Kaiya didn't go with Satoru, Itadori, and Megumi to go pick up the third first year because... well... She slept through it. She didn't meet the third first year, Kugisaki Nobara, until later in the day when she was fully rested and willing to interact with people.
Two weeks later, Kaiya stood beside Ijichi Kiyotaka. Ijichi looked up at the dark sky and back down at Kaiya who had her eyes locked on the juvie center in front of them. Kaiya grabbed the hair tie on her wrist and tied her hair up. "Are you sure you'll be able to do this?" Ijichi asked.
"Yeah, I'm trained for this," Kaiya said, taking her sunglasses off of her face. "Can you hold this?" She asked, holding her sunglasses to Ijichi.
"Sure," He replied, taking the sunglasses from her hand.
"I'm allowed to leave bodies behind, right?" Kaiya asked suddenly. Ijichi looked at her, shocked. "Uh..." He hesitated.
"If you don't give me a straight answer, I'm not bringing anything back."
"Yes," Ijichi answered, "You are allowed to. But may I ask why you're leaving them behind?"
"Well one, it's too dangerous for me to potentially carry at least one dead body while a special grade is around. What if I run into it? The dead body will only slow me down," Kaiya explained, "And secondly, I don't rescue criminals."
"Shinimi-senpai?" A familiar voice asked. Kaiya turned around and was met with the three first years standing behind her.
"What the hell are you three doing here?" Kaiya asked.
"We were put on this mission," Megumi replied.
"No, I was put on this mission," Kaiya retorted.
"But..." Megumi began.
"You know I'm stronger at night and I'm trained to take on special grades. You three aren't." Kaiya argued.
"Special grades?" Megumi and Kugisaki asked at the same time. "There's a special grade involved?" Megumi questioned.
"There are five detainees in the center with a curse womb," Ijichi explained, "If the cursed womb is the type that metamorphoses, we predict it'll become a special grade curse spirit."
"Hey, so... I still don't really get what a special grade means," Itadori spoke up. Megumi sighed.
"I'll explain it so even idiots can understand," Ijichi said, "First, there's grade 4. A wooden bat is enough for them. Grade 3. If you have a handgun, you can rest easy. Grade 2. It'll be close enough with a shotgun. Grade 1. Even a tank may be insufficient. Then there's special grade. Let's just say you might be on even footing if you carpet bomb it with cluster bombs."
"That's real bad!" Itadori exclaimed.
"Normally a Jujutsu Sorcerer on par with the cursed spirit would take the mission. On a day like today, it would be Gojou-sensei," Megumi added. He looked at Kaiya, "I'm guessing that you're the sorcerer to replace Gojou-sensei?"
"Yeah, since he's away on business, I'm taking his place on this mission." Kaiya replied, "Satoru-san doesn't bring me on his missions so that the higher-ups can send me in as his replacement on these kinds of missions if needed."
"I-I see..." Itadori mumbled under his breath.
"Unfortunately, we're constantly short-handed in this business," Ijichi continued, "You'll often have to take on missions beyond your power."
"Which is exactly why I'm here," Kaiya interjected, "You three don't have to be here. I can handle this."
"What if you need backup?" Itadori asked.
"No offense, but an amateur and two first years aren't really back up." Kaiya argued, "It's too dangerous, I'm not risking your lives. All I have to do is verify the survivors."
"We can do that," Itadori argued back.
"And if you encounter a special grade!?" Kaiya asked. "Can you honestly say you can fight a special grade!?" Megumi, Kugisaki, and Itadori went quiet and looked down at the ground.
"That's what I--" Kaiya said.
"Excuse me!!" A woman yelled from the gate, "Excuse me, where's Tadashi!?"
"Stop! Stay back!" A guard ordered, keeping her from going any farther.
"Is Tadashi... Is my son Tadashi alright!?" The woman asked.
Itadori watched the woman with tears in his eyes. Ijichi stepped in front of Itadori and looked over his shoulder at him, "She was a guardian who was here for a visit."
"Please step away," Ijichi said, now speaking to the woman, "There is a possibility that someone has spread poisonous gas throughout the center. We cannot share any more details at the time."
The woman put her hands over her face and went down on her knees, crying, "Why? Why is this happening?"
Itadori turned to Kaiya, "Please, Shinimi-san, let us come with you!" He practically begged her. Kaiya looked away from him and sighed.
"Hmm... Fine!" She caved, looking back at Itadori, "But you three have to listen to every word I say and don't do anything stupid, got it!?"
Megumi, Kugisaki, and Itadori nodded their heads in understanding.
----
As Kaiya and the three first years walked toward Block 2 where the cursed womb was, Ijichi told them to be careful and put up his Veil. Itadori looked up at the sky as the Veil began forming over the center.
