Hello, welcome to the final chapter with Shohei on his mission. This chapter is rather long so I'm sorry if you don't particularly enjoy long chapters, but if you do, please enjoy.
Mei and Shohei briefly reconvened and recomposed themselves in the middle of the destroyed and baren assembly line floor.
"I understand why Satoru and Kusakabe-sensei say that I'm not the most delicate," Shohei admitted, examining the barren floor and mounds of destroyed machinery piled by the walls.
"I'm glad to hear you can admit to your mistakes," Mei Mei complimented, but her small smile turned back into a static and neutral face.
"That large sweeping attack was a prime example of your unnecessary collateral damage. From what I sensed from its cursed energy, it was no stronger than a grade-three, and all the destroyed property was not an equal trade for exorcising it. Also, what if I was a civilian that you were attempting to defend or rescue. Most couldn't avoid such an attack and would be injured by their own savior," Mei Mei scolded.
"Yes ma'am," Shohei said, bowing his head in minor regret at how he approached the encounter.
"No need to dwell on the little things now though," Mei Mei chimed, giving the boy a reassuring smirk and turning on the spot to move onto the next area. "Not even half of the cursed energy of the building had been disbursed from the exorcisms of those curses. You've got the rest of the curses in the area to compensate for your mistakes."
Shohei nodded in appreciation of his teacher's words and followed after her, ready to move onto the next encounter.
Shohei and Mei Mei proceed to scout out the adjoining rooms of the assembly line area. All they found were abandoned offices, storage rooms, bathrooms, and hallways that led to other rooms or back exits.
The only encounter with a curse they had was a grade-four that resembled an eyeless giraffe head with the body of a turtle. It attempted to sneak attack the pair by leaping onto them from the ceiling, but Mei Mei and Shohei had sensed it since it entered the same floor as them.
The curse was about a meter away from Mei Mei's face with its jaw wide open to bite her and she didn't even flinch. Shohei caught the curse in the middle of the air with his technique and squeezed it until it was a unidentifiable cube of purple blood and scattering ashes.
"Thank you Shohei," Mei Mei said to the boy, continuing to walk.
"You're welcome, but I know you could've dispatched that curse faster than I did," Shohei admitted.
"True, but I thought my axe might've splattered some of its blood on me."
The two finished sweeping the first and lower level of the entire compound and moved up to check the second and final floor.
"I don't suppose we're gonna split up like we would if this was a basic mission?" Shohei asked, looking at Mei Mei staring back down the stairwell they just scaled.
"No," Mei Mei answered, looking back up at him. "I'd like to examine you all the way till the end of this mission. Besides, what if I ran into the first-grade curse still in this building before you. Then the main course of this mission would be spoiled for you."
"We could've assigned a randevu point to return to after we received an emergency text or call from the other if we encountered the grade-one, so the other could either handle it or watch the other engage it."
"Good idea. Despite sticking together might take more time, but we have all the time we require today and I'll be watching your every move," Mei Mei grinned, patting the boy's shoulder once and moving on, toward the entrance to the second level from the stairwell.
"Wait a second," Mei Mei looked back, a little puzzled. "How'd I tap your shoulder with your gravity field up?"
"I was wondering if you'd notice," Shoehi chuckled, moving onto the second floor. "Unlike Infinity, I couldn't train it to distinguish friendly and hostile contact and intent. I can receive contact from friends if I momentarily weaken or disable spots in the field. It can block attacks but internal damages like poisons that have already entered my body can't be countered. I do have to be conscious for the gravity field to be active too."
"Was all this technique formulated by just you or did Satoru and the Gojo family have a hand in developing it?" Mei Mei asked, proceeding to open a door to a ladies bathroom as Shohei checked the men's.
"I'm proud to say it was all me," Shohei proclaimed about his impressive and masterful connection of a whole new technique.
His confidence and joy built when discussing his cursed technique distracted Shoehi from the thickening, but subtle aura of cursed energy as he and Mei Mei walked down the hall.
"Really? What inspired you?" Mei Mei asked, also not noticing the rising danger.
"Well I was always into outer space and the Japanese and American space programs, so those are what really inspired it. The idea of control over gravity was sparked by the idea of a massive gravitational pull from the sun, or the vacuum of a black hole," Shohei ranted, picking up his tone of voice from a placated lul to an attentive chatter.
"That's rather..." Mei Mei was interrupted by the floor below them erupting, and a curse springing out, slashing massive claws at Mei Mei's throat.
