Missing his chef

"As expected of me. This rabbit tastes amazing."

Sukuna held a rabbit leg in each hand, still grumbling about how inconvenient it was to be down two hands. After all, with four hands, he could have eaten all four legs at once.

In the dim dissection room, Shoko held the heart of some unknown creature. It was hard to identify mainly because she had dissected it beyond recognition.

"Another failure."

Shoko let out a long sigh. She had nearly managed to remove the heart intact, only to accidentally nick one of its ventricles.

The Goodwill Event had ended, and according to Jujutsu High's schedule, the semester would soon be over.

Shoko took off her gloves, washed her hands, and tossed all the dissected organs into the Incinerator.

She took a bottle of rubbing alcohol and soaked her scalpels and other tools in it to disinfect them. It took considerable effort to drag her eyes away from the alcohol.

She couldn't drink that stuff. Drinking it would very likely send her straight to meet her ancestors.

Only after finishing all that work did she leave the somewhat gloomy dissection room.

After all, places like dissection rooms and morgues felt a little gloomy to everyone, no matter how brightly lit they were.

Not to mention that this particular dissection room was in the basement, with only a single glaring light.

She returned to an empty classroom, sat down at her desk, and began spacing out.

There was no way she was going home for this long vacation. The moment she did, those old fossils in her family would start pressuring her to marry.

Those stubborn old relatives always felt that a girl shouldn't be out in the world. She ought to come home and carry on the family line.

That held true even though she came from a declining Jujutsu family.

Just then, Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto burst through the door, running and horsing around.

"Hahaha! Geto, I caught you!"

Satoru Gojo grinned like a goofy husky, his hand firmly gripping the hair on Suguru Geto's head.

"Satoru, you cheated! You grabbed my hair!"

Suguru Geto indignantly pulled Satoru Gojo's hand off his head.

Then he neatly fixed the hair Satoru Gojo had messed up.

Only then did the two notice Shoko sitting in the corner.

"Shoko, Shoko! What are you doing here?"

Satoru Gojo rushed straight over and sat on Shoko's desk, wearing a carefree grin.

"Satoru, you're such an idiot. Shoko's obviously here to study and leave us in the dust."

Having fixed his hair, Suguru Geto walked over with a smile, sounding as irritating as ever.

Sure enough, the moment Satoru Gojo heard that, he began inspecting the books on Shoko's desk.

He only breathed a sigh of relief after discovering that they still looked brand-new, without any signs of having been opened.

"Geto, don't falsely accuse Shoko."

Looking at the two scumbags in front of her, Shoko found herself at a loss for words.

All she could do was stuff the books Satoru Gojo had shuffled around back into her desk.

Looking at the two grinning boys, Shoko thought for a moment and asked, "Where are you going for the vacation?"

The question immediately silenced their joking. They hesitated for a moment.

"I'll probably go home for a bit. Those old fossils won't let me stay out having fun."

Just thinking about those old fossils made Satoru Gojo shudder. They really, truly were far too old.

And they wouldn't even let him sleep in. Every morning, those old fossils would gather in front of him and wake him in soft, gentle voices.

Who could stand that? He opened his eyes to an old face more terrifying than a ghost, and he couldn't even hit it.

Satoru Gojo had been raised to become clan head ever since he was born.

But the elders of the Gojo Clan probably never could have imagined that such a composed little boy would grow into a problem teenager.

"Geto, are you going home?"

Suguru Geto gave it a little thought before saying, "I'm not. I'm planning to travel around and see if there are any Cursed Spirits I can subdue."

Shoko looked at the two of them. Ever since the day they met, Satoru Gojo had always complained about the old fossils in his family.

Suguru Geto, on the other hand, had never said anything about his family, nor had she ever seen him go home.

Shoko did know a little about how Suguru Geto came from an ordinary family. There wasn't a single Jujutsu Sorcerer among them.

"Shoko, Shoko! Are you going home to get married?"

Satoru Gojo just had to run his mouth. Shoko, who had been feeling a little down, instantly flew into a rage and chased after him, trying to hit him.

In a rare departure from habit, Suguru Geto didn't fan the flames this time. He simply gazed quietly out the window, his thoughts unknown.

Sukuna gathered the pile of bones in front of him and tossed them straight out the window. Someone would clean them up anyway.

He checked the time and found that dinner was still a while away, so he stood up to take a look at the classroom.

He could check on Satoru Gojo, Suguru Geto, and Shoko while he was there.

The moment he opened the classroom door, he saw Satoru Gojo running all over the place with a furious Shoko chasing him.

Suguru Geto noticed his arrival and waved at him with a smile.

In those brief three months, although Satoru Gojo hadn't come to spar with him in hand-to-hand combat, Suguru Geto had come to train with him several more times.

