Suguru Geto could more or less tolerate Sherlock's repeated harassment over those ten-odd days. After all, in terms of seniority, Sherlock was only a junior, and with his age factored in, even when Sherlock annoyed him to the point of helplessness, Suguru Geto would not be overly harsh on him.
Facing Satoru Gojo, that Dickhead Cat, was an entirely different matter.
Even though he and Satoru Gojo had now taken different paths, his desire to beat up that Dickhead Cat had never truly died out. In fact, the slightest puff of air could bring those embers roaring back to life.
To teach Sherlock a lesson, and even make Satoru Gojo, that Dickhead Cat, think twice before acting, Suguru Geto hung up the phone and immediately left the Time Vessel Association's headquarters on a Cursed Spirit, his face dark.
After flying for a long time, Suguru Geto finally found a remote forest that did not even have cell reception. Once he had made his preparations at the site, he quietly waited there for Sherlock to appear again.
This time, he would absolutely beat Sherlock until he questioned his entire existence!
Wasn't this supposed to be a fucking Pokémon battle? Fine. Today, he, Suguru Geto, would grant that damned Dickhead Cat's wish!
If Sherlock dared to come, he would show him what the fuck a fucking Pokémon master was! If he ever fought that underhanded little bastard Sherlock in close combat again, he would take Satoru Gojo's fucking surname!
A night passed.
When the sun rose over the horizon again, Suguru Geto released a large number of Cursed Spirits and quietly waited for that little bastard Sherlock's ambush. If Sherlock dared to come, he would knock the little bastard straight into his swarm of Cursed Spirits at the first opportunity!
An entire day passed as Suguru Geto waited.
Suguru Geto quietly watched the sun rise in the sky, then quietly watched it set. His only company was the bored howling of the Cursed Spirits under his control.
The moon quietly climbed above the branches, then quietly sank on the other side. The rising sun shone on Suguru Geto's face once more.
Suguru Geto remained very patient. Aside from his somewhat dark expression, the Monkey-Exterminating Cult Leader, dressed in monk's robes and draped in the Gojo Kasaya, sat quietly on a Cursed Spirit's back like an old monk deep in meditation, waiting.
As the sun set once again, the trap Suguru Geto had spent two whole days preparing had not merely failed to attract its prey-it had not caught so much as a fucking hair!
"Satoru Gojo! I *****! You and your student are both **********! I ********!"
Having never gotten Sherlock's ambush, Suguru Geto finally lost it completely. He stomped furiously around the clearing filled with the Cursed Spirits he had released, spewing a nonstop stream of profanity at Satoru Gojo and Sherlock.
When Suguru Geto returned to the Time Vessel Association with a dark face and all the grime of sleeping rough, his expression was as black as the bottom of a pot. Even his two adopted daughters chose to steer clear when they saw that look on his face, as though he were about to eat someone alive.
What? Why hadn't Sherlock kept harassing Suguru Geto?
Sweetheart, Satoru Gojo had already called Sherlock and told him that fox with the weird bangs had completely lost it. Going looking for trouble after that would not be bravery-it would be fucking masochism!
Sherlock did not belong to any group with peculiar tastes, so of course he would not go looking for trouble with Suguru Geto!
Besides, in Sherlock's own words, after working so hard for so long and taking so many beatings, couldn't he give himself a vacation?
What was so interesting about looking at that squinty-eyed fox with the weird bangs and kasaya every day? He might as well use that time to enjoy his last days in Okinawa before Satoru Gojo returned.
And so, while Suguru Geto spent his nights under the stars feeding the bugs in the forest, Sherlock lay on the beach, sunbathing and watching beautiful women. While Suguru Geto huffed and puffed as he directed his Cursed Spirits to clear the site and lay traps, Sherlock happily soaked in an Okinawan bathhouse.
By the time Suguru Geto returned to the Time Vessel Association in Tokyo with a dark expression, Sherlock was living it up in every way possible on the money those old fossils had given him.
Did you know what the most infuriating part was?
The most infuriating part was that Sherlock had even bought an action camera and recorded every moment of his wonderful life over those two days! He also planned to wait until Satoru Gojo returned so they could shove the footage in Suguru Geto's face together!
It was only because Suguru Geto knew nothing about those two Dickhead Cats' plans. Otherwise, he might have launched the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons more than a decade early, with those two Dickhead Cats as his targets!
Of course, infuriating Suguru Geto was only a prank. Although Sherlock had appeared to spend that month sightseeing and having fun, he had actually not been idle at all.
First, Sherlock had left his beacons in cities large and small throughout Japan. Their numbers might vary somewhat, but they definitely covered all the major cities across the country.
Second, Sherlock had used this publicly funded tour to figure out his Cursed Technique's maximum range.
1,500 kilometers. Even one centimeter farther, and Sherlock could neither activate his Cursed Technique nor sense any technique beacons beyond that range. Activating his technique at maximum range also consumed a staggering amount of Cursed Energy. All of Sherlock's Cursed Energy was only enough for two maximum-range displacements within a short period.
The good news was that once Sherlock returned to Tokyo, his Cursed Technique would essentially be able to cover all of Japan, and the Cursed Energy consumption would be relatively modest, allowing him to recover quickly.
Aside from those two things, Sherlock's greatest gains had actually come from Suguru Geto.
When Satoru Gojo taught Sherlock close-combat techniques, he usually held back, and sometimes even fed Sherlock openings.
But good old Uncle Suguru Geto could not be bothered with all that. Especially later on, when Sherlock's harassment had thoroughly annoyed him, he really did charge in swinging Playful Cloud. His guiding principle was to beat him within an inch of his life, as long as it did not actually kill him.
Under Suguru Geto's relentless pressure, Sherlock's fighting ability improved by leaps and bounds. He leveled up at an astonishing pace.
After all, Teacher Gojo still had to consider how much his student could take and whether Shoko had time to treat him. But good old Uncle Suguru Geto genuinely hit hard, and that instead forced Sherlock to grow rapidly.
Another day passed after Suguru Geto returned to the Time Vessel Association, and Sherlock still did not appear. This actually began to make Suguru Geto feel excited.
Such peaceful days, that feeling that everything had returned to its proper course-it all felt like another lifetime to Suguru Geto. What he did not know, however, was that just as he marveled at the final return of his peaceful life as a cult leader...
A plane landed on the runway at Naha Airport in Okinawa.
Once the plane came to a stop, the strongest sorcerer of the modern age, Satoru Gojo, walked out of the airport pulling his suitcase.
He casually hailed a taxi, squeezed into the back seat, and immediately gave the name of Sherlock's hotel. Meanwhile, Sherlock, completely unaware of this, was in his hotel holding a bowl of instant noodles and grinning stupidly at what was on television.