Shin calmed his breathing and looked at Gojo. He asked with his eyes if they should continue the match. Megumi was in rough shape; his arm was fractured, and one of his Shikigami had been violently destroyed.
Gojo just kept staring lazily up at the sky. Shin sighed, pulled out his Fishing Rod, and hooked Megumi forward. He delivered a swift, brutal punch to Megumi's gut. The pain forced the boy to his knees, clutching his stomach with his good arm. Shin leveled his Iron Sword at Megumi's neck.
"It is over. You lose," Shin declared softly. "But Gojo-sensei, did we really have to drag this out? We could have stopped earlier. The outcome was already obvious."
Gojo hopped over and aggressively ruffled Shin's hair.
"This is entirely your fault," Gojo scolded lightly. "Did I not tell you to fight seriously? You just needed to land one heavy blow to make Megumi realize how outmatched he is. That was the whole point of this exercise."
He gestured to the bruised boy on the ground.
"Your playful little performance was going to give him the wrong idea about his own strength. I had to let the fight run long to compensate."
"But you said this was just for us to get to know each other," Shin protested.
"Ah! Well, that was part of it too!" Gojo laughed brightly.
Megumi slowly lifted his head, wincing in absolute agony.
"Then, Sensei, I have fully realized my weakness," Megumi groaned. "Can you please send me to Shoko for treatment now? Everything hurts."
Gojo clapped his hands to his cheeks in mock surprise. "I completely forgot!"
Ultimately, Megumi did not need Shoko Ieiri's medical expertise. Shin handed him two freshly crafted Grilled Pork Chops. After forcing the warm food down, Megumi's injuries completely vanished.
Megumi's enrollment was the clearest sign that the main plot was about to begin. However, Shin had forgotten exactly which high school Yuji Itadori attended. He had no choice but to wait patiently for the inciting incident.
Still, having Megumi around meant Gojo spent much less time using Shin as a personal punching bag. Bullying students was fun, but even Satoru Gojo eventually needed variety.
A few days later, Shin and Megumi officially received their student IDs. Along with the cards came a massive stack of mission files. Gojo generously dumped the Grade 2 and Grade 3 Cursed Spirit assignments onto their laps, claiming it was essential field practice.
"A Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer?" Shin muttered, examining his ID. "I thought I would be starting at Grade 4. Megumi, what is yours?"
He glanced over at Megumi's card. It was also stamped with a Grade 2 insignia.
Grade 2 was typically the highest starting rank issued to a new sorcerer. Reaching Grade 1 required an official recommendation from a current Grade 1 or Special Grade Sorcerer.
There were extremely rare exceptions like Yuta Okkotsu, whose monstrous baseline strength earned him an immediate Special Grade classification. Shin was still a long way from that level of raw, destructive power.
Satoru Gojo spent the remainder of the summer break traveling constantly. The looming start of the school year caused a massive spike in negative emotions among the general student population, breeding troublesome Cursed Spirits nationwide. Shin and Megumi spent their days traveling around the region to handle the overflow missions Gojo could not attend.
Shin actually enjoyed the brutal workload. His experience bar skyrocketed. A Grade 3 Cursed Spirit granted two level-ups, while a Grade 2 yielded three to five. The duo even managed to take down a Semi-Grade 1 curse together, which instantly boosted Shin by seven levels.
After more than half a month of non-stop grinding, Shin leveled up sixty times. He unlocked a massive portion of his inventory. Factoring in his manual crafting, he had fewer than fifty items left to unlock. Most of the remaining blocks were obscure Nether or End dimension materials.
Shin was growing frighteningly strong.
However, certain powerful items required tedious accumulation. Consumables like Enchanted Golden Apples could only be crafted at a rate of eight or nine per day. His Cursed Energy reserves were massive, but the actual crafting process was a massive time sink.
Despite the grind, Shin had a lingering premonition. He felt that fully completing his item encyclopedia would trigger a massive system upgrade.
Shin wanted to hunt a few more curses to finish his unlocks, but a sudden phone call from Gojo interrupted his plans. Gojo ordered them to retrieve a Special Grade Cursed Object. The moment Shin heard those words, a switch flipped in his brain. He practically vibrated with excitement.
Megumi found his sudden enthusiasm incredibly irritating.
The duo eventually arrived at the exact Stevenson screen mentioned in Gojo's briefing. Megumi stared at the wooden weather box and let out a heavy sigh.
"Leaving an incredibly dangerous Special Grade Cursed Object in an unlocked Stevenson screen is just plain stupid," Megumi muttered. "Well, at least it makes our job easy."
He swung the louvered doors open and reached inside. Shin stood casually a few feet away with his hands shoved in his pockets. He already knew the box was empty.
Megumi suddenly gasped and yanked his hand back.
"Huh? It is empty!" Megumi panicked, dropping to his knees to check the grass. "Where is the cursed object? Did it fall? It is not on the ground!"
Initially, Shin did not fully understand the true value of a Special Grade Cursed Object. He figured the Jujutsu High vaults were overflowing with them. But seeing the perpetually calm Megumi Fushiguro having a near-panic attack made him realize just how catastrophic this was.
"Calm down, Megumi," Shin advised. "Call Gojo-sensei first."
Megumi pulled out his phone and made the call. Gojo's voice was perfectly audible through the speaker.
"What? The Special Grade Cursed Object is missing?" Gojo asked casually. "Did it go out for a midnight stroll?"
A brief pause hung in the air.
"If you cannot find it, you and Shin do not need to come back to Jujutsu High. See you later."
Gojo's cheerful threat sent a chill down both their spines. Megumi took several deep breaths to steady his racing heart. He concentrated his Cursed Energy into his eyes, actively scanning the area for lingering residual traces. He found a faint trail and led Shin straight toward the gates of a nearby campus.
"Sugisawa Third High School in Miyagi Prefecture?" Shin read the sign aloud. "Looks like some curious teenagers took it on a dare. There is no need to panic, Megumi. Special Grade Cursed Objects are wrapped in protective talismans. Normal humans do not possess enough Cursed Energy to peel the seals off."
Megumi knew that was true for standard objects. But this was no ordinary relic. They were tracking a petrified finger belonging to Ryomen Sukuna, the undisputed King of Curses.
Furthermore, Shin's logic only applied if the talisman's seal was still structurally intact.
The entire reason they were dispatched was because Jujutsu High calculated the seal was degrading and needed immediate reinforcement. If the higher-ups were even slightly competent, the current seal should technically hold for a few more days.
But Megumi could not shake his dread. What if the timeline provided by the higher-ups was wrong? What if the civilian who found the object actually possessed latent Cursed Energy?
More Ps = More Chapters!