Chapter 111

As soon as the car door opened, Gojo Satoru practically leaped off, his movements exceptionally light, accompanied by a "whoosh" sound upon landing.

Kazuma Hatori's lips were already pursed.

The streetlights were not bright, and it was even dimmer in the latter half of the night; however, looking up, one could clearly see many stars, while the moon was partially hidden behind the clouds.

A gentle, tranquil, and pleasant atmosphere floats in this space surrounded by night, like sweet milk bubbling with heat.

"Coming to pick you up—"

Even the voice was warm and sweet, echoing under the cool starry sky, as if it were soaked in chestnut cream, sunshine and honey, making people happy just by listening to it.

"Um."

Kazuma Hatori nodded vigorously, his reaction even more joyful than when he received the spell formula.

Whether it's the first or second enlightenment, when it comes to truly important things, I'm always more inclined to "do" rather than "say".

For example, even though he was very worried about Kazuma Hatake's involvement in a Level 1 mission, he didn't mention it at all. He just privately made arrangements with the assistant supervisor, finished his own tasks as quickly as possible, and immediately bought a ticket to rush over.

It was all because I was worried something might happen to him.

Although he would feign amazement and call him a magic idiot, and occasionally utter a few words about black bean shiba, Gojo Satoru always kept an eye on Hagoromo Kazuma in a more subtle way, so that he would not be subjected to accidents or dangers beyond his control.

Sending him magical artifacts is one thing, deliberately offering to help him cheat is another, and making a special trip to Saitama is yet another.

Such enlightenment is always worthy of admiration.

His status as the heir to the three main families, his [six eyes], and his [no limits] are the least important elements in forming the noble personality of this person named "Gojo Satoru".

Even without those lofty statuses and lost their powerful abilities, Kazuma Hato believes that Satoru Gojo will still stay true to himself and do what he believes is right.

Unrivaled military strength and a superior status are external added values, but they are also easier for others to quantify and compare.

If someone decides to love, plot to get close to, and try to possess another simply because they are attracted to someone's strength or status, and then subjectively adds various more obsessive and arrogant negative personality traits to that person based solely on their own conjecture and inferiority complex, and then wallows in self-pity, thinking how much effort and hard work they have put in... that person is simply incredibly foolish and ridiculous.

All the more touching details are buried beneath the unspoken surface, yet they shine like fine gold dust and diamonds, as if the warm sun willingly lowers its head, inviting people to reach out and touch it.

At this moment, those misty blue eyes, like an extension of the clear sky, were gazing at Kazuma Hagoromo, warm and gentle, yet playful and smug.

He was particularly looking forward to the surprise that his sudden appearance would bring to Kazuma Hatake, and was very pleased to see that the latter was indeed very happy—as if he was certain that his outstretched hand would be met with a full response.

Oh my, I really like him so much.

Gojo Satoru smiled and put his arm around Hato Kazuma's shoulder, leading him into the car while poking his face with his other hand.

"You guys took care of both curse masters! That's amazing, absolutely amazing! I just heard the assistant supervisor call me, and I was so nervous I thought it was a distress signal, but it turns out you guys won a great victory!"

Even the white fur sticking up trembled with every step, as if to vividly demonstrate just how happy its owner was.

Xia Youjie put his hands in his pockets, glanced between the two of them for a moment, and then shrugged helplessly.

He kept saying "you guys" but his eyes never left Kazuma Hagoromo, treating him like he was superfluous.

While he was internally complaining, he remained relaxed, even with a slight smile on his lips—which was noticed by Gojo Satoru, who turned his head and waved for him to hurry up and follow, instead of just standing there daydreaming.

"If you don't get in a minute, you'll have to take a taxi back to the hotel yourself, Jay!"

The sunglasses were pushed up, revealing a pair of azure eyes that curved into a cheerful smile, and Gojo Satoru's pronunciation was full of teasing.

