"Four of you! The Mission Department has assigned a new mission!"
Masamichi Yaga entered the classroom with the Mission Department's assignment in hand, his expression stern.
The moment he stepped inside, Masamichi Yaga froze.
Gojo Sawa and Suguru Geto were propping Gojo Satoru up from either side, while Ieiri Shoko drew little turtles on Satoru's face with a pen.
The three of them wore matching Anya-style smiles, while Gojo Satoru looked utterly dead inside, like a bullied newlywed.
"..."
Masamichi Yaga felt a headache coming on.
After several months of teaching, he had more or less figured out the four of them.
Powerful, arrogant, gifted, and... problem children!
Gojo Sawa was the first to notice Masamichi Yaga standing at the door. "Huh? When did Teacher Yaga get here?"
At that, Suguru Geto and Ieiri Shoko hurriedly sat up straight, looking like obedient little students.
Gojo Satoru picked up a wet towel and wiped his face. "Damn it! How could I lose seven games in a row? You must have cheated, right?"
"Satoru!"
"Yes!"
Gojo Satoru immediately stood at attention.
Masamichi Yaga rubbed his forehead, took a deep breath, and weakly waved the assignment in his hand.
"New mission. A Grade 1 Cursed Spirit, the Slit-Mouthed Woman. According to the intelligence, her strength far exceeds that of an ordinary Grade 1 Cursed Spirit!"
Gojo Satoru took the assignment, brimming with confidence. "Don't worry, Teacher. Leave it to us!"
"Don't worry?"
Masamichi Yaga pondered for a moment before speaking flatly. "The sewer explosion in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward a year ago was your masterpiece, wasn't it, Satoru?"
"Uh..."
Gojo Satoru was rendered speechless.
Masamichi Yaga shifted his gaze. "Ten months ago, an abandoned toy factory in Tokyo collapsed. Sawa, that was your doing, wasn't it?"
Gojo Sawa said sheepishly, "Uh... It was abandoned, wasn't it? I figured I'd help demolish it."
"Six months ago, the commotion caused by Geto releasing Cursed Spirits was discovered by a passing police officer. Afterward, he insisted that he had seen invisible ghosts, so people thought he was mentally ill."
Suguru Geto gave an awkward yet polite smile.
Finally, Masamichi Yaga's gaze fell on Ieiri Shoko.
Ieiri Shoko raised both hands. "Sorry, Teacher! I'm noncombat personnel. None of those things had anything to do with me!"
"I know that."
The veins on Masamichi Yaga's forehead bulged. "But who stole the three bottles of liquor I had been saving?"
Ieiri Shoko froze, then scratched her head with an awkward grin.
Masamichi Yaga took a long breath. "I see now. Every one of you has a special talent!"
Gojo Satoru looked up at the ceiling, Suguru Geto lowered his head to stare at the floor, Gojo Sawa gazed out the window at a forty-five-degree angle, and Ieiri Shoko stood there blankly, her eyes vacant.
The four of them pretended to be idiots...
"Sigh~"
Masamichi Yaga let out a helpless sigh like a weary father.
"Complete the mission properly. Don't cause any extra trouble!"
"Yes, Teacher!" ×4
In front of the apartment building, Sawa, Satoru, and Geto were stretching.
"It's only one Grade 1 Cursed Spirit. The three of you can handle it, so I can't be bothered to go inside!"
Ieiri Shoko lit a cigarette, looking somewhat melancholy.
Her Cursed Technique was the rare Reverse Cursed Technique, which allowed her to heal others. She could save someone even if they had only a breath left.
The frustrating part was that the three people she partnered with were each stronger than the last.
After every mission, forget being injured—their clothes were barely even dirty.
They might accidentally scrape their skin, but before she could use Reverse Cursed Technique, they would probably have healed on their own.
Fortunately, she was happy to take it easy.
Ieiri Shoko pressed her fingers together. "From darkness born, darker than black, filthy Cursed Residue, cleanse it all!"
Black-mud-like matter surged up from the ground, instantly transforming into a huge square box that enveloped the dormitory building.
"The Curtain is up. The rest is up to you!"
"Let's go!"
Gojo Sawa took the lead, striding into the gloomy dormitory building.
Gojo Satoru and Suguru Geto followed close behind.
