章 6: Settling In
Another slightly long one this time, enjoy!
https://discord.gg/ZrWk2jqjbV (Discord Link)
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"This will be your dormitory from now on which you'll be sharing alongside the other three first-years, so try your best to get along once the three of you meet if possible."
Yaga and Ginko were currently stood in front of a fairly pleasing looking housing unit, decorated with traditional Japanese architecture and tiling, alongside an air that gave the impression of it being slightly on the pricey side.
Ginko hummed to himself inquisitively as he inspected the grounds in an approving manner.
"Thoughts?"
"It will do, however when you mention there being three other first-years surely you do not mean only three others?" Ginko found it hard to believe that the entire first-year body was composed of only four students himself included.
It was like reserving an entire mansion just for a handful of people.
"Nope, it really is just you four."
"In that case isn't the size of this place wasteful? Like, extremely wasteful?"
"Whilst people with the potential to become sorcerers may not grow on trees, money does for us. Thus there's no reason for us not to invest as much as we possibly can in nurturing them. Forgive me for being blunt, but I expected your grandfather to have already given you the rundown of how things operate here."
"Oh, I'm pretty sure he did."
"Then?" Yaga furrowed his brow.
"I wasn't paying attention," Ginko declared shamelessly. Causing his newfound teacher to breathe an exasperated sigh.
'Yeah, he'll fit in with the others all right,' Yaga groaned to himself inwardly.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" He continued, convinced that there was nothing disheartening about his proclamation.
"Follow me."
Ginko obliged as Yaga presented a set of six rooms, situated evenly on opposite sides of the building's interior.
"Those three on the right have all been taken, and these three on the left are all free. Pick whichever one you like." Ginko approached the rooms, scratching his chin as he stood in front of the doorways. "There should be a set of uniforms inside your wardrobe so just keep trying them on until you find one that's your size. If you have any issues you can just come find me in the main building, any questions?" Yaga concluded.
"Yeah, what should I do once I've finished all that?"
Normally Ginko would have Yamada constantly torturing him with one task after the other, without having anything assigned to him he was left practically purposeless.
"I guess you can just explore the campus as you like, as long as you don't exit the premises you're pretty much free to do whatever. As long as you don't do anything idiotic like stirring up trouble on your first day, I don't really have any qualms with what you do."
"Sounds good."
"Great," satisfied, Yaga left the dormitory leaving Ginko to his own devices.
"Hm, rather cozy if I do say so myself." Having chosen the furthermost room, Ginko stepped inside as he took in what would be his new home throughout the duration of his stay at Jujutsu High.
The room itself consisted of a single bed, a wardrobe as Yaga had mentioned, a glass sliding door that led to a small yard outside the dormitory —and most strikingly to Ginko, a strange black rectangular object with a glassy frame.
"What a strange contraption," he mused as he approached the device. "Does this have something to do with it?" On the table where it stood lay another, much smaller rectangular device that looked as if it were meant to be hand held. Its surface was riddled with colorful rubber cubes including a bright red one on the very top.
Click!
Curious, Ginko pushed down on it —causing the larger device to light up as a monsoon of sounds erupted from it.
"GAH!" He recoiled, making the hand sign for one of his cursed techniques as he stared at the object with increased wariness.
"We predict light showers accompanied by cooler weather from around 1 PM - 5 PM, however the local observatory has cautioned that there may be heavy rains following that time until midnight, meaning citizens are cautioned to bring an umbrella with them just in case—".
"What on earth?" Ginko eased up ever so slightly, inching closer with both curiosity and apprehension sparkling in his eyes. "Hello! Can you hear me?" He waved his hand in front of the screen, confused as to why there was a person trapped within it, and why they were informing him about the weather in a place dedicated towards Jujutsu.
"How did you get in there? Do you need help?" He continued, still receiving no response from the suited woman inside as she continued on about the forecast. Perplexing Ginko even further as he scratched his head with squinted eyes. "Blink if you're being held hostage!"
Again, his ramblings remained unheeded.
