Chapter 16 - Goodwill Event- Fight with Miwa, Kamo and Mai

"Tokyo-Kyoto Sister School Goodwill Event will be held across two days. First day, we'll have a team battle. It's the Wacky Spirit Bash Race!" Principal Yaga explained, "Rules are simple. The team who eliminated the Grade 2 cursed spirits released within the school grounds wins! Grade-3 and below curses have been released too. If there's no winner by sunset, the winner is decided by the number of eliminations. There are no other rules. You may hinder your opponents in the race, but don't kill each other. Don't cause irreparable damage to your opponent."

After the rules were explained, the students got ready for the team battle. While the students were preaparing for battle, Gojo spoke with Utahime in private.

"I suspect there is a traitor among us." He said. He knew the curses were planning to replace humans and they also plan to seal him in prison realm to render him unable to fight. They also planned carefully in the previous incidents so that he couldn't join the fights. Their plans however failed because they didn't know one factor, which is Sachiko taking out two of them. But, except that, they seemed to know inside-outs of the Jujutsu high. Those feats will not be possible without someone from their side betraying them. He realized this.

So, Gojo explained why he thought there was a traitor and asked Utahime to investigate.

After that, he reminded Yuji that the higher ups might use this event as a chance to get rid of him.

"But isn't this a school event? Isn't it obvious if I died?" Itadori asked in confusion.

"Well, accidents can happen, Itadori. So, they can just claim it was an accident if you died. I won't be surprised even if they bribed the students to do the job." Sachiko said as she walked over to them.

"Oh, you get it, Sachiko?" Gojo said.

"How couldn't I? They even tried to get rid of me silently in the past two months with the reason being I did one thing. Just one thing that interfered their plans." Sachiko let out a bitter laugh.

" What? They tried to kill you too?" Itadori was surprised.

"Yeah. It's not like they tried to do the job themselves but it's more like leading me to more dangerous cases on purpose so that they could claim I died while exorcising a dangerous curse. I suspect it was the case with Mahito, too. I'm sure Gojo sensei also noticed that. But he's so black-hearted that he didn't even bat an eye when those incidents happened."

Noticing the glare Sachiko gave, Gojo tried to defend himself , "That's not true. I was always looking after you when I noticed their plans!"

"You weren't even there when I fought with Mahito." Sachiko pointed out but Gojo was quick to reply , "I sent Nanami with you! Also, didn't you say that you learned a lot that day? You can even say that it's for your own growth."

"But what if I actually died? Aren't you being so unreliable, sensei?" Sachiko asked with a pout.

"..You won't die, Sachiko." Gojo said, "Why? Because I have faith in you that you will not be taken down by those petty plans. And you proved me right , didn't you?"

"...That's not even the point.." Sachiko complained but she couldn't help but blush when Gojo said he had faith in her.

"But, don't get me wrong. I didn't really expect some of the events to happen like that and when I did, I was always away on a trip and couldn't really interfere. Maybe that was their plan all along. But.." Gojo said as he looked at her with a serious expression, "if I could do anything, I wouldn't just let you deal with all those danger alone."

"...." Sachiko didn't say a word. She didn't think she needed to as she subconsciously hugged Gojo. Gojo froze, not expecting to be pulled into a hug and he wondered how Sachiko could touch him while he had his infinity turned on. Did he subconsciously turn off infinity when she suddenly tried to hug him? Or was there any other factor?

However, he forgot those thoughts soon as he felt tears falling onto his shoulders. Was she crying?

"..Sachiko" Gojo said with difficulty. He never knew suddenly being pulled into a hug would make him hard to speak and feel a faint tingling sensation in his chest but apparently, it did.

"I'm sorry, sensei! I..I don't know what came over me...Sorry!" Sachiko apologized as soon as she registered what happened. She quickly let go of Gojo with her face was red and she couldn't look Gojo in the eye.

"It's okay." Gojo said with a chuckle.

"Then...I'll go now." Sachiko nodded without looking Gojo and escaped really quickly. She didn't even look at Itadori who was standing awkwardly beside Gojo.

"I'll also leave now, sensei." Itadori also left after saying that.

-------------------------

When Sachiko and Itadori returned to their group, they were discussing their battle plans.

"Todo will definitely rush to defeat us. Mai might also follow him to come after me. Todo is a monster. In the worst case scenerio, everyone will be wiped out." Maki said.

