Chapter 42

The sunglasses that were the same style as those worn by Gojo Satoru were eventually added to Hato Kazuma's inventory and carefully kept.

This is a return gift from the beautiful Daigo; it can practically be considered a token of their love!

Just one glance is enough to send your happiness level soaring.

However, as a substitute teacher, Kazuma Hatori actually spent less time with Satoru Gojo than before.

After all, if he went with Gojo every time he had a mission, then the position of "substitute teacher" would be meaningless—even if the only first-year student right now is Fushiguro Megumi, at least there are students.

Therefore, during normal teaching hours, whenever Gojo Satoru is away on a business trip, Hagoromo Kazuma has to stay at school.

I'm very resentful, but there's nothing I can do; he got the substitute teacher position himself...

Fortunately, Gojo Satoru would occasionally send over some photos along with a few messages, such as "[There's a tanuki statue at the entrance of this shop!]", or "[I ordered a non-alcoholic drink at an izakaya and the bartender gave me a strange look]", or "[Aren't the camellias here super pretty? Look, look!]"

The end of each message is always accompanied by emoticons made up of various symbols, which is very enjoyable to read. You can imagine how cute and soft-spoken Daigo is when he says these words.

I should have applied for an assistant supervisor position, like Kiyotaka Ichiji, so I could have followed Satoru around.

Kazuma Hatake was a little disappointed, but considering that he couldn't drive, even if he became the assistant supervisor, there was nothing he could do—in fact, he would have to be assigned a driver for the assistant supervisor.

The search for the [mark] has not yet yielded any results. According to the elders of Kamo, they clearly remember seeing the pattern somewhere before, but they cannot find the specific source no matter what they do, and can only continue to search through the past one book after another.

As for the vast collection of books accumulated by the Kamo family over a thousand years... Hagoromo Kazuma took one look and then immediately left.

Let them take their time looking. They have a month's vacation right in front of them, so they're much more concerned than he is.

After searching through books for most of the day without success, Gojo Satoru also adopted Hatake Kazuma's good idea and arranged for several of the Gojo family's servants to continue the search.

As for the senior management of the General Manager's Office, they had been frightened by Kazuma Hatori during this period, and they all behaved themselves—at least on the surface—and did not cause any more trouble for Kazuma Hatori or Satoru Gojo.

The only clue they have is the true identity of the mastermind. Kazuma Hatake and his team still have no idea.

According to Gojo Satoru's speculation, it's impossible for the mastermind to spend at least several decades planning just to eliminate Hagoromo Kazuma, who just emerged this year.

Therefore, the other party will definitely take further action.

They'll catch him red-handed sooner or later and expose him completely.

Amidst the undercurrents beneath the seemingly calm surface of the sorcery world, June arrived quickly.

As the weather gradually gets hotter, the approaching summer season makes people restless, and curses spew out like flying insects, sometimes even gathering into curse spirits of considerable rank.

[Window] also sent word that the seal on the special-grade cursed artifact placed at Sugisawa Third High School in Sendai had shown signs of weakening, and requested that Fushiguro Megumi immediately set off to retrieve it.

"Wu went on a business trip, it seems to be quite close to Sendai."

Kazuma Hatori asked Megumi Fushiguro, who was about to leave, "Do you need me to come with you?"

Anyway, it was already evening, and his teaching duties were over!

Fushiguro Megumi: "…………"

The question is ridiculous. Going to Sendai was just a side trip; the real purpose was to find Gojo-sensei, right? This person's ulterior motives are so obvious...

"I'm fine with either."

Fushiguro Megumi spoke quietly, "If you want to come, then come with me."

Anyway, it only takes an hour and a half to get from Tokyo to Sendai by Shinkansen. He can go and retrieve the top-grade cursed artifact and come back immediately, thus giving the space to the two teachers and avoiding being an inconspicuous third wheel.

To be honest, he's now completely used to the growing intimacy between the two of them, to the point that he wouldn't be surprised at all if he saw them swapping clothes before going out.

Since Fushiguro Megumi had no objections, Hato Kazuma bought Shinkansen tickets to Sendai with him and sent a message to Gojo Satoru's LINE account along the way.

[Okay, I probably won't be able to finish the task until tomorrow. Please look after Hui for now, and then come find me.]

The video ends with a cute JK (high school girl) making a peace sign with her finger.

Besides emoticons, Gojo Satoru has recently taken to sending emoticons to Hatake Kazuma, and he especially likes to use various cute anime girls and cartoon animals, making his already cute tone even cuter.

But thinking about it, it's not surprising that pretty Daigo is very knowledgeable about all kinds of slang—even more so than a real high school student like himself—and uses anime girls and cartoon animals as emojis.

"Tomorrow..."

Kazuma Hatori put away his phone.

When Fushiguro Megumi obtained the top-grade cursed artifact and embarked on his return journey, he also parted ways with her to find the beautiful Daigo.

That was the original plan, but the unexpected happened even more suddenly.

According to [Window], the special-grade cursed item should currently be kept in a louvered box in the corner of the wall of Sugisawa Third High School, but when Kazuma Hatake and Megumi Fushiguro went to retrieve it late at night, they found that it had disappeared.

