Safe travels

"TDL! I want to go to TDL!"

"Idiot, TDL is in Chiba! Let's go to Chinatown, sir."

"Chinatown is in Yokohama, you know!"

"Isn't Yokohama in Tokyo?! Don't you know that? Look at a map!"

"What? Stop making things up..." Satoru Gojo interrupted the two with a smile. "Now, I'll announce our destination..."

Nobara Kugisaki and Yuji Itadori dropped to one knee at the same time.

"Roppongi!"

"Rop-pon-gi~!" The two looked at each other excitedly, their wide eyes sparkling.

"..."

"..." Poor kids. Your teacher Gojo had pulled one over on both of you.

"..."

Before us stood an abandoned building, pitch-black and radiating an eerie aura.

"There's a curse here," Megumi Fushiguro said flatly.

"You big liar!!!" ×2

"This is Roppongi, isn't it?"

"How dare you make fun of us country folk!"

Judging by Megumi Fushiguro's calm expression, Satoru Gojo was a repeat offender.

"There's a big cemetery nearby, and with this abandoned building here too, a curse formed~"

"Aren't they more likely to show up in cemeteries?"

"The problem isn't the cemetery itself. It's the minds of the people who think cemetery equals scary."

Honestly, everyone was going to kick the bucket eventually anyway. Whenever you went to a cemetery, all you had to do was think of it as checking how the renovations on your future home were coming along.

"Oh, so it's like what happened at school."

"Wait, this guy doesn't even know that?"

"Here's what happened..." Blah blah, blah blah blah...

"What?! He swallowed a Special Grade Cursed Object!"

"That's so gross! That's terrifying, absolutely terrifying. Zhi, let's not stand so close to him." As she spoke, she grabbed me and pulled me several steps back with her.

"...I agree on that point."

"What the heck? And if you're going to back away, why do you have to take Zhi with you?!"

Yuji Itadori, out.

"I want to see what you two can do. Consider this a field test. Nobara, Yuji, go exorcise the curses inside the building."

"Huh? Didn't you say curses can only be exorcised with curses? I don't know any jujutsu."

"You're already half a curse yourself, so you have cursed energy inside you. But controlling cursed energy isn't something you can just pick up." As he spoke, he handed him a cursed tool.

"This cursed tool, Slaughter Demon, is a weapon imbued with cursed energy. It'll work against curses too."

Do jujutsu sorcerers have portable storage spaces? Where else could he have pulled that from?

"So lame. Zhi, wait for me to come out, okay~?" With that, she secured her belt and strode inside.

"Good luck!" I waved from behind her.

"Don't worry!" Nobara waved without looking back.

"One more thing: don't let Sukuna out. He'd instantly kill all the curses here, but the people nearby would get caught up in it too."

"Got it! I won't let Sukuna out!"

"Safe travels~"

"I should go after them."

"Don't push yourself. You've only just recovered~"

"But someone still needs to keep an eye on Yuji."

"Yeah, yeah, you've got me. I can step in when it counts~" I patted Megumi on the shoulder like we were best buddies.

"Exactly. Edano is a Special Grade Sorcerer, after all~ But the one we're testing this time is Nobara."

"Huh? Me?" I pointed at myself. "I'm Special Grade?"

A meme suddenly came to mind. Me? I have to go fight Sukuna too?

"That's right~ After all, you can send your teacher flying. I floated around in the sky for quite a while before coming back~"

"Hmph, that's a lie. If you wanted to resist, Mr. Gojo, my Cursed Speech definitely wouldn't work on you. And I'm sure you stopped yourself the instant you went flying."

"Ah~ You saw right through me, Edano. Your teacher is so sad~" He was like a clingy white kitty...

"Okay, I know you only went along with it because you were afraid the Cursed Speech would backfire on me..."

"I'm sowwy!" I bowed ninety degrees.

"Hey, stop right there. If you're really sorry, Edano, then treat your teacher to some Kikufuku. From Kikusuian, where the lines are ridiculously long~"

"Okay! I'll buy you every Kikufuku in the shop!" After all, the identity the system had arranged for me was a rich woman with an enormous family inheritance.

Stare...

"Oh, they're out!"

"How did it go? You're not hurt, are you~?"

Nobara Kugisaki rushed over and hugged me, burying her face in my chest while still finding time to answer. "Reporting in! No injuries!"

"My house is just up ahead. Thank you!" The child waved happily, then turned and ran home.

"I'm so hungry... You know I get cranky when I'm hungry, right?" Nobara stamped her foot impatiently.

"Is there ever a time you aren't cranky...?" Yuji muttered.

I smiled as I watched them bicker. The sunset's lingering light fell over me, leaving me pleasantly warm. So warm. It reminds me of when I wasn't a venomous woman yet~

Just then, Satoru Gojo came over with Megumi Fushiguro and waved at us with a smile. "Good work! The kid's home safe~"

"To reward everyone, let's go get something to eat~"

"Steak!"

"Sushi!"

"No problem!"

"What about you, Edano?"

"Ummm..." Faced with Yuji's and Nobara's expectant gazes, I couldn't help smiling until my eyes narrowed.

Unbeknownst to me, from their perspective, the lingering sunset shone on the girl, her eyes curved into smiling crescents and her flawless face soft. She seemed far removed from the darkness of Jujutsu Society, standing in a peaceful, beautiful world where everything was slow and serene.

"Me? I'll eat either."

"Aaah, Zhi, that's cheating!"

"Hahahahaha, I was wrong, Lady Nobara! Don't tickle me, hahahahahahahaha..."

Watching us jostle one another, Satoru Gojo was unusually quiet, simply smiling at us.

"What about Megumi? What do you want to eat?"

"..."

"Tap, tap, tap." Megumi was engrossed in his video game.

"All right, all right, let's go~"

"Huh? Aren't we waiting for Megumi?"

"Nope~" Satoru Gojo slipped an arm around me and nudged me forward.

Oh, he didn't wrap his arm around my head this time.

Poor Megumi. His video game obsession had cost him his chance to choose what to eat.