"But we still have Nakamura and Itadori. Itadori's physical strength is scary while Nakamura is specialized in cursed energy manipulation. Surely, Todo is not a problem as long as he is distracted." Megumi said.

"Right, Itadori, can you deal with Todo?" Sachiko asked. "Although I like going solo, I'd rather not fight a violent battle with fists."

"Sure. Leave it to me." Itadori agreed.

"Okay. Don't die." Nobara said.

"Yeah, as long as you can distract him, it's good. I can also come to help you if things aren't going well." Sachiko said.

"Okay." Itadori nodded.

"Then, we can leave things like tracking enemies to Panda and Megumi." Maki said.

"Then, what should I do?" Sachiko asked.

"Didn't you say you prefer to go solo?" Megumi asked with a frown.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I can't participate in a team. Even if a Jujutsu sorcerer is strong, I still think there would be cases they need to team up. So, I'll naturally work on that skill too." Sachiko replied.

"Okay. So how many of them do you think you can handle?" Maki asked.

"You mean how many can I fight at once? Or how many can I defeat?" Sachiko asked.

"Both." Maki then continued as she pointed to Megumi and Nobara, "Those two said you're probably even stronger than a grade-1 Jujutsu sorcerer."

"All." Sachiko said with a smile, "I can take care of them all. But it's not fun for everyone if I do that."

"...Are you bluffing or what? Anyway, we plan to focus on the cursed spirits first before figuring out Kyoto team's strategy. "Maki said with a frown.

"I'm not." Sachiko replied to her question, then said, "It seems like a good plan but I'm afraid their plan also revolves around killing Itadori."

"What?" Junpei was surprised. "Why would they kill him?"

"It's because the higher ups thought of Itadori as a threat because he's Sukuna's vessel. This is not even their first time trying to kill Itadori." Sachiko explained.

"Tsk. Is everyone from Kyoto school cowards who would take orders to kill Itadori?" Nobara said angrily.

"Their perspective is different. We know Itadori as someone other than just a vessel but they just know he is Sukuna's vessel. It's not really strange if you think about it." Panda said.

"Salmon." Inumaki agreed.

"Even so, they're still..." Nobara was angry.

"I agree. They don't even know a thing about Itadori yet they're trying to kill him. " Junpei said.

"Yeah, I really hate those kind of people the most. "Sachiko said as she shook her head slowly.

" Well, don't worry too much. Although I can't sense their location and keep watch all the time, I can still keep an eye on some of them." Sachiko assured. "In the worst case scenerio, I can just hunt them down one by one."

"Did you just say hunt them down?" Junpei asked.

"Uh huh. Now, I can also sense other's cursed energy flow as long as they attack with cursed energy or use their cursed technique in front of me. Although the range I can use this ability is not very wide, it'll be enough."

"That's scary." Itadori murmured.

After a while , they finished making plans and got ready to depart.

----------------------

"One minute to go." Gojo announced.

"Well, Utahime sensei, please give us a touching and encouraging speech."

"Well..Although injuries are inevitable , just help each other from time to time..something like that?" Utahime said awkwardly.

"Time's up." Gojo said and Utahime's voice could be heard, "Gojo, you..."

"With that, the Sister School Goodwill Event...begins!" Gojo announced.

The students ran off to the forest area. As they ran, they saw a low grade cursed spirit. It was in the shape of a spider.

"I'll take care of it." Maki said.

"Wait, senpai!" Megumi stopped Maki. Then, they saw Todo crushing the curse with his fist.

"We'll leave Todo to you, Itadori!" Megumi said.

Then, they left Itadori behind and continued running.

"I'll go over there." Sachiko said soon after leaving Itadori behind.

"Okay."

After leaving the team, Sachiko wondered in the forest alone. "Where would the Kyoto team be? Are they staying in one group or are they splitting up?" She wondered.

Soon, she heard gunshots from where Itadori was.

"So they actually target him as soon as the game starts? Interesting." Sachiko muttered as she made her way to there.

When she got to the scene, Itadori was surrounded by the Kyoto group.

"Oh, so you really target Itadori as soon as the game starts." Sachiko stated as she charged towards the nearest person, Miwa. Miwa held her katana as she prepared her shadow domain. Sachiko reinforced her legs with cursed energy and jumped over Miwa's shadow domain.

Miwa concentrated on her katana and Sachiko's movement but in a blink, Sachiko was already out of her simple domain area. She felt pain in her chest and she realized Sachiko kicked her chest while she passed.

