Chapter 66 : We meet again
Jiang Lai stared at these final scenes of the manga, falling into contemplation.
Honestly, hearing that "bleeding heart" evaluation from the mouth of the King of Curses Sukuna, it felt like the sarcasm index was maxed out.
The manga didn't describe Itadori Yuji's specific reaction after hearing this sentence, but Jiang Lai could roughly guess that the other person would instinctively become wary and consider himself an accomplice of the other party.
Regardless, from this brief scene, it could be seen that he and Sukuna should know each other.
This could also explain why Sukuna had slightly opened his eyes when they first met and brushed past each other. It was probably because he sensed the aura of an acquaintance.
It's just that from these few words, Sukuna's true attitude couldn't be clearly discerned. Just the phrase "bleeding heart" had a somewhat cryptic style.
Jiang Lai thought for a few seconds and decided to temporarily set this aside in his mind.
Similar to the [Yesterday's Past] chapter experience, he would probably return to the past once more, narrating past events related to Sukuna-sama. At that time, he would consider matters related to Sukuna in detail.
At this moment, Jiang Lai focused on the information revealed in their conversation.
Sukuna's contemptuous evaluation of Nanami Kento and Itadori Yuji investigating at the scene: "You won't find it," "Continue wandering around like headless flies," and expressing "might as well give it to me," "or let that guy who helped you back then find it."
Looking at it this way, the reason Satozakura School suddenly attracted cursed spirits must be different from those tasks jujutsu sorcerers usually handled, which is why Sukuna said they couldn't find it.
That probably wasn't the attraction of special grade cursed objects, thus ruling out the possibility of fingers.
Jiang Lai crossed out the speculation in his mind, then brought up speculation two: another possibility that could attract cursed spirits, related to [Existence]'s damaged divine nature energy.
If it really was this, then Sukuna-sama obviously knew about [Existence]. After all, he said he could find it... But how did he sense it?
The confusion was only momentary. Jiang Lai immediately realized: Sukuna was now a curse, and cursed spirits could all sense [Existence]'s damaged divine nature energy.
He pondered, continuing to analyze along this line of reasoning.
If so, if he wanted to find out the secret in Satozakura School, he would also need to switch back to his original cursed spirit mode and go take a look.
When Nanami Kento and Itadori Yuji returned from investigating the school scene, it happened to be dinner time. Kyubey Hiroki had already returned to the Detective Conan world's network.
After dinner, before going to the scene, Jiang Lai planned to gather more information, so he actively asked:
"Since you resolved today's mission, should I go to school as usual tomorrow?"
"It's not resolved yet." Nanami Kento's expression was serious. He paused for a second, then continued: "I noticed traces of cursed energy residue at the scene. At that time, you..."
"Awakened my technique under crisis." Little Sheep Jiang Lai continued smoothly. "Because I was already very familiar with this game in daily life, I got the hang of it particularly quickly. It seems playing games regularly does have benefits."
Nanami Kento wasn't clear about the specific cursed spirit situation at the scene. He thought for two seconds and continued:
"Techniques are mostly personalized content beyond the basics. You can explore on your own first. If there's anything you don't understand, ask me."
"You can also ask me!" Itadori Yuji scratched the back of his head with a bright smile. "Cough, if I know, I'll do my best to answer."
"Great." Little Sheep Jiang Lai blinked. "In that case, will you agree to let me come along to the scene next time?"
"No." Nanami Kento still firmly refused, then said calmly: "In the future, I'll take you on some simple missions for practical training. But this mission's cause is unknown and has high danger levels. You can't go."
"Alright then." Little Sheep Jiang Lai pouted on the surface, looking quite disappointed.
Actually, he was very calm inside.
That question was just casual. If they happened to agree, Jiang Lai could wear his Little Sheep disguise and go take a look around first.
If they disagreed, Jiang Lai could perfectly stagger his route with theirs, find time to switch identities, and use his original body to go to the scene for investigation.
Itadori Yuji also played that sprite adventure game, so after dinner, the two played together.
"Too bad this game doesn't allow free team formation." Itadori Yuji said. "Fortunately, my luck is pretty good, and I happened to be matched with Fushiguro. Ah, Fushiguro is my classmate. His technique can also summon shikigami that are like sprites."
His tone was cheerful: "If there's a chance to meet, you two might have a lot in common."
"Maybe~" Little Sheep Jiang Lai looked down at the many new messages in the chat.
After Zenin Naoya's venomous comments all received automatic replies, he finally gave up saying more and simply treated himself as matched with a dead-weight teammate. He single-handedly cleared many levels but got stuck at one location.
When Jiang Lai came online, the other person happened to be online too, so Little Sheep Jiang Lai naturally teleported to his teammate's location and fought alongside him.
Although the two didn't get along in conversation, both had skills. Their first cooperation was quite coordinated, and they successfully passed the BOSS level.
[#Next Leader Is Me#: Heh, not dead weight anymore? Your skills are barely passable.]
[#Little Sheep No Insomnia#: Thank you, your skills are good. I still have much room for improvement.]
