It took Hisagi a week to fully comprehend everything that had happened and to recover completely in the eyes of others.
The truth was, he had been in good enough condition to leave the school of sorcery for more than five days, but since he needed to maintain the appearance of a delayed recovery, he stayed at the school, teaching Maki his combat style and several spiritual barrier spells.
It was no surprise that she learned to create various barriers that didn't require cursed energy, but that day, Hisagi remembers it was the first time a girl had given him a sincere hug.
He wasn't looking for a partner, but it was comforting not to be seen as strange in the eyes of the world around him. He had always acted with much isolation due to his ability to see cursed spirits, but after joining this school, he started to open up more to others.
"Are you sure about that?" Hisagi had removed the bandages from his body, leaving only his uniform, which had undergone a few extra modifications.
On the other side of the call, Aoki was sharing the information he had gathered over the days Hisagi had been in a coma and isolated.
"Zz... That elderly woman has participated in several special competitions. Many say she seems to be a fraud, but according to my information, she's quite powerful."
"I'll ask around. I'll let you know when I'm on the move." Hisagi's expression showed some concern—his interest in these beings supposedly coming from space was something that troubled him.
These new enemies, although weak, had better technology than all the governments of this world. Just with that, they were already losing a large-scale war against these new foes.
Hisagi needed time to gather the right information and try to resolve things before they became much worse.
What reassured him about all this was that those "serpos" had been killed by cursed spirits, meaning that, like humans, they were also prey to the enemies of this world.
If the darkness didn't differentiate between humans and serpos, it meant that these invaders hadn't yet been studied by the cursed spirits.
When Hisagi ended the call, he walked toward the dining hall, where some of his classmates were having lunch.
He hadn't interacted much with Yuta, but neither was he avoiding him.
Like everyone else, Hisagi wouldn't blame anyone for being cursed. It was already an achievement that this boy was here, offering his strength to a cause that was better than doing nothing.
"Is there anything for lunch?" Hisagi asked with a softer expression.
Toge looked at Hisagi and said, "Salmon."
"Panda ate all the jam sandwiches; how are we supposed to find anything good after that?"
Maki sat next to Hisagi, placing a bowl of cereal and milk in front of him.
"I don't eat," Panda shouted, a little offended.
"Wait."
"Huh?"
Hisagi looked seriously at his cereal bowl, and everyone fell silent, sensing something was off, so no one spoke.
"What comes first, the cereal or the milk?" Hisagi raised his gaze and evaluated everyone in the dining hall.
Yuta, who had just returned from training, froze in the corner of the room, watching all his companions staring at two bowls—one empty without milk and the other already prepared with cereal.
"The milk," Panda said, confident in his answer.
"The cereal," Maki dismissed Panda's words as if he had committed a serious war crime.
Toge nodded and said, "Salmon."
'What is salmon even supposed to mean at this point?' Hisagi thought as Toge slowly entered the conversation without drawing too much attention to the two bowls on the table.
Hisagi then looked at him intently and said, "I think the milk goes first. Now, we're two against two, so the final decision will settle this."
"Yuta, what do you think?" Panda asked loudly.
"Huh?"
Before eating her cereal, Maki said, "What's your opinion on this? These two idiots have their brains damaged for reversing the order of things."
"Changing the order of the factors doesn't alter the product." Hisagi tried to defend himself against this hysterical girl.
"Shut up," Maki, who had recently been feeling strange things for Hisagi, interrupted him before he could say more.
Yuta looked at the two bowls on the table and whispered, "Cereal goes first."
"It can't be," Panda shouted furiously.
"Blasphemy," Hisagi was displeased that the cereal wouldn't stay crunchy, which was why he always poured the milk first.
"Well, everyone eats things the way they like." Yuta couldn't handle this social pressure, but he smiled after seeing Panda and Hisagi arguing with Maki, while Toge just kept saying, "Salmon."
...
Once things calmed down, they all stood in front of Gojo, who said, "Well, now that you've all been in the field from one situation to another, it's time for you to participate in a group mission."
"That's wonderful." Panda clenched his fist, expecting to see the excited faces of his companions, but instead found everyone looking quite disinterested.
Maki raised her hand and said, "Excuse me, Gojo sensei, but when will Hisagi graduate? It's quite discouraging to see someone who does everything on missions."
"Frozen salmon…" Toge felt bad for not being able to help Hisagi during their last mission together.
Although Hisagi supported this idea, he looked at Maki as if she had hurt him and asked, "Do you dislike working with someone who prevents you from getting hurt that much?"
"That's the point." Maki didn't want to be misunderstood, but she was glad Hisagi understood her perspective.
She wanted to be strong, and she was learning techniques that Hisagi was sharing with her, but she wouldn't achieve anything if in every dangerous situation, he was there to help her.
Yuta simply smiled; in the last mission, he hadn't been able to prevent his partner, Maki, from getting hurt, and he felt bad about it.
Hisagi frowned and muttered, "Aren't you only fifteen?"
"What's the point of knowing my age?"
"Well, you look good."
But before everyone could continue talking about pointless things, Gojo interrupted them and pointed out, "You'll be visiting a building under renovation. There are several troublesome cursed spirits there, and your mission is to eliminate them. Since Hisagi will be in the group, you won't need my supervision."
"I'll take care of the chicks." Hisagi murmured, thinking that his chance to move without raising suspicion had finally arrived.