Ieiri tossed the lollipop stick into the trash can.
"Yay, three points," she said.
The infirmary remained very quiet, so silent that even a pin drop could be heard.
After a long while, Shoko Ieiri curved her lips into a smile once more.
Whatever. As long as those three guys didn't come back to her covered in injuries.
"..."
Forget it, it was fine even if they came back covered in injuries, as long as they came back to her.
As long as they could come back, she thought.