The meal was a lively affair, and Masamichi Yaga even dropped his usual dignity for once to fool around with Satoru Gojo and Sherlock.
The three jujutsu sorcerers and one healer polished off all eight dishes and the soup. Satoru Gojo even used his staple food to mop up every last bit of sauce from the sweet dishes.
After they had eaten and drunk their fill, Shoko and Masamichi Yaga made excuses and left, giving the teacher and student some space.
Sherlock felt somewhat awkward, but Satoru Gojo seemed completely unbothered, pestering Sherlock with a grin for the desserts he had just brought over.
What could Sherlock say? The cat had brought his own treats. Under the circumstances, Sherlock could hardly refuse, so he could only let Dickhead Cat take those desserts back out of the fridge.
Looking at the table covered in desserts, Sherlock's mouth twitched. He even started worrying that Dickhead Cat might eat himself into a bout of indigestion.
Seemingly noticing Sherlock's concern, Satoru Gojo waved a hand at him with a grin.
"Now, now~ Don't worry. Desserts go in a separate stomach! Besides, as the great Teacher Gojo, I can even use Reverse Cursed Technique to reset my stomach's condition~"
"..."
Satoru Gojo's absurd declaration left Sherlock even more speechless. Surely he didn't need to go that far?
Before Sherlock could voice his complaint, Satoru Gojo handed him a Kikufuku, a faint green showing through its snowy-white skin.
Sherlock recognized it almost at a glance as Satoru Gojo's favorite edamame cream Kikufuku.
Normally, Satoru Gojo would never share these with Sherlock. Sherlock had even tried to snatch one several times without success, yet now Satoru Gojo was actually offering him one.
As Sherlock accepted the Kikufuku Satoru Gojo handed him, he even felt a little surprised and delighted.
Seeing the surprise and delight on Sherlock's face as he accepted the Kikufuku, Satoru Gojo smiled too. Some of the frivolity faded from his face, and he spoke to Sherlock very seriously.
"Sherlock, I want you to rely on your teacher more and trust me a little more. Don't be afraid of causing me trouble."
Hearing this, Sherlock understood that Satoru Gojo was expressing his concern in a roundabout way. Those old fossils going around Satoru Gojo to summon him had affected Satoru Gojo more than he had imagined.
"Got it. Next time those old bastards summon me, I'll shove you out front to take the bullets."
Sherlock answered Satoru Gojo with seemingly casual teasing. Although he sounded rather shameless, the substance of his reply made it perfectly clear that he understood what Satoru Gojo had been trying to say.
One very good thing about Satoru Gojo was his disdain for the distinctions of rank in Japan's feudal system. So rather than taking offense at Sherlock's seemingly irreverent words, his smile actually grew even brighter.
Because Satoru Gojo knew that his very first student had understood what he was trying to convey, and understood his thoughts too.
This was the first time since Suguru Geto's departure that Satoru Gojo had felt "understood" by someone.
Although he was quite happy inside, Satoru Gojo still put on a wounded expression in true Dickhead Cat fashion, mimicking a high school girl as he squirmed like a noodle and whined at Sherlock.
"Huh??? Xia-chan, you're so heartless~~"
That endlessly winding intonation sent Sherlock's blood pressure shooting up. Sure enough, Dickhead Cat would always be Dickhead Cat. He really had mastered the art of making someone feel both angry and disgusted.
An exasperated Sherlock started bickering with Satoru Gojo on the spot. As they traded barbs, it was almost as though the incident caused by the Higher-Ups had never happened.
No, more accurately, it had instead deepened their bond as both teacher and student and friends.
Sherlock now knew about the scar in Satoru Gojo's heart, and Satoru Gojo understood Sherlock's stance. That was enough.
Early the next morning, things went on as usual for the two of them. Sherlock got up early and ran to the training dummy on the field to practice over and over, trying to land another Black Flash.
Satoru Gojo also went back to Sherlock's room first thing in the morning, hoping to yank off his covers. After finding him gone yet again, he sneakily stole some of Sherlock's snacks before going to find him and begin his training.
Unlike before, Satoru Gojo no longer interfered in things like the development of Sherlock's Cursed Technique. He even stopped offering ideas about Sherlock's future development.
After all, that battle with Eiichi Kurokawa had made it clear to Satoru Gojo that Sherlock had his own ideas for his future. As his teacher, all Satoru Gojo really needed to do was offer advice when Sherlock felt lost.
Besides, that battle had exposed far more weaknesses in Sherlock than expected, and Satoru Gojo began putting him through special training targeted at those weaknesses.
Stamina and hand-to-hand combat were Satoru Gojo's focus this time. Sherlock's Cursed Technique was powerful, but it also consumed a great deal of stamina, so Satoru Gojo placed the emphasis of his special training on stamina.
Apart from fundamentals like stamina and hand-to-hand combat, Satoru Gojo also added special reaction training for Sherlock.
During the battle with Eiichi Kurokawa, Satoru Gojo had already noticed that if Sherlock could react a little faster, both his agility and his own speed could improve considerably.
In other words, Sherlock's Cursed Technique was the exact opposite of his Limitless. Limitless relied on the brain's computational ability, while Sherlock's Cursed Technique relied on stamina and reaction speed.
One targeted the brain, the other the body.
Sherlock also understood that Satoru Gojo's thinking was right, but that damned reaction training truly made him wish he were dead.
Satoru Gojo always managed to come up with different ways to train Sherlock's reactions. Yesterday, he had asked Yaga for around a hundred dolls to gang up on Sherlock. Today, he had gotten a pile of air guns from who knew where and arranged them into a battle formation to fire wildly at Sherlock.
Stamina training left Sherlock exhausted like a dead dog, and hand-to-hand training left him beaten like a dead dog. When it came to that damned reaction training, not only did he get beaten like a dead dog, but his own Cursed Technique left him fucking dizzy and disoriented too.
And that wasn't even what drove Sherlock to despair the most. The worst part was that after going through that entire routine, when Sherlock felt as though his soul was about to escape through his mouth and run away, that damned Dickhead Cat had actually scheduled a Barrier Technique lesson for him that evening.
And the fucking reason left Sherlock unable to refuse: it was to lay the groundwork for opening a domain in the future!
After the whole day, Sherlock was utterly numb by the time he returned to his dorm room. It really was a real-life case of "not a single drop left."
If Sherlock's improvement over those few days hadn't been practically visible to the naked eye, he would have started wondering whether Dickhead Cat was using training as an excuse to mess with him.