Sothniz: "I would just like to say you've improved massively from what you were in your cloud gamer fic"
Thank you! I should probably delete that lol, it's pretty terrible.
We've officially reached chapter 50 on the Pa-treon so I'm gifting the first two people to open/copy the gift link a free tier 1! This allows them to read all the way up to chapter 50, and everything beyond, for free until next month!
The gift link is in the discord, so join up there!
After Gojo left with his two new transfers, Iori called all of the students into the common room for an announcement. While all of the students took up spaces on the couches or behind them, the teacher stood confidently in front of the TV with a notebook in her hand. "Alright!" She announced, cutting off the conversations that were still ongoing. "Since we have 2 new students and I want you all to get along, we will be merging all 3-year group classes into one for this week; the fourth years are in China at the moment, so let's improve a lot so we have something to show them when they get back!" The students let out contained cheers at the woman's rallying speech. "First thing on the agenda is introductions; I know most of you have met them, but just in case you haven't, I will let them do so now." With a quick hand gesture, she called for Adam and Fushigoro to take stands next to her.
They had both been separate from the Kyoto group, choosing to stand on the side of the living area without a couch as compared to the other students nearby.
Adam crossed over Iori's front to stand on her left, while Fushigoro walked the shorter distance to stand on her right. The black-haired boy took the awkward silence as a cue for himself and opened his mouth. "I'm Fushigoro Megumi, I look forward to working with all of you this week." He bowed deeply before returning to his full height.
"Don't you mean Zenin?" One of the students sitting on the couch asked. She was the only one of the female students the boys hadn't met yet, more than likely having been in her room during their entrance. The girl was rather tall, her head raising just beyond the back of the couch even when she was leaning forward slightly. She had deep green hair with a bob-cut, the length of which barely reached below her chin.
"Woah, they have their own Maki." Adam joked, causing a scowl to appear on the girl's face. Both Fushigoro and the Kyoto students didn't seem amused in the slightest.
"That's her twin sister, Mai." Fushigoro corrected blankly. "But no, I mean Fushigoro." He answered the girl's forgotten question. Mai clicked her tongue and turned to the white-haired boy.
"I'm nothing like my talentless sister." Adam's eyebrow twitched. "Unlike her, I can raise my grade." His smile dropped into an apathetic frown. "She's worthless, she shouldn't be a sorcerer–"
"I've heard enough," Adam growled. "Sorry for the joke earlier, but I can tell now that you two are nothing alike." Mai scowled at the backhanded apology. "My name is Adam Pendragon, grade 2 sorcerer."
"You didn't need to add your rank." Iori chided politely.
"Right, sorry about that; I'm a foreigner, so I often get these things wrong." he bowed with a twitching expression as the students murmured about his accent. Unbeknownst to Adam, Iori narrowed her eyes in suspicion.
"Okay then; with introductions out of the way on this end, how about we introduce ourselves? I'll start first." The teacher looked down at the two boys with a cheerful smile. "My name is Iori Utahime, I've been teaching here for a few years now and will be your instructor for the next week. My hobby is watching baseball and I dislike smoking."
"Should we add our likes and dislikes as well?" Fushigoro asked. Iori shrugged, allowing the boy to continue. "My hobby is reading, and I dislike overly sweet things." He looked at his white-haired friend, who seemed to be lost in thought. "Your turn, Adam."
"Right; I like cooking and dislike people who don't value family." He announced quickly.
The final student they hadn't met, a tall boy with swept-back black hair and closed eyes, huffed contently. "My name is Kamo Noritoshi, I'm glad to be in the presence of someone who thinks so similarly. My hobby is studying and I also dislike those who don't value family."
Nishimiya, who was sitting in front of him, chose to speak next. "Nishimiya Momo, I don't really have a specific hobby but I dislike obnoxious idiots who look down on women." She gestured to the girl in the centre of the couch, Mai.
"Mai Zenin, I like gardening and dislike gorilla-like students." Adam breathed out a laugh at the indirect mention of Todo. "You're next, Kasumi." The girl on the right side of the couch nodded sadly. She had just barely missed out on talking to Gojo while she was searching for her perfume and had become rather depressed afterwards.
"Miwa Kasumi, I like money and dislike dirty thieves." She sent a heated glance in Mai's direction.
