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Chapter 80: The Great Interception
In an isolated laboratory beneath Tokyo, Shiho Miyano stared at her coffee, the steam rising like a ghostly shroud.
Though she was a prodigy, she knew the reality of her research. Even with the Diary's guidance, perfecting a stable version of APTX4869 would take years. Every day she spent in this sunless room, the list of names—the "drug trial" deaths—grew longer. Her heart was a battleground of guilt; the Organization had already begun using her creation as a untraceable poison.
Her B-rank commission—investigating the truth behind the Organization—felt like a death trap. She could contact the BOSS via email, but the project was tied so deeply to his personal obsession that any prying would be fatal. Rum, the second-in-command, was just as much of a shadow.
Lately, the Mysterious Person had been dropping hints about the underworld. Shiho had pieced together that the Shinomiya Family—the apex of Japanese capital—knew secrets about this hidden world. If the Organization's BOSS held a status similar to the Shinomiyas before the "Black" shadow fell over him, was the APTX4869 project actually an attempt to reach the extraordinary?
To avoid a larger vortex, Shiho ignored the B-rank. Her eyes stayed on the C+ rank commission: Leaving the Organization.
Her Ripple talent wasn't the highest, but she was disciplined. She maintained the rhythm of Ripple Breathing even while analyzing chemical compounds. Her physical stats were peaking, and she had saved 5 points of Reading Value to act as a danger radar. She knew the facility's security better than anyone. Escaping alone would be simple.
But her sister, Akemi, was the anchor.
If Shiho fled alone, the Organization would dispose of Akemi within the hour. Yet the nightmare from last night—the vision of Akemi's death in a cold alley—screamed that time was running out anyway.
"If the Diary doesn't select my message tonight," Shiho thought, her knuckles whitening as she gripped her mug, "I will have no choice but to beg the other girls for help."
That same afternoon, Kasumi Miwa—or Sannowa Kasumi, as her school records listed her—stepped off the Shinkansen in Tokyo.
She had spent the entire journey staring at her Diary. The passage describing her idol, Satoru Gojo, being defeated by Sukuna still made her blood boil with indignation. Despite her generous budget from Kyoto Jujutsu High, she was already calculating how much she could save for her family's expenses back home.
Walking out of the station, she tucked her Diary into the folds of her mind. She was a Cursed Spirit Master now, and the rules were clear: never reveal the underworld to ordinary people. Violating this meant the death penalty—a concept that made her skin crawl ever since she read Renji Miyauchi's complaints about the Jujutsu world's "backwards" justice system in the Diary.
"I'll observe from a distance first," Miwa decided.
Her mission was delicate. Out of respect for the Shinomiya Family, the Kyoto principal wanted her to scout Kaguya Shinomiya. If the girl had even a spark of talent, Kyoto High would recruit her, securing the Shinomiya's massive wealth for the Jujutsu world.
Miwa felt a twinge of envy. She had classmates who gritted their teeth at the mere mention of a certain student in Tokyo Jujutsu High—a girl who had no innate technique, used special glasses to see curses, and yet fought with such ferocity that she was already Grade 4.
"Envy is a distraction," Miwa muttered, patting her katana. She had taken out a loan to buy this Cursed Tool. She didn't need a fancy lineage; she would become the strongest Grade 1 through sheer New Shadow Style swordsmanship.
But first, she had to find a way to warn Gojo: The King of Curses is coming.
At 3:00 PM, a new update from the Mysterious Person flickered onto the screens of the first-batch Diary holders.
[A Kind Reminder to My Old Readers] I've spent some effort looking into the "Second Batch" of girls who received Diaries last night.
Due to system restrictions, I can't name them. Your Diaries are mutually exclusive—you can't see theirs, and they can't see yours. Don't waste time trying to "show" your screen to find partners.
Instead, use that energy to find them through deduction. Why? Because the second batch can intercept your commissions. If a commission you're considering suddenly fails, it means one of the new girls snatched the reward.
You're Team One. They're Team Two. I'm quite optimistic about you old-timers... don't let me down.
The update hit like a physical blow. In the rooftop garden of Toyosaki High, Utaha Kasumigaoka stared at her phone, her calm facade crumbling.
Intercepted? What if some newcomer tried to poach her "Consultation" commission with Renji Miyauchi? That was her private gold mine!
She had ignored her teacher and walked out of class mid-lecture. The teacher hadn't stopped her—Utaha was the top student; she earned her "eccentric author" privileges.
The chat group was exploding.
Menma: "I'm sticking to D-rank tasks. My ghost body can't handle a competition."
Bocchi: "Wait! If someone intercepts my 'Form a Band' task, will they poach my band members before I even talk to them?! I only have 13 yen... I can't lose my members!"
Black Cat: "Bocchi, calm down. Your band members were named by the Mysterious Person. They are 'yours' by fate. My commissions are all personal, like becoming a VTuber or having dinner with Yukino-senpai at a maid cafe. No one can steal that."
Black Cat posted a screenshot of her completed "Take care of Jerry" task, which was now a satisfied gray.
Kasumi Utako (Utaha): "Don't trust him. The Mysterious Person is a puppet master. He wants us to fight. He told us not to find his information, and now he's pointing us toward these new girls to divert attention. He's probably instigating them in their Diaries right now, telling them to hunt us."
As the group's resident "Anti-Mysterious Person" leader, Utaha's call for unity resonated. But behind the screen, the "Mysterious Person"—Renji—was reading every word.
He sighed, leaning back in his desk in the classroom. "Fatty Kasumi, you're too sharp for your own good."
She was right, of course. He was stirring the pot. He wanted the two batches to compete, to keep them focused on the game rather than on him.
"I'm just providing a little healthy competition," Renji thought with a smirk. "If they're too busy protecting their commissions, they won't have time to notice the boy in the back of the class who seems to know just a little too much."