[#Next Leader Is Me#: ...?]
Faced with such a polite and humble reply, the person on the other side seemed unable to react for a moment, speaking after a pause.
[#Next Leader Is Me#: Oh, did someone else take over or did you recognize reality? This style works.]
[#Little Sheep No Insomnia#: Mm-hmm, accepting the free trial's good review baa, if you want to maintain this style afterward please go through PayPal payment! Paying can also unlock more modes baa~]
[#Next Leader Is Me#: ???]
After casually replying to Zenin Naoya, Jiang Lai exited the game. He glanced at Itadori Yuji beside him with his peripheral vision.
The cherry-pink haired boy was seriously playing his game, the crescent marks under his eyes tightly closed at the moment.
Sukuna coiled within showed no intention of coming out. Everything around was probably very boring to him.
"..." Jiang Lai quickly withdrew his gaze.
It seemed the disguise was indeed perfectly concealed switching. Six Eyes couldn't see through it, and Sukuna couldn't sense the original body under the disguise either.
He flicked the sheep horn decoration on his soft rubber phone case with his finger, thinking.
After collecting more intelligence and making some preparations, he'd meet with Itadori Yuji (Sukuna) using his original body. It might open a new past timeline. And it would probably be quite a long memory arc from a thousand years ago.
The school didn't yield much, so the next day, Nanami Kento decided to take Itadori Yuji to search for clues in the city.
Because the cause of the "bizarre" student death incident was still unclear, school was temporarily canceled for a few days, switching to online video classes.
After Nanami Kento and the others left, Little Sheep Jiang Lai, who was taking online classes, put on a sickly appearance and asked the teacher for leave, saying he needed to lie in bed and rest, then go out to buy medicine later.
Afterward, Jiang Lai exited the online class. He left a note at home saying "going out for a bit," then slipped out of the house.
There weren't many iris flower marks in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture. Moreover, through years of effort, Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru had successfully made some of the markers decorative, meaning they interfered with information collection or put information authority in their own hands.
Jiang Lai carefully cleared the content from several surveillance sections he passed through, and switched identities in a deserted alley, returning to his original body.
After adapting to a young person's perspective for a while, switching back to adult height felt somewhat uncomfortable for a moment. Jiang Lai quickly adjusted his condition.
For convenience, he adjusted himself to cursed spirit mode, then stepped out of the alley.
Cursed spirits couldn't be seen by ordinary people. Jiang Lai shuttled through crowds like a shadow, silently leaping over the school gate and entering Satozakura's interior.
The school where a murder had occurred and was now empty was extremely quiet. Even during the day, it emanated a cold feeling.
When approaching the school, Jiang Lai had a strange sensation. Something inside seemed to be attracting him like a magnet, continuously drawing him closer.
After entering, that attractive directional sense became even clearer.
"..." Jiang Lai calmed his mind and spirit. Following his instinctual guidance, he walked step by step into the school's auxiliary building, up the stairs to the fourth floor, through the quiet corridor, all the way to the deepest area.
This place was relatively far from their classroom and where teachers worked, so few people usually came here.
At the end, an ancient bronze door was tightly closed, surrounded by mottled rust stains.
The label on the door read [Storage Room].
This seemed to be an abandoned storage room.
Jiang Lai wasn't the first to arrive here. In front of the storage room already stood another figure.
A young man with blue three-strand braids and stitching scars across his face was staring at this storage room, humming an unknown tune.
It was the special grade cursed spirit Mahito!
Did he appear here simply attracted by this power to take a look? Or did he come with a Supervisory Committee mission? From Toji's soul mark, Mahito should have cooperation with the Supervisory Committee.
Thoughts flashed through Jiang Lai's mind in an instant.
It seemed that even in the new series, this was still the location where he spawned, just for different reasons than in the original work.
Speaking of which, having currently switched to cursed spirit state, according to his abilities, he probably counted as a special grade cursed spirit.
Jiang Lai pondered in his mind, quickly creating for himself a cursed spirit born from [people's regret over the passage of past time and fear of an uncertain future].
The moment Jiang Lai appeared, Mahito also sensed something behind him. He naturally turned around, his heterochromatic eyes looking at the black-haired young man walking slowly toward him.
Seeing the approaching black-haired young man, special grade cursed spirit Mahito's eyes flashed with surprise and interest.
He still remembered when he had seen the other person at the station, the other person was still a hybrid that couldn't distinguish between humans and cursed spirits. But now in his eyes, the other person was completely a cursed spirit, in the companion state they recognized.
Their small group, when facing characters who were also special grade cursed spirits, would have a relatively friendly initial attitude.
Keeping some distance, Jiang Lai stopped walking. His brown eyes calmly looked directly ahead.
He didn't reveal his attitude.
Mahito's heterochromatic eyes blinked slightly. A brilliant smile appeared on his face, and just like at the train station, he was the first to raise his hand and wave, greeting in a cheerful voice:
"Hi, what a coincidence, we meet again~"