I searched all around the Stevenson screen but couldn't find it.

Fushiguro Megumi: "…………No way."

He had just thought it was stupid for the college to put the top-grade cursed item in a louvered box, but now, they hadn't even given him a chance to retrieve it.

"It was stolen?" Kazuma Hatake asked.

“I don’t know,” Fushiguro Megumi shook her head. “I can’t sense any aura of the cursed object. Perhaps some student picked it up. If it was just left in the school building, that’s fine, but what if it was taken home…”

We'll just have to wait until daytime to search again.

Hopefully, no one will keep such a dangerous thing in their home. If the aura of the curse is leaked out, it could cause a major accident.

Kazuma Hatake couldn't sense the so-called [cursed power], so he could only accompany Megumi Fushiguro as they climbed each floor of the school building, but they still couldn't find the special-grade cursed item.

Now, they really have no choice but to stay in Sendai for one night and wait until the students come to class during the day before they can start checking if any students have the aura of cursed objects on them—even if it's just remnants.

Even Gojo Satoru couldn't help but exclaim, "Really?!" after hearing the news.

"However, you should also be careful."

Gojo Satoru said earnestly on the phone, "Even if it's just placed in a Stevenson screen, a top-grade cursed object, no, a protective amulet, should still have some kind of barrier around it to separate it from ordinary people."

"Whether it was stolen by a curse master, devoured by a cursed spirit, or picked up by an ordinary person, this is not a normal phenomenon."

"Is Satoru guessing that someone deliberately let it go missing?" Kazuma Hato frowned slightly.

"Bingo, you guessed right! I'll bring you the reward later—"

Gojo Satoru finished praising Hagoromo Kazuma in a drawn-out tone before continuing to speak.

"Considering what happened recently, and that man-made avalanche accident... it makes sense if we also attribute the loss of this top-grade cursed artifact to [deliberate action], right?"

"Yes, indeed."

Kazuma Hatori nodded, completely believing Gojo Satoru's guess.

Since Wu said that the loss of the amulet was an unusual event, there must be a mastermind behind it—who knows, it might be the same person they've been investigating recently.

"So you should be careful, is this yet another conspiracy against you?"

Gojo Satoru paused for a moment, seemingly quite troubled and conflicted, before instructing Yu to take the true path.

“I’ll come find you as soon as I finish my mission here. [Ryomen Sukuna’s Fingers] is an extremely dangerous cursed object. The worst-case scenario is that the seal is completely broken, attracting a curse that devours it and transforms it into a top-tier cursed spirit… If such signs appear, take Megumi and leave first, and wait for me to arrive.”

"It's very troublesome to deal with top-tier cursed spirits. They basically come with their own domains, similar to the domain expansion of a sorcerer."

“Yes,” Kazuma Hatake replied earnestly, “I will be careful.”

After hanging up the phone, Kazuma Hatori suddenly remembered something.

Was the cursed spirit we encountered during the exorcism of the [root of herpes] related to a specific area of ​​existence? After all, the scenery has changed since then…

Ah, no wonder the curse crystals I obtained back then were of the highest grade.

It's still lying in his inventory, along with the rest of the unused spell crystals.

After all, in order to keep [Taboo] active, he had to keep replenishing his spell power, so he always kept a bunch of spell power crystals in his inventory, which was equivalent to hoarding a bunch of mana potions.

Although Kazuma Hatori wanted to try to defeat Sukuna Ryoumen... but since Satoru had instructed him to keep an eye on Megumi Fushiguro, he thought it best to play it safe.

The next day.

Kazuma Hatori accompanied Megumi Fushiguro to Sugisawa Third High School once again. They first searched the surrounding area thoroughly and confirmed that the school's cursed artifact aura was the most obvious.

"The aura of the curse is far too strong here,"

Fukuro Megumi frowned as she looked toward the teaching building.

"Not only has the seal loosened, but the aura is also leaking out quite a bit. I can't pinpoint the exact location, but I can confirm it's inside the school."

The assistant supervisor, who could sense the aura of the curse, also stood at the school gate, guarding their way out to prevent them from being taken out of the school again.

"Then let's start looking from the outside in."

Kazuma Hatake said seriously, "Megumi is in charge of focusing on sensing. As long as we can lock onto the target, I'll catch that person."

Fushiguro nodded. "Okay."

It was already afternoon.

The playground was bustling with activity, as if someone was cheering for something like "Tiger of the West and Middle School," the sound so loud that even Kazuma Hagoromo and the others looked over.

It is a boy with cherry-red hair, who is having a shot put competition with.

"The distance he threw seems to exceed the world record," Fushiguro Megumi said after watching for a moment. "That's amazing, he seems to be the type like Maki-senpai."

Just as Fushiguro Megumi was about to look away, she brushed past the running cherry-haired boy—a strong aura of cursed artifact followed her!

"On him! Wait!!"

The moment he uttered those words, the other person had already run far away, almost disappearing from sight.

"Damn it, I can't catch up...!"

"No problem, I'll pursue him."

Kazuma Hatori lowered his body and brought up the skill list.

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