Upon entering the building, the intense resentment and Cursed Energy seemed to become tangible, clinging to the surrounding walls.
Countless low-level Cursed Spirits prowled through the building.
The three of them searched floor after floor, but even after reaching the top floor, they found no trace of the "Slit-Mouthed Woman" mentioned in the intelligence.
Gojo Satoru looked puzzled. "Huh? What's going on? Could the higher-ups have gotten the intelligence wrong?"
Suguru Geto shook his head. "The Slit-Mouthed Woman is a powerful Cursed Spirit far beyond an ordinary Grade 1 Cursed Spirit. The higher-ups shouldn't have gotten such important intelligence wrong. Is there anywhere we haven't searched?"
Gojo Sawa thought for a moment, then suddenly looked up. "Oh, right. Doesn't this dormitory building have a basement?"
The three exchanged glances, then quickly returned from the top floor to the first floor and found the basement door.
Creak—
Gojo Sawa stepped forward and opened the door.
At that instant, an intense sense of wrongness filled the three of them.
Even the surrounding environment and the air seemed to have been transformed, as though the world had been turned upside down.
The three of them changed expressions.
"It's a domain!"
A domain was not necessarily a Domain Expansion.
Some powerful Cursed Spirits had not yet reached the level required for a Domain Expansion, but could still create an incomplete domain.
For example, the Cursed Womb Must Die that Itadori, Fushiguro, and the others would encounter in the juvenile detention center in the future.
There was also a weaker type that could use its own Cursed Energy to form a Simple Domain that amplified its Cursed Technique.
Neither of these possessed the special techniques or sure-hit effects granted by a Domain Expansion.
Just like now, the entire basement was filled with Cursed Energy and had been transformed into a private domain by the Cursed Spirit occupying it.
The moment Sawa opened the door, the three of them had already entered the other party's domain.
"Good thing it isn't a Domain Expansion!"
Gojo Sawa breathed a sigh of relief.
Suddenly, the Slit-Mouthed Woman appeared in front of the three of them.
Beneath her disheveled hair-covered face was a dense mass of eyes.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman spoke in a sinister, bone-chilling voice. "Am... am... am I beautiful?"
"Ugly bitch!"
Gojo Sawa shot back without the slightest hesitation.
"Ahhhhhhh..."
The Slit-Mouthed Woman's resentment surged instantly, and she charged at the three of them with a pair of scissors in hand.
Even as a Cursed Spirit, the Slit-Mouthed Woman could not endure such humiliation after being called an ugly bitch.
The sharp blades swept forward, wrapped in a cold gleam.
However, the attack slowly came to a stop in front of Gojo Sawa and Gojo Satoru, unable to advance even an inch.
Slash—
A gash appeared behind Suguru Geto's ear, and blood trickled down his neck.
"Tch~ The Limitless is really convenient!"
Suguru Geto watched as Sawa and Satoru warded off the attack without even moving, unable to hide his envy.
"Rainbow Dragon!"
Seeing that the Slit-Mouthed Woman was about to attack again, Suguru Geto waved his hand. Rainbow Dragon roared out and tightly coiled around the Slit-Mouthed Woman's body.
"Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue!"
"True Martial Style: Kotetsu Heart Piercer!"
The three began a righteous group beating.
Incredible! Three men had actually done such a thing to a defenseless woman in a basement!
After a long while, the Slit-Mouthed Woman lay weakly on the ground, battered by the three of them and looking thoroughly broken.
Suguru Geto stroked his chin. "This Cursed Spirit is fairly strong. I could probably subdue her."
"Cursed Spirit Manipulation!"
A black vortex appeared in Suguru Geto's palm. The Slit-Mouthed Woman's body was sucked inside and transformed into a tangible black sphere the size of an egg, speckled with flickering light.
"Oh! So this is your Cursed Technique!"
Gojo Satoru leaned forward like a curious child.
Although he had known for a long time that Suguru Geto's Cursed Technique was Cursed Spirit Manipulation, Suguru Geto had not encountered any Cursed Spirits worth subduing during this period.
So this was the first time Gojo Satoru had seen Suguru Geto use the technique.
Suguru Geto smiled. "I just turn Cursed Spirits into balls and swallow them."
Gojo Sawa suddenly spoke. "What does it taste like? It's a Cursed Spirit, after all. It must be pretty awful, right?"
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