Mei Mei Immediately flung up her axe that was resting in her hand, at her side to block the attack. The curse's lethal claws clanged off Mei Mei's ax and the curse recoiled, leaping back down the hallway and seemingly waiting for the Sorcerers to make a move.
"God that curse is fast," Shohei grunted, making a pushing motion toward the open air. A wave of force was sent crashing down the hall and before it could barrel into the curse, a second one appeared from behind the first and blocked Shohei's attack.
"Slow down, Shohei," Mei Mei muttered, holding out an arm to stop Shohei from making anymore moves. "These curses managed to catch us off guard. That means they're either high ranked or smart. You have to approach this very carefully."
Shohei understood that, but he thought the best course of action was to press them back immediately and give the enemy no room to think.
The first curse was a pale gray with no visible eyes, small, sharp red teeth, and tubes of dark gray flesh for hair, and almost a feminie figure. Most of the body looked like gray human flesh and almost especially vulnerable, but the curse's claws that were almost as big as it's human sized torso glinted with a metallic shine and were extremely sharp and powerful looking. Shohei guessed it to be a strong second-grade curse.
"It almost looks like Rika," Shohei commented, not lowering his guard as he didn't particularly like Yuta Okkotsu's curse partner. "Small world."
The second curse that blocked Shohei's attack was very peculiar looking, even for a curse. It had large armor plates on each limb and segment of its body that looked like tortoise shells. Underneath and attached to the tortuous shells were the curse's real and nimble looking body. It initially looked very emaciated in the dark hall's lighting, but when examined closer, you could see the tense and wound up muscle fibers that seemed ready to explode in reaction to the enemies' moves. It possessed very little cursed energy compared to the second-grade however and likely wouldn't be able to recover quickly from lethal or crippling blows if anything reached past its armor. Shohei deemed it a grade-three, but kept his mind open that it still could be strong.
"I say they're only a grade-two and three," the boy told Mei Mei, who was completely recomposed and standing straight up, and unprepared for battle.
"I agree, but I feel the final threat coming," Mei Mei warned.
Looking past the two curses and searching for a cursed energy signature, Shohei sensed a massive one approaching slowly. The signature was so powerful that it started to manifest its own patterns like Sorcerer's had. The energy looked like one large beating heart with the humanoid silhouette in the middle.
"Sick," Shohei muttered, repulsed at the curse standing before him.
The curse had stepped into more visible light and in between the two weaker curses. It looked like a muscular woman had been turned inside out. Where organs should've been was just empty space and a clear line of sight to the back of the inverted torse. Its eyes were bloodshot and staring at the ground, avoiding eye contact with the Sorcerers. Strong looking muscle fibers that covered the body like segmented skin twitched and flexed sportically. The curse almost seemed embarrassed, but it's rather large amount of cursed energy showed that it wasn't any pushover and was clearly a grade-one.
"I just wanna leave," the curse gurgled, covering its midsection with its arms like a bashful child.
"Here is the main and final part of your mission, Shohei. Impress me and do your best," Mei Mei encouraged politely, taking a step back.
"Thanks," Shohei grunted, turning from Mei Mei and back to the curses. The first-grade was right in his face and already connected a punch to his chin.
Shohei was sent rising through the ceiling and roof of the factory. Before he could even finish falling from the air and back onto the roof, the skinless curse appeared above him, winding up a second punch.
"That hurts," the curse mumbled, but not about Shohei in a sarcastic way, but about it's own bleeding hand that had punched him.
The punched collided again, but didn't puncture his surrounding gravity barrier. Shohei was flying onto the rooftop, cushioned by his gravity field, but discombobulated. He looked up to the curtain-covered sky and saw that it was sunset.
"You're telling me," Shohei weezed, rolling onto his hands and knees.
He looked back to the hole that he was punched through and heard Mei Mei's axe clashing against the curse's attacks. Shohei decided he should do Mei Mei a favor and stop the curses from fighting her any more and use them to broadcast his skills.
Shohei sat up on his knees and held out both hands toward he hole and made a pulling motion. The grade-two and grade-three curses came rocketing through the same hole, bumping into each other as they did, but before they reached him, the grade-one sped behind him and punched him in the side of the head, making physical contact and sending him sliding several meters across the building.
"That hurts," the grade-one gurgled. Both of its hands were bleeding from the knuckles as much as Shohei's head. The curse cradled it's fists, but the purple blood disappeared as the wounds healed.
"And I'm gonna make it stop for you," Shohei promised the curse, standing up. Shohei raised a hand to his forehead and slicked back his bangs to reveal his eyes. "Look me in the eyes and believe that," he said calmly, meeting star like gazes with the curse's raw and red eyes.
