Seitenshi didn't hesitate for a second. She immediately ordered the satellite footage of Gojo guarding the gap alone to be broadcast to every resident of Tokyo through TV, the internet, radio, and every other channel.
She knew the most important thing right now was calming people down. Only if the residents saw hope, and saw that someone was protecting them, would the chaos settle and order return.
The people rioting in the streets, whether they were looting, setting fires, or fighting, saw the footage on TV screens and phone screens. They saw that the end of the world they'd imagined hadn't come, and that one powerful figure was blocking all the danger for them by himself. For a moment, they all froze.
They stopped what they were doing and looked up, staring at Gojo on the screen. The savage, crazed looks on their faces slowly faded, replaced by shock, disbelief, and a faint hint of wild joy.
At the same time, large numbers of police and Self-Defense Forces who were already geared up and waiting took advantage of that pause. They quickly moved out in groups to every corner of the city to put down the riots.
They evacuated crowds in an orderly way, arrested people committing crimes in the chaos, and cleared debris and fires from the streets. They moved fast and decisively, without any delay.
Every rioter was caught, with not a single one slipping through. The stolen supplies were recovered one by one and returned to their owners.
Trouble inside and out had been dealt with in a very short time. The efficiency was amazing!
Tokyo had been in chaos and full of panic, but within just a few hours it was calm and orderly again. The crowds on the streets slowly broke up and shops reopened. People were still a little shaken, but the despair and panic from before were gone from their faces.
The situation on the front line was very reassuring too.
With Gojo there, the endless Gastrea pouring in wave after wave were basically just coming to die. No matter how many there were or how strong they were, they couldn't get past his defense.
They couldn't even push the front line back an inch. All they could do was keep turning into mush on the open ground outside the gap, piling up into a small mountain of corpses.
The defenders behind him had plenty of time to set up a defensive line, bring in supplies, and build fortifications. They worked in an orderly way, looking relieved and full of admiration for Gojo.
Gojo stood at the gap, occasionally flicking out some cursed energy to finish off a few stragglers. His eyes were on the soldiers working behind him, and he was pretty satisfied with how efficient Seitenshi had been.
She hadn't been in power long, but her decisiveness and ability had gone beyond what he expected. At least in a sudden disaster like this, she hadn't panicked or backed down. She'd done a pretty good job.
"The way things are going, it should all settle down soon."
Gojo spoke lightly, still sounding relaxed. Behind his sunglasses, his eyes swept over the busy soldiers, and a faint smile curved his lips.
"That's got nothing to do with them."
Betty stood beside him with her arms crossed and her head tilted slightly. She looked at the busy soldiers with a hint of disdain, sounding bored and completely dismissive.
"If they were any use, things wouldn't have ended up like this. They wouldn't have let the Monolith get destroyed so easily, and they definitely wouldn't have left you fighting here alone."
"That's not really fair."
Gojo said it calmly. He turned his head slightly and glanced at Betty. He wasn't arguing with her, just sounding faintly accepting.
He understood it very well. In a world without superhuman power like his, where humans could only barely survive by relying on technology and the Monoliths, his existence was harder for ordinary people to understand and accept.
Right now, those people might see him as the one holding back the Gastrea, the one protecting Tokyo, the one giving them hope.
But!
Compared to the strength of one man, ordinary people would still rather trust the army. They'd trust real fortifications, defensive lines they could see and touch.
In terms of what people could see, a disciplined army, solid defenses, and plenty of supplies usually made them feel safer. His strength was too vague and too unbelievable for ordinary people to truly rely on.
"What a foolish way of thinking."
Betty was smart and sharp. She understood what Gojo meant right away. She pursed her lips, still sounding disdainful, but also a little resigned.
What she didn't get was this. Gojo had already killed the Stage 5 Gastrea they saw as a catastrophe, and he was protecting their city all by himself right now. So why didn't these people understand him better?
Why did they still put so much hope in people who were just as ordinary as they were, and just as helpless against the Gastrea?
"Doesn't matter. I'm only doing this because I feel like it, right?"
Gojo shrugged with a careless smile. He'd never cared about getting everyone's approval or gratitude, and he'd never wanted to prove his strength to anyone.
He wasn't doing this for their opinions or praise. He was doing it only because he wanted to. He just thought protecting these people and stopping the Gastrea was fun. What anyone else thought didn't matter to him at all, and he wasn't going to take it to heart.
"But can you really hold out that long?"
Betty yawned, her eyes a little lazy. She looked up at the Gastrea still pouring in from the distance, their numbers not shrinking at all, and spoke thoughtfully.
She sounded teasing, but there was a hint of worry hidden in it.
She knew Gojo was strong, ridiculously strong. But there were just too many Gastrea, an endless number. Even Gojo would get tired eventually if he kept up his technique and kept fighting forever.
"Hey, hey, hey, since when do you look down on people?"
Gojo raised an eyebrow, sounding a little annoyed and a little teasing. He lifted his hand lightly, and a burst of cursed energy flew out, instantly ripping apart a Stage 4 Gastrea that had lunged at him. It was clean and quick.
