Tokyo Jujutsu High.
"I'm furious—that damned rotten brat from the Zenin family!"
Yaga Masamichi was so angry he was practically steaming, downing cup after cup of cold tea in an attempt to cool himself off.
"Akiya!" Yaga Masamichi snapped, stopping Asou Akiya from secretly taking photos. "Next time, don't just sit there enjoying the spectacle. If you and Gojo had told me clearly what Zenin Naoya's personality was like, I wouldn't have harbored any expectations for him in the first place!"
Asou Akiya saved the photo of his homeroom teacher in formal kimono anyway, then shrugged. "Hearsay is unreliable. Seeing it with your own eyes is believing."
He sat down across from Yaga Masamichi and continued, "It's not just you. Getou also has a strangely idealized impression of the Three Great Sorcerer Clans. You know, I've said plenty of bad things about them to him before—but what was the result? A complete waste of breath."
Yaga Masamichi reflected aloud, frowning. "It is strange. Why did I even form a favorable impression of Zenin Naoya in the first place?"
Asou Akiya was about to say that the answer was Gojo Satoru, when Yaga Masamichi suddenly found it himself. "It was you and Gojo! Zenin Naoya's appearance reminded me of you, and his status made me think of Gojo."
Asou Akiya unconsciously lifted a hand to his hair. "Do I really resemble the Zenin heir that much?"
Yaga Masamichi drew a very clear line between the two of them and answered seriously, "Not really. You both have short black hair and similar heights, and when you're not speaking, seeing you from a distance for the first time, it's easy to momentarily associate the two of you—that's all."
Then Yaga Masamichi asked, "Are you and Gojo close with him?"
Asou Akiya shook his head. "I've never met him. Only Gojo has. He dismissed him as a rotten orange."
Yaga Masamichi felt utterly drained. "Communication with Zenin Naoya was a complete failure. Fine, he looks down on Tokyo Jujutsu High's teaching resources—that alone would have been tolerable. But a fourteen-year-old Grade Two sorcerer actually tore into me with insults. And his reason?"
"He was angry that I made Gojo write reflection essays, and that I didn't let Gojo enjoy the treatment a clan heir 'deserves' at Tokyo Jujutsu High!"
Asou Akiya's slightly chilly gaze softened, and he said in genuine surprise, "That really was unexpected."
Zenin Naoya, defending Gojo Satoru?
Had the sun risen in the west for the Zenin family for once?
"I've thought it through," Yaga Masamichi said, clearing suspicion from his adopted son, regretting that he had doubted him for merely watching the spectacle. "This isn't your fault—it's Gojo who didn't tell the truth. With that temperament of his, saying the opposite of what he means is perfectly normal. He was obviously too embarrassed to admit that he's on good terms with Zenin Naoya. Meanwhile, Zenin Naoya kept calling him 'Gojo-kun'—the two clan heirs were probably acquainted since childhood. Sigh, I shouldn't have used provocation tactics in front of him, trying to spur Zenin Naoya into enrolling at Tokyo Jujutsu High."
Asou Akiya's curiosity was piqued. Provocation tactics—coming from Yaga?
He had been worrying about how to find a suitable opening anyway, so he asked, "Could you tell me the entire conversation in detail?"
Yaga Masamichi omitted some of his more personal feelings and recounted the exchange from beginning to end. He did not truly loathe Zenin Naoya; he merely felt the brat had never been properly beaten down by reality, and so arrogance was inevitable. Still, the act of standing up for a friend was, in itself, commendable.
Asou Akiya closed his eyes, mentally filtering through every word of the dialogue, and came to a conclusion: Zenin Naoya had not yet revealed his true nature. Yaga Masamichi's method of using Gojo Satoru to provoke him had been both wrong—and not entirely wrong.
To fish, you first bait the waters and choose the right spot.
To hook the rainbow pig, you had to be at the correct time and place, use the right bait, cast a straight hook, and wait patiently for it to crash into you on its own.
This person was, in fact, extremely familiar with open rivalry and covert struggle. Comparing Tokyo Jujutsu High to a dumping ground for cannon fodder was, in a certain sense, a brutally honest truth—one that hurt precisely because it rang true.
Secondly, this person was a connoisseur of good looks, a worshipper of strength, and an enthusiast of love at first sight. That was why Fushiguro Toji had become his idol, seizing the unbeatable advantage of a childhood white moonlight.