The three curses all formed up in a triangle position and crouched down, but didn't approach in apprehension of the boy's abnormal eyes.
Shohei let his hair fall back over his eyes and took his own fighting stance. Shohei planned to fight the obviously smart and strong curses with his cursed tool. He spread his feet and held his hands up in the air like he was holding a weapon in his empty hands.
"I just wanna leave," the curse said again with no conscious meaning behind its words.
There was a small glimmer in the fading orange sky, and a miniscule dot was growing larger as it approached the curtain. In the blink of an eye the dot speeded through the curtain and appeared in Shohei's open hands. The cursed tool in his hand was named The Shooting Star.
The tool was an onyx black, smooth, crystalline Kanabo with rounded studs and massive streaks of white constantly flying over the club like shooting stars in the night sky. The handle was two feet long and wrapped in violet cloth and had a small length of cloth hanging loosely in the wind at the end of the handle. The entire club was a total of six feet long, but only as thick as Shohei's forearm in the handle and as thick as his thigh in the lethal part of the club.
"Hurts?" the grade-one curse moaned quizzically. It and the other two curses took several steps back.
"It might, but not for much longer," Shohei said.
The second-yer student wasn't a particularly sympathetic person when it came to people or curses, but the story of the torture victums of the Factory touched something insdie his heart. With curses as strong as he was fighting at the factory, the families and one recovered victim must have harbored extremely passionate and outrageous feelings and thoughts of the place. Shohei figured the words of the first-grade must've been specifically manifested by a victim. He hoped his exorcisms of the curses put to rest the people's illwills to some degree.
Shohei had been waiting for the curses to make the first move so he could use the massive amount of power Shooting Star had stored up from Shoehei summoning it from the Mesosphere. The Shooting Star Club's cursed technique was the larger the windup and swing of the club, the more the force of the swing and amounts of cursed energy was multiplied, but that power couldn't stay stored for more than several moments. With Shohei being able to place the club in the upper atmospheres and summon it back down with Gravity Conductor, it was the perfect destructive cursed tool for him.
Most of his swings starting from the bottom of the Troposphere were typically enough for most durable curses in grade-two and grade-one, but swings from any higher were sure to exorcise a curse, but the time it took for Shooting Star to reach his hands from that high left him vulnerable to attack, even with it speeding to him like a small jet. If he typically needed to use such a powerful swing that usually meant that his gravity field could get breached. Shohei could use his personal innate technique to defend as he summoned Shooting Star, but using both it and Gravity Conductor burned through too much of his cursed energy.
The three curses buckled down against the boy's dramatic showing and charged him in formation with the grade-two and three flanking the grade-one. Shohei split a small grin at the curses, attacking exactly as he wanted. The curse with extreme talons broke from formation and bolted directly in front of him and made to slash his throat, but Shohei swung downwards with the kanabo oozing so much cursed energy that it was sure to exorcise the curse in one hit.
Almost faster than either of the grade-one or grade-two, the armored curse crashed into the clawed curse's side, slamming it out of the way and taking the attack directly down onto its shielded arms and head. The tortoise shell resembling armor merly cracked and splintered slightly, but the curse itself buckled under the force and laid crumpled in a crater on the roof, bleeding purple blood.
The grade-two let out a high pitched snarl and lept back onto its feet and attempted to slash again at Shohei before he could even lift back up his weapon. Shohei simply let go of the weapon with one hand and blasted the curse away. The curse went sliding back on its feet across the roof, almost tumbling off the edge.
The grade-one threw a punch towards Shohei's face, but he swung up Shooting Star, bating away the punch and leaving both him and the curse with their arms in the air, and midsection exposed. It was a race to who was to recover themselves first and get a direct blow to the other's torso. The curse won that race and briskly shrugged itself into a hunched form and fired a punch to Shohei's ribs.
Shohei gasped as he had the air knocked out of him and causing him to struggle to catch his breath. In that time of his hesitance, the muscle strapped curse struck three more times very quickly, but all three were so fast and lacking force that only one mildly made contact with Shohei's torso.
"That hurts," the curse groaned, clenching its hands close to its body and leaping several bounds backwards. Its entire guard was dropped as it craddeled its hands and rocked back and forth on its feet.
Shohei skipped in place in pain, trying to recover and recompose himself. Shohei stood straight up, hand on his hip, panting and examining the roof. Mei Mei had made her way to the roof and was leaning against her ax, watching the entire scene herself. The skinless curse was being as erratic as it always seemed to be, as it still briefly ignored all others on the roof and clutched its hands. The clawed curse was prowling slowly over to the grade-one without looking away from Shohei with its eyeless face. The grade-three was gurgling and groaning in its crater as it struggled to stand up again, but it looked like it would be out of commission for the rest of the fight.
