Exactly one week after the commotion in Kyoto settled down.
The silence of the peaceful Tokyo Jujutsu High faculty office was shattered by a cacophony of noise.
Bam! Bam! CRASH—!!
At the violent pounding that threatened to break the door off its hinges, Masamichi Yaga, the first-year homeroom teacher, let out a deep sigh while organizing his documents.
He opened the door with the expression of a man who knew exactly what was coming. Standing there, face contorted with murderous intent, was the Principal of Kyoto Jujutsu High, Yoshinobu Gakuganji.
"Ah, Principal Gakuganji. Please, come in. Have a seat and some tea..."
"Enough, Yaga! I don't need your hypocritical pleasantries! Explain yourself this instant! What kind of underhanded scheme did you pull to have a student from my school transferred to Tokyo Jujutsu High overnight!"
Gakuganji's roar echoed through the office. Yaga maintained a calm demeanor and gestured toward a seat.
"I have much to say regarding that matter as well, so please, sit. Calm yourself first."
Though Gakuganji's eyelids flickered with rage, he begrudgingly slumped down onto the office sofa.
However, his hand remained poised as if ready to whip out the electric guitar on his back at any moment, and the room was filled with a volatile surge of Cursed Energy that felt like a deathmatch could break out at any second.
With a steady hand, Yaga brewed some matcha and placed it in front of Gakuganji.
"I imagine it was quite a trek from Kyoto to Tokyo.
I have a general idea of why you're so incensed... but to be blunt, I'm just as bewildered by this situation as you are."
Gakuganji opened his mouth to snap back, his gaze full of suspicion, but Yaga was faster.
"The higher-ups contacted me out of the blue. They told me to accept a student from the Kyoto school. On top of that, they ordered me to take a perfectly fine second-year student and hold her back so she starts over as a first-year... even as an educator, I've never seen such an unconventional move."
Yaga fiddled with his teacup, furrowing his brow as if he were the one being wronged.
"Before I could even voice an objection, the higher-ups had already finalized everything. In other words, I'm just another victim caught in the middle of this unilateral administration.
You know as well as I do, don't you? I wasn't the one who proposed Tsukishima Kanao's transfer."
"The ones who formally pushed that proposal through to the higher-ups weren't me—it was the Zenin and Gojo clans."
"Are you mocking me!!"
Gakuganji slammed the armrest and shot up from his seat.
"Yaga! It just so happens that the next heads of the Zenin and Gojo clans are among your students! How do you explain that?! Are you suggesting this is all a mere coincidence?!"
Sparks practically flew from Gakuganji's eyes. Right after the two young masters of the Big Three Families became Yaga's disciples, an unprecedented incident occurred where a talented asset from the Kyoto school was poached to Tokyo.
To a seasoned politician like Gakuganji, it was obvious that this wasn't a coincidence, but a meticulously designed abduction operation.
However, Yaga casually took a sip of tea and shook his head.
"Do those arrogant young masters look like the type of obedient children who listen to me? If anything, dealing with the aftermath of their antics is shaving years off my life.
The next heads of Zenin and Gojo supposedly pressured the higher-ups by citing 'Old Rules.' What power would a mere teacher like me have to stop that storm?"
Yaga threw Gakuganji a pitying look.
"Aren't you the one who upholds tradition, Principal? If those old fossils up top caved to the pressure of the Big Three Families and stamped the paperwork, you shouldn't be blaming me—you should be blaming the higher-ups for their lack of backbone."
"Even if it's a decision from the higher-ups, there are procedures to follow!"
Principal Gakuganji slammed the table, shouting at the top of his lungs.
"Revising the documents, an interview with the student herself! To poach a student like a thief in the night without those basic protocols? I will interview Kanao, the transferee, myself! I'll also have a face-to-face showdown with those young masters who caused this mess! Surely you have no complaints about that?"
At Gakuganji's declaration of war, Yaga shook his head as if he were in a bind.
"If you insist on that, Principal, I have no way to stop you. However..."
Yaga trailed off, checking Gakuganji's reaction.
"Neither of those boys is currently at Tokyo High. They've returned to their respective estates to handle some family business. Since they're absent, if you truly wish to see them, shall I personally inform the Zenin and Gojo clans of your intent to visit?"
"...!"
The moment he heard that, Gakuganji's eyes, burning with rage, flickered with hesitation.
No matter how much authority he wielded as the Principal of Kyoto High with the higher-ups at his back, knocking on the gates of the Big Three Families to stick his nose into their internal squabbles was an immense burden.
If handled poorly, it could escalate into a massive political conflict between the Clans and the Higher-ups.
"Ugh..."
Gakuganji groaned, his momentum finally starting to deflate.
"...Fine. At the very least, bring out the girl who belonged to Kyoto High immediately."
"Ah, Tsukishima Kanao isn't in Tokyo either. She followed Hachiro back to the Zenin estate."
