The car moved smoothly through the crowded streets of Tokyo. Warm air hummed from the vents, filling the spacious interior with a steady heat.
A faint dampness gradually spread between the leather seats.
"Gojo-sensei, I still don't have an actual sorcerer rank right now. That's kind of inconvenient, isn't it?" Kaede asked, curiosity slipping into his voice.
Gojo Satoru, seated in the front passenger seat, turned around and draped one arm lazily over the center console.
With two long fingers, he tugged the black blindfold down just enough to reveal one pale blue eye, his gaze passing through the gap between the seats toward the back.
"Rankings? Ah, that annoying system."
"The ranking system in jujutsu society, when you strip it down, is basically just a ruler used by a bunch of half-buried old fossils to measure how useful a 'tool' is.
If you can exorcise a Grade 2 curse by yourself, you're a Grade 2 sorcerer. If you can handle a Grade 1, then you're Grade 1."
Megumi: "Correct."
Gojo raised one finger and gently waved it in the air, the corner of his mouth lifting with openly mocking amusement.
"But your case is a little different. Since you can use a domain, your destructive output alone is at least Grade 1 or above.
The problem is, what the higher-ups care most about is 'stability.'
And a technique like yours, where exorcising a Grade 3 curse leaves you shrunk down like some tiny collectible figurine, is very much not up to standard in their eyes."
Megumi, leaning against the window, turned his head slightly. The daylight passing through the dark protective tint threw half his pale face into shadow.
"No rank means you can't accept missions on your own, and you can't freely request assistant supervisors or use Jujutsu High resources."
His voice blended with the low rush of the heating system, calm as ever.
After a brief pause, his eyes swept over the absurdly oversized deep blue uniform on the opposite seat.
"But in a team, that can actually be an advantage. A blank space in the records makes the best trump card."
Yuji Itadori leaned half his body out from the middle of the back seat, gripping the driver's seat with both hands, his bright eyes darting between Gojo and the others.
"Huh? So does that mean rank doesn't really matter right now?
I thought it was like leveling up in a game, starting at beginner rank and climbing one step at a time."
Nobara Kugisaki, who was running her fingers through her half-dry orange hair, heard that and immediately jabbed Yuji in the ribs with her elbow.
"Idiot, this is a job where people die. Who wants to grind through enemy levels in a place where you can get killed any second?"
Gojo pulled the blindfold back into place and leaned into the passenger seat again, leaving the back seat only the sight of fluffy white hair.
"Nobara's right. As for inconvenient? Not at all. As long as I'm around, you can go wherever you want and do whatever you need.
Keeping you outside the visible ranking system means that when the time comes to flip the whole table over, you get to give those rotten old idiots a massive scare."
Kiyotaka Ijichi, in the driver's seat, hit the brakes a little too hard, and the car rolled to a stop at a red light.
The assistant supervisor stared rigidly at the crosswalk ahead, a bead of cold sweat sliding down his temple, not daring to comment in the slightest on Gojo's casually treasonous remark about overturning the table.
"I see. But wouldn't it still be better to have some kind of official rank on paper? That would avoid a lot of trouble, wouldn't it?" Kaede asked.
His damp black hair clung to the side of his slightly pale neck, and the collar of his uniform had slipped loose from lack of support, exposing a sharp stretch of collarbone.
He tipped up that finely drawn but visibly tired face and looked toward the front.
At the question, Gojo unbuckled his seatbelt entirely and twisted most of the way around.
He rested his chin on the top of the seatback and looked through the black blindfold at the boy in the rear seat, who seemed on the verge of disappearing into his oversized clothes.
"Trouble, huh... fair point. Even the limited-edition drinks in the Jujutsu High vending machines need a student ID with an assigned rank to buy them."
Gojo dragged out the thought, then abruptly reached over and smacked Ijichi on the shoulder, nearly making the car wobble into an S-curve in the lane.
"If there's nothing on file at all, the logistics people will come bothering me every day.
Right, Ijichi? You're exactly the kind of person who hates paperwork trouble."
Ijichi gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles went rigid, back straight as a rod, sweat gleaming under the air conditioning.
"Y-yes, Gojo-san.
Without any official ranking record, Kaede-kun won't even have the most basic clearance permissions. He couldn't access certain areas, and even his monthly Jujutsu High stipend couldn't be entered into the system for disbursement... It would definitely attract the attention of the oversight division."
Megumi folded his arms over his chest and turned his eyes away from the city sliding by outside, fixing them on his classmate, half-swallowed by his own clothes.
He sorted through the rules of jujutsu society in his head and then gave a flatly practical conclusion.
"If it's only to satisfy the visible formalities, then just register him at the minimum, Grade 4.
To headquarters, a Grade 4 sorcerer is basically a disposable asset. They deal with low-level cleanup and minor exorcisms. No one would waste time thoroughly verifying the true limits of a Grade 4's abilities."
Nobara leaned against the opposite window, pressing the back of one hand to the glass to feel the temperature outside. At that, she clicked her tongue in annoyance.
"What kind of joke is that? A guy who can erase something like that monster gets labeled Grade 4?
Are all those old men in the offices blind? Whatever. As long as it doesn't get in the way of us teaming up for missions later, I don't care."
Yuji scratched at his pink spiky hair, clearly finding the whole hidden-power setup incredibly cool in a manga sort of way, and his eyes lit up at once.
"Oh. So on paper Kaede's a weak little Grade 4, but in reality he's some secretly overpowered monster? That's an awesome setup."
Gojo snapped his fingers, grinning brightly with all the delight of someone already enjoying the joke too much.
"Then it's settled. Ijichi, when we get back, make sure Kaede's file gets entered.
Rank: Grade 4. Technique description... let's say, 'capable of minor water manipulation, extremely poor at close combat, requires long-term observation.'
Keeping a domain user right under their noses while they write him off as dead weight... honestly, when those rotten old fossils find out the truth later, I may have to open champagne."
"Grade 4, huh..."
Kaede leaned his head lightly against the window and looked outside.
"That actually... seems pretty good?"