"Hey! I apologized like twenty times!" The green-haired girl squawked. "Plus, you'll get to see him when he picks up these idiots anyway." She flicked a hand in Adam's direction while she talked. Miwa brightened considerably at the thought.
Behind her, Mechamaru coughed into his hand. The sound was robotic and gurgly, but it gathered everyone's attention the same. "Mechamaru, I like hanging out with friends whenever I can and I dislike traitors." He announced blandly. Kamo smiled kindly in the robot's direction when he looked over.
Iori broke the silence with a clap of her hands. "Alright! With those out of the way, we can get started on what I'll be teaching this week." She gestured for the two Tokyo students to sit near the rest of their peers, but they instead chose to return to their places on the right. "You two have only been taught through missions so far, so this week we're going to take things slow with some good old training."
"Wait, wait, wait, they just threw you two in the deep end?!" Miwa asked in shock. "I had to train for like…3 months before I got even a supervised mission!" Her expression darkened for a few moments before she added. "I guess you two are kinda prodigies huh."
"Not by choice, I assure you," Adam replied placatingly. "But yes, Blindfold threw me into a mission as soon as I was enrolled; Megumi here got a bit more onboarding."
"A few years more," The boy elaborated. "Adam was a special case." The white-haired boy looked at his friend with a disbelieving gaze.
"You were there when Kugisaki and Itadori went on that mission the day after they were enrolled." Adam drawled.
"Other special cases; Kugsaki has had training from her grandmother and Itadori is…" He didn't finish his sentence and was praying Adam didn't plan on doing it. Sadly, he seemed to have other thoughts.
"Blindfold must've been on some serious stuff if he thought Itadori would call on Sukuna to defeat a grade 3 curse." The numerous gasps around the room gave Fushigoro the perfect excuse to slap his friend over the head.
"Think about what you say!" He shouted. Iori groaned as the students began to murmur amongst each other.
"Everyone be quiet!" She yelled. "If you can save your questions for after class, that would be lovely." Her expression made it clear she was not requesting. "So after your morning classes, we'll be moving into daily training and potentially patrols of the city."
"Patrols?" Adam parroted. Iori looked at him with a warning gaze.
"Patrols, you walk around the city and follow traces of cursed energy; they're a bit of a Kyoto-exclusive thing though," Nishimiya explained. "We have the highest number of sorcerers/windows in the world, with almost 1 in 20 people being spiritually aware, so to say."
"Oh, so you look for people who can use cursed energy and follow traces; like a supernatural police force!" Adam exclaimed. Iori's eyebrow twitched at the constant interruptions, an action not unnoticed by the entire room. "Sorry."
"It's fine, just keep your questions to yourself until after I leave." She replied. "For now, just be prepared to be scheduled for such things. I'll try to keep you two together for the sake of strong cooperation, but don't be surprised if you're pulled apart for a day." Iori finally opened her notebook to read. "Now then, here's the schedule. At 9–" She checked her watch. "So in around 20 minutes, classes will begin. They last for four hours before we train until 3; if you have a patrol, that will either happen after or during our scheduled training times unless there is an emergency in which you will be patrolling during classes." She flicked to the next page of her notebook. "Sorry, this was made in a rush when I heard about the transfers. We will be having Math first, with English following after that, then Fundamental Curse Studies; that's for today, I'll explain tomorrow's schedule tomorrow before class. Each of the classes is an hour each except for FCS which is 2; on Friday we will have an exam that will cover what we have learned this week. The results will be sent back to your teacher." She sent a sideways glance at the two Tokyo students. "Or I will keep them and return the results to you on Monday." Adam put up his hand to ask a question. "Yes?"
"Why will they be sent to our teacher to mark? If you're the one watching over us this week, shouldn't you be the one marking?" His question sounded rather rude, but it was a valid one.
"The tests will be sent to your teachers, but I'll be the one marking them. It's more of a formality if anything, since I doubt your teacher will even bother looking at them." The slight jab wasn't intended to make the students lose faith in their teacher, but Iori was sure that any faith they did have in Gojo Satoru was gone by the second day of classes. Both Fushigoro and Adam shrugged at the point before the teacher continued.
"After training, I will be in the teacher's office for an hour to offer any help you may need; but if it's an emergency, do not hesitate to come to the teacher's dorm at any hour to talk to me." She flicked to the next page in her notebook before pausing. "I'll probably come through here on Thursday after classes to talk to each of you about the week's work before the exam just in case."
