"Just when I thought they'd finally settled down, those zombies started crawling out of the woodwork again. What Yuta took out was probably just a scout, don't you think? Honestly, keeping the exact same character designs from ten years ago is just lazy. If this isn't some clearance sale of old assets, I'm genuinely turned off."
"But... why 'Q' now? Back during the Star Plasma Vessel incident, their goal was supposedly world conquest by seizing Master Tengen. Even for a joke, it was a pretty brainless motive with zero taste."
"Satoru, Suguru, we take minutes for these faculty meetings. Speak with a bit more gravity. ...However, I suppose you two are right. I had Yuta and Rika 'construct' the likeness of the individual calling himself 'Bitz' whom they defeated, and his appearance was identical to the individual that attacked the College ten years ago. ...In all likelihood, Q's full-scale movement is about to begin. There are several possible targets. Fushiguro, Kusakabe, Tsukumo—what are your thoughts? I want the perspective of the veterans."
The first to respond to Masamichi Yaga's prompt was Atsuya Kusakabe, who let out a heavy sigh. Having been a teacher for eleven years, he was certainly a veteran, but the look on his face as he glanced at Toji Fushiguro and Yuki Tsukumo sitting beside him was one of pure exhaustion.
"Principal, could you please not lump a regular rank-and-file teacher like me in with these monsters...?"
"Kusakabe-sensei is the strongest man in the New Shadow Style, so it's fine to be grouped with them, isn't it?"
"That's just some nonsense you guys have been spreading, Gojo... So, my assessment? Well, targeting Master Tengen, targeting cursed objects, or targeting some kind of ritual. It's probably one of those, right?"
As Kusakabe counted these off on his fingers, he received nods of agreement from Toji Fushiguro—the super gorilla who demolished everything with overwhelming physical prowess after meticulous planning—and Yuki Tsukumo, the super female gorilla who was usually the intellectual type but tended to resort to gritty, bare-knuckled brawling in combat.
Kusakabe breathed a sigh of relief at receiving the approval of these two "Sages of the Forest," but Toji was the first to offer a follow-up opinion.
"I'm mostly of the same mind... but of the options Kusakabe listed, targeting cursed objects is the safest bet. There's no reason to wait ten years to go after Tengen, and if it's a ritual, they could just do that on their own. There's no profit in picking a fight with us."
"Or perhaps it's all of the above? Stealing cursed objects from the College, suppressing Tengen, and then performing a ritual—something like that."
"No, Yuki. Isn't that a bit too high of a hurdle? If they're going to combine objectives, I think two is the realistic limit..."
"Then it's either suppressing Tengen for a ritual, or securing cursed objects for a ritual."
"Then wouldn't it be better to just be on guard for all of it? We have seven Special Grades available right now, including myself. The roster of Grade 1 sorcerers is deep, too. We can afford to split up, can't we?"
To Suguru and Satoru, Yuki's suggestion seemed reasonable enough. Seeing their agreement, Yaga turned his gaze toward the two of them.
"I see. I understand the three of your positions. Satoru, Suguru, what do you think?"
"Splitting up sounds fine. If I call Naoya, he'll probably come."
"I agree as well. If we're short on manpower, I can compensate to some extent with my spirits."
"Hmm—very well. Then the Tokyo school will divide into three teams to handle the possibilities of Tengen, the cursed objects, and a ritual. The assignments will be—"
Before Yaga could finish, Yuki Tsukumo raised her hand.
"Principal, I'll take responsibility for Tengen. I am a former Star Plasma Vessel, after all. I'm quite confident in my ability to sense Tengen's condition."
"I see. That makes sense. Then the defense of Master Tengen will be organized around Yuki."
"Then I'm on Tengen duty too. Logically speaking, I'm the one who can reach the Tombs of the Star Corridor the fastest, right?"
"Fushiguro-sensei can just walk right through the Empty Barriers. He definitely is the fastest."
Yaga spent a moment pondering the situation of the "Double Gorillas" volunteering to guard Tengen together, but since there was nothing inherently strange about their logic, their requests were approved.
