Chapter 32: Yurikawa Hana: Danger!
Compared to the overall environment of the Jujutsu world, the seemingly free-spirited, reckless, and unreliable Satoru Gojo is undoubtedly a genuinely good person.
Not to mention, he takes on a significant portion of the requests to eliminate top-tier Cursed Spirits, directly or indirectly saving countless non-Sorcerers.
Of course, the most important point is his strength. Because he is powerful enough, even if he acts independently and disregards the Higher-Ups' orders, they are completely powerless to stop him. The only thing they can do is resort to underhanded tactics like this, secretly targeting the people close to him, thereby attempting to diminish his actual influence.
However, such matters can only be carried out quietly in private. If he were to catch them, they would have to pay an untold price.
Gojo simply doesn't want to kill all of these people, which would throw the entire Jujutsu world and, consequently, the real world into chaos, but that doesn't mean he won't take action at all.
After this incident, Emiya could roughly understand why Gojo was so intent on reforming the Jujutsu world.
The fact that families or other entities lead the direction of the Jujutsu world is secondary.
The crucial point is that Sorcerers are fighting on the front lines to eliminate Cursed Spirits while those in power are secretly tripping them up from behind. This kind of behavior is truly... flourishing.
Emiya was quite surprised that Gojo immediately decided to seek justice for him. After all, they had known each other for less than a day. If someone like Gojo were to manage the Jujutsu world, perhaps it would be genuinely much better than those old fogeys? Emiya wasn't sure about this since he'd never been a leader. However, if Gojo were to need him to do something later on, Emiya certainly wouldn't hesitate.
But for now, he was quite tired.
Emiya gently leaned back in the car's back seat. Since he had only used his Cursed Energy during the Cursed Spirit elimination, and his Cursed Energy seemed truly unique, the expenditure was nearly negligible. However, the depletion of his Magical Energy wasn't so easily remedied. Even the projection of 'Sword'-type Noble Phantasms is inherently a very magical energy-intensive process.
Heroic Spirit EMIYA's usual method is to project Noble Phantasms he might need beforehand and store them in his Reality Marble, the "Unlimited Blade Works." He only uses massive amounts of Magical Energy for temporary projection when absolutely necessary.
While the products Emiya projects are indeed more durable than those of typical Projection Magecraft, they are also subject to the world's 'correction' due to conceptual differences.
Only by being preserved within the Reality Marble can these Noble Phantasms be stored long-term. One could say that if Heroic Spirit Emiya were given sufficient Magical Energy or enough time, he could become stronger than most Servants.
Unfortunately, the current Emiya lacks both.
He currently has no way to acquire Magical Energy from the outside and must rely on his internal Magic Circuits for self-conversion. And he simply doesn't have the time; this is only his third day in this world. At the current rate of Magical Energy recovery, he could probably stock up a certain number of Noble Phantasms in about a month... no, half a month. With those Noble Phantasms as support, enemies around Grade 1 would pose practically no threat to him.
However, he still didn't know if his ace in the hole, the Reality Marble, could manifest in this world.
Leaving the Magical Energy and the world's correction force aside, conceptually, his inner world is already different from that of Heroic Spirit Emiya. As for EMIYA Alter... he seemed to be even further removed?
In any case, regardless of the malice from the outside world, he had to figure out how to improve his strength first...
"Emiya-san, Emiya-san."
"Emiya-san?" Ijichi's voice suddenly woke Emiya from his thoughts, and he saw the man leaning forward from the driver's seat.
"Teitan High School. We've arrived."
"Thank you, Ijichi-san." Emiya nodded to him.
The Assistant Supervisor, besides helping Sorcerers in combat, also had to moonlight as his dedicated driver, which made Emiya feel a bit awkward. But the location of the Cursed Spirit elimination and Teitan High School were simply too far apart.
Tokyo-to (Tokyo Metropolis) is a massive urban area that includes 23 special wards and 26 cities, making it one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world. The conventional meaning of "Tokyo" is just a specific area within Tokyo-to, while Tokyo-to is the collective name for an entire administrative region.
Its physical area might not be huge, but it accommodates over ten million people, and the messy road networks and traffic congestion are enough to induce despair. After glancing at his "smart navigation," Emiya unhesitatingly requested Ijichi's help.
"This is part of my job, Emiya-san." Honestly, even though it was something he couldn't control, Ijichi still felt awful thinking that Emiya was ambushed by a Curse User at the location he had been driven to.
After bidding farewell to Ijichi, Emiya turned to look at his surroundings.
Teitan High School, situated alongside the road, was notably prominent, with an area nearly twice as large as the academy Emiya had visited last time.
While a school's quality can't be judged purely by its size, a well-funded school probably wouldn't be bad, would it? Directly opposite this high school was another academy called Teitan Elementary School. This clearly wasn't a governmental measure; perhaps it was a private school.
Ring-ring-ring—
Emiya had only just arrived at the entrance when the dismissal bell rang out from the clock tower at the top of the teaching building. Then, the high school students and the elementary students on the other side simultaneously streamed out of the school gates. They weren't even in a hurry to leave the campus, as the time after classes was reserved for club activities, and most students would only leave after finishing their club engagements.
Thus, Emiya easily spotted Yotsuya Miko walking side-by-side with another girl.
"Yotsuya-san, over here!" Because they had made arrangements via phone earlier, Emiya's arrival was perfectly timed. He was completely unaware of the notion that a boy picking up a girl directly at the school gate might cause onlookers to misunderstand.
Yotsuya Miko hadn't expected Emiya to not only show up but also to shout so loudly. After glancing around to confirm no one she knew was present, she quickly grabbed her best friend's hand and hurried over.
Miko was about to say something, but upon seeing the bento box Emiya was holding, she swallowed her words and instead pulled her friend forward to make introductions.
"This is Emiya Shirou. He's the friend I told you about who helped me out before."
"And this is Yurikawa Hana. She's been my best friend since elementary school."
Yotsuya Miko naively assumed the two would get along perfectly, unaware that her best friend's gaze was already a little strange—and dangerous.
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