Morning sunlight filtered through the branches of Jujutsu High's ancient trees, scattering mottled shadows across the paper-paneled sliding door.
After running all night, the water-locking seals painted in cinnabar on the doorframe had grown a little dimmer.
The humidity inside the room had reached an astonishing level. A thin veil of mist hung in the air.
Even the wooden pillar in the corner was beaded with dense droplets, slowly sliding down along the grain.
Kaede sat quietly on the bedding spread over the tatami.
His black bangs were slightly messy from just getting up, a few strands hanging against his pale cheek.
In the morning light, his dark red eyes looked unusually clear, his gaze resting calmly on the closed door.
The deep blue uniform coat hung on a wooden stand nearby.
At the moment, he wore only a thin black undershirt, wrapped at the waist in white bedding. Beside him, the clear surface of the huge wooden water tub stirred with small ripples whenever the faint morning breeze passed through.
Footsteps sounded from the corridor outside.
Shoes touched the old wooden floorboards with a steady, restrained rhythm.
After passing several corners, the footsteps finally stopped outside this secluded special dorm room.
Knock, knock.
The sound of knuckles against wood broke the quiet of the morning.
"Excuse me. I'm Megumi Fushiguro, a first-year at Jujutsu High."
A boy's voice came from outside the door, cool and level, polite in a purely matter-of-fact way.
"Gojo-sensei sent me to bring you to class for your introduction. Are you awake?"
Outside the paper door stood a boy with black hair spiking out in every direction like a sea urchin.
Megumi Fushiguro wore the same dark uniform, the collar standing high against his throat.
His green eyes swept over the densely layered sealing scripts and moisture-control barriers along the doorframe, and his brow drew together almost imperceptibly.
That hopeless white-haired teacher had simply kicked him out of the dorm that morning, tossed out a single line about "bringing the dangerous thing I picked up last night to class," and then run off to buy daifuku.
As for what kind of new student was actually inside, and why he had been placed in a high-grade sealed room meant for storing volatile cursed objects, Gojo had not explained a single word.
Megumi rested his fingers lightly against the wooden edge of the door, feeling the strange, cold dampness seeping through the surface.
He did not slide it open without warning. Instead, he stopped there, standing quietly behind the thin paper screen, waiting for the owner of that unfamiliar presence inside to answer.
"Megumi Fushiguro...?"
Kaede searched through his memory and recalled the boy from Jujutsu Kaisen.
Along with one of Gege Akutami's more merciless truths.
"A Grade 2 sorcerer should be able to exorcise a Grade 2 curse."
Though the first episode of Jujutsu Kaisen had been a pretty good argument against how cleanly that worked in practice.
"Right..." Kaede pressed a hand lightly to his forehead and shook his head.
"Let's just say Sukuna's finger boosted it. Yeah. That has to be it."
"I'm awake. Thanks. My name's Kaede."
The wooden frame scraped along the track with a slightly stiff sound as the paper door, covered in red seals, slid open.
A wave of cold mist poured out through the gap at once.
Tiny droplets immediately caught on Megumi's lashes. He lifted his green eyes and looked at the figure standing inside.
What met his gaze was a neatly worn deep blue uniform. Slightly long black bangs fell loosely over a face that still left those dark red eyes unobscured.
Even in a crowd, it would have been a face people noticed at once. The mix of cold lamplight and morning sun gave him a kind of clean, untouchable sharpness.
"Kaede."
Megumi rolled the name once in his mind.
His gaze did not linger on Kaede's face for long. Instead, with the alertness and observational instinct of a sorcerer, he looked past the black-haired boy's shoulder and quickly swept the room.
The tatami looked almost damp enough to leak water. Dense droplets coated the walls. In one corner sat several oversized wooden tubs filled to the brim with clear water.
What had once been a dry storage room for dangerous sealed items now looked more like some kind of pressurized steam chamber.
Megumi's brow tightened again, just slightly.
Where exactly had Gojo-sensei found a newcomer who needed the air kept this unnaturally wet at all times?
But he did not voice the question.
In a field full of lunatics and curses, digging too deeply into someone else's secrets usually came with deadly consequences.
He slipped both hands back into the pockets of his dark uniform and stepped aside to clear the way.
"Come on. The first-year classroom is halfway up the main section of campus. It's a bit of a walk."
He started ahead, the soles of his shoes sounding steady against the old wooden corridor.
"Jujutsu High is spread out, and there are defensive barriers everywhere. New students get lost easily.
Stay close."
Megumi's tone was as flat and orderly as if he were reading from an instruction manual.
The morning wind from the corridor lifted the tips of his black spiked hair, and he tilted his head just slightly, checking from the corner of his eye that the footsteps behind him were still following.
"Oh, and one more thing. That blindfold-wearing delinquent teacher really is unreliable.
But while you're at Jujutsu High, don't touch buildings or objects with seals on them unless you have a reason. If something goes wrong, the people stuck cleaning it up are us."
