Curse Return: Swordsmith Start

Tokyo Metropolitan High School of Curses

A magic school located in Tokyo, Japan, a school that specializes in training magicians, and one of only two magic schools in Japan.

The temperature in June is truly scorching. Even though it is still morning, the ground temperature has already been baked to an unbearable level. Everyone who cannot stand it seeks a place away from the sun to cool off.

But in this situation, there is a figure on the playground that stands out from the rest of the group.

On the training field, a girl with a single ponytail and glasses was wielding a training stick in her hand. Her movements were fluid and powerful. In the eyes of the observers, the strength and speed she displayed were something that even an average adult male might not be able to do.

In a classroom not far from her, a somewhat strange boy and a panda were talking while watching the girl sweating under the scorching sun.

"Does she really have to train in this sweltering heat?"

"Squid! (Who knows? By the way, aren't you planning to go with her?)"

The panda actually spoke, while the boy was just uttering words that made no sense.

"Ah, but not now. You know, my body type is most afraid of heat. My normal counterparts should be leisurely lying on ice beds right now, even if they're in a zoo."

"Salmon. (Well, it's a furry animal after all.)"

"Right, I think I'd better find somewhere quickly, otherwise something serious might happen..."

"......"

Before the boy could respond, the classroom door behind him suddenly opened, and a strange young man with his eyes wrapped in white bandages walked in with a happy expression.

"Hey, my dear students, how was your day?"

"Bonito flakes! (Oh no, it's unbearably hot!)"

"Ah, Wu, you've come at the right time. When will the school approve the funding for installing air conditioning? Also, as a panda in this country, am I eligible for a low-temperature subsidy...?"

Those two sentences instantly extinguished the man's joyful mood, freezing the smile on his face.

"Well, how should I put it, Panda, you should ask our dear Headmaster about this kind of thing... Ahahahaha..."

This is suspicious... Could this guy have embezzled the funds himself?

Looking at the unserious teacher scratching his head and grinning foolishly as if trying his best to hide something, the two students sighed helplessly. This guy was really unreliable.

"Speaking of Maki... oh, she's really diligent. Well then, I'll be leaving now. You guys have fun."

Perhaps to change the subject, or perhaps because he had found the person he was looking for, Gojo Satoru left in a carefree manner, seemingly unwilling to admit that no one was paying attention to him.

The man entered the courtyard.

"Maki, come here for a second!"

The girl who was training stopped and turned around when she heard someone call her, but she showed disgust when she saw a blindfolded young man, but still chose to walk over.

"What is it?"

"Hehe, sorry to interrupt your training. It's because there's a mission here that I think you'd be quite suitable for. What do you think?"

Upon hearing this, the girl immediately showed an interested expression.

"I see. Then we won't dwell on it. What's the task?"

The young man smiled and nodded.

"Let's go, we can talk as we walk..."

A moment later, in a car—

"What? You want me to get in touch with a rich young master? What kind of crazy mission is this?"

Maki's temper flared up immediately. What kind of crazy mission was this? She thought it was to exorcise cursed spirits. This guy really deserved a beating. She really wanted to teach him a lesson.

"Cough cough cough... No, that's not it, Miss Maki. It's a transaction. We need to get a custom-made, level-two cursed artifact from him."

Upon hearing Gojo's out-of-context explanation to his student, the driver, Iji, knowing that something serious might happen if he didn't speak up, quickly added details, successfully extinguishing the girl's anger.

At the same time, it allowed her to lean back naturally in her seat.

"Oh, so that's how it is. Well, then let's make the deal. What does it have to do with this rich young master?"

The bespectacled man in a suit, who was driving, held the steering wheel with one hand and handed a document to Maki in the back seat with the other.

Finally, Gojo Satoru, the blindfolded teacher in the passenger seat, gave up teasing his student and offered to explain things while the student was looking through the documents:

"The original client was an elderly knife maker with whom we had worked for some time, but he suddenly passed away not long after we commissioned the work, just over a month ago. Before that, he sent us a message saying that the piece was finished, so now we are going to retrieve it."

