It was the day after Masamichi Yaga had briefed them on the mission.
"I mean, I get the curse user group 'Q,'" Satoru Gojo said, cracking open a can of cola and leaning back to take a long swig. "But why does the Star Religious Group want to kill the brat? Actually, 'Star Religious Group'... that name sounds familiar."
Beside him, Suguru Geto walked with his hands in his pockets, his upper body leaning forward in a posture so arrogant it made passersby want to take a swing at him. "Are you getting senile? It's the cult we ran into during the Goodwill Event."
"They worship Master Tengen in their 'pure' form. They can't tolerate the idea of a Star Plasma Vessel—an 'impurity'—merging with them."
As they spoke, the two were already in position to begin the mission, staying in contact via their flip-phones. Gojo waited at the base of the building while Geto took the elevator up toward the target's floor.
"Supposedly, the Star Religious Group is a collective of non-sorcerers, but that intel isn't entirely accurate. Back in that underground facility, there were plenty of sorcerers among them. Still, as a group of professional curse users, 'Q' has more crossover with our world. They're the ones to watch out for."
"Whatever. It shouldn't be a big deal. After all, we're the strongest," Gojo said, fiddling with the soda tab. "That's why Tengen hand-picked us, right?"
"Gumo is just as strong, but Master Tengen might not be aware of his full potential yet. Honestly, Gumo is so stubborn sometimes—I can't believe he refused to join such an important mission." Geto sighed, sounding a bit helpless. "I get the feeling he's just pouting because he wasn't specifically invited."
Geto had a habit of over-analyzing people. He assumed most people had ulterior motives, so he looked for hidden meanings in their actions. However, his analytical lens didn't quite work on Hasegumo. With a heart as pure as Gumo's, what he said was exactly what he meant.
"By the way, can you stop referring to yourself as 'ore' all the time? Switch to 'watashi,' or at least 'boku.' Especially when we're around people of higher status. We'll be meeting Master Tengen soon, and using 'ore' is just going to scare the juniors."
"Huh?" Satoru used his Infinity to crush the soda can into a tiny ball of scrap metal. "No way in hell," he replied with a look of pure disdain.
"Satoru, you really are... Forget it, we'll talk about this later." Geto reached the door and pressed the doorbell.
Ding-dong—
"Coming!"
A muffled voice came from behind the door, followed immediately by a deafening BOOM!
The sound of the explosion echoing from the building made Gojo whip his head around. It had come from the target's floor.
"You still alive?"
"At least I am," Geto replied. The moment the blast hit, he had summoned a defensive-type cursed spirit to shield himself.
"If the brat died just like that, is it our fault?" Gojo muttered. He looked up and saw something plummeting from the sky.
Geto saw the target at the same time. He tossed his phone aside and dove through the shattered window.
"Don't blame me. If you have a grudge, take it up with Tengen." A man in a white naval uniform stepped calmly out of the burning room, looking out through the jagged hole in the wall. "Nani?"
By then, Geto had already summoned a bat-like cursed spirit, which was flying back toward the building with the target in its grasp. He shouted back into the room, "Can we not make such a mess? I already got chewed out this morning."
"So this girl is the Star Plasma Vessel." Geto looked down at the girl in his arms. Her eyes were tightly shut. She was quite beautiful.
The man in the building was clearly out of the loop; he didn't recognize Suguru Geto at all. He adjusted his cap and looked up. "Based on that uniform, you're a sorcerer from Jujutsu High, aren't you? Hand the brat over, or I'll kill you."
"I can't hear you. Why don't you come a little closer and say that?" Geto looked up with a smile, though his eyes were chillingly cold.
"Close call. Not dead yet, I see?" Gojo muttered, looking at a row of knives suspended in the air right next to his head, frozen by his Infinity.
Clap. Clap. On a nearby elevated platform, another man in a naval uniform was applauding. "Excellent! You... you're Satoru Gojo, right? You're quite famous."
The man wore a mask and looked to be in his early twenties. He leaned down, peering at Gojo. "I've heard you're strong. Let's see if you're just a big name or if you've actually got the bite to match the bark."
"Sure. But let's set a rule first."
"A rule?"
Gojo started walking forward. The knives suspended in the air scattered like falling leaves. His sunglasses slid down his nose, revealing crystalline blue eyes filled with nothing but cold indifference.
"I don't want to get in trouble for going overboard. If you cry and apologize right now, I'll spare your life. That's the rule."
While the "Strongest Duo" was busy with the Star Plasma Vessel mission, Hasegumo was out on a separate assignment with Nanami and Haibara. Shoko, as she had hoped, remained at Jujutsu High to slack off and wait for any incoming wounded.
"Gumo-senpai, this mission is only ranked Grade 2. Nanami and I could have handled this ourselves. Why did you decide to come along?"
The speaker was Yu Haibara. As he noted, while Nanami and Haibara were officially ranked Grade 3, their actual skill levels were firmly in the Grade 2 range. They just hadn't applied for a rank promotion yet.
"Ah, well." Hasegumo walked at the rear, pulling double duty as the lookout while setting up a Curtain. "Emerge from the darkness, blacker than the night. Purify all that is impure..."
He watched as the grey barrier slowly enveloped the mountain peak. "For several reasons, I didn't want to get involved in the other mission. Besides, mission briefings can't always be trusted. I've been on plenty of jobs where the curse's actual grade was much higher than the report suggested. I'm here to make sure you don't run into anything the intel missed."