"What? Ming Wucai is someone who has absolutely nothing to do with this mission?"

Xia Youjie lifted his leg and followed, his tone equally light as he retorted, echoing in the gentle night breeze.

"How could you just leave the person in charge of the mission behind? Be careful, or I'll go back and tell Teacher Moth on you."

"Oh no—I'm so scared!"

Gojou Natsume made a face, showing no sign of being intimidated by his threat.

Of course, he couldn't actually leave Xia Youjie outside the car; it was just a joking way of urging him on.

“I knew Jay was lying.”

Kazuma Hatori casually replied, even joking with Natsumi Yuuki—Gojo Satoru immediately gave Natsumi Yuuki a look that said, "Who told him to have someone backing him up?" His smugness was almost overflowing.

"Ichima, you..."

Xia Youjie was momentarily speechless after being choked by Gojo Satoru, and immediately retorted to Hato Kazuma.

"Have you forgotten the question I asked you? I wouldn't mind repeating it again."

He was just asking when those two would get together, why would he be afraid to ask again in front of Gojo Satoru? The one who's feeling guilty is someone else.

Kazuma Hatake was immediately knocked out: "..."

Gojo Satoru blinked curiously: "Hmm? What is it?"

"No...it's nothing."

Just moments ago, Kazuma Hato had said he wouldn't hide anything from Satoru, but now he's become, in Satoru Gojo's eyes, an incredibly dense and stammering black Shiba Inu.

Gojo Satoru was puzzled.

Five points to understand in a second.

This kid... could it be that he was thinking about when to confess his feelings to him, but Jay found out first, so he got shy?

He had just been curious about the reaction of sitting up straight, but immediately changed to raising one hand to rest on the back of the chair and slumping back into the back seat.

He even disregarded the cramped seating space inside the car and insisted on crossing his legs, sticking them out one after the other.

Those azure eyes fell upon Kazuma Hato's profile, bright and round, as if they contained the entire bright and splendid summer.

It's almost time. Really, does he really think that with his clever and witty mind, he wouldn't be able to discover his sweet little thoughts?

Even the posts on that forum started to go strange!

To be precise, a separate section was created specifically to discuss him and Ichima. The number of active users there is much less than when the interview was first released, since he and Ichima haven't appeared in public for a long time and there's nothing to discuss.

But at the same time, many wonderful creators have emerged in the section.

He's recently come across a lot of articles posted on it, some of which start with "AU" or "IF". It took him a while to figure out that these are all based on him and Yizhen as the main characters, and various stories are created using their imaginations.

There was also an adult section that was both nerve-wracking and inexplicably anticipated, but he had never registered an account and when he clicked on it, it showed that he did not have permission to view it.

It's gotten to the point where he's been hesitating lately about whether he should just register an account...

But considering that he was not yet 18 years old and would probably not be able to log in even if he registered, Gojo Satoru temporarily gave up the idea.

In short, what he was trying to say was that relationships on the forum progress much faster than in real life!

Now that Jay has exposed her again, shouldn't she realize it by now? She clearly likes him so much.

Well done, Jay! I'll treat you to ice cream when we get back!

Gojo Satoru grew happier and happier as he thought about it. He propped his head up and hummed out one, two, three, four, and even more lively notes from his throat.

It was a melody picked up casually, yet it was light and free. Every note leaped in the rapidly passing night scene, causing Kazuma Hatake, who was originally lost in thought, to turn around and stare intently at the only person he cared about in this game.

Although he didn't know why the handsome little Go was suddenly so happy, Kazuma Hatori wanted him to stay happy like this forever.

That's the only reason he played through the game a second time.

You're laughing?

Gojo Satoru suddenly spoke up—the melody had stopped sometime earlier, and his blue eyes were fixed on Hato Kazuma, a pleasant smile curving his lips.

"He's keeping a little secret (that I already knew) from me, and he seems pretty happy about it."

