Akira and Megumi Fushiguro turned their heads away at almost the same time. Neither of them wanted to comment on what Satoru Gojo had just said.
After all, this so-called teacher had probably spent less than twenty-four hours actually teaching them. Most of the time, he simply left them to figure things out on their own.
Still, when it came to judging someone's strength and potential, neither of them could deny that Satoru Gojo knew what he was talking about.
"Black Flash? Did you just say Black Flash?"
"Wait, you mean that Black Flash? How did you manage to pull it off?"
The moment the name came up, everyone's attention shifted toward Akira. Even those who had been busy catching rabbits stopped what they were doing.
"Well, according to Gojo-sensei, anyone with hands can do it. There's nothing particularly special about it," Akira answered casually.
Having spent so much time around people who loved showing off while pretending to be humble, Akira had apparently picked up a few bad habits himself.
Besides, whether Black Flash was impressive depended entirely on who he was comparing himself to. In front of ordinary Jujutsu Sorcerers, it was certainly something worth bragging about. In front of someone like Satoru Gojo, however, it was another matter.
Unfortunately, his explanation earned him nothing but looks of disdain.
The only exception was Satoru Gojo, who nodded enthusiastically.
"Exactly! That's what I've been saying all along!" Gojo laughed. "You even accused me of showing off when I said it before. See? I was just telling the truth!"
Akira immediately took a step away from him.
"I was joking. Don't take that seriously."
He had no intention of letting everyone think he shared Satoru Gojo's ridiculous standards.
"Having hands is obviously only the basic requirement," Akira continued. "From what I've experienced, if you're trying to land your first Black Flash, it's better to use a movement you're already familiar with. The more natural the movement feels, the better your chances."
He thought back to the moment he had successfully landed Black Flash.
"Of course, that's just my personal experience. It's difficult to explain the exact feeling. Even if I tell you everything, you might not understand it until you experience it yourself."
"Then there's no need to explain."
Maki Zenin immediately tossed aside the rabbit she had been holding.
"If words aren't enough, just let us experience it directly. A demonstration should make things easier to understand, right?"
Her decision was immediate.
Between playing with cute rabbits and getting stronger, Maki did not even need to think about which one mattered more.
Unfortunately, Akira could only shake his head.
"That's impossible."
"Why?"
"Because I can't control the power of Black Flash once it happens," Akira explained helplessly. "If I use it against you during sparring, there's a good chance I'll accidentally beat you to death."
His words sounded rather harsh, especially considering how casually he said them. However, Akira was only stating the problem as he understood it.
Black Flash was not something he could simply weaken whenever he wanted. Even if he held back his physical strength, the sudden increase in destructive power would still be extremely dangerous.
"He's right."
Surprisingly, Satoru Gojo also supported Akira's explanation.
"Black Flash isn't something you should casually use against your classmates. If it hits a vital spot, even someone like me could die."
Gojo spread his hands.
"That's why I've never demonstrated it for you guys. Once I use Black Flash, the fight is basically over."
Hearing those words from Satoru Gojo, Maki could only give up on the idea.
After all, even though their teacher was usually unreliable, there was no reason to doubt his understanding of combat.
Still, the frustration on her face was obvious.
She had always regarded Akira as one of the people she wanted to surpass. Their close combat abilities had been comparable for quite some time, and neither of them could easily overwhelm the other.
When it came to raw physical power, Akira held the advantage thanks to his Cursed Energy enhancement. Maki, on the other hand, had received strict training from childhood under experienced instructors. Her movements had been refined through years of practice, almost as if she had followed a systematic training program.
In terms of pure technique, she still held the advantage.
Because of that, their previous sparring sessions had always been competitive.
Now, however, Akira had successfully mastered Black Flash.
His combat ability had suddenly risen by an entire level, while Maki was still improving through ordinary training.
For someone as competitive as her, accepting that difference was naturally difficult.
Akira noticed the change in her mood almost immediately.
