Classes and unexpected tasks [including bonus chapters]

In the early morning, golden sunlight streamed through the window sill, casting dappled patterns on the large, clean floor. Tiny dust particles dancing in the sunlight seemed like spirits of light, light and shimmering.

The student dormitories at Tokyo Vocational College are standard single rooms. However, unlike the typical type, these rooms come with an open balcony, a kitchenette with all necessary kitchen utensils, and a private bathroom.

This was a pleasant surprise for Tsurumi Nagaru, who was familiar with the room and quickly adapted. He slept soundly the first night in his new place, waking up naturally.

Last night, after writing my self-criticism at Xia Youjie's place, it was already past 11 p.m. He would usually be asleep by then. I was so sleepy that my eyelids were drooping when I got back. I didn't even have time to pack anything else before I buried myself in the soft bed and fell asleep.

Sensing the change in brightness in the room, Tsurumi Kawakami, who naturally woke up, opened his eyes. Seeing the somewhat unfamiliar room, he seemed to suddenly realize that he had moved to a different place, and his mind started working on this question.

Once he regained consciousness, the first thing he did was check the time. He reached for his phone on the pillow, and seeing the time displayed on the screen, Tsurumi Kawakami subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.

"Luckily, I wasn't late."

He got up, washed up, and changed out of his monster pajamas, putting on one of his few T-shirts. The bank card Yamashita Naomoto had given him contained 100,000 yen; most of it went into his own pocket, and he used the rest to buy clothes, shoes, and daily necessities.

After all that, there wasn't much money left in the card. But thankfully, the problem of food and accommodation had been solved after entering the vocational college, which was very good for Tsurumi Kawakyuu.

After tidying himself up, Tsurumi Kawaru put away the self-criticism he had left on his desk yesterday. He grabbed his phone and keys, and as soon as he opened the door, he bumped into Xia Youjie, who was returning from his morning run.

Having shared practice sessions and a meal together on the training field yesterday, and the bond forged while writing self-criticisms together in the evening, Tsurumi Kawakami paused for a slight second before greeting him with great enthusiasm: "Good morning, Jay! Are you going for a run?"

I saw Xia Youjie walking towards me, his body radiating heat as if he had just finished exercising, dressed in a tracksuit. He still had his hair in a bun, but he had a towel around his neck, presumably to wipe away sweat.

Xia Youjie was also a little surprised. He glanced at his watch, nodded, and said, "Good morning. Um, I ran a lap around the school. Are you going to the cafeteria?"

As he spoke, he grabbed the towel draped around his neck and wiped away his sweat.

Tsurumi Kawakami nodded and said, "Yes."

Xia Youjie paused, looked at Tsurumi Kawaru, and then glanced at another closed and silent dormitory room: "Then wait for me, and go call Satoru while you're at it, so he won't complain like he did yesterday that we didn't call him."

Upon hearing this, Tsurumi Kawakuri also remembered Gojo Satoru's complaint from yesterday, and immediately nodded like a chick pecking at rice, and ran to Gojo Satoru's door to knock and call for people.

Not long after the knocking, the door opened in response, and Gojo Satoru appeared behind it with a sour face and a bit of morning grumpiness. He was wearing a light gray pajama set, his fluffy, soft white hair sticking up haphazardly, and his azure eyes were dark.

Tsurumi Kawaru blinked and saw that the room behind him was dimly lit. Before Gojo Satoru's morning grumpiness would completely explode, the black-haired, golden-eyed boy raised his phone and shoved the lit screen in front of the white-haired boy.

"Wu, it's already 7:30. Jie and I made plans to go to the cafeteria together later, do you want to come?"

The aura that was about to erupt from Gojo Satoru suddenly froze. His deep eyes paused for a moment, and he raised a hand to grab a handful of hair, throwing out two words: "Wait." Then the door slammed shut.

Tsurumi Kawakami almost got hit in the nose, stared wide-eyed, took a step back, turned his head to look at the door that Gojo Satoru and Natsuyuki had closed, clutched his phone, went to the stairwell, and found a clean spot to sit down.

