Chapter 6
25.
"Okay, I'll find something to kill time. You guys better keep working hard~"
Gojo Satoru waved to Ijichi Jietaka and Nanami Kento in the conference room, then pushed the door open and left with Tadano Shiori.
"Teacher," Shiori followed him, "Based on the current intelligence, it seems that I won't be needed for this mission. Why don't I return to Tokyo today?"
"Eh? Shiori, you haven't had a good rest in a while, right? Just treat it as a long-awaited vacation. Besides, we have important things to do."
Gojo Satoru said as he pulled out two stamp collection cards from his pocket. He waved the cards in his hand and said, "Stamp collection campaign, start now!"
Shiori looked down at the card, which showed a simple map of the shopping district and the locations of participating shops. Just as she was about to speak, Gojo Satoru tapped her forehead with his knuckles and headed towards the Japanese confectionery shop.
When the door curtain was opened, the wind chimes on it jingled, and the clerk bowed and said, "Welcome."
"Dango, daifuku, dorayaki... they all look delicious." Shiori stared at the snacks in the cabinet, her eyes shining, her face almost touching the glass cabinet surface.
"I'm craving some sweet or savory dumplings, but—" Gojo Satoru turned to the clerk, raised the stamp card in his hand, and shook it. "Hello, please give me two strawberry daifuku and a stamp."
"Stamp?" The clerk looked confused.
"It's a stamp collection event in the shopping street," Shiori explained.
"So that's the promotion!" The clerk suddenly realized, but looked puzzled. "But according to the rules, you have to buy yokan to get this stamp."
Gojo Satoru's face dropped dramatically, and he curled his lips. "Eh? Strawberry Daifuku isn't an option? Please be flexible. No one will find out~"
"Sorry, that's really not possible." The clerk said firmly.
"It's okay." Shiori quickly tried to smooth things over. "Please give us two servings of yokan and two servings of strawberry daifuku."
The two of them walked out of the store carrying paper bags, and Gojo Satoru was still muttering, "It would be great if all products could be stamped."
"But didn't you still buy the Strawberry Daifuku?" Shiori shook the card with the first stamp in her hand and said with a smile, "Let's go to the next one."
The two walked into the next store. As soon as Gojo Satoru entered, he stared at the tea cans on the shelf, frowning and muttering softly, "It's actually a teahouse..."
Shiori walked straight to the counter and said to the clerk, "Hello, we want to participate in the stamp rally. Please give us two items."
In the end, Gojo Satoru had no choice but to follow Shiori, carrying two cans of exquisitely packaged tea.
"Next one." He threw the shopping bag containing the tea can over his shoulder and quickly followed Shiori.
Shiori pushed open the door of a small shop and asked, "Excuse me, is this place open for stamp collection?"
The clerk responded enthusiastically: "Yes, we will participate!"
"What are the promotional items?" Gojo Satoru stepped forward and asked.
"These are freshly fried meat patties, sir."
Gojo Satoru's shoulders slumped, his eyes filled with disappointment behind his sunglasses. "Where's the dessert we promised you?"
Two hours later, Gojo Satoru's arms were already filled with things: a net bag of pineapples hanging heavy, two cans of tea dangling in the bag, two avant-garde T-shirts printed with fluorescent tiger patterns, a small bouquet of sunflowers and daisies, and two small handheld fans...
"What the hell is this dessert stamp collection event?" He kicked the pebbles on the roadside, full of resentment. "I've been to more than a dozen shops, and only the first two have desserts! I want dessert! Dessert!"
Shiori looked down at the stamp card, which was already filled with stamps. "But after I stamp the next one, the collection will be complete. And the last one is a cake shop."
Gojo Satoru's phone suddenly rang. He picked it up impatiently. Ichichi Jiegao's anxious voice came from the receiver: "I'm sorry to disturb your rest, but I have a request. I would like to ask Mr. Gojo to go to the sewer I mentioned earlier immediately."
"Eh? I'm busy." Gojo Satoru glanced at the stamp collection card in his hand and said perfunctorily, "Ichichi, you should think of a solution yourself."
"I really have no other choice, so I contacted you..." Ichi Chijiegao's voice was already filled with tears.
Nanami Kento's voice was heard on the other end of the line, calm yet urgent. "Mr. Gojo, the total number of rat curse spirits we've discovered is greater than we expected. We need you to visually confirm their approximate distribution."
"I know, I know. I was just kidding." Gojo Satoru sighed helplessly, "The sewer, right? I'll be there soon."
Shiori stuffed the strawberry daifuku she had bought at the Japanese confectionery shop into his hands and said, "Come on, teacher, it's time to go to work."
By the time Shiori and Gojo Satoru finished their work and hurried back to the shopping street, all the shops on the street had drawn their shutters, and the glass windows of the cake shops were pitch black, without the light of day.
"Everything is closed." Shiori sighed, "Guess I can only come back tomorrow."
Gojo Satoru shrugged and scratched his head casually: "This is the only way."
The next day, the two of them left home early, their steps much more brisk than the day before. It was obvious that they were both looking forward to the stamp collection activity that they had not been able to complete the day before.
