Shoichi Kano and the Slit-Mouthed Woman spent a happy seven days in Beijing.
Although the two of them had tossed Kenjaku's commission aside, they really did have a wonderful trip. They took photos at the Great Wall, and Kano even shouted in crisp, clear Chinese, "You're no true hero until you've climbed the Great Wall!"
Afterward, they admired the shimmering waters of Kunming Lake at the Summer Palace, one of China's four great classical gardens. Heading north along the East Causeway, they reached the octagonal Langru Pavilion, where the layered pavilions and terraces spread out like a golden phoenix unfurling its wings.
Xiao Zhou took a photo of them on the Seventeen-Arch Bridge. The little stone lions on the railings looked endearingly comical, and Shoichi Kano flashed a V sign, smiling until his eyes narrowed to slits. The Slit-Mouthed Woman beside him was rather more composed. Wearing a mask, she stood next to Kano with her arm habitually linked through his, radiating the dependable, steady presence of an adult.
If a boy named Suguru Geto had not been struggling with his inner demons beneath the trees at Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu High School at that very moment, everyone might have forgotten that this was actually the world of Jujutsu Kaisen.
Yes, on the very day Shoichi Kano and the Slit-Mouthed Woman rode in Xiao Zhou's Santana to take photos at the Badaling Great Wall, Yu Haibara, a student one year below Suguru Geto, was attacked by a cursed spirit and tragically killed while covering his classmate Kento Nanami during an exorcism mission!
Of course, much of the blame lay with the "Windows" for failing in their duties. They had misclassified a cursed spirit of Semi-Grade 1 or higher as a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit, which was why they had sent Kento Nanami and Yu Haibara, both Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerers, on the mission.
After hearing about it, Suguru Geto could not help beginning to question the purpose of jujutsu sorcerers, and-
What constituted a "proper death."
Kano and his companions soon put the Summer Palace's shimmering waters behind them, because their next stop was the famous ruins of the Old Summer Palace-and that got Kano talking. Facing the crumbling walls, he spoke at length about the pinnacle of Chinese garden architecture and the irreversible damage the Manchu Qing dynasty had inflicted on Chinese culture.
Since many of his views came from TikTok in the future and had not yet emerged in 2006, both Xiao Zhou and the Slit-Mouthed Woman found them quite novel. Xiao Zhou, in particular, had never imagined that a foreign visitor who looked so young could know so much about Chinese culture.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman, however, was not especially moved. She was simply a little curious about where Kano had heard all this, given how fluently he reeled it off.
Since the state security authorities felt that Kano and his companion genuinely seemed harmless, rather than enemies looking to cause trouble, they even used their authority to extend the pair's visas to a month, making it easier for them to travel around Inner Mongolia.
"Do you need help booking flights?" Xiao Zhou kept one hand on the steering wheel and the other resting on the gearshift of the Santana 2000. The boxy black sedan was an official vehicle his organization had temporarily lent him.
Shoichi Kano and the Slit-Mouthed Woman sat on opposite sides of the back seat. One stared absently at the scenery rushing past the window, while the other simply rested with her eyes closed.
"No... uh..." Shoichi Kano turned his head to look straight ahead. "I think we can talk about that after we've visited the Forbidden City."
"Sure!" Xiao Zhou smoothly switched on his indicator and changed lanes, easing the car into the left-turn lane. Then he lightly tapped the brakes and shifted down to control their speed, taking the left turn in one fluid motion. "I'll take you to the Forbidden City tomorrow. Same place-I'll drive over and pick you up."
Their visit to the Forbidden City went smoothly as well. The only minor hitch was a bit of a wait in the ticket line, along with the discomfort of standing under the blazing July sun.
Fortunately, the Slit-Mouthed Woman kindly released some of her cursed energy aura, creating a cool patch around herself so Shoichi Kano and Xiao Zhou would not end up drenched in sweat.
That day, the Slit-Mouthed Woman wore a white baseball cap to shade herself from the sun, with her usual mask covering the lower half of her face. She had on an off-the-shoulder, grayish-purple fitted jumpsuit, and her delicate feet, tipped with sharp black toenails, rested in finely crafted rhinestone high-heeled sandals. Combined with her casual, cross-legged stance, it was an outfit one could see anywhere on the street, completely stripping away her otherworldly air as a cursed spirit. It was even rather eye-catching.
At least, they drew plenty of glances as they walked. The sunlight that day also happened to disguise some of the inhuman gray pallor of her skin. Pure white light fell across it, giving it a cool, porcelain-white tone that made her look all the more lovely.
Shoichi Kano was staring blankly at the blue sky, his legs moving forward with the line without conscious thought.
