"I'm telling you, if you do it, you're going to get in trouble."

Hitomi could only shake her head and facepalm as Gojo ignored her and hopped towards the house. Their mission was simple; find Utahime and Mei Mei. Their fellow sorcerers had been missing for two days, without any contact and they had to find them.

With mild awe, Hitomi watched as Gojo activated Cursed Technique Amplification: Blue. Even after knowing what he could do, she was still not used to seeing the destructive nature of his powers displayed in front of her. If there was one person that was deserving of the title of the Strongest Sorcerer, then it was Gojo Satoru. An explosion ripped through the mansion, causing it to crumble to dust and rubble. And amidst that rubble, laying a struggling Utahime.

In the meantime, Gojo was doing his usual thing. In a taunting tone, he asked, "Are you crying?"

Utahime glared at him as she slowly got up from amidst the rubble. "I'm not crying! And be more polite!"

"If I was crying, would you console me?" Mei Mei asked. She had escaped from the explosion, completely unharmed. "I wouldn't say no to that."

"Nah, you wouldn't cry, Mei-san." Gojo answered. "You're strong."

Mei Mei chuckled as Utahime made a noise of anger. "Gojo! You listen here!"

The hair's on the back of Hitomi's neck stood up. She could feel the presence of a powerful cursed spirit here. She turned towards Utahime, only to freeze. A giant, monstrous entity hovered behind her senior, with an intent to kill. But before anybody could even react, Geto had already unleashed one of the cursed spirits under this control. It half-swallowed the other cursed spirit, waiting for Geto's orders.

Geto had hopped down into the rubble. "Don't swallow it," he instructed. "We'll take it in later."

He looked at Gojo with a half-smile. "Satoru, it's not nice to pick on the weak."

Gojo gave him a weird look. "What kind of idiot picks on the strong?"

"You shouldn't be picking on anybody though," Hitomi added, lightly shrugging her shoulders. "Whether it's Utahime or some random person or whoever."

"You two are fanning the flames like it comes naturally, Geto-kun, Hitomi-san," Mei Mei said, looking very amused.

'I don't think I did anything-' Hitomi thought carefully.

Then Shoko made her appearance. She had been hiding just a few feet away, standing beneath the trees with a cigarette in her mouth. The relief on Utahime's face was instantaneous. Shoko asked, "Utahime-senpai, are you okay? I was worried about you. We hadn't heard from you for two whole days."

Utahime sped up on the remnants of the mansion's stairs. Hitomi moved out of the way as she lept and hugged Shoko. "Shoko! Don't let yourself turn out like those three!"

Shoko let out a soft laugh. "I won't turn into trash like them."

Hitomi sighed. Just like usual, she was somehow being lumped in with the idiotically chaotic duo of Tokyo Jujutsu High. Considering her close friendship with them, she was never going to escape being grouped into a trio, which also meant getting pulled into the punishments they had when Gojo decided to be stupid. Which was literally all the time. She crossed her arms. It was fine, she thought. It's not like she couldn't handle anything.

She pulled back to the conversation right when Mei Mei started speaking. "That aside, what about the curtain, you four?"

Hitomi blinked. They forgot the curtain?

Oh yeah, Yaga-sensei was going to kill them.

"Next, the explosion that occurred yesterday in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka. The explosion was caused by a degradation of gas pipes. Our reporter on the scene-"

The news report blared in the background as they sat on their knees in Yaga-sensei's office. All four of them were being scolded because of the lack of a curtain on the scene. But it was not the mistake of three; it was the mistake of one. So when Yaga-sensei asked who exactly it was that forgot the curtain, Geto, Shoko and Hitomi instantly pointed fingers towards Gojo.

Gojo just raised his hands, speaking very loudly. "Sensei, why don't we stop this hunt for the culprit?"

"So, it was you, Satoru?" The whack on his head was satisfyingly loud and sounded painful.

Later the four of them made their way to the basketball court in school. Because there were barely any students at Jujutsu High, the court was essentially abandoned except for when the quartet used it. Shoko played with Gojo's sunglasses, leaning on one side of the court, while Hitomi zoned out on the other side, thinking about sleep and food and the secrets of her soul.

"Are curtains even necessary in the first place?" Gojo tossed the basketball in the air before catching it. "It's not like it matters if the normies see or not, right? They can't see cursed spirits or cursed techniques, anyway."

He tossed the ball towards the basket, but Geto leapt up in the air and caught it with ease. "Of course, it's not good for them to see. The strongest deterrent against the outbreak of a cursed spirit is the mental calm of the populace."

"Yeah, I mean," Hitomi said, fiddling with one of her shirt buttons. "Could you imagine the panic that would cause? And that would only lead to the creation of more cursed spirits."

Geto nodded in agreement. He started dribbling the ball, walking towards Gojo. "Exactly. That's why we have to conceal the threats they can't even see as much as possible. And that's not all-"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Gojo interrupted, stealing the ball from him. He performed the smoothest lay-up Hitomi had ever seen, before standing straight on the ground. He passed the ball right back to Geto. "Looking out for the weak is so exhausting, honestly."

"Survival of the weakest," Geto stated firmly. "That's how a society should be. The weak help each other and discourage any who are too strong. Listen, Satoru. Jujutsu exists to protect non-jujutsu sorcerers." He tossed the ball towards the basket, where it spun in the hoop.

"Is that your moral argument?" Gojo asked, in a rather mean and a mildly cruel tone. The basketball fell to the ground, bouncing with a loud thud. "I hate moral arguments."

Hitomi winced. She could sense an impending argument between the two. Whenever these two argued or fought with each other, there were very dangerous consequences. Hitomi hated seeing them fight and being caught in the middle of it. She was quiet for now, watching them warily and ready to jump in the second this argument looked like it would escalate.