However, when the cake shop came into view again, the expectations on Shiori and Gojo Satoru's faces froze at the same time.
“…It’s a holiday!!!”
Gojo Satoru turned to Shiori and asked, "Shiori, is there anywhere you'd like to go? But don't go too far. We're still on standby mode, and if Ijichi can't find us, he might cry."
"There's no particular place I want to go."
"I see."
Gojo Satoru's eyes casually scanned the surroundings before suddenly settling on a building diagonally in front of him. It was a movie theater, its large poster hanging on the exterior particularly eye-catching. He raised his hand, pointed in that direction, and suggested with a smile, "Shiori, do you want to go see a movie with me?"
Shiori looked in the direction he pointed, and the moment her eyes fell on the poster, her eyes suddenly widened.
This, this is "Gintama"! ! !
She suddenly turned her head to look at Gojo Satoru, her voice filled with uncontrollable surprise, and her cheeks flushed slightly: "Teacher! I want to see this!"
"No problem!" Gojo Satoru said, reaching out and gently pushing Shiori's shoulder as they walked towards the cinema entrance. "Let's go, let's buy our tickets."
26.
By the time they came out of the cinema, it was already past dinner time. The restaurant was empty except for Shiori and Gojo Satoru, who were still sitting at the table eating.
Gojo Satoru picked up the fried pork cutlet on the plate and suddenly broke the silence: "Just now in the cinema, I remembered the first time I met Shiori."
Shiori was stunned for a moment, then nodded - yes, her first meeting with Gojo Satoru happened in the cinema.
She knew from a young age that she was different from others. Adults could not see the twisting and wriggling shadows, and children of the same age would only show confused expressions when she pointed into the void.
At that time, she always felt that she was a child chosen by God, just like the protagonist in the comics, and once she entered high school, she would unlock an incredible life.
There are two reasons why she was able to see cursed spirits since she was a child but still grew up with a healthy mentality.
Firstly, it was because of her older sister, Shino Tadono. No matter how much she rambled on about those "little monsters that only little Shiori could see," her sister would always hold her in her arms, never a trace of strangeness in her eyes, only gentle listening.
The second reason was the rural setting of Aomori. Rice paddies stretched into the distance, the starry sky was clear and bright, and the sparse population made it difficult for negative emotions to accumulate. Even if a few cursed spirits occasionally appeared, they were no more than tiny flies, easily dispersed by a wave of her fist.
The change happened when she graduated from junior high school. Her sister excitedly invited her to go to Tokyo over the phone.
At that time, my sister had become an enka singer under the stage name "Chaide Anzi", had just released her first album, and was preparing to hold a release commemorative event.
Coincidentally, her childhood friend Reiko Saito and her family were moving to Tokyo because of her father's job transfer, so Shiori decided to go with them.
The moment she stepped into Tokyo, Shiori was completely shocked.
There were countless flies here, and many cursed spirits she had never seen before, which were completely different from the little monsters in the countryside.
An event commemorating the release of her older sister's album was held outside a shopping mall near Shinjuku Station. Afterward, the two sisters had a meal inside the mall and then went to the cinema upstairs to see a movie. Unexpectedly, there, they encountered a first-level cursed spirit.
Shiori pulled her sister to hide desperately, with the screams of the crowd behind her. The crowd in the cinema was too dense and she couldn't run fast at all. Seeing that the cursed spirit was about to catch her sister, she immediately launched the spell.
——[Lies Come True Trumpet] As long as you hold the trumpet in your mouth, the lies you tell will come true.
"You can't catch us!" she screamed at the cursed spirit.
The curse spirit's hand was only an inch away from my sister, but it couldn't catch her. At this moment, a blue light suddenly hit the curse spirit, destroying it instantly.
"Your technique is quite interesting."
A tall, white-haired man with a bandage around his eyes stood before her. She guessed he was looking at her, but the bandage blocked his eyes, so she couldn't tell.
This was her first meeting with Gojo Satoru.
Later, Ijichi Jietaka appeared and not only added her contact information, but also gave her some basic knowledge about cursed power, cursed spirits and techniques, and invited her to enroll in Tokyo Technical High School.
As expected, she thought, when a small-town girl enters high school, her daily life will be different. So without hesitation, she packed her bags and came to Tokyo Technical High School.
"What are you thinking about? The pork cutlet is cold." Gojo Satoru tapped her plate with his chopsticks.
Shiori scooped up a spoonful of miso soup, the heat blurring her vision. "I was thinking, high school life in Tokyo is actually even more exciting than what's described in the comics."
Gojo Satoru looked at her curiously and asked, "So, Shiori, what kind of manga is your current life like?"
Shiori frowned upon hearing this, thought seriously for a few seconds, then slumped her shoulders helplessly. "Are there any manga specifically depicting the lives of workers? They seem so miserable, I can't think of any at the moment."
"Eh—" Gojo Satoru drawled out his words, tilting his head slightly, his white hair falling across his forehead. "I thought it was going to be a romance-related manga."
Love? This word is so unfamiliar... And whose love is it? Is it mine?
Shiori instantly transformed into the appearance of a cosmic cat head and fell into confused thoughts.
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