Chapter 4

"Guard duty for the Star Plasma Vessel?"

"Yeah. A direct request from Tengen himself… though nothing was brought to the Zenin clan."

And from an SSR guaranteed pull—here comes yours truly: Zenin Naoya, the next head of the Zenin family.

The conversation I’m having with my old man right now… yeah, this is basically the signal marking the beginning of the Hidden Inventory / Premature Death arc. Naturally, the job ends up being handed to the strongest—Gojo Satoru. Makes perfect sense. He’s the strongest, after all, and the bearer of the Six Eyes. Feels like fate itself ties everything together around him.

"So? You can just leave it to Gojo Satoru, right? No matter how bitter you are about him taking all the credit, there’s no way you could interfere anyway."

Both because nobody can defeat Gojo Satoru—and because nobody can obstruct Tengen’s assimilation. Well, I already know that even if the assimilation fails, nothing particularly catastrophic happens.

"That’s true enough. Unfortunately, the Time Vessel Association has hired an assassin."

"Oh, that religious group? Still, there’s no assassin capable of beating Gojo Satoru, right?"

"...Toji."

"Ah… I see. If it’s Toji-kun, victory might be questionable—but assassination? Yeah, that sounds possible. So what, are you planning to inform Jujutsu High?"

There’s no way he would. If—by some microscopic chance—Toji succeeded in assassinating the Star Plasma Vessel, and if—by another unfortunate coincidence—it became known that he was formerly a Zenin, then at best the clan would be expelled from the Three Great Families.

"No. There’s no profit in that. Providing information about a single assassin gains us nothing. At best, we’d be left cleaning up Toji afterward."

"Politics really does suck. Try not to die too soon, old man."

"You’ll be handling matters like this yourself someday."

"No thanks~"

Honestly, I envy the Gojo family. Though that kind of freedom only exists because they possess overwhelming strength. Still… someday, I’d like to stand on that side too.

"So then? What’s the Zenin clan actually planning?"

"We’ll force a favor onto them. Sell the information and hope it fetches a good price. Besides—even if this fails, you’ll be the one dealing with the consequences."

"What a garbage parent."

Though, looking at it positively, it probably means he trusts me that much. Still, scheming in the shadows really isn’t my style. I’d rather leave that to the old man.

The organizations targeting the Star Plasma Vessel fall into two main groups: the religious organization known as the Time Vessel Association, and the curse-user group called "Q." The more immediate threat is Q, since they possess actual combat power—but with Gojo Satoru present, they’re essentially insignificant.

The truly dangerous factor is the assassin hired by the Time Vessel Association—the "Sorcerer Killer."

In other words, Toji-kun.

Anyway, I made my way to Tokyo, but… where exactly was the Star Plasma Vessel girl? She was supposed to be attending school, right?

"I really wish they’d handle communications properly in situations like this… that old man’s probably drinking again…"

With no other choice, I opened a website commonly used by curse users. If the Vessel’s location was listed there, I’d head straight over. If not, I’d contact Jujutsu High… probably. Since curse users were being gathered to wear them down, Toji-kun should be updating her location regularly.

In the end, the site helpfully listed everything—her school name and even her home address. Still, what mattered was her most recent location update. Using my technique, I headed there immediately.

And then—

"Failed!"

A large man wearing a paper bag over his head was sent flying through the air. The guy people always mocked with, "Why are you so weak despite having that technique?"

Honestly, if Gojo Satoru had successfully fired Red just now, that man would’ve been blown to pieces. Not that I particularly cared.

"...So, you another curse user?"

"Hold on. I’m on your side."

Terrifying. How did he notice me from that distance? Even the girl he was carrying hadn’t sensed anything until I revealed myself.

"Zenin Naoya. A poor soul dragged into Star Plasma Vessel escort duty."

"Zenin? Ugh. Don’t need you."

"That’s harsh, you know? Normally I’d complain—but coming from you, Satoru-kun, I suppose it can’t be helped."

"If you understand that, then go back to Kyoto. We’re more than enough on our own."

"Now, now. Shouldn’t you at least hear the information I brought before deciding?"

The first thing I told them was that information about the Star Plasma Vessel had been uploaded onto a curse-user website. After that, I informed them that the "Sorcerer Killer" was already in motion.

