Chapter 9: Just an Attempt
Guren: "...Huh?"
She didn't react to his jumping thinking for a moment.
Gojo Satoru pointed to a portrait hanging on the right wall, revealing as if nothing happened: "You are actually not the red magic successor of this generation, but of the previous generation, right? The true successor is someone else."
"After all, your portrait is already hanging on the wall..."
Looking at Guren's slightly changing face, his smile deepened more and more: "If I guessed correctly, the future master of red magic should be that little lady named 'Koizumi Akako', right?"
Guren's pupils shrank suddenly.
All along, she had hidden it very well. In order not to bring danger to Akako before she grew up, during these ten-odd years, except for the core members of the red magic lineage, almost no one knew the appearance and name of the new generation successor.
如何 did this man know?
Could it be that the mirror almost leaked it just now, letting him guess a name starting with the character "Aka"? But the surname "Koizumi", how could he guess it so accurately?
In an instant, countless thoughts flashed through Guren's brain.
Was there a traitor inside red magic? Or did Gojo Satoru himself possess some kind of predictive ability? Even more powerful than the witch's divination, reaching the point of accurately predicting even the name?
"Could it be that this is also an unknown oddity of the Six Eyes?"
She forced down the shock in her heart, trying hard to maintain surface calmness, but deep in her heart, her wariness toward Gojo Satoru deepened by another layer.
Fortunately, she didn't feel any malice toward Akako from him.
"Mr. Gojo's meaning is... you want to become Akako's family tutor?"
"Correct."
Gojo Satoru snapped his fingers, switching to an enthusiastic tone in a second: "I once served as a special grade teacher at Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College, possess dual master's degrees in finance and criminal psychology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, am proficient in cultural theory, practical application, physical martial arts fighting, psychological counseling, and various art courses, and have rich teaching experience! Teaching according to talent, guaranteed results! Sign up now, guaranteed one-on-one attentive guidance to help your child win at the starting line and become a rising star in the magic world with comprehensive development in morality, intelligence, physical fitness, art, and labor! How about it, action is better than heartbeat—"
Guren was left between laughter and tears by his series of self-promotions comparable to TV shopping.
"Not to speak of the things behind, what is that Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College? Never heard of it at all!"
Although she was indeed a bit moved, she didn't agree immediately.
"I appreciate your kindness very much, but whether in magic or other aspects, Akako's talent is extremely outstanding, and her current courses are already scheduled very full. Also, she is still small, I don't want to give her too much pressure." Guren declined politely: "You might not believe it if said out, but my biggest wish is just hoping she can grow up safely and soundly, and become a qualified magician along the way, not wanting her to come into contact with too many complicated things from the outside world too early and bear unnecessary pressure."
"Oh? Is that so?"
Gojo Satoru wasn't discouraged, but instead asked meaningly: "Even if... I can make her become a powerful jujutsu sorcerer at the same time as becoming an excellent magician, still no?"
Guren replied subconsciously: "Of course n—"
Halfway through her words, she stopped abruptly, her eyes widening slightly: "Wait... what did you say? Jujutsu sorcerer?"
She immediately connected to the glorious past of the Gojo family being called a jujutsu sorcerer family in the Heian period. Although she wasn't clear about what specific moves "jujutsu" was, she knew very well that this was a power system unique to the Gojo family.
Could Gojo Satoru's meaning be that he was willing to teach this kind of inheritance unique to his family to a magician of another family?
This was simply a fantasy!
To ability users like them who paid attention to bloodline and inheritance, teaching their own exclusive skills to outsiders was almost unimaginable. If what Gojo Satoru said was true, then to Akako, this was undoubtedly a huge opportunity. Learning jujutsu meant she would possess another kind of powerful strength besides magic, adding another layer of protection in dangers that might be encountered in the future.
Looking at it this way, having Gojo Satoru teach Akako was simply a decision with a hundred benefits and no harm.
Her attitude softened down, but she still maintained caution: "Mr. Gojo, are you serious? What if... Akako simply cannot learn jujutsu?"
This question was not something Gojo Satoru hadn't thought about. After all, jujutsu sorcerers and magicians sounded like products of two different worlds. However, jujutsu was not an ability exclusive to bloodlines; in essence, it was a "technique performed through cursed energy," and cursed energy was a product of human negative emotions. As long as a person could produce and extract cursed energy, theoretically they could learn and use jujutsu. Of course, the premise also included the talent to perceive, manipulate cursed energy, and generate techniques. Since Koizumi Akako was a genius among magicians, presumably she would more or less have similar talent, right?
Gojo Satoru didn't exaggerate either, but told the truth: "There is indeed a possibility of being unable to learn, but if we don't try, how will we know?"
Joke aside, he had asked the system, and Koizumi Akako's impression value was also counted in the red faction camp. And a teacher-student relationship was obviously a relatively reasonable and easy relationship to reap Akako's impression value at close range. Besides, having come to the Conan world for so long, he had never returned to his true old profession yet. Finally catching a good sprout, shouldn't he seize the opportunity to reignite his teaching enthusiasm?
Hearing this, Guren also felt it made a lot of sense.
"Since Mr. Gojo says so, I have nothing I can object to either. However, this matter relates to Akako's future path, I cannot act arbitrarily." Guren smiled: "I have to ask Akako's own opinion first, if she agrees... you will be her family tutor in the future."
"Great~ Then the course arrangement is temporarily set to once a week, how about it? Afternoon or morning?"
Guren helped her forehead helplessly: "Hey hey, I haven't asked Akako yet..."
Just then, a crisp teenage girl's voice came from not far away.
"Mother! I'm back!" Immediately after, a petite figure riding a broom glided down lightly from outside the window, landing steadily in the center of the hall.