Shohei had gathered his breath and was ready to jump back into the action. The large and blazing meteors that were streaking over Shooting Star had turned into coin sized streaks that occasionally passed over the club's black canvas, signifying that almost all the pent up energy had been released from the strike on the grade-three.
Shohei rested the club on his shoulder with one hand, and with the other, swiped his hand horizontally across his body, sending a strong slash toward the grade-one and two huddled together. The grade-one didn't take notice of the attack, but the grade-two did and attempted to block the attack with its large talons, but lost several claws in the process. The grade-two cried out, but was silenced immediately by Shohei dashing across the length of the building and slamming down his club into its head, exorcizing it.
The grade-one looked up and saw its fellow curse dispersing into dust, and attempted to wildly punch Shohei in revenge, but Shohei ducked and butted the curse in the stomach with the butt of his club, stunning it. Shohei spun in a circle, swinging Shooting Star and ramming it into the curse's chest, sounding off several cracks into the open air.
The curse took a knee and stared down at its concave chest. It quickly flared its cursed energy and healed the injury, but as soon as it went to stand up again, Shohei was in front of it again, slamming down onto it with the club. The curse was stunned, laid out spread eagle and unable to move before Shohei slammed down onto its head one final time, exorcising it swiftly.
Shohei walked unhurriedly to the remaining grade-three curse. The curse had sat up in the crater, but couldn't stand up because its legs were crooked and bent from the force of the last attack. Shohei hastily jabbed his flat and open hand toward an opening in the curse's armor, delivering a lethal blow.
Mei Mei walked over to Shohei, still standing over the crater and patted his shoulder briefly and said, "Well done. You handled those curses rather well and I don't detect any more curses in the area. That cursed tool of your's and how you used it was also very impressive."
"Thank you very much Mei-sensei. Those curses were tough, but the constant swings in that grade-one's behavior was very beneficial for me. If they had worked more intandem like the curses we first encountered did then I'm sure I would've had leaps and bounds of more trouble," Shohei said, examining the roof to see if he caused any unreasonable damaged to it, and he was proud to say he didn't cause the worst damages himself. "Would you say I destroyed no more than necessary in that fight?"
Mei Mei rubbed her chin, glossing over the roof slowly. She gave a small hum and said, "I do think you did rather well managing the damage of the area much better than the first encounter. You should consider using that kanabo more if that means you destroy less property with your cursed technique."
"Maybe I should use more of my cursed tool, but that means it gets in the way of me needing to use my hands for Gravity Conductor," Shohei said, fiddling with the wrappings of the handle.
"Well if you ever need weapons training on how to handle large weapons, I think I'm one of the better people to go to," Mei Mei said, rocking her Great axe at her side. "With just compensation in payment of course."
"I might take you up on that after my spendings recover from you taking a fraction of my payments," Shohei chuckled, genuinely pondering if he should take Mei Mei up on extra weapon lessons.
He always trained his cursed energy control and close combat with the other second years or Megumi, his cursed techniques with Satoru because he could help counter and comment on them the best out of anyone, and most of his weapons training with Maki. Maki was the one who recommended Shooting Star to him and trained him how to use the weapon and after learning his and its techniques. He thought maybe he should rely less on Gravity Conductor and take Satoru's advice in training in some extra hand to hand combat too.
"Well that concludes your ranking mission, Shohei," Mei Mei said, interrupting the boy's train of thought. "We will return back to the hotel and I'll start my report of your mission to the higher ups. The sooner I get that done, the sooner they can decide, and the sooner you can learn if you passed or not."
"Yes ma'am. Thank you again for accepting the role and examining my recommendation," Shohei said, bowing to the woman.
"You're welcome Shohei. Now let's get back to the hotel and get that gastly drive out of the way." Mei Mei smiled.
The two simply stepped off the side of the building and cushioned their fall with cursed energy reinforcement. They casually strolled through the weed decorated field between them and the fence and Mei Mei called their ride and informed them that they were ready to be picked up.
Shohei lowered the curtain and revealed that it was as dark by the fence as it was with the curtain up. The sun had set and the stars had become clearly visible in the nearly all black sky. Outlines of thick clouds could be seen floating at a sluggish pace in the slowly rising winds off in the far distance of the sky.
"I think it's gonna rain," Shohei murmured, almost to himself, but Mei Mei still heard and looked up toward the sky to see for herself.
