(Pov Satoshi)
I woke up very suddenly, and the first thing I noticed was that the pain in my ribs was gone. The second thing was that Yuta was back and not dead. "Yuta, what happened?" I asked.
"Oh, Gojo-Sensei, you're awake. That was fast." He remarked, "I fought with that other person, but then once I followed her outside, she was gone. Do you know who she was?"
That was better than I expected, honestly, at least neither of us was dead, but this was bad, too. I had been stupid the moment I saw who it was. I just ran in. I should have known it was a trap. Kenjaku had asked for us specifically and likely knew at least some of our capabilities, but all I could think about was killing him and ending things before they could begin, and that got me smashed into the ground.
"That Yuta is a very bad person; they can take over other people's bodies," I said after a minute, deciding it would be better to let others know about the threat instead of waiting, especially now that he was making moves. I had kept the information to myself, thinking others wouldn't believe me without proof, but now Yuta had seen him too.
"Oh man, the higher-ups are gonna be so annoying about the dead Star Plasma Vessel." I mumbled while the main threat was over, the higher-ups weren't going to let this slide. They couldn't kill me, but getting chewed out sucks. I also felt bad for the poor girl having her body stolen by that creep.
"What about the rest of the clan?" I asked, standing up and returning Playful Cloud to the inventory curse. The little guy was shockingly durable. The only time he'd been injured was when Satoru hit him with purple.
"Oh, them that guy who guided us in said that whoever had taken over the vessel had been holding them hostage and forcing them to help with the plan to trap us," Yuta said, and it made sense Kenjaku was powerful and likely could have massacred the clan and if both of us had failed to stop him that's certainly what would have happened.
Either way, Kenjaku had gotten away, and it was my fault for being unobservant. I don't know how he caught me with that technique so easily, but I had a theory. My best guess was that he had made some sort of vow to allow the technique to automatically activate, and the tradeoff was that it would be unavailable when deactivated, which is why he didn't use it on Yuta.
Still, as much as this sucked, there was a silver lining or a few anyway. The first was that neither of us was dead, always a good sign for a mission to have no casualties. Then there was the fact that Kenjaku's plan had failed, whatever it was. The last one was that now I could realistically warn the others back at the school, including Satoru, about Kenjaku, and if we got lucky, we could get Tengen to tell us the full story, which should help avoid any potential sealing.
We began to make our way out of the clan's warehouse, and as we exited, the clan had begun to come out of their homes. They seemed thankful now that the one who had taken over the vessel was gone, but they didn't approach and instead just watched us leave. So we walked out silently and found a car waiting for us. We both entered the car, and I began the drive back to the school.
"I'm proud of you, Yuta," I said. Suddenly, he had done much better than I had expected, and now it seemed the curse on Rika had been broken, similarly to how it happened in the original, just against a different enemy. "You not only managed to get control of Rika, but you held your own against the enemy when it mattered.
"Thank you, Gojo-Sensei, I couldn't have done it without your help, though," Yuta responded with a smile on his face.
We drove back most of the way in silence after that, as I needed the time to think about how to go about spreading this information. I felt the best bet would be to go into Tengen's tomb and tell her about what happened and get her to explain who Kenjaku was. At this point, I shouldn't know who Kenjaku was, and while I had let the name slip during the fight, Yuta hadn't mentioned it, so I'd feign ignorance. What I could say was that the Star Plasma Vessel had been taken over and had stitches across her head, and Tengen, realizing the danger, would likely explain the situation.
Once we arrived back at the school, a group was waiting for us. It was composed partly of my students, including Satoru and the second years, but the main part was made up of those I didn't recognize, most likely from Jujutsu headquarters. When they didn't see the vessel, the atmosphere changed drastically, and one of them approached me.
"Where is the Star Plasma Vessel?" He asked, though his tone was rather demanding.
"She's dead. I need to speak with Tengen," I said bluntly. "Take me to the tomb."
"What do you mean by dead? How could you fail such an important mission?" He asked, becoming angry.
I just ignored him and walked over to Satoru. "There's something bad going on; we need to tell Tengen now," I said to him directly, and he quickly understood how serious the situation was. "Alright, I know the way, let's go." He said and began walking towards the school. The students tried following us, but I told them to stay in the school. This situation was too delicate.
As we made our way through the Tomb of the Stars, we came across the vault. This was where the higher-ups kept many of the more dangerous, cursed objects, such as the death womb paintings and even the Sukuna fingers they had found, which were kept down here, including the one I collected. After walking for what felt like an hour, we finally entered the white room that housed Tengen. She was waiting for us, her form having changed without a vessel for so long.
"So, I see that the vessel is not with you. May I ask what happened?" She began, and I told her about the mission and made sure to mention the stitches. Once I was done talking, she got a look on her face. "This is troubling indeed, and now he has shown himself once more, I suppose you two should know the enemy we face." She said after a moment.
"The one you fought is Kenjaku, a sorcerer who has managed immortality by switching bodies through the ages. He has planned to force a merge between me and all of the humans in Japan, and now that my form has changed so much, it would be possible." She said, though this was all stuff I had known already.
"Gojo Satoshi, do you have an idea why Kenjaku wanted Yuta?" She asked
"Yuta's technique is to copy and use other cursed techniques. I believe that Kenjaku had planned to use Yuta's technique in what way I'm not sure, but that's my theory anyway," I explained, but once I was done, Satoru cut in.
"He could have been going after Suguru; his technique, Cursed Spirit Manipulation, could work on you now, right, Tengen?" He said, which shocked me, seeing how quickly he had managed to figure that out. Tengen nodded, "Yes, Geto Suguru's technique at this point could be used to manipulate my form and forcefully merge me with all of Japan." She said, "If he had obtained Okkotsu Yuta's ability to copy other techniques, he could have done so with Geto Suguru."
This was getting interesting. The plan, or what we assumed the plan was, had many similarities to the original timeline, and that made sense. Kenjaku had been preparing for a thousand years; his backup plans probably had backups. Still, it was disconcerting that he somehow knew what Yuta's technique was, and there was the possibility that he might go after Suguru and Yuta.
As the two of us left the tomb, there was a lot to think about. We had both agreed to tell our students, and Satoru had some plans to get Yuta out of the country to keep him safe and to help him restore his technique after Rika fully passed on. Meanwhile, Suguru and Riko would also be hidden to protect them from being targeted. Lastly, an execution order was set for Kenjaku, with word being spread of a rogue curse user with stitching across the forehead.
While the rest of them prepared for their next semester and the threat of Kenjaku was set to a background concern, I was focused on the events of the next summer. It would be around June when Itadori Yuji would meet with Fushiguro Megumi and eat one of Sukuna's fingers to save his friends. After that, things would rapidly go downhill, and in the original story by December of that year, the fight against Sukuna would kill Satoru.
Now, though I was here and I knew what needed to be done to protect not just my brother but the world of Jujutsu itself. I couldn't rush into things, though I had to plan my next moves. Despite my changes, there was something telling me that Sukuna would incarnate this time as well, and when that happened, I wouldn't be caught off guard. I couldn't just rest on my own current strength, and when the final fight happened, I'd win.