"No way!"
"Yaga! Know your place! You're just the principal of Jujutsu High!"
"Don't think that just because we let you be principal, you have the right to interfere with our decisions. We made you principal—we can just as easily make you an ordinary man again!"
Harsh scolding echoed through the dimly lit room.
Standing outside the curtains, Yaga looked utterly helpless. He hadn't expected this—despite being the principal of Jujutsu High, he couldn't change a thing. He couldn't even protect his own students. How pathetic.
"Gentlemen, are you really not reconsidering this decision? The homeroom teacher of those two students is Jinsuke. I heard he's quite close to them. I'm afraid if the two are expelled, he'll hold resentment toward the school."
Yaga did his best to suppress his anger, speaking as calmly as he could with the higher-ups. If one person wasn't enough to sway them, maybe two would be. Surely the Zenin name still held some weight with these stubborn fossils.
Indeed, when they heard Jinsuke's name, silence filled the room.
After a long pause, an elderly voice finally responded,
"No matter who their teacher is, the rules are the rules. Expulsion stands. If he has a problem with it, he can come speak to us himself."
Clearly, even Jinsuke's name carried no weight here. Seeing this, Yaga could only give up. He had done everything he could—yet nothing changed.
After leaving the room, Yaga made a call to Jinsuke, his tone filled with regret.
"That's how it is. I'm really sorry. These old fossils must've lost their minds—they won't budge even on something this minor."
"It's fine. Leave it to me. Didn't they say they wanted to talk? I'll have a good talk with them. I'm sure there's someone among those higher-ups who can still understand reason."
Jinsuke hung up the phone and turned toward Hakari and Kirara, who stood nearby.
"Put your stuff down and carry on as usual. As for what those old geezers said—just treat it like a fart in the wind."
He scoffed.
"They can't stand seeing a new kind of technique? What about that old fart Yoshinobu who fights curses with a guitar — why don't they expel him too? Bunch of conservative fossils. Everything they say is 'the law,' huh."
"Jinsuke-sensei, you don't need to get on bad terms with the higher-ups because of us. You'll get dragged into this mess."
Both Hakari and Kirara were half amused, half exasperated. Getting expelled for something so trivial—those old men really had nothing better to do.
But since they had no powerful connections, the two didn't plan to fight it. If they had to leave, so be it. There was life outside the school—they wouldn't starve.It's not like being a sorcerer was the only path.
"Of course I'll get dragged in—if you leave, I lose my bonus! So that's that. I'll handle the higher-ups, you two do whatever you were doing."
Without giving them a chance to argue, Jinsuke left. He still needed to "have a talk" with those old men—figure out which one of them had the guts to mess with his students.
"Uh…" Hakari and Kirara looked at each other, unsure of what to say.After a brief silence, Kirara murmured, "Turns out Jinsuke-sensei is actually reliable when it counts."
"Yeah… he's willing to go up against the higher-ups for us. We really misjudged him." Hakari looked guilty. Until now, Jinsuke had seemed lazy, giving off the vibe of an unreliable teacher. But when it mattered, he stood his ground—even if it meant opposing the higher-ups.
In truth, Jinsuke's motives weren't entirely noble. Besides them being his students, he also had a monetary incentive—their graduation meant a hefty bonus. But more importantly, he refused to give Gojo the satisfaction of mocking him.
Only a day later, the higher-ups revoked the expulsion of Hakari and Kirara.
"SLAM!"
In a dark office, one of the elders smashed a bottle in rage.
"How dare he!?"
The others said nothing. The threat they had received earlier reminded them exactly who they were dealing with—a man who would kill even his own clan members without hesitation. He hadn't changed in the slightest, even after becoming a teacher.
A wall nearby was cracked like a spiderweb, sunken inward and smeared with streaks of blood—a chilling reminder that what had happened earlier wasn't a dream.
"He must die! Execute him! Sentence him to death—and have Gojo carry it out!!"
The old man raged, face red, on the verge of coughing up blood.
"Calm down! A death sentence? Do you really think Gojo has a 100% chance of killing him?"
"If he decides to run, who can stop him? If he wants revenge, it won't be easy to handle. A man without cursed energy can pass through barriers freely — even the Tomb of the Star Corridor wouldn't hold him. If he wanted us dead, do you really think we could stop him?"
They couldn't possibly expect Gojo to stand guard over them all the time. And knowing Gojo, he wouldn't take orders from them anyway.
"So what? We can't just let him walk all over us! If we give in once, he'll do it again—and again—and again!"
"This time we gave in. Next time, what then? We might as well let him take our seats here!"
The conservative elders were furious. If they weren't so powerless against him, Jinsuke would never have walked out alive.
But in the end, they had no choice but to compromise.
"You're right—we can't let him think he can get away with this. He has to pay a price."
The old men deliberated. The Zenin Clan remained neutral in the matter, saying they wouldn't intervene regardless of what the higher-ups decided to do with Jinsuke.
"Publicly sentencing him to death isn't feasible," said a balding elder, "but we can summon Gojo and have him execute Jinsuke in secret."
"If he succeeds, everyone's happy. If he fails, it'll just be his own personal act—nothing to do with us. He won't be able to trace it back."
"Will Gojo really agree to this?" someone asked.
"Relax. I've already looked into it — Gojo and Jinsuke don't get along. He's wanted to fight him for a long time. He won't refuse. Whether or not he can kill him… that's beyond our control."
If he managed to do it, great. If not, at least it would serve as a warning—proof that the higher-ups weren't to be trifled with.
"Handle it as you see fit. Just don't let this drag out too long," said the senior elder at the head of the room.
Some among them thought the entire situation was blown out of proportion.It was just two students, after all. What harm was there in giving Jinsuke a little leeway? If anything, it might've earned his goodwill.
But there were too many conservatives among the higher-ups—stubborn old relics who couldn't adapt. They'd only learn their lesson once blood was spilled.