Chapter 146 : The 1.8 Billion Debt Finally Arrives Though Late
Fushiguro Megumi, Kugisaki Nobara, and Itadori Yuji carried that cursed tool back to Jujutsu High. From this wordless gift, they keenly perceived the shadow behind it, so their expressions were all quite grim.
When they initially analyzed the Supervisory Committee, they knew of this organization's widespread reach, but they hadn't expected that even one of the Big Three Families, the Zenin family, was tightly controlled.
Jiang Lai felt it was good for them to have this awareness. This way they would be much calmer and wouldn't rashly go exploring secrets with hot blood.
"Speaking of which, since Lady Zenin had planned to give it to us all along, why didn't she let us take it ourselves when we were in the study?" When stepping through the high school gates, Kugisaki Nobara seemed to suddenly remember something and asked: "Her giving this to us when leaving should mean she noticed our purpose, right?"
"Maybe it's a coincidence?" Itadori Yuji put one hand on his chin, then gave a thumbs up: "Or maybe after seeing that the visitors were us, she thought we were reliable, so she gave it to us!"
Fushiguro Megumi: "...Perhaps because taking and giving are two different methods." He paused for a second, then said: "However, I always feel they wouldn't casually give away items. Maybe behind this cursed tool, an invisible price has already been marked."
Correct, this was part of the transaction results. The nearby Jiang Lai in his brown-haired youth shell thought. There was no such thing as free pie falling from the sky in this world, behind every windfall was a marked price.
A cursed corpse with independent consciousness couldn't be hidden for too long, and Naoya's cursed corpse was originally meant to fall reasonably at Jujutsu High anyway, so after Little Sheep Jiang Lai returned to high school, he went to find Principal Yaga Masamichi.
Zenin Naoya, who was incompatible with Little Sheep Jiang Lai, initially had an ugly expression, but after his gaming addiction flared up beside the gaming sprite shikigami summoned by Jiang Lai, he no longer went crazy and followed all the way to the principal's office.
"Principal Yaga, there's a mutated weird thing here." Little Sheep Jiang Lai poked his head out from the office doorway, waving to signal: "Come quick!"
He radiated youthful liveliness and openness, not shy at all, showing no restraint even when facing the unfamiliar principal.
Yaga Masamichi was reviewing documents when he heard the voice and looked up.
He knew who the brown-haired youth before him was. Before Nanami Kento brought him over, he had introduced his identity.
He was a survivor that Satoru had rescued from a village extermination incident, with some physical defects but possessing excellent techniques, a genius youth.
Before Nanami Kento went out on a mission, he was still somewhat worried about the brown-haired youth, calmly explaining many things to Principal Yaga.
Gojo and Nanami were both very gentle people at their core. Yaga Masamichi's eyebrows softened a bit. Seeing the brown-haired youth's beckoning gesture, he paused but still got up and went over.
"Alright, what is it? If it's the room behind there, that place is full of cursed corpses I made..."
His words weren't finished. After stepping out of the office doorway, he noticed the golden cursed corpse interacting with the little bear gaming sprite shikigami in the hallway.
Yaga Masamichi naturally knew all the cursed corpses he had made. The cursed corpse in front of him that seemed to have self-awareness definitely wasn't made by him!
His expression immediately became serious: "Where did this cursed corpse come from?"
"The Zenin family." Little Sheep Jiang Lai blinked: "It's too noisy, I don't like it, so I thought about turning this weird thing in."
"Hey, who are you calling a weird thing!" Zenin Naoya glared at the brown-haired youth, his tone unceremonious.
Yaga Masamichi's attention was on the words "Zenin family." His mind was shaken, extremely surprised that the Zenin family actually had someone capable of making cursed corpses with independent consciousness.
No, that shouldn't be possible. He had never heard of other cursed corpse masters in the jujutsu world.
To make cursed corpses have independent consciousness required creating souls, but besides creating souls, there was also the very uncommon method of stuffing a living person's soul into a cursed corpse.
...But that kind was rarely seen, he had only heard about it. After all, to separate a living person's soul required the help of special cursed tools.
Yaga Masamichi's gaze fell on the cursed corpse having a pointless argument with the brown-haired youth. He sensed the cursed energy inherent in the cursed corpse, this wasn't a prank.
...Right, although the brown-haired youth was picked up by Satoru, he probably wouldn't have inherited Satoru's mischievous nature.
Since Gojo Satoru's class graduated, Yaga Masamichi rarely encountered pranks. Back then Gojo and Geto, those two guys combined with Shoko, were always enthusiastically pulling various low-level jokes, making the spacious campus very noisy.
At that time he was angry at Gojo and the others every day, but now he somewhat missed those days.
Being able to see the bright youthful smiles on the faces of boys and girls was the best reward for being principal.
The mental drift was only momentary. Yaga Masamichi quickly came back to his senses, staring at that cursed corpse and pushing his thoughts toward the most likely possibility.