Sitting in the passenger seat, Xia Youjie turned his head outward, pretending to be staring blankly at the scenery outside the car, but in reality, he was trying his best to catch the sounds from the back seat.

Kazuma Hatori coughed lightly: "I didn't."

"No?"

"Um…"

"Um--?"

"…Um."

Xia Youjie silently rolled his eyes as he listened to this repetitive conversation.

Sigh, he's really getting impatient with all of this.

…………

Because it was late and it was uncertain how long it would take for Kazuma Hatake and Suguru Natsuyu to complete their mission, the assistant director booked a hotel nearby in advance.

Three rooms.

Kazuma Hatori, Suguru Natsuyu, and the assistant director each have their own room.

Gojo Satoru, who arrived at the last minute, didn't get a share.

The assistant supervisor looked at Gojo Satoru and was about to say, "I'll go book another room right now," when he suddenly felt something tug at his clothes, and he stumbled to the side. The words he was about to say were swallowed back down.

"Oh well, there's just no way around it."

Gojo Satoru put his hands behind his back, blocking the gesture he was using to perform [Azure], and deliberately put on an innocent and helpless expression.

"I'll reluctantly share a room with Ichima!"

The voice sounded happy, not at all like someone reluctantly doing something.

Anyway, when he took Kazuma Hatake back to the Gojo family for summer vacation, they slept in the same bedroom, only with two separate quilts—it wasn't much different from the current situation.

Kazuma Hatori readily agreed: "Okay."

Xia Youjie took the room key and left immediately, and everyone seemed to have tacitly forgotten that they could book another room.

In the blink of an eye, only the assistant supervisor remained standing in place, scratching his head in confusion.

No wonder they were classmates... their friendship is really good.

As soon as the door to the room was opened, Gojo Satoru, who had rushed to Saitama overnight, couldn't wait to pounce on the single bed and sprawl out in a limp, sprawling position.

"Traveling is so tiring..."

His face was buried in the blankets, and even his complaints were muffled into muffled murmurs.

But this feeling only lasted for two seconds before it completely dissipated. He tilted his head and started discussing with Kazuma Hatake again where they were going to go tomorrow.

"Let's finish our cold udon noodles before we go back! I've heard the cold udon noodles in Saitama are amazing!"

"OK."

Hagoromo Kazuma naturally followed Gojo Satoru's wishes.

"Oh, and there's also Kawagoe pudding and crispy crackers, let's go buy some to take home!"

Gojo Satoru pulled out his phone and searched, finding a famous local specialty dessert. "I want a little bit of every flavor!"

"good."

Kazuma Hatori carefully noted it down, then opened the storage cabinet in the single room, only to find that there was no second set of bedding for them to sleep separately.

Kazuma Hatake: "..."

Indeed, this inn is not the kind of traditional Japanese inn where everyone can just lay out a futon on the tatami mat and sleep, so naturally they don't provide extra futons.

This means he'll have to sleep in...the same bed with Wu?

Kazuma Hatori turned his gaze and met Souhime's eyes, who was looking in their direction.

She even winked at him playfully.

"…………"

Kazuma Hatori suddenly felt himself starting to get nervous.

His heartbeat became incredibly rapid, and even his lips were silently pursed—from Gojo Satoru's perspective, he seemed rather helpless.

Those already delighted blue eyes suddenly took on a slightly mischievous tinge.

"What are you daydreaming about, Kazuma?"

Gojo Satoru slowly said, "I'm waiting for you to take a bath. Hurry up, there's so much residual curse energy wrapped around you that it's about to drown you."

One glance is enough to roughly guess just how intense the battle was.

Being able to defeat such a troublesome enemy shows that Ichijin has indeed grown a lot.

Ah, although it's nicknamed "Black Bean Wood" by him, it will never be removed casually.

Gojo Satoru secretly chuckled to himself, but on the surface, he still had to urge Hatori Kazuma to take a bath, absolutely not giving him the chance to try to book another room to sleep.

