Reasoning and doubts

[After finishing your conversation with Masamichi Yaga, you caught up with Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto, who were about to head to the mission site.]

[When Satoru Gojo saw you arrive, he casually tossed you a can of cola.]

["Oh, thanks."]

["What did he tell you? Why did he specifically ask you to stay behind?"]

[Satoru Gojo asked you as he drank his own cola.]

[You did not hide it from them, though you at least phrased it a little differently.]

["Our teacher said Shoko couldn't handle this mission, so he asked me to take her place providing support."]

[After all, Li Shunchen was the only person besides Shoko who could use Reverse Cursed Technique on others, so Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto were not particularly surprised by Masamichi Yaga's arrangement.]

[Although they had absolute confidence in their own abilities, the mission would still fail if the Star Plasma Vessel they were tasked with protecting died.]

[So they did not consider Masamichi Yaga's arrangement unnecessary and readily accepted it as usual. After spending over a year together, they had already grown used to you handling the aftermath like an Assistant Supervisor.]

[Satoru Gojo casually tossed his empty cola can into the trash with perfect aim, then changed the subject.]

["But speaking of that, I can understand the Curse User group Q's reasons, but why does the Time Vessel Association want to kill the Star Plasma Vessel?"]

[Suguru Geto explained.]

["Because what they worship is Master Tengen's purity. They won't allow the Star Plasma Vessel to exist or let that impurity mix with Master Tengen."]

[After taking a couple of sips of cola, you could not help commenting.]

["But didn't they say Master Tengen needs to undergo a merger every five hundred years? Doesn't that mean Master Tengen should already be 'impure' from their perspective? Why choose to do this now, of all times? Do they know the girl who's the Star Plasma Vessel and simply think she isn't good enough? Isn't that strange?"]

[Satoru Gojo clearly had not taken any of it in. His attitude was entirely one of, what are you rambling about? We're the strongest anyway, so the Time Vessel Association's reasons don't matter at all.]

[Suguru Geto, however, had clearly listened to your questions and tried to answer them.]

["Perhaps they're simply a new religious group whose history doesn't stretch back five hundred years to the previous merger. Or perhaps they see this as a kind of correction?"]

["Maybe..."]

[Considering what you had learned in your previous simulation, you still felt that this action by the Time Vessel Association was somewhat abrupt.]

[Their insistence on killing the Star Plasma Vessel even after learning that Jujutsu High had sent two Special Grade Sorcerers to protect her kept making you feel that something about this was strange.]

[You could not help wondering: since they knew that Master Tengen was going to merge with the Star Plasma Vessel, did that also mean they knew the consequences of not undergoing the merger?]

[Or was their supposed refusal to let impurities mix with Master Tengen merely a pretext, and what they actually wanted was the outcome of his being unable to merge?]

[But you could not seem to find any information in your memories of the previous simulation that supported this theory.]

[Although Master Tengen's merger had not gone smoothly, that was all you knew. You had no further information about its subsequent effects.]

[You made a mental note of these matters for now, intending to investigate them in detail as events unfolded.]

["Forget all that. You and I are the strongest, Geto. That's why Master Tengen specifically assigned the two of us to handle this."]

[Satoru Gojo clearly had no interest in such matters. In his view, there was absolutely no need to waste any more time on them.]

[At his words, Suguru Geto looked at Satoru Gojo with a complicated expression.]

["What's with you?"]

["Satoru, I've actually been meaning to tell you this for a while."]

["Tell me what?"]

["You really should stop referring to yourself so arrogantly."]

["Huh?"]

["Especially when we're meeting our superiors. We might meet Master Tengen, so you should at least use something respectful or neutral then. It would sound a little friendlier, too."]

["And you wouldn't be as likely to scare little kids that way."]

["Ugh, what a pain. No way."]

[Because the Star Plasma Vessel was staying on the hotel's twentieth floor, Satoru Gojo felt that they did not need so many people to pick her up. In truth, he simply could not be bothered to make the trip, so you temporarily split into two groups.]

[You went with Suguru Geto to bring the Star Plasma Vessel down from the upper floor where she was staying, while Satoru Gojo waited below.]

[After a few minutes, you finally reached the hotel's top floor by elevator.]

[Following the information Masamichi Yaga had provided, you arrived outside the room where the Star Plasma Vessel was staying.]

[After checking the room number again, Suguru Geto knocked lightly on the door, and a woman's voice came from inside.]

["Coming."]

[But after that, you and Suguru Geto heard a strange buzzing sound coming from somewhere.]

["Huh?"]

["What?"]

[You sensed powerful Cursed Spirit fluctuations coming from inside the room. The next second, an explosion triggered by that cursed energy erupted.]

[Suguru Geto instinctively summoned a spherical Cursed Spirit for defense, enclosing you both within it.]

[The blast sent the Cursed Spirit enclosing you flying several meters. While you were still dizzy from the spinning, Suguru Geto instantly dismissed the Cursed Spirit around you. Realizing that the explosion might have affected the Star Plasma Vessel, he immediately rushed into the room.]

[Just then, a man wearing a white military uniform and a black mask over his face approached you from a short distance down the corridor.]

[He was also dragging an unconscious woman dressed in a maid's uniform.]

[You heard glass shatter, and the man turned toward the wrecked room and spoke calmly.]

["Don't blame us. If you want someone to hate, hate Tengen."]

[His words, combined with his strange clothing and the cursed energy emanating from him that matched the explosion's cursed residue, confirmed to you that he was a member of Q.]

[He looked at you then, noticed your clothes, and spoke.]

["That uniform-you're a sorcerer from Jujutsu High, aren't you?"]

[Your answer was the short blade Asagirimaru, which shot toward him.]