Ten minutes later, the two doors opened one after the other. Xia Youjie came out after taking a shower and changing his clothes. His hair was still a little damp, and he had it half-down. Wu Tiao Wu also changed his clothes, holding a pair of round sunglasses in his hand, and slowly put them on.

Hearing the noise, Tsurumi Kawakami, who was sitting at the top of the stairs waiting for someone, turned around, saw them come out, stood up and patted the back of his head.

Gojo Satoru's morning grumpiness came and went quickly. He stretched out his long arm, hooked his arm around Natsumi Yujie's shoulder, and when he walked up to Tsurumi Kawaru, he took out a daifuku from his pocket and gave it to him: "Here, take this."

Tsurumi Kawakami hurriedly caught the daifuku that was thrown to him. The semi-transparent packaging bag clearly showed half a strawberry inside. He looked up at Gojo Satoru with some surprise.

The white-haired boy, who was half a head taller than him, pushed up his sunglasses and said arrogantly, "Strawberry daifuku is my favorite. Consider it an apology gift from earlier, but there's only one left, no more."

A hint of doubt flashed in Xia Youjie's eyes. He glanced at Tsurumi Kawaru, whose eyes were slightly brighter, then turned to look at Gojo Satoru: "Did something happen that I don't know about?"

Tsurumi Kawakami, holding the daifuku, had a bright smile on his face. He was about to speak when Gojo Satoru interrupted him: "It's nothing, I'm hungry, let's go."

Seeing his urging manner, Xia Youjie's doubts deepened. He reached out and grabbed the collar of Wutiao Wu's white T-shirt: "Explain yourself clearly, don't act like you're making amends after bullying a classmate!"

Gojo Satoru was like a cat being held by the scruff of its neck, struggling desperately to break free from Natsume's grasp, but stubbornly refusing to reveal what had just happened.

Tsurumi Kawaru, holding a strawberry daifuku, hesitated for a few seconds before telling Natsumi Yujie what had just happened.

"It's just morning grumpiness, Jetsu. Don't you have morning grumpiness? And I didn't mean to slam the door." It was a little embarrassing to say this out loud, but seeing that he couldn't stop him, Gojo Satoru became self-righteous.

Tsurumi Kawakami didn't think anything was wrong either, and nodded in agreement, making an excuse for Gojo Satoru: "It's normal to be grumpy when you wake up. Although I was startled when Satoru slammed the door, I'm glad I didn't hit my nose."

Hearing this excuse, Gojo Satoru felt something was off for some reason, but he nodded vigorously at Natsuyu Jie: "See, even Ryu thinks it's okay now."

Xia Youjie looked at the two people in front of him, his gentle smile almost crumbling. He looked at the victim, Tsurumi Kawaru, with a pained expression: "Satoru is one thing, but why do you also think this kind of thing is okay?"

Even if you didn't know beforehand that someone would be grumpy in the morning, most people would be angry if a door was slammed on them. However, considering that Gojo Satoru apologized afterwards, Natsuyu Jie decided not to complain.

He just clicked his tongue at Tsurumi Kawakami, thinking that his obedient appearance made him seem easy to bully: "I was also in the wrong about this, after all, I was the one who asked you to wake Satoru up. I'll treat you to some water later."

Tsurumi Kawakami blinked, his smile growing even brighter: "Yay! But it's okay, I've encountered this a few times before when I woke Dazai up."

Mentioning his good friend Osamu Dazai, the black-haired, golden-eyed boy scratched his cheek, a hint of nostalgia in his eyes.

The three of them left the dormitory building, bickering and teasing each other. On their way to the cafeteria, they ran into Shoko Ieiri and two other girls wearing dark-colored school uniforms. They were probably the upperclassmen that Masamichi Yagami had mentioned.

Shoko Ieiri was the first to spot the three of them, waving and greeting them: "Have you finished writing your self-criticism?"

When the topic of writing a self-criticism came up, Gojo Satoru raised an eyebrow, put his arm around Natsuyuu's shoulder, and patted him hard: "Ha, Shoko, what are you talking about? How could you possibly write a self-criticism? You don't know how, do you?"

The way the three boys walked side by side was really an eyesore, especially the way the two tall boys led the one who was half a head shorter.

