The next day, morning.
An upscale private school in Tokyo—Renchoku Girls' Junior High.
It was class time, so the campus was quiet. This school was known for its strict security and rigorous school culture. Vehicles and personnel entering and exiting required strict screening.
But these security measures were non-existent to Yamada, who had Kamui.
He wore a black trench coat, held a newspaper he had swiped from somewhere, and leisurely walked through the locked iron fence of the school's back gate.
That's right, walked right through it.
The moment his body made contact with the iron fence, that part of his body automatically turned intangible and transferred to another dimension, then instantly materialized after passing through the obstacle.
The whole process was smooth and fluid, not even triggering the alarm.
"Junior high, second year."
Yamada stopped in front of a teaching building. He didn't go upstairs, but sat down on a bench facing the exit of the teaching building's playground. He unfolded the newspaper, appearing to be reading the day's financial news, while the corner of his eye had already locked onto the music classroom at the end of the second-floor corridor.
Ring—
The bell for the end of class finally rang.
The previously quiet teaching building instantly came to life, filled with the chattering and laughter of young girls.
Before long, a group of girls wearing dark blue sailor-style junior high uniforms poured out from the stairwell and headed toward the playground.
In the center of the crowd, a girl with long black hair and a headband was particularly eye-catching. She was gesticulating enthusiastically, sharing some interesting story with her companions.
Amanai Riko.
Star Plasma Vessel.
A tragic girl born destined to be a sacrifice, to assimilate with Tengen who had lived for a thousand years, in order to maintain the stability of the barrier in the Jujutsu world.
"Amanai, let's go shopping in Harajuku this weekend. I heard a super delicious crepe shop just opened there." A female classmate with twin tails suggested excitedly.
"Yes, I also want to buy the new hair clips." Amanai Riko clapped happily, showing no trace of the gloom of carrying a heavy destiny.
At least at this moment, she was just a fourteen-year-old girl enjoying ordinary middle school life.
Yamada looked at her innocent and carefree appearance and folded the newspaper in his hand.
'Using a little girl who knows nothing as a human battery to fill a hole. The way these old geezers in the Jujutsu world operate is even more disgusting than the Ubuyashiki Family's rules back in the day, where they'd commit seppuku at the drop of a hat.'
Just as Yamada was about to get up to greet this Star Plasma Vessel as a passerby, hs keen perception made him notice something wrong.
Outside the wall at the edge of the playground, less than fifty meters from Amanai Riko, a faint ripple of cursed energy was faintly coming from the air. That was the telltale sign that only sorcerers or trained killers would show when trying their best to hide their presence.
'Small-fry killers hired by the Star Religious Group, couldn't they hold back even this long?'
Yamada sat back down on the bench, crossing his legs, with no intention of acting immediately.
He came today just to recognize her face and, by the way, confirm when those two high schoolers who claimed to be the strongest, Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru, would arrive.
Bang!
Just as Amanai Riko and her companions were preparing to cross the playground to the snack shop, the red bricks of the wall suddenly exploded.
Amidst the flying rubble, two masked killers wearing masks and holding short blades infused with cursed energy darted out like cheetahs, targeting Amanai Riko in the crowd.
"Ahhhh!"
The sudden turn of events terrified the group of middle school girls, who screamed and fled in all directions.
"Riko-sama! Danger!"
Kuroi Misato, who was responsible for taking care of Amanai Riko and was disguised as a school cleaner, rushed out from a corner, trying to block with the broom in her hand.
But she was only an ordinary person after all. Even if she had received some self-defense training, she was still vulnerable when facing professional killers holding cursed tools.
"Get lost!"
One of the killers sneered and slammed the back of his blade onto Kuroi Misato's shoulder, knocking her and the broom flying away.
The other killer took the opportunity to close in, his sharp short blade pressing directly toward Amanai Riko's throat.
"Die! For the purity of the Star Religious Group!"
