Everyday Life in Hailar: The Assistant Supervisor Who Got Scared

After returning to the hotel room, the accounting phase with the Slit-Mouthed Woman began.

Shoichi Kano had just finished tidying up those miscellaneous items and was preparing to slip into the bathroom for a shower when a pair of ice-cold, soft hands grabbed his shoulders, stopping him from entering.

"Do you know where you went wrong?" the Slit-Mouthed Woman asked a classic question.

Shoichi Kano looked blank. "How am I supposed to know where I went wrong?"

"Think about it carefully," the Slit-Mouthed Woman said with a solemn expression, her lips pursed slightly, even the stitching along the corners of her mouth halting its usual trembling. "I'm being serious."

Before Kano could snap out of his daze, the Slit-Mouthed Woman pushed him directly down onto the bed to sit.

"Mom, I really can't figure out where I went wrong." Shoichi Kano spoke the truth, his tone sincere.

The Slit-Mouthed Woman let out an impatient, soft huff and plumped down right beside him. That unearthly, chilling vibe rode her body's natural cold scent straight up into his nose. "Then Mom will help you jog your memory properly."

"When you were fighting that Mother Werewolf just now, you got hit by her technique and knocked out of my Simple Domain, right?"

"You could easily have run back then," the Slit-Mouthed Woman's speech grew faster and faster, mimicking the aggressive interrogation style she used when hunting humans and demanding Am I pretty?. "Why did you risk running in the direction of that Mother Werewolf? Why?"

Shoichi Kano hadn't expected Miss Cursed Spirit to genuinely show him such guardian-like concern, yet that concern naturally carried the ice-cold undertone of a cursed spirit. This sudden, chilly softness left him momentarily at a loss for what to do.

"What do you take your own life for?" the Slit-Mouthed Woman pursued.

Had she not refrained from opening a Simple Domain and remained standing instead, just hearing that tone alone would have nearly made Kano think he had fallen under her technique.

Shoichi Kano's high-stakes gambling plan had been exposed, and his heart felt somewhat guilty. "Mom, calm down first and listen to my explanation."

"How do you expect me to calm down? Do you know you almost died?!" The Slit-Mouthed Woman spotted Kano's guilty conscience, so she pressed her advantage to seize the moral high ground.

Shoichi Kano raised both hands in a surrender gesture, intending to use retreat as a form of advance. "Mom, will you listen to me explain..."

"In that battle just now, although that cursed spirit opened a domain, Suguru Geto's analysis was correct. She was already at the end of her rope."

"So I decided to gamble at that moment, forcing close-quarters combat with her to make her burn through her Cursed Energy faster, pushing her into a state of Cursed Technique Burnout sooner. That naturally worked in our favor."

"And the facts proved that this strategy worked wonderfully. We exorcised her right inside her domain."

"You did succeed this time," the Slit-Mouthed Woman pointed out the loophole in Kano's verbal logic, "but what about next time? Are you planning to keep gambling? Can you win every single time?"

"What if you lose? You'll die."

"That Mother Werewolf wanted to kill me because she wanted to devour me to perfect her own power. But no matter what, I had a way to deal with it."

The Slit-Mouthed Woman touched Kano's face. "But you're different."

"Our Binding Vow dictates that even if you die, baby, you can only be killed by Mom. You're mine."

Shoichi Kano wanted to point out that their Binding Vow didn't seem to have specified things in quite that much detail, but he decided against speaking up and ruining the mood.

After showering that evening, the Slit-Mouthed Woman wore a beige ruffled nightgown, sitting barefoot with her legs crossed at the edge of the bed in a relaxed posture as she used Cursed Energy to steam-dry her hair.

Shortly after, she gently patted the empty space on the bed beside her, signaling Kano to come over and lie down. "Come to Mom."

The two plump mounds on her chest jiggled slightly with her movement, making Kano's heart skip and thump along with them.

Once he lay down properly on the bed, that cold, soft body embraced him, wrapping around him like a snake. "Do you remember what Mom told you during the day?"

Kano responded blankly, replying, "I remember. You said that even if I were to die, I could only die by Mom's hands."

"Such a good boy." The other patted Kano's head.

Shoichi Kano spent the entire night without a single dream.

When he groggily woke up the next morning, he first felt the stiff, upright physiological response. When he instinctively wanted to edge closer to rub against her and cool the fire, he discovered that the figure holding him had long since changed positions.

At bedtime, the Slit-Mouthed Woman had turned on her side to pull Shoichi Kano completely into her embrace, her chin resting lightly on his head in a manner resembling a mother beast protecting her cub.

Yet now she had switched to lying flat on her back, her right hand loosely looping around Kano's waist while her left hand held a highball glass filled with ice cubes and liquor. Her sharp black fingernails tapped the rim of the glass at a steady, crisp pace.

She gently held Kano with leisurely ease like this, sipping the amber liquor in her cup from time to time while staring blankly and straight ahead at the television.

The program playing on the TV seemed to be a local station from Inner Mongolia. Although the Slit-Mouthed Woman couldn't understand much Chinese, she could barely manage to follow seven or eight tenths of it thanks to the subtitles at the bottom.

