"Shoko said she's nearby."
Kamo Chitsubaki looked down at her phone screen and broke the silence on the way down the mountain.
The two walked side by side on the bustling city streets.
The area inside and outside the barrier of the Jujutsu High is a completely different world.
Right next door was a medium-sized convenience store, with automatic sensor doors opening and closing, and housewives carrying shopping bags and office workers in suits going in and out.
These people knew nothing of the Cursed Spirit lurking in the shadows; they were only concerned with making a living.
Lu Ping did not respond immediately.
The Three Corpses within his body twitched slightly, and his five senses were amplified imperceptibly.
A familiar scent of minty tobacco wafted through the murky exhaust fumes of cars on the street, faintly drifting from behind the supermarket.
Lu Ping changed direction and led Qian Chun around the main gate.
The back alley of the supermarket is a narrow dead end, with discarded cardboard boxes and rusty metal shelves piled against the wall.
The sunlight was blocked by tall buildings, making the place appear exceptionally dark.
Just as he was about to further perceive the surrounding Cursed Energy fluctuations, a slender, fair hand suddenly reached out from behind the pile of cardboard boxes.
Her fingers were long and slender, with distinct knuckles, and she casually waved them twice in mid-air.
Immediately afterwards, a familiar female voice, tinged with a hint of dejection, rang out.
"Over here, over here."
The two turned the corner.
Shoko Ieiri was sitting casually on a box, legs crossed, comfortably puffing on her cigarette.
Qian Chun stepped forward and naturally found a relatively clean spot to sit down next to her.
Lu Ping pulled over an overturned wooden box and sat down opposite him.
Shoko reached into the plastic bag behind her back, fumbled for a moment, pulled out a bottle of Kirin Ichiban beer that was emitting cold air, and threw it into Qian Chun's arms.
Then he took out a bottle of room temperature water and casually tossed it to Lu Ping across from him.
"Jay's out on another mission." Shoko exhaled a smoke ring, a hint of weariness in her eyes. "Apart from Satoru, who's always running around, he takes on the most jobs in the Jujutsu High."
Lu Ping reached out and caught the can steadily in mid-air.
He knew very well that the nature of [Cursed Spirit Manipulation] meant that the user had to constantly devour Cursed Spirit to expand their arsenal.
However, to catch up with Satoru Gojo, who possesses "Six Eyes" and "[Limitless Technique]", simply piling up the quantity is too arduous; it's almost an endless path of arduous training.
"I just got back from cleaning up that mess in Kyoto." Shoko stubbed out her cigarette in an empty can next to her. "I'm free all day today, I can show you around."
Qian Chun held the chilled beer in one hand and twirled it in her palm, then casually asked about the attack at Kyoto Jujutsu High.
"The casualties were considerable, but thankfully there were no fatalities," Shoko calmly recounted the scene. "The moment the attack began, Jay lured the Special Grade Cursed Spirit to the open field. Most of the freshmen attending the opening ceremony hid in the gymnasium, avoiding direct confrontation. The injured were also stabilized under my Reverse Cursed Technique."
Many of the students admitted this time as international exchange students are children of high-ranking officials and dignitaries in their own countries.
It was a blessing in disguise for those seasoned veterans in the Jujutsu Headquarters to avoid escalating the situation into an international dispute.
As she spoke, Shoko skillfully produced a freshly opened box of Seven Stars cigarettes, flicked it with her finger, and popped one into her mouth.
Qian Chun, standing nearby, immediately understood.
She reached into her uniform pocket and pulled out a metal lighter. With a click, a pale blue flame flickered and lit the lighter for the other person.
Lu Ping ran his fingertips along the surface of the can and suddenly asked a question.
"What does that Special Grade Cursed Spirit look like? What special abilities does it have?"
Shoko took a drag of her cigarette and recalled for a moment. "It looks a bit like a purple octopus." She gestured with her hand. "Each tentacle is densely covered with black oval patterns, looking like eyes. I deduce it's mind control, or some kind of powerful hallucination ability. Because the students affected were all experiencing varying degrees of hallucinations when they were brought here, muttering incomprehensible gibberish."
