Jujutsu Kaisen: I have everything I need now!

Chapter 136 Missing

The sea was calm and peaceful.

Yigu stood on the bridge of the command ship, with three spell power monitoring devices on the folding table in front of him.

The one on the left is responsible for tracking Gojo Satoru's spell power fluctuations, the one in the middle is locked onto the spell frequency of the new moon in December, and the one on the far right is a communicator.

All three instruments are working properly, and data transmission is stable.

That was the case at least three minutes ago.

"Mr. Yigu".

Ichichi's voice came from behind.

"The communications team said that the last transmission they received was from a depth of 9,800 meters underwater."

"So far, there has been no new information."

Yigu shifted his gaze from the screen and glanced at the clock in the corner of the bridge.

Forty-seven minutes and twelve seconds.

As planned, the next communication window will be exactly one hour later.

If no signal is received by that time, the emergency plan will be activated.

But the problem now is that the signal is not gradually weakening.

It resets to zero in an instant.

"Enlarge the waveform of the last thirty seconds."

Ijichi walked over and operated the instrument on the left for a few moments.

The blue curve on the screen was stretched tenfold.

The sacrum stares at the end.

In the last second, Gojo Satoru's spell power waveform experienced an extremely violent peak jump, almost reaching the upper limit of the instrument's measurement range.

Then, a straight line.

"What about the one on the first day of December?"

Iji switched the intermediate instrument.

The ends of the warm-colored waveforms are even more interesting.

The line experienced seven high-frequency oscillations in the last two seconds.

The frequency increases from low to high, and the amplitude increases gradually.

It was as if something was forcing him to ignite all the talismans in one go.

Then it's also a straight line.

Yi Gu tapped his finger lightly on the table.

Bridge deck.

Zhenyi sat on an ammunition box, with the Black Queen lying across her knees.

Her movements were slow; she pushed a piece of velvet from the base of the barrel forward to the muzzle, then stopped, and started again from the butt of the gun.

She has repeated this action countless times since she boarded the ship.

Huzhang, who was standing next to her, glanced at her several times, opened his mouth twice, but in the end, he didn't say anything.

Kugizaki spoke first.

"If you keep rubbing it, you'll wear down the barrel."

"What's it to you?"

-

Kugizaki shrugged, leaned against the railing, and gazed at the undulating sea in the distance.

The midday sun made the seawater appear white, but looking down, the water was a deep, inky blue just a few meters below.

The thought that December 1st and Gojo Satoru were thousands or even tens of thousands of meters below this dark blue expanse sent chills down Kugisaki's spine.

"Beep beep—"

—"

Two short electronic beeps came from the direction of the bridge.

Mai paused for a moment, and Itadori and the others all turned to look in the direction of the bridge.

A few seconds later, Ichiji poked half of his body out of the hatch.

"Communication signals have been lost."

silence.

Zhenyi folded up the velvet cloth, took the Black Queen off her knees, and leaned it against her shoulder.

"How long has it been?"

"About three minutes."

"What about the next communication window?"

"Thirteen minutes later."

Zhenyi nodded and didn't say anything more.

Itadori clenched his fist and then relaxed it. He glanced at Kugizaki, then at Mai, his face showing an expression that said something but knew it would be pointless.

Kugizaki was quite direct.

"Gojo-sensei and December." She twirled a nail between her fingers. "If even the two of them can't handle it, then we're just going to be cannon fodder."

Time passed by, second by second.

All three instruments on the bridge remained in a straight line.

Yi Gu's gaze moved back and forth between the three screens, his fingers occasionally swiping across the tablet to retrieve the sonar video archive of the shipwreck graveyard.

Ijichi stood behind him, her lips pressed into a thin line.

-

The scheduled communication window has arrived.

Yi Gu pressed the transmit button on the communicator.

"Gojo-sensei, please reply upon receipt."

"Whoosh!"

"Teacher Gojo".

"6

""

"Please reply upon receipt in December."

Yigu pressed and held the fire button for a full ten seconds before releasing it.

Only the low-frequency hum of the instruments running could be heard in the bridge.

