"Thank you, Isayama-kun."
Iori Utahime said gratefully to Kenmyo.
Kenmyo originally wanted to wave his hand, telling her not to worry about it.
"It's nothing."
But two heads popped out from behind him, the first to speak was Gojo Satoru.
"Idiot Utahime, so weak."
When this guy saw that Shoko, Iori Utahime, and Miss Mei were all fine, Gojo Satoru, who had just been feeling heavy-hearted, sprang back to life and started mocking Iori Utahime.
"A Second-Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer encountering a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit still needs rescuing."
Even Iori Utahime, who wanted to maintain her image in front of Kenmyo, could barely keep the smile on her face. She truly wanted to beat up Gojo Satoru.
"We told you not to secretly take solo missions when we weren't around. Go thank Kenmyo!"
"Satoru, bullying the weak is not what the strong should do."
"Geto, yours is the real mockery, isn't it?"
Mei Mei, sitting not far away, said lightly.
"I agree."
Kenmyo nodded.
"Suguru, if you cut this guy open, I bet his heart is black."
Kenmyo decided to shut up Suguru Geto, urging him to speak less. Otherwise, Iori Utahime might faint from anger.
"Suguru, try this."
For Kenmyo, taking a frozen Cursed Spirit out of his Cursed Technique and shaping it into a convenient Cursed Spirit Orb for consumption was simple.
Suguru Geto always complained that Cursed Spirits tasted awful, like a rag wiped with vomit, but that was because he hadn't tasted one prepared by Kenmyo.
Suguru Geto was the developer of the [Devour Spirit Technique], but Kenmyo dared to say no one understood the [Devour Spirit Technique] better than him; he had long since mastered creative variations.
The thoughtful Kenmyo didn't forget to prepare it and shape it into a popsicle, making it easy to eat and season.
"Now, after my preparation, it's become a 'popsicle'."
"Kenmyo, I want some too."
Hearing that it was a popsicle, combined with the biting cold emanating from it, instantly piqued Gojo Satoru's appetite.
"No, there's only this one portion. You and Suguru can share it."
Anyway, these two brothers are so close they're practically sharing pants, so splitting a popsicle is no big deal.
"I'll try it first."
Suguru Geto, who had been eating "junk food" for seven or eight years, still didn't believe the taste of Cursed Spirits could improve.
Suguru Geto took it and carefully bit into it, thinking Kenmyo wouldn't lie to him, right?
The moment he took the first bite, his eyes widened instantly.
"It actually tastes like watermelon, and it's cold and refreshing, without any strange taste at all."
Eating something cold to beat the summer heat is truly comfortable.
"Damn it, you finished it."
Gojo Satoru grabbed Suguru Geto's sleeve and shook him angrily. Weren't they good buddies?
But Suguru Geto, who had devoured it in three bites, ignored Gojo Satoru's complaints and instead looked at Kenmyo, asking incredulously.
"How did you do that?"
Kenmyo's reply completely stumped Suguru Geto.
"The weak only complain about their environment, while the strong always adapt."
Kenmyo slowly replied.
Leaving that aside, the girls' side was very harmonious, much like the boys' side.
"Utahime-senpai, are you okay? You've been missing for two days."
"Shoko!"
Inside Jujutsu High, the only person Iori Utahime truly liked was Shoko; they had a decent relationship, so her eyes immediately lit up.
"Don't let these two pieces of trash lead you astray."
Shoko, the "school treasure" of Jujutsu High, had two great bodyguards: Gojo Satoru and Suguru Geto. The three of them were a team and always went on missions together. Considering the character of the latter two, it was clear neither of them were good company.
Therefore, Iori Utahime was truly afraid that Shoko would be corrupted by those two.
Iori Utahime stepped forward and hugged Shoko, wanting to snuggle up like before, but suddenly felt that Shoko seemed a bit strange.
"Shoko, are you sick? Why is your face so red?"
Shoko said calmly.
"No, I'm just refreshed."
Sensing the commotion from the girls' side, Suguru Geto and Gojo Satoru simultaneously placed their hands on his shoulders, their expressions conveying everything without words.
"Don't overthink it, I just rescued someone."
Kenmyo rolled his eyes at them and said seriously.
"I thawed out her frozen blood vessels, so wouldn't her blood flow speed up?"
"Also, my people are arriving soon. Get ready."