"What is that?" Itadori asked.
"It's a Veil," Megumi answered, "There's a residential area nearby, so this barrier conceals us from the outside world."
"That's incredible!" Itadori smiled, looking around.
"Ignorant," Kugisaki commented.
Megumi summoned his white Divine Dog from his shadow. Once the dog fully formed, it howled. "He'll let us know if the curse gets close," Megumi said.
"Oh, I see," Itadori replied, approaching the dog. "Good boy, good boy! We're counting on you, okay?" Itadori said, petting the dog.
Kaiya opened the doors leading into the center. The dog moved past her and went inside first. "You guys go," Kaiya said. Megumi, Itadori, and Kugisaki went inside after the dog and Kaiya followed them in.
A few steps in, Kaiya looked up and saw how distorted the building was. "Hold on!" Kaiya shouted, stopping the first years in their tracks. Megumi looked up and the other two followed his lead.
"What is this?" Kugisaki asked.
"What's going on in here?" Itadori also asked, "This is a two-story dorm, isn't it?"
"Calm down..." Kugisaki said, more to herself than anything, "It's a maisonette."
"No, it's not," Kaiya spoke up. Megumi and the others looked back at her. "This is a domain. It's incomplete though, we should be fine."
She's still calm in a situation like this? Megumi asked mentally, I've never seen a domain this big before.
Kaiya looked back at the entrance and saw the door was gone. Typical. Kaiya thought to herself. Should've seen that coming.
The first years followed her eyes and were met with the same discovery she made. "The door's gone!" Itadori exclaimed in surprise.
"How!? We just came through there, didn't we?!" Kugisaki asked, panicked.
"What do we do?" Itadori and Kugisaki asked together.
"It'll be fine," Megumi said, "The dog remembers the smell of the entrance."
Kugisaki and Itadori began petting the dog and smiling. "Good boy!" Kugisaki yelled, "Have all the jerky you want!"
"Focus!" Kaiya snapped at both of them. Kugisaki and Itadori looked at her, "We don't have time for this," Kaiya continued, "Let's go."
The four of them continued on deeper into the center. They eventually ended up in an open room and discovered three dead bodies. "Atrocious," Kugisaki commented.
"That's... three people, right?" Megumi asked.
Kaiya turned away from the three of them and looked around the area. Itadori went to check the name tag of the body and read "Okazaki Tadashi". Itadori realized that this was the Tadashi that the woman at the gate was asking about.
"Let's take this body back," Itadori spoke.
"Huh?" Kugisaki asked.
"It's that woman's son," Itadori added, "His face isn't too badly mangled. His mother won't accept it if we tell her he's dead and we don't have a body."
Megumi grabbed the back of Itadori's collar and pulled him away from the body. Kaiya looked back over her shoulder at the first years. "We have to find and verify two more," Megumi told him, "Leave that body behind."
"We turned around and the way we got in here was gone!" Itadori argued, "We won't be able to come back for it later!"
"I didn't say to come back for it! I said to leave it behind!" Megumi argued back, "I have no intention of risking my life for someone I had no intention of saving in the first place!"
"I don't either," Kaiya spoke up. The first years turned to look at her.
Itadori turned his body to grab Megumi's collar, "You had no intention of saving him? What do you mean!?"
"This is a juvenile detention center," Megumi said, "Jujutsu Sorcerers are granted access to all information about the scene beforehand."
"That is Okazaki Tadashi," Megumi continued, "He hit a little girl on her way home from school while driving without a license."
"It was his second offense of driving without a license," Kaiya spoke. I'm surprised you did your homework, Megumi. Kaiya added mentally. Kaiya looked down at the ground and saw a black portal forming at her feet. She gasped and disappeared into the ground.
"I know you're stuck on saving lots of people and guiding them to proper deaths. But what are you going to do when someone you save kills someone in the future?" Megumi continued.
"Then why did you bother saving me!?" Itadori asked.
"Cut it out!" Kugisaki shouted, "Christ, what are you two doing?! You're both idiots! Think about the time and place if you--" Kugisaki was cut off when a portal appeared below her feet and sucked her in.
Itadori and Megumi let go of each other and looked in Kugisaki's direction. "Kugisaki?" Itadori asked.
Megumi stared at the ground in a state of shock. "Shinimi-sen--" Megumi looked up to find Kaiya was also gone. No way, Megumi spoke to himself, the Divine Dog would've sensed the... Megumi looked up and saw the head of the Divine Dog was on the wall, blood surrounding it.
"Itadori!" Megumi shouted, "We're running! We'll search for Kugisaki and Shinimi-senpai la--" Megumi and Itadori suddenly felt a presence next to them.
Standing beside them was a cursed spirit. A special grade cursed spirit. Both of them were frozen in place, too paralyzed with fear to move.
