Gojo casually tossed the empty soda bottle in his hand toward the doorway.
"I was just trying to save some time. Besides, I was worried you'd beat this guy up too badly and interfere with Betty's testing."
Suguru Geto looked at him speechlessly and let the bottle smack into the head of the severely injured captive his Cursed Spirit had dragged over.
"You say that like you don't hit just as hard."
"Of course not."
Gojo answered confidently.
"I'm the person Betty's closest to. She'd never hold it against me."
His voice was full of certainty.
When it came to this, Gojo had absolute confidence.
Aside from Puck, nobody could compete with him.
"So this is basically a warm-up?"
"Pretty much. It's her first time fighting a Curse User, after all."
"With strength comparable to a Special Grade Cursed Spirit, shouldn't she have finished him a long time ago?"
Gojo grinned.
"Didn't you ever play with ants when you were a kid?"
Geto stared at him.
"You know, ever since you came back from that world, you sound more and more like a villain from some anime or light novel."
"How do you know I wasn't the hero over there?"
Gojo rolled his eyes.
"A hero probably wouldn't have such an irritating personality."
"You really are vicious."
The two continued bickering back and forth while Geto dragged the heavily wounded man over and tossed him at Betty's feet.
"Here's another one, Betty."
"I'm not a trash can."
Betty glanced at the man and snorted.
"I have no interest in someone who's practically dead already."
"That's fine."
Gojo smiled.
"I'll patch him up a little first."
He placed a hand on the man's body.
Reverse Cursed Technique activated.
"Lord Bayer!"
The Curse User Betty had been thoroughly humiliating struggled to shout, hoping for help from his organization's leader.
In truth, Bayer had already regained consciousness while being dragged over. He'd simply been waiting for an opportunity to escape and counterattack.
What he hadn't expected was that these people would actually heal his injuries.
This wasn't combat anymore.
It was humiliation.
"You little brats..."
Bayer had barely gotten to his feet when Gojo kicked him straight toward Betty.
And then...
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
A chain of explosions erupted.
"What a boring fight."
Betty clicked her tongue in disappointment.
"Honestly pathetic."
"Alright, alright."
Gojo waved a hand.
"You'll get more chances later."
"If you're interested, I can always find a few Special Grade Cursed Spirits for you to deal with."
"I know."
Betty nodded.
"So what are we doing now?"
"That depends on Miss Riko Amanai."
Gojo turned toward her.
Riko was sitting on the sofa helping the newly awakened Misato Kuroi recover. Hearing her name suddenly called, she immediately straightened up.
After personally witnessing Betty utterly dismantle two men who had looked incredibly dangerous, she had gained a much deeper understanding of just how powerful the three of them were.
"Me?"
"I don't really have any plans right now."
The question caught her completely off guard.
Because of her status, she had never been able to live like other girls her age. Outside of attending school, she rarely had opportunities to go out and have fun.
Most of her time was spent at home playing games with Misato Kuroi.
"Oh? Nothing you want to do?"
Gojo thought for a moment.
"Isn't there anything you've always wanted to try?"
"You're about to merge with Master Tengen."
Betty's calm voice cut in.
"Once that happens, you'll never have this kind of life again."
"You should treasure the opportunity while you still have it."
"This may be the only chance you'll ever get."
It was a cruel truth.
Yet Riko didn't react like an ordinary teenage girl. She didn't cry, and she didn't fall silent.
Instead, her eyes brightened.
"Merging with Master Tengen isn't a bad thing."
"From then on, Master Tengen will be me, and I'll be Master Tengen..."
She spoke loudly, as though this were a noble goal she had dedicated herself to.
But Betty only looked at her with pity.
"Those words might convince other people."
Her voice was quiet.
"But can you really fool yourself?"
Riko's speech faltered.
"But that's genuinely how I feel."
She tried to argue.
"Merging with Master Tengen isn't something I find difficult to accept."
Betty couldn't even be bothered to continue the debate.
She simply watched her.
After more than four hundred years of being a stubborn tsundere, Betty was intimately familiar with self-deception.
Gojo trusted Betty's judgment far more than Riko's words.
"In that case, we can head straight to Jujutsu High."
Gojo sympathized with the girl's fate, but if she truly insisted on this path, there was little they could do as outsiders.
At the mention of Jujutsu High, Riko fell silent for a moment.
"Before we go..."
She hesitated.
"Could I say goodbye to my friends first?"
"It won't take long. I won't cause too much trouble..."
"No problem."
Geto agreed immediately with a warm smile.
"Our job right now is to fulfill any request you have, Miss Amanai."
"As for trouble, that's not really a concern."
"In fact, trouble showing up is probably more interesting than nothing happening at all."
He glanced at Betty.
"At least Betty would think so."
Betty let out a soft huff but didn't deny it.
Now that she was in the world of jujutsu, she desperately wanted to understand the limits of her own power and learn more about the abilities that existed here.
Riko listened to their conversation in confusion.
She genuinely couldn't comprehend what kind of strength someone needed to speak with such confidence.
Once everything was settled, Gojo called Jujutsu High and arranged for someone to handle the aftermath.
The explanation would probably be something mundane, like a gas explosion.
After taking care of that, they left the hotel together with Riko and Misato Kuroi.
Inside a Gojo Family sedan, Gojo checked the time.
"It's already this late."
He looked toward Riko.
"You don't mind grabbing lunch first, do you?"
To Gojo, the mission itself was secondary.
Something he handled along the way.
The real objective was taking Betty around to eat good food.
"You don't have to use honorifics with me."
Riko waved her hands hurriedly.
"Just call me Riko."
After all, they had saved her life.
