Life doesn't always go as planned, and most things won't work out. Although this phrase may be an exaggeration, there are always people and situations in this world that leave you feeling powerless. No matter how strong or perfect you are, when faced with certain things, even you will falter.
For example, Akira when dealing with Hayami, or Gojo Satoru when dealing with Nanami Kento.
"You should've told me earlier!"
Nanami held his phone, voicing his complaint to the other end.
"Ah, sorry, sorry. I just solved it so easily that I forgot to mention it. Thanks for reminding me! Anyway, here's something nice to calm you down."
Gojo's voice, as always, was light and carefree, without a hint of remorse.
But the "nice thing" was sent promptly—it was a photo.
The first thing visible was a large close-up of Gojo's face, his signature white hair and nearly opaque sunglasses making him instantly recognizable. Behind him, someone was tightly bound.
The person's long hair covered their shoulders, obscuring their gender. Their attire matched the Q organization members sprawled all over the ground behind them.
The so-called "nice thing" seemed to be the way the person was tied up like a turtle shell, with some cheeky PS text added in certain areas—"It's small..."
You didn't need to think hard to know who did that. Being bullied this way, the Q members were truly unlucky.
Akira glanced at Gojo's face in the photo. He looked much younger than now.
"Is this a photo from when you wiped out the Q organization ten years ago?"
"Actually, it wasn't just me. It was all of us… But we simply dealt with the troublemakers, and afterward, we heard the organization fell apart because we took out all their jujutsu sorcerers."
"So, you mean back then, you shattered Q's elite forces, leading to their collapse, but the other parts of the organization were left untouched?"
Akira sighed, finally understanding why Nanami had lost his temper.
"It's even possible that the organization's collapse was just a cover-up."
"After all, the ones at the top give the orders, but it's always the workers below who do the actual tasks." Nanami once again slipped into his disdainful "work is crap" mindset.
Akira didn't mind and continued, "And the ones funding and controlling the key resources are the people at the top. They can easily claim the organization has disbanded, wait for the heat to die down, and then reassemble under a new name. The so-called 'elite forces' are just high-level workers."
"Exactly. Even someone called the 'King of Workers' is still, at their core, just a worker."
Nanami, having been a salaryman, and Akira, who also worked before, had no trouble connecting on this topic.
"I'm starting to admire Gojo-sensei a little."
"Heh heh heh." Being admired by his most reliable student, Gojo's satisfaction almost oozed through the phone.
Nanami decisively hung up, preventing Gojo from becoming any more smug.
Of course, when it came to proper evaluations, Nanami didn't hold back. He was a reliable man.
"That's one of the reasons I returned to the jujutsu world. Here, personal strength is magnified. Capital isn't always absolute; the two can check and balance each other to a certain degree. Still, I don't agree with everything Gojo does. Order must always come first. In that respect, I agree with the higher-ups."
Akira understood Nanami's philosophy and wisely didn't press further.
He wasn't going to mention that order wasn't immutable. Human history has witnessed numerous cycles of breaking and rebuilding order.
Nor would he voice his suspicion that Q might just be a dog secretly nurtured by the higher-ups, doing their dirty work and taking the blame. Whenever needed, it could be brought out to distract attention, and when not needed, they could dissolve it, only to reassemble it later. The fact that an anti-establishment group like Q could exist for so long in a tightly controlled world of jujutsu spoke volumes.
The "beacon of freedom" nations are infamous for such tactics, and as a keen observer of such strategies, Akira couldn't help but wonder if Gojo tasked Nanami and himself with this mission precisely to avoid the higher-ups' scrutiny and act ahead of them.
After all, Gojo attracted too much attention. Nanami and Akira, on the other hand, operated under the radar, but with strength to back them up.
One was a grade 1 sorcerer, regarded as the strongest in conventional terms.
The other, nominally grade 4 but already standing on the threshold of special grade.
In the world of jujutsu, "special grade" signified a level beyond the ordinary, which is why there were only four such individuals.
"Let's set aside Gojo-sensei's antics. The real issue is how we deal with this 'resurrected' Q organization. With the members dead, there's no way to trace any leads."
If the people had survived, Akira could have had Gardevoir attempt to trace them psychically. But now that this path was blocked, they had to rely on conventional means—
"We could have the police run a big data comparison to identify these people, then investigate their associates. We'd also need to pull surveillance footage from the area to check for any suspicious individuals, though Japanese police tend to be inefficient… Maybe Gojo-sensei could put pressure on the police to—"
"Akira." Nanami's calm voice interrupted Akira's thoughts. "This isn't your concern. We're jujutsu sorcerers, not police officers, not forensic scientists, not detectives."
"If we had to handle everything, we'd have been dead from overwork long ago. Leave specialized tasks to specialized people. We just need to fight as sorcerers. That too, is a form of order."
Akira felt a jolt in his heart.
Ever since coming to this world, he had always been in a state of isolation. Regardless of whether he had people around him or not, there were many things he couldn't talk about openly—he had to plan everything himself.
How to escape the dire situation with the Kamo family. How to secure a better future. Even when he moved to rural Shikoku, he still hid many things from Hayami.
Over time, Akira had grown accustomed to thinking through everything by himself, considering every possible angle.
In some ways, that was a good thing. Gojo, Nanami, and others trusted him. His peers relied on him, treating him like a half-teacher. Even Principal Yaga jokingly said that Akira's presence gave him more time to drink tea and craft puppets.
But there were also drawbacks. Living like this was exhausting, and without realizing it, Akira had taken on too much, overstepping his boundaries—a serious mistake in any workplace.
"I'm sorry, Nanami-sensei. I was overthinking it. I won't make this mistake again. If I do, please point it out."
"Of course, I'll point it out. If you want to overthink things, that's your problem, just don't drag me into it. I only do what's within my job description. Anything else has nothing to do with me, and they won't pay me extra for it."
Nanami, the ultimate worker, just wanted a peaceful life.
"In short, what happens to you is none of my concern!"
Akira pretended not to hear the final, sharp remark, mentally translating it into a tsundere "No way!"
"Nanami-sensei, what's our next move?"
"We wait. We let the professionals handle cleanup and investigation. Until we get further instructions, your job is to focus on mastering Black Flash. Remember, no matter how powerful we become, we're still humans, not superhumans."
Now that's what a true teacher should say! (leans back in tactical admiration).