After turning Gojo Satoru into a mess, Yaga Masamichi said he had something to discuss and led Toji to his own room.
As soon as Yaga sat down, he deeply bowed his head towards Toji.
"I'm sorry."
"There's nothing for you to be sorry about to me."
"Yes... You're right..."
Toji looked down at Yaga, who trailed off, with a look of pity.
'How did those two end up becoming teachers.'
Poor guy. Toji clicked his tongue.
Toji's green eyes quickly scanned the room while Yaga was unaware. It wasn't out of malice, but habit. He always checked his surroundings, identifying potential dangers wherever he went.
Cotton balls and thread used for curse creation, jujutsu tools of unknown purpose, and piles of documents on the desk.
And a framed photo of Yaga with a woman.
"That's my wife."
...Was I staring for that long? Toji turned his gaze to Yaga expressionlessly. On Yaga's left ring finger was a plain gold ring without any pattern or gem.
"Married, huh."
"Yes."
"It doesn't seem like you get to go home much."
Missions, report writing, curse creation, teaching and guiding students. Yaga's daily routine was too predictable and bleak.
Yaga smiled bitterly.
"It's because I'm a sorcerer. These past few years, we've especially been short on manpower."
"I wonder how long your wife can tolerate that. It must be hard to explain if she's not a sorceress."
A sense of duty and responsibility as a sorcerer and teacher. Is that it? Toji couldn't understand since he had never felt such things. Is that a reason to give up on love?
Just the love of Chie alone was enough to overwhelm him, to sweep him away.
Such a waste. Toji picked up the tea that Yaga had offered.
"As per the orders of the Jujutsu Headquarters, I have been observing you until now."
"..."
Toji stopped drinking his tea and slowly put down the teacup.
"You knew."
"I'm not an idiot, of course, I knew. You knew too, didn't you?"
That I knew.
Yaga felt chills run down his spine as he met the sharp green eyes.
Yaga himself hadn't paid much attention to the spars between Toji, Gojo, and Geto from a certain point onwards. But that didn't mean there weren't eyes on them.
'Because I had sent a curse corpse there instead.'
On the sports field, in the forest, at the dormitory... there was a curse corpse watching Toji everywhere.
'It was the same just now.'
Just before Gojo was about to launch a cursed energy spear, what Toji had noticed with his keen senses was one of Yaga's curse corpses.
Whether it was only set to observe or to react only when a student was severely injured, it didn't intervene just now.
'This one's quite unique, too.'
The art of manipulating inanimate objects with cursed energy wasn't uncommon. However, someone like Yaga, who could produce curse corpses en masse, was very rare. Even if Toji destroyed curse corpses during training pretending not to know, Yaga would immediately send new ones.
"You have a good sense."
"Without cursed energy, I have to be good at something, right? Otherwise, wouldn't it be too unfair for me?"
Well, you wouldn't know since you've never lacked it. Toji sneered inwardly.
"So, you called me here to say you've been spying on me?"
Yaga silently drank his tea, wetting his throat, then spoke.
"The higher-ups have decided to acknowledge you as a sorcerer and assign you a grade."
Silence fell. Toji spun his index finger around his temple.
"Are they crazy?"
Insane? Has the time finally come? The sorcerer killers, especially a monkey without any cursed energy, being recognized as a sorcerer by the old folks in the higher-ups?
Yaga understood Toji's confusion. In fact, the higher-ups didn't even want to discuss Toji, who lacked cursed energy.
But this time, they had no choice.
"Satoru and Suguru recommended you as a Grade 1 sorcerer."
Toji's playful gesture paused.
"...When?"
"It was November 11th."
It was Zoro's birthday. It was also the day when Toji definitely wouldn't have been at the Jujutsu High.
'I wondered why those two were grinding their teeth at each other recently.'
So they had this in mind.
No matter how uncontrollable and irredeemable the kid was, Gojo Satoru is the head of the Gojo family. Given such a person recommended him as a Grade 1 sorcerer, it would have been difficult for the higher-ups to completely ignore.
"Some sorcerers strongly opposed, making it impossible for him to become a Grade 1 sorcerer... but a grade will still be assigned."
"The grade is."
"...Grade 4."
"Ha!"
Not sure if I should have expected just Grade 4, be astonished that a sorcerer killer who has killed many sorcerers has been accepted as a sorcerer, or laugh at the fact that he, who has been so dismissed for not having any cursed energy, was finally recognized as a sorcerer.
"So? What then?"
"Probably... you will work as a physical technique teacher at Tokyo Jujutsu High. You'll receive official missions as a sorcerer and teach students, like me."
"My kids."
"You can leave them at the high school or take them home."
Honestly, the higher-ups were more than just troubled by the existence of Toji, who had zero cursed energy; they were at their wits' end. They didn't want to discuss the disposition of Zoro, a non-sorcerer child with powers similar to a sorcerer, in this situation. Especially since Zoro was Toji's son.
"Ha, haha... really, they're going to do that?"
Toji couldn't help but burst into laughter. It was too absurd to bear.
"So, what about you? Do you think the same?"
"..."
"Can you trust your students with me?"
The sorcerer killer who had been under surveillance by curse corpses every day?
Yaga looked down.
