Chapter 81: The End of the First Semester, and Gojo Satoru's Business Trip
"So even though the mission looked dangerous, everything was actually under my control."
Yuji Itadori stood in the middle of the cafeteria, gesturing so wildly with his chopsticks that it was a miracle he had not flung rice into someone's face.
"And that last part? Totally perfect. A masterpiece. Honestly, if you think about it, I basically carried the whole thing."
Across from him, Panda rested his chin in one paw and listened with obvious amusement. Beside him, Maki sat with [Playful Cloud] across her lap, calmly wiping down the cursed tool while giving Yuji the kind of look reserved for loud people who did not know when to stop.
"You mean," Maki said, raising one eyebrow, "Megumi actually pulled off a Domain Expansion?"
Her tone stayed flat, but there was a clear glint of surprise underneath it.
Panda nodded slowly.
"Even if it was incomplete, that's still insane."
He looked toward the end of the table, where Megumi was sitting with his shoulders slightly hunched, eating in silence like he hoped the conversation would move on without him.
"Touching the edge of a Domain in your first year isn't normal. That's the kind of thing people talk about for decades."
Megumi put down his chopsticks.
A faint trace of discomfort flickered across his face, the kind of awkwardness that appeared whenever attention lingered on him too long.
"It was just luck," he muttered.
Nobody at the table believed that.
Maki certainly did not.
She looked at him for another second, then let her gaze drift toward the figure seated farther off in the corner.
Yami was eating quietly, as usual.
A bowl of miso soup in hand, expression calm, posture relaxed. From a distance, he looked so unremarkable it was almost absurd. A gentle faced first year, carrying his ever present case, sitting there like the storm around him had nothing to do with him at all.
But everyone at Jujutsu High knew better now.
Or at least, they knew enough to stop underestimating him.
"Still," Maki said, lowering her voice a little, "ever since the Goodwill Event, Yami's gotten even worse."
Yuji paused mid bite.
"Worse?"
"Stronger," Maki corrected. "Before, I thought he was just some ridiculous monster in close combat."
She wiped the staff once more, eyes narrowing slightly.
"Now I can't get a read on him at all."
Panda made a thoughtful sound.
"It's not just the swordsmanship."
He glanced toward Yami as well.
"That strike that cut open a barrier mixed with Sukuna's finger… and the flame he used at Yasohachi Bridge…"
His tone slowed.
"It's almost like there's something else mixed in there. Something deeper."
No one said more than that.
Because there was a line they all understood without discussing it.
Curiosity was one thing.
Digging into a comrade's secrets was another.
Yami had fought beside them. Bled beside them. Stood between them and death without hesitation. That was enough. Whatever power he carried, whatever mystery sat beneath that calm surface, it was his.
And if he chose not to explain it, nobody there intended to pry.
The days that followed passed quickly.
At least on the surface, they felt peaceful.
The Sukuna finger from Yasohachi Bridge had been recovered successfully. The Special Grade curse had been exorcised. The immediate danger had passed, and the school slipped back into routine with surprising ease.
Classes.
Training.
Meals.
The ordinary rhythm of Jujutsu High.
But beneath that calm, something was always shifting.
The air of the Jujutsu world had not grown lighter. If anything, it had only grown stranger. Everyone could feel it, even if nobody wanted to be the first to put it into words.
Then, on the day before summer vacation began, Gojo called Yami to his office.
The moment Yami stepped inside, he noticed the difference.
Gojo Satoru, the strongest sorcerer alive and the least reliable adult in the building, was not smiling.
Not really.
There was still a trace of his usual casualness in the way he sat, but the office itself felt heavier than normal. The stacks of snacks and manga were still there, of course. No force in the world was going to make Gojo clean up after himself. But the mood in the room had changed.
"Sit," Gojo said.
Yami did.
Gojo slid a thick file across the desk.
"This came in from the higher ups."
His fingers tapped lightly against the table.
"Urgent assignment."
Yami picked up the file and opened it.
The contents were blunt.
Mission Location: Abandoned nuclear power plant, Fukushima Prefecture
Mission Objective: Exterminate the cursed spirits entrenched inside
Threat Level: Grade 1, with suspected Special Grade cursed spirit response
Yami skimmed the details once, then closed the file and looked up.
"Business trip?"
Gojo leaned back.
"Yeah. There's a problem overseas, and unfortunately I'm the only one charming enough to handle it."
His tone was light, but there was something sharper beneath it.
"Which means staffing here is going to be thin for a while. So this mission got pushed to you."
He tilted his head slightly.
"Technically, it's a Grade 1 assignment. But places like abandoned nuclear facilities tend to be messy. Years of decay, lingering fear, ugly cursed environments, and weird mutations."
He folded his hands.
"It's also the first mission the higher ups have formally assigned to you by name."
Yami said nothing.
Gojo's smile thinned just a fraction.
"So this isn't just cleanup."
He looked straight at him through the sunglasses.
"It's an evaluation."
That part had been obvious.
Yami rested one hand lightly against the sword at his waist.
"I understand."
His voice remained level.
"I'll handle it."
Gojo watched him for a second, then the familiar trace of amusement returned to the corner of his mouth.
"I figured you'd say that."
He stood and came around the desk, stopping in front of Yami just long enough to place a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm serious about one thing, though."
The room quieted.
"If something happens and you can't solve it cleanly, don't force it."
That was the most direct warning Gojo had given him in a while.
"Call Ijichi. He'll take care of the support and cleanup."
Yami rose from his seat.
His posture remained as straight as ever, steady and unbending.
"It's just an extermination mission," he said.
Gojo smiled faintly.
That answer sounded exactly like something a walking disaster would say before stepping into another disaster.
Still, he didn't stop him.
He only watched Yami walk to the door, then said, almost lazily,
"Let's see what kind of mess you make while I'm gone."
Yami didn't look back.
The door clicked shut behind him.
For a moment, Gojo stayed where he was, the office falling quiet around him.
Behind the lenses, his eyes had sharpened.
There was trust there.
And expectation.
The boy without cursed energy had already started bending the shape of the Jujutsu world around him, whether he meant to or not.
Gojo wanted to see how far that would go.
Outside, the summer sun was bright.
Yami stepped out of the building and paused for a moment, looking up at the sky. The light was warm without being harsh. Ordinary. Peaceful.
Nothing about it hinted at the kind of trap that might already be waiting for him.
He adjusted the case at his back, fingers brushing the familiar cold presence of Shiranui through the wrapping.
A nuclear power plant.
He did not think much of it.
Just another mission.
Just another place that needed cleaning.
He walked toward the school gate.
Ijichi was already there, waiting beside the vehicle with the same perpetually tense posture he always wore, as though he were apologizing to the world simply by existing in it.
When Yami reached him, he stopped.
"Drive."
Ijichi blinked.
"To Fukushima," Yami said. "We're heading to the plant."
Ijichi gave a quick nod and hurried to open the door.
The vehicle pulled away from Jujutsu High a few minutes later, rolling down the road beneath the heat of early summer.
Yami sat in silence, eyes half closed, one hand resting lightly near the hilt of his blade.
He did not know.
Not yet.
That in the ruins of that dead, abandoned nuclear plant, the malice of the higher ups had already been woven into something much more elaborate than a routine assignment.
A trap had been prepared.
Not for a Grade 1 sorcerer.
Not for an ordinary student.
For the swordsman with no cursed energy.
And as the car moved farther from Jujutsu High, that trap quietly began to close.
…..
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One Piece: My Crew Is Full of Monsters