The head of the Special Grade Cursed Spirit, torn away by Gojo's rough grasp, crumbled in the air and scattered into white ash.
However, just before the spirit could completely dissipate into nothingness, black and ominous energy coalesced at the center of the remains, shrinking into a small black sphere the size of a ping-pong ball.
Suguru Geto reached out and snatched the sphere. It was the capture of Cursed Spirit Manipulation.
"Gulp."
Without a moment's hesitation, Geto tossed the pitch-black sphere into his mouth and swallowed it.
"Ugh... tastes terrible."
As Geto grimaced as if he'd just chewed on a dirty rag, Gojo approached him, his eyes sparkling.
"Oh! Did you get the Special Grade?"
"I don't know, I haven't quite gotten the hang of it yet. Shall I try summoning it?"
Geto gave a light flick of his fingers.
With a sharp snap, a fierce gale swirled inside the gym, and the Cursed Spirit they had just fought to the death suddenly manifested before them.
"Oh~ This is a real Special Grade... but why does it look so vacant?"
Just as Gojo said, the captured Cursed Spirit had hollow, unfocused eyes, as if it had lost all its intelligence.
I pointed my finger at that stupid face and shouted with gusto.
"Go! Rayquaza! Domain Expansion!"
"...Why is it Rayquaza?"
Geto retorted, looking utterly baffled.
"Look at it. It's got a snake head and it's green. Obviously."
"Haaa... whatever. It's an order. Domain Expansion."
Letting out a deep sigh at my stubbornness, Geto gave the instruction to the spirit with a resigned face. However, 'Rayquaza' only tilted its head as if it didn't understand the command. Seeing this, Gojo clicked his tongue.
"Is this really the same Special Grade we fought? That guy was fighting smart, neutralizing my Blue with wind and everything. Did he get a lobotomy when you ripped his head off? He looks a bit sketchy."
"No. Unfortunately, it's not the full power of the main body that bragged about being the God of Wind. It seems its specs are more like those wind clones I was dealing with outside," Geto replied, wiping the bitter taste from his lips.
"I guess I should have gathered it in its complete state before it started dissipating. Fine, let me test it one more time. I command you: use the strongest technique you have."
Then, a bizarre mechanical sound, like a stretched audio tape being played back, emanated from the mouth of the spirit we thought was mute.
Maximum... Samadhi Gale.
"Wait, what?!"
The sudden appearance of a finishing move was completely unexpected. The three of us flinched in surprise and instinctively crossed our arms in a guard position.
BOOOOOOOM—!!
At that moment, an overwhelming blast of wind swept across the gym floor.
"Fuuuuuuuuck~~~!"
Suddenly, a familiar scream echoed from the upper reaches of the air. It was my voice.
Absurdly enough, my entire body, which had been caught directly in the blast, seemed to melt away before I found myself teleported near the gym ceiling tiles, flailing as I fell.
Meanwhile, that bastard Gojo was the only one who blocked it perfectly by wrapping himself in Infinity, while Geto stood peacefully as if the wind recognized him as its master.
CRASH—!!
"So it can't use Domain Expansion, but it can use its Maximum technique? This thing is actually hilarious."
I lay splayed out on the gym floor, lifting a trembling hand to give a struggling thumbs-up.
"Cough... Geto, congrats... A teleportation-type technique... Isn't it the ultimate partner for a shikigami user?"
It was then.
"Hey, you brats!!"
Bursting through the shattered gym doors, our homeroom teacher Masamichi Yaga rushed in with a pale face. Having been waiting outside the Veil, he had sprinted in to check on his students as soon as the horrific storm subsided.
"Are you guys okay?!"
"All limbs accounted for~."
Gojo dusted off his soot-stained uniform and shot a smug peace sign. At that carefree response, Yaga finally let out a sigh of relief as his legs seemed to lose their strength.
"Good grief, you monsters..."
After scanning the three of us and seeing we were fine, Yaga gave instructions in a tired voice.
"I and the Windows will take care of the cleanup. You three go back to the dorms and rest immediately. Dismissed!"
[ Next morning, First-Year Classroom ]
"Good job yesterday, everyone."
It was morning assembly. Standing in front of the podium, Yaga spoke in a much softer voice than usual.
"Since you completed a Special Grade Cursed Spirit exorcism request immediately after enrollment, the higher-ups won't be dropping requests like this for a while. Even if they do, I'll cut them all off at my level, so don't worry and just enjoy your student life for the time being."
