Tsumiki obediently hung up the phone.
But the next moment, the phone rang again.
Feeling a bad premonition, Fushiguro Tsumiki carefully picked it up again and said cautiously, "Hello? This is the Fushiguro residence…"
"Get Fushiguro Toji on the line. Tell him Hayashizaki needs to talk."
"O-Okay."
The steady voice on the other end carried a quiet pressure, making Tsumiki a little nervous. She quickly put the phone down and ran to the kitchen.
"Toji-san, there's a call for you. Someone named Hayashizaki says he needs to talk to you."
"Hayashizaki…"
Tsumiki saw Toji's face twist into a look of extreme annoyance. Even so, he put down the wooden spatula he had been holding and started untying his apron.
"Tsumiki, you make dinner."
"Okay."
Tsumiki took the frying pan from his hands.
Fushiguro Toji walked out of the kitchen and immediately spotted the spiky-haired boy stuffing popcorn into his mouth. His face darkened.
"It's almost lunchtime, and you're still eating popcorn? If you can't finish your meal later, I'll deal with you."
"Tch…" Fushiguro Megumi reluctantly set down his bucket of popcorn.
Only then did the black-haired man withdraw his sharp, hawk-like gaze. He picked up the phone and put it to his ear.
"It's me. What is it now?"
"Look into something for me. See if anyone has been hiring sorcerers with mind-related techniques or abilities that can manipulate others on the underground sites where curse users take jobs."
On the other end of the call, Hayashizaki's voice came through.
"Mind-related techniques?" Fushiguro Toji thought for a moment, then smirked.
"Oh, you mean those recent cases where regular people have gone crazy? So that was the work of curse users?"
"I just got caught in a terrorist attack at Chiba Airport," Hayashizaki said in a grim tone. "Several people strapped themselves with bombs and carried out suicide attacks. They were all under some kind of spell."
"I see… Tch. I'll give you my new phone number. I had to ditch all my old contacts while changing identities."
Fushiguro Toji gave him his current number, then hung up the landline.
He went to his room, turned on his computer, and logged into one of the underground sites where he used to take jobs. After searching for a while, he finally found a related request posted a week ago.
Right at that moment, Hayashizaki called again.
"Any luck?"
"I found something, but the users on this site—both the ones posting jobs and the ones accepting them—are all anonymous. There's no way to track your target just from this." Fushiguro Toji closed the website as he spoke.
"That's fine. I just needed to confirm it."
Hayashizaki ended the call and turned his attention back to the unconscious woman in front of him.
He sensed people approaching. No surprise—it was probably the police and firefighters coming to assess the scene.
Hurried footsteps echoed, followed by a startled shout.
"Over here! There's an unconscious woman!"
As the responders got closer, they noticed something strapped to her chest—
A ticking bomb.
"Wait! She's one of the attackers! There's a bomb on her! Get the bomb squad here, now!"
In the midst of the chaos, the black-haired young man had already vanished.
...
"Hm?"
His pocket suddenly vibrated.
Suguru Geto took out his phone and answered.
"Gojo? What's up?"
"Geto, Yukinoshita just called me. Chiba Airport was hit by a suicide bombing. The attackers had traces of sorcery cast on them. Someone has been posting on the underground networks, hiring curse users with mind-control techniques."
Gojo Satoru's voice came through the speaker.
"You're already looking into this, right? Thought this might be useful to you."
"I see."
Suguru Geto narrowed his eyes in thought.
He looked down at the bald man he had just subdued, crouched beside him, and placed a hand on his head to probe him.
"There are traces of a technique at work," Geto said, his expression dark. "But if the request was posted on the dark web, finding the mastermind behind all this is going to be difficult."
Gojo Satoru chuckled.
"Want me to help?"
After a brief silence, Geto let out a small laugh of his own and replied in a warm tone.
"No, that won't be necessary."
"Alright. Just call me if you need anything, got it?"
"Gojo, when did you start acting like a worried mom?"
"Tch, quit yapping," Gojo muttered before asking, "Where are you right now?"
"Roppongi."
"Oh, then bring me some chestnut cakes on your way back."
"Yeah, yeah."
After hanging up the phone, the bun-haired teenager slapped the bald man's face twice, waking him up. Then, squinting with a smile, he asked, "If you honestly tell me who sent you to attack people, things might be a little easier for you."
The bald man had a fierce look, his face full of scars and muscles, clearly someone from the underworld. On his back, partially exposed through his loose white tank top, was a tattoo of a blue dragon.
This yakuza was just plain unlucky. Of all the people he could have attacked, he picked a student from Jujutsu High.
Suguru Geto had guessed that lurking in a quiet alley would make it easier to spot potential attackers. And sure enough, the moment he turned into one, this guy suddenly rushed at him from behind with a small knife.
In just one second, the bald man was knocked to the ground by Geto.
As soon as he snapped out of his dazed state, the man immediately struggled, trying to get up. But he quickly realized that he couldn't move at all.
Four purple, zombie-like arms were pressing down on his limbs, pinning him firmly to the ground.
Yet, in the man's eyes, these arms didn't exist at all.
Even though he had been restrained out of nowhere, he didn't show the slightest fear. His bloodshot eyes widened in rage, and he shouted at Geto in an aggressive tone, "You damn bastard! Let me go right now! I'm a devoted follower of my master!"
"My master? So, you're part of the Star Cult? No… that's not right. The Star Cult worships Master Tengen, doesn't it? Could this be another new cursed user cult?"
Muttering to himself, Geto took a small step back, dodging the spit flying from the man's mouth.
"I'm asking you—who is your master? What does he look like? Why is he making you guys attack people and carry out suicide bombings?" Geto questioned again.
But the man just kept repeating the same insults over and over, and the little useful information he did say was drowned out by his endless shouting and spit.
Feeling utterly annoyed, Geto simply knocked him out with a swift chop to the neck and called the police to have them take the guy away.
However, the police informed him that most of Tokyo's officers had been dispatched to Chiba Airport and they didn't have enough manpower to send anyone to his location. Instead, they asked him to bring the man to the station himself.
"…Tch, what a hassle."
Rolling his eyes, Geto sighed. Left with no choice, he grabbed the man by one leg, dragged him to the roadside, and flagged down a taxi to head to the police station.
…
…
(End of Chapter)
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