Tojo Satoru's nonchalant tone, Natsuyuki's unconventional hairstyle, and their inherent bad-boy aura made Tsurumi Kawakami, with his black hair, golden eyes, and droopy dog-like eyes, look innocent and obedient.

The two upperclassmen standing next to Shoko Ieiri immediately began to whisper among themselves. Even Shoko Ieiri wanted to complain. She crossed her arms, raised her chin slightly, and looked at the three boys with a suspicious gaze: "I'm saying you guys didn't really write anything, did you? It's only the first day, is it really okay to be like this? And if you're not going to learn good things, don't lead the trend astray."

Xia Youjie, who hadn't even said a word before being labeled as part of Gojo Satoru's group: "..."

Gojo Satoru immediately bristled, adjusted his sunglasses to reveal the azure eyes hidden behind them: "This is too much! Where did we lead the bad guys astray? Besides, Shoko was clearly involved yesterday too."

Mentioning yesterday's events, Shoko Ieiri touched the tip of her nose somewhat guiltily. She coughed lightly, skipped the topic, and introduced the two upperclassmen next to her: "These are upperclassmen Meimei and Iori Kagi, both from the fourth year."

To salvage his image, Xia Youjie was the first to greet them. However, despite his gentle and polite smile, the two senior students had already formed a strong first impression of him.

Gojo Satoru glanced at them with curiosity. His six eyes had spontaneously seen through them and collected the information into his brain, so his gaze was both intimidating and extremely impolite: "What is it? It's nothing special."

These words ignited the anger in Ankagi, who had been maintaining her composure as a senior student: "Hey, we're your seniors!"

Mingming, who was standing to the side, narrowed his eyes and reached out to stop the geisha who wanted to teach her a lesson: "Geisha, forget it. It's more important to fill your stomach and go back to sleep than to teach your junior a lesson. After all, enough energy is the guarantee of making money."

Hearing Mingming's words, Angeji's agitated emotions calmed down slightly. She glared fiercely at the impolite guy in front of her.

“Your name is Ryu,” Mingming pulled Ankagi back, then turned her gaze to Tsurumi Ryu, who seemed completely out of place as a sorcerer. “It’s rare to see a sorcerer like you.”

Tsurumi Kawaru blinked his golden eyes, looked at the tall, long-haired girl in front of him, and said with a bright smile, "Hello, Mingming-senpai, my name is Tsurumi Kawaru."

Anka-hime's attention also shifted to Tsurumi Kawaru. Her eyes lit up slightly, clearly showing her high regard for the well-behaved and polite Tsurumi Kawaru, and her attitude became very friendly as well.

After having breakfast in the cafeteria, the six of them split into two groups. The first-year students went to their classrooms in the teaching building to register, while the fourth-year students no longer attended classes and mainly went on missions.

On the way to the classroom, Ieiri Shoko mentioned two seniors, mainly because there were very few sorcerers coming to the college, and there was even a year when no new students enrolled.

"Mingming and Senior Songstress are really nice people. They're already close to being Level 1 Spellcasters. Fourth graders don't have to attend classes; they're always on missions. They only got back to school this morning."

Tsurumi Kawa exclaimed in surprise, "Are you this busy every day? But I heard there's money for missions, is that true?"

Currently short of money, Tsurumi Nagaru values ​​and craves it highly. It's worth noting that when Yamashita Naomoto initially enticed Tsurumi Nagaru to study at Tokyo College, besides the promise of free room and board, there was also the incentive of receiving money for exorcising cursed spirits, which greatly appealed to him.

When the topic of missions came up, Xia Youjie, who was standing to the side, also seemed somewhat interested.

Gojo Satoru walked forward with his hands behind his head, swaggering forward. Hearing their conversation, he scoffed and said, "These kinds of missions are assigned by the assistant supervisors. There are just too many low-level cursed spirits to exorcise. But it's spring now, so cursed spirits aren't too troublesome."

Because cursed spirits are born from human negative emotions, they are destined to be impossible to exorcise. Low-level cursed spirits, for example, cannot have a significant impact on humans.

Sometimes, the outbreak of negative emotions is also related to the season. For example, the cursed spirits are still on a balance line in spring and autumn, but in the hot summer, due to the weather, it is always the season when cursed spirits have a major outbreak.

