In the end, Satoru Gojo never gave Sherlock the student ID that had already been reduced to fragments. After lying there for a while, he teased Sherlock a little, then promptly left.
And with Satoru Gojo's departure, Sherlock's days of suffering began.
What? What suffering, you ask? If you don't know, look up how rabies vaccines are administered. Anyone who had experienced the pleasure of a needle so thick it looked like it was fucking meant for livestock stirring back and forth beneath their skin would surely remember it vividly.
So much so that, for a time, Sherlock developed a psychological aversion to Shoko, the delicate-looking healer with a tear mole beneath her eye.
Of course, there was some good news too. Sherlock's sorcerer grade had been determined: Grade 2 Sorcerer.
Although he had encountered a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit and only avoided the tragedy of dying on his very first mission due to faulty intelligence because Satoru Gojo arrived in time while away on business, Sherlock also received a hefty sum in compensation after Gojo kicked up a fuss.
What Sherlock didn't know was that Satoru Gojo had flown into a tremendous rage at Jujutsu Headquarters over this. If Masamichi Yaga hadn't specifically called Gojo before Sherlock left on his mission and shared Sherlock's assignment with him...
By the time Satoru Gojo returned from his business trip, Sherlock's corpse would probably have already gone cold.
If Satoru Gojo couldn't tell that those old higher-ups had tailor-made this mission for Sherlock, he might as well stop calling himself the strongest.
And after Satoru Gojo's uproar, it had to be said that although Jujutsu Headquarters paid Sherlock a hefty sum in compensation, they also lost all interest in him.
Someone had indeed been monitoring Sherlock's grading mission, but they promptly withdrew after merely witnessing the effect of his cursed technique.
As for whether Sherlock lived or died, the people at Jujutsu Headquarters clearly didn't care. Even if he survived, it was no big deal. They certainly didn't think a cursed technique that could only teleport would be difficult to deal with.
Even if Sherlock sided with Satoru Gojo in the future and joined the Gojo faction, as far as Jujutsu Headquarters was concerned, Gojo would merely have another "lackey" at his side.
Satoru Gojo wasn't an idiot either. He understood what Jujutsu Headquarters was thinking, but he hadn't told them the most crucial part.
After he casually disposed of that disgusting cursed spirit, the information his Six Eyes gleaned from the scene surprised even him, to say nothing of the spatial fluctuations produced when Sherlock activated his cursed technique, which were so intense that he could sense them without even being there.
In Satoru Gojo's opinion, Sherlock's potential ceiling could very well surpass his own. Unfortunately, those higher-ups who only knew how to hold meetings in rooms would never understand just how powerful Sherlock's cursed technique was.
Leaving Satoru Gojo aside, Masamichi Yaga's dissatisfaction with the higher-ups was also growing by the day. The error in Sherlock's grading mission in particular had led Yaga to tacitly approve of Gojo's rampage through Jujutsu Headquarters.
Unlike Satoru Gojo, who was more concerned about Sherlock's safety, Masamichi Yaga was more concerned about Sherlock's mental state after what had happened with Suguru Geto's defection.
And there had clearly been something wrong with that children's hospital.
The basement Sherlock discovered was not something a children's hospital should have had. Judging by the documents inside, a curse user had been conducting a series of inhumanly cruel experiments under the cover of the children's hospital.
That cursed spirit hadn't formed naturally either. It had been fucking cultivated artificially!
Most importantly, Masamichi Yaga felt that this cursed spirit might very well have been cultivated specifically to target Satoru Gojo!
The reason was simple. According to Satoru Gojo's report, the cursed spirit's main body didn't seem to have much ability to fight directly, but it possessed a strange mental-type cursed technique.
Even someone as powerful as Satoru Gojo had been momentarily dazed by the cursed spirit's mental assault after Sherlock passed out.
The situation was so complicated that, for a moment, even Masamichi Yaga couldn't tell whether this setup had been aimed at Satoru Gojo or at Sherlock, a budding newcomer to Jujutsu Society.
The good news was that Sherlock didn't care about any of this at all. He was completely immersed in the joy of having gotten rich overnight.
The bad news was that, after this brush with death, Sherlock's personality seemed to have undergone a drastic change.
