Chapter 115 : Jiang Lai - Sure Enough, I Still Need to Use My Main Body to Find Him
Suguru...
Seeing Gojo Satoru's email, Jiang Lai frowned slightly and fell into thought.
After the second playthrough restart, Geto Suguru hadn't truly betrayed the jujutsu world. Facing the Supervisory Committee's temptation and instigation, he went with the flow and was currently undercover with the Supervisory Committee, working inside and outside with Gojo Satoru.
Unlike the Detective Conan world which valued electronic device traces for intelligence, the jujutsu world focused more on cursed energy information and usually didn't pay attention to others' device communications.
However, just in case, Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru were still cautious not to store each other's numbers. Each time before contact, they would first send coded probes with strange numbers, then communicate, deleting emails after exchanges.
But contact still carried risks. Perhaps because the Supervisory Committee had vaguely become suspicious of Geto Suguru's position in some disturbance, that's why Geto Suguru told Gojo Satoru not to contact him temporarily.
Jiang Lai analyzed based on his experience in the Detective Conan world.
According to Gojo Satoru's email, Geto Suguru hadn't replied for this entire period afterward...
Either Geto Suguru was being extremely cautious and wouldn't contact Gojo Satoru's side until the Supervisory Committee's suspicions were cleared.
Or something had happened to him on the Supervisory Committee's side, preventing him from contacting Gojo Satoru.
One was actively not contacting, the other was passively unable to contact. Jiang Lai hoped it was the former.
The usual Gojo Satoru wouldn't focus so intently on such details. As the strongest with an arrogant and casual personality, laughing carefreely and supremely self-centered, it was always others paying attention to him, rarely him actively paying attention to others.
Probably because he had experienced the painful first playthrough once before, Gojo Satoru was so sensitive to certain things.
Jiang Lai's fingertips rubbed the back of his phone as he sighed softly in his heart.
In any case, he hoped Geto Suguru was safe. He thought silently.
He inexplicably felt like Geto Suguru had been assigned a script of tragic misfortune and beautiful suffering...
This won't do, everyone must get a happy family reunion script! Jiang Lai made emojis in his heart.
Gojo Satoru was overseas and couldn't return anytime soon. Only he and Ieiri Shoko knew Geto Suguru's true situation. Shoko was medical support, so indeed he needed to step up.
After briefly organizing his thoughts, Jiang Lai raised his hand to reply to Gojo Satoru's email: [Leave it to me. Speaking of which, when exactly was the last time you contacted Suguru?]
It was mid-February now. If there had been no news for nearly two months...
That meant shortly after he met Geto Suguru in the alley, or shortly after his Christmas reunion with Gojo Satoru, Geto Suguru stopped contacting Gojo Satoru.
The precise timing was very important for determining how much intelligence Geto Suguru knew.
Gojo Satoru's reply came quickly: [December 25th.]
He didn't stop there, continuing in detail: [He previously said he had seen you but didn't communicate with you just in case. Then I said I would go find you on the agreed "see you tomorrow" day.]
[Later on Christmas when I reunited with you, I informed Suguru. That was also when Suguru told me not to contact him recently.]
In other words, Geto Suguru knew about the reunion that day, but didn't know about his Little Sheep disguise from the day after the reunion, and wasn't clear about his current cursed spirit identity setup.
Jiang Lai understood and noted this information, replying: [Alright, if I have news of him, I'll contact you immediately.]
[Ah, right, if you see Suguru, pull a prank to scare him first, who told that guy not to give me any news for so long.]
Jiang Lai couldn't help curving his lips, but also understood the hidden meaning of hope for his friend's safety behind Gojo Satoru's playful words, so he went along: [No problem, but I won't take the blame for you. I'll definitely expose you as the mastermind behind the prank when the time comes.]
[No problem~~ I'm overseas, far away, Suguru can't hit me~~]
Gojo Satoru's mischievous cat-like rising tone seemed to transmit through the text.
The atmosphere became relatively light. Jiang Lai exhaled, then remembered his original purpose for opening his phone email: he had planned to ask Gojo Satoru about more intelligence regarding that Gojo family Third Elder.
[By the way, Satoru. I met your family's Third Elder today...]
Jiang Lai briefly described the meeting scene and a few relatively key conversation topics.
This time, the other side didn't reply immediately. After quite a while, Gojo Satoru sent back a new email.
[I remember you told me last time that you thought this person was problematic? Then it's better to stay away from him.
Regarding ancient books, he's indeed very enthusiastic. Ever since I can remember in modern times, I've often seen him go out to collect ancient books.
Ah... though I don't want to admit it, I have to say the memories from a thousand years ago are still somewhat blurry. I can't clearly recall specific details from a thousand years ago, only vaguely remember that a thousand years ago, he seemed to be the then-Grand Elder's child.]
Jiang Lai recalled the forum's previous speculation that "Kyufuin doesn't seem particularly attached to the Gojo surname," paused for a few seconds, then messaged: [Is he the Grand Elder's biological child?]
[I don't know that, but logically, anyone who can sit in an elder position should be from the main Gojo family, so probably biological. What's wrong?]
Jiang Lai: I have a tiny bit of suspicion he's not biological.jpg
A sense of déjà vu from family drama plots came flooding in!
But he didn't delve deeper into this, since such questions were hard to answer. The truth might have long been buried in historical dust.
So after briefly replying to Gojo Satoru, he exited his email and put away his phone.
Jiang Lai's thoughts returned to Geto Suguru, pondering how to get information about him.
