One evening, a thick fog rolled over the mountains; the mission was nearing its end.
Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto were only supposed to escort the Star Plasma Vessel out of the old temple and along a designated route to a safe zone. However, faulty intelligence allowed a remnant group of curse users to lay a trap. They used a high-grade vengeful spirit as bait, hoping to lure the "Strongest Duo" into a lethal ambush.
The enemies weren't Special Grade Cursed Spirits, but their formation was flawless. They had reconstructed a Barrier specifically to ensure no outside help could intervene.
Yet, Riley came anyway.
She hadn't been assigned to the mission. There were no orders. She had simply sensed an anomaly in the structure of the Cursed Energy within the shifting barrier and decided to investigate. Only she could slip through such a trap-riddled barrier in perfect silence, compressing space so precisely that not a single ripple gave her away.
It was the first time Satoru saw Riley fight at full power on an official mission. Her Cursed Technique was like a soundless, slender blade, slicing through the spirit's limbs, flipping it, and driving it back—every step calculated to the millimeter.
"Senior…" Satoru couldn't help but murmur, "Are you actually a robot?!"
She didn't turn around. She only tossed back a command: "Seal the west; I'll clear the east."
Then, she vanished into the fabric of space again.
Satoru stared for a second, then a grin broke across his face. "That was… insanely cool!!"
The short skirmish ended almost wordlessly. The three of them operated in perfect concert: Satoru pinned the enemy from the front, Suguru swept the terrain with his spirits, and Riley severed their retreat and supply lines by bending space. The foe didn't even manage to finish a single curse before they were wiped out.
The instant the barrier lifted, starlight spilled across the ground. Riley stood at the edge of the dissipating fog, glanced back at Suguru, and gave a small nod. "…I'm heading back."
Without another word, she stepped through a seam in space and was gone, as if she had never been there at all.
Satoru kept staring at the spot where she had vanished, silent for a long while. Suguru put away his last spirit, caught Satoru's expression, and said lightly, "What? Never seen her take a job seriously?"
"It's not that…" Satoru scratched his head, a small smile tugging at his lips. "I'm just wondering when you and Senior got so close."
Suguru raised an eyebrow. "We team up now and then."
Satoru's eyes widened. "Then why didn't you ever bring me along?"
Suguru chuckled, his tone slow and teasing. "Because I figured you'd annoy her to death."
"Hey, hey, hey! That's harsh!"
"And aren't you already starting to annoy her?" Suguru said flatly. "She hasn't pushed you away yet, has she?"
Satoru paused, turned his head, and offered no comeback. He didn't know how to put it into words—in that moment, he had really wanted to call out to Riley. Even if it was just to say thanks. But he said nothing; he just watched the space where she had been until every trace of the spatial rift closed behind her.
The week the mission concluded, Riley returned from a Kanto dispatch with her uniform still spattered with blood. As she stepped into Jujutsu High, she caught the panicked murmurs drifting from the far end of the corridor.
"…Gojo-senpai is badly hurt… I heard it was Toji Fushiguro…"
"He actually broke through the Limitless…"
"Geto-senpai is still at the mission site…"
Riley froze. In mere seconds, her gaze shifted. Her face remained expressionless, yet it felt as if the internal support holding her up had been yanked away, leaving only extreme, repressed tension.
"Is he alive?" Her voice was eerily calm—so cold it made the listener's heart skip a beat.
Under her stare, the student swallowed hard and nodded quickly. "…Alive. He's already back."
Riley asked nothing more. She simply closed her eyes, as though forcing something deep inside her back into its cage. Then she turned and left, leaving the air several degrees colder. She knew this wasn't the moment for her to appear. She walked quietly into her office and peeled off her coat; when her fingers brushed the dried blood on her sleeve, her movements were almost weightless.
Satoru Gojo came back alive. But he had changed.
He was still the teenager who laughed and declared himself "the strongest." He still used Limitless pranks to scare students in the hallway. He still pestered Shoko for high-strength supplements.
But when Riley looked into his eyes, she didn't see the boy she knew. Inside them lay a new, unprecedented calm—not her brand of rationality, but the dead stillness of something that had snapped. After witnessing the death of Riko Amanai, Satoru's soul had shattered in a place that would never heal. It wasn't because of his physical injuries; it was because he had finally, utterly, become convinced that this world could not be trusted.
"Senior~" he called out, waving as always. "I'm seriously stronger now—how about another spar?"
Riley stood at the end of the corridor, her gaze cool. "…I told you, I don't play."
"Aww, saying that now is so heartless!"
"What you need isn't someone to play with," she said steadily. "It's someone who can keep you grounded."
"And you?" Satoru stopped short. He stepped in front of her, his eyes darker than usual. "Senior, which kind are you?"
Riley met his gaze. "I'm the one who'll remind you that you're not alone."
The words froze his smile for a beat. But a second later, he grinned again. "Senior, when you say stuff like that, you sound like some kind of romance pro."
"Love?" Riley asked quietly. "Can you even love anyone right now, Satoru?"
Satoru blinked, and the laughter in his eyes cracked apart. He said nothing; he simply turned away, as if fleeing the weight of the question.
Riley only watched his back—the back she once thought would stride forward forever, now looking utterly alone. The boy who once used all his strength to protect the world now felt farther away from her than ever before.