The two of them walked one behind the other through the long wooden corridors. Morning sunlight was beginning to drive the shadows back, and somewhere beyond the training grounds came the faint sound of birds.
As the only current "upperclassman" among the first-years, Megumi was carrying out his role as guide in his own way: cool, detached, but unexpectedly responsible.
"Like that? Gojo-sensei really is that unreliable?" Kaede asked with quiet curiosity, his black bangs moving in the wind as his dark red eyes took in the thick, ancient trees around them.
At the question from behind him, Megumi's steps paused for the slightest instant.
The faint crunch of his boots on dry leaves stopped for a heartbeat.
He raised a hand and rubbed at his brow, as if fighting off a headache.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves and fell across his dark hair, and on that cool-lined profile there appeared a kind of fatigue far older than his age.
"If by 'reliable' you mean showing up on time, handling his actual responsibilities, having the bare minimum common sense expected of an adult, and not dumping his messes on his students..."
Megumi turned half around, green eyes steady and cool in the morning light as they settled on the black-haired boy behind him.
His gaze lingered for a moment on Kaede. He did not know the details of this new student, nor why he had been placed in that sort of room overnight, but he knew Gojo's habits well enough.
"Then you could say he's completely incompatible with the concept.
Other than the fact that he really is the strongest, his personality as an educator is basically a disaster."
Megumi turned back again and resumed leading the way down the stone path.
His voice stayed level, without much obvious irritation, as though he had already grown used to this and had arrived at a painfully objective conclusion through repeated experience.
"It's better not to expect anything conventionally normal from him from the start.
For example, this morning he was supposed to handle your enrollment and show you around himself.
Instead, ten minutes ago he sent me a text saying there was a limited-time Kikusuian pop-up in Tokyo selling zunda whipped cream daifuku, and that if he got there late the line would be too long. Then he dumped everything on me."
A mountain breeze stirred through the corridor, making the wind chimes under the eaves ring with a bright, delicate sound.
Megumi stopped in front of a wide courtyard.
Ahead was a row of traditional wooden buildings, all their sliding doors shut, the whole place carrying a calm, almost austere stillness. He turned and pointed toward the classroom at the far end of the corridor.
"That's the first-year classroom.
And just so you know, because the student pool is so small, including you there are only three first-years total."
That would be Yuji Itadori, then, Kaede thought, using what remained of his memory of the Jujutsu Kaisen story, before speaking aloud.
"So it's like that? Sounds like sorcerers are pretty scarce."
He kept pace quietly at Megumi's side, his steps even.
At the comment behind him, Megumi stopped in front of a sliding door marked First Years.
"It's less that we're scarce and more that the field is in a constant state of severe understaffing."
Megumi turned around, one hand resting on the wooden edge of the door.
In his green eyes was the hard practicality that came with being a sorcerer, and when he spoke, it was with the flat calm of someone stating plain fact.
"People who can see curses, the 'windows,' are already rare. Among them, people who actually have techniques and are willing to risk their lives fighting monsters at any moment are even rarer.
In this field, missions end in mutilation or death all the time. Sometimes there isn't even enough left of a body to piece together. A lack of manpower is the normal state of things."
After that, he said no more. With a slight push of his arm, the door slid open along its wooden track with a dry, reluctant scrape.
Inside the classroom sat only a few lonely desks.
Morning sunlight poured in through broad glass windows, lighting up the drifting dust in the air without mercy.
At one desk in the back sat a boy with unmistakable short pink hair, wearing a bright red hoodie under his uniform.
He had been lazily balancing his chair back on two legs, spinning a pen in one hand.
At the sound of the door opening, the chair slammed back to the floor with a bang.
He immediately looked up, full of energy, amber-bright eyes shining with life as they locked onto the doorway.
"Oh. Fushiguro. You're finally back!"
The pink-haired boy jumped to his feet at once and waved like he had just spotted a lifeline, his voice loud and clear.
"Gojo-sensei said this morning he was going to buy some kind of limited-time daifuku, and he still hasn't shown up. I was starting to think class was getting canceled today... huh? Who's this?"
His gaze quickly slipped past Megumi's shoulder and landed on the black-haired boy standing behind him, the one with the dark red eyes.
Those eyes of his filled instantly with open curiosity and easy warmth.
Megumi sighed helplessly, walked into the room, and stepped aside to reveal Kaede properly, introducing him in the most efficient way possible.
"That delinquent teacher really did just go stand in line for sweets, so don't expect him to show up on time. This is Kaede. He's the new student Gojo brought back last night."
At Megumi's introduction, the pink-haired boy circled out from behind the desks in three quick steps and strode right over to the door.
The smile on his face was bright as sunlight itself, with not a trace of caution or awkwardness, and he held out his right hand immediately.
"Hey. I'm Yuji Itadori. I transferred in not that long ago myself. Looks like we're classmates now, so it's good to meet you."
There was an intensely pure vitality about Yuji Itadori.
That healthy warmth and straightforward openness felt almost out of place in a school like Jujutsu High, a place so steeped in death and shadow.