20 First Mission Conclusion

A little earlier.

Panda, Maki, and the disguised Masao ran off the building.

As the distance between them and the building widened, their bodies became tenser, waiting for an ambush from somewhere.

After a while of running, the building where they hid before was no longer in sight, and their mood started relaxing.

They realized that Katsuo was right.

Their opponent did have a conditioned future sight ability, if not, they wouldn't have been able to leave without first being attacked by them, which didn't happen because in the future that they saw, they weren't the ones carrying the mirror.

They continued running, and Maki was the first to notice that they were being followed, so she whispered.

"We are being followed by a handful of guys."

Panda acknowledges it, but showed no reaction, while Masao, who was being uncomfortably pulled by Maki, tensed at the news, causing him to trip and being dragged back up by her.

A few minutes passed, with their pursuers just pursuing without attacking.

"Their objective is probably to delay us if we decide to turn back and regroup with Katsuo and Toge, so we should at least show signs of it, so as to not look suspicious."

Panda commented.

Masao and Maki nodded and they started to drastically slow down and at that moment, some of their pursuers attacked.

A javelin infused with cursed energy and an arm-like shikigami shot in their direction.

Maki just waved her naginata and split the shinigami in too, while Panda slapped the javelin away.

Getting the desired reaction from their opponent, the trio raised their speed again to the limit, but now, attacks were occasionally launched at them from behind.

Attacks that they dealt with while acting like they were putting some real effort.

Just like that twenty minutes passed, and the city's TJH base was in sight.

They kept going and Maki felt that their attackers stopped pursuing after they entered a certain range of the building.

Soon, they entered the building and saw a tall man with bandaged eyes, sprawling on a chair, and eating sweets out of a high-quality shop bag.

"Yo, it seems you did it. Is this the kid?"

Said Gojo as he stood up.

He quickly approached and loomed over the small Masao, who anxiously half-stepped back, and with a hand on his chin looked him up and down, which looked weird to Masao, considering Gojo was blindfolded.

"Oh, it seems you got something interesting. It's indeed a waste for you to die."

Maki intervened.

"Gojo-sensei, Katsuo, and Toge are still surrounded!"

Gojo raised his head as if he was looking at the air before turning to Maki.

"No worries, they are fine, let's first care of the little rats who followed you here first."

Gojo disappeared for a second and when he reappeared a pile of unconscious men, who were the sorcerers who were following them, were by his feet.

While Masao was awed at what just happened, Gojo kept talking.

"But I have to say, you are really lucky. For your first mission to be this exciting! It makes me wonder how your next missions will be."

"I don't feel lucky."

Maki said.

"Well~, from a certain perspective this was a good experience to have. Now we know that we should always be cautious and beware of the jujutsu world."

Commented Panda as he thought of their previous sticky situation caused by a person with a future sight innate technique.

"We always knew that!"

"But we never knew how much that was true until now."

Maki struggled to admit it, but she knew it was true, however, their friend seemed to already know this lesson by heart.

When she first heard Katsuo say that their opponent could have a future sight ability, she was somewhat skeptical and thought that he was overthinking, but based on what happened until now, they could say it was true, so she said what she now thought.

"Katsuo seems to be very aware of it."

This time Gojo interrupted.

"Well~, Katsuo line of thought has always been completely out of the box. You could say that to him, nothing is impossible, if you want to become strong, you better have a mindset like that too."

(AN: That's what a lot of fiction does to a person)

Maki and Panda reflected on Gojo's words and Masao, who has been gathering his courage, took the opportunity to ask Gojo.

"G-Gojo-san, can I become as powerful as you?"

Maki and Panda were snapped out of their thought and Gojo just chuckled.

"Well~, that's probably impossible."

Masao became disappointed because of Gojo's words.

"But you can still become strong, just start with smaller goals like gaining complete control over your mirror."

Masao regained his vigor but was also a little embarrassed.

'I was just introduced to the jujutsu world but I'm already dreaming of becoming the strongest and was even losing motivation because it was obviously denied. My determination can't be this weak ever again!'

"Oh, and you can call me Gojo-sensei, from now on you will be enrolled in TJH as a first-year student."

Katsuo and the others had already warned him, but hearing this from someone who could really call the shots felt different.

Masao bowed to Gojo and loudly said.

"Thank you very much, please take care of me."

---

Katsuo and Toge returned to the base to reunite with their teammates and teacher and then went back to TJH, by car, again.

Gojo had taken it upon himself to transport the criminal sorcerers to a prison specialized in detaining sorcerers and to report what happened to the higher-ups, something that he finds deeply annoying, but something that he was willing to tolerate for his students.

When they arrived at TJH, they first settled Masao in and went back to their rooms for a deserved rest.

Even Katsuo just wanted to close his eyes and float off to dreamland, however, he had to recapitalize his actions and thoughts on his first mission, realize his mistakes and good calls, analyze his fights and growth and then use the results to improve himself, so he assumed a meditation position.

This was something that few could do because almost nobody could remember every detail, thought and action he made like Katsuo.

A few hours later he had finished his meditation.

He stood up and could feel the progress he made, be it in strategical planning, martial prowess, and discernment ability.

He laid back on his bed, ready to sleep.

'Even though this mission wasn't very dangerous for me, variables popped up that made its difficulty sky-rocket and the best way to have faced those changes is being powerful enough'

Thinking about that, his thoughts drifted to his Binding Vow.

'Less than two weeks until it ends, I wonder how strong I will be.'

Thought Katsuo as he gradually fell asleep.