(Pov Satoshi)
After the troubles with the first day of the Goodwill event, Satoru had decided to force a more relaxing team-based activity for the second day. Typically, the second day was a series of battles between each school's students, but in this case, Satoru and I had managed to rig the vote a little. So instead of fighting, we'd be playing baseball. It did require some fancy wordplay, though, as following the attack, while none of the students had died, there had been some injuries, and the school warehouse had been robbed as well. At least two guards had died, and the culprit made off with multiple stored Sukuna fingers and three of the cursed womb death paintings.
In this case, though, Aoi was crucial as his words of encouragement managed to convince the students to keep things going. Then it was simply up to letting Yuji pick and not so subtly suggesting a friendly game would be nice, and next thing you know, baseball time.
Now the students and teachers of both schools were on a makeshift diamond field, with the Kyoto school being the first up to bat. I was sitting behind the plate as the catcher for the two schools, so I was kind of bored, honestly. Baseball had seemed like a good idea at first, but then I remembered I hated this sport even back in my first life. It was boring as hell just sitting here waiting for someone to miss the ball. Things mostly went alright. Kasumi did her best and failed. Noritoshi had a heart-to-heart about being a sorcerer with Yuji and gave up.
After Noritoshi struck out, the teams switched over, and now it was time for Nobara to bat. They made Mechamaru into a pitching machine, which made me wonder how they did that. Was this something he had been planning for? I zoned out while thinking about the logistics of being a pitching machine and a person, when suddenly someone was yelling at me.
"Hey, Satoshi, can they use Jujutsu?" Maki was asking. When I looked around, I could see most of the students were looking at me like they expected something, and when I looked up, I could see Momo on her broom. 'Oh yeah, she flew up and caught the ball, and now they were mad.' I thought. 'Wait, why am I the authority here?'
"Yeah, sure thing you're all sorcerers," I said. Maybe if they all used their techniques, this game would get more interesting, though it would have to wait a moment, as with the out, the teams once more swapped, now Aoi was up to bat.
"Don't worry, Satoshi, I'll show them the tru-" Aoi began before a baseball nailed him in the face, knocking him right down. As Yuji and Junpei ran to check on him, the others seemed much less sympathetic to the injury.
"Nice pitch, Maki."
"Yeah, nice one."
"Nice pitch."
"Kelp."
Each of the other students celebrated the unscheduled bludgeoning while Yuji cradled the barely conscious older student. "Wow, everyone really hates you, don't they, bro?"
Ultimately, Yuji would end the game with a homerun, winning the game for Tokyo 2-0. As we all began leaving the field, it seems the idea worked as students from both schools all headed off together, all talking and laughing together. Even if there were some bumps along the way, at least the main idea worked out, and the students are all much closer.
Sorcerers need to work together if they want to survive, yet so much of Jujutsu society is based on division. To an extent, it makes sense. Jujutsu itself is an inherently selfish power. The more singular you focus, the stronger you can become. It is called cursed energy for a reason, but eventually you'll run into someone you can't beat alone, even Satoru would learn that lesson if things went as they should have.
I had spent my time as a teacher trying to impart this need for cooperation, and it had worked somewhat. Most of the students at this point had others they would frequently work with when going on missions and engaging in battle. Still, the higher-ups were becoming more of an issue, frequently trying to interfere with my teaching methods, not to mention their direct attempt to get Yuji and my other students killed.
They had never really liked me, given how little I cared about their rules, and not to mention my very existence as someone with a Heavenly Restriction went against much of what they believed in. Also, there were a surprising number of Zenin higher-ups, or at least the ones aligned with their clan, and they still hated me for taking Maki and Mai away and showing the world of Jujutsu that twins could be something other than failures.
It was only a matter of time, though I had discussed with both Satoru and Suguru the possibility of removing the higher-ups; we just hadn't found the right moment yet. It was inevitable, though they kept pushing their luck against the strongest sorcerers of the modern age and a fully unlocked Heavenly Restriction. Tradition made them think they were untouchable, but they'd find out soon enough just how touchable they were.
No, wait, not that they'd find out they weren't safe, let's go with that.
Either way, the events were over, and the Kyoto students would soon be returning to their own school. As I was considering this, Satoru approached me. "So I'd say things went pretty well, wouldn't you?" he asked, nudging me.
"Heh, if you consider that as going well, it's no wonder you break things so often," I responded.
"Oh, come on, nobody died, and we killed those cursed spirits and that guy who set up the barrier." He responded, counting the points on his fingers.
"Yeah, but someone else broke into the vault and stole multiple Special Grade cursed objects," I said, and that was what troubled me the most in the original timeline. It had been done by Mahito, but he was dead now, so who else did Kenjaku have helping him that he was still confident in this plan?
"That is an issue, isn't it? Whatever if stitches wants to make a move, I say let him, what can he do to us?" He finished with a large smile on his face.
It was odd, but when he said stuff like that, I always believed him; he wasn't just boasting. I knew that from experience, but you'd think after some time it would get annoying. Maybe it was the little brother part of me that was thinking this, but I always felt safe when Satoru was around.
"Yeah, you're right, come on, let's go get something to eat," I said, deciding to let these thoughts go for now. Whatever Kenjaku had planned, I wasn't going to let it happen, and I knew Satoru and my friends and students would be by my side as well.