"Very well, Fushiguro will also be assigned to Master Tengen's guard. Next, I will leave the protection of the cursed objects kept at colleges across the country and those in the warehouse to Suguru. No one is better than you for a mission that requires sheer numbers."
"Principal Yaga, if that's the case, I'd like to have Yuji and Mei Mei-san assigned to the cursed object team with me. Both the 'Poisonous Insect' and 'Black Bird Manipulation' techniques are superior to my 'Cursed Spirit Manipulation' when it comes to surveillance through numbers."
"Of course, I intended to do so. And as for the possibility of a ritual—I'll leave that to Satoru."
"Yeah, yeah. Well, it's more like me and Naoya, right? I'll check out the various spiritual sites that the Gojo and Zen'in families control, but... don't expect too much in the way of results. A ritual can be done anywhere depending on how the sorcerer handles it."
"Even in that case, you and Naoya can rush to any location in Japan instantly, can't you?"
"I mean, I guess... fine, then Ijichi is going to be the errand boy for me and Naoya!"
"What...!?"
"Seems appropriate."
"WHAAAT!?"
"I will send out the assignments for the rest of the personnel later. For now, get started on the initial response! That is all!"
---
"And that's likely what everyone at the College is doing right about now. Man, Okkotsu turned out to be even more interesting than I expected. I'm really looking forward to this."
So spoke Kenjaku, the sorcerer from the Heian era who had long ago taken over the body of Wessen, the leader of Q, while chatting happily in a deep underground hideout.
While he was smiling and looking quite satisfied, Yorozu and Uraume—who had been complicit in Kenjaku's plans for the past ten years as collaborators—looked on with dissatisfied eyes.
"Kenjaku, are you sure this is going to be alright? The 'Love Child' of me and Sukuna is at stake here, so I need you to do this properly."
"What a funny joke, Yorozu. There's no way love exists between you and Lord Sukuna. ...However, it is a fact that I am concerned about Lord Sukuna. I won't let you say you've forgotten the plan to have Lord Sukuna conceived within our wombs."
"I haven't forgotten, which is why I've moved to secure Sukuna's fingers. I thought you two understood that well enough. ...The preparation of the 'Sukuna Eggs'—created by crossing your eggs with the preserved sperm of Jin Itadori—is going perfectly. I've even prepared fertilized eggs to be consumed to replicate Sukuna's birth, twenty in total! It was quite a lot of work, but you could stand to praise me for managing to get them all together. I've been busy making contracts with powerful cursed spirits behind the College's back to include them in the Culling Game and birthing a ton of fetuses to serve as vessels for cursed objects! Seriously, if you two had just lent me your wombs, wouldn't this have been finished sooner? Look at my spare body. Because I used it until it ran out of eggs, the skin on the stomach is all saggy and won't go back. I'm keeping it just in case it's still useful, though."
"Stop talking nonsense, Kenjaku. I would never give birth to anyone other than Lord Sukuna."
"I feel the same. I might do it for my beloved husband, but I couldn't care less about the incarnation of other cursed objects."
"Hahaha, you're laying the jokes on thick, Yorozu."
"Fufufu, I haven't said a single word that was a joke, you know? Uraume."
"Huh?"
"Oh?"
"Seriously, everyone is so stubborn... Well, whatever. All that's left are Sukuna's fingers. Tengen doesn't really matter anymore anyway. That thing is boring... I plan to create the starting point for the Culling Game myself rather than using the Pure Barriers, so I'll have to work hard on the ritual for that simultaneous change, but I plan to have the newest Bitz models handle that. Let's do it flashily to serve as a diversion for collecting the fingers! The minimum target is ten. Once the collected fingers are gathered, I'll need you two to conceive in order for Sukuna to incarnate, so keep that in mind! Well then—let's go deliver that challenge, shall we?"
Kenjaku announced this with a broad smirk. Following his command, several Bitz units saluted and hurried out of the room. The only sound echoing in the underground cavern was the noise of the catfight between Uraume and Yorozu.
"...Hey, I was trying to look cool here, so can you stop that? Sticking your fingers in each other's nostrils is just a straight-up girl's brawl. You both look incredibly ugly right now."
"Nggghhhh!"
"Fuggghhh!"
"Yeah, they aren't listening..."
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]