To state the conclusion first: the after-school class meeting unfolded almost exactly as Arisu had anticipated before drawing to a close.
Afterward, Mamoru ended up walking back with Arisu.
Without making any detours, they headed straight home.
And as soon as he saw Arisu safely back to the dormitory, Mamoru immediately pulled a U-turn and headed right back into town.
Which brought him to the present moment.
Mamoru was currently floating 300 meters in the air, looking down over the entire school campus.
‘Man, this school really is unnecessarily huge.’ Sitting cross-legged inside a cubic barrier, Mamoru rested one elbow on his knee, lost in thought.
Naturally, he had set up precautions to ensure he wouldn’t be spotted by anyone below.
The barrier currently surrounding him was imbued with a concealment effect that scrambled visual perception, making it completely invisible to ordinary people.
‘Placing detection Wedges across every inch of the campus would be an endless job.
I’ll just have to narrow it down to key locations, after all.’ There were several types of detection barriers Mamoru could deploy.
Including the ones he had placed in the student dormitory, the type he was planning to use now was a mass-produced, easily constructed Wedge—though it sacrificed structural strength and range in exchange for low energy cost.
This school spanned an area of over 600,000 square meters, not to mention the numerous buildings with varying elevations.
If he tried to cover every last inch of it without leaving a single gap, he would need far more than just one or two hundred Wedges.
‘Besides, covering the entire school in a massive barrier would probably attract the Jujutsu High higher-ups’ attention.’ If he truly felt like it, Mamoru could use Cursed Tools in tandem to cast a sweeping detection barrier that covered the entire institution.
However, deploying a barrier of that scale would inevitably expose its presence to other sorcerers.
Aside from hiding his true capabilities from Jujutsu High, creating such a conspicuous barrier was essentially announcing to the world that something valuable was hidden inside.
In the worst-case scenario, unnecessary curiosity might draw the eyes of malicious figures like Curse Users.
Mamoru promptly discarded that idea.
‘For now, at the bare minimum, I’ll place them around the outer perimeter.
As for the rest…’ Comparing the view from the sky with the campus map displayed on his device, he marked off promising locations one by one.
‘…That should do it for now.
Guess it really is better to do the rounds on foot.’ Mamoru was capable of teleporting between cubic barriers like the one he was currently in without relying on Cursed Tools.
However, these barriers had a strict limit to their maximum operational range, creating the disadvantage of turning long-distance travel into a series of short, choppy jumps.
The core issue with this approach was its abysmal efficiency.
Maintaining perception-distorting barriers and executing spatial teleportation both demanded a non-trivial amount of Cursed Energy and intense concentration.
Teleporting mere tens of meters at a time offered time savings that simply failed to justify the mental toll.
Doing the rounds on foot was far more efficient by comparison.
‘Well, if it’s just this much, I should be able to wrap it up within a week.’ Although the task remained a chore, having a concrete timeline made his mind feel slightly lighter.
Deciding to get straight to work, Mamoru stood up and formed a hand seal.
In an instant, the surrounding scenery shifted to a deserted back alley.
After confirming there were no eyes around, he dispelled the concealment barrier and stepped out.
‘Hm?’ The moment he emerged from the alleyway, he sensed a few presences approaching his direction.
Looking over, he spotted three male students who exuded the unmistakable aura of delinquents.
One was a towering black youth over two meters tall wearing sunglasses.
Another was an ill-mannered student with a short crop cut.
And walking at the very front between the two was a long-haired male student.
‘Barely enrolled and already starting fights?’ Sensing the tense air surrounding the trio, Mamoru deduced as much.
‘Doesn’t look like bullying, though.’ Noticing that the hostility from the two on the flanks was directed entirely at the man in the middle, the thought of stepping in to help briefly crossed Mamoru’s mind.
But upon seeing the man’s actual expression, Mamoru abandoned any thought of interfering.
The long-haired youth wore a fearless smirk on his face.