How should one put it? Sherlock had let go of his inhibitions.
Originally, Sherlock had intended to peacefully live as the protagonist of a dating sim, attending all sorts of fan festivals while becoming a harem king and enjoying the wonderful life of being a bridegroom every night. So even though he had a cursed technique and cursed energy, he had kept an incredibly low profile, terrified that one careless move would put him on some big shot's bad side.
But after this brush with death, Sherlock figured it out. As the saying went, whether he stuck his neck out or kept his head down, the blade would fall all the same. If he was going to die either way, why the fuck should he put up with being wronged?
Jujutsu Headquarters probably never imagined that a single probe aimed at Satoru Gojo, a plan meant only to annoy him, would unleash a demon who would give them even bigger headaches than Gojo himself, did they?
And the first signs of this little demon Sherlock's knack for causing trouble appeared the moment he left Shoko's infirmary.
After enduring seven straight days of torment, Sherlock was practically going mad and desperately needed a trip to soothe his soul.
So Sherlock went to find Satoru Gojo, and the two hit it off immediately. That very night, teacher and student furtively gathered together.
Early the next morning, when an assistant supervisor arrived at Tokyo Jujutsu High to deliver documents to Masamichi Yaga and hand Satoru Gojo an assignment while they were at it, they were astonished to discover that the entire school was deserted.
Masamichi Yaga, Shoko, Satoru Gojo, and that useless student of his had vanished without a trace!
The four's disappearance sent the Jujutsu Higher-Ups into a complete panic. Masamichi Yaga and that student didn't matter, but Satoru Gojo and Shoko could not disappear.
The reason was simple: Satoru Gojo was the only Special Grade Sorcerer they could control, and Shoko was their only user of Reverse Cursed Technique! If those two disappeared, the system of checks and balances they were so proud of would collapse completely.
The curse users had Suguru Geto, a genuine Special Grade Curse User, on their side! Aside from Satoru Gojo, they had no Special Grade Sorcerers at their disposal!
What? Yuki Tsukumo, you say? They would have to be able to contact her first! Besides, if they actually waited for that loafer to come back, the higher-ups would probably have been wiped out several times over by then!
While the higher-ups frantically searched for the missing people from Tokyo Jujutsu High, Masamichi Yaga opened his eyes in a luxury hotel in Hokkaido specializing in skiing and hot springs.
The instant he saw the unfamiliar ceiling, Masamichi Yaga froze. His first thought was that the school had been attacked, but he quickly dismissed that possibility. His next thought was that someone had ambushed him with a cursed technique.
When Masamichi Yaga cautiously approached the door and pushed it open, ready for a fight, what greeted him instead was Shoko, dressed in a yukata and sitting in the living room drinking with a languid expression.
Seeing Masamichi Yaga standing dumbfounded in the doorway, Shoko casually raised a hand in greeting.
"Hey! Morning, teach!"
"Could you tell me where we are? And just what exactly is going on?"
Masamichi Yaga struggled to keep his blood pressure from going through the roof, clenching his back teeth so tightly that his voice seemed to squeeze out between them.
Utterly unbothered, Shoko lit a cigarette, exhaled a puff of smoke, and spoke to Masamichi Yaga in an even tone.
"We're in Hokkaido. Sherlock wanted to treat us to a vacation with the compensation from Jujutsu Headquarters. We got here through his cursed technique. As for anything else, I don't know. You'll have to ask that teacher-and-student duo."
As Shoko explained things to Masamichi Yaga, she pointed toward the ski slope outside the floor-to-ceiling window.
Following the direction of her finger, Masamichi Yaga saw a sight he would never forget for the rest of his life.
Sherlock was kneeling on Satoru Gojo's back, while Gojo hovered in midair in a Superman flying pose. Like a maglev train, the two hurtled down the snowy slope at incredible speed.
The overlapping, utterly deranged laughter of the older and younger pair echoed across the deserted ski resort. Masamichi Yaga's vision went black at the sound. He immediately slid open the floor-to-ceiling window, stood on the balcony, and let out a deafening roar.
"Sherlock! Satoru Gojo!!!!!!!"