Inside the Kyoto Jujutsu High campus.
"Fushiguro-sensei? Shouldn't you be in..."
Miwa, who had been running around outside with her classmates since last night dealing with incidents, happened to run into Mukuro while returning to the dorms for some rest.
At that moment, he was carrying a large box in his hand.
"Miwa? I just came to see Principal Gakuganji about something and brought him a little gift along the way. Nothing you need to worry about."
Mukuro lightly lifted the box in his hand, as if showing her it was simply a present for the principal.
"I see~ Then is there anything you need help with, Fushiguro-sensei?"
Even with faint dark circles already visible beneath her eyes, Miwa still instinctively tried to act as everyone's reliable little helper.
"This kind of thing isn't suitable for you kids to deal with. Hurry back and get some rest. Things are probably going to stay busy for a while."
Mukuro merely waved his hand before heading toward Gakuganji's office.
"Yes!"
Behind him, Miwa raised her hand in salute toward his back, even though she herself did not know why she always subconsciously did that toward her teachers.
"Eh? Wait... Fushiguro-sensei specially brought something for Principal Gakuganji? Are they really that close...?"
Only now did the slow-reacting girl finally realize something strange.
Still, it was not really something she needed to think too deeply about.
* * *
Several minutes later.
Inside Gakuganji's office.
"Why did you come back here?"
The moment Mukuro walked in carrying the box and casually dropped himself onto the sofa across from him, Gakuganji immediately sensed something was wrong.
'Could Noritoshi have already contacted him? But why come to me...'
And the faint smell of blood coming from the box gave him an even worse feeling.
"Principal Gakuganji, I brought you a gift. It should look pretty familiar, right?"
Mukuro placed the box on the table, pushed it toward him, and motioned for him to open it.
Click.
Without any hesitation, Gakuganji lifted the lid the instant his hand touched the box. Although he had mentally prepared himself somewhat, when he saw what was inside, he still froze briefly.
Because inside the box was the severed head of an elderly member of the Kamo clan.
That man happened to be one of the current true power holders of the Kamo clan and also one of the conservative faction's upper leaders known to Gakuganji. His influence within the jujutsu world was not inferior to Gakuganji's own.
"For something as major as trying to make a move against Yaga-sensei, the fact they didn't include you proves that even the stubborn conservative faction isn't completely united."
Mukuro rested his chin on one hand while calmly analyzing the situation.
Both Masamichi and Gakuganji were directly connected to three special grade sorcerers. Being excluded from the plan was only natural.
Coincidentally, that was exactly the outcome Mukuro wanted.
"Fushiguro, although they were the ones acting dishonorably first, don't you think you've gone a little too far?"
While Gakuganji had intentionally leaked information to Noritoshi, this outcome was absolutely not what he wanted to see.
As one of the former leaders of the conservative faction, what he sought to bring to the jujutsu world above all else was stability.
Originally, he had thought that since Mukuro and Satoru were willing to shoulder the consequences themselves, he could simply leave things to them and slowly begin stepping back.
What truly displeased him was how the conservatives bypassed him completely and pressured Masamichi directly. That was why he intended to use Noritoshi to pass the message along and have Mukuro issue them a warning.
However, he never imagined that Mukuro had already monitored the entire meeting from beginning to end. Noritoshi, meanwhile, never even had the chance to contact Mukuro because the Kamo clan had tampered with the communication signals.
Even more unimaginable was the fact that Mukuro skipped the "warning" stage entirely and marched straight into the Kamo clan with overwhelming force, attacking one of the most influential clans in the jujutsu world.
"Though the Kamo clan was merely cannon fodder pushed to the front by Noritoshi Kamo, since they were mentally prepared for this, they should've also expected the consequences."
"Principal Gakuganji, I care a lot about the people around me. And besides, even if flies don't bite me, hearing them buzz around my ears all day is still annoying."
Mukuro merely spread his hands while sitting casually on the sofa. Clearly, he felt absolutely nothing wrong with what he had done earlier.
He had long been annoyed by those old bastards. It was only because of various complications and the lack of any direct conflict that he had refrained from acting.
But now, during a critical period like the Culling Game, they decided to jump out and try profiting off the people he cared about.
That had genuinely crossed his bottom line.
Also, he had wanted to give Noritoshi some respect and kill fewer people. Yet those idiots actually dared to proudly announce they had completely severed ties with his student.
"Don't worry. I've already chosen Noritoshi as the next head of the Kamo clan."
With just a few casual words, the fate of one of the once glorious Big Three Families had already been decided.
"What about the higher-ups? Those people won't just sit by and do nothing."
Hearing that, Gakuganji stopped dwelling on the matter of the Kamo clan and instead shifted the topic toward Tokyo.
Over these years, especially throughout the past year, after being repeatedly angered by Mukuro's outrageous behavior, Gakuganji had slowly begun understanding many things and remembering many things.
Once upon a time, when he was younger, Gakuganji himself had not been an old fossil obsessed only with avoiding risks and sacrificing the smallest number possible in exchange for stability.
But across decades of time, he had witnessed far too many tragedies born from wrong decisions.
Because of weakness.
A grade 1 sorcerer could be strong, but also weak.
People like them did not have the luxury of making mistakes repeatedly. From the very start, they had to choose the option least likely to fail.
Because they lacked the power to resist the known and unknown, they avoided confronting such things entirely. That was why they chose to become "conservative."
Gradually, Gakuganji became numb until he turned into the person he was today.
Honestly speaking, despite being constantly pushed to the edge by Mukuro's endless rule-breaking, when cleaning up the aftermath for him, Gakuganji never truly felt that angry.
Because Mukuro was strong.
He was completely different from his younger self.
When faced with difficult choices, Mukuro did not need to force himself into making a decision immediately. Because he possessed overwhelming power, he never feared things spiraling beyond his control.
That was a feeling Gakuganji never possessed in his youth.
Looking at Mukuro now, it almost felt as though he was seeing another version of his younger self, one who had walked an entirely different road.
If he himself had possessed such strength back then, would he also have avoided becoming part of the "conservative faction" today?
"They won't sit by and do nothing? I never said I planned to sit by and do nothing to them either."
Mukuro straightened his posture as his sharp eyes met Gakuganji's gaze directly.
After leaving here, the very first thing he planned to do upon returning to Tokyo was find the group of higher-ups who organized that meeting.
At first, he had not intended to deal with those old "tools" during the Culling Game.
Unfortunately, they had become far too arrogant.
He was not even dead yet, and they already dared target the people around him. Worse still, they tried using him as leverage to morally pressure Masamichi.
Those old bastards had truly become lawless.
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