"Is that so?" Kento Nanami rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "The reports are compiled by the Assistant Directors, right? Does that mean the Assistant Directors aren't trustworthy?"
"It's not like that," Hasegumo explained. "The reports aren't just from Assistant Directors; they're vetted by other sorcerers. If a lower-level sorcerer decides they can't handle a job, they pass it up to us."
"But because they're limited by their own strength, some Assistant Directors and sorcerers can't make accurate judgments. They're just giving their best guess."
"Actually, the number of high-grade curses has been rising in recent years." Hasegumo scratched his head. "There's an interesting theory that Satoru's birth upset the balance between the jujutsu world and curses. As he grows stronger, more powerful curses manifest to maintain the equilibrium."
Bzz— Bzz—
"Hello? Moshi moshi?" Who would be calling me now?
It was Masamichi Yaga. "Hi, Yaga-sensei. What's up? I'm out on a mission with Nanami and Haibara."
Hasegumo listened as Yaga spoke, his expression turning strange. Why now? Why is info on the Itadori family and Hasegawa-jiisan suddenly surfacing after more than a year of nothing?
"Gumo-senpai, is something wrong?" Nanami asked, noticing the shift in his mood.
"Nothing, just personal business." Hasegumo decided he needed to check this out as soon as possible. "Sorry, Nanami, Haibara. I'm going to finish this mission myself right now. I have to get to Sendai immediately."
"Is there anything we can do to help?" the ever-helpful Haibara asked.
"No need. Once the mission is over, you two head back to the school and stay on standby."
"Understood." "Roger."
Wasting no time, the trio dashed toward the source of the strongest cursed energy. A massive, four-meter-tall muscular curse was sitting cross-legged on a boulder. Aside from its face, the creature had no skin; its body was a revolting mass of exposed, intertwining muscle fibers. It was busy chewing on something bloody and unidentifiable.
Nanami and Haibara moved to the sides while Hasegumo took the lead. Sensing their arrival, the curse spat out its meal, stood up, and crushed the massive boulder beneath its feet into dust.
In the next heartbeat, the curse blurred, appearing directly in front of Hasegumo.
"So fast! Is this really Grade 2? That speed and physical power..." Haibara said, stunned. "It's on par with my Full Release state."
So it really is a Grade 1, Nanami thought grimly. This wasn't the first or second time the intel had been dead wrong. The sorcerer profession really was shit; you faced the threat of death every day only to be assigned missions that were wildly above your pay grade.
The curse threw a straight punch aimed directly at Hasegumo's face. The force of the strike shattered the sound barrier, and the bulging muscles in the curse's arm highlighted the sheer power behind the blow. If a human were hit by that without cursed energy protection, they'd be reduced to a red paste.
However, its opponent was Hasegumo—a monster whose physical stats and combat experience dwarfed its own, not to mention his martial arts mastery, which had reached a realm beyond human comprehension.
A straight punch? So full of openings. Honestly, I have a bad feeling about this Sendai lead. I should get there quickly and do one last thing for the old man.
As the curse's arm chambered and fired, Hasegumo's mind was already elsewhere.
CRACK!
The sound of the impact echoed just as Nanami and Haibara saw a blur. Foul-smelling green blood sprayed into the air.
Hasegumo had somehow appeared behind the creature. His right fist had punched clean through the curse's lower back and out through its abdomen.
Sizzle—
Black sparks of lightning rippled from the hole, spreading across the curse's entire body. The massive shockwave from the punch radiated outward. The muscular curse didn't even survive a single exchange before it was pulverized into scrap.
Was that a Steel Punch? Haibara wondered, watching Hasegumo's follow-through. He didn't even need time to set his stance to generate that kind of power. Exorcising a Grade 1 with a single hit... I wonder if I'll ever reach that level.
Since the fight in the dark during the Goodwill Event had happened at a distance, Nanami and the others hadn't seen exactly how Hasegumo had defeated the Nightmare Bat. This was not only the first time Nanami had seen a high-level sorcerer exorcise a curse, but the first time he had seen Hasegumo go all out.
The shock of that single punch was no less than the time they'd seen Gakuganji pull a guitar out of a box and rock a curse into the afterlife.
Is this the power of a Grade 1? That's insane. Nanami looked at the twenty-year-old Hasegumo and felt a sudden wave of doubt—doubt about his own talent, and doubt that he would ever possess such strength in his lifetime.
"Sorry, I'm in a hurry."
Since his strikes always resulted in such bloody messes, Hasegumo had long ago mastered the ability to clear the residual "splatter" with his cursed energy. He gave his head a small shake, and his energy flowed over his body like a current of water, washing away the foul blood until he was clean once more.
Meanwhile, in a building in Shinjuku, the white-haired Kenjaku held a cup of black tea. He held it to his lips but didn't drink, his mind elsewhere.
That boy is proving to be quite a headache, he thought. I didn't realize back then that he had the talent to become a sorcerer. I should have killed him along with the others.
He set the tea down and stood up, looking out at the sunset over the city. The beautiful view did nothing to ease the shadow in his eyes.
"Now, in order to create the perfect board for Satoru and Suguru, I've had to throw out some bait to lure him away. If I can't sever this fate, it'll be a massive loss."
A-choo! Sitting on the Shinkansen, Hasegumo suddenly sneezed. "What was that? Can I even catch a cold?"
He shook the thought off and returned to his silent reflection. I have a really bad feeling about this. Was that woman really the killer?