I, in a Jujutsu Kaisen Manga, Take the Detective Conan World by Storm

Gojo Satoru's mission was to Osaka, departing much earlier than them. They had just finished the meal delivered by school staff when the assistant supervisor came to pick him up.

He muttered something under his breath, casually packed his things, and before leaving, coolly tossed out: "I'm off, see you later!"

Geto Suguru smiled with narrowed eyes and waved, Jiang Lai also looked up to say "goodbye," but Gojo Satoru showed no intention of looking back, having already strided away with his long legs covering a considerable distance.

Ieiri Shoko had a lollipop in her mouth, saying indistinctly: "Satoru always just tosses out a line and leaves, you don't need to respond since he never looks back anyway."

Geto Suguru lowered his previously waving hand, looking down as he said gently: "I'm used to responding every time." He said, "Just in case it's the last time, there won't be any regret about not having a chance to say goodbye."

Hearing this, Jiang Lai's fingers paused slightly.

Ieiri Shoko pulled out her lollipop, propping her cheek with one hand: "Then just don't let there be a [last time] situation, right? Though, this kind of thing is hard to predict."

Their topic didn't linger on this point, quickly returning to the most ordinary casual conversation.

During this time, Jiang Lai opened his phone to compile and organize information about the Supervisory Committee in digital format. He now had a relatively clear understanding of this organization.

In summary, this was a villainous institution disguised with a righteous facade, its core members difficult to identify and seemingly possessing special life conditions. To defeat them might require working from the inside.

He slowly pondered, organizing his summary in a memo app, while leaving the targeted plans temporarily blank for now.

After lunch time ended, Geto Suguru began contacting the assistant supervisor responsible for transportation, but the agreed meeting point wasn't at Tokyo Jujutsu High's main gate.

"I want to go home first to pack." Geto Suguru said, "It's been over two weeks since I last went back."

Asazawa Apartments? Jiang Lai still remembered. In the main timeline, Geto Suguru's home was upstairs from the room he had rented.

"Then let's go." Jiang Lai nodded, following along.

They traveled by car through the city streets toward Asazawa Apartments.

The bustling crowds flowed by every day, but in a few years, new and old faces would change with the passage of time.

This small apartment building wasn't much different from the one in the future main timeline, standing in its place under the sunlight, just that it looked newer now.

Not until this moment did Jiang Lai have a sense of being in a different era, standing before a familiar building but in a different time.

Geto Suguru walked ahead naturally, noticing that Jiang Lai hadn't followed, so he specifically stopped to wait: "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing." Jiang Lai quickly snapped back to attention, catching up with a few steps and smiling, "I just think this apartment building has a nice location. Living here would be comfortable and convenient."

"Mm." Geto Suguru recalled, his expression becoming much gentler, "There's also a small park nearby. When I was little, I often went there with my parents on weekends."

He paused here: "But that was a long time ago."

Jiang Lai knew about Geto Suguru's family situation in this new series. He didn't want to probe painful memories, so he didn't dig for information or ask more, just quietly walked beside him.

Perhaps because he was walking on the path home, the metal railings and concrete stairs, these everyday environments tugged at memories, Geto Suguru continued speaking gently: "When my parents disappeared, I was in my first year of junior high. It was a hot summer."

Just as the landlady had said, his parents' accident happened not long after he started junior high. Jiang Lai listened quietly.

"I came home from school as usual, kept waiting, waited until dark but they never came home." Geto Suguru continued, "Their phones wouldn't connect either, and their workplaces said they had left normally after work."

"Later I reported it to the police, but their investigation found nothing. Two living people just vanished on the road from their companies to home."

Geto Suguru reached his fourth-floor apartment door, taking out keys to unlock it, the bronze key had a [Geto] label attached.

"For those few days, I was still foolishly thinking [maybe they just got lost], turning on all the lights at home, hugging my school bag and waiting by the door, but later I gradually understood that they probably would never come back."

Jiang Lai paused for a few seconds, saying quietly: "I'm very sorry to hear about this... My condolences."

"Actually it's okay, since this happened a long time ago." Geto Suguru turned his head with a slight smile, his eyes downcast, "It's just that occasionally when I remember, I still feel regret, that day when they left, I forgot to say goodbye to my parents."

So now, Geto Suguru habitually said goodbye every time he parted, just like today when Satoru departed.

Jiang Lai thought inwardly. He had originally thought it was because Geto Suguru had some premonition of parting from his best friend that he responded that way.

This conversation naturally stopped after they entered the apartment. The boy with the bun hairstyle began looking for cleaning tools to tidy the house, and Jiang Lai also helped with the cleaning.

After a simple cleaning, there was a knock at the door. Geto Suguru went to open it, and outside was a kindly-looking elderly woman.

Jiang Lai was cleaning inside and just curiously poked his head out for a glance, immediately recognizing this as the landlady from the main timeline. However, ten years ago, she looked much more robust.

"Ah, it's Suguru who's back... I thought so, I heard sounds from upstairs while I was downstairs." She said with a smile.

