Gojo Satoru, in a special car heading to Kagoshima, stared blankly out the window.
While Chinatsu had already exorcised the Cursed Spirit and completed her mission, Gojo Satoru, who had left almost at the same time, was still on his way.
Two minutes for exorcism, two hours for travel... Just as Gojo Satoru closed his eyes, preparing to clear his mind and think of nothing, his phone in his pocket suddenly buzzed.
Gojo Satoru, puzzled, took out his phone from his pocket and opened it, discovering it was a message from Chinatsu.
Even though he hadn't seen the specific content of Chinatsu's message yet, an ominous premonition had already surged in Gojo Satoru's heart, allowing him to guess what had happened.
He opened his phone to check the message.
Upon learning that Chinatsu had already completed her assignment and was preparing to return home, Gojo Satoru's head felt as if it had been struck by a mallet, sinking heavily.
"Um... driver, how much longer until we arrive?"
"About half an hour, I'd say?" the driver replied indifferently. As a professional driver, driving for over ten hours straight was a common occurrence, so he didn't feel anything was amiss.
But Gojo Satoru was different; the thought of arriving at the mission location in half an hour, spending a few minutes exorcising the Cursed Spirit, and then several hours returning the same way filled him with a sense of despair.
"If only I could teleport..."
This thought suddenly flashed through Gojo Satoru's mind, and almost simultaneously, his brain affirmed the possibility of this idea.
If he utilized the attractive force of "Blue" to compress the positional coordinates between two points, he might be able to achieve an effect similar to teleportation.
Gojo Satoru lifted his head, displaying an expression of "I get it!" and intended to begin preliminary attempts after this mission was completed.
"Hmm, after this mission is completed..." "How much longer now?"
"29 minutes."
"..."
While Gojo Satoru continued his journey with an impatient mood, Chinatsu walked out of the school gate with light steps.
With Limitless Defense and Blue mastered, Chinatsu could handle anything from a Grade 2 or Grade 1 Cursed Spirit to even a Special Grade Cursed Spirit at the lower end of the spectrum.
As she walked out of the school gate, the driver of the car parked across the road immediately spotted Chinatsu; he rolled down the window and poked his head out.
Chinatsu, smiling, raised one hand and made an OK gesture.
Mission accomplished!
The driver immediately breathed a sigh of relief, genuinely happy for Chinatsu.
With the sound of doors opening and closing, Chinatsu settled into the car, and the driver stepped on the accelerator, heading towards the Gojo Family mansion.
"Miss, are you unharmed?" the driver asked while driving.
"You know, with Limitless Defense, I'm either severely injured or completely unscathed," Chinatsu shrugged, teasingly referring to the characteristic of her Cursed Technique.
The driver was now completely at ease; he diligently performed his duties as a driver, safely and swiftly bringing Chinatsu back to the entrance of the Gojo Family mansion.
After taking care of some minor matters, Chinatsu comfortably lay down on her soft, large bed.
If one were to purely calculate the energy expended on exorcising the Cursed Spirit, Chinatsu's energy level was almost at full capacity.
However, before exorcising the Cursed Spirit, Chinatsu had been entangled with the school students for a considerable amount of time, and the mental exhaustion was far from ordinary.
Without that segment, Chinatsu might have continued to practice her Cursed Technique for a while longer, but at that moment, Chinatsu only wanted to lie in her soft bed and get a good night's sleep.
The moment Chinatsu lay down in bed and drifted into dreamland, the special car carrying Gojo Satoru finally stopped. Gojo Satoru, holding his phone, had sent messages to Chinatsu but received no reply, and his face was covered in black lines.
He looked at the time displayed on his phone and the interval since her last reply, and an ominous premonition once again surged in Gojo Satoru's heart.
"Could my sister already be asleep...?"
Although it was far from a normal person's bedtime, Gojo Satoru believed this possibility was quite high.
However, Gojo Satoru quickly recovered from this sense of disparity, because compared to Chinatsu frantically pushing herself to cultivate her Cursed Technique during this time, merely going to bed early made him feel much more relaxed.
His progress in mastering "Blue" was already several days behind Chinatsu's, and Gojo Satoru did not want this gap to widen further; if it did, his plan to have Chinatsu call him "Brother" would truly be out of the question.
Gojo Satoru stepped out of the car. He was now in a cluster of unfinished buildings, an area the government planned to demolish and redevelop. However, during the demolition process, various strange incidents frequently occurred, even leading to people disappearing.
Cursed Spirits are not like the demons in "Demon Slayer" next door, where eating humans can increase their strength; Cursed Spirits have a purely hostile instinct, which is due to their birth from human negative emotions.
Gojo Satoru tucked his phone back into his pocket, his special eyes gleaming in the darkness. In just a few seconds, he located the hidden Cursed Spirit among the many unfinished buildings.
A Grade 2 Cursed Spirit, a relatively ordinary level.
"I'll be right back."
Gojo Satoru waved to the driver in the special car behind him and then walked alone into one of the unfinished buildings.
The driver stretched his muscles slightly. He took out a pair of headphones from his pocket, plugged them into his phone, and just as he had adjusted the music he was about to play and before he could close his eyes to rest, Gojo Satoru walked out of that unfinished building.
The driver suddenly sat up with a start, as if recovering from a near-death illness, and looked bewilderedly through the car window at Gojo Satoru, who was approaching step by step, opening the back door, and getting into the car.
"Did... did you solve it?"
"Hmm? It was just a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit. One [Blue] took it out instantly," Gojo Satoru waved his hand and didn't say much, because there really wasn't anything worth talking about in the whole process.
The driver gave an awkward laugh, quickly pulled out the headphones from his ears, put them aside, gripped the steering wheel with both hands, stepped on the accelerator, turned around, and headed back the way they came.
By the time he actually returned to the Gojo Family mansion, it was already the middle of the night. Gojo Satoru, listless, returned to his bed in his room. Although exorcising the Cursed Spirit had taken barely two minutes, he had no energy left.
"Teleportation... I'll start practicing tomorrow..." Gojo Satoru lay on the bed and quickly fell asleep.
The next day, while Gojo Satoru was still deep in slumber, Chinatsu had already climbed out of her bedding, refreshed. As she stretched her arms above her head, she exhaled a large breath.
"Phew~ I'll stabilize [Blue] a bit more, and then I'll try short-distance [Teleportation]!"