"...Yuji Itadori?"
Kento Nanami, who had picked up the call, loosened his tie with one finger. Beneath his sunglasses, his brow furrowed, confusion plain in his eyes.
The office worker over in Tokyo answered directly.
"I've never heard that na before. To be honest, I've barely even co across the surna Itadori. It does not sound like soone from an orthodox Jujutsu Sorcerer background. And Gojo-san, should this not already be after working hours?"
"Co on, Nanami, this is actually pretty important. Just help out."
"That is overti. I refuse."
"I'll pay overti... uh, what flavor of ice cream do you like?"
"Overti turns labor from self-fulfillnt into forced survival. Do not try to alienate with money. Besides, I do not need ice cream in the first place."
"Have you ever had one of those cones stacked with nine scoops of ice cream? If you swallow it all at once, it feels super refreshing, you know?"
Kento Nanami hung up on the spot.
Yes, kids, this was exactly what it felt like to have an idiot coworker at your company.
Not only was communication with him always a complete ss, with replies that never matched what you said.
Even worse, he loved insane overwork culture and was always staying late, pressuring everyone else to hustle too.
A born corporate rat.
That was exactly why, although Kento Nanami deeply respected and trusted Satoru Gojo, the strongest modern Jujutsu Sorcerer, he did not respect him as a person at all.
And yet there was nothing he could do to resist Satoru Gojo.
Because that bastard was not just a corporate rat. He was also the top perforr.
It was through his connections that Kento Nanami had managed to crawl out of the hell of corporate slavery, only to job-hop straight into the even bigger hell known as the Jujutsu World.
There was no helping it.
When you were forced to choose between two piles of shit, compared to chocolate-flavored shit, Kento Nanami would rather eat shit-flavored chocolate.
At least Jujutsu Sorcerers got paid well.
So Kento Nanami retied his tie, started calling in favors, and began searching for any trace of Yuji Itadori.
Jujutsu Sorcerers were rare to begin with, and with official records in place, searching for one should have been easy.
But just as Kento Nanami had guessed, [Yuji Itadori] did not appear on any currently known list of Jujutsu Sorcerers.
Which ant...
This guy was very likely a freelance sorcerer from the civilian side, the kind of rcenary mixed in with all sorts of shady people.
For an orthodox Jujutsu Sorcerer like Kento Nanami, that kind of gray area was hard to navigate smoothly.
So he made another call and went to ask a professional.
"...[The Tiger of West Junior High]?"
In a five-star luxury hotel, i i, dressed in a silver evening gown and sipping red wine, could not help frowning slightly.
How arrogant.
Soone actually dared to give themselves a nickna like that?
After all, sorcerers who operated independently out in the civilian world were basically no different from underworld figures.
And by underworld rules, [Tiger] was a title that stood alongside [Dragon] as one of the ultimate nicknas.
Who in history had ever dared to bear such a fate, to shoulder a na so domineering?
Only two from the Warring States era. Uesugi Kenshin, the [Dragon of Echigo], and Takeda Shingen, the [Tiger of Kai].
After all, there were no wild tigers on this island. People's image of tigers ca entirely from books brought in from abroad.
In Japan, [Dragon] was the imagined divine force of heaven.
Then [Tiger] was the imagined supre force of the human world.
And soone actually dared to crown themselves with that kind of underworld title?
Even the outrageously arrogant Satoru Gojo had never shown that kind of nerve.
[The Tiger of West Junior High]...
But from that audacity alone, i i could already tell this person had to be a peerless master, soone capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with Satoru Gojo.
"...Then why not [The Tiger of Kansai]? Why specifically [The Tiger of West Junior High]?"
i i fell into thought.
What was West Junior High supposed to be?
And why had she never heard of this person before?
"Could it be... [The Tiger of West Junior High] is not a Jujutsu Sorcerer at all, but a Curse User?!"
In an instant, i i felt like her previously blocked line of thought had been completely opened up.