In contrast, winter is a different story. The weather is one reason, but another major factor is that the arrival of winter signifies the end of the year, and the New Year and various holidays always put people in a good mood.

"There are indeed rewards for going out on missions, I heard they're calculated based on the level of the cursed spirit," Ieiri Shoko said uncertainly.

The group chatted in hushed tones and soon arrived at the classroom. There were only four of them among the freshmen of this year's vocational college, so the classroom was empty. They had only been seated for a few minutes when Ye'e Zhengdao walked in with his textbooks.

He stood on the podium, his serious gaze sweeping over the freshmen below. When he saw Gojo Satoru, who was still causing trouble and occasionally turning his head to talk to Xia Youjie next to him, Yagami Masamichi's forehead veins throbbed, and his fist supporting the podium hardened instantly.

Sitting in the back row, Tsurumi Kawaru inadvertently glanced at the dark face and suppressed anger of Yoga Masamichi on the podium. He was startled and looked away, then lowered his head to remind Gojo Satoru.

Xia Youjie was very perceptive to the gazes of teachers and the like. He noticed the stares coming from the podium, turned his head away from Gojo Satoru and kicked him with his right leg under the desk.

"Wow! Jie, you kicked me again!" Gojo Satoru, who was whispering to each other while clinging to the desk, suddenly bristled and stretched out his leg to kick back.

The next second, a furious roar came from the front of the classroom: "Wutiao! You better behave yourself during class!"

"Yes, yes, Teacher Moth!"

Masamichi Nobi, his face dark, looked at the grinning Gojo Satoru, remained silent for a moment, and then told them to hand in their self-criticisms.

After finishing the class, Ye Mo Zhengdao closed his textbook with a tired look on his face, held the self-criticisms they had written, and looked at the students sitting in the classroom, saying: "Remember to go to the academic affairs office to pick up your school uniforms this afternoon. If you want any changes, you can also tell the academic affairs office."

Leaving behind those words, the teacher, feeling more exhausted from teaching one class than from the entire day, left with a numb look in his eyes.

Watching Yagami Masamichi's departing figure, Xia Youjie turned to Gojo Satoru, who was crossing his legs, and said, "Satoru, you should pay more attention next time you're in class. Yagami-sensei looks a bit weathered."

Gojo Satoru tossed aside his books, boredly pulling a game console from under his desk: "I already know all of these stuff. Class is so boring. Hey, what kind of school uniform do you want?"

Upon hearing him mention the school uniform, Tsurumi Nagare, who was sitting in the back row, moved his chair forward. He remembered seeing Meimei and Iori-senpai that morning; they were wearing dark-colored school uniforms.

"Ha, are you going to alter your baggy pants? They're so ugly!" Gojo Satoru looked at Natsumi Yoshiki in surprise and shouted loudly.

Xia Youjie's forehead vein throbbed, and his gentle, smiling face held a terrifying glint in his eyes as he looked at him: "Wu, if you can't speak, you can donate your mouth to someone else."

Gojo Satoru looked visibly resistant: "No way! Besides, baggy pants are really ugly!"

As he spoke, he turned to look at Tsurumi Kawakami and asked for his opinion.

Tsurumi Kawakami looked up and met their gazes. He paused, then slowly straightened up, sitting up straight: "Um, what do those lantern pants look like?"

As a boy with somewhat skewed but generally good aesthetic sense, Tsurumi Kawakami had never seen lantern pants before, so he couldn't imagine what they looked like.

"Lantern pants are those wide-legged, elastic-waisted pants. Because they are gathered at the top and bottom and wide in the middle, they look like hanging lanterns, hence the name."

Gojo Satoru explained to Tsurumi River Nagaru while gesturing.

Tsurumi Kawakami nodded, seemingly understanding, then grasped the key point: "So, lantern pants are loose-fitting elastic-waisted pants."

Gojo Satoru stroked his chin, thought for a moment, and nodded, saying, "Yeah, right."

Tsurumi Kawakami's eyes lit up, and he turned to look at Xia Youjie: "I also want a pair of loose-fitting school pants like these."

Hearing Tsurumi Kawakami's words, Gojo Satoru looked at him in disbelief and shouted, "Wow, Kawakami, you betrayed us! We agreed to blame Jet together!"