"Three more minutes."

Ichiji glanced at him and nodded.

"5

'

"Two more minutes."

"5

""

Yi Gu lifted his finger from the table and paused in mid-air.

He stared at the three flat lines on the screen, then turned his gaze to the sea outside the window. Sunlight shone on the water, reflecting countless tiny sparkles of light.

It's no different from what it was a few minutes ago.

It was as if nothing had happened beneath this seabed.

"Let them in."

Explain the situation.

Zhenyi held the Black Queen and looked at Yigu.

Itadori and Kugizaki stood at the very back, while Fushiguro Megumi leaned against the bulkhead.

"Both individuals' vital signs and communication signals disappeared simultaneously at a depth of approximately 10,000 meters underwater. Based on waveform analysis, it is not an equipment malfunction; the current assessment is that it was caused by an external factor."

"Bazaar?"

"We can't rule out the possibility that it was her." Yigu pushed the tablet to the middle of the table, and the screen displayed a comparison of two sets of end waveforms. "Gojo-sensei's spell power surged in the last second—this means that he sensed the threat before the signal disappeared and instantly increased his output without any limits."

He pointed to the warm-colored wave pattern in the middle.

"The frequency of the runes in December is even more noteworthy. There were seven consecutive oscillations in the last two seconds, with the frequency increasing. He was activating multiple runes simultaneously."

There was a moment of silence on the bridge.

"Shall we go down now?" Huzhang took a step forward.

"No."

The sound of the sacrum is very flat.

"According to the established plan, no action will be taken within 30 minutes of losing contact."

Huzhang stopped in his tracks.

"Thirty minutes?"

"right."

"but""

"Polygonum cuspidatum"

Yi Gu raised his head and looked at him calmly.

"At a depth of 10,000 meters underwater, if Gojo-sensei and December wanted to escape, they wouldn't need anyone's help. The fact that this depth could trap both of them indicates that something unexpected happened below."

"Diving blindly at this time is tantamount to sending rescue forces into a trap as well."

Huzhang opened his mouth slightly, but ultimately swallowed his words.

Zhenyi didn't speak, but she slowly tapped the butt of the Black Queen's gun twice with her fingers.

Fushiguro leaned against the bulkhead, her eyes closed.

"Fu Hei".

Yi Gu called out to him.

"Can your shikigami reach that level?"

'

Fushiguro was silent for about two seconds.

"The Masked General's body should be able to withstand the pressure of the deep sea."

He paused.

"But I'm not sure if it can maintain its existence within the realm of laws."

"No," said Yigu. "What I need is a means of transportation. A means of transportation that can safely transport people to a depth of 10,000 meters."

Fushiguro understood what he meant.

"Yes, but you can only bring one person."

Yi Gu's gaze shifted to Zhen Yi.

Zhenyi met his gaze.

"I know what you're going to say."

"able."

Zhenyi shifted the position of the butt of the gun on her shoulder. "Although water resistance is much greater than air resistance, the Black Queen doesn't use gunpowder, but shadow energy. As long as the target is large enough and the distance is close enough, penetration power is not a problem."

Yi Gu nodded.

He glanced at the clock.

Eleven minutes have passed since contact was lost.

Nineteen minutes left.

"Here's the arrangement. If there's still no signal after thirty minutes, Fushiguro will take Mayi and dive down. The objective isn't rescue, but to find the boundary of the area and create an opening from the outside."

Fushiguro Megumi straightened up from the bulkhead. His shadow slowly spread out from his feet, casting a small patch of ink on the bridge floor.

A bronze-colored face vaguely emerged in the center of the shadow.

Masked General.

It did not fully reveal itself, but merely flickered in the shadows, turning its expressionless metal mask as if responding to Fushiguro Megumi's will.

"It's ready," said Fukuhiro.

Bone looked at the clock again.

Fourteen minutes.

Sixteen minutes left.

No one spoke again on the bridge.

At the twenty-ninth minute, Yi Gu pressed the communication button one last time.

"December, Mr. Gojo. If you can hear me—we're coming down."

,

""

"Set off."