HAVEN || SATORU GOJO

XXIV

AS SPRING GRADUALLY UNVEILED ITS REVIVAL, there was a sense of sorrow in the awakening. the lifeless branches began to bud, a timid promise of rejuvenation, but their emergence seemed to echo the yearning for the lost beauty of winter. Frail blossoms, fragile and delicate, embodied both hope and longing, as if caught in an eternal struggle between sorrow and renewal.

The transition from winter to spring, while inevitable, carried a weight of sadness. It marked the passing of a season that had enveloped the world in its icy embrace, leaving behind a longing for its icy touch. The melting snow and thawing landscapes were a poignant reminder of the transience of all things, as the sorrows of winter dissolved into the nascent hope of a blossoming spring.

Stress was beginning to brew and negative energy would only grow as people grew unhappy of the ever changing world as a matter of fact.

"You're going to make me late!" The woman was so frustrated. She had lost track of how much time had passed. The semi special grade curse had been taunting her repeatedly.

They were stuck in a carnival. A never ending one in a mirror maze. Every time she would shatter a mirror, more would grow. Small curses kept leaping from within the reflections and out, reaching for her neck. They were little imps.

The sound of mocking laughter only grew.

All forms of reception and communication were cut off by the domain. It was an extremely durable one at that.

Rieka wasn't sure if she could use her own domain without killing the hundreds of humans from within.

The sweat that glistened over the woman's face trickled. Her ponytail was becoming loose and the stray pieces of hair clung to her skin.

At that point, there was almost a deranged look in her eyes. "Oh, screw it."

She licked her lips. "UGAJIN .. LEAVE NOTHING BEHIND." Her soul seemed to blacken, losing its pristine sheen, melting everything it touched like acid. A sickle of trailing death that lingered. Like a snake it wrapped and coiled around the corners and crevices, snapping its jaws dripping with miasma.

Slowly .. everyone began to adapt to the new change. Students were put to even more work with less time in between as the new growing classes of sorcerers harbored potential, being mentored by the best of the best when it came to teachers.

Eventually the Kyoto Sister School Goodwill Event had sprung on them. It was a yearly tradition that occurred typically if there were the right amount of students for it to happen. During Rieka and Gojo's years, the Kyoto school didn't have enough students to send in to compete.

There were currently three known prodigies, two of which were rumored with the potential to surpass Satoru Gojo.

The first being Yuta Okkotsu, he was a first year to be sent in to even out the numbers of this year's goodwill event. The boy who was said to have a larger cursed energy capacity than the strongest sorcerer himself, even mentored by him as well. He was currently the youngest special grade sorcerer with a special grade cursed spirit at his disposal.

The second was another Tokyo Jujutsu School student, Kinji Hakari. The moody second year that was often brash, caring little about the rules. His cursed energy was unique, even more so than his domain which he'd already unlocked at a rather surprising age. Supposedly .. he was on par with Rieka in terms of hand to hand combat, but in physical strength alone, he and Yuta long surpassed her.

But there was another student of the Kyoto school, trained by the special grade Yuki Tsumuko herself— Aoi Todo. There wasn't much known about him except his preferences in women and his admiration for the sorceress. But he was said to be the Kyoto school's most powerful student at the moment.