The next day,
I sat up in my bed, looking at the floor. I couldn't sleep, not after that nightmare. I sighed and stood up. I did the same routine as always: I showered, put on my clothes, and went to the kitchen to make breakfast, but before I could go to the kitchen, I stopped, looking at the open room of Megumi. He wasn't there. My mind wandered to the look on his face yesterday, his eyes full of disbelief, his shocked face. I grabbed my phone, and while I was walking towards the kitchen, I called Megumi.
"Hello." The dry tone of Megumi came from the other line.
"Hello," I said, my head falling in shame. "Are you in the hospital with your sister?" I said, looking up at the fridge. I couldn't bear to say her name; if I did, I would drown in guilt.
"Yes," Megumi said shortly.
I started cutting the ingredients for my breakfast. "Megumi, do you want me to call your school to tell them that today you are not attending?" I asked softly.
"Okay," he said shortly before hanging up.
I looked at the phone in my hand for a while before continuing to make breakfast.
As I put the ingredients in the pan, I dialed Gojo's number.
"Good morning, Noroi," Gojo said with a cheerful tone. "Are you better today?"
I stood there for a few seconds, looking at the food cooking before replying. "Yeah."
"I'm glad," Gojo said cheerfully. "Do you want to come to Jujutsu High to train with my students?"
"Yeah, I'll come later," I said, putting my food on a plate. "I was calling you because I need two things."
"Haah?!" Gojo yelled on the other line. "So you weren't calling to see how I was?!" he said dramatically. "That hurts, you know?"
I looked at the phone deadpan. Honestly, I wasn't in the mood to joke right now, so I ignored Gojo. "Megumi won't be going to school today; he's with his sister, so please call the school and tell them," I said after swallowing a bit of egg.
"Okay," Gojo said softly. "And what's the other thing?" he asked curiously.
"I want to stay in Jujutsu High dorms," I said, drinking a bit of water.
"???" Gojo didn't say a word for two minutes, which was rare for him, and after taking a deep breath, he spoke. "Why?" he said shortly.
"Because…" I whispered softly. "I want to stay closer to Jujutsu High so I can take missions without having to move from home," I lied.
"...…." From his silence, I knew that he didn't believe that. "Okay," he said after a while. "I'll talk with Yaga," he said softly.
"Okay, I'm going to Jujutsu High now," I said after finishing my breakfast.
"Okay," Gojo said before I hung up. I took the plate to the kitchen and washed it.
As I finished, I took everything I needed and left my apartment. When I left, I took a cigarette from the box and lit it up.
I took a drag and looked to my side. A woman with dark hair and a bob cut, a scar on her forehead that looked like stitches, was standing there looking at me with a strange gaze.
"Can I help you, ma'am?" I asked, trying to be polite. The woman looked at me and, with a strange smile, she started talking.
"Young man, smoking is bad for the body," she said with a soft tone. "And if you are a teenager, it could affect your growth."
I looked at her for a while before taking another drag. "I appreciate the help, ma'am, but I think I'm going to keep smoking," I said, bowing slightly.
"I see," the woman said, her face unchanged. "Then, young man, would you allow me to talk to you about biology?"
I looked at her, confused, but just nodded without saying a word.
"Have you studied genetics, young man?" the woman asked; her tone was strangely more excited.
"I have heard of that, yes," I said, looking at her after taking another drag of my cigarette.
Her smile grew, and she looked at me intensely. "You know that we inherit the genes of our parents, right?" I nodded as I took another drag. "Well, the traits that we inherit have a peculiar system." She paused for a while before speaking again. "The traits are classified into alleles. There is one that is dominant and one that's recessive. Let's say that the dominant is A and that the recessive is a, okay?" she said before taking a breath.
"When a parent AA crosses with a parent aa, what would happen?" she said, gesturing with her hands.
I looked at her, expecting an answer, while I took another drag. "It would result in a son being guaranteed one hundred percent Aa. But don't be confused; in this result, the trait of the son would be A because it's the dominant," she said, looking at me.
