(Pov 3rd)
Unknown to Satoshi, both Satoru and Suguru had already begun the mission to retrieve the Star Pasma Vessel Amanai Riko. Tengen had personally chosen these two. Tengen is one of the oldest sorcerers around due to her technique of Immortality. Tengen can live forever, but there is a catch. She must merge with a specific human every five hundred years or so. This human is the Star Plasma Vessel. If she doesn't merge, there is fear that she will evolve past her humanity and become a threat, which would be especially bad as she maintains barriers across Japan that allow for the suppression of curses, and the barriers made by windows to be stronger.
Unfortunately, two groups would attempt to see this merger fail: the Q group, who wish to upend the current world of Jujutsu by making Tengen evolve and turn on humanity, and the second, the Star Religious Group, who worshipped Tengen and felt Riko was not the correct vessel for Tengen to merge with. Both groups sought to kill Riko, and in doing so, the Star Religious group would hire Fushiguro Toji to assassinate her. Through a long process of utilizing others to wear down both Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru, Toji would succeed in his mission, killing Amanai Riko, only to later be killed by a fully awakened Gojo Satoru.
Now, though there was another member of this story, Gojo Satoshi knew what was meant to happen, and he knew he must stop it at any cost. Only one question remained: would he make it in time?
(Pov Satoshi)
After I killed Taro, I began running back to the train station as fast as I could. The original plan had been to take the train back tomorrow, but time wasn't on my side. I needed to get back now. If I could catch the train back, I would be back at the school before the others return, and then I could prepare for Toji's ambush. If I missed the train, though, I would have to relearn how to drive very quickly and also how to hotwire a car.
As I made it back to the town, I quickly made my way to the train station and just barely managed to slip on before it left. I was in the clear. Once this train made it back to Tokyo, I would be able to start planning. First, though I needed to find out how much time I had left, so I called Satoru, or at least I tried to the call went to voicemail. This most likely meant that he and the others were on the way back from their brief trip to Okinawa. From what I could remember, Riko had a personal caretaker who was kidnapped to the island, and after rescuing her, they stayed there to allow Riko to enjoy her last days before assimilation.
This meant I had much less time than I had hoped for, as I had thought that they might still be enjoying their time on vacation, but now they were already on the way back. If my math was correct, we'd both get back to the school around the same time, though that difference in time, depending on whether I arrive first compared to Satoru and the others, could make things much worse. All I could do now, though, was wait and hope I'd make it in time.
But what would I do? I was strong, I knew that, but I hadn't fully awakened my restriction, yet my best bet would be to contact Satoru and Suguru before Toji shows up, so they don't get caught off guard with both of them, and with my help, we'd stand a good chance in this fight after, though things would get more complicated. In the original story, before she was killed, Riko had decided she no longer wanted to merge with Tengen and instead live with her new friends. Her survival would mean she would likely refuse to merge. This wasn't entirely unprecedented, as Tsukumo Yuki had been the vessel before her and had also refused, but it would leave Tengen open to Kenjaku's plan, though, without Cursed Spirit Manipulation, the method to complete this plan was seemingly impossible.
But I couldn't underestimate Kenjaku, yes, in the original story, much of his plan was put forward due to luck, including Toji killing Riko and Satoru not properly disposing of Geto Suguru's body after he was killed by Yuta. The plan itself had clearly been in motion before the death of Riko, given that Itadori Yuji was born three years before the mission to retrieve the Star Plasma Vessel. That would also have to wait. This was one of the unfortunate side effects of knowing what would happen ahead of time by changing early things; who knows what's going to happen later? It would be for the better, though, even if Sukuna still reincarnated and took the body of Fushiguro Megumi to fight Satoru; having the assistance of both Geto and me would make that battle easier.
The countryside flew by as the hours crawled by, and I slowly made my way back to Tokyo. Once the train stopped, I'd have to run because the car that was supposed to pick me up was expecting me tomorrow, and I had lost reception shortly after the ride began. I stood near the door waiting for the station that would be my final stop. I had to do everything not to pace in front of the door, though the waiting was the worst part of this, knowing that every minute I'm here could be another minute closer to tragedy. Finally, though the train began pulling into the station, thankfully, people seemed rather reluctant to stand near the door I had chosen; maybe it had something to do with the katana at my side and the obvious frustration rolling off of me.
The moment the doors opened, I rushed out, running as fast as I could in the direction of Jujutsu High. I could make it; the school wasn't the easiest to access, given how remote it was, but I could still make it. I had no other choice. I was running faster than I ever had before, and it felt different than using speed in battle that was short bursts across a much smaller distance, but now this was a dead sprint across half a city and up part of a mountain. Finally, after running for what felt like hours but was most likely closer to half an hour, I had made it to the stairs that led up to the school and began taking them three at a time.
When I got to the top, though, I saw something that left me reeling. In front of the main gate area, everything had been destroyed with a massive trench surrounding a single bit of ground not yet ripped up. This small bit of land was covered in a familiar haze, and yet I could still see what, or rather who, it was surrounding.
"Satoru?" I couldn't help myself. It was one thing seeing it in an anime, but seeing it in real life, especially now that he was my brother. The sight of Satoru lying in a puddle of his own blood with multiple stab wounds, including in his neck and head, was enough to make me gag. I couldn't stop. Since he hadn't started healing yet, this must have just happened, which meant Riko might still be alive. Satoru would be fine; he'd learn the Reverse Cursed Technique from this and come back stronger, but if I stayed, Riko would die, and Geto would nearly die as well.
"I'm sorry, Satoru," I say as I once again begin running in the direction of the vault holding Tengen's room, which would be where Geto had gone with Riko and also where Toji would follow, but he was trying to get the drop on them meaning he wouldn't be rushing so I could catch up if I pushed even harder. I entered the tomb of the stars and noticed the body of the attendant who had been with Riko first, which meant Toji had already come this way, but the puddle of blood under her was still spreading, meaning she had died recently. I sprinted down the hallway in front of me, desperate to make it in time, when I turned a bend and saw all of them.
Geto was holding out his hand, and Riko was crying, reaching her own hand out as well, and much closer to me was Toji, aiming a gun at her. I had one last option. I pressed both my legs down and pushed as hard as I could, leaping forward right at the assassin, and before he could pull the trigger, I made contact. I wrapped my arms around his gut and tackled him to the ground. The gun went off, but the shot went wide, and instead of finding Riko's head, it struck the wall and alerted the two of them to our presence.
I looked up and began to yell at them. "GETO, YOU HAVE TO RUN, TAKE HER AND GO!" He was the best chance of getting Riko out of here alive, and I had to allow them to escape. They were both shocked and weren't moving, while I could already feel that Toji was recovering from his own surprise of being snuck up on. "Geto, please, I'll hold him, just go, or he'll kill her. Do it for Satoru!" I shouted, using their friendship to shake him out of it, and it worked as he grabbed Riko and summoned one of his larger curses, and they both used it to fly away further into the tomb, where Tengen could better hide them.
At this point, though Toji had gotten back up and thrown me off of him, and with his original target gone, he turned his attention to me. What I had hoped would be a three-on-one had now become me fighting Toji alone. 'Me versus Toji, what a nightmare.' I thought preparing for the hardest fight of my life.