"Hello, Nakamura-san." Geto Suguru replied politely and gently, "Sorry, I might have made too much noise cleaning."

"Oh, it's not about that." Landlady Nakamura waved her hand, looking somewhat embarrassed, "I wanted to ask Suguru for a favor, my light bulb broke last night..."

"Oh, I'll come down and help you replace it." Geto Suguru nodded in agreement, immediately putting down his cleaning tools.

"Thank you so much, Suguru. Good thing you came back, otherwise I'd have to find someone to fix it." Nakamura-san's wrinkles creased with her smile as she chattered, "How do you seem even thinner than the last time you came back? Perfect timing, I baked some black sesame cookies at home, take some with you."

"Then thank you, Nakamura-san, I'll share them with my friends."

The two voices gradually faded away. Jiang Lai's gaze swept across the floor mirror in the room, landing on the pagoda tree wooden pendant at his waist.

Right, there was still this matter.

Jiang Lai's thoughts flowed.

He didn't know when exactly he would make his temporal jump this time, but it definitely wouldn't be too long. Given this, as a precaution, he should lay this groundwork now.

Just like when he had given this to Gojo Satoru to carry during the Star Plasma Vessel mission.

For his future self to encounter Toji when renting the downstairs room, his current self needed to place the pendant containing Fushiguro Toji's soul into the picture frame downstairs.

Because this pendant contained a soul entity, essentially it overlapped with the soul entity, no longer belonging to this world.

Therefore, this object wasn't affected by temporal restarts and cycle loops. After he placed it here, it would remain here.

This was also why Fushiguro Toji could witness the temporal overlap.

With these thoughts flowing, Jiang Lai untied the pagoda tree wooden pendant from his waist, planning to go downstairs and place it in the picture frame.

But he needed to find a reason to go there.

Jiang Lai found a toolbox in the room, planning to use delivering tools as an excuse to go downstairs to find them.

However, when he carried the toolbox downstairs, he realized this action was unnecessary, the downstairs door was half-open, but no one was there. They had probably gone to the nearby convenience store to buy light bulbs.

For Jiang Lai, this was actually more convenient, otherwise placing the pendant right under their noses would be too obvious and would require more explanation.

Thinking this, he seized the opportunity, slipping into the room, immediately locating the decorative painting, removing it at money-counting speed, pulling out the red cord, and placing just the pagoda tree pendant inside.

Then Jiang Lai put everything back in place, being careful not to leave traces on the floor, closing the door to maintain the same angle as before, and returning to the fourth floor via the stairs.

At the same time, he silently considered what would follow.

When Fushiguro Toji awakened in December 2017, the house would probably have rumors of being haunted, a situation that would continue until he came to rent it in winter 2018.

During this time, it would probably interfere with renting the place out... Jiang Lai thought. When he returned to the main timeline later, he'd secretly give the landlord extra money as compensation.

After staying at Asazawa Apartments for some time, the assistant supervisor came to pick them up. They were about to drive to their mission destination, that relatively remote village.

Geto Suguru carried small bags of black sesame cookies he'd gotten from Nakamura-san, dividing them into three small bags.

Before getting in the car, he handed one to Jiang Lai: "Here." He smiled, "Try some, just to satisfy your taste buds." He knew Jiang Lai had no need for sustenance.

Jiang Lai was somewhat surprised, pointing to the cookie bags in Geto Suguru's hands: "You only have three bags total? If you give me one, how will the three of you divide them?"

"The remaining two bags, one for Satoru, one for Shoko." Geto Suguru distributed them as he spoke, "As for me, it's not necessary." He said gently, "I already tasted them at Nakamura-san's place."

"Alright." Jiang Lai reached out to accept it, "I thought you were leaving yourself out of consideration again."

"Why [again]?" Geto Suguru's lips curved slightly, getting in the car with Jiang Lai and continuing the conversation, "Did Satoru complain to you about something?"

"Satoru told me that every mission report is handled by you, and you also include the first and second years together. You always think about and care for others, but don't put yourself in the [needs care] category. This makes you very tired and worries others."

"I believe the first half is something Satoru would say, but the second half..." Geto Suguru smiled, "Those are Lai's words, right? Thank you for your concern."

Jiang Lai blinked: "How did you figure that out so quickly?"

"Because Satoru wouldn't say such directly caring words... Haha, for him, that would be quite embarrassing." Geto Suguru said half-jokingly, "I probably won't hear him say such things in my lifetime."

"Hard to say." Jiang Lai said, "The future Satoru might grow into an adult who's cheerfully shameless and can calmly say all kinds of embarrassing things."

"Uh, living long enough to see anything?" Geto Suguru placed one hand under his chin.

"Yes, live a bit longer, and you can see everything." Jiang Lai's eyebrows curved with his smile, adding silently in his heart.

Or perhaps it was just like Suguru's habit of saying goodbye, because of past regrets, all the words that couldn't be said in the past would be spoken in the future.