Ever since she punched Gojo in Germany, Yoshi had known she would face major repercussions. Not because she'd had any idea of how important Gojo was, but because she'd lost her temper. Her whole way of life revolved around subtlety and discretion. But the curse she faced in Germany had been different. Difficult. And getting caught in some sorcerer's crossfire had been the final straw to break her restraint.

She's been trying to backpedal ever since. All these deflections, avoiding and distracting these people so no one sees that the details don't add up—it's so exhausting.

"So!" Gojo clasps his hands together. "Technically speaking, we don't need another teacher."

Yoshi stares at him with crossed arms, blinking tiredly. "How unfortunate."

"Hush! You're still hired. You'll supervise and spar, like you did for Megumi."

"I don't have a teaching license."

"Pfft." Gojo flashes another smile. Apparently terrorizing that council member had put him in a good mood. "Do I look like I have a teaching license?"

"Fair point," she admits, lowering her eyes back to her instant ramen. The second-year student with glasses was kind enough to point her towards the cafeteria, where the cabinets were stocked with non-perishables.

"Anyway—"

"I also don't have a work permit for Japan, or any of my belongings here…" Yoshi continues, rubbing her face. "Were you saying something?"

Gojo is pouting at her when she looks up. "You don't need a work permit," he huffs. "For the time being you'll reside within Tengen's barrier and we'll wire your salary directly to your bank account. Ask Ijichi for the details," he concludes, before quickly tacking on, "He'll be your liaison for future missions, too."

It's around four in the afternoon now, and Yoshi had been surprised when Gojo showed up in the cafeteria. From the way his students talked about him, Gojo was rarely on campus for so long, and never stuck around to explain himself. She doesn't know what he's pouting about, but she ought to get some answers out of him while he was here…

The likelihood of Gojo knowing how American taxes work is extremely low, so she'll save that question for Ijichi… whoever the hell that is.

"Is there a bounty on me?" Yoshi asks. "From that guy in New York?"

"Naoya? It's at ten million yen right now," Gojo confirms casually. "On the bright side, you don't need to worry about your baseball tots! Apparently he wants you alive." He stretches backwards in his chair across from her, tossing his legs onto the table.

She stares at Gojo's polished leather shoes for a moment, startled by the fury that floods her head.

What kind of asshole puts their shoes on the table while there's someone eating right in front of them? Yoshi genuinely considers the logistics of knocking him out of his chair. Or telling him off like he's a toddler. If she got close enough, she could slap him into Siberia.

That's a little extreme, calm down, Yoshi orders herself. I just need to sleep.

She resists the urge to scrub at her eyes again, setting her ramen aside. "Alright. Is there anything else you needed to tell me?"

"Oh?" Gojo cocks his head to one side, noticing the shift in her attitude. "That's it, you're done arguing?"

Inhaling slowly, Yoshi folds her hands loosely in front of her. She's done trying to convince Gojo of anything, at least. "Yes."

"No more begging me to rescind your promotion?" he presses, smirking. "You sure came around quickly. Must be my irresistible nature."

"Maybe," Yoshi answers nebulously, drumming her fingers on the table, "It just feels a bit redundant now. Next, you'll grill me about my technique, and then I'll blame you for getting me in trouble with the clan guy."

"The banter is half the fun, Yoshi," Gojo says, almost looking disappointed. "Besides, I totally figured out your technique already."

"Really?" Yoshi deadpans, "Good job."

He groans, tilting back even further in his seat. Again, Yoshi is strongly tempted to trip him. "Don't you wanna know if I guessed right?" he whines.

"Nudge."

"Hm?"

"It's called Nudge. Kinda like, sukoshi osu." She mimes it with her hand, nudging an imaginary object off the table.

Gojo is quiet for a moment. His brow furrows, leaving a wrinkle in his black blindfold. "A little push?" he repeats, keen to know more. "That's how you hit your targets?"

"I adjust the path of the ball at the last second."

He pulls his legs off the table and lurches forward. "But you're applying another force while it's in motion," he says, unusually earnest. "That should make the ball lose velocity."

"Nope," she denies. "It doesn't add or subtract."

"Ah… because your energy output is so high, right? Even so, I should be able to catch it," he points out seriously.

"The whole point is that you can't catch it…" Yoshi frowns. "Because I change the ball's trajectory."

He looks lost for a moment. "…Eh?"

"What?" Yoshi asks, confused now.

"Ahh."

"What?" she snaps.

The sorcerer chuckles. "I meant I should catch it visually, because you're applying cursed energy." Gojo gestures to his blindfold for emphasis. "Six Eyes, remember?"

Yoshi blinks slowly, processing his words. "So? Same thing," she scoffs, flapping a dismissive hand at him. "Eyes, hands—it can't be caught."