"Next up, I want you all to write me a list of 3 things you want to improve on this week; if you have more than 3 things, you can write them down, but I can't guarantee we will be able to cover any more than that." She flicked to the next page and sighed. "Lights out is at 10 pm, but that is for you yourselves to enforce as I will be busy marking and or making lesson plans in the teacher's dorm. I'm relying on you two–" She looked up at the third-year students, Nishimiya and Kamo. "To watch over the rest of these guys."
"Yes ma'am," Kamo replied with a bow. Iori waved off the boy's apology with a smile.
"Thank you; now the last thing on the agenda is dorm setups. I'm assuming you two have your bags around here somewhere?" She turned to the two Tokyo students, with Fushigoro gesturing at Adam. The boy rolled his eyes before reaching into the air and snatching a black bag from…somewhere. He handed it off to Fushigoro before grabbing a maroon golf bag for himself. "Okay…anyway, you two will be sharing a dorm room since we only have a single one left. Unlike the Kyoto campus, we don't have many sorcerers coming through or enough students to warrant transforming another building into a dormitory. There are two single beds in there for you to use and a single desk. If you need more space, the coffee table here and the dining room are free to use at most times of the day." She closed her notebook with a smile. "That's it! Now since we have around 10 minutes left, I'll give you all the time to change into your uniforms and meet me in the class. Since Pendragon and Fushigoro are already changed, I'll guide them to class 3-A." The Kyoto students quickly dispersed when Iori clapped her hands. Adam and Fushigoro stayed planted where they were. "Okay you two, let's get you set up before we head to class."
The teacher led her two temporary students through the hall they had passed through originally, occasionally, she'd wince as a loud bang or video could be heard from within the rooms they passed.
Unsurprisingly, the dorm room they would be sharing was at the very end of the hall on the left, opposite the unoccupied Nitta's room. Iori slid open the paper door and stood aside as the two boys shuffled in quietly.
On the left side of the room was a single-sized bed with a set of drawers under the frame serving as storage; this was mirrored on the right side of the room with only a single desk serving as the border between the two sides. "Sorry it isn't much boys, but we had to make do with what we have."
Adam placed his bag on the left side while Fushigoro used the right. "Don't worry about it, sensei." The black-haired teen replied calmly. "We're lucky that we even got to participate in this event at all."
"Lucky? This thing probably happened because of us!" Adam snorted. "Blindfold kept giving us all of those missions while Itadori and Kugisaki stayed at home, so they probably removed us to make it fair for them."
"So you think they sacrifice a different two student's educations to make up for lost time on the other two?" Fushigoro asked unseriously. Adam nodded and the black-haired boy paused for a few moments while thinking. "Sensei, what is Nitta's cursed technique?"
Iori raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Pain killer, why?"
"Is it support based?" Fushigoro sked.
"Yes?"
"Maybe Adam's right…" The boy murmured. "Todo already has skills surpassing that of a graduate, and if Nitta plays a support role…then he won't need the combat training Gojo mainly works on."
Adam tilted his head upwards with a huff. "And who said I wasn't smart?"
"Nobody did, but that doesn't mean you didn't just guess." Fushigoro quipped back.
Before the boys could start fighting, Iori coughed into her hand to garner their attention. "If you two would please follow me to the class now? You can put away your clothes and such after training."
"Right, right, sorry sensei," Adam said with a quick bow. "Lead the way." Iori stalked away from the room with her two new students following diligently behind.
The classrooms were the same as the ones at the Tokyo branch, the only difference being the number of students in attendance. Iori stood at the front of the class with several stacks of stapled paper and a smile on her face. "I figured I'd ease these two into our learning style with a work package; my students are all familiar with these, but they'll be new to you." She held up one of the bundles and flicked through it. "I have around 20 pages of questions here, do what you can ask me for help when you need it, and definitely ask me for help if you need me to run through a concept you don't recognize. My students will be working through a different one according to their level, but if you are uncomfortable asking me, they can probably help you work through a few questions. Momo, if you would help me hand these out?"
The blonde girl stood from her chair immediately, almost knocking over the broom that was leaning against her desk. Instead of the casual clothes she had been wearing earlier, Nishimiya was now dressed in a long black dress and a pair of dark ballerina shoes. The outfit certainly didn't look appropriate for combat, but her broom lent to the idea she may have been more of a support fighter than a direct combat one.