Amanai Riko fell to the ground, eyes wide with terror, watching the blade grow larger in her vision.
Her mind went blank. She wanted to dodge, but her body was too stiff to move.
'Am I going to die?'
Just at this critical moment—
Boom!
A deafening explosion rang out from the rooftop of the teaching building.
A massive creature, looking like a mix of mud and white bones, descended from the sky with a roar that tore through the air, smashing fiercely toward the two masked killers.
Rainbow Dragon!
The two killers, who were grinning just a moment ago, didn't even have time to scream before they were crushed into the dirt of the playground by the massive body of the Rainbow Dragon, blood and bone fragments splattering everywhere.
Dust filled the air.
The shaken Amanai Riko looked up. She saw a boy with squinting eyes, wearing a black high school uniform and having a strange bun hairstyle, standing on top of the Rainbow Dragon, looking down at her.
Geto Suguru.
And in the air beside him, another figure was floating. A boy with flamboyant, short, white hair and small, round, black sunglasses perched on his nose, also wearing a high school uniform, stood with his hands in his pockets, his toes stepping on empty air, his posture extremely arrogant.
Gojo Satoru.
"Suguru, your entrance is way too rough. At least consider the hearts of the little girls around here."
Gojo Satoru landed lightly on the ground from mid-air, reached up to push his sunglasses, his pale blue "Six Eyes" scanning the killers who had been crushed into pulp by the Rainbow Dragon through the lenses.
"Stop talking nonsense, Satoru. Protecting the Star Plasma Vessel is our top priority. Sensei emphasized repeatedly that we can't let anything go wrong."
Geto Suguru jumped off the back of the Rainbow Dragon, walked over to Amanai Riko, extended his hand, and put on a smile he considered quite kind.
"Are you okay, Amanai-chan? We are second-year students from the Tokyo Jujutsu High School, sent by Master Tengen to escort you to the Star Corridor."
Amanai Riko looked at this terrifying "monster," then looked at these two high school boys whose entrance was even weirder than the killers, and subconsciously shrank back.
"Who... on earth are you people!"
It wasn't just her, the surrounding girls who were watching were also trembling with fear.
On the bench in the distance.
Yamada watched as this rumored "strongest duo" finally made their appearance, a look of interest on his face.
'One plays Pokémon, the other has invincibility hacks enabled.'
He stood up and tossed the newspaper into a trash can nearby.
The show was over, it was time to get down to business.
Yamada brushed off the hem of his trench coat, strode forward with his long legs, and very naturally pushed through the crowd, walking straight toward the three young people in the center of the playground who seemed a bit awkward due to the lack of communication.
"Nice to meet you. The two 'strongest' from Jujutsu High?"
A lazy and slightly flippant voice rang out abruptly on the tense playground.
Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru turned their heads at the same time.
The moment Gojo Satoru's "Six Eyes" landed on Yamada, his pupils under the sunglasses contracted sharply, and his hands, which had been in his pockets, were pulled out involuntarily.
In his vision, there wasn't even a shred of cursed energy flowing inside the body of the black-haired young man in front of him.
But this was definitely not the Heavenly Restriction that completely stripped away cursed energy like Fushiguro Toji. Because around this person without cursed energy, the space was undergoing extremely subtle, yet substantial, distortions. It was like a black hole, silently devouring the surrounding laws.
Danger.
Extremely dangerous!
"Who are you?" Gojo Satoru put away his cynical smile, his Cursed Technique instinctively activating at full power.
Yamada ignored Gojo Satoru's posture of facing a formidable enemy, walked over to Amanai Riko, took a mint he had bought on impulse from his pocket, and handed it to the Star Plasma Vessel who was still sitting on the ground.
"Eat a candy to calm your nerves, little girl."
He turned his head, looked at Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru, and a wicked smile curled at the corners of his lips.
"Me? I'm just a helpful citizen passing by. As a helpful citizen, what I can't stand most is bodyguards like you who push little girls into a pit of fire."