A vein popped in Geto's forehead. "What?"

"Assigning reasons and responsibility to strength is what weak people do," Gojo picked up the ball, tossing it towards the basket behind Geto where it landed through the hoop. "Quit making yourself feel better by spouting bullshit. Blegh."

Shoko ran out at the moment. Hitomi wished she could follow her. Right as Geto summoned one of his cursed spirits, Hitomi stormed into the middle of the courts, standing in the middle of the two. She released a little bit of her own cursed energy. And though she was not a Special Grade sorcerer, she was still powerful in her own right. "You two need to stop this now. Finish this stupid fight later. Can't you sense that Yaga-sensei is coming?"

Right at the moment, the door opened. The trio looked away from each other, each of them pretending to stretch and acting like they had not been in a fighting mood before. Yaga-sensei looked around the room, eyes narrowed slightly before asking, "Where's Shoko?"

Hitomi shrugged. She didn't actually know where Shoko had gone off.

"Who knows?" Geto said.

"Maybe the bathroom?" Gojo added, an amused look on his face. It was almost unnerving how casually and how easily they could switch their emotions, like it was nothing. If Hitomi didn't know them, she'd definitely find the strongest duo to be scary.

Yaga-sensei just sighed and shook his head. "Whatever. This mission is being assigned to you three. Hitomi will be keeping an eye to make sure you don't pull anything like what you did the last time."

The Strongest Duo looked at her and made faces, while Hitomi sneered at them. This was just glorified babysitting duty to make sure her two idiot friends didn't do stupid shit. But she was not going to let them do all the work. Definitely not.

"What's with the faces?" Yaga-sensei asked.

"Nothing," The trio answered in unison.

"Frankly," Yaga-sensei said, as they exited the basketball court. "I think it's too much for you, but Tengen-sama asked for you all specifically."

The three of them were instantly on alert. Tengen-sama rarely handed out missions. Hitomi couldn't even think of any missions from him. So, what they were being asked to do must be important.

"Your mission has two goals," Yaga-sensei continued speaking. "The Star Plasma vessel is the one perfectly compatible with Tengen-sama. You are to escort that girl and erase her."

"Escort a brat and erase her?" Gojo repeated, as they entered the hallway that led to their classroom.

Yaga-sensei nodded. "Correct."

Gojo turned towards the other two. "He's finally gone senile."

Hitomi blinked thoughtfully. "Maybe the pressure's getting to him?"

"It is spring after all," Geto stated very matter-of-factly. "And with him being the next Principal. He's getting carried away." Then in a more serious tone, he asked, "All jokes aside, are we resetting Master Tengen's technique?"

They entered one of the classrooms. It had an unnecessarily high number of desks in comparison to the number of students.

"What's that?" Gojo asked. Yaga-sensei, Geto and Hitomi all looked at him. The strongest was usually intelligent, but sometimes he didn't pay attention to the little things. Like this.

"Tengen-sama possesses the cursed technique of immortality," Yaga-sensei explained. "But it's not Eternal Youth. It wouldn't be an issue if all Tengen-sama did was get older. However, once a certain age is reached, the cursed technique will rewrite their body."

As Gojo hummed in acknowledgement, their teacher continued his explanation. "Evolution. Tengen-sama will cease to be human and become a higher form of existence."

"So exactly what's the problem?" Gojo asked. "It sounds cool."

"According to Tengen-sama, those who reach that state have no will," Geto said. "Tengen-sama will no longer be Tengen-sama. All the jujutsu schools, the barriers that form the foundation of jujutsu society, the many barrier techniques of the assistant supervisors...they're all being strengthened by Tengen-sama. Without the aid of his power, we could hardly maintain security or clean up after missions. In the worst-case scenario, Tengen-sama could even become a threat to mankind. That's why, every 500 years, the Star Plasma Vessel is chosen, someone who is compatible with Tengen-sama, and assimilates them, overwriting the information of their body."

Hitomi crossed her arms, leaning against one of the desks. "By doing this, Tengen-sama resets their cursed technique back to the start and avoids Evolution."

"I get it," Gojo said. "It would be fine if he turned into MetalGreymon, but we can't have him becoming SkullGreymon. So we have him start over from Koromon."

"That's sort of an oversimplification," Hitomi replied. "But yeah, I guess you're right in a way."

"The location of the Star Plasma Vessel has been leaked," Yaga-sensei continued, speaking in a grim tone. "Right now, there are two groups targeting the girl. One is the Curse User Group Q, which seeks to upend jujutsu society with Tengen-sama's rampage. The other is the Star Religious Group, also known as the Time Vessel Association, which worships Tengen-sama as a god." The organization aiming to overturn the current Jujutsu world by having Master Tengen lose all reason, the curse user group Q and the group that worships Master Tengen as their deity, the star religious group known as the Time Vessel Association.

Tengen-sama will merge with the Star Plasma Vessel two days from now. You are to protect the girl and ensure that she reaches Tengen-sama! If you fail, the effects will ripple throughout even normal society! Don't forget that!"

The trio stood straight, determined looks on their faces. Hitomi stretched her arms.

It was time for a tough mission. 

And so it begins...

Like I said, there will be semi-regular updates now that the second season is coming out. It's also brought back my inspiration to write for this and I wrote one and a half chapters yesterday. I have up to Chapter Seventeen already written and I aiming to have at least twenty chapters written by the end of this week so that I can maintain an actual regular updating schedule. So, you can expect an update next week; maybe even a bit earlier hehe.

I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! Comments and votes are always appreciated <3