Iori handed her half of the prepared booklets while she walked off of the podium with the other half. With each student's name being printed on the front of the booklet, it made it rather easy to hand each one out. She stopped momentarily when she reached Adam's chosen desk, one of the two right in front of the podium. "If you need help translating some of the questions, just ask Fushigoro or myself."
"Okay." Adam accepted his booklet with a smile while Iori moved onto Fushigoro's table and explained the predicament Adam would not be facing. He practised Japanese in the library for 3 years! On and off sure, but it was still something he put a lot of time into.
The boy read over the instructions on the front of the booklet with a bored smile before quickly flicking to the next page. 'Alright, first question; triangle-shaped pond…one border is 4 metres, another 3 metres, what is the length of the final border? Why the fuck is somebody building a triangle-shaped pond?' He quickly wrote out his work on the page before turning to look at the next one. 'Another Pythagoras question…' The pattern of solving equations continued monotonously for the entire hour.
As the booklet went on, questions began to ramp up in difficulty. Fushigoro didn't seem to be struggling in the slightest, but he didn't usually allow emotions like that to cross his face anyway. Adam tapped his pen against his forehead as he tapped a few random numbers into his calculator. 'Heh…boobs.'
The bell rang.
"We'll stay in here for the time being, but FCS will be held in the auditorium," Iori announced. "I have more booklets here you can do, or you can read one of these books I brought in and write a report on the first chapter." From under the podium, she lifted a large crate filled with different short novels. "If you end up going the report route, provide your thoughts, predictions, things you noticed, and how certain phrases are used to convey emotions or images by the author." The crate was brought down to the desk to Adam's left; Nishimiya, Kamo, and Mechamaru all took the opportunity to grab one while Iori handed out the booklets.
"With English being your first language, shouldn't you be picking the harder activity?" Adam looked up at the person speaking to him; it was Kamo.
"Maybe, but I've probably read a majority of those books; it'd be a waste." Kamo curled an eyebrow at the reply.
"Truly? I hadn't known you were such an avid reader. I've personally taken to these novels as a way to increase my reading skills." The boy explained calmly.
"Not by choice I'll have you know." Adam stretched back in his chair with a bored expression. "But yeah, they can be pretty decent for improving your reading ability; don't get too hung up on the language used though, everyone has their own spin on English that might not be on whatever exam you're trying to take."
"I see…" Kamo glanced down at the novel in his hand and smiled. "I shall keep that in mind, thank you for entertaining my question." He swiftly returned to his desk before Adam could get another word in; just in time for Iori to place a booklet on the white-haired boy's desk.
"I'm expecting you to do pretty well on this; skip to the end if you want a challenge though." The teacher said with a smile. Adam took the booklet from her and flicked through it.
Within moments, he had a red pen striking across the page like a whirlwind. "Is this google translated?" He asked. "I'm not as proficient with Japanese as I am with English, but a lot of these sentences don't make sense."
"How so?"
"Wrong words, wrong phrases, it's like I'm reading something from a robot." He gestured to the page with his pen. "Not only that…" He sputtered with laughter, much to Iori's annoyance.
"What is it?"
" And I quote; 'The local bitch is always dirty, we should clean it!'" Laughter bubbled from the depths of his throat as the boy to his right tried to stop himself from chuckling as well.
"Well, I'll have you know I translated these myself," Iori stated with an embarrassed huff. Both boy's laughter immediately stopped as they looked up at their teacher.
"S-Sorry." Iori looked away to hide her flush as the white-haired boy apologised. Adam looked at his friend, who had now changed the target of his laughter. "Jeez, don't you feel at least a little second-hand embarrassment?"
Fushigoro shook his head. "Not in the slightest."
Adam and Fushigoro were at the back of the pack as their group strolled towards the designated auditorium for their curse studies class. "I mean, how was I supposed to know she was so bad at English?" Adam whispered to his friend.
"You weren't, but you shouldn't have been insulting somebody's work like that, regardless of who actually did it," Fushigoro replied. "Back to the point, what do you think is going to be covered here? The stuff we have covered so far has all been things we covered in self-study rather than class."