"It sure looks like it," Mei Mei mused. "It will be a while for the car to arrive. They didn't completely return to town, but rather parked at a midway point in the woods. I hope we don't get rained on while we wait."
"I think it'll be longer than expected till it rains where we are. Those clouds look far off and are blowing towards the east," Shohei speculated. Mei Mei raised an eyebrow behind her long front braid and Shohei chuckled, "All that discovery channel helped me read the weather. You'd be surprised how many fun facts about nature are scribbled into the walls of my skull."
"Maybe if you'd ever retire from Sorcerer work you could become a meteorologist," Mei Mei remarked. "They make nice money from even being wrong."
Shohei's phone buzzed from a call. He pulled his phone from his pocket and answered, "Hello, Shohei Gojo here."
Megumi urgently shouted through the phone, "Shohei! Sukuna has been released and Itadori's not taking back control. Kugisaki is down and already heading back to campus with Ijichi..." The call was cut off.
"That sounded urgent. Who was it?" Mei Mei said.
"Megumi! His and the first-year's mission to evacuate civilians from a cursed womb sighting was in East Tokyo right?!" Shohei asked with a hurried tone.
"Yes. At a Juvenile center there in East Tokyo," Mei Mei answered.
"I'm heading there. Sukuna is running rampant and Satoru is out of the country. That's the only reason I figured Megumi called me," Shohei informed Mei Mei.
Shohei tucked Shooting Star into the crook of his arm and weaved a hand sign. He planned to fly, or teleport from how fast Satoru traveled, across Tokyo like he and Satoru did when heading to Megumi's mission to retrieve Sukuna's finger. Shohei hadn't mastered the technique to not require hand signs like Satoru. His normal flying speed from Gravity Conductor was fast, but couldn't get him to where he needed to be like the technique Satoru used. He needed to use a variant of the technique Satoru used for more than two people to fast travel all over Tokyo. Shohei wasn't as fast as Satoru using this technique either because he didn't have the perception speed of the Six Eyes to examine the location he wanted to arrive at or the ability to know his own trajectory.
"I'll call for a dispatch of Sorcerers to go there if any of the others haven't already," Mei Mei said, pulling out her own phone.
Shohei suddenly rocketed skyward and off towards the east at blistering speeds. In a mere few seconds Shohei had pierced the clouds and had entered the Stratosphere. He was at the altitude commercial planes commonly flew to avoid turbulence and cloud cover. He was jetting through the dry atmosphere, Gravity Conductor shielding his eyes from the lashing winds and only making him more aerodynamic.
Shohei looked down and saw the city lights of Tokyo shining below him, and he estimated he was about halfway to Megumi's location in East Tokyo just from his speedy take off. The streaking lights of the city broke through pockets of cloudless sky shined onto his stomach as he untucked Shooting Star from his arm and held it to his side, ready to wind up a large swing from the air if he had to immediately jump into battle.
Shohei cleared the large distance over Tokyo and felt a wave of malicious and powerful cursed energy enter his field of cursed energy sensing, all the way up above the clouds. It was sure to be Sukuna if he was on loose and causing chaos.
Shohei began to slow himself and lower his altitude to below the clouds and into the lower troposphere where the rain had begun to rain more heavily. The taller buildings and skyscrapers were far behind Shohei and medium sized buildings like parking garages and apartments were the common building to see. Shohei lowered his altitude further to better sense the exact location of Sukuna and maybe even Megumi.
After a few moments of examining, he caught a glance of what must've been the juvenile detention center as it was slightly more damaged than normal and had trace amounts of regular curse's cursed energy and Sukuna's cursed energy. Further east was where Sukuna's cursed energy was most obvious, and when looking through the thick and malicious arua, Shohei sensed Megumi's own energy signature. Shohei had become even more rattled when he felt Megumi's flaring cursed energy suddenly lessen, thinking it was Megumi sustaining a lethal blow.
Shohei had locked onto the location of both Sukuna and Megumi and reared Shooting Star above his head. Shohei took a staggeringly sharp dive toward the ground and cleared a building. Images of the surrounding had blurred past him as he saw two specks of pink and black hair face to face, backed against a building.
Shooting Star's meteorites were roaring with power across the club, signifying had gathered an extreme amount of force and cursed energy to be used. Shohei descended onto the pink haired threat that was looming over his friend, but halted his swing barely four centimeters away from him, causing a torrent of air to slam into the three and drying them of all previous rainfall.
"Shohei!" Megumi huffed, bleeding from his mouth and standing shakily.
"Itadori?" Shohei questioned firmly, having lost sight of the malicious air rolling from the boy and feeling merely moments early. Rain had come falling back onto the three boys.
