After the interview, Yaga took the two little ones off to class.
Jujutsu Sorcerers and Curse Users are separated by nothing but a fine line, and teacher Yaga wanted fewer troubles in the world.
If that meant working overtime to teach, so be it.
And so, Jujutsu High gained an ‘Elementary Class’ that had no business existing.
Shinmer, meanwhile, enrolled as a First-Year High School Student.
“Well then, let me introduce you to your classmates.” The interview had been held in the Dojo at Jujutsu High’s center.
The moment Shinmer stepped outside, he spotted Suguru Geto leaning against a corridor pillar, watching him with Crescent Moon Eyes and a smile that said entirely too much.
He felt like there was something behind that smile.
Puzzled, Shinmer followed along anyway.
At sixteen, Shinmer stood 175cm.
Next to Geto’s 185cm, the height difference was obvious, yet Geto carried no sense of looking down on him.
Shinmer laughed and joked his way through everything, but his manner of speaking and the logic behind his actions were far too mature.
For Geto, who prided himself on being mature, a severe case of second-year syndrome and all, it was deeply irritating.
The two walked side by side.
The corridor pillars carved patches of shadow that fell across their faces in broken intervals, light and dark trading places with each step.
“Earlier, Shinmer — were you serious?” “Huh?
Ah…
oh — that.” Geto spoke up without warning, and it took Shinmer a beat to catch his meaning.
He had to be talking about Shinmer’s answers during the interview.
Which meant he’d been listening in from outside.
With his Five Senses, Shinmer could naturally perceive everything around him , and yet he hadn’t detected Geto’s presence at all.
There must have been a Cursed Spirit placed inside the Dojo, one that could transmit sight and sound.
(Cursed Spirit Manipulation sure is convenient.) “Mm.
Of course I’m serious.” Shinmer’s eyes curved into Crescent Moons again.
Geto glanced sideways at him, something catching in his throat for reasons he couldn’t name.
“…Wouldn’t that get exhausting?” “Probably.
But it’s my responsibility.” What kind of resolve do you need to say something like that , that was Geto’s honest thought.
But Shinmer was the sublimation of a human hero’s soul.
When you looked at it that way, he had every right to say it.
As for himself.
What had he even been trying to say?
Not a question, maybe.
Something closer to…
a complaint.
“Hmm…” Lost in thought, his steps falling TAP TAP in the quiet, Geto noticed the footsteps beside him had stopped.
He turned.
“What’s wrong?” He met Shinmer’s gaze.
The sun was rising in the east, its light angling in sharp and low.
The carved wooden pillars caught it, casting a band of faint shadow that settled precisely over Geto.
Shinmer, one step behind, stood fully in the light.
He was watching Geto in silence.
Then he spoke.
“Nothing.” “I was just thinking.” “I think Suguru-kun may have misunderstood something.” Something in Shinmer’s eyes was gentle in a way that was hard to look at.
He spoke quietly.
“Suguru-kun.” “In my eyes, you’re still a child too.” Suguru Geto: “…!” The feeling came in layers.
This kind of cryptic exchange was distinctly Japanese in style, so it needs unpacking.
What Geto said , Wouldn’t that get exhausting?
, wasn’t just the surface question.
For a kid who styled himself as strong and mature, there were three layers underneath.
The outermost was the literal confusion.
The second was complaint, even a slight edge of mockery.
The third was the real thing.
Not [Are you tired?] But [I’m tired.] Because he’d planted himself in the role of the strong one, the adult, Geto had quietly taken on far too much.
He’d set the bar high and then kept raising it.
What he’d forgotten was that he wasn’t an adult yet.
And what Shinmer had just said was simply this: In my eyes, you’re a kid who doesn’t need to carry that much.
HISS, Geto’s expression cycled through every shade imaginable , red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, before settling back where it started: a deep, flustered red.
His face was warm.
The corners of his mouth wouldn’t stop twitching.
Finally, he laughed.
Not the polished, pleasant smile from when they’d first met.
This one had a thread of something sharper running through it.
“Come to think of it, Shinmer-san is a Heroic Spirit, right?” “Hm?
Yeah.” Why the sudden change of subject.
Shinmer felt a vague premonition.
“Ha.
No wonder you see everyone else as children.” Geto’s already narrow eyes curved into something long and wicked.
“After all, you’re an old man.” “….” Silence.
Hey.
Say something.
Hey.
Hey.
Geto swallowed.
He’d only meant to fire back , a quick retort, fair revenge.
He hadn’t expected it to land like that.
Before him, the warm expression on Shinmer’s face shifted, frame by frame: composure, then something quieter, then a trace of genuine hurt.
He turned his head away.
“Th-that’s…
true…” Shinmer murmured, his eyes going distant, arms folding around himself as his shoulders drew in.
“I suppose I am getting on in years…” “Wait , wait, wait!
I didn’t think it would work that well!
Hey?!
Are you really the type who hates being called old?!” “No…
I only just realized it, actually.
Mm.
So this is what it feels like to be called an old geezer.” A pause.
“I feel a little bad for a certain friend of mine.” Shinmer’s smile had gone thin and faded, his background somehow looking a shade grayer.
“Don’t do that!” Geto pressed a hand over his face.
“I can’t react to something like that!” …
…
Regardless.
The shadow that had been stirring in Suguru Geto’s chest was smoothed over once again, just like that.
And Shinmer-san , at seventy-six years old, wearing a sixteen-year-old body , was about to become a high school student for the first time and meet his classmates.
“This is my reliable, adorable kouhai — Nanami Kento.” Geto put a deliberate weight on the word kouhai.
“Don’t say things that aren’t true.” The kouhai in question pushed back immediately.
Nanami Kento.
Blonde hair, features that carried a hint of mixed heritage, a sharp face and eyes that held a weariness far beyond his years.
His Jujutsu High uniform was fastened neatly to the collar.
He stood straight.
(Completely different atmosphere from Suguru-kun.) (Though why does everyone at Jujutsu High walk around looking so miserable?) Watching Geto and Nanami bicker beside him, Shinmer arrived at a conclusion: what exactly was wrong with the adults in this world, putting all of this pressure on a group of high schoolers?
Honestly, pathetic.
Less responsible than the Southern Hero, even.
“Pleased to meet you.” With that thought still fresh, Shinmer stepped forward and offered his hand to Nanami Kento.
The other boy, though.
His word choice was precise, careful , the type who was ordinarily very polite.
Faced with Shinmer’s outstretched hand, he hesitated visibly.
“…Ah.
Pleased to meet you.” He shook it, but it was barely a touch , gone before it started, no eye contact at all.
“It’s a hectic period right now.
Think of this as a test.” Geto settled into his senior-student posture.
“You’re going on a mission.” “Here are the details.” He reached into the mouth of some Cursed Spirit , casually, as if this were perfectly normal , and pulled out a bound file folder, then held it out.
“That’s disgusting, haha.” Shinmer took it with a grin.
“Lesson one as a new student: no criticizing your senior.” Geto smiled right back at him.
And that was that.
Shinmer’s first mission in another world began.
➤ Next: Divergent Decisions —
The story is already written.