"Those are not the same thing!" Gojo exclaims in protest, but his smile just widens. "I was going to ask about your slap-back bracelets too, but maybe you need a nap, Yoshi. You seem confused."

Yoshi purses her lips. She does need a nap. "Shut up."

At this point he looks like a kid in a candy store. "It must be almost four in the morning back in New York. Are you getting cranky?"

"I'm fine."

"Need me to tuck you in?" Gojo simpers.

Lifting her index and middle finger up, Yoshi nudges the two main support screws from Gojo's chair out of position.

Gojo yelps as his chair collapses, jumping to his feet before he falls with it. "Rude!"

"The technique works with stationary objects too."

"Tuna?"

Maki is resting beneath a tree when she hears Toge's voice. She raises her head to meet his questioning gaze, but his eyes are locked on the weapon resting in her lap. Panda is working with Megumi, and Nobara is chatting with their trainer. "That new teacher gifted this to me," Maki explains, holding it out to him.

Toge doesn't take it. Instead, he crouches beside her, uttering a perplexed "Takana?" as he points at the insignia on its sheath.

Maki shrugs, tracing the mother-of-pearl inlay. "It was weird," she confides to Toge. "She asked if I was related to Naoya, and when I told her what I thought about the Zenin family, she put this in my hands and claimed that it 'belongs to me'."

Their new teacher, Yoshi, was an odd sorcerer. The first years won't admit it, but they're clearly fascinated by her. Maki doesn't know how much of their gossiping is true, but besides the strange comment here or there, Yoshi seems like a competent teacher.

Maki pulls the tanto blade out of its sheath. The steel blade is polished so clean, she can see the reflection of her bespectacled eyes in them. Maki slides the blade away with a sharp click. "I don't know if it's really from the Zenin armory since it's not a curse tool… but it's a good blade, so I'm keeping it."

"Okaka," Toge shakes his head, brow furrowed.

Maki freezes. "No? No to what?"

Toge gives the blade a considering look. Panda isn't anywhere nearby to translate, and Toge doesn't think he can explain this so simply—so he takes out his smartphone instead and begins to type.

It has some cursed energy, Toge writes. But not a lot.

Maki's frown deepens. "What the hell does that mean? Is it gonna do something?"

Toge waves a hand dismissively and types something out before handing the phone to Maki.

Maki glances at the message and scowls.

Seems like residual energy from

░░▀▀▄▄▄▄█▄░░▒▒▀▄█▄▄░-sensei

This time there's a big blurry splotch of halftones in the middle of the text message. Maki throws Toge an exasperated look. "Is that supposed to look like the Yoshi from Mario Kart?"

"Shake!" Toge sounds pleased that she can read it.

"How the fuck did you type that so quickly? When did you get the time to find—whatever this is?"

"Ikura."

It's a well-known fact that Japan is at the epicenter of curse activity. Though there's no hard evidence that curses originated on the archipelago, the existence and perpetuation of powerful barriers has had the unintended consequence of concentrating cursed energy in the land of the rising sun.

There is a long history of curses manifesting in Japan. But there is also a long tradition of sorcerer families within the island nation, and the saturation of cursed energy in the land also saturates its people—the inhabitants of Japan have the potential to become sorcerers, more so than humans living anywhere else.

Outside of Japan, large cities created the most curses. So much life in so little space—urban environments were a petri dish for curses.

New York City, however, is an anomaly to this hypothesis. There were plenty of other cities that were more densely-packed than the five boroughs, but statistically speaking, there should be more cursed activity.

Why hasn't anyone noticed this? Satoru wonders, clicking through the endless pages of electronic records he got some assistants to pull together. Granted, the city was only mostly free of curses. Sorcerers still went on missions in the five boroughs, but nothing higher than a grade 3 has appeared in years. He can assume they can thank Yoshi for that, but…

If Yoshi only protects her home turf… why the hell was she in Germany?

He thinks of Yoshi's technique, and the inked talismans she uses as bracelets, and the tattooed power held in her fingertips. He considers what Maki told him about the tanto from Naoya, and the undeniable, impossible way she can break through Infinity. Honestly, it's as if she can—

Then, Satoru gets a startling thought and goes back to checking the international incident reports. He clicks on the link for the 2011 reports in New York, and the trend holds. He goes back to 2008, and there's an uptick in activity—likely caused by the economic crisis.

He goes to the reports from 2007, and there's stilltoo few curse sightings in New York.

There is only one report from 2006, a singular grade 2 curse in the latter half of the year.

And between 2005 and 1996, there aren't any curse reports from New York at all.

It should be alarming, but Satoru finds himself grinning madly instead. No wonder she's called Yoshi. She was born lucky.