Time quickly passed, and another two weeks went by.
Due to the failure of the Top Brass in the Japanese Jujutsu Society to execute their conspiracy—and having angered Satoru Gojo in the process, causing him to focus more attention on Yuji Itadori—nothing unexpected happened to Itadori during these two weeks.
As for the Nightmare, there had also been no new updates.
Gojo had temporarily abandoned the plan to eliminate the Nightmare. After his direct confrontation with her—where he even used his trump cards but still failed to destroy her—he concluded that even if they fought again, the outcome would remain unchanged.
Now, Gojo had shifted his attention to Tokisaki Kurumi.
Regarding this mysterious student, he wasn't sure whether to trust or suspect her. So apart from work and teaching, he spent almost all his remaining time investigating her background.
However, the results were minimal.
Kurumi supposed parents had already gone abroad. Even though Gojo held immense influence within Japan, it didn't extend well beyond its borders.
Various signs indicated that this person, who seemed to have a connection with the Nightmare, was not as simple as she appeared.
Perhaps even her apparent identity was entirely fabricated.
Thus, Gojo needed more time to determine whether she could be trusted.
While Gojo was still observing and deciding, the exchange event with the Kyoto Jujutsu High arrived right on schedule.
"Get your spirits up, first-years!"
On the field, a girl with a ponytail and glasses shouted with vibrant energy, "Today's the day we go head-to-head with those guys from Kyoto. Are you all ready?"
"The match is about to begin. Don't stress them out so much,"
A panda—a talking panda—scratched its head and tried to interject, "They're just temporary replacements, how could they possibly be fully prepared?"
"Salmon."
A rare white-haired boy, who looked rather small and thin, nodded in agreement with the panda.
These three were second-year students of the Tokyo Jujutsu High.
The first one was Maki Zenin, a direct descendant of the Zenin clan, one of the Big Three Sorcerer Families.
Logically, someone like her should have joined the conservative Kyoto Jujutsu High, but due to a poor relationship with her family—having been both abandoned and suppressed—she ended up here.
The second was not human, but a "Cursed Corpse."
A Cursed Corpse, or Shikigami, is a puppet-like object that requires the infusion of cursed energy to animate, typically used by sorcerers in battle as support tools.
However, Panda was no ordinary cursed corpse—he was the only one known in the jujutsu world to possess emotions and human-level intelligence, which earned him the official status of a jujutsu sorcerer.
The third was Toge Inumaki, a rare "Cursed Speech User."
Since the day his technique awakened, every word he uttered carried power that could influence reality. As a result, he rarely spoke, and even when he did, he only used food names.
"Don't underestimate us, Panda-senpai."
Having fully recovered after a period of rest, Nobara Kugisaki replied indignantly, "Have you ever seen first-years who came back alive after facing a Special Grade curse?"
"You came back because Yuji Itadori was with you, right?"
Maki Zenin, carrying a large blade, glanced toward Yuji Itadori, who was sitting not far away looking enviously at the group. She added, "But this time, he's not going to participate."
"And even if he did, we can't let Sukuna come out and fight for us, can we?"
Panda grinned with a human-like expression and chuckled, "Setting aside whether the Kyoto elders would explode with rage, if the King of Curses from a thousand years ago were to bully today's rookies, the exchange event would be meaningless."
"But... are you sure about letting Kurumi participate?"
Maki withdrew her gaze and turned toward Tokisaki Kurumi, asking with a doubtful tone, "Let's not even talk about combat—she only just recently came into contact with the jujutsu world, right?"
"I'll do my best."
Kurumi gave an embarrassed smile, looking slightly nervous.
She had undergone a complete transformation.
With Gojo help, she had received a human-skin mask suited to her features the very next day. Even her eyes were now concealed with colored contact lenses, hiding their original appearance.
When the second-years saw her for the first time, there wasn't much of a reaction—they hadn't met her before.
The three first-years initially thought she was just another new student and didn't recognize her at all.
It wasn't until Gojo himself explained part of the situation that they finally understood this really was Tokisaki Kurumi.
