November 2nd, Sunday.
It had only been a day since Halloween, but the major amusement parks were still running their Halloween-themed events.
Asou Akiya had already made plans to take Fushiguro Megumi out for some fun. To keep Gojo Satoru from ruining their outing, he left early and stuck a note to the door of his dorm room:
[Out for the day. Not at Tokyo Jujutsu High.
—Akiya]
Gojo Satoru was still fast asleep, while Getou Suguru received a text message:
[Asou Akiya: Suguru, if Gojo leaves, remember to let me know.]
[Getou Suguru: Okay.]
Getou Suguru thought it was a trivial matter and went straight back to sleep after replying.
Two hours later, Zen'in Naoya quietly slipped out of the boys' dormitory, where he lived in the room furthest inside. The advantage of splitting up was that the lingering traces of their cursed energy wouldn't be concentrated along the same route.
Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture.
The world-famous Tokyo Disneyland was located here. Ever since its completion in 1982, it had remained immensely popular. Its neighboring theme park, Tokyo DisneySea, was built in 1998 at enormous expense.
At 7:30 in the morning, Asou Akiya first took Fushiguro Megumi to queue up for admission.
His impression of Disneyland from his previous life had always been that it was a place suited for children, with enormous crowds during holidays and painfully long wait times.
Originally, Asou Akiya had suggested bringing Fushiguro Megumi in a child stroller, but Megumi had flatly refused.
Asou Akiya: "The lines are going to be exhausting. Think you can handle it, Megumi?"
The Three-year-old Fushiguro Megumi insisted, "I can walk the whole way with Akiya-ojichan."
"You have to promise me you'll tell me the moment you get tired and not push yourself. I brought you here to have fun." Asou Akiya agreed, never forcing the child the way other parents might.
At nine in the morning Tokyo Disneyland officially opened. After more than an hour of waiting in line, Asou Akiya and Fushiguro Megumi finally made it inside. Even at that early hour the park was already packed with weekend parents and their kids.
Seeing so many parents willing to take their children to an amusement park filled Megumi with quiet envy. It reminded him once again of his unreliable father. Forget amusement parks—he had never even ridden in a stroller as a child.
Following an online itinerary, Tokyo Disneyland was divided into seven themed lands. Asou Akiya led Megumi straight to Animal Kingdom. Located in the upper-left corner of the park map and covering a generous area, it was designed to look like a European forest and was home to many free-roaming small animals—the place Megumi was most interested in.
At ten o'clock Zen'in Naoya skipped the line by sneaking in without a ticket and successfully reunited with the two of them.
Meanwhile, at Tokyo Jujutsu High, someone woke up full of energy.
He tossed his underwear into the washing machine and pulled on only a loose white T-shirt that barely covered his backside. Faint red marks lingered on his thighs.
The older sister in his dream had taught him not only how to kiss a wrist but also how to caress his own legs and appreciate a perfect body. Skin that had once felt nothing was gradually growing sensitive, leaving him eager for more interesting things to appear in his dreams.
Stepping out of the dorm, Gojo Satoru looked lazy and pleased with himself. He'd forgotten his sunglasses; his eyelids hung heavy, and his half-lidded Six Eyes were veiled as if mist were drifting across a clear blue sky. His freshly changed dark sweatpants sat low on his hips, making it especially convenient to scratch his stomach.
"Akiya? Akiya… left a note?"
Gojo Satoru shuffled over to Asou Akiya's dorm in his slippers, but the moment he reached the door, he suddenly snapped fully awake.
"Huh?!"
Gojo Satoru stared at the note at eye level, looking thoroughly displeased. Every stroke of the handwriting was unmistakably Asou Akiya's.
He then glanced around the boys' dormitory. Fortunately, Getou Suguru was still there.
He ran over to Getou's room and knocked on the door.
"Suguru! Do you know what Akiya went out to do? Why is he still going out on weekends?"
Getou Suguru opened the door, and Gojo Satoru nimbly squeezed his way inside, catching him completely off guard.
"What are you doing in here? Get out!" Getou Suguru grabbed Gojo around the waist and tried to drag him back out.
"Suguru, I'm starving. Do you have anything to eat?"
Gojo Satoru had already caught the scent of breakfast.
