"I CANNOT believe you used it on yourself! Didn't I tell you how dangerous it was?!"
Qian was lying down on the autopsy table in the laboratory back at Tokyo's Jujutsu High School. She flinched at her mentor's reprimand. "I-I'm sorry… I was just trying to help."
Shoko sighed, her hands emitting a silver-white glow as she held them above the left side of the girl's body. "You got lucky. You could've gotten yourself killed."
"Ieiri-sensei…" They both turned to Megumi, who was also on his back on the table next to them. The poor boy was breathing heavily, his voice strained with pain. "I think you've scolded her enough… she gets it."
She placed her hands on her hips, glaring at the teen. "No, I haven't. I haven't even said HALF of what I wanted to say." She turned back to her assistant. "How could you be so stupid?!"
He rolled his eyes. "Can I have a painkiller at least, if you're going to keep lecturing her-"
"Suck it up, Megumi. I'll be with you in a second." She finally sighed, retracting her fingers and wiping her brow of the sweat that had begun to form at her temple. "Alright, you're done for now. You don't have enough cursed energy for me to keep using my reverse cursed technique to heal you, so get some rest in my office and I'll come grab you. Besides," She glanced over her shoulder at the boy. "I have this whiny baby to fix first."
The dark-haired teen slowly raised his arm to give a trembling thumbs up before she peered back down at Qian. "Don't ever do this again, you hear me? Your life is important too, I don't care what Satoru or anyone else has said to you. You need to value yourself more."
"I-I won't. And I'll try…" The girl murmured, flexing her arm and leg out, wiggling her fingers and toes in awe upon regaining feeling in her extremities once again. "T-Thank you, Ieiri-sensei! You're amazing!"
"Yeah, yeah, I get that a lot." The woman waved her hand dismissively. "Get out of here so I can focus, I'm still mad at you."
Qian chuckled apologetically and dipped her head politely before limping up the stairs to the exit. She breathed in the crisp night air, relieved that most of the aches in her limbs have now mostly dissipated.
As she strolled through the halls, she happened to notice the light turned on in the doctor's office, along with a series of voices. Curiously, she peeked her head in to see Satoru lounging on one of the chairs, and Yuji and Nobara resting by the back wall as Masamichi stood in front of them, leaning on the doctor's desk.
The principal noticed her immediately. "Qian? How are you feeling?"
"O-Oh I'm sorry! I didn't mean to interrupt!" She protested, bowing down apologetically. "Ieiri-sensei told me to wait here for her so-"
"No worries. Please, come in and have a seat." He gestured for her to come inside. "We have much to discuss."
The girl folded her hands together, dipping her head once more. "P-Please excuse me."
She nervously walked past the man and took a seat beside Satoru, who crossed his arms over his chest.
"We were talking about what transpired. So it looks like those missing people were related to a cursed user after all." Masamichi grumbled, stroking his beard pensively.
"Yep, and she seems to be the one behind creating these weird plant-like cursed spirit things too." Satoru replied, leaning back in his chair.
Nobara flipped her hair and placed a hand on her hip. "But still- why did she target that nobody? He was such a greasy old guy- not worth killing in my own opinion."
"For fun?" Yuji suggested, frowning as he recalled the humanoid soul-transfiguring cursed spirit, his sadistic grin flashed in his mind. "Some people just like toying around with human lives- it's not the first time this happened."
"She was spouting a bunch of random bullshit too- something about 'cultivating another one'..." Nobara pondered out loud, cupping her chin ruminatively.
Qian stared at her knees, pondering deeply about the events that had occurred.
Cultivating…? She snapped her head up in realization.
"W-What if… she was going to use him to grow those cursed spirits?" She stared at the other sorcerers, her thoughts racing as she pieced all the bits of information together.
The others regarded her quizzically. "What do you mean?" Masamichi inquired.
"S-So I hypothesized before that in order for these cursed spirits' bodies to remain after exorcising, they must be a fusion of organic cells and cursed energy right? And for that to happen, they would have to have been created from some organic source?" She placed a finger on her lip, deep in thought. "W-What if…its humans?"
Everyone's eyes widened in shock. She opened her backpack and dug out her notebook, flipping through the pages. "I-I mean if we think about it- it all makes sense right? Humans naturally give off negative emotions, which create cursed energy, which develops into cursed spirits. So logically, humans would be the perfect organic source for these plant-like cursed spirits to feed and grow from. Especially those who have a lot of negative emotions."
"So…if that were true, then she targeted Shinji because he was super depressed." Yuji exclaimed, snapping his fingers in understanding.
"Which makes sense, since the other body that was found was a guy in gambling debt." Nobara murmured perceptively.
"Which means her next target is…basically anyone who's down on their luck." Satoru murmured, tilting his seat back as he raised his arms over his head, a smirk stretched across his lips. "Which only narrows the population down by…one percent?"
Qian turned away, silently noting his sarcastic response. "S-Sorry, it was dumb and unhelpful."
Satoru glanced at her, his smirk softening in amusement. "That's not what I'm saying, I meant it helped a bit."
Masamichi himself stared at his previous student, his brows raised upon seeing his interaction with the girl. He chose not to comment and clear his throat instead. "Alright, well. It's been quite the adventure for you guys so get some rest. We'll meet up again tomorrow at 10am. You are all dismissed."
"Let's go get some pizza for Fushiguro!" Yuji pushed himself off the wall with vigor, turning to Nobara with his eyes sparkling in hunger. "I'm sure Ieiri-sensei's done healing him by now and he's probably starving!"
"Sure, but I'm not buying it this time." Nobara griped, but nonetheless she took out her phone and clicked on the food delivery app.
"U-Um, I can go buy it!" They turned to see Qian wobble to her feet. She clenched her fists in determination. "I-I haven't had pizza in years and I would love to have some!"
The two of them stared at her doubtfully, seeing her legs visibly tremble as she began to hobble away. Satoru sighed, running a hand through his hair.
"I can get it." He offered, pushing himself up from his seat.
"N-No it's okay! Thanks to Ieiri-sensei, I'm practically fine now so I can go, I like driving!" Qian protested, already limping out the door with her good leg. "J-Just text me what toppings you want!"
Before the students could protest, she was already out the door. Satoru remained standing as the other three around him stared at him judgmentally.
He internally groaned, feigning ignorance as he pointedly looked away at the view outside the window behind Shoko's desk. "You guys realize that I'm not her guardian by any means right?"
Masamichi crossed his thick arms, shaking his head solemnly. "But you're an adult, and you're being a pretty scummy one by just letting an injured girl like that go off on her own."
The other two kids nodded passionately and Satoru released a sigh, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"Fine, fine, I'm going." He mumbled, stalking out of the door.
Once his footsteps receded, Yuji and Nobara couldn't help but snicker. Masamichi peered at them with equal amusement.
"It's honestly hilarious seeing Gojo-sensei get off his high-horse for once." Nobara admitted, covering her mouth to stifle her chuckles.
Masamichi simply smiled in agreement. "It's not every day that the almighty Satoru Gojo shows sympathy for someone." He leaned back once more against Shoko's desk, watching his old student disappear down the hall. "Could do him some good."