"Ding-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling~~~"
The melodious bell for class dismissal rang, and the students, who a second ago looked listless like invalids, instantly revived, transforming into Olympic sprinters as they rushed out of the classroom.
The teacher, long accustomed to this scene, shook his head helplessly, closed his lesson plan, and followed the students out.
Eichi, who had been drawing and writing in the back row all day, also prepared to pack up and go home.
The year was 2003, and Eichi was already a second-year middle school student, two years away from being able to enter the High School.
As for why Eichi was attending an outside school?
The story goes back a few years.
It started when he was playing around with Satoru and, relying on fragmented knowledge from his previous life, mocked Satoru for a long time. Later, he suddenly received a notice that he had to go to elementary school.
"Gojo, this is your doing, isn't it?"
Upon hearing the news, Eichi immediately put Satoru in a headlock.
"Hmm, don't you like to study? I'm doing this for your own good. Besides, you're already old enough to go to elementary school."
Satoru forcefully pulled at Eichi's arm that was in a headlock, while his other hand defiantly reached behind him, grabbing half of Eichi's face and pulling it outwards.
"Ha, aren't you old enough too? Why aren't you going?"
His rare leisurely life was broken. The thought of having to go back to school and pretend to be young with a bunch of little kids made him blush.
"This old man attends family schooling. If you've got the guts, you go too."
Family schooling, the Zenin Clan's family schooling.
##.
Eichi's fists clenched.
The scene in the courtyard became quite chaotic for a while after that.
Outside the courtyard, the two bodyguards no longer worried about Satoru's situation. Instead, they skillfully lit cigarettes and drank tea, occasionally commenting on the two's Moves.
Later, Eichi still went to school, but he chose the school himself.
"What are you thinking about, Eichi?"
A young man with long, narrow eyes, a bun hairstyle, and a wisp of bangs on his left forehead, placed a hand on Eichi's shoulder.
"Geto, I'm thinking about what to do after I go home later."
"There's still a long time until the commission. So, do you want to come hang out at our club?"
Geto smiled and extended an invitation.
Geto's club was a music club formed in imitation of a famous rap band. Several boys in it were fans and dressed in a more alternative style.
This also let Eichi know the origin of Geto's strange bun and bangs hairstyle: it was from the lead singer of a band Geto really liked.
"I'd rather not. After sitting in the classroom all day, I need to go out and Move around, or my body will rust."
As he spoke, he put all his manuscripts into his school bag.
"Speaking of which, Eichi, if you like writing, why don't you join the literature club?"
Geto, who had been classmates for several years, already knew his best friend's hobby.
Eichi often wrote stories about historical figures being summoned as Heroic Spirits into certain events.
These stories, in Geto's opinion, were all very exciting, but Eichi never published them, only continuously increasing his backlog of drafts.
"Literature club? You know as well as I do, there are more people there trying to flirt with girls than actually reading."
At first, Eichi was indeed curious about club activities. After all, in his previous life, because his physical education teacher was sickly, he only had PE class a few times a year, and he was very envious of such extracurricular activities.
However, after joining several clubs consecutively, he lost interest.
Because he found that these clubs were essentially just a group of children with similar interests playing together, or an instructor giving extracurricular tutoring to their favored top students.
The situation of the literature club was rather special. Because this club had many girls, it also attracted many boys.
Honestly, at first, Eichi was quite surprised when he learned about this. Don't the teachers here crack down on puppy love?
Until Eichi learned that in Island Nation, girls could apply to get married and register at the age of 16.
It was… quite outrageous. The legal age of adulthood in Island Nation was 20, but the law also recognized that males at 18 and females at 16 could apply for marriage and be considered legal adults.
Time quickly came to night. Geto and Eichi, having finished their club activities, arrived at an abandoned amusement park.
"Is this the commission this time? By the way, couldn't the client be more responsible? Unknown number of Cursed Spirits, unknown strength of Cursed Spirits. How can such a commission even be issued?"
Eichi mercilessly complained about the commission letter in his hand.
"It's precisely because there's no information that the price has increased 3 times consecutively."
"Why are they so concerned about this abandoned land?"
"A big boss took a fancy to this cheap piece of land and bought it, planning to develop it. Later, when construction started, several workers died. To prevent the project from falling through, they could only beg for help everywhere. After learning about the existence of Cursed Spirits, they pulled some strings to find the Jujutsu World and issue a commission."
The speaker was Koshiu. The two met through Toji.
After Toji left the Zenin Clan a few years ago, Eichi began to approach him under the guise of being a fellow member.
Perhaps because Eichi also left the Zenin Clan, Toji's attitude wasn't too bad, but it certainly wasn't good either.
However, Eichi, who already knew his personality, didn't mind.
Later, when Koshiu was looking for Toji, Eichi successfully obtained Koshiu's contact information and, through Koshiu, took on some commissions related to Cursed Spirits.
"The people of the Jujutsu World aren't handling it?"
Geto was a little curious.
"They think no one comes to this place anyway, so they're too lazy to deal with it. After all, the Jujutsu World is chronically short-staffed."
"I'll send a few Fly Heads in to check the situation."
His curiosity satisfied, Geto prepared to act.
"No, I'll let Rabbit Escape go check."
Eichi rejected Geto's proposal.
Although small Cursed Spirits like Fly Heads are easy to find and not a pity to lose, Eichi noticed Geto's obviously pained expression when replenishing Cursed Spirits in previous commissions.
The taste of Cursed Spirits was like a rag wiped with vomit.
Remembering this, Eichi proactively took on the reconnaissance duty, trying to help Geto reduce the number of times he needed to consume Cursed Spirit Orbs.
Subsequently, a giant object emitting countless red lights appeared in front of Koshiu, making Koshiu involuntarily swallow.
It was a small mountain made of Rabbit Escapes, the countless red lights being the individual scarlet pupils of the Rabbit Escapes.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
Hundreds of Rabbit Escapes immediately scattered, and Eichi quickly got the answer he wanted.
"Interesting. The Cursed Spirits' location is in the office building on the west side of the amusement park and the adjacent dining area."
Eichi became interested.
"What's wrong, Eichi?"
Geto was a little puzzled.
"Generally, the entities that would generate negative emotions in an amusement park should be clowns moving around giving out balloons, ghost employees in haunted houses, or ghosts on roller coasters and Ferris wheels, right? It's strange that the Cursed Spirits here are concentrated in the office building and dining area, isn't it?"
"It seems so."
Geto thought about the amusement park ghost stories he usually saw and agreed with Eichi's statement.
As he pondered, Rabbit Escape brought the latest news.
"Target confirmed. There are a total of 5 Cursed Spirits, all above Grade 2 in strength and very aggressive. After discovering Rabbit Escape, they pursued it continuously until I dispelled Rabbit Escape's summoning."