"Well then it could be possible we are finally getting to the part where Blidnfold's teaching excels." Adam proposed. "But at the same time…" He thought back to the man's curse fundamentals classes. "Did he ever cover something groundbreaking outside of mentioning them in passing?"
Fushigoro shook his head in response. "Only if you consider talking about barriers to be related to domains." Adam ran his hands through his hair in frustration.
"Ugh, I wish he had gone through binding vows." He groaned quietly. Without Fushigoro having to ask, Adam turned on the visual setting for his cursed technique and pointed at the skill in question.
-Binding vow creation [1/100]-
Binding vows are contracts made between sorcerers and themselves based on certain parameters. Breaking these vows can have disastrous repercussions.
(0/1 slots filled)
"What sort of vow would you even want to make?" Fushigoro asked. "There isn't much you could use outside of potentially limiting your growth in exchange for something. If that's even possible." Adam nodded tiredly at the boy's point.
"Yeah, but a skill like this is so useful that I just don't want to get rid of it. Even if I can't use it." The white-haired boy groaned. Fushigoro opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by Miwa.
"Woah, what's that?" Like clockwork, the entire parade of students, teacher included, stopped to turn around. "It looks like an RPG screen; there are even skills and everything!" Miwa circled the boys so she could read the page.
"It's my cursed technique," Adam answered. "'Status Increase' I can improve myself by utilizing a page similar to a game character's character sheet." He explained.
"Understatement of the century." Fushigoro snorted, more than willing to throw his friend to the wolves for enjoyment.
"Wait! You totally have a bunch of points you haven't used!" Miwa pointed out cheerfully. By now, the other students had also begun to circle so they could look at the phenomenon for themselves. "Why haven't you used them? Are you saving them?"
"Is this what you're passionate about or something?" Adam drawled. "To answer your question though, I'm saving them. I've done it a few times in the past, but gaining a huge jump in ability during a fight can really catch your opponent off guard."
"But you wouldn't be put into a situation where you would need such a jump if you simply used them." Mechamaru pointed out. Adam couldn't tell where the robot was looking due to the lack of pupils, but he had a feeling his gaze was lying on his skills. "How do you gain such abilities?"
"Life or death scenarios." The boy explained calmly.
"I assume it's based on your skillset randomly then?" Mechamaru asked in return. "Because I highly doubt you were cooking in a life or death scenario as you imply." Adam pinched Fushigoro's arm as the boy opened his mouth to argue.
"Wow, reversed cursed technique!" Miwa exclaimed. "And simple domain too! Do you think you could show me some tips sometime?"
Adam broke away from the crowd and turned off the visual mode. "Sorry, but this thing basically does all of that automatically. I highly doubt my skill in simple domain is any more than yours." He was tempted to activate the skill but decided not to as he wasn't sure of the rules regarding cursed techniques on campus. "Plus, shouldn't we be heading to class?" He glanced back at their teacher, who nodded dumbly in response.
"R-Right, let's do it." She was caught off guard by the sudden switch in target. She turned away and continued towards the auditorium hall. "Today we will be talking about reinforcing yourselves with cursed energy for offence and defence," Iori explained calmly.
The group eventually made their way into a large dojo area with a projector set up in front of 3 dozen tables. Unlike the classroom's setup, these stations seemed much more traditional in the way they only consisted of a short table and a pillow. There were two main sections for the desks, with a short walkway in between them for easy access. 6 desks sat on either wing of the setup, with 3 rows of the same format reaching towards the entrance. At the front of the room, next to the projector, was a single larger table with a mat spread over it.
Iori quickly took her place at the front of the room as the students slowly shuffled into their preferred seats. Once again, Adam and Fushigoro took spots at the front of the class to their teacher's right. They watched carefully as their teacher reached under the desk and pulled out a thick binder. "I'll once again apologize to the third years in attendance as everything we are covering today won't be new ground for you." She was quickly met with polite dismissals by the two students in question.
While the teacher turned on the projector and got her notes set up, Adam turned to Fushigoro. "Do you think I should share the details of my cursed technique with the other students? We will probably be fighting them in the exchange event this year."
"If we get invited." The black-haired boy pointed out. "It might be a smart idea to approach sensei about it; they might be able to give you a new perspective on things."
"Right…a new perspective." Adam looked back at the screen which had finally warmed up. Iori had prepared a presentation for the group and a photocopied binder of notes to share. "Maybe…"
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