Otherwise, given Zenin Naoya's narcissism and limited worldview, Gojo Satoru would have fit his ideal of "the strong" far better. In terms of appearance, technique, and status, the so-called "childhood friend (fake)" Gojo Satoru was overwhelmingly superior—and thus far more likely to become his idol.
Of course, it was also possible that Zenin Naoya's malice toward sorcerers of his own age outweighed any goodwill he might have felt.
That mixture of envy and jealousy toward Gojo Satoru left his feelings impure, driving him instead to endlessly embellish and mythologize the towering image of his cousin in his heart.
Fushiguro Toji himself was probably utterly bewildered as well.
When, exactly, had he become the white moonlight of the Zenin clan's young head—an unforgettable first love, cherished and pined after for years?
After seeing off Yaga Masamichi, who left in a fit of suppressed anger, Asou Akiya found his inspiration for fabricating scandal about the Three Great Families flowing without end.
[Jujutsu High Same-Year Quartet]
[Asou Akiya: Yaga-sensei just came back from the Zenin household. He was extremely angry.]
[Asou Akiya: I've got some freshly baked gossip about the Three Great Families here. Interested?]
[Asou Akiya: To reduce unnecessary rumors, I'll blur the names. The main character is the young head of an ancient clan; the supporting characters are his rebellious cousin and a cold, aloof childhood friend.]
[Ieiri Shoko: On my way already.]
[Getou Suguru: At home, but my ears are fully perked up.]
[Gojo Satoru: What?! There's new gossip? Hahahaha, Yaga's got it rough—count me in too!]
Yaga Masamichi could not be said to have completely wronged Gojo Satoru. Gojo Satoru clearly knew what would happen to any normal person unlucky enough to run into Zenin Naoya.
Asou Akiya smiled faintly. Could this be called respecting one's teacher and venting a father's anger on his behalf?
He presented the carefully fabricated story.
[Asou Akiya: Once upon a time, an ancient family welcomed the birth of a legitimate youngest son. Gifted with extraordinary talent, he was named the clan's heir after the age of six. His people called him a genius, and he basked in their praise, firmly believing that the strength of one's cursed technique alone determined a person's worth. Yet, while still very young, a single encounter with one individual completely overturned everything he thought he knew.]
[Asou Akiya: The young head fell in love at first sight—his heart pounding uncontrollably, his eyes wide open in shock.]
[Asou Akiya: Later, the young head searched everywhere for information about that person, only to discover that he was his own cousin, living at the very bottom of the clan hierarchy. His heart ached so badly he wished he could ascend to the position of clan head immediately, just to elevate that person's status.]
[Asou Akiya: However, the young head could not do it. He was still too weak. All he could do was watch helplessly as his cousin was treated with cold indifference, until not long after a joint clan assembly held by several ancient families, that cousin defected from the family and vanished without a trace for many years.]
[Asou Akiya: After losing his white moonlight, the young head turned his gaze to his childhood friend. He had one—fair-skinned, beautiful, immensely strong, and even equal to him in status—who admired the rebellious cousin.
Yet the young head, who worshipped his childhood friend, unilaterally believed that his cousin and his childhood friend were the two people in the world who understood each other best, while he himself was merely the one who understood them.]
[Asou Akiya: The young head spent his entire life loving yet never obtaining, his heart holding both a white moonlight and a red rose. But he would never know that, in truth, the person his white moonlight valued most was the red rose, and that the defection itself was driven by the inferiority born from that red rose.]
[Asou Akiya: What does this make you think of? Please share your thoughts.]
[Getou Suguru: Tch—Akiya, that's a love triangle.]
[Ieiri Shoko: Hard to say. It feels so tangled. The white moonlight he loved actually fell for the red rose?]
[Asou Akiya: Gojo, what about you?]
[Gojo Satoru: I feel like this story sounds weirdly familiar… It has nothing to do with me, right…?]
One of the three on winter break, Gojo Satoru was far away at the Gojo estate, so idle he was practically about to sprout moss. He laughed for a long while at the gossip involving the Three Great Families—then suddenly could not laugh anymore. After some careful thought, he replied cautiously, muttering to himself, "I don't have a childhood friend."
[Asou Akiya: You didn't know?]
[Asou Akiya: My dear Gojo, you're a heartthrob beloved by the masses.]
