After it was over, everyone went to the infirmary to retrieve their respective luggage and started walking toward the dormitory building. Gojo Satoru, Geto Suguru, Kisa Roji, and Ieiri Shoko somehow managed to walk with the imposing aura of an entire army.
The uniform of Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School was black. With the four of them together, Gojo Satoru wearing his sunglasses took the lead by a few steps, followed by Geto Suguru and a slightly slower Kisa Roji, with Ieiri Shoko bringing up the rear.
Among the four of them, leaving aside Gojo Satoru—who could give off a rebellious, devil-may-care vibe no matter how he stood or posed—there was Geto Suguru right behind him. Whether he still hadn't shaken off the feeling of battle or for some other reason, a lingering aura of solemn slaughter still clung to his person. Walking at the very back, Ieiri Shoko wore a completely detached expression; if not for the lollipop clamped between her teeth, one might easily have mistaken it for a cigarette.
Kisa Roji, sandwiched right in the middle of the three, was actually quite normal. A gentle smile always graced his face, but unfortunately, flanked as he was by these three classmates, that smile somehow took on a deeper meaning. The genuinely mild-mannered fellow he normally appeared to be was transformed, against the backdrop of his three peers, into someone hiding a knife behind a smile.
"Teacher Yaga said there's a cultural class this afternoon," Kisa Roji said, standing before his dormitory door. He tossed his backpack inside, keeping one hand on the door handle and the other holding his phone.
"Half past three in the afternoon, don't be late." Kisa Roji shook his phone and stepped into his dorm first.
Shoko knew there was class in the afternoon; she had already reached the fourth floor by this time. The girls' dormitories were on the fourth and fifth floors, the boys' on the second and third, and the first floor was reserved for teachers' living quarters.
On the third floor, the rooms of Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru were right next to each other, followed by Kisa Roji's. For the sake of peace and quiet, he had chosen the very last room.
Originally, Gojo and Geto had chosen rooms closer to the stairway, but for some reason, they had later changed their minds and both moved right next door to Kisa Roji.
These two classmates are really decent guys, aren't they? Kisa Roji thought as he closed his dorm door.
Seeing him choose this isolated spot on his own, they must have worried he would be lonely and abandoned their originally chosen rooms.
With classmates like these, it felt like his future campus life wouldn't turn out too badly at all.
At half-past two in the afternoon, Kisa Roji woke up right on time.
Even though classes didn't start until three-thirty, today was, after all, his very first day arriving on campus, so getting up a bit early would give him some extra time to learn his way around.
Anyone who knew Kisa Roji well was aware that he was a hopeless, textbook case of a chronic pathologically bad sense of direction. To put it bluntly, a journey that normally took a solid ten minutes, if left to Kisa Roji to navigate, would see him and his companions wandering around for at least three hours.
And that was putting it conservatively.
I hope I don't get lost again today...
Thinking too much about it, Kisa Roji smacked his lips and revised his wish.
Let me lose my way a little less, he thought.
At twenty minutes to three, Kisa Roji opened his dorm door and set off.
At ten minutes to four, he received a concerned phone call from his homeroom teacher.
"I am truly sorry, Teacher Yaga," Kisa Roji apologized sincerely.
"I am willing to accept any punishment, but please spare the trouble of sending a classmate to come look for me, because I have no idea where I am."
"...?" On the other end of the line came a suspicious silence, immediately followed by a burst of loud laughter.
Even if Geto laughed, he probably wouldn't laugh that loudly, and the same went for Shoko. As for Teacher Yaga, that was completely out of the question, so the answer could only be the remaining classmate.
Kisa Roji remembered that classmate was named Gojo Satoru—the one with the exceptionally pretty eyes.
"...I understand. You, just stay right where you are." Teacher Yaga's voice sounded like music to his ears, rescuing Kisa Roji from the depths of despair.
What? You ask if Kisa Roji felt awkward?
Kisa Roji: I'm completely numb to it. I've been laughed at for this so many times before that I've been numb to it for ages.
Roughly half an hour later, Geto Suguru appeared in the sky above Kisa Roji, riding his cursed spirit.
"Let's go, Roji." A smile still lingered on Geto Suguru's face as he sat on the back of the cursed spirit and held out a hand toward Kisa Roji.
No joke, at that exact instant, Geto Suguru looked like an angel in Kisa Roji's eyes!
"Teacher Yaga said my cursed spirit was better suited for finding people, so he sent me," Geto brought up the topic proactively on the way.
"Thank you, Geto," Kisa Roji thanked him. "I always end up getting lost, and today, worried that I'd be late because of it, I even deliberately set off fifty minutes early."
Kisa Roji paused for a fraction of a second, then continued with a wry smile, "I never imagined I'd still underestimate my own talent for getting lost."
Geto Suguru sat beside him, listening quietly.
"It clearly looked so close on the map, ugh," Kisa Roji sighed. "I hope Teacher Yaga isn't too angry."
"You're so well-behaved, Roji."
Kisa Roji turned his head to look at Geto Suguru.
Geto Suguru rested one hand on the back of the cursed spirit and laid the other across his thigh.
"Actually, Roji," Geto's voice was gentle as he reached out with the hand resting on his thigh and patted Kisa Roji's head.
"When Teacher Yaga heard you say you were lost, the only expression on his face was worry."
"Eh?" Kisa Roji lifted his head, his eyes shining brightly and looking immensely pleased.
Yet almost immediately, he grew calm again.
Why would he worry about me? I'm not going to vanish off the face of the earth.
"Let's go, Roji. Teacher Yaga wasn't sure how much the two of us knew about the basic knowledge of the jujutsu world and originally planned to give us a test, but for some reason, he suddenly changed his mind."
"Is that so?"
"Mn." Geto Suguru nodded.
"We're here, Roji." He reached out and tapped the back of the cursed spirit, and the creature lowered its altitude at his bidding.
"Next time you head out, call for me, Roji." At the stairwell, Geto turned around and said to him.
"Don't go getting lost." His teasing voice rang softly in Kisa Roji's ear.
"All right." Kisa Roji smiled.
"Don't find me annoying, Geto," he joked.
"I won't."
The two of them walked side by side toward the classroom.
"We're friends now, and I don't find my friends annoying," Geto Suguru said.