Maki Zenin had never been particularly good at hiding her emotions. Whether she was angry, happy, or frustrated, it was usually written all over her face.
After thinking for a moment, he decided to offer another option.
"Although I can't demonstrate Black Flash during sparring, there should be opportunities to use it against Cursed Spirits in the future. You can watch it then."
He paused before adding, "Besides, Black Flash wasn't the only thing I learned during this mission. I picked up quite a few other things as well. If you're interested, I can show you those instead."
"Really?"
Maki's expression immediately changed.
"Then show me!"
"Sure. When do you want to start?"
"Right now!"
She answered without hesitation, smiling at him with obvious excitement.
Seeing that smile, Akira was momentarily caught off guard.
He had to admit that Maki looked rather attractive when she smiled like that.
"Alright, then. Let's..."
"Hold it!"
Before Akira could finish speaking, Satoru Gojo suddenly interrupted.
"Can you two save the training for later? We still have some serious business to take care of."
Maki immediately turned toward him.
"If you had something important to say, why didn't you say it earlier?"
"Oh, sorry. I forgot."
Satoru Gojo admitted his mistake without the slightest embarrassment.
"But it's not really that big of a deal anyway."
He then pointed toward Akira.
"Ari's Jujutsu Sorcerer rank has officially gone up by one. Starting today, he's a Grade Three Jujutsu Sorcerer."
After making the announcement, Gojo looked around at everyone.
"See? Not a big deal, right?"
"Of course it's a big deal! You should've said that from the start!"
Maki snapped at him almost instinctively.
However, immediately after speaking, she stopped.
She tilted her head slightly and thought about the announcement again.
"Wait..."
A few seconds passed.
"Actually, you're right. That really isn't a big deal."
Her sudden change of attitude left Yuta Okkotsu completely confused.
"Huh? Why?"
Yuta looked between Maki and Akira.
"Isn't getting promoted supposed to be something worth celebrating? Akira went up a whole grade, didn't he?"
"It's only Grade Three. What's there to celebrate?"
Maki gave Yuta a hard slap on the back.
"You're a Special Grade yourself, so start acting like one!"
"Ouch!"
Yuta stumbled forward, nearly losing his balance from the force of the slap.
He looked at Maki with an aggrieved expression, but she had already turned her attention elsewhere.
"Well, it's actually because of Akira's situation," Panda explained.
Unlike Maki, Panda was willing to give Yuta a proper explanation.
"You haven't been here very long, so you might not understand how unusual his rank is."
He gestured toward Akira.
"Think about it. You've seen how strong Akira is, right? Do you honestly think Grade Three is enough to represent his strength?"
Yuta thought about the question before shaking his head.
"No, I don't think so."
"Exactly."
Panda nodded.
Everyone present knew Akira's strength very well.
Forget about promoting him from Grade Four to Grade Three. Even if someone suggested promoting Akira directly to Grade One, there would be enough evidence to support the decision.
Only the title of Special Grade would require a proper discussion.
After all, Special Grade was an entirely different matter.
As for the students of Tokyo Jujutsu High, their ranks were already rather unusual. Among the first-years alone, there was a Special Grade like Yuta, a Grade Two like Megumi, and now Akira had finally reached Grade Three.
Considering Akira's actual combat ability, his official rank was clearly lagging far behind.
Compared to the others, his promotion was hardly worth making a fuss about.
"Oh, I see."
After hearing Panda's explanation, Yuta finally understood why everyone had reacted so calmly.
However, Panda himself suddenly seemed to realize something.
"Wait a minute. That's strange."
While speaking, he reached out and casually scooped up a Pancham that had been running around wildly nearby.
The little Pokémon struggled in his hand, but Panda paid it no attention. He held it securely with one arm while scratching his chin with the other.
"Something doesn't add up."
He looked toward Satoru Gojo.
"Even if we don't know the exact details of the mission, anything classified as a confidential mission should be fairly high-level. There's no way it was some ordinary Grade Three assignment."
Panda continued thinking aloud.