"And that rich young master is his grandson. The item should be in his hands now. However, the old man mentioned in his letter that he is most likely just an ordinary person who knows very little about the world of magic. So after screening, it was finally decided that you, Maki, would be the one to complete this glorious task."

After listening, Maki, who was sitting in the back row, was speechless but did not refute it. After all, considering their situation, it seemed that she was the only one who was suitable. Among these people, she seemed to be the only one who looked like a normal person.

"So you're saying I have to keep this information confidential?"

"That's right, if he were just an ordinary person."

Maki nodded, then turned her gaze to her teacher.

"Then why did you come along? Just to retrieve a magical artifact, right?"

What puzzled her was that this guy was always busy, so how did he find the time to come and do this kind of mission with her?

"Ah, because I just found a newly opened pastry shop with really high ratings over there..."

"Alright, that's enough. I must have been incredibly stupid to ask you this kind of question..."

The white-haired, blindfolded man immediately gave an expression as if he had been hit with a critical strike.

"How could this happen..."

After several twists and turns, Zenjima Maki finally arrived at the residential area in front of her with a piece of paper bearing a specific address.

Looking at the small manor area in front of her, which was clearly only for the wealthy, she finally understood the meaning of the "rich young master" mentioned in the intelligence report.

Someone about the same age as me has already inherited the entire family fortune... Envy welled up in my eyes...

After spending some time finally finding the address, I looked at the manor in front of me, my lips twitching as I rang the doorbell...

No one responded for a long time.

She belatedly checked the time—16:45

So the other person should be at school right now. Wouldn't it be crazy for them to come to your house looking for you?

He took out the information from his pocket and found the other party's school—Kaicheng High School.

Hmm... is she a top student?

Not knowing what to do, Maki turned around to call Ijichi to pick her up, but then noticed a boy's figure gradually walking towards them in the distance.

She picked up the photo and compared it to something familiar. What a coincidence!

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Yue Ren naturally saw the bespectacled girl with a high ponytail standing at his door. With her familiar high school uniform, he roughly knew who she was.

My mood brightened, but I never expected that my first contact would be with her. Things are starting to get interesting.

Zenin Maki, a student at Tokyo Jujutsu High School, is the elder of the Zenin twin sisters, one of the three great families of the Japanese jujutsu world. She was born with weak jujutsu power and needs a special tool, namely her glasses, to see jujutsu spirits. However, she possesses a powerful body bestowed by the Heaven and the Curse, and later becomes the second generation "Heaven and the Tyrant".

Right now, she's just a capable and beautiful young woman in the making.

Approaching the other person naturally, Yue Ren asked with a slightly puzzled expression:

"Hello, senior, are you standing at my door looking for someone?"

Zenin Maki looked at the seemingly ordinary-looking boy in front of her, who exuded an aura that made her take him seriously, and for a moment she was speechless.

Is this guy a trained fighter too?

Based on the other person's walking posture and the subtle aura they exuded, she had this guess in her mind.

But the next moment she reacted, taking a piece of paper out of her pocket and handing it to the boy.

"Hello, you must be Kawasaki Koshito, right? I'm here to pick up something, something that was commissioned to be made by your grandfather."

Yue Ren took it, then raised an eyebrow. It was a contract for forging, which could indeed be called evidence.

This is a method used in the forging industry to deal with unexpected situations between the two parties in such transactions, much like a notarized will, to ensure that the transaction can still proceed normally.

He then gave a look of sudden realization.

"I see. So, you're a student at that so-called 'High School of Cursed Arts'? Do you have any other evidence you can show me? Please forgive me, but I think it's not unreasonable to be cautious when it comes to my grandfather's inheritance."

Maki raised an eyebrow slightly, somewhat surprised by the boy's caution, but she also acknowledged it.