"Let's go." After a while, he heard the Slit-Mouthed Woman's voice beside his ear, and a thin slip of paper appeared in his hand.
He looked down and saw that it was a ticket to the Forbidden City.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman habitually linked her arm through his, and the two followed Xiao Zhou toward the ticket checkpoint. One set of footsteps was crisp-the tap, tap of high heels on stone paving-while the other was muted, the pat, pat of flat casual shoes against the ground.
"The Forbidden City covers more than seven hundred thousand square meters," Xiao Zhou explained as he led them onward, like a conscientious tour guide. "If we wanted to explore it properly, one day definitely wouldn't be enough. So I'll just take you two around for a quick overview. If you get the chance to come back someday, there'll be plenty of time for a closer look then."
As they toured the grounds, they saw layer upon layer of golden glazed roof tiles, surrounded by vermilion palace walls. From a distance, the entire complex looked solemn and majestic. The winding Golden Water River threaded through it like a jade sash tied around the Forbidden City.
When they reached the Hall of Supreme Harmony, Xiao Zhou shared an anecdote. "Back when Puyi returned to the Forbidden City, even he had to buy a ticket! There was even a funny mix-up once. When Puyi and his group visited Emperor Guangxu's residence, he noticed that the portrait hanging there was wrong-it wasn't Emperor Guangxu. So he went to the staff, but they insisted there was nothing wrong with it. Experts had verified it, they said."
"Then Puyi said, 'That's my dad. How could I not recognize him?'" Xiao Zhou told the story so vividly that Kano could not help laughing.
After they passed through the three great halls and entered the inner palace, the Slit-Mouthed Woman's eyes suddenly lit up. "There's so much resentment here..."
She reached out a slender hand tipped with sharp black nails and gently brushed the vermilion palace wall, before fixing her gaze on a well a short distance away.
To her eyes, that spot was the source of the resentment in the area. Such an aura was a potent tonic for a cursed spirit, and the weight of history even gave it a rich, lingering flavor, like fine wine.
"You have a good eye, Ms. Miyano," Xiao Zhou said, introducing it without giving the matter much thought. "That's the Pearl Concubine Well. When the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China, Empress Dowager Cixi ordered the Pearl Concubine pushed into this well and drowned before fleeing west, so..."
But halfway through his explanation, Shoichi Kano spoke up. "Let's stop there. We came out today to have fun. A rough idea is enough for a grim story like that-we don't need all the details."
"Fair enough."
The Slit-Mouthed Woman took several deep breaths. When Kano channeled cursed energy into his eyes, he could even see numerous black wisps from the surrounding area being drawn into her nostrils.
"Whew..." She let out a long breath, satisfaction spreading across her face.
"Mom, keep up." Shoichi Kano and Xiao Zhou had almost walked away, but the Slit-Mouthed Woman was still savoring herself on the spot.
"Coming, coming!" Only then did she hurry after them, her high-heeled sandals clacking against the ground. As she left, she even cast a reluctant glance back toward the well.
Because of the urban legend's defining traits, the Slit-Mouthed Woman's physical abilities were about the same as those of an ordinary twenty-five-year-old woman unless she reinforced her body with cursed energy. Running a little too fast was enough to leave her short of breath.
"You don't have to rush. It's not like we wouldn't wait for you," Shoichi Kano said.
Only then did the Slit-Mouthed Woman realize she had lost her composure a little, and she immediately offered an excuse. "No... it's just that these heels are pinching my feet."
That evening, after their visit to the Forbidden City, Shoichi Kano contacted the airline by phone and booked tickets to Hohhot Baita International Airport.
But with one day left before their scheduled departure, Cheng Shan and Ma Liangdong visited their hotel again.
"There's something we'd like to discuss with you, Ms. Miyano, and our young friend Kano," Ma Liangdong said with a broad smile. "You see, we rarely get to meet colleagues from abroad. Would you do us the honor of a friendly sparring match, stopping short of any serious harm?"
"Of course, it would only be a little exchange of techniques. If it's inconvenient, we won't insist."
Shoichi Kano figured that, since he had enjoyed a free tour guide's services, helping them out to return the favor was reasonable enough. Still, he suspected they also wanted to observe what the pair could do. After all, they were an agency responsible for national security, so naturally they had to rule out every potential source of instability.
"I'm fine with it..." As Shoichi Kano spoke, he casually glanced at the Slit-Mouthed Woman, who was sitting on the bed watching television. "It mostly depends on Mom..."
Calling her Mom came especially naturally to him now, regardless of the occasion.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman shrugged. "If he's fine with it, so am I."
"Thank you, thank you!" Ma Liangdong was still all smiles. "How about this-which flight did you two book? I'll pay out of my own pocket to upgrade you both to first class!"
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