Lu Ping seemed to be deep in thought. He tapped the bottom of the jar in his palm and said, "I also encountered this Special Grade Cursed Spirit yesterday. I suspect that its Cursed Technique was a long-distance curse delivered via telephone."
"Although the problem was eventually resolved without major issues, my phone is completely ruined. That's why I stopped by today to see you guys, planning to go shopping together and buy a new phone."
Upon hearing this, Shoko was slightly taken aback.
As if suddenly remembering something, her fingers, holding the cigarette, hovered in mid-air.
"Now that you mention it, something does seem a bit off." Shoko frowned slightly. "The moment the attack happened yesterday, the assistant supervisor had already lowered 'tents' around the area, which should have completely isolated the area from all external signals."
"But—" she took a deep breath, "My phone still rang."
"The caller ID showed Suguru Geto. But I was busy stitching up a seriously injured person at the time, and Jie was right in my field of vision, fighting the Cursed Spirit hand-to-hand. So I didn't even have time to answer it."
Lu Ping lowered his eyelids slightly, a hint of worry rising in his heart.
He wasn't worried about Suguru Geto's fighting ability at the time, but he was well aware of how troublesome this kind of curse was.
Although Shoko and Jai didn't answer that strange phone call, it's hard to guarantee they weren't cursed by the hidden methods of that Special Grade Cursed Spirit.
Breaking a curse is often more difficult than exorcising the Cursed Spirit itself.
Lu Ping himself was able to break the deadlock by relying on the powerful curse-devouring properties of the Blood Corpse in the [Three Corpses Manipulation].
While Suguru Geto possesses a rich reserve of Cursed Spirit, he most likely lacks a simple and straightforward mechanism for dispelling curses.
Next time we meet, I must remind that guy to get a thorough checkup.
The conversation gradually turned heavy, and the atmosphere in the corner became somewhat oppressive.
Kamo Chitsubaki was the first to break the deadlock.
She gripped the pull tab on the can with her index finger and pulled hard.
The soft hissing sound of bubbles rising and falling was particularly clear in the alley.
The girl tilted her head back and took a big gulp, exhaling a mouthful of liquor with a pleasant aroma of wheat.
"Alright, we can talk about any problems later." Qian Chun shook the can in her hand. "This isn't mission time. Now that we're out, we should relax."
Shoko nodded in agreement.
She gripped the tab with one hand, used her thumb to deftly tear open her can of chilled beer.
Seeing that the two of them had opened their bottles, Lu Ping also raised his hand, ready to open his own can of room-temperature beer.
Before he could even exert any force, a hand suddenly reached out from the side. Qian Chun swiftly snatched the can from his hand and hid it behind her back.
"Don't drink yet." The girl looked at him, a smile playing on her lips. "I'll show you a magic trick."
With Shoko butt dangling from her lips, Shoko teased, "Haven't seen you in a while, and you've even learned magic tricks?"
Lu Ping didn't speak, but simply withdrew his hand and quietly watched the performance opposite him.
No visual changes occurred.
Twenty seconds later, Qian Chun handed the Kirin Ichiban back to Lu Ping.
Lu Ping reached out and took it.
The moment his fingertips touched the metal casing, he keenly sensed something was amiss.
The aluminum can, which was originally at room temperature, now felt warm to the touch.
The [Blood Manipulation] Kamo Clan can indeed achieve this kind of precise temperature conduction by manipulating body temperature and blood flow.
Lu Ping glanced at Qian Chun.
He immediately realized that the other party remembered the detail that he had impulsively heated up his drinks at the barbecue restaurant last time.
Although it was early summer, he usually preferred to drink chilled beverages.
But there are always some sentiments in this world that are more worth compromising for than a suitable temperature.
Lu Ping wisely refrained from exposing the misunderstanding and accepted the goodwill it was meant to convey.
"Not bad," he commented casually.
Then, with a crisp "click," Lu Ping pulled open the tab, which was emitting warm white steam.
In a narrow and messy corner at the back of this affordable supermarket, there are tangled wires overhead and dusty cardboard boxes underfoot.
Three young people, representing the future, simultaneously raised their aluminum cans during this brief moment of leisure.
The aluminum cans collided, producing a crisp sound.
"Cheers!"