"What?! Why is that girl at the Zenin estate!"
"From what I've heard, she's being held as a hostage by the Zenin clan."
That single phrase, tossed out nonchalantly by Yaga, completely silenced Gakuganji.
The Old Rules regarding the taking of the defeated as spoils of war. If they used that as a shield to bind Kanao as a hostage of the Zenin clan, there wasn't a single shred of justification in the world for Gakuganji, an outsider, to interfere and take her away.
"...Given the current timing, I believe it would be best for the students to resolve this sense of grievance fairly through their own strength during the upcoming Goodwill Event."
In the end, blocked by the massive wall of the Zenin and Gojo clans and Yaga's snake-like defense, Gakuganji grit his teeth and rose violently from his seat.
"I will never forget this humiliation, Tokyo High...!"
"Yes. Safe travels, Principal Gakuganji."
The office door slammed shut with a force that nearly broke it, and Gakuganji's angry footsteps eventually faded away into the distance of the hallway.
In the center of the office now blanketed in heavy silence, Yaga tapped on the desk.
"You can come out now."
Rustle—
No sooner had the words left Yaga's mouth than a girl in a school uniform peeked her head out from under the desk. Crawling out cautiously was none other than Shoko Ieiri.
Yaga sighed, looking absolutely dumbfounded.
"You could have just walked out with some dignity... Why on earth were you hiding under the desk?"
"Are you serious? The aura that old man was radiating when he walked in was insane. How could I just stroll out? Ugh, things were getting scary there for a second, Sensei."
Shoko dusted off her skirt, shaking her head in disbelief.
Yaga massaged his eyelids with his thick fingers, overcome with exhaustion.
He felt completely drained from having to clean up the mess those young masters had made.
"Haa... It's not easy, damn!"
Yaga agonized for a moment before nodding toward Shoko.
"I've handled the Kyoto Principal's business well enough on my end, so pass the word to those problem children down at their estates."
Having witnessed the homeroom teacher's salty labors firsthand from under the desk, Shoko gave a playful salute and grinned.
"Yes, sir!"
**
Brrrring~ Brrrring~
"Yeah, it's me. What's the situation at school?"
- What do you think? Our homeroom teacher got his soul roasted by that old fossil. Still, it seems Yaga-sensei managed to block him somehow. Principal Gakuganji went back pretty submissively, though he was huffing and puffing.
Listening to Suguru Geto's calm voice over the phone, Satoru Gojo, who was sprawled out in the middle of a large tatami room, yawned as he replied.
"Ah, well, that's a relief."
- How are things on your end?
At Geto's question, Gojo irritably ruffled his bangs, expressing his annoyance.
"It's a nightmare. A whole swarm of my family's old farts showed up and they're chewing me out, saying it's a grave sin for a future head to disturb the discipline of the higher-ups. Haa~ I have no idea why I have to go through all this because of that Zenin bastard."
- Good luck with that. When do you plan on coming back to High School?
"Who knows? If I want to appease these geezers by listening to their nagging, I'll probably be stuck here for another week or so before I can leave."
Gojo stared blankly at the garden outside the veranda and continued.
"Oh, right. Hey, Suguru. I'm literally dying of boredom, can't you just come over to my house? My family fossils wouldn't dare turn away a sorcerer as skilled as you at the gate."
- No thanks. I'll see you at school next week. Hanging up.
"Aww~ how cold! Boring. Fine."
Click!
Satoru Gojo snapped his flip phone shut and clicked his tongue.
'Haa, being stuck in this suffocating main house is just pissing me off. To think I'd actually miss that stifling school. What a turn of events.'
The Gojo clan estate was vast and luxurious, but filled with a deathly silence.
Gojo stared blankly at the ceiling, his blue eyes flashing behind his sunglasses.
'When I get back to school... I'm going to have a proper rematch with that Zenin guy.'
Of course, the lectures about disobeying the higher-ups were annoying, but there was another reason why the elderly elders had been frothing at the mouth and causing a ruckus the moment Gojo arrived at the main house.
"How could you, Young Master! How could you kneel before that lowly branch family brat!!"
"It is a disgrace to the thousand-year history of the Gojo clan! How could you lose to a Zenin, Young Master!!"
'...Just how the hell did that crazy Zenin bastard talk when he went back to Kyoto for our clan to hear rumors that I got beaten and knelt before him?!'
"Goddammit, just wait until I get back. Zenin Hachiro. I'll hit you with Limitless so hard..."
"Young Master, the instructor is ready. Please proceed to the dojo immediately."
A polite call from a family servant echoed from the hallway. Gojo brushed up his ruffled bangs and let out a groan.
"Yeah, tell him I'm coming as soon as I get into my gi."
Tossing out his irritable response, Gojo stood up with a pout, feeling the weight of the injustice. He desperately wanted to go grab Hachiro by the collar, but for the young master of the Gojo clan, there was still a mountain of boring, suffocating main house duties left to do.
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