Five minutes later, Getou Suguru reluctantly shared his meal with Gojo Satoru. He normally ate less than Gojo at breakfast to begin with, while Gojo had the appetite of a bottomless pit. As a result, after splitting the food between them, neither of them was particularly full.
Getou Suguru rubbed his stomach. "You really are something, barging in here and stealing my food."
Suddenly, Gojo Satoru's brain seemed to switch back on. He sprang to his feet. "Suguru! Is Akiya cheating on us outside school?!"
Getou Suguru: "Huh?"
Gojo Satoru's intuition was remarkably sharp.
"I've noticed he's been going out whenever he gets the chance lately. It's pretty similar to what you've been doing."
Getou Suguru laughed. "How could that be? He told me he had something to take care of."
Gojo Satoru was about to continue, but Getou Suguru cut him off.
"Shoko's birthday is coming up."
Gojo Satoru thought, "Shoko's birthday is November 7th. She doesn't like making a big fuss, so Akiya would definitely respect her wishes. But does he really need to start preparing this early…?"
Gojo Satoru's voice took on a dangerous edge. "What a coincidence, Naoya went out too."
The moment Zen'in Naoya was involved, Gojo Satoru refused to believe that Asou Akiya had gone out to buy Shoko a birthday present.
Getou Suguru couldn't be bothered to entertain Gojo Satoru's inner Sherlock Holmes. "Go ahead and make wild guesses."
Gojo Satoru grabbed Getou Suguru by the collar and shook him. "Suguru! How can you act like you don't care? You two are my only friends, neither of you is allowed to be a thieving cat! We promised we'd have fun together until graduation!"
Getou Suguru's bangs flew wildly as he was shaken back and forth, but his eyes remained clear, filled with the profound resignation of someone who had completely given up on life.
"Stop—stop—"
Finally saving himself, Getou Suguru asked Gojo Satoru, "See whether Akiya and Naoya left at the same time."
"They didn't! But my suspicions don't need evidence!"
Getou Suguru: "..." Damn, is that how you solve cases now?
Although Getou Suguru also suspected that Akiya's outing wasn't as simple as buying a birthday present, he wasn't stupid enough to tell Gojo.
Gojo Satoru finally voiced his greatest grievance. "Akiya used to spend every weekend with me, no matter how busy he was!"
Getou Suguru: "Shameless."
Gojo Satoru frowned. "What did you say? Say that again."
Getou Suguru looked around dramatically. "There's a shameless person here who keeps whining that his friends are neglecting him. I wonder who it could be?"
Gojo Satoru lunged at Getou Suguru, reaching for his neck, only for Getou to kick him away.
"Get lost!"
The two of them ended up in a full-blown brawl, leaving the living room a complete mess.
Gojo Satoru's already-messy white hair was reduced to a full-on bird's nest. As he ran off, he shouted, "I'll challenge you to a one-on-one rematch next time!"
Getou Suguru noticed the direction Gojo was heading and hurried after him.
"You immature idiot! Satoru, change your shoes before you leave!"
With Asou Akiya gone, Getou Suguru had taken on the responsibility of looking after Gojo Satoru.
He chased Gojo back to his dormitory, supervised him as he combed his hair and changed into a pair of sneakers, then grabbed him by the elastic waistband of his pants and gave it a sharp yank upward. "Don't forget about your appearance."
Gojo Satoru's face immediately turned green.
Getou Suguru hesitated. "What happened to your Limitless?"
Gojo Satoru bristled, cursing Getou Suguru as a "weird-bang bastard" dozens of times before using Reverse Cursed Technique to get rid of the pain from his pants riding up.
After that, Gojo Satoru left looking perfectly presentable, angrily setting off to hunt down the hypothetical thieving cat.
Once Gojo had left campus, Getou Suguru took out his phone and called Asou Akiya. "Akiya, Satoru might be heading out to find you."
"Thanks."
With Getou Suguru acting as his inside man, Asou Akiya was able to make his exit in time. He handed Fushiguro Megumi over to Zen'in Naoya.
"It's almost noon, and something's come up. I won't be able to have lunch with you two. I'll come pick you up tonight. Naoya, keep an eye on Megumi while I'm gone, and remember to get him one of Disney's famous giant chicken legs for lunch."