His provocative attitude practically screamed, “Come at me.” Figuring it would be a headache to get dragged into their mess, Mamoru tried to casually walk away as if he hadn’t seen anything.
“Hey, hold on a second.” A voice called out from behind, stopping Mamoru in his tracks.
It belonged to the long-haired youth.
Swallowing an internal groan of annoyance, Mamoru turned around to face him.
“…What is it?” “Kukuku.
Nothin’ much.
Just wondered what you were doing all by yourself in a deserted place like this.” The man spoke with an amused chuckle, as if finding something genuinely hilarious.
“Hey!” The crop-cut student next to him barked in protest.
He was clearly dissatisfied that the long-haired youth had paused to mess with an unrelated student right before they were about to fight.
The long-haired youth cast a bored glance at his companion and dismissed him with an indifferent wave of his hand.
“Don’t get your panties in a twist.
Wait a sec.” Watching their exchange, Mamoru put on a nonchalant front and answered the long-haired youth’s question.
“School just started, so I was exploring the campus a bit.” “All the way in a dreary back alley like this?” The man directed a searching, perceptive gaze at him.
‘First Arisu-san, now this guy…
Why does everyone at this school pry into people with a smile on their face?’ Still, no matter how suspicious the guy might be, as an ordinary human who couldn’t sense Cursed Energy, he couldn’t possibly fathom what Mamoru had actually been doing.
Without putting much thought into it, Mamoru rattled off a random excuse.
“There was a cat here a moment ago.
I was chasing it and ended up here before I realized it.” “Ha!
A cat, huh?
Ain’t you a fairy-tale character.” It was impossible to tell whether he actually believed the excuse or not from his amused laughter alone.
“What’s your name, kid?” For a second, Mamoru considered giving a fake name, but realizing it would be useless since they attended the same school, he decided to give his real name honestly.
“…Mamoru Gojo.” “I see.
I’m Kakeru Ryuen.
Say, Gojo…
we’re about to throw a little party.
Why don’t you join us?” Naturally, Mamoru picked up instantly that the “party” wasn’t meant in a literal sense.
“Hey!” “Shut up, Ishizaki.” “Don’t screw with me!
Don’t you order me around!” The student called Ishizaki shouted complaints at Ryuen once more, but Ryuen brushed them off like water off a duck’s back.
“Sorry, but I have places to be today.
I’ll pass.” “Is that so?
Shame.” Fortunately, Ryuen didn’t press the matter any further.
“Well, I’ll be going now.” “Kukuku.
Yeah.
See…
you…
around…
Gojo.” ‘Great, another troublesome person has his eye on me.’ “Later.” With Ryuen putting extra emphasis on “see you around,” Mamoru turned on his heel, silently praying that no such occasion would arise.
A short moment later, shouts of “RAAAH!” and dull thuds of fists hitting flesh resonated from behind, but Mamoru paid them no mind and kept walking forward.
Looking up, he saw crows flying across the evening sky, cawing as they went.
“Ah, peace and quiet…” Without any particular reason, those words simply slipped out on a breath.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Author’s Note: Regarding the protagonist’s teleportation ability, the explanation in this chapter might have been a bit confusing, so here is a quick summary as a supplement: The protagonist’s teleportation operates in roughly 3 main patterns: ① Deploying a cubic barrier and teleporting inside it.
② Teleporting to a location marked with his own Cursed Energy (such as a Cursed Tool).
③ Teleporting to a marked location via the “Room.” Patterns ① and ② use the same underlying principle of using his own Cursed Energy to specify coordinates.
Since he cannot teleport without sensing his own Cursed Energy, his default teleportation radius is roughly 300 meters.
For pattern ②, the range scales up or down depending on the amount of Cursed Energy stored in the Cursed Tool.
However, the maximum deployment range for his barriers is roughly 50 meters.
In this chapter’s case, he previously set up barriers on the ground and teleported between them.
When ascending, he climbed step-by-step in 50-meter increments.