Shoko Ieri, who was resting on her desk in the back row, was woken up by Satoru Gojo's loud, shrill voice. She frowned, looked up at the noisy group of boys, slammed her hand on the table, and said, "Hey you guys, choosing what kind of school uniform you want is your personal freedom! As long as it doesn't bother anyone else!"

Gojo Satoru wasn't intimidated at all. He pondered for a few seconds, then stroked his chin and said seriously, "But if Jay wears baggy pants, it will be so ugly it will hurt my eyes."

"Wow, you're so brave!" Ieiri Shoko looked at him like he was a warrior, and clapped enthusiastically, not wanting to miss out on the fun.

Tsurumi Kawakuri, who was standing to the side, was confused, but when he saw Natsuyuki's distorted smile and gloomy face, he shrank back and moved his chair back to sit with Ieiri Shoko.

Xia Youjie smiled: "Wu, do you want to fight?"

Upon hearing this, Gojo Satoru's face immediately lit up with an eager expression. He put down his crossed leg, stood up and stretched, and a surprising glint flashed in his azure eyes behind his sunglasses.

The two exchanged a glance, then left the classroom at the same time. They went to an empty space outside and started fighting without saying a word.

Tsurumi Ryu and Ieiri Shoko chased after them. When they saw the two fighting, he swallowed hard and looked somewhat terrified: "Ms. Yagami will be angry and make them write self-criticisms."

Yesterday's 3,000-word self-criticism left a deep impression on Tsurumi Kawakami. As someone who gets a headache whenever I see a lot of words, writing a 3,000-word self-criticism was nothing short of torture.

I wrote it once, and it left an indelible mark of fear, the kind of fear that makes me never want to write it again.

Shoko Ieiri wasn't too worried. She leaned against the wall with her arms crossed, her calm brown eyes watching them with composure.

Sure enough, the two stopped fighting after only a few minutes.

Xia Youjie even put away the cursed spirit. He looked at Gojo Satoru, whose face was full of dissatisfaction, and said with a gentle smile, "Let's not fight anymore. I don't want to write another self-criticism today."

Stuck in the awkward position, Gojo Satoru felt extremely uncomfortable. After failing to get through to Xia Youjie, he kept uttering infuriating words. But Xia Youjie remained unmoved, his expression still gentle, smiling politely at him.

After a long standoff, Gojo Satoru shut his mouth and apologized to him.

Upon seeing this, Tsurumi River revealed a thoughtful expression.

In the afternoon, the new students went to the Academic Affairs Office to pick up their school uniforms.

Aside from minor differences in style, the school uniforms for each graduating class of vocational college students are all dark-colored. Boys wear long sleeves and trousers, while girls wear long-sleeved skirts.

Faced with the changes requested by this year's freshmen, the academic affairs office, which is responsible for distributing school uniforms, was very accommodating. They noted down the changes they needed and told them that they could pick them up as early as noon tomorrow.

As they left the academic affairs office and reached the main road leading to the school gate, they ran into Mingming and Angeji, who were preparing for a mission. The two groups exchanged a brief greeting before the two hurried away.

"When can we go on a mission?" Tsurumi asked curiously, watching their departing figures.

"Soon, right?" Xia Youjie withdrew his gaze and said softly.

Just as he said, before they even received their school uniforms the next morning, the higher-ups assigned them a mission. Considering this was their first mission, the assistant supervisor who came to pick them up explained the mission to them in detail on the way.

"...The incident occurred at a century-old hot spring inn. Because it happened so suddenly, there were still some guests inside... Originally, this task was assigned to Mingming and Ankagi, both fourth-year students, but they were still in Osaka. In the end, the higher-ups decided to assign this task to you..."

"...The cursed spirit in the hotel is likely a level one cursed spirit, whose main task is to rescue everyone in the hotel and exorcise the cursed spirit."

The black car drove fast and steadily. Tsurumi Kawakami and Gojo Satoru sat in the back, quietly listening to the assistant driver explain the mission situation.

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I'll see if I can write the bonus chapter for the 100-point readership tomorrow. If I can, I'll post it together! *kiss*