However, Gojo didn't explain in detail why she had to change her appearance.
So, they didn't probe further.
After all, it was just a change of face—the person inside remained the same. Everyone continued treating her as they always had.
"Letting Tokisaki participate was personally approved by Gojo-sensei, so of course it's fine."
Megumi Fushiguro inserted himself into the conversation and said calmly, "Maki-senpai, it's understandable that you don't know Kurumi capabilities since you've never gone on a mission with her, but I can assure you—she's the most powerful attacker at Tokyo Jujutsu High."
"Stronger than Okkotsu?"
"In terms of destructive power, much more."
"Eh..."
Maki took another glance at Kurumi, clearly still a little skeptical.
Yuta Okkotsu was a third-year student at Tokyo Jujutsu High and one of the youngest Special Grade sorcerers in modern jujutsu society.
Technically, it should've been Yuta participating in this exchange event.
However, being a Special Grade, he was simply too busy to attend such events, and the other two third-years had already dropped out. So the first-years had to fill in.
"We already have you, Maki-senpai, and Panda-senpai—two masters of close combat. That's more than enough."
Megumi continued, "Yuji... his strength is indeed impressive, especially his physical capabilities, which aren't inferior to yours, but three melee fighters would be too many. Letting Kurumi join is definitely the right decision."
"Alright then, I'll trust you this once."
With the exchange event about to begin, Maki didn't want to waste more time arguing.
There were six participants, and if they split into two teams, one tank per team was enough.
Soon, the six members began discussing team distribution.
While second-years naturally had better synergy with each other, and the same for the first-years, Panda and Maki had to be placed on separate teams.
"Maki-senpai, Kurumi, and Nobara in one team,"
After thinking for a moment, Megumi said, "I'll be with Panda-senpai and Inumaki-senpai. How does that sound?"
"Haha, girls' team and boys' team, huh?"
"I have no objections."
"Mm, let's go with that then."
Everyone agreed to the arrangement.
After deciding the team composition and seeing that it was nearly time, they all got up and headed to the designated location.
The exchange event between the two schools was an annual tradition.
And the content of the exchange event... didn't vary much from year to year.
Students from both schools entered the forest shrouded in a special barrier to hunt the cursed spirits that had been released there.
The cursed spirits were all between Grade 3 and Grade 2, so as long as they acted carefully, there shouldn't be any serious incidents.
Even if something unexpected did happen, the teachers monitoring the area at all times would immediately step in to rescue the injured.
However, each year, there weren't many people injured by the cursed spirits.
Most of the injuries actually came from battles between the students of the two schools.
"It's noon. The exchange event officially begins."
As the barrier unfolded, the Tokyo students, divided into two teams, didn't want to waste a single second and rushed off in two different directions.
Following Zenin Maki's lead, Tokisaki Kurumi ran through the forest while simultaneously trying to sense the presence of cursed spirits and thinking to herself.
Since Yuji Itadori wasn't participating in this exchange event, the assassination incident that originally happened in the story wouldn't occur.
In other words, the people from Kyoto would likely focus all their attention on the exchange event itself rather than eliminating Yuji Itadori.
Though it was unclear whether those from Kyoto would come up with another backup plan, that wasn't something she needed to worry about.
What she needed to worry about now was simply completing this exchange event.
And, coordinating with her main body.
Before every operation, her main body would send a clone to exchange information with her.
It was the same back at the Juvenile Detention Center.
Against a freshly emerged special-grade cursed spirit, even though she was just a clone restricted to using only compressed spiritual power, she still couldn't be easily defeated.
She only pretended to faint and leave in order to avoid contact with her main body.
"Maki-senpai, I sensed a cursed spirit's presence."
After running for several minutes through the dense forest, Tokisaki Kurumi detected the lingering aura of a cursed spirit.
"Well done."
Zenin Maki was pleased, and immediately rushed in the direction Kurumi pointed.
Among the two squads, she and Panda were the main damage-takers.