Meanwhile, Kaiya found herself in a dark and empty room. Kaiya felt the presence of a curse and turned, her scythe forming in her hand. She looked around and saw she was surrounded by a countless number of curses that looked like large rats.
"Damn..." Kaiya mumbled as black markings began appearing on her hand and ran along her wrist and her arm.
At the same time, Megumi had escaped from the special grade curse, leaving Itadori behind until he could get out with Kugisaki and Kaiya so Itadori could swap out with Sukuna. Megumi summoned his second Divine Dog from his shadow.
"Find Kugisaki!" Megumi ordered.
In another room, Kugisaki was outnumbered and overpowered by the curses she fought. She was currently being held upside down by her legs in front of a mushroom-looking curse. "I know your face now," Kugisaki said, "I swear I'll curse you!"
The curse was about to eat her when a long tongue grabbed her and pulled her away. Then, a giant snake bit into the curse. The tongue brought Kugisaki into the mouth of a large frog. "We're escaping, Kugisaki!" Megumi said.
"I hate frogs, you know..." Kugisaki replied.
"Yeah, well, sorry!" Megumi retorted.
Megumi and Kugisaki escaped from the room and ran down the hall to find Kaiya. "Find Shinimi-senpai!" Megumi told the black Divine Dog.
The Divine Dog led Megumi and Kugisaki to another room, not far from where Megumi found Kugisaki. Megumi opened the doors and gasped at the sight inside. Kugisaki widened her eyes in surprise as well.
Kaiya was standing on top of a pile of large rat-looking curses and held a large black bug-looking creature in her hand. Blue blood was splattered on the floor, probably from the curses. The scythe she had in her hand originally was gone now but the markings on her skin remained.
The markings had made their way up her neck, just peaking past the collar of her uniform. Her uniform jacket was tied around her waist and the sleeves of her white button-down shirt were rolled up to her elbows.
She closed her hand around the bug, it squealed in pain and black blood spilled from its neck and onto her hand. Megumi watched as the blood ran down her arm in a pattern similar to the markings on her other hand. She rolled her fingers, cracking her knuckles.
Something feels off, Megumi thought to himself, It almost feels... Evil.
"Glad you found me, Megumi," Kaiya said, turning around and jumping off of the pile of corpses. The markings were now slowly disappearing since there wasn't any more danger. "I hate rats," She mumbled.
There's not a single scratch on her, Megumi observed.
"Where's Itadori-kun?" Kaiya asked.
"We have to escape so he can swap out with Sukuna," Megumi answered.
"You left him alone with a special grade!?" Kaiya exclaimed.
"Yell at me later, we don't have time for this!" Megumi argued.
Kaiya nodded and the three of them made a run for the exit. Once they got there, they met up with Ijichi. Kaiya helped Ijichi tend to Kugisaki's wounds as Megumi sat down on the stairs. The black Divine Dog howled loudly to hopefully give Itadori a signal that they were out and okay.
Shortly after, Megumi and Kaiya were by the gate and Ijichi was in his car with Kugisaki in the backseat. Ijichi was in the process of lowering his Veil.
"Please expand the evacuation area to ten kilometers," Megumi said to Ijichi.
"What about you?" Ijichi asked.
"I'll wait here for Itadori to return. I'll be with Shinimi-senpai the whole time." Megumi replied. Kaiya nodded at Ijichi to tell him it was okay with her.
"I see. After I take Kugisaki-san to the hospital, I'll return as quickly as possible." Ijichi said.
"No, there wouldn't be much point in you staying here," Megumi countered.
"If you wanna do something, please ask them to send over a sorcerer grade 1 or higher." Kaiya spoke up, "I might need more backup just in case something bad happens. I'm not as strong as I was earlier since I used some of my cursed energy to take out the curses I fought."
"I'll do what I can. Later." Ijichi said before rolling up his window and driving off.
Megumi and Kaiya patiently waited at the gate for Itadori to return. Kaiya and Megumi both felt a shift and the absence of the special grade's presence. "The domain is closed off, the special grade must've died," Kaiya spoke.
"Now we just need Itadori to return safely," Megumi replied. However, Kaiya felt another presence behind them. Kaiya grabbed Megumi and swiftly pulled him away. Megumi gasped in surprise and noticed he was now sitting on the ground behind Kaiya.
Kaiya was looking around cautiously, her arm out protectively like she was a mother cat trying to defend her kittens. "I know you're there!" Kaiya shouted.
"Shinimi--"
"--Shh." Kaiya shushed softly.
"You're good," Sukuna spoke, coming out of the shadows, "That's what I expected from a Reaper."
"Sukuna..." Kaiya spoke, her voice laced with venom.