If they truly intended to protect her, it would’ve been better to explicitly warn them that a Physical Gifted was targeting her—but I deliberately left that part out.

After all, Gojo Satoru needs to nearly die here once. That’s the only way he’ll grasp the true core of cursed energy. Knowing Satoru-kun, he might eventually figure it out on his own… but I’m not the gambling type.

"Don’t expect gratitude. Still… good work, I guess—for our sake."

"Not very cute of you. Though I wasn’t expecting thanks anyway. As long as this gives the Zenin clan grounds to claim cooperation, that’s enough."

"Tch. Fine. I’ll remember that."

Wow. What a terrible attitude. The Gojo and Zenin families have never gotten along, sure—but I didn’t think Satoru-kun cared about that sort of thing.

…Or maybe he just looks down on everyone except himself and Geto-kun.

"Alright then. I’d like to say I’m heading home—but since I’m already here, I’ll join the escort. Not that you’ll actually need me."

"At least you know your place. Stay that way and I won’t beat you up."

I’m on your side, you know. Being this disliked actually hurts.

After that came the incident where the maid was kidnapped—but with the strongest modern sorcerer present, it barely qualified as trouble. The rescue was completed effortlessly, and we headed to Okinawa.

…Why Okinawa, anyway? No point overthinking it. Probably because it’s far from the mainland.

What followed was, stripping away all formal justification, basically memory-making. You could just call it sightseeing in Okinawa. Since I doubted I’d fit in when all I could contribute were sarcastic remarks, I volunteered to handle airport security instead.

Turns out Satoru-kun’s underclassmen were there too. Honestly, I’d completely forgotten about them.

Nanami-kun was fine—strictly professional and easy to deal with. The other cheerful one, though, was exhausting. Cursed energy supposedly comes from negative emotions, so how does someone that upbeat even generate it? Wouldn’t he eventually die because he couldn’t produce enough output when it mattered?

Putting that aside, there was a minor issue where they stretched their Okinawa stay to its absolute limit for the sake of making memories—but eventually, the final day of the escort mission arrived.

On the flight back to Jujutsu High, the student who wasn’t Satoru-kun spoke to me.

He asked what should be done if the Star Plasma Vessel refused assimilation.

"Hmm… from the perspective of jujutsu society, the correct answer would be dragging her to Tengen by force. But if you’re asking, you must already have another idea, right?"

"Yes. If she refuses assimilation… then we intend to stop it. That’s what Satoru and I decided after discussing it."

"That’s not really something the two of you get to decide alone. Though saying that to someone from a normal family probably doesn’t carry much weight."

"...So, Zenin-san, would you force the assimilation?"

"No, no. As a Zenin, that’s what I’m supposed to do. But since I can’t beat Satoru-kun anyway, what difference would my opinion make?"

"May we consider that cooperation?"

"More like… silent approval. Personally, I think the best outcome would be for the Star Plasma Vessel girl to choose assimilation herself."

"That’s more than enough."

Honestly, what would happen if she refused and tried to run? Even if Tengen permitted it, the higher-ups—humiliated by the loss of authority—would lose their minds. They’d brand these two as curse users and order their execution.

Yeah. Whoever has Satoru-kun wins. That would probably mean the collapse of jujutsu society itself.

Then again, if every domain-using sorcerer gathered together, maybe they’d still stand a chance? The only special grade without a Domain right now is probably Tsukumo… my old man can’t use one either… I can, but I have absolutely no intention of opposing Satoru-kun.

Yeah.

No winning that fight.

While idly entertaining such pointless thoughts, I fell asleep—and by the time I woke up, we had arrived in Tokyo. Passing through the barrier surrounding Jujutsu High effectively concluded the escort mission.

All that remained was delivering her safely to Tengen—

—and then a blade pierced straight through Satoru-kun’s chest.

"...Have we met somewhere before?"

"Don’t worry about it. I’m bad at remembering men’s names too."

"...Then you do remember me?"

"Kids don’t count as women."

"How cruel. That didn’t sound like someone who remembered me at all."

The "Sorcerer Killer"—Zenin Toji.

Right on schedule.

…If I offered thirty million myself, would he agree to work for me instead?

Because I’d really rather not risk getting killed by him.