"Ding-a-ling-ling-ling~~~"
The melodious school bell rang, and the students, who were listless as sickly children just a moment ago, instantly revived, transforming into Olympians and rushing out of the classroom.
The teacher, long accustomed to this scene, shook his head helplessly, closed his lesson plans, and left behind the students.
Eiji, who had been drawing and doodling in the back row all day, also prepared to pack up and go home.
Time had already arrived in 2003. Eiji was now a second-year middle school student, two years away from being able to enter Jujutsu High.
As for why Eiji was attending school outside the Jujutsu world, the story went back several years.
It all started when he was playing with Satoru Gojo. Eiji had used his knowledge from his past life to mock Satoru for a long time, and then Satoru suddenly received a notification that he had to go to elementary school.
"Satoru, this is your doing, isn't it?"
Upon hearing the news, Eiji grabbed Satoru in a chokehold.
"Mmph, don't you like studying? I'm doing this for your own good. Besides, you're already at the age to go to elementary school."
Satoru Gojo, while forcefully pulling Eiji's arm to break the chokehold, retaliated by reaching behind him and grabbing half of Eiji's face, pulling it outwards.
"Hah, aren't you also at that age? Why aren't you going?"
His rare moment of leisure was shattered. The thought of having to go back to school and pretend to be young with a bunch of brats made him blush.
"I'm studying family traditions. If you have the guts, you can too."
Family traditions, the Zenin Family's family traditions.
...
Eiji's fists clenched.
The scene in the courtyard became quite chaotic for a while after that.
The two bodyguards outside the courtyard were no longer worried about Satoru's situation. Instead, they skillfully lit cigarettes, drank tea, and occasionally commented on the two's moves.
Later, Eiji did go to school, but it was a school he chose himself.
"What are you thinking about, Eiji?"
A boy with long, slender eyes, a bun hairstyle, and a fringe on his left forehead placed a hand on Eiji's shoulder.
"Suguru, I was thinking about what to do when we get home later."
"There's still a long time until the scheduled time for the commission. How about you come hang out with our club?" Suguru Geto invited with a smile.
Suguru Geto's club was a music club modeled after a famous rap band. The boys in the club were all fans and dressed in a rather unconventional style.
This also made Eiji understand the origin of Suguru Geto's peculiar bun hairstyle with a fringe – it was inspired by the lead singer of a band Suguru Geto really liked.
"I think I'll pass. I've been sitting in a classroom all day, so I need to get some exercise, otherwise my body will rust."
Saying this, he put all his manuscripts into his schoolbag.
"Speaking of which, Eiji, if you like writing, why don't you join the literature club?"
Suguru Geto, who had been classmates with him for several years, already knew his best friend's hobbies.
Eiji often wrote stories about historical figures being summoned as Heroic Spirits in certain events.
To Suguru Geto, these stories were all brilliant, but Eiji never published them, only constantly increasing his backlog of drafts.
"The literature club? You know as well as I do that there are more girls to flirt with there than people who actually read."
Initially, Eiji was genuinely curious about club activities. After all, in his past life, his gym teacher was often sick, so he rarely had gym class, and he longed for such extracurricular activities.
However, after participating in a few clubs, he lost interest.
He discovered that these clubs were essentially just a group of children with similar interests playing together, or a supervising teacher giving extracurricular tutoring to their favorite outstanding students.
The literature club, however, was a special case. Because it had many female members, it also attracted many male students.
To be honest, Eiji was quite surprised when he first learned about this. Didn't the teachers here prevent underage relationships?
It wasn't until Eiji learned that in Japan, women could apply for marriage registration at the age of 16.
It was... quite absurd. Japan's legal age of majority was 20, but the law also recognized that men aged 18 and women aged 16 could apply for marriage and be considered legally adult.
Time quickly passed, and it was night. Suguru Geto and Eiji, after finishing their club activities, arrived at an abandoned amusement park.
"This is the commission? Seriously, can't the client be more responsible? Unknown number of Cursed Spirits, unknown strength of Cursed Spirits. They can issue a commission like this?"
Eiji complained without reservation about the commission document in his hand.
"It's precisely because there's no information that the price has increased three times."
"Why are they so keen on this piece of wasteland?"
"A big boss took a liking to this cheap land and bought it to develop. Later, when they started construction, several workers died. To prevent the project from failing, they had to ask around everywhere. After learning about the existence of Cursed Spirits, they pulled some strings and found the Jujutsu World to issue a commission."
The one speaking was Kong Shiyu. The two had met through Toji Fushiguro.
After Toji Fushiguro left the Zenin Family a few years ago, Eiji had started contacting him under the guise of being a fellow "outsider."
Perhaps because Eiji had also left the Zenin family, Toji Fushiguro's attitude wasn't too harsh, but it certainly wasn't good either.
However, Eiji, who already knew his personality, didn't mind.
Later, when Kong Shiyu contacted Toji Fushiguro, he successfully obtained Kong Shiyu's contact information and, through Kong Shiyu, took on some commissions related to Cursed Spirits.
"The people in the Jujutsu World don't care?"
Suguru Geto was a little curious.
"They think nobody comes to this place, so they can't be bothered to manage it. After all, the Jujutsu World is chronically understaffed."
"I'll send a few Fly Heads in to check the situation."
His curiosity satisfied, Suguru Geto prepared to take action.
"No, I'll have Rabbit Escape go and check."
Eiji rejected Suguru Geto's proposal.
Although small Cursed Spirits like Fly Heads were easy to find and their loss wouldn't be a pity, Eiji had noticed Suguru Geto's visibly pained expression during the previous few commissions whenever he had to replenish his Cursed Spirits.
The taste of a Cursed Spirit was like a rag that had wiped up vomit.
Remembering this, Eiji voluntarily took on the reconnaissance duty, trying his best to reduce the number of times Suguru Geto had to swallow a Cursed Spirit Jade.
Then, a colossal object emitting countless red lights appeared before Kong Shiyu, causing him to swallow hard.
It was a small mountain formed by Rabbit Escapes, and the countless red lights were the scarlet pupils of each Rabbit Escape.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
Hundreds of Rabbit Escapes immediately scattered. Eiji quickly got the answer he was looking for.
"Interesting, the Cursed Spirits are located in the office building west of the amusement park and the adjacent dining area."
Eiji's interest was piqued.
"What's wrong, Eiji?"
Suguru Geto, on the other hand, looked somewhat puzzled.
"Normally, the targets that generate negative emotions in an amusement park would be figures like clowns handing out balloons, ghost employees in haunted houses, or spirits on roller coasters and Ferris wheels, right? It's strange that the Cursed Spirits here are concentrated in the office building and dining area."
"That does seem a bit odd."
Suguru Geto considered the usual urban legends about amusement parks and agreed with Eiji's statement.
While they were thinking, the Rabbit Escapes brought the latest news.
"The targets have been identified. There are a total of 5 Cursed Spirits, all with a strength of level 2 or higher, and they are very aggressive. They kept chasing the Rabbit Escapes until I dispelled the summon."
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Translation by: randomtranslator.com
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