Tengen’s barriers were deactivated.
Teachers and assistants began heading down toward the field, gradually bringing the injured students back to campus.
Kyoto’s infirmary didn’t take long to fill up.
Shoko Ieiri had come from Tokyo to treat the students injured during the event.
She worked while smoking, wearing a tired expression.
Her hands glowed with positive energy as she used Reverse Cursed Technique to heal the students’ injuries.
“Next,” she said without raising her voice.
Kamo was the next to sit in front of her.
Hakari’s blows had left him with several fractures and contusions across his chest and, as if that weren’t enough, the excessive use of his own blood during the fight had caused considerable anemia.
Shoko placed her palm against his chest.
Positive energy flowed through his body.
His fractured ribs began to regenerate, and little by little, his body started recovering the blood he had lost thanks to her and an IV supplying him with red blood cells.
A few meters away, Fushimi remained leaning against a stretcher while Shoko finished repairing his fractures.Suzuki laid with a cold pack resting on his head.
Momo Nishimiya, sitting nearby, weakly protested to Shoko.
“I’m fine, I’m fine…”
“Of course,” Shoko replied as she made the bruise on her temple disappear.
“You’re all ‘fine.'”
I was sitting in a corner, brushing off the dust that still covered my uniform.
When Shoko reached me, she examined me for a few seconds.
“Superficial injuries.”
Her energy flowed through my arms, and the stinging from the cuts caused by the branches disappeared.
“More or less clean.
You can go.”
“Thanks, Miss Doctor.
How do you do that?”
“It’s called Reverse Cursed Technique.
Ask your teachers about it.”
Another thing to add to the endless list of things I need to ask about how to do.
At the other end of the infirmary, Yuta remained seated with his elbows resting on his knees, staring at the floor.
“I’m sorry…” he muttered.
“I should’ve pushed harder from the beginning.
I didn’t realize we were in that much of a hurry.”
Kinji Hakari let out a small laugh, giving him a couple of pats on the shoulder.
“Relax.
This is only the beginning.
We’ll beat them in the fights.”
Kirara appeared with their arms crossed and a slightly annoyed expression.
“I tried to warn you after he left with the flag, but by the time I did, the battle was already over.
That first-year’s technique left me pretty dizzy.”
Shoko finished bandaging Fushimi’s hand and stepped back while smoking.
“Done.
Try not to hurt yourselves so much tomorrow, okay?”
At that moment, the infirmary door suddenly swung open.
Gojo poked his head through the doorway with a huge grin.
“Guys!
Get those half-functional bodies moving and come outside!
We’re doing the draw for tomorrow’s combat phase!”
“Destiny awaits!”
The group headed out into the campus’s central courtyard.
Gakuganji was waiting for us in the middle.
In front of him floated a dark wooden structure half a meter above the ground, resembling a small suspended shrine.
Inside it, five opaque crystal spheres slowly rotated, each covered in strange symbols carved into its surface.
The artifact emitted a deep, constant hum.
I approached it curiously, touching the structure and examining it more closely.
“What’s that?”
Gakuganji rested his cane against the ground.
“A ritual artifact known as The Matchmaker.
It is connected to the cursed energy signatures of every participant.”
The five spheres began to rotate.
“It reacts to each fighter’s energy and creates the matchups as the cursed energy will, this is more like a traditional thing,” Gakuganji continued.
“Nishimiya will not participate in this phase so that both teams have the same number of fighters.”
I looked toward Momo, who was smiling with relief.
Looks like she was the one who asked to sit this one out.
The five members of each team stood in front of the artifact.
The spheres began spinning faster and faster until small glowing cracks spread across the wood of the shrine.
They looked like small, round blue will-o’-the-wisps, each with a number from one to five engraved on its surface.
Two of each number.
The little spirits began vibrating and darting chaotically between both groups, passing over our heads and constantly changing direction.
Then, suddenly, they stopped.
Each one positioned itself in front of a participant.
I looked down at the one that had stopped in front of me.
A huge 5 covered its forehead.
We all looked up and exchanged glances, checking who had been assigned the same number.
1 — Kirara Hoshi vs.
Aoi Todo
2 — Kinji Hakari vs.
Akira Fushimi
3 — Ryohei Suzuki vs.
Reina Tachibana
4 — Noritoshi Kamo vs.
Sayaka Minamoto
5 — Yuta Okkotsu vs.
Nagi Shirokawa
After that, the ten little spirits turned around and floated back toward the shrine.
“Those will be all the matchups,” Gakuganji said.
“The team battle awarded one point to Kyoto.
Each individual fight will award another point to the winner’s team, so Kyoto begins with a one-point advantage.”
“Tomorrow, five fights.
