That afternoon, after Nobara finished her training, she returned to the dorms as promised and called Ritsuka out.
The two of them headed together to a nearby shopping street.
Ritsuka mainly needed to buy daily necessities—even though she had already bought them before, back in the Conan world.
The thought of having just gone through this whole process a couple of days ago, only to repeat it all over again, made her seriously consider whether she ought to prepare a batch of daily necessities in advance and store them directly in the Treasury of the Retainer.
That way, she wouldn’t have to go through this hassle every time she transferred to a new world.
Nobara, for her part, was on a nonstop buying spree—clothes, accessories, snacks, you name it.
She was every inch the shopping pro.
According to Nobara herself, she had come to the technical college because she despised the rural village she’d grown up in and longed for life in the big city, Tokyo.
And now that her wish had been granted, she was fully enjoying her Tokyo life.
Being a jujutsu sorcerer, to her, was simply a job and a means to make money—no different from any other line of work.
Caught up in Nobara’s enthusiasm, Ritsuka also found herself buying some snacks.
“What about you?
Why did you come to Jujutsu High?”
Having finished talking about herself, Nobara looked curiously at Ritsuka.
‘Because I made a deal with Gojo Satoru.’
That was probably not something she should say out loud.
Ritsuka thought for a moment.
“I ran into Gojo-sensei while I was exorcising a cursed spirit on the street.
He came up and asked, ‘Want to come study at Jujutsu High?’ and I said yes.”
“Eh?
That’s way too casual!”
Nobara was visibly surprised.
Seeing this, Ritsuka added, “Besides, I think being a jujutsu sorcerer is pretty nice.
You get to help people who need it.”
“…”
Nobara stared at Ritsuka for a moment, then suddenly sighed with feeling.
“So you’re the main-heroine type, Ritsuka.”
Ritsuka laughed and denied it.
“What are you talking about?
I’m just an ordinary person.”
By the end of the shopping trip, both of them had reaped considerable spoils, their hands laden with shopping bags, drawing frequent glances from passersby.
Fortunately, both of them had excellent physical fitness.
An average person might not even have been able to lift all those bags, let alone haul them all the way back to the school.
“If Itadori were here…”
If Itadori were still here, he could have helped carry them.
Nobara made this offhand remark, but the words had barely left her mouth before she cut herself off, suddenly falling silent.
After a long pause, she looked at Ritsuka and forced a smile. New chapters come out on g.com first.
“Sorry, that killed the mood.
Itadori Yuji was our classmate in the same year.
He…
died during a cursed spirit exorcism a while back, so…”
Ritsuka knew about Itadori Yuji.
She also knew he wasn’t dead—he was undergoing secret training under Gojo.
But that was something she couldn’t tell anyone either.
Imagining the mix of joy and fury that would greet Itadori when he eventually returned, she silently offered him a three-second moment of prayer.
Then, after thinking for a moment, she decided to change the subject.
“Hey Nobara, if you don’t want to carry those bags, you can put them all with me.”
“Thanks, but no need— huh?”
Nobara was just about to politely decline when the sight before her made her freeze.
Ritsuka reached out one hand, and it slowly sank into thin air.
At the same time, starting from her hand, the nearby space began to ripple like the surface of water.
Moments later, she withdrew her hand from that unknown space.
The shopping bags that had been in it were completely gone.
Nobara’s eyes went wide.
“What is that?!
So cool!”
Ritsuka placed the bags from her other hand into the Treasury of the Retainer as well, smiling.
“A space for storing items.
It’s an ability of one of my, uh, cursed tools.”
“So, want to put your stuff in too?”
Nobara instantly changed her tune.
“Yes!
Please and thank you!”
….
“Long time no see, my dear students~”
Gojo Satoru greeted them this way despite having seen them just the day before.
“Good morning, Gojo-sensei.”
Ritsuka stood before him and accepted the items he handed over—her new student ID and school uniform.
On the right side of the student ID was a passport-sized photo of her face.
On the left were her name, her year, and her current sorcerer grade: Grade 3.
The night she’d met Gojo, his uniform had appeared pure black.
But under sunlight and upon closer inspection, it was actually closer to a dark purple-black.
Meanwhile, the uniforms worn by Megumi and Nobara were a blue-black.
But the uniform Gojo had given her also differed significantly from Nobara’s in style.
Nobara’s uniform consisted of a long-sleeved crop top that left her midriff bare, paired with a high-waisted pleated skirt that reached just to her knees.
On her, it looked crisp, dashing, and gallant.
The uniform in Ritsuka’s hands, however, leaned more toward the traditional Tokyo JK uniform—a sailor-style top with a pleated skirt.
It was a bit like her Memoria of the Far Side of the Moon Mystic Code, though the color scheme was more subdued.
“Why does my uniform look like this?”
Ritsuka directed a questioning look at Gojo.
He beamed in response.
“At our school, you can request modifications to the uniform style.
So I took the liberty of helping you design yours a little.”
“Pretty nice, right?”
Setting aside the matter of Gojo taking liberties, his sense of style was admittedly not bad.
The youthful, lively aura inherent to the sailor uniform suited Ritsuka perfectly.
Especially the pleated skirt, which fell to just the midpoint of her thighs—the contrast between the dark fabric and her fair, smooth legs was visually striking, making it hard to look away.
Her own eye-catching orange-red hair also contrasted strongly with the dark uniform, leaving a vivid impression at first glance.
Observing the effect once she had it on, Gojo nodded with satisfaction, giving his own taste a mental thumbs-up.
“Also, the skirt has built-in shorts underneath.
So you can move around freely without worrying about any wardrobe malfunctions~!”
“Thank you, Gojo-sensei.”
Even though he had made the modifications without asking, seeing as the end result was good, Ritsuka thanked him anyway—earning a hearty laugh in return.
“So why exactly did you call us here?”
Megumi and Nobara had been standing off to the side the whole time, watching the two interact without any involvement whatsoever.
Megumi ran a hand through his hair with some irritation.
“If there’s nothing else, please let me go back to the training grounds.”
“The Exchange Event is coming up.
I don’t want to suffer a crushing defeat because I slacked off on training.
Gojo-sensei, you don’t want us losing to those Kyoto guys either, right?”
“Of course not.
I believe you’re the best.”
Gojo raised a single finger, grinning.
“However, there is indeed one more thing to take care of.”
“Let’s all have a look together—at Ritsuka’s true cursed technique.”
“True cursed technique?” x2