Mission complete

Satoru Gojo rode toward Kagoshima in a private car, his eyes vacant as he turned to stare at the scenery outside the window.

Chinatsu had already exorcised the cursed spirit and completed her mission, yet Satoru Gojo, who had left at almost the same time, was still on the road.

Two minutes to exorcise it, two hours to get there...

Just as Satoru Gojo closed his eyes, ready to empty his mind and think about nothing at all, the phone in his pocket suddenly went "beep, beep, beep."

Puzzled, Satoru Gojo took his phone out of his pocket and opened it, only to find a message from Chinatsu.

Though he had yet to read what Chinatsu had sent him, an ominous feeling had already welled up inside him. He could guess what it said.

He opened his phone and checked the message.

When he learned that Chinatsu had finished her assignment and was getting ready to head home, Satoru Gojo felt as though someone had clubbed him over the head.

"Um... driver, how much longer until we get there?"

"About another half hour, I'd say."

The driver answered casually. As a professional driver, he often drove for more than ten hours at a stretch, so he saw nothing wrong with it.

Satoru Gojo, however, felt differently. The thought of arriving at his destination in half an hour, spending a few minutes exorcising the cursed spirit, then taking several more hours to travel back the same way filled him with despair.

If only I could use Teleportation...

The thought suddenly flashed through Satoru Gojo's mind, and almost at once, his brain confirmed that it might actually be possible.

If he used Blue's attractive force to compress the spatial coordinates between two points, perhaps he could achieve an effect similar to Teleportation.

Satoru Gojo raised his head with an "I've got it!" look on his face and decided to make his first attempts once this assignment was complete.

Yes, once this assignment was complete...

"How much longer now?"

"Twenty-nine minutes."

"..."

While Satoru Gojo continued his journey, barely able to contain his impatience, Chinatsu walked out through the school gates with light steps.

Now that she had mastered Limitless Defense and Blue, Chinatsu could handle not only Grade 2 and Grade 1 cursed spirits, but even those at the lower end of special grade.

As she emerged through the school gates, the driver of the sedan parked across the road immediately spotted her. He rolled down his window and stuck his head out.

Chinatsu smiled and raised one hand, making an OK sign.

Job done, without a hitch!

The driver immediately breathed a sigh of relief, genuinely happy for Chinatsu.

The car door opened and closed as Chinatsu climbed into the sedan, and the driver stepped on the accelerator, heading toward the Gojo Clan estate.

"Miss, you weren't hurt, were you?" the driver asked as he drove.

"You know how it works. With Limitless Defense, I'm either seriously injured or completely unscathed." Chinatsu shrugged, poking fun at the peculiarities of her clan's cursed technique.

Now fully reassured, the driver focused on his job, delivering Chinatsu safely and swiftly to the gates of the Gojo Clan estate.

After taking care of a few minor matters, Chinatsu settled comfortably onto her big, soft bed.

If she counted only the energy she had spent exorcising the cursed spirit, Chinatsu was practically still at full strength.

Unfortunately, she had spent quite a while dealing with the school's students before the exorcism, and the mental exhaustion had been considerable.

Without that ordeal, Chinatsu might have practiced jujutsu on her own for a while longer. Right now, however, she only wanted to curl up beneath her soft covers and get a good sleep.

The moment Chinatsu slipped beneath the covers and drifted off, Satoru Gojo's private car finally came to a stop. Holding his phone and sending Chinatsu messages without getting any reply, he looked thoroughly exasperated.

He checked the time on his phone and how long it had been since her last reply, and another ominous feeling welled up inside him.

Don't tell me my sister's already asleep...

Though it was still far too early for most people to go to bed, Satoru Gojo thought the possibility was quite likely.

Still, he soon recovered from the sense of disparity. Compared to Chinatsu using that time to train frantically in jujutsu and pull further ahead of him, her simply going to bed early was actually a considerable relief.

He had already mastered Blue several days later than Chinatsu. Satoru Gojo had no desire to let that gap widen any further, or his plan to make Chinatsu call him her big brother would truly be hopeless.

Satoru Gojo stepped out of the car. He stood amid a cluster of unfinished buildings in an area the government planned to demolish and redevelop. During the demolition work, however, all sorts of eerie incidents had occurred, and people had even gone missing.

Cursed spirits were unlike the demons in Demon Slayer. Those demons could grow stronger by eating people, whereas cursed spirits acted out of pure hostile instinct, a consequence of being born from humanity's negative emotions.

Satoru Gojo slipped his phone back into his pocket. His unusual eyes gleamed in the darkness, and within mere seconds, he located the cursed spirit hiding among the many unfinished buildings.

A Grade 2 cursed spirit, fairly average.

"I'll be right back."

Satoru Gojo waved at the driver in the car behind him, then walked into one of the unfinished buildings alone.

The driver stretched a little, took a pair of earphones from his pocket, and plugged them into his phone. He had only just chosen some music to play and had yet to close his eyes for a rest when Satoru Gojo emerged from the unfinished building.

The driver jolted upright as if brought back from the brink of death. Bewildered, he stared through the window as Satoru Gojo walked over, opened the rear door, and climbed into the car.

"It's... it's dealt with?"

"Hm? It was only a Grade 2 cursed spirit. One Blue took it out instantly." Satoru Gojo waved a hand and said no more. There really was nothing worth discussing about the whole process.

The driver gave an awkward chuckle, hurriedly pulled the earphones from his ears, and set them aside. Gripping the steering wheel with both hands, he stepped on the accelerator, turned the car around, and headed back the way they had come.

By the time he actually reached the Gojo Clan estate, it was the middle of the night. Satoru Gojo returned listlessly to the bed in his room. Exorcising the cursed spirit had taken only two minutes, if that, yet he had no energy left at all.

"Teleportation... I'm starting tomorrow..." Satoru Gojo lay down and soon drifted off to sleep.

The next day, while Satoru Gojo was still lost in his dreams, Chinatsu climbed out from beneath her covers feeling thoroughly refreshed. She raised both arms in a long stretch and let out a deep breath.

"Whew~ I'll get a little more comfortable with Blue, then try some short-range Teleportation!"