"Hmm, this must be a cursed tool of some kind, how interesting. I've never had the opportunity to lay my hands on one before. But they must have used some sort of advanced technique to trap this poor lady within it, ah, could what she's saying be code for something?"
Ginko folded his arms as he dipped his head, submerging himself into deep thought.
"I've got it! She must be saying that the cursed spirits in Tokyo around that time are weaker, and that later on stronger ones will be present! Furthermore the umbrella must be another way to tell us to keep our defenses up! Yes! That must be it!"
He huffed triumphantly, convinced of his own supposed intellect.
"Ah, but Sensei said that I'm not supposed to go outside today, perhaps that means the spirits are going to attack the campus? I see, this must be some sort of hidden test I have to pass before they accept me here. Hehe, luckily my unparalleled genius has come to play, I'll ace this no problem."
With a self-deluded grin on his face, Ginko marches towards his wardrobe as he thrusts the wooden panels wide open. "It looks like they went for a simplistic design, but that's not necessarily a bad thing."
The uniform itself consisted of asymmetrical blue jackets with high collars and two pins on the left side engraved with the school logo, alongside a pair of matching colored slacks, and after trying on about three different sizes, Ginko had finally found his fit.
"Oh! It's actually pretty comfy."
He donned his emerald patterned haori over the uniform, walking towards the wall-mounted mirror as he admired his newfound Jujutsu Tech look.
"It looks like there's still some time left before the spirits arrive, so it'd probably be best to familiarize myself with the territory." A pretty basic tip when it came to battle was to get a good grasp of your terrain, a tip Ginko seemed convinced he'd need to enact soon.
Groooowwlllll~
"I wonder where they keep the food around here?"
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
"They're still not back?" A woman with chestnut colored hair fashioned into a bob cut groaned as she inserted a few coins into the vending machine in front of her. "Eh, they're probably just slacking off anyways."
Like usual her day was relatively quiet, due to her rather peculiar yet crucial position in Jujutsu Tech, the amount of times she actually was sent outside on missions could be counted on one hand. "Ugh, it's warm. How many times do I have to tell them to fix the damn machines?"
Even though from the standpoint of both herself and the faculty this decision was logical, she had to admit it got boring for her every now and then, especially when no one else is around.
"I might as well just go back to my room and laze around," she thought aloud. Accurately throwing the still full can of coffee into the trash without looking, and popping a cigarette into her mouth.
A habit her friends had tried to dissuade her from, but to little avail.
"Oh?" She slowly turned her head to the left, revealing an all too familiar face. "It's not often I see you out and about, have those two knuckleheads returned yet?" She queried, causing the figure to approach her.
"No, Suguru informed me a while ago that he's being dragged along for another shopping run so I doubt we'll be seeing them for at least another few hours." Yaga replied plainly.
"A while ago?" She repeated with skepticism. "Hold on, when exactly did they complete their mission?" The woman continued with a disgruntled expression.
"Two hours ago," her teacher said with an equally perturbed look on his face.
"Poor guy."
She could already picture the sight of Suguru being grabbed by the collar as he was forced to be a certain someones unwilling fashion expert.
"Agreed," Yaga said with a groan.
"Anyways, if they haven't returned yet, then what could have possibly gotten you out of that stuffed animal den of yours?" She asked with increasing curiosity. "Finally found yourself a woman perhaps?"
"Don't be ridiculous."
"Then what is it?"
"I was going to inform you when they had returned, but I guess there's no harm in doing it now." Yaga looked her in the eyes. "You have a new comrade, I just finished processing him less than a few minutes ago."
Her eyes widened as the cigarette nearly fell out of her mouth, causing her to blink repeatedly as she allowed what her teacher had just said to sink in.
"Today?"
"Yeah."
"A few minutes ago?"
"Mhm."
"Really?"
"Really."
The female sorcerer took a step closer towards Yaga, with an understandingly curious glint in her eyes.
"Who is he?"
"He's the grandson of an old mentor of mine from one of the smaller clans. I managed to get a fairly good read on him during our introduction, but I'm confident there's still plenty more to be uncovered."