Meanwhile, Megumi Fushiguro and Tokisaki Kurumi were the ones primarily in charge of tracking cursed spirits.
Megumi Fushiguro could summon shikigami to search for cursed spirits, while Tokisaki Kurumi had an extremely high sensitivity to residual cursed energy.
Soon, they spotted a cursed spirit in the forest—a creature with a human-like face but a mantis body.
"Wait, there's another one in the tree!"
Just as Zenin Maki was about to attack, Tokisaki Kurumi quickly warned her.
That warning made Zenin Maki halt abruptly, stopping with a sharp skid that kicked up a large cloud of dust.
Looking up, just as Kurumi said, a spider with the same color as tree bark was quietly crouching in the treetop.
It was a Grade 2 cursed spirit!
Grade 2 spirits were relatively rare, and now two of them were gathered together, seemingly even working in tandem?
Zenin Maki narrowed her eyes slightly, feeling somewhat fortunate that Tokisaki Kurumi was on her team.
Though she was a Grade 2 jujutsu sorcerer, she was one without cursed energy, relying entirely on her superhuman physique and cursed tools to exorcise spirits.
She even needed special glasses to see cursed spirits.
If not for Kurumi warning, she likely would've fallen into the spider cursed spirit's trap, giving the mantis cursed spirit a chance to strike.
Bang!
A spiritual energy orb condensed at Tokisaki Kurumi fingertip, shooting out like a bullet and precisely hitting the spider cursed spirit.
However, the spider cursed spirit seemed prepared, leaping suddenly to another tree.
Boom—!
Despite being a small spiritual energy orb, its power was equivalent to a bomb.
The thick ancient tree was blasted in half.
The mantis cursed spirit, which had a human face, also seemed to possess some intelligence. Seeing such destructive power, it paused in shock.
Then, it immediately abandoned the spider cursed spirit and began running madly with its eight legs.
"We can't let it escape!"
Seeing the prey try to flee, Zenin Maki accelerated and charged forward.
Meanwhile, the spider cursed spirit, also sensing danger, started jumping from tree to tree in the other direction.
"I'll go after that one!"
Nobara Kugisaki couldn't resist getting involved either, and relying on her excellent physical abilities, chased after the fleeing spider cursed spirit.
There were only sixteen cursed spirits in this exchange event, and only six of them were Grade 2.
Now that they had been lucky enough to encounter two at the very beginning, of course they couldn't let them go.
Seeing her two teammates so excitedly chasing after the Grade 2 cursed spirits, Tokisaki Kurumi didn't think it would be appropriate to step in, so she just stood where she was, waiting for them to return.
"Hmm?!"
Not even a minute had passed when Tokisaki Kurumi sensed two rapidly approaching presences.
Looking in the direction of the aura, two figures soon appeared in her line of sight.
One was a blonde twin-tailed loli flying in the sky on a broomstick.
The other was a cursed corpse made of some unknown metal material.
Of course, Tokisaki Kurumi recognized these two.
They were both students from Kyoto Jujutsu High—third-year, Grade 2 jujutsu sorcerer Nishimiya Momo, and second-year, semi-Grade 1 jujutsu sorcerer Mechamaru Ultimate.
"Look what we've got here, a first-year all by herself."
A mocking smile appeared on Nishimiya Momo's childish face as she looked down and said, "Newbie, didn't your seniors ever tell you that acting alone is dangerous?"
"Actually, I'm just waiting here for my teammates to come back," Tokisaki Kurumi said helplessly. "If you're looking for cursed spirits, please try somewhere else."
"Sorry, but our strategy is to beat all of you down first, and then go look for cursed spirits."
Nishimiya Momo lowered her altitude slightly, arriving beside Mechamaru who was standing on a tree branch.
"If you choose to surrender, I can just knock you out directly."
A voice with a slight electronic noise came from Mechamaru's throat.
"A two-on-one, huh. That's going to be a bit troublesome."
Tokisaki Kurumi sighed slightly.
"Looks like I'll have to use a bit of my true power."