With those words, Yaga placed a large bundle on the podium.
"Also, in honor of your hard work yesterday, I'm giving each of you—Gojo, Geto, and Hachiro—a doll I made."
"Blegh! We're grown-ass men, why are you giving us dolls?"
When Gojo tried to decline with disgust, Yaga cleared his throat and added an explanation.
"Believe it or not, those are Cursed Tools. While you were fighting that Cursed Spirit tooth and nail in the gym yesterday, some of the Cursed Corpses I had placed in the audience stands resonated with the Cursed Energy you were emitting and absorbed its properties."
At the mention of 'Cursed Tools,' Gojo's disgust vanished, and he reached out his hand without a second's hesitation.
"For real?"
"Yes. Specifically, the soul core inside these Cursed Corpses reacted with your individual Cursed Energy. Their handling and compatibility will be much better than any mass-produced Cursed Tool."
"What kind of abilities do they have?"
When Geto asked with interest, Yaga shrugged.
"I don't know that yet either. Since your Cursed Energy is simply heavily mixed into the soul, find out for yourself as you use them."
Yaga untied the bundle and handed out three dolls.
Gojo was given a fluffy white polar bear, and Geto received a doll where four small rabbits were holding hands in a circle. As for me... I was given a character doll with black hair and an expressionless face.
"Eeeeh? Teacher! Give me one too~ Why don't I have one!"
Watching from the back, Shoko raised her hand in protest, looking envious.
"Hmm. You didn't emit any Cursed Energy inside the gym yesterday. If you come to the office later, I'll make you a normal one."
"Aw, that's unfair."
When Shoko pouted, I coolly picked up my black-haired doll and tossed it onto her desk.
"You want mine?"
"Huh? Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I already have Muramasa. This guy already holds my Cursed Energy in its blade, so its use would just overlap with the doll anyway. You take it."
At my cool concession, Shoko's face brightened with a smile.
However, the stares from Gojo and Geto, who were watching this heartwarming scene, were incredibly cold.
'Are these bastards seriously dating in secret?'
Assembly ended with the sting of their piercing glares stabbing into the back of my head.
The moment Teacher Yaga closed the classroom door to head back to the faculty office...
A sudden jump—!
Satoru Gojo sprang from his seat and marched over, grabbing my shoulder in a firm grip.
"Yo, Zenin. Don't you have something you need to explain to us in great detail?"
"...Huh?"
Before I could even process my confusion, Suguru Geto flung open the back door of the classroom with a chilly smile.
"Come on, let's head to the wide-open field instead of this cramped classroom. Hachiro."
"What is it, what is it?! Are you doing something fun?!"
Sensing an unusual atmosphere, Shoko's eyes sparkled as she clutched the doll and followed closely behind. With my arms pinned by Gojo and Geto, I was forcibly dragged to the middle of the school's vast training field.
"Hey, let go! Why did you drag me out here so suddenly!"
When I shoved the two of them away in irritation, Gojo and Geto, as if they'd rehearsed it, pointed their fingers at me and roared.
"You bastard!! We let it slide because of Suguru's Cursed Spirit, but what the hell was that Domain Expansion yesterday?! Are you a Domain user?!?!"
"...Ack."
At their shout, Shoko's mouth fell open. She'd only come to watch the show.
The pinnacle of jujutsu: Domain Expansion. Inside the storm of that typhoon that had recreated hell itself, the memory of me deploying 'Inverted Bright Wheel Mirror' to neutralize the old Cursed Spirit's sure-hit slash was vividly etched into their minds.
The glares of three classmates, filled with a sense of betrayal, pierced through me.
I scratched my head and gave a very bitter smile.
"I mean... you guys never asked, so I never mentioned it. I wasn't exactly trying to hide it..."
"Wait! And besides, it was a total emergency with a Special Grade Cursed Spirit running wild! I didn't have a choice!"
I tried to plead my case, but the eyes of the sore-loser Satoru Gojo and the high-and-mighty Suguru Geto were already burning with the determination of 'I'm going to interrogate this deceptive bastard right now.'
Dragged into the center of the field and surrounded by three classmates who were looking at me like an interrogation committee, I scratched the back of my neck in annoyance.