She deadpanned in response to his painfully brief description.
"Oh c'mon there's no need to be stingy. You can afford to tell me a little more than that!"
"I don't see what the rush is, you'll cross paths eventually so you can just get to know him then—" As Yaga attempted to ease her prying, a loud voice darted across the campus alongside a wave of cursed energy wrapped around the feet of a certain newcomer.
"I'M HUNGRY! SOMEONE TELL ME WHERE THE FOOD IS!"
This time she was left properly awestriken, not only marveled by the rowdy individual's insane voice projection, but the shocking speed at which he was traveling.
"Sensei."
"Yes Shoko?"
"Is that him?"
"That's him."
Yaga gripped his nose bridge as a significantly longer groan left his mouth, sympathized by the uneasy expression on Shoko's face.
"I mean, being energetic isn't really a bad thing right?" She said in a failed attempt to make the situation seem brighter than it really was.
"So you say."
"HELLO? MOSHI-MOSH? I SAID I'M HUN —" All of a sudden the haori wearing lunatic's screaming ceased, as his movements came to a grinding halt.
"He's looking this way!" Shoko blurted out as she sought refuge from the figure.
"You did say you wanted to know more about him, looks like now's your chance."
A forceful wind picked up, blowing Shoko's hair backwards as she placed her arms over her face in order to shield herself from the incoming dust.
"HELLO!" The second she opened her eyes, she was met with the sight of a green-eyed face staring at her intensely, only a few centimeters away from her. Somehow having closed the distance in the span of only a few breaths which startled her immensely.
"Ginko, it's bad manners to shout at someone when you're talking to them." Yaga cautioned.
"Ah, sorry about that. Would either of you happen to have anything to eat on hand?" He said whilst constantly shifting his gaze between Yaga and Shoko. "I won't be able to do the hidden test on an empty stomach."
"Hidden —huh?"
"Forget I said that, my question still stands though."
Shoko momentarily swallowed her concerns about the strange figure, deciding now would be a good time to get some information on him before the others arrived.
"You should probably introduce yourself before asking someone a favor, y'know?"
Not wanting to get in the way, Yaga took advantage of the currently distracted Ginko to sneakily scoot away whilst they engaged in conversation.
"Ginko!" He proclaimed with his hands touching both sides of his waist.
"Is —that it?" She said in a dejected tone.
"Is there a problem?" Ginko replied blankly, convinced that his greeting was both perfectly acceptable and void of flaws.
"You know what," The sinking realization that holding a normal conversation with this person had already started to sink into Shoko. "Forget it, I'm Shoko, also a first year student like you. It's uh, nice to meet you." She extended her hand, to which Ginko thankfully replied to in a normal manner.
"I see, in that case Shoko, might you know where I can acquire some food?"
Thanks to Ginko having never socialized with anyone other than his grandfather, he had been endowed with social skills akin to that of an acorn.
An acorn, that had been smashed into a million pieces beforehand, that is.
"Sure, follow me."
Ginko happily followed suit as the two ended up in what looked to be a cafeteria, except instead of there being a lunch lady it was organized like an all you can eat buffet.
Which was extremely easy to maintain when a campus consisted of only a handful of people.
"Erm, Ginko?"
"Yeah?"
"I don't think you're supposed to be doing that."
Ignoring the concept of plates, Ginko had simply picked up the entire metal container filled with chicken and placed it on one of the tables. Eating directly from it with his hands like a starving wild animal.
Having been too focused on teaching his grandson to fight, Yamada had neglected to implant any form of etiquette into Ginko.
"I'm sure it's fine." He waved off her concerns, continuing to wolf down an alarming amount of food without showing any signs of getting full, let alone slowing down.
Once again, Shoko had wisely surmised that any attempt to intervene would be fruitless.
"So, about what you did earlier."
Ginko turned to her whilst still chewing.
"Would I be right to assume your cursed technique has something to do with speed?" Ginko swallowed, shooting a wry smile her way.
"Nope!"
週次パワーステータス
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