"I'm home!" Shoichi Kano returned home laden with shopping bags. The Slit-Mouthed Woman, curled up on the sofa watching TV, merely glanced up at him before turning back to her soap opera.
She still held that tub of chips in her arms, though it was nearly empty, with only three or four chips left at the bottom.
"Let me try one." After putting away everything he had bought, Shoichi Kano reached for her chips.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman deftly dodged him. "Call me Mommy, and you can have one."
"Mommy." Shoichi Kano said it without batting an eye. After more than half a month together, he had become completely desensitized to the word.
"You actually said it." The Slit-Mouthed Woman reluctantly offered him the chips, but she quickly seemed to change her mind and drew her hand back. "Never mind. Let's try something else."
Shoichi Kano grabbed at empty air, then grew curious about what she intended to do.
Sure enough, she took a chip, held it between her lips, and brought the exposed half up to Shoichi Kano's face.
Shoichi Kano placed a hand on her shoulder and leaned in, pressing his lips against hers as he took the chip into his mouth.
But the shameless woman seemed to have anticipated that Kano would dare to lean in. She suddenly moved, catching him completely off guard.
And just like that, Shoichi Kano found himself pinned to the sofa, his face bright red.
"Oh my, baby, you're blushing." Miss Cursed Spirit used a finger to push the chip between Shoichi Kano's lips into his mouth little by little, then brushed his lips with a featherlight kiss. "Come on, let Mommy see how much you've grown~"
Just as Shoichi Kano felt he was about to lose his innocence, he deployed his "change the subject" Cursed Technique, hoping to regain a little control. "Mommy, want to hear the intel I got today? It's really important!"
The Slit-Mouthed Woman stopped moving, though she still kept him pinned to the sofa without making any further advances. "Oh?"
"The Q Organization! The Q Organization is gone! Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto probably wiped it out together!"
"If the Q Organization is gone, who do we collect payment from for assassinating the Star Plasma Vessel?" the Slit-Mouthed Woman asked. "Are we going to end up doing all this for nothing?"
Shoichi Kano wasn't sure himself. "We'll ask Mr. Fushiguro when the time comes. If all else fails, we can just make a run for it."
"What about your father?"
"That black card Mr. Fushiguro gave us is enough for him to settle comfortably in any country in the world," Shoichi Kano said after some thought. "And he can keep working as a sailor. Worst case, he just won't live in Japan anymore."
"Fine, fine." The Slit-Mouthed Woman waved a hand, no longer in the mood to keep teasing Kano. "But if you screw this up, don't expect Mommy to bail you out."
"Don't worry. I know what I'm doing." Though Shoichi Kano said that, he still wasn't entirely confident.
Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto spent two days taking Riko Amanai, who would soon undergo assimilation, around Japan. Meanwhile, Toji Fushiguro, Shoichi Kano, and the Slit-Mouthed Woman waited quietly in their lair for two days, like three venomous snakes lying in wait.
During that time, Toji Fushiguro reluctantly parted with one of his prized possessions, lending Kano the scythe-shaped Cursed Tool called the Wrongful Death Blade from his arsenal, along with an HK-USP pistol he had carried for years and two boxes of spare ammunition.
As Shoichi Kano looked at the pistol that had delivered the perfect headshot to Riko Amanai in the original story, now resting in his own hands, he couldn't help reflecting on how fate toyed with people.
"The target is returning to Tokyo. Prepare to move." When Shoichi Kano received Toji Fushiguro's text one morning, he climbed out of bed and went to the bathroom to splash cold water on his face, getting himself ready for action as quickly as possible.
Although he hadn't done anything lately besides posting online and transferring money to people, he felt as though his Cursed Energy had increased. He wondered if it was the result of all his playful tussling with the Slit-Mouthed Woman over the past few days.
"Up so early, baby?" The Slit-Mouthed Woman looked at him sleepily, a misty sheen covering her dark gray eyes. "Don't you want to stay in bed a little longer?"
"They're almost at the Tombs of the Star Corridor," Kano said calmly.
"Geto, Amanai, Kuroi." Satoru Gojo shaded his forehead with a hand and glanced at the sky, where the sun blazed overhead. "You go to the Tombs of the Star Corridor. I'll wait outside."
A stone-paved path crossed the grass, ending at a vermilion shrine gate. Passing through that gate would take them inside the inner barrier of the Tombs of the Star Corridor.
"Come on, Riko." Suguru Geto made his voice as gentle as he could. "Let's go together."
