Chapter 116 : Hiroki and Little Sheep & Jiang Lai and Geto
After finishing this buffet meal, Itadori Yuji and the others were summoned back to Tokyo Jujutsu High that afternoon. New missions kept coming, forcing the students to put aside training and rest time.
Haibara Yu followed the students back to the jujutsu technical college, supervising while conveniently submitting the accident handling report.
Little Sheep Jiang Lai waved goodbye to them and returned to the apartment with Nanami Kento. Now only the two of them were left in the house again.
"Aren't you about to go on vacation, Watanabe?" Nanami Kento flipped through the calendar, asking.
"Eh? Yes." Little Sheep Jiang Lai replied, "Spring break from the end of February to early April."
He was organizing his school bag. These past few days after school, he had been training with everyone and hadn't had time to do some homework. Fortunately, the teacher hadn't been checking homework recently, and Jiang Lai's adult soul could quickly complete the exercises.
"Any plans for the vacation?" Nanami Kento put down the calendar.
"Hmm... homework, gaming, and practicing some jujutsu." Little Sheep Jiang Lai counted on his fingers, laughing cheerfully, "Of course, most importantly is doing some online part-time work to earn pocket money~ If they're customers recommended by Nanami, I can give a three percent discount!"
Nanami Kento: "......"
His expression froze for a second, then he straightened his expression and said calmly: "Tokyo Jujutsu High's vacation schedule is different from regular Japanese schools. When you're on break, they're still in session. Then I'll take you there to study some jujutsu."
This cursed spirit ambush incident sounded alarm bells for Nanami Kento.
He had originally planned to slowly care for the brown-haired boy who had just entered the jujutsu world, waiting for him to grow to an appropriate age before gradually teaching him jujutsu.
But currently, it seemed the overall environment hadn't left sufficient time for the boy to grow fully, with crises lurking everywhere.
Therefore, he had to accelerate the training process, letting the brown-haired boy master as many self-defense abilities as possible.
Nanami Kento thought. Fortunately, Watanabe's natural talent was good, so he should be able to quickly adapt to the jujutsu learning process. At the jujutsu technical college, there were also the familiar Fushiguro-Itadori-Kugisaki trio to accompany him.
While Nanami Kento was thinking, Jiang Lai's mind was also turning.
Going to Tokyo? That didn't sound bad. He had explored most of what there was to explore here in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, so going to Tokyo to continue digging for intelligence would work.
So he blinked, cheerfully agreeing with the enthusiasm of a middle school student for traveling and playing: "Great! Going to Tokyo to play!"
"It's not entertainment, essentially it's for learning." Nanami Kento had no intention of beautifying this trip and stated directly.
Little Sheep Jiang Lai: "No problem, I'm prepared to have fun."
Nanami Kento: "......"
Finally, under Nanami Kento's rationally adult explanation, Little Sheep expressed understanding the importance of learning jujutsu and agreed to study diligently after spring break started, at least verbally.
That night, Little Sheep Jiang Lai returned to his room, closed the door, tossed his school bag aside, and began calculating dates on the calendar on his desk.
There were still one or two weeks before spring break, a time when he'd be more free at Satozakura Middle School in Kanagawa Prefecture than after going to Tokyo Jujutsu High.
After going to Tokyo Jujutsu High, switching to his main body to move freely wouldn't be as easy as now.
So he had to find Geto Suguru during this time. Jiang Lai thought.
There was still another problem currently.
The process of switching to his main body to find Geto Suguru might require several days of contact with special-grade cursed spirit Mahito. Or even if he quickly found Geto Suguru, he might need time to help solve the other's troubles.
Then during this period, he couldn't return to switch disguises to attend school and such.
But taking such a long leave would be inconvenient for both school and Nanami Kento.
Jiang Lai held his phone, pondering countermeasures. If only he could use shadow clone jutsu to seamlessly run dual accounts...
If this were the Detective Conan world, dual accounts usually meant friends disguising themselves as another character.
But in the jujutsu world, he couldn't ask Junpei to help disguise as him, right?
Little Sheep Jiang Lai put down the calendar, leaned back on his soft bed, stared at the ceiling in a daze for a while, then turned to lie on his side, picking up his phone to look for inspiration online.
Just then, his phone notification bar showed an [Me and Spirits and New Routes] game personal upgrade alert. Jiang Lai instinctively opened the game, collected the experience points, then suddenly remembered this game's projection mode:
When fighting monsters in the game, you could activate projection mode skills, making the guide transform into the spirit user's appearance to attract monster power.
His technique simulated the game's creation, so might it also have a similar spirit projection mode?
Jiang Lai's heart beat rapidly. He sat up straight and immediately used his technique [Electronic Spirits], calling out Hiroki Kyubey.
Beautiful light circles illuminated the room as the pink-white creature leaped out from mid-air, landing on the star-patterned bedding.
He raised his pink eyes, smiling cutely: "Good evening, Mirai. Did you think of some merchandise design?"
"Ah, still thinking about that." Jiang Lai instinctively replied, scratching his slightly curly brown hair, "I want to wait until the spirits appear enough in the manga before making related merchandise."
"That sounds good." Hiroki Kyubey twitched his pointed ears, "We could do blind box spirit standees. If you collect all of Mirai's special cursed spirit collection, you can exchange for Watanabe Mirai."
"Then deliberately make some spirit standees scarce, but beyond that, provide a certain number of same-model standee exchanges for other standees, thereby encouraging everyone to buy more blind boxes? Even if you draw duplicates it's fine, save them up to exchange."