"That's true, then... oh right, this should be enough to prove it, right?"

As she spoke, she took out another card from her pocket and handed it to the Yue man.

After receiving it—

It was a student ID card with the girl's picture on it. The school name on it was Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu High School. There was a circle in the upper left corner of the photo with a "four" marked inside.

The student ID is the same type as the one for a boy named Yuuta Otsukoshi from my memory. The "four" must mean a level four sorcerer, right? And the grade... first year. I remember this guy was a second year student at the beginning of the main story. So, there's still about a year until Tiger appears? Time is really tight...

The man from Yue glanced at it twice, then returned it with a smile.

"Okay, then, Maki-senpai, please follow me."

Upon entering, after changing shoes, they thoughtfully brought out new indoor shoes for Maki. This considerate etiquette made the usually bold girl a little reserved.

"Excuse me!"

He led Maki through the courtyard to the reception room and made her a cup of tea.

"Then please wait a moment, Maki-senpai, I'll go get my things."

"Okay, you're busy!"

Maki seemed a little nervous, not because of Yueren, but because the current environment was both familiar and unfamiliar to her. It was familiar because as a child of the Zen family, she was used to such beautiful environments, but it was unfamiliar because she had never been entertained in such an environment before, which made her feel a little uneasy.

Fortunately, Yue Ren didn't keep her waiting long. He returned in less than five minutes, but contrary to her expectations, he brought two boxes.

......

Wasn't it said that there was only one cursed tool?

Although she had doubts, she chose to remain still and see what this boy, who had impressed her so far, had to say.

The boy pushed one of the boxes in front of him and said:

"Maki-senpai, you must be a so-called jutsu master, right?"

The girl looked surprised by those words, and her heart skipped a beat.

How did he know? Wasn't he supposed to be an ordinary person? How did he know?

Yue Ren noticed her shock and confusion, smiled, and continued his performance.

"I learned all of this from the notes that my grandfather hid. Cursed power, sorcerers, cursed spirits. To be honest, I didn't believe it at first, but the changes in my body, these things, and your appearance, senior, made it impossible for me to deceive my own heart."

The changes in his body, could it be...?

"You...have awakened your magical powers?"

One sentence just slipped out.

The Yue people showed just the right amount of doubt.

"Cursed power... is this something like that?"

As he spoke, he raised his right hand, which appeared to be empty, but through his special glasses, Maki could see the surging power in the boy's hand—it was indeed cursed power.

"..."

Seeing her silence, Yue Ren continued:

"A little over a month ago, I was in a car accident. When I woke up in the hospital, I sensed this power and could see some 'dirty things.' That's how I discovered this thing and the notebook that my grandfather had buried. By going through the notebook, I roughly understood some things."

With this explanation, Maki understood. Although it seemed unbelievable, it wasn't impossible. However, this matter was beyond her authority, and she needed reinforcements.

So she took a deep breath.

"I understand, but it's a bit difficult for me as a student to handle your special situation. If you don't mind, I'll make a call and ask my teacher to come over."

The Yue people naturally agreed.

"If that's possible, then it would be really troublesome."

A moment later, a man with bandages covering his eyes sat down next to Maki, stroking his chin.

He was tall and slender, but his eyes were covered by strange white bandages, and his silver-white hair swayed in the wind, giving the impression of someone suffering from late-stage chuunibyou (middle school syndrome), which was a waste of his otherwise very good-looking face.

"I see, a sudden awakening of magical power acquired later in life? Interesting. In that case, it would indeed be suitable for me to study at a vocational college..."

Although everyone in this world possesses magical power, those who have spells or can consciously use magical power and become sorcerers are extremely rare. The situation of the boy in front of us is even more peculiar.

Gone is the resentment of being suddenly summoned by his student; it can only be said that Maki really gave him a pleasant surprise.

You should know that young sorcerers are a very rare resource these days.

"Hey, this is way too casual."

Maki, standing to the side, made a sarcastic remark.