Riko Amanai seemed to be thinking of her impending assimilation and looked rather downcast. She barely responded to Suguru Geto's words. If her personal maid, Kuroi, hadn't been supporting her, she probably would have tripped over her own feet right there.
Only after Suguru Geto and the others passed through the shrine gate did Satoru Gojo take off his small, round sunglasses and toss them aside. His expression instantly darkened. "You skulking bastard, get out here already!"
"That's the Gojo Clan's Six Eyes for you." Toji Fushiguro sauntered out, dressed in clothes cut for ease of movement, his sharply defined muscles looking as though they had been cast in bronze and iron. The purple caterpillar-like Cursed Spirit, Inventory Curse Worm, was coiled around his neck. "You spotted me even like this."
He held a short blade in a reverse grip. Though a casual smile rested on his face, his entire body was poised to strike.
"A guy without a trace of Cursed Energy." A contemptuous sneer appeared on Satoru Gojo's face. "And you dare yap at me?"
"Who knows?" Toji Fushiguro blurred into motion, whipping up a gale.
He vanished right out of Satoru Gojo's sight!
Satoru Gojo tried to track his movements with the Six Eyes, but he had kept Limitless fully active all this time. The small fry drawn in by Kano's diversionary jobs were individually insignificant, but there had been plenty of them, and they had indeed drained some of Satoru Gojo's stamina.
On top of that, Toji released the multitude of Fly Heads stored in Inventory Curse Worm's belly to interfere with Satoru Gojo's judgment!
And so, at that moment, the normally infallible Six Eyes failed him.
Only when Toji Fushiguro reappeared right in front of Satoru Gojo, mere inches away, did Gojo finally get a clear look at him.
"You think a lousy blade like that can break through my Limit-" A disdainful smile appeared on his face when he saw the short blade in the man's hand.
Then he was proven wrong. His Eyes of the Azure Sky were filled with shock!
Shhk! The seemingly unremarkable short blade pierced his Limitless with ease and plunged viciously into his pampered, pale neck. The edge sliced through his carotid artery, sending blood gushing out.
The blade was actually the Special Grade Cursed Tool known as the Inverted Spear of Heaven, which could forcibly nullify Cursed Techniques!
The massive blood loss made Satoru Gojo's head spin. The once-orderly Cursed Energy inside him fell into disarray, leaving him unable to unleash a technique to counterattack in time.
Toji Fushiguro didn't waste the opening. He dragged the blade diagonally, tearing open Satoru Gojo's neck, while his other hand patted Inventory Curse Worm around his neck, making it spit out another weapon shaped like a short sword.
The short sword flashed coldly, and its blade plunged straight through Satoru Gojo's forehead into his brain. His beautiful Eyes of the Azure Sky instantly lost focus, their light fading.
Covered in blood, Satoru Gojo collapsed spread-eagled on the ground, his fate uncertain.
Only then did Toji Fushiguro notice that the short sword Inventory Curse Worm had spat out wasn't a Cursed Tool, just an ordinary weapon. But he didn't think it mattered. No matter how extraordinary this Gojo Clan brat was, Toji had driven a sword through his brain. Surely he couldn't survive that?
If he could, Toji Fushiguro would write his own name backward!
He had initially thought the Gojo Clan brat would be difficult to handle. He hadn't expected him to amount to so little. Now he could move on to the next stage of the plan without a worry.
Humming a tune, he swaggered over Satoru Gojo's fallen body and used the chain-shaped Cursed Tool, the Chain of a Thousand Miles, to retrieve the low-level Cursed Spirits he had released. Then he passed through the shrine gate into the inner barrier of the Tombs of the Star Corridor and had Inventory Curse Worm release Shoichi Kano and the Slit-Mouthed Woman from its belly.
To evade detection by the barrier of the Tombs of the Star Corridor, Toji Fushiguro had made Inventory Curse Worm swallow Kano and the Slit-Mouthed Woman into the separate space inside its belly on the day of the operation. Toji then swallowed Inventory Curse Worm himself, carrying it into the barrier's range by exploiting the Heavenly Restriction Tyrant's complete lack of Cursed Energy.
Naturally, he only let Inventory Curse Worm out again once he was inside the barrier of the Tombs of the Star Corridor.
"That was disgusting, Mr. Fushiguro." Shoichi Kano dry-heaved a few times after Inventory Curse Worm spat him out. "Inside that arsenal Cursed Spirit's belly..."
Toji Fushiguro rolled his eyes. "Hurry up and deal with those two brats. Quit dawdling."
"Can I borrow the Soul-Devouring Blade?"
"Get lost!"
Before you continue