Deals and Final Arrangements

The corridors were deserted after midnight, and not a single light was on in the dormitory.

As for the students, I had no idea. If they were in reasonably good spirits, perhaps Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto would be huddled together playing video games?

I wandered along at a leisurely pace, gazing almost blankly at the campus before me.

I had a mission today, a perfectly ordinary Grade 1 Cursed Spirit mission.

A mission like this should never have fallen to me. The higher-ups had probably wanted to meet with Suguru Geto and Satoru Gojo, so they had deliberately assigned me something easy but far away.

After all, if I interfered in this affair, the Jujutsu Society Higher-Ups might genuinely have had no way to deal with me.

Why, you ask?

For a long time after Nozomu Sakai and Sōsuke Mizukawa died, I investigated the families among the Jujutsu Society Higher-Ups that had deliberately made trouble for them, as well as those that had targeted Sōsuke Mizukawa and his older brother.

Those families had been wiped out now. Still, two third-rate families had never had much of a foundation to begin with. They weren't ancient lineages passed down through the generations, either. They were upstarts without any particular fighting ability, capable only of hiding in the gutters and plotting against others.

Their fate was self-evident...

Though, when I thought about it that way, I wasn't much different from those people, was I?

I smiled faintly and slowly made my way toward the school gates.

The Assistant Supervisor had been waiting for me there for quite a while. More precisely, since he never knew when I might suddenly feel like going on a mission, he was practically on call twenty-four hours a day.

Hmm... a second of silence for him. But he worked for the Jujutsu Higher-Ups. I wasn't about to toy with him to death just yet, but I certainly had no fondness for him-.

"Hey, let's go. Take me to the mission site."

With that, I got into the Assistant Supervisor's car. Looking at the freshly cleaned seat, I murmured something about how clean it was.

The Assistant Supervisor in front of me started trembling even harder.

Why did he remind me of the people who had worked under me back in my Port Mafia days?

They had trembled every time I went on a mission, too. I had no idea what a bunch of burly men in black suits and sunglasses could possibly have been afraid of.

The corners of my mouth lifted slightly. I was feeling a little nostalgic for those days.

Still, compared to spending day and night reviewing paperwork back then, I would choose to stay in Jujutsu Society.

Thinking that, I watched the car glide along smoothly and gazed at the sky as it slowly began to brighten.

Time passed very, very slowly just then, and I was happy to use the opportunity to investigate a few things.

I had almost pinned down Brain's location. The trouble was figuring out how to approach him once I did.

I never underestimated a person who had lived for thousands of years. Or a thing that had lived for thousands of years...?

In any case, there was really no way to get close to him. The closest I had ever come was standing downstairs while he stood among the Jujutsu Higher-Ups, before slipping away discreetly.

It wasn't as though forcing my way through was impossible, but why resort to force when I could use my head?

Besides, Toji Zenin was the only useful person I had available right now. I couldn't feel secure about using him to force a breakthrough, either. At the very least, I couldn't die yet.

If a certain clingy little slug were still around... I wouldn't have to go to all this trouble.

After all, sometimes overwhelming force really was a very useful approach.

"Oh, let's skip the mission site for now! I spotted a crab meat restaurant nearby that looks good. Let's go there."

I raised my voice, putting on an enthusiastic air, then casually pointed to the map on my phone and showed it to the Assistant Supervisor.

He showed no particular reaction. In the months since he had become my Assistant Supervisor, he had seen me in every possible state. Though he was still terrified, he no longer dared utter a single word of protest.

How boring.

I repeated that to myself, then waved the Assistant Supervisor aside and eagerly entered the Crab Meat Restaurant alone. Sure enough, I spotted Toji Zenin, who looked as though he had just returned from grocery shopping.

"Hey, boss. Over here."

He waved me over, still holding a shopping basket. He sat looking utterly bored in a chair with a backrest. He had already ordered the food and started eating without me.

"Here are the fingers you wanted, boss."

As Toji Zenin spoke, he pulled a box out of the Inventory Curse Worm's body.

Then he set the box in front of me and turned to leave.

"Boss, I still have to go home and cook for my wife and kid, so I'll be off."

He said that without even looking at my expression.

How should I put it? Meeting an assassin who knew how to keep his mouth shut was a good thing.

That ought to have fallen under professional standards for people like him, of course. But if someone really did keep pestering me with questions, it would give me such a headache that I probably wouldn't be able to resist killing him.

After briefly considering that, I looked at the box before me and the several fingers inside it, then tucked it into my coat pocket with a slight headache.

To make sure the coming series of events never happened, my only option was to stop everything before it began.

If I cut off every source of trouble from the outset, Teacher Yaga shouldn't be executed, even if I was already dead.

No, it really would be better to kill all those higher-ups first, replace them with people loyal only to me, then leave them all in Teacher Yaga's hands after I died.

If Suguru Geto ultimately chose not to defect, I could leave them to him and Satoru Gojo as well.

Whichever of them it was, none would ever entertain the idea of harming Teacher Yaga.

I pondered it all quite casually, considering what arrangements I should make to keep Teacher Yaga alive after my death.

This wasn't the first time I had made arrangements for after my death, but even my plan to jump off a building hadn't been this thorough.

After all, although Teacher Yaga was the foremost figure in the Jujutsu Puppet World, he would still be helpless in the coming era, with trouble and danger lurking everywhere.

Timing it just right, I had several portions of crab meat packed to go, then leisurely left the restaurant with them.

When I returned to the Assistant Supervisor's car, his uneasy manner made me want to laugh again.

He had gathered quite a bit of information from me over the past few days. Granted, it was all information I wanted them to know, but he had just looked ready to report in when he spotted me coming back. Really, this wasn't any fun at all.

Ah, as I thought, it was time to replace him.

It's decided. I'll take this opportunity to get a new Assistant Supervisor. Since he's the only one who's survived a few extra months under me, I'll let him live-.