Itadori fell forward, limp and lifeless on the damp ground. Shohei dropped his club and rolled Itadori onto his back to see what was the matter.
"Oh god!" Shohei choked quietly. There was a gaping bloody wound in the middle of Itadori's chest. Shohei felt Itadori's wrist and along his windpipe to check for a pulse fruitlessly. He looked up in minor disturbance and asked Megumi, "Did you do this?"
Megumi didn't look shocked or offended, but just somber and tired. He answered, "No. Sukuna did. He ripped out Itadori's heart to take him hostage."
"When I left my mission Mei Mei called for sorcerers to be dispatched here," Shohei said, remaining calm. "They might be a little while longer, but let's move his body inside. There isn't a curtain up and this looks suspicious."
"I'll carry his body," Megumi said, grabbing Shohei's shoulder as he went to scoop up the boy in his arms. Shohei stood up and let Megumi pick up his classmate instead.
Shohei called Shooting Star into his hand and launched it back into the thermosphere with Gravity Conductor for when he needed to summon it again.
The two boys entered the empty parking garage they had been backed up against. They wandered through the first level and found the staircase to rest in. They laid Itadori's body on the cold ground and covered him with both their uniform jackets.
"Are you up for updating me on what happened?" Shohei asked the boy who was sitting on the stairs and staring at the covered body. Megumi stayed silent and closed his eyes to keep his breathing steady and calm. "If you can tell me now I'll make sure I inform the other Sorcerers and higher ups so you don't have to."
"Yea, I can do that," Megumi nodded, taking a deep breath. "So the cursed womb had hatched and produced a special-grade curse. It had consumed one of Sukuna's fingers and was able to create an incomplete domain expansion. Itadori, Kugisaki, and I were all trapped before we could realize. We went searching anyway and only found dead inmates. The special-grade surprised us and Kugisaki got separated. I lost a Demon Dog and Itadori lost a hand. Itadori stayed behind to hold back the curse while I went to search for Kugisaki. I found her fending off a whole lot of weaker curses and she was injured, but alive. I evacuated her out of the building and gave her to Ijichi to hurry her off to get help and had my other Demon Dog notify Itadori that we escaped. I felt the special-grade be dispatched and the domain fall, but I also felt Sukuna. That's when I called you, but Sukuna made it outside to me and broke my phone. He had healed Itaodri's hand and must've beat the curse and reclaimed his finger. He decided to talk for a while and took Itadori hostage by tearing out his heart. We fought, but I didn't stand a chance. I lost my Great Serpent shikigami and got beaten badly. I almost pulled out Mahoraga."
Shohei nodded, memorizing the information to be able to share it if asked. Shohei could tell that that mission had taken a lot out of Megumi. Megumi had become accustomed to other sorcerers dying, but not his shikigami that he cared about much more than. Itadori definitely had at least begun to grow on Megumi because he seemed more rattled at the boy's death than any other Sorcerer's deaths he and Shohei experienced together.
"I understand Megumi," Shohei nodded. "You handled the mission as best you could. Telling me now will spare some heartache rather than bringing it up again when you begin to recover. I'll handle any questions anyone has for you, so just rest."
Soon, Shohei sensed several adult Sorcerers had entered his range of sensing and he exited the building to intercept them and give a report of the situation. They entered the parking garage and stairwell and gave Megumi first aid and carried Itadori's body away on a stretcher.
Citizen bodies were usually taken to a private morgue where Jujutsu society had influence in what documents and information was released to the public. Sorcerer's bodies were moved to a private morgue on the school campus for Ieiri to personally examine and handle before being destroyed to prevent possible Vengeful spirits, Sorcerers returned as cursed spirits if not killed with cursed energy. Megumi and Shohei understood and had no objections when the other Sorcerers were placing Itadori's body into the back seat of a car because they understood he was going to Ieiri.
"Satoru Gojo will be contacted about the passing of Sukuna's vessel that was under his care," said a grade-two sorcerer that Shohei recognized as usually a part of the High School's security team.
"His name was Yuji Itadori. Thank you," Shohei retorted, shooing off the sorcerer with an unfriendly and expressionless tone.
The next day, Megumi, Kugisaki, and Shohei were gathered on a set of stairs outside to semi-enjoy the nice change of weather, but the cicadas were especially loud and the bright sky seemed smug. Megumi and Kugisaki discussed Itadori's final words and any other unknown information about the mission.
Shohei was following along with a cicada that wouldn't stop bumping into a tree instead of interfering with their conversation and mourning. Shohei only joined them to support Megumi and stop any Sorcerer's who might come looking for them to ask about Itadori's death.