Whether Geto Suguru actively wasn't contacting Gojo Satoru or was passively unable to contact him, to know his specific situation, he first had to find him.
But Geto Suguru had no fixed base, wasn't a fixed-spawn monster. Where should he look for him?
Jiang Lai's hacking skills were now very proficient. He could try to secretly hack into the city's main surveillance system, comprehensively extract surveillance footage for image data comparison, but at most this could only lock down a general area where the other appeared, not accurately find Geto Suguru himself.
He continued thinking.
From this perspective, perhaps he needed to borrow some power from Supervisory Committee forces to find Geto Suguru.
Currently, he knew and had some contact with two types of characters related to the Supervisory Committee: the human side's Gojo Kyufuin, and the special-grade cursed spirit side's Mahito.
For Gojo Kyufuin, main body contact would be unreasonable. He'd need to use his Little Sheep disguise that had met him once before.
However, there was too little intelligence on this person currently. Even that person's technique [Conversion], he wasn't clear on its specific effects. Moreover, this guy seemed quite high-level and not easy to extract information from.
High danger, low returns. Better to skip for now and discuss later.
For Mahito, he'd need to use his main body's cursed spirit form to make contact.
Compared to Gojo Kyufuin who had few appearances in the new series, special-grade cursed spirit Mahito had relatively rich intelligence both in the original work and new series. He was familiar with the other's technique, which helped with preparations.
Moreover, from the Satozakura School incident, it seemed the other intended to recruit (or use) him, being a special-grade cursed spirit with confused memories and powerful abilities.
So he could explore through Mahito's route.
Jiang Lai thought, pausing slightly.
However, after the other returned injured, from the Supervisory Committee's intelligence network, he could probably learn from Nanami's side's mission report that the intruder who took Ryomen Sukuna's finger from the illusion cursed spirit's body was him...
He wondered if there would be some hatred value toward him. Jiang Lai thought silently, but wasn't nervous.
If the other wanted to scheme against him, it wouldn't be easy. He might even counter-scheme instead.
Jiang Lai was very good at making enemies lift rocks to drop on their own feet.
Overall, compared to Gojo Kyufuin, Mahito's side was more conducive to digging for intelligence, getting information about Geto Suguru, or finding Geto Suguru himself.
After weighing pros and cons in his heart, Jiang Lai set his preliminary follow-up plan and relaxed considerably.
Beside him, Itadori Yuji handed over a small box of ice cream, his orange-gold eyes containing a smile: "Done playing games? You looked like you were having fun. Want some ice cream? Eating ice cream in winter is so refreshing."
Jiang Lai's eyes lit up. Truth be told, he loved eating ice cream in winter.
Little Sheep Jiang Lai was about to thank him and accept when Nanami Kento across from him silently reached out, moving that box of ice cream in front of Haibara Yu: "Watanabe just had a headache, right? I noticed you frowning. In that case, prioritize your health and don't eat cold drinks for now."
Due to his weak health disguise setting, Jiang Lai could only watch the delicacy being moved away: "......QAQ"
Actually, his earlier frowning was from thinking about the difficulty of finding Geto Suguru, not a real headache. But of course, he couldn't say this directly.
Therefore, Little Sheep Jiang Lai coughed and blinked, going along with the game excuse: "I didn't have a headache just now, I just got to a difficult part in the game."
Then Little Sheep Jiang Lai changed the subject, as if very curious and cheerful: "By the way, besides me and Fushiguro-kun, no one else has this kind of summoning system, right?" He smiled as he raised a small egg tart from the table toward Fushiguro Megumi, "Looks like we're rare chosen ones!"
"Combat methods involving summoning shikigami are indeed not particularly common in the jujutsu world." Nanami Kento replied calmly.
"Oh oh, summoning types? I remember there's another one, Geto-senpai is probably one too? Cursed spirit manipulation is also summoning, right." Haibara Yu's bright smile made him instinctively blurt out, then he noticed whose name he had mentioned.
Little Sheep Jiang Lai gave a thumbs up in his heart: Good, finally transitioned the topic here!
Jiang Lai planned to first hear what those around him knew about Geto Suguru.
Hearing Haibara Yu's words, Itadori Yuji was stunned: "......Geto-senpai?"
Fushiguro Megumi and Kugisaki Nobara also blinked, looking like they didn't know much.
Nanami Kento adjusted his clip-on glasses: "Looks like Gojo hasn't mentioned him to you. He should probably mention him once or twice, but let bygones be bygones. In any case, if you've noticed the wanted lists issued by the jujutsu world, you can see he's now a special-grade curse user on them."
"Eh?!"
It sounded like everyone's understanding only stopped at him being a rogue curse user, but didn't mention the Supervisory Committee. Indeed, the Supervisory Committee appeared unconnected to these evils in the public eye.
Jiang Lai thought to himself while speaking cheerfully: "He's also a summoning type? I'm curious, kind of want to meet him. Is there a chance to see him?"
He asked this with the hope of maybe getting a surprising reply.
Nanami Kento turned to him: "You can, there's a chance."
"Really?" Jiang Lai hadn't expected the surprise to come so suddenly. This way he wouldn't need to rack his brains searching for the other's traces.
"Look at wanted poster photos more, print them and put them by your bedside, think about them day and night, maybe you'll see him in dreams."
Little Sheep Jiang Lai: "......"
Don't suddenly make that kind of dark humor, it's too cold!!
Sure enough, I still need to use my main body to find him...