That was a girl of about eleven or twelve years old, her crimson straight hair tied behind her head, her skin white, her appearance beautiful, sharing a ninety percent similarity with Guren's features. She carried a proud and gorgeous big miss temperament, along with an innate charm. She wore the uniform of a private female noble academy and carried a beautiful small schoolbag, obviously having just come back from school.
Should she be called a little witch as expected, actually riding a broom home, which was quite stylish.
"Huh?"
Koizumi Akako saw Gojo Satoru sitting opposite Guren at a single glance, a trace of surprise and alertness revealing on her cute small face. Although her mother occasionally dated handsome men, she never brought them back to the castle. Could it be... this particularly good-looking white-haired man was the legendary...
"Home-delivered gigolo service?"
Koizumi Akako didn't know what content she had filled in her brain, putting away her broom somewhat angrily, staring at Gojo Satoru scrutinizingly.
"Mother, this uncle... who is he?" She deliberately put heavy emphasis on the word "uncle".
Gojo Satoru just wanted to raise a kind and amiable smile to praise the beauty of his future student, but as a result, two big knives were stabbed into his heart consecutively. He was directly choked by his own saliva, coughing violently.
Hey hey, don't say the words "home-delivered gigolo" with that innocent little lolita appearance!
"It's fine if that kid Kaito is precocious, but even Akako was like this when she was little? Miss Guren, what kind of strange things did you let your daughter see and hear normally!"
Also, even if he died and was nailed in a coffin, he would still use his decaying vocal cords to shout out those words—
"...I am still young, just call me Brother Gojo."
Koizumi Akako tilted her head, no longer dwelling on uncle or brother, but noticing that somewhat familiar surname.
"Gojo?"
Gojo Satoru restored his usual calm appearance, pulling a simple-designed but high-quality name card from his alternate dimension empty bag, stuffing it into Akako's hand like lightning, with a business-style smile hanging on his face, introducing himself with rapid speed.
"You are Little Akako, right? My name is Gojo Satoru, a young and promising handsome guy, not the strange profession you imagined! From today on, I am your newly arrived all-powerful family tutor! Please give me more guidance in the future~!"
Koizumi Akako looked at the few gold-stamped characters on the name card, then lifted her head to look at this man before her who didn't understand what modesty was at all, unable to help but complain: "Huh? Who would call themselves a young and promising handsome guy!"
[Ding! Impression value from plot character Koizumi Akako increases by 500 points, impression composition... narcissistic.]
Although looking closely... this "uncle" was indeed more handsome than all the males she had seen. This kind of open and aboveboard self-praise, compared to those hypocritical adults, instead made her appreciate him a bit. After all, an appearance favored by heaven like this had the capital to be proud by itself. "Of course, as expected, it's still Lord Akako myself—and Mother who are the most beautiful existences in the world."
Afterward, Guren briefly explained Gojo Satoru's identity and the misunderstanding just now to Akako, as well as the other's intention to serve as her family tutor and teach jujutsu.
Koizumi Akako didn't express immediate opposition after listening. Her wine-red eyes inherited from her mother sized up Gojo Satoru carefully.
"Uncle Gojo, you wanting to take me as a student shouldn't be just because of my magic talent, right? Magic and the so-called jujutsu are not things that can be mixed together." Akako didn't show fear at all, cutting straight to the chase: "What exactly do you want?"
The sharp intuition belonging to a genius magician told her that this man seemed to seek something else.
"It's impression value—of course it's impossible to answer this way."
"An attempt." Gojo Satoru decided to start his bluffing method: "This is just an attempt... I want to see, when a uniquely talented magician masters the essence of jujutsu at the same time, and two completely different power systems intersect in a child... what kind of spark can be collided out, and how distant a future can be reached."
"This is not just for you; to a certain extent, it's also to satisfy my own curiosity." Gojo Satoru said high-and-mighty: "Witnessing the birth and growth of a possibility is an extremely interesting thing in itself, isn't it?"
Koizumi Akako: "..."
It sounded like it made a lot of sense, but she always felt something was wrong.
Gojo Satoru didn't mean to force her to make a decision immediately either, just keeping a smiling expression as he said: "No need to hurry to answer. Think about it well... at this time next weekend, I will visit again. If you feel it's fine, Little Akako, we will carry out the first teaching, how about it?"
"Okay, I know."
After getting Akako's response, Gojo Satoru waved his hand at Guren again: "Then, see you next time, Miss Witch, and Little Miss Witch—"
Saying so, his figure disappeared abruptly like a ghost before the two, with no more trace.
"..."
Guren muttered to herself: "This 'Six Eyes Divine Child'... seems much easier to get along with than I imagined?"
However, she wouldn't naively treat the other party as some silly sweet innocent either. That man seemed to have a gentle smile, but that faint, sharp aura around him that only fellow strong individuals could perceive clearly told Guren—he was absolutely an existence who had ended quite a few lives with his own hands.
As for why the Gojo family head would suddenly develop an interest in taking Akako as a disciple, and even be willing to teach her his family jujutsu, Guren was still completely unable to understand.
"Perhaps... it truly was just a sudden impulse, wanting to attempt witnessing the birth of a certain possibility?" Guren shook her head, deciding temporarily not to dwell on this question anymore. What was more important was to find out her daughter's thoughts.
"Akako, what do you think of this Teacher Gojo?"
"Not hated, but don't like him either." Koizumi Akako gave a proud snort. "...I haven't agreed to become his disciple yet, and 'jujutsu' or whatever sounds strange, whether it's as powerful as red magic is not known yet... it depends on what real skill he can bring out when he comes next time!"
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