He had been knocked flat every time, but he had clearly improved quite a bit.

The chase finally ended with Shoko failing to catch her target.

Noticing Sukuna's arrival, Shoko asked him the same question.

"Me? I don't mind. Anywhere's fine."

Sukuna answered honestly. There really wasn't anywhere else he wanted to go. He might as well stay in his dorm and sleep.

At least no one would disturb his sleep. Once vacation started, most of Jujutsu High's teachers would leave. Even Masamichi Yaga couldn't stay at Jujutsu High the entire time.

Even if Masamichi Yaga was an old bachelor.

"All right, all right, let's stop talking about this and head straight back to the dorms for a nice long nap. Nothing beats a good sleep."

Satoru Gojo laughed it off. Suguru Geto had dragged him out of bed that morning, and all he wanted now was to return to his dorm and sleep.

"Sukuna, Shoko, we're heading back to the dorms."

Satoru Gojo dragged Suguru Geto toward the dorms by one hand while he waved goodbye with the other, his smile unchanged.

Suguru Geto smiled like a sly old fox, even his eyes curving when he grinned.

"Okay."

Shoko waved back at them, then turned her gaze out the window again.

"Is there something nice to look at outside?"

Sukuna sat behind Shoko and followed her gaze, but he couldn't find any particularly beautiful scenery.

That made sense. After three months of living at Jujutsu High, how could there be any beautiful sights left undiscovered?

Shoko was looking out the window, but she probably wasn't really looking at anything. The eyes of someone lost in thought didn't focus.

That was exactly the state Shoko was in.

"There's nothing nice to look at outside. I'm just wondering why my dissections keep failing."

Shoko told Sukuna what she had been thinking about.

She really didn't understand. She had followed the book step by step, yet her hand had still shaken and sliced the heart.

Especially since there weren't many rabbits left at Jujutsu High for her to dissect. If she didn't succeed soon, she would have to use lab mice.

But lab mice were simply too small. She hadn't even fully succeeded at dissecting rabbits, so it was easy to imagine her chances with mice.

"Why do you have to learn dissection? What does it do for you?"

Sukuna truly didn't understand. Although he enjoyed eating the rabbits after each of Shoko's dissections, he still didn't know why someone with [Reverse Cursed Technique] would go out of her way to learn dissection.

"Huh? Dissection? To get a Medical License, of course."

Shoko gave him a puzzled look, then said, "I can't exactly practice medicine without a license, can I?"

He had considered plenty of possibilities, only to forget the most obvious one.

For a moment, Sukuna didn't know what to say either, so he could only turn his eyes toward the window.

He, too, stared outside without focusing on anything.

If nothing unexpected happened, the Hidden Inventory Arc would begin in another six months.

After that, things wouldn't be so boring anymore, although eating and drinking here every day was certainly comfortable.

Still, this wasn't a long-term solution!

Rather than staying bored like this forever, he was much more excited for the lively scenes to come.

Most importantly, his chef would be coming back. Without his chef, he could only eat cafeteria food.

Should I just go to Mount Hida and look for Uraume? The thought suddenly popped into his head.

His attention hadn't been on the scenery outside to begin with, and now his gaze became even more unfocused.

Forget it. Why would I go looking in person? I'll just wait for Uraume to come find me.

Shoko watched Sukuna's expression change from one moment to the next, momentarily forgetting all about her Medical License.

She simply kept staring at him.

What a shame. If only we knew each other a little better, I could ask Sukuna.

Those two scumbags won't cooperate, but Sukuna's different. He has [Reverse Cursed Technique] too.

As long as the brain isn't damaged during dissection, [Reverse Cursed Technique] can heal it.

Fortunately, Shoko never said it aloud. Otherwise, Sukuna would have taught her what it meant to be sliced up.

"All right, all right. Let's look forward to this long vacation."

Sukuna pulled himself out of his thoughts and patted Shoko's shoulder. It was almost dinnertime.

He couldn't miss the first serving. The first serving always came with a generous portion.

At that thought, Sukuna immediately stood up. He also intended to grab a few extra cans of Coca-Cola to keep for when he woke up in the middle of the night.

Unfortunately, fried chicken couldn't be kept for too long. Otherwise, it went limp and lost all its crunch.

Even Sukuna didn't like eating fried chicken that wasn't crispy.

"If only Uraume had already undergone incarnation. Then I could have anything I wanted in the middle of the night, freshly made."

At that thought, Sukuna picked up his pace toward the cafeteria. He was determined to be the first one there.

Although the cafeteria usually didn't have many people anyway.

After all, Jujutsu High only had a handful of students, so there weren't particularly many teachers either. Usually, Sukuna was the only one who went to the cafeteria every day.