That did make sense.
Only a Curse User, soone who stood against the Jujutsu World, could be this kind of hidden master living outside the system.
Although she had always worked as a rcenary, taking jobs from Jujutsu Sorcerers, sooner or later anyone walking by the river was bound to get their shoes wet.
i i had plenty of dealings with Curse Users too.
Even the famous Suguru Geto had once co to her, this information broker, for help.
So i i placed a mysterious call and started consulting a true professional.
"What? A sorcerer Satoru Gojo personally singled out to find?!"
The old Curse User known as the Spirit dium Granny, who had spent years lurking in the dark corners of the Jujutsu World and was now well over eighty, could not help widening her eyes.
After all, the na Satoru Gojo was a nightmare to every Curse User.
Ever since Satoru Gojo was born, the Curse Users who used to run wild had withdrawn from the scene one after another, and those carefree days of making money however they pleased were gone for good.
Over the years, only Suguru Geto, a rising star among the new generation of Curse Users, had dared to rise up and launch a brave charge against Satoru Gojo.
But sadly, the outco had been tragic.
The righteous Suguru Geto died at the hands of the evil Satoru Gojo.
Countless Curse Users beat their chests in grief, lanting the injustice of heaven. So even fell to their knees before the morial tablet of their forefather Ashiya Doman and burst into tears, praying for that great ancestor to be reborn in the modern age, set the Jujutsu World right again, and restore the glory of Curse Users.
So the mont Ogami heard this news, she could not sit still any longer.
If it was soone Satoru Gojo wanted to find, then the Curse Users had to find him first.
"I'm offering a hundred ryo in gold. A bounty on any information related to [The Tiger of West Junior High]!"
"No matter who Yuji Itadori really is, we Curse Users will find him at any cost!"
"Start the search in Kansai! I want every tatami mat flipped over and checked!!!"
For a ti, the entire Jujutsu World was thrown into turmoil.
The na [The Tiger of West Junior High]. Yuji Itadori, spread across Japan in no ti.
Everyone who heard it reacted with shock and asked the sa question.
Who the hell was Yuji Itadori?
Just what kind of heaven-sent prodigy was he, to make both the underworld and the establishnt frantically search for him and stir up this stagnant Jujutsu World so completely?
But the truly hopeless part was this.
The Jujutsu World was full of outstanding figures, from old veterans who had lived through the Tokyo firebombing to peerless prodigies who could recite pi backwards, yet not a single one of them had ever heard of [The Tiger of West Junior High]. Yuji Itadori.
It was as if heaven itself had deliberately erased his existence. There was simply no trace of him anywhere in the Jujutsu World.
And just when everyone was beginning to think that this so-called [The Tiger of West Junior High] had been nothing more than an illusion, soone suddenly voiced a doubt.
"Is there a possibility... [The Tiger of West Junior High] is not a sorcerer at all?"
It was a local Jujutsu Sorcerer from Sendai. He did not have much ability and was basically a complete nobody in the industry.
Precisely because he was not very capable, being a Jujutsu Sorcerer was more like a side job for him. Most of his ti was spent dealing with ordinary family matters, so he had heard quite a few stories from the streets.
Among Sendai's local delinquent circles, there had once been a legend.
A year ago, the delinquents who had once stood at the top in Sendai suffered a catastrophic collapse, a break so severe it was beyond repair. History rembered it as the Rampage of the Violent Tiger.
There had once been a legendary battle in which one man, by his own power alone, forced an entire generation of young delinquents into collective retirent.
After that battle, that man was crowned the strongest middle schooler on earth.
Though he stood alone, he single-handedly crushed an entire dark age. Even when the delinquents called in yakuza bosses, none of them were a match for him.
Unbeaten across the underworld.
Sendai's strongest and fiercest imperial tiger.
[The Tiger of West Junior High].
That was what everyone called him...
Yet only one year later, [The Tiger of West Junior High] vanished completely, leaving no trace behind.