I nodded, understanding that. "But this is not the only thing that can happen in an inheritance of genes. For example, when a man and a woman have a child, there are some traits that are linked to gender," she said. Her voice grew excited, and she looked at me fiercely. "Maybe a woman wasn't born with brown hair that the two parents had; maybe it was a trait linked to gender, and he thinks that his wife has cheated on him, or maybe someone thinks that he failed," she whispered the last part.
I looked at her strangely before taking the last drag from my cigarette.
"Biology is fascinating, isn't it?" the woman said with enthusiasm.
Looking at the excited woman, I just stared at her with a confused face.
She seemed to notice and returned to the expression she had when I met her. "I'm sorry, young man, I got carried away by excitement." Apologizing, the woman looked at me for a while before telling me she was going on her way.
"Okay, take care, Ms.?" I asked, looking at her.
"Kaori," she said before turning and leaving.
I looked at her for a while before sighing. I took my phone and dialed Kenji so he could come pick me up.
In a few minutes, Kenji's car parked in front of me. "Good morning, Noroi-sama," Kenji said with a cheerful smile. "Is your wish to go to Jujutsu High?" he asked, already aware of the routine we were going to follow from now on.
"Yes, please," I said after entering the car. Kenji nodded and started driving towards Jujutsu High.
'Who was that woman?' I thought for a while, looking outside the window. 'She was familiar,' I said, wondering where I could have seen her.
As I was wondering where I had seen that woman before, the car stopped and I got out. "Thanks, Kenji-san," I said before walking towards the buildings of Jujutsu High.
He nodded and left. I started looking for the students for a while before going straight to the training grounds.
But as I was about to arrive, a voice interrupted me. "Oi! Noroi!" a voice that I knew I had promised a spar shouted from behind.
I turned and saw Kirara and Hakari looking at me. "Yo, Hakari, Kirara," I said as they approached me.
"Hello, Noroi," Kirara said with a small wave.
"Noroi, you know that we have a pending spar to do," Hakari said, jumping straight to the point.
"Yeah, I know. Let's go to the training grounds," I said with a smile. Hakari grinned ferociously and nodded.
As we approached the training grounds, we saw Yuuta, Maki, Inumaki, and Panda in the training grounds.
"Yo, Hakari-sempai, Noroi," Panda said, waving at us.
"Hey, Panda, you don't greet me?!" Kirara said with a pout.
"You too, Kirara-sempai," Panda said, scratching the back of his head.
"Hmph." Kirara just grunted and frowned.
"Hey, Maki. Who are those two?" Yuuta whispered to Maki while wiping the sweat off his forehead.
Maki looked at Yuuta for a while before turning to us. "They are the second years, Hakari Kinji and Kirara Hoshi."
"Well, no time to talk. I'm itching to fight right now. Let's go, Noroi," Hakari said, ignoring all the formalities and jumping straight to the battlefield.
"Okay, okay," I said before jumping to the training grounds too.
We stood there, looking at each other for a while. "I'll say when the match starts, okay?!" Kirara said, watching us from the stands.
I took my fighting stance, and Hakari just put his hands in his pockets.
"We are about to see two grade one sorcerers fight," Maki said, watching closely the match that was about to unfold.
"Hakari-sempai is grade one too?" Yuuta asked, looking at Maki.
"Salmon," Inumaki replied, sitting beside Panda.
"Begin!" Kirara yelled. As she said that, I dashed towards Hakari, and he did the same.
I launched a right hook towards his face, and instead of dodging, he launched another right hook at my face.
Both fists connected with their targets, and we backed up a few steps.
"Damn, your cursed energy is still as rough as sandpaper," I said, looking at Hakari, who was laughing.
"You say that as if your cursed energy didn't feel like I was being sliced with razors," he said, laughing.
He dashed towards me and prepared to launch another right hook, but before it landed, I put my arms in a cross to block.
But the hit never landed. As I looked at Hakari, two train doors slammed at my sides, binding me in place. I looked at him, surprised, before trying to free myself with my two other arms. But before I could, a flurry of punches landed on the arms I was using to block.
After a few seconds, I freed myself and launched a kick straight to Hakari's liver.
