July 10, 2006.
Beneath the dim, hazy rain, a tall, slender figure holding a black umbrella walked slowly along a path lined with stone lanterns, as though it led to heaven.
The black umbrella lifted slightly, revealing a handsome face, noble yet still a little youthful. Back from his slumber, Tsukasa Hatayama walked on at an unhurried pace.
When he noticed three familiar figures standing at the gates of Jujutsu High, Tsukasa paused, then approached them with some confusion.
The three at the gates noticed him too. Satoru Gojo waved enthusiastically and called, "Come here, come here! Your senior Mei Mei has gone missing!"
Tsukasa frowned. Something he had never wanted to happen surfaced in his memory. The beginning of Hidden Inventory has finally arrived.
With a soft sigh, Tsukasa quickened his steps and joined his close companions.
Suguru Geto thoughtfully stepped forward to brush the raindrops off his uniform, explaining gently, "The day before yesterday, Utahime and Mei Mei accepted a Grade 1 Curse assignment from Jujutsu Headquarters. Working together, they should have been able to exorcise it easily."
"But something might have happened. Neither of them is answering her phone. It's like they've vanished off the face of the earth, so our teacher asked Satoru and me to investigate."
"Exactly. It's all Utahime's fault for being so weak and holding Miss Mei back. With Miss Mei's Divine Wind, she would have exorcised the curse ages ago."
Satoru spoke cheerfully, not forgetting to drag Utahime into his mockery even though no one knew whether she was alive or dead.
Tsukasa was long used to those two and their constant bickering. "I'll come with you. It'll be a good chance to stretch my legs."
Delight appeared on Satoru's and Suguru's faces. In all their time at Jujutsu High, they had only gone on missions with their dear friend three times.
All three missions had involved investigating curses rather than directly exorcising them, so the three had never experienced the thrill of fighting as a team.
Eager to make up for that missing thrill, the three raised their umbrellas and hurried off in excitement.
Left behind, Shoko Ieiri scowled at their retreating backs and shouted, "Hey, did you three scumbags just forget about me?"
Their laughing faces froze. They turned around in unison and awkwardly waved the disgruntled Shoko over.
"Three scumbags!"
Shoko cursed them with a smile tugging at her lips, then opened her umbrella and ran toward the three hazy figures in the rain.
That morning, on the outskirts of Arakawa, Tokyo.
The rain had cleared. The four arrived at the mission site from Jujutsu High and found the Assistant Supervisor, who had been waiting there for further developments.
The supervisor was a short-haired young woman with glasses. When Suguru came over to speak with her, she instantly turned into an adoring fangirl, holding him there with one question after another.
Satoru couldn't stand watching anymore. He kicked the supervisor aside and snarled, "Keep asking pointless questions and I'll feed you to a cursed spirit! With that pretty face and fair skin, it'll probably take its time eating you!"
"If you don't want to become cursed spirit food, hurry up and tell us what you know!"
He had let his guard down for just a moment, and Miss Mei had swooped in and stolen his dear friend Tsukasa away. If Geto fell into the same trap, what was he supposed to do, all alone?
That was why he had to chase away every woman around Geto. Only then could their friendship last forever. Romance was nothing but fleeting happiness.
The supervisor burst into frightened tears and said miserably, "I don't know anything. Miss Mei and Miss Utahime Iori went inside the day before yesterday, and we lost contact with them."
Suguru glared at Satoru for frightening her, then kindly helped her up. "Satoru doesn't like people rambling. Please don't take it to heart."
The Assistant Supervisor nodded timidly and explained everything in detail, including when the curse had formed and when it had been discovered. She told them everything.
After listening, the four followed an uneven, overgrown path to their destination: a dilapidated, sinister-looking two-story Western-style house.
"Tsukasa, there's a Manifestation Barrier around the house. You have the most cursed energy out of the four of us. See if you can sense whether Miss Mei and Utahime are still alive."
Suguru looked at his dear friend with a smile. He and Satoru had encountered manifested curses before, and they were easy to exorcise. All they had to do was blast them apart from outside with cursed energy.
But rescuing people was their main objective this time, with exorcising the curse secondary. They needed to establish whether their seniors inside were still alive first.
Tsukasa rolled his eyes at Suguru, formed a hand sign, and lowered a Curtain. "Those two aren't as weak as you think. Just have Satoru use Blue already."
Before Suguru could speak, however, Satoru impatiently raised his right hand. The positive infinity energy of Limitless pulled the house upward.
In an instant, the building that had looked so decrepit and sinister became a mass of rubble sucked into the air.
Tsukasa's red eyes flickered. Reinforcing his vision with cursed energy, he scanned the rubble until his gaze settled on a tall figure falling through it.
Without a second thought, he darted over and caught the falling figure in an intimate bridal carry.
That familiar cursed energy and presence made Mei Mei, his longtime partner, instinctively wrap her arms around Tsukasa's neck as he caught her.
Elsewhere.
"Are you crying?"
Satoru leaned forward slightly, looking down at Utahime Iori beneath a slab of stone with undisguised mischief.
Utahime's expression darkened. Seeing that faintly upturned, mocking face from a distance, she lost her composure and shouted, "I'm not crying! Show your senior some respect!"
Without a shred of respect, Satoru pulled a face and stuck out his tongue, taunting, "How are you still so weak, Utahime? If I'd known, I wouldn't have rescued you~"
Utahime's lovely face grew darker with every word. Furiously pushing the stone off her back, she pointed at Satoru, her expression contorted, and shouted:
"Gojo! Listen closely! I don't need you to rescue-"
Boom.
Before she could finish, a deafening noise erupted behind her. A gigantic, roaring sausage burst out of the ground, making Utahime turn pale with fright.
Before she could cry for help, a white-bodied, green-headed caterpillar emerged beneath the sausage. Its enormous, monstrous mouth engulfed and restrained it.
Scared out of her wits, Utahime collapsed onto the rubble and stared blankly at Suguru as he slowly approached.
Suguru extended a hand with a gentle expression, saying courteously, "Don't mind Satoru. He's as innocent as a growing MetalGreymon."
Perhaps under his dear friend Tsukasa's influence, Suguru had gradually lost the mocking smile he wore in the original story and begun turning into a warm, considerate young man.
Utahime blushed as she reached out, feeling inexplicably shy as Suguru helped her up.
In fact, among the three close friends, Suguru was the most popular with women. The warm smile at the corners of his mouth was simply so pleasant to look at.
"Utahime, are you all right?"
Once Utahime was steady on her feet, Shoko Ieiri peeked out from behind Satoru.
With a cigarette resting lazily between her lips, she said softly, "You hadn't contacted me for two whole days. I was really worried about you."
"Shoko~"
Delighted, Utahime hurried over with her arms outstretched and hugged Shoko, saying sheepishly, "We ran into a tiny little snag. But with Suguru and the others here, everything should be fine now."
(P.S. I won't describe Utahime and Mei Mei's scene in the Western-style house from the original, lest you dear readers accuse me of padding the plot and word count.)
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