Not everyone was qualified to ride Kenmyo's Ice Dragon; one needed at least the strength of a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer to ride it without harm.
Those who couldn't meet this threshold could be in serious danger of life, potentially frozen by the chilling air to the point of doubting reality, not even realizing they had died.
Shoko was already a cautionary tale, having been frozen into hypothermia, which gave Kenmyo a new perspective on the word "weak."
Therefore, Kenmyo simply called for people to pick them up. Otherwise, walking out of this wilderness would take forever, and driving the long distance, not to mention the closest winding mountain road being dozens of kilometers away, would likely cause motion sickness.
"Aren't we taking a Jujutsu High vehicle back?"
Suguru Geto also considered that given Iori Utahime and Shoko's condition, they couldn't ride Kenmyo's Dragon, so the only option was to take a Jujutsu High vehicle back.
Including Miss Mei, there were now six people, so calling two cars seemed appropriate.
As for Suguru Geto's Rainbow Dragon, after witnessing Kenmyo's Dragon, he was too embarrassed to bring it out.
The former was a PRO MAX, and the latter was the most basic version.
Everything fears comparison; whoever is weaker feels awkward.
Gojo Satoru had already mocked Suguru Geto plenty, so there was no need to be mocked by him again.
"No, I have a better arrangement."
Kenmyo shook his head.
"The ground is too slow."
Suguru Geto opened his mouth in surprise, about to ask something, when he heard a rumbling sound getting closer and closer. It seemed that was the better option Kenmyo had mentioned.
"See, speak of the devil, and here it is."
"What is that sound?"
Iori Utahime was still wondering why there were suddenly so many loud noises in the quiet forest, and this loud noise seemed to be coming from the sky, approaching from far away and getting clearer.
Suddenly, two dark silhouettes appeared above the forest, slicing through the sky at extreme speed. Only when those two figures slowly descended from the sky did the people see clearly what they were.
That long, black body, with the constantly spinning rotor blades above—anyone with common sense would recognize it.
"Helicopters?"
"Why are there helicopters here?"
Iori Utahime was still a bit confused.
Two massive helicopters, one in front and one behind. The wind churned up by the huge rotor blades whistled across the ground, kicking up large amounts of leaves and making it nearly impossible for anyone to keep their eyes open.
"Black Hawk?"
Unlike the girls, Suguru Geto and Gojo Satoru immediately recognized the model. There was no helping it; the Black Hawk Helicopter was simply too famous.
The Black Hawk Helicopter and its good brother, the Apache, frequently appeared in movies and were essentially representative of helicopters.
The Black Hawk Helicopter cost 21 million dollars. Its fuselage was connected by four longitudinal keels and four main load-bearing frames, powered by two General Electric 701D Turboshaft Engines, giving it excellent speed and maneuverability.
Suguru Geto was just watching, but Gojo Satoru directly pulled out a camera from who knows where and was taking photos from various angles for selfies. The rapidly changing camera angles clearly utilized the Limitless Cursed Technique.
He kept repeating, "So cool."
The wealthy Kamo Family owned a total of eight military helicopters like the "Black Hawk," all purchased directly from the Americans.
"Don't worry, they're on our side."
Kenmyo slowly watched the two helicopters land on a flat area nearby, then walked over.
He turned his head toward the group and explained.
"I figured you all must be exhausted, so I called for helicopters to take us straight to Tokyo Jujutsu High."
"In that case, I won't be polite. Thank you."
Mei Mei was the first. She stretched and smiled at Kenmyo.
"It's nothing, Sister Mei."
Kenmyo continued to invite them.
"Let's go, everyone."
Although Suguru Geto's Rainbow Dragon could instantly destroy these two helicopters worth over 21 million dollars, they couldn't resist; this kind of thing was truly rare to see.
"Satoru, is your identity as the Gojo Family's young master fake?"
Suguru Geto glanced at Gojo Satoru, who looked like a curious baby.
"He summoned Black Hawk Helicopters with a single phone call."
"How come I've never seen you summon anything like this?"
Gojo Satoru and Suguru Geto had few demands other than spending a bit on food.
"Hey, hey, hey, my family is very poor! Where would we get something like this?"
Gojo Satoru, wearing noise-canceling headphones, shouted.
"Now you know, Kenmyo is still the one with the strongest backing among us."
"Young Master, a communication from the elders."
One of the Kamo Family Jujutsu Sorcerer handed the communication headset to Kenmyo.