Jiang Lai naturally followed this train of thought, adding on.
"Good, it's decided then. I'll transfer your share of the profits to you." Hiroki Kyubey nodded, smiling, "Thinking about it this way, exchanging for the Watanabe Mirai standee really isn't easy."
Little Sheep Jiang Lai coughed: "Actually... we're earning money from Mirai solo fans and completionists."
One person and one spirit high-fived, reaching agreement.
Then Jiang Lai remembered his purpose for summoning Hiroki Kyubey, leaning closer: "By the way, Hiroki, as the guide, can you sense a projection mode option?"
"Projection option?" Hiroki Kyubey tilted his head slightly.
"It's like this, I need a relatively long time away, but the Little Sheep disguise can't just be abandoned..."
Jiang Lai briefly described to Hiroki Kyubey his situation of needing his main body to find Geto Suguru while his disguise needed to remain on standby, explaining the small trouble currently bothering him.
"I understand." Hiroki Kyubey grasped the situation, his fluffy tail swaying as he said, "So you need someone to transform into your appearance when you switch back to your Jiang Lai main body, living a two-point-one-line life between school and home?"
"Right, exactly." Jiang Lai sat up straight, nodding and gesturing, "Like the disguises in your world."
Hiroki Kyubey thought for a moment: "The guide simulating the spirit user master's avatar can only simulate appearance and cursed energy aura, but doesn't have real attack power."
"Ah, I know that. No problem, I need to focus on preparing for exams during this time, and I told Nanami I wouldn't train in jujutsu." Veteran gamer Little Sheep Jiang Lai nodded, his face showing bright anticipation, "So, is it possible?"
"If not using cursed energy, I can help." Hiroki Kyubey smiled cutely.
He shook his fluffy body, jumping down to the floor in front of the desk. Under Jiang Lai's gaze, light flowed and he transformed, becoming an identical brown-haired youth as if looking in a mirror.
At the same time, he held a simulated Little Sheep phone of the same appearance.
Hiroki spun in place, mimicking Little Sheep Jiang Lai by making a victory sign above his head: "Pocket money is so sweet~!"
His eyes sparkled brightly with youthful vitality.
Then Hiroki lowered his hands, his smile becoming gentle: "How is it?"
"Thank you so much, Hiroki!" Little Sheep Jiang Lai showed starry eyes in delight.
He jumped up from the bed, then remembered something and looked down somewhat embarrassedly: "Um, it's just that there are quite a few mock exams during this time, so school will be troublesome for you..."
Though he'd always dreamed as a child of having fun while a clone went to take exams and do homework.
But when it came down to it, actually leaving exams and homework to a friend disguised as him felt truly guilt-inducing.
"It's not troublesome at all." Hiroki Kyubey showed no trace of blame, instead smiling with curved eyes.
He reached out to touch the workbooks on the desk, his expression gentle with some nostalgia: "......Actually, I'm quite happy."
When Hiroki was still alive, he hadn't attended school for many years before being taken away.
During those few years in school, being a computer genius beyond his peers' understanding, he was isolated for being incomprehensible to his age group.
Actually, Hiroki really wanted to make friends, to go to school and play happily together. So during his Noah's Ark period, he constructed that activity of pretending to be children participating in holographic games.
Remembering the Detective Conan world's past, Jiang Lai's expression froze slightly. He paused for a second, then stepped forward to grasp Hiroki's hand:
"If you want, I'll work hard to find a way to give you a real way to attend school here too."
Jiang Lai had initially wanted to say he could leave the Little Sheep disguise to Hiroki, but felt that would actually constrain the other, since it was his disguise.
So he changed his approach, thinking about whether he could find other ways in the future to let Hiroki exist beyond just electronic data in the Detective Conan world.
"I'm already very satisfied." Hiroki's eyes shone with light as he gripped Jiang Lai's warm hand, "I haven't been alone for a very long time. Having memories of you as a friend makes me very happy."
"But I don't want you to only have memories." Little Sheep Jiang Lai said, his eyes determined, "Besides memories, you should have a broader future too."
His words still carried the youthful spirit of this body, not loud but resonating with soul-stirring seriousness.
Hiroki's expression froze slightly, then his lips curved up, finally all emotions melting into a pressed-lip smile.
He didn't say much more, only: "Alright."
He believed in Mirai, and in the future.
…
Jiang Lai chatted briefly with Hiroki who was imitating Little Sheep, telling Hiroki about school matters and Nanami Kento's situation to help the other cover for him during this time.
After arranging to contact each other electronically when needed, he switched back to his main body without further hesitation, leaping out of the bedroom window.
Time was pressing; he had to seize every minute and second.
Jiang Lai, switched to his cursed spirit state, landed on Kawasaki City's streets, following the roads they had walked today, searching for traces of special-grade cursed spirit Mahito.
He thought.
Mahito had been injured then, unable to fully conceal his cursed energy, lacking energy to clean up residual traces along the way, and wouldn't have gone too far.
If so, along this route, he should be able to detect some of Mahito's aura and find the other who was still in this area.
Jiang Lai adjusted his expression and aura, lowering his eyelids, walking on the road like a bewildered drifting yet distantly alert wandering spirit. He prepared for encountering Mahito.
However, what somewhat surprised Jiang Lai was that before meeting Mahito, he first encountered Geto Suguru.