He grunted and backed up a few steps. My arms were swollen and red from the hits I took, but I decided to continue attacking. I dashed rapidly to his side and punched him with a left hook that he blocked with his right arm. As he blocked, I grabbed him by the arm and punched him hard in the stomach with my lower right arm.
Hakari retaliated by punching me in the face and kicking me in the stomach afterward.
I let go of his arm and backed up. "That was a good warm-up," Hakari shouted with glee.
I looked at him and already knew what was going to happen. He took a posture that I knew well and shouted, "Domain Expansion!" with a smile.
"What?!" Maki exclaimed with surprise. "He has a domain expansion?!"
"Idle Death Gamble," Hakari said as a barrier enclosed us from the outside world.
A rush of information filled my brain with Hakari's Domain Expansion rules, but I ignored it because I already knew it—and because of the pachinko ball shot at me.
I cut it in half and looked at Hakari, who was already with his hand in the posture he used to summon his doors.
As I dodged the doors, a scene started to appear around us: a boy ran to catch a train in the station.
I decided not to attack Hakari and watched the scene with my arms crossed.
Hakari looked at me and grinned before directing his gaze towards the scene.
The boy arrived at the train, and three slots appeared floating in the air.
"Jackpot!" Hakari shouted, and the domain around us broke, and music started playing around him. He launched himself towards me and unleashed a flurry of attacks that I countered with my own.
"Let's go, Noroi! Show me your fever!" Hakari said before overpowering me and launching a hit that sent me into the air.
I landed on my feet and grinned with emotion. "Hahahaha!" I said before launching multiple cuts at Hakari with a hand sign.
He noticed and managed to dodge some, but one severed his arm.
"Isn't this getting too dangerous?" Yuuta asked, shocked and fearful to see an arm being severed.
But as he said that, Hakari's arm grew again with reverse cursed technique.
"That's it! Show it to me!" he said before launching himself towards me.
I grinned harder and dashed towards him. He tried a left hook, but I ducked and dodged before moving my arm and hand in a line where Hakari's stomach was.
A big cut appeared on his stomach, but he shrugged it off and launched a kick towards my face. I blocked and placed a palm on his thigh.
"Hachi (Cleave)," I said as a flurry of slashes cut the thigh until it was amputated.
Seeing an opportunity, Hakari grabbed my head by the hair and slammed a knee into my face.
I backed up and looked at him with a smile. 'Two minutes thirty-three seconds,' I counted in my mind the time that had passed since he hit the jackpot.
His leg regenerated, and he dashed towards me. We exchanged some blows, and as he was about to land a hit on my face, I cut his arm and kicked him in the ribs.
He shrugged it off and tried punching me with his other arm. I cut it too, but what I didn't expect was that he launched a punch in the midst of regeneration, hitting me in the face.
I backed up. 'Three minutes thirty seconds,' I counted. 'If I don't destroy his brain, he should be basically immortal, so I think he doesn't mind if I go all out,' I thought before dashing towards him.
I launched a web of slashes towards him with my open hand, but he sensed something was off and tried dodging. He wasn't fast enough, and half his body was sliced into little squares.
He laughed and regenerated instantly before approaching me fiercely, launching a barrage of punches that I blocked. As I blocked, I started a countdown. 'Five, four, three, two,' I thought carefully before grabbing one of his wrists. "One," I whispered and launched a cleave at his wrist, severing his hand. "You lost," I said with confidence.
He grinned fiercely and threw a punch at my face that landed right on my nose.
I looked at him, a little surprised, before grinning myself and launching a punch. He didn't dodge nor block; he just punched me repeatedly with his only hand, and I reciprocated. We did that for a while before I decided to finish things for good and punched him repeatedly in the liver with my two lower arms. He faltered and grunted, and I launched a right hook towards his chin that landed straight on target.
He grunted and fell to the ground, panting heavily. I looked at him, my face bruised and my stomach and arms red from the hits. I dropped beside him, panting.
"Hah… Hah… That was a pretty good fever," he said with a smile. "Thank you, Noroi," he said before passing out.
I chuckled slightly before deciding to take a break right there on the ground. "Thank you, Hakari. I needed this to forget, temporarily, about the past few days," I whispered before sighing contentedly