More precisely, this was his chance to give the other person a chance to strike while the iron was hot and quickly express their feelings!

Just as he was about to suggest booking another room, Kazuma Hatori was urged to go into the bathroom. After taking turns showering with Satoru Gojo, they lay down together on the 1.2-meter-wide single bed.

The lights were off, and the thick, light-blocking curtains were drawn. The only sound in this small, enclosed space was their soft breathing. The tranquility seemed to stretch out into eternity, forming its own universe.

For two tall fifteen or sixteen-year-old boys, sleeping on this bed is indeed a bit cramped.

Especially the beautiful Xiao Wu, I don't know what she ate to grow up like that, she is nearly 1.9 meters tall at the age of 15.

Kazuma Hatake wasn't much shorter than him, and the need to be careful to prevent the two of them from actually touching made him feel extremely awkward lying on the bed.

In particular, just before this mission, Xia Youjie said that Wu and he had already fallen for each other to the point of... that kind of relationship.

Lying in the dark room with his eyes open, Kazuma Hatori felt his whole body slowly heating up.

This wasn't the first time he'd shared a bed with Wu, but it was the most nerve-wracking one.

The bed assigned to the college teachers' dormitory was also very crowded. They were even closer together than they were now, their breaths mingling intimately, like one breeze merging into another.

But the Satoru at this moment is the second Satoru, and he is only 15 years old... There is still more than a month until his 16th birthday.

Kazuma Hatori couldn't sleep at all; his mind was filled with all sorts of wild thoughts.

"Ichijin".

In the extremely quiet environment, Gojo Satoru suddenly spoke, calling his name.

Unlike the first playthrough where Satoru could only call him "Kamo," this playthrough's Satoru pronounced his name very clearly.

Kazuma Hatake's heart skipped a beat, and even his response became slightly delayed.

"I am here?"

You seem very nervous.

In this absolute darkness where neither side could see the other, only Gojo Satoru's voice could be heard softly rising, its tone slightly hoarse from puberty, yet rising at the end with a cheerful tone, as if it were drilling into Kazuma Hatori's heart, tickling him.

"What's wrong? Is this your first time sleeping with someone? No experience?"

It even sounded a bit sarcastic.

Kazuma Hatori paused for a moment, then subconsciously asked, "Satoru has slept with other people?"

"Hey, is this the key point?"

Gojo Satoru's voice became even happier, and he even laughed a little, which made Hatori Kazuma's heart beat even faster. "If you're talking about sleeping together, of course we have."

Kazuma Hatori's heart jumped into his throat instantly—

"I slept with my wet nurse when I was little."

Gojo Satoru slowly uttered the second half of his sentence, which made Hatori Kazuma's heart pound again, a false alarm.

...Wait a minute, he shouldn't be nervous about something like this, right?

At this moment, Kazuma Hatake's rationality belatedly kicked in, causing him to feel a little annoyed.

"Large families still have these outdated rules passed down from ancient times. The chosen heir is taken away from his birth mother at a young age and cared for by a wet nurse. Not to mention that my parents, whether as sorcerers or members of the clan, are not of high rank or status, making it even more difficult for them to interfere in my education."

Having successfully tricked Hagoromo Kazuma, Gojo Satoru chuckled silently before explaining to him.

"The one who took care of me, though called a wet nurse, was actually a high-level sorcerer. In addition to protecting my safety, she also taught me a lot of miscellaneous things, such as etiquette, rules, people, and sorcery... basically everything, until I was able to protect myself."

After all, he was burdened with a huge bounty from birth, and it kept accumulating year after year.

Kazuma Hatori listened quietly until the very end before finally asking him a question.

"Don't you feel tired?"

Gojo's life in the first half could hardly be described as free.

"It's not so bad if you're talking about hard work," Gojo Satoru chuckled. "I'm not going to follow every order to the letter. Even when I was a kid, I often skipped work and ran off to play."