"It's not since now. I've always been like this."
Betty puffed out her chest with a smug look. She wasn't embarrassed at all and seemed proud of it, as if looking down on Gojo was something to brag about.
Gojo smiled. He didn't mind her attitude or argue with her. He just turned back to the fighting in the distance and said calmly, "If it stays at this level, I think I can keep this up for a long time."
He paused, then added, "For anyone else, keeping up a Ten Shadows technique that combines two shikigami might be a bit hard, and it'd burn through a lot of cursed energy. But I have the Six Eyes. I can control every bit of cursed energy precisely and use all of it perfectly, with nothing wasted and nothing lost. Keeping it going isn't a problem at all."
"Then just have them repair the Monolith already. Stop wasting time on this pointless stuff."
Betty rolled her eyes, sounding impatient. She couldn't stand watching the soldiers rush around. To her, all that work was completely unnecessary.
"Their so-called fortifications won't do anything anyway. No matter how solid they make them, the Gastrea will just wreck them. They'd be better off fixing the Monolith right away instead of wasting time here."
"Good point!"
Gojo nodded repeatedly, completely agreeing. He also thought it was better to fix the Monolith quickly and set up a solid defense again than to let the soldiers waste time on flimsy fortifications. That way he could be free sooner and wouldn't have to keep guarding this place.
He took out his phone right away and called Seitenshi, still sounding relaxed and not tired at all.
Instead of wasting time on useless work, they should start repairing the Monolith right away. That was the real solution.
When Seitenshi got his call, her worry came rushing right back. She quickly spoke into the phone, sounding very concerned.
"Gojo-sensei, can you really hold out by yourself?"
"There are so many Gastrea. Isn't it too hard to keep fighting alone? Should I send some of the army over to help you first?"
"It's fine. Something this small is nothing for me."
Gojo said it easily, full of confidence, not taking the endless Gastrea seriously at all.
"Even if I couldn't hold out, ordinary people wouldn't be any more useful, right? Sending them here would just get them killed for nothing. Better to have them hurry up and fix the Monolith."
"Besides, it's not just me. Betty's here too. With her around, guys at this level aren't a problem. You don't need to worry about it."
After all this time, Gojo's mana had grown very deep. Both the total amount of his cursed energy and how precisely he could control it had reached a level higher than ever before.
With his guidance and help, Betty had also reached the level of a Special Grade Cursed Spirit in terms of cursed energy. She wasn't someone to underestimate.
Put the two of them together, and there was no measuring how strong they were.
Betty wouldn't be any worse than him at handling these Gastrea. If anything, because of her Cursed Technique, dealing with huge numbers of them would be even easier for her.
Her Cursed Technique was endless explosions. Whenever she wanted, she could detonate huge amounts of cursed energy in an instant and create massive blasts. No matter how many Gastrea charged in, they'd be blown to pieces immediately, and not a single one would get through.
Once Gojo had given her a clear answer, Seitenshi's worry finally went away completely. She didn't hesitate and gave orders right away. The soldiers building fortifications were to stop immediately and work with the engineering teams to repair the Monolith with everything they had.
Ever since she'd gone from a puppet with no real power to the actual ruler, Seitenshi's trust in Gojo had reached its peak. She trusted him unconditionally.
To her, every word and every promise Gojo made could be trusted. Even a promise that most people would find hard to understand or believe didn't make her hesitate. If Gojo said it, she'd carry it out without a second thought.
After the order came down, the soldiers building fortifications were stunned and didn't know what to do.
They didn't understand why they'd just been ordered to build fortifications, and now they were suddenly being told to stop and help the engineering teams repair the Monolith instead.
To them, the fortifications weren't very strong, but at least they could slow things down and take some pressure off Gojo. Repairing the Monolith would take a huge amount of time and effort. If anything happened to Gojo during that time, the consequences would be unthinkable.
But then they saw the front line in the distance actually starting to push forward, toward the Gastrea's territory. All their doubt and confusion vanished instantly.
None of them said anything else. They put down their tools and started clearing the area around the gap, removing the Gastrea remains so the construction teams could come in and get to work.
Sometimes, you had to be there in person to really understand how shocking it was. Only then could you actually feel how strong Gojo was, and understand that building fortifications really was pointless.
Everything went forward in an orderly way.
Under Seitenshi's emergency orders, heavy trucks loaded with materials for repairing the Monolith soon started arriving at the front line one after another. Along with them came all kinds of large construction vehicles and plenty of experienced construction workers.
To everyone else, the front line was full of danger. They could be attacked by Gastrea at any moment and lose their lives. But for all of Tokyo, for their families, and for the chance to live a stable life again, these workers came anyway. Not one of them backed out, and not one of them complained.
Once they got to the front line, though, a lot of them realized it was nothing like they'd imagined.
There was no fierce battle, no Gastrea screeching, and no soldiers shouting. Everything was calm, so calm it felt a little strange.