"Why don't you doll yourself up and get ready for a night on the town, because I'm about to take you to a ballroom blitz!"
-Vageta, DBZA ep 25
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Yoshinobu Gakuganji had weathered countless years, his eyes bearing witness to the rise and fall of many. He watched bright talents flicker out before their time, while a rare few with little promise soared far beyond expectations.
The reason he became a teacher in the first place was to make sure that these people's lives would have meant something in the long term, that they would have achieved something, so that it could have meant something.
He was like that at first, but the more he lived, the more he came to a realisation that what he wanted was not possible, no matter how hard he tried, no matter how much effort he put into teaching the younger generation, he could never achieve what he wanted to do in the first place.
The rebellious youth who once strummed his guitar to Jailhouse Rock and Johnny B. Goode faded away, replaced by a weary old man who obeyed the higher-ups—not out of loyalty, but to shield his students from squandering their lives without living up to their worth.
Even if they didn't reach their full potential, at the very least, they would still be alive.
But everything shifted the day that brat entered the world.
Satoru Gojo
The day that brat was born, the balance he fought so hard to maintain crumbled in an instant. That fragile order, meant to keep his students from dying meaningless deaths, was gone.
As the balance broke, Cursed Spirits grew stronger, and the students he desperately tried to protect began to fall, casualties of a world thrown into chaos.
Still, the brat remained defiant, and Gakuganji waited for the day when consequences would finally catch up to him.
So when Suguru Geto turned traitor, it was tragic, but Gakuganji felt no sympathy for the brat. If anything, he took a grim satisfaction in seeing him suffer the same pain he once knew.
It was quite a peaceful time for quite a while, and then this brat appeared again, in his own school, nonetheless, flaring his Cursed Energy, specifically where he was resting, signalling his arrival, so of course, he immediately woke up and was ready to greet him.
For he might hate the brat to his very bone, but that brat was still the Strongest, and ignoring the brat would be a mistake for him.
The child that the brat presented to him was nothing special in all aspects, except maybe for his control, but that was about it. In Satoru Gojo's eyes, the child might have potential due to his control, but potential alone would never be enough to achieve something great; it took much more than that.
The last thing he wanted was a child with a delusion of greatness; that's why he was harsh and truthful toward the boy, letting reality hammer home so the boy would understand and be discouraged from doing something foolish.
However, that changed the moment the brat sent some invisible signal to the boy, telling him to let it go; he was prepared to see something astonishing. If the brat hand-picked him for a reason, then that must mean there was something special about the boy.
Even then, he was not expecting what came next.
The boy released his hold, and in that instant, Gakuganji understood Gojo's choice. It was as if a dam burst—energy surged out in a tidal wave, flooding the area and swallowing everything, even him. The sheer volume was staggering, endless, and even his weary eyes could see it had no beginning or end.
Much more than the brat himself.
The amount of energy alone would made him Grade 1 easily if not Special Grade, but to Yoshinobu's eyes, this was not even the end of it.
To his disbelief, something began to form from the boy's Cursed Energy, taking the shape of a butterfly. Then, from the boy's feet, flowers started to bloom, and even more insects began to appear around him.
Despite their appearance, similar to that of insects and flowers, Yoshinobu knew these were not normal lives; no, these were something else.
Cursed Spirits.
The boy Cursed Energy was so much and so potent that it was giving birth to Cursed Spirits the very moment he released it.
Now that alone would already put the boy on the Special Grade list, but apparently, that was not all he could do.
The boy, Akemura, as the brat called him, had even more tricks up his sleeve as one of the butterflies that was born from the boy's Cursed Energy flew and was approaching where he was standing. But before the butterfly could touch him, Akemura quickly spoke up.
"You better not let that touch you."
But it was too late as the butterfly landed on top of his shoulder, and he immediately noticed the effect that it had on his body. His Cursed Energy moved on its own as if it was being drained by some sort of invisible force, and he could very much feel it leaving his body and going toward Akemura, who was standing.
But with a simple snap of his finger, a single use of his Cursed Technique, the sound it produced quickly amplified and was aimed directly at the butterfly, killing it in an instant and stopping the draining effect.
"That was..."
"His Cursed Energy Trait, not Cursed Technique if you are wondering." Gojo quickly chimed in as Akemura took control of his Cursed Energy, reducing it to nearly nothing. But even so, the result was already there; the trees around had withered away, leaving nothing but a husk of their former selves.
Akemura Soga's Cursed Energy Trait was 'Vitality Draining.' Any living thing near him would have its life force sapped, and the denser his energy, the stronger the effect.
"It seems that the moment when the butterfly landed on you, your body instinctively used Cursed Energy to protect your own life force," Gojo explained after seeing what happened with Gakuganji. "I suppose that made sense. Don't want you to die too early now, would I?"
Akemura Soga's overwhelming Cursed Energy, combined with his Vitality Draining trait, meant he could and would create Pseudo Cursed Spirits around him simply by existing.
