With his little bag on his back, Sherlock happily came down the mountain from Jujutsu High, made straight for the station, and bought a train ticket to Hakone without another word.
Hakone was already an extremely famous hot spring town, and with it being only ninety kilometers from Tokyo, it became the first stop on Sherlock's "all-expenses-paid trip."
Don't ask. If you did, Sherlock had received intelligence that Suguru Geto, the Time Vessel Association's Special Grade Curse User, had been spotted in Hakone!
What? You wanted his source? Never mind that. If you asked, he'd seen it online! What? You wanted to check where he'd seen it? Just a moment, he'd make a new account and photoshop a picture, and there it would be.
Sherlock didn't just think this. He actually did it.
After finishing his preparations on the train, Sherlock checked straight into one of Hakone's finest hot spring inns. An authentic Japanese-style private bath! There were also all sorts of hot spring dishes and premium sashimi delivered to his room by pretty young women in kimonos.
After photoshopping Suguru Geto into a picture of the entrance to the inn, Sherlock casually tossed his computer onto the tatami and gleefully jumped into his private hot spring bath.
The instant the hot water enveloped his body, Sherlock felt his entire being ascend.
Unable to contain his excited heart and trembling hands, Sherlock gave a thumbs-up with his foot, took a picture, and promptly sent it to Satoru Gojo and Shoko to report in.
What? You wanted to know why Sherlock didn't send it to Masamichi Yaga?
Because Sherlock was afraid of getting beaten up too! Masamichi Yaga's righteous iron fist could break through Limitless. He wasn't someone to mess with, absolutely not...
Whether because of the time difference or some other reason, Satoru Gojo didn't reply to Sherlock, but Shoko saw the picture Sherlock sent right away.
Tokyo Jujutsu High had very few people, only four even counting Sherlock, and there weren't really any secrets to begin with. Naturally, Shoko knew about Sherlock's assignment, and she could see the Old Orange-Peels' sinister intentions too.
Honestly, as Sherlock's senior and friend, Shoko was worried about his situation.
What was more, as someone stuck inside Jujutsu High who had the most contact with the Old Orange-Peels, Shoko could be said to know the Old Orange-Peels and the scum from the Three Great Families particularly well.
But even so, when Shoko saw Sherlock's picture, she predictably lost her composure. Even though she thought from the bottom of her heart that Sherlock's actions were truly satisfying, that still couldn't stop her from losing it.
As a miserable working stiff, Shoko not only had to worry about those idiots from the Three Great Families, but occasionally even had to concern herself with the relationship between Satoru Gojo and his utterly outrageous first disciple.
And now she was being told that the little punk whose head was full of all sorts of female teachers had gone off on a paid vacation in the name of an assignment? That fucking hurt Shoko worse than killing her.
Without another word, she forwarded Sherlock's photo to Masamichi Yaga, and only then did a cold smile appear on her face.
Meanwhile, Masamichi Yaga was in his office, agonizing over how to handle Sherlock's assignment. After all, if anything went wrong with it, not only could people get something to use against Sherlock, but Masamichi Yaga didn't even know whether his former student would spare Sherlock for his and Satoru Gojo's sake.
Just then, his phone chimed with an incoming message.
Frowning, Masamichi Yaga opened his phone and almost immediately saw the picture Shoko had forwarded of Sherlock lying in a private bath, giving a thumbs-up with his foot.
Almost at first glance, Masamichi Yaga understood exactly what Sherlock was trying to do. After staring blankly for quite a while, he finally relaxed and laughed. Looking at the caption Sherlock had attached beneath the picture, "Set aside your decency, enjoy a shameless life," he cursed under his breath.
"That little brat!"
After that laughing curse, however, Masamichi Yaga's blood pressure began to climb, and he even clenched his back teeth tightly.
Damn it, why hadn't he realized back then that he could exploit this loophole? He'd stupidly investigated who knew how many assignments! More importantly, Masamichi Yaga was already starting to worry that Satoru Gojo might pick up bad habits from that little brat Sherlock!!!!
While Masamichi Yaga was fretting, Satoru Gojo, who had just dealt with a Special Grade Cursed Spirit born from a cult over in Uncle Sam's territory, also received Sherlock's messages.
When he saw the so-called assignment specifically naming Sherlock that the Higher-Ups had issued, which Sherlock had forwarded to him, Satoru Gojo nearly exploded with rage.
He wasn't an idiot. Naturally, he could see the Higher-Ups' sinister intentions.
But when he saw the hot spring picture Sherlock sent him, he laughed instead. He had to admit, his first disciple did have a bit of cleverness in him.
Originally, Satoru Gojo had been thinking of having the Gojo Clan help cover for Sherlock a little, but when Sherlock sent him a link and he clicked it to find a newly registered social media account, Satoru Gojo laughed so hard that tears came out.
There was no other reason: on that social media account, Satoru Gojo saw Suguru Geto in his Jujutsu High uniform, standing at the entrance to a hot spring hotel with his arm around a female teacher.
Leaving aside the utterly abysmal photoshop work, the fact that Sherlock had actually made the student-era Suguru Geto take the blame after receiving the so-called "investigate the Time Vessel Association" assignment was enough to send Satoru Gojo into fits of laughter.
He took back what he'd said about Sherlock being clever. The brat wasn't clever. He was a pure fucking menace!
For some reason, though, seeing that brat enjoying a first-class hot spring while he was out here miserably doing assignments made Satoru Gojo's teeth itch a little.
After Sherlock sent another photo of an extremely luxurious Japanese hot spring meal accompanied by a huge platter of top-grade sashimi, Satoru Gojo had already begun planning exactly how to give the little brat extra training once he returned.
There was no other reason. He was simply far too infuriating.
Yet Satoru Gojo could never have imagined that this was only the beginning. Sherlock's shamelessness and lack of scruples went somewhat beyond his expectations.
Sherlock stayed at Hakone's finest hot spring inn for two days. Two days later, after finding a few background photos of Hokkaido online and lightly waving the little magic wand called Photoshop, Sherlock once again booked a plane ticket, this time to Hokkaido.
First class!
After landing in Sapporo, he checked straight into the presidential suite of a top five-star hotel, stuffed himself with snow crab and king crab while taking pictures for Satoru Gojo, and even began leisurely sightseeing around Sapporo without making any attempt to hide it.
Of course, Sherlock hadn't forgotten Masamichi Yaga and Shoko either. With the thought that he might as well fleece the Old Orange-Peels while he could, Sherlock went wild buying all sorts of souvenirs along the way and mailed them all back to Jujutsu High.
You thought Hokkaido was the limit?
Sherlock's actions told you it wasn't!
Starting with Hokkaido, Sherlock used Photoshop to start naming destinations: Aomori, Akita, Iwate, Miyagi... all the way to Okinawa at the end. Sherlock left his footprints in practically every city of any size.
In less than a month, Sherlock had practically taken an all-expenses-paid tour of the entire country, very cleverly avoiding two places.
Kyoto and Tokyo!