Everyone assud he had died young. That the savage tiger had finally turned toward the mountains and died alone deep in the wilderness.
No one could possibly have imagined that the truth was actually this.
It had all been a battle of wits at the highest level.
The tiger had faked his death.
The mountains simply could not contain that fierce tiger.
[The Tiger of West Junior High] had actually just graduated from junior high and moved up to high school!!!
Yuji Itadori was not a sorcerer after all.
He was a high school freshman on the track-and-field team!!!
The mont Kento Nanami got the news, he imdiately set out for Sendai, rushing nonstop to the high school Yuji Itadori attended.
"Are you looking for Itadori?"
The students in the classroom blinked several tis as they stared at the inexplicable office worker in front of them.
"He went to the hospital to take care of his grandfather."
…
Yuji Itadori looked at his grandfather lying in the hospital bed and let out a helpless sigh.
Birth, aging, sickness, and death were only natural. He had never imagined that even his grandfather, fierce as a tiger, would have a day when he fell ill.
But how could anyone sleep easy beside a bedridden tiger?
Even with white hair and confined to a sickbed, his grandfather was still as stubborn and ill-tempered as ever, yelling and cursing all day long to the point that not a single relative was willing to co visit him.
Only Yuji Itadori, his real grandson who had depended on him since childhood, was still willing to sit with the old man and chat every day without complaint.
"Um... is Yuji Itadori here?"
A hospital staff mber ca over and knocked on the door.
"What is it?"
Yuji Itadori closed the door behind him, stepped into the hallway, and looked at the staff mber in confusion.
"The dical fees... when exactly will they be paid in full?"
"Ah."
Yuji Itadori scratched his head awkwardly.
"Um, did my uncle not pay the last ti he ca?"
"Well, he got into a huge argunt with your grandfather that day, and they parted on bad terms. He forgot to pay before leaving."
The staff mber looked equally helpless.
After all, the old man's temper was just too explosive. He really was like an old tiger. Nobody dared provoke him, because the second they did, he started hissing and snapping.
"Could you maybe give us a few more days? I'll go back and call my uncle."
"I know this sounds cold, but if the paynts keep being delayed, it will be hard for us to continue treating your grandfather."
The staff mber decided to give him an ultimatum.
"With your grandfather's condition, if your family truly cannot afford it, we would still advise you to give up treatnt."
"Co on, do not say that! My grandpa still has enough energy to yell at people at the top of his lungs today! He is still seriously tough!"
Yuji Itadori had just started trying to argue with the doctor when he realized the other side was being unusually firm today.
"Our hospital has already assessed your family situation. There is no adult in the household able to take responsibility. We have already shown your family a great deal of rcy."
"I-I can work and make money too!"
Yuji Itadori was truly panicking now.
Who would want to watch their only family get handed a death sentence like that?
"If you really want to continue treatnt, then I suggest you apply for governnt assistance. You have no parents and were raised by your grandfather. This is not a number you can possibly bear on your own."
The staff mber had just been about to continue persuading him when a cold voice suddenly ca from nearby.
"Is this enough to satisfy you?"
The mont they turned around, they saw a travel bag thrown over.
"Uh..."
The staff mber lowered their head to check the amount, but the mont they pulled open the zipper, they found that the bag was not filled with yen at all.
It was packed with gleaming gold.
"T-this much gold?!"
Everyone passing through the hospital corridor was stunned.
Because the amount of gold was obviously terrifyingly large.
The staff mber was just about to pick up the bag and say there was no need for this much money, that they could return the rest, when...
They realized that no matter how hard they strained, they could not lift that bag of gold at all.
B-but...
When that person had tossed it over just now, they had done it so lightly and casually.
And when such a heavy bag of gold hit the floor, it had not made a sound at all.
W-what kind of magic was this?!
"Who says this child has no parents?"
A graceful, beautiful woman with stitch marks across her forehead smiled softly.
"Yuji, Mommy's here to save you."
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