"On top of that, Ari managed to land Black Flash during the mission. If you add that achievement to his previous record, promoting him only to Grade Three doesn't make sense."
He raised a finger.
"Even if the higher-ups wanted to argue about whether he qualifies for Grade Two, they should at least have given him provisional Grade Two status."
Panda was not making a random guess.
As the son of Principal Masamichi Yaga, he had grown up inside Tokyo Jujutsu High. He understood the internal promotion system better than most students and had heard plenty of things that ordinary Jujutsu Sorcerers would never know.
Based on everything he knew, Akira's promotion was clearly abnormal.
"Gojo, did something happen during the evaluation?"
Hearing Panda's question, Satoru Gojo's expression changed slightly.
His eyes grew cold, although the smile on his face remained as playful as ever.
"Well, those stubborn old geezers decided to dig up a bunch of outdated rules that should've been thrown in the trash years ago."
He spoke with obvious annoyance.
"Apparently, a Grade Four Jujutsu Sorcerer isn't supposed to participate in confidential missions. Since Ari was only Grade Four when he accepted the assignment, they decided the entire mission couldn't be included in his promotion record."
Gojo spread his hands helplessly.
"Pretty disgusting, don't you think?"
Everyone finally understood what had happened.
In other words, Akira's promotion to Grade Three had nothing to do with the mission he had just completed.
His performance during that mission, including his contribution to dealing with Curse User Organization Q and successfully landing Black Flash, had been completely excluded from the evaluation.
The promotion had been approved entirely because of his previous achievements.
All those days he had spent clearing dangerous areas and hunting Cursed Spirits had finally added up to enough credit.
Meanwhile, the mission that should have contributed the most had not been counted at all.
"So it was your fault."
Maki immediately looked at Satoru Gojo with disdain.
"You should've checked the rules before assigning him the mission. If you'd sorted everything out beforehand, this wouldn't have happened."
"Hey, hey. Why are you blaming me?"
Gojo looked rather offended by the accusation.
Before the two could start arguing, however, Akira shook his head.
"No. I don't think it was necessarily a mistake."
His words immediately drew everyone's attention.
"What do you mean?" Maki asked.
"I'm saying the higher-ups might have done this deliberately."
Akira looked toward Satoru Gojo.
"After all, I'm Gojo-sensei's student, and he was the one who assigned me the mission. From the higher-ups' perspective, that's already enough reason to make things difficult."
When it came to dealing with people and their hidden motives, Akira had considerably more experience than his classmates.
Panda had noticed that something was wrong with the promotion process, but Akira had already begun thinking about why the higher-ups would make such a decision.
If Panda had reached the second layer of the problem, then Akira was already looking at the third.
"As expected of my most capable student!"
Satoru Gojo immediately gave him a thumbs-up.
His grin widened until his teeth were practically shining under the sunlight.
"That's exactly it!"
He laughed.
"The better you perform, the more embarrassing it becomes for those old geezers. They already dislike me, so there's no way they're going to be happy about my student making them look bad too."
Gojo sounded quite pleased with himself.
"It's a shame we were communicating from a distance. If I'd been there in person, I could've watched their faces when they realized they couldn't do anything to me."
He shrugged.
"Seriously, watching someone get so angry they want to kill you, while knowing they can't actually do it, is pretty entertaining."
The others were speechless.
As expected, only Satoru Gojo could say something like that so casually.
"Still, those old guys didn't go too far this time," Gojo continued. "They didn't deduct a single yen from your mission reward."
His smile became somewhat dangerous.
"If they'd tried to mess with your payment too, I would've gone over there and had a nice little talk with them."
Everyone knew exactly what kind of talk Satoru Gojo meant.
Given his personality, there was a very good chance that such a conversation would end with several elderly Jujutsu officials suffering from serious headaches.
"Well, if they at least paid the full reward, I suppose that's acceptable."
Akira nodded thoughtfully.
However, just as he was about to leave the matter there, another possibility occurred to him.
"Wait."
He frowned.
"No, that's not right."
Satoru Gojo turned toward him.
"Hm? What's wrong?"
"This isn't acceptable at all."
Akira's expression grew more serious.
"The fact that they paid the full reward doesn't mean they were being reasonable. If anything, that might have been part of their plan from the beginning."
"Oh?"
Gojo raised his eyebrows with interest.
"You think they were planning something else?"
"Exactly. They made a calculated retreat. By giving up something they could afford to lose, they managed to achieve several things at once."
Akira crossed his arms and began organizing his thoughts.
"Teacher, let me ask you something."
"Go ahead."
"When you submitted the report for this mission, you also submitted all my previous mission records together with it, right?"
Gojo's smile widened slightly.
Akira continued before he could answer.
"And you probably did that because you wanted to show the higher-ups how much I'd accomplished. Maybe you also wanted to scare them a little and remind them that your students aren't ordinary Jujutsu Sorcerers."
Instead of answering the question directly, Satoru Gojo suddenly clapped his hands.
"I've got it!"
Akira looked at him suspiciously.
"Got what?"
"Why don't you stop calling yourself Akira and change your name to Satoru Gojo Kong?"
"..."
"Think about it!" Gojo continued enthusiastically. "We can tell everyone you're my half-brother from another mother. Then the two of us can make our debut as the legendary Goku duo!"
He looked extremely satisfied with his own idea.
Akira stared at him for a moment before letting out a helpless sigh.
"Sure. Go convince my mom first."
There was no point arguing with this man whenever he started talking nonsense.
More importantly, Satoru Gojo's reaction had already confirmed Akira's guess.
He really had submitted all those records together to put pressure on the higher-ups.
"Anyway, let's get back to the point."
Akira raised two fingers.
"The second problem is the mission reward."
Gojo tilted his head.
"What about it? Didn't I already say they paid you everything?"
"That's exactly the problem."
Akira looked at him seriously.
"According to the rules they brought up, I wasn't qualified to participate in that confidential mission in the first place. Since my participation violated the regulations, they could've used that as an excuse to refuse payment entirely."
"Sure, but if they tried something like that, I'd just go over there and talk to them."
Satoru Gojo answered without hesitation.
To him, the solution was simple.
If the higher-ups caused trouble, he would personally visit them. Given his overwhelming strength, there were very few people in the Jujutsu World who could actually stop him.
Unfortunately, Akira did not think the matter was so straightforward.
"That's what I'm talking about."
He shook his head.
"Teacher, you're thinking about this as if it's a problem you can solve just by showing up."
Akira paused before continuing.
"But if I were one of those higher-ups, I wouldn't back down just because you threatened to visit."
His expression remained calm.
"In fact, I'd be hoping you came."
"Oh? Why?"
Satoru Gojo seemed genuinely curious.
Although he was practically invincible when it came to personal strength, his understanding of office politics and administrative schemes was nowhere near as impressive.
When a problem appeared, he was used to solving it through his own power.
Akira, however, had a different perspective.
"It's simple. If I were in their position, I'd refuse to pay and insist that the regulations were being followed correctly. I'd make sure everything was officially documented so nobody could accuse me of breaking the rules."
He looked directly at Gojo.
"Then I'd wait for you to come over and cause trouble."
Akira continued explaining his reasoning.
"The angrier you got, the better. If you started arguing with them, I'd let you argue. If you threatened them, I'd make sure there were witnesses."
His voice became more serious.
"And if you actually lost your temper and hurt someone, that would be even better."
Satoru Gojo stopped smiling for a moment.
Akira finished his explanation.
"Because once that happens, they can turn the whole situation against you. The original issue of whether I deserved the reward wouldn't matter anymore."
He paused briefly.
"They'd have proof that Satoru Gojo ignored the regulations, abused his strength, and attacked the people responsible for maintaining order in the Jujutsu World."
Akira shook his head.
"At that point, they'd be the ones standing on the moral high ground, while you'd be the one who broke the rules."