The previous day, a Sorcerer had sprinted up to Megumi when he had returned to the school and asked with a big smile if he was the one who had killed Sukuna's Vessel. Megumi leered at him with clenched first and swirling cursed energy, but Shohei pushed the Sorcerer aside and ushered Megumi along to his dorms.
"'Live a long life'?" Kugisaki said, turning over Itadori's last words in her head. "Doesn't mean much when you go and die yourself. Is this your first time having a partner die?"
"First time for one my age," Megumi said.
Kugisaki hummed. "You seem to be taking it well, considering."
"Same to you," Megumi complimented.
"Of course. I only knew him for about two weeks," Kugisaki scoffed, slightly turning her head away from the two boys. "I'm not some simple woman who breaks down bawling when a guy I barely know dies. Jeez." Her lip quivered and the boys noticed, but said nothing.
That quivering lip was the first bit of emotion shown in the small group since that sat down and had their disheartened conversation.
"It's hot huh?" Megumi said, sparing Kugisaki from possible tears.
"Yeah. Wonder if it's time for summer uniforms."
Shohei quickly stood up and patted off his pants and shirt, sensing the curse signatures he'd been following approach.
"Hey you three," Shohei said, walking towards his fellow second-years that just turned onto the path he was on. "How was the mission?"
"It went as bumpy as can be, but we got it done," said a large panda bear with an armband on, walking on its hind legs. "How were you with only your magazines for company, man?" the panda asked, sweeping up his friend and giving him a large hug and slap on the back.
"You could say it was eventful," Shohei chuckled, rubbing his neck at the recent series of events. "I finally took my grade mission. I'm still waiting for my results, but I didn't total the building and made sure to do my best to impress Mei-sensei."
A shorter, white haired boy with amethyst purple eyes and a zip up collar over his mouth incorporated in his uniform walked up to the boy and bumped his fist in greeting. The boy said, "Salmon caviar."
"No, actually. She was a very honest and sharp eyed proctor. She recognized the good and bad very well as a grade-one. She even offered me weapon's training after the mission when she saw me with Shooting Star," Shohei replied.
"Wow," a girl with long green hair, tied back in a high ponytail gasped sarcastically. Her sharp, golden eyes rolled in her head behind her purple glasses as she slung her weapon carrying case over her shoulder. "Just because you finally get the basics down for fighting with a club, you get some special training lessons from a grade-one sorcerer who sells out for a pocket full of cash."
"She isn't just that. I finally believe that she's one of Jujutsu tech's stronger grade-one sorcerers. She knew everything to look for that makes a good grade-one sorcerer on my mission. She walked out of it without a scratch when she was caught in the crossfire between me and some kinda strong curses, twice."
"Yea, yea. Keep training with us and your weapon skills will be so good you won't need to dump out your bank account in front of her to get some extra lessons," the girl proclaimed.
Her eyes tore away from Shohei, who she just scolded and toward the two first-year students on the stairs.
"Well, what's this?" Maki said. "You're looking more glum than usual, Megumi. This a wake or something?"
"Zenin-senpai," Megumi said, acknowledging his upperclassman.
"Don't call me by my last name!" she said, raising her voice and her chin into the air.
"Maki! Maki!" Panda whispered urgently. "Y-You actually don't know why they're so down?"
Shohei fiddled with his hand awkwardly and rocked on his heels, not wanting to tell the girl the irony in her question.
"What're you talking about?" Maki asked bluntly, looking back at the sweating panda.
"Someone really did die yesterday!" Panda whispered seriously. "One of the first-year boys!"
"Bonito flakes," Toge sarcastically congratulated the girl on her bluntness.
Maki went rigged and froze. She had her teeth clenched and seemed extremely awkward.
"You should've told me sooner!" Maki murmured back to Panda. "Now I look like some heartless, cold-blooded demon!"
"That's exactly how you came off," Panda said.
"Yea, that's what I meant by eventful," Shohei muttered to the girl. She turned to him slowly with a resentful and rigged face, then leaped at him.
"'Eventful' is how you describe your friend's classmate dying? Now I look like a jerk who mocks people's death because you couldn't phrase yourself better than I did." Maki had picked the boy up by his collar and was throttling him in the air as Panda and Toge tried to pull them apart.
"I'm sorry Maki-san!" Shohei said, flailing in air with Toge trying to pull him down by his belt and pant leg. "I didn't think you would bring up death in such a sudden way. Please put me down. I'm sorry."