"Mh-" Shoichi Kano groggily rubbed against the soft milk-cleanser pillows. "Morning, Mom."

"Morning~" The Slit-Mouthed Woman tilted her neck back and drained the liquor in the cup, a few drops of alcohol trickling down her jawline to dampen the beige nightgown. "How did you sleep last night?"

"Not bad," Shoichi Kano replied. "By the way, is there any news from Boss Zhao?"

The Slit-Mouthed Woman shook her head, then placed the glass on the nightstand to her left and reached out with her left hand to grab the liquor bottle, refilling her cup. "No idea. Probably no news yet."

Hearing the sound of liquor washing over the ice cubes and finally filling the glass, Kano opened his eyes just a sliver while continuing to cling to the other person like an octopus. "Are you drinking liquor this early in the morning?"

"I got up around five or six to go downstairs and buy some whiskey. The ice cubes were bought from the convenience store downstairs too," the Slit-Mouthed Woman didn't seem to mind being clung to by Kano; she just continued stroking the boy's hair, even harboring a faint, underlying urge to tousle it into a mess. "You weren't awake yet back then."

Shoichi Kano remembered that the hotel room they stayed in did indeed come with a small refrigerator.

The Slit-Mouthed Woman poured another mouthful of alcohol down her throat. "I'm a cursed spirit. Although I manifest in human form and my gender perception leans toward human females, my physiological nature still differs somewhat from humans."

"As long as I don't want to get drunk, I won't get drunk," the Slit-Mouthed Woman said in a dreamy, soft tone while watching Genghis Khan gallop across the television screen, drawing his bow to shoot large eagles.

"But your face is all red." Shoichi Kano poked her cheek, only for his hand to be caught.

"W-Where is there?!" Clearly in disbelief, the Slit-Mouthed Woman immediately picked up the small mirror from the nightstand to inspect herself.

"Just teasing you."

"Ah!" Then Kano felt his flank lightly pinched by the other's sharp fingernails.

When they headed downstairs later with the intention of grabbing some breakfast, they happened to run into the duo of Geto and Shoko, who were also preparing to head out under the guidance of an assistant supervisor.

"Yo," Suguru Geto took the initiative to greet them, contrary to his usual demeanor, though his tone felt heavily reminiscent of the vibe when Brain-Guise possessed his body during the Shibuya Incident. "Long time no see."

Shoko Ieiri also broke into a grin, the cigarette clamped between the corners of her mouth burning away.

Shoichi Kano raised an eyebrow. "It hasn't been that long, has it? Didn't we just see each other yesterday?"

Only, when that assistant supervisor looked over toward them, his complexion turned somewhat ugly.

These two model honor students whom they had valued the most... were actually mingling with a wanted remnant of the Q Organization and a registered Special Grade Cursed Spirit?!

No... this was bad...

Matters like this had to be reported to Jujutsu Headquarters!

Shoichi Kano had no idea why this gray-haired middle-aged man's expression kept shifting back and forth, but realizing this person wasn't Kiyotaka Ijichi from the original story and merely some nameless passerby, he lost interest.

"Is this gentleman your assistant supervisor?" the Slit-Mouthed Woman asked directly.

Having occasionally seen Jujutsu High students executing missions in the past, she roughly knew some superficial procedures out of mere curiosity.

"Yes," Shoko nodded. "This is Mr. Kazuo Yoshihara, who serves as the assistant supervisor for our mission this time."

"Mr. Yoshihara, hello," Shoichi Kano smiled as he reached out a hand, attempting to shake the other's. "My name is Shoichi Kano, and the person beside me is my mother, Ms. Miyano Yuko."

Yoshihara felt like his bladder was about to let loose. Strictly judged by Jujutsu High standards, his sorcerer grade was Grade 3, and he didn't even possess an Innate Cursed Technique.

Thus, simply sensing the Cursed Energy presence emanating from Kano and the Slit-Mouthed Woman made his whole body feel thoroughly wretched, let alone the fact that these two didn't seem like kind folks at all.

Consequently, he responded to Kano's goodwill with a smile uglier than crying paired with hand-shaking that trembled like a sieve, and exchanged a brief gaze with the Slit-Mouthed Woman by way of greeting.

"Is something the matter, Mr. Yoshihara?" Shoko calmly blew out a smoke ring, her cigarette-holding hand naturally reaching into a nearby trash can to flick off the ash.

Yoshihara shook his head, a forced smile still plastered across his face. "N-Nothing... I'm just getting old and can't quite handle the cold air from this AC."

"Well, since we've run into each other, why don't we grab breakfast together?" Kano tried tossing out an invitation.

Geto and Shoko raised no objections, which left Yoshihara breaking out in cold sweat-could it be that this batch of Tokyo Jujutsu High students were all rebellious traitors to the core? It was one thing that Jujutsu Headquarters couldn't control that strongest Satoru Gojo, but how did these two-one a Cursed Spirit Manipulation user and the other a medic-both end up tangled in ambiguous ties with external Curse Users?

Yoshihara felt as though the sky of Jujutsu Society had grown dark once more!