The team with the most points at the end will be the winner of the Goodwill Exchange Event.”
…Wait.
“WHAT?!”
I pointed at the artifact indignantly.
“You’re telling me the entire team battle is worth one miserable point, but tomorrow winning a single individual fight is worth exactly the same?!”
Gakuganji frowned.
“Those are the rules.”
“We spent the entire morning coordinating, coming up with strategies, fighting…
And all of that is worth exactly the same as Hakari beating the shit out of Fushimi tomorrow?”
“Because that’s exactly what’s going to happen.
Sorry, Fushimi.”
“No, no.
You’re right.”
Gojo let out a small laugh.
“Believe it or not, it actually makes a lot of sense, Nagi.”
I expected some stupid answer, but this time Gojo didn’t smile.
His voice lost that carefree tone that seemed to follow him everywhere.
“Working with others is important.
Knowing how to coordinate and make use of their abilities can save your life,” he continued.
“But on most missions, you’ll be alone.”
I fell silent, understanding his reasoning.
“That’s why individual fights carry so much weight.
In the end, no matter how many friends you have, all sorcerers die alone.”
I scratched the back of my neck.
…Fuck.
And here I was just wanting our victory to be worth more points.
Then he clapped his hands and instantly returned to his usual smile.
“And with that, today’s lectures are officially over!
Go get some rest!”
“I want a show tomorrow!”
Before leaving, Gojo turned toward me with an amused smile and pointed at Yuta with his thumb.
“You drew the big one.”
Yeah…
Seriously?
Against the special grade?
Fucking ghosts.
Couldn’t they have given me literally anyone else?
Yuta approached me before I could keep feeling sorry for myself.
“Congratulations on the team battle, Nagi-san,” he said with a small smile.
“I heard about how you managed to overcome Kirara-san’s technique.
It was a really good strategy.”
“Let’s have a good fight tomorrow, okay?”
I returned the gesture and shook his hand.
“I plan on winning tomorrow, genius.
Don’t go easy on me.
Try not to kill me, but other than that, do whatever you want.”
Yuta blinked.
His expression shifted slightly, and he looked toward Gojo with some uncertainty, as if trying to confirm exactly how far that permission really went.
Gojo immediately gave him a thumbs-up.
“You have permission, but only if you feel cornered!”
“Don’t you even think about using that cursed spirit…!” Gakuganji began.
Gojo put a hand in front of his face to silence his protests.
“We’ll make an exception tomorrow, old man,” Gojo said with authority.
LATE AFTERNOON-EVENING · KYOTO DORMITORY
I was lying on my bed, playing Tekken for a while, one of my favorite games.
I wanted to relax before going to sleep, although that was pretty difficult considering that tomorrow I’d have to face one of the strongest sorcerers in the world.
I don’t think I can win.
But if I don’t believe in myself, who the fuck will?
I paused the game and rested the controller on my chest.
The worst part was that I barely knew anything about Yuta.
All I had seen was that he fought with a katana, possessed an absurd amount of cursed energy, and had that giant cursed spirit following him everywhere.
Besides that, Todo had told me something about Cursed Speech and that if Yuta used it, I was fucked.
My classmates had waited for me after the draw.
Mai didn’t say anything, but even Mechamaru wished me good luck.
Miwa, however, was nowhere to be seen.
A few soft knocks came from the door.
I got out of bed and went to open it.
“Nagi-kun…
are you awake?”
Miwa.
“Not yet.
Come in if you want,” I replied.
The door slowly opened.
She poked her head inside first and then stepped into my room.
“I just wanted to…
well…
wish you good luck tomorrow.
I know you got matched against Yuta, and I thought you might need this.”
She was wearing her training uniform, her hair tied back.
She seemed a little nervous.
Then she held out a small charm.
“It’s an omamori.
They say it brings good luck.”
I took it between my fingers and examined it curiously.
“Where did you get this?”
“Oh, right.
Some lady on the street sold it to me for five hundred yen.
I bought it because she said it would bring me good luck, but honestly, it hasn’t worked very well for me so far…
So I’m giving it to you.”
I let out a small laugh.
“Thanks a lot, Miwa-chan.
Let’s see if my luck with it is any better,” I said with a genuine smile.
“You can beat him.
Even though Mai, Mechamaru, Todo, Kamo, Fushimi, and Reina all say you’re going to get humiliated.”
Well, things are looking grim.
I glanced at the TV and then back at her.
“Want to stay and play for a while?”
Her eyes immediately lit up.
“Yes!
But only a few matches.
You need to sleep.”
Ten minutes later, she was absolutely destroying me without mercy.
Apparently, she’d spent years playing with her siblings.
“No way…” I muttered as I watched my character get launched through the air yet again.
Chronostasis and help more people find it!