"Sorry doesn't fix my botched first impression to the new first-year girl, does it, Sho?" Maki growled with Panda trying to pry her hands off Shohei's collar.
"It's good seeing Gojo-senpai drop his 'cool guy that doesn't care' act now that he's getting beat," Kugisaki said to Megumi, matter of factly. "Who are those guys anyway?"
"Those are the rest of the second-years, in Shohei's year."
Maki eventually threw Shohei into a tree right by the path they were on and turned to the first-years. She said, "Don't mistake his hair brained self for a cool guy. He's one big science geek who can't keep his head on Earth."
"You have to be kinder to your underclassmen," Panda informed Maki of her bluntness.
"There's more to kindness than being soft on them," Maki muttered, her cheeks tinted a faint pink from her embarrassment.
"Zenin-senpai is the best of all the students at wielding cursed tools," Megumi told Kugisaki.
"Salmon roe," Toge said, looking at the first-year students.
"That's the Cursed Speech user, Inumaki-senpai," Megumi introduced. "He can only speak in ingredients of rice balls."
"He's a bit softer when Yuta's around, though," Panda said, scratching his chin.
"Panda-senpai," Megumi said briefly. "There's one more, Okkotsu-senpai, who's the only one I can openly respect, but he's overseas right now."
Megumi stood up from the stairs while Kugisaki sat, shocked at her first encounter with her upperclassmen.
"You're not adding more about the panda named Panda?" Kugisaki asked.
"Man, sorry about this," Panda apologized, dragging Shohei from the tree to the other second-years. "And when you're in mourning… Please forgive us for that." Panda put his paws together and bowed his head.
"I'm sorry," Shohei said, standing up and flinching at Maki, who faked a slap at him.
"The truth is, we'd like you to participate in the Kyoto Sister School Exchange Event."
"Kyoto Sister School Exchange Event?" Kugisaki repeated, confused. "What's that?"
"It's a get-together with the other Tech school in Kyoto," Megumi explained. "Though isn't that event mainly second and third-years?"
"And those stupid third-years are suspended right now. So you need to participate," Maki said.
"What do you do at this event?" Kugisaki asked, hesitantly. "Smash Bros.? I won't lose if it's the Wii version. I'll Meteor Smash so you can't come back," She said, a little maliciously at the end.
"Then let's make a 3-man team," Panda said, elaborating on Smash Bros. "But the exchange event has the principals of the Tokyo and Kyoto schools each propose a form of competition to be held for an entire day over the course of two days. Though that's just how it is on paper. Every year, the first day is team battles, and the second day is individual battles."
"Salmon," Toge confirmed.
"Individual and team battles?" Kugisaki said. "We fight?! Against other Jujutsu Sorcerers?!"
"Yeah," Maki said with a grin. "It's a jujutsu battle where anything but killing goes."
Panda took a wide stance and said, "We'll train you up well so you won't get killed. Yeah, yeah, yeah." Panda punched the air excitedly.
"Probably almost half of any worthwhile training I've gotten was with or from these three, so you two are in great hands with us," Shohei reassured.
"Wait, do you have time for that? I thought we were short on Jujutsu Sorcerers," Kugisaki mentioned.
"That's a good question. For now, we are," Panda said. "The glum emotions people harbor from late winter through spring cause an outburst of curses in the early summer, so that's our busy season."
"In the busy season is when strong curses pop up too. It's really a testing time, but missions are so plentiful you can get all the on field experience you want and rake in consistent paychecks from them," Shohei said.
"Sometimes we're busy all year long, but things should be settling down soon," Maki said.
"Huh..." Kugisaki hummed.
"So, you'll do it, right?" Maki asked, hopefully. "You just had a partner die on you, after all." That prod from Maki got an immediate response from them.
"Yes!" The two first-years responded with burning determination in their eyes.
"But if I decide this training and exchange event is pointless, I'm quitting instantly," Kugisaki said directly, standing up.
"Same here," Megumi agreed.
"Well, people this cocky are all the more worthwhile to train," Panda approved, crossing his arms.
"Bonito flakes," Toge said quietly, ready to replace their arrogance with confidence.
"Your senpai are gonna keep your two on your toes this whole training session until you look like professional ballerinas!" Shohei cheered.
Thank you for reading. I couldn't whip up a way to portray how fast Shohei was traveling, but I wrote this chapter with him crossing over to East Tokyo from the very edge of West Tokyo in less than about a minute and a half with the imperfect technique if Satoru can travel almost instantly. I'm happy I finally could introduce the other second-years and start to show their relationships with Shohei. I look forward to put more spotlight on the six students training since we won't be following Yuji and Gojo's secret training.