What games will they play?

"I just wander around, sometimes standing in front of shop windows to watch TV programs, or flipping through popular magazines displayed at the entrance of bookstores."

Gojo Satoru thought about it and realized that he didn't have much entertainment back then.

Moreover, he was extremely unhappy that his family planned out every minute of his time so meticulously, leaving him with almost no personal time. Therefore, he usually had a sour face during his wanderings.

Anyway, I'm going to go against those old men in my family.

When Kazuma Hatori heard this, he found it both funny and a little heartbreaking that Satoru had been so strictly controlled in the past.

"I believe they can't do it now."

"Yes, I even heard them praise the Zen family's designated heir for being steady and powerful, and so on,"

Gojo Satoru curled his lip and let out a disdainful chuckle. "But when I saw you the other day, you also dyed your hair and wore earrings, with an arrogant look on your face as if you were here to feel superior, but you were scared to death the moment you saw me."

Kazuma Hatake also chuckled a little.

Not only that, last week he beat this foul-mouthed guy to near death and forced him to apologize to Wutu.

"That's right, no one can compare to Wu."

He replied in a serious tone, causing Gojo Satoru to turn his gaze and, in the darkness, accurately point it towards Hato Kazuma.

"Is this what you really think?"

"Um."

“Then,” Gojo asked knowingly, “I’m a little curious, what was that ‘problem’ that Jay said he could reiterate today?”

Kazuma Hatake: "…………"

Gojo Satoru: "Hmm?"

Hatori Kazuma: "Ahem..."

Gojo Satoru: "It's hard to fool me. Besides, there are only the two of us left in this room, so you have nowhere to hide—ah, are you trying to fob me off with 'I'm going to sleep' or 'I don't remember what the problem was'?"

Kazuma Hatake: "…………"

All the excuses I could come up with were blocked by the other party.

But asking him to honestly recount the events of the first and second playthroughs... putting aside whether he could even bring himself to say it, pretty Xiaowu would never believe that this world is just a game and that he is an NPC within it.

It would be fine to tell him directly, "I already have someone I like," but if he keeps pressing for the name—

"Gojo Enlightenment".

What's the difference between this and just a roundabout way of confessing your feelings...?

Kazuma Hatori silently raised his forearm to shield his face, already feeling extremely conflicted and caught in a dilemma.

But the beautiful Xiao Wu, who had planned this all along, persisted relentlessly, even turning her body slightly to get closer to him—

"What's wrong,"

Then, Kazuma Hatake heard Satoru Gojo chuckle softly, his breath warm and ambiguous as he enunciated each word, brushing against his earlobe, which was already burning hot to the extreme.

"Is it that hard to answer, Kazuma?"

At this moment, what was emanating from Gojo Satoru was not only the scent of the cheap shower gel provided by the hotel, but also his unusually high body temperature.

They were so close that Kazuma Hatake was momentarily distracted and subconsciously answered, "No."

After a brief pause following that reply, Gojo Satoru heard what followed.

“I promised you Mont Blanc,” Kazuma Hatake said. “I’ll tell you the result when I cook it for you, okay?”

Unable to say no at this point, he could only deceive himself and postpone the time.

I'll drag it out as long as I can...

But Gojo Satoru wasn't some fool who would be led by the nose. He immediately poked Hatori Kazuma's face with his little finger and bent it.

"Let's set it for my birthday then, pinky promise!"

Pinky promise... He and Satoru from the first timeline made the same promise.

Kazuma Hatori silently raised his hand, and in the darkness, his little finger precisely hooked onto Satoru Gojo's finger, then shook it up and down before letting go.

"When that day comes, you won't have any more excuses to fool me."

Gojo Satoru spoke with a smile, his voice echoing softly in this boundless universe comprised of only the two of them.

"Until then, I'll let you off the hook for now."