The good news was that, thanks to Sherlock's interrogation methods, which had absolutely nothing to do with jujutsu sorcerers and respected no bottom line whatsoever, he and Satoru Gojo had successfully squeezed every last scrap of information out of the three men.
The bad news was that their information could not be called completely identical-rather, it was completely different. Not only had they given three different names, but their descriptions covered an old man, a man, and a woman.
Yet none of the three showed any signs of lying. Under Sherlock's utterly unscrupulous psychological pressure, which respected no bottom line, they had even confessed to peeking at an older girl next door while she bathed when they were children. There was no way they were hiding anything.
In other words, there was nothing left worth investigating at this establishment. At least, that was how Sherlock saw it.
After using Satoru Gojo's phone to send all three names they had extracted to Window, Satoru Gojo took Sherlock with him, ignored the manager's expression, which looked as though his own mother had died, and quit and vanished from the establishment at the speed of light.
Only after bringing Sherlock somewhere deserted did Satoru Gojo speak to him with a serious expression.
"Sherlock, this trick works, but try not to use it too often. For one thing, it can easily have wider repercussions. For another, doing this gives people leverage over you, and seizing on leverage is what those damned old fossils do best."
In Satoru Gojo's mind, Sherlock should have reacted a little after hearing that, giving him the opening to say that there was no need to worry, because Teacher Gojo would keep all those annoying old fossils at bay.
But Sherlock's expression was nothing like Satoru Gojo had expected. Looking at him with undisguised contempt, Sherlock unhesitatingly pointed the revolver at his own temple and pulled the trigger six times without pausing.
Sherlock's actions left Satoru Gojo dumbfounded. To stop Sherlock from blowing his own head off, Satoru Gojo had already moved to block the muzzle with his hand, coated in Limitless.
But when six empty clicks of the hammer rang out, Satoru Gojo froze in place in a bizarre pose.
"Huh?"
Seeing Satoru Gojo's reaction, Sherlock finally took the gun away from his temple, opened the cylinder, and extracted the sole live round inside. After tossing it to Satoru Gojo, he said lazily,
"There's no need to take something this seriously when a simple dummy round can solve it. Did you really think those three idiots were lucky enough to go that long without getting shot once?"
At this point, Sherlock patted Satoru Gojo's shoulder with the air of a seasoned veteran before continuing.
"Teacher, you're just too kind. I suggest you get one yourself. This thing is incredibly useful, whether you're interrogating someone for information or scaring ordinary people.
"If you actually run into someone too blind to know better and brave enough to try something, just load a live round and fire a shot into the sky. I guarantee they'll behave themselves without the slightest resistance.
"Most importantly, this thing deals purely physical damage and leaves no cursed residue. As long as you don't get some crazy idea about using it against cursed spirits, it's an essential item for any jujutsu sorcerer, whether for murder and robbery, home and travel, or shameless sneak attacks. It's incredibly useful!"
"..."
My head itches so much. It feels like I'm about to grow a brain!
Watching his own student enthusiastically recommend firearms to him, the strongest in Jujutsu Society, Satoru Gojo felt his brain struggling to keep up. Most importantly, he could not find anything wrong with what Sherlock was saying!
No, was this fucking right?
Especially that bit about shameless sneak attacks. Good grief, never in his life had Satoru Gojo imagined that firearms like handguns could be used that way.
In fact, thinking it over, what if he really did encounter an evenly matched opponent, and while the two of them were in the thick of their fight, he suddenly pulled out a handgun and fired at them?
Although it would not actually do much damage, it might still disrupt the enemy's offensive rhythm.
And for some reason, Satoru Gojo felt that rather than worrying about his first disciple's mental state, he ought to worry about just how flexible this fellow's bottom line was.
Clearly, this idea of launching sneak attacks with firearms was nowhere near his student's actual bottom line.
For a moment, Satoru Gojo even began to develop a headache, and he silently resolved to seek advice from Yaga as soon as this mission ended, to find out how he should educate his student to raise his bottom line a little.
Jujutsu Society had all sorts of people, damn it, but this was Satoru Gojo's first encounter with a fucking sorcerer with no bottom line. Worse still, that sorcerer was his own first disciple!
In terms of combat ability, Sherlock currently posed absolutely no threat to Satoru Gojo; in the world of education, however, Sherlock only needed to exert himself a little to drag Satoru Gojo's reputation through the mud.
Shaking his head hard, Satoru Gojo forcibly shook away the urge to correct Sherlock's character with his iron fists. Ignoring Sherlock's incessant recommendations, he took him along to investigate their available information.
From those three men, Satoru Gojo and Sherlock had obtained three names.
Masahiro Matsumoto, Yuko Aikawa, and Shuichi Yoshimura.
According to those three big smart guys, Masahiro Matsumoto was a man of about thirty-seven, and Big Smart Guy Number Three had completed his transaction with him at a café.
Yuko Aikawa, meanwhile, was a high school girl, and Big Smart Guy Number One had completed his transaction with her behind a convenience store.
The last one, Shuichi Yoshimura, was an old man over sixty. He dressed very conservatively and was extremely rigid in his ways as well. Big Smart Guy Number Two had completed his transaction with him at an izakaya.
All three transactions had something in common: they had met those three individuals while complaining about their lives and work to colleagues and friends. The process had been exactly the same, differing only in a few details.
The second common feature was that, after giving their money to those three individuals, all of them had inexplicably fainted on their way home. Only after being taken to the hospital and regaining consciousness had they discovered that their transactions had been completed.
It had to be said that the curse user codenamed "Loan Shark" was quite cautious. But even the best-laid plans had a flaw: this curse user had overlooked one thing-the flow of money.
Whether those three big smart guys had transferred the money or paid in cash, either method inevitably left traces. As long as they followed those traces, it would ultimately be easy to find the curse user called "Loan Shark."
Sure enough, Window soon sent over the information.
According to Window's investigation, Masahiro Matsumoto and Yuko Aikawa were already dead, with both having died three days earlier. Only the old man named Shuichi Yoshimura was still alive.
Moreover, Window's investigation showed that Shuichi Yoshimura was quite wealthy. In his younger days, he had risen to a management position at a certain conglomerate and received a substantial pension.
There was nothing to fault in his work, but his character left much to be desired. The old man had multiple recorded incidents of harassing female colleagues during his employment-a complete and utter lecher.
Most importantly, Sherlock was very familiar with the true owner behind the conglomerate where the old man had worked. In fact, that person was standing right in front of him.
That was right-the head of the Gojo Clan, Satoru Gojo!