"What's that speed?" She murmured and put a hand on her chest. She then also realized that her hand felt lighter and looked at her right hand again.

"My sword.....She took my sword.."

She turned to look at Sachiko and saw her holding her sword. "Sorry but I'll be taking this." Sachiko said with a smile and then, charged towards Kamo. Kamo shot blood arrows towards Sachiko but she destroyed them all with cursed energy. Meanwhile, Mai shot bullets towards Sachiko as well.

Sachiko's lips curled up as she dodged with ease and sent projectiles made of cursed energy towards Mai. Although Mai dodged, her left shoulder was pierced by a projectile. Blood gushed out of her shoulder and Mai bit her lip as she continued to shoot.

Sachiko dodged Kamo's arrows and Mai's bullets as she moved forward and in a few steps, she was only a feet away from Kamo. She used Miwa's sword to attack. Kamo also used his blood manipulation technique to control his body temperature, pulse rate and number of blood cells to get increased energy and physical abilities. They engaged in close combat for a few moves before Kamo was slashed in the arm by the sword. Blood spurted out from the wound and Kamo said, "Blood manipulation, Crimson Binding."

The blood that spurted out from the wound was manipulated into a widespread net and it was about to trap Sachiko in the net when Sachiko just chanted, "Cancel." Kamo's face became pale as he felt his cursed energy controlled by an external force. The crimson binding net dissolved in the next second and it returned to the state of just blood.

"What happened?" Kamo asked in confusion.

"I controlled your cursed energy flow." Sachiko replied.

"How can that be possible? Isn't this too powerful..?" Miwa said as she looked at Sachiko. She couldn't even join the battle because Sachiko took her sword. She could only watch the battle in front of her like an audience.

Kamo gritted his teeth and tried to fight her again. But, he couldn't gain control of his cursed energy.

"You.."

"Sorry, sorry, it's the first time I've actually tried this so I got carried away. Please continue." Sachiko said as she chuckled lightly.

"Don't mess with me, Nakamura Sachiko. Today, I'll show you the true power of Kamo family's blood manipulation."

Kamo said as he created a bladed projectile. The blood projectile was sent towards Sachiko's left chest. As soon as the projectile was near her chest, Sachiko used the sword infused with her cursed energy to break it. The blood projectile was broken into pieces and returned to its blood state as soon as it collided with Sachiko's sword.

Mai also shot two shots aiming at her left chest and right leg at the same time. Sachiko swiftly created a shield made out of cursed energy to cover her body. The bullets collided with the shield and the bullets turned into dust.

"...Is that all?" Sachiko casually asked after that and the two were speechless.

"Okay. My turn then." After saying this, Sachiko reappeared behind Kamo and hit his head with the back of her hand. Kamo was knocked out after that.

"Tsk." Mai then tried to run away from the scene but Sachiko manipulated her cursed energy to multiple threads and sent towards Mai. The threads of cursed energy twined around Mai's body and Mai couldn't break free.

"Alright, I'll just leave you like this." Sachiko said as she came over to check the cursed energy threads and nodded in approval. "This move is not bad. It's not too tight to injure the target but it's firm enough to hold the target in place. You probably can't cut of the threads without using a lot of cursed energy too because I concentrated a lot of cursed energy into these threads."

After that, Sachiko turned around and prepared to leave.

"She didn't knock me out?" Miwa mumbled.

"It should be fine because I already took your sword. You attack with this, right?" Sachiko said as if she knew Miwa's confusion.

Itadori was fighting with Todo a few meters away from them. He somehow escaped from the three surrounding him when Sachiko interfered. Todo saw that and they ended up fighting each other again.

Sachiko took a glance at Todo and Itadori's battle but it was more like Todo guiding Itadori so Sachiko just chuckled and left the scene.

-------------------------

Naturally, these scenes were shown on the monitor in the teachers' room.

"What is that kind of power? She doesn't even look like fighting seriously." Utahime said.

"Kamo is a semi-grade 1 Jujutsu sorcerer. To think that he would be defeated like this."

Gakuganji's eyes narrowed at that. He knew that Nakamura was interfering on purpose. She knew the Kyoto students were trying to kill Itadori and that was the reason why she appeared as soon as Itadori was surrounded.

'That shouldn't even have appeared on the monitor.' Gakuganji thought. Did someone interfere that too ?