Being addressed so formally felt awkward.
"Works for me."
Gojo nodded.
"Then it's settled. Lunch first."
He turned toward Betty.
"What do you want to eat?"
Betty thought for a moment.
"Fried chicken, beer, and instant noodles."
Gojo rubbed his forehead and stared at her suspiciously.
"Beer?"
"What have you been watching this time? Korean dramas?"
"I don't know."
Betty shrugged.
"It just looked pretty good."
"Fine, fine."
Gojo sighed.
"You can try it if you really want."
"But just so we're clear, we can't drink."
"We're underage."
"Huh?"
Riko stared at them.
"Betty's a child. How can she drink alcohol?"
"A child?"
Gojo only smiled.
Meanwhile, Betty looked up from the tablet she was using to learn about the world and replied flatly:
"Your grandmother's grandmother would still be a child in my eyes."
"...What?"
Riko's brain nearly shut down.
The girl who looked like an elementary school student was actually that old?
While the two of them were talking, Gojo noticed Geto had been staring at his phone the entire time.
"What are you looking at? You've barely said a word."
"The bounty posted by the Time Vessel Association."
Geto showed him the screen.
"Those people are willing to use any means necessary."
"The reward has already reached three hundred million."
"Three hundred million?"
Gojo leaned comfortably against his seat.
"They're richer than I thought."
"How much is that?"
Betty asked.
"About a thousand Holy Gold Coins."
"That much?"
Even Betty looked surprised.
Felt usually had to work incredibly hard as a Royal Candidate just to acquire that amount of money.
"Master Tengen has lived for over a thousand years."
Geto shrugged.
"And the Time Vessel Association has existed for almost as long."
"A church that's survived for a millennium having money isn't exactly surprising."
Betty tilted her head.
"If that's the case, why are we defending against the people attracted by the bounty instead of simply dealing with the Time Vessel Association itself?"
"What they're doing goes against Master Tengen's will."
"Shouldn't eliminating them be the obvious solution for the sake of Jujutsu Society?"
"How should I put it..."
Gojo scratched his cheek.
"It's kind of like the higher-ups."
"Most people simply don't want to deal with that sort of thing."
"Besides, they're ordinary civilians."
"There aren't any jujutsu sorcerers among them."
"Legitimate jujutsu sorcerers don't go around attacking ordinary people."
"If they did, they'd become Curse Users themselves."
"And you care about that?"
Betty wrinkled her nose.
"You're already planning to deal with the higher-ups."
"Fair point."
Gojo rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
Riko listened to the conversation, utterly bewildered.
Meanwhile, Geto sighed.
"You two sound more and more like villains every time you talk."
"But doesn't it make sense?"
Gojo asked.
"Logically speaking, yes."
Geto nodded.
"Still, Satoru... have you noticed that you've changed since making this decision?"
"The old you wouldn't have chosen this path."
"It's not that I've changed."
Gojo's expression grew calm.
"I've just seen things more clearly."
"Some problems only get solved when someone pushes change forward."
"Take the root causes of all this chaos."
"Everyone knows eliminating them would solve the problem."
"But because of various concerns, nobody does anything."
"Do you really think that's right?"
"That said, I'm not advocating mindless violence."
Geto fell silent and seriously considered his words.
After a long pause, he shook his head with a bitter smile.
"I feel like something about that logic is off."
"I just can't explain why."
"Because there are gentler alternatives."
Gojo smiled.
"That's the part bothering you."
"For example, imagine using hackers to wipe out every asset owned by the Time Vessel Association."
"Although that still wouldn't be enough. A primitive religious organization like that probably has plenty of cash reserves and physical property."
"But if you bankrupted them, do you think anyone would still bother accepting this bounty?"
Geto considered it.
"Probably not."
"The problem is that it would take too long."
Gojo spread his hands.
"And it would be incredibly difficult."
"Even after all that effort, it still might fail."
"On the other hand, if we do things my way..."
A grin appeared on his face.
"This entire matter ends in a single day."
Geto looked at him.
"So you're planning to kill ordinary civilians?"
"If you think that's too cruel, we could just make them sleep forever."
Gojo shrugged.
"Although honestly, I think that's even crueler."
Geto scratched his head.
For once, he found himself completely speechless.
"Fine."
He finally gave up.
"We'll do it your way."
"I just have a feeling the entire Jujutsu Society is about to... undergo a major upheaval."
"It's fine."
Gojo waved dismissively.
"If something goes wrong, I'll handle it."
"And even if I can't..."
He winked.
"I've got you."
"We're the strongest, remember?"
"I can't accept doing any of this without you."
A warmth spread through Geto's chest.
Still, he immediately put on a disgusted expression.
"Can two grown men stop saying things like that?"
"If someone misunderstands, it'll be a nightmare."
The moment the words left his mouth, he noticed Riko staring at them with obvious curiosity and investigative interest.
His face instantly stiffened.
If she really got the wrong idea, this would become incredibly awkward.
As they talked, the car pulled up in front of a fried chicken restaurant packed with customers.
Everyone got out and started choosing flavors for takeout.
After all, Betty looked like a little kid.
If she drank alcohol in public and someone called the police, it would be troublesome.
Once they had their fried chicken, they drove directly back to the Gojo Family estate and dug in.
Riko stared around at the luxurious surroundings with undisguised curiosity.
She was still young, after all.
Before long, she had completely forgotten the earlier events and was happily enjoying the delicious fried chicken.
Meanwhile, as he ate, Gojo began researching the Time Vessel Association.
An organization with a thousand years of history had roots everywhere.
If he was going to wipe it out, he'd need to do it properly.