These Cursed Spirits, born from Akemura's pure Cursed Energy, would then inherit the same draining power as their creator, as they were composed of nothing but Akemura Cursed Energy.
"As you can see, the quantity of his energy alone would easily put him on Special Grade territory, but combining it with his Cursed Energy Trait that might as well be its own technique, he is someone that might as well be beyond something like Special Grade," Gojo said as he quickly gave a quick pat on Akemura back to push him forward.
"And why would you bring him here instead of bringing him to Tokyo to join your little group?" Gakuganji couldn't help but ask. After all, Gojo was the one who found him first, so it would only be natural for him to be studying there in the first place.
"Oh, don't be like that! I already have Yuta there, and he alone would absolutely wipe the floor with your students here, so I decided to give it to you here so that you could stand more of a chance when the Goodwill Event happened." Gojo explained, as Akemura just looked at the white-haired man beside him with annoyance.
"You made it sound like I'm some sort of Pokémon."
"Well, in this case, you might as well be."
Akemura was urged to blast the man beside him with Dragonfly, but the urge grew stronger the longer he spent with him; yet, being the civilised person he was, Akemura would not give in.
For now.
"My name is Akemura Soga. I will be in your care." His voice lacked any sort of emotion behind it as he stepped forward and gave the old man in front of him a quick bow.
Yoshinobu's eyes narrowed as he closely inspected the boy right in front of him after seeing what the boy was capable of. The lack of Cursed Energy that he felt from the boy was not because he didn't have much, but it was because the boy was so good at controlling his energy that it looked like he had nearly nothing.
Not to mention the Cursed Energy Trait of his, something so potent that it could easily be qualified as its own Cursed Techniques.
All things about the boy Akemura Soga, everything about him pointed to the fact that his potential was absurd.
No, that wasn't the right word to use, as absurd was the word he used to describe someone like Satoru Gojo's potential, but Akemura? His potential might even surpass that of someone like Gojo.
But potential alone would never be enough to survive in the world of Jujutsu; Gakuganji knew that much.
Even if you have the greatest technique and potential in the world, without the right mindset, you would never fulfil your worth.
Before he could utter a word, however, a sound of frantic footsteps came from behind him, and as they quickly approached, he recognised the Cursed Energy signature.
"Oh my god! If it isn't my favourite person, Utahime!!" Gojo exclaimed loudly as he waved his hand in the air to greet the person.
"Principal Gakuganji, " The woman, Utahime, said as she turned to look at the white-haired man, her eyes narrowed, "Gojo..."
"Come on now, don't be like that! Ain't you glad to have a super awesome man like me being here to visit you!" Gojo exclaimed, striking a pose as his smile seemed to brighten the area.
"Principal Gakuganji, what's going on here?" Completely ignoring Gojo, Utahime turned her attention toward Gakuganji, "I sensed a massive spike in Cursed Energy here, so I got here as fast as I could."
"Hey, don't just ignore me!" Gojo unbelievably pouted at Utahime, "As for that massive Cursed Energy spike, believe or not, it was him, not me."
Gojo pointed toward Akemura, who simply gave her an awkward wave at Utahime, the latter of whom seemed to be quite shocked by what was coming out of Gojo's mouth.
"Are you saying this boy...?"
"Yep! Him, right here!" Gojo proclaimed loudly
"Iori," Gakuganji quickly interrupted Gojo as he turned to the woman beside him, "Get this boy prepared; he shall be joining the class today."
"Wait, what!? What do you mean by that principle!?"
"It is exactly as I told you, this boy, Akemura Soga, shall be joining Kyoto Jujutsu High from this day onward."
"But what a test? We need to register him to-"
Gakuganji turned even more serious as he looked at Utahime in the eyes, causing the ladder to flinch under his gaze, "There is no need for such a useless thing; this boy is a Special Grade Sorcerer, nothing more, nothing less, unless you argue otherwise."
Utahime opened her mouth as if trying to protest, but her mouth quickly tightened shut as she simply nodded, "I understand."
"See, it wasn't that hard now, was it?" Gojo quickly chimed in, earning a glare from Utahime, in which he only laughed at it in response before turning to look at Akemura, "Well, there you go, welcome to Kyoto High! All thanks to me, ain't I great!?"
Akemura slowly turned toward Gojo as the man seemed to stand ready for Akemura to start praising him with all the smile on his face.
Akemura, of course, said the only thing that was on his mind.
"I hate you so much right now."
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A/N
And so another chapter comes to an end, a bunch of interaction and a hint for Gakuganji's character.
I will not go too deep into it right now, but let's just say that there is more to him when it comes to character-wise.
A brief explanation of how Akemura's power works, and a bit of Utahime.
Nothing too outrageous.
Next time, we'll meet and get to know the Kyoto students—so I hope you're excited!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. Leave a review if you did!
Ciao~