"Seriously, let it go! Did I hide it on purpose? There wasn't even a chance to show you what my technique was. Yesterday's battle ended too quickly, and since my specialty is a battle of attrition where I slowly whittle people down, there was no timing to whip out my Innate Technique."
"That's a pretty lame excuse," Geto said, arms crossed, refusing to let up his suspicious gaze.
I turned my head toward Gojo and complained about the unfairness.
"And Satoru, you should already know, right? You probably planted spies in our Zenin Clan, and those Gojo elders would've given you all the intel they had as a warning against me. Why are you acting so surprised now?"
"Actually? Not at all."
Gojo fiddled with his sunglasses and replied curtly.
"The geezers at my house kept your information under total lock and key."
"...What?"
"I don't know the details. I heard rumors that a monster of a bastard appeared from a branch family of the Zenin, but our family elders took the unprecedented step of controlling all information regarding your specific technique."
At Gojo's nonchalant answer, a cold shiver ran down my spine.
'...Wait. The elders of the Gojo family hid my technique from Satoru?'
The blood-soaked history of the jujutsu world from hundreds of years ago flashed through my mind.
The Edo period. The incident where the head of the Gojo clan, who possessed both the Six Eyes and Limitless like the current Satoru Gojo, fought the head of the Zenin clan, who possessed the Ten Shadows Technique, in an exhibition match before the Emperor, resulting in a double suicide.
The secret weapon the Zenin head had unleashed at the cost of his own life to tear the Gojo head to shreds was exactly what I possessed: the power of Mahoraga.
'Those geezers. Were they afraid history would repeat itself? Were they worried that if Satoru couldn't resist his curiosity and challenged me, he would end up dead just like in the past? Is that why they buried the information?'
Realizing the petty yet desperate political maneuvering of the adults, I let out a deep sigh.
"Haaa... fine. Whatever, I'll show you."
Snap!
I snapped my thumb and middle finger together.
Click—!!
A heavy, satisfying metallic ring echoed in the air above the crown of my head, and a massive, gleaming golden eight-handled wheel was summoned.
"This is my Cursed Technique. The Dharma Wheel of Adaptation. Since no one in history has ever pulled this thing out to use independently without me, it doesn't have an official name."
"...!"
The moment the Wheel appeared, Satoru Gojo slid his sunglasses down, his eyes flaring with intensity as he stared intently at the bizarre object.
"...Hoh."
Scanning the trajectory of Cursed Energy with his Six Eyes, the corners of Gojo's mouth curled up in excitement.
"I see why the geezers worked so hard to hide this."
"At a glance, I have no idea what it does. Care to explain, Hachiro?"
Geto circled around the Wheel, looking fascinated. I shrugged and answered as nonchalantly as possible.
"It's a very simple ability. When this Wheel is summoned, I adapt to all kinds of attacks or phenomena inflicted upon me. For example, if I get hit once, I adapt to the nature of that attack, and my durability against it increases exponentially. The longer the battle goes on, the harder I am to kill and the stronger I get."
"No, no~."
No sooner had I finished than Gojo shook his finger, clicking his tongue.
"Hey now, from what I can see with the Six Eyes, it's not a simple shield-level thing. Are you trying to play the secrecy game again, Zenin?"
"Haaa..."
I put a hand to my forehead. As expected, trying to give a vague explanation doesn't work in front of those cheating eyes.
"Fine, you're right. It's not quite that simple. There are rules where it changes the attributes of my attacks, not just my defense. But I don't 100% understand the mechanism of how this adaptation keeps spinning endlessly either. Isn't it enough for now just to know I'm insanely strong in a long fight?"
As I drew a line out of annoyance, Gojo pouted his lips, clearly dissatisfied with my answer.
"Hmm..."
Just then, Shoko, who had been quietly clutching her doll and listening, tilted her head and asked a question.
"So, why did the Gojo family hide this technique from Satoru specifically? If Satoru is that impressed, it sounds like an incredible ability, but as far as I know, that's not even one of the Zenin Clan's famous Inherited Techniques."
"Puhahahaha!"
At Shoko's sharp question, the pouting Satoru Gojo suddenly burst into hearty laughter. After cackling for a while, he adjusted his sunglasses and pointed his chin at me.
"Can I tell them?"
The heaviest and most fatal secret of the Three Great Families.
I didn't avoid that provocative gaze and quietly nodded my head.
"Yeah. Tell them."