Rather than believing someone outside had learned to make independent cursed corpses, he was more willing to believe it was a special cursed tool from the Zenin family. After all, feudal big families always hoarded various cursed tools.
Inside the cursed corpse in front of him should be a real human soul, just unclear what the Zenin family's intention was in making this move.
While Yaga Masamichi was thinking, Little Sheep Jiang Lai turned his face and looked at him again, saying: "By the way, although I intended to turn in this weird thing, I feel like turning it in for free is a bit of a loss."
He smiled cunningly, then said: "How about this, Principal Yaga, could you make Gojo-sensei stop asking me for debt repayment?"
Hearing this, Yaga Masamichi was somewhat surprised and said: "That Satoru guy, what debt is he asking you, a child, for?"
"Ah, well, Gojo-sensei said I owe him 1.8 billion yen." Little Sheep Jiang Lai hung his head halfway, counting on his fingers: "So I've been working hard to earn money to pay him back, but I found that no matter how much I save, it's never enough..."
Yaga Masamichi: Asking a lonely, helpless youth for 1.8 billion, that's too much!
But given Satoru's personality, this was definitely a prank. Still, playing this kind of joke with a middle school first-year was really...
Principal Yaga rubbed his temples with some headache, then consoled: "Don't take it to heart, that Satoru guy's personality is like that, he's probably joking with you."
"Really?" Little Sheep Jiang Lai raised his dark eyes, blinking slowly: "But..."
"How about this, I'll talk to Satoru." Principal Yaga stepped forward and patted the youth's shoulder: "The cursed corpse you brought over is very valuable. I think with my principal's reputation, it should be worth that 1.8 billion."
"That would be wonderful." Jiang Lai replied with curved eyebrows.
Actually it wasn't Satoru's prank, it was his own reverse prank. Jiang Lai laughed inwardly, rarely having some mischievous fun. But it could also be considered drawing a perfect conclusion to his and Satoru's "1.8 billion" running gag at the time.
The cursed corpse Naoya didn't struggle when following Yaga Masamichi away, because he had already mentally prepared himself, knowing that to establish himself and avoid enemy suspicion, he had to coordinate well with the "cursed corpse master" Yaga Masamichi.
Although Zenin Naoya didn't want others to know about his current appearance, what needed to be said still had to be said.
He planned to explain the situation to Yaga Masamichi, along with the words Lady Zenin had specifically entrusted to him before leaving. That's right, Lady Zenin had specifically told Naoya something before leaving.
Lady Zenin planned to fully utilize Naoya's advantage of leaving home, having him convey some of the Zenin family's situation and communicate well with Tokyo Jujutsu High to achieve some kind of secret cooperation.
Jiang Lai also knew this, so he waved and prepared to leave, giving the rest to Naoya and Principal Yaga.
But before leaving, he seemed to think of something and turned back: "By the way, Principal Yaga, I heard from Sister Kugisaki that there are two senior students from the Zenin family in the school. How about giving this weird thing to them later? Coincidentally, they're all from the Zenin family, so it should be very suitable."
Yaga Masamichi replied: "Thank you for your kindness, but Maki and Mai don't like the Zenin family and might be resistant to things from the Zenin family."
"That's exactly where the value lies." Little Sheep Jiang Lai smiled: "Precisely because they're resistant, they'll strike like facing an enemy, wouldn't that perfectly achieve the training purpose?"
The meaning was that those two would definitely beat up the cursed corpse Naoya very harshly.
Yaga Masamichi: "......"
Zenin Naoya: "...You're sick, you're looking for death!"
Little Sheep Jiang Lai waved cheerfully and ran to the stairway in a flash: "No matter what, I won't forget to inform the two senior students. Looking forward to you all communicating more~"
Not caring about the commotion behind him, Jiang Lai walked down the stairs with light steps and ran out of the office building where Yaga Masamichi was located.
Today the sunlight was just right, spring was about to arrive, and all things were brewing new growth.
Jiang Lai walked toward the dormitory building all the way, his gaze sweeping over the surrounding scenery, his eyebrows becoming somewhat gentler.
For everyone to be able to watch spring flowers bloom together in the new year, he had to work harder.
Now clues were collected fairly comprehensively, cooperation from all sides was beginning step by step, only lacking a more precise connection.
Jiang Lai's thoughts flowed in his mind, his expression slowly settling down. He held his phone with one hand, calmly planning subsequent steps.
After returning to the dorm, he'd first check if the manga had revealed any more information. Then report his safety to his Detective Conan world friends and thank little Akira for his help.
Then tonight when everyone had gone to sleep and the environment was relatively safe, he'd switch back to his main body and call upon Fushiguro Toji sleeping in the pagoda tree wooden pendant to obtain the unknown secret he had promised to reveal.
Hopefully it would be quite valuable intelligence that could confirm the next direction, string together the scattered information into an arrow pointing directly at the target.
Jiang Lai's mind had already settled on serious matters.
…
Meanwhile, on the other side, Gojo Satoru, who had suddenly been sent a private message by Principal Yaga for a lecture: ?