A short while later, Kaede and Gojo arrived at Jujutsu High and stepped out of the car.
The black sedan disappeared down the mountain road, its engine quickly swallowed by the stillness of the deep forest.
Ahead of them sprawled a vast complex built into the mountainside. Layered roofs and sweeping eaves cast hard-edged shadows under the moonlight, like countless giant beasts crouching in the dark.
Ancient trees with trunks too wide to encircle blocked out almost all the starlight. Only the stone lanterns lining the steps gave off any illumination, their pale yellow glow wavering weakly in the night.
The air here was several degrees colder than it had been below the mountain. And the oppressive weight created by the high-level barriers draped over the grounds gave every living thing that entered the place the uneasy feeling of being watched.
Gojo Satoru climbed the steps with both hands in his pockets, relaxed as ever.
His silver hair caught the faint lantern light and reflected it with an icy sheen, as if it were the only living color in the silent mountain woods.
"So this is Jujutsu High? It's really dark. Feels like... the setting of a ghost story."
Kaede could not help saying it out loud.
Anime and reality really were two very different things.
It was like seeing Mahito in animation and thinking he looked pretty cool, then meeting him in person and realizing he looked barely different from an actual nightmare.
"A ghost story, huh? In a way, your instincts are weirdly dead on."
Gojo stopped walking and tilted his head slightly. Behind the dark lenses, one eye glimmered faintly in the shadows, blue as the sea.
"After all, this place is packed with people who deal in ghost stories for a living, or who are basically living inside one.
Though honestly, compared to the curses hiding in the gutter, the old relics around here might be even more of a headache."
Gojo let out a light, mocking laugh, then lifted a long finger and pointed toward the towering wooden gate looming in the darkness ahead.
"Come on. It's the middle of the night, sure, but the principal's probably already run out of patience.
And if he finds out I brought back a little water god who hasn't even properly experienced dessert yet, that face of his, already serious enough, might start looking even more like a curse."
Gojo strode forward, the sound of his shoes clicking against the stone echoing through the open mountain gate.
He did not look back to check whether Kaede was following.
Because in the awareness of his Six Eyes, that clear, water-like cursed energy remained at a fixed distance behind him, steadily sinking deeper into the old and heavy shadows of the place.
As the two of them moved farther in, the faint chirping of insects that had lingered around them completely disappeared. In its place came something deeper, a solemn atmosphere unique to the world of jujutsu.
The mountain wind carried a chill sharp enough to bite as it swept over the open stone paths.
"I did just have something sweet, though. The principal..." Kaede murmured as he walked, thinking to himself. The drifting sense of loss that came with being a transmigrator had already eased quite a bit under the cold night wind.
Back in his old world, his life had not been all that good. If anything, it had been pretty bad.
There was one friend he truly cared about, but most of the people closest to him had already died. So aside from a faint lingering concern for that one friend, Kaede did not feel all that much pulling him back.
The oversized dark blue uniform coat rustled softly in the wind. Its long hem swayed with his steady steps, dragging out a quiet, elongated shadow under the dim glow of the stone lanterns.
"But I do still have a little basic common sense."
Gojo, walking half a step ahead, did not turn around. But when he heard the voice from behind him, his shoulders still lifted slightly with a brief laugh.
The moment his shoes stepped onto the wooden walkway of the main building, they made a dull but sharp sound.
"That strawberry hard candy in the car only counts as cheap fuel to keep my brain from overheating. It's nowhere near real dessert art."
Gojo slowed a little and glanced back over one shoulder. The dark sunglasses on the bridge of his nose slipped down by the tiniest fraction, exposing the faint line of a pale blue eye above the frame.
In the view of those Six Eyes, capable of analyzing all cursed energy in existence, the cluster of pure water-element cursed energy behind him was perfectly suppressing its presence, blending almost seamlessly with the damp mountain air and the night dew.
Even stripped of most of his memories, that near-instinctive concealment of cursed energy made Gojo quietly raise his expectations for this "investment."
"Well, if you've still got social common sense, that saves us a lot of trouble.
Because the guy inside is a very serious, very old-school contradiction of a man who also happens to have a deeply committed love for plush toys.
If you don't even understand basic manners, there's a very good chance one of his weird-looking cursed corpses will throw you straight back out the front gate."
He turned forward again, his tall frame stopping in front of a heavy sliding door to a traditional room.
"Is he really that scary?" Kaede asked, a little caught off guard. In the dim light, his dark red eyes shone like polished gems.
Very little light leaked through the door, but from inside came the clear sound of a needle piercing thick fabric, followed by the muffled stuffing of cotton into leather.
Accompanying those faint little noises was a steady, heavy, deeply oppressive wave of artificial cursed energy.
Gojo showed absolutely none of the courtesy a teacher should have had. He could not even be bothered to knock. He simply pressed the tip of his shoe against the edge of the wooden door and pushed.
Rattle—
The sliding door was yanked open roughly with a loud scraping sound. The candlelight inside shook violently in the sudden gust, stretching the shadows on the floor into grasping shapes.
"Principal Yaga! Sorry for the late-night interruption. Look what incredible wild rough gemstone I picked up off the riverbank near the Tama!"
"Feels like you're the one who'd get thrown out..." Kaede thought, speechless, though he did not say it aloud.
In the middle of the dim room sat a broad, powerfully built man wearing dark sunglasses, cross-legged on the tatami floor. Around him were piled all sorts of brightly colored plush dolls in bizarre shapes.
At that arrogant entrance, the sewing needle in the man's hand stopped in midair. Behind the sunglasses, his brow drew together in a deep, visible frown. The plush dolls around him, which had been quiet until now, seemed to react to their master's mood, letting out a chorus of teeth-grating creaks.