Asou Akiya crouched down and asked Fushiguro Megumi, "Megumi, are you okay with spending the day with Naoya-ojisan?"
Being the sensible child he was, Fushiguro Megumi replied, "If you have something to do, Akiya-ojichan, you can go. But does Naoya-ojisan have enough money to buy lunch?"
Asou Akiya froze and looked at Zen'in Naoya, whose expression had suddenly gone rigid.
"It's the beginning of the month and you're already out of money?"
"..."
The young head of the Zen'in family remained perfectly composed, not even the slightest hint of embarrassment on his face. Two glittering diamond studs adorned his earlobes.
Asou Akiya handed all the money for their weekend outing to Fushiguro Megumi.
"Megumi, you're in charge of the money. Don't let him spend it all."
"Okay."
Having been entrusted with the responsibility, Fushiguro Megumi gripped the cash tightly in both hands.
Asou Akiya kissed Fushiguro Megumi on the cheek.
"Good boy. Don't grow up to be a paycheck-to-paycheck disaster like your Naoya-ojisan."
Fushiguro Megumi's cheeks immediately flushed, turning as red and round as a delicious apple.
After Asou Akiya left, Fushiguro Megumi looked at Zen'in Naoya. "Hmph."
Zen'in Naoya was furious. "How dare you look down on me, Megumi?!"
"I'm not, Naoya-ojisan. But you're a penniless loser just like my dad."
Zen'in Naoya refused to accept that. "How can you compare my situation to Toji's? My father screwed me over! He only gives me that pathetic amount of spending money! Toji's different—he's just terrible at gambling. He lost most of the money he earned!"
Fushiguro Megumi asked, "Then where did all your money go?"
Zen'in Naoya narcissistically touched his earrings. "Are you saying my newly dyed blond hair and these new earrings don't look good?"
Fushiguro Megumi: "..."
Zen'in Naoya then pulled out a Sony Ericsson phone—their flagship model and the best-selling phone in the world.
Fushiguro Megumi didn't know anything about brands. All he knew was that Naoya-ojisan had gotten another new phone.
He silently reached one conclusion: allmen with the surname Zen'in seemed to rely on other people to support them.
Chiba Prefecture was famous for producing peanuts, so Asou Akiya stopped at a street-side shop and bought some locally famous peanut cookies.
Then he opened the package, took out a cookie—and ran straight into an aggressively approaching Gojo Satoru.
Without missing a beat, he fed the cookie to Gojo Satoru.
"You're here, let's buy Shoko's present together. Then we'll get two pairs of swimming trunks and some waterproof phone pouches, have lunch, and afterward I'll go to DisneySea with you for a few hours. Tonight, you'll head back to Tokyo Jujutsu High while I look for a venue in central Tokyo for your birthday."
"Sure!" Gojo Satoru hadn't noticed anyone else around Akiya, so, in an instant, he completely forgot about hunting down his hypothetical thieving cat.
Asou Akiya, the master of time management, smiled as he coaxed the Six Eyes into focusing more on him and less on irrelevant people.
They were in the same area, yet at different amusement parks.
Asou Akiya treated Gojo Satoru like a minor and took care of him with practiced ease. Meanwhile, at the other park, Fushiguro Megumi had inadvertently driven Zen'in Naoya away after the uncle and nephew clashed over their tempers.
Fushiguro Megumi stood amid the crowds, utterly confused.
He couldn't figure out whether he had gotten lost…
Or whether Naoya-ojisan had gotten lost.
Forget it.
Fushiguro Megumi's temper flared as well. Holding the map, he deciphered the signs and set off to enjoy the park by himself.
Akiya-ojichan would definitely come back for him anyway!
...
It wasn't long before an announcement rang throughout Tokyo Disneyland:
"A three-year-old child named 'Fushiguro Megumi' has been reported missing and has been taken into the care of the park staff. We ask Fushiguro Megumi's blond, pig-headed uncle to please proceed to the Lost Children's Service Center as soon as possible."
Zen'in Naoya was eating a freshly cooked giant chicken leg when he heard the announcement.
"???"
Megumi, are you trying to go see Toji or something?!