Jujutsu High Tokyo, Fourth-Year Classroom. Having reached their fourth year—effectively the final year since the fifth year serves as a moratorium period—the "Sashisu Trio" consisting of Satoru Gojo, Shoko Ieiri, and Suguru Geto found that their hottest topic of conversation was, naturally, their future careers.
"Career paths, huh... career paths. What are you two gonna do, Suguru, Shoko?"
Asking the question while wolfing down fresh cream chocolates was Satoru Gojo, a man so overwhelmingly strong that he found very little in life worth striving for. Since he was essentially a child who had only grown physically, words like "life planning" or "career path" didn't quite click with him yet.
On the other hand, the cynical realist Shoko and the serious idealist Suguru Geto had, of course, already decided on their futures.
"I have Mimiko and Nanako to think about, so I'll probably stay on as a teacher here at the college. Nurturing a bright future for the jujutsu world sounds fun, and besides my situation with Misato, I want to have a steady profession."
"Suguru, weren't you planning to have your wedding ceremony sometime this year?"
"Yeah, that's the plan. ...You're quite well-informed, Shoko."
"I do engage in normal girl talk, you know. ...Anyway, career paths? I don't really have a choice. No one but me can output Reverse Cursed Technique, except for Megumi. I'll just cheat my way through getting a medical license and work as the school doctor here."
Seeing his friends answer like that made them look a little more like adults to Satoru. After a moment of thought, he announced his own path with forced cheerfulness.
"Then I guess I'll be a teacher too! Being alone is lonely."
"You, a teacher? You're the textbook definition of a genius type. You really think you're the type to teach people things?"
"Mm. That's just because I never felt like seriously teaching anyone until now, so it'll be fine... probably. There isn't much I haven't been able to do once I set my mind to it! I managed to play the piano the other day just on a whim, so it's fine, it's fine."
"No, needing to play the piano makes you a nursery school teacher, not a high school teacher... Besides, Shoko, you and I are the same, but aren't most sorcerers—including you—genius types? This world is fundamentally built on talent."
As Suguru said—having learned to navigate both the pure and the corrupt over these four years of student life, and remaining an idealist without being blind to reality—the world of jujutsu was eighty percent talent.
The fact that Megumi Fushiguro was Special Grade at only five years old was a direct result of talent, and the human weapons from 'Q' who attacked the year before last were only strong because they were embedded with powerful cursed techniques.
However, amidst that conversation, Shoko casually brought up the name of the "Exception to the Jujutsu World."
"We've got Naoya, don't we?"
"He's a genius of effort at this point. He's like Rock Lee. If he has free time, he's self-training, and occasionally he's fighting Toji."
"Not just him, he fights my cursed spirits sometimes too. The other day he used Rainbow Dragon as a punching bag to check his 'hardness,' and Rainbow Dragon has been terrified of Naoya ever since."
"Wait, I thought cursed spirits from Cursed Spirit Manipulation didn't have egos?"
"Normally they don't, but I used Shikigami techniques as a reference and succeeded in planting a small ego in them. I lent it to him to check its autonomous operation... and he beat it half to death. Without using a technique."
"Naoya's cursed energy reserves alone are probably higher than all the other students combined. His efficiency is high, too... Wait, aren't we getting off track? Weren't we talking about careers?"
The trio steered the talk back to the original topic. Finding that everyone intended to remain at the college for now, Suguru Geto—the man with the lifelong honorary "thirty-year-old bangs"—looked happy despite his wry smile.
"But well, if we're all working at the college, I'd be happy. You feel the same way, don't you, Shoko?"
"I guess. We're classmates, so hanging out together isn't bad. We can have drinking parties. Let's drink!"
"Alcohol? I'm a lightweight with a sweet tooth, so pass."
"Come to think of it, why are you a lightweight, Satoru? Is it Gojo family genetics?"
"No, it's the Six Eyes. If I get drunk, the filters my brain unconsciously maintains drop, and I see way too much of everything. Then my head goes crazy and I barf."
"That's a huge weakness. You better watch out for alcohol-based cursed techniques, Satoru. Also drugs. Laughing gas... Hmm, wait, maybe I could actually take you down?"
"Ah, I might be a bit soft on chemical defenses. Maybe I should study that area?"
"You probably should. Oh, I know. ...Alright. Sent."
"Shoko? Who did you just email?"
"I told Mr. Fushiguro your weakness and said 'He wants you to train him.'"
"What the hell did you do? I'm gonna die!"
"He promised me that if I found your weakness and told him, he'd buy me as much high-end booze as I could drink. I didn't have a choice, right?"
"I was sold out for Shoko's personal greed!?"
"Yo. Was that message for real, Ieiri?"
"He's already here!?"
The fourth-year classroom suddenly became rowdy with the arrival of the brutal, demonic physical education teacher, Toji Fushiguro.
Later, during a temporary "drilling" session held by Toji, Satoru was forced to experience the terror of hallucinogens via "Black Rope soaked in plenty of LSD." For a while afterward, he became a bookworm, scouring medical texts even more than Shoko, which had the side effect of greatly improving the precision of his Reverse Cursed Technique—but that is a story for another time.
Even as they reached their final year, it seemed their noisy youth would continue for a while longer.
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