Maki's Uncle

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Early the next morning, Inumaki, Maki, Yuta, and Panda walked side by side along the school road, discussing the new teacher who was supposed to arrive that day.

"You really can't guess?" Panda asked curiously. "Gojo-sensei said it's someone you know."

Maki pushed up her glasses, and her expression turned cold.

"If it's someone I know, then it can only be a Zenin sorcerer."

The group fell silent.

Yuta edged closer to Panda and whispered, "What happened to Maki-senpai?"

Panda covered his mouth with one hand and explained quietly, "The Zenin Clan is one of the Big Three Families. Since Maki has so little cursed energy that she can't see curses without glasses, the sorcerers there never treated her well."

"Though not all of them. The head of the Zenin Clan is apparently good to her."

"Oh."

Yuta nodded, understanding why Maki had come to Jujutsu High.

On the third-floor corridor, Satoru Gojo and Masamichi Yaga looked down at the four students, both serious.

"First Suguru Geto appears after years of hiding, and now a Zenin teacher is being assigned here."

Yaga rubbed his chin.

"Troubled times."

"I've wanted to meet him ever since Shoko told me about him," Gojo said lightly. "I didn't expect us to become coworkers ten years later."

"Life is funny."

Gojo did not share Yaga's concerns.

His overwhelming strength gave him the confidence to face almost any sudden problem.

Then his expression shifted, and he looked up at the sky.

"Damn."

Yaga's expression changed. He turned and ran downstairs, shouting as he went.

"All semi-Grade 1 and above sorcerers, gather at the school entrance!"

At the same time, Maki and the others stopped walking and looked up sharply.

A pure white bird with four wings was falling straight toward Jujutsu High.

"Pretty rare for a cursed spirit to fly straight into Jujutsu High," Panda muttered, putting on the cursed tool knuckle guards marked with a panda face.

The giant bird landed in front of them, kicking up wind and scattering leaves.

"After all this time, this place has not changed at all."

Suguru Geto, dressed in monk's robes, looked at the school buildings and spoke softly.

"Geto-sama, is this shabby place really in Tokyo?" Nanako called out in disappointment as she climbed from the bird's beak.

Suguru Geto.

Nanako Hasaba.

Mimiko Hasaba.

And a bare-chested curse user, Larue, with two pink hearts across his chest.

Four people, plus one cursed spirit.

Maki raised the long cursed tool spear in her hands, frowning.

"Sorcerers with no business here should get out."

Inumaki tugged down the collar covering his mouth, cursed energy gathering.

"Nice to meet you, Yuta Okkotsu."

"My name is Suguru Geto."

The sorcerer appeared in front of Yuta in an instant, making the other three stiffen.

Too fast.

They had not reacted at all.

Geto bent slightly, taking both of Yuta's hands with a sincere tone.

"You possess tremendous power."

"I sincerely invite you to join us and help create a better world."

"Could you help me, Okkotsu?"

"H-help you with what?" Yuta asked, completely lost.

Geto placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled with narrowed eyes.

"Kill every non-sorcerer in the world."

"And create a perfect world where only sorcerers exist."

Kill all humanity?

Was this guy a terrorist or a comedian?

Panda, Maki, Yuta, and Inumaki all looked at Geto as if he were insane.

"Step away from my student."

A familiar voice, unheard for ten years, came from behind them.

Geto turned back with a bright smile.

"Satoru. Long time no see."

Gojo did not react.

His voice lowered.

"Step away from my student... Suguru."

Geto's smile faded slightly, and he stepped back.

"No wonder this year's first-years are so strong. They're your students."

"Special grade jujutsu sorcerer, Yuta Okkotsu."

"Abrupt-Mutation Cursed Corpse, Panda."

"Descendant of a cursed speech user, Toge Inumaki."

"And finally..."

Geto looked at Maki, his mouth curling with mockery.

"The Zenin Clan's failure, Maki Zenin."

"The perfect world I want to build has no place for monkeys like you."

"Bastard, you-"

Maki's words were cut off by a sudden shout.

"Hey! You long-haired monk in the robes!"

"What nonsense are you running your mouth about?"

Maki, who had been about to attack, paused and looked toward the sports car approaching the school gates.

"White Zetsu?!"

Seeing White Zetsu standing arrogantly in the passenger seat, Maki stared in shock.

If White Zetsu was here, then Brother Itsuki had come to Jujutsu High too.

Sure enough, as the car drew closer, the familiar face in the back seat appeared from behind White Zetsu.

"A cursed spirit?"

White Zetsu's domineering posture left not only Geto's group, but everyone from Jujutsu High, visibly stunned.

Through cursed energy perception, the pale-faced cursed spirit in the black cloak with red clouds...

Was only Grade 4.

At most, Grade 3.

Cursed spirit grades, from weakest to strongest, were ungraded, Grade 4, Grade 3, Grade 2, Grade 1, and special grade.

In terms of strength, White Zetsu was so weak that any sorcerer present could crush him with one hand.

But this weak cursed spirit could speak.

And complain fluently.

No one present had ever seen a cursed spirit with that level of intelligence.

"Hey! I'm talking to you, long-haired monk!"

White Zetsu planted one foot on the passenger-side door frame and looked down with outrageous arrogance.

"Why are you staring at me? Overwhelmed by my heroic presence?"

Then he turned toward Maki, who was holding the spear, and his entire attitude changed.

"Little Maki, long time no see. You left for so long and never came back to visit Uncle Zetsu."

Ignoring the stunned crowd, White Zetsu jumped from the car and bounded toward Maki with a huge smile.

"Don't be scared, Little Maki. Your uncle has your back."

"If this monk dares bully you, just tell Itsuki to wipe them out."

"Uncle?!"

Inumaki, Yuta, and Panda stared blankly between White Zetsu and Maki.

A Grade 4 cursed spirit was their classmate's uncle?

Then was Maki human?

Or a cursed spirit?

For a moment, none of them knew what to believe.

"White Zetsu!"

Maki shoved him away with one hand, teeth clenched.

"Enough! Stop trying to take advantage of me!"

The story of the uncle title went back several years.

Maki had just put on the glasses that allowed her to see cursed spirits.

When she entered the meeting room and saw White Zetsu beside Itsuki, he tricked her into calling him uncle.

Maki had been only eight then, and White Zetsu was the first cursed spirit she had ever seen.

Add in the common belief that cursed spirits could not speak, and the fact that no cursed spirit should have been able to stand safely beside Brother Itsuki...

With all of that together, Maki had mistaken the pale-skinned White Zetsu for a strange human and somehow called him uncle.

What mattered most was that when White Zetsu looked at her, there had been no contempt.

No disdain.

Only after taking off the glasses and seeing nothing there did Maki first understand how deceptive cursed spirits could be.

From then on, White Zetsu had often called himself her uncle.

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