[Asou Akiya: Today, Yaga-sensei paid a visit to the young head to invite him to enroll, but ended up being thoroughly scolded instead. The reason was that the young head couldn't bear the thought of you being wronged and demanded that everyone at Tokyo Jujutsu High hang themselves collectively to atone.]
[Asou Akiya: Allow me to quote his words: "Daring to abuse Gojo-kun behind his back—people like you might as well go hang yourselves!"]
[Ieiri Shoko: The red rose!!]
[Getou Suguru: Shoko just said exactly what my heart was screaming!!]
[Asou Akiya: I'll be waiting to enjoy the chaos that comes next. Everyone who has finished reading this, please remember—not a word about the source being me.]
[Asou Akiya: One more bonus piece of information: in the young head's clan, practically everyone has heard that he worships his cousin. Whenever the older brothers gossip about it, he storms off to curse them out. Truly discerning taste—worthy of an heir raised by a feudal family, being unashamedly fickle with such righteous confidence.]
[Asou Akiya: Gojo, if you want more gossip, you can always send someone to dig around. I'll be waiting for good news.]
Not long after, Gojo Satoru saw the information that had been made public and nearly smashed his phone straight into his own face.
The truth was this: Zenin Naoya's white moonlight was Fushiguro Toji, while the red rose was Gojo Satoru himself. To make matters worse, Gojo Satoru knew exactly why Fushiguro Toji had defected from the clan—because that black-haired, green-eyed man had been frightened away by Gojo's Six Eyes. From that moment on, he had distanced himself completely from the Three Great Families and taken up the profession of a "sorcerer killer."
Gojo Satoru stared blankly ahead.
"So… I was already a heartthrob at seven years old?"
He knew he had been handsome since childhood, but hearing himself become the subject of gossip was still a little shocking.
A love triangle? How thrilling.
If only the main character of that gossip were not that rotten little tangerine from the Zenin family!
Unable to keep such a thing to himself, Gojo Satoru could not wait to share the gossip. He grabbed hold of the Gojo family head, who was in the middle of handling clan affairs, and started shouting:
"Breaking news! People from the Zenin family are especially prone to love at first sight. That rotten little tangerine fell in love with his cousin at first glance and secretly pined after him for years.
But his cousin fell in love with me at first sight. Because of his inferiority complex, he got scared off by me years ago. Now that rotten little tangerine from the Zenin family has transferred his affections to me—ugh, I hate him!"
The Gojo family head: "..."
The hand gripping the brush trembled slightly, and a drop of ink fell, blotting and smearing an entire page of correspondence.
After hearing the gossip about the Zenin family, the Gojo family head relied on formidable self-control to slowly set the brush down. He wiped his hands with a handkerchief, then asked in a voice colder than ever before, "Gojo-sama, when you say the Zenin family's 'rotten little tangerine,' who exactly are you referring to?"
Gojo Satoru sold him out without hesitation.
"Zenin Naoya."
Having identified the culprit, the Gojo family head spoke gently, "Gojo-sama, where did you hear this information?"
Gojo Satoru replied casually, "My teacher, Yaga, went to the Zenin household."
The Gojo family head was skeptical. "The Zenin heir would reveal his own private affairs and tell Yaga Masamichi?"
Gojo Satoru refused to expose Asou Akiya as the source. "It's just that rotten little tangerine calling me way too intimately. It made my skin crawl, and he even scared Yaga when he came knocking. If you don't believe me, then help me investigate him. I want to know whether he really worships that 'Heavenly Restriction' guy from the bottom of his clan."
After saying this, Gojo Satoru pulled a face, then bolted off in a flash.
There was no doubt that the Gojo family head would investigate the matter and fulfill Gojo Satoru's wish.
After all, a Zenin heir with a cursed technique worshipping someone with zero cursed energy?
Unheard of! Could the entire Zenin family even afford such a humiliation?
He racked his memory, recalling scenes from the clan assemblies of the Three Great Families, moments when the two heirs of similar age had encountered each other.
It had always been Gojo-sama wearing an icy expression, while the Zenin heir slunk away in frustration.
So that was it…
The Zenin heir harbored ulterior motives!
There was nothing wrong with members of the Three Great Families admiring Gojo-sama—but to sully Gojo-sama's reputation out in the open like this was absolutely unforgivable!