This was a recording, highly classified, and considered the top secret of the Jujutsu Sorcerer Association.
The elders in the upper echelon of the Jujutsu Sorcerer Association contacted Kenmyo via communicators hidden inside their ear canals. The refined information he received was roughly as follows.
Keywords:
"Tengen, ten days, Star Plasma Vessel, assimilation, The Higher-Ups, extermination."
The reason he hadn't received prior summons from these old folks was due to a prohibition from the The Higher-Ups, which involved high-level political maneuvering and a certain sense of correctness.
All members of the Three Great Families in the highest echelon of the Jujutsu Sorcerer Association, the The Higher-Ups, were forbidden from going out, for fear of leaking secrets.
Because it involved Tengen.
Tengen was responsible for the Barriers of the Jujutsu Sorcerer Association. Without her, even Jujutsu Sorcerer might have difficulty going on missions, as almost every Jujutsu Sorcerer base had a Barrier created by Tengen.
For example, at Tokyo Jujutsu High, when Kenmyo once visited, a first-year student mentioned that their Barrier was specially designed by Lord Tengen.
However, Lord Tengen needed to change bodies once every 500 years, or her body would evolve toward a higher dimensional existence.
From that point on, Tengen would no longer be human, and if she ever developed malice toward humanity, human society could very likely descend into chaos.
It sounded like replacing Lord Tengen's body was mandatory, but this mission had two objectives.
One was to protect the Star Plasma Vessel from external destabilizing factors, and the second was to kill the Star Plasma Vessel just as assimilation was about to succeed.
Kenmyo clearly understood what this meant: when assimilation was nearly complete, the two bodies would essentially become one.
Killing the Star Plasma Vessel at that moment also meant killing Tengen.
The The Higher-Ups actually no longer wanted Tengen to live. This Jujutsu Sorcerer, who had tirelessly protected the Japanese Jujutsu World for a thousand years using her Barrier Technique, had finally reached the moment of being discarded.
There was actually a reason for this: the Jujutsu Sorcerer Association found that in recent years, Cursed Spirits in Japan had experienced explosive growth; both the quantity and quality of Cursed Spirits far surpassed those of thirty years ago.
Outsiders joked that the birth of the Gojo Family's infant son had disrupted the balance of the entire Jujutsu World.
But that wasn't actually true. Any fool knew that was impossible; Gojo Satoru was just a scapegoat.
The The Higher-Ups spent massive resources and reached a conclusion.
The true culprit was Tengen, who had always maintained a low profile yet played a crucial role in the Jujutsu Sorcerer Association.
She used Barrier Techniques beyond their imagination to continuously draw almost all the negative emotions from around the globe toward Japan, creating this current terrifying situation.
Japan's Cursed Spirit problem was the most severe in the entire world, and it was the place with the highest level of Cursed Spirits.
This was the reason behind the increasing pressure on Japanese Jujutsu Sorcerers, and the persistently high casualty and death rates.
Yet Tengen had never revealed what she truly intended to do. The The Higher-Ups felt fear toward such an existence.
Therefore, Tengen had been viewed by the Jujutsu Sorcerer Association as an enemy of the entire Jujutsu World and became an object that had to be eliminated.
Although without the Barrier Technique, it would become very difficult for most Jujutsu Sorcerer to exorcise Cursed Spirits, if they could just endure this period, concentrate on dealing with the excess Cursed Spirits, the number of newborn Cursed Spirits would decrease.
Japan would return to its former state.
The elders of the The Higher-Ups still informed Kenmyo of the true meaning of the mission, so he wouldn't be kept in the dark.
The Star Plasma Vessel was the stabilizer that suppressed Tengen's rampage and prevented her from evolving to a higher dimension, so the killing had to occur when assimilation was nearly complete.
After all, they would be killing the Star Plasma Vessel, not Tengen.
An interesting piece of information Kenmyo also knew was that there was more than one Star Plasma Vessel.
Tengen's evolution, the Six Eyes, and the Star Plasma Vessel—all three appeared once every five hundred years. There must be some unknown connection behind this.
The true mission required Kenmyo, Gojo Satoru, and Suguru Geto—these three future Special Grade combatants—to kill Tengen.
Ironically, these three were personally chosen by Tengen to protect the Star Plasma Vessel, yet the Jujutsu Sorcerer Association issued an order in the form of a mission to kill the Star Plasma Vessel.