You don’t want to get older, but it happens. No one likes it, but that’s reality. These days, people say you’re in the prime of life in your thirties, but the reality is that once you pass twenty-five, anyone under twenty considers you old and your body begins to change.
Ill health tends to drag on. Your neck and shoulders get stiff, a kind of fever clouds your thoughts, and your bowels gurgle. Each problem on its own is no big deal, but they build up and last until the next day. And the cumulative stress hits you not when you’re busy, but later, when you’re trying to relax.
That’s how it was for Kiyotaka Ijichi.
He sighed at this thought.
He had meetings with Kyoto Jujutsu High School to go to and paperwork related to the Kyoto Sister-School Goodwill Event to do. He had to address the matter of curse users and cursed spirits invading the school, and he had to assess the damage. He had to operate behind the scenes to replace fatalities in the ranks, and he had to tend to the families of those who hadn’t survived. And he had to obtain baseball gear, which had suddenly become necessary.
Amidst all that, what was to have been his next job—a first-year mission to address damage resulting from a cursed spirit incident in Saitama—had suddenly been assigned to a different assistant manager named Nitta. The man had even taken his investigatory data. Ever since the Goodwill Event, secrecy had shrouded the assistants’ plans, so the change had come so unexpectedly that Ijichi didn’t have anything prepared to replace it. His schedule hadn’t been this wide open in a long time.
He let out a deflated sound when he reached his desk in the office at Jujutsu High.
Now that he thought about it, he had been working nonstop. With unexpected time on his hands, Ijichi wasn’t surprised to find that his physical condition was less than desirable. He didn’t do highly visible work, so he could take time off if he wanted, but it made him uncomfortable to do so except on weekends and public holidays.
Furthermore, many sorcerers were analogue-minded, while Ijichi’s duties involved working on a computer and filling in online forms. Ijichi didn’t like the thought of having to provide instruction over the phone if trouble requiring digital tasks arose. He knew all too well that people who were no good at computers were practically incapable of even pressing the power button.
Ijichi turned on his computer. Nothing in particular required his attention, so he checked his email and organized the icons on his desktop. Then he tweaked the forms for documents he used on a regular basis, reviewed the procedures he used for office work, and tidied up a drawer that he’d been neglecting for some time now. He had reached a stopping point and was sipping a cup of office tea when a thought came to him.
Am I just making myself more tired?
The possibility shocked him. He had thought he was working because he was busy, but now he realized that he just didn’t have anything to do outside of work. It was a painful thought. He performed his duties with a sense of responsibility, but it worried him a little to imagine his life consisted of nothing more. No, it worried him a lot.
The sorcerers risked their lives on the front line while the most he would ever do was provide logistical support, so he didn’t like to think about his own well-being. While having these thoughts, he felt a cramping sensation in his abdomen.
He sighed again.
He hadn’t been overeating or drinking. He had an appetite, but for a while now he’d been feeling as though his body wasn’t functioning properly. Was he tired? Yes, he was definitely tired, but he had been so absorbed in work that he hadn’t noticed. He was unable to spend idle moments idly. Instead, he dragged around vague worries and found trivial tasks to fritter away the time.
This was no good. Something had to change.
“Oh, I know!”
He clapped his hands and stood up. Since his stomach hurt, he should visit the doctor! He straightened items on his desktop, locked away important documents for safekeeping, and breezily strolled to the school infirmary.
“I believe it’s caused by stress. I’ll prescribe a mild stomach medication.”
Ijichi was at the Tokyo school’s infirmary. After completing a simple examination, Shoko Ieiri offered him a bag containing powdered medication. A serious wound might have required her to perform reverse cursed technique, but that wasn’t the case in this circumstance.
In an ordinary medical encounter, the doctor would perform an examination and the pharmacist would dispense medication. Ieiri, however, worked at a school infirmary. The medical facilities at Jujutsu High weren’t at all like a normal school’s, but it was still a school and not a hospital, so there was a limit to the kinds of procedures that could be performed there. For ailments that weren’t severe, as in Ijichi’s case, Ieiri had a stock of over-the-counter medications to dispense. In that way, it was no different than a common medical clinic.
“Thank you,” he said. Ieiri’s rudimentary physical examination had eased Ijichi’s mind. “This will be an immense help.”
“Your physical health seems sound,” Ieiri replied, “so this is just a simple stomach remedy. It might provide you a sense of ease before social drinking. This can be found in a common drugstore. You might find some reassurance in always keeping some handy.”
“Well, I thought it best to seek a professional opinion for something like this.”
“A wise choice.”
Ijichi sat on the stool with perfect posture and an alert expression. He was always on his best behavior. Rambunctious sorcerers were troublesome to him. Jittery sorcerers made him anxious. Sending children on missions made him feel guilty. The upper ranks gave him hell about Gojo, and of course Gojo was reckless with every breath he took. By contrast, Ieiri was a breath of fresh air. She never said anything unreasonable or expected more than he could give, and she was unaffectedly considerate.
Ijichi was used to looking at violent sorcerers and grotesque curses, so Ieiri was also a sorely needed respite for his eyes. Her complexion wasn’t great, but she was without a doubt a beauty, possessed of an unusual charm. Ijichi thought her laid-back attitude made her seem mysteriously erotic.
What’s more, she had been especially kind to him this time. Usually, she merely performed the necessary examination and returned to her work. On this day, however, she asked after his general health and engaged in casual chitchat.
“When I got to school and turned on my computer, the data had been reformatted,” Ijichi said.
“That’s too bad,” Ieiri commiserated.
“It was worse than having a grade 2 cursed spirit come after me,” Ijichi continued. “I realized then how important it is to keep a backup. Why worry when you can be prepared, right?”
“Like keeping a stock of blood for transfusions,” Ieiri agreed.