He was originally known as a sorcerer killer. Even if he hadn't shown any malice towards the students so far, it was hard to be reassured. A sorcerer killer acted out of motive for money rather than grudges or personal beliefs.
'Just cooperating for now because our interests align.'
Yaga thought that a person who could become an enemy of the high school anytime their interests change was a sorcerer killer.
Ignoring him as if he didn't exist would make it impossible to designate Toji as a target in case of an emergency. Therefore, Yaga agreed to assigning Toji a grade, but he vehemently opposed the idea of him becoming a teacher responsible for protecting and guiding students. The issue wasn't his ability, but his character.
However, somehow, Toji's appointment as a physical techniques teacher at Tokyo Jujutsu High passed incredibly quickly.
What gave Yaga hope was the fact that the sorcerer killer he had heard of and the Zenin Toji he had experienced firsthand seemed to show somewhat different sides.
"...It's a question I usually ask students who enroll in the high school, but given the circumstances, I dare to ask. Why do you want to become a sorcerer?"
"I'm not a sorcerer. What sorcerer without cursed energy?"
"Let me rephrase the question. Why do you kill curses and assist sorcerers?"
"Well, have I ever helped sorcerers?"
Even though he had killed sorcerers. Toji scoffed. Yaga shook his head in disagreement.
"From a certain point, you stopped killing sorcerers and started killing curses and cursed users. In the incident involving your son, the only people who died were the cursed users who were clearly involved and their groups protecting them. Non-sorcerers were punished according to the law, and sorcerers who were not clearly involved were not killed by you."
Considering the past actions of a sorcerer killer, this was quite surprising.
"...And now, although you are being paid, you cooperate with the headquarters' investigations and teach students. Even when Satoru does something crazy, you have never attempted to kill him."
"..."
"Why?"
Toji didn't answer Yaga's question and turned his gaze out the window. In the distance, beyond the window, Megumi was playing tag, running wildly through the high school with Tsumiki and Zoro.
"Because I realized that shouldn't have been the case."
The fundamental reason Toji had killed people in the past was ultimately inferiority. Because they was a sorcerer. Because they possessed cursed energy and techniques. He killed recklessly under the pretext of earning money.
It was only after facing Megumi properly that he realized there should be no life that must die just because it's considered blessed. Most sorcerers did nothing about his misfortune and bad luck, especially those who died by Toji's hand.
As always, it was an enlightenment that came too late.
That's why he didn't act against sorcerers without clear evidence during the investigation of the special grade curse incident and left non-sorcerers to be punished according to the law. Gojo Satoru, too, was somewhat being spared.
If he started killing because he had a hunch, because the law was too weak, or because that young master annoyed him... nothing would have changed.
Just like when he killed sorcerers in the past, using money as an excuse for his vendetta.
"Do you regret it?"
"I don't know."
Regret? ...I'm not sure. It wouldn't change anything, after all.
His hands are still stained with the blood of the innocent, and that can never be erased.
But he was worried.
Not about Toji, but about the children who would be around Toji.
Especially the most stubborn one. Toji sighed as he saw Zoro run off into some random forest during a game of tag.
"Do you know what happens when you have a son by your side, no matter what?"
"..."
"...I become afraid."
Because I don't know how far my marimo child would go for him.
'Marimos should just be comfortably in their aquariums.'
Marimos are supposed to roll around in the aquarium, playing with sea urchins, and when the time comes, just dive into the vast ocean together with the sea urchins. Not keep jumping out of the aquarium, getting covered in blood, and clinging uselessly to themselves.
But that guy is too stubborn, gruff, and yet unnecessarily deeply emotional.
Even for such a mess of a father, he doesn't take his eyes off him, and if he sits down defeated, he comes back and reaches out his hand.
Even if Toji's place is hell, even if Zoro has to immerse himself in the flames of hell to come to Toji.
"That's why I'm trying to change."
So that it's a little less hard for Zoro when he comes back to Toji.
Yaga thought of the green-haired boy who always had two smaller children with him. He seemed quite ordinary for someone known to have soloed a special grade curse.
'Is it for the sake of being by that child's side...'
It was a somewhat precarious reason, but still better than not having any at all. The former sorcerer killer didn't have such a line to begin with.
Although it wasn't the most satisfactory answer, Toji's appointment as a teacher had already been decided. There was no choice but to accept it.
Yaga bowed his head once again.
"Welcome to Jujutsu High, Mr. Zenin."
"Call me Mr. Toji."
Mr. Zenin sounded like he was being treated the same as those old men, which he disliked.
"Ah, and about reverse curse technique?"
"Yes?"
"How good are your reverse curse technique skills?"
"Why do you ask..."
"Those guys, I think I need to kill them once."
"Excuse me?!"
Toji recalled Gojo Satoru, who had just been chanting a spell and launching his maximum output Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue.
'They think they can beat me if they use their techniques and go all out, so they pull such stunts.'
He needed to make sure they wouldn't even think of doing such a thing again. Both of them. It would make teaching them in the future easier.
Since there was a reverse curse technician around, he was thinking of killing them once. Toji smirked menacingly.
"..."
Seeing that